passage in Epiphanius may be added who mentions some Hereticks who might have some Truth among them that said the Woman listned to the Serpent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and believed him or was persuaded by him as the Son of God Haeres XXXVII n. 25. And one would think Rabbi Bechai had this Notion in his Mind when he said upon the 14th Verse of this Chapter this is the Secret or Mystery of the Holy Language that a Serpent is called SARAPH as an Angel is called SARAPH For which he quotes the fore-named place Numb XXI 6. and then adds The Scripture calls Serpents Seraphim because they were Toledoth hanacash hakadmoni the offspring of this old Serpent Vnderstand this so he concludes as our Saviour speaks in another Case whoso readeth let him understand as a Matter of great concernment Which can have no other meaning I think but this That the Devil whom St. John also calls the old Serpent Revel XII 9. in this Serpent here spoken of counterfeited a Glorious Seraphim and thereby seduced Eve to give Credit to him However this be it is most reasonable to suppose it was some beautiful Creature by whom Eve thought an Angel who wish'd them well discoursed with her For she was not so simple as to think that Beasts could speak much less that they knew more of God's Mind than her self Nor doth it seem at all credible to me that she could have been otherways deceived but by some Creature which appeared so gloriously that she took it for an heavenly Minister who she thought came to explain to them the meaning of the Divine Command Yea hath God said This doth not look like the beginning of a Discourse but the conclusion As the Jews themselves have observed And it is not improbable that the Tempter before he spake these words represented himself as one of the heavenly Court who came or was sent to congratulate the Happiness that God had bestowed upon them in Paradise Which was so great that he could not easily believe he had denied them any of the Fruit of the Garden He desired therefore to be satisfied from her own Mouth of the Truth of what he pretended to have heard or to know how they understood the Command of God For so these words may be translated Is it true indeed hath God said Ye shall not eat of every Tree c. Which is a very ancient Interpretation and more probable than theirs who would have the Hebrew Particles aph ki signifie as much as ut ut Although God hath said ye shall not eat notwithstanding ye shall not die So they suppose he was going to add but before he had spoken the latter part of the Sentence Eve interrupted him saying We may eat of the Fruit of the Trees of the Garden This had been too gross flatly to contradict what God had said Whereas the beginning of the Verse tells us he went more subtilly to work Ver. 2. And the Woman said unto the Serpent We may eat of the Fruit of the Trees of the Garden She seems to have understood him as if he thought God had forbid them to eat of any Fruit in the Garden And indeed the foregoing Question is ambiguous like those Oracles of his which made him be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 oblique or crooked by the ancient Heathen because they had two meanings She truly therefore reports the Sence of God's Prohibition in this and the following Verse Though there are those who think she pronounced these words We may eat of the Fruit c. with some admiration that they should be restrained from one Fruit when God had most liberally granted them all the rest The reason of which she did not know and showed her desire perhaps to understand it Ver. 3. But of the Fruit of the Tree which is in the midst of the Garden God hath said ye shall not eat of it nor touch it lest ye die Some fansie the Woman here began to prevaricate in two things First In saying they might not touch it Secondly In saying only there was danger if they meddled with it and not an absolute threatning Of which the Devil they think took advantage and immediately assured her there was no danger at all This last they ground upon the Hebrew Particle pen which we translate lest and expresses a doubting But I do not think either of these Observations are solid For that Particle doth not always imply a Doubt as we may learn from the Second Psalm the last Verse and many other places And the touching of the Fruit signifies the plucking it off from the Tree in order to eat it Which was expresly forbidden Ver. 4. Ye shall not surely die You are under a mistake Death will not be the certain Consequence of your eating this Fruit. For God is too Good to inflict such an heavy Punishment for so small a Fault Ver. 5. For God c. The Particle ki which we translate for signifies here as much as but as Abarbinel and others observe just as in Psalm CXV 1. So the meaning is you shall be in no danger but quite contrary be great gainers by tasting of this Fruit As God himself knows who only keeps you in Awe by his Threatning