Senfe, if they be thus interpreted; The man is become as one of us, he has made himself as one of us; he has affum'd to himself an Equality with us. Chrift thought it not robbery to be equal with God, Phil. ii. 6. to be equal is there to claim an Equality; and fo to become as one of us, is to challenge or pretend to become as one of us, according to the Devil's Suggestion. Chrift knew it to be no Injury or Prefumption in Himself, who was in the form of God, and was God as well as Man, to affume to Himfelf an Equality with the Father But our first Parents, who were made in the image of God and after his likeness, were not contented with this, but affected fomething higher than the Perfections of a Creature, and aim'd at an independent State of Wisdom and Immortality, being feduced by the Serpent, who faid unto the Woman, Ye shall not furely die; ye fhall be as Gods, knowing good and evil, Gen. iii. 4, 5. This was a moft heinous Crime to believe the Serpent rather than God himself, and to be feduced by him, and hope by his Advice to procure to themselves Divine Wisdom and Immortal Happinefs. Thus he apoftatiz'd from God, as the Tempter himself had done. And indeed this is what the Words ver. 22. as they may be interpreted, will imply. For the Prepofition or Particle, which is there rendred of, often fignifies from, and is fo rendred by our Tranflators. " He took from them Simeon, Gen. xlii. 24. One went out from me, Gen. xliv. 28. Separated you from the congregation, Num. xvi. 9. In like manner, the Man is become as one from us, or from among us; as one of our heavenly Court and Retinue, who went out from among us, and apoftatiz'd from us; that is, he is become like Satan, to know good and evil; Good by the want of Innocence, and .24 .Gen. xii וַיִּקַּח מֵאִתָּם אֶת־שִׁמְעוֹן .28 .Gen. xliv ויצא האחד מאתי 7777 Numb, xvi. 9. ז.. Evil by the Guilt and Burthen of it, upon his Confcience. II. The Confequences of the Fall of our first Parents were answerable to their Crime, and were either upon themselves, or upon their Posterity, or upon the Serpent and other Creatures. 1. The Curfe upon the Serpent was by a visible Object and Representation, to denote that Curfe and Punishment which was denounced against the Tempter himself, who affum'd the Body of a Serpent. The Serpent before had a freer and stronger Motion, and could lift up himself and reach the Fruits of the Trees, but is fince confin'd to the Ground, and is forced to feek his Food in the Duft. And there being Relations of Serpents, which carry Part of their Body erect, this before the Curfe might belong to the whole kind of them in another manner, than it doth fince to any one fort. The Bafilisk is faid to go with his Head and Breast erect, and a Serpent call'd in Ceylon, the Noya, will ftand with half his Body upright for two or three hours together. Dragons fly in Africa, where they are venomous, b but not in other places. These may be for Monuments of the Truth of the Curfe upon the reft; as fome of the Race of the Giants were left in the Land of Canaan till David's time, as a Memorial to the Ifraelites of the miraculous Power of God in the Conquest of the Land by their Forefathers. с a 2 The Curfe of the Ground was for a Punishment to Adam and his Pofterity, and can be confider'd no otherwife, nor be made matter of Objection, unless it be thought unreasonable to inflict a Curfe upon Mankind for this Offence of eating the forbidden Fruit, by making the Earth lefs fruitful and pleasant to them. Though the Garden of Eden were the most delightful z Knoxe's Hift. of Ceyl. Pt i. c. 7. Id. ib. & Plin. Hift, 1. xxix. c. 4. a Lucan. 1. ix. v. 729. and and happy Part of the Earth, yet the whole Earth before the Fall, was very different from what it has been fince. For if it had continued as it was, the Curfe and Punishment upon Mankind could not have been effected in that manner, in which it was determined. 2. Our First Parents were turned out of Paradise, and not fuffered to taste of the Tree of Life. They had been charged not to eat of the Fruit in the midft of the Garden, and threatned with Death, that is, that they should become mortal, and be fure to die, if they would prefume to eat of it. To be fubject to Mifery both in Body and Mind, fo that the Body fhould decay, and at last be diffolved, and the Soul which could not perish, should be miserable after its feparation from the Body, was the original Notion of Death; and our First Parents, who had never seen what natural dying was, understood Death no otherwife than as a privation of Happiness, and confequently a state of Mifery both in this Life and the next: The first was unavoidable, the latter to be avoided by Repentance, and a future Obedience thro' Faith in God's