And here again we are reminded of the manner in which, as the sins of the world increased, their punishments increased also. The original usage of committing the bodies of the dead to the earth to be dissolved again to dust was certainly a milder and human-like custom; but afterwards it became the practice of almost all nations to burn the bodies of their dead. How often also does it happen that human beings are devoured alive by wild beasts, and have the bellies of those beasts for their tombs? Hence we find enumerated among the four punishments declared by the prophet, "the teeth of wild beasts," Jer. 15:3, and also by Moses himself the poison of serpents and other venomous animals, Deut. 32:24. For so it is ever that the more insensible we are to the divine punishment of our sins, the heavier the punishments God lays upon us, to break us down and to beat in pieces our obduracy; as it is written in the Book of Leviticus, "And if ye will not yet for these things hearken unto me, then I will chastise you seven times more for your sins. And I will break the pride of your power," Levit. 26:18, 19. Thus the fall of Adam was a fall from life into death, and from soundness of body into diseases of every kind. Still the age of Adam was truly a golden age, if compared with ours. But all things degenerated by degrees, and that the great image of Daniel also plainly shows, Dan. 2:31, 35. For the nearer the world approaches its end the worse men become, and this is the reason heavier punishments are inflicted on us than on those who have lived before us. What a pertinacious war against the truth is carried on at this day by the Papists! What cruelty do they exercise against those who confess the truth! I mention not now their well nigh Satanic covetousness, perfidy and acts of violence without end. Can the punishments of such then be very far off? Thus far Moses has been recording the punishments inflicted on Adam and his posterity on account of the sin of the fall. And though these punishments are great, yet they were milder "in the beginning" than they are now. Because those sins which were then of the positive, if I may so speak, are now increased to the superlative degree. But before we proceed with the remaining contents of this chapter, let us pursue a little further our discussion of that passage, on which we have briefly dwelt in its place before, where it is said to the woman, "I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception or thy impregnation," verse 16, above. For the original word there found is HERONECHAD, which interpreters generally explain as descriptive of all those troubles and straits of mind and body which women endure from the time of conception to childbirth.