we, being weak, might the better conceive of his eternal power
and godhead; yet in him they are without division; one glorious
and eternal being. Again, though sometimes this, as of wisdom, or
that, as of justice and mercy, is most manifest in his works and
wonders before men; yet every such work is begun and completed by
the joint concurrence of all his attributes. No act of justice is
without his will, power, and wisdom; no act of mercy is against
his justice, holiness and purity. Besides, no man must conceive
of God, as if he consisted of these attributes, as our body doth
of its members, one standing here, another there, for the completing
personal subsistence. For though by the word we may distinguish,
yet may we not divide them, or presume to appoint them their
places in the Godhead. Wisdom is in his justice, holiness is in
his power, justice is in his mercy, holiness is in his love, power
is in his goodness (1 John 1:9, Num 14:17,18).
Wherefore, he is in all his attributes almighty, all-wise, holy and
powerful. Glory is in his wisdom, glory is in his holiness, glory
is in his mercy, justice, and strength; and "God is love" (1 John
4:16).[1]
II. Of the Persons or Subsistances in the Godhead.
The Godhead is but one, yet in the Godhead there are three. "There
are three that can bear record in heaven" (1 John 5:7-9). These
three are called "the Father, the Son [Word], and the Holy Spirit";
each of which is really, naturally and eternally God: yet there
is but one God. But again, because the Father is of himself, the
Son by the Father, and the Spirit from them both, therefore to
each, the scripture not only applieth, and that truly, the whole
nature of the Deity, but again distinguisheth the Father from
the Son, and the Spirit from them both; calling the Father HE, by
himself; the Son HE, by himself; the Spirit HE, by himself. Yea,
the Three of themselves, in their manifesting to the church what
she should believe concerning this matter, hath thus expressed
the thing: "Let us make man in OUR image, after OUR likeness" (Gen
1:26). Again, "The man is become as one of US" (Gen 3:22). Again,
"Let US go down, and there confound their language" (Gen 11:6,7).
And again, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for US?" (Isa 6:8).
To these general expressions might be added, That Adam heard the
voice of the Lord God walking in the midst of the garden: Genesis
3:8. Which voice John will have, to be one of the Three, calling
that which Moses here saith is the voice, the word of God: "In the
beginning," saith he, "was the word": the voice which Adam heard
walking in the midst of the garden. This word, saith John, "was
with God," this "word was God. The same was in the beginning with
God" (John 1:1,2). Marvellous language! Once asserting the unity
of essence, but twice insinuating a distinction of substances
therein. "The word was with God, the word was God, the same was
in the beginning with God." Then follows, "All things were made
by him," the word, the second of the three.
Now the godly in former ages have called these three, thus in the
Godhead, Persons or Subsistances; the which, though I condemn not,
yet choose rather to abide by scripture phrase, knowing, though
the other may be good and sound, yet the adversary must needs more
shamelessly spurn and reject, when he doth it against the evident
text.
To proceed the, First, There are Three. Second, These three are
distinct.
First, By this word Three, is intimated the Father, the Word, and
the Holy Ghost, and they are said to be three, 1. Because those
appellations that are given them in scripture, demonstrate them so
to be, to wit, Father, Son and Holy Ghost. 2. Because their acts
one towards another discover them so to be.
Secondly, These three are distinct. 1. So distinct as to be more
than one, only: There are three. 2. So distinct as to subsist
without depending. The Father is true God, the Son is true God,
the Spirit is true God. Yet the Father is one, the Son is one,
the Spirit is one: The Father is one of himself, the Son is one
by the Father, the Spirit is one from them both. Yet the Father is
not above the Son, nor the Spirit inferior to either: The Father
is God, the Son is God, the Spirit is God.
Among the three then there is not superiority. 1. Not as to time;
the Father is from everlasting, so is the Son, so is the Spirit.
2. Not as to nature, the Son being of the substance of the Father,
and the Spirit of the substance of them both. 3. The fulness of
the Godhead is in the Father, is in the Son, and is in the Holy
Ghost.
The Godhead then, though it can admit of a Trinity, yet it admitteth
not of inferiority in that Trinity: if otherwise, then less or more
must be there, and so either plurality of gods, or something that
is not God: so then, Father, Son and Spirit are in the Godhead,
yet but one God; each of these is God over all, yet no Trinity of
Gods, but one God in the Trinity.
Explication.--The Godhead then is common to the three, but the
three themselves abide distinct in that Godhead: Distinct, I say,
as Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit. This is manifest further by
these several positions.
First, Father and Son are relatives, and must needs therefore have
their relation as such: A Father begetteth, a Son is begotten.
Proof.--"Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? Who
hath gathered the wind in his fists? Who hath bound the waters in
a garment? What is his name, and what is his son's name, if thou
canst tell?" (Pro 30:4).
"God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son," &c.
(John 3:16).
"The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world" (1 John
4:14).
Secondly, The Father then cannot be that Son he begat, nor the Son
that Father that begat him, but must be distinct as such.
Proof.--"I am one that bear witness of myself, and the Father that
sent me beareth witness of me" (John 8:17,18).
"I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world"; again,
"I leave the world, and go to the Father" (John 16:28).
"The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto
the Son: That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour
the Father" (John 5:22,23).
Thirdly, The Father must have worship as a Father, and the Son as
a Son.
Proof.--They that worship the Father must worship him "in spirit
and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him" (John
4:23,24).
And of the Son he saith, and "when he bringeth in the first begotten
into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship
him" (Heb 1:6).
Fourthly, The Father and Son have really these distinct, but
heavenly, relative properties, that discover them, as such, to be
two as well as one.
Proof.--"The Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things"
(John 5:20).
"Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life,
that I might take it again" (John 10:17). The Father sent the Son;
the Father commanded the Son; the Son prayed to the Father, and
did always the things that pleased him.
The absurdities that flow from the denial of this are divers, some
of which hereunder follow.
1. Absurdity.--It maketh void all those scriptures that do affirm
the doctrine; some of which you have before.
2. Absurdity.--If in the Godhead there be but one, not three, then
the Father, Son, or the Spirit, must needs be that one, if any one
only: so then the other two are nothing. Again, If the reality of
a being be neither in the Father, Son, nor Spirit, as such, but
in the eternal deity, without consideration of Father, Son, and
Spirit as three; then neither of the three are anything but notions
in us, or manifestations of the Godhead; or nominal distinctions;
so related by the word; but if so, then when the Father sent the
Son, and the Father and Son the Spirit, one notion sent another,
one manifestation sent another. This being granted, this unavoidably
follows, there was no Father to beget a Son, no Son to be sent to
save us, no Holy Ghost to be sent to comfort us, and to guide us
into all the truth of the Father and Son, &c. The most amounts but
to this, a notion sent a notion, a distinction sent a distinction,
or one manifestation sent another. Of this error these are the
consequences, we are only to believe in notions and distinctions,
when we believe in the Father and the Son; and so shall have no
other heaven and glory, than notions and nominal distinctions can
furnish us withal.
3. Absurdity.--If Father and Son, &c., be no otherwise three, than
as notions, names, or nominal distinctions; then to worship these
distinctly, or together, as such, is to commit most gross and
horrible idolatry: For albeit we are commanded to fear that great
and dreadful name, The Lord our God; yet to worship a Father, a
Son, and Holy Spirit in the Godhead, as three, as really three as
one, is by this doctrine to imagine falsely of God, and so to break
the second commandment: but to worship God under the consideration
of Father, and Son, and Holy Ghost, and to believe them as really
three as one when I worship, being the sum and substance of the
doctrine of the scriptures of God, there is really substantially
three in the eternal Godhead.
But to help thee a little in thy study on this deep.
1. Thou must take heed when thou readest, there is in the Godhead,
Father, and Son, &c., that thou do not imagine about them according
to thine own carnal and foolish fancy; for no man can apprehend
this doctrine but in the light of the word and Spirit of God. "No
man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the
Father, save the Son; and he to whom the Son will reveal him" (Matt
11:27). If therefore thou be destitute of the Spirit of God, thou
canst not apprehend the truth of this mystery as it is in itself,
but will either by thy darkness be driven to a denial thereof; or
if thou own it, thou wilt (that thy acknowledgment notwithstanding)
falsely imagine about it.
2. If thou feel thy thoughts begin to wrestle about this truth,
and to struggle concerning this one against another; take heed
of admitting of such a question, How can this thing be? For here
is no room for reason to make it out, here is only room to believe
it is a truth. You find not one of the prophets propounding an
argument to prove it; but asserting it, they let it lie, for faith
to take it up and embrace it.
"The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the
communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen" (2 Cor 13:14).
III. Of the Creation of the World (Gen 1).
The Apostle saith, That "to us there is but one God, the Father,
of whom are all things, and we in him, and one Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom are all things, and we by him" (1 Cor 8:6). "God that
made the world" (Acts 17:24). "All things were made by him; and
without him was not any thing made that was made" (John 1:3). This
world therefore had a beginning, and was created by the God of
heaven. Which work, because it is wonderful, and discovereth much
of the greatness, of the wisdom and power of the eternal Godhead,
it behoveth such poor mortals as we to behold these works of the
mighty God, that thereby we may see how great he is, and be made
to cry out, What is man! [2] (Psa 8:3,4)
Now in the creation of the world we may consider several things;
as, What was the order of God in this work? And, whether there
was a secret or mystery in this work containing the truth of some
higher thing? For the first of these:
Of the Order of God in Making the World.
[THE HEAVEN.]
Although God be indeed omnipotent, and not only can, but doth
do whatsoever he will; and though to do his works he needeth not
length of time; yet it pleased him best, in the creation of the
world (though it could, had it pleased him, have done all by one
only word) to proceed by degrees from one thing to another, to
the completing of six days' work in the making thereof.
And forasmuch as this work went on by degrees, now this thing,
and then another, it may not be amiss, if in our discourse on
this wonderful work, we begin where God began; and if we can, go
wondering after him who hath thus wrought.
1. The first thing that God made was time; I say, it was time: All
the plain in which he would build this beautiful world; he made
nothing before, but in the beginning: "In the beginning God created
the heaven and the earth" (Gen 1:1). In the beginning of time.
"For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all
that in them is" (Exo 20:11). Therefore the first day must first
have a beginning to be. Whatsoever was before time, was eternal;
but nothing but God himself is eternal, therefore no creature was
before time. Time, therefore, which was indeed the beginning, was
the first of the creatures of God.
2. I think, the second of creatures that the Lord created, were
the holy angels of God, they being called the morning stars, as
created and shining in the morning of the world; and therefore
they are said to be by, when the corner-stone of the universe was
laid; that is, when he "laid the foundations" of the world: Then
"the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted
for joy" (Job 5:4-7).
3. I think the third thing that the Lord created, was these large
and copious heavens; for they are mentioned with respect to their
being before the earth, or any visible creature. "In the beginning
God created the heavens" (Gen 1:1), &c. Neither do I think that
the heavens were made of that confused chaos that afterwards we
read of. It is said, he stretched out the heavens as a curtain, and
with his hand he hath spanned the heavens (Psa 104:2; Isa 40:22;
48:13).; intimating, that they were not taken out of that formless
heap, but were immediately formed by his power. Besides, the
Holy Ghost, treating of the creating of heaven and earth, he only
saith, The earth was void, and without form; but no such thing of
the heavens.
[THE EARTH.]
