Genesis 3

My life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing. It was a curse (Genesis 3:16): in sorrow you shall bring forth. Many things occasion sorrow; sickness, law-suits, treachery of friends, disappointment of hopes, loss of estate (Ruth 1:20).

Quest. 11. What was the sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they were created? Resp. The sin was their eating of the forbidden fruit (Genesis 3:6). — She took of the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave also to her husband. Here is implied, 1. That our firs…

Question. Why Christ was born of a woman? Response. 1. That God might fulfill that promise (Genesis 3:15). The seed of the woman shall break the Serpent's head. 2. Christ was born of a woman, that he might roll away that reproach from the woman which she had contracted, by being…

My son, give, I pray you, glory to God, and make confession to him. A humble confession exalts God; how is God's free grace magnified in crowning those who deserve to be condemned; as the excusing and mincing of sin does cast a reproach upon God, Adam denies not he did taste the…

Sin has brought vanity and vexation into the world, indeed, a curse. God cursed the ground for man's sake (Genesis 3). There were several fruits of the curse:

The liar is near a kin to the devil; and the devil will shortly claim kindred with him (John 8:44): "The devil is a liar and the father of it." He seduced our first parents by a lie (Genesis 3:4). How does this sin incense God? — he struck Ananias dead for telling a lie (Acts 5:…

There is no danger in tasting this tree of knowledge. There was a penalty laid at first, that we might not taste of the tree of knowledge (Genesis 3:17): In the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die. But there is no danger of plucking this tree of holy Scripture; if we d…

2. Wherein we should be like the serpent, and that is in prudence and wisdom: Be wise as serpents. The serpent is a most prudent creature, therefore the Devil made use of the serpent to deceive our first parents, because it was such a subtle creature (Genesis 3:1): The serpent w…

3. In the kingdom of heaven we shall be freed from the toilsome labors of this life. God enacted a law in Paradise, In the sweat of your brows you shall eat bread (Genesis 3:9). There is the labor of the hand in manufacture, and the labor of the mind in study (Ecclesiastes 1:8).…

And shall not man much more inure himself to labor? That law in paradise was never yet repealed: In the sweat of your brows shall you eat bread (Genesis 3:19). Such professors are to be disliked, who talk of living by faith, but live out of a calling.

A wanton amorous eye may usher in sin. Eve first saw the tree of knowledge, and then she took (Genesis 3:6). First she looked, and then she loved; [illegible].

Better want the Devil's honey, than be so stung with the wrath of God. The garden of Eden, (which signifies pleasure) had a flaming sword placed at the east end of it (Genesis 3:24). The garden of carnal and sinful delight is surrounded with the flaming sword of God's wrath.

I made a covenant with my eyes. Much sin comes in by the eye: when Eve saw the tree was good for food, and pleasant to the eyes, then she took (Genesis 3:6). First she looked and then she lusted; the eye by beholding an impure object sets the heart on fire; the Devil often creep…

(2.) To quarrel with God's providence, and be unsubmissive to his will is sinful in the spring and cause; it arises from pride. It was Satan's temptation, 'You shall be as Gods' (Genesis 3:5). A proud person makes a God of himself, he disdains to have his will crossed; he thinks…

For they had no Scripture, it was penned many years after: namely, by Moses first of all. I answer; When their Parents Adam and Eve had fallen, God gave them (of his infinite goodness) a covenant of grace, that the seed of the woman should break the serpent's head: Genesis 3:15.…

Which is nothing else but a compact made between God and man touching reconciliation and life everlasting by Christ. This covenant was first of all revealed and delivered to our first parents in the garden of Eden, immediately after their fall by God himself, in these words, The…

Use 2: It gives a great commendation to the grace of God in Christ Jesus; it makes grace wonderfully glorious, that takes the sinner at this nick, and in this pinch. We shall not dispute here; nor is it needful, nor edifying, whether God might have forgiven sin freely, without a…

5. The temptation works under the color of good. The first Printing iron and Master sampler of tempting, has this character of apparent good (Genesis 3:6). The Woman saw that the fruit was good.

Some who have hardened their heart, are called men, but something more, reprobate (Jeremiah 6:28, 30). Seed of the Serpent (Genesis 3:15). Children of Belial (Deuteronomy 1:3).

And verse 18, judgment is said to come by that one man's offense upon all men to condemnation. Now in Genesis 2:17 the threatening was spoken only to Adam as but one man: 'In the day that you eat of it you shall surely die'; and Genesis 3:19 that sentence seems only to pass upon…

1. The persons combating, Jesus and the Devil, the Seed of the Woman, and the Seed of the Serpent. It was designed long before (Genesis 3:15). I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed: it shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his hee…

Thus he dealt with our first parents, he seeks to weaken the reputation of God's love and kindness to man, and to breed in the woman's mind a good opinion of himself. That his suggestions might make the greater impression upon her, he manages all his discourse with her, that all…

There is nothing so soon led away as the eye, it is the broker between the heart and the object; the eye gazes and the heart lusts; this is the window by which Satan has crept in, and all manner of taint has been conveyed into the soul. In the first sin, Eve was corrupted this w…

In other cases there need strong arguments and considerations, that the temptation may not stick, when the tempter is gone; as the smutch remains of a candle stuck against a stone wall. When Eve speaks faintly and coldly, the devil renews the assault with the more violence (Gene…

Where? First in the promises themselves as touching Christ, as Genesis 3:15: The seed of the woman shall break the head of the serpent. And Genesis 22: In your seed, etc.

