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
us then in observing our wants whether in things temporal or spiritual withal take special notice of what we have as Elkanah adviseth his wife Hannah when she was troubled for want of a childe to remember that she had the love of her husband 1 Sam. 1.8 2. And how unworthy we are of any thing at all even the least mercy with Jacob Gen. 32.10 and David 2 Sam. 7.18 Seeing 1. We have nothing of our selves but what God of his bounty bestowes 2. Neither was he any way bound to bestow on us what we have 3. Which also we have not honoured God withal or employed as we ought if we were called to account for it 4. Consider how many there are which want what we enjoy 5. And that God who hath in himself All-sufficiency and who knows both what we want and what is fittest for us is engaged by his general Providence as a faithful Creatour 1 Pet. 4.19 but more especially by his relation to us as a Father Isa 63.16 Mat. 7.11 and beyond all this by his faithful Promise Heb. 13.6 to give every good thing to such as feare him Psal 34.9 10. and walk uprightly Psal 84.11 That the immediate end which Satan aimed at in passing over in silence all Gods favours to man and in endeavouring to fixe the womans eyes upon this restraint and interdiction of the fruit forbidden was to cast her into a discontented humour at this limitation and abridgement of her liberty as he would have her conceive and thereupon to provoke her to take and eate what she pleased especially in a Garden planted on purpose for her use the very frame of the temptation it selfe sufficiently discovers So that we may here discover whence this impatience which all men are more or lesse subject unto at restraint ariseth and may 16. OBSERVE The nature of man by the Art and Policy of Satan is apt to be carried against all restraint and subjection Observe 16 THat Satan first stirred the minde of the woman to repine at and at last to cast off this yoke of subjection we see manifestly in this temptation Now if he prevailed so far thereby upon our first Parents in their estate of innocency no marvel if he prevail so easily upon their posterity in this state of corruption derived unto them from their Parents when the very wisdome in them is enmity against God and neither is nor can be subject to his Law Rom. 8.7 so that they are now impatient of any yoke Psal 2.4 as resolving to be their own lords Psal 12 4. but much more of Gods yoke which they peremptorily refuse to take or submit unto Jer. 44.17 Now that in stirring up men to this rebellion against God Satan hath an especial hand it cannot be questioned by any that takes notice of the main end which he drives at in all his designes Gods dishonour and mans destruction For First what greater dishonour can be done unto God then to have his Soveraignty disclaimed by man the most excellent of all his visible creatures Secondly the rejecting of Gods yoke which only guides in a right way leaves us under the bondage of our own lusts and of Satan who rules us by them and leads us captive at his will So that it is evident that the turning away of the foolish slayes them Prov. 1.32 Let it be then our chiefest care both to take on and put our selves under Christs yoke without which it is impossible to be his disciples Mat. 11.29 Not only contenting our selves with that lot and condition which God hath assigned 1 Tim. 6.8 but wholly giving up our selves and resigning our own wills to be guided by God in all things after our Saviours example Luke 22.42 Considering 1. Gods absolute Soveraignty by which he hath right to do with his own what he will Mat. 20.15 Not only in disposing them at his pleasure to which Ely submits himselfe 1 Sam. 3.18 and David 2 Sam. 15.26 but besides in giving rules and directions for all their wayes unto which even Christ himself conformes his Will Psal 40.8 2. Taking notice of his righteousnesse and holinesse which makes all his lawes just and equal in all things Psal 119 128. 3. Acknowledging withal his love who prescribes and commands us nothing but for our own good Deut. 6.24 that we may have at present our fruit in holinesse and at last the end everlasting life yea that he may with his honour performe and make good unto us all that he hath promised as he speaks of Abrahams obedience Genesis 18.19 4. And having so much experience of the errours of our own ways which seem good many times in our own eyes when the issues of them are death Prov. 14.12 And lastly of Gods wisdome who better understands what is best and fittest for us then we our selves can do Satans policy in proposing this question to the woman in such ambiguous and doubtful termes may not be passed over that phrase every tree as hath been before intimated being indifferently appliable to signifie either any one or more of the tree of the Garden For if in stead of every tree he had said any one tree he had in a sort pointed at and thereby given the woman occasion to take notice of Gods bounty who had given man the free use of all the rest of the trees of the Garden save that alone Wherefore he chooseth rather to expresse himselfe in that ambiguous phrase lest the easinesse of the restraint might be apprehended by the woman which because it was but from one tree might be the better borne Wherefore seeing Satan layes his snare for the woman in this ambiguous expression we may thence 17 OBSERVE Ambiguous and doubtful expressions may be and many times are dangerous snares Observe 17 IF they be purposely used As 1. Betraying an ill minde and affection in him that proposeth them seeing men that think well and sincerely have no cause to cover their intentions with the darknesse of doubtful termes 2. And being dangerous meanes to lead men into errour if they be not wisely and heedfully observed It discovers whose children they are that not only use but maintain that dangerous doctrine of equivocation A Monster hatched by the father of lies which never durst abide the light until this last and worst age of the world neither is it any way countenanced by any of those pretended examples out of Scripture wherein the words in true construction are neither false nor doubtful but only short of the Questionists meaning to conceale that from him which it concerned him not to know VERSE II. THe woman without any advised deliberation in her selfe or so much as consulting with her husband or consideration of the party that proposed the question or of the nature of the question proposed or of the scope at which it aimed gives a present answer not only to that which was demanded but to more then the question required and thereby opening her minde so freely
this is most unjustly applied unto God though it were an evil in a creature Yet seeing this is the colour by which Satan blindes the womans eyes that God was unjust in this act of his because it is granted thâ—t it is unjust in one creatures dealing with another upon that ground which Satan here supposeth and all men grant We may 6. OBSERVE It is great injustice in any man to keep under and hinder others for his own advantage Observe 6 TO get up into places of honor that we may keep others low be admired alone to join land to land till there be no more place that we may dwell alone Isa 5.8 to keep in corn that we may have plenty when others want Prov. 11.26 to hoard up coin and lade our selves with thick clay as the Prophet termes it Hab. 2.6 that we may be rich alone when others are kept low and poor But much more to keep away the Key of knowledge with the Scribes and Pharisees and their Apes the popish Prelates that we may be esteemed wise alone and the generality of men may be kept in blindnesse and ignorance The reason whereof is because God who by right of Creation being Lord of all things hath power to dispose them and order them according to his own will hath appointed the preservation of community to be the common end whereunto all creatures should tend and whereunto all their sufficiency should be referred So that to speak properly no man hath any thing for himselfe alone Not his wealth which is as our Saviour calls it another mans Luke 16.12 even any mans that needs who hath an interest in it whom therefore the wise man calls the owner thereof Prov. 3.27 nor his graces much lesse which are given to profit withal 1 Cor. 12.7 and consequently a man reserving any thing which he hath received only as a Steward to employ and bestow it on others as God directs him to himself meerly for his own advantage without employing it for a common good he unjustly keeps back from others that whereunto God himself hath given them a title which is stronger then all the civil titles in the world Yet is this that which the whole world aimes at in all their labours and endeavours and drives at with all their wisdome and policie to do well unto themselves alone whatsoever becomes of other men wherein they are approved and applauded too by all men Psal 49.18 When Satan perswades the woman to eate of this fruit though forbidden and that under so heavy a curse he must withal necessarily imply that no other tree in the Garden but that alone had this vertue to make one wise and that therefore they should not feare to adventure the eating of it although it were forbidden for so great a benefit For if any other tree whereof they might freely eate had the same vertue it had been a vain thing to perswade her to run so dangerous an hazard to gain that by eating the fruit forbidden which they might as easily obtain without any danger at all by eating of some other fruit which was not forbidden This then is the main scope at which Satan drives First to perswade the woman that no tree in the Garden had this singular vertue by making man wise to advance him near to the state of a God but this alone Secondly and leaves her thereupon to infer that God did but delude them with a false shew of liberality because he gave them only fruits of ordinary and vulgar use but withheld from them this tree which had this eminent vertue to make man wise like unto God So that we have here occasion to 7 OBSERVE It is false liberality to withhold things that are of true value and to bestow that which is of little worth Observ 7 THat is the exception which the children of Israel take against Moses that he fed them with nothing but Manna but had not given them any of the varieties of Egypt Numb 11.4 5 6. nor had given them a land flowing with milk and honey or possessed them of fields and vineyards Numb 16.14 God justly taxeth his people Mal. 1.14 that when they had males in their flocks they sacrificed unto him corrupt or base things And as justly taxeth Saul for passing under the Anathema the vile and refuse of the cattel of the Amalekites and reserving the best of the sheep and the oxen and of the fatlings 1 Sam. 15.9 The reason is that true liberality is the fruit of love which is grounded upon the estimation of that which we love and expressed in bestowing upon the person whom we love gifts answerable to the price and value that we set upon him Thus Abraham in disposing of his estate gave some portions to the sons of his Concubines but the choice and maine of his estate he left unto his sonne Isaac which was his darling Gen. 25.5 6. Now then where we bestow things of little worth we shew little love and consequently those things which we so bestow cannot be esteemed true liberality Let us upon this ground admire the infinite and incomprehensible love of God unto man upon whom he hath bestowed his own beloved Sonne his choicest Jewel his Delight daily Prov. 8.30 and that from all eternity Thus the Holy Ghost every where sets out this unvaluable Love of God as John 3.16 and 1 John 4.9 the more that we have thereby assurance that he cannot but with him give us all things Rom. 8.32 even every thing that is good which he hath promised to all that love him Psal 84.11 The consideration of this wonderful expression of Gods love to man as it cannot but amaze and astonish us so it ought to quicken us to a serious enquiry and searching into that wonderful mystery that we may in some measure comprehend with all Saints that love that passeth knowledge endeavouring to measure it out in all the dimensions thereof Eph. 3.18 19. that our mouthes may be filled with his praises and our hearts with his love considering what we may render unto him again with the Prophet David Psal 116.12 and resolving to stick at nothing wherein we may testifie our thankfulnesse for such manifestations of his love unto us the first of our increase Prov. 3 9. the male of our flock the flower of our age the beginning of our strength Eccl. 12.1 all our abilities even the strongest affections of our souls Deut. 10.12 as being all of them 1. His owne 1 Chron. 29.14 2. And the best of them unworthy of the greatnesse of his Majesty Mic. 6.6 7. 3. Altogether unproportionable to that which we have received 4. Yet to be recompenced with a plentiful reward measured unto us beyond all that we can conceive when the day of refreshing shall come Satans endeavour in the first place as we have seen was to take off mans heart from God his next policy is to faster it to the creature First to himself by advising him to
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
and abundance But withal kindle in our hearts a longing desire after that One thing which is both Necessary and Sufficient even God Himself communicated unto us in his Son Jesus Christ who alone is unto us a Full and All-sufficient Treasury seeing the very variety of these outward things argue their Insufficiency and Imperfection The second Circumstance by which this Grant of the fruits of Paradise is enlarged is that God gave not the man only the Taste of them but withall the Full and Constant fruition of them to take of them what he pleased either for Necessity or Delight within the bounds of Sobriety without any other limitation or restraint at all Whence 6. Observe Whatsoever God bestowes upon us he bestowes Freely and Fully Observ 6 AL things abundantly 1 Tim. 6.17 Commanding us to open our mouthes wide that we may fill them Psalme 81.10 Satisfying the desire of every living thing Psalme 145. Multiplying his Blessing like the Widdowes oyl 2 King 4. which never ceased till there were no more Vessells to receive it And as he gives largely so He desires that we should satisfie our souls with his Goodnesse Jer. 30.14.25 Freely using his Blessings within the bounds of Moderation but above all things his Desire is that we take of the waters of the Well of Life freely without money and drink and eat and delight their souls in fatnesse Isa 55.2 That we may rejoyce in the Lord alwaies and again rejoyce Phil. 4.4 And this God doth Partly because the bounty of his Goodnesse may be seen the more the more we taste it so many various and divers waies Let our acknowledgments in our duties unto God be some way answerable unto his gifts unto us Free and Full every way that they may be accepted of him who loves a Chearful Giver the rather because we render unto him 1. Of his Own 1 Chron. 