before he could bethink himself how he might procure that which he needed so much 2. The Largenesse of Gods bounty is set out in the Pleasantness of the Garden provided and given man for his habitation In the infinite variety of all sorts of Fruits wherewith it was stored both for Necessity and Delight all of them planted by Gods own hand And in allowing man the free use of them all excepting only One Tree reserved by God as an acknowledgment of his Soveraignty and as a Remembrance to man of his duty In the Investiture of man into his Soveraignty over all the Creatures designed unto him in the former Chapter And lastly in Creating and bestowing the Woman upon him in marriage a greater help unto him and comfort for his life then all the creatures besides could have been 3. The Sufficiency of the Provision which God made for Man appears in this that he had all his wants supplied He wanted no possessions for the Earth was his Inheritance No servants for the work which he had to do was little more then to pluck and eat his own food from the Trees and to oversee and keep in order the Garden ready planted to his hand No food for all those delicate fruits were ready prepared and allowed him for his diet Houses and Apparel there was no need of when there was no deformity that needed covering no Injury by the weather from which he needed to be defended Onely there wanted a VVife both for Propagation and Society and that also God provides for him and that such a one as he acknowledgeth to be every way meet for him and accordingly rejoyceth in her So that God ceased not till he had furnished man every way with all that his Heart could wish or his needfull Occasions required Now for the Lawes and Rules which God gave man to guide himself by in this state of Innocency we must take notice that such of them as are meerly branches of the law of Nature are here omitted VVe call them properly Lawes of Nature which being Rules discovered by the consideration of the Nature of the Creatures are easily found out by the strength of right Reason As if there be a God Reason teacheth that he must be worshipped and if he be a Spirit that he must be worshipped in Spirit and Truth If we have our Being and Education from our Parents that they must be honoured and served If Words must be manifestations unto others of our Thoughts that then they must be answerable unto them so that we must speak what we think even the truth from our hearts and the like These being written in all mens hearts by Nature that is manifest to all men by Natural reason are not mentioned in this brief history as being sufficiently known without relation The Lawes here recorded are onely such as were added to the Law of Nature by Institution which the rule of Equity doth not necessarily enforce of it self without Gods command to have it thus or otherwise As though it were of the Law of Nature that if God must be worshipped that there must be a set time and a time of rest from other employments appointed for that worship yet what portion of time this should be and on what day it should be fixed as that it should be one day in Seven and the last of seven no man could by Natural Reason conclude till God commanded that it should be so That man should take care of the Creatures and endeavour to preserve them especially being appointed for his service reason would prescribe but that Adam should take charge of Paradise to keep and dresse it was meerly by Gods Institution and Command who might as well have disposed of him in some other place as there if he had so pleased That Gods Will should be mans Rule and that his Obedience and Faith should be professed and shewed forth to others is a branch of the Law of Nature but that Adam should manifest his Faith in God by eating of the tree of Life and his subjection to his Will by abstaining from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was only by Gods own appointment having no other ground but the motion of his own will That Man and Woman should be joyned together for propagation and that too in Marriage may be conceived to be of the Law of Nature But that a man should be bound to one Wife and that for term of Life although Natural Reason must needs acknowledge it to be most convenient yet because it is not necessary God might have ordered it otherwise if he had been so pleased Whatsoever the Reason may be conceived to be why the Holy Ghost mentions only these Positive Lawes whereas he passeth over in silence the Laws of Nature it must needs be acknowledged that these Laws which being only Positive have no other foundation but the meer Will of God are notwithstanding so Equal and Good every way that being once made known natural reason it self cannot but approve them and consequently the Righteousnesse Holinesse and Goodnesse of God appears more clearly in them than in those Lawes that being branches of the Law of Nature are in a sort more Necessary seeing nothing discovers the man more evidently then those things wherein he is most free to do or approve what he will And indeed it may be probably conceived that the Holy Ghost had this scope to manifest the Righteousnesse of God in giving these Lawes because they are so recorded that the Equity of them is withall manifested by some Circumstance or other inserted into the Relation The Equity of appointing the Sabbath unto the last day of the week appears in manifesting that That day being honoured above the rest by putting an end to and declaring the perfecting of the Works of Creation was the fittest day to be observed in remembrance of so glorious a work And the Law of appointing man to labour in Paradise is manifested to be equal by this that God gave him the use of all the fruits in Paradise so that he did but labour for himself That the Interdiction of the Tree of Knowledge might appear to be equall it is recorded withall that God gave Man all the rest of the fruits to make use of freely The same is as clearly manifested in setting down at large the Law of Marriage 2. The Holinesse of these Lawes appears as well as their Equity The Sabbath Sacrament of the Tree of Life and restraint from the Eating of the Tree of knowledge of Good and Evil tending only to the furthering of Faith and Obedience and the raising up of mens hearts to an holy delight in God and enjoying an holy Communion with him Mans labour tending to the exercising of Love and Mercy towards the Creatures and Marriage to further mutual edification in Piety and Godlinesse and the propagation of an holy seed as it is plainly expressed Mal. 2.15 3. The Goodnesse of these Lawes to Man is as
to be in his Hand Dan. 5.23 So that if He take away their Breath they die Psal 104 19. And that sometime he engageth Himself to continue it by promise in expresse termes Psol 21.4 2 Kings 20.6 Luk. 2.26 And alwaies to strengthen and support it unto the time determined in His own Counsell which he hath given us sufficient warrant to depend upon But above all Eternall Life is his Gift Rom. 6.23 which He hath assured unto all that are in Christ with whom their life is hid or laid up safely in God Col. 3.3 Acknowledge it then unto him alone by Living unto him alone and seek it at his Hand 1. by prayer Psal 30.8 9. with Hezekiah and Jonah seeing He is the length of our daies Deut. 30.20 And in a Course of Obedience for God preserveth not the life of the wicked Job 36.6 who live not out half their daies Psal 55.23 The Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evill a sign unto Adam that he was to take the VVill of God as his rule to direct him what to choose and what to forbear was placed near the Tree of life in the middest of the Garden as we shall see to teach him to lay hold on that Promise of God for the continuing and perpetuating of his life onely under the Condition of his obedience VVhence 11. Observe All Gods promises must be Understood and Embraced under the Condition of the Performance of our Obedience Observ 11 THus we find them all proposed unto us by God Himself under the Conditions of Faith and Obedience both in things Temporall Psal 37.3 Isa 1.19 2 Chron. 20.20 and Spiritual Psal 50.23 John 3.18 1. This brings most honour unto God to blesse us and do us good only in a way of Righteousnesse which is the end of all his Administrations both of Mercy and Judgment that he may be known to be a God that loves Righteousnesse and hates Iniquity Psal 92.15 Hos 14.9 2. It is the best means to further holinesse in us by our endeavours to become such that God may do us good and blesse us without any impeachment of His Own Honour The name of the Tree of the knowledg of Good and Evil was as we have seen given it that Adam being by Gods Allowance permitted to eat freely of all the rest of the fruits of the Garden and by the same Commandement restrained from eating of this only might know that nothing was lawfull unto him but what God allowed not unlawful or evill but what He forbad Whence 12. Observe Good and Evill are bounded and limitted onely by the Will of God Observ 12 THis our Saviour the pattern of Righteousnesse proposed to Himself as his Rule Heb. 10.19 to do the Will of God and it is the doing of His Will that makes any service of ours properly a good work or acceptable to Him Heb. 13.21 And therefore are servants directed to take this for their rule even in serving their Masters Eph. 6.6 And on the same ground we are commanded to make that our request that the Will of God may be done by us and other men on Earth as the Angels do his Will in Heaven see Psal 103.20 This indeed and this alone is that which makes any service a duty of Obedience that we perform it as the Will of God and because He wills or commands it for thereby onely we honour Him both in his Soveraignty and Holinesse when we seal unto both by conforming our wills and actions thereunto Let us then inquire after that VVill of God as the rule of our practice as we are directed Rom. 12.2 which he hath laid before us in his word Deut. 29.29 And look at nothing else in the course of our practice but the conforming of our wills and actions thereunto that we may with comfort expect the promises that onely belong to the fulfilling of his VVill Heb. 10.36 working even the works of Righteousness it self upon that and upon no other ground VERSE 10. A River Or Rivers as some understand it after the use of the Hebrew phrase which oftentimes puts the Singular for the Plurall Number as Chap. 1. verse 12. By the Tree bearing seed are understood Trees yea all Trees yielding seed By this River some understand Euphrates others both it and Tigris and some Tigrs alone Went out of Eden It did not arise in Eden but went either through or by Eden and so watered that Garden of Paradise which was in Eden a Countrey of Mesopotamia or as some will have a larger Countrey compassing both Mesopotamia and divers countreyes adjoyning thereunto To water the Garden By running through it as most will have it some conceive it compassed the Garden round imagining that Garden to be an Island lying in the bosome of Tigris or Hiddekel about ten miles in circuit inhabited to this day by Christians called Gozoria distant about two miles from Nineve but these are onely conjectures And from thence Not immediately after it had watered the Garden but a great many miles below for some refer from thence not to the Garden but the countrey of Eden through which the River flowes And from thence it became into four heads Properly Heads are Fountains from which Rivers spring but a River parting into four branches as this is described to do the beginning of those severall channels into which it divides may not unfitly be termed Heads Especially seeing in the Hebrew tongue the VVord here used signifieth indifferently either a Head or a Beginning The description or the Situation of this Garden upon so fair a River is added to commend unto us both the pleasure and fruitfulnesse of this Garden of Delights planted with all variety of fruits at present and watered with such a stream as might continue the fruitfulnesse of that soil for the future Whence 1. Observe Gods blessings are every way compleat and perfect full and lasting Observ 1 IN their kind and nature and with respect had to the use and end for which they were appointed to serve He greatly enricheth the Earth with his River which is full of waters Psal 65.9 VVhich makes glad the Cittie of God Psal 46.4 It may well be so in respect of the cause whence these blessings flow which is Gods Boundlesse Love and All-sufficiency And must be so in respect of the end at which they aim which is the manifesting both the one and the other that mens hearts might be brought to rejoyce and depend upon Him alone Let our services in some proportion be answerable to Gods Blessings wanting in their parts nothing of what is required howsoever they come short in their degrees and flowing from and supplied and continued by an inward spring of Grace which may hold us on in a constant course to keep us alwaies fresh and flourishing as a good man is described unto us Psalme 1.3 It is recounted amongst the speciall commendations of this Garden of pleasures that it was well watered by a fair River which
