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<TITLE>Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on the Whole Bible [Genesis, Chapter III].</TITLE>
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<center><h1>Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary
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on the Whole Bible</h1></center>
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[<A HREF="MHC00000.HTM">Table of Contents</A>]<BR>
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[<A HREF="MHC01002.HTM">Previous</A>]
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[<A HREF="MHC01004.HTM">Next</A>]<BR>
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<TD ALIGN="RIGHT" VALIGN="TOP">
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Matthew Henry<BR><I>Commentary on the Whole Bible</I> (1706)
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</TD></TR></TABLE>
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<!-- (Begin Body) -->
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<A NAME="Page21"> </A>
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<CENTER>
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<BR><FONT SIZE=+3><B>G E N E S I S</B></FONT>
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<BR>
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<BR><FONT SIZE=+2>CHAP. III.</FONT>
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<HR SIZE=1 WIDTH=50>
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</CENTER>
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<FONT SIZE=-1>
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<P>
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The story of this chapter is perhaps as sad a story (all things
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considered) as any we have in all the Bible. In the foregoing
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chapters we have had the pleasant view of the holiness and happiness
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of our first parents, the grace and favour of God, and
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the peace and beauty of the whole creation, all good, very good;
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but here the scene is altered. We have here an account of the
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sin and misery of our first parents, the wrath and curse of God
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against them, the peace of the creation disturbed, and its
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beauty stained and sullied, all bad, very bad. "How has the
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gold become dim, and the most fine gold changed!" O that our
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hearts were deeply affected with this record! For we are all
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nearly concerned in it; let it not be to us as a tale that is told.
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The general contents of this chapter we have
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ro+5:12">Rom. v. 12</A>),
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"By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so
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death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." More
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particularly, we have here,
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I. The innocent tempted,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+3:1-5">ver. 1-5</A>.
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II. The tempted transgressing,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+3:6-8">ver. 6-8</A>.
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III. The transgressors arraigned,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+3:9,10">ver. 9, 10</A>.
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IV. Upon their arraignment, convicted,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+3:11-13">ver. 11-13</A>.
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V. Upon their conviction, sentenced,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+3:14-19">ver. 14-19</A>.
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VI. After sentence, reprieved,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+3:20,21">ver. 20, 21</A>.
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VII. Notwithstanding their reprieve, execution in part done,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+3:22-24">ver. 22-24</A>.
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And, were it not for the gracious intimations here given of redemption
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by the promised seed, they, and all their degenerate guilty
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race, would have been left to endless despair.</P></FONT>
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<A NAME="Ge3_1"> </A>
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<A NAME="Ge3_2"> </A>
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<A NAME="Ge3_3"> </A>
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<A NAME="Ge3_4"> </A>
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<A NAME="Ge3_5"> </A>
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<A NAME="Sec1"> </A>
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<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
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<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>The Tempter's Subtlety; The Tempter's Importunity</I></FONT></TD>
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<TD ALIGN=RIGHT><FONT SIZE=-1>B. C.</FONT> 4004.</TD></TR>
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<TR><TD COLSPAN=2><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
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</TABLE>
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<P>
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<FONT SIZE=+1>1 Now the serpent was more subtle
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than any beast of the field which
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the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT> God had made. And he
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said unto the woman, Yea, hath God
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said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of
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the garden?
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2 And the woman said
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unto the serpent, We may eat of the
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fruit of the trees of the garden:
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3 But of the fruit of the tree which <I>is</I>
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in the midst of the garden, God hath
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said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither
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shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
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4 And
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the serpent said unto the woman, Ye
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shall not surely die:
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5 For God
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doth know that in the day ye eat
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thereof, then your eyes shall be
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opened, and ye shall be as gods,
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knowing good and evil.</P>
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</FONT>
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<P>
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We have here an account of the temptation
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with which Satan assaulted our first
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parents, to draw them into sin, and which
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proved fatal to them. Here observe,</P>
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<P>
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I. The tempter, and that was the devil, in
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the shape and likeness of a serpent.</P>
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<P>
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1. It is certain it was the devil that beguiled
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Eve. The devil and Satan is the old
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serpent
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Re+12:9">Rev. xii. 9</A>),
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a malignant spirit, by
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creation an angel of light and an immediate
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attendant upon God's throne, but by sin become
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an apostate from his first state and a
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rebel against God's crown and dignity.
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Multitudes of the angels fell; but this that
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attacked our first parents was surely the
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prince of the devils, the ring-leader in the
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rebellion: no sooner was he a sinner than
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he was a Satan, no sooner a traitor than a
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tempter, as one enraged against God and his
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glory and envious of man and his happiness.
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He knew he could not destroy man but by
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debauching him. Balaam could not curse
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Israel, but he could tempt Israel,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Re+2:14">Rev. ii. 14</A>.
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The game therefore which Satan had to play
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was to draw our first parents to sin, and so
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to separate between them and their God.
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Thus the devil was, from the beginning, a
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murderer, and the great mischief-maker.
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The whole race of mankind had here, as
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it were, but one neck, and at that Satan
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struck. The adversary and enemy is that
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wicked one.</P>
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<P>
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2. It was the devil in the likeness of a
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serpent. Whether it was only the visible
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shape and appearance of a serpent (as some
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think those were of which we read,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ex+7:12">Exod. vii. 12</A>),
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or whether it was a real living serpent,
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actuated and possessed by the devil, is not
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certain: by God's permission it might be
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either. The devil chose to act his part in a
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serpent,
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(1.) Because it is a specious creature,
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has a spotted dappled skin, and then
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went erect. Perhaps it was a flying serpent,
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which seemed to come from on high as a
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messenger from the upper world, one of the
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seraphim; for the fiery serpents were flying,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+14:29">Isa. xiv. 29</A>.
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Many a dangerous temptation
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comes to us in gay fine colours that are but
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skin-deep, and seems to come from above;
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for Satan can seem an angel of light. And,
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(2.) Because it is a subtle creature; this is
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here taken notice of. Many instances are
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given of the subtlety of the serpent, both to
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do mischief and to secure himself in it when
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it is done. We are directed to be wise as
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serpents. But this serpent, as actuated by
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the devil, was no doubt more subtle than
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any other; for the devil, though he has lost
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the sanctity, retains the sagacity of an angel,
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and is wise to do evil. He knew of more
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advantage by making use of the serpent than
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we are aware of. Observe, There is not any
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thing by which the devil serves himself and
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his own interest more than by unsanctified
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subtlety. What Eve thought of this serpent
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speaking to her we are not likely to
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tell, when I believe she herself did not know
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what to think of it. At first, perhaps, she
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supposed it might be a good angel, and yet,
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afterwards, she might suspect something
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amiss. It is remarkable that the Gentile
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idolaters did many of them worship the devil
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in the shape and form of a serpent, thereby
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avowing their adherence to that apostate
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spirit, and wearing his colours.</P>
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<P>
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II. The person tempted was the woman,
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now alone, and at a distance from her husband,
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but near the forbidden tree. It was
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the devil's subtlety,
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1. To assault the weaker
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vessel with his temptations. Though perfect
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in her kind, yet we may suppose her
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<A NAME="Page22"> </A>
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inferior to Adam in knowledge, and strength,
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and presence of mind. Some think Eve
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received the command, not immediately from
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God, but at second hand by her husband, and
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therefore might the more easily be persuaded
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to discredit it.
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2. It was his policy to enter
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into discourse with her when she was alone.
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Had she kept close to the side out of which she
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was lately taken, she would not have been so
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much exposed. There are many temptations,
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to which solitude gives great advantage;
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but the communion of saints contributes
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much to their strength and safety.
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3. He
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took advantage by finding her near the forbidden
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tree, and probably gazing upon the
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fruit of it, only to satisfy her curiosity. Those
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that would not eat the forbidden fruit must
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not come near the forbidden tree. <I>Avoid it,
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pass not by it,</I>
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Pr+4:15">Prov. iv. 15</A>.
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4. Satan tempted
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Eve, that by her he might tempt Adam; so
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he tempted Job by his wife, and Christ by
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Peter. It is his policy to send temptations
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by unsuspected hands, and theirs that have
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most interest in us and influence upon us.</P>
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<P>
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III. The temptation itself, and the artificial
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management of it. We are often, in scripture,
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told of our danger by the temptations
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of Satan, his <I>devices</I>
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Co+2:11">2 Cor. ii. 11</A>),
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his <I>depths</I>
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Re+2:24">Rev. ii. 24</A>),
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his <I>wiles,</I>
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Eph+6:11">Eph. vi. 11</A>.
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The greatest instances we have of them are in
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his tempting of the two Adams, here, and
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+4:1-11">Matt. iv</A>.
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In this he prevailed, but in that
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he was baffled. What he spoke <I>to</I> them, of
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whom he had no hold by any corruption in
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them, he speaks <I>in</I> us by our own deceitful
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hearts and their carnal reasonings; this
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makes his assaults on us less discernible, but
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not less dangerous. That which the devil
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aimed at was to persuade Eve to cut forbidden
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fruit; and, to do this, he took the same method
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that he does still. He questioned whether
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it was a sin or no,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+3:1"><I>v.</I> 1</A>.
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He denied that
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there was any danger in it,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+3:4"><I>v.</I> 4</A>.
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He suggested
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much advantage by it,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+3:5"><I>v.</I> 5</A>.
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And these
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are his common topics.</P>
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<P>
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1. He questioned whether it was a sin or
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no to eat of this tree, and whether really the
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fruit of it was forbidden. Observe,</P>
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<P>
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(1.) <I>He said to the woman, Yea, hath God
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said, You shall not eat?</I> The first word intimated
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something said before, introducing
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this, and with which it is connected, perhaps
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some discourse Eve had with herself, which
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Satan took hold of, and grafted this question
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upon. In the chain of thoughts one thing
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strangely brings in another, and perhaps
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something bad at last. Observe here,
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[1.] He does not discover his design at first, but
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puts a question which seemed innocent: "I
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hear a piece of news, pray is it true? has
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God forbidden you to eat of this tree?"
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Thus he would begin a discourse, and draw
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her into a parley. Those that would be safe
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have need to be suspicious, and shy of talking
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with the tempter.
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[2.] He quotes the command
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fallaciously, as if it were a prohibition,
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not only of that tree, but of all. God had
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said, <I>Of every tree you may eat, except one.</I>
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He, by aggravating the exception, endeavours
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to invalidate the concession: <I>Hath God said,
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You shall not eat of every tree?</I> The divine
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law cannot be reproached unless it be first
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misrepresented.
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[3.] He seems to speak it
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tauntingly, upbraiding the woman with her
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shyness of meddling with that tree; as if he
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had said, "You are so nice and cautious, and
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so very precise, because God has said, You
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shall not eat." The devil, as he is a liar, so
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he is a scoffer, from the beginning: and the
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scoffers of the last days are his children.
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[4.] That which he aimed at in the first onset was
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to take off her sense of the obligation of the
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command. "Surely you are mistaken, it
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cannot be that God should tie you out from
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this tree; he would not do so unreasonable
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a thing." See here, That it is the subtlety
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of Satan to blemish the reputation of the
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divine law as uncertain or unreasonable, and
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so to draw people to sin; and that it is therefore
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|
our wisdom to keep up a a firm belief of,
|
|
and a high respect for, the command of God.
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|
Has God said, "You shall not lie, nor take
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his name in vain, nor be drunk," &c.? "Yes,
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I am sure he has, and it is well said, and by
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his grace I will abide by it, whatever the
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tempter suggests to the contrary."</P>
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<P>
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(2.) In answer to this question the woman
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gives him a plain and full account of the law
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they were under,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+3:2,3"><I>v.</I> 2, 3</A>.
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|
Here observe,
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|
[1.] It was her weakness to enter into discourse
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|
with the serpent. She might have
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|
perceived by his question that he had no
|
|
good design, and should therefore have started
|
|
back with a <I>Get thee behind me, Satan, thou
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art an offence to me.</I> But her curiosity, and
|
|
perhaps her surprise, to hear a serpent speak,
|
|
led her into further talk with him. Note, It
|
|
is a dangerous thing to treat with a temptation,
|
|
which ought at first to be rejected with
|
|
disdain and abhorrence. The garrison that
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|
sounds a parley is not far from being surrendered.
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|
Those that would be kept from harm
|
|
must keep out of harm's way. See
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|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Pr+14:7,19:27">Prov. xiv. 7; xix. 27</A>.
