LVI.

SERM. happiness, contrived how to bring him down into the same wretched condition with themselves: for which purpose, the Gen. 3. 1. Devil knowing "that the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made," he, the better to discover his design, entered into a serpent, and spake by him, as he hath often done by those whom he hath possessed, and as the angel spake by Balaam's ass. For that this was the Devil's act in the serpent, we have the John 8. 44. authority of Christ Himself, who therefore saith, "He was a murderer from the beginning." And the same appears Rev. 12. 9; also from the Apostle, calling the Devil or Satan, "The great ch. 20. 2, 10. dragon, that old serpent which deceiveth the whole world."

For so did he when he deceived our first parents, in whom the whole world, or all mankind was contained. And that this was known and believed by the old Jewish Church before our Saviour's time, is evident from that remarkable passage in the Book of Wisdom to this purpose; where we read, that God created man to be immortal, and made him Wis. 2. 23, to be an image of His own eternity. Nevertheless, "through envy of the Devil came death into the world."

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This subtle serpent therefore, not daring to venture upon the man, for fear of being worsted, he set upon the woman, thinking that she might more easily be deceived, and not doubting but if he could get her down, the man would fall with her, as it came to pass: from whence the Apostle ob

1 Tim.2.14. serves, that " Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression." That is, Adam was not first deceived, nor immediately by the serpent; but the woman was deceived by him, and was the first that transgressed God's command.

But how was she deceived? Why, the serpent said unto Gen. 3. 1. the woman, "Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?" He had heard, it seems, what God had said to Adam, and knew well enough, that as it is ch. 2. 16, 17. written, "The Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." But though the serpent knew this, yet the better to bring about his wicked design, he makes a question of it; saying,

"Hath God said so? And the woman said unto the serpent, Gen. 3. 2, 3. 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." It is not recorded before, that the tree of which God spake, but only the tree of life, was in the midst of the garden; nor that He had said, they should not touch it; yet it cannot be supposed that the woman, being as yet in the state of perfection, would have said it, if it had not been so. But the woman had no sooner said this, but the serpent said to her, "Ye shall not surely die." Here he had the impu- ver. 4. dence to contradict God Himself, and so to tell a plain lie, which was the first that we know was ever told in the world. But as our Saviour hath taught us, "When the Devil speaketh John S. 44. a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it." Here he sheweth himself to be so. But to mince the matter that it might go down the better, he pretended great kindness to the woman, more than God Himself had; "For God," saith he, "doth know, that in the day ye eat Gen. 3. 5. thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." Here lay the main cheat, covered with a fair pretence of shewing the woman how to get into an higher state than that she was made in; making as if by eating of this fruit, they should be so far from dying, that their eyes should be opened, and so they should be wiser and more knowing than they were before; yea, “that they should be like gods, knowing good and evil," whereas before, they knew nothing else but good. And so far it was true, that this was the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil," but not in the sense which the Devil put upon it: for it was not called so, because they who eat of it should know good and evil in the general notion of it, better than they did before: such knowledge they had before, otherwise they could not have known, as be sure they did, how to choose. the good, and avoid the evil. But it was called the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil," to put them in mind, that if they eat of it, they should know evil, as before they had known good, experimentally, so as both to practise and suffer evil, which they had not done before, nor ever should, if they had not tasted of that fruit. So that this was a plain

SERM. diabolical fallacy and cheat put upon the woman, but such a one, that she was deceived with it.

LVI.

Gen. 3. 6.

ver. 7.

ch. 2. 25.

"For 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." That the fruit was pleasant to the eyes, she could see; but that it would make one wise, she could never have thought it if the serpent had not said it; she had only his word for that; which notwithstanding she believed more than what God had said. God had said, if they eat of that fruit, they should die. The Devil said they should not die, but become as "gods, knowing good and evil;" and not believing God's word, but the Devil's, she ventured upon eating it. So that unbelief was the first sin, and that which made way for all other: for if the woman had believed that in the day that she eat of that fruit, she should surely die, as God had said, all the Devils in Hell could never have persuaded her to have done it. But not believing what God had said, she did it, and had no sooner done it, but she found Him to be true, and the Devil a liar for they were so far from being like to gods, that they became like to the Devil himself, both in sin and misery.