with him would do something in this kind it could not but be very acceptable to the godly of this Nation For surely the Long and Various Experiences of such a Captain in the Lords Hoasts such a Veterane in Christs Service must needs yield much matter of Comfort and Profit when we shall come to the notice of them If this Book had proceeded from a meaner and more obscure hand it s own Worth would have sufficiently pleaded for its esteem and the Observations with their Prosecutions being every where so Solid and Judicious could not but be very Savoury to a gracious appetite but coming from such an Hand and as the product of some years Serious Meditations certainly it will find much acceptance with Christians abroad As much of it as my leisure would permit me to peruse gave me such refreshing as I could not but heartily desire the publication of it and doubt not but it will be judged as usefull a Tractate as hath been set forth in these last years This being signified I subscribe my self Thine in the Lords Work Tho Manton A COMMENTARY UPON THE FIRST CHAPTER Of the First BOOK OF MOSES called GENESIS THe Hebrews give the name unto this as they do likewise unto the other four Books of Moses that follow from the first words wherewith the book begins in their Language and call it Bereshith which in our Tongue we render In the beginning As for the name Genesis it was given by the Greeks and signifies Generation or Begetting pointing at the Most eminent Subject which the Book handles the Creation or Generation of the World From the Author that penned it it is called Moses his Book as our Saviour in like manner calls Exodus his book Mark 12.26 And because Moses is the Author of the four next Books that follow for distinctions sake this is called his first Book This Title of the Book challengeth our best Attention 1. From the Authour Moses graced 1. with the honour to be the first Pen-man of holy Scripture 2. with the priviledge to be Gods familiar with whom he was pleased to confer mouth to mouth Numb 12.4 3. With the Title of the first Instrument employed by God for the founding of the Church and State of the Jewes And for that cause of so honourable a name and memory amongst that people that God thought fit to conceal his Grave for the preventing of Idolatry in succeeding Ages as most Interpreters conjecture out of Deut. 34.6 2. From the subjects which the Book handles being the most eminent and remarkable in themselves and most nearly concerning men to know and the most difficult to be found out of all things that can come within the compasse of humane knovvledge Namely the Creation of the World the Fall of Man and his Restitution by Gods goodnesse vvith the Estate into vvhich he is restored the propagation of mankind and peopling of the World the Founding the Church and the Infancy thereof things unheard of and unknovvn amongst the Heathen described and recorded in no other Writings in the World but onely in this Sacred History Of the Authority of Moses his Writings IT cannot be denyed that the Writings of Moses have the same Authority with the rest of the holy Scriptures being delivered as the rest of them were by the same Divine inspiration of the Holy Ghost And yet withall these Five Books of Moses may in some respects be conceived to gain some kind of praeeminence above the rest of the Scriptures seeing that they are not only the first in order but in some sort the Fountain containing the summe of those holy Writings that follow For the histories of the Old Testament are for the most part but as so many instances of the fulfilling of the several Sanctions of the Law delivered by Moses as well in Judgment as in Mercy And the Writings of the Prophets are but applications of the Law and the Sanctions thereof to particular places times and persons interlaced with divers Promises the Heads whereof we find in these five Books And the Books of the New Testament contain for the greatest part the relation of those promises of Grace first recorded and set out by Moses and after repeated and enlarged by the Prophets to which use our Saviour applyeth them both Luke 24.27 44. together with a clear and full unfolding of that state of Grace into which we are restored by Christ shadowed out in a great part by Types in the Law of Moses Hence it is that in many of the Writings of the Prophets and much more in those of the Evangelists we have the Books of Moses so often cited and thereby the Authority of them the more fully established and confirmed Now as concerning the Means by which Moses might get the knowledge of the things which he relates in this First book of his whereof all were acted before his time and some as namely the Creation of the World before all mens times if we suppose he had no help of any Records to inform him which the Church might then have though they be now lost or if we make no great account of the Tradition of the Fathers whose memories were the Registers of the Church before the Scriptures were written Notwithstanding it sufficeth that the same Spirit that guided his hand in writing withall informed him fully and infallibly of those Truths which he was to leave upon record to posterity And yet we must take notice that all that is contained in the four Books following except the histories of his own Life and Death were confirmed unto him by his own knowledge and experience his own eyes and eares being witnesses of all that he writes A circumstance from which some of the Evangelists and Apostles justly challenge credit unto that which they deliver Luke 1.3 1 Joh. 1.1 The Division of this Book of Genesis THis Book of Genesis contains as it evidently appears by casting up the particulars of the times mentioned therein an history of 2368 years Namely from the Creation of the World to the Flood 1656 years from the Flood to the Birth of Abraham 252 years and from Abraham's birth unto Joseph's death which closeth up the Book 360 years And it seems naturally to divide it self into Two unequall parts containing in them the Histories 1. Of the Creation of the World Cap. 1. 2. Of the Administration and Government of it especially of the Church of God therein unto the end of the Book The Government of the Church is described unto us in a twofold estate of Mankind 1. In the state of Innocency before mans fall Cap. 2. 2. In the state of Corruption In and After his fall And that also 1. Before the Flood unto the end of Cap. 6. 2. In and After the Flood and that likewise of the same Church 1. Scattered over the whole World to the end of Cap. 11. 2. Founded in Abraham's Family and Posterity till Joseph's death to the end of the Book CHAP. I.
and perfected successively and in which themselves or the kinds of them do continue and remain unto this day Thus the Holy Ghost in the first place layes before us this mishapen and confused Masse which was the Matter out of which all these various and beautifull creatures some whereof we do and that deservedly behold not without admiration were taken that looking upon them and considering them in their first Original we may be the more sensible both of our own and their vilenesse a meditation hinted by the order in which things are expressed in this Narration which we may therefore think to be intended by the Holy Ghost And may 1. Observe The best way to judge of things aright is to look back and consider them in their first Original Observ 1 THus God leads Adam back to the dust out of which he was first formed Gen. 3.19 The Children of Israel to the rock whence they were hewen Isa 51.1 to a Syrian their Father ready to perish Deut. 26.5 and their Mother an Hittite and to the blood in which they were born Ezek. 16.3 4. To the same end also we are often minded of that naturall Corrupt condition in which we were as we were born 1 Cor. 6.11 Ephes 2.1 Let every man that desires to judge unpartially of himself exercise himself seriously and often in that meditation Our Bodies in their Original base and vile every way in their substance place of Conception manner of birth Our Soules which is our more excellent part though not in themselves yet by the corruption that cleaves unto them more base then our bodies a masse of sin which hath overspread all the parts of them in which there was nothing to be discerned but the hatefull and deformed Image of the Devil A Meditation of singular use unto us 1. To bring down our Pride 2. To quicken our Endeavours 3. To fill our mouthes with praises to him that hath made us what we now are considering what we were at first and by our own deserts might have continued to be still without his free and infinite mercy But if we consider this description of the Original of the World and all things contained therein as we find it positively laid down unto us by Moses in this place we may 2. Observe All Creatures how Glorious and Beautifull soever they appear at present were Base and deformed in their Original Observ 2 FIrst Nothing Next a rude confused masse without shape or form And such are they in their continued propagation even Kings and Princes the most eminent amongst the sons of men at first a substance that one would loath to look on shapen in a den of darknesse at first a lump without parts without shape without life and born in as base a manner as the meanest beggars Let it bring down every high look and take away all Vaunting from the sons of men who can challenge nothing as their own but basenesse and deformity whatsoever they have more then that is but borrowed and is the beauty that God hath put upon them And let it take off our hearts from admiring any Creatures as unworthy of honour and estimation in themselves if we consider whence they came The Earth as the Holy Ghost tells us was not only without any form but Empty too that is unfurnished of that variety of Creatures wherewith every part was afterward and is now stored which the Psalmist calls the fulnesse of the Earth Psal 24.1 Whence 3. Observe The Earth was Empty till God furnished and stored it Observ 3 IT is true it was not made to be empty Isa 45.18 but was ordained and fitted by God to be the habitation of men and other Creatures but was Empty of it self till he himself furnished both it and the Seas out of his store so that both the one and the other are full of his riches Psal 104.24 25. so that he justly claimes both beasts and fowles and all to be his own Psal 50.10 11. Let all men admire Gods All-sufficiency who so easily speedily and richly furnished the Heaven Earth and Seas with such infinite variety of Creatures which we cannot behold but with admiration considering with what labour and difficulty we furnish a poor Cottage that we have built or stock a small Farm that we have purchased and that too with such things as we do but borrow out of Gods Store Darknesse saith Moses was indeed upon the face of the deep but not made by God as the Heaven and Earth and other Creatures were as being only a meer privation and want of light and could not be the effect of any positive cause as we have shewed Whence 4. Observe Imperfections and Wants are no part of Gods Work Observ 4 NOt Sinne for God made man righteous Eccles 7.29 but sin entred in by man Rom. 5.12 allured by Satan and not by God As for other wants they came not in by any act or work of God the effect whereof is sufficiency and perfection but by his ceasing and forbearing to work any longer Let us if there be any thing wanting to us not lay the blame upon God whether it be in Outward things either within us as strength or usefulnesse of the parts of the body or without us as want of necessaries for the sustaining of our lives or in Inward defects of the mind wants of Knowledge Faith Holinesse or the like but blame our sins that hinder good things from us Rather acknowledge his mercy and bounty if we have any thing in bestowing what we have which is more than either we had of our selves or can any way deserve or do use as we ought Moses having set before us the condition of the Earth what it was at the first and beginning now to shew us how it became to be that which it now is points out unto us first the Agent by whom it was brought to this perfection the Spirit and the manner how it wrought it moved or hovered upon the waters So then all the Creatures which are afterwards described to be formed into their several kinds and natures must necessarily be the effect or work of that Spirit Whence 5. Observe The formes and natures of all sorts of Creatures are the work and effects of Gods Spirit Observ 5 ANd that not only in their first Creation but in their successive Generation too Elihu acknowledged that he was made by Gods Spirit and that the Breath of the Almighty gave him life Job 33.4 Yea the Spirit sent forth from God creates all things to this day and renewes the face of the Earth Psal 104.30 How much more then must mans Renovation and the life of Grace wrought in him thereby be the effect of the same Spirit 1. Pray earnestly for the power of that Spirit to fashion our hearts anew with the Prophet David Psal 51.10 Even the Spirit of Sanctification as it is termed from that effect 1 Pet. 1.2 by which we must be born anew John 3.5 and