29.14.2 Our giving unto him is but Sowing and that unto our selves whereof we receive the increase and that proportionable to our Seed 2 Cor. 9.6 VERSE 17. BUt That is notwithstanding this free liberty which I have given unto you to take and enjoy the rest of the fruits of the Garden you shall not meddle with this Tree Not eat thereof Not for any Evil in the fruit it self which might in it self be as fit for food as the other fruits as it appears Chap. 3.6 Otherwise it could be no tryall of Adams Obedience to forbear that whereof he could make no use Now in this relation of Gods Restraint laid upon Adam we find no more forbidden but the Eating of the fruit of that Tree though the woman in repeating it mentions Touching as well as Eating Gen. 3.3 Whether that Clause were added by God though it be omitted by Moses here or whether the Woman conceived it to be implyed although it were not expressed as conceiving it unfit for them to handle that which they might not Eat it is not much material This is evident that by this abstinence from the Tree Adam was to acknowledge Gods Absolute Power over the Creatures who had therefore free liberty to grant or withhold what he pleased And withall he was to manifest his Subjection unto God to be guided wholly by his Will by abstaining from all that God denied him meerly because it was his pleasure And for this cause God singles out a Tree as Beautifull to the Eye as Delightfull in Taste and good for Food as any of the rest And forbids the man to eate of it to shew that it was no difference in the fruits but meerly in the Will of God which made the eating of the rest lawful and of this One onely Unlawful as we shall see more fully hereafter in the next Chapter For in the day Or very Moment of time for the very Act of sin involves the sinner in the Punishmentt though sometimes the Execution of it may be differred for a while and yet this Judgment here mentioned seized upon our First Parents in the very act of sinning for we find that Folly Fear and Shame besides the corrupting of their hearts within included amongst other Evils in this name of Death took hold on them in the very moment when they tasted the forbidden fruit Thou shalt surely die Dying thou shalt die saith the Originall as before Eating thou shalt eat pointing at the Certainty Continuance and Extent of that death which should seize upon man in case of transgressing under that name of Death Including all kind of Evils Outward and Inward on the Soul and Body Temporal and Eternal Plagues of all sorts on the Outward man and the meanes of inflicting them as Locusts are called a death Exod. 10.7 and Saint Paul calls his outward Afflictions and Miseries Deaths 2 Cor. 11.23 and Infirmities of the body tending unto ending in the dissolution of Nature by separating the Soul from the Body But especially weaknesse and corruption of the Soul in all the parts thereof Blindnesse in the Understanding Rebellion and Perversenesse in the Will Bondage and slavery in the Affections Distemper and Distraction in the thoughts by the fighting of contraries within us Horror of Conscience by the Apprehension of Gods unsupportable and unavoidable Wrath and lastly Eternall Separation from the presence of the Lord 2 Thes 1.9.8 and Delivering over of the Body and Soul to everlasting torments called the Second death Rev. 20.6.14 We have then in this verse set before us a law given to Adam with the Sanction annexed thereunto in both which are divers considerable circumstances to be taken notice of as namely in the Law 1. The person that gives it 2. The Restraint laid upon man thereby 3. The matter wherein 4. The measure how far it reacheth Out of the former of those considered in relation to the person to whom the Law is given even to Adam himself in the state of his Innocency and the perfection of his nature 1. Observe The most righteous amongst the Sons of men Must and Needs to live under a Law Observ 1 NOt so much to enforce him to his duty by any terrour because a godly mans nature by the Renovation thereof being made conformable to the Law and thereby delighting therein and having withall his heart filled with the Love of God by that double band is more strongly drawn on to all duties of Obedience then he can be by any other way in which respect the Law is said not to be given to a Just man because he is a Law unto himself 1 Tim. 2.9 Notwithstanding unto such a person a law is needful 1. For direction for man is unfit to choose his own way being through his ignorance so apt to mistake evill for good neither is any able to find out what is truly good but God alone who is Goodnesse it self and His Will the Rule of goodnesse which none can find out or reveal but himself 1 Cor. 2.11.2 It is needful that by conforming to the Law given us by God 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
that she so thought both of the one and the other in her heart as she represents them in her speeches having a low esteem of Gods large liberality in the grant of eating of all the trees and grudging at the interdiction from eating of that one Besides we finde that upon Satans reply to this answer the woman turnes wholly away unto the creature which she could not do unlesse she had first departed from God which we may probably conceive is described or at the least intimated in this verse Which is in the midst of the Garden By this answer it is evident that this phrase in the midst cannot be taken largely for within as it is in some other places of Scripture as namely Gen. 41.48 that we render in the Cities is in the Original in the midst of the Cities but more properly and distinctly for the particular place in which that tree stood seeing the woman by this expression distinguisheth it from the rest of the trees of the Garden This Middest here mentioned we must understand within a certain latitude because the Tree of life is said in the former Chapter verse 9. to be planted in the midst of the Garden near unto which it seemes this tree was placed and was it which the woman meant in this place because that only was the tree of which she was forbidden to eat God hath said Whether she answers the Divel to that particular that he points at in his question whether she was sure that it was God that had forbidden the eating of that tree so that it is as if she had said yea it is God himself that hath forbidden not only the eating but the very touching of that fruit or whether she is moved to name God not so much in satisfaction to Satans question as out of a distaste of his strict interdiction it is not much material Questionlesse when she expressely mentions his name in the restraint and passeth by it in the grant of all the rest of the trees in the Garden she cannot but be conceived to discover some unkinde thought of God of whom she seemes to take no notice at all in so free and large a grant which if she had valued as she ought she might and in justice ought to have cleared God in this interdiction acknowledging both the equity of God in interdicting the use of one tree when he had so freely granted them all the rest and her ready and willing submission thereunto especially seeing also the whole Garden was of Gods own planting and therefore it was free for him to grant or withhold what he pleased Neither shall ye touch it Of this clause we finde no mention in the relation of the interdiction recorded in the former Chapter whether that clause was left out by God in the delivery of that Law or by Moses in recording of it it is uncertain Howsoever we may probably conceive that if that clause was not expressed in giving the Law yet the woman might conceive it to be implied But admit she did it was more then she needed to have added in her answer to the divels question who enquires only of the restraint from eating and not from touching or handling so that she may justly be conceived in this voluntary expressing of more then was demanded to discover some discontent and propension to grudge and complain of Gods hard dealing with her and her husband Lest ye die Some adde peradventure and it is true that that particle Pen in the Original signifies sometimes only the likelihood or possibility of an uncertain Consequent Take it how you will it appears plainly that the woman expressing the curse in a phrase so much different and so much weaker then that wherein God had delivered it gives great cause of suspicion that she entertained not that sharp threatening of so heavy a judgement with that feare and trembling of heart that she ought seeing she could not but speak of it as her heart was inwardly affected by it and consequently discovereth the wavering of her heart in not firmly believing that certain truth of Gods judgement threatened in case of her transgression of which she speaks so slightly and doubtfully whereby she gives encouragement to Satan in his reply to deny that flatly and peremptorily which she believes so weakly as being assured by one assault more wholly to overthrow that which began to totter already Verse 4. And the Serpent said Watching more diligently to catch something from the womans mouth then ever Benhadads Messengers did from Ahabs 1 Kings 20.33 And perceiving that the woman began now to stagger and give ground he renews his assault with the more violence as we shall see by and by Ye shall not surely die The forcible forme of speech used by God which the woman had omitted Satan takes up perhaps not without some derision as if he had said yea I know you are threatened death certain death yea death in the highest degree if you will be such fools as to believe God It must needs then be granted that Satan relating the curse more exactly according to the forme wherein it was delivered then the woman had done knew it well enough beforehand as being questionlesse present when God denounced it at first whereat we need not wonder seeing we know how diligently he watcheth God in all his wayes and his children in all his dispensations towards them as appears in the History of Job which if Eve had well observed she might have had just cause to suspect Satans dealing with her in enquiring of her that which he knew before hand as well as her selfe And withal it manifestly discovers Satans impudency in contradicting that which he knew God had uttered with his own mouth and that to the woman her selfe who had heard it as well as he But he well knew that he could now speak no more then the woman was ready to believe And besides he takes the more liberty to deny that which God had affirmed because no man had hitherto by trial had experience of the contrary by the execution of that curse which God had threatened And therefore seeing there was no meanes to convince him of falshood he takes the more boldnesse to gain say that upon his word which God had affirmed only upon his Word Hoping that his Nay might prevaile as much with so favourable a hearer as Gods Yea could do when there was no meanes to determine the point in difference but the credit of the persons that affirmed and denied Verse 5. But God doth know Whatsoever he speaks or affirmes to the contrary This circumstance the divel urgeth with great probability if the tree were believed to have any such vertue that God who made the tree could not be ignorant of the nature of his own work and enforceth with great advantage for the furthering of his main end to take off mans heart from God if it were assented unto as true for then God must be charged
with two fearful evils The first of envy to man to whom he so severely interdicted that which he knew to be so beneficial unto him The second of notorious falshood divers wayes First in affirming that which he knew to be untrue Next in doing it in the delivery of his Law whereas Lawes above all things ought to be Oracles of Truth Lastly in casting this interdiction as a cloak over his envy to man pretending to be tender of his safety in forewarning him of a danger when indeed he used it as he makes the woman believe as a scar-crow to deterre him from seeking his owne good These horrible blasphemies against God involved in this manner of Satans contradicting his truth we ought to observe the more heedfully that we may accordingly proportion and value the hainousnesse of the sin of our first Parents in assenting unto and believing them that we may the more justifie God in the judgements inflicted on them That in that day Alluding again to Gods threatening that in the day wherein they should eat of the fruit forbidden they should die the death and therein not only contradicting God in every circumstance but besides as God by threatening the speedy execution of the curse deterrs man more effectually from acting the sinne so Satan more strongly allures him to attempt it by promising a speedy reward Besides by this meanes he endeavours to gain some credit to his words because it would quickly be tried whether he spake truth or no and therefore it might seem incredible that he would lie in that wherein he might so speedily and certainly be disproved Your eyes shall be opened An ambiguous speech as are all the rest of Satans Oracles which proved true by lamentable experience although in a far other sense then that wherein the devil desired to have it understood which moves the Holy Ghost to expresse the event afterwards in the same phrase affirming that their eyes were opened indeed but it was only to behold their own shame and misery Now in this expression besides the representing of the benefit which the eating of this fruit would bring them Satan chargeth God by the way that he had all this while kept man hood-winked and thereby ignorant of those things which he might and which it concerned him to know In the mean time Satan doth that indeed wherewith he chargeth God falsely and maliciously dazeling the eyes of our first Parents so much with the brightnesse of that glorious condition unto which he promiseth to advance them that they oversaw and took no notice of that large measure of wisedome and knowledge wherewith God had already enriched their mindes in all things that it concerned them to know and thereby so blinded them in this action that they understood not what they went about till they were utterly undone like the Syrians whom Elisha led that knew not whither they went till they found themselves in the midst of Samaria 2 Kings 6.20 And ye shall be as Gods Or Princes or Angels as the same word sometimes signifies Thus having represented unto them the benefit that they should receive by rebelling against God he now enlargeth it by laying before them a patterne of their happinesse wherein they should equal even God himself and by this enflames their hearts and distempers them It may be withal that he conveighs into the womans minde some ground of hope of attaining to this glorious condition seeing they saw a patterne of it in God himself and therefore might hope that it was possible to be enjoyed It is out of question that he casts into her thoughts of discontent against God by representing their condition so far below that which it might have been as he perswades the woman to believe joyned with much unthankfulnesse for that which she had received already at Gods hand the creating of him after Gods own Image soveraignty over the rest of the creatures the planting and free bestowing of that pleasant Garden with all the fruits thereof and the inheritance of the whole world with a desire to rise higher that she might be a match unto God himself Knowing good and evil Whether he alludes to the name given to that tree given by God himself it is not certain if he do it is to strengthen what he had before affirmed that God knew well enough the vertue of that tree as appears in the very name which he had given it The Promise it self which Satan makes is frivolous if it be duly weighed Good they knew already and what could they gain by the knowledge of evil wherewith they had nought to do We have then here laid before us in brief that temptation by which Satan foiled and without Gods infinite mercy had for ever ruined our first Parents with their posterity as will appear in the sequel and it is by Moses only briefly pointed at and not displayed at large and is therefore by us to be scanned and searched into the more exactly Partly because it nearly concernes us to know the meanes by which all those evils under which all mankinde labours unto this day came first into the world especially seeing those Engines wherewith Satan assaulted our first Parents are the patternes according to which all the rest are forged wherewith he fights against us continually even to this day And partly because we may be assured that this temptation was the Divels master-piece wherein it concerned him to make use of the depth of his policies as having to encounter an adversary First made perfect in wisdome and holinesse and withal filled with Gods love kindled and confirmed by so many fresh experiments of his superabundant favours and mercies and now walking in a course of perfect obedience Secondly Satan was to encounter him meerly with his own strength assisted neither by lusts within nor by any allurements or other instruments without Thirdly he had to deal in a matter of great difficulty namely to set man against that God that had made him and had compassed him with infinite variety of blessings but never provoked him by the least discourtesie Nay against that God upon whom his happinesse still depended and who was able easily to destroy him by the same power by which he had created him or make him as miserable as he had made him happy Fourthly he was to attempt a matter of infinite consequence upon the good or ill successe whereof depended the happinesse or utter destruction of all mankinde the weakening of Gods Kingdome and the advancing and enlarging of the Kingdome of Satan And lastly he was to adventure upon an enterprise to be carried through at this present assault or not at all For if Adam had stood the first brunt and by use and experience been setled and confirmed in that state of Innocency and Holinesse wherein he then stood having once discovered Satans nature and scope he had afterwards in all probability been attempted in vain It will therefore be of good use to take in sunder