4. The fourth thing that God created, it was (in mine opinion) that
chaos, or first matter, with which he in the six days framed this
earth, with its appurtenances; for the visible things that are
here below, seem to me to be otherwise put into being and order,
than time, the angels, and the heavens, they being created in
their own simple essence by themselves: But the things that are
visibly here below, whatever their essence and nature be, they
were formed of that first deformed chaos. "In the beginning God
created the heaven and the earth, and the earth was without form
and void" (Gen 1:1,2). He saith not so of the heavens; they, as
I said, were at first stretched forth as a curtain; indeed they
were afterwards garnished with the beauty which we now behold;
but otherwise they had, at their first instant of being, that form
which now they have. This seems clear by the antithesis which the
Holy Ghost put between them, God created the heaven and the earth,
but "the earth was without form and void" (Gen 1:2). The earth
was without form, &c., without order; things were together on a
confused heap; the waters were not divided from the earth, neither
did those things appear which are now upon the face of the earth;
as man, and beast, fish, fowls, trees, and herbs; all these did
afterwards shew themselves, as the word of God gave them being, by
commanding their appearance, in what form, order, place and time
he in himself had before determined; but all, I say, took their
matter and substance of that first chaos, which he in the first
day of the world had commanded to appear, and had given being
to: And therefore 'tis said, God said, Let the earth bring forth
grass, herbs, trees, &c., (v 12) and that the waters brought forth
the fish, and fowl, yea, even to the mighty whales (vv 21,22).
Also the earth brought forth cattle, and creeping things (v 24).
And that God made man of the dust of the ground (3:19). All these
things therefore were made of, or caused by his word distinctly
to appear, and be after its kind, of that first matter which he
had before created by his word. Observe therefore, That the matter
of all earthly things was made at the same instant, but their
forming, &c., was according to the day in which God gave them
their being, in their own order and kind. And hence it is said,
that after that first matter was created, and found without form
and void, that the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters;
that is to work, and cause those things to appear in their own
essence and form, which, as to matter and substance, was before
created: Wherefore it follows, And God said, Let there be light;
and God divided the light from the darkness, &c. Now he set to
putting in frame that which before lay in disorder and confusion:
And this was a great part of the six days' work; I say, a great
part, but not all; for (as I said) before that time, the angels,
and the heavens were made; yea, after the beginning of the morning
of the first day. I am of the belief, that other things also, that
were formed after, were not made of that first chaos, as the sun,
the moon, the stars, the light, the souls of men, and possibly
the air, &c. The sun, and moon, and stars, are said to be made
the fourth day, yet not of the body of heaven itself, much less,
in my opinion, of any earthly matter: God made them, and set them
in the firmament of heaven (vv 16,17). So the light that was made
before, it seems to be a thing created after the heavens and the
earth were created: Created, I say, as a thing that wanted a being
before, any otherwise, than in the decree of God: and God said,
Let there be light; Let it have a being (v 3). And so, though
the body of man was made of the substance of earth, yet as to his
soul, it is said, God breathed into his nostrils the breath of
life, and man became a living soul (2:7).
Whether there was a secret or mystery in this work, containing the
truth of some higher thing.
Though God in very deed, by his eternal power, created heaven and
earth of things that do not appear, we that are Christians believe:
yet in this his wonderful work, neither his will or understanding
did here terminate, or make a stop; but being infinite in wisdom,
he made them, that both as to matter and manner, they might present
unto us, as in a mystery, some higher and more excellent thing;
in this wisdom he made them all. And hence it is that other things
are also called a creation: As, 1. The essential conversion of a
sinner (2 Cor 5:17). 2. The recovery of the church from a degenerate
state (Rev 21:5).
And therefore, as Moses begins with the creation of the world, so
John begins with the gospel of salvation (Gen 1:1; John 1:1). There
is also besides many excellent things in the manner and order of the
creation of the world, held forth to those that have understanding:
Some of which I may touch upon by way of observation. But to begin
with the first:
The first appearance of this earthy part of the world, is recorded
to be but a formless and void heap or chaos; and such is man before
a new creation: formless, I mean, as to the order of the Testament
of Christ, and void of the holy order thereof: And hence Jeremiah,
when he would set forth the condition of a wicked people, he doth
it under this metaphor: "I beheld [saith he] the earth, and, lo,
it was without form and void" (Jer 4:23). Indeed, the world would
make this a type of Christ; to wit, a man of no form or comeliness
(Isa 53:2). But 'tis only true of themselves; they are without a
New Testament impression upon them; they are void of the sovereign
grace of God. So then the power of God gave the world a being, but
by his word he set it in form and beauty; even as by his power he
gives a being to man, but by his word he giveth him New Testament
framing and glory (Eph 2:10-13). This is still followed by that
which follows:
And darkness was upon the face of the deep (v 2).
The Deep here, might be a type of the heart of man before conversion;
and so Solomon seems to intimate. Now as the darkness of this world
did cover the face of this first chaos; so spiritual darkness the
heart of the sons of men: and hence they are said to be darkened,
to be in darkness, yea, to be very darkness itself.
"And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."
A blessed emblem of the word of God in the matter of regeneration;
for as the first chaos remained without form, and void, until the
Spirit of God moved to work upon it, and by working, to put this
world into frame and order; so man, as he comes into the world,
abides a confused lump, an unclean thing; a creature without New
Testament order, until by the Spirit of the Lord he is transformed
into the image of Jesus Christ (Gal 1:15).
"And the Spirit of God moved upon the face."
Solomon compares the heart to a man's face; because as in the face
may be discerned whether there is anger or otherwise; so by the
inclinations of the heart are discovered the truth of the condition of
the man, as to his state either for heaven or hell. And besides,
as the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters; so in
the work of our conversion, the Spirit of God beginneth with the
heart of the sons of men; because the heart is the main fort (Acts
2:37). Now if the main fort be not taken, the adversary is still
capable of making continual resistance. Therefore God first
conquers the heart; therefore the Spirit of God moveth upon the
face of our heart, when he cometh to convert us from Satan to God.
"And God said, Let there be light."
This is the first thing with which God began the order of the
creation; to wit, light, "Let there be light": From which many
profitable notes may be gathered, as to the order of God in the
salvation of the soul. As,
1. When the Holy Ghost worketh upon us, and in us, in order to
a new creation; he first toucheth our understanding, that great
peace of the heart, with his spiritual illumination (Matt 4:16).
His first word, in order to our conversion, is, Let there be light:
light, to see their state by nature; light, to see the fruits and
effects of sin; light, to see the truth and worth of the merits
of Jesus Christ; light, to see the truth and faithfulness of God,
in keeping promise and covenant with them that embrace salvation
upon the blessed terms of the gospel of peace (Heb 10:32). Now
that this word, Let there be light, was a semblance of the first
work of the Holy Ghost upon the heart, compare it with that
of Paul to the Corinthians; "For God, who commanded the light to
shine out of darkness," that is, at the beginning of the world,
"hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor 4:6).
2. "And God said, Let there be light." As here, the light of this
world; so in conversion, the light of the New Testament of Christ,
it comes by the word of God. No word, no light: therefore the
apostle saith, He "hath brought life and immortality to light
through the gospel" (2 Tim 1:10). And therefore Paul saith again,
That salvation is manifest through preaching, through the expounding
or opening of the word of faith.
3. "And God said, Let there be light; and there was light": He
spake the word, and it was done; all that darkness that before
did cover the face of the deep, could not now hinder the being of
light. So neither can all the blindness and ignorance that is in
the heart of man, hinder the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ (Rev 3:7). When it pleaseth
God to reveal, it is revealed; when he openeth, none can shut: He
said, Let there be light, and there was light.
And God saw that the light was good. Truly the light is good (saith
Solomon) and a pleasant thing it is for the eye to behold the sun.
It was good, because it was God's creature; and so in the work of
grace that is wrought in our hearts, that light of the new covenant,
it is good, because it is God's work, the work of his good pleasure
(2 Thess 1:11); that good work which he hath not only begun, but
promised to fulfil until the day of Jesus Christ (Phil 1:6).
God saw that the light was good. The darkness that before did cover
the face of the waters, was not a creature of God, but a privation,
or that which was caused by reason that light was not as yet in
the world: so sin, that darkness that might be felt, is not the
workmanship of God in the soul, but that which is the work of the
devil; and that taketh occasion to be, by reason that the true
light, as yet, doth not shine in the soul.
"And God divided the light from the darkness." As Paul saith, What
communion hath light with darkness? they cannot agree to dwell
together (2 Cor 6:14). We see the night still flies before the day,
and dareth not come upon us again, but as the light diminisheth
and conveyeth itself away. So it is in the new creation; before
the light of the glorious gospel of Christ appears, there is night,
all night, in the soul (Eph 5:8): but when that indeed doth shine
in the soul, then for night there is day in the soul: "Ye were
darkness [saith Paul] but now are ye light in the Lord" (v 9): And,
"The darkness is past [saith John] and the true light now shineth"
(1 John 2:8).
"And God divided the light from the darkness."
God took part with the light, and preserved it from the darkness.
By these words, it seems that darkness and light began the quarrel,
before that bloody bout of Cain and Abel (Gal 5:17). The light and
the darkness struggled together, and nothing could divide or part
them but God. Darkness is at implacable enmity with light in the
creation of the world; and so it is in that rare work of regeneration,
the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the
flesh; as Peter saith, Fleshly lusts, they war against the soul.
This every Christian feels, and also that which I mentioned before,
namely, That before he be capable of opposing antichrist, with
Abel, in the world, he findeth a struggling in his own soul between
the light and the darkness that is there.
"And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night."
God doth not only distinguish by separating, but also by certain
characters; that things which are distinguished and separate, may
to us be the better known; he did so here in the work of creating
the world, and he doth so also in the great concern of man's
eternal happiness. The place of felicity is called heaven: The
place of torment is called hell: that which leads to hell is called
sin, transgression, iniquity, and wickedness; that which leads to
heaven, righteousness, holiness, goodness and uprightness: even as
in these types God called the light day, of which the godly are
the children (1 Thess 5:5); but the darkness he called night, of
which all ungodly men are the inhabiters and children also. Thus
after the Spirit of God had moved upon the face of the waters;
after God had commanded the light to shine, and had divided between
the light and the darkness, and had characterized them by their
proper names, he concludes the first day's work, "And the evening
and the morning were the first day." In which conclusion there is
wrapped up a blessed gospel-mystery; for God, by concluding the
first day here, doth shew us how we ought to determine that one
is made indeed a Christian: Even then when the Spirit of God hath
moved upon the face of the heart, when he hath commanded that light
should be there, when he divideth between, or setteth the light
at variance with the darkness; and when the soul doth receive the
characters of both, to observe them, and carry it to each according
to the mouth of God.
"And God saith, Let there be a firmament" (v 6).
This firmament he calleth heaven (v 8). Now this firmament, or
heaven, was to make a separation, or to divide between the waters
and the waters (v 7); To separate, I say, the waters from the
waters; the waters which were under the firmament, from the waters
which were above the firmament. Now by waters is signified in
the scriptures many things, as afflictions, worldly people (Psa
69:1,2), and particularly the saints (Rev 19:6); but in this place
is figured forth, all the people in the world, but so as consisting
of two parts, the children of God, and the children of the wicked
one: They under the heaven, figure out the world, or ungodly:
they above the firmament, the elect and chosen of God. And hence
in scripture the one is called heaven, and the other is called
earth, to signify the separation and difference that there is
between the one and the other.
"And God made the firmament, and divided the waters--from the
waters."
Indeed the world think that this separation comes, or is made,
through the captiousness of the preacher: But in truth it is the
handy work of God; And God made the firmament, and God divided,
&c. "I," saith he, "will put enmity between thee and the woman,
and between thy seed and her seed" (Gen 3:15). The good seed are
the children of the kingdom of God, but the bad are the children
of the wicked one (Matt 13:38).
"And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under
the firmament, from the waters which were above the firmament:
and it was so" (v 7).
Whatsoever the Lord doth, it abideth for ever (Eccl 3:14). And again,
What he hath made crooked, who can make straight? (Eccl 1:15). He
said it in the beginning, and behold how it hath continued! Yea,
though there hath been endeavours on Satan's part, to mingle his
children with the seed of men; yet it hath not been possible they
should ever cleave one to another, "even as iron is not mixed
with clay" (Dan 2:43). Yea, let me add further, What laws have
been made, what blood hath been shed, what cruelty hath been used,
and what flatteries and lies invented, and all to make these two
waters and people one? And yet all hath failed, and fallen short
of producing the desired effect; for the Lord hath made a firmament,
even heaven itself hath divided between them.