WE have seen in the former Chapter that great Work of the Creation of the world In this Chapter we have set before us the beginning of the Administration and Government thereof and especially of Man in the state of his Innocency Concerning whom the Holy Ghost represents unto us Gods Goodnesse and Care for his 1. Government by Lawes prescribing his Duties 1. To God consisting of three Heads 1. Faith in God intimated by the Tree of Life 2. Obedience prescribed under the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. 3. Worship of God implyed in the Observation of the Sabbath 2. To the Creatures 1. In the use of them which must be according to the Will of God and not according to his own pleasure inforced in his restraint from eating of the Tree of Knowledge and in the Law of Marriage 2. His careful oversight and labour for the preservation of them expressed in Gods Commandement for the Keeping and Dressing of the Garden of Eden 2. Support and Sustentation manifested 1. In the provision of food fit for him both for necessity and delight by planting the Garden of Eden and giving him the free use of all the Fruits therein one Tree only excepted 2. In the Creation of the Woman to be an help meet for him comfort for his life and help for propagation VERSE 1. THus Or And as that Copulative is indeed Usually but not Alwaies rendred Howsoever that Connexion points unto the Beginning Means Order Manner and Space of Time and Perfection in which all things were Created and related in the former Chapter The Heavens and the Earth The two principal parts of the World here named include all the rest as the Ayr and Seas and all the Creatures wherewith they are furnished as in the next words All the hosts That is all the Visible and as some conceive Invisible Creatures which are contained in the Heavens and Earth the Sun Moon Stars Fowles Beasts and Fishes termed Hosts both for their Multitude and Order in which they are placed by God as an Army set in Array in a Comely and Useful manner Hence God is oftentimes named The Lord of Hosts The Connexion of this Chapter wherein the Government of the Creatures is represented unto us with the former which records their Creation as it were suspending our thoughts and carrying them at once both Backwards to remember what God had made and Forward to observe how he disposed of what he had made gives us just ground from thence to 1. Observe It must be our Care to Observe not onely what God Works but withall how he disposeth and ordereth that which he hath wrought Observ 1 THus did the Jewes in the birth of John Baptist they wondred what God would do with that child which was so strangely born Luke 1.66 And the blessed Virgin concerning our Saviour Christ laid up whatsoever he did or spake in her heart to observe what would be the issue of his Words and Actions to see what would become of them at the last Luke 2.51 And this we must do 1. Because the Excellency and Perfection of every Work is in the End whereunto it is directed and applyed 2. Because the Wisdom of God is most discovered in the Ordering and Disposing of his Works as his Power is most seen in Creating of them As usually the Workmans Skill is more Comâ—â—nded in the Use of an Instrument then in the making and fraâ—ing of it Again out of the name here given to the Creatures that they are termed the Hosts of Heaven and Earth we may 2. Observe The Creatures that God hath made are to be looked on as an Army arrayed in an Excellent and Well Composed Order Observ 2 COmely and Beautiful in their times places and proportions Eccl. 3.11 all of them Ordered and Commanded by God Psal 145.15 the Stars in their Courses Judg. 5.20 the Clouds in theirs Job 37.12 Yea the very Sparrows in their motions Matth. 10.29 and the Grashoppers Joel 2.15 Much more men whose steps God orders Prov. 16.9 Isa 45.13 So that their way is not in themselves nor the directing of the steps in him that walketh Jer. 10.23 All these are so directed by God that they still hold correspondent order one to another and all of them to the End whereunto they are directed from which though they swerve in their own inclinations or intentions yet they are all of them at last brought about to fulfill the thoughts of His heart that guides them 1. Let all men carefully search into the Order mutual Correspondence and Scope whereunto all the Wayes of God in the Administration of the Creatures tend 1. Judging of his Works in and by them not apart but layed all together 2. Looking to and waiting for the End of the Work which he hath in hand as we are advised to do Psal 27.37 Wherein if we discover not the Wisdom Justice and Mercy of God in all his waies blame not him whose work is Perfect Deut. 32.4 but our selves who through Ignorance or inadvertency do not understand it This thorough-searching into the Acts of Providence will keep us from murmuring and preserve our hearts in a Continuall admiration of his Wisdom as the Queen of Sheba was astonished at Solomons Wisdom when she observed the well ordering of his family 1. King 10.5 That we may alwaies fear before him and be wise for time to come 2. Tremble before that God and Trust in him that hath power in his hand to command all the Creatures in Heaven and Earth and to arm them at his pleasure for the defence of those that fear him and against such as hate him The next phrase is not lightly to be passed over which the Holy Ghost here useth affirming that the Heavens and Earth were finished or rather Perfected as the Originall will bear it Whence we may 3. Observe God perfecteth and fully finisheth every work that he takes iâ— hand Observ 3 HIs work is perfect Deut. 32.4 not onely without Error but without any Defect Eccl. 3.14 Not onely his Law Psal 119.96 but all his works towards us see his promise to Jacob Gen. 28.15 as David confidently believes Psal 138.8 Thus indeed they are all of them taken together and every one considered apart by it self 1. In their Measure which is proportioned to the end whereunto they were appointed 2. And in their Time for they are brought to perfection by degrees as David professeth of the framing of his own body Psal 139.16 1. Let us in imitation of God work till we bring things to perfection as Naomi assures Ruth that Boaz would do Ruth 3.18 Especially in the works that more immediately concern Gods Honour and our own salvation not contenting our selves with laying the foundation but labouring to go on to perfection Heb. 6.1 Adding still one grace to another 2 Pet. 1.5 and growing strong in every grace that we may perfect Holinesse 2 Cor. 7.1 And abounding in every good work Heb. 13.21 Least we
Ghost He laid up food in the Cities expressing that phrase Indefinitely which in strict signification should be rendred In the Middest of the Citties Notwithstanding seeing in the Hebrew tongue the Middest is the most proper signification of this Phrase we may warrantably render it in the middest and interpret it as we render it to design the particular place in the Garden where this Tree stood Which we may conceive to have been purposely placed in the middest of the Garden that it might be the more often in Adams view which should be alwaies in his thoughts as it must needs be when he must so often passe by it either to take his food or to busie himself in his appointed employment And the Tree of the knowledge of good and Evil Which Adam being forbidden to eat of not for any evill in the Tree or in the Fruit of it but onely because it was the Will of God to forbid it his abstinence from it meerly upon Gods prohibition might signifie unto him that the true bounds of good and evill was onely the manifestation of Gods Will which makes that good and lawful which he allowes and Evill which he forbids So that this Tree which was forbidden amongst all the fruits which were allowed man for his food was as it were a mark by which Good might be known from Evill as one mans land is known from another by the bounds set between them in the fields where they lye The particular place where the Tree stood is not here mentioned but when the Woman Chap. 3.3 names it The tree in the middest of the Garden we must conceive that those two trees stood not far assunder as alwaies the Sanctions of the law in promises and threatnings are either expressed or must be understood to go together By these two Trees then there seems to be represented and figured out unto us the summe of the Covenant between God and Man of which the promise on Gods part was the bestowing of all blessings upon man implyed in the figure of the Tree of Life External Internal and Eternal the life both of Nature and Grace and that in the perfection of both and on mans part the Covenant was Faith by which he was to depend on Gods All-sufficiency and Truth And Obedience by which he wholy submitted to the Will of God to be guided by it in all his waies Both these parts of the Covenant God thought fit to represent unto man by those outward and visible signs of the Two Trees This full description of Paradise being the place which God had prepared for man and assigned unto him for his dwelling and employment with such a particular recounting of the variety of the fruites wherewith he had furnished it and which he allowed man for the comfort of his life gives us occasion to 1. Observe As God gives us all things freely so withall he takes special Notice of all that he bestowes upon us Observ 1 NOt to cast it in our teeth for he giveth liberally and upbraideth no man Jam. 1.5 Unlesse it be in case of Unthankfulnesse and disobedience either to wicked men to aggravate their rebellions and thereby to justifie himself in his Judgments upon them as he doth unto Saul 1 Sam. 15.17 Or to his Children to affect their hearts the more with the sense of their own failings as he doth to David 2 Sam. 12.7 8. But partly for our sakes that we may know that he who takes notice of all that he gives us will withall take account of us how we imploy it as our Saviour represents in the Parable of the Talents Matth. 25.19 that we may possesse his blessings with fear and trembling And partly for himself that he may rejoyce in his own bounty and goodnesse Psal 104.31 which is not the least part of his happinesse Let us much more take particular notice of such blessings as we receive from Gods hands laying up in our hearts and upon all occasions setting before our eyes the number weight and measure of them as far as we are able to comprehend them as the godly do not only of general and Common mercies as Psal 8.7 8. But besides of particular favours as Psal 18. and 116. As well to the filling of our hearts with the apprehension of Gods mercy towards us to raise them up to an holy rejoycing in him and Dependance upon him as also to quicken us to all chearfulnesse in duties of obedience unto which we are tied by as many obligations as we have received blessings from him and for which we may rest assured of our reward hereafter upon that experience that we have of Gods bounty in that which we have received already Those pleasant trees wherewith Paradise was so plentifully furnished God made to grow not onely out of the Earrh but besides in that particular place yea we may add farther in that very Order and Manner wherein they grew So that we may hence 2. Observ Every plant on the face of the Earth growes where and in what Manner and Order God appoints it Observ 1 NOt onely the Gourd which sprang up over Jonah's head Jonah 4.6 which was an extraordinary and miraculous work of God but even the trees and herbs which spring ordinarily out of the Ground God makes to grow Where and How he pleaseth This must needs be so seeing it is onely God that gives them their body and in whom they as well as all things else consist whence it is that we see that many of them cannot be made to grow where man will but where God hath fitted them with a soil and temper of aire agreeable to their natures This leads again to the consideration of Gods Providence and Mercy to us in those things which nature produceth It is not the Earth or the Heavens much lesse humane culture but Gods Blessing by them that makes the grasse to grow in our pastures the Herbs in our Gardens and the Trees in our Woods of which though all the Earth were full yet our grounds might be empty without Gods speciall blessing The Trees and Plants that God furnished Paradise withall were both delightfull every way both to the eye and taste and usefull too and good for food and the variety of them such as no kind of desirable fruit was wanting but was to be found in Paradise so that Gods bounty unto man overflowes to admiration Whence 3. Observe Gods Bounty abounds unto men not onely to the Supplying of their Necessities but also for their Delight Observ 2 HE gives wine to chear mans heart and oyl to make the face to shine as well as bread to strengthen his heart Psal 104.15 So that he bestowes all things abundantly to enjoy 1 Tim. 6.17 And this he doth partly to set out his All-sufficiency and kindnesse to man the more when it is apprehended so many waies by every sense whereunto every different object brings in as it were a new evidence and Testimony of his overflowing