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
and misapplies cunningly and deceitfully to fit them to his own purpose As first he suggests or at least would have it supposed that limitations and restraints are a kinde of bondage This position hath in it some truth if it be duly limited in every respect First in relation to the persons Restraints upon free men that have just title to liberty are slaveries but applied to men in respect of God whose creatures they are it is most false for no creature can be free from subjection to him that made him Secondly that position must be limited in respect of things from which we are restrained restraints from necessary or profitable things impose a kinde of bondage but restraints from hurtful or needlesse things such as this tree was are rather profitable directions then any abridgement of lawful liberty Again it is unreasonable that man who was created an understanding creature capable of knowledge should be kept in blindnesse and ignorance this hath some truth in it if we confine it only to things fit to be known but to be ignorant of unnecessary things is an ease to be ignorant of hurtful things is safety Thirdly it is lawful for any man to seek his own good It is true if we restrain it to a good proportion able to ones state and condition that is really good to him and besides if it may be obtained by lawful meanes But this good which Satan perswades Eve to seek after was neither fit for Adams present condition nor to be obtained by any other meanes then by breaking of Gods Commandment Fourthly one ought not to hinder anothers good for his own advantage as Satan chargeth God to deal with man in this particular case is a true rule between the creature who owes to another this duty of seeking one anothers good But it is utterly false if it be applied to God who having as warrantably he might made all things for himselfe might justly limit the good of all that he had made by due respects unto his own glory Lastly it is not lawful to seek to excel alone it is true applied to the creature but extended unto God is false and prodigiously blasphemous who if he should cease to excel alone must cease to be a God Thirdly Satans last slight in urging his arguments is in producing all that might move the woman to embrace his motion and concealing all that might make against it For if the loving kindenesse of God to man manifested among all the creatures in forming only man after his own Image and likenesse so as he had done no other visible creature in making him lord over all the rest of his creatures which he put under his feet in giving him possession of the whole world in planting this Garden of delights meerly for his sake and bestowing freely upon him all the fruits thereof to make use of at his pleasure reserving only that one tree and after all this to make mans happinesse compleat every way in creating such a necessary and comfortable help as the woman was and bestowing her upon him All these and the rest of Gods favours so lately and freely conferred upon man without any solicitation meerly out of Gods infinite and unconceivable goodnesse had been either remembred by Satan or considered by thâ—â—oman and cast into the ballance against Satans groundlesse suppose â—â—alousies of Gods ill affection towards man that maine temptation by which Eves heart was perverted and turned away from God had taken no effect at all and Satan had been abhorred and hated as he deserved as a malicious slanderer Eightly Satans notable cunning and subtilty appeares yet further in working upon and stirring up the womans affections within which he doth partly by putting her into a passion of discontent which must of necessity cast a mist before the understanding and blinde the eye of reason and thereby disable it to judge of things aright And partly by setting her at gaze upon that pleasant visible object of the forbidden fruit which working upon the outward senses might awaken the affections within and by both those meanes might raise them up to such a violent distemper that reason should be able to rule them no longer but the affections now holding the raines might carry the woman whither they list Thus the divel wholly perverts that natural course which God in the beginning had set in the soule of man according to which the faculties thereof exercised all their operations in the state of mans innocency which was that the understanding being first duly informed should give a rule to the Will and affections upon advised deliberation and judgement which order if the woman had observed at this time and referred the motion of Satan to the free and unpartial judgement of the minde questionlesse Satan had lost all his labour and the falshood and fraud of his suggestions had been discovered But above all the rest of Satans policies there is none matchable to the last in pressing the woman to a speedy resolution without farther deliberation and to the speedy execution and putting in practice that counsel which he had given her which is the nearest way to thrust in men headlong into mischief Now that the woman took no time for advice appears by the Narration in the History penned by Moses wherein it is manifest that supposed vertue of this forbidden fruit is no sooner discovered but the fruit it selfe presented to her view is both desired eaten before she departs from the place to bring her husband tidings of this new discovery of the means of their further happinesse That it was Satans policy to presse the woman to a speedy resolution and execution of what she resolved on no man can doubt who knowes and considers his subtile policy and industry in contriving and acting mischief And shall withal observe how much a sudden resolution must needes further his design the successe whereof nothing could assure but a sudden surprise But besides in that he informes and perswades the woman that man should become a God that very day that he tasted of the forbidden fruit he intimates what he aimed at which could be nothing else but to involve the woman in this act of rebellion speedily that she might as speedily become a God seeing we know that hopes of speedy successe are the most forcible motives to draw men to speedy undertakings Thus hâ—â—e we in a good part endeavoured to display the Method and Art of Satan in this dangerous temptation by which our first Parents in Paradise were foiled the due consideration whereof may be of special use to teach us the Art of discovering those wiles by which Satan attempts us daily in the same manner which we shall the more carefully look into if we lay withal before us the lamentable consequents of this shameful fall and shall also consider that if Satan prevailed against them furnished with so much wisdome and holinesse he hath a far greater advantage against us that are
so much weakened in both those abilities The successe of this temptation with the lamentable Consequents that followed it with the miraculous meanes by which man was recovered after this fall which without Gods infinite mercy had wholly ruined him and his posterity after him we are now to take up these particulars as they are laid down unto us by Moses in the Narration ensuing But first it will not be amisse to take notice what the consideration in general of the several circumstances of this assault described in the five verses which we have already expounded may teach for our Instruction Verse 1. Out of the consideration of the time of this temptation which though it be not expresly set down yet must be questionlesse shortly after the placing of our first Parents in Paradise we may 1. OBSERVE It is the usual custome of Satan to attempt men before they be confirmed and setled in a course of godlinesse Observe 1 THus he assaulted the Churches of Judea and the parts adjoyning by sharp persecutions as soon as they were planted Acts 8.3 He stands before the woman to devoure her childe as soon as it was to be borne Rev. 12.4 troubles the Churches of Galatiâ— Corinth c. in their very insancy with dangerous errours schismes and corrupt doctrine as most of Saint Pauls Epistles wherein he complaines of those evils testifying to the world And unto this practice he is moved 1. By his envy both at mans happinesse and Gods glory neither of which he can endure not for a moment if he may finde meanes to hinder either of them 2. By the opportunity of effecting his intended mischief more easily and certainly as new planted trees are more easily plucked up at the first before they have taken roote and be thereby thoroughly fastened which his own vigilancy and industrious disposition to work mischief will not suffer him to omit Let all persons newly converted prepare for such trials and let all their friends watch over them carefully as mothers do after their new born children after Pauls example 1 Thes 2.7 and direction Acts 20.35 1 Thes 5.14 according to the patterne of Christ Isa 40.11 considering the dangerous assaults wherewith they are to encounter and the inability of those weak ones even to subsist of themselves much lesse to withstand the policies and power of Satan But the consideration of this circumstance of time wherein our first Parents were thus seduced offers unto us further the observation of Satans malice in setting thus upon man and practising his destruction before he had been any way provoked by him yea before he had ought to do with him nay perhaps before man so much as knew that there was a devil Whence 2. OBSERVE Satan conirives mischief even against such as never provoked him Observe 2 THus he dealt with God himself from whom he fell and whom he still opposeth although he had not only made him but made him the most excellent of all his creatures Thus he dealt with Christ by Herod his minister attempting to destroy him almost as soon as he was borne and when he had yet done neither good nor evil Thus he incensed Cain against his own brother Abel and that so far as to take away his life and that upon no other ground but because he was a goodman 1 John 3.12 and sets Davids enemies against him even when he sued unto them for peace Psal 120.7 nay when he did them good Psal 35.12 and prayed for them with fasting ver 13. Hope not for peace with wicked men who being Satans seed must needs resemble his nature as our Saviour testifies they do John 8.44 seeing a good mans peace with them is 1. Impossible because of the contrariety between good and evil men every way As 1. In their very disposition a good and wicked man are an abomination one to another Prov. 29.27 2. And are employed in the service of contrary Masters Christ and Belial 2 Cor. 6.15 3. They follow and are guided by contrary Rules the Law of sinne as the Apostle termes it Rom. 7.23 and the Law of Righteousnesse as Gods Law is termed Psal 119.172 4. And are carried in all their wayes and actions to contrary ends whence it necessarily follows that they must continually crosse one another in all the course of their conversation 2. If the peace of the godly with wicked men were possible yet it must needs be every way unprofitable seeing they have nothing common between them in which they might have commerce together or be helpful one to another the one aiming only at earthly the other especially at heavenly things 3. Such peace must of necessity prove dangerous to the godly seeing experience shews us how easily wicked mens words or conversation as the word in the Original may not improperly be rendered 1 Cor. 15.33 or at the least our commerce with wicked men must be troublesome and full of unquietnesse when a wicked mans ungodly conversation must needs be a grief and continual vexation to a good mans spirit as the wicked lives of the Sodomites were to Lots 2 Pet. 2.8 Indeed as much as in us lies we are commanded to have peace with all men Rom. 12.18 But for an unprofitable outward peace with such men So as 1. To swerve from the course of a godly life or to neglect such services or duties as we owe unto God or his Church which we can hardly performe as we ought being in their company as the Psalmist implies when he commands wicked men to depart from him that he might keep Gods Commandments Psal 119.115 2. Or to coole and slack our zeal for Gods glory 3. Or much more to conforme to any of their wicked practices which are the only termes on which ordinarily he may have and continue peace with them being contrary to the minde and Law of God these are things that lie not in our power Thus far only we may go but no further 1. To forbear provoking them without just cause 2. To endeavour to win them by outward courtesies rendering unto them good for their evil as we are directed Rom. 12.21 and by Christ himself Mat. 5. 3. To embrace peace when they offer it upon warrantable termes and to seek it too by lawful means Notwithstanding in enjoying this peace with them we must take heed of admitting them into our inward familiarity as we are forewarned Prov. 22.24 which David found to be dangerous Psal 55.13 14. 2. Let us not walk with them securely but always suspect and therefore arme our selves against all their dangerous practises with the wisdom of Serpents and innocency of Doves Mat. 10.16 The place of this temptation although it be not mentioned by Moses must necessarily be concluded to be Paradise in which also we may probably conceive that the woman at this time when Satan assaulted her was profitably employed in surveighing the fruits of this pleasant Garden their new Lordship so lately bestowed and that as well to