"And God called the firmament heaven. And the evening and the
morning were the second day" (v 8).
After the waters were divided from the waters, God called the cause
of dividing, heaven; and so concluded the second day's work. And
indeed it was a very great work, as in the antitype we feel it to
this very day. Dividing work is difficult work, and he that can,
according to God, completely end and finish it, he need do no more
that day of his life.
"And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together
unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so" (v
9).
Although in the second day's work, the waters above the firmament,
and those that be under, are the two peoples, or great families
of the world (Pro 8:31); yet because God would shew us by things
on earth, the flourishing state of those that are his (Hosea 10:12;
Joel 2:21-23; Psa 91:1; Heb 6:7), therefore he here doth express
his mind by another kind of representation of things (Jer 4:3,4):
"And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together
unto one place; and let the dry land appear." The waters here
signifying the world; but the fruitful earth, the thrifty church
of God. That the fruitful earth is a figure of the thriving church
of God in this world, is evident from many scriptures, (and there
was nothing but thriftiness till the curse came). And hence it is
said of the church, That she should break the clods of the ground;
that she should sow righteousness, and reap it; that she should not
sow among thorns; that if this be done, the heart is circumcised,
and spiritual fruit shall flow forth, and grow abundantly: And
hence again it is that the officers and eminent ones in the church,
are called vines, trees, and other fruitful plants. And hence it
is said again, When the Lord reigneth, let the earth (that is,
the church) rejoice. That earth which bringeth forth fruit meet
for him by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God. In
all which places, and many more that might be named, the earth is
made a figure of the church of God; and so I count it here in this
place.
"And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered into
one place."
Let them be together: It is not thus of all waters, but of the sea,
which is still here a type of the world. Let them be so together,
that the earth may appear; that the church may be rid of their
rage and tumult, and then she will be fruitful, as it follows in
this first book of Genesis. The church is then in a flourishing
state, when the world is farthest off from her, and when the
roaring of their waves are far away. Now therefore let all the
wicked men be far from thence (Ezra 6:6): The Lord gather these
waters, which in another place are called the doleful creatures,
and birds of prey; Let these, O Lord, be gathered together to
their own places, and be settled in the land of Shinar upon their
own base (Zech 5:11): Then the wilderness and the solitary places
shall be glad for them; that is, for that they are departed thence,
the desert shall rejoice and blossom as a rose (Isa 34 and 35).
"And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of
the waters called he seas: and God saw that it was good" (v 10).
God saw, that to separate the waters from the earth was good: And
so it is, for then have the churches rest. Then doth this earth
bring forth her fruit, as in the 11th and 12th verses may here be
seen.
"And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven"
(v 14).
The wisdom of God, is there to make use of figures and shadows,
even where most fit things, the things under consideration, may be
most fitly demonstrated. The dividing the waters from the waters,
most fitly doth show the work of God in choosing and refusing; by
dividing the waters from the earth, doth show how fruitful God's
earth, the church is, when persecutors are made to be far from
thence.
Wherefore he speaketh not of garnishing of his church until he
comes to this fourth day's work: by his Spirit he hath garnished
the heavens, that most fitly showing the glory of the church.
Let there be lights; to wit, the sun, the moon, and the stars.
The sun is in this place a type of Christ, the Sun of Righteousness:
The moon is a type of the church, in her uncertain condition in
this world: The stars are types of the several saints and officers
in this church. And hence it is that the sun is said not only to
rule, but it, with the moon and stars, to be set for signs, and
for seasons, and for days, and for years, &c. (Rev 1:20). But if
we take the heaven for the church, then how is she beautified,
when the Son of God is placed in the midst of her! (Rev 1:12,13).
And how plainly is her condition made out, even by the changing,
increasing, and diminishing of the moon! And how excellent is that
congregation of men, that for light and glory are figured by the
stars! (Matt 28:20).
From this day's work much might be observed.
First, That forasmuch as the sun was not made before the fourth
day, it is evident there was light in the world before the sun was
created; for in the first day God said, Let there be light, and
there was light. This may also teach us thus much, That before
Christ came in person, there was spiritual light in the saints
of God. And again, That as the sun was not made before the fourth
day of the creation, so Christ should not be born before the
fourth mystical day of the world; for it is evident, that Christ,
the true light of the world, was not born till about four thousand
years after the world was made. Second, As to the moon, there are
four things attending her, which fitly may hold forth the state
of the church. (1.) In that she changeth from an old to a new, we
may conceive, that God by making her so, did it to show he would
one day make a change of his church, from a Jewish to a Gentile
congregation. (2.) In that she increaseth, she showeth the
flourishing state of the church. (3.) In her diminishing, the
diminishing state of the church. (4.) The moon is also sometimes
made to look as red as blood, to show how dreadful and bloody the
suffering of the church is at some certain times.
Third, By the stars, we understand two things. (1.) How innumerable
the saints, those spiritual stars shall be (Heb 11:12). (2.) How
they shall differ each from other in glory (1 Cor 15:41).
"And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven,
to divide the day from the night."
For though before the light was divided from the darkness, yet the
day and night was not so kept within their bounds, as now by these
lights they were: probably signifying, that nothing should be so
clearly distinguished and made appear, as by the sun light of the
gospel of Christ: for by that it is that "the shadows flee away"
(Song 2:17). The light of the sun gathers the day to its hours, both
longer and shorter, and forceth also the night to keep within his
bounds.
"And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day,
and the lesser light to rule the night" (v 16).
Signifying, That Christ should be the light and governor of his
church, which are the children of the day; but the church, a light
to the children of the night, that by them they might learn the
mysteries of the kingdom. Saith Christ to his own, "Ye are the light
of the world": And again, "Let your light so shine,--that men may
see," &c., for though they that only walk in the night, cannot see
to walk by the sun, yet by the moon they may. Thus the heaven is
a type of the church, the moon a type of her uncertain state in
this world; the stars are types of her immovable converts; and
their glory, of the differing degrees of theirs, both here, and
in the other world. Much more might be said, but I pass this.
"And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving
creature that hath life" (v 20).
The sea, as I said, is a figure of the world; wherefore the creatures
that are in it, of the men of the world (Zech 13:8; Isa 60:5). This
sea bringeth forth small and great beasts, even as the world doth
yield both small and great persecutors, who like the fishes of prey,
eat up and devour what they can of those fish that are of another
condition. Now also out of the world that mystical sea, as fishers
do out of the natural; both Christ and his servants catch mystical
fish, even fish as of the great sea.
In the sea God created great whales, he made them to play therein.
Which whales in the sea are types of the devils in the world:
Therefore as the devil is called, the prince of this world; so the
whale is called, king over all the children of pride (Job 41:33,34).
"And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after
his kind" (v 24).
Of the beginning of this sixth day's work that may be said which
is said of the fishes, and the rest of the sea; for as there is
variety of fish in the one, so of beasts and cattle in the other,
who also make a prey of their fellows, as the fishes do; a most apt
representation of the nature and actions of bloody and deceitful
men: Hence persecutors are called bulls, bears, lions, wolves,
tigers, dragons, dogs, foxes, leopards, and the like.[3]
"And God said, Let us make man" (v 26).
I observe, that in the creation of the world, God goeth gradually
on, from things less, to things more abundantly glorious; I mean,
as to the creation of this earth; and the things that thereto
appertain. First he bringeth forth a confused chaos, then he
commands matter to appear distinct, then the earth bringeth forth
trees, and herbs, and grass; after that beasts; and the sea, fowls;
and last of all, Let us make man. Now passing by the doctrine
of the trinity, because spoken to before, I come to make some
observation upon this wonderful piece of the workmanship of God.
"Let us make man." Man in whom is also included the woman, was
made the last of the creatures. From whence we may gather,
God's respect to this excellent creature, in that he first provideth
for him, before he giveth him his being: He bringeth him not to an
empty house, but to one well furnished with all kind of necessaries,
having beautified the heaven and the earth with glory, and all
sorts of nourishment, for his pleasure and sustenance.[4]
"Let us make man in our image, after our likeness."
An image, or the likeness of any thing, is not the thing of which
it is a figure; so here, Adam is an image, or made in the likeness
of God. Now as Adam is the image of God, it must either respect
him, as he consisteth of the soul, as a part; or as he consists
of a body and soul together: If as he is made a reasonable soul,
then he is an excellent image of the eternal Godhead, the attributes
of the one being shadowed out by the qualities and passions of
the other; for as there is in the Godhead, power, knowledge, love,
and righteousness; so a likeness of these is in the soul of man,
especially of man before he had sinned: And as there is passions
of pity, compassion, affections, and bowels in man; so there are
these in a far more infinite way in God.
Again, If this image respect the whole man, then Adam was a figure
of God, as incarnate; or of God, as he was to be made afterwards
man. And hence it is, that as Adam is called the image of God
(Rom 5:14); so also is Christ himself called and reckoned as the
answering antitype of such an image.
But again, Though Adam be here called the image or similitude
of God; yet but so as that he was the shadow of a more excellent
image. Adam was a type of Christ, who only is "the express image"
of his Father's person, and the likeness of his excellent glory
(Heb 1:3). For those things that were in Adam, were but of a humane,
but of a created substance; but those that were in Christ, of the
same divine and eternal excellency with the Father.
Is Christ then the image of the Father, simply, as considered of
the same divine and eternal excellency with him? Certainly, No:
for an image is doubtless inferior to that of which it is a figure.
Understand then, that Christ is the image of the Father's glory,
as born of the Virgin Mary, yet so, as being very God also: Not
that his Godhead in itself was a shadow or image, but by the acts
and doing of that man, every act being infinitely perfect by virtue
of his Godhead, the Father's perfections were made manifest to
flesh. An image is to be looked upon, and by being looked upon,
another thing is seen; so by the person and doings of the Lord
Jesus, they that indeed could see him as he was, discovered the
perfection and glory of the Father.--"Philip, He that hath seen
me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the
Father?" (John 14:9). Neither the Father nor the Son can by us at
all be seen, as they are simply and entirely in their own essence.
Therefore the person of the Father must be seen by us, through
the Son, as consisting of God and man; the Godhead, by working
effectually in the manhood, shewing clearly there through the
infinite perfection and glory of the Father: "The word was made
flesh, and--[then] we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only
begotten of the Father, [He being in his personal excellencies,
infinitely and perfectly, what is recorded of his Father,] full
of grace and truth" (John 1:14). So again, he "is the image of
the invisible God" (Col 1:15). The Godhead is indeed invisible;
how then is Christ the image of it? Not by being invisible also;
for so is he as much hid as the Father; but being clothed with
flesh, that the works of the Son might by us be seen, he thereby
presenteth to us, as in a figure, the eternal excellency of the
Father. And hence as he is called "an image," he is also called
"the first-born" of every creature (Col 1:18). His being a creature,
respecting his manhood, and his birth, and his rising again from
the dead. Therefore a little after, he is called, "the first-born
from the dead" (v 19): And in another place, "the first-begotten
of the dead" (Rev 1:5): And "the first-fruits of them that slept"
(1 Cor 15:20). So then, though Adam was the image of God, yet
God's image but as a mere creature: But Christ though a creature
as touching his manhood; yet being also God, as the Father, he
shewed forth expressly, in capital characters, by all his works
and doings in the world, the beauty and glory of the Father: "The
light of the knowledge of the glory of God," is given "in the face
of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor 4:6). Where by face, we must understand
that which is visible, that being open when all else is covered,
and that by which most principally we are discovered to others,
and known. Now as to the case in hand, this face must signify to
us the personal virtues and doings of Christ, by which the glory
of the Father is exposed; the glory of his justice, by Christ's
exactness of life; the glory of his love, by Christ's compassion
to sinners, &c.
Ver. 26. "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our
likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and
over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the
earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth."
As Adam was a type of Christ, as the image and glory of God; so by
these words he further showeth, that he was a type of his sovereign
power; for to him be dominion and power everlasting (Heb 2:8,9),
"to whom be praise and dominion for ever" (1 Peter 4:11; Jude 25).
