Page:An Exposition of the Old and New Testament (1828) vol 1.djvu/68

36 any care about it, but lies down and sleeps sweetly, as one that had cast all his care on God, with a cheerful resignation of himself and all his affairs, to his Maker's will and wisdom; Jehovah-jireh, let the provide when and whom he pleases. If we graciously rest in God, God will graciously work for us, and work all for good.

3. That God caused a sleep to fall on Adam, and made it a deep sleep, that so the opening of his side might be no grievance to him; while he knows no sin, God will take care he shall feel no pain. When God, by his providence, does that to his people, which is grievous to flesh and blood, he not only consults their happiness in the issue, but, by his grace, he can so quiet and compose their spirits, as to make them easy under the sharpest operations.

4. That the woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam; not made out of his head to top him, not out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved. Adam lost a rib, and without any diminution to his strength or comeliness; for doubtless, the flesh was closed without a scar, but, in lieu thereof, he had a help meet for him, which abundantly made up his loss: what God takes away from his people, he will, one way or other, restore with advantage. In this, (as in many other things,) Adam was a figure of him that was to come; for out of the side of Christ the second Adam, his spouse the church was formed, when he slept the sleep, the deep sleep, of death upon the cross; in order to which, his side was opened, and there came out blood and water, blood to purchase his church, and water to purify it to himself. See Eph. 5. 25, 26.

II. The marriage of the woman to Adam. Marriage is honourable, but this surely was the most honourable marriage that ever was, in which God himself had all along an immediate hand. Marriages (they say) are made in Heaven: we are sure this was; for the man, the woman, the match, were all God's own work: he, by his power, made them both, and now, by his ordinance, made them one. This was a marriage made in perfect innocency, and so was never any marriage since.

1. God, as her Father, brought the woman to the man, as his second self, and an help meet for him; when he had made her, he did not leave her to her own disposal; no, she was his child, and she must not marry without his consent. Those are likely to settle to their comfort, who, by faith and prayer, and a humble dependence upon Providence, put themselves under a divine conduct. That wife that is of God's making by special grace, and of God's bringing by special providence, is likely to prove a help meet for a man.

2. From God, as his Father, Adam received her, v. 23. "This is now bone of my bone; Now I have what I wanted, and which all the creatures could not furnish me with, an help meet for me." God's gifts to us are to be received with a humble and thankful acknowledgment of his wisdom in suiting them to us, and his favour in bestowing them on us. Probably, it was revealed to Adam in a vision, when he was asleep, that this lovely creature, now presented to him, was a piece of himself, and was to be his companion, and the wife of his covenant. Hence some have fetched an argument to prove that glorified saints in the heavenly paradise shall know one another. Further, in token of his acceptance of her, he gave her a name, not peculiar to her, but common to her sex; she shall be called woman, Isha, a she-man, differing from man in sex only, not in nature; made of man, and joined to man.

III. The institution of the ordinance of marriage, and the settling of the law of it, v. 24. The sabbath and marriage were two ordinances instituted in innocency; the former for the preservation of the church, the latter, for the preservation of the world of mankind. It appears by Matth. 19. 4, 5, that it was God himself who said here, "A man must leave all his relations, to cleave to his wife;" but whether he spake it by Moses, the penman, or by Adam, who spake, v. 23. is uncertain; it should seem, they are the words of Adam, in God's name, laying down this law to all his posterity. 1. See here how great the virtue of a divine ordinance is; the bonds of it are stronger even than those of nature. To whom can we be more firmly bound than to the fathers that begat us, and the mothers that bare us? Yet the son must quit them, to be joined to his wife, and the daughter forget them, to cleave to her husband, Ps. 45. 10, 11. 2. See how necessary it is that children should take their parents' consent along with them in their marriage; and how unjust they are to their parents, as well as undutiful, if they marry without it; for they rob them of their right to them, and interest in them, and alienate it to another, fraudulently and unnaturally. 3. See what need there is both of prudence and prayer in the choice of this relation, which is so near and so lasting. That had need be well-done, which is to be done for life. 4. See how firm the bond of marriage is, not to be divided and weakened by having many wives, (Mal. 2. 15.) nor to be broken or cut off by divorce, for any cause, but fornication, or voluntary desertion. 5. See how dear the affection ought to be between husband and wife; such as there is to our own bodies, Eph. 5. 28. They two are one flesh; let them them be one soul.

IV. An evidence of the purity and innocency of that state wherein our first parents were created, v. 25. They were both naked: they needed no clothes for defence against cold or heat, for neither could be injurious to them; they needed none for ornament, Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these; nay, they needed none for decency, they were naked, and had no reason to be ashamed; They knew not what shame was, so the Chaldee reads it. Blushing is now the colour of virtue, but it was not then the colour of innocency. They that had no sin in their conscience, might well have no shame in their faces, though they had no clothes to their backs.

CHAP. III.

The story of this chapter is perhaps as sad a story (all things considered) as any we have in all the Bible. In the foregoing chapters, we have had the pleasant view of the holiness and happiness of our first parents, the grace and favour of God, and the peace and beauty of the whole creation, all good, very good: but here the scene is altered. We have here an account of the sin and misery of our first parents, the wrath and curse of God against them, the peace of the creation disturbed, and its beauty stained and sullied, all bad, very bad. How is the gold become dim, and the most fine gold changed! O that, our hearts were deeply affected with this record! For we are all nearly concerned in it; let it not be to us as a tale that is told. The general content of this chapter we have, Rom. 5. 12. By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. More particularly, we have here, I. The innocent tempted, v. 1..5. II. "The tempted transgressing, v. 6..8. III. The transgressors arraigned, v. 9, 10.  IV. Upon their arraignment, convicted, v. 11..13.  V. Upon their conviction, sentenced, v. 14..19.  VI. After sentence, reprieved, v. 20, 21.  VII. Notwithstanding their reprieve, execution in part done, v. 22..24. And were it not for the gracious intimations here given of redemption by the promised Seed, they, and all their degenerate guilty race had been left in endless despair.

OW the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which