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8 And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day:

k Job 38. 1.

had a sense, a discovery, of the consequences of their sin which they never had nor could have before. A similar effect always follows the commission of known sin. A terrible light is let in on the soul to which, during the process of the temptation, it was a comparative stranger. It is in fact the experimental knowledge of the difference between good and evil. The result in the case of our first parents was, that they saw themselves naked; by which is meant, not so much that they were sensible that their bodies were destitute of clothing, for of this they were doubtless aware before, but they now recognized their nakedness with shame and confusion, and were at the same time conscious of a sad privation of innocence, which had before covered them as with a robe. They felt themselves bereaved of the comfortable presence and favour of their Maker, and thus made naked through exposure to his wrath. This view of the meaning of the terms is abundantly confirmed by the parallel usage, Ex. 32. 25. 2 Chron. 28. 19. Rev. 16. 15.- - They sewed fig-leaves together. Heb.

and Adain and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.

1 Job 31. 33. Jer. 23. 24. Amos 9. 3.

nothing more than applied, fitted, adjusted; and so also Ezek. 13. 18, 'Wo to the women that sew (b) pillows to all armholes.' The leaf of the fig-tree is large and broad and well adapted to the purpose.- Aprons. Heb. 'things to gird about.' Their sin made them sensible of their nakedness; their nakedness awakened the sense of shame; and the impulse of shame prompted them to the expedient of an artificial covering for their persons. 8. Heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden. The newly begotten sense of guilt was now awakened by another circumstance. The phrase 'voice of the Lord God' is usu ally applied to thunder, of which a striking proof occurs, Job, 37. 4, 5. Ps. 29. 3-9, and it is not improbable that now for the first time a fearful tempest attended with loud peals of thunder was the occasion of their terror. The epithet 'walking' is to be joined, not with 'Lord,' but with 'voice,' as it is in the original the same word with that used to signify the sound of the trumpet upon Mount Sinai, Ex. 19. 19, And when the voice of the trumpet An unfortunate rendering, as the term sounded long (Heb. walked).' A voice sewed is too definite and such as gives may be said to walk or go when it inoccasion to infidel cavils, as if Moses creases in intensity waxing louder and represented the use of the implements louder. The same term is applied to of sewing as known to Adam and Eve any thing which is capable of increas in Paradise. The true meaning is, that ing in degree, as to a constantly brightthey tied, twisted, platted, or fastenedening light, Prov. 4. 18, The path of together the leafy twigs and small branches of the fig-tree, so as to form a sort of girdle, somewhat resembling the laurel wreath worn upon the head among the Romans. The original 5 taphar occurs Job, 16. 15, where, although it is rendered, 'I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin;' it can mean

the just is as the shining light which shineth more and more (H. walketh) to the perfect day;' and to the sea excited by a storm, Jon. 1. 11, 'For the sea wrought (Heb. walked) and was tempestuous ;' i. e. became increasingly tempestuous. See note on Gen. 26. 13. In the cool of the day. Heb.

9 And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?

10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden: mand I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.

11 And he said, Who told thee

m ch. 2. 25. Exod. 3. 6. 1 John 3. 20.

that thou wast naked? Hast thou
eaten of the tree whereof I com
manded thee, that thou shouldest
not eat?
12 And the man said,
n The
woman whom thou gavest to be
with me, she gave me of the tree,
and I did eat.

n ch. 2. 18. Job 31. 33. Prov. 28. 13,

ifest in his sight,' but his purpose was to awaken in the minds of the culprits a still deeper sense of guilt and thus to bring them to a penitent confession before him. Designing moreover, to proceed against them in a way of unimpeachable equity, he would give them every opportunity to account for their conduct, and say what they could in their defence-a pattern for all ministers of justice. In like manner and for the same reason the Lord afterwards interrogated Cain respecting his brother.

' in the wind or breeze of the day;' i. e. towards evening when the wind rises in oriental countries. Or with Calvin we may understand it of the morning breeze, called the wind of the day in opposition to that of the evening or night. This however, would seem to be less probable, as it would bring the arraignment and condemnation of the guilty pair to the morning of the first sabbath, which it is reasonable to suppose was not marked by so gloomy an event.- - Hid themselves. Through the terror inspired by conscious guilt. 10. I was afraid because I was naThat presence which they had before ked. Evidently dissembling the true welcomed with joy now fills them with cause. He had been naked before, but dismay. Their consciences set their that circumstance had neither occasin before them in its blackest aspect, sioned him shame, nor prompted the and as they had then no hope of a fu- least disposition to shun the presence ture Mediator, there remained to their of his Maker. He would fain make it apprehension nothing but a fearful believed that he had hid himself from looking for of judgment and fiery in-a reverential awe of the divine Majesty. dignation' ready to devour them. The How naturally does crime lead to preconsequence was, that they fled into varication! the most retired and dark recesses of the garden under the vain hope of elu-ked? That is, whence didst thou acding the all-seeing eye of their Maker. Such is invariably the prompting of a guilty conscience; but where, alas! can the trembling sinner hope to conceal his person or his crime? Trees, rocks, and caverns will be resorted to in vain. His only hope is in falling down at once with a broken heart and in deep repentance at the footstool of sovereign mercy.