out of an uncertain and not very probable conjecture that the woman had not received the Commandment immediately from God but mediately from the mouth of her husband to whom alone it was delivered by Gods own mouth and therefore might more easily be drawn to doubt of that which she had received at the second hand Howsoever we may hence 8 OBSERVE Our weaknesse is Satans advantage Observe 8 WEak persons silly women are such as Satan singles out to beguile and deceive 2 Tim. 3.6 as Amalek surprised the weak and feeble of the children of Israel Deut. 25.18 and those which are weak he assaults where they are weakest as we usually lay our batteries against forts where they are weakest and ill manned and that too when they are weakest that he drew Lot to commit incest with his two daughters when he was drunken Gen. 19.33 and sets upon our Saviour to tempt him to turne the stones into bread when â—e was hungry Mat. 4.2 3. And when he findes men transported with anger overwhelmed with grief or distempered by any other passion those are his opportunities to draw men into any sinne The reason whereof is 1. The baseness of his disposition contrary every way to the goodness and compassion of God That which moves God to uphold and strengthen even the compassion he hath of mens weakness is Satans encouragement to work mischief and destroy And as Gods strength is perfect in weakness to maintain and uphold so is his raging malice perfected and poured out upon weakness to cast down to the ground And 2. Out of the conscience of his own weakness which makes him flie when men stand upon their guard and make head against him Jam. 4.7 Let us watch over and take care of such as are weak every one of us considering our own infirmities Gal. 6.1 and having received strength from God for the same purpose as our Saviour exhorts Peter Luke 22.32 See 2 Cor. 1.4 And let us have an eye to the weakest parts of our own soules to those infirmities which Nature or custome hath made familiar unto us strengthening our selves against them especially avoiding all distempering passions which wonderfully weaken the soule standing alwayes upon our guard and having on us the whole Armour of God lest Satan finding us naked take the greater courage to assault us suddenly and ensnare usere we be aware Most Interpreters conceive upon probable ground that Satan assaulted the woman alone being at that time upon what occasion it is not worth the while to enquire severed from her husband as appeares by the whole Series of Moses his Narration seeing no mention is made of the man at all in this debate of hers with Satan wherein the woman being first seduced by him and having eaten of the fruit forbidden becomes his instrument to tempt and draw her husband into the same sin so that it manifestly appears that Satan takes the womans solitariness for his advantage Whence we may 9. OBSERVE Solitarinesse is many times a snare Observe 9 ANd that also many wayes 1. It yields advantage to temptations as appears in Davids entangling himself with lust after Bath-sheba when he was alone whence it was that our Saviour to give Satan all the advantage that might be that thereby he might make his victory over him the more glorious went out to encounter with him in the solitary wildernesse 2. Solitarinesse gives the greater opportunity to commit sin unespied of men an advantage upon which Josephs Miâ— stresse attempts him to commit adultery with her Gen. 39.11 12. 3. It deprives men of help by advice and counsel to withstand the temptation So Eccl. 4.10 12. 4. Man was ordained for society and fitted with abilities for that purpose and as he is most serviceable that way so is he most safe as being secured by Gods protection in that way and employment to which the Lord hath assigned him Let every one avoid solitarinesse as much as he may 1. Rule our emploiment requires it as Josephs did when he entred into his Masters house alone Gen. 39.11 2. Or to get opportunity for the performance of religious duties for which our Saviour often withdrew himself from company as he also adviseth us to do upon like occasion Mat. 6.6 as likewise doth the Apostle 1 Cor. 7.5 3. Or for avoiding wicked mens society for which cause the Prophet wisheth himself in the wildernesse Psal 55.7 The Time Place Instrument of the temptation and the persons tempted we have considered already The baites where of Satan makes special choice with his Art in tempering preparing and presenting them are to be taken special notice of and to be handled in the next place Now therein that which was first in Satans intention the end at which he aimes must necessarily be first examined that we may discover his policie in preparing and ordering all things in subordination thereunto Now the last end at which he aimed by the whole method and order of the temptation is sufficiently discovered to be the turning away of mans heart from God by infidelity and rebellion to his own utter destruction and to Gods high dishonour So that we may thence 10. OBSERVE Satans main end is mans destruction by turning away his heart from God Observ 10 THis he effects chiefly by working him to infidelity by which the Apostle tells us We depart from the living God Heb. 3.12 And secondly by drawing him to disobedience which is a necessary consequent thereof for who will serve that God from whom he neither expects any good nor fears any hurt which is the ground of wicked mens resolved Apostasie Job 22.17 The better to work mens hearts to these resolutions Satan 1. Holds men in ignorance the Nurse of infidelity Rom. 10.14 for those wicked wretches that resolve neither to serve God nor depend on him are those that refuse to have any knowledge of God or of his wayes Job 21.14 Now none can trust in God but those that know him Psal 9.10 And as ignorance is the Nurse of infidelity so it is of disobedience and all manner of abominable transgressions as the Prophet makes this to be the cause of lying murther and because there was no knowledge of God in the land Hos 4.1 And the Apostle joynes both together 2 Thes 1.8 2. Satan keeps them in a senselesse condition that they make no use either of the Word or of the manifold acts of Providence though wrought before their eyes Deut. 29.4 Jer. 25.4 Isa 42.25 but forget or cast them behinde their backs as the children of Israel did Psal 78.7 8 11. or impute them to other causes 1 Sam 6.9 concluding in their hearts that God hath forsaken the earth Ezech. 8.12 No marvel then if Satan with all might and policy labour to work and to fasten in the hearts of men those two Master sinnes as being indeed the fountain from which all other evils spring and by which he works all the mischief to God and man that
fountain from whence they flow so that there cannot be too much care used to set God before men in all the dispensations of his mercies since they are so apt of themselves to forget him The womans last failing in this first part of her answer is manifested in the manner of her expression which she useth when she mentions Gods grant of the free use of the fruits of the Garden of which she speaks in so bare and cold a manner that she clearly discovers at how low a rate she valued it in her heart For whereas God in his grant expresly mentions every tree of the Garden of which he gives them liberty to eate freely as we render that significant phrase in the Hebrew eating thou shalt eate she minceth it in her relation to Satan affirming barely and coldly that they did eat of the trees of the Garden concealing those two circumstances that set out the largenesse of the gift This failing of hers gives occasion to 5. OBSERVE Gods mercies ought not when they are spoken of to be represented in cold and weak expressions Observ 5 THus indeed we finde godly men when they have occasion to speak of any mercy to mention and set them out in such a manner as if they poured out the very affections of their soules with their words as David doth Psal 103.3 4. sometimes calling upon and stirring up others to do the like Psal 145.7 sometimes expressing and setting out the blessings themselves with all the varietie of words and phrases that they can devise as we may see in Moses his Song Exod 15. and Deborahs Judges 5. otherwhiles by occasion of remembring one mercy gathering together heaps of other mercies of like kinde as Hannah doth in her prayer 1 Sam. 2.1 and the blessed Virgin in her thanksgiving Luke 1.46 At other times discovering the fountain whence those blessings flow Gods free Mercy great Goodnesse c. Psal 145.7 and to enlarge the mercies the more setting out the unworthinesse of them that receive them as David doth 2 Sam. 7.18 and Saint Paul 1 Tim 1.13 And this they do 1. Because they having their hearts enlarged in the apprehension of them inwardly cannot but speak as they think of them 2. It is our duty to advance the Lord by all the meanes we can that his Name alone may be excellent Psal 148.13 and great Mal. 1.11 now nothing advanceth his Name more then his mercies which therfore must be set out as the mercies of God high and without comparison 3. When all is done and we have made use of all our Art and abilities to set out Gods mercies in the largest manner that we can devise all our words come infinitely short of the full extent of those things which we desire to represent 4. In the mean time while we strive to set out things in the fullest measure we warme our own hearts and quicken our affections the more and fill our hearts with the greater admiration of those things which exceed all our expressions VERSE III. THe woman in this verse which containes the second part of her answer to Satans question coming to speak of the interdiction of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil of which she was demanded it is worth our observation to take special notice how she riseth in her phrases and expressions which we shall finde farre different from the stile which she had used in setting out the grant of the use of the rest of the fruits of the Garden of the former she speaks in a scant and weak manner of the interdiction she speaks fully and strongly as will appear in the particulars For first in this she mentions Gods Name expresly which she had wholly omitted in speaking of the grant Next whereas she in her relation of the grant leaves out two special termes which God had used in giving it herein speaking of the interdiction he expresseth at least all or perhaps more then God had spoken at least more then Moses had related him to have spoken and questionlesse more then Satan had demanded So that by these different manners of expression she plainly discovers the thoughts of her heart within that she made no great account of Gods mercy in the grant but the restraint and interdiction she took very tenderly Whence 1 OBSERVE Mens words and speeches are usually proportioned according to the measure of the affections of the heart Observe 1 SO our Saviour tells us that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak Mat. 12.34 when Elihu is full of matter and his belly like wine wanting vent Job 32.18 19. observe how large and full of life his expressions are in the chapters following If the heart within be full the tongue must needs be the pen of a ready Writer Psal 45.1 Neither can it be otherwise First because words being ordained to be the meanes of representing the thoughts of the heart within it is agreeable to all reason that they should expresse them in their full proportion as the glasse doth the face Secondly because although the understanding be or at least should hold the raines of the tongue yet the affections adde the spurres unto it as indeed they do many times give the measure to our actions themselves as we run according to our feare sight according to our anger and wake according to our hope and desire and so in many other of our actions Let us then judge of the temper both of our own and other mens hearts and inward dispositions by our expressions although indeed it be more certainly manifested by our actions A spiritual man speaks of the things of the world as he useth them necessarily and sparingly Of spiritual things as of God of Christ of Grace and Glory feelingly and fully See Eph 1.3 on the other side a carnal mans conference of Heaven and heavenly things is rare dry and empty but of worldly things voluntary frequent and large much like Nebuchadnezzars vaunt Dan 4.30 In like manner we may judge of the ebbes and floods of our inward affections by the abounding or scanting and by the strength or weaknesse of our expressions as we do sometimes of the ebbes and floods of the sea by the high rising or low falling of the rivers which run into it And if it happen otherwise as it doth sometimes it is by reason of some natural imperfection It may so happen and doth sometimes that one may have a large heart and a narrow mouth as Moses excuseth himselfe that he was no man of words he means not a man of ready speech Exod. 4.10 sometimes it falls out that by some outward occasion a man is forced to keep in that which his tongue would otherwise be ready to utter as David could and was desirous to have spoken but refrained a while and held his peace even from good for the presence of wicked men Psal 39.2 Thus sometimes the ebbes and floods of the sea are restrained by the violence of
will not leave till he have brought him to walk in sinners wayes till at last he sit down in the seat of scorners If he can prevaile with David to drâ—w him to commit adultery with Bathsheba he will not leave till he have brought him to murther her husband If Herod will be won to imprison John Baptist he shall not stick at last to cut off his head Mark 6.17 27. and if Peter go so far as to deny his Master he shall at last forswear him too Mat. 26.74 The first reason hereof may be taken from Satans diligence and vigilancie to make the best of and pursue to the utter most all advantages like Benhadads messengers 1 Kings 20.33 as waters where the bank begins to yield lie upon it with the greater weight especially if we joyne with his diligence his malice which sets him on and is never satisfied till he have brought men to destruction 1 Pet. 5.8 Secondly it is just with God to punish mens haltings and want of zeale with more dangerous errours and backslidings Let us then be careful to resist Satan strongly in his first encounters as we are advised 1 Pet. 5.9 with resolute denials and vehement detestations of every sinful motion that it get not the least footing in our hearts which it doth when it findes allowance or which is some degree of allowance cold resistance This resolute opposing of sinful motions 1. Keeps our hearts free from all defilement by sin 2. Moves God to strengthen us with a greater measure of grace as he did Saint Paul 2 Cor. 12 9. 