Wesley Corpus

iii. 14, 15. And those words in the fifteenth verse: ‘I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: He' (so the He brew) “shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel,’ imply, that God would appointhis only-begotten Sonto maintain a kingdom in the world opposite to the kingdom of Satan, till he should be born of a woman, and by his doctrine, example, obedience, and death, give the last stroke, by way of moral means, to the power and works of the devil.” (Page 16.) I do not understand that expression, “By way of moral means.” What I understand from the whole tenor of Scrip ture is, that the eternal, almighty Son of God, “who is over all, God blessed for ever,” having reconciled us to God by his blood, creates us anew by his Spirit, and reigns till he hath destroyed all the works of the devil. “Sentence is passed upon the woman, (verse 16,) that she should bring forth children with more pain and hazard than otherwise she would have done.” (Page 17.) How? With “more pain and hazard” than otherwise she would have done! Would she otherwise have had any pain at all? or have brought forth children with any hazard? Hazard of what? Certainly, not of death. I cannot comprehend this. “Lastly, the sentence upon the man (verses 17-19) first affects the earth, and then denounces death upon himself. “After sentence pronounced, God, having clothed Adam and Eve, drove them out of paradise.” (Page 18.) Here, “observe, (1.) A curse is pronounced on the serpent and on the ground; but no curseupon the woman and the man.” (Page 19.) But a curse fell upon them in that very moment wherein they transgressed the law of God. For, “cursed is everyone that continuethnotin all things which are” contained “in the law to do them.” Vainly, therefore, do you subjoin, “Though they are subjected to sorrow, labour, and death, these are not inflicted under the notion of a curse.” “Surely they are; as the several branches of that curse which he had already incurred; and which had already notonly “darkened and weak ened his rational powers,” but disordered his whole soul. “Observe, (2.) Here is not one word of any other death, but the dissolution of the body.” Nor was it needful.