11. Who told thee that thou wast na

quire the consciousness of thy nakedness? Whence, but by transgressing the express command laid upon thee? He would extort the confession from his own lips in order to pave the way for the righteous sentence which was to follow.

12. The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, &c. Adam is here brought to convict himself, yet his confession is 9. Where art thou? Not as if God not candid and ingenuous, but equivo were ignorant of Adam's hiding-place,cating and reluctant. 'I did eat,' which for 'there is no creature that is not man- should have been his first words, are

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nature, and nothing but a condign punishment awaited him. Cursing with men is equivalent simply to evil speak

placed last, and are preceded by an apology which only aggravated the crime. But his conduct was in perfect accordance with what daily meets using or to verbal imprecations; it canwhen criminals are detected in the commission of a crime. Not daring wholly to deny his guilt, nor yet willing ingenuously to confess it, he proceeds to cast the blame upon the woman, and thus indirectly upon God, who had formed and bestowed her upon him. Thus the foolishness of man perverteth his way, and (yet) his heart fretteth against the Lord.' Prov. 19. 3. So fruitful is the depraved heart in excuses and apologies for its sins! So prone to extenuate what it cannot deny !

not go beyond words. But God's curse is not merely verbal; it implies the actual infliction of the woe denounced. Thus when the fig-tree was cursed, Mat. 11. 21, it withered away; when the wicked children were cursed in the name of the Lord, 2 Kings, 2. 24, they were torn in pieces of wild beast. So on the other hand of the divine blessing. It is the effectual bestowment of mercies. The object of the curse in this case was both the natural visible serpent employed as the instrument, and Satan himself by whom he was instigated. It was not the serpent alone, and by itself, that tempted the first pair; it was that animal, as moved and impelled by the devil, which accomplished their ruin. The expres

13. Said to the woman. Taking no notice of the reply of Adam, as being too foolish to deserve it, he turned to the woman to hear what she could of fer in her own behalf. What is this that thou hast done. Or Heb. 'why hast thou done this?'- - The serpentsions then appertain to both; 'Because beguiled me, and I did eat. The fact was too palpable and glaring to be denied, but in imitation of Adam, she endeavours to free herself from the blame by casting it upon the serpent. But alas! their poor evasions, like their figleaves, were too narrow to cover their sins, too thin to ward off the stroke of justice!

thou, Satan, hast done this, through thy agency, thou art cursed,' &c.; and also, 'Because thou, serpent, hast done this, as the instrninent, thou art cursed,' &c. Not that a brute reptile could really be guilty of sin, or a fit subject of punishment, but it is entirely in accordance with the usual method of the divine dispensations to put some token 14. Because thou hast done this thou of displeasure upon the instrument of art cursed, &c. God interrogated the an offence, as well as upon the offender Thus the beast who man and the woman, because he pur- who employs it. posed to lead them to repentance, but had been lain with by man, Lev. 20, 15, he puts no question to the serpent, as was to be burned to death as well as his guilt could admit of no palliation, the man himself; the golden calf made nor was there the least mercy in store by Aaron was burnt and ground to for him. He had tempted Eve self-powder and strewed upon the water, moved out of the pure malignity of his Ex. 32. 20; and even the censers of

