1 Timothy 2:15

Our apostle having, in the preceding verse, acquainted us with the woman's sin, that she was in the transgression, and first in the transgression; in this verse he informs the woman of. part of her punishment for that her transgression; and that is, the severe pain and extreme peril of child-bearing.

He acquaints her, 2. With her comfort and support under that punishment; and that is,. hope of salvation: She shall be saved in child-bearing.

3. With the condition upon which that hope of salvation is grounded and bottomed: If she continue in faith and charity, and holiness with sobriety.

Learn, 1. That pain in child-bearing is. part of that punishment which was inflicted by God upon the woman for her first sin; and accordingly the woman's sorrow and sensible feeling of the pains of child-birth ought to bring to her remembrance her original and first transgression. Surely when the woman feels the original punishment, it ought to remind her of her original sin, as. child ought to remember his fault at that very instant when he is under his father's rod.

Learn, 2. That the infliction of this punishment, (the pains of child-bearing,) even unto death, is and shall be no hinderance of the woman's eternal salvation, if there be found with her those holy qualifications and gracious conditions which the gospel requires; partly in regard to the relation which God stands in to her, partly in regard of the covenant which God has made with her.. child is as much. child under the rod as in the bosom; neither the father's stroke nor the child's grief can dissolve that relation.

Learn, 3. That faith and charity, holiness and sobriety, with. perseverance therein, are the great conditions of the gospel, upon which the woman's eternal salvation in that hazardous condition doth depend. She shall be saved in child-bearing, if she continue in faith and charity, and holiness with sobriety.

The words may also refer to the woman's temporal deliverance in the time of travail; and the sense runs thus: "She shall be saved in child-bearing, that is, she shall go through the pains of child-birth with safety, if she continue in faith, putting her trust in God for deliverance, in charity exercising compassion to those in the like condition; and in the exercise of temperance, sobriety, and chastity, according to her matrimonial vow."