as in the fruits of Gods Blessing but as in the effects of our own endeavours and let it check our vain and dangerous Confidence which makes us trust in our own wisdom and power and burn incense to our own net and yarn that we may ascribe the successe of all our labours about the things of this life unto God alone who is indeed pleased to make use of our heads and hands in the Conservation of his Creatures but 1. Rather to keep us doing then because he needs our help 2. That finding by experience how little our labours work to the producing of any effect we might rejoyce in him who worketh all things by his mighty power and not in our selves 3. And thereupon might be taught to depend upon him and serve him when we observe the successe of our labours to be the effect of his power and not of any ability of ours 4. To abase and humble us in busying our selves about the service even of those Creatures that he hath put under our feet All which he hath ordained onely for a short time whereas hereafter all mens labours as well as all other meanes shall cease with the use of those Creatures which are supported by them and God shall be All in All. VERSE 16. ANd the Lord God Himself in Person the same God that had planted the Garden and bestowed it upon the man for his possession and dwelling so that the Name of God seemes to be mentioned in this place as well to set before us the strictnesse of this restraint that it was laid upon man by the Authority of God Himself which also the woman insists on in her answer to Satan Gen 3.39 As withall to set out the Equity thereof as being laid on him by God who having both planted and stored the Garden and freely bestowed it on him had full power and liberty to give out of that which was every way his own what he pleased to withhold what he thought good and consequently manifested his infinite Bounty and Goodnesse in bestowing all the rest of the fruits and denying man onely this one Commanded the man or to render it word for word Commanded upon the man And it is noted by some that when that preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is added to the word Tzavab which is usually rendred Commanded It signifies a restraint as the same phrase is used Isa 5.6 This is out of question that here the word Commanded must be referred to the latter clause of the next verse following for the Command to the Man was not to eat of all the rest of the fruits which was rather a Grant or Permission then a Command but onely to abstain from that fruit that was forbidden The man The word Adam may include both Sexes in this place as well as one we are sure it doth so Gen. 5.2 He called their name Adam speaking both of the Man and Woman So that for ought appears to the contrary the Commandement might be and it is most probable was delivered by God Himself unto Eve as well as to the Man although it be not certain that it was so Of every Tree That is of the fruit of every Tree So that the Grant of those fruits to the Man is inlarged in two Circumstances First that it extended to every Tree And Secondly to the enjoying of them fully as we shall see anon This large extent of Gods Grant is the more carefully to be observed that we may in the next Chapter take notice how grosly and palpably God is wronged both by the Devils captious inquiry yea because God hath said Ye shall not eat of every Tree and by the Womans Scant and Maligne expression of the Grant in her Answer to Satan Of the fruit of the Trees we may eat Leaving out both the Circumstances in this place that commended the largenesse of the Gift namely that they were allowed to eat of Every Tree and to eat Freely Thou mayest freely eat Or eating thou mayest eat An Hebraisme of speciall force pointing out sometimes the Certainty sometimes the Continuance sometimes the Intention of an action All which perhaps or perhaps the two last may be intended in this place God allowing man to eat Daily and Plentifully even to Satiety of all those pleasant fruits of the Garden This large Gift of God to man is delivered and expressed marvellous aptly if we take notice of the Order wherein it is here placed by the Holy Ghost being added immediately after the Commandement of dressing the Garden as an incouragement to the Man unto that labour whereof the fruit and benefit should return unto himself alone So that the Easinesse and Equity of that Commandement is manifested in this that man was to labour for his good And it is likewise prefixed before the restraint that followes to manifest Gods Bounty and Goodnesse even therein that out of such infinite variety of choice fruits God withheld from him only one Tree and that too as we shall see hereafter for his good that by it he might be still admonished to look unto the Will of God as the rule of all his actions By the like Circumstance God intimateth the reasonablnesse of his restraint from labour on the Sabbath day because he had allowed Man six daies for the dispatch of his own affaires The scope of the Holy Ghost in setting down Gods Grant of all the fruits of Paradise unto Adam before he mentions the restraint or forbidding the eating of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil that he might the more chearfully submit unto Gods Will in denying him but One Tree when he had so freely and fully allowed all the rest may warrant us to 1. Observe The Sense and Experience of Gods Goodnesse is the best meanes to encourage us to chearful obedience unto Gods Will. Observ 1 UPon this ground the Lord before his Law prefixeth the mention of his Peoples deliverance out of Egypt Exod. 20.2 And Moses beats often upon that Argument to quicken the People to Gods Service as Deut. 6.10 and 11.7 8. And the Lord severally threatens his People if they serve him not with Gladnesse for the abundance of all things Deut. 28.47 Indeed nothing is so forcible to constrain as love 2 Cor. 5.14 Which is grounded upon experience of Gods Love unto us manifested in his large bounty towards us Let it direct every one of us to quicken and strengthen all our hearts by that motive to every duty 1. Let us keep by us a Catalogue of Gods Mercies both General to his whole Church and to our selves in Particular 2. When we find out hearts dull and sluggish in the duties of Obedience let us labour to quicken them by setting all his favours before us considering how great things he hath done for us 1 Sam. 12.24 3. Upon every fresh Mercy let us renew our engagements and resolutions to constancy and Chearfulnesse in Gods Service as we see David doth Psalme 116. This
undertake any thing to enquire before hand what Need there is of it or to what Use it may serve It is observed by Solomon to be a sore vanity amongst men that they enquire not before hand what need there is of that labour and toil which they take in hand and what the use or end of it may be Eccl. 4.8 What need so much excesse in Eating and Drinking to the oppressing and not the strengthening of nature what need so much expence both of time and mony in costly cloathing Sumptuous buildings rich furniture What need so much labour in lading our selves with thick clay So much caring for the things of this Life as if God took no care of us at all Or such large provisions for so short a time of our abode here Of enriching our minds with knowledge strengthening our hearts with Faith adorning our selves with Meeknesse and every other Grace shewing forth the fruits of Holinesse in our lives of purging out our corruptions and getting interest in Christ and laying up for our selves Treasure in Heaven There is need and there will be use of those things when there shall be no use of the things of this present life nor of our labours about them Now there can be nothing more unbeseeming a man a rationall creature than to do things upon no ground or to no end Now if we apply this Generall consideration to this particular case that God would not make Adam a wife till he found that he needed a Wife and could not comfortably subsist without a Wife We may thence in Generall 6. Observe A Wife is not good till it be not good to be without a Wife Observ 6 TIll it be not good either for the health of ones body Thus David was advised to take a young Concubine into his Bed for his healths sake 1 King 1.2 And marriage is found to be very needfull to many persons for their health 2. Or for the subduing of unquiet thoughts 1 Cor. 7.9 3. Or for the better governing of the Family to which the Wife is or should be a great help Prov. 14.1 See 2 Tim. 5.14 4. Or for the publick good of the Church or State as it sometimes falls out in publique persons as Kings or other Magistrates and oftentimes Ministers of the Gospel who being eased of the care of the Family by their Wives are the more free to attend the Churches Service In any of those cases we may take Marriage to be a Call from God from whom every man must be warranted to undertake any particular state and Condition of life if he desire to abide in it with comfort and in expectation of Gods Blessing upon him therein Now if we observe the Inference that God therefore makes a Wife for Adam because it was not good for him to be without a Wife it necessarily implyes That he should find that Good in a Wife which he wanted without her So that we may thence 7. Observe A man May and it is Gods Will that he Should be the better for his Wife Observ 7 ANd so indeed it will fall out if she be a Good Wife such a one will do him Good and not Evil all the dayes of her life Prov. 31.12 She builds up the house Prov. 14.1 She profits him in his estate so that he will need no spoyl Prov. 31.11 She easeth him of a good part of the burthen of his cares in looking to the wayes of her Family Prov. 31.27 She adviseth him by her counsel as Sarah doth Abraham Gen. 21.10 and Rebeccah Isaac Gen. 27.46 She comforts him in his sorrowes upon better grounds and with a better heart then Jezabel doth Ahab 1 King 21.5 She helps to foresee and prevent any danger that threatens him as Abigail both Foresees and Prevents the destruction of her Husband Nabal 1 Sam. 25.18 33. She furthers him in Piety by seasonable Encouragements reverend Admonitions joyning with him in hearty Prayers holy Conferences and the like so that Man and Wife converse one with another as heirs together of the grace of life 1 Pet. 3.7 1. Woe be to those foolish Wives that pluck down the house which they should build Prov. 14.1 proving moaths in their Husbands Estates by their Idlenesse and Wastefulnesse and thorns in their sides vexing those whom they should comfort with their continnal dropping Prov. 19.13 Perverting those whom they should advise as Solomon's strange wives did him and Jezabel Ahab 1 King 21.7 and Corrupting the children and family whom they should Instruct And the like woe to all such as wax worse and worse by their Matches more Earthly minded more Idle Prophane more Lustful c. abusing that Sacred Ordinance of God as they do all things else unto their own destruction 2. Let every man labour to be the better for his Wife and to that end 1. Let him labour to be good in the sight of God 2. Let him look well to his Choice that he may take a godly VVife and a Wife fit both for his Condition and Disposition 3. Let him dwell with his Wife as a man of Knowledge governing her with all meeknesse instructing her and bearing with her infirmities 1 Pet. 3.7 God having concluded that it was not good for the man to be alone resolves to make him an help meet for him so that He Himself undertakes the work None indeed could provide for Adam a meet help but God alone Whence 8. Observe It is only God Himself that must supply us with that which we stand in need of Observe 8 HE must give food to the hungry Psal 146.7 and pour water upon him that is thirsty Isa 44.3 much more must he make the barren a mother of children Psal 113.9 A good VVife is his favour Prov. 19.14 He must build the house Psal 127.1 and give ability to get wealth Deut. 8.18 Most of all it is He that must furnish us with all spiritual treasures Eph. 1.3 yea with Grace and Glory Psal 84.11 Although he makes use of the Ministery of men for the most part and of other second means to conveigh them unto us as Houses and Lands by inheritance from the Parents Prov. 19.14 Faith and Spiritual Life by the Ministery of the Gospel usually although be can and doth bestow all those immediately when he pleaseth Let our prayers be directed to him for any thing that we want and our praises returned to him alone when we are supplyed and let our hearts stay upon Him alone who only is able to help us and will not fail to do it in the time of our need Adam we see never moves God to bestow a VVife neither doth any sollicit him in his behalf Only God in his VVisdom finds it to be needful and fit for him and He out of His Free Love and Bounty provides for him unasked and unsought unto Whence we may 9. Observe Nothing moves God to take compassion on us to supply us in what we need but his own Bounty
