them, as to act his part one against another. Sometimes they set themselves to drive others into sin by force, Acts xxvi. 11. sometimes gently to draw them into it, Gen. xxxix. 7. And Satan gets not only wicked men, but many

food and fhe alfo had repelled the other, continuing unfhamed of her nakednefs.

Ver. 3." But of the fruit of the tree which [is] in the midst of the gar den." This part of the woman's answer is elliptical: and the ellipfis is of that fort, which is caufed by horror arifing from the fubject mentioned, q. d. "But of the fruit of the tree which [is] in midt of the garden! Supply, for the fenfe, we may not eat, of it 'tis faid left ye die." The laft member of this verfe, by the pointing, refers to both the preceding and that points us to the latter part of the words understood, as the foregoing words, to the former part of them. "God hath said, Ye shall not eat, of it; and shall not touch on it, viz the fruit of the forbidden tree." They were forbidden, not only to eat of it, but even to touch it at all, though never fo lightly. From thefe words, directed to a plurality of perfons, it appears, that God repeated, in the hearing of Adam and Eve together, the law concerning the forbidden fruit, together with the grant of the fruit of the reft of the trees of the garden; and confequently, that Eve had the reve lation of the divine will and pleafure, in this matter, from the mouth of God himself. And the repetition of this law and grant, which were first given to Adam alone, chap. ii. 16, 17. feems to have been made at the folemnity of God's bringing in the woman unto the man: for it natively takes place, in connection with chap. i. 29.-Left ye die. Thefe words import no doubting, being the Lord's own words repeated by Eve.

Ver. 4. "And the ferpent faid unto the woman: Ye fhall not dying, die, i. e. Ye shall not at all, die." Satan flatly contradicts the divine threatening; and that with an air of great confidence, for the flop between thefe two words is emphatic. That this is the fenfe of the phrafe, appears from Pfal. xlix. 8-7ths, He cannot redeeming redeem, i. e. He cannot at all, or by any means, redeem. The negative here doth primarily and directly affect but one of the verbs, as Exod. v. 23. and xxxiv. 7 In the phrafe respecting the certainty of the thing, it affects them both in conjunction equally, as Jer. xxxviii. 15. Will ye not, putting me to death put me to death, ie, furely put me to death.

Ver. 5. But God he knoweth, viz. very well. Compare the last claufe of this verfe. Satan pretends to open up the mystery of the restraint put upon man, as to the fruit of the forbidden tree. "That in the day of your eating of it; then they fhall be opened, viz. your eyes, q. d. Your eyes are now fhut to the shameful indecency of your nakedness:" but if once ye eat of that fruit, it will open your eyes, make you fo fharp-fighted, that ye fhall clearly fee the truth of what I fay. And therefore it is, ye are forbidden to meddle with it; that ye may fill be kept in a milt Thus Satan chains together the two temptations, ver. 1. and fo makes an attack with both at once. And thus, from the beginning, he sported himself with his deceivings, the cheats put upon man, by him "And ye fhall be, as God, as God himself, appears from ver. 21; whereas now ye are in fome refpe&t worfe than the wild beats. Kaowing, of good and evil;"

times godly men, yoked to this his tempting work, as in the case of Peter, Matth. xvi. 22, 23.

3. The lusts of the heart are temptations to all, Jam. i. 14. This is the most dangerous enemy, as being within. These are Satan's trustees, which effectually lead us off the road,

fingularly skilful and expert in the matter. Thus the tempter promifeth, from the opening of their eyes by eating of the fruit, a vast penetration as to good and ill, q. d. Not only fhall ye know the particular, which I fee ye are now ignorant of, viz. the fhameful indecency of your nakedness: but your knowledge will be univerfally improved, and that to a pitch.

Ver. 6. "And the woman faw, that good was the tree for meat, and that lovely that [tree was] to the eyes: She faw it pleasant to the eyes, and her heart began to entertain a hankering after it. The demonftrative that is emphatic; and is here used to point out that fatal tree, to the minds of her pofterity. An affection it put for a thing very much to be affected, the abstract for the concrete. The manner of expreffion, the courfe of words being precipitated, reprefents lively the inferual fire now flaming in the woman's breaft. And [that] the tree [was] defirable, for to afford wit; that is, to make them knowing of good and evil, ver. 5. fingularly skilful and expert in those matters. Thus the tempter was believed, and his lies received for truth. "And he took [fome] of its fruit, and ate [it."] Obferve here the degrees of the woman's yielding to the temptation. (1.) Her mind and understanding went off by unbelief: fhe faw and judged the tree to be good for meat, though it had no word of divine appointment for that end, but on the contrary was forbidden as deadly. [2.] Her affection towards it rifeth, and fhe hankers after it. (3.) She is inflamed with the defire of it. (4.) She pulls it with her hand, and eats it with her mouth. "And fhe gave alfo to her husband, with her, and he ate.” Not, he gave to her husband with her, as if he had been present with her, in her encounter with the ferpent; no, Satan managed the matter more artfully but, fhe gave to her husband, [to eat] with her, fhe plucked off fo much of the fruit, as ferved her to eat, for the time while fhe was at the tree; and not only fo, but she came eating unto her husband, and gave him alfo of it, to eat with her: and he ate with her accordingly. The word alfo is here emphatical; for in giving it to him, the deadly morfel was given to all mankind, the covenant being made with him, before the woman was in being, chap. ii. 16.

