Adam and Eve, Norwich

The oldest public house in Norwich is the Adam and Eve. This is a fine name for any hostel; there, Adam and Eve’s descendants carelessly eat and drink, not even believing in the ancestors who begat them. Eating and drinking has much to do with the lives of our first parents. They were forbidden from eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, though all other fruits were generously made available to them. Having broken this one law, their food would be either grown with great difficulty, or hunted and killed with great pain. Christ, whom Paul regarded as the Last Adam, calls Himself the Bread and Water of life, whom we eat and drink, by faith, not just at the communion service, but in our daily lives.

I am reminded that I once took too many paracetamols in an attempt to assuage some unpleasant pain. I was still at school, but surely old enough to have known better. I drank and drank, diluting the drug’s harmful potential, cleansing my stomach from that which would harm it. Christ within cleanses us from the effects of Adam’s poison. Though it would painfully kill us, so Christ thins its injurious powers and saves us from the spiritual death we so very much deserve. Drink not of old Adam and Eve, but at the new Adam’s living fountain. Although to the unbeliever, His waters appear dull and flavourless, to we who believe, they are turned to sweetest wine.

His eyes are like doves

By the rivers of waters,

Washed with milk,

And fitly set.

His cheeks are like a bed of spices,

Banks of scented herbs.

His lips are lilies,

Dripping liquid myrrh.

 

The wine goes down smoothly for my beloved,

Moving gently the lips of sleepers.

I am my beloved’s,

And his desire is toward me.

 

Solomon 5:12-12, 7:9-10