3. And daunts the devil and makes him flie from us when he is readily opposed and resisted Jam 4.7 Now comparing Satans warinesse in his first encounter with the woman wherein he seemes somewhat modest as proposing things only by way of enquiry but affirming nothing positively especially forbearing to charge God at all unlesse it were by a secret insinuation with this bold and shamelesse charge of dissembling and dealing falsely with man against his own knowledge we may take notice of the deceitfulnesse of sin and 2 OBSERVE Even those which seem modest in sinne at the first grow bold and shamelesse in it at the last Observe 2 ABsalom in the beginning of his treasonable practices makes no shew of any thing but courtesie and zeale for justice but when he had won the hearts of the people he grows shamelesse and breakes out into open rebellion and incestuously defiles his fathers Concubines and wicked men being past sense and shame give themselves over to all lasciviousnesse Eph. 4.19 glorying at last in their own shame Phil. 3.19 and acting things not comely Rom. 1.28 not fit to be named by modest men Ephes 5.12 The reason whereof is 1. Because use and custome makes sin so familiar unto men that it takes away first the sense and then the shame that follows it which as they feele not in themselves so they feare it not from others 2. By this means God brings all evils to light that the committers of them may be abhorred of all men and his justice may be the more clearly manifested in their deserved punishment But we cannot but with admiration take special notice of Satans impudency who presumes to give God the lie and flatly to contradict so evident a truth so lately and expressely delivered from his owne mouth and that also as it is most probable in the womans own hearing Whence 3 OBSERVE There is no truth of God so clear and manifest which Satan and his Agents dare not to contradict Observe 3 THere can be nothing more clear then the goodnesse of God in his rewarding those that serve him which all experience makes manifest and yet the impes of Satan flatly deny it Job 21.15 as they do in like manner his Providence Job 22.13 14. and his Justice Ezech 18. nay even God Himself Psal 53.1 The lesse are we to marvel if they question and deny the firmest grounds of faith seeing they are things not seen as they have done in all Ages as Christs Deity Humanity the value of his satisfactions the Deity of the Holy Ghost the Immortality of the soule the Resurrection of the body and the like And no marvel 1. Seeing Satan is both a liar and the father of lies John 8.44 so that by his own nature he must needs be opposite to the truth A d 2. Besides it concernes him above all things to contradict fundamental truthes upon which Gods honour and mans salvation most depend both which Satan labours to overthrow with all his power 3. And lastly he well understands by experience the corruption of mans nature which inclines him to embrace darknesse rather then light to believe lies rather then to love the truth which gives him great hope of prevailing even in suggesting the foulest untruthes to such favourable hearers The end at which Satan aimed in contradicting this intermination of death to be inflicted upon man if he should presume to eate of the forbidden fruit was to embolden the woman to rebellion by freeing her from the terrour of Gods wrath which might be a meanes by the feare of the danger to withhold her from committing the sinne But the observation to be drawen from thence we have handled already That which we are to take notice of in the next place is that Satan in speaking of this intermination takes up the phrase it selfe in which God had delivered it Gen 2.17 which the woman in her answer had altered and expressed it in more gentle and uncertain termes which questionlesse he did not to help the womans memory nor much lesse to taxe her for faultering in her answer But rather that when he had laid the curse before her in the strictest termes he might elude it in a way of scorne telling the woman in effect that this terrible threatning was no other then a meer scar-crow whereas God knew well enough that no such effect would follow as he had threatened Whence 4. OBSERVE Satan and his Agents never make use of Gods Word but for mischief Observe 4 EIther to scoffe at it Isa 5.19 1 Cor. 15.32 or tempt others to sinne as we see Satan makes use even of the Word it selfe to perswade our Saviour to tempt God Mat. 4.6 Or else to contradict it as those proud men do Jeremies answer from God Jer. 43.2 or to lull men asleep in carnal security which was the custome of the false prophets Jer. 23.17 by which meanes they strengthened the hands of evil doers that none returned from his wickednesse ver 14. Neither indeed can it be otherwise 1. Because they being themselves defiled even their very consciences they must necessarily defile all that they handle Tit. 1.15 2. Because they hate the Word it selfe and therefore cannot either think or speak of it unlesse it be to abuse or discredit it some way or other See Prov. 1.29 3. And lastly because Satan that guides them delights in nothing more then to pollute the
most holy things of God and to fight against him with his own weapons Let us then be alwayes jealous and wary of the taking up of Gods Name or Word by wicked men in their speeches and conferences alwayes fearing some evil practice in hand Seeing we know them to be haters both of the Word it selfe and of God that gave it and of all the truths therein delivered and besides of all godly men and therefore in all their words or actions can neither aime at Gods honour nor intend any good unto us but must even in using Gods Word endeavour either by it to uphold some dangerous errours and heresies to the corrupting of the sound doctrine contained in the Word or to countenance wicked mens own corrupt practices and to disgrace other mens sincerity and thereby to encourage their companions by making their hearts glad and dishearten the godly by making their hearts sad as the false prophets were wont to do Ezech. 13.22 VERSE 5. SAtan had charged God in the former verse which dealing deceitfully with the man and woman in threatening them with a grievous curse if they tasted the fruit for bidden which he well knew should never come upon them In this verse he goes a step farther and chargeth God with envy towards man affirming that he in forbidding the eating of that fruit kept man from the meanes of making him wise and enabling him to discerne between good and evil that so himself might excel alone And this as well as the former the woman must give credit unto upon his own word and confident affirmation Whence 1. OBSERVE Satan in all his Promises gives men no ground to build upon but his own bare word Observe 1 CHrist must take his word alone for it that all the Kingdoms of the earth were his and that he had power to bestow them on whomhe pleased and therefore that he could and would bestow them on him Luke 4.6 7. You must take wicked mens word for it that laying wait for innocent blood is the way to make one rich and to fill his house with spoile Prov. 5.13 so must Ahab take the false prophets word that he should prosper in his attempt upon Ramoth-Gilead 1 Kings 22. on the other side God when he speaks produceth his strong reasons drawn from experience Isa 41.20 21. sufficiently testified to mens own heart who are witnesses with him as himselfe speaks Isa 43.9 10. In like manner his servants that speak unto us in his Name bring forth evident and demonstrative proofes for all that they desire us to believe either out of Scriptures the Oracles of truth or out of strong evidences made good by right reason or by trial of experience as Elijah puts the determination of the question whether God or Baal were the true God upon an answer from heaven by fire 1 Kings 18.24 It is true that God himself doth affirme things upon his own Word alone and justly may seeing his Word is the Standard of Truth and therefore the only ground of faith but this is a peculiar priviledge to him alone incommunicable to any creature not to men who are all liars Rem 3.4 Much lesse to Satan who is the father of lies John 8.44 Indeed Satan sometimes imitates God in this way and offers also and makes shew to confirme by experiments what he suggests as that proud men are happy because they prosper Mal. 3.15 by which meanes he prevailes much upon wicked men to harden their hearts Eccl. 8.11 Jer. 44.17 18. yea and sometimes shakes the faith of the godly themselves as he did Davids Psal 73.2 3 13. But therein he playes the notable Sophister 1. In representing wicked mens prosperity so as if it were the reward of their wickednesse whereas it is either the blessing of God upon their provident care and industry in managing their affaires according to his own decree Prov. 10.4 and 14.23 or for the manifesting of his Goodnesse to all Mat. 5.45 and his Justice in their condemnation who abuse his mercies and provoke him by their sinnes when he doth them good or for the fatting of them against the day of slaughter Jer. 12.3 and raising them up on high unto eminent places their casting down into sudden and horrible destruction may be the more observed Psal 73.18 2. He deceives men by making the world believe that to be their happinesse which is indeed their plague as Solomon had found it in his own experience Eccl. 5.13 neither indeed can it be otherwise 1. Because all Satans words are falshood which therefore can have no reality upon which they are founded for if they had they were not falshood Besides the devil hath no power to effect any thing of himself and consequently in all his promises can give us nothing but words as being not able to make good any thing of all that he undertakes as the event and issue makes it evident at the end Are not they then grossely besotted that believe every word which Solomon tells us is the character of a foole Prov. 14.15 and that of Satan too who is a liar from the beginning as our Saviour tells us John 8.44 and yet those false suggestions of his are the principles by which the wise men of the world guide themselves believing 1. That riches are a strong city Prov. 18.11 that they abide for ever Psal 49.11 that they bring with them all sufficiency so that one may securely rest upon them as the foole thought Luke 12.19 and may be purchased by wayes of injustice and violence Prov. 1.13 grounds that have no other foundation but the opinion of the world blinded by Satan 2 Cor. 4.4 but contradicted by the Word of God and by all experience 2. These groundlesse opinions and others if it may be more false then they as that God hath forsaken the earth that a man shall have peace though he walk in all the abominations of his heart that there is no profit in Gods service and the like men notwithstanding so fairly rest upon that they are swayed by them in the whole course of their practice 3. In the mean time they sleight those infallible grounds of truth which the God of truth hath laid down unto us in his Word and which all experience hath made good unto us And is not he a wise man that guides himself by the wisdome of the world Satan if we mark it well manifests great policie in choosing out the ground upon which he raiseth up jealousie in the womans heart against God That Paradise was a Garden of great pleasure and delight excellently furnished with all varietie of the choicest fruits planted by God Himself and freely given and bestowed on man out of his meere bounty These things were so clear and evident that they could not be contradicted or questioned and theresoâ—e Statan takes it to be his wifest course not to meddle with them at all But the intention of God in this bounty of his was a secret thing
and taking up wayes of dishonest gaine that we may purchase that by any meanes without which we think our selves not sufficiently supplied according to our worth Let then all that are godly the more carefully labour to establish their hearts in a setled content in that condition in which God hath placed them which must be done 1. By approving it in their judgement as every way best and fittest for them and for Gods honour and glory 2. By bringing in and limiting our desires thereby so far that we wish it not to be other then it is 3. By bringing our affections to delight and rejoyce in it as in that lot which God himselfe hath laid out unto us and that upon these considerations 1. That whatsoever we enjoy is more then we have any title unto by nature who came into the world naked a consideration which Job quiets his heart withal when he was at once stripped of all that he had Job 1.21 2. That we are unworthy of what we enjoy as Jacob acknowledgeth himself lesse then the least of Gods mercies Gen. 32.10 so that whatsoever we enjoy we have out of favour and free grace 3. That what we have we have no ability to manage as we ought nor can give a perfect account of it if God should deale strictly with us 4. That God who hath allotted us our estates is infinitely wise and therefore better knows what is fittest for us then we our selves and no lesse kinde and loving nay much more then we are to our selves and therefore will not faile to give us any thing that may be truly good unto us as having given us his own Son with whom he cannot but give us all things Rom. 8.32 5. That the life of man consists not in abundance as our Saviour tells us Luke 12.15 but in a secret supply of our wants by Gods blessing who makes a little that a righteous man hath better then the riches of the ungodly Psal 37.16 6. That when we have what we would desire yet we must depend upon God for our allowance out of it every day as all men rich and poor are directed to do by our Saviour to beg of him their portion for every day Now this contentednesse must reach even to our spiritual as well as to our temporal estate wherin our want of grace sense of our inward corruptions continual conflicts with Satan and foiles by him many times though they may and ought to quicken us to prayer and watchfulnels and make us humble and vile in our own eyes yet ought not to disquiet our hearts so far as to provoke us to impatiency and murmuring at our present condition or to kindle our desires to long after such a change of it as is not warranted Rather our unquietnesse at our own corruptions should beget in us only an holy indignation against our selves for our errours and failings with a desire of that future condition wherein we shall put off this body of death yet with patience waiting till the time of our appointed changing Job 14.14 but no manner of impatience against our present condition or repining against God who hath so ordered it both for his own glory and for our good at the last When Satan tells the woman that by eating the forbidden fruit her eyes should be opened he necessarily implies that for the present both she and her husband were blinde in effect so that these are the two grounds upon which he endeavours to move the woman to discontent at her present condition The first that she was under restraint and not left at liberty to take what she pleased The second that she was held in blindnesse and ignorance wherewith Satan would have her conceive she had great cause to be troubled as she had reason to be if the suggestion had been true So that we may thence 5 OBSERVE Blindnesse and Ignorance is a great misery Observ 5 IT is not good saith Solomon that the soule should be without knowledge Prov. 19.2 The Apostle goes farther and in expresse termes tells us that ignorance alienates us from the Life of God Eph. 4.18 and reckons it up amongst the spiritual plagues which the Lord in his justice laid upon those that dishonoured him and glorified him not as God the darkening of their sottish hearts Rom. 1.21 and is the meanes by which Satan whose work it is to blinde men 2 Cor. 4.4 prevailes so far upon men as he leads them at his will into all lasciviousnesse Eph. 4.19 and indeed into all other sins when their eyes being blinded they know not whither they go 1 John 2.11 More particularly the evils of this fearful plague are 1. The abasing of a man unto the condition of a beast from which he differs and is advanced above him only in his understanding Thus David for want of a right judgement and understanding of Gods ways termes himself a beast Psal 73.22 as be doth likewise all men else Psal 49 20. as Agur likewise termes himself brutish upon the same ground Prov. 30.2 2. Ignorance makes a man unuseful and unserviceable every way in all his undertakings for only a wise mans eyes are in his head but a foole walkes in darknesse Eccl. 2.14 which we know hinders all manner of emploiments as appears in the darknesse of Egypt which fixed them to their places from whence they could not remove till the darknesse was over Eâ—od 10.23 3. Ignorance leaves a man without comfort for it is the light that is sweet that is comfortable Eccl. 11.7 and the light of the eyes rejoyceth the heart Prov 15.30 consequently darknesse and ignorance must needs leave the heart without comfort whence the Scripture expresseth one being in a sad condition by being in darknesse without light Isa 50.10 Now that only the Scripture esteems to be knowledge which is the knowledge of God Prov. 30.2 and that in the face of Jesus Christ John 17.3 and of the things that are freely given us of God 1 Cor. 2.12 revealed by the Word and taught by the Spirit Satan contents not himself with working the heart of the woman to a discontented humour against her present condition but gives a step farther and perswades her that God knew how to help it but would not that by this meanes she might conceive that Gods heart stood not well affected towards her and that he wished her no good whatsoever shew he made to the contrary First because he might have allowed this meanes of gaining knowledge which he had so strictly forbidden them without any prejudice to himselfe at all Secondly that he had denied it them out of an evil disposition namely that he might excel and be God alone wherein he most blasphemously chargeth God with injustice in taking order to maintain his own right and providing for his owne honour before the advancing of his creatures of which notwithstanding according to their place and condition he takes care in all his wayes Now although it be true that