Now by the fish of the sea, the beasts of the earth, the fowls of
the air, and every creeping thing, we may understand all creatures,
visible and invisible, whether they be men, angels, or devils; in
heaven, earth, or under the earth: also all thrones, authorities
and powers, whether in heaven, in earth, or hell: Christ is made
head over all; He hath also a name above every name, "not only in
this world, but in that which is to come" (Eph 1:25).
Ver. 28. "And God blessed them; and God said unto them, [that is,
to the man and his wife] Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish
the earth, and subdue it," &c.
This in the type doth show, in the antitype, how fruitful Christ
and his church shall be; and how he at last shall, all over the
earth, have a seed to replenish and subdue it by the power of the
immortal seed of the word of God: how his name shall be reverenced
from one end of the earth to the other: how the kingdoms of the
earth shall ALL at last become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of
his Christ.
"And subdue it." God did put that majesty and dread upon Adam, at
his creation, that all the beasts of the field submitted themselves
unto him. As God also said to Noah, "The fear of you and the dread
of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl
of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the
fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered" (Gen 9:2).
"And God said, Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed,
which is upon the face of all the earth; and every tree, in the
which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be
for meat" (Gen 1:29).
These herbs and trees are types of the wholesome word of the gospel,
on which both Christ, his church, and unconverted sinners, ought
to feed and be refreshed; and without which thee is no subsisting
either of one or the other: "He causeth the grass to grow for the
cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth
food out of the earth; and wine that maketh glad the heart of man,
and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth
man's heart" (Psa 104:14,15).
"And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was
very good" (v 31).
All things have their natural goodness by creation. Things are not
good, because they have a being only, but because God gave them
such a being. Neither did God make them, because he saw they would
attract a goodness to themselves; but he made them in such kind,
as to bring forth that goodness he before determined they should.
"And the evening and the morning were the sixth day."
CHAPTER II.
Ver. 3. "And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because
that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and
made."
The seventh day did signify two things:
First, Christ Jesus, who is as well the rest of the justice of God,
as a rest for sinful man.
Secondly, It was also a type of that glorious rest that saints
shall have when the six days of this world are fully ended.
For the first, the apostle makes the sabbath a shadow of Jesus
Christ, "a shadow of things to come; but the body [or substance] is
of Christ" (Col 2:17). And hence it is that he is so often said to
be "a rest" to the Gentiles, a glorious rest, and that he promiseth
rest to such as cast their burthen upon him (Matt 11:29).
The second also the apostle asserteth in that fourth chapter to
the Hebrews, "There remaineth therefore a rest," or the keeping of
a sabbath, "to the people of God" (v 9 read also vv 4-11). Which
sabbath, as I conceive, will be the seventh thousand of years, which
are to follow immediately after the world hath stood six thousand
first: for as God was six days in the works of creation, and rested
the seventh; so in six thousand years he will perfect his works
and providences that concern this world. As also he will finish
the toil and travel of his saints, with the burthen of the beasts,
and the curse of the ground; and bring all into rest for a thousand
years. A day with the Lord, is as a thousand years: wherefore
this blessed and desirable time is also called "a day," "a great
day," "that great and notable day of the Lord" (Acts 2:20), which
shall end in the eternal judgment of the world. God hath held
forth this by several other shadows, as the sabbath of weeks, the
sabbath of years, and the great jubilee, which is to be the year
after forty-nine years are expired (Lev 25:1-13). Of all which,
more in their place, if God permit.
Ver. 4. "These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth
when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth
and the heavens."
Moses seems by these words, "In the day," to insist principally
upon them in their first and primitive state, before there was
sin or curse in the world; for in the day that they were created,
there was a far more glorious lustre and beauty than now can be
seen; the heaven, for sin, is, as it were, turned into brass; and
the rain into powder and dust, in comparison of what it was as it
came from the fingers of God. The earth hath also from that time
a curse upon it; yea, the whole creation, by sin, is even "made
subject to vanity," is in travail, and groans under the burthen
that sin hath brought upon it (Rom 8:19-23).
Ver. 5. "And every plant of the field before it was in the earth,
and every herb of the field before it grew."
Thus it was in the first creation; they therefore became neither
herbs nor trees, by the course of nature, but by the creation of
God. And even so it is in the new creation, men spring not up by
nature to be saints: No, not in the church of God, but first they
are created in Christ Jesus, and made meet to be partakers of the
benefit, and then planted in the church of God; "planted," I say,
as plants before prepared. Indeed hypocrites, and formal professors,
may spring up in the church, by virtue of her forms, and outward
services, as thorns and thistles spring up in the earth, by virtue
of her moisture and heartiness. But these are but the fruits of
the curse, and are determined to be burned at last in the fire:
"Every plant [saith Christ] which my heavenly Father hath not
planted, shall be rooted up" (Matt 15:13; Heb 6:8).[5]
"For the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth." This
is the reason that they came not up by nature first, but were
first created, then planted, then made to grow. So the reason why
men by nature grow not in the church, is, because the Lord doth not
cause it to rain upon them, they still abiding and doing according
to the course of this world; but he plants them in his house by
the mighty power of his word and Spirit, by which they are created
saints, and then they afterwards grow in grace, and in the knowledge
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. "And there was not a man to
till the ground." It seems by this there was a kind of necessity
why God should make man, yea, a multitude of men; for otherwise he
had made what before he made in vain; that is, his end in making
so glorious a creature as this world, which was to shew forth his
glory by, had been void, and without effect; for although it was
glorious, as it came out of the hand of God; yet it was not of
power so to preserve itself, but would, without men to look after
and dress it, be turned into a wilderness.
Thus it is with the world of men, if there was not the second
Adam to plough them and sow them, they could none of them become
saints; No, not the elect themselves; because the means are
determined, as well as the end.
By this we may likewise see what a woeful condition that people is
in, that have no ministers of the word of the gospel: "My people
perish, [are destroyed] for lack of knowledge" (Hosea 4:6): And
again, "Where there is no vision, the people perish" (Pro 29:18).
Pray therefore to the Lord of the harvest, that he would send out
his ploughers to plough, and his labourers into his harvest.
Ver. 6. "But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the
whole face of the ground."
Although as yet there was no ploughman nor rain, yet a mist arose
from the earth; so where there is not the word of the gospel, there
is yet sufficiency of light, to teach men how to govern themselves
in civil and natural society. But this is only "a mist," men cannot
gospelly grow by this; therefore, as in the next verse, of necessity
man must be formed.
But again, I have sometimes thought by this mist, might be held
forth that nourishment men had by the doctrine of faith, before
the gospel was divulged by Moses, the prophets, or Christ, &c.
for before these, that nourishment the church received, was but
slender and short, even as short as the nourishing of the mist is
to sober and moderate showers of rain; to which both the law and
the gospel is compared.
Again, I have also sometimes thought, that by this mist might be
typified those excellent proverbs and holy sayings of the men of
old, before there was a written word; for it cannot be but the
godly did contain in proverbs, and certain sayings, the doctrine
of salvation hereafter, and of good living here [see Romans 2:14];
of which we have a touch in Genesis, but more at large by that
blessed book of Job; which book, in my opinion, is a holy collection
of those proverbs and sayings of the ancients, occasioned by the
temptation of that good man. But whatever this mist did signify (in
other men's judgment) certain it is, it was for present necessity,
till a man should be made to till the ground, and the fruits
thereof watered with "the bottles of heaven": Which, so far as I
see yet, most aptly presents us with some of all these.
Ver. 7. "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground,"
&c. In the creation of man, God began with his outside; but in the
work of regeneration, he first begins within, at the heart. He made
him; that is, his body, of the dust of the ground; but he abides
a lifeless lump, till the Lord puts forth a second act. "And [he]
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a
living soul." Now he lives, now he acts: so it is in the kingdom of
Christ, no man can be a living soul in that kingdom by his first
creation, he must have life "breathed" into him, life and spirit
from Jesus Christ (John 20:22).
Now therefore is Adam a type, yet but an earthly one, of things
more high and heavenly; "And as we have borne the image of the
earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly" (1 Cor 15:49).
Ver. 8. "And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and
there he put the man whom he had formed."
"And the Lord God planted a garden." Thus the Holy Ghost speaks
clearer and clearer; for now he presents the church to us under the
similitude of a garden, which is taken out of the wide and open
field, and inclosed; "A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse";
a garden inclosed, "a spring shut up, a fountain sealed" (Cant
4:12); and there he put the man whom he had formed. An excellent
type of the presence of Christ with his church (Rev 1:12,13).
Ver. 9. "And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every
tree that is pleasant to the sight," &c.
These trees, and their pleasurableness, do shew us the beauty of
the truly godly, whom the Lord hath beautified with salvation. And
hence it is said, the glory of Lebanon, of Sharon, and of Carmel,
is given to the church: that is, she is more beautified with gifts
and graces than can by types and shadows be expressed. "The tree
of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge
of good and evil."
This "tree of life," was another type of Christ, as the bread and
healing medicine of the church, that stands "in the midst of the
paradise of God" (Rev 2:7; 22:2).
The tree of the knowledge of good and evil, was a type of the law,
or covenant of works, as the sequel of the story clearly manifesteth;
for had not Adam eaten thereof, he had enjoyed for ever his first
blessedness. As Moses saith, "It shall be our righteousness, if
we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God,
as he hath commanded us" (Deu 6:25). But both Adam and we have
touched, that is, broken the boughs and fruit of this tree, and
therefore now for ever, by the law, no man can stand just before
God (Gal 2:16).
Ver. 10. "And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and
from thence it was parted, and became into four heads."
This river while it abided in Eden, in the garden, it was the
river of God; that is, serviceable to the trees and fruit of the
garden, and was herein a type of those watering ministers that
water the plants of the Lord. But observe, when it had passed the
garden, had gotten without the bound of the garden, from thence
it was parted, and became into four heads; from thence it was
transformed, or turned into another manner of thing: it now became
into four heads; a type of the four great monarchies of the world,
of which Babylon, though the first in order of being, yet the last
in a gospel or mysterious sense. The fourth is the river Euphrates,
that which was the face of the kingdom of Babel of old. Hence
note, That how eminent and serviceable soever men are while they
abide in the garden of Eden, THE CHURCH; yet when they come out
from thence, they evilly seek the great things of the world: one
is for compassing the whole land of Havilah, where is gold; another
is for compassing this, a third that, and a fourth another thing,
according as you see these four heads did. Observe again, That
while men abide in the church of God, there is not by them a
seeking after the monarchies of this world; but when they depart
from thence, then they seek and strive to be heads; as that cursed
monster the pope, forsaking the garden of God, became in a manner
the prince of all the earth: Of whom Tyrus mentioned by Ezekiel,
was a very lively type, "Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of
God; every precious-stone, [that is, doctrine,] was thy covering;
as the sardius, topaz, diamond," &c., "till iniquity was found
in thee" (Eze 28:13-18); till thou leftest thy station, and place
appointed of God, and then thou wast cast as profane out of the
mountain of God, yea, though a covering cherub. See it again in
Cain, who while he continued in the church, he was a busy sacrificer,
as busy as Abel his brother; but when he left off to fear the
Lord, and had bloodily butchered his holy brother, then he seeks
to be a head, or monarch; then he goeth and buildeth a city to
preserve his name and posterity for ever (Gen 4:17).
Ver. 15. "And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the
garden of Eden, to dress it and to keep it."
In this also Adam was a figure of our Lord Jesus Christ, as pastor
and chief bishop of his church. "I the Lord, [saith Christ,] do
keep it; I will water it every moment, I will keep it night and
day" (Isa 27:3).
"And the Lord God took the man." No man taketh this honour upon
him, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron. Blessed is he also
that can say as the prophet Amos; "And the Lord took me [said he]
as I followed the flock, and the Lord said unto me, Go, prophesy
unto my people Israel" (Amos 7:15).
