2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 But of the fruit of the tree

c ch. 2. 17

quoting Num. 21. 6, he adds, "The Scripture calls serpents seraphim because they were :

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of the tempter evidently was, by artful insinuations, to weaken the authority of God's word. 'What, is it credible, is it possible, that a Being so good, so bountiful, so mindful of the happiness of his creatures, should have laid such an arbitrary command upon you?—that he of any part of the ample provision he should have grudged you the enjoyment has made for your use and comfort ?-Surely you must have mistaken his meaning?' Thus corrupt nature alden indulgence. It secretly impeaches ways reasons when it craves a forbidthe reasonableness of the divine precepts, and finally comes to deny both their truth and their existence.

the offspring of the old serpent. Understand this as a matter of great concernment.' Which can have no meaning, I think, but this; that the devil, whom St. John calls Rev. 12. 9, 'the old serpent,' in this serpent here spoken of counterfeited a glorious seraphim, and thereby seduced Eve to give credit to him.' Patrick. If this then were the primitive form and aspect of the serpent, he may have possessed a proportionate degree of intelligence, and sagacity, and a part of his sentence may have consisted in his being degraded in the scale of creation, not only trees of the garden. The first assault 2. We may eat of the fruit of the in outward form, but in the inward of the insidious tempter is well susproperties here spoken of. But of this tained by the woman, though she would sentence we shall have more to say in a probably have acted a still wiser part subsequent note.— - Said unto the by flying at once and holding no parwoman. Knowing doubtless that she was the weaker of the two, and less assailed her instinctive sense of right. ley whatever with one who had thus capable of sustaining an assault; and It will be observed that his question, taking advantage, moreover, of an op- from its ambiguous phraseology, was portunity when she was alone, bereft very artfully framed. Without nouof the counsel and succour of her hus-cing the free grant of all the trees but band, and consequently still less pre-one, he slyly insinuates that they had pared to withstand the temptation.been forbidden the use of every tree

Yea hath God said? Heb. without exception. 'But no,' says the - is it surely so that God woman, 'you misinterpret the tenor of hath said? As the particle 'yea' in En- the command. It is not a prohibition glish is generally used as an addition to of every tree. On the contrary the Cresomething going before, so the corres-ator has kindly allowed us the use of ponding Hebrew phrase is one that seldom occurs at the beginning of a sentence. The probability therefore is that this was not the commencement of his discourse, but that something which the historian does not relate had been previously said.- -T Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden. The drift

all the trees, with one single exception. We may not eat of the tree in the midst of the garden.

3. God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it. The phrase, 'neither shall ye touch it,' does not occur in the terms of the original prohibition, and some have supposed that the

4 d And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

5 For God doth know, that in d ver. 13. 2 Cor. 11. 3. 1 Tim. 2. 14.

the day ye eat thereof, then * your eyes shall be opened; and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

e ver. 7. Acts 26. 18.

into a gentle caution against a possible or probable misfortune, 'Touch not for

scarcely be sustained upon philological grounds. The Heb. pen frequently occurs in connections where it implies no doubt, as Ps. 2. 12, Kiss the son, lest (1) he be angry, and ye perish from the way,' &c. Where there are so many real grounds for condemning Eve's conduct, it is our duty to be cautious in giving those which are merely problematical.

poison had even now begun to work in the mind of Eve, and that this was added as a tacit insinuation of the harsh-fear ye die.' But this construction can ness of the command. But as in our view her innocence was yet incorrupt, we cannot well imagine that she should knowingly have added to God's word, and therefore we deem it more likely that she sincerely understood the prohibition of touching to be involved in that of eating, as the former would naturally be the occasion of the latter, and so was carefully to be avoided. And this exposition of the woman while up- 4. Ye shall not surely die. Heb. 'ye right affords a good rule to us. If we shall not dying die.' Gr. ' ye shall not would shun evil, we must shun the ap- die the death.' Improving the advanpearance of it, the occasions of it, every tage he had already gained in securing avenue that leads to it. To parley with Eve's ear to his suggestions, he pro temptation is to play with our ruin. In ceeds to question in direct terms the all this Eve sinned not nor charged grounds of her fears as to the penalty God foolishly; and by thus reciting the threatened. 'It is not so certain as command in all its entireness, she not you imagine that such a direful conseonly vindicated it from the falsification quence will follow. True, indeed, God and distortion of Satan, who would has said it, but you cannot suppose he have represented it as capricious and was really in earnest. He made use of tyrannical, but showed that she regar- this language merely as an expedient ded it as altogether kind and equitable, to keep you in awe, or he had some and such as ought to be implicitly obey-mystical meaning in the words different ed; first, because God had liberally from that conveyed by the simple letgiven them the freedom of all the trees ters. Do not then give way to such of the garden with one exception; and unworthy thoughts of an infinitely kind secondly, because he had enforced the and gracious Being. Do not suppose command by the terrible threatening of that for so trivial an offence as eating death in case of disobedience. Lest a little fruit he will doom you to perdition, and thus suddenly destroy the most excellent work of his hands.' Thus the enemy proceeded to impugn the divine veracity, charging God with nothing short of a lie. And such is usually the method adopted by his artful emissaries. They begin by suggesting doubts, often in the form of specious interrogatories, and end in positive assertions, denying, ridiculing, or openly

