SERMON XXVIII. PROVIDENCE. THE SENTENCE PRONOUNCED ON MAN. GENESIS iii. 14-19. 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: upon thy belly shalt thou go; and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. 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. Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception: in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it; cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life: Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. IN In my last discourse, I considered at length the temptation of our first parents, and their consequent fall from holiness, and from the favour of God. The next subject, which, in a system of theology, invites our attention, is the sentence which followed their transgression. This sentence is contained in the Text, and naturally divides itself, for our consideration, into three parts: I. The Sentence pronounced on the Tempter: The order, in which this subject is exhibited to us, is the same, which existed in the Temptation itself, and in the transgression also. The Serpent first sinned in tempting the Woman; the Woman sinned next, in yielding to his solicitations, and eating the forbidden fruit; and the Man, last in yielding to the solicitations of the Woman. On the sentence, as here pronounced, it will be proper to remark, generally, that it is not a mere repetition of the words of the Law. Nor is it to be considered, as in fact involving the whole of the sentence, contained in the law. That sentence seems to have been left by God as it was originally denounced; and nothing more to have been now intended as a threatening, except to disclose to our first parents various evils, attendant on the state of guilt and degradation, to which they had reduced themselves, and to remind them of the mortal condition, in which they were now finally fixed. On the Serpent, indeed, a sentence new, and before undisclosed, was declared. The evils, which he was to suffer, in consequence of this sin, were announced: while in the same threatening was included, also, a promise of great and singular benefits to those, whom he had most wickedly seduced. The original threatening of the Law, or Covenant, under which our first parents were placed, involved all the evils, which they and their posterity were ever to suffer. The sentence, now passed on the transgressors, unfolded, particularly, several distresses, which they were hereafter to experience under this original threatening; and, at the same time, furnished them with consolations of high importance. I. The Sentence, passed on the Serpent, claims a two-fold consideration; in its literal meaning, and in its principal meaning. In the literal meaning of this denunciation, the Serpent is cursed beyond all other beasts, is doomed to creep on the ground, and to eat dust all the days of his life. Perpetual war, it is de clared, shall exist between his seed and that of the Woman; in which he shall bruise the heel of his adversary; while his adversary shall bruise his head. This, which I have chosen to call the literal meaning of the sentence, is, I acknowledge, rather an application of it to the literal serpent. The language, in which it is explained, is, I think, plainly figurative; and involves, generally, a state of peculiar degradation and suffering. It has been supposed, and I apprehend justly, that the original condition of the Serpent, as an animal, was superior and distinguished. Ancient opinions considered the serpent as winged, beautiful and privileged, above other animals. If these opinions be allowed to be just; it will be easily seen, that the degradation was remarkable, and altogether calculated to convince our first parents of the miserable tendency and influence of transgression. In every view, the condition specified, is a condition deeply degraded, and suited, obviously, to show the proper effect of sin on all the instruments, by which it was accomplished. Whatever the serpent lost, as well as whatever he suffered, was an infliction, properly evincing the hatred of God to every thing, concerned in the seduction of mankind; and to show to their progenitors, in immediate consequence, both the evil of which they had been guilty, and the certainty of their future punishment. The enmity, which was announced, and which has existed between the seed of the woman generally, that is, mankind, and the seed of the Serpent, has been a source of innumerable evils to the Serpent. Animals of this kind have ever been peculiarly hated and hunted, peculiarly attacked and destroyed, from the beginning. Even the harmless ones do not escape. A war of extermination has plainly been declared against them, and carried on through all generations with unrelaxing and unceasing aniosity. In consequence of this hostility, millions of them have probably perished, which otherwise might have continued through the date, allotted by Providence to their being. In the mean time, not a small number of the human race have fallen victims to the enmity of these venomous beings; and have usually been wounded in the very part of the Body, mentioned in this prediction. The principal meaning of this sentence, or its application to the allegorical Serpent, the real Tempter, is, however, of infinitely more importance, and has a totally superior claim to our attention. The Tempter and the Woman were, in the transgression, united together as rebels against their Creator. In the eye of the Tempter, this union was begun, only to be strengthened, and perpetuated. He had once sinned and was finally rejected by God. He, therefore, naturally, and in a sense necessarily, concluded, that rebellious men would be rejected also. No event had hitherto happened in the Universe, which, to the view of a created being, rendered it possible for a rebel against his Maker to be restored. Satan, therefore, of necessity concluded, that sinning man would never be restored; and that God, who had created man holy, and destined him to endless enjoyment, would be wholly disappointed of his own favourite designs. At the same time, he confidently saw the whole race added to his own kingdom, and the regions of sin and misery enlarged, and peopled, by the inhabitants of another ruined world. But he now, for the first time, was solemnly informed, that a part, at least, of his expectations would perish. Man, he was here told, would, on the one hand, be still his enemy, throughout succeeding ages; and himself, on the other, be made to suffer new and unknown, yet very alarming, evils, from a descendant, or descendants, of this very woman, whom he had beguiled into sin. His head, the chief, the vital, the percipient, part of himself was to be bruised, or crushed, by some one, or other, of the progeny of those, whom he had ensnared. That he understood the real and full import of this threatening, cannot be supposed; but it is obvious, that he could not but perceive some very great and alarming punishment to be in store for his new and flagrant guilt. Thus all his hopes, like those of every hypocrite, were blasted in a moment; and were changed into that painful suspense, and constant alarm, which are always more dreadful than any misery, except final and eternal woe. From the actual fulfilment of this prediction, and the comments of the Scriptural writers on the threatening contained in it, we are able to determine its full import with precision and certainty. The seed of the Woman, we, know, was the Lord Jesus Christ; the Son of God, and the Redeemer of mankind. We are expressly taught, that he, although by the instigation of the original Tempter nailed to the Cross and bruised thus in his heel, his inferior part, his flesh, yet triumphed, and made an open shew of principalities and powers in his Crucifixion, and thoroughly led captivity captive, after he had effectually spoiled them of all their glory. In this great event, he not only vanquished Death, but destroyed also him that had the power of Death; that is, the Devil. In this great event, he disappointed, and ruined, all the hopes and designs of this proud and malicious spirit. His future lot he rendered far more shameful and wretched than before; lowered his pride for ever in the dust; turned his malevolence backward on himself; mortified his envy anew, and inexpressibly; and made the race, whom he had seduced, the instruments of completing his degradation, and ruin. From Man, that is, from penitent, returning, and reformed man, this divine person took away the sting of the threatened Death; and chiefly, the Death itself, which was threatened. The grave he opened anew, and forced it to surrender its captives to himself. For all those of this numerous race, who are willing to confide in him as their Redeemer, he opened the gates of immortality; of a new and far more glorious immortality than that which they had lost. He purchased for them the sanctification of the Soul, the forgiveness of their sins, and an inheritance undefiled and eternal among the very Angels, to whose rank and character Eve, by eating the forbidden fruit, expected to arise. They indeed, in a manner, however, far different from that which was in the Tempter's thoughts, will become as Gods, or Angels; as the same Saviour has informed us; and will, together with them, receive felicity in a Body, fashioned like unto his glorious Body, and inconceivably superior to the refined dust which composed the forms of our first parents. In a state, perfectly sanctified and cleansed, they will enjoy a happiness, ennobled and expanded beyond all that heaven itself imagined, before the Mediation of the Son of God; a happiness, suited to reward his infinitely meritorious obedience in the work of Redemption. Thus the sum of happiness to the universe, will be undoubtedly increased, and to Vol. I. 60 |