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|
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[2.] It was her wisdom to
|
|
take notice of the liberty God had granted
|
|
them, in answer to his sly insinuation, as if
|
|
God has put them into paradise only to tantalize
|
|
them with the sight of fair but forbidden
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fruits. "Yea," says she, "we may eat of the
|
|
fruit of the trees, thanks to our Maker, we
|
|
have plenty and variety enough allowed us."
|
|
Note, To prevent our being uneasy at the restraints
|
|
of religion, it is good often to take a
|
|
view of the liberties and comforts of it.
|
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|
[3.] It was an instance of her resolution that she
|
|
adhered to the command, and faithfully repeated
|
|
it, as of unquestionable certainty:
|
|
"<I>God hath said,</I> I am confident he hath said
|
|
it, You shall not eat of the fruit of this tree;"
|
|
and that which she adds, <I>Neither shall you
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|
touch it,</I> seems to have been with a good intention,
|
|
not (as some think) tacitly to reflect
|
|
upon the command as too strict (<I>Touch not,
|
|
taste not and handle not</I>), but to make a fence
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Page23"> </A>
|
|
|
|
about it: "We must not eat, therefore we
|
|
will not touch. It is forbidden in the highest
|
|
degree, and the authority of the prohibition
|
|
is sacred to us."
|
|
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|
[4.] She seems a little to
|
|
waver about the threatening, and is not so
|
|
particular and faithful in the repetition of
|
|
that as of the precept. God has said, <I>In the
|
|
day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die;</I>
|
|
all she makes of that is, <I>Lest you die.</I> Note,
|
|
Wavering faith and wavering resolutions
|
|
give great advantage to the tempter.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. He denies that there was any danger in
|
|
it, insisting that, though it might be the
|
|
transgressing of a precept, yet it would not
|
|
be the incurring of a penalty: <I>You shall not
|
|
surely die,</I>
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+3:4"><I>v.</I> 4</A>.
|
|
"You shall not <I>dying die,</I>"
|
|
so the word is, in direct contradiction to what
|
|
God had said. Either,
|
|
|
|
(1.) "It is not certain
|
|
that you shall die," so some. "It is not so
|
|
sure as you are made to believe it is." Thus
|
|
Satan endeavours to shake that which he cannot
|
|
overthrow, and invalidates the force of
|
|
divine threatenings by questioning the certainty
|
|
of them; and, when once it is supposed
|
|
possible that there may be falsehood
|
|
or fallacy in any word of God, a door is then
|
|
opened to downright infidelity. Satan teaches
|
|
men first to doubt and then to deny; he makes
|
|
them sceptics first, and so by degrees makes
|
|
them atheists. Or,
|
|
|
|
(2.) "It is certain you
|
|
shall not die," so others. He avers his contradiction
|
|
with the same phrase of assurance
|
|
that God had used in ratifying the threatening.
|
|
He began to call the precept in question
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+3:1"><I>v.</I> 1</A>),
|
|
but, finding that the woman adhered
|
|
to that, he quitted that battery, and made his
|
|
second onset upon the threatening, where he
|
|
perceived her to waver; for he is quick to
|
|
spy all advantages, and to attack the wall
|
|
where it is weakest: <I>You shall not surely die.</I>
|
|
This was a lie, a downright lie; for,
|
|
|
|
[1.] It
|
|
was contrary to the word of God, which we
|
|
are sure is true. See
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Jo+2:21,27">1 John ii. 21, 27</A>.
|
|
It was such a lie as gave the lie to God himself.
|
|
|
|
[2.] It was contrary to his own knowledge.
|
|
When he told them there was no danger in
|
|
disobedience and rebellion he said that which
|
|
he knew, by woeful experience, to be false.
|
|
He had broken the law of his creation, and
|
|
had found, to his cost, that he could not prosper
|
|
in it; and yet he tells our first parents
|
|
they shall not die. He concealed his own
|
|
misery, that he might draw them into the
|
|
like: thus he still deceives sinners into their
|
|
own ruin. He tells them that, though they
|
|
sin, they shall not die; and gains credit
|
|
rather than God, who tells them, <I>The wages
|
|
of sin is death.</I> Note, Hope of impunity is
|
|
a great support to all iniquity, and impenitency
|
|
in it. <I>I shall have peace, though I walk
|
|
in the imagination of my heart,</I>
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=De+29:19">Deut. xxix. 19</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
3. He promises them advantage by it,
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+3:5"><I>v.</I> 5</A>.
|
|
Here he follows his blow, and it was a blow
|
|
at the root, a fatal blow to the tree we are
|
|
branches of. He not only would undertake
|
|
that they should be no losers by it, thus
|
|
binding himself to save them from harm;
|
|
but (if they would be such fools as to venture
|
|
upon the security of one that had himself become
|
|
a bankrupt) he undertakes they shall
|
|
be gainers by it, unspeakable gainers. He
|
|
could not have persuaded them to run the
|
|
hazard of ruining themselves if he had not
|
|
suggested to them a great probability of bettering
|
|
themselves.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(1.) He insinuates to them the great improvements
|
|
they would make by eating of
|
|
this fruit. And he suits the temptation to
|
|
the pure state they were now in, proposing
|
|
to them, not any carnal pleasures or gratifications,
|
|
but intellectual delights and satisfactions.
|
|
These were the baits with which
|
|
he covered his hook.
|
|
|
|
[1.] "<I>Your eyes shall
|
|
be opened;</I> you shall have much more of the
|
|
power and pleasure of contemplation than
|
|
now you have; you shall fetch a larger compass
|
|
in your intellectual views, and see further
|
|
into things than now you do." He
|
|
speaks as if now they were but dim-sighted,
|
|
and short-sighted, in comparison of what
|
|
they would be then.
|
|
|
|
[2.] "<I>You shall be as
|
|
gods,</I> as <I>Elohim,</I> mighty gods; not only
|
|
omniscient, but omnipotent too;" or, "You
|
|
shall be as God himself, equal to him, rivals
|
|
with him; you shall be sovereigns and no
|
|
longer subjects, self-sufficient and no longer
|
|
dependent." A most absurd suggestion! As
|
|
if it were possible for creatures of yesterday
|
|
to be like their Creator that was from eternity.
|
|
|
|
[3.] "You shall know <I>good and evil,</I> that is,
|
|
every thing that is desirable to be known."
|
|
To support this part of the temptation, he
|
|
abuses the name given to this tree: it was intended
|
|
to teach the practical knowledge of
|
|
good and evil, that is, of duty and disobedience;
|
|
and it would prove the experimental
|
|
knowledge of good and evil, that is, of happiness
|
|
and misery. In these senses, the
|
|
name of the tree was a warning to them not
|
|
to eat of it; but he perverts the sense of it,
|
|
and wrests it to their destruction, as if this
|
|
tree would give them a speculative notional
|
|
knowledge of the natures, kinds, and originals,
|
|
of good and evil. And,
|
|
|
|
[4.] All this
|
|
presently: "<I>In the day you eat thereof</I> you
|
|
will find a sudden and immediate change for
|
|
the better." Now in all these insinuations
|
|
he aims to beget in them, <I>First,</I> Discontent
|
|
with their present state, as if it were not so
|
|
good as it might be, and should be. Note,
|
|
No condition will of itself bring contentment,
|
|
unless the mind be brought to it. Adam was
|
|
not easy, no, not in paradise, nor the angels
|
|
in their first state,
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jude+1:6">Jude 6</A>.
|
|
<I>Secondly,</I> Ambition
|
|
of preferment, as if they were fit to be
|
|
gods. Satan had ruined himself by desiring
|
|
to be like the Most High
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+14:14">Isa. xiv. 14</A>),
|
|
and therefore seeks to infect our first parents with
|
|
the same desire, that he might ruin them too.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(2.) He insinuates to them that God had
|
|
no good design upon them, in forbidding
|
|
them this fruit: "<I>For God doth know</I> how
|
|
much it will advance you; and therefore, in
|
|
envy and ill-will to you, he hath forbidden
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Page24"> </A>
|
|
|
|
it:" as if he durst not let them eat of that
|
|
tree because then they would know their own
|
|
strength, and would not continue in an inferior
|
|
state, but be able to cope with him; or
|
|
as if he grudged them the honour and happiness
|
|
to which their eating of that tree
|
|
would prefer them. Now,
|
|
|
|
[1.] This was a
|
|
great affront to God, and the highest indignity
|
|
that could be done him, a reproach to
|
|
his power, as if he feared his creatures, and
|
|
much more a reproach to his goodness, as if
|
|
he hated the work of his own hands and
|
|
would not have those whom he has made to
|
|
be made happy. Shall the best of men think
|
|
it strange to be misrepresented and evil
|
|
spoken of, when God himself is so? Satan, as
|
|
he is the accuser of the brethren before God, so
|
|
he accuses God before the brethren; thus he
|
|
sows discord, and is the father of those that
|
|
do so.
|
|
|
|
[2.] It was a most dangerous snare
|
|
to our first parents, as it tended to alienate
|
|
their affections from God, and so to withdraw
|
|
them from their allegiance to him.
|
|
Thus still the devil draws people into his interest
|
|
by suggesting to them hard thoughts
|
|
of God, and false hopes of benefit and advantage
|
|
by sin. Let us therefore, in opposition
|
|
to him, always think well of God as the best
|
|
good, and think ill of sin as the worst of
|
|
evils: thus let us resist the devil, and he will
|
|
flee from us.</P>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Ge3_6"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ge3_7"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ge3_8"> </A>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Sec2"> </A>
|
|
<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
|
|
<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>The Fall of Man.</I></FONT></TD>
|
|
<TD ALIGN=RIGHT><FONT SIZE=-1>B. C.</FONT> 4004.</TD></TR>
|
|
<TR><TD COLSPAN=2><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
|
|
</TABLE>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<FONT SIZE=+1>6 And when the woman saw that
|
|
the tree <I>was</I> good for food, and that
|
|
it <I>was</I> pleasant to the eyes, and a tree
|
|
to be desired to make <I>one</I> wise, she
|
|
took of the fruit thereof, and did eat,
|
|
and gave also unto her husband with
|
|
her; and he did eat.
|
|
7 And the eyes
|
|
of them both were opened, and they
|
|
knew that they <I>were</I> naked; and
|
|
they sewed fig leaves together, and
|
|
made themselves aprons.
|
|
8 And
|
|
they heard the voice of the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT> God
|
|
walking in the garden in the cool of
|
|
the day: and Adam and his wife
|
|
hid themselves from the presence
|
|
of the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT> God amongst the trees
|
|
of the garden.
|
|
</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Here we see what Eve's parley with the
|
|
tempter ended in. Satan, at length, gains
|
|
his point, and the strong-hold is taken by his
|
|
wiles. God tried the obedience of our first
|
|
parents by forbidding them the tree of knowledge,
|
|
and Satan does, as it were, join issue
|
|
with God, and in that very thing undertakes
|
|
to seduce them into a transgression; and
|
|
here we find how he prevailed, God permitting
|
|
it for wise and holy ends.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
I. We have here the inducements that
|
|
moved them to transgress. The woman, being
|
|
deceived by the tempter's artful management,
|
|
was ringleader in the transgression,
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Ti+2:14">1 Tim. ii. 14</A>.
|
|
She was first in the fault; and it
|
|
was the result of her consideration, or rather
|
|
her inconsideration.
|
|
|
|
1. She saw no harm in
|
|
this tree, more than in any of the rest. It
|
|
was said of all the rest of the fruit-trees with
|
|
which the garden of Eden was planted that
|
|
they were <I>pleasant to the sight, and good for
|
|
food,</I>
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+2:9"><I>ch.</I> ii. 9</A>.
|
|
Now, in her eye, this was
|
|
like all the rest. It seemed as good for food
|
|
as any of them, and she saw nothing in the
|
|
colour of its fruit that threatened death or
|
|
danger; it was as pleasant to the sight as
|
|
any of them, and therefore, "What hurt could
|
|
it do them? Why should this be forbidden
|
|
them rather than any of the rest?"
|
|
Note, When there is thought to be no
|
|
more harm in forbidden fruit than in other
|
|
fruit sin lies at the door, and Satan soon
|
|
carries the day. Nay, perhaps it seemed to
|
|
her to be better for food, more grateful to
|
|
the taste, and more nourishing to the body,
|
|
than any of the rest, and to her eye it was
|
|
more pleasant than any. We are often betrayed
|
|
into snares by an inordinate desire to
|
|
have our senses gratified. Or, if it had nothing
|
|
in it more inviting than the rest, yet it
|
|
was the more coveted because it was prohibited.
|
|
Whether it was so in her or not, we
|
|
find that in us (that is, in our flesh, in our
|
|
corrupt nature) there dwells a strange spirit
|
|
of contradiction. <I>Nitimur in vetitum--We
|
|
desire what is prohibited.</I>
|
|
|
|
2. She imagined
|
|
more virtue in this tree than in any of the rest,
|
|
that it was a tree not only not to be dreaded,
|
|
but <I>to be desired to make one wise,</I> and therein
|
|
excelling all the rest of the trees. This she
|
|
<I>saw,</I> that is, she perceived and understood
|
|
it by what the devil had said to her; and
|
|
some think that she saw the serpent eat
|
|
of that tree, and that he told her he thereby
|
|
had gained the faculties of speech and reason,
|
|
whence she inferred its power to make one wise,
|
|
and was persuaded to think, "If it
|
|
made a brute creature rational, why might
|
|
it not make a rational creature divine?"
|
|
See here how the desire of unnecessary
|
|
knowledge, under the mistaken notion of
|
|
wisdom, proves hurtful and destructive to
|
|
many. Our first parents, who knew so
|
|
much, did not know this--that they knew
|
|
enough. Christ is a tree to be desired to
|
|
make one wise,
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Col+2:3,1Co+1:30">Col. ii. 3; 1 Cor. i. 30</A>.
