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preitent; but it 15 promised that at leofj^tb the benediction shall overcome the malediction, M*hen the kingdoms the vrorid become the kingdoms of God and of Christ. The cMfftG passed upon Eve was, thai her desire should 1)4^ uiher hu^haiul, »ndhc ^luuld rule over her: so that into whatever condition man was to be redaced, woman was appointed to (ollov, upon whose nature these words imposed it as a Decessity to subjugate her very atiectioos to man, and to look up to him as a superior power* Then-- fore, in order to cotnprebend the condition into which the first pair were reduced, ne must ex- amine not the curse pronouDced upon Eve, which went no furtlier limn to link hernature to Adam't, but the curae pronounced upon him, to ■whom het nature was indissolubly attached. Now, it is rt- marltablCp that the word^ of this ctine arc dealt chiefly upon the nature of the ground, and act upon thi.- nature of man. " Cursed U the groa for thy yake ; in sorro\r sliaU tbou oat of it all days of thy Ufc. Thorns and thistles shall it forth to thee, and thou shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of the face shall thou cat bread, till thou return unto the ground ; for diul thou art, and unto dust tliou sbalt rotum." The 1 act m V,] THE CCRSE A8 TO, BODTtT LAfiOUR. 1037 Spirit of the curse is ngaiaat the earth, and it beftra upon man through Ihftt medium by first bearing upon ih<? earth. He is " adacriptus gleba?," aa they were wont to say of the villains or serfs of the fendal time, a bondsman to the ground ; and to make that bondage sorrowful, the ground is cursed with barrenness of things wholesome, and fertility ofthing^ noxiou-t, ofthorns and of thistles. Prom the action of this cur^, man hath become sadly ch^mgcd : Ihtr gold is hecomi.- dim, ^ni\ the fine gold is changed, llta underManding darken- ed, his will rebellious ag^nst the will of God, his affections disaffected from heavenly things^ his memory of God defoced, his whole spirit in dotage or in death, and his whole life a scene of prodiga^ lity and waywardness : sin reigneth in his mem- bers, And death by sin, and every evil ami malig- nant paMiion hath a natural prc-omincuce in his breast ; and were it not for the restraints of so- ciety, of law, of morals, nod of religion, would bur^t forth upon his neighbours; and against all these restraints, discovereth itself to an obser- vant conscience in almost every word and every action wherein our own personality is conccnied. This degradation of human nature is so complete, as to have brought