but will not be so severe as to execute it when he sees you much improved not impaired by eating it Then your Eyes shall be opened For you will immediately discover abundance of things whereof you are now ignorant And ye shall be as Gods Like unto us the Angels of God Who are frequently called Elohim i. e. Gods in Scripture Thus Maimonides understands it More Nevoch Pars I. c. 2. and Onkelos who translates it Princes meaning Angels who are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Principalities and Powers c. Knowing Good and Evil. i. e. All manner of things Or as some of the Hebrews understand it know what is fit for you to do without any Advice or Instruction and without any Restriction being subject to none but enjoy freely what you please For to know is sometimes as much as to enjoy in the Scripture-Language So that according to this Interpretation he promises them likeness to God himself who is absolutely free and subject to none But in this suggestion the Devil proved what our Saviour says of him That he was a Lyar from the beginning For there are no less than four Lyes as some reckon them in these two Verses Which makes it seem strange that Eve should give Credit to these Suggestions which were very foolish It being incredible that God should envy them any thing who had given them their Beings and innumerable Blessings I can give no account of it but this That when we are searching after the Reason of things as she I suppose was of this Prohibition and cannot find it if one be suggested to us which never came into our Mind before though in it self unlikely we are ready to catch at it and to be pleased with it For
Brother Of whom Cain stubbornly refusing to give an account the LORD said immediately to show he needed not to be informed the Voice of thy Brother's Blood crieth unto me from the Ground Ver. 10. And he said I heard thy Voice and I was afraid because I was naked c. The very Sound of the approach of thy Presence so affrighted me because I found I had lost my Innocency that I hid my self from thee This was a foolish and vain attempt but as Guilt makes Men fearful so that bereaves them of all Consideration Ver. 11. And he said Who told thee that thou wast naked Divested of those noble Endowments which I bestowed on thee Hast thou eaten c. Transgressed my Commandment Ver. 12. And the Man said The Woman whom thou gavest c. I confess my Guilt into which I was drawn by her whom thou gavest me for an help Thus we are apt to excuse and palliate our Faults by laying that Load upon others with which we ought to charge our selves Ver. 13. And the LORD God said unto the Woman c. What moved thee to violate my Command And she said The Serpent beguiled me My Weakness was deceived by the Cunning of the Devil Thus she also threw the blame upon another But God no doubt convinced them both of the greatness of their Guilt and the miserable Condition into which they were faln by their Transgression before he ended this Discourse with them Which shows the Infinite Mercy of the Creator of all who would not abandon them but sought after them to save them when they had lost themselves Ver. 14. And the LORD said unto the Serpent Thou art cursed c. It is observed by Tertullian That though God inflicted Punishments on Adam and Eve yet he did not curse them as he did the Serpent ut restitutionis candidatos they standing fair for a Restitution to his Favour L. II. adv Marcion c. 25. And I may add God did not begin with them but first Sentences the Serpent before he proceeds to Judgment upon them Which denotes that he the old Serpent was the great Offender being the first Mover to Sin which made his Crime more grievous than theirs Now to be cursed is to be deprived of what was before enjoyed and doomed to a miserable wretched Condition of life The particulars of which follow The only difficulty is Why the Serpent literally so called should be cursed as it manifestly is though the Devil also I shall show is intended being but an Instrument which the Evil Spirit used and had neither Will to Sin nor yet Understanding or Knowledge of what the Devil did It is commonly answered That this is no more than the Curse which God inflicted upon the Earth which was not capable of Sinning for Adam's sake verse 17. But still the Reason of that Curse is enquired which is evident enough Man himself being punished by the Curse upon the Earth Which did not yield its Fruit so plentifully and so easily as it had done before his Transgression And the reason of this Curse upon the Serpent may be the better discerned by another Instance which we find Exod. XXI 28. where an Ox which gored a Man or a Woman that they died is ordered to be stoned and his Flesh not to be eaten This sure was to show the great value God set upon Man's Life Which he secured also by this Punishment which moved all Owners to look well to their Beasts that might indanger it Even so was the