Wesley Corpus

And so Adam is a spring of death, not only as he conveys an unholy nature to his seed, to all men, but as he brings condemnation to eternal death upon them, by his personal disobedience. And this is the chief thing which the Apostle seems to have in his eye, throughout the latter part of this chapter; the conveyance of condemnation and death to the seed of Adam, of justification and eternal life to the seed of Christ, by the means of what their respective heads or representatives had done. “But some object: ‘All the blessings which God gave at first to Adam consisted in these three particulars: (1.) The blessing of propagation: (2.) Dominion over the brutes: (3.) The image of God. But all these three are more expressly and emphatically pronounced to Norh and his sons, than to Adam in Paradise.’” (Page 183.) “I answer, If we review the history and context, we shall find, the blessing of Adam, and that of Noah, very widely differ from each other, in all the three particulars mentioned.” (Page 186.) “l. The blessing of Adam relating to propagation was with out those multiplied pains and sorrows which, after the first sin, fell upon women in bearing children. It was also a blessing of sustentation or nourishment, without hard toil and the sweat of his brow. It was a blessing without a curse on the ground, to lessen or destroy the fruitfulness thereof. It was a blessing without death, without returning to dust; whereas the blessing of Noah did not exclude death, no, nor the pains of child-birth nor the earning our bread by the sweat of our brow. “2. To Adam was given ‘dominion over the brutes. To Noah it was only said, ‘The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast. But notwithstanding this fear and dread, yet they frequently sting men to death, or bite and tear them in pieces. Whereas no such calamity could ever have befallen innocent Adam, or his innocent offspring.” (Page 187.) “The ‘image of God,” in which Adam was created, consisted eminently in righteousness and true holiness.