|
|
Let us, by faith, feed upon him, that we may be
|
|
wise to salvation. In the heavenly paradise,
|
|
the tree of knowledge will not be a forbidden
|
|
tree; for there we shall know as we are
|
|
known. Let us therefore long to be there,
|
|
and, in the mean time, not exercise ourselves
|
|
in things too high or too deep for us, nor
|
|
covet to be wise above what is written.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
II. The steps of the transgression, not steps
|
|
upward, but downward towards the pit--steps
|
|
that take hold on hell.
|
|
|
|
1. She <I>saw.</I>
|
|
She should have turned away her eyes from
|
|
beholding vanity; but she enters into
|
|
temptation, by looking with pleasure on the
|
|
forbidden fruit. Observe, A great deal of
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Page25"> </A>
|
|
|
|
sin comes in at the eyes. At these windows
|
|
Satan throws in those fiery darts which
|
|
pierce and poison the heart. The eye affects
|
|
the heart with guilt as well as grief. Let us
|
|
therefore, with holy Job, make a covenant
|
|
with our eyes, not to look on that which we
|
|
are in danger of lusting after,
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Pr+23:31,Mt+5:28">Prov. xxiii. 31; Matt. v. 28</A>.
|
|
Let the fear of God be
|
|
always to us for a covering of the eyes,
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+20:16"><I>ch.</I> xx. 16</A>.
|
|
|
|
2. <I>She took.</I> It was her own act
|
|
and deed. The devil did not take it, and put
|
|
it into her mouth, whether she would or no;
|
|
but she herself took it. Satan may tempt,
|
|
but he cannot force; may persuade us to
|
|
cast ourselves down, but he cannot cast us
|
|
down,
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+4:6">Matt. iv. 6</A>.
|
|
Eve's taking was stealing,
|
|
like Achan's taking the accursed thing,
|
|
taking that to which she had no right. Surely
|
|
she took it with a trembling hand.
|
|
|
|
3. She <I>did eat.</I> Perhaps she did not intend, when
|
|
she looked, to take, nor, when she took, to
|
|
eat; but this was the result. Note, The
|
|
way of sin is downhill; a man cannot stop
|
|
himself when he will. The beginning of it
|
|
is as the breaking forth of water, to which it
|
|
is hard to say, "Hitherto thou shalt come
|
|
and no further." Therefore it is our wisdom
|
|
to suppress the first emotions of sin,
|
|
and to leave it off before it be meddled with.
|
|
<I>Obsta principiis--Nip mischief in the bud.</I>
|
|
|
|
4. She <I>gave also to her husband with her.</I> It is
|
|
probable that he was not with her when she was
|
|
tempted (surely, if he had, he would have interposed
|
|
to prevent the sin), but came to her
|
|
when she had eaten, and was prevailed upon
|
|
by her to eat likewise; for it is easier to learn
|
|
that which is bad than to teach that which is
|
|
good. She gave it to him, persuading him
|
|
with the same arguments that the serpent
|
|
had used with her, adding this to all the rest,
|
|
that she herself had eaten of it, and found it
|
|
so far from being deadly that it was extremely
|
|
pleasant and grateful. <I>Stolen waters are
|
|
sweet.</I> She gave it to him, under colour of
|
|
kindness--she would not eat these delicious
|
|
morsels alone; but really it was the greatest
|
|
unkindness she could do him. Or perhaps
|
|
she gave it to him that, if it should prove
|
|
hurtful, he might share with her in the
|
|
misery, which indeed looks strangely unkind,
|
|
and yet may, without difficulty, be
|
|
supposed to enter into the heart of one that
|
|
had eaten forbidden fruit. Note, Those
|
|
that have themselves done ill are commonly
|
|
willing to draw in others to do the same.
|
|
As was the devil, so was Eve, no sooner a
|
|
sinner than a tempter.
|
|
|
|
5. <I>He did eat,</I> overcome
|
|
by his wife's importunity. It is needless
|
|
to ask, "What would have been the
|
|
consequence if Eve only had transgressed?"
|
|
The wisdom of God, we are sure, would have
|
|
decided the difficulty, according to equity;
|
|
but, alas! the case was not so; Adam also
|
|
did eat. "And what great harm if he did?"
|
|
say the corrupt and carnal reasonings of a
|
|
vain mind. What harm! Why, this act
|
|
involved disbelief of God's word, together
|
|
with confidence in the devil's, discontent
|
|
with his present state, pride in his own
|
|
merits, and ambition of the honour which
|
|
comes not from God, envy at God's perfections,
|
|
and indulgence of the appetites of the
|
|
body. In neglecting the tree of life of which
|
|
he was allowed to eat, and eating of the tree
|
|
of knowledge which was forbidden, he plainly
|
|
showed a contempt of the favours God had
|
|
bestowed on him, and a preference given to
|
|
those God did not see fit for him. He would
|
|
be both his own carver and his own master,
|
|
would have what he pleased and do what
|
|
he pleased: his sin was, in one word, <I>disobedience</I>
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ro+5:19">Rom. v. 19</A>),
|
|
disobedience to a
|
|
plain, easy, and express command, which
|
|
probably he knew to be a command of trial.
|
|
He sinned against great knowledge, against
|
|
many mercies, against light and love, the
|
|
clearest light and the dearest love that ever
|
|
sinner sinned against. He had no corrupt
|
|
nature within him to betray him; but had a
|
|
freedom of will, not enslaved, and was in his
|
|
full strength, not weakened or impaired.
|
|
He turned aside quickly. Some think he
|
|
fell the very day on which he was made;
|
|
but I see not how to reconcile this with God's
|
|
pronouncing all <I>very good</I> in the close of the
|
|
day. Others suppose he fell on the sabbath
|
|
day: the better day the worse deed. However,
|
|
it is certain that he kept his integrity
|
|
but a very little while: being in honour, he
|
|
continued not. But the greatest aggravation
|
|
of his sin was that he involved all his posterity
|
|
in sin and ruin by it. God having
|
|
told him that his race should replenish the
|
|
earth, surely he could not but know that he
|
|
stood as a public person, and that his disobedience
|
|
would be fatal to all his seed;
|
|
and, if so, it was certainly both the greatest
|
|
treachery and the greatest cruelty that ever
|
|
was. The human nature being lodged entirely
|
|
in our first parents, henceforward it could
|
|
not but be transmitted from them under an
|
|
attainder of guilt, a stain of dishonour, and
|
|
an hereditary disease of sin and corruption.
|
|
And can we say, then, that Adam's sin had
|
|
but little harm in it?</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
III. The ultimate consequences of the
|
|
transgression. Shame and fear seized the
|
|
criminals, <I>ipso facto--in the fact itself;</I> these
|
|
came into the world along with sin, and still
|
|
attend it.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. Shame seized them unseen,
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+3:7"><I>v.</I> 7</A>,
|
|
where observe,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(1.) The strong convictions they fell under,
|
|
in their own bosoms: <I>The eyes of them both
|
|
were opened.</I> It is not meant of the eyes of
|
|
the body; these were open before, as appears
|
|
by this, that the sin came in at them. Jonathan's
|
|
eyes were enlightened by eating forbidden
|
|
fruit
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Sa+14:27">1 Sam. xiv. 27</A>),
|
|
that is, he was
|
|
refreshed and revived by it; but theirs were
|
|
not so. Nor is it meant of any advances
|
|
made hereby in true knowledge; but the eyes
|
|
of their consciences were opened, their hearts
|
|
smote them for what they had done. Now,
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Page26"> </A>
|
|
|
|
when it was too late, they saw the folly of
|
|
eating forbidden fruit. They saw the happiness
|
|
they had fallen from, and the misery
|
|
they had fallen into. They saw a loving God
|
|
provoked, his grace and favour forfeited, his
|
|
likeness and image lost, dominion over the
|
|
creatures gone. They saw their natures corrupted
|
|
and depraved, and felt a disorder in
|
|
their own spirits of which they had never
|
|
before been conscious. They saw a law in
|
|
their members warring against the law of
|
|
their minds, and captivating them both to
|
|
sin and wrath. They saw, as Balaam, when
|
|
<I>his eyes were opened</I>
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Nu+22:31">Num. xxii. 31</A>),
|
|
the angel of the Lord standing in the way, and
|
|
his sword drawn in his hand; and perhaps
|
|
they saw the serpent that had abused them
|
|
insulting over them. The text tells us that
|
|
they saw <I>that they were naked,</I> that is,
|
|
|
|
[1.] That they were stripped, deprived of all the
|
|
honours and joys of their paradise-state, and
|
|
exposed to all the miseries that might justly
|
|
be expected from an angry God. They were
|
|
disarmed; their defence had departed from
|
|
them.
|
|
|
|
[2.] That they were shamed, for ever
|
|
shamed, before God and angels. They saw
|
|
themselves disrobed of all their ornaments
|
|
and ensigns of honour, degraded from their
|
|
dignity and disgraced in the highest degree,
|
|
laid open to the contempt and reproach of
|
|
heaven, and earth, and their own consciences.
|
|
Now see here, <I>First,</I> What a dishonour and
|
|
disquietment sin is; it makes mischief wherever
|
|
it is admitted, sets men against themselves
|
|
disturbs their peace, and destroys all
|
|
their comforts. Sooner or later, it will have
|
|
shame, either the shame of true repentance,
|
|
which ends in glory, or that shame and everlasting
|
|
contempt to which the wicked shall
|
|
rise at the great day. Sin is a reproach to
|
|
any people. <I>Secondly,</I> What deceiver Satan
|
|
is. He told our first parents, when he
|
|
tempted them, that their eyes should be
|
|
opened; and so they were, but not as they
|
|
understood it; they were opened to their
|
|
shame and grief, not to their honour nor advantage.
|
|
Therefore, when he speaks fair,
|
|
believe him not. The most malicious mischievous
|
|
liars often excuse themselves with
|
|
this, that they only equivocate; but God
|
|
will not so excuse them.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(2.) The sorry shift they made to palliate
|
|
these convictions, and to arm themselves
|
|
against them: <I>They sewed,</I> or platted, <I>fig-leaves
|
|
together;</I> and to cover, at least, part of their
|
|
shame from one another, they <I>made themselves
|
|
aprons.</I> See here what is commonly
|
|
the folly of those that have sinned.
|
|
|
|
[1.] That they are more solicitous to save their
|
|
credit before men than to obtain their pardon
|
|
from God; they are backward to confess their
|
|
sin, and very desirous to conceal it, as much
|
|
as may be. <I>I have sinned, yet honour me.</I>
|
|
|
|
[2.] That the excuses men make, to cover
|
|
and extenuate their sins, are vain and frivolous.
|
|
Like the aprons of fig-leaves, they
|
|
make the matter never the better, but the
|
|
worse; the shame, thus hidden, becomes the
|
|
more shameful. Yet thus we are all apt to
|
|
<I>cover our transgressions as Adam,</I>
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+31:33">Job xxxi. 33</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. Fear seized them immediately upon their
|
|
eating the forbidden fruit,
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+3:8"><I>v.</I> 8</A>.
|
|
Observe here,
|
|
|
|
(1.) What was the cause and occasion
|
|
of their fear: They <I>heard the voice of the Lord
|
|
God walking in the garden in the cool of the
|
|
day.</I> It was the approach of the Judge that
|
|
put them into a fright; and yet he came in
|
|
such a manner as made it formidable only to
|
|
guilty consciences. It is supposed that he
|
|
came in a human shape, and that he who
|
|
judged the world now was the same that
|
|
shall judge the world at the last day, even
|
|
<I>that man whom God has ordained.</I> He appeared
|
|
to them now (it should seem) in no
|
|
other similitude than that in which they had
|
|
seen him when he put them into paradise;
|
|
for he came to convince and humble them,
|
|
not to amaze and terrify them. He came
|
|
into the garden, not descending immediately
|
|
from heaven in their view, as afterwards on
|
|
mount Sinai (making either thick darkness
|
|
his pavilion or the flaming fire his chariot),
|
|
but he came into the garden, as one that was
|
|
still willing to be familiar with them. He
|
|
came walking, not running, not riding upon
|
|
the wings of the wind, but walking deliberately,
|
|
as one slow to anger, teaching us,
|
|
when we are ever so much provoked, not to
|
|
be hot nor hasty, but to speak and act considerately
|
|
and not rashly. He came in the
|
|
cool of the day, not in the night, when all
|
|
fears are doubly fearful, nor in the heat of
|
|
day, for he came not in the heat of his anger.
|
|
<I>Fury is not in him,</I>
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+27:4">Isa. xxvii. 4</A>.
|
|
Nor did
|
|
he come suddenly upon them; but they
|
|
heard his voice at some distance, giving
|
|
them notice of his coming, and probably it
|
|
was a still small voice, like that in which he
|
|
came to enquire after Elijah. Some think
|
|
they heard him discoursing with himself concerning
|
|
the sin of Adam, and the judgment
|
|
now to be passed upon him, perhaps as he
|
|
did concerning Israel,
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ho+11:8,9">Hos. xi. 8, 9</A>.