Serpent condemned in Mercy to Adam and his Wife whom it is manifest by what follows God intended to restore into his Favour that they might be ever mindful of the foulness of their Guilt and excited to Repentance by seeing a noble Creature who was but the Instrument of it so extreamly debased into a most vile Condition Vpon thy Belly shalt thou go This shows the Serpent was a more noble Creature before this Fact But changed after it from a flying Seraph as the word is Numb XXI 6. into a foul creeping Serpent not moving aloft in the Air but crawling upon the Earth and licking the Dust So it follows And Dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life There is no viler Food than this Which doth not signifie the Serpent should feed upon nothing else But that creeping on the Ground it cannot but lick up much Dust together with its Food whatsoever that be All this is literally the Curse of the Serpent But as the Devil lay hidden under the Covert of the Serpent though he be not named so his Curse is intended in this Curse of the Serpent though it be not separately mentioned As appears by the following Verse which hath a peculiar respect to the Devil under the Name of the Serpent And the Devil's Curse in general was this to be thrust down further than before from his ancient heavenly Habitation and condemned to live in the lower smoaky Region of the Air Where he hath lost all rellish of Celestial Enjoyments and pleases himself only in his vile endeavours to make Mankind as wicked as himself Ver. 15. I will put enmity between thee and the Woman and between thy Seed and her Seed An irreconcilable Feud throughout all Generations Which is true of the Serpent literally understood between whom and Mankind there is such an Antipathy that it discovers it self both in the natural and sensitive Faculties of them both Their Humours being Poison to each other and Man being astonished at the sight of a Serpent more than any other Creature and the Serpent in like manner at the sight of a Man especially if Naturalists say true of a naked Man Thus Mr. Mede Discourse XXXIX p. 295. But this is far more true and certain of the Spiritual Serpent the Devil and his Angels who joyned with him in his Apostasie and the Woman and her Seed in whom these words are more literally fulfilled For Maimonides justly admires that the Seed of the Woman should be only mention'd and not of Adam without whom she could have no Seed which therefore must be his Seed and that it should be said of her Seed not of his that it bruised the Serpent's Head More Nevochim P. II. cap. 30. This saith he is one of the Passages in Scripture which is most wonderful and not to be understood according to the Letter but contains great Wisdom in it In which Words he wrote more Truth than he was aware but was not able to unfold this hidden Wisdom as we Christians blessed be God are able to do For this Seed here spoken of is Christ as both the Targums that ascribed to Jonathan and that called the Hierusalem expound it and as we are taught to understand it by God's Words to Abraham when he renewed this Promise In thy Seed that is Christ saith the Apostle shall all Nations be blessed Gen. XXII 18. Gal. III. 8 16 For he vanquished the Devil who had now vanquished Mankind So it
here follows It shall bruise thy Head i. e. That SEED of the Woman shall dispoil thee of thy Power meaning the Devil and abolish thy Tyranny For in the Head of the Serpent to which there is here an allusion lies his strength As Epaminondas represented to the Thebans when he exhorted them to set upon a Band of Lacedaemonians by showing them the Head of a vast Snake which he had crushed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saying Look ye the Body can do no hurt now the Head is gone Meaning That if they routed the Lacedaemonians the rest of the Confederates would signifie nothing Polyaen L. II. Strateg And therefore Mr. Mede hath rightly interpreted the Serpent's Head to signifie the Devil's Sovereignty Discourse XXV p. 143. and XXXIX p. 298. and that Sovereignty is the Power of Death Which Headship of the Devil the Seed of the Woman that is Christ the Lord hath broken in pieces and at last will utterly destroy 1 Cor. XV. 25 26. There is a notable Example of this Enmity in the struggle between Christ and the Devil for Empire in Rev. XII 7 8. where Christ destroyed the Sovereignty of the Serpent in the Roman Empire so effectually that there was no more place found for the Dragon and his Angels in Heaven i. e. The Devil utterly lost his Sovereignty in that State as Mr. Mede interprets it And thou shalt bruise his Heel This Victory over the Devil was not to be gotten without Blood For the Devil did all that he was able to destroy this Seed But that was impossible to be done he could only assault his lower part called here the Heel viz. His Body or Flesh Which by his Instruments he persecuted despitefully used and at last