Himself taking on him the Form of a man as he did sometimes after the Fall or any other way and with what Ceremony since the Holy Ghost hath not expressed it we must not enquire This only we must acknowledge that this bringing of the Woman to the Man implyes the full bestowing of her upon him that they should live together as Man and Wife by Gods appointment So then in this description of the Womans Creation we have laid before us all the Causes of that work The Efficient God The Material A Ribb taken from the Man The Formal to be made a Woman And the Final that she might be a VVife and Helper to the Man Of the VVomans Soul we hear nothing in this place Moses had said enough before in the Creation of the Man leaving us to conceive that since there is nothing more mentioned concerning the womans soul than we had heard before in the inspiring of Adams that she also had her soul inspired in the like manner This new wonder of multiplying one Bone into so many of making so many parts and members of One and of enlarging one small Ribb into the full measure of a Womans body fully grown ministers much matter of Philosophical Disputes to men that forget that the Holy Ghost presents unto them a work above nature and therefore not to be examined by Natural reason and by expressing what was done without the Manner how leads them to Admiration rather than into a Curious inquisition of that which we cannot understand Only it gives us occasion from hence to 1. Observe God can change any thing into what Form he pleaseth Observ 1 THis he manifests in the whole course of nature Out of a small seed he produceth the Root the Stalk the Ear of the Corn all these and the flower and fruits of every herb The Trunck Bark Leaves Branches Blossoms and Ripe Fruits of every Tree Out of the Similar parts of the seed of Man and Beasts the several Members and Dissimilar parts of the bodies of all living Creatures and out of the same food the matter that nourisheth them all diversified according to the nature of every part And no marvel seeing all these things are from God Himself and not from the Matter out of which they are produced who can therefore easily turn any matter into what form he will seeing he gave them that form in which they are See Chap. 1. Ver. 21. Observ 4. This phrase of Building here used pointing at the Exactnesse and perfection of the work of the Art used in framing it may warrant us to 2. Observe God is Exact and Perfect in all the Works that he undertakes Observ 2 HIs Work is Perfect Deut. 32.4 in a Respective Perfection to the proportion of the work it self and to the End whereat it aimes See Chap. 1. Ver. 4. Observ 3. and Chap. 2. Ver. 1. Observ 3. God built the Ribb into a Woman the Text saith expresly That he therein used the Ministery of Angels as some have imagined is a groundlesse fantasie so that we may warrantably 3. Observe Women as well as men are Gods own Workmanship Observ 3 HE made Male and Female Matth. 19.4 made one woman Mal. 2.15 this unquestionable Truth needs no proof at all Let it be the Comfort of that Sexe That which is Gods work shall be his Care His Son Christ hath honoured them in taking flesh of a Woman and not of a Man God Himself hath honoured them so far sometimes as to put the government of the State into their Hands Judg. 4.4 To make use of them extraordinarily for the revealing of his Will by way of Prophecy to his Church But above all both redeemed them as well as men by the Blood of his Own Son Sanctified them by his Spirit And made them heires together with Men of the Grace of Life 1 Pet. 3.7 The more to blame are they that so far undervalew them that they Judge them unworthy of the knowledge of his Truth 〈◊〉 And by consequence of Life and Salvation whereas in Christ there is neither Male nor Female as the Apostle tells us Gal. 3.28 It is worthy our Observing that God having abundance of Spirit as the Prophet speaks Mal. 2.15 and there being more cause of giving Adam many Wives for the speedy Peopling of the Earth than there could be to any of his Posterity yet in the begining would make Adam but one Wife Whence 4. Observe God hath allowell but one Wife to one Man Observ 4 GOds Act in Creating but one Man and One Woman and His Law given Adam thereupon that those two should be one flesh as they had been One our Saviour alleadgeth Matth. 19.4 Proposeth as a Law binding all Adams Posterity and therefore not to be dispensed with by Moses much more doth it make void all arguments taken up from the acts though of the Patriarchs themselves whose Polygamies are rather not reproved then allowed much lesse set before us for Precedents for imitation but may be justly conceived to be recorded amongst their blemishes the successe whereof turned either to their vexation as the Contentions between Leab and Rachel did to Jacob or became their snares as Solomons many VVives did unto him or were a Judgment and Plague unto them as Davids Concubines when they were defiled by his Son Absolom Indeed single matches are the best meanes of preserving love between the married Persons and their Posterity Chastity Order and Government in the Family all which cannot but be much hazarded if not quite overthrown by Polygamie as is manifest both by Reason and Experience God had now made the VVoman and that too to be an help to the man but all this while Adam had no interest in her till God had brought Her to Him and bestowed Her on Him as his VVife VVhence 5. Observe Though all things be made for Man yet he can have no interest in any thing Untill God Himself bestow it on him Observ 5 HE had no right to the Lordship over the Creatures till God had put them under his feet nor to dwell in Paradise till God gave him the possession of it nor to eat of the Trees therein till God gave him leave to do it Yea when God hath put mens estates into their hands yet our Saviour directs us to beg our allowance out of them from God for the portion of every day 1. Because all that we have or Use is Gods who only Sends them to us for our use reserving the Propriety of all to himself 2. That we may use all according to his Direction and not according to our own Lusts 3. That we may upon the better grounds expect his blessing upon that which we use without which it cannot profit us Let every man then be carefull to get a Grant from God of all that he hath of the Land that he possesseth of the House that he dwells in of the Cloaths that he weares of the Food that he eats
Evident as all the rest What can be imagined more Comfortable to man then the refreshing both of his Body and Mind by ceasing from his labour and enjoying an holy Communion with God in his Ordinances in the Religious observation of the Sabbath day more Necessary and Usefull to the supporting of his heart by Faith by the help of that Sacramental Tree of Life and minding him of his Duty of Obedience by the Interdicted fruit whereby he might continually be stirred up to those holy Duties by Outward Sensible Objects set alwayes before him even in his ordinary and daily employments What more profitable to him then to labour for his own food What more Comfortable and Necessary to him then Marriage affording so many fit helps unto him for the Support and Comfort of his Life In General We cannot otherwise conceive but that the recording of all Gods Lawes given to man as well as all his Works both of Creation and Administration of the Creatures aime at the main end wherefore all things were made and man especially endued with Wisdom and Understanding that he might take notice of and be a witnesse of the All-sufficiency and Eminent Perfections of God and the Basenesse and Emptinesse of the Creatures yea even of Man himself the most Excellent of all his Visible Works We may therefore observe in this Record of Moses of the Lawes given to Man not onely both the Goodnesse Equity and Holiness of God together with his Absolute Soveraignty and Authority in prescribing and giving Rules to man meerly according to his own Will bestowing on him and detaining from him what he pleased and appointing him to be where he appointed and to do what he Commanded but withall the whole Relation layes before us the Vanity Subjection and Emptinesse of all the Creatures and man especially that God might be honoured alone and all things else abased before Him Wherefore we must observe That as all other Creatures so Man himself was nothing at the first and after that a piece of base dead earth till God breathed the breath of Life into him which he is directed to acknowledge in the remembrance of his Creation in observing the Sabbath and Eating of the Tree of Life testifying his dependance on God for his life both present and future 2. His Subjection unto Gods Will by which he was wholly to be guided was manifested in his Abstinence from the Tree of knowledge of good and evil meerly upon Gods Command implying that he had no power to order his own wayes no not in the smallest things wherein he was to guide himself only by that rule which God laid before him 3. His Weaknesse and Vanity was in a lively manner represented to him in making use even of the basest Creatures for the supporting of his Life which he had also by Gods allowance And in his finding of the uncomfortablenesse of his life by the want of a fit Companion till God Created the Woman and gave her unto him so that he had nothing of his own but what was freely bestowed on him by God Himself So that the advancing of Gods Honour and Self-denial we may discover to be the main end of giving man these lawes as well as they are of all the rest of Gods Works Now seeing man was confined unto this present world but only for a time as being at present in some sort shut out from the immediate fruition of God who communicated himself unto him most by the Creatures and by second means so that man in his most perfect Condition in this world remained in a state of Basenesse in comparison of that Glory which he was to enjoy at full after the end of this time of his pilgrimage We may observe both in the course of Gods providence and especially in the Laws which he gave the man that God so ordered all things that man might be sensible of his present mean condition represented to him so many wayes and thereby have his thoughts raised up to the Expectation and Longing after that more glorious estate which was to come sealed unto him in the Sacrament of the Tree of Life and shadowed out in some sort in the enjoying of God in his Ordinances and sequestring himself from the world in the observation of the holy rest of the Sabbath In effect the Scope of this and the former Chapter are in a manner all one as we may easily observe by that which hath been spoken already namely the Advancement of God alone with the Abasement of all the Creatures before him which God hath appointed to be our chief study in this Life as it shall be our greatest happinesse to discover and rejoyce in it fully in the Life to come FINIS CHAP. III. THe Holy Ghost having in the precedent Chapter described unto us the state of man in his Innocency in the History in this Chapter following layes before us his Fall with the Causes Order Manner and Consequents thereof wherein his maine scope is so manifest to the world That God made man upright but that he sought out many inventions Eccles 7.29 that is to clear God of having any hand in mans sinne and of the misery which came upon him thereby discovering the cause of both to be Satans malice and mans own folly and consequently acquitting God of all the evil that came upon man saving the execution of his justice upon him according to his deserts and that too tempered with infinite mercy as we shall see To make this evident we have the whole History laid before us with all the circumstances thereof 1. The Instruments and Agents in this sad Tragedy the Serpent employed to beguile the Woman and the Woman to deceive the Man 2. The persons tempted the first Man and Woman with the order First the Woman and by her the Man 3. The baites both inward and outward with the Art used in tempering and presenting them 4. The successe steps and degrees of the temptation and the effects that it took in drawing our first Parents to Apostasie 5. The Consequents of their Fall with the execution of Gods Justice on all the Delinquents according to the quality of their offences The precise point of time of the acting of this tragedy the Holy Ghost having passed over in silence is not easily found out by conjecture Only seeing our Saviour tells us John 8 44. That Satan was a Murtherer from the beginning and we know by woful experience his diligence and activity in mischief we may assure our selves that he was dealing with our first Parents betimes partly that he might take the advantage to shake them before the habits of Grace were by exercise setled and confirmed in them and partly that by poisoning the fountain of mankind before any streames issued from it he might the more easily and certainly corrupt the whole masse of the nature of man The place where this assault was given though it be not expressely set down notwithstanding seeing we