Of this blessing (as I have said) do the Prophets preach in every place, who did not so coldly consider those promises made to the fathers as the wicked Jews did, and as the popish Schoolmen and Sectaries do at this day, but did read them and weigh them with great diligence, and…

Outward nakednes is, when the bodie being vncouered, is full of deformitie and shame. Now that inward nakednes of heart is noted as a speciall euill, Gen 3:7. Exod 32:25.

From all that come of Adam and Eve, for they are both of man and woman; whereas Christ is of woman, and not of man. Again, Paul adds these words, [made of a woman] to note the accomplishment of the promise, the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head (Genesis 3:15). Th…

It is the worke of the deuill, to puffe vp the mind with selfe-liking, and conceit, that thereby he may worke mans perdition. Gen 3:5. But God works contrarily: for he therefore abass men, that he might in his good time, the more exalt them. 3.

The reason hereof is two-fold. The malice of the Deuil who is alway nibbling at the heele, Gen 3:15. And the hatred of the malignant Church (the deuils seede) euer maligning the Church and people of God.

And what did Satan else when he deceived the first man? 'You,' said he, 'shall be as gods' (Genesis 3:5). Therefore all such as dare attribute more to themselves than God permits, do lift up themselves no otherwise than if they meant to proclaim open war against him; for where p…

For Isaiah has an eye to the time when the Moabites were spoiled of all principality and power. And it seems this reproach is like to that which the Lord used to Adam, saying; Behold Adam is become as one of us (Genesis 3:22). For he is there scorned by a biting kind of speech,…

Others translate Forswearing: but because this word also signifies to curse, I doubt not but it is taken here for cursing, the Prophet having an eye to those curses which Moses denounces in the Law against the wicked that transgress it: Isaiah testifies then that all the calamit…

Some expound that which follows, that the women shall not bring forth in fear, and that they were not to fear bearing of children, in regard they should feel no pains therein. We know this punishment was inflicted upon the woman, because of her sin, namely, that she should bring…

For, even among the heathen Infidels, we may find some wives in each respect very dutiful, serviceable and gentle to their husbands: but that obedience of theirs, reached no farther than to content, serve, and please their husbands. For, so did God ordain and appoint (Genesis 3)…

He ashes himself with the Remembrance of his Original. And this as it were God reproaches Adam withal upon his Sin and Transgression; Gen. 3. 19. You shalt return to the Ground, for out of it wast you taken.

As, (1.) Sorrow and Shame, for and of what they have done. Shame was the first thing wherein Conviction of Sin discovered it self, Gen. 3. 7. And Sorrow alwayes accompanies it, Acts 2. 36.

This naturally produces Fear which is the first Expression of a sence of Guilt. So Adam expressed it upon his sin: I heard your Voyce and was afraid, Gen. 3. 10. (2) The Law may be considered as it expresses the Holiness of God and his Truth which it was necessary from the Natur…

In our likeness unto God consists the excellency and preeminence of our nature above all other creatures in the world, and of our persons above those of other men who are not partakers of his image — this is the first motive to diligence in holiness; perfecting holiness in the f…

Now the Providence of God with respect to our civil Callings, may be displayed very takingly in the following particulars. In directing you to a Calling in your Youth, and not suffering you to live an idle, useless and sinful life, as many do, who are but burthens to the Earth,…

Not that he needed information, but that he might receive a confession from the mouth of Satan. So he questioned Adam (Genesis 3): Adam, where are you? Who told you that you were naked?

He who first sinned, and had first occasion to have serious thoughts about Gods marking sin, gives us a notable instance of what we have assirmed. And the first in every kind, is the measure of all that follows in the same kind, Genesis 3:8. He heard the voyce of God: so he had…

We have an instance and example of it, beyond all exception in Adam. When he knew himself to be a sinner, and it was impossible for him, as we shall shew afterwards, to make a discovery of any such thing as forgiveness with God, he laid aside all thoughts of treating with him; t…

I. Diligent labour in a mans vocation, wherby he prouides things needfull for himselfe, and those that depend vpō him; for else he should be contrarie to himselfe, inioyning man to eat his bread in the sweat of his face, Gen. 3. 19. and commanding that he that will not labour s…

Answ. Whether thornes or thistles were created of God I will not now dispute: it is not certen that they were: but now it is playne there remaines this difference among plants; some are good: some are bad: the goodnesse that is in some comes from Gods blessing: but the badnesse…

The last part of the verse, in these words, and his desire is towards me, shows not only that the interest was mutual, and that he loved her, as she did him; but that he loved her affectionately, so that in a manner he could not be without her, His desire was to her. 2. That he…

And therefore it is but fit and just that she who made all mankind disobedient against God, should herself be made subject and obedient to man. And this sentence we find inflicted upon her as a punishment for her transgression (Genesis 3:16): Your desire shall be to your husband…

Guilt breeds fear; and that which strengthens fear, weakens violence. Adam having sinned was afraid, and hid himself (Genesis 3:10). When Adam had lost his innocence, he lost his violence.

"He must reign till he has put all enemies under his feet." Things were originally so planned and designed, that he might disappoint and confound, and triumph over Satan, and that he might be bruised under Christ's feet, Genesis 3:15. The promise was given, that the seed of the…

But the light began to dawn immediately after the fall. 2. Presently upon this the gospel was first revealed on the earth, in these words, Genesis 3:15. "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…