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?
Ver. 1. Now the serpent was more subtile, &c.] And so a more fit instrument of that old serpent the devil, that deceiveth all the world. Rev 12:9 a Good natural parts abused, prove rather as pressmoney to impiety, b as he phraseth it, and their wisdom was the crime counselor, culpa suasoria as Ambrose speaketh. Wit unsanctified is a fit tool for the devil to work with. Neither is there a likelier anvil in all the shop of hell, whereon to forge mischief, than one that is learned and lewd, wittily wicked. ingeniose nequam
And he said,] that is, the devil in the serpent, as the angel in Balaam's ass. Satan istius prima fabulae poeta fuit, serpens histrio. By the ear he brought death into the world; and God, to cross him, brings life in by the same door; for it is, "Hear, and your souls shall live". Isa 55:3 The dragon bites the elephant's ear, and thence sucks his blood; because he knows that to be the only place which he cannot reach with his trunk to defend. c So here, that great red dragon dealt with miserable mankind, setting first upon the woman as the weaker vessel - where the hedge is lowest, there the beast leaps over - and so climbing by Adam's rib to his heart, as by a ladder, as I said before, out of St Gregory.
Yea, hath God said?] In the Chaldee, Is it true that God hath said? A concise expression, implying that this was not the first of their discourse; something had been said before. d It is not safe parleying with the devil. Satan et si semel videatur verax, millies est mendax et semper fallax. Halter him up therefore, and stop his mouth e soon, as our Saviour did. Or do as the French say in their proverb, When the Spaniard comes to parley of peace, then double bolt the door. The Hollanders are said to make no conditions with the Spaniard, but such as are made at sea, and scaled with great ordinance, &c. f He shoots with Satan in his own bow that thinks by parleying with him to put him off.
Hath God said, Ye shall not eat?] Here he began his assault upon our first parents; here, upon Christ, Matthew 4:3 ; Mat 3:17 and here he doth still upon us; endeavonring to elevate g the truth and certainty of God's word, and to weaken our faith in his precepts, promises, and menaces. And here, if he take us out of our trenches, if he can but wring this sword of the Spirit out of our hands he may do what he will with us. Get but the heretics, said that subtle sophister, out of the paper walls of the Scriptures, into the open fields of fathers and councils, and ye shall soon do well enough with them. h
a πανουργος Theodotion; cui Paulus opponit την απλοτητα, "simplicity," 2Co 11:3 quam mundus vocat silliness, sheepishness.
b Authoramentum majoris infidelitatis. - Tertul.
c Pliny, l. viii., c. 25.
d Vide simile, Ruth 2:21, in Hebraeo.
e φιμωθητι
f Greenham, Spec. Bel. Sacr.
g [Levis : make light of]
h Bristow's Motives.