|
|
<I>How shall I give thee up?</I> Or, rather, they heard
|
|
him calling for them, and coming towards
|
|
them.
|
|
|
|
(2.) What was the effect and evidence
|
|
of their fear: <I>They hid themselves from the
|
|
presence of the Lord God</I>--a sad change!
|
|
Before they had sinned, if they had heard
|
|
the voice of the Lord God coming towards
|
|
them, they would have run to meet him, and
|
|
with a humble joy welcomed his gracious
|
|
visits. But, now that it was otherwise, God
|
|
had become a terror to them, and then no
|
|
marvel that they had become a terror to themselves,
|
|
and were full of confusion. Their
|
|
own consciences accused them, and set their
|
|
sin before them in its proper colours. Their
|
|
fig-leaves failed them, and would do them
|
|
no service. God had come forth against
|
|
them as an enemy, and the whole creation
|
|
was at war with them; and as yet they knew
|
|
not of any mediator between them and an
|
|
angry God, so that nothing remained but a
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Page27"> </A>
|
|
|
|
certain fearful looking for of judgment. In
|
|
this fright they hid themselves among the
|
|
bushes; having offended, they fled for the
|
|
same. Knowing themselves guilty, they
|
|
durst not stand a trial, but absconded, and
|
|
fled from justice. See here,
|
|
|
|
[1.] The falsehood
|
|
of the tempter, and the frauds and fallacies
|
|
of his temptations. He promised them
|
|
they should be safe, but now they cannot so
|
|
much as think themselves so; he said they
|
|
should not die, and yet now they are forced
|
|
to fly for their lives; he promised them they
|
|
should be advanced, but they see themselves
|
|
a based--never did they seem so little as now;
|
|
he promised them they should be knowing,
|
|
but they see themselves at a loss, and know
|
|
not so much as where to hide themselves;
|
|
he promised them they should be as gods,
|
|
great, and bold, and daring, but they are as
|
|
criminals discovered, trembling, pale, and
|
|
anxious to escape: they would not be subjects,
|
|
and so they are prisoners.
|
|
|
|
[2.] The folly
|
|
of sinners, to think it either possible or desirable
|
|
to hide themselves from God: can
|
|
they conceal themselves from the Father of
|
|
lights?
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+139:7-13">Ps. cxxxix. 7</A>,
|
|
&c.;
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jer+23:24">Jer. xxiii. 24</A>.
|
|
Will they withdraw themselves from the fountain
|
|
of life, who alone can give help and
|
|
happiness?
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jon+2:8">Jon. ii. 8</A>.
|
|
|
|
[3.] The fear that
|
|
attends sin. All that amazing fear of God's
|
|
appearances, the accusations of conscience,
|
|
the approaches of trouble, the assaults of inferior
|
|
creatures, and the arrests of death,
|
|
which is common among men, is the effect
|
|
of sin. Adam and Eve, who were partners
|
|
in the sin, were sharers in the shame and fear
|
|
that attended it; and though hand joined in
|
|
hand (hands so lately joined in marriage), yet
|
|
could they not animate nor fortify one another:
|
|
miserable comforters they had become
|
|
to each other!</P>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Ge3_9"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ge3_10"> </A>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<FONT SIZE=+1>9 And the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT> God called unto
|
|
Adam, and said unto him, Where <I>art</I>
|
|
thou?
|
|
10 And he said, I heard thy
|
|
voice in the garden, and I was afraid,
|
|
because I <I>was</I> naked; and I hid
|
|
myself.
|
|
</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
We have here the arraignment of these
|
|
deserters before the righteous Judge of
|
|
heaven and earth, who, though he is not tied
|
|
to observe formalities, yet proceeds against
|
|
them with all possible fairness, that he may
|
|
be justified when he speaks. Observe here,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
I. The startling question with which God
|
|
pursued Adam and arrested him: <I>Where art
|
|
thou?</I> Not as if God did not know where
|
|
he was; but thus he would enter the process
|
|
against him. "Come, where is this foolish
|
|
man?" Some make it a bemoaning question:
|
|
"Poor Adam, what has become of thee?"
|
|
"<I>Alas for thee!</I>" (so some read it) "<I>How
|
|
art thou fallen, Lucifer, son of the morning!</I>
|
|
Thou that wast my friend and favourite,
|
|
whom I had done so much for, and would
|
|
have done so much more for; hast thou now
|
|
forsaken me, and ruined thyself? Has it
|
|
come to this?" It is rather an upbraiding
|
|
question, in order to his conviction and
|
|
humiliation: <I>Where art thou?</I> Not, In what
|
|
<I>place?</I> but, In what <I>condition?</I> "Is this all
|
|
thou hast gotten by eating forbidden fruit?
|
|
Thou that wouldest vie with me, dost thou
|
|
now fly from me?" Note,
|
|
|
|
1. Those who by
|
|
sin have gone astray from God should seriously
|
|
consider where they are; they are afar
|
|
off from all good, in the midst of their
|
|
enemies, in bondage to Satan, and in the high
|
|
road to utter ruin. This enquiry after Adam
|
|
may be looked upon as a gracious pursuit, in
|
|
kindness to him, and in order to his recovery.
|
|
If God had not called to him, to reclaim him,
|
|
his condition would have been as desperate
|
|
as that of fallen angels; this lost sheep would
|
|
have wandered endlessly, if the good Shepherd
|
|
had not sought after him, to bring him
|
|
back, and, in order to that, reminded him
|
|
where he was, where he should not be, and
|
|
where he could not be either happy or easy.
|
|
Note,
|
|
|
|
2. If sinners will but consider where
|
|
they are, they will not rest till they return to
|
|
God.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
II. The trembling answer which Adam
|
|
gave to this question: <I>I heard thy voice in
|
|
the garden, and I was afraid,</I>
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+3:10"><I>v.</I> 10</A>.
|
|
He does
|
|
not own his guilt, and yet in effect confesses
|
|
it by owning his shame and fear; but it is
|
|
the common fault and folly of those that have
|
|
done an ill thing, when they are questioned
|
|
about it, to acknowledge no more than what
|
|
is so manifest that they cannot deny it.
|
|
Adam was afraid, because he was naked;
|
|
not only unarmed, and therefore afraid to
|
|
contend with God, but unclothed, and therefore
|
|
afraid so much as to appear before him.
|
|
We have reason to be afraid of approaching
|
|
to God if we be not clothed and fenced with
|
|
the righteousness of Christ, for nothing but
|
|
this will be armour of proof and cover the
|
|
shame of our nakedness. Let us therefore
|
|
<I>put on the Lord Jesus Christ,</I> and then draw
|
|
near with humble boldness.</P>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Ge3_11"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ge3_12"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ge3_13"> </A>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<FONT SIZE=+1>11 And he said, Who told thee that
|
|
thou <I>wast</I> naked? Hast thou eaten
|
|
of the tree, whereof I commanded thee
|
|
that thou shouldest not eat?
|
|
12 And
|
|
the man said, The woman whom thou
|
|
gavest <I>to be</I> with me, she gave me of
|
|
the tree, and I did eat.
|
|
13 And the
|
|
L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT> God said unto the woman,
|
|
What <I>is</I> this <I>that</I> thou hast done?
|
|
And the woman said, The serpent
|
|
beguiled me, and I did eat.
|
|
</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
We have here the offenders found guilty
|
|
by their own confession, and yet endeavouring
|
|
to excuse and extenuate their fault. They
|
|
could not confess and justify what they had
|
|
done, but they confess and palliate it. Observe,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
I. How their confession was extorted from
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Page28"> </A>
|
|
|
|
them. God put it to the man: <I>Who told
|
|
thee that thou wast naked?</I>
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+3:11"><I>v.</I> 11</A>.
|
|
"How camest thou to be sensible of thy nakedness
|
|
as thy shame?" <I>Hast thou eaten of the forbidden
|
|
tree?</I> Note, Though God knows all
|
|
our sins, yet he will know them from us,
|
|
and requires from us an ingenuous confession
|
|
of them; not that he may be informed,
|
|
but that we may be humbled. In this examination,
|
|
God reminds him of the command
|
|
he had given him: "I commanded thee not
|
|
to eat of it, I thy Maker, I thy Master, I thy
|
|
benefactor; I commanded thee to the contrary."
|
|
Sin appears most plain and most
|
|
sinful in the glass of the commandment,
|
|
therefore God here sets it before Adam; and
|
|
in it we should see our faces. The question
|
|
put to the woman was, <I>What is this that thou
|
|
hast done?</I>
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+3:13"><I>v.</I> 13</A>.
|
|
"Wilt thou also own thy
|
|
fault, and make confession of it? And wilt
|
|
thou see what an evil thing it was?" Note,
|
|
It concerns those who have eaten forbidden
|
|
fruit themselves, and especially those who
|
|
have enticed others to eat it likewise, seriously
|
|
to consider what they have done. In eating
|
|
forbidden fruit, we have offended a great and
|
|
gracious God, broken a just and righteous
|
|
law, violated a sacred and most solemn covenant,
|
|
and wronged our own precious souls
|
|
by forfeiting God's favour and exposing ourselves
|
|
to his wrath and curse: in enticing
|
|
others to eat of it, we do the devil's work,
|
|
make ourselves guilty of other men's sins,
|
|
and accessory to their ruin. <I>What is this
|
|
that we have done?</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
II. How their crime was extenuated by
|
|
them in their confession. It was to no
|
|
purpose to plead <I>not guilty.</I> The show of
|
|
their countenances testified against them;
|
|
therefore they become their own accusers:
|
|
"<I>I did eat,</I>" says the man, "And so did I,"
|
|
says the woman; for when God judges he
|
|
will overcome. But these do not look like
|
|
penitent confessions; for instead of aggravating
|
|
the sin, and taking shame to themselves,
|
|
they excuse the sin, and lay the shame
|
|
and blame on others.
|
|
|
|
1. Adam lays all the
|
|
blame upon his wife. "She gave me of the
|
|
tree, and pressed me to eat of it, which I did,
|
|
only to oblige her"--a frivolous excuse. He
|
|
ought to have taught her, not to have been
|
|
taught by her; and it was no hard matter to
|
|
determine which of the two he must be ruled
|
|
by, his God or his wife. Learn, hence, never
|
|
to be brought to sin by that which will not
|
|
bring us off in the judgment; let not that
|
|
bear us up in the commission which will not
|
|
bear us out in the trial; let us therefore
|
|
never be overcome by importunity to act
|
|
against our consciences, nor ever displease
|
|
God, to please the best friend we have in the
|
|
world. But this is not the worst of it. He
|
|
not only lays the blame upon his wife, but
|
|
expresses it so as tacitly to reflect on God
|
|
himself: "It is the woman whom thou gavest
|
|
me, and gavest to be with me as my companion,
|
|
my guide, and my acquaintance; she
|
|
gave me of the tree, else I had not eaten of
|
|
it." Thus he insinuates that God was accessory
|
|
to his sin: he gave him the woman,
|
|
and she gave him the fruit; so that he seemed
|
|
to have it at but one remove from God's own
|
|
hand. Note, There is a strange proneness
|
|
in those that are tempted to say that they
|
|
are tempted of God, as if our abusing God's
|
|
gifts would excuse our violation of God's
|
|
laws. God gives us riches, honours, and
|
|
relations, that we may serve him cheerfully
|
|
in the enjoyment of them; but, if we
|
|
take occasion from them to sin against him,
|
|
instead of blaming Providence for putting us
|
|
into such a condition, we must blame ourselves
|
|
for perverting the gracious designs of
|
|
Providence therein.
|
|
|
|
2. Eve lays all the blame
|
|
upon the serpent: <I>The serpent beguiled me.</I>
|
|
Sin is a brat that nobody is willing to own,
|
|
a sign that it is a scandalous thing. Those
|
|
that are willing enough to take the pleasure
|
|
and profit of sin are backward enough to
|
|
take the blame and shame of it. "The
|
|
serpent, that subtle creature of thy making,
|
|
which thou didst permit to come into paradise
|
|
to us, he beguiled me," or <I>made me to
|
|
err;</I> for our sins are our errors. Learn
|
|
hence,
|
|
|
|
(1.) That Satan's temptations are all
|
|
beguilings, his arguments are all fallacies, his
|
|
allurements are all cheats; when he speaks
|
|
fair, believe him not. Sin deceives us, and,
|
|
by deceiving, cheats us. It is by the <I>deceitfulness
|
|
of sin</I> that the heart is hardened. See
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ro+7:11,Heb+3:13">Rom. vii. 11; Heb. iii. 13</A>.
|
|
|
|
(2.) That
|
|
though Satan's subtlety drew us into sin, yet
|
|
it will not justify us in sin: though he is the
|
|
tempter, we are the sinners; and indeed it
|
|
is our own lust that draws us aside and
|
|
entices us,
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Jam+1:14">Jam. i. 14</A>.
