Page:An Exposition of the Old and New Testament (1828) vol 1.djvu/66

34 shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.

Observe here,

I. God's authority over man, as a creature that had reason and freedom of will. The Lord God commanded the man, who stood now as a public person, the father and representative of all mankind, to receive law, as he had lately received a nature, for himself, and all his. God commanded all the creatures, according to their capacity; the settled course of nature is a law, Ps. 148. 6.—104. 9. The brute-creatures have their respective instincts; but man was made capable of performing reasonable service, and therefore receives, not only the command of a Creator, but the command of a Prince and Master. Though Adam was a very great man, a very good man, and a very happy man, yet the Lord God commanded him; and the command was no disparagement to his greatness, no reproach to his goodness, nor any diminution at all to his happiness. Let us acknowledge God's right to rule us, and our own obligations to be ruled by him; and never allow any will of our own, in contradiction to, or competition with, the holy will of God.

II. The particular act of this authority, in prescribing to him what he should do, and upon what terms he should stand with his Creator. Here is,

1. A confirmation of his present happiness to him, in that grant, Of every tree in the garden thou mayest freely eat. This was not only an allowance of liberty to him, in taking the delicious fruits of paradise, as a recompense for his care and pains in dressing and keeping it, (1 Cor. 9. 7, 10.) but it was, withal, an assurance of life to him, immortal life, upon his obedience. For the tree of life being put in the midst of the garden, v. 9, as the heart and soul of it, doubtless, God had an eye to that, especially in this grant; and therefore, when, upon his revolt, this grant is recalled, no notice is taken of any tree of the garden as prohibited to him, except the tree of life, ch. 3. 22, of which it is there said, he might have eaten and lived for ever, that is, never died, nor ever lost his happiness. "Continue holy as thou art, in conformity to thy Creator's will, and thou shalt continue happy as thou art, in the enjoyment of thy Creator's favour, either in this paradise, or in a better." Thus, upon condition of perfect personal and perpetual obedience, Adam was sure of paradise to himself and his heirs for ever.

2. A trial of his obedience, upon pain of the forfeiture of all his happiness; but of the other tree, which stood very near the tree of life, (for they are both said to be in the midst of the garden,) and which was called the tree of knowledge, in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die; as if he had said, "Know, Adam, that thou art now upon thy good behaviour, thou art put into paradise upon trial; be observant, be obedient, and thou art made for ever; otherwise thou wilt be as miserable, as now thou art happy." Here, (1.) Adam is threatened with death, in case of disobedience; dying thou shalt die, denoting a sure and dreadful sentence, as, in the former part of this covenant, eating thou shalt eat, denotes a free and full grant. Observe, [1.] That even Adam, in innocency, was awed with a threatening; fear is one of the handles of the soul, by which it is taken hold of and held. If he then needed this hedge, much more do we now. [2.] The penalty threatened, is death, Thou shalt die, that is, "Thou shalt be debarred from the tree of life, and all the good that is signified by it, all the happiness thou hast, either in possession or prospect; and thou shalt become liable to death, and all the miseries that preface it and attend it." [3.] This was threatened as the immediate consequence of sin. In the day thou eatest, thou shalt die, that is, "Thou shalt become mortal and capable of dying, the grant of immortality shall be recalled, and that defence shall depart from thee. Thou shalt become obnoxious to death, like a condemned malefactor that is dead in law;" (only because Adam was to be the root of mankind, he was reprieved;) "nay, the harbingers and forerunners of death shall immediately seize thee, and thy life, henceforward, shall be a dying life:" and this surely; it is a settled rule, the soul that sinneth, it shall die. (2.) Adam is tried with a positive law, not to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge. Now it was very proper to make trial of his obedience by such a command as this, [1.] Because the reason of it is fetched purely from the will of the Law-maker. Adam had in his nature an aversion to that which was evil in itself, and therefore he is tried in a thing which was evil, only because it was forbidden; and being in a small thing, it was the more fit to prove his obedience by. [2.] Because the restraint of it is laid upon the desires of the flesh and of the mind, which, in the corrupt nature of man, are the two great fountains of sin. This prohibition checked both his appetite towards sensitive delights and his ambition of curious knowledge; that his body might be ruled by his soul, and his soul by his God.

Thus easy, thus happy, was man in his state of innocency, having all that heart could wish to make him so. How good was God to him! How many favours did he load him with! How easy were the laws he gave him! How kind the covenant he made with him! Yet man, being in honour, understood not his own interest, but soon became as the beastbeasts [sic] that perish.

18. And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. 19. And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air, and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. 20. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.

Here we have, 1.I. [sic] An instance of the Creator's care of man, and his fatherly concern for his comfort, v. 18. Though God had let him know that he was a subject, by giving him a command, v. 16, 17, yet here he lets him know also, for his encouragement in his obedience, that he was a friend, and a favourite, and one whose satisfaction he was tender of. Observe,

1. How God graciously pitied his solitude; It is not good that man, this man, should be alone. Though there was an upper world of angels, and a lower world of brutes, and he between them, yet there being none of the same nature and rank of beings with himself, none that he could converse familiarly with, he might be truly said to be alone. Now he that made him, knew both him, and what was good for him, better than he did himself, and he said, "It is not good that he should continue thus alone." (1.) It is not for his comfort; for man is a sociable creature, it is a pleasure to him to exchange knowledge and affection with those of his own kind, to inform and to be informed, to love and to be beloved. What God here says of the first man, Solomon says of all men, (Eccl. 4. 9, &c. ) that two are better than one, and woe to him that is alone. If there were but one man in the world, what a