ye die. Heb. 1 1. These words, it has been supposed, indicate a secret working of the power of temptation; inasmuch as they show a disposition on Eve's part to soften the terms in which the prohibition had been given. While God had said, 'Thou shalt surely die,' she in repeating it said, 'lest ye die;' thus converting a most positive threatening of instant and certain death

6 And when the woman saw | make one wise; she took of the that the tree was good for food, fruit thereof, and did eat; and and that it was pleasant to the gave also unto her husband with eyes, and a tree to be desired to her, and he did eat.

f

f 1 Tim. 2. 14. g ver. 12. 17.

brought to the condition of the angels that fell, as angels are sometimes styled Elohim, Ps. 8. 6. By 'knowing good and evil' she doubtless understood a kind of divine omniscience, whereas his meaning was that they should have a woful experience of the difference between good and evil, or between happiness and misery, such as he himself had. The same equivocal character distinguished the responses of the an

special engines of Satan; and wicked deceivers in all ages have employed the same diabolical subtlety in the use of double senses to compass their ends, concealing the essence of a lie under the semblance of the truth.

blaspheming the divine declarations. In allusion to the policy of Satan on this occasion, our Saviour says, John, 8. 44, | 'When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar, and the father of it. Accordingly here, as far as we know, is his first-begotten lie. 5. Your eyes shall be opened. Finding that Eve did not revolt at his impious assertions, he rises in his effrontery and assumes a tone of direct and open blasphemy. Knowing that to an in-cient oracles, which were probably the telligent and holy being nothing was so desirable as knowledge, he boldly affirms that there was in the fruit of the tree a virtue capable of wonderfully enlarging her views, so that she and her husband should become as gods,' and possess a self-sufficiency and independence suited to that high character. Not only so, he appeals to God himself, as knowing that this would be the case, and blasphemously insinuates that in withholding the fruit from them he had been actuated by nothing but envy, and a mean jealousy, lest they should become as wise and happy as himself. In all this there was at the same time an artful ambiguity of phrase wonderfully calculated to impose upon unsuspecting innocence. His language T To make one wise. That is, it is so constructed that while he meant the word of the serpent were to be beone thing, she would naturally under-lieved. This was all the evidence she stand another. By 'opening the eyes,' she understood a farther and higher degree of wisdom, as the phrase imports, Acts, 26. 18. Eph. 1. 18, but he meant it of their perceiving their own misery and feeling remorse of conscience. By 'being as gods' (Elohim), she probably understood the being elevated almost to an equality with the Deity himself in point of knowledge and dignity; but he probably meant it of their being

6. When the woman saw. That is, by a close and prying observation, by gazing upon it with a longing eye, by imagining to herself the gratification it would afford. Thus Achan saw and coveted and took. Josh. 7. 21.—¶ Pleasant to the eye. Heb. 'a desire, a lust,' i. e. something exceedingly to be longed for. The lust had now conceived which, as the apostle say, 'bringeth forth sin, and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death.' James, 1. 15.

had that the tree was possessed of this property. As to its other inviting qualities, she could be satisfied of them, in a measure, by the testimony of her senses, but as to its ability to make one wise, this she was necessarily obliged to take upon trust.- - She took of the fruit thereof, and did cat; and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. Yielding to the soph istry of the serpent, and overpowered

Sufficient to have stood, but free to fall.

which some induced to obedience and some to disobedience, but with perfect liberty of choice, an easy duty was enjoined, and the penalty of transgression laid before him.