For "the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked: and they sewed fig-leaves together, and made themselves aprons." Before it is said, that “they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed;" that is, they were so perfectly innocent and free from all irregular motions, that they had nothing to be ashamed of. But now the case was altered; for they found themselves naked and divested of their former innocence; were ashamed of themselves and of what they had done, and endeavoured to hide it as well as they could, but all in vain : for God's word must stand; they must die: yea, they are, ipso facto, dead in law: the sentence is passed upon them; they are already dead in trespasses and sins; and every moment obnoxious both to temporal and eternal death.

Here then we may see, how all mankind fell from their first estate, into that which they are now in: for these two were not only the first, nor single persons only, but they

were all mankind then in being: and all men that should ever be, were then in their loins. And therefore God called them both "Adam;" that is, man in general, as the word Gen. 5. 2. signifies, because the whole species of man was in them; and all the individuals that should ever proceed from them, were then present to God, and as much under His eye, as if they had been all then born, and were actually living upon the earth. Hence it is, that all mankind are guilty of the sin which was then committed; they are all corrupted and depraved, and subject to the death which was then threatened; which that we may not doubt of, God Himself also hath assured us of it by His Apostle, saying, "Wherefore as by Rom. 5. 12. one man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." From hence therefore we may discover the occasion that was given for God's manifesting the glory of some of His infinite perfections, which otherwise would never have been seen, even by His redeeming fallen man; which therefore He was graciously pleased to do, the same day on which he fell for in the cool, or towards the evening of the day, Adam and his wife heard the voice of God in the garden, speaking to them, and asking several questions, only to make them confess their fault with their own mouths, before He would shew them any mercy. The man confessed that he had eaten of the fruit of the tree which God had forbidden, but said,

that the woman gave it him. The woman confessed that she also had eaten of it, but said, that "the serpent had be- ver. 8, 9, 13. guiled her." Upon which, the Lord said unto the serpent, "Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all ver. 14. 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." This He said to the serpent into which the Devil had entered, for that he had been the instrument of so much mischief; but as to the principal cause, the Devil himself who had entered into him, the Lord said, "I will put enmity ver. 15. between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." Here is no mention made of the seed of the man, but only of that of the woman: but God here saith, that there shall be such enmity between the woman and the serpent, and

SERM. between their seeds, that the seed of the woman shall bruise LVI. the head of the serpent; and that the serpent shall bruise the heel of the seed of the woman. Where, by the seed of the woman, is plainly meant one, who should be born of a woman without the help of man: which none ever was, but [Gal. 3.16.] only Jesus Christ. And therefore to our right understanding of this promise, or first publication of the Gospel, it will be necessary to consider, how both parts of it were fulfilled in Him.

ch. 4. 4.

First therefore, we may observe, that this promise being made by God, who cannot lie, and to whom all things are present, it took effect, as His word always doth, as soon as made, so that Adam himself, and his whole posterity, might receive the benefit of it, although this promised seed did not actually appear in the world till many years after. "But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman." And if made of a woman, then her seed; but He was before that the Son of God: and if the Son of God, then God Himself, as it was necessary He should be, who was to overcome so cunning and potent an [Eph. 2. 2.] enemy, "the prince of the power of the air," who had been too hard for mankind in their most perfect state.

1 John 3. 8. For this purpose therefore, "was the Son of God manifested, that He might destroy the works of the Devil." That He might undo all that the Devil had done, by recovering mankind out of that sinful estate to which the Devil had brought them, and enabling them to resist the Devil and all his temptations, so as to force him to fly from them. This is that which we are to understand by his bruising the head of the serpent; his head, where all policy and his power lay; and so disabling him from accomplishing the mischief, which he designed and attempted against all mankind.

And verily, he who reads the life of Christ, may easily see, what absolute power he had and exercised over the Devil and all his angels. They trembled at the sight of Him; and Matt. s. 29, cried out, "What have we to do with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of God? Art Thou come to torment us before the time?” Luke 4.34. And at another time, " Art Thou come to destroy us?" They knew that He was the seed of the woman that was to come and bruise their head: as He did soon after; and shewed

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