Whence 17 OBSERVE Satans preferments are in true estimation abasements and base slaveries Observ 17 SOme of his servants do indeed talk of liberty but are in truth the servants of corruptions 2 Pet. 2.19 He promiseth Christ to bestow on him all the Kingdomes of the world but it is under the condition that he must first worship him and thereby stoop unto the basest of all his vassals Mat. 4.9 Thus he deals with us continually alluring us to be independent upon God and to wait on him no longer and in the mean time endeavouring to bring us to place our dependance upon the meanest of his creatures So likewise in the duties of our service he perswades us to cast off the yoke of Gods Law and subjection to his will and in the mean time provokes us to the service of our own base lusts so that we take on us instead of one God as many lords as we have vile and inordinate affections in our own hearts and which is worst of all himself too after whom we walk in sulfilling them and are led captive by him according to his will 2 Tim. 2.26 exercising us in baser services and exacting them with greater rigour and rewarding with nothing at the last but with shame and sorrow at present and everlasting destruction hereafter Satan well knew that if the woman had taken some longer time to commune either with her own heart or with her husband there would have been discovered so many strong evidences for the justifying of God in his exceeding large bounty to the man and woman by the undeniable experiments of those real favours which they had received from him that the scandalous and blasphemous imputation of Gods ill affection to them would soon have vanished as a mist before the Sunne Wherefore we shall finde that Satan labours all that he can to thrust forward the woman to a speedy resolution and execution thereupon to fall presently to the eating of the forbidden fruit that she might instantly be advanced to the honour of God How destructive that proved unto her will appear in the event that followed So that we may hence 18 OBSERVE Hasty resolutions prove commonly dangerous in the issue Observe 18 WIthout counsel the People and State fall but in the multitude of Counsellours there is safety saith the wise man Prov. 11.14 and he that hasteth with his foot sinneth chap. 19.2 and without counsel as ill wayes are usually resolved on so that which is purposed is overthrown Prov. 15.22 The reason is 1. Because in the oughts of our heart natural motions which are full of errour come first to hand upon which if we settle our resolutions we must needs be mistaken and erre dangerously ere we be aware 2. Because our understanding being weak in it selfe is not able at once to take in and lay before it all things upon which a well-grounded judgement should be setled so that we need some time to search out and lay together all those circumstances and evidences which must guide us in all that we take in hand Now to draw on the woman to this speedy resolution Satan sets before her eyes the speedy and present effect of that fruit that it had such a vertue as to open their eyes that very day that they should eate of it Whence 19 OBSERVE The nearer things are to be enjoyed the more strongly the heart is affected towards them Observe 19 HOpe deferred makes the heart sick saith the wise man Prov. 13.12 as on the other side judgement deferred maketh the heart secure and fearlesse Eccl. 8.11 Mat. 24.48 on the contrary side present judgement fills the heart with terrour as we see in the judgement on Dathan and Abiram did the children of Israel though otherwise a senselesse people Numb 16.34 as likewise when the desire comes it is a tree of life the meanes of reviving the soule whence our Saviour to affect the spirit of the poor thief upon the crosse tells him that he should be with him in Paradise that very day Luke 23.43 The reason is the affections of the heart are most strongly moved by sense which apprehends only things that are present whence it must needs follow that the nearer things are unto us in our apprehension the more strongly the heart must be moved by them If then we desire to have our hearts moved either by mercies or judgements let us labour to bring them as near as we can Thus God represents unto Cain sinne he means the punishment of sinne as lying at the door Gen. 4.7 To morrow the Lord will be angry if we sinne to day say the messengers sent from the children of Israel to the Reubenites and the Gadites Josh 22.18 and Ahijah to Jeroboams wife tells her that the judgment upon Jeroboams house is coming even now 1 Kings 14.14 so in mercies Abrahams rejoycing at Christs day was that he saw it that is apprehended it as present John 8.56 To this purpose 1. Let us be careful to fixe our eyes upon the present examples of mercies or judgements upon our selves or others especially upon those which are inward and spiritual laying hold of eternal life upon the sense of Gods present favours as the Prophet David seems to do Psal 73.24 and beholding and trembling at the very face of hell in present judgments 2. Labour to work those experiments upon our hearts till they awaken faith by which only those things which are to come are made present Heb. 11.1 so that they affect men with joy as if they were possessed already 1 Pet. 1.8 and with like feare on the other side 3. Let us often recount with our selves the shortnesse of this present life Meditation may and will shew a mans life unto him but a span long and may make a thousand yeares seem unto him as God accounts them but as one day VERSE 6. ANd when the woman saw That is when she partly beheld with her eyes and was as fully perswaded in her heart as if she had seen it For although the outward beauty of the fruit might be seen with the eye yet the goodnesse of it for food which nothing could discover but the taste and much more the vertue of it to make one wise were things not to be seen with the eye so that seeing in this place must necessarily withal include believing That the tree That is the fruit of the tree for that only could be eaten Was good for food and therefore as she might be perswaded more apt to preserve life then to bring death as God had threatened Now that the fruit of this tree was good for food she might easily be induced to believe because she had by experience found it so in other fruits of the Garden that those which delighted the eye were likewise grateful to the taste and questionlesse in this the woman was not deceived for the fruit doubtlesse had no evil in the nature of it only the use of it was made evil unto man
by Gods interdiction And that it was pleasant to the eyes Which perhaps she had not taken notice of before as not thinking it fit to look upon that with observation which she might not touch or if perhaps she had looked upon it she beheld it not with the same affection before that now she did which made it now more delightful in her eyes then it had been before This seems to be the womans first outward act in this sinne of hers the gazing upon this fruit with delight And a tree to be desired The womans desire after this fruit is not mentioned by Moses till he come to speak of getting knowledge to intimate that although the beauty of the fruit in her eye and the usefulnesse of it for food might somewhat affect her yet that which set her heart on fire with the desire after it was especially and chiefly the hope of getting the knowledge of good and evil To make one wise or prudent as some translate it although as it seemes not so properly nor agreeably to the sense of the Holy Ghost seeing the wisdom here spoken of must be the same which had before been mentioned by Satan and consisteth rather in contemplation then in practice and therefore must be conceived to be rather Sapience then Prudence or at least must include them both She took of the fruit thereof Which before she had acknowledged she might not touch Now in this kinde of expression the Holy Ghost discovers unto us the Rule by which the woman now guided her self namely by the lusts of her own heart and no longer by the Commandment and Will of God It was now no impediment to her to eate of the fruit of that tree because God had forbidden it it was a sufficient warrant to her to take and eate it because she desired it Withal we have here pointed out unto us the several steps and degrees by which the woman went on till she came up to the height of her sinne she saw she desired she took and eat and at the last gave unto her husband that he might eate And gave also to her husband Having questionless found the fruit as grateful to her taste as she expected but not as Satan with an intention to beguile him but out of love to make him partaker with her of this new-found meanes of her happinesse Thus Satan blinded her eyes and God left her to her selfe to be insensible of the evil which she had brought upon her selfe till she had been led on by Satan to do as much mischief as she might and drawen her husband into the same condition with her With her That is to eate with her or as she had done For otherwise he must needs be with her in the same place when she gave him of the fruit to eat Now whether she went after him to finde him out or whether he came to her of himself and when and whether before she had eaten of the fruit or after which is most probable it is uncertain and not much material to be known And he did eate By his wives perswasion as well as by her offer of the fruit and by her example for ver 17. God censures him for hearkening to the voice of his wife By what words or arguments she prevailed with him it is not expressed it is most probable that she related unto him all that which she had heard from Satan before which the Holy Ghost thinks not needful to repeat again as affecting brevity and having this only scope to manifest that God had no finger in Adams sinne but that the woman was tempted and deceived by Satan and the man by the woman Thus were the two fountaines out of which all mankinde issued both poisoned and corrupted and consequently of necessity by them their whole posterity after them seeing there can be nothing clean drawn out of that which is unclean We have then in this verse set before our eyes the success and effect of Satans temptation First the womans affections are distempered and corrupted by her outward senses and both by them and by Satans suggestions her Minde and Judgement are perverted till she breaks out at last into the actual transgression of Gods Commandment and drawes her husband after her Secondly it is probable that the woman might have seen this tree before without any inordinate affection towards the fruit thereof it may be that it was not then so pleasant in her eyes as it now appeares unto her after Satan had by his suggestions distempered her heart and kindled her affections to an inordinate desire after it and then it seems very beautiful in her eyes Whence 1 OBSERVE Things usually appear unto us as we stand affected towards them in our hearts Observe 1 TO men of carnal minds carnal things seem to be matters of great worth as Riches to the covetous Honour to the ambitious Beauty to the adulterous and dainty fare to the voluptuous because their affections and desires are towards them As likewise on the other side Christ and his Righteousnesse Grace and Glory seem in their eyes to be matters of small value because their affections are against them Nay the very objects of sense and much more the arguments that are brought and presented to us in discourse seem more or lesse weighty and consequently make a deeper or sleighter impression and prevaile more or lesse with us as our hearts stand affected the one way or the other As it happens in our bodies that contagious sicknesses yea distempers of heaâ— or cold and the like prevaile more or lesse upon men according as the body it selfe is inwardly disposed Let it be then the care and labour of every man to get those carnal and sensual affections wherewith all our hearts naturally are possessed subdued and mortified our selves renewed in the spirit of our mindes and our hearts changed from this carnal and earthly disposition to a spiritual and heavenly frame lest they remaining carnal and earthly still represent things unto us not according to truth but according to their own temper as a distempered taste doth the relish of our meats and so beguile us by corrupting our judgements which must necessarily lead us into dangerous errours making evidences of heavenly truths small and sensual objects great And let all men be careful to take heed of judging of any thing when their mindes are distempered with any passion or giving much heed unto such mens judgements who manifest themselves to be engaged in their affections before-hand By that which we have already considered in the prevailing of Satan by this temptation it appears that we cannot lay the blame of drawing the woman to this sin upon the fruit of this tree which she had in all probability beheld before this without sinne but it was the impression made upon her heart by Satans suggestions which made that fruit a snare unto her now which was none before Whence 2 OBSERVE Sinne proceeds not from the outward
