Page:An Exposition of the Old and New Testament (1828) vol 1.djvu/78

46 shall strengthen his heart under his sorrows. He is not sentenced to eat dust as the serpent, only to eat the herb of the field.

3. His life also is but short; considering how full of trouble his days are, it is in favour to him, that they are few; yet death being dreadful to nature, (yea, though life be unpleasant,) that concludes the sentence. "Thou shalt return to the ground out of which thou wast taken; thy body, that part of thee which was taken out of the ground, shall return to it again: for dust thou art." That points to, (1.) The first original of his body; it was made of the dust, nay, it was made dust, and was still so; so that there needed no more than to recall the grant of immortality, and to withdraw the power which was put forth to support it, and then he would, of course, return to dust. Or, (2.) To the present corruption and degeneracy of his mind; Dust thou art, that is, "Thy precious soul is now lost and buried in the dust of the body, and the mire of the flesh; it was made spiritual and heavenly, but it is become carnal and earthy." His doom is therefore read; "To dust thou shalt return. Thy body shall be forsaken by thy soul, and become itself a lump of dust; and then it shall be lodged in the grave, the proper place for it, and mingle itself with the dust of the earth," our dust, Ps. 104. 29, Earth to earth, dust to dust. Observe here, [1.] That man is a mean frail creature, little as dust, the small dust of the balance; light as dust, altogether lighter than vanity; weak as dust, and of no consistency, our strength not the strength of stones; he that made us, considers it, and remembers that we are dust, Ps. 103. 14. Man is indeed the chief part of the dust of the world, Prov. 8. 26, but still he is dust. [2.] That he is a mortal dying creature, and hastening to the grave. Dust may be raised, for a time, into a little cloud, and may seem considerable while it is held up by the wind that raised it; but when the force of that is spent, it falls again, and returns to the earth out of which it was raised; such a thing is man; a great man is but a great mass of dust, and must return to his earth. [3.] That sin brought death into the world; if Adam had not sinned, he had not died, Rom. 5. 12. God intrusted Adam with a spark of immortality, which he, by a patient continuance in well-doing, might have blown up into an everlasting flame; but he foolishly blew it out by wilful sin: and now death is the wages of sin, and sin the sting of death.

We must not go off from this sentence upon our first parents, which we are all so nearly concerned in, and feel from, to this day, till we have considered two things.

First, How fitly the sad consequences of sin upon the soul of Adam and his sensual race, were represented and figured out by this sentence, and perhaps were more intended in it than we are aware of. Though that misery only is mentioned, which affected the body, yet that was a pattern of spiritual miseries, the curse that entered into the soul. 1. The pains of a woman in travail represent the terrors and pangs of a guilty conscience, awakened to a sense of sin; from the conception of lust, these sorrows are greatly multiplied, and, sooner or later, will come upon the sinner like pain upon a woman in travail, which cannot be avoided. 2. The state of subjection which the woman was reduced to, represents that loss of spiritual liberty and freedom of will, which is the effect of sin. The dominion of sin in the soul is compared to that of a husband, Rom. 7. 1..5; the sinner's desire is towards it, for he is fond of his slavery, and it rules over him. 3. The curse of barrenness which was brought upon the earth, and its produce of briers and thorns, are a fit representation of the barrenness of a corrupt and sinful soul in that which is good, and its fruitfulness in evil. It is all grown over with thorns, and nettles cover the face of it; and therefore it is nigh unto cursing, Heb. 6. 8. 4. The toil and sweat bespeak the difficulty which, through the infirmity of the flesh, man labours under, in the service of God, and the work of religion; so hard is it now become to enter into the kingdom of heaven. 5. The imbittering of his food to him bespeaks the soul's want of the comfort of God's favour, which is life, and the bread of life. 6. The soul, like the body, returns to the dust of this world, its tendency is that way; it has an earthy taint, John 3. 31.

Secondly, How admirably the satisfaction our Lord Jesus made by his death and sufferings, answered to the sentence here passed upon our first parents! 1. Did travailing pains come in with sin? We read of the travail of Christ's soul, Isa. 53, 11, and the pains of death he was held by, are called ὡδῖναιὠδῖνας [sic], Acts, 2. 24, the pains of a woman in travail, 2. Did subjection come in with sin? Christ was made under the law. Gal. 4. 4. 3. Did the curse come in with sin? Christ was made a curse for us, died a cursed death. Gal. 3. 13. 4. Did thorns come in with sin? He was crowned with thorns for us. 5. Did sweat come in with sin? He sweat for us, as it had been great drops of blood. 6. Did sorrow come in with sin? He was a man of sorrows, his soul was, in his agony, exceeding sorrowful. 7. Did death come in with sin? He became obedient unto death. Thus is the plaster as wide as the wound; blessed be God for Jesus Christ!

20. And Adam called his wife's name Eve ; because she was the mother of all living.

God having named the man, and called him Adam, which signifies red earth; Adam, in further token of dominion, named the woman, and called her Eve, that is, life. Adam bears the name of the dying body. Eve of the living soul. The reason of the name is here given, some think, by Moses the historian, others, by Adam himself, because she was, that is, was to be, the mother of all living. He had before called her Ishah, woman, as a wife: here he calls her Evah, life, as a mother. Now, 1. If this was done by divine direction, it was an instance of God's favour, and, like the new naming of Abraham and Sarah, it was a seal of the covenant, and an assurance to them, that, notwithstanding their sin and his displeasure against them for it, he had not reversed that blessing wherewith he had blessed them. Be fruitful and multiply; it was likewise a confirmation of the promise now made, that the Seed of the woman, of this woman, should break the serpent's head. 2. If Adam did it of himself, it was an instance of his faith in the word of God: doubtless it was not done, as some have suspected, in contempt or defiance of the curse, but rather in a humble confidence and dependence upon the blessing; (1.) The blessing of a reprieve, admiring the patience of God, and that he should spare such sinners to be the parents of all living, and that he did not immediately shut up those fountains of the human life and nature, because they could send forth no other than polluted, poisoned, streams; (2.) The blessing of a Redeemer, the promised Seed, to whom Adam had an eye, in calling his wife Eve, life; for he should be the life of all the living, and in him all the families of the earth should be blessed, in hope of which he thus triumphs.

21. Unto Adam also, and to his wife, did the God make coats of skins, and clothed them.

We have here a further instance of God's care concerning our first parents, notwithstanding their