|
|
Let it not therefore
|
|
lessen our sorrow and humiliation for sin
|
|
that we are beguiled into it; but rather let
|
|
it increase our self-indignation that we should
|
|
suffer ourselves to be beguiled by a known
|
|
cheat and a sworn enemy. Well, this is all
|
|
the prisoners at the bar have to say why
|
|
sentence should not be passed and execution
|
|
awarded, according to law; and this <I>all</I> is
|
|
next to nothing, in some respects worse than
|
|
nothing.</P>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Ge3_14"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ge3_15"> </A>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Sec3"> </A>
|
|
<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
|
|
<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>Sentence Passed on the Serpent; Intimation of Messiah.</I></FONT></TD>
|
|
<TD ALIGN=RIGHT><FONT SIZE=-1>B. C.</FONT> 4004.</TD></TR>
|
|
<TR><TD COLSPAN=2><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
|
|
</TABLE>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<FONT SIZE=+1>14 And the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT> God said unto
|
|
the serpent, Because thou hast done
|
|
this, thou <I>art</I> cursed above all cattle,
|
|
and above every beast of the field;
|
|
upon thy belly shalt thou go, and
|
|
dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy
|
|
life:
|
|
15 And I will put enmity between
|
|
thee and the woman, and between
|
|
thy seed and her seed; it
|
|
shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt
|
|
bruise his heel.
|
|
</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
The prisoners being found guilty by their
|
|
own confession, besides the personal and infallible
|
|
knowledge of the Judge, and nothing
|
|
material being offered in arrest of judgment,
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Page29"> </A>
|
|
|
|
God immediately proceeds to pass sentence;
|
|
and, in these verses, he begins (where the sin
|
|
began) with the serpent. God did not examine
|
|
the serpent, nor ask him what he had
|
|
done nor why he did it; but immediately
|
|
sentenced him,
|
|
|
|
1. Because he was already
|
|
convicted of rebellion against God, and his
|
|
malice and wickedness were notorious, not
|
|
found by secret search, but openly avowed
|
|
and declared as Sodom's.
|
|
|
|
2. Because he
|
|
was to be for ever excluded from all hope of
|
|
pardon; and why should any thing be said
|
|
to convince and humble him who was to find
|
|
no place for repentance? His wound was
|
|
not searched, because it was not to be cured.
|
|
Some think the condition of the fallen angels
|
|
was not declared desperate and helpless,
|
|
until now that they had seduced man into
|
|
the rebellion.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
I. The sentence passed upon the tempter
|
|
may be considered as lighting upon the serpent,
|
|
the brute-creature which Satan made
|
|
use of which was, as the rest, made for the
|
|
service of man, but was now abused to his
|
|
hurt. Therefore, to testify a displeasure
|
|
against sin, and a jealousy for the injured
|
|
honour of Adam and Eve, God fastens a
|
|
curse and reproach upon the serpent, and
|
|
makes it to groan, being burdened. See
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ro+8:20">Rom. viii. 20</A>.
|
|
The devil's instruments must share
|
|
in the devil's punishments. Thus the bodies
|
|
of the wicked, though only instruments of
|
|
unrighteousness, shall partake of everlasting
|
|
torments with the soul, the principal agent.
|
|
Even the ox that killed a man must be
|
|
stoned,
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ex+21:28,29">Exod. xxi. 28, 29</A>.
|
|
See here how
|
|
God hates sin, and especially how much displeased
|
|
he is with those who entice others
|
|
into sin. It is a perpetual brand upon Jeroboam's
|
|
name <I>that he made Israel to sin.</I>
|
|
Now,
|
|
|
|
1. The serpent is here laid under the
|
|
curse of God: <I>Thou art cursed above all
|
|
cattle.</I> Even the creeping things, when God
|
|
made them, were blessed of him
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+1:22"><I>ch.</I> i. 22</A>),
|
|
but sin turned the blessing into a curse.
|
|
<I>The serpent was more subtle than any beast of the
|
|
field</I>
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+3:1"><I>v.</I> 1</A>),
|
|
and here, <I>cursed above every
|
|
beast of the field.</I> Unsanctified subtlety
|
|
often proves a great curse to a man; and the
|
|
more crafty men are to do evil the more
|
|
mischief they do, and, consequently, they
|
|
shall receive the greater damnation. Subtle
|
|
tempters are the most accursed creatures
|
|
under the sun. 2. He is here laid under
|
|
man's reproach and enmity.
|
|
|
|
(1.) He is to
|
|
be for ever looked upon as a vile and despicable
|
|
creature, and a proper object of scorn
|
|
and contempt: "<I>Upon thy belly thou shalt
|
|
go,</I> no longer upon feet, or half erect, but
|
|
thou shalt crawl along, thy belly cleaving to
|
|
the earth," an expression of a very abject
|
|
miserable condition,
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+44:25">Ps. xliv. 25</A>;
|
|
"and thou
|
|
shalt not avoid eating dust with thy meat."
|
|
His crime was that he tempted Eve to eat
|
|
that which she should not; his punishment
|
|
was that he was necessitated to eat that which
|
|
he would not: <I>Dust thou shalt eat.</I> This
|
|
denotes not only a base and despicable condition,
|
|
but a mean and pitiful spirit; it is
|
|
said of those whose courage has departed
|
|
from them that they <I>lick the dust like a serpent,</I>
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mic+7:17">Mic. vii. 17</A>.
|
|
How sad it is that the
|
|
serpent's curse should be the covetous worldling's
|
|
choice, whose character it is that he
|
|
<I>pants after the dust of the earth!</I>
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Am+2:7">Amos ii. 7</A>.
|
|
These choose their own delusions, and so
|
|
shall their doom be.
|
|
|
|
(2.) He is to be for ever
|
|
looked upon as a venomous noxious creature,
|
|
and a proper object of hatred and detestation:
|
|
<I>I will put enmity between thee and the
|
|
woman.</I> The inferior creatures being made
|
|
for man, it was a curse upon any of them to
|
|
be turned against man and man against
|
|
them; and this is part of the serpent's curse.
|
|
The serpent is hurtful to man, and often
|
|
bruises his heel, because it can reach no
|
|
higher; nay, notice is taken of his biting the
|
|
horses' heels,
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+49:17"><I>ch.</I> xlix. 17</A>.
|
|
But man is victorious
|
|
over the serpent, and bruises his
|
|
head, that is, gives him a mortal wound,
|
|
aiming to destroy the whole generation of
|
|
vipers. It is the effect of this curse upon
|
|
the serpent that, though that creature is
|
|
subtle and very dangerous, yet it prevails not
|
|
(as it would if God gave it commission) to
|
|
the destruction of mankind. This sentence
|
|
pronounced upon the serpent is much fortified
|
|
by that promise of God to his people,
|
|
<I>Thou shalt tread upon the lion and the adder</I>
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+91:13">Ps. xci. 13</A>),
|
|
and that of Christ to his disciples,
|
|
<I>They shall take up serpents</I>
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mk+16:18">Mark xvi. 18</A>),
|
|
witness Paul, who was unhurt by the
|
|
viper that fastened upon his hand. Observe
|
|
here, The serpent and the woman had just
|
|
now been very familiar and friendly in discourse
|
|
about the forbidden fruit, and a wonderful
|
|
agreement there was between them;
|
|
but here they are irreconcilably set at variance.
|
|
Note, Sinful friendships justly end in
|
|
mortal feuds: those that unite in wickedness
|
|
will not unite long.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
II. This sentence may be considered as
|
|
levelled at the devil, who only made use of
|
|
the serpent as his vehicle in this appearance,
|
|
but was himself the principal agent. He
|
|
that spoke through the serpent's mouth is
|
|
here struck at through the serpent's side, and
|
|
is principally intended in the sentence, which,
|
|
like the pillar of cloud and fire, has a dark
|
|
side towards the devil and a bright side
|
|
towards our first parents and their seed.
|
|
Great things are contained in these words.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. A perpetual reproach is here fastened
|
|
upon that great enemy both to God and
|
|
man. Under the cover of the serpent, he is
|
|
here sentenced to be,
|
|
|
|
(1.) Degraded and
|
|
accursed of God. It is supposed that the sin
|
|
which turned angels into devils was pride,
|
|
which is here justly punished by a great
|
|
variety of mortifications couched under the
|
|
mean circumstances of a serpent crawling
|
|
on his belly and licking the dust. <I>How art
|
|
thou fallen, O Lucifer!</I> He that would be
|
|
above God, and would head a rebellion
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Page30"> </A>
|
|
|
|
against him, is justly exposed here to contempt
|
|
and lies to be trodden on; a man's
|
|
pride will bring him low, and God will
|
|
humble those that will not humble themselves.
|
|
|
|
(2.) Detested and abhorred of all
|
|
mankind. Even those that are really seduced
|
|
into his interest yet profess a hatred
|
|
and abhorrence of him; and all that are
|
|
born of God make it their constant care to
|
|
keep themselves, that this wicked one touch
|
|
them not,
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Jo+5:18">1 John v. 18</A>.
|
|
He is here condemned
|
|
to a state of war and irreconcilable
|
|
enmity.
|
|
|
|
(3.) Destroyed and ruined at last
|
|
by <I>the great Redeemer,</I> signified by the
|
|
breaking of his head. His subtle politics
|
|
shall all be baffled, his usurped power shall
|
|
be entirely crushed, and he shall be for ever
|
|
a captive to the injured honour of divine
|
|
sovereignty. By being told of this now he
|
|
was tormented before the time.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. A perpetual quarrel is here commenced
|
|
between the kingdom of God and the kingdom
|
|
of the devil among men; war is proclaimed
|
|
between the seed of the woman and
|
|
the seed of the serpent. That war in heaven
|
|
between Michael and the dragon began now,
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Re+12:7">Rev. xii. 7</A>.
|
|
It is the fruit of this enmity,
|
|
|
|
(1.) That there is a continual conflict between
|
|
grace and corruption in the hearts of God's
|
|
people. Satan, by their corruptions, assaults
|
|
them, buffets them, sifts them, and seeks to
|
|
devour them; they, by the exercise of their
|
|
graces, resist him, wrestle with him, quench
|
|
his fiery darts, force him to flee from them.
|
|
Heaven and hell can never be reconciled,
|
|
nor light and darkness; no more can Satan
|
|
and a sanctified soul, for these are contrary
|
|
the one to the other.
|
|
|
|
(2.) That there is
|
|
likewise a continual struggle between the
|
|
wicked and the godly in this world. Those
|
|
that love God account those their enemies
|
|
that hate him,
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+139:21,22">Ps. cxxxix. 21, 22</A>.
|
|
And all
|
|
the rage and malice of persecutors against
|
|
the people of God are the fruit of this
|
|
enmity, which will continue while there is a
|
|
godly man on this side heaven, and a wicked
|
|
man on this side hell. <I>Marvel not therefore
|
|
if the world hate you,</I>
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Jo+3:13">1 John iii. 13</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
3. A gracious promise is here made of
|
|
Christ, as the deliverer of fallen man from
|
|
the power of Satan. Though what was said
|
|
was addressed to the serpent, yet it was said
|
|
in the hearing of our first parents, who,
|
|
doubtless, took the hints of grace here given
|
|
them, and saw a door of hope opened to
|
|
them, else the following sentence upon
|
|
themselves would have overwhelmed them.
|
|
Here was the dawning of the gospel day.
|
|
No sooner was the wound given than the
|
|
remedy was provided and revealed. Here,
|
|
<I>in the head of the book,</I> as the word is
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Heb+10:7">Heb. x. 7</A>),
|
|
in the beginning of the Bible, it is
|
|
written of Christ, that he should <I>do the will
|
|
of God.</I> By faith in this promise, we have
|
|
reason to think, our first parents, and the
|
|
patriarchs before the flood, were justified
|
|
and saved and to this promise, and the
|
|
benefit of it, instantly serving God day and
|
|
night, they hoped to come. Notice is here
|
|
given them of three things concerning Christ:--
|
|
|
|
(1.) His incarnation, that he should
|
|
be <I>the seed of the woman,</I> the seed of <I>that</I>
|
|
woman; therefore his genealogy
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Lu+3:1-38">Luke iii.</A>)
|
|
goes so high as to show him to be the son
|
|
of Adam, but God does the woman the
|
|
honour to call him rather her seed, because
|
|
she it was whom the devil had beguiled,
|
|
and on whom Adam had laid the blame;
|
|
herein God magnifies his grace, in that,
|
|
though the woman was first in the transgression,
|
|
yet she shall be saved <I>by</I> child-bearing
|
|
(as some read it), that is, by the
|
|
promised seed who shall descend from her,
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Ti+2:15">1 Tim. ii. 15</A>.
|
|
He was likewise to be the
|
|
seed of a woman only, of a virgin, that he
|
|
might not be tainted with the corruption of
|
|
our nature; he was sent forth, <I>made of a
|
|
woman</I>
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ga+4:4">Gal. iv. 4</A>),
|
|
that this promise might
|
|
be fulfilled. It is a great encouragement to
|
|
sinners that their Saviour <I>is the seed of the
|
|
woman, bone of our bone,</I>
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Heb+2:11,14">Heb. ii. 11, 14</A>.