"To dress it and to keep it." He that is not dressed, is not kept:
That is a sad judgment, That which dieth, let it die; That which
is diseased, let it not be dressed, let it die of that disease. By
dressing therefore I understand, pruning, manuring and the like,
which the dresser of the vineyard was commanded to do, without
which all is overrun with briers and nettles, and is fit for
nothing but cursing, and to be burned (Luke 13:6-9; Pro 24:30-34;
Heb 6:7,8).
"And the Lord commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the
garden thou mayest freely eat" (v 16).
It is God's word that giveth us power to eat, to drink, and do other
our works, and without the word we may do nothing. The command
gave Adam leave: "Every creature of God is good, and nothing to be
refused, if it be received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified
by the word of God [by the command of the word, and by receiving
of it according to the limits thereof,] and prayer" (1 Tim 4:4,5).
Ver. 17. "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou
shalt not eat of it." I said before, What God's word prohibits, we
must take care to shun.
This "tree of knowledge," as I said before, was a type of the covenant
of works, the which had not Adam touched, (for by touching it he
broke that covenant,) he then had lived ever, but touching it he
dies (Gen 3:3).
Adam going into the garden under these conditions and penalties,
was therein a type of the humiliation of Christ; who at his coming
into the world, was made under the law, under its command and
penalty, even as other men, but without sin (Gal 4:4,5).
"For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."
"For in the day." Adam lived to God no longer than while he kept
himself from eating forbidden fruit; in that very day he died;
first a spiritual death in his soul; his body also was then made
capable of mortality, and all diseases, which two great impediments
in time brought him down to dust again.
Ver. 18. "And the Lord God said, It is not good that man should be
alone; I will make him an help meet for him."
By these words, Adam's state, even in innocency, seems to crave
for help; wherefore it is manifest that that state is short of that
we attain by the resurrection from the dead; yea, for as much as
his need required earthly help, it is apparent his condition was
not heavenly; "The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second
man is the Lord from heaven" (1 Cor 15:47). Adam in his first
estate was not spiritual: "That was not first which is spiritual,
but that which is natural; and afterwards that which is spiritual"
(v 46). Wherefore those that think it enough to attain to the state
of Adam in innocency, think it sufficient to be mere naturalists;
think themselves well, without being made spiritual: yea, let
me add, they think it safe standing by a covenant of works; they
think themselves happy, though not concerned in a covenant of
grace; they think they know enough, though ignorant of a mediator,
and count they have no need of the intercession of Christ.[6]
Adam stood by a covenant of works: Adam's kingdom was an earthly
paradise; Adam's excellency was, that he had not need of a Saviour;
and Adam's knowledge was ignorance of Jesus Christ: Adam in his
greatest glory, wanted earthly comforts; Adam in his innocency,
was a mere natural man.
Ver. 19. "And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast
of the field, and every fowl of the air."
This proveth further what I said at first, That in the first chaos
was contained all that was made upon the earth.
"And brought them unto Adam, to see what he would call them: and
whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name
thereof."
In this Adam was a lively type of the Lord Christ's sovereign and
glorious power over all flesh: "Thou hast given him power over all
flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast
given him" (John 17:2).
"And brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them."
So Christ nameth the world; whom he will he calleth saints; and
whom he will he calleth the world, "ungodly," "serpents," "vipers,"
and the like. "I pray for them, I pray not for the world" (John
17:9).
"And whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name
thereof." Even as Christ passes sentence, so shall their judgment
be.
Ver. 20. "And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of
the air, and to every beast of the field." So Christ judgeth of
angels, devils, and men.
"But for Adam, there was not found an help meet for him." All
the glory of this world, had not Adam had a wife, could not have
completed this man's blessedness; he would yet have been wanting:
so all the glory of heaven, considering Christ as mediator, could
not, without his church, have made him up complete. The church,
I say, "which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in
all."
Ver. 21, 22. "And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon
Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the
flesh instead thereof; and the rib which the Lord God had taken
from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man."
In these words we find an help provided for Adam; also whence it
came. The help was a wife; she came out of his side; she was taken
thence while Adam slept. A blessed figure of a further mystery.
Adam's wife was a type of the church of Christ; for that she was
taken out of his side, it signifies we are flesh of Christ's flesh,
and bone of Christ's bone (Eph 5:30). And in that she was taken
thence while Adam slept, it signifies, the church is Christ's, by
virtue of his death and blood: "Feed the church of God, which he
hath purchased with is own blood" (Acts 20:28).
"And he brought her to the man." That is, And God brought her to
the man. By which he clearly intimates, That as the church is the
workmanship of God, and the purchase of the blood of Christ; so
yet she cannot come to Christ, unless brought to him of God: "No
man can come to me [saith Christ] except the Father which hath
sent me, draw him" (John 6:44).
Ver. 23. "And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh
of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out
of Man."
In that Adam doth thus acknowledge his wife to be bone and flesh
of his substance, it shews us, that Christ will acknowledge those
that are his: "He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I
will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church
will I sing praise unto thee" (Heb 2:11,12).
And observe it, He said, "She is bone of my bone," &c. before that
God, that brought her to him; intimating, that Christ both owns
us now at his Father's right hand, and will not be ashamed of us,
even in the day of judgment (Matt 10:33; Luke 12:8).
Ver. 24. "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother,
and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh."
This ought to be truly performed in our married estate in this
world. But here endeth not the mystery.
"Therefore shall a man leave his father." Thus did Christ when he
came into the world to save sinners: He came forth from the Father;
"I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world" (John
16:28).
"Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother." The Jewish
church may, in a mystical sense, be called the mother of Christ;
for she was indeed God's wife, and of her came his Son Jesus Christ:
yet his mother he left and forsook, to be joined to his Gentile
spouse, which is now his only wife.
Ver. 25. "And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were
not ashamed."
No sin, no shame: Let men stand where God hath set them, and there
is no cause of shame, though they be exposed in outward appearance
to never so much contempt.
"And they were both naked." Apparel is the fruits of sin; wherefore
let such as pride themselves therein, remember, that they cover one
shame with another. But let them that are truly godly have their
apparel modest and sober, and with shamefacedness put them on,
remembering always the first cause of our covering our nakedness,
was the sin and shame of our first parents (1 Peter 3:3).
CHAPTER III.
Ver. 1. "Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the
field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman,
Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?"
In these words we have an entrance of the first great spiritual
conflict that was fought between the devil and flesh; and it is
worth the observing, how the enemy attempted, engaged, and overcame
the world (2 Cor 11:3).
1. He tempts by means; he appeareth not in his own shape and hue,
but assumeth the body of one of the creatures, the body of the
serpent, and so begins the combat. And from hence it is, that in
after ages he is spoken of under the name of that creature, "the
dragon, that old serpent which is the devil, and Satan" (Rev 20:2);
because, as the Holy Ghost would have us beware of the devil, so
of the means and engines which he useth; for where one is overcome
by his own fearful appearance, ten thousand are overcome by the
means and engines that he useth.
2. "The serpent was more subtil." The devil, in his attempts after
our destruction, maketh use of the most suitable means. The serpent
was more subtil, therefore the cunning of the devil was least of
all discerned. Had he made use of some of the most foolish of the
creatures, Adam had luckily started back, for he knew the nature
of all the creatures, and gave them names accordingly; wherefore
the serpent, Adam knew, was subtil, therefore Satan useth him,
thereby to catch this goodly creature. Hereby the devil least
appeared; and least appearing, the temptation soonest took the
tinder.[7]
"Now the serpent was more subtil." More subtil. Hence the devil
is called, "the serpent with heads," [with great cunning;] "the
crooked serpent," [with knotty objections;] "the piercing serpent,"
[for he often wounds;] and his ways are called "devices," "temptations,"
"delusions," "wiles," "power," and "the gates of hell"; because
of their mighty prevalency. This is he that undertook our first
parents.
But how did he undertake them?
He labours to make them question the simplicity of the word of
God, bearing Adam's wife in hand, that there must needs be some
meaning that palliates the text; Hath God said ye shall not eat of
the tree? Which interrogatory suggested them with a strong doubt
that this word would not appear a truth, if you compare it with
the 4th verse.
Hence learn, that so long as we retain the simplicity of the word,
we have Satan at the end of the staff; for unless we give way to
a doubt about that, about the truth and simplicity of it, he gets
no ground upon us. And hence the apostle says, He feared lest by
some means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so
our minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ
(2 Cor 11:3); that is, lest our minds should be drawn off from the
simplicity of the word of the gospel by some devilish and delusive
arguments; For mark, Satan doth not first of all deny, but makes a
doubt upon the word, whether it is to be taken in this or another
sense; and so first corrupting the mind with a doubt about the
simplicity of the true sense, he after brings them to a denial
thereof; "Hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the
garden?"
Ver. 2. "And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the
fruit of the trees of the garden."
"And the woman said." Indeed, the question was put to her, but the
command was not so immediately delivered to her: "The Lord God
commanded the man" (2:16). This therefore I reckon a great fault
in the woman, an usurpation, to undertake so mighty an adversary,
when she was not the principal that was concerned therein; nay,
when her husband who was more able than she, was at hand, to whom
also the law was given as chief. But for this act, I think it is,
that they are now commanded silence, and also commanded to learn
of their husbands (1 Cor 14:34,35): A command that is necessary
enough for that simple and weak sex:[8] Though they see it was
by them that sin came into the world, yet how hardly are some of
them to this day dissuaded from attempting unwarrantably to meddle
with potent enemies, about the great and weighty matters that
concern eternity (1 Tim 2:11-15).
Hence note, That often they who are least able, will first adventure
to put in their head to defend that, from whence they return with
shame.
"And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of
the trees of the garden."
This was her prologue to her defence, but that also for which she
had no warrant. In time of temptation, it is our wisdom and duty
to keep close to the word, that prohibits and forbids the sin;
and not to reason with Satan, of how far our outward and worldly
privileges go, especially of those privileges that border upon the
temptation, as she here did: We may eat of all but one. By this
she goeth to the outside of her liberty, and sets herself upon the
brink of the danger. Christ might have told the tempter, when he
assaulted him, That he could have made stones bread; and that he
could have descended from the pinnacle of the temple, as afterwards
he did (Matt 4:3-7; Luke 4); but that would have admitted of other
questions. Wherefore he chooseth to lay aside such needless and
unwarrantable reasonings, and resisteth him with a direct word of
God, most pertinent to quash the tempter, and also to preserve
himself in the way. To go to the outside of privileges, especially
when tempted of the devil, is often, if not always very dangerous
and hazardous.
By these words therefore, in mine opinion, she spoke at this time
too much in favour of the flesh; and made way for what after came
upon her, We may eat of all but one.
Ver. 3. "But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of
the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall
ye touch it, lest ye die."
Now, too late, she urgeth that which should have been her only stay
and weapon; to wit, the express word of God; That she should, if
she would have disputed with the tempter, have urged at the first
that only, and have thought of nothing else. Thus did the Lord
himself: but she looking first into those worthy privileges which
God had given her, and dilating delightfully of them before the
devil, she lost the dread of the command from off her heart, and
retained now but the notion of it: which Satan perceiving, and
taking heart therefrom to make his best advantage, he now adds to
his former forged doubt, a plain and flat denial, "Ye shall not
surely die."
Ver. 4. "And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely
die."
When people dally with the devil, and sit too near their outward
advantages; when they are tempted to break the command of God, it
is usual for them, even by setting their hearts upon things that
in themselves are honest and lawful, to fall into temptation: To
see a piece of ground, to prove a yoke of oxen, to marry a wife, are
doubtless lawful things; but upon the borders of these privileges
lay the temptation of the devil; therefore by the love of these,
which yet were lawful in themselves, the devil hardened the heart,
and so at last made way for, and perfectly produced in them, flatly
to deny, as then, to embrace the words of God's salvation (Matt
22:5; Luke 14:16-20). The like befel our first mother; wherefore
though at last she freely objected the word; yet because before
she had so much reasoned to the pleasing of the flesh, she lost
the dread and savour of the command, and having nought but notion
left, she found not wherewith to rebuke so plain a lie of the devil,
but hearkened to his further reasoning.