crucified By which very means so admirable was the Wisdom and Goodness of God the Seed of the Woman conquered the Devil as the Apostle shows Heb. II. 14 15. For it must be here noted That Christ was properly and literally the Seed of the Woman and not at all of the Man Being born without him of a pure Virgin The tender Mercy of God also must here be acknowledged which gave our first Parents hope of a recovery as soon as they were faln By making them this most gracious Promise Which though here something obscurely delivered grew clearer and clearer in every Age till Christ came It cannot be denied likewise but that by Seed may be understood collectively all the Faithful who by the Power of their Lord vanquish all the Power of their Spiritual Enemy See Luke X. 19. Yet so that we must confess there was one Eminent Seed here Primarily intended by whom they overcome Unto whom another Seed is not here opposed in this last part of the Verse as in the former part but the Serpent himself Which points at a single Combate as I may call it between this promised Seed and the Devil But if we will take in the other Sence also understanding by Seed Christ with all his Members then the bruising their Heel signifies as Mr. Mede expounds it the Devil's deceit and guile in assaulting us unawares As they do who come behind others when they do not observe them and catch hold of their Heel For that this is an Emblem of guile and deceitful dealing appears from the Story of Esau and Jacob the latter of which had his Name from catching his Brother by the Heel at his Birth which Esau took for an indication of his beguiling him as he did two times See Discourse XXXVII p. 184. It is fit I think here to note further what the learned Mr. Alix hath observed That God in this Promise did a particular Kindness to our Father Adam Who having been seduced by his Wife to eat the forbidden Fruit it might have occasioned a Breach between them had not God taken Care to prevent it by making this gracious Promise of a Redeemer to depend upon his Union with his Wife From whom he assures them one should descend that should repair their Losses The time likewise when this Promise was made is remarkable Which was before God had rejected Cain and preferred Seth to him and long before any restriction made to Noah's Family or Sem's who derived from him that all the World might look upon the MESSIAH as a common Benefit to all the Sons of Adam Ver. 16. Vnto the Woman he said Next to the Serpent the Woman receives her Sentence as Mr. Mede well notes because she was more in the fault than Adam Being guilty as his words are Discourse XXXVIII p. 287. both of her own personal Sin and of her Husband 's also Whence it is that he who had only sinned himself and not caused others to sin had his Judgment last of all This should be a little more considered than it is by all those who not only do Evil themselves but draw others into the same Guilt I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and conception i. e. Thy Sorrow in thy Conception Which includes all the time of Womens going with Child when they frequently nauseate all their Food or have troublesome Longings and endure many other things which are very grievous to them especially when they are in danger to miscarry of their Burden In sorrow shalt thou bring forth Children Brute Creatures are observed to bring forth their Young with far less pain and difficulty and danger than Women commonly have in their Labour Who after they are delivered of their Children are still in danger by many accidents Especially when that stays behind which should follow the Birth as it sometimes doth from various Causes noted by Bartholinus in his Histor Anatom Medic. Cent. V. Hist XXXII n. 3. which occasions sore Torments and puts their Lives in the greatest hazard And thy desire shall be to thy Husband That is it shall be subject to him as the Vulgar Latin and Aben Ezra expound this Phrase Which is so used IV. 7. And he shall rule over thee Have Power to controll thy Desire This looks like putting her more under the Will of her Husband than was intended in her first formation Because she had not given a due regard to him but eaten the forbidden Fruit without staying to consult him and ask his Advice Ver. 17. And unto Adam he said Because thou hast hearkned to the Voice of thy Wife c. Been so weak as to mind her more than me Cursed shall the Ground be It shall not bring forth so plentifully nor so easily as it did For thy sake Because of thy Sin which shall be punished partly by its barrenness In sorrow shalt thou eat of it It shall cost thee a great deal of Labour and Toil before thou reapest the Fruits of it All the days of thy life Every part of the Year shall bring along with it new wearisom Labours Ver. 18. Thorns and Thistles c. It shall cost thee abundance of Pains to root up the Thorns Thistles and unprofitable Weeds which shall come up in stead of