CONTENTS
I know not whether we ought to consider this chapter, as the most melancholy, or the most pleasing in the whole Bible. It certainly contains the substance of what forms both. Here we read the sad origin of sin, and its unavoidable consequences, misery and death. And here, we no less, behold the first discoveries of grace, in the promised redemption, by our Lord Jesus Christ. So that while that sentence is still felt, In Adam all die; that mercy is, no less promised, In Christ shall all be made alive. The contents of this chapter may be summed up under a few particulars. The account of the devices of Satan; the fall of our first parents; the arraignment of the sinners at the bar of Divine Justice; God's sentence, which followed; and the expulsion, in consequence thereof, of the first transgressors from Paradise.
Genesis 3:1 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?
It is worthy observation that the scriptures uniformly distinguish our implacable enemy by this name. John calls the devil and Satan that old serpent, which deceiveth the whole world. Revelation 20:2; Revelation 20:2. So Paul; the serpent, saith he, beguiled Eve through subtlety. 2 Corinthians 11:3. But I would recommend the Reader to remark with me, the arguments the great enemy made use of, in order to accomplish his purposes on our poor nature, in the person of our first mother. In this verse his conversation opens with seemingly questioning the truth of God's command. 'Yea!' saith he, 'hath God said!' thereby intimating, as though it were impossible for God's laws to be too rigorous. Reader! it is the same plan with him now. His stratagem is to raise doubts and questions in the mind, of the reality of divine judgments; and when once he hath tempted us to disbelieve what the Lord hath said, the next step to disobedience is not far to make.