Page:An Exposition of the Old and New Testament (1828) vol 1.djvu/71

Rh easy, no not in paradise, nor the angels in their first state, Jude 6. Secondly, Ambition of preferment, as if they were fit to be gods. Satan had ruined himself by desiring to be like the Most High, Isa. 14. 12..14, and therefore seekseeks [as found in earlier and later edition] [sic] to infect our first parents with the same desire, that he might ruin them too.

(2.) He insinuates to them that God had no good design upon them, in forbidding them this fruit. "For God doth know how much it will advance you; and therefore, in envy and ill-will to you, he hath forbidden 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 begrudged them the honour and happiness which their eating of that tree would prefer them to. 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 them 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.

6. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one 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 were naked; and they sewed fig-leaves together, and made themselves aprons. 8. And they heard the voice of the God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the God amongst the trees of the garden.

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.

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, 1 Tim. 2. 14. 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 pleasant to the sight, and good for food, ch. 2. 9. 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 to 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 were 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, Nitimur in vetitum—We desire what is prohibited.

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 to be desired to make one wise, and therein excelling all the rest of the trees. This she saw, 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, (Col. 2. 3. 1 Cor. 1. 30.) 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.

II. The steps of the transgression; no steps upward, but downward toward the pit—steps that took hold on hell.

1. She saw: 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 sin comes in at the eye. At those 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, Prov. 23. 31. Matth. 5. 28. Let the fear of God be always to us for a covering of the eyes, ch. 20. 16.

2. She took: 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, Matth. 4. 6. Eve's taking was stealing, like Achan's taking the accursed thing, taking that which she had no right to. Surely, she took it with a trembling hand.

3. She did eat: when she looked, perhaps she did not intend to take, or when she took, not to eat; but it ended in that. 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