rebellion was the delight somnesse of the fruit to her outward senses she saw that the tree was pleasant to the eye and good for food and took and did eate the great mischief that followed thereupon may then warrant us to 7 OBSERVE Outward sense is an ill and a dangerous guide Observe 7 AChans eye was it that drew him to take of the accursed thing and Davids eye drew him to adultery and Solomon tells us that the drunkards pleasing his eye with the colour of the wine in the cup may draw him to drunkennesse Prov. 23.31 to the beholding of strange women and the heart to the uttering of perverse things ver 33. Upon this ground it is that the Apostle calls wisdome according to sense divellish wisdom and the lust of the eye St. John tells us is of the world 1 John 2.16 That it must be so it stands with good reason 1. Sense was never given men for a Judge or Counsellour to determine and direct but only for an informer 2. Sense can shew us nothing but the outward formes of such things as it represents upon which we shall never be able to lay the ground of a right judgement wherefore judgement according to appearance is opposed to Gods true and infallible judgement 1 Sam. 16.7 wherefore the receiving of things meerly from sense cannot but mislead us in all that we so apprehend awakening and stirring up affections that distemper the minde and blinde the eyes of the understanding And yet is this judgement by sense the wisdom that guides all the world or at the least the greatest part of it as we see by experience It is added that the woman saw that the tree was good for food that is that she was perswaded and believed it to be so and that upon that opinion she did take and eate the forbidden fruit so that which deceived the woman was the false opinion that she entertained of the goodnesse of the fruit Whence 8. OBSERVE A man cannot naturally desire any thing but under a shew and appearance of good Observe 11 THis is all that they seek and enquire after Psal 4.6 Who will shew as any good and as their endeavour is to do well unto themselves so they applaud only those that do so Psal 49.18 Nay the enquiry of all those which have been renowned for their wisdome amongst men hath been especially to finde out what is mans chiefest good And their errour hath been not in chusing evil as evil but in mistaking evil for good Yea although some have been so far blinded by Satan as to become instruments of their own destruction which appears manifestly to be evil notwithstanding even therein they may be conceived to choose that at least which is lesse evil esteeming a speedy death to be better then a miserable and uncomfortable life This firme adherence of the heart of man to that which is good from which it cannot be drawen unlesse it be by mistaking without the destruction of nature it selfe God hath planted in all mens hearts not only that it might be a meanes of their own preservation which all creatures bend unto some by a natural others by a sensitive and Man by a rational inclination but besides for an higher end that Man choosing God above all things to depend on and his will to submit unto and to place all his happinesse in him might thereby give a clear testimony and set to his seale that he esteems God as the chiefest good because his heart which carries him on with a restlesse desire to seek that above all things and desires no more when they do enjoy him with the Prophet Psal 73.25 and 116.7 Hence then appears not only the folly of men of this world who so greedily seek after Wealth Honours Pleasures and the favour of men as if all their happinesse lay in them but more their sacrilegious impiety in robbing God of his due honour to bestow it not only on the creature whom they advance above the Creator Rom. 1.25 when they seek their chief good in that rather then in him besides on our own base lusts by which we guide our selves rather then by the Will of God as if there were more good to be found in them then in God Himself so that the A postle justly censures them to be lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God 2 Tim. 3.4 which must needs be acknowledged to be true when we seek after them more earnestly and constantly and rejoyce and satisfie our selves with them more cordially and contentedly then we do with the favour and love of God this taking away from God the chiefest flower of his Crown which is to be good alone Mat. 19.17 to adorne with it the basest creatures is an abomination not to be expiated but with the pouring out of the wrath of God to the uttermost as the Apostle speaks 1 Thes 2.16 especially when they do not only call evil good and good evil upon whom the Prophet pronounceth that fearful woe Isa 5.20 but seale to it too by their deeds and actions Thus then the woman moved by Satans faire and large promises seconded with the strong outward allurement of a fruit so pleasant to the eye conceiving that she could not be but a great gainer by so rich a purchase without any more ado takes the fruit and eates it But how grosly she was mistaken therein the fearful event of the ruine of her self and her husband in the issue sufficiently declares So that comparing the successe of this action with the hopes upon which it was undertaken upon Satans word We may 9 OBSERVE Man is an ill chooser of his own good Observe 9 ADam we see even in this state of Innocency though endowed with so much wisdom yet as we shall see anon chooseth death instead of life And Solomon the wisest of all Princes either before or after him is faine after his long enquiry and travel in seeking after mans chiefest good Eccl. 2.3 when he looked advisedly back upon all his labours and the fruits of them to acknowledge that they were vanity and vexation of spirit Eccl. 2.11 17. and this he found not to be his own errour alone but that generally the wayes that seem right to a man are found at last in the issues of them to be wayes of death Prov. 14.12 The reason whereof is First mans ignorance by nature is such that he knows nothing as he ought not God the chiefest good of whom we may acknowledge with Bildad that it is a little portion that is heard of him Job 26.14 and that of those that know him best 1 Cor. 13.12 but of the generality of men we may say with Zophar that man is borne like a wilde assâ—es colt Job 11.12 and therefore no marvel if those that know him not desire him not seeing it is the knowledge of things that move us either to desire them or to depend upon them See Psal 9.10 As ignorant are we of the inward
wherein the Delinquents after conference what to do and resolution taken to make them coverings for their bodies might put in execution what they had resolved upon all which could not be done in a moment Withal it seems probable that although God suffered them not to rest long quiet in their sinne yet that he gave them some time to see what they would do and finding their thoughts about their own condition and the providing of a remedy for it to vanish into smoke their eyes being fixed wholly upon the fruitlesse consideration of their outward misery without taking notice of the sin which brought it on them or the pollution of their soules thereby far more shameful then that which they observed in their bodies he calls them to account and points out unto them their sinne of rebellion and misery that came upon them thereby both in the examination and judgement thereupon That it might appear that their repentance was Gods only work being they were far from it till God awakened and touched their hearts as well as the Promise of life was meerly from his free grace the one wrought in them and the other bestowed on them without their desire and much more without their desert as appears by the ensuing Narration If place might be given to conjectures we might probably guesse that the Creation being ended the sixth day the Law was given on the seventh in which also the woman as the duty of that day required surveighing the fruits of the Garden was seduced by Satan and fell and that this judgement passed upon her and her husband the eighth day or first of the second week when also Christ was promised and his Conquest over Satan which was perfected by his Resurrection from the dead which was upon the eighth day or first day of the week But these are only conjectures And Adam and his wife hid themselves Finding their fig-leaves too sleight a covering to hide them from Gods all-seeing eye they betake themselves to another refuge shifting out of the way as they fondly imagine that they might not give an account for that which they could not justifie From the face of Jehovah From him whose presence they rejoyced and took so much comfort in before the same God becomes now a terrour to them A fearful consequent of sinne The like terrour at the Presence of God we finde in Satan Mat. 8.29 and in all wicked men Rev. 6.16 But see their folly for whither could they flie from his presence Psal 139.7 which filleth all places Amongst the trees Still they run to the creature But alas how could those trees hide them from the Presence even of men much lesse could they hide them from the face of Jehovah Behold now the fulfilling of Satans promise and so the wisdom that they had gotten by following his counsel In this branch of the History we have set before our eyes concerning our first Parents their Examination by God himself manifesting his presence sundry wayes Summons Indictment and Conviction of them severally by which is at length discovered the first Author of their Apostasy and Rebellion The censure and judgement after their conviction In this whole Processe God is further cleared of having any hand at all in the sin of our first Parents 1. By the Confession of the Delinquents discovering at last though unwillingly which addes much to the credit of their testimony the Author of this cursed motion 2. By the punishment inflicted by God upon his own creatures to whom he had manifested so much love before and whom in compassion at present he preserves from utter ruine And therefore in not sparing them for their offence he discovers his perfect hatred of sin whereof therefore he cannot be conceived to be either the Worker or Perswader Man had sinned against God but as we see never comes near him to acknowledge his sin nay flies from him till God findes him out and hales him as it were by force out of his lurking hole to appear before him Whence 1 OBSERVE If men will not draw near unto God yet he will finde them out in their sins and bring them into judgement before him Observe 1 THus he foundout Cains murther of his brother Abel Achans sacriledge Davids secret contrivance of Urijahs death Ahabs murther of innocent Naboth Sauls covetousnesse in saving the best of the Amalekites cattel Gebazies bribery Ananias and Sapphiraes fraud This as he can do in whose sight all things are naked Heh 4.13 and no sin is hid from him Psal 89.5 So he doth it 1. To manifest his Providence that it may be known that he observes mens wayes and considers them Psal 33.13 14. lest it should be thought that he hath forsaken the earth Ezech. 9.9 or at least regards not what men do as they speak Psal 94.7 2. That by this means he may manifest his justice when he renders to all according to their deeds that so all flesh may tremble before him when they know that their works are discovered and observed and shall be censured Let all those that have sinned come and prepare to meet their God Amos 4 12. who can neither be blinded nor escaped nor resisted that they may take hold of his strength to make peace with him Considering 1. That it is more credit to come in voluntarily then to be drawen in by force 2. A readier way to obtain pardon as Benhadads Lords found by experience 1 King 20.32 and David much more in submitting unto God Psal 32.5 3. If we come not in voluntarily God will bring us in by force which will be worse for us every way Now if in this enquiry of God after Adam we look at the end he aimed at which was by convincing the offendors and laying their sin before them to bring them in to sue for pardon and to embrace the Covenant of peace which he out of his free bounty tenders unto them in the close of this Conference We may 2 OBSERVE God who hath all the wrong when he is provokod by our sins is the first that seekes to make peace with us Observe 2 HEreof we have divers and full precedents in Scripture as namely Isa 1.16 17 18 Jer. 3.12 13 14. Hos 14.1 2. Now this God performs sundry ways 1. He all ures us by his mercies as he promised to deal with his people Hos 2.14 15. 2. By the inward and secret perswasions of his Spirit in giving them hearts to returne Zech. 12.12 3. By the effectual ministery of the Gospel wherein he doth not only offer unto us but perswade and beseech us to embrace those termes of peace which he offers as the Apostle speaks 2 Cor. 5.20 The reason is 1. Necessity seeing we cannot turne our hearts unto him unlesse he drawes us John 6.44 which moves the Church to pray Turne us and we shall be turned Jer. 31.18 2. The fitness of this way to advance the free mercy of God the more that all mens boasting may be
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
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
his own Lord. To the woman Alone as it is most probable that he might the more easily prevaile against her whereas two might have withstood him Eccl. 4.12 And to the woman rather then to the man as conceiving her to be the weaker vessel Now if besides we should imagine as some do that this Interdiction of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was delivered by God himself only to Adam and by him to the woman then had Satan yet another advantage against the woman in gain-saying that which she had received only upon her husbands report and not immediately from Gods own mouth But it seemes more probable that the Interdiction was delivered unto them both by God himself Yea Or is it true indeed or is it possible so that it may be a speech either of doubting or of indignation or of admiration tempting the woman to question either the truth or at least the equity of that Interdiction Withal that expression seems to have relation to some precedent Conference that had passed between the Serpent and Woman not mentioned in this History wherein Moses contenting himself only with the discovery of the point of that fiery dart which wounded our first Parents to death omits both the entrance into and other passages that passed between the Woman and the Serpent before the temptation Hath God said It is not without some special aime that Satan questions whether this Interdiction were given by God or no. Seeming to imply from the very Name of God either the improbability that God so good and kinde in himself as having planted this pleasant Garden of purpose for man and bestowed it freely on him should deny him the use of any fruit therein Or if it were true that he had so done the indignity that God should deal so unkindly with man as to plant trees of purpose to anger him that he might have that continually in his eye which he might not enjoy yea and so far to envie mans good as to deny him the use of the fruit which only had the vertue to make him truly happy and which he might as easily have given him as he had made it And beyond this to deal so deceitfully with him as to make shew of giving him much when in the mean time he had denied him that fruit by which only he might receive that true good which was proper to a man to make him wise as he tells him afterwards and that also wittingly as well knowing the great vertue of that fruit to that end Ye shall not eat of every tree of the Garden Every is a word of ambiguous signification and may indifferently denote either One or Some or All the trees so that we may understand them thus Is any tree forbidden you Or thus are there some trees denied unto you Or thus is every that is are all trees of the Garden withheld from you Thus begins Satan to treat warily and cunningly with the Woman discovering neither his malice against God nor his mischievous intention to man at the first but keeps himself aloof off In the first place not so much affirming as enquiring and next proposing the termes of this enquiry so ambiguously that if he were challenged for dealing maliciously with God in questioning why he had forbidden man the eating of some or of all the trees whereas he had forbidden but one he might answer that by every tree he meant no more but any one tree and yet the expression might be such as might point either at more or at all that thereby Satan might further his end the better in amplifying the restraint as much as might be as if God had withheld much or in effect All from man that so the womans spirit might rise the more against it as if that which God had granted were inconsiderable in comparison of that which was withheld Verse 2. And the woman said That she feared not the Serpent we need not wonder seeing there was at that present no enmity amongst the creatures and therefore there could be no cause of feare where was no appearance of danger But seeing the woman knew that the Serpent could not be the Authour either of the voice or discourse how is it that she suspects not some fraud for that this could not be the voice of God must needs be evident unto her because