finde the wowan allured by the view of the fruit forbidden and to fall to the eating of it assoon as she had consented to the sinne we may upon good ground conclude that the place was not only Paradise but the very midst of Paradise where it is most likely the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil stood not far from the Tree of Life The devil as it may be guessed forbearing to presse the temptation till it might be strengthened by the view of that pleasant fruit to the eating whereof he intended to allure our first Parents The rather because all his hope of prevailing stood in the suddennesse of the assault by which the woman being surprised unawares and at an instant overlaid with all the Art and Power which Satan could use before she could recollect her selfe might be overtaken and conquered unto which how much the view of that pleasant object conduced appears by the ensuing Narration Verse 1. Now or But as some others render it for although that particle Va very frequently signifies And yet in this place it seemes rather to be if not an Adversitive yet at least a Discretive then a Conjunctive particle as it is also taken in the first verse of the former Chapter As if Moses had said Thus we see how God had every way manifested his Goodnesse and Bounty towards man not ceasing to heap upon him blessings upon blessings till he had made him perfectly happy And thus man continued in a blessed condition till he was perverted by Satan to his own destruction But how he fell away from God to the utter ruine of himself and his posterity unlesse the Lord out of his abundant mercy and compassion had restored him again will appear in the ensuing Narration Thus when the Holy Ghost had represented God acting his part in Holinesse Mercy and Truth he brings in the Divel on the Stage walking contrary to God in a course of malice subtilty and falshood to overthrow and pervert the order of all that God had made The Serpent The Hebrew name coming from a word which signifies to observe subtilly or wittily might be applied indifferently either to the beast it selfe or to Satan that spake by it But the comparing of the Serpent with other beasts of the field in this place and the kinde of the curse which was laid upon him afterwards discover him to be a true Serpent indeed of which creature why the Devil made choice above the rest we shall see anon For the present it may justly be enquired why Moses names only the Serpent and makes no mention of the Devil at all who was the principal Agent and made use of the Serpent only as the Instrument in this designe The reason hereof we may guesse to be twofold First because there had been hitherto no mention made of the Creation of those invisible spirits or of their Fall the intention of Moses being as it seemes to relate only the History of the Visible World the name of the Divel is not mentioned here because nothing had been spoken of him before and the rather because though he be not named yet he must necessarily be supposed to be the Author of this whole Discourse between the Serpent and the Woman which could not possibly be framed by an irrational creature And seeing Satan is called in other places as namely Rev. 12.15 and 20.2 by the name of a Serpent we may in this place under that name Serpent understand both the Beast and the Devil who used him as his Instrument seeing both are called in Scripture by the same name Secondly Moses his intention being principally to clear God of having any hand in Adams sinne thinkes it fittest to lay before us only the visible passages of the temptation as namely what was uttered and by whom as being most manifest in themselves and consequently the strongest evidences for the clearing of that truth leaving the secret passages which could not so easily be discovered by sense to our guesse as the invisible Author of the temptation the motions of the womans heart against God and the several thoughts which affected her minde which being not subject to outward observation might be easily affirmed but hardly proved More subtile The Serpents subtilty is mentioned elsewhere both in Scripture and in other Authors which some conceive might have been greater before Adams fall then now it is supposing that besides the general decay which came upon all creatures thereby God might justly take away or at least impaire the natural abilities of this creature above the rest being employed by Satan for mans destruction But suppose the Serpents subtilty to be never so great yet seeing it could not be a reasoning or discoursing subtilty which way could Satan make use of that for the perswading of a reasonable creature If there were any Authour of such an opinion or if the word in the Original did any way favour it a man might probably guesse that the Serpents subtilty here mentioned was only his aptnesse to slide and convey himselfe closely into Paradise unespied of Adam or his wife till a fit opportunity presented it selfe to give the onset for we call them subtile men who walk secretly and unseen in all their wayes But that we leave unto the Readers consideration rather proposing this as a guesse then prescribing it to be embraced as a certain truth And he said That is Satan by him if under the name Serpent we understand both the Agent and the Instrument seeing it is out of question that the Devil framed both the voice and the discourse as God did afterwards when he spake to Balaam by his Asse Notwithstanding the voice is ascribed to the Serpent because no other Authour of it appeared to the woman But why doth the Devil make use of a creatures voice when he might have suggested all that the Serpent speakes without a voice as he did to David 1 Chron. 21.1 and doth ordinarily to Gods children as well as to wicked men and by that meanes hath been lesse discovered Whatsoever Satans policy was therein we may probably conceive that God purposely over-ruled him in his way to the end that the whole course of the temptation being carried on openly and made subject to sense it might be made manifest to the world that this suggestion came neither from God nor from any evil disposition of minde that God created in man but only from the malice and subtilty of Satan who having fallen away from God himselfe desired to draw in man to be a party with him in his rebellion partly out of envie against God and partly out of malice to man Withal it cannot be denied but that the weaknesse of so contemptible an instrument must needs discover mans infirmity who was mastered by so base an enemy and withal aggravate his sinne in obeying the voice and believing the word of one of the meanest of his own vassals against the peremptory Command and faithful Promise of
withheld For when he perswades the woman to eat of that fruit although forbidden for the singular vertue which it had to open the eyes he must necessarily imply that no other tree in the Garden had this vertue but that a lone Otherwise the woman might have replied that other fruits might have the same vertue and consequently that she had no reason to hazard her selfe upon Gods displeasure by breaking his Commandment when she might have the same benefit without any such danger another way so that we must necessarily suppose that when Satan affirmes that this tree had that vertue and that therefore she must not be deterred from eating of it by Gods interdiction that he implies that this tree which they were forbidden to eat had a vertue that no other tree in Paradise had besides And further expressing what that vertue was namely that it would make one wise and furnish him with such excellent knowledge as would advance him near to the state of a God he doth in effect imply that the rest of the trees of the Garden whereof God hath given man liberty to take were but of vulgar and common use little better then the food which he had allowed unto beasts fit to sustain only the body the baser part of man but this tree had a vertue not only to sustain but to enrich and adorne the soul the more excellent part of man and that also in the most eminent faculty thereof by which he excelled all other creatures Wisdome and Understanding Other fruits might sustein men in the condition in which now they were but this would raise them above the condition of a man and make them in a sort matches with God himselfe Wherefore seeing this tree was of such inestimable worth and the rest of the fruites only of vulgar and baser use Satan leaves it to the woman to inferre thereupon that Gods seeming bounty to man was of little worth if his gifts were compared with that which he might have bestowed on him if he had been so kinde to man as he pretended and made shew to be Now Satan in supposing this tree to have in it such an inestimable value had this advantage that in that which he affirmed it was impossible for him to be disproved if he were not believed seeing there had never been any experiment made of it hitherto as indeed there could not be without breach of Gods Commandment which Satan laboured to draw man unto Satans third meanes by which he labours to raise jealousies against God in the womans minde was in questioning his affection and intentions towards the man and woman which he insinuates to Eve she had just cause to doubt of nay further that she had great reason to suspect that they were not sincere and upright towards her what shew soever was made to the contrary Not only because God had given her only things of no great worth in true estimation but had detained from her that which was of true worth indeed whereas true love imparts things of the greatest and highest value but besides in divers other respects First that God had not only withheld that fruit from man for the present but under a fearful penalty debarred him the use of it for ever now it was not probable that if the fruit of that tree had not been of greater worth then the rest of the fruits of the Garden that God would have threatened such a fearful judgement for transgressing in a trifle Secondly the vertue of this fruit was knowen unto God well enough seeing he had made it and therefore must needes know what vertue himself had given it Consequently it argued an ill affection and envious disposition towards man to withhold from him a fruit that might have been so beneficial unto him wittingly and therefore of set purpose Thirdly this envy in God of mans good and happinesse was manifested so much the more in this that if God had allowed man the eating of that fruit which he had interdicted himself had lost nothing by it for although man had been advanced to an higher condition yet God should have held his place and continued a God still Now for one to hinder anothers good in that wherein himself should sustain no prejudice must needes argue an evil and envious disposition in that person Lastly Satan alledging that the fruit of this tree and this only had power to open the eyes and to make one wise implies that man being forbidden the use of it was to be led on and passe his dayes in â—gnorance and blindness in a base condition unworthy of a man who might unlesse Gods interdiction had hindred it have been little lesse then a God In raising those jealousies in mans minde against God grounded upon his secret intentions Satan had great advantage it being impossible that he should be disproved seeing intentions are secret and not easily discovered and therefore was not without hope to be believed Of the cunning insinuations by which Satan endeavours to winne credit and a good opinion of himself with the woman To breed in the womans minde a good opinion of himself that these suggestions might make the deeper impression upon her heart the devil so manageth his whole discourse with her that she might conceive and be perswaded that all the advice which he gives her proceeded meerly out of his love and good affection towards her and her husband whereof he seems to give some taste divers wayes First by tendring his advice freely and unrequested which might seem to proceed out of more then an ordinary care and desire of mans good Secondly by expressing himself in such termes in the first question which he proposeth that may seem to proceed from some kinde of indignation within at this restraint which God had laid upon man as if he were much affected inwardly to see so excellent a creature kept under and held in ignorance as it were in a kinde of bondage and to man the worst kinde of bondage and detained in a mean and low estate being restrained from the only meanes that might advance him higher and that meerly to satisfie Gods Will who should lose nothing thereby Thirdly he seemes to command his love to man by making shew of much forwardnesse by directing him to the best meanes for the attaining to his own happinesse by raising himself unto an higher condition to become a match even unto God himselfe Thus in laying our baites we usually make shew of providing for those creatures which we intend to ensnare and devoure Nay he makes shew of seeking mans good even in that which God had denied him so that he pretends to the woman to be a greater furtherer of mans happinesse then God himself Secondly lest the woman might doubt whether the Serpents pretended love were sincere and hearty to make it appear that this affection of his was real and cordial as it concerned him to do if he meant to have his Counsel followed seeing no man