by the alluring aspect of the fruit, and tempted, thus overcome, and thus inthe hope of attaining superior knowl-volved in sin, misery, and death, when edge, the too frail mother of the human he could easily have prevented it? But race put forth her hand in evil hour to the true question is, whether he could the interdicted tree, and thus wrought have prevented it without doing vioher ruin! Not only so, she gave also lence to the nature of man as a free unto her husband with her,' i. e. that agent, and consistently with the great he might eat with her; that he might ends which he had proposed to himself participate with her in the act and its in his creation. By his very constituconsequences; and Adam with fatal tion he was endowed with free will, facility complied; thus consuminating and therefore liable to temptation and the sin which 'brought death into the transgression; and infinite wisdom world and all our woes.' In regard to foresaw that it would be productive of both it was their own free and uncon- more ultimate good that man should strained act; for however Satan may be made a free moral being, though he incite, he cannot compel. They could might abuse his freedom, than that he lay the blame of their disobedience should be made otherwise. He thereupon no one but themselves, and look-fore created him, as Milton happily exing to themselves, they could find no presses it :apology for their crime. By one rash act committed against an express command, and under circumstances of the And having placed him in a state of highest enormity, they lifted the flood-probation, surrounded by motives of gate which has poured in a deluge of miseries upon the world. Besides the loss to themselves of the image and favour of God, remorse of conscience, expulsion from Eden, the curse of toil, sorrow, and sickness, and the sentence power and abilities to enable him to of death to body and soul; all the sins, stand the test. He was under no comsufferings, crimes, and woes which have pulsion to disobey. His Maker had set afflicted the earth in its countless mil-life and death before him, and left it to lions of inhabitants from that day to his own unforced volition which to this, are to be traced to that transgres- choose. Had omnipotence interposed sion as their fountain-head. The lim- in these circumstances and exercised a ited grasp of the mind of man is not supernatural influence upon his freedom adequate to take in the length and of will to prevent his sin, he had therebreadth and fearful extent of the evil by destroyed the foundation of all the which has thus been entailed upon the merit of obedience, and put it out of his human family-an evil running paral-power to make any trial of him at all. lel with the present life and reaching It would have been to govern him not forward into an unmeasured eternity! -An event so awfully disastrous in its immediate and its remoter consequences, especially when viewed in connection with the divine attributes, naturally gives rise to many anxious inquiries which we may find it difficult to answer. We are prone to ask why, in the full foresight of such a result, God should have permitted man to be thus

He had abundant

as a free, but as a necessary agent, and any reward for his conduct would in that case have been as absurd as to reward the sun for shining, or the rivers for running into the ocean. Man there fore fell not by any inevitable necessi ty, but by the abuse of his free agency, and to say that God did not interpose to prevent it, is merely to say that he did not see fit to do violence to the moral

7 And the eyes or them both that they were naked: and they were opened, and they knew sewed fig-leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

h ver. 5. i ch. 2. 25.

nature of the being he formed, but left it cy to suppose, that the loss of the hapto be influenced according to the laws piness of the one will be followed by to which he had made it subject. And the acquisition of still greater felicity in this he did because he saw, that in its the other. Had not man fallen, none bearings on the vast scheme of his gov- of that joy would have been experiernment, this course would tend finally enced which now springs up in heavto produce a far greater degree of glory enly minds over the repentance and to himself and of happiness to his crea- salvation of sinners, which will increase tures than any other. And even with and deepen for ever. By the redempour present imperfect vision, aided by tion of Christ, heaven as well as earth, the light of Christianity, we are able to angels as well as men, are materially discover some signal benefits arising changed from their former circums.an. from that catastrophe which to a super- ces and character. Nay, the whole ficial view might appear fraught only immense and eternal kingdom of Jehowith fatal and unhappy consequences. vah, by means of this amazing work, For had not Adam fallen, Christ would assumes a new aspect; and both creanot have redeemed mankind. Had tion and providence are invested with there been no sinners, there could have a new character. God is seen by his been no Redeemer, and no redemption. intelligent creatures in new manifestaThe mercy of God, the most engaging tions of beauty, glory, and loveliness. of all his attributes, and the consum- Throughout never-ending ages, virtumation of all his excellence, would have ous minds will be enlarged with knowlbeen unknown to the universe. All edge, exalted in holiness, and improved the blessings bestowed on mankind in dignity and happiness beyond all would have been the reward of the obe- which would otherwise have been proper dience of Adam and his posterity. But or possible; and their affections, obedithe blessings bestowed on glorified ence, and praise become more refined saints are rewards of the obedience of and more elevated, in a rapid and regthe Son of God. These rewards could ular progress.' Dwight. Such are the not have been given, had not Christ consolatory views of the present, and obeyed; and Christ could not have the enlivening hopes of the future, obeyed had he not become the substi- which we are taught in the sacred writute for sinners and the Mediator be- tings to draw from the primeval transtween God and apostate creatures. Wegression. What God saw not fit to may see therefore that the glory of the divine perfections is more advantageously displayed by the grand scheme of human redemption than it could have been by the uninterrupted innocence of the first man. We are moreover, capable in this way of attaining higher happiness than if our first parents had continued in their integrity. The terrestrial Paradise presents only a faint image of the celestial Paradise of God; and it is most agreeable to infinite mer

prevent, he has been pleased to repair, and the baneful consequences of that sad event are remedied by a dispensation of such transcendant wisdom and mercy as will be a theme of admiration and praise to adoring millions for ever. Truly' where sin has abounded, grace has much more abounded.'

7. And the eyes of them both were pened. That is, the eyes of their minds. They had the mental perception of their guilt and misery. They