Page:An Exposition of the Old and New Testament (1828) vol 1.djvu/77

Rh wrath in this sentence; the woman shall have sorrow, but it shall be in bringing forth children, and the sorrow shall be forgotten for joy that a child is born, John 16. 21. She shall be subject, but it shall be to her own husband that loves her, not to a stranger, or an enemy: the sentence was not a curse, to bring her to ruin, but a chastisement, to bring her to repentance. It was well that enmity was not put between the man and the woman, as there was between the serpent and the woman.

17. And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. 18. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. 19. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken; for dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return.

We have here the sentence passed upon Adam, which is prefaced with a recital of his crime, v. 17, Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife. He excused the fault, by laying it on his wife, She gave it me: but God does not admit the excuse; she could but tempt him, she could not force him; though it was her fault to persuade him to eat it, it was his fault to hearken to her. Thus men's frivolous pleas will, in the day of God's judgment, not only be over-ruled, but turned against them, and made the grounds of their sentence, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee. God put marks of his displeasure on Adam in three instances.

I. His habitation is, by this sentence, cursed; Cursed is the ground for thy sake; and the effect of that curse is, Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth unto thee. It is here intimated that his habitation should be changed; he should no longer dwell in a distinguished, blessed, paradise, but should be removed to common ground, and that, cursed. The ground, or earth, is here put for the whole visible creation, which, by the sin of man, is made subject to vanity, the several parts of it being not so serviceable to man's comfort and happiness, as they were designed to be when they were made, and would have been if he had not sinned. God gave the earth to the children of men, designing it to be a comfortable dwelling to them; but sin has altered the property of it, it is now cursed for man's sin; that is, it is a dishonourable habitation, it bespeaks man mean, that his foundation is in the dust; it is a dry and barren habitation, its spontaneous productions are now weeds and briars, something nauseous or noxious; what good fruits it produces, must be extorted from it by the ingenuity and industry of man. Fruitfulness was its blessing, for man's service, ch. 1. 11. 29; and now barrenness was its curse, for man's punishment. It is not what it was in the day it was created. Sin turned a fruitful land into barrenness; and man, being become as the wild ass's colt, has the wild ass's lot, Job 39. 6; the wilderness for his habitation, and the barren land his dwelling, Ps. 68. 6. Had not this curse been, in part, removed, for aught I know, the earth had been for ever barren, and had never produced any thing but thorns and thistles. The ground is cursed, that is, doomed to destruction, at the end of time, when the earth, and all the works that are therein, shall be burnt-up for the sin of man, the measure of whose iniquity will then be full, 2 Pet. 3. 7, 10. But observe a mixture of mercy in this sentence; 1. Adam is not himself cursed, as the serpent was, v. 14, but only the ground for his sake. God had blessings in him, even the holy seed; Destroy it not, for that blessing is in it, Isa. 65. 8. And he had blessings in store for him; therefore he is not directly and immediately cursed, but, as it were, at second hand. 2. He is yet above ground; the earth does net open, and swallow him up, only it is not what it was: as he continues alive, notwithstanding his degeneracy from his primitive purity and rectitude, so the earth continues to be his habitation, notwithstanding its degeneracy from its primitive beauty and fruitfulness. 3. This curse upon the earth, which cut off all expectations of a happiness in things below, might direct and quicken him to look for bliss and satisfaction only in things above.

II. His employments and enjoyments are all imbittered to him.

1. His business shall from henceforth become a toil to him, and he shall go on with it in the sweat of his face, v. 19. His business, before he sinned, was a constant pleasure to him: the garden was then dressed without any uneasy labour, and kept without any uneasy care; but now, his labour shall be a weariness, and shall waste his body; his care shall be a torment, and shall afflict his mind. The curse upon the ground, which made it barren, and produce thorns and thistles, made his employment about it much more difficult and toilsome. If Adam had not sinned, he had not sweat. Observe here, (1.) That labour is our duty, which we must faithfully perform: we are bound to work, not as creatures only, but as criminals; it is part of our sentence, which idleness daringly defies. (2.) That uneasiness and weariness with labour are our just punishment, which we must patiently submit to, and not complain of, since they are less than our iniquity deserves. Let not us, by inordinate care and labour, make our punishment heavier than God has made it; but rather, study to lighten our burthen, and wipe off our sweat, by observing Providence in all, and expecting rest shortly.

2. His food shall from henceforth become (in comparison with what it had been) unpleasant to him. (1.) The matter of his food is changed: he must now eat the herb of the field, and must no longer be feasted with the delicacies of the garden of Eden: having by sin made himself like the beasts that perish, he is justly turned to be a fellow-commoner with them, and to eat grass as oxen, till he know that the heavens do rule. (2.) There is a change in the manner of his eating it; in sorrow, (v. 17.) and in the sweat of his face, (v. 19.) he must eat of it. Adam could not but eat in sorrow all the days of his life, remembering the forbidden fruit he had eaten, and the guilt and shame he had contracted by it. Observe [1.] That human life is exposed to many miseries and calamities, which very much imbitter the poor remains of its pleasure and delights: some never eat with pleasure, (Job 21. 25.) through sickness or melancholy; all, even the best, have cause to eat with sorrow for sin; and all, even the happiest in this world, have some allays to their joy: troops of diseases, disasters, and deaths, in various shapes, entered the world with sin, and still ravage it. [2.] That the righteousness of God is to be acknowledged in all the sad consequences of sin; Wherefore then should a living man complain? Yet, in this part of the sentence, there is also a mixture of mercy; he shall sweat, but his toil shall make his rest the more welcome when he returns to his earth, as to his bed; he shall grieve, but he shall not starve; he shall have sorrow, but in that sorrow he shall eat bread, which