Mercy for Christ's fake. A state of Damnation is a state of Death; and the Soul which lies under the Divine Wrath, is in that ftate, tho' it be not irreversible during this Life. So that the Death threatned being twofold, viz. of the Soul, and of the Body, it was accordingly inflicted on both: But it was not threatned, that this Death fhould be to the final deftruction either of Soul or Body; but thro' the Redemption of Chrift, the Body might be recovered from the Death, to which it became fubject, to a Blessed and Glorious Refurrection, and the Soul be restored from the Death, into which it had fallen, to a ftate of Reconciliation and Favour with God, They were hindred from tafting of that Tree which was to have been the means and inftrument of Immortality to them. For God, who has given a Medicinal Vertue and a Power of Nourishment to other Fruits and Herbs. Herbs, might convey a Power and Influence into this Tree, of rendring Men immortal by preventing the decays of Nature, and nourishing or ftrengthning them to an endlefs Life. How this fhould have been, we are now no more able to know than to become immortal here upon Earth: But this was God's Decree, that immortality fhould be annex'd to the tafting of that Tree, and therefore our First Parents, when they had incurred the Penalty of Death, were not fuffered to taste of it, but were forced out of Paradise, and it was just that they fhould be hindred from enjoying any longer the Delights of Paradife, for the Tranf greffion of a Commandment, which Wantonness only, and a vain and criminal Curiofity, could make them difobey. We are able to give little more account, how the Food we now eat, can nourish and fuftain us from time to time for threefcore and ten, or fourfcore Years, than how the Fruit of the Tree of Life should have been a prefervative to keep Men alive for ever; only this we have the Experience of, and fo fancy we can tell how it comes to pafs; but that is ftrange to us; and what is strange, Men wonder at, and will hardly believe it. But fince God has endued our ordinary Food with a power of Nourishment, no Man can reafonably doubt, but that he might endue this Fruit with fuch a Vertue, that it should have made Men immortal to taste of it, and have prevented that decay of Nature, which now ftill creeps upon us in the ufe of other Food. We may well fuppofe, that if they had once tafted of this Fruit, they should have fuffered no Decay, but have lived in conftant Vigour here, tho' partaking afterwards only of other Nourishment, till they had been translated to Heaven. Or it might be defign'd, not as a Phyfical, but a Sacramental Caufe of Immortality, that is, as a Sign and Pledge of Immortality; God having decreed, that upon the tasting of this Fruit, Adam and his Pofterity should have been been immortal. But the forbidden Fruit being of a most delicious Tafte, as well as pleasant to the Eyes, and containing a very fermenting Juice, might put the Blood and Spirits into great disorder, and thereby diveft the Soul of that Power and Dominion which it had before over the Body, and by a clofer and more intimate Union with Matter, might reduce it to that miferable condition, which has been propagated and derived down to Pofterity with the humane Nature from our First Parents; as fome Poyfons now ftrangely affect the Nerves and Spirits, without causing immediate Death, but make fuch Alterations in the Body, as are never to be cured. And it could not be fitting that Man fhould become immortal in this Condition, or that the Threatning of God, however, fhould not take place. From what has been hitherto faid upon this Subject, I hope it is evident, that there can be no neceffity of running to Allegorical Interpretations to explain the Fall of our First Parents. And indeed, all the reafon that can be given, why it is reprefented under an Allegory, will rather prove the litteral Senfe. For if the Simplicity, and the Customs, and manner of Life in the beginning of the World did require, that the Fall of our First Parents fhould be defcrib'd under an Allegory of this nature; for the very fame reafons we may fuppofe, that the Fall was in this manner. For what is it which makes it feem improbable, but only its being difagreeable, as fome Men conceit, to Reafon? But if it be abfurd to fuppofe, that fuch a thing should have been in the beginning of the World, why is it not as abfurd that fuch a thing fhould be represented to thofe, who liv'd at the beginning of the World, as if it had been? If this was then the most fitting and proper reprefentation of the Fall, why was it not the most likely manner for it to happen by? God's Difpenfations are always fitted to the Capacicities and Circumftances of thofe, who are moft con cern'd |