"Ye shall not surely die." Not surely; in the word there is some
slight meaning, of which you need not be so afraid. And besides,
Ver. 5. "God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your
eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and
evil."
In these words two privileges are asserted: one, That their eyes
should be opened; the other, That they should be as gods, knowing
good and evil. The first is very desirable, and was not at all
abridged by them; the second, as to their knowing good and evil,
was absolutely forbidden; because they could not attain to the
knowledge of that which was evil, but by transgressing, or by
eating of that forbidden tree.
Hence observe, That it is usual with the devil, in his tempting
of poor creatures, to put a good and bad together, that by shew
of the good, the tempted might be drawn to do that which in truth
is evil. Thus he served Saul; he spared the best of the herd and
flock, under pretence of sacrificing to God, and so transgressed
the plain command (1 Sam 15:20-22). But this the apostle saw was
dangerous, and therefore censureth such, as in a state of condemnation
(Rom 3:8). Thus he served Adam; he put the desirableness of
sight, and a plain transgression of God's law together, that by
the loveliness of the one, they might the easier be brought to
do the other. O poor Eve! Do we wonder at thy folly! Doubtless we
had done as bad with half the argument of thy temptation.
"Ye shall be as gods." In these words he attempts to beget in them
a desire to be greater than God had made them (1 Tim 3:6). He knew
this was a likely way, for by this means he fell himself; for being
puffed up with pride, they left their own estate, or habitation,
and so became devils, and were tumbled down to hell, where they are
"reserved in everlasting chains, under darkness, unto the judgment
of the great day" (Jude 6).
"Ye shall be as gods." When souls have begun to hearken to the
tempter, that hearkening hath made way for, and given way to so
much darkness of mind, and hardness of heart, that now they can
listen to anything: as to hear God charged with folly, "Ye shall
not surely die"; as to hear him made the author of ignorance, and
that he delights to have it so, by seeking by a command to prohibit
them from knowing what they could; for God doth know, that in the
day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened; and therefore
he forbids to touch it.
"Ye shall be as gods." Here is also a pretence of holiness, which
he knew they were prone unto; "Ye shall be as gods," as knowing
and perfect as God. Oh! Thousands are, even to this day, by such
temptations overcome! Thus he wraps his temptations up in such
kind of words and suggestions as will carry it either way. But mark
his holiness, or the way that he prescribes for holiness; it is,
if not point blank against, yet without and besides the word, not
by doing what God commands, and abhorring what he forbids, but by
following the delusion of the devil, and their own roving fancies;
as Eve here does.
Ver. 6. "And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food,
and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to
make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof," &c.
This verse presents us with the use that Eve made of the reasonings
of the serpent; and that was, to take them into consideration; not
by the word of God, but as her flesh and blood did sense them:
A way very dangerous and devouring to the soul, from which Paul
fled, as from the devil himself: "Immediately I conferred not with
flesh and blood" (Gal 1:16). Wherefore, pausing upon them, they
entangled her as with a threefold cord. 1. "The lust of the flesh";
she saw it was good for food. 2. "The lust of the eye"; she saw
it was pleasant to the eye. 3. "The pride of life"; a tree to be
desired, to make one wise (1 John 2:16). Being taken, I say, with
these three snares of the adversary, which are not of the Father,
but of the world, and the devil the prince thereof, forthwith she
falls before him: "And when the woman saw" this, "she took of the
fruit thereof, and did eat."
"And when the woman saw." This seeing, as I said, is to be
understood of her considering what Satan presented to her, and of
her sensing or tasting of his doctrine; not by the word, which
ought to be the touch stone of all, but by and according to her
own natural reason without it. Now this makes her forget that
very command that but now she had urged against the tempter: This
makes her also to consent to that very reason, as an inducement
to transgress; which, because it was the nature of the tree, was
by God suggested as a reason why they should forbear; it was the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil, therefore they should not
touch it; it was the tree, that would by touching it, make them
know good and evil; therefore she toucheth, and also eateth thereof.
See therefore what specious pretences the devil, and those that
are under the power of temptation, will have to transgress the
command of God. That which God makes a reason of the prohibition,
even that the devil will make a reason of their transgression.
God commands to self-denial, but the world makes that a reason of
their standing off from the very grace of God in the gospel. God
also commands, That we be sober, chaste, humble, just, and the
like; but the devil, and carnal hearts, make these very things the
argument that keeps sinners from the word of salvation. Or rather
take it thus; God forbids wickedness, because it is delightful to
the flesh, and draws the heart from God, but therefore carnal men
love wickedness and sin: Therefore they go on in sin, and "therefore
they say unto God, Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge
of thy ways" (Job 21:14; 22:15-17).
She "did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did
eat."
The great design of the devil, as he supposed, was now accomplished;
for he had both in the snare, both the man and his wife, and in
them, the whole world that should be after. And indeed the chief
design of Satan was at the head at first, only he made the weakest
the conveyance for his mischief. Hence note again, That Satan by
tempting one, may chiefly intend the destruction of another. By
tempting the wife, he may aim at the destruction of the husband;
by tempting the father, he may design the destruction of the
children; and by tempting the king, he may design the ruin of the
subjects. Even as in the case of David: "Satan stood up against
Israel, and provoked David to number the people." He had a mind
to destroy seventy thousand, therefore he tempted David to sin (1
Chron 21:1).
She gave also to her husband, and he did eat. Sin seldom or never
terminates in one person; but the pernicious example of one, doth
animate and embolden another; or thus, the beholding of evil in
another, doth often allure a stander-by. Adam was the looker-on, he
was not in the action as from the serpent: "Adam was not deceived,"
that is, by having to do with the devil, "but the woman, the woman
being deceived, was in the transgression" (1 Tim 2:14). This should
exhort all men that they take heed of so much as beholding evil
done by others, lest also they should be allured. When Israel
went into Canaan, God did command them not so much as to ask, How
those nations served their gods? lest by so doing, Satan should
get an advantage of their minds, to incline them to do the like
(Deu 12:30). Evil acts, as well as evil words, will eat as doth
a canker. This then is the reason of that evil-favouredness that
you see attending some men's lives and professions; they have been
corrupted, as Adam was, either by evil words or bad examples, even
till the very face of their lives and professions are disfigured
as with the pox or canker (2 Tim 2:17).
Thus have we led you through that woeful tragedy that was acted
between the woman and the serpent; and have also shewed, how it
happened that the serpent went away as victor.
1. The woman admitted of a doubt about the truth of the word that
forbad her to eat; for unbelief was the first sin that entered the
world.
2. She preferred the privileges of the flesh, before the argument
to self-denial; by which means her heart became hardened, and grew
senseless of the dread and terror of the words of God.
3. She took Satan's arguments into consideration, and sensed,[9]
or tasted them; not by the word of God, but her own natural, or
rather sore-deluded fancy.
4. She had a mind to gratify the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of
the eyes, and the pride of life.
Now to speak of the evil consequences that followed this sinful
act: That is not in the wisdom of mortal man to do; partly, because
we know but in part even the evil and destructive nature of sin;
and partly, because much of the evil that will follow this action,
is yet to be committed by persons unborn. Yet enough might be said
to astonish the heavens, and to make them horribly afraid (Jer
2:12). 1. By this act of these two, the whole world became guilty
of condemnation and eternal judgment (Rom 5). 2. By this came all
the blindness, atheism, ignorance of God, enmity and malice against
him, pride, covetousness, adultery, idolatry, and implacableness,
&c., that is found in all the world. By this, I say, came all the
wars, blood, treachery, tyranny, persecution, with all manner of
rapine and outrage that is found among the sons of men. 3. Besides,
all the plagues, judgments, and evils that befal us in this world,
with those everlasting burnings that will swallow up millions for
ever and ever; all and every whit of these came into the world as
the portion of mankind, for that first transgression of our first
parents.
Ver. 7. "And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that
they were naked; and they sewed fig-leaves together, and made
themselves aprons."
That their eyes might be opened, was one branch of the temptation,
and one of the reasons that prevailed with the woman to forsake the
word of God: But she little thought of seeing after this manner,
or such things as now she was made to behold. She expected some
sweet and pleasant sight, that might tickle and delight her deluded
fancy; but behold, sin and the wrath of God appears, to the shaking
of their hearts! And thus, even to this very day, doth the devil
delude the world: His temptations are gilded with some sweet and
fine pretences; either they shall be wiser, richer, more in favour,
live merrier, fare better, or something; and that they shall see
it, if they will but obey the devil: Which the fools easily are,
by these and such like things, allured to do. But behold, when
their eyes are opened, instead of seeing what the devil falsely
told them, they see themselves involved in sin, made guilty of
the breach of God's command, and subject to the wrath of God.[10]
"And they knew that they were naked." Not only naked of outward
clothing, but even destitute of righteousness; they had lost their
innocency, their uprightness, and sinless vail, and had made
themselves polluted creatures, both in their hearts and in their
flesh; this is nakedness indeed; such a kind of nakedness as Aaron
made Israel naked with, when he set up his idol calf for them to
worship: "For Aaron had made them naked unto their shame" (Exo
32:25). Naked before the justice of the law.
"And they knew that they were naked." And they knew it: Why, did
they not know it before? The text says, They were naked, and were
not ashamed. O! they stood not naked before God! they stood not
without righteousness, or uprightness before him, and therefore
were not ashamed, but now they knew they were naked as to that.
"And they sewed fig-leaves together, and made themselves aprons."
A fit resemblance of what is the inclination of awakened men,
who are yet but natural! They neither think of Christ, or of the
mercy of God in him for pardon, but presently they betake themselves
to their own fig-leaves, to their own inventions, or to the
righteousness of the law, and look for healing from means which
God did never provide for cure. "When Ephraim saw his sickness, and
Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian" (Hosea
5:13). Not to God, and sent to King Jarib, not to Christ, yet
could they not heal him, nor cure him of his wound.
"And made themselves aprons." Not coats, as God did afterwards. A
carnal man thinks himself sufficiently clothed with righteousness,
if the nakedness which he sees, can be but covered from his own
sight: As if God also did see that and only that which they have
a sight of by the light of nature; and as if because fig-leaves
would hide their nakedness from their sight, that therefore they
would hide it from the sight of God. But alas! No man, without
the help of another, can bring all his nakedness to the sight of
his own eye; much is undiscovered to him, that may yet lie open
and bare to a stander-by: So it is with the men that stand without
Christ before God, at best they see but some of their nakedness,
to wit, their most gross and worst faults, and therefore they seek
to cover them; which when they have hid from their own sight, they
think them hid also from the sight of God. Thus did Adam, he saw
his own most shameful parts, and therefore them he covered: They
made themselves aprons, or things to gird about them, not to cover
them all over withal. No man by all his own doings can hide all
his own nakedness from the sight of the justice of God, and yet,
but in vain, as busy as Adam to do it.
"And they sewed fig-leaves together, and made themselves aprons."
Fig-leaves! A poor apron, but it was the best they could get.
But was that a sufficient shelter against either thorn or thistle?
Or was it possible but that after a while these fig-leaves should
have become rotten, and turned to dung? So will it be with all
man's own righteousness which is of the law; Paul saw it so, and
therefore counted it but loss and dung, that he might win Christ,
and be found in him (Phil 3:7,8).
Ver. 8. "And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the
garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves
from the presence of the Lord God, among the trees of the garden."
"And they heard the voice of the Lord God." This voice was not to
be understood according, as if it was the effect of a word; as
when we speak, the sound remains with a noise for some time after;
but by voice here, we are to understand the Lord Christ himself;
wherefore this voice is said to walk, not to sound only: "They
heard the voice of the Lord God walking." This voice John calls the
word, the word that was with the Father before he made the world,
and that at this very time was heard to walk in the garden of Adam:
Therefore John also saith, this voice was in the beginning; that
is, in the garden with Adam, at the beginning of his conversion,
as well as of the beginning of the world (John 1:1).