|
|
Man is therefore sinful and unclean, because
|
|
he is <I>born of a woman</I>
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+25:4">Job xxv. 4</A>),
|
|
and therefore <I>his days are full of trouble,</I>
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+14:1">Job xiv. 1</A>.
|
|
But the seed of the woman was
|
|
made sin and a curse for us, so saving us
|
|
from both.
|
|
|
|
(2.) His sufferings and death,
|
|
pointed at in Satan's <I>bruising his heel,</I> that
|
|
is, his human nature. Satan tempted Christ
|
|
in the wilderness, to draw him into sin; and
|
|
some think it was Satan that terrified Christ
|
|
in his agony, to drive him to despair. It
|
|
was the devil that put it into the heart of
|
|
Judas to betray Christ, of Peter to deny him,
|
|
of the chief priests to prosecute him, of the
|
|
false witnesses to accuse him, and of Pilate
|
|
to condemn him, aiming in all this, by destroying
|
|
the Saviour, to ruin the salvation;
|
|
but, on the contrary, it was by death that
|
|
Christ <I>destroyed him that had the power of
|
|
death,</I>
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Heb+2:14">Heb. ii. 14</A>.
|
|
Christ's heel was bruised
|
|
when his feet were pierced and nailed to the
|
|
cross, and Christ's sufferings are continued
|
|
in the sufferings of the saints for his name.
|
|
The devil tempts them, casts them into
|
|
prison, persecutes and slays them, and so
|
|
bruises the heel of Christ, who is afflicted in
|
|
their afflictions. But, while the heel is
|
|
bruised on earth, it is well that the head is
|
|
safe in heaven.
|
|
|
|
(3.) His victory over
|
|
Satan thereby. Satan had now trampled
|
|
upon the woman, and insulted over her; but
|
|
the seed of the woman should be raised up
|
|
in the fulness of time to avenge her quarrel,
|
|
and to trample upon him, to spoil him, to
|
|
lead him captive, and to <I>triumph over him,</I>
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Col+2:15">Col. ii. 15</A>.
|
|
<I>He shall bruise his head,</I> that is,
|
|
he shall destroy all his politics and all his
|
|
powers, and give a total overthrow to his
|
|
kingdom and interest. Christ baffled Satan's
|
|
temptations, rescued souls out of his hands,
|
|
cast him out of the bodies of people, dispossessed
|
|
the strong man armed, and divided
|
|
his spoil: by his death, he gave a fatal and
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Page31"> </A>
|
|
|
|
incurable blow to the devil's kingdom, a
|
|
wound to the head of this beast, that can
|
|
never be healed. As his gospel gets ground,
|
|
<I>Satan falls</I>
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Lu+10:18">Luke x. 18</A>)
|
|
and is <I>bound,</I>
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Re+20:2">Rev. xx. 2</A>.
|
|
By his grace, he treads Satan under
|
|
his people's feet
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ro+16:20">Rom. xvi. 20</A>)
|
|
and will
|
|
shortly cast him into the lake of fire,
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Re+20:10">Rev. xx. 10</A>.
|
|
And the devil's perpetual overthrow
|
|
will be the complete and everlasting joy and
|
|
glory of the chosen remnant.</P>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Ge3_16"> </A>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Sec4"> </A>
|
|
<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
|
|
<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>Sentence Passed on Eve.</I></FONT></TD>
|
|
<TD ALIGN=RIGHT><FONT SIZE=-1>B. C.</FONT> 4004.</TD></TR>
|
|
<TR><TD COLSPAN=2><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
|
|
</TABLE>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<FONT SIZE=+1>16 Unto the woman he said, I
|
|
will greatly multiply thy sorrow and
|
|
thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt
|
|
bring forth children; and thy desire
|
|
<I>shall be</I> to thy husband, and he shall
|
|
rule over thee.
|
|
</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
We have here the sentence passed upon
|
|
the woman for her sin. Two things she is
|
|
condemned to: a state of sorrow, and a state
|
|
of subjection, proper punishments of a sin in
|
|
which she had gratified her pleasure and her
|
|
pride.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
I. She is here put into a state of sorrow,
|
|
one particular of which only is specified, that
|
|
in bringing forth children; but it includes
|
|
all those impressions of grief and fear which
|
|
the mind of that tender sex is most apt to
|
|
receive, and all the common calamities
|
|
which they are liable to. Note, Sin brought
|
|
sorrow into the world; it was this that made
|
|
the world a vale of tears, brought showers
|
|
of trouble upon our heads, and opened
|
|
springs of sorrows in our hearts, and so
|
|
deluged the world: had we known no guilt,
|
|
we should have known no grief. The pains
|
|
of child-bearing, which are great to a proverb,
|
|
a scripture proverb, are the effect of
|
|
sin; every pang and every groan of the travailing
|
|
woman speak aloud the fatal consequences
|
|
of sin: this comes of eating forbidden
|
|
fruit. Observe,
|
|
|
|
1. The sorrows are
|
|
here said to be multiplied, <I>greatly multiplied.</I>
|
|
All the sorrows of this present time are so;
|
|
many are the calamities which human life is
|
|
liable to, of various kinds, and often repeated,
|
|
the clouds returning after the rain,
|
|
and no marvel that our sorrows are multiplied
|
|
when our sins are: both are innumerable
|
|
evils. The sorrows of child-bearing
|
|
are multiplied; for they include, not only the
|
|
travailing throes, but the indispositions
|
|
before (it is sorrow from the conception),
|
|
and the nursing toils and vexations after;
|
|
and after all, if the children prove wicked
|
|
and foolish, they are, more than ever, the
|
|
heaviness of her that bore them. Thus are
|
|
the sorrows multiplied; as one grief is over,
|
|
another succeeds in this world.
|
|
|
|
2. It is God
|
|
that multiplies our sorrows: <I>I will do it.</I>
|
|
God, as a righteous Judge, does it, which
|
|
ought to silence us under all our sorrows; as
|
|
many as they are, we have deserved them all,
|
|
and more: nay, God, as a tender Father,
|
|
does it for our necessary correction, that we
|
|
may be humbled for sin, and weaned from
|
|
the world by all our sorrows; and the good
|
|
we get by them, with the comfort we have
|
|
under them, will abundantly balance our sorrows,
|
|
how greatly soever they are multiplied.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
II. She is here put into a state of subjection.
|
|
The whole sex, which by creation was
|
|
equal with man, is, for sin, made inferior,
|
|
and forbidden to <I>usurp authority,</I>
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Ti+2:11,12">1 Tim. ii. 11, 12</A>.
|
|
The wife particularly is hereby put
|
|
under the dominion of her husband, and is
|
|
not <I>sui juris--at her own disposal,</I> of which see
|
|
an instance in that law,
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Nu+30:6-8">Num. xxx. 6-8</A>,
|
|
where the husband is empowered, if he
|
|
please, to disannul the vows made by the
|
|
wife. This sentence amounts only to that
|
|
command, <I>Wives, be in subjection to your
|
|
own husbands;</I> but the entrance of sin has
|
|
made that duty a punishment, which otherwise
|
|
it would not have been. If man had
|
|
not sinned, he would always have ruled with
|
|
wisdom and love; and, if the woman had not
|
|
sinned, she would always have obeyed with
|
|
humility and meekness; and then the dominion
|
|
would have been no grievance: but
|
|
our own sin and folly make our yoke heavy.
|
|
If Eve had not eaten forbidden fruit herself,
|
|
and tempted her husband to eat it, she
|
|
would never have complained of her subjection;
|
|
therefore it ought never to be complained
|
|
of, though harsh; but sin must be
|
|
complained of, that made it so. Those wives
|
|
who not only despise and disobey their husbands,
|
|
but domineer over them, do not consider
|
|
that they not only violate a divine law,
|
|
but thwart a divine sentence.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
III. Observe here how mercy is mixed
|
|
with wrath in this sentence. The woman
|
|
shall have sorrow, but it shall be in bringing
|
|
forth children, and the sorrow shall be <I>forgotten
|
|
for joy that a child is born,</I>
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+16:21">John xvi. 21</A>.
|
|
She shall be subject, but it shall be to
|
|
her own husband that loves her, not to a
|
|
stranger, or an enemy: the sentence was not
|
|
a curse, to bring her to ruin, but a chastisement,
|
|
to bring her to repentance. It was well
|
|
that enmity was not put between the man
|
|
and the woman, as there was between the
|
|
serpent and the woman.</P>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Ge3_17"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ge3_18"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ge3_19"> </A>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Sec5"> </A>
|
|
<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
|
|
<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>Sentence Passed on Adam; Consequences of the Fall.</I></FONT></TD>
|
|
<TD ALIGN=RIGHT><FONT SIZE=-1>B. C.</FONT> 4004.</TD></TR>
|
|
<TR><TD COLSPAN=2><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
|
|
</TABLE>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<FONT SIZE=+1>17 And unto Adam he said, Because
|
|
thou hast hearkened unto the
|
|
voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of
|
|
the tree, of which I commanded thee,
|
|
saying, Thou shalt not eat of it:
|
|
cursed <I>is</I> the ground for thy sake; in
|
|
sorrow shalt thou eat <I>of</I> it all the
|
|
days of thy life;
|
|
18 Thorns also and
|
|
thistles shall it bring forth to thee;
|
|
and thou shalt eat the herb of the
|
|
field;
|
|
19 In the sweat of thy face
|
|
shalt thou eat bread, till thou return
|
|
unto the ground; for out of it wast
|
|
thou taken: for dust thou <I>art,</I> and
|
|
unto dust shalt thou return.
|
|
</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Page32"> </A>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
We have here the sentence passed upon
|
|
Adam, which is prefaced with a recital of his
|
|
crime: <I>Because thou hast hearkened to the
|
|
voice of thy wife,</I>
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+3:17"><I>v.</I> 17</A>.
|
|
He excused the
|
|
fault, by laying it on his wife: <I>She gave it
|
|
me.</I> But God does not admit the excuse.
|
|
She could but tempt him, she could not
|
|
force him; though it was her fault to persuade
|
|
him to eat, it was his fault to hearken
|
|
to her. Thus men's frivolous pleas will, in
|
|
the day of God's judgment, not only be
|
|
overruled, but turned against them, and
|
|
made the grounds of their sentence. <I>Out of
|
|
thine own mouth will I judge thee.</I> Observe,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
I. God put marks of his displeasure on
|
|
Adam in three instances:--</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. His habitation is, by this sentence,
|
|
cursed: <I>Cursed is the ground for thy sake;</I>
|
|
and the effect of that curse is, <I>Thorns and
|
|
thistles shall it bring forth unto thee.</I> It is
|
|
here intimated that his habitation should be
|
|
changed; he should no longer dwell in a
|
|
distinguished, blessed, paradise, but should
|
|
be removed to common ground, and that
|
|
cursed. The ground, or earth, is here put
|
|
for the whole visible creation, which, by the
|
|
sin of man, is made subject to vanity, the
|
|
several parts of it being not so serviceable to
|
|
man's comfort and happiness as they were
|
|
designed to be when they were made, and
|
|
would have been if he had not sinned. God
|
|
gave the earth to the children of men, designing
|
|
it to be a comfortable dwelling to
|
|
them. But sin has altered the property of it.
|
|
It is now cursed for man's sin; that is, it is
|
|
a dishonourable habitation, it bespeaks man
|
|
mean, that his foundation is in the dust; it
|
|
is a dry and barren habitation, its spontaneous
|
|
productions are now weeds and briers, something
|
|
nauseous or noxious; what good fruits
|
|
it produces must be extorted from it by the
|
|
ingenuity and industry of man. Fruitfulness
|
|
was its blessing, for man's service
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+1:11,29"><I>ch.</I> i. 11, 29</A>),
|
|
and now barrenness was its curse,
|
|
for man's punishment. It is not what it
|
|
was in the day it was created. Sin turned a
|
|
fruitful land into barrenness; and man,
|
|
having become as the wild ass's colt, has the
|
|
wild ass's lot, <I>the wilderness for his habitation,</I>
|
|
and the <I>barren land his dwelling,</I>
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+39:6,Ps+68:6">Job xxxix. 6; Ps. lxviii. 6</A>.
|
|
Had not this curse been in part
|
|
removed, for aught I know, the earth would
|
|
have been for ever barren, and never produced
|
|
any thing but thorns and thistles. The
|
|
ground is <I>cursed,</I> that is, doomed to destruction
|
|
at the end of time, when the earth, and
|
|
<I>all the works that are therein, shall be burnt up</I>
|
|
for the sin of man, the measure of whose
|
|
iniquity will then be full,
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Pe+3:7,10">2 Pet. iii. 7, 10</A>.
|
|
But observe a mixture of mercy in this sentence.
|
|
|
|
(1.) Adam himself is not cursed, as
|
|
the serpent was
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+3:14"><I>v.</I> 14</A>),
|
|
but only the ground
|
|
for his sake. God had blessings in him, even
|
|
the holy seed: <I>Destroy it not, for that blessing
|
|
is in it,</I>
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+65:8">Isa. lxv. 8</A>.