usually receives advice or is perswaded by any person of whose sincerity and true affection towards him he hath any cause to doubt Satan first traduceth God himselfe for dealing unfaithfully with man and beguiling him by a false shew of liberality when in the mean time he withheld from him the only meanes which might make him truly happy under a severe interdiction and threatening the penalty of death if he medled with it Now commonly either men are indeed or at least desire to be thought free from those evils which they charge upon other men Again we do not manifest the sincerity of our affection towards others in any thing more then in our careful endeavours to prevent other mens impostures who seek to beguile others by discovering unto them the snares that are laid for them or injuries that are done unto them which good office the devil comes to performe unto the woman in this place Secondly to make yet the fairer shew of the sincerity of his affection to man the divel proposeth such a good unto the woman as seemes meerly to have relation to her only without any manner of respect unto himselfe who gives the advice for what advantage might the woman probably conceive that Satan might make unto himself if the woman should be as God Thirdly to approve his sincerity yet the more in this particular he chargeth God in effect with the contrary practice For to say that God interdicted to man the eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because it would make him as God is in effect to say that he withheld this tree from man for his own advantage namely that he might excel alone and that none might share with him in his honour So then if God manifested his insincerity to man in denying and withholding from him that which might do him most good then doth Satan approve the sincerity and uprightnesse of his heart towards man in shewing him the way to attain that happinesse without any respect at all to his own advantage The third thing by which Satan labours to win credit to himselfe is by endeavouring to gain the reputation of wisdome an ability absolutely necessary to any person that takes upon him to give advice to another the opinion whereof prevailes much with him that is advised to give eare unto the counsel that is given him Now it is no marvel if Satan made shew of wisdome and much knowledge if we consider what a large measure of understanding is yet left in those damned spirits even since their fall though it be exceedingly empaired thereby Now it could not but breed in the woman a great opinion of Satans wisdome and extraordinary knowledge when she heares him speak of things altogether unknown to her as namely of evil of which she had never heard before but much more when he comes to set out that hidden vertue of the tree and that strange property which he affirmed it had to make one wise like a God But above all this when he seems to dive so subtlely and deeply into Gods secret counsels and to discover so strangely his very thoughts and intentions and to lay open all his secret drifts and policies which Solomon affirmes to be a marke of a man of great wisedome and prudence Prov. 20.5 Of Satans third practice his endeavouring to take away from the woman the terrour of the Curse threatened by God if she brake his Commandment By abasing and lessening of the value of the gift which God had bestowed upon man in planting for him and bestowing freely on him that Garden of delights and thereby weakening the opinion that she had conceived of Gods love so largely expressed in that great gift it cannot be questioned but Satan had well nigh loosed the strongest band by which her heart was knit unto God There remained yet behinde another cord which might withhold her from a total Apostasie from him namely the terrour of that fearful curse which God had threatened to lay upon man if he should transgresse his Commandment which the devil finding no meanes to loose and untie makes no more ado but cuts it quite in sunder That God himself had denounced this curse was so evident that it could not be denied Eve herselfe as it is most probable or at least her husband had heard it from his own mouth of the sense of the words there could be as little question they were so plainly and perspicuously delivered that they admitted no doubtful construction As impossible it was to question Gods Power to execute and inflict that curse which he had denounced It must needs be granted that he who had giuen life could much more easily take it away at his pleasure wherefore there was no other way left unto Satan but to affirme boldly that God never intended to execute what he had threatened but that he gave that terrible threatening only in policy for another end of his own Now to make this seem the more probable to the woman Satan layes before her these two grounds which the woman might probably conceive to be manifest truths First he confidently affirmes that God very well knew that the fruit of that tree had no power to work any such effect as to kill those that should eate it Nay on the contrary that he knew as well he might seeing he that made the tree could not be ignorant of the vertue which he had given it that this tree and the fruit thereof had a farre other operation that in stead of killing and destroying it had a wonderful vertue to do good to such as should eate of it yea to bring them the greatest good of which man was capable even wisdome and understanding such as might make them matches to God himself Secondly he suggests that although God knew this yet it was no marvel though he concealed it and to that end threatened them with death if they adventured to taste of the fruit of that tree as well knowing that if man by eating thereof attained to such a measure of wisdome he would become in a sort Gods equal who should thereby lose that honour in which he so much gloried of excelling alone Thus he tells Eve in effect that God did but delude them with a feigned terrour and that also meerly in policie out of an ambitious desire to preserve his own glory of excelling alone for which end it was that he kept under all his creatures as it were in a kinde of bondage and base subjection These two strange assertions the devil layes down with great confidence being such as although they were not easie to be contradicted upon any manifest evidence yet were impossible to be proved by any convincing argument Wherefore after his usual custome putting on a bold face he supports them meerly by his own confident Assertion affirming not only that it was true which he had informed but that God himself knew it to be true laying his own credit to pawne for the
advanced when they should no more behold God in the dim glasse of the creatures as now they did but should see him face to face and know him as they were known All these considerations laid together might prevail much with the woman to make use of the meanes proposed by Satan to encrease her knowledge In the fifth place it was Satans special care to represent unto the woman this meanes of gaining the knowledge of good and evil in the most alluring way that he could possibly devise For whereas there are three things especially that encourage men to the use and effectual pursuing of any meanes that may further them to the attaining of a desired end proposed unto them First that they are easily procured Secondly that they are delight some in the use of them Thirdly that they are of great efficacy and speedy in operation Of all these Satan makes shew in perswading the woman to the eating of this forbidden fruit for the gaining of the knowledge of good and evil For first what could be more easie then to pluck from a tree that stood full in her way Next what could be more delightful then to eat of a fruit so grateful to the taste and beautiful to the eye as that fruit appeared to be to the woman as we shall see anon Lastly there could be nothing more speedy or effectual in operation then this fruit which should produce the desired effect the same day that it was taken as Satan makes the woman believe All these allurements the devil layes before her and how he prevailes by them we shall see Satans sixth policy in beguiling the woman was in the choice of the kinde of the sin to which he tempts her which if it had appeared to be some sin against the Law of Nature such are blasphemy against God lying c. Satan might have found it an hard taske to carry her against the principles of nature so firmely planted in her heart wherefore he makes choice of such a Law as was no Law of Nature but meerly positive prescribed only by Gods Will to tempt her to the breach of that Law which nothing but pure obedience to God will bound her to observe As for the Act it self First it was a matter of no value in which she should offend being only the eating of the fruit of one of the Trees of the Garden A consideration which occasions so much slighting of sin in many profane hearts to this day Secondly the scope of the action seemed to be only mans good without any wronging of God at all who might be conceived to lose nothing by mans gaine or the creature which was ordained to be eaten Thirdly it was an offence unto which they were not carried by any rebellious inclination of their own hearts but unto which they were directed by the advice and counsel of one that pretended and they were perswaded was their friend which also both the man and the woman alledge in their own defence afterwards when God chargeth them with this sinne Lastly if the devils suggestion had been true that God knew that the fruit of that tree had such a vertue that it would open their eyes it might seem to them to be an action unto which God himself invited them howsoever he had in expresse termes forbidden it For why should he give such a vertue to that tree to make one wise to know good and evil if it might not be used to that end and by whom if not by man who was only capable of such knowledge Seventhly in the choice of his arguments to move and perswade the woman to eat of this forbidden fruit Satan makes use of the depth of his cunning and policy which we may easily discover in three particulars First in grounding all his arguments upon such foundations as being not manifest and apparent in themselves might the more safely be supposed because they could not by any clear evidence be disproved Secondly in producing arguments grounded upon some colour of truth but those grosly mistaken and misapplied Thirdly in pressing all arguments that might make for the furthering of his motion and concealing all that might make against it First then he urgeth two arguments grounded upon meer suppositions of such things as being secret in themselves and not maniâ—â—â—ted by any outward effect were therefore impossible to be disproved which suppositions he also fortifies with such faire probabilities as might make them carry at least some shew of truth As first he supposeth that the fruit forbidden had a secret vertue to make one wise like a God to know good and evil who could disprove this seeing none had ever tried it That it might hae such a vertue First the name given it by God himself might seem to imply for why was it called the tree of knowledge of good and evil if it had not some vertue to give that knowledge Secondly the interdiction of the eating of that fruit under so grievous a penalty seemes to imply as much else why should God forbid man the use of that fruit when he granted him all the rest of the fruits of the Garden if there were not some vertue in this that the other fruits had not or how could it stand with Gods justice to lay so heavy a penalty for the eating of this fruit if it were of vulgar and common use Lastly God may perhaps be conceived in policy to conceal the vertue of this fruit from man lest he despising the interdiction eating of the fruit forbidden and thereby becoming wise as God he might share with him in his honour and so God might lose the glory of excelling alone Satans second argument of this kinde is grounded upon the suppofition of Gods secret ill affection towards man which if Satan suggested who could disprove it for who could discover the secrets of his heart which can be known to none but himself alone That God was enviously affected towards man there seemed to be these probabilities First he had planted a Garden for man and denied him some of the fruits of it Secondly that fruit which he had denied him was only of true worth and value and fit for an understanding creature whereas that which God had given him was of little worth only food for the body which he had allowed to the very beasts Thirdly he implies that God must do this wittingly seeing he that had made the tree could not be ignorant of the vertue which himselfe had given it Fourthly he supposeth that God could have no other end in interdicting unto man the use of this fruit but only to keep him under in a state of vassalage destitute of that knowledge of which he was capable that himself might excel alone With these plausible suppositions the divel strengthens his arguments to draw man on into rebellion against his Lord. In the next place Satan grounds his argument upon such things as carry with them some shew of truth but those he wrests
