Page:An Exposition of the Old and New Testament (1828) vol 1.djvu/70

38 ; and the scoffers of the last days are his children. (4.) That which he aimed at in the first onset, was, to take off her sense of the obligation of the command. "Surely, you are mistaken, it cannot be that God should tie you out from this tree; he would not do so unreasonable a thing." See here, That it is the subtlety of Satan to blemish the reputation of the divine law, as uncertain, or unreasonable, and so to draw people to sin; and that it is therefore our wisdom to keep up a firm belief of, and a high respect for, the command of God. Has God said, "Ye shall not lie, nor take his name in vain, nor be drunk, &c.?" "Yes, I am sure he has, and it is well said, and by his grace I will abide by it, whatever the tempter suggests to the contrary."

Now, in answer to this question, the woman gives him a plain and full account of the law they were under, v. 2, 3. Where observe, [1.] It was her weakness to enter into discourse with the serpent: she might have perceived by his question, that he had no good design, and should therefore have started back with a Get thee behind me, Satan, thou art an offence to me. 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 sounds a parley, is not far from being surrendered. Those that would be kept from harm, must keep out of harm's way. See Prov. 14. 7.—19. 27. [2.] It was her wisdom to take notice of the liberty God had granted them, in answer to his sly insinuation, as if God had put them into paradise, only to tantalize them with the sight of fair but forbidden 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. [3.] It was an instance of her resolution, that she adhered to the command, and faithfully repeated it, as of unquestionable certainty, "God hath said, I am confident he hath said it, Ye shall not eat of the fruit of this tree;" and that which she adds, Neither shall ye touch it, seems to have been with a good intention, not (as some think) tacitly to reflect upon the command as too strict, (Touch not, taste not, handle not,) but to make a fence 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." [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 had said. In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die; all she makes of that is, Lest ye die. Note, Wavering faith, and wavering resolutions give great advantage to the tempter.

2. He denies that there was any danger in it; though it might be the transgressing of a precept, yet it would not be the incurring of a penalty, v. 4. Ye shall not surely die. "Ye shall not dying die," so the word is, in direct contradiction to what God had said. Either, (1.) "It is not certain that ye shall die," so some. "It is not so sure as ye 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 sceptics first, and so by degrees makes them atheists. Or, (2.) "It is certain ye shall not die," so others. He avers his contradiction with the same phrase of assurance that God hath used in ratifying the threatening. He began to call the precept in question, v. 1, 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, Ye shall not surely die. This was a lie, a downright lie; for, [1.] It was contrary to the word of God, which we are sure is true; see 1 John 2. 21, 27. 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 conceals his own misery, that he might draw them into the like; thus he still deceives sinners into their own ruin. He tells them, though they sin they shall not die; and gains credit rather than God, who tells them, The wages of sin is death. Now hope of impunity is a great support to all iniquity, and impenitency in it: I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of my heart, Deut. 29. 19.

3. He promises them advantage by it, v. 5. 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 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 was 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 mending themselves.

(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.] "Your eyes shall be opened; 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.] "You shall be as gods, as Elohim, 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 depending." 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 good and evil, 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; "In the day ye eat thereof, you will find a sudden and immediate change for the better." Now in all these insinuations, he aims to beget in them. First, 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