6 Judas in betraying his Lord, or the sin of the Jews in crucifying him, or the sin of the infidel in rejecting the inspired testimony concerning him-be compared in atrocity with the sin of Adam in eating this apple'? Transgression gathers its guilt from the magnitude of the motives to avoid it; and that, again, from the amount of ruin and wretchedness into which it plunges. Who, then, can calculate the guilt contracted by Adam in his eating the forbidden fruit?-Dr. Payne. The heinousness of any sin, again, lies in the deliberate and determined The 'tree of knowledge of good and evil' might be any tree whatever. One cannot, therefore, but lament the vulgar practice of painters representing it as an apple-tree, which has given occasion to many profane and silly witticisms. Dr. Kitto. 18 And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. This law is not, cannot be, reversed. All attempts to produce a contrary state have been against nature, and have uniformly terminated in evil.— Dr. Redford. Man singly is but half man, at least but half human-a king without a kingdom.-Lavater. And yet I do not find that man in innocence was sensible of the want of a helper. His fruition of God gave him fulness of contentment; he found neither leisure nor cause of complaint. If man had craved a helper, he had grudged at the condition of his creation, and had questioned that which he had, perfection of being. But He that gave him his being, and knew him better than himself, thinks of giving him comfort in the creature, whilst he sought none but in his Maker. He sees our wants and forecasts our relief, when we think ourselves too happy to complain. How ready will he be to help our necessities, who thus provides for our perfection!-Bp. Hall. 19 And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. 20 And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. This giving a name to the animals implies a knowledge of nature, and an extent of verbal nomenclature, which the most sagacious philosophers since the fall have none of them pos : sessed. It is a saying of Plato that he was most wise that imposed names on things; yea, had more than human wisdom.-L. 21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof: 22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. 23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. The woman was made of a rib out of Adam's side; not made out of his head to top him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved. Adam lost a rib, but in lieu thereof he had a help-meet for him. What God takes away from his people, He will one day or other restore with advantage.-M. Henry. In this, too, as in many other things, Adam was a 'figure of Him that was to come.' E latere Christi morientis extitit ecclesia: The church is taken out of dying Jesus' side,' as Eve out of sleeping Adam's. Christ did not redeem and save poor souls by sitting in majesty on His heavenly throne, but by hanging on the shameful cross.Gurnall. 24 Therefore shall a man leave shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. his father and his mother, and The mutual inclination of the sexes for each other, when regulated by the law of God, and free from other restraints, becomes the foundation of all the relations of life, the source of the most rational of our earthly comforts, and equally beneficial to individuals, families, and nations-like a river which, gliding within its banks, beautifies and enriches the neighbouring plains. But when unscriptural restraints are imposed, or when it bursts through the appointed bounds, it diffuses vice, discord, disease, and misery with horrible rapidity; like the same river obstructed in its natural channel, overflowing its banks, desolating the fields, and converting the neighbouring country into a noxious marsh or bog. -Scott. The place assigned to the woman in heathen and Mahomedan countries has been highly degrading; and the place assigned her by modern infidels is not much better. Christianity is the only religion that conforms to the original design, that confines a man to one wife, and that teaches him to treat her with propriety.-A. Fuller. 25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. It has been shown by Dr. Pye Smith and others that the nakedness here spoken of was not absolute but partial. In this sense the word is used in John xxi. 7.—L. Blushing is now the colour of virtue, and they are commonly the least apt to blush who are most vicious; but it was not then the colour of innocence; they that had no sin in their con science might well have no shame in their faces, though they had no clothes to their backs.-M. Henry. If it be still hard for us to comprehend this circumstance of the sacred history, it is because our judgment is false and vitiated since the fall, and because we have equally lost the notions of true shame and of true honour.-M. Saurin. CHAP. III. NOW the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. 8 Satan's policy was to enter into discourse with the woman when alone. Had she kept close to the side out of which she was lately taken, she had not been so much exposed. There are many temptations to which solitude gives great advantage; but the communion of saints contributes much to their strength and safety.—M. Henry. In time of temptation it is our wisdom and duty to keep close to the word which forbids the sin, and not to reason with Satan as Eve did. So long as we retain the simplicity of the word, we have Satan at the end of the staff; for, unless we give way to a * And the serpent said unto the There is something in the confidence with which, at times, assertions are made, which has always, more or less, commanded belief in the ignorant and inexperienced. Nothing is more common than for the most false and pernicious doctrines to be advanced with a boldness that stuns the minds of the simple, and induces a doubt: Surely I must be in the wrong, and they in the right, or they could not be so confident.' Thus Satan teaches men first to doubt, then to deny; he makes them sceptics first, and so by degrees makes them atheists.-A. Fuller; M. Henry. The soul is perpetually flattered with the hope of safety in sin, is taught to expect exemption from punishment, and is boldly informed that 'it shall not surely die.' Thousands and millions of times has this story doubt of it, he gets no ground on us. Eve went to the outside of her liberty and set herself upon the brink of danger when she said, ' We may eat of all but one tree.' When people thus dally with the devil, they fall by temptation. To parley with temptation is to play with fire.-Bunyan. woman, Ye shall not surely die: been told, and repeated through every age, from the apostasy to the present hour. Thousands and millions also of foolish and unhappy wretches listen to the tale because it is loved, and receive it on a tenth part of the evidence which they would demand to enforce on their minds a single truth or a single duty; or, rather, they receive it first, and wait for the evidence till some future time. Eve is often censured for yielding to a tempter of finished cunning. How many of her descendants yield to fools and blockheads, to gross and blundering solicitations; unfurnished with even a plausible pretence, or that miserable consolation to sinners, an apology for the compliance. Let no one cast the first stone at our common parents who is not conscious that he himself has not sinned in the same manner.