Korah and his companions were con the same order of beings has distindemned as no longer fit to be applied to guished some with peculiar advantages a sacred use. This is done in order to above the rest, who can lay ought to express more forcibly the divine detest- the charge either of his goodness or ation of the act, while at the same his equity? There may have been wise time we may freely admit that the main and benevolent reasons with which we weight of the curse undoubtedly fell are unacquainted for such a proceeding; upon the principal agent, whose doom and it is most rational to infer the meris mystically expressed in the terms cy, justice, and wisdom of all acts that appropriate to a natural serpent. But are resolvable into the sovereign pleas notwithstanding the intrinsic weight ure of an infinitely merciful, just, and and pertinency of the considerations wise being. (2.) It is not clear to what above adduced in justification of the extent the serpent's sentence is to be sentence upon the natural serpent, ma- regarded as a real punishment. To ny persons are perplexed in the attempt punish is to inflict misery; but we do to reconcile it with the divine attributes. not find any intimation of pain or torThey see not the propriety of inflicting ture consequent upon the denunciation. a punishment upon a brute serpent for The serpent might be deteriorated as to the crime of a rational agent. Certain its properties; it might be lowered in it is, however, that whatever difficulty the scale of creation; it might be transexists on this score, it is a difficulty formed from a shape and appearance equally affecting the allegorical inter- the most beautiful in the eyes of man, pretation, since it is alike improper to into a form the most disgusting; and represent the Deity acting in contradic-all this without any diminution of its tion to equity and benevolence in fictitious as in real history. To attribute injustice to God, even in a fable or apologue is a blasphemy of which no moral or pious author can be guilty. But the difficulties arising from this source may perhaps be in some measure re-disgrace, no anticipation of death; it moved, and the sentence freed from objection, if due weight be given to the following remarks. (1.) It may be sufficient to rest the vindication of the transaction solely upon the sovereignty of God, who has a right to dispose of all his creatures in whatever manner he pleases. What they have and are proceeds from his creative will; and he is most assuredly free to take away what he has freely given. In withholding from one that which he has bestow-fallen pair of the divine punishment ed upon another, who will dare to ar- with which transgression is inevitably raign his justice? Who art thou that visited, as our Lord's cursing the barren repliest against God? Shall the thing fig-tree was designed to teach his disformed say to him that formed it, why ciples emblematically the destructive hast thou made me thus?' If the sov-consequences of not bringing forth fruits ereign Creator have reduced any partic-meet for repentance. Without this ular species in the scale of being, or in standing monument of the penalty of

corporeal pleasures. It will not be pretended that the serpent endured any mental suffering by the change. It had none of the anguish which rends the human heart in the sense of degradation. It had no pangs of conscious

had the means left of providing its food; it could protect itself from its enemies; and as far as we can perceive, the diminution of its powers brought no diminution of its enjoyments. what sense then, strictly speaking, was it punished? (3.) Important benefits resulted from the sentence pronounced upon the serpent.

It evidenced God's righteous hatred and abhorrence of sin; and was an instructive emblem to the

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sin, they might have flattered them- | shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat. selves that their criminality in tasting But another phrase for the extremest the forbidden fruit was not very hein-subjection and degradation. To what ous; and that their present degraded extent this sentence involved the doom state was owing rather to the natural of a change in the external form and course of things, than to their own motion of the serpent, it is not possible wickedness. Nothing therefore could confidently to affirm. If the sugges more effectually convince them of the tions thrown out in a preceding note re: heinousness of their guilt, and the cer- specting the primitive shape and aptainty of the divine vengeance due to pearance of the creature here employed it, than the change wrought upon that be well founded, there was doubtless a creature which was no more than the signal transformation made to pass upmere instrument of evil. It was easy on him in consequence of the curse now for them to infer, if the mere instru- inflicted. From having formerly movment of evil be thus dealt with, what ed by the aid of wings, or with the will become of the real authors and head and breast elevated above the actors? (4.) The sentence of the serground, he was now reduced from this pent and its immediate execution, may imposing posture, and become in the fullhave served too as a typical prophecy est sense of the term, a reptile, vile and of the victory to be obtained over sin. loathsome, and incapable of eating any death, and Satan, by our blessed Re-food but what should be more or less deemer. As the literal sense does not mingled with the dust. Still we canexclude the mystical, the cursing of the not strenuously insist on this interpreserpent may have been designed as a tation. The curse might have taken symbol, a visible pledge, of the male-effect without any external change of diction to be visited, in the fulness of shape or aspect, just as the woman's time, upon the prime instigator. Im-pain in parturition, though natural to mediately after the fatal transgression her from the beginning, was made a our first parents would become fully sensible of their ruin and degradation. They would feel that they had violated a sacred command, that they had lost their primeval innocence, and had then only the melancholy prospect of future misery. In this situation, trembling with apprehension and conscious of their weakness, how gladly would they accept any intimation of mercy from their offended Creator? Such an intimation was given in the scene transpiring before their eyes. The instantane-But the meaning probably is, that the ous effect of the sentence upon the reptile would be to them a certain pledge that the promise now symbolically made would in the appointed time be fulfilled. Viewed in this light the dread visitation upon the instrument of the temptation, may be amply accounted for in perfect consistency with all the divine attributes.¶ Upon thy belly

curse by being greatly increased in intensity. The essence of the sentence was the degradation denounced, and in this sense, it was equally applicable to the natural and the spiritual serpent. Satan was to be cast down from heaven to earth and overwhelmed with everlasting disgrace. Rev. 12. 9. It has indeed been a matter of doubt how far the sentence, 'dust shalt thou eat,' holds literally true of the common serpent, or whether it is peculiar to him.

serpent, in consequence of his creeping on the ground, should of necessity swallow dust with food. Such must, in the nature of things, be the case. That other creatures take dust into the stomach in some measure may be true; but, if it be, it shows no inappropriateness in this particular of the sentence. It is not said that the serpent should

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