Ver. 7. Then were opened, the eyes of them both, viz. to fee what they never faw, nor could have feen, before, namely, the fhamefulness of their nakednefs and fo were Satan's deceitful words, ver. 5. accomplished. And they knew, they knew, i. c. they knew, alas! they knew to fad experience. That nakedneffes, (i. e. ftark naked) they [were.] The abftract for the concrete in the fuperlative degree. They faw their naked. nefs moft thameful and indecent, and that they were greatly in need of a covering.

Ver. 8. "And they heard, even the voice of Jehovah God, walking in the garden, i. e. the voice walking: for fo the words are by the pointing conftructed. This voice which they heard walking, was the Word, the eternal Son of God, now entering upon the execution of the Mediatory

and rob us of our purity. They are decitful lusts; and as the heart of man is furnished with them, it is deceitful above all things, Jer. xvii. 9.

Thirdly, The bait wherewith the hook of temptation is busked. This is always some seeming good, if it were but the

office, and coming to difcover the eternal counfel concerning the falvation of fioners.At the wind of the day : i. e. in the cool of the day, when the fun declining, there was a breeze of wind, which would quickly let the guilty couple fee the infufficiency of their fig-leaf coverings, for hiding their nakedness. The Hebrew text mentions three parts of the artificial day, one of which is called the blowing of the day, Cant. ii. 17; another the warm of the day, Gen. xviii. 1; a third, here, the wind of the day. The firft is the morning, as appears from the text wherein it is mentioned: the fecond from morning to noon, and as long after it as before: the third from thence to the end of the day, otherwife called the fpace between the two evenings, Exod. xii 6; i. e. between three and fix of the clock in the afternoon.And the man hid himself, and his wife [hid herfelf], for fo the pointing fhews the words to be conftructed. The guilty couple, at hearing the found of the VOICE walking in the garden, ran afunder, he one way, the another, and hid themselves in different places, not together. From the face of Jehovah God: i. e. from the Schechinah, the visible fign of the divine prefence, the habitation of the divine majefty, from whence they were to have folemn communion with him.—In midft of tree of the garden. In fome groves or other, fome places where the trees were thick about them. The divine prefence, which before was the joy of their hearts, was now become a terror to them, being guilty.

[Extracts from the notes on ver. 9.-14. must be omitted for want of room].

Ver. 15. And I will fet enmity; between thee, and between this woman, ,viz. Eve, called the woman all along hitherto, and now ftanding as a crimi nal before the Judge, together with the ferpent. And this looks to the friendship between that woman and the ferpent, in their joining together, to the dishonour of God, and the ruin of mankind. g. d. And whereas you and this woman did conspire to violate my law, and to ruin this man, I will settle an enmity, a lafting enmity, between you, for all time coming. And this is a promife of efficacious grace, to convert and bring the woman to repentance, so that she should mortally hate, and seek the deftruction of, the power and works of the devil, in herself and others. And between thy feed, and between her feed: understand, I will fet enmity; therefore these words are in a claufe by themselves, as being equally conttructed with the claufe concerning the woman, and the claufe concerning her seed : which fhews even the gracious woman's utter inability to convey that enmity into her feed, and an equal neceffity of efficacious grace for that end, to them, as well as to her. Hereby it was fecured, that this enmity should not die with that woman, but that it fhould be propagated from genera tion to generation; the Lord himself still setting this enmity againft the devil, into the heart of the woman's feed, to the end of the world. It is manifest, that the ferpent, the devil, can have no feed, but by imitation only but the woman was capable of having a feed two ways, viz. (1.)

satisfying of a lust or a humour. In drawing or alluring temptations, the bait is some seeming good to be got. Thus was the present world to Demas, and the thirty pieces of silver to Judas. In driving temptations, the bait is some seeming good to be kept, by preventing of evil, as those spoke of,