-Dwight. 5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. There is an equivocation in these words, a latent truth, the reverse of their apparent meaning. • Your eyes,' says Satan, shall be opened;' that is, When you have eaten the fruit, you will too late see your own folly.' 'Ye shall be as gods,' affecting in yourselves a sort of pre-eminence and independence, till you find death and misery seize upon you; 'knowing good and evil,' by losing the good, and experiencing the evil. Of such a paraphrase the words will admit, and such has been the effect of eating the forbidden fruit; but nothing could be further from Eve's thoughts than such an interpretation. Thus the assertions of the tempter resembled the ancient heathen oracles, of which, in one way or other, this father of lies' was the author; for these were generally couched in such ambiguous language as might be afterwards accommodated to the event, though often in direct opposition to the disappointed expectations of the deluded votaries.-Scott. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. We find in ourselves a strange hankering after what is forbidden. 'Nitimur in vetitum.' The poison in Eve soon began to take effect. She paused; looked at the fruit; it began to appear delightful; she felt a wish to be wise; in short, she took of the fruit, and did eat. Sin is a speedy graduate, quickly passing from one sense to another, from one faculty to another, and the devil drives it on, like Jehu, at a furious pace. (2 Kings ix. 20.)— A. Fuller; Caryl. Considering this offence in all its circumstances, and with all its aggravations, we must term it the prolific parent and grand exemplar of all the transgressions committed ever since; nor have they been wide of the truth who have laboured to prove that all the ten commandments, spiritually expounded, were at once violated.Scott. How dear bath this lesson cost us, that in some cases it is better to be ignorant! and yet do the sons of Eve inherit this saucy appetite of their grandmother. How many thousand souls miscarry with the presumptuous affectation of forbidden knowledge! God, Thou hast revealed more than we can know, enough to make us happy. Teach me a sober knowledge and a contented ignorance.-Bp. Hall. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. The leaves of the Indian fig-tree are not only extremely large, but smooth and flexible, and also sufficiently coarse and tough for the purpose of making even aprons, umbrellas, and bed-coverings.-Anon. This vain attempt to cover themselves by fig-leaves plaited together represents the fruitless pains and worthless expedients which men employ to conceal their real character, and to hide their sins from each other and from themselves. For all men are naturally more ashamed of being detected in sin than of committing it. -Scott. And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. is the season for reflection. We may sin in the day-time, but God will call us to account at night. Many a one has done that in the heat and bustle of the day which has afforded bitter reflection in the cool of the evening; and such, in many instances, has proved the evening of life.-M. Henry; A. Fuller. When God came to reckon with Adam, He walked;' He did not run upon him, with sword in hand, as a mighty man, with an eagerness to destroy him; teaching us, when we are ever so provoked, not to be hot or hasty. He came, too, in the cool of the day; a time when men, tired in the day, are unwilling to engage in a hard employment. The cool of the day' And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? God is still thus interrogating sinful men. Sinner, 'where art thou?' what is thy condition? in what way art thou walking, and whither will it lead thee? Most fearful inquiry to every descendant of Adam who is walk ing in the footsteps of his first guilty parent! Beware of every place, every pleasure, every employment, in which you would not hear such words with pain.-Rev. H. Blunt. 10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. 11 And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? V. 11. Hast thou eaten,' &c. The accent lies in thou. It was not surely from hunger; thou hadst a whole paradise before thee. Hast thou eaten that wert provided so well to have withstood him? Hast thou, may God say to the Christian, eaten of the devil's dainties, who hast a key to go to my cupboard? Does thy heavenly Father keep so starved a house that the devil's scraps will go down with thee?-Gurnall. 12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. 18 And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. There is a strange proneness in those that are tempted to say they are 'tempted of God,' as if our abusing of God's gifts would excuse our violation of God's laws. But if we make our circumstances an occasion of sinning against Him, instead of blaming Providence for putting us into such a condition we ought to blame ourselves for perverting its gracious designs.— M. Henry. It is worthy of notice that God makes no answer to these perverse excuses. They were unworthy of an answer. The Lord proceeds like an aggrieved friend, who would not multiply words, -I see how it is; stand aside! 'The serpent beguiled me.' Still God continues his forbearance; makes no answer, but orders her, as it were, to stand aside.-A. Fuller. 14 And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: The devil's instruments must share the devil's punishments. Thus the bodies of the wicked, though only the instruments of unrighteousness, shall partake of everlasting torments with the soul, the principal agent. Learn here how God hates sin, and how much He is displeased with those that entice others to sin.-M. Henry. 15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. This is true in a literal sense. There is an irreconcilable enmity between mankind and serpents. But Adam and Eve undoubtedly knew that it was an intelligent spirit that had seduced them, and that this sentence was addressed to such a being. God designed to comfort the delinquents under the grief and dejection in which He saw them involved, and therefore gives them this promise. Thy seed and her seed' may mean, as some think, the righteous and the wicked; or, which sense I much prefer, the Lord Jesus Christ, the great 6 Captain of salvation. He, that eminent Person, shall bruise his heel; He shall receive some slight hurt in the contest, which may refer to the sufferings which the Messiah endured for our salvation. No wound is so fatal to a serpent as a wound in the head, and nowhere is the bite of a serpent so harmless as in the heel.-Orton. The classical reader cannot here fail to recall to memory Achilles, the bravest of the Greeks, who is said to have been plunged by his mother into the Styx, and thereby rendered invulnerable in every part of his body except |