"And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in
the cool of the day." The gospel of it is, in the season of grace;
for by the cool of the day, he here means, in the patience,
gentleness, goodness and mercy of the gospel; and it is opposed to
the heat, fire, and severity of the law.
"And Adam and his wife hid themselves." Hence observe, That a
man's own righteousness will not fortify his conscience from fear
and terror, when God begins to come near to him to judgment. Why
did Adam hide himself, but because, as he said, he was naked? But
how could he be naked, when before he had made himself an apron?
O! the approach of God consumed and burnt off his apron! Though
his apron would keep him from the sight of a bird, yet it would
not from the eye of the incorruptible God.
Let therefore all self-righteous men beware, for however they at
present please themselves with the worthiness of their glorious
fig-leaves; yet when God shall come to deal with them for sin,
assuredly they will find themselves naked.[11]
"And they hid themselves." A man in a natural state, cannot abide
the presence of God; yea, though a righteous man. Adam, though
adorned with his fig-leaves, flies.
Observe again, That a self-righteous man, a man of the law, takes
grace and mercy for his greatest enemy. This is apparent from the
carriage of the Pharisees to Jesus Christ, who because they were
wedded to the works of their own righteousness, therefore they hated,
persecuted, condemned, and crucified the Saviour of the world. As
here in the text, though the voice of the Lord God walked in the
garden in the cool of the day, in the time of grace and love, yet
how Adam with his fig-leaves flies before him.
"And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the
Lord God." These latter words are spoken, not to persuade us that
men can hide themselves from God, but that Adam, and those that
are his by nature, will seek to do it, because they do not know him
aright. These words therefore further shew us what a bitter thing
sin is to the soul; it is only for hiding work, sometimes under
its fig-leaves, sometimes among the trees of the garden. O what
a shaking, starting, timorous evil conscience, is a sinful and
guilty conscience! especially when 'tis but a little awakened, it
could run its head into every hole, first by one fancy, then by
another; for the power and goodness of a man's own righteousness,
cannot withstand or answer the demands of the justice of God, and
his holy law.
"And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the
Lord God, among the trees of the garden." If you take the trees
in a mystical sense as sometimes they may be taken (Eze 31:8-11);
then take them here to signify, or to be a type of the saints
of God, and then the gospel of it is, That carnal men, when they
are indeed awakened, and roused out of their foolish fig-leaf
righteousness; then they would be glad of some shelter with them
that are saved and justified freely by grace, as they in the
Gospel of Matthew; "Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone
out" (Matt 25:8). And again, The man without the wedding garment
had crowded himself among the wedding guests: Had hid themselves
among the trees of the garden (Matt 22:11).
Ver. 9. "And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him,
Where art thou?"
Adam having eaten of the forbidden tree, doth now fleet his
station, is gone to another than where God left him. Wherefore, if
God will find Adam, he must now look him where he had hid himself.
And indeed so he does with "Adam, where art thou?"
"And the Lord God called," &c. Here begins the conversion of Adam,
from his sinful state, to God again. But mark, it begins not at
Adam's calling upon God, but at God calling upon him: "And the
Lord God called unto Adam." Wherefore, by these words, we are to
understand the beginning of Adam's conversion. And indeed, grace
hath gone the same way with the elect, from that time to this day.
Thus he dealt with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; he called them from
their native country, the country of their kindred. And hence it
is, that, especially in the New Testament, the saints are said
to be the Called; "Called of God," and "Called of Jesus Christ."
And hence again it is that Calling is by Paul made the first
demonstration of election, and that saints are admonished to prove
their election by their calling; for as Adam was in a lost, miserable
and perishing condition, until God called him out of those holes
into which sin had driven him: so we do lie where sin and the
devil hath laid us, until by the word of God we are called to the
fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ.
By these words therefore we have the beginning of the discovery
of effectual calling or conversion; "And the Lord God called": In
which call observe three things,
1. God called so that Adam heard him. And so it is in the conversion
of the New Testament saints, as Paul says, "If ye have heard him,
and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus" (Eph 4:21).
That therefore is one discovery of effectual calling, the sinner
is made to HEAR him, even to hear him distinctly, singling out the
very person, calling, "Adam, Where art thou?" "Saul, Saul, why
persecutest thou me?" I have called thee by thy name, thou art
mine. As he also said to Moses, "I know thee by name, and thou
hast also found grace in my sight" (Exo 33:12).
2. God called so, as to fasten sin upon his conscience, and as to
force a confession from him of his naked and shameful state.
3. God called so, as to make him tremble under, and be afraid of
the judgment of God.
"And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art
thou?" Indeed, Where art thou must of necessity be forcibly urged
to every man on whose soul God doth work effectual conversion;
for until the person is awakened, as to the state and condition
he is in, he will not desire, nay, will not endure to be turned
to God; but when in truth they are made to see what condition sin
hath brought them to, namely, that it hath laid them under the
power of sin, the tyranny of the devil, the strength of death,
and the curse of God by his holy law; then is mercy sweet.
"Where art thou?" God knew where he was, but foolish Adam thought
otherwise; he thought to hide himself from the presence of the
Lord, but the Lord found him out. Indeed, deluded sinners think
that they can hide themselves and sins from God. "How doth God
know," say they, "Can he judge through the thick cloud?" (Job 22:13).
But such shall know he sees them; they shall know it, either to
their correction, or to their condemnation. "Though they dig into
hell," saith God, "thence shall mine hand take them; though they
climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down: And though they
hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them
out thence," &c. (Amos 9:2,3).[12] "Can any hide himself in secret
places that I shall not see him, saith the Lord? Do not I fill
heaven and earth? saith the Lord" (Jer 23:24).
Ver. 10. "And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was
afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself."
This then was the cause of his flying, he heard the voice of God:
A wicked and evil conscience saith, every thing is to it as the
messenger of death and destruction; for, as was said before, "the
voice of the Lord walked in the garden in the cool of the day," in
the time of grace and mercy. But it mattereth not whether he came
with grace or vengeance; guilt was in Adam's heart, therefore he
could not endure the presence of God: He "that doeth evil hateth
the light" (John 3:20). And again, "The wicked flee when no man
pursueth" (Pro 28:1). Cain thought all that met him, would seek
his blood and life.
"I heard thy voice." Something by the word of God was spoken,
that shook the heart of this poor creature; something of justice
and holiness, even before they fell into this communication: for
observe it, Adam went forthwith from the tree of knowledge of good
and evil a convinced man, first to his fig-leaves, but they would
not do; therefore he seeks to be hid among the trees. And observe
again, That the insufficiency of fig-leaves were discovered by
this voice of the Lord God, that at this time walked in the garden:
"I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was
naked; and I hid myself." So then, there was a first and second
voice which Adam heard; the first he ran away from, "I heard thy
voice, and hid myself." The second was this, wherein they commune
each with other. The first therefore was the word of justice,
severity, and of the vengeance of God; like that in the 19th of
Exodus, from the pronouncing of which, a trembling, and almost
death, did seize six hundred thousand persons.
"I heard thy voice in the garden." It is a word from without that
doth it. While Adam listened to his own heart, he thought fig-leaves
a sufficient remedy, but the voice that walked in the garden shook
him out of all such fancies: "I heard thy voice in the garden, and
I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself."
Ver. 11. "And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou
eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest
not eat?"
"Who told thee?" This, as I said before, supposeth a third person,
a preacher, and that was the Son of God; the voice of the Lord
God that walked in the garden.
"Hast thou eaten of the tree?" That is, If thou hast been shewed
thy nakedness, thou hast indeed sinned; for the voice of the Lord
God will not charge guilt, but where and when a law hath been
transgressed. God therefore, by these words, driveth Adam to the
point, either to confess or deny the truth of the case. If he
confess, then he concludes himself under judgment; if he deny, then
he addeth to his sin: Therefore he neither denieth nor confesseth,
but so as he may lessen and extenuate his sin.
Ver. 12. "And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with
me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat."
He had endeavoured with fig-leaves to hide his transgressions
before, but that being found too scanty and short, he now trieth
what he can do with arguments. Indeed he acknowledgeth that he
did eat of the tree of which he was forbidden; but mark where he
layeth the reason: Not in any infection which was centred in him
by reason of his listening to the discourse which was between the
woman and the serpent; but because God had given him a woman to
be with him: "The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave
me of the tree." The woman was given for an help, not an hindrance;
but Satan often maketh that to become our snare, which God hath
given us as a blessing. Adam therefore here mixeth truth with
falsehood. It is true, he was beguiled by the woman; but she was
not intended of God, as he would insinuate, to the end she might
be a trap unto him. Here therefore Adam sought to lessen and
palliate his offence, as man by nature is prone to do; for if God
will needs charge them with the guilt of sin for the breach of
the law, they will lay the fault upon anything, even upon God's
ordinance, as Adam here doth, rather than they will honestly fall
under the guilt, and so the judgment of the law for guilt. It is a
rare thing, and it argueth great knowledge of God, and also hope
in his mercy, when men shall heartily acknowledge their iniquities,
as is evident in the case of David: "Wash me thoroughly from
mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my
transgressions: and my sin is ever before me" (Psa 51:2,3). But
his knowledge is not at first in young converts; therefore when
God begins to awaken, they begin, as sleepy men, to creep further
under their carnal covering; which yet is too short to hide them,
and too narrow to cover their shame (Isa 28:20).
"The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the
tree." Although, as I said, this sinner seeks to hide, or at least
to lessen his sin, by laying the cause upon the woman, the gift
of God; yet it argueth that his heart was now filled with shame
and confusion of face, for that he had broken God's command; for
indeed it is the nature of guilt, however men may in appearance
ruffle under it, and set the best leg before, for their vindication;
yet inwardly to make them blush and fail before their accuser.
Indeed their inward shame is the cause of their excuse; even as
Aaron, when he had made the golden calf, could not for shame of
heart confess in plainness of speech the truth of the fact to his
brother Moses, but faulteringly: They gave me their gold, saith
he, and "I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf"
(Exo 32:24). "And there came out this calf"; a pitiful fumbling
speech: The Holy Ghost saith, Aaron had made them naked; "had
made them naked unto their shame," for he, as also Adam, should,
being chief and lord in their place, have stoutly resisted the
folly and sin which was to them propounded; and not as persons of
a womanish spirit, have listened to wicked proposals.[13]
Ver. 13. "And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that
thou hast done?" &c.,
Forasmuch as Adam did acknowledge his sin, though with much weakness
and infirmity, God accepts thereof; and now applieth himself to
the woman, whom Satan had used as his engine to undo the world.
Hence observe, That when God sets to search out sin, he will
follow it from the seduced to the seducer, even till he comes to
the rise and first author thereof, as in the following words may
more clearly appear. Not that he excuseth or acquitteth the seduced,
because the seducer was the first cause, as some do vainly imagine;
but to lay all under guilt who are concerned therein: the woman
was concerned as a principal, therefore he taketh her to examination.
"And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast
done?" What is this? God seems to speak as if he were astonished
at the inundation of evil which the woman by her sin had overflowed
the world withal: "What is this that thou hast done!" Thou hast
undone thyself, thou hast undone thy husband, thou hast undone all
the world; yea, thou hast brought a curse upon the whole creation,
with an overplus of evils, plagues, and distresses.
"What is this that thou hast done!" Thou hast defiled thy body and
soul, thou hast disabled the whole world from serving God; yea,
moreover, thou hast let in the devil at the door of thy heart, and
hast also made him the prince of the world. "What is this that thou
hast done!" Ah! little, little do sinners know what they have done,
when they have transgressed the law of the Lord. I say, they little
know what death, what plagues, what curse, yea, what hell they, by
so doing, have prepared for themselves.
"What is this that thou hast done!" God therefore, by these words,
would fasten upon the woman's heart a deep sense of the evil of her
doings. And indeed, for the soul to be brought into a deep sense
of its sin, to cry out before God, Ah! what have I done! it is with
them the first step towards conversion: "Acknowledge thy iniquity
[saith God] that thou hast transgressed against me" (Jer 3:13).