By imitation. (2.) By generation of her body, Now, the woman's feed here mentioned is oppofed to the ferpent's feed: and the ferpent's feed is the devil's angels, and wicked men, called his feed in refpect of their imitation of him. Therefore the woman's feed is believers in Christ, called her feed, not in refpect of natural generation, for the holy enmity, the enmity against the serpent and his feed, goes not fo wide as that; but in respect of imitation, as followers of her faith: for the holy enmity is of equal lati tude with that imitation; all and every one who become her feed, by believing as fhe did, being thereupon bleffed with true (evangelical) repentance, according to the promise of the Lord's fetting the enmity in the woman's feed. And in this refpect Adam himself was one of her feed; in teftimony whereof, he called her the mother of all living. Thus the believing Gentiles are Abraham's feed, to wit, by imitation, being followers of his faith. All this is agreeable to the fcripture phrafeology, in which one who is firft in any thing, leading the way which others follow, is called the father of them, as chap. iv. 20, 21.- That fhall bruife away (to) thee the head; i. e. bruife away thy head, as a thing that is bruifed into fo very minute particles, that it flies away, to be feen no more. That fhall do it, viz the woman's feed: not, her feed by imitation, opposed to the ferpent's feed; but her feed by generation of her body, oppofed to the ferpent himself. And that is the man Chrift Jefus only He is the feed of the woman in a proper fenfe, yea, in the ftricteft propriety: and he only is fo; all other men being the feed of men. Believers only are the woman's feed, mentioned in the foregoing hemiftich, and not Chrift: for they alone are the feed in which the enmity is fet. Jefus Chrift being the speaker, ver. 9. is the party who fets the enmity; not in the ferpent and his feed, for their enmity is not from God; but in the woman, and her feed there mentioned: but he is none of thofe in whom the enmity is fet; for the fetting of the enmity being an introducing of a hatred, which was not before in the fubject, it cannot agree to him. But he is the woman's feed here meant, and he alone : for the bruifing away of the ferpent's head can agree to none other but him. The head of the ferpent, is that which holds together the venom, in its deadly killing efficacy: and as long as it is hale, the ferpent can kill with his venom. Now, according to the apoftle, 1 Cor. xv. 56. the strength of fin is the law. Wherefore the brufing away of the ferpent's head, is the abolishing of the law as a covenant of works, armed with the curfe and threatening of eternal death, in refpect of the woman and her feed by imitatión; i. e. believers. This was a work competent to Chrift only: and he did it, by fatisfying the law fully, in their room and ftead. Hereby he difarmed it of its curfe, and as it were grinded to powder the ftones, on which the ministration of death was engraven, as to the woman and her believing feed though as to others it fill remains in its full force. Now, the ferpent's head being bruited away, his venom is destroyed, and he can kill no more; as when a cup is bruifed, the liquor in it perisheth. Sin is

Matth. xiii. 21. who, when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by are offended.' And it is no small advantage in temptation, to see through the bait, that it is but a bait to deceive. For so one will perceive, that it will not quit the cost, that by the bargain they will never

the ferpentine venom, moft deadly, therefore, metonymically called the head, Deut. xxxii. 33. Poison of dragons, [is] their wine: and head of afps, cruel, i. e. venom of afps, (the containing being put for the contained), cruel venom, that is deadly and killing. So Jefus Chrift bruifing away the ferpent's head, by his full fatisfaction made to the law, fin is deftroyed; and fin being deftroyed, death is abolished; and death being abolished, the power of the devil is entirely ruined The enemies mentioned in the firft hemiftich, are the ferpent, and his feed, on the one fide; the woman and her believing feed, on the other. An unequal match! How then fhall the victory fall to the fide of the latter! Why, an eminent One, the feed of the woman by generation of her body, as his brethren are by imitation of her faith, fhall be more than match for the ferpent, and all his power, and quite deftroy it fo fhall the woman and her believing feed be more than conquerors through him. For he fhal bruife away the ferpent's head. Thus the woman's feed is taken collectively, in the first hemiftich, but here individually and this agreeable to the phrafeology of the Holy Ghoft elfewhere, chap. xxvi. 4. And I will make to increase even thy feed ------; and they fhall blefs themselves in thy feed; all, nations of the earth.' The former is meant of the collective body of Ifaac's feed, the latter of Christ alone. So chap. xxii. 17, 18. & xxviii. 14. Thus, 2 Sam. vii. 12. 'I will fet up even thy feed, after thee 13. That fhall build a house, for my name. That, to wit, Solomon, the feed of David by way of eminency. And thou shalt bruife away [to] him the heel, i. e. bruise away his heel, that is, his body in the likeness of finful flesh, with which he trod on earth, liable to infirmities and death. Here is a vehement encounter, bruiling on both fides. But that feed of the woman bruiseth the ferpent's head, where the bruise is deadly; the ferpent bruifeth not his head, but his heel, where the bruife is not deadly. This manner of expreffion looks to what goes before, touching the fin and punishment of the old ferpent. And the heat of this battle was on the crofs. Upon that tree, that feed of the woman in an erect pofture, and naked, (Heb. xii. 2), bruised the head of the ferpent, and bruifed it away, fully fatisfying the demands of the law, John xix. 30; deftroying fin, Rom. vi. 6; and abolishing death, 2 Tim. i. 10: while the ferpent, doomed to go upon the belly, and incapable to reach his head, bruifed and bruifed away his heel, bringing his mortal body to the duft of death, to the darkness of the grave, never to be feen more, liable to death or infirmity, Rom. vi. 9. Here ends a clofed fection. The wo man believes the promife: the enmity, fet in by efficacious grace, commenceth and the serpent, in virtue of the curfe pronounced upon him, is burried away from the place of this judgment. But the judgment is not yet over, though the judgment of death is, which the ferpent carries away upon him. [Compare the author's notes on the Marrow of Modern Divinity, edit. 1726, p. 41.].