sensible of our deliverance from the bondage of this sin when we finde the neighbourhood of it so troublesome unto us 2. That we might cleave close unto Christ drawing still from him a fresh supply of the Spirit of Power for the mastering of our corruptions 3. That the Power of his Spirit may the more appear in mastering and prevailing upon those lusts that make head continually against it 4. To commend the obedience of his children in submitting to his Law even when their natural inclination bends against it against which when they strive with all their power that they may submit unto Gods Law they do thereby manifest their love unto it and delight in it 1. Let every man then labour the more carefully to subdue and mortifie this fleshly and carnal part which yet remains within us which continually stirs us up to rebellion against God wherein although it prevaile not fully yet it both takes off that chearfulnesse of Spirit wherewith God requires to be served Deut. 28.47 and in which he delights 2 Cor. 9.7 and abates that joy in duties of obedience which we might finde Prov. 21.15 and that enlargement of spirit which should provoke us to run the way of Gods Commandments Psal 119.32 That this body of death as the Apostle termes it Rom. 7.24 being in some measure subdued every thought within us may be brought under to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10.5 Whether that clause neither shall ye touch it were expressed by God himself in the interdiction although omitted by Moses in the relation of it or whether the woman addes it of her own as conceiving it to be necessarily implied in the prohibition to eat of that fruit it is not much material only we may thence 5 OBSERVE Whosoever will not be entangled by allurements to sinne must not come near them Observ 5 WE may not stand in the Councel of the ungodly Psal 1.1 nor come near their pathes as Solomon adviseth Prov. 4.14 15. nor near the door of a lewd womans house Prov. 5.8 much lesse to be where she is which Joseph so carefully avoided Gen. 39.10 we are forbidden to touch any unclean thing 2 Cor. 6.17 or to name fornication or uncleannesse Eph. 5.3 Job will not so much as look upon a maid that he might not think on her Job 31.1 and we are commanded to hate the very garment spotted with the flesh Jude 23. And this we must do 1. Out of the conscience of the weaknesse of our corrupt nature which as easily takes fire by the least allurement to sin as gunpowder doth by any spark that fals into it or rather of it self draws towards it as iron doth toward an adamant now we know that he that will not be burnt must carry no coales in his bosome Prov 6.27 2. That we may manifest our perfect detestation of evil which every man that will approve himself to be a lover of God must hate Psal 97.10 so that by withdrawing from allurements to sin we not only manifest our own holinesse but besides by our example we are a meanes to teach others not to draw near unto that which they observe us so carefully to avoid and flie from It is upon good ground conceived generally that the woman in this answer of hers to Satan gives him great advantage and encouragement by the last words thereof wherein she expresseth the curse threatened against the transgressors of this Commandment in so sleight a manner as if it were either uncertain or at least inconsiderable this is evident that her relation comes farre short of that strong and powerful expression wherein God had delivered it unto her And withal by relating the interdiction in the strictest termes she could devise and the curse in so sleight and weak an expression she gives great cause of suspicion that as she distasted the strictnesse of the command on the one side so she had no great feare of the curse on the other side of which the devil makes great advantage as we shall see in the sequel so that comparing this her sleighting of the curse with her breach of the Commandment which immediately followed we may 6 OBSERVE The sleighting of the curse of the Law makes way to the transgression of the Law Observe 6 HE that blesseth himself in his heart when he heares the cause denounced pronouncing peace to his own soule though he walk in all the abominations of his heart will not feare to adde drunkennesse unto thirst Deut. 29.19 and if one scoffe at Christs coming unto judgment 2 Pet. 3.3 4. to execute vengeance on those that deny subjection Luke 19.27 he will easily resolve to walk after his own lusts Indeed how can it fall out otherwise seeing although the cords of love both to God and to his Law be the strongest bands to keep the godly within their bounds yet the curse and terrour of wrath and vengeance is the strongest bridle to hold in such as are meerly carnal who are therefore compared to horse and mule Psal 32.9 which when they have once cast off the bridle they run on headlong to all excesse of riot Again whosoever hath cast off the feare of Gods wrath hath laid aside in effect all grounds of respect towards him as having in a sort denied his Providence Holinesse Truth Justice and Power and consequently broken in sunder all the bands which might hold him on in any course of obedience VERSE 4. BY this answer of the woman Satan had now sufficiently discovered the temper of her spirit He findes her heart impatient of her restraint and ready to repine against God that had laid it on her and thereupon the pronenesse of her will and affections to break out into actual rebellion if the terrour of the curse threatened in case of transgression of the Commandment could be wholly removed which also held but by a weak thread as we have seen The woman having discovered in her answer her sleighting of it either as uncertain or unconsiderable Wherefore he thinks it best to dally with her no longer but comes up close to her and putting on a bold face First he peremptorily denies the terrour of the curse as if that were only laid before her as a scar-crow seeing God well knew that no such evil would follow the eating of that fruit as he had threatened Secondly with like impudence and confidence in stead of that curse he assures the woman of a singular benefit which the eating of the fruit of that tree would bring her the knowledge of good and evil for the truth whereof he appeales to God himselfe who as he affirmes knew well enough that this tree had such an extraordinary vertue This dangerous assault the woman drew on by her weak and cold answer Whence 1 OBSERVE A little yielding to Satan in his temptations invites and encourageth him to a stronger and more violent assault Observ 1 IF a man yield so farre as to stand in sinners councels Satan
object but from the corruption of the heart within Observe 2 INdeed those things that defile a man come from within Mark 7.21 and it is not the beholding of a woman but the lusting after her in ones heart that makes it adultery Mat. 5.18 And St. James tells us that God tempts no man but every man is drawn away by his own lust Jam. 1.13 14. First God tempts no man neither by suggestion of evil that he raiseth up in any mans heart nor by any thing that he hath made now if God should have put any evil into the creature which he had made he might have been said in some sort to have tempted us to evil but every creature of God is good wherefore he affirmes that the cause of evil is within us and not without us the creature being in the nature of it as apt to be applied to good as to evil to which it cannot be turned but by the evil disposition of our owne hearts within us and the motions that arise from thence The evil then was neither in the wedge of gold nor in the Babylonish garment which Achan saw but in his coveting of them nor is it in the wine that gives a red colour in the Cup but in the drunkards inordinate appetite Prov. 23.31 No wicked persons draw from alluring objects motions and sollicitations to sin with an intent to corrupt and draw others to evil as the devil from the glory of the Kingdomes of the world drew his temptation wherewith he endeavoured to allure our blessed Saviour to fall down and worship him yet neither the creature it selfe nor the temptation or motion presented with it causeth any sinne in us unlesse they meet with some corruption in our hearts to embrace and entertain them Seeing the nature of sinne consists in a voluntary motion of the minde against the Law of God whichcan proceed from no other cause but only from the motion of the minde of him that sins We have laid before us the first step of the womans sinne in the outward act that she saw the fruit of the tree that it was pleasant that is that she looked upon it with delight and desire she saw it perhaps before but that was only in a natural way to discerne that object before her eye she lookes now upon it in a sinful way fixing her eye upon it with a more serious observation of the pleasantnesse of it which so affected her heart that she takes the boldnesse to pluck and eate it So she begins her sin in gazing upon and perfects it in taking and eating Whence 3 OBSERVE It is dangerous to a man to fixe his senses upon enticing objects Observ 3 TO look upon the wine in the glasse and to observe the colour and motion or sparkling of it Prov. 23.31 therefore the wise man expresseth inordinate desire of riches by that phrase of setting our eyes upon them Prov. 23.5 Indeed the very looking upon the wedge of gold drew Achan to covet it Josh 7.21 and men are taken with the eye-lids of a whore when they gaze in her face Prov. 6.25 as the looking upon Bathsheba when she washed her selfe ensnared David 2 Sam. 11.2 for which cause it was that Job when he would not think upon a maid makes a covenant with his eyes to prevent it Job 31.1 Let it be then the care of every good man to watch diligently and continually over his outward senses let him turne away his eare from hearkening to a naughty tongue Prov. 17.4 his eyes from beholding vanity Psal 119.37 that is his senses from dwelling unnecessarily upon alluring objects And to do that it will be our wisdom to fixe them upon such things as are useful and profitable remembring the use for which God hath given them unto us which is partly natural to informe us of things profitable or hurtful to the outward man and partly and especially spiritual to set before us those objects that by the due meditation of them may raise up our mindes to heavenly thoughts observing both their perfections that we may raise up our hearts to the admiration of the more eminent perfection of him that gave them and withal their defects by which they come infinitely short of that All-sufficiency upon which our dependance must be grounded Consider therefore in the objects which we meet withal 1. That they are of a nature appliable to good or evil as they are diversly entertained and used and may be as well snares as helps unto us 2. That our senses being naturally corrupt as many senses as we have so many windows we carry about us to let in sin and as many outward objects as are presented to us so many sparks may fall into out hearts in this state of corruption to set the whole frame of our nature on fire unlesse we look warily to our selves Wherefore 1. Avoid the entertaining of unnecessary objects where we may avoid them 2. If they be presented to us look not on their outward appearance but on the dangers into which they may bring us that a Whore is a deep ditch Prov. 23.27 Wine a mocker Prov. 20.1 3. Pray for the assistance of the Spirit as to keep the door of our lips Psal 141.3 so to take the reins of all our senses yea of the affections of our soules that walking in the spirit we may not fulfil the lusts of the flesh Gal. 5.16 But what may we conceive to be the reason why the woman gives so much credit to Satans information that the tree was good for food and to be desired to get knowledge upon Satans bare word without any experiment made or any other proof at all to justifie what he affirmes when she gives so little credit to that which she had heard from Gods own mouth that the eating of that tree would certainly bring death Questionlesse she shews in this errour of hers the disposition of mans nature in general and gives occasion to 4 OBSERVE Men by nature are more apt to give credit unto lies then unto the Truth of God Observe 4 CErtainly if Adam in this his state of perfection standing then in the Truth and having the helpe of a Minde furnished with all divine knowledge and questionlesse affected also with the love of it which might easily have preserved him in the truth was notwithstanding so suddenly carried away to believe so foule a lie and that meerly upon Satans sugestion and information against Gods expresse word delivered by his own mouth we have great reason to be jealous of our selves being naturally blinded with errour having our understanding full of darknesse Eph. 4.18 and our wills wholly averse from Truth and taking pleasure in unrighteousnesse 2 Thessal 2.10 seeing 1. The Truth of God containes many heavenly and deep mysteries hard to be understood much more to be believed seeing they are foolishnesse to a natural man 1 Cor. 2.14 2. Seeing we have by nature an hatred against the Wisdome and Counsel of