|
|
And he had blessings
|
|
in store for him; therefore he is not directly
|
|
and immediately cursed, but, as it were, at
|
|
second hand.
|
|
|
|
(2.) He is yet above ground.
|
|
The earth does not open and swallow him
|
|
up; only it is not what it was: as he continues
|
|
alive, notwithstanding his degeneracy
|
|
from his primitive purity and rectitude, so
|
|
the earth continues to be his habitation, notwithstanding
|
|
its degeneracy from its primitive
|
|
beauty and fruitfulness.
|
|
|
|
(3.) This curse upon
|
|
the earth, which cut off all expectations of a
|
|
happiness in things below, might direct and
|
|
quicken him to look for bliss and satisfaction
|
|
only in things above.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. His employments and enjoyments are
|
|
all embittered to him.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(1.) His business shall henceforth become
|
|
a toil to him, and he shall go on with it <I>in the
|
|
sweat of his face,</I>
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+3:19"><I>v.</I> 19</A>.
|
|
His business, before
|
|
he sinned, was a constant pleasure to him,
|
|
the garden was then dressed without any uneasy
|
|
labour, and kept without any uneasy
|
|
care; but now his labour shall be a weariness
|
|
and shall waste his body; his care shall be a
|
|
torment and shall afflict his mind. The curse
|
|
upon the ground which made it barren, and
|
|
produced thorns and thistles, made his employment
|
|
about it much more difficult and
|
|
toilsome. If Adam had not sinned, he had
|
|
not sweated. Observe here,
|
|
|
|
[1.] That labour
|
|
is our duty, which we must faithfully perform;
|
|
we are bound to work, not as creatures only,
|
|
but as criminals; it is part of our sentence,
|
|
which idleness daringly defies.
|
|
|
|
[2.] That
|
|
uneasiness and weariness with labour are our
|
|
just punishment, which we must patiently
|
|
submit to, and not complain of, since they
|
|
are less than our iniquity deserves. Let not
|
|
us, by inordinate care and labour, make our
|
|
punishment heavier than God has made it;
|
|
but rather study to lighten our burden, and
|
|
wipe off our sweat, by eyeing Providence in
|
|
all and expecting rest shortly.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(2.) His food shall henceforth become (in
|
|
comparison with what it had been) unpleasant
|
|
to him.
|
|
|
|
[1.] The matter of his food is
|
|
changed; he must now eat the herb of the
|
|
field, and must no longer be feasted with the
|
|
delicacies of the garden of Eden. Having by
|
|
sin made himself like the beasts that perish,
|
|
he is justly turned to be a fellow-commoner
|
|
with them, and to <I>eat grass as oxen, till he
|
|
know that the heavens do rule.</I>
|
|
|
|
[2.] There is
|
|
a change in the manner of his eating it: <I>In
|
|
sorrow</I>
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+3:17"><I>v.</I> 17</A>).
|
|
and <I>in the sweat of his face</I>
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+3:19"><I>v.</I> 19</A>)
|
|
he must eat of it. Adam could not
|
|
but eat in sorrow all the days of his life, remembering
|
|
the forbidden fruit he had eaten,
|
|
and the guilt and shame he had contracted
|
|
by it. Observe, <I>First,</I> That human life is
|
|
exposed to many miseries and calamities,
|
|
which very much embitter the poor remains
|
|
of its pleasures and delights. Some never
|
|
eat with pleasure
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+21:25">Job xxi. 25</A>),
|
|
through sickness
|
|
or melancholy; all, even the best, have
|
|
cause to eat with sorrow for sin; and all,
|
|
even the happiest in this world, have some
|
|
allays to their joy: troops of diseases, disasters,
|
|
and deaths, in various shapes, entered
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Page33"> </A>
|
|
|
|
the world with sin, and still ravage it. <I>Secondly,</I>
|
|
That the righteousness of God is to
|
|
be acknowledged in all the sad consequences
|
|
of sin. <I>Wherefore then should a living man
|
|
complain?</I> Yet, in this part of the sentence,
|
|
there is also a mixture of mercy. He shall
|
|
sweat, but his toil shall make his rest the
|
|
more welcome when he returns to his earth,
|
|
as to his bed; he shall grieve, but he shall
|
|
not starve; he shall have sorrow, but in that
|
|
sorrow he shall eat bread, which shall
|
|
strengthen his heart under his sorrows. He
|
|
is not sentenced to eat dust as the serpent,
|
|
only to eat the herb of the field.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
3. His life also is but short. Considering
|
|
how full of trouble his days are, it is in
|
|
favour to him that they are few; yet death
|
|
being dreadful to nature (yea, even though
|
|
life be unpleasant) <I>that</I> concludes the sentence.
|
|
"Thou shalt <I>return to the ground out
|
|
of which thou wast taken;</I> thy body, that part
|
|
of thee which was taken out of the ground,
|
|
shall return to it again; for <I>dust thou art.</I>"
|
|
This points either to the first original of his
|
|
body; it was made <I>of the dust,</I> nay it was
|
|
<I>made dust,</I> and was still so; so that there
|
|
needed no more than to recall the grant of
|
|
immortality, and to withdraw the power
|
|
which was put forth to support it, and then
|
|
he would, of course, <I>return to dust.</I> Or to
|
|
the present corruption and degeneracy of his
|
|
mind: <I>Dust thou art,</I> that is, "Thy precious
|
|
soul is now lost and buried in the dust of the
|
|
body and the mire of the flesh; it was made
|
|
spiritual and heavenly, but it has become
|
|
carnal and earthly." His doom is therefore
|
|
read: "<I>To dust thou shalt return.</I> Thy body
|
|
shall be forsaken by thy soul, and become
|
|
itself a lump of dust; and then it shall be
|
|
lodged in the grave, the proper place for it,
|
|
and mingle itself with the dust of the earth,"
|
|
<I>our dust,</I>
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+104:29">Ps. civ. 29</A>.
|
|
<I>Earth to earth, dust to
|
|
dust.</I> Observe here,
|
|
|
|
(1.) That man is a mean
|
|
frail creature, <I>little</I> as dust, the small dust of
|
|
the balance--<I>light</I> as dust, altogether lighter
|
|
than vanity--<I>weak</I> as dust, and of no consistency.
|
|
Our strength is not the strength
|
|
of stones; he that made us considers it, and
|
|
<I>remembers that we are dust,</I>
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+103:14">Ps. ciii. 14</A>.
|
|
Man is indeed the <I>chief part of the dust of the
|
|
world</I>
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Pr+8:26">Prov. viii. 26</A>),
|
|
but still he is dust.
|
|
|
|
(2.) That he is a mortal dying creature, and
|
|
hastening to the grave. Dust may be raised,
|
|
for a time, into a little cloud, and may seem
|
|
considerable while it is held up by the wind
|
|
that raised it; but, when the force of that is
|
|
spent, it falls again, and returns to the earth
|
|
out of which it was raised. Such a thing is
|
|
man; a great man is but a great mass of
|
|
dust, and must return to his earth.
|
|
|
|
(3.) That
|
|
sin brought death into the world. If Adam
|
|
had not sinned, he would not have died,
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ro+5:12">Rom. v. 12</A>.
|
|
God entrusted Adam with a
|
|
spark of immortality, which he, by a patient
|
|
continuance in well-doing, might have
|
|
blown up into an everlasting flame; but he
|
|
foolishly blew it out by wilful sin: and now
|
|
death is <I>the wages of sin, and sin is the sting of
|
|
death.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
II. We must not go off from this sentence
|
|
upon our first parents, which we are all so
|
|
nearly concerned in, and feel from, to this
|
|
day, till we have considered two things:--</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. How fitly the sad consequences of sin
|
|
upon the soul of Adam and his sinful race
|
|
were represented and figured out by this sentence,
|
|
and perhaps were more intended in it
|
|
than we are aware of. Though that misery
|
|
only is mentioned which affected the body,
|
|
yet that was a pattern of spiritual miseries,
|
|
the curse that entered into the soul.
|
|
|
|
(1.) The
|
|
pains of a woman in travail represent the
|
|
terrors and pangs of a guilty conscience,
|
|
awakened to a sense of sin; from the conception
|
|
of lust, these sorrows are greatly multiplied,
|
|
and, sooner or later, will come upon
|
|
the sinner like pain upon a woman in travail,
|
|
which cannot be avoided.
|
|
|
|
(2.) The state of
|
|
subjection to which the woman was reduced
|
|
represents that loss of spiritual liberty and
|
|
freedom of will which is the effect of sin. The
|
|
dominion of sin in the soul is compared to
|
|
that of a husband
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ro+7:1-5">Rom. vii. 1-5</A>),
|
|
the sinner's
|
|
desire is towards it, for he is fond of his
|
|
slavery, and it rules over him.
|
|
|
|
(3.) The curse
|
|
of barrenness which was brought upon the
|
|
earth, and its produce of briars and thorns,
|
|
are a fit representation of the barrenness of a
|
|
corrupt and sinful soul in that which is good
|
|
and its fruitfulness in evil. It is all overgrown
|
|
with thorns, and nettles cover the face
|
|
of it; and therefore it is <I>nigh unto cursing,</I>
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Heb+6:8">Heb. vi. 8</A>.
|
|
|
|
(4.) The toil and sweat bespeak
|
|
the difficulty which, through the infirmity of
|
|
the flesh, man labours under, in the service
|
|
of God and the work of religion, so hard has
|
|
it now become to <I>enter into the kingdom of
|
|
heaven.</I> Blessed be God, it is not impossible.
|
|
|
|
(5.) The embittering of his food to him bespeaks
|
|
the soul's want of the comfort of God's
|
|
favour, which is life, and the bread of life.
|
|
|
|
(6.) The soul, like the body, returns to the
|
|
dust of this world; its tendency is that way;
|
|
it has an earthy taint,
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+3:31">John iii. 31</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. How admirably the satisfaction our Lord
|
|
Jesus made by his death and sufferings answered
|
|
to the sentence here passed upon our
|
|
first parents.
|
|
|
|
(1.) Did travailing pains come
|
|
in with sin? We read of the <I>travail of
|
|
Christ's soul</I>
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+53:11">Isa. liii. 11</A>);
|
|
and the pains of
|
|
death he was held by are called <B><I>odinai</I></B>
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+2:24">Acts ii. 24</A>),
|
|
<I>the pains of a woman in travail.</I>
|
|
|
|
(2.) Did subjection come in with sin? Christ
|
|
was made under the law,
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ga+4:4">Gal. iv. 4</A>.
|
|
|
|
(3.) Did
|
|
the curse come in with sin? Christ was made
|
|
a curse for us, died a cursed death,
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ga+3:13">Gal. iii. 13</A>.
|
|
|
|
(4.) Did thorns come in with sin? He
|
|
was crowned with thorns for us.
|
|
|
|
(5.) Did sweat come in with sin? He for us did sweat
|
|
as it were great drops of blood.
|
|
|
|
(6.) Did sorrow come in with sin? He was a man of
|
|
sorrows, his soul was, in his agony, exceedingly
|
|
sorrowful.
|
|
|
|
(7.) Did death come in with
|
|
sin? He became obedient unto death. Thus
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Page34"> </A>
|
|
|
|
is the plaster as wide as the wound. Blessed
|
|
be God for Jesus Christ!</P>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Ge3_20"> </A>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<FONT SIZE=+1>20 And Adam called his wife's
|
|
name Eve; because she was the mother
|
|
of all living.
|
|
</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
God having named the man, and called him
|
|
<I>Adam,</I> which signifies <I>red earth,</I> Adam, in
|
|
further token of dominion, named the woman,
|
|
and called her <I>Eve,</I> that is, <I>life.</I> Adam bears
|
|
the name of the dying body, Eve that of the
|
|
living soul. The reason of the name is here
|
|
given (some think, by Moses the historian,
|
|
others, by Adam himself): <I>Because she was</I>
|
|
(that is, was to be) <I>the mother of all living.</I>
|
|
He had before called her <I>Ishah--woman,</I> as a
|
|
wife; here he calls her <I>Evah--life,</I> as a
|
|
mother. Now,
|
|
|
|
1. If this was done by divine
|
|
direction, it was an instance of God's favour,
|
|
and, like the new naming of Abraham and
|
|
Sarah, it was a seal of the covenant, and an
|
|
assurance to them that, notwithstanding their
|
|
sin and his displeasure against them for it,
|
|
he had not reversed that blessing wherewith
|
|
he had blessed them: <I>Be fruitful and multiply.</I>
|
|
It was likewise a confirmation of the promise
|
|
now made, that the seed of the woman, of
|
|
this woman, should break the serpent's head.
|
|
|
|
2. If Adam did it of himself, it was an instance
|
|
of his faith in the word of God. Doubtless
|
|
it was not done, as some have suspected,
|
|
in contempt or defiance of the curse, but
|
|
rather in a humble confidence and dependence
|
|
upon the blessing.