And again, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness"
(1 John 1:9). The want of this is the cause of that obdurate and
lasting hardness that continueth to possess so many thousands
of sinners, they cry not out before God, What have I done? but
foolishly they rush into, and continue in sin, "till their iniquity
be found to be hateful," yea, their persons, because of their sin.
"What is this that thou hast done?" By this interrogatory the Lord
also implieth an admonition to the woman, to plead for herself,
as he also did to her husband. He also makes way for the working
of his bowels towards her, which (as will be shewn anon) he
flatly denies to the serpent, the devil: I say he made way for
the woman to plead for, or bemoan herself; an evident token that
he was unwilling to cast her away for her sin: "I have surely
heard Ephraim bemoaning himself;--I will surely have mercy upon
him, saith the Lord" (Jer 31:18-20). Again, by these words, he
made way for the working or yearning of his own bowels over her;
for when we begin to cry out of our miscarriages, and to bewail
and bemoan our condition because of sin, forthwith the bowels of
God begin to sound, and to move towards his distressed creature,
as by the place before alleged appears. "I have surely heard
Ephraim bemoaning himself;--therefore my bowels are troubled for
him: I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord." See also
the 11th and 14th chapters of Hosea.
"And the woman said, the serpent beguiled me and I did eat." A
poor excuse, but an heart affecting one; for many times want of wit
and cunning to defend ourselves, doth affect and turn the heart
of a stander-by to pity us. And thus, as I think, it was with
the woman; she had to do with one that was too cunning for her,
with one that snapt her by his subtilty or wiles; which also the
woman most simply confesses, even to the provoking of God to take
vengeance for her.
Ver. 14. "And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou
hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every
beast of the field."
The serpent was the author of the evil; therefore the thunder
rolls till it comes over him, the hot burning thunder-bolt falls
upon him.
The Lord, you see, doth not with the serpent as with the man
and his wife; to wit, minister occasion to commune with him, but
directly pronounceth him cursed above all, "above every beast of the
field." This sheweth us, that as concerning the angels that fell,
with them God is at eternal enmity, reserving them in everlasting
chains under darkness. Cursed art thou: By these words, I say,
they are prevented of a plea for ever, and also excluded a share
in the fruits of the Messiah which should afterwards be born into
the world (Heb 2:2).
"Because thou hast done this, cursed art thou." "Because thou hast
done this": Not as though he was blessed before; for had he not
before been wicked, he had not attempted so wicked a design. The
meaning then is, That either by this deed the devil did aggravate
his misery, and make himself the faster to hang in the everlasting
chains under darkness; or else by this he is manifested to us to
be indeed a cursed creature.
Further, "Because thou hast done this," may also signify how great
complacency and content God took in Adam and his wife while they
continued without transgression; But how much against his mind and
workmanship this wicked work was. 1. Against his mind; for sin so
sets itself against the nature of God, that, if possible, it would
annihilate and turn him into nothing, it being in its nature point
blank against him. 2. It is against his workmanship; for had not
the power of the Messias stept in, all had again been brought to
confusion, and worse than nothing: as Christ himself expresses it:
"The earth, and all the inhabitants thereof, are dissolved: I bear
up the pillars of it" (Psa 75:3). And again, "He upholdeth all
things by the word of his power" (Heb 1:3).
Besides, this being done, man, notwithstanding the grace of God,
and the merits of Jesus Christ, doth yet live a miserable life in
this world; for albeit that Christ hath most certainly secured
the elect and chosen of God from perishing by what Satan hath
done; yet the very elect themselves are, by reason of the first
transgression, so infested and annoyed with inward filth, and so
assaulted still by the devil, and his vassals the proper children
of hell, that they groan unutterably under their burthen; yea,
all creatures, "the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain
together until now" (Rom 8:22). And that most principally upon the
very account of this first sin of Adam; it must needs be therefore,
this being so high an affront to the divine majesty, and so
directly destructive to the work of his hands; and the aim of the
devil most principally also at the most excellent of his creation
(for man was created in God's own image) that he should hereat
be so highly offended, had they not sinned at all before, to bind
them over for this very fact to the pains of the eternal judgment
of God.
Ver. 15. "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and
between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou
shalt bruise his heel."
The woman may, in this place, be taken either really or figuratively;
if really and naturally, then the threatening is also true, as
to the very natures of the creatures here under consideration,
to wit, the serpent and the woman, and so all that come of human
race; for we find that so great an antipathy is between all such
deadly beasts, as serpents and human creatures, that they abiding
in their own natures, it is not possible they should ever be
reconciled: "I will put enmity": I will put it. This enmity then
was not infused in creation, but afterwards; and that as a punishment
for the abuse of the subtlety of the serpent; for before the fall,
and before the serpent was assumed by the fallen angels, they were,
being God's creatures, "good," as the rest in their kind; neither
was there any jarring or violence put between them; but after the
serpent was become the devil's vizor, then was an enmity begot
between them.
"I will put enmity between thee and the serpent." If by woman,
we here understand the church, (but then we must understand the
devil, not the natural serpent simply,) then also the threatening
is most true; for between the church of God, and the devil, from
the beginning of the world, hath been maintained most mighty wars
and conflicts, to which there is not a like in all the blood shed
on the earth. Yea, here there cannot be a reconciliation, (the
enmity is still maintained by God): The reason is, because their
natural dispositions and inclinations, together with their ends and
purposes, are most repugnant each to other, even full as much as
good and evil, righteousness and sin, God's glory, and an endeavour
after his utter extirpation.
Indeed, Satan hath tried many ways to be at amity with the church;
not because he loves her holiness, but because he hates her welfare,
(wherefore such amity must only be dissembled,) and that he might
bring about his enterprise, he sometimes hath allured with the
dainty delicates of this world, the lusts of the flesh, of the eyes,
and the pride of life: This being fruitless, he hath attempted to
entangle and bewitch her with his glorious appearance, as an angel
of light; and to that end hath made his ministers as the ministers
of righteousness, preaching up righteousness, and contending for
a divine and holy worship (2 Cor 11:12-15): but this failing also,
he hath taken in hand at length to fright her into friendship
with him, by stirring up the hellish rage of tyrants to threaten
and molest her; by finding out strange inventions to torment and
afflict her children; by making many bloody examples of her own
bowels, before her eyes, if by that means he might at last obtain
his purpose: But behold! all hath been in vain, there can be no
reconciliation. And why, but because God himself maintains the
enmity?
And this is the reason why the endeavours of all the princes and
potentates of the earth, that have through ignorance or malice
managed his design against the church, have fallen to the ground,
and been of none effect.
God hath maintained the enmity: doubtless the mighty wonder, that
their laws cannot be obeyed;[14] I mean their laws and statutes,
which by the suggestion of the prince of this world they have made
against the church: But if they understood but this one sentence,
they might a little perceive the reason. God hath put enmity
between the devil and the woman; between that old serpent called,
The Devil and Satan, and the holy, and beloved, and espoused wife
of Christ.
"I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed
and her seed." The seeds here are the children of both, but that
of the woman, especially Christ (Gal 3:16). "God sent forth his
Son made of a woman" (Gal 4:4). Whether you take it literally or
figuratively; for in a mystery the church is the mother of Jesus
Christ, though naturally, or according to His flesh, He was born of
the virgin Mary, and proceeded from her womb: But take it either
way, the enmity hath been maintained, and most mightily did shew
itself against the whole kingdom of the devil, and death, and
hell; by the undertaking, engaging, and war which the Son of God
did maintain against them, from his conception, to his death and
exaltation to the right hand of the Father, as is prophesied of,
and promised in the text, "It shall bruise thy head."
"It shall bruise thy head." By head, we are to understand the
whole power, subtilty, and destroying nature of the devil; for as
in the head of the serpent lieth his power, subtilty, and poisonous
nature; so in sin, death, hell, and the wisdom of the flesh, lieth
the very strength of the devil himself. Take away sin then, and
death is not hurtful: "The sting of death is sin": And take away
the condemning power of the law, and sin doth cease to be charged,
or to have any more hurt in it, so as to destroy the soul: "The
strength of sin is the law" (1 Cor 15:56). Wherefore, the seed,
Jesus Christ, in his bruising the head of the serpent, must take
away sin, abolish death, and conquer the power of the grave. But
how must this be done? Why, he must remove the curse, which makes
sin intolerable, and death destructive. But how must he take away
the curse? Why, by taking upon Him "flesh," as we (John 1:14); by
being made "under the law," as we (Gal 4:4); by being made "to be
sin for us" (2 Cor 5:21), and by being "made a curse for us" (Gal
3:10-13). He standing therefore in our room, under the law and
the justice of God, did both bear, and overcome the curse, and so
did bruise the power of the devil.
"It shall bruise thy head." To bruise is more than to break;
he shall quash thy head to death; so he also quashed the heel of
Christ; which would, had not his eternal power and Godhead sustained,
have caused that he had perished for ever.
"And thou shalt bruise his heel." By these words, a necessity was
laid upon Jesus Christ to assume our flesh, to engage the devil
therein; and also because of the curse that was due to us for sin,
that he might indeed deliver us therefore; even for awhile to fall
before this curse, and to die that death that the curse inflicteth:
"Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a
curse for us." Thus therefore did Satan, that is, by the fruits
and effects of sin, bruise, or kill, the flesh of Christ: But he
being God, as the Father, it was not possible he should be overcome.
Therefore his head remaineth untouched. A man's life lieth not
in his heel, but in his head and heart; but the Godhead being the
head and heart of the manhood, it was not possible Satan should
meddle with that; he only could bruise his heel; which yet by the
power of the Godhead of this eternal Son of the Father, was raised
up again from the dead: "He was delivered for our offences, and
was raised again for our justification" (Rom 4:25).
In these words therefore the Lord God gave Adam a promise, That
notwithstanding Satan had so far brought his design to pass, as to
cause them by falling from the command, to lay themselves open to
the justice and wrath of God; yet his enterprise by grace, should
be made of none effect. As if the Lord had said, "Adam, thou seest
how the devil hath overcome thee; how he, by thy consenting to his
temptation, hath made thee a subject of death and hell: but though
he hath by this means made thee a spectacle of misery, even an
heir of death and damnation: yet I am God, and thy sins have been
against me. Now because I have grace and mercy, I will therefore
design thy recovery. But how shall I bring it to pass? Why I will
give my Son out of my bosom, who shall in your room, and in your
nature encounter this adversary, and overcome him. But how? Why,
by fulfilling my law, and by answering the penalties thereof.
He shall bring in a righteousness which shall be "everlasting,"
by which I will justify you from sin, and the curse of God due
thereto: But this work will make him smart, he must be made "a man
of sorrows," for upon him will I lay your iniquities (Isa 53:6);
Satan shall bruise his heel."
Ver. 16. "Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy
sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow[15] shalt thou bring forth
children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule
over thee."
"I will greatly multiply thy sorrow," &c. This is true, whether
you respect the woman according to the letter of the text, or as
she was a figure of the church; for in both senses their sorrows
for sin are great, and multiplied upon them: The whole heap of the
female sex know the first,[16] the church only knows the second.
"In sorrow shalt thou bring forth children." The more fruitful,
the more afflicted is the church in this world; because the rage
of hell, and the enmity of the world, are by her righteousness
set on fire so much the more.
But again: Forasmuch as the promise is made before this judgment
of God for sin is threatened, we must count these afflictions not
as coming from the hand of God in a way of vengeance, for want of
satisfaction for the breach of the law; but to shew and keep us in
mind of his holiness, that henceforth we should not, as at first
through ignorance, so now from notions of grace and mercy, presume
to continue in sin.
I might add, That by these words it is manifest, that a promise of
mercy and forgiveness of sin, and great afflictions and rebukes
for the same, may and shall attend the same soul: "I will greatly
multiply thy sorrow," comes after the promise of grace.