the whole scope and frame of the discourse discovers the contrary The Serpents voice she must needs conclude it could not be because she being created perfect in wisdome like her husband must needs understand at least so much of the creatures as to know that beasts of themselves were not capable of speech or reason If she guessed it to be Satan and knew him to be an enemy why doth she hazard her self upon a manifest danger to entertain conference with one that hated her If she knew nothing of him or his disposition how is it that she opens her selfe so freely to a person unknown The woman certainly discovers some unadvisednesse in entertaining conference with the Serpent in matters of so great importance in so familiar a manner We eate of the Trees The woman seems to be shaken and to give ground at the first encounter as we may probably guesse Partly by Satans bold reply to this answer of hers wherein he chargeth God with falshood in expresse termes which in all likelihood he durst not have done if the womans own words had not given him some encouragement thereunto considering how warily he speaks of God in his first question Besides we may discover it yet more apparently in the very forme of the answer it self in these particulars First when she mentions Gods grant unto them to eat of the trees of the Garden there she passeth over Gods Name as if she had no great minde to take notice of his liberality in bestowing on her so large a gift But when she mentions the restraint there she remembers his name expresly as if she meant to take no more notice of God in his mercies but only to quarrel at his restraint and interdiction Secondly when she recounts the grant of eating the rest of the fruits she speaks of it coldly and without affection For whereas God gave man liberty to eat of all the trees of the Garden and that freely and fully as the expression in the Original Eating thou mayest eate implies she leaves out both those clauses and in a very sparing manner only affirmes that they did eat of the trees and addes no more But when she comes to mention the restraint that she layes down in the strictest termes that she can think on which supposeth some rising of her spirit against it if it be true that mens expressions are any indications of the affections within for that the Holy Ghost relates things partially it were blasphemy to imagine Wherefore seeing she sleights the grant and sets out the restraint in so full a manner in her words we have reason to conclude
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
to the woman now lest he might seem by his question to direct them what to answer But God who knew the evidence of truth and the desire of justifying themselves must needs draw from the delinquents as much as he expected leaves it to flow from themselves freely without any enquiry at all that it might the more evidently appear to spring meerly from a fountaine of truth The Serpent beguiled me But that on her part was no fit answer to the question proposed howsoever it serve fully to the end that God aimed at or at least the main thing that she should have acknowledged is omitted or coldly satisfied in her answer for God demands not of her who put that motiō into her heart but how she could be so wicked as to commit so foul a sin in slighting his Authority denying his truth forgetting his mercies contemning his power and wronging her husband and consequently destroying him for whose help and comfort she was ordained God calls on her to set all those things before her eyes and to consider what she had done she on the other side passing by that weighty consideration proposed by God falls as her husband had done before to excuse and lessen the sin what she can pretending that it was no voluntary act proceeding from any evil disposition of her own heart but she was enveigled by the cunning and policy of the Serpent who under faire colours and pretences beguiled her Now if God had replied unto her and demanded what those faire colours and pretences were which thus drew away her heart her own answer must needs have stopped her mouth for ever For she knew that her heart filled with Gods love should have been wholly carried after the advancement of his glory Now the Devil never so much as lays before her any such thing if he had the womans error had been the more pardonable if her end had been right and she had only been misguided in the way that led thereunto whereas she closeth with Satan in taking up a false end and seeking her own advancement in stead of Gods glory wherein she was wilfully perverted by the consent of her own heart And I did eat Thus then we have a full confession of the fact by both the delinquents and by the woman the discovery of the plotter and contriver of all the mischief that all the world may justifie God in the righteousnesse of his judgements in the punishment of the offendors who by seeking new tricks or inventions as the wise man calls them to advance them beyond their conditions were justly filled with their own inventions as the Psalmist speaks Psalme 106.39 Thus we see God will not give over the examination till he have discovered the whole plot of this fowle sin and every agent in it first Adam then his wife and at last the Devil the deceiver and seducer of them both Whence 1 OBSERVE No actor in any sin can escape Gods discovery Observe 1 NOt the secret Contrivers and Counsellors as Jonadab to Amnon Achitophel to Absalom Jezabel to Ahab Not the Actors and Executioners as the Elders of Israel and by their procurement the two sonnes of Belial employed by Jezabel in the murther of Naboth Not the abettors and assistants as Joab and Abiathar in Adonijahs treason Not the very frame or contrivance of the sinne or means to colour it As Davids murther of Urijah to colour his adultery with his wife and his cunning conveighance with Joab to conceale his murther which he not only discovered himself but hath left upon record to posterity 1. It cannot be denied or questioned but that he is able to search into the deepest secrets seeing all things are naked in his sight Heb. 4.13 2. It concernes him to do it that the Judge of all the world may appeare and be known to do right to which purpose he must necessarily have a distinct knowledge both of the offendors and of the quality and measure of their offences that every ones judgement may be proportioned in number weight and measure according to their deeds Let no man then embolden himself to have his hand in any sinne in hope to hide his counsel deep from the Lord and his works in the dark Isa 29.15 It is true that mens eyes discover many times nothing but the outward acts of sin or the Agents that work yea even they many times are hidden from mans eyes but God that searcheth the heart and knoweth the thoughts of it afar of Psal 139.2 takes notice of every motion of the heart by which the sinne was begotten of every secret word by which it was whispered into the Actors eares of every affection of the spectators who behold it with delight He knew what the King of Syria spake in his secret chamber 2 King 6.12 He understood the very secret thoughts of Herods heart which it is probable he never uttered to his nearest friends concerning the murthering of Christ Mat. 2.13 much more was he able to discover the King of Israels commission for the taking of Elisha 2 King 6.32 and fourty mens secret conspiracy to kill Paul Those secrets if he discover not to the world at present openly yet he both knows and can and often doth prevent them so that no man hath cause to hearten himself in hope of successe in wicked counsels or fear to be surprized by them We have already intimated that God who might have manifested every thought of Adams heart and left upon record every circumstance of the sinne committed by him notwithstanding contents himself to bring to light only so much thereof as might manifest the delinquents desart of that punishment that he afterwards lays upon them with such a mixture of mercy withal as exceeds belief as we shall see anon that he might be justified in all his wayes and admired in his free grace Whence 2 OBSERVE Mens sinnes must and shall be so farre manifested as may conduce to the advancing of Gods glory Observe 2 THus Joshuah exhorts Achan to confesse his sinne that he might give glory to God Josh 7.19 and David freely acknowledgeth his sin that God might be justified Psal 51.4 And Saint Paul witnesseth the Law convinceth all men of sinne in such sort that the whole world may be guilty before God and that his righteousnesse may be made manifest for the remission of sinnes Rom. 3.19 23 25. And good reason seeing 1. It is the principal end wherefore we and all things are that our selves and all our actions and all events that befal us of good or evil in all Gods dispensations towards us may be referred to the manifesting of Gods glory who therefore permits with patience the vessels of wrath ordeined to destruction for the magnifying of his Justice in their deserved punishment at the last and graciously pardons his chosen ones that he may set out the riches of his free mercy and grace Rom. 9.22 23. which end of his we ought to further in all our
him to be righteous and our selves sinful above measure Dan. 9.7 8 9. And withal to set him before us for our pattern hating nothing in men but sinne Considering 1. That otherwise we owe love to all men 2. That we manifest not holinesse more in any thing then when we put difference between man and man only according to their good or evil disposition or desarts In laying the censure upon the Serpent God first pronounceth a curse upon him in general and afterwards expresseth the evils in particular which that curse includes and delivering this judgement in this order and manner gives us occasion thence to 6 OBSERVE Gods curse upon any creature is the fountaine of all plagues and miseries Observe 6 THus God in proceeding against Cain first lays his curse upon him and then sets before him the evils which flow from thence Gen. 4.11 Balak desires nothing of Balaam but to pronounce Gods curse upon the children of Israel and then hopes to prevaile against them Numb 22.6 And Joshuah wishing all mischief to the builder of Jericho pronounceth against him a curse from the Lord Josh 6.26 and a curse a blessing are put for all manner of good evil Deut. 11.26 Whence it is that wicked men to whom as the portion of their cup belong snares fire brimstone and horrible tempest Psal 11.6 are called the people of Gods curse Isa 34.5 and children of the curse 2 Pet. 2.14 It must be so of necessity seeing the curse of God is the manifestation of his wrath who creates all evil Isa 45.7 Let it raise up all our hearts to abhorre sin and behold the heinousnesse thereof which hath brought this curse upon us and to behold the infinite riches of Christs love unto man who became a curse for us that he might redeem us from the curse of the Law Gal. 3.13 An incredible abasement to him who is God blessed for ever and an incredible happinesse unto us especially seeing by him the curse is not only taken away but is besides turned into a blessing Satan chooseth the Serpent to be his instrument to deceive the woman for his subtilty in sliding closely into the Garden and God for that layes on him that punishment that he should alwayes go upon his belly he was his instrument to tempt the woman in eating and is adjudged to eat dust all his dayes see the punishment points at the sinne which is usual in Gods judgements Whence 7 OBSERVE It is usual with God in his judgements so to order them that they may point at the sin for which they are inflicted Observe 7 EIther by paying like for like as in cutting off Adonibezeks thumbs of his hands and feet because he had dealt so with others whence he in his Law gives direction to give eye for eye and tooth for tooth Exod. 21.24 25. or by some circumstance or other he points at the sin which he punisheth Jehoram must be cast into Naboths vineyard to point at his Fathers sin in killing Naboth to get possession of that vineyard 2 King 9.25 26. sometimes the instrument or the time or the manner or some other like circumstance shews what the sinne is that brings the judgement Thus God deals with men 1. To justifie himself that by such lively characters his righteousnesse in all his ways may be read by him that runs 2. To further mens repentance by pointing out unto them the sinne that brings the judgement upon them The curse that God lays upon the Serpent he expresseth and amplifieth by way of comparison that it should light and abide upon the Serpent above any beast of the field So that the Serpent became viler then any other creature by becoming an instrument of sin Whence 8 OBSERVE It is only sin that makes one more vile then another Observe 8 THat makes Coniah though a Prince a despised broken vessel Jer. 22.28 and deprives his father Jehojakim of the common honour that belongs to the meanest man so that he is cast out to be buried with the burial of an Asse ver 19. That makes any that is defiled with it a vile person Psal 15.4 yea though he were a Prince as Antiochus surnamed the glorious is called a vile person Dan. 11.21 and his memory rottennesse Prov. 10.7 It makes whole nations an hissing and an astonishment Jer. 25.9 the taile and not the head Deut. 28.14 as on the other side righteousnesse advanceth one man above another Prov. 12.26 and wisdom promotes to honour Prov. 4.8 All which abasements and honours which sin and godlinesse bring to men in this life are but meere shadows of that more eminent difference which shall be put between them hereafter when they that be wise shall shine as the brightnesse of the firmament Dan. 12.3 The particulars of the Serpents curse are two First that she shall go upon her belly Secondly that her food shall be the dust of the earth so that her abasement is that she is wholly fastened unto the earth Whence 9 OBSERVE It is a shameful abasement to be glewed to the earth Observe 9 IT is a part of our abasement at present that we dwell here on earth in houses of clay Joh 4.19 in bodies of clay termed earthly Tabernacles 2 Cor. 5.1 under which we groane as under an heavy burthen ver 4. waiting to be freed from it Rom. 8.23 that those earthly bodies may be changed into heavenly 1 Cor. 15.44 But our greatest abasement is in stooping to the earth in our affections bringing down our mindes to embrace earthly things which is our shame Phil. 3.19 taking unto us earthly and sensual wisdom as it is termed Jam. 3.15 for our guide whence it is that we are so seriously exhorted to raise up our affections to heavenly things to fixe them on them Col. 3.2 having our negotiation or conversation as we render it in heaven Phil. 3.20 even in our earthly imployments when we do them with heavenly mindes as duties of obedience to God in them serving the Lord Christ Eph. 6.5 6 7. and referring all to his glory 1 Cor. 10.31 and in these services seeking after glory and honour and immortality hereafter VERSE 15. HItherto of Gods curse upon the Serpent which was Satans instrument in deceiving the woman The curse upon himself who was the chiefe agent follows in this verse which some conceive to have relation to the Serpent too but upon no sufficient ground if the words be throughly scanned For howsoever it be true that there is an enmity between men and Serpents yet that is no other then is found between him and other hurtful creatures who hate men or at least hurt them more then Serpents do neither are serpents more apt to hurt men then they are to hurt other creatures Again for the next clause it is true that Serpents usually bite the heele and that men may and do sometimes tread on their heads But it is most evident that God in denouncing this curse aimes not