|
|
|
|
(1.) The blessing
|
|
of a reprieve, admiring the patience of God,
|
|
that he should spare such sinners to be the
|
|
parents of all living, and that he did not immediately
|
|
shut up those fountains of the
|
|
human life and nature, because they could
|
|
send forth no other than polluted, poisoned,
|
|
streams.
|
|
|
|
(2.) The blessing of a Redeemer,
|
|
the promised seed, to whom Adam had an
|
|
eye, in calling his wife <I>Eve--life;</I> for he
|
|
should be the life of all the living, and in
|
|
him all the families of the earth should be
|
|
blessed, in hope of which he thus triumphs.</P>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Ge3_21"> </A>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<FONT SIZE=+1>21 Unto Adam also and to his wife
|
|
did the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT> God make coats of
|
|
skins, and clothed them.
|
|
</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
We have here a further instance of God's
|
|
care concerning our first parents, notwithstanding
|
|
their sin. Though he corrects his
|
|
disobedient children, and put them under
|
|
the marks of his displeasure, yet he does not
|
|
disinherit them, but, like a tender father, provides
|
|
the herb of the field for their food and
|
|
<I>coats of skins</I> for their clothing. Thus the
|
|
father provided for the returning prodigal,
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Lu+15:22">Luke xv. 22, 23</A>.
|
|
If the Lord had been
|
|
pleased to kill them, he would not have done
|
|
this for them. Observe,
|
|
|
|
1. That clothes
|
|
came in with sin. We should have had no
|
|
occasion for them, either for defence or decency,
|
|
if sin had not made us naked, to our
|
|
shame. Little reason therefore we have to
|
|
be proud of our clothes, which are but the
|
|
badges of our poverty and infamy.
|
|
|
|
2. That
|
|
when God made clothes for our first parents
|
|
he made them warm and strong, but coarse
|
|
and very plain: not robes of scarlet, but coats
|
|
of skin. Their clothes were made, not of
|
|
silk and satin, but plain skins; not trimmed,
|
|
nor embroidered, none of the ornaments
|
|
which the daughters of Sion afterwards invented,
|
|
and prided themselves in. Let the
|
|
poor, that are meanly clad, learn hence not to
|
|
complain: having food and a covering, let
|
|
them be content; they are as well done to
|
|
as Adam and Eve were. And let the rich,
|
|
that are finely clad, learn hence not to make
|
|
the putting on of apparel their adorning,
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=1Pe+3:3">1 Pet. iii. 3</A>.
|
|
|
|
3. That God is to be acknowledged
|
|
with thankfulness, not only in giving
|
|
us food, but in giving us clothes also,
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+28:20"><I>ch.</I> xxviii. 20</A>.
|
|
The wool and the flax are his, as
|
|
well as <I>the corn and the wine,</I>
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ho+2:9">Hos. ii. 9</A>.
|
|
|
|
4. These coats of skin had a significancy. The
|
|
beasts whose skins they were must be slain,
|
|
slain before their eyes, to show them what
|
|
death is, and (as it is
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ec+3:18">Eccl. iii. 18</A>)
|
|
that they
|
|
may see that they themselves were beasts,
|
|
mortal and dying. It is supposed that they
|
|
were slain, not for food, but for sacrifice, to
|
|
typify the great sacrifice, which, in the latter
|
|
end of the world, should be offered once for
|
|
all. Thus the first thing that died was a
|
|
sacrifice, or Christ in a figure, who is therefore
|
|
said to be the <I>Lamb slain from the foundation
|
|
of the world.</I> These sacrifices were
|
|
divided between God and man, in token of
|
|
reconciliation: the flesh was offered to God, a
|
|
whole burnt-offering; the skins were given
|
|
to man for clothing, signifying that, Jesus
|
|
Christ having offered himself to God a sacrifice
|
|
of a sweet-smelling savour, we are to
|
|
clothe ourselves with his righteousness as
|
|
with a garment, that the shame of our nakedness
|
|
may not appear. Adam and Eve made
|
|
for themselves aprons of fig-leaves, a covering
|
|
too narrow for them to <I>wrap themselves in,</I>
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+28:20">Isa. xxviii. 20</A>.
|
|
Such are all the rags of
|
|
our own righteousness. But God made
|
|
them coats of skins; large, and strong, and
|
|
durable, and fit for them; such is the righteousness
|
|
of Christ. Therefore <I>put on the
|
|
Lord Jesus Christ.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Ge3_22"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ge3_23"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Ge3_24"> </A>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Sec6"> </A>
|
|
<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
|
|
<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>Adam and Eve Expelled from Eden.</I></FONT></TD>
|
|
<TD ALIGN=RIGHT><FONT SIZE=-1>B. C.</FONT> 4004.</TD></TR>
|
|
<TR><TD COLSPAN=2><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
|
|
</TABLE>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<FONT SIZE=+1>22 And the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT> God said, Behold,
|
|
the man is become as one of us, to know
|
|
good and evil: and now, lest he put
|
|
forth his hand, and take also of the
|
|
tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
|
|
23 Therefore the L<FONT SIZE=-1><B>ORD</B></FONT> God sent
|
|
him forth from the garden of Eden,
|
|
to till the ground from whence he
|
|
was taken.
|
|
24 So he drove out the
|
|
man; and he placed at the east of
|
|
the garden of Eden cherubims, and
|
|
a flaming sword which turned every
|
|
way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
|
|
</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Sentence being passed upon the offenders,
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Page35"> </A>
|
|
|
|
we have here execution, in part, done upon
|
|
them immediately. Observe here,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
I. How they were justly disgraced and
|
|
shamed before God and the holy angels, by
|
|
the ironical upbraiding of them with the issue
|
|
of their enterprise: "<I>Behold, the man has become
|
|
as one of us, to know good and evil!</I> A
|
|
goodly god he makes! Does he not? See
|
|
what he has got, what preferments, what advantages,
|
|
by eating forbidden fruit!" This
|
|
was said to awaken and humble them, and to
|
|
bring them to a sense of their sin and folly,
|
|
and to repentance for it, that, seeing themselves
|
|
thus wretchedly deceived by following
|
|
the devil's counsel, they might henceforth
|
|
pursue the happiness God should offer in
|
|
the way he should prescribe. God thus <I>fills
|
|
their faces with shame, that they may seek his
|
|
name,</I>
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+83:16">Ps. lxxxiii. 16</A>.
|
|
He puts them to this
|
|
confusion, in order to their conversion. True
|
|
penitents will thus upbraid themselves:
|
|
"What fruit have I now by sin?
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ro+6:21">Rom. vi. 21</A>.
|
|
Have I gained what I foolishly promised myself
|
|
in a sinful way? No, no, it never proved
|
|
what it pretended to, but the contrary."</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
II. How they were justly discarded, and
|
|
shut out of paradise, which was a part of the
|
|
sentence implied in that, <I>Thou shalt eat the
|
|
herb of the field.</I> Here we have,</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. The reason God gave why he shut man
|
|
out of paradise; not only because he had put
|
|
forth his hand, and taken of the tree of knowledge,
|
|
which was his sin, but lest he should
|
|
again put forth his hand, and take also of the
|
|
tree of life (now forbidden him by the divine
|
|
sentence, as before the tree of knowledge was
|
|
forbidden by the law), and should dare to
|
|
eat of that tree, and so profane a divine sacrament
|
|
and defy a divine sentence, and yet
|
|
flatter himself with a conceit that thereby he
|
|
should live forever. Observe,
|
|
|
|
(1.) There is
|
|
a foolish proneness in those that have rendered
|
|
themselves unworthy of the substance
|
|
of Christian privileges to catch at the signs
|
|
and shadows of them. Many that like not
|
|
the terms of the covenant, yet, for their reputation's
|
|
sake, are fond of the seals of it.
|
|
|
|
(2.) It is not only justice, but kindness, to such,
|
|
to be denied them; for, by usurping that to
|
|
which they have no title, they affront God
|
|
and make their sin the more heinous, and by
|
|
building their hopes upon a wrong foundation
|
|
they render their conversion the more
|
|
difficult and their ruin the more deplorable.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. The method God took, in giving him
|
|
this bill of divorce, and expelling and excluding
|
|
him from this garden of pleasure.
|
|
He turned him out, and kept him out.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(1.) He turned him out, from the garden
|
|
to the common. This is twice mentioned:
|
|
<I>He sent him forth</I>
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+3:23"><I>v.</I> 23</A>),
|
|
and then <I>he drove
|
|
him out,</I>
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+3:24"><I>v.</I> 24</A>.
|
|
God bade him go out, told
|
|
him that that was no place for him, he should
|
|
no longer occupy and enjoy that garden; but
|
|
he liked the place too well to be willing to
|
|
part with it, and therefore God <I>drove him out,</I>
|
|
made him go out, whether he would or no.
|
|
This signified the exclusion of him, and all
|
|
his guilty race, from that communion with
|
|
God which was the bliss and glory of paradise.
|
|
The tokens of God's favour to him
|
|
and his delight in the sons of men, which he
|
|
had in his innocent estate, were now suspended;
|
|
the communications of his grace
|
|
were withheld, and Adam became weak, and
|
|
like other men, as Samson when the <I>Spirit of
|
|
the Lord had departed from him.</I> His acquaintance
|
|
with God was lessened and lost,
|
|
and that correspondence which had been
|
|
settled between man and his Maker was interrupted
|
|
and broken off. He was driven
|
|
out, as one unworthy of this honour and incapable
|
|
of this service. Thus he and all
|
|
mankind, by the fall, forfeited and lost communion
|
|
with God. But whither did he send
|
|
him when he turned him out of Eden? He
|
|
might justly have chased him out of the
|
|
world
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+18:18">Job xviii. 18</A>),
|
|
but he only chased him
|
|
out of the garden. He might justly have
|
|
cast him down to hell, as he did the angels
|
|
that sinned when he shut them out from the
|
|
heavenly paradise,
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=2Pe+2:4">2 Pet. ii. 4</A>.
|
|
But man
|
|
was only sent to till the ground out of which
|
|
he was taken. He was sent to a place of
|
|
toil, not to a place of torment. He was sent
|
|
to the ground, not to the grave,--to the
|
|
work-house, not to the dungeon, not to the
|
|
prison-house,--to hold the plough, not to
|
|
drag the chain. His tilling the ground
|
|
would be recompensed by his eating of its
|
|
fruits; and his converse with the earth
|
|
whence he was taken was improvable to good
|
|
purposes, to keep him humble, and to remind
|
|
him of his latter end. Observe, then,
|
|
that though our first parents were excluded
|
|
from the privileges of their state of innocency,
|
|
yet they were not abandoned to despair, God's
|
|
thoughts of love designing them for a second
|
|
state of probation upon new terms.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
(2.) He kept him out, and forbade him all
|
|
hopes of a re-entry; for he <I>placed at the east
|
|
of the garden of Eden</I> a detachment of <I>cherubim,</I>
|
|
God's hosts, armed with a dreadful and
|
|
irresistible power, represented by flaming
|
|
swords which turned every way, on that side
|
|
the garden which lay next to the place whither
|
|
Adam was sent, to keep the way that led to
|
|
the tree of life, so that he could neither steal
|
|
nor force an entry; for who can make a pass
|
|
against an angel on his guard or gain a pass
|
|
made good by such force? Now this intimated
|
|
to Adam,
|
|
|
|
[1.] That God was displeased
|
|
with him. Though he had mercy in
|
|
store for him, yet at present he was angry
|
|
with him, was turned to be his enemy and
|
|
fought against him, for here was a sword
|
|
drawn
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Nu+22:23">Num. xxii. 23</A>);
|
|
and he was to him a
|
|
consuming fire, for it was a flaming sword.
|
|
|
|
[2.] That the angels were at war with him;
|
|
no peace with the heavenly hosts, while he
|
|
was in rebellion against their Lord and ours.
|
|
|
|
[3.] That the way to the tree of life was shut
|
|
up, namely, that way which, at first, he was
|
|
put into, the way of spotless innocency. It
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Page36"> </A>
|
|
|
|
is not said that the cherubim were set to keep
|
|
him and his for ever from the tree of life
|
|
(thanks be to God, there is a paradise set
|
|
before us, and a tree of life in the midst of
|
|
it, which we rejoice in the hopes of); but
|
|
they were set to keep that way of the tree of
|
|
life which hitherto they had been in; that is,
|
|
it was henceforward in vain for him and his
|
|
to expect righteousness, life, and happiness,
|
|
by virtue of the first covenant, for it was irreparably
|
|
broken, and could never be pleaded,
|
|
nor any benefit taken by it. The command
|
|
of that covenant being broken, the curse of
|
|
it is in full force; it leaves no room for repentance,
|
|
but we are all undone if we be
|
|
judged by that covenant. God revealed this
|
|
to Adam, not to drive him to despair, but to
|
|
oblige and quicken him to look for life and
|
|
happiness in the promised seed, by whom
|
|
the flaming sword is removed. God and his
|
|
angels are reconciled to us, and a new and
|
|
living way into the holiest is consecrated and
|
|
laid open for us.</P>
|
|
|
|
<!-- (End Body) -->
|
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Matthew Henry<BR><I>Commentary on the Whole Bible</I> (1706)
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