led every living creature, that was the name thereof.

20 And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.

The creatures were thus brought to Adam, that he might give them names suitable to their natures; and it is found that in the Hebrew language, (which probably was the language Adam spoke,) the names are such as do manifest that he that gave them was well acquainted with the properties and qualities of the several creatures.

21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept : and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof.

This was an extraordinary sleep, sent by God. Ordinary sleep is likewise his gift, and he is to be acknowledged in it; for as he gave Adam, so he giveth his beloved, sleep. Ps. cxxvii. 2.

Adam, though he was sensible of the want of a help meet for him, yet he was not perplexing him

self with care what he should do for a wife; but lies him down and sleeps securely, casting all his care upon God,—who cared for him, and provided a wife for him while he was sleeping, which he could not do for himself while he was waking.

Adam lost a rib, but he got a better thing instead of it, even a help meet for him. Thus God uses to deal with his children: they lose sometimes some of their creature-comforts; but then perhaps they get more of the Creator's comforts, and that's a blessed exchange. This bone was taken out of Adam's side, fitly noting the woman's place: not out of his head, to be above him; nor out of his feet, to be trampled on by him; nor from before him, as his better; nor from behind him, as his servant;-but out of his side, to be equal with him; near his heart, for he owes her love; under his arm, for he owes her protection. Surely they forget from whence the woman was taken, that carry themselves haughtily and abusively towards their wives.

Out of the side of Christ, the second Adam, was his spouse the church formed, when he slept the sleep of death upon the cross, and out of his pierced side came forth blood and water.

22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he

a woman, and brought her unto the

man.

23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.

Having made the woman, God did not leave her to her own disposal. He presented her to Adam, to be the companion of his life, and a second self to him. That wife that is of God's making by special grace, and of God's bringing by special providence, is of all others most likely to prove a help meet for a man. Not Eve only, but every good wife, is from the Lord; and 'tis an affair in which, no doubt, the Lord is to be sought unto. Prov. xviii. 22. xix. 14.

24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh.

'Tis no small honour which is stampt upon the marriage state, that it was instituted and ordained in innocency. It did not come in with sin; but, upon the account of antiquity, claims precedence before other institution. How ill they do that speak

any

contemptuously and reproachfully of that honourable estate, forbidding to marry. 1 Tim. iv. 3.

Therefore shall a man. 'Tis doubted who spoke this, whether God himself to Adam, or Moses the historian, or whether Adam himself. In Matt. xix. 5, these words are said to be spoken by God; which may mean, that Adam spoke them by the special instinct of the Holy Spirit. From God's making one man only and one woman, the LORD himself draws an argument against polygamy,—that is, the having of many wives. Mal. ii. 15. God could have taken many ribs, and made each of them a wife for Adam, if he had so pleased. No: he made but one Eve for one Adam; for though the multiplying of wives was afterwards practised even by God's own people, yet from the beginning it was not so.

25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

Here's an evidence of the purity, simplicity, and integrity, of that innocent estate wherein they were, in two things: 1. They were both naked. They came into the world, as all their children do, naked; had nothing on them for offence or defence. Clothes came in with sin; what little reason then have we to be proud of them! 2. They were not ashamed..

Nakedness was not then, as it is now, a shame. Sin and shame came into the world together.

This was Adam's condition in Paradise: and truly I cannot think of it without such reflections as a young man whose father had by treason forfeited a a fair estate, would be filled with upon the sight of it. Oh! how happy might I have been now, had it not been for my father's folly! So how blessed a condition had the children of men been in, if our father Adam could have known when he was well; but he, like a fool, lost all at one unhappy throw. God made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions. Eccles. vii. 29.