Exactly after the same manner, when Arius began to think about God and to conclude by his own reason that God was a most positive and absolute unity, he at first fell upon this proposition, "Perhaps Christ is not God." Then he carried the accumulation of his absurdities so far, as plainly to conclude, and to defend his conclusion, that "Christ is not God." It moved him not at all, that John plainly declares, "The Word was God," John 1:1; that Christ commands men to be baptized "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost," Math. 28:19; and that we are called upon to believe in Christ, to worship him and to pray unto him, Acts 13:39; Ps. 97:7. And yet, what absurdity can be greater than that we should take upon ourselves to judge God, since our condition is to be judged by him and by him alone?
Wherefore our duty is to stand by and persevere in this principle: that, when we hear God say anything, we believe it, and not dispute about it; but that on the contrary we bring our intellect and every thought into captivity unto Christ.
We may therefore appropriately cite the words of the prophet Isaiah, "If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established," Is. 7:9. For if we should inquire and inquire until we burst with curiosity, yet we shall never understand how the eye sees, nor how the ear hears, nor what the soul is, etc. And yet, all these things are a part of us, and we use them every day and every moment in all our actions. How then shall we understand those things which exceed all our faculties and senses, and are found in the Word of God alone? Hence it is found in the Word alone, that the ordained bread is the body of Christ, and that the ordained wine is the blood of Christ. These things it is our duty to believe, not to understand; for understand them we cannot.
In like manner too the words of God in the present passage of Moses were most simple and plain, "Of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden ye shall not eat." But in those words reason did not understand the mind of God, why he willed these things so to be. When therefore Eve, not content with the command of the Lord which she had heard, began curiously to inquire into it, she perished. This temptation therefore is a true example of all those temptations, in which Satan assaults the Word and faith. Before the desire of eating the fruit came to Eve, she had let go the word which God spoke to Adam. Had she held fast this Word, she would have stood in the reverence of God and in faith. On the other hand, no sooner had she let go the Word, than contempt of God entered; and then followed obedience to the devil.
It is profitable for us to learn these things and to know them. Hence it is that Peter admonishes us to stand fast under temptation, and to resist the Tempter, keeping fast hold of the Word by a firm faith, and keeping our ears shut, so as not to listen to anything contrary to the Word, 1 Pet. 5:9. For such "sufferings" and temptations of Eve are most truly "lessons" to us; that we suffer not the same things, by being drawn aside from the Word and faith, as she was.
That which follows in our text, "For God doth know that your eyes shall be opened," may be taken in a twofold sense. We may either understand Satan to have thus spoken, for the purpose of exciting an ill-will against God, for having forbidden man to eat of a fruit so good and useful by which means Satan would create in Eve the beginning of a hatred towards God for not being sufficiently indulgent. Or again, I would rather understand the passage, Satan speaks this, as in praise of God; that he may thereby the more easily entrap Eve in his deception. As if he had said to her, "Be assured that God is not such an one as to wish you and Adam to live in darkness as it were without the knowledge of good and evil. He is good. He envies you nothing which can in any way conduce to your benefit or pleasure. He will be quite satisfied and content that you should be like himself, as to the knowledge of good and evil."
When Satan thus praises God he has the razor fairly in his hands, so that he can cut the throat of a man in a moment. For the fall of a man is thus rendered by Satan the most easy, when the pretext of the Word and the will of God is brought in upon the back of that which the lust of the heart desires. This is why I would rather understand the words now in question to be spoken by Satan, as intended to persuade Eve, rather than to excite in her any hatred toward God. I leave it however quite free to you, my hearers, to adopt the sense of the passage which pleases you best. The sum of the whole or the one aim of Satan, is this: to draw Eve away by all possible means from the Word, and to persuade her to do that, which had been forbidden by the Word. For Satan is the most bitter enemy of the Word of God; because he knows that our whole salvation lies in our obedience to that Word.
But here an inquiry by no means absurd is raised. How was it that Eve did not yet feel her sin? For, although she had not yet swallowed the fruit, yet she had sinned against the Word and against faith. She had turned away from the Word unto a lie and from faith to disbelief; from God to Satan and from the worship of God to idolatry. As this was the sum and substance of her sin, for plucking the apple was not the sum of her sin, how was it that death did not immediately follow? How was it that she did not feel so mighty a sin? Nay further how was it, that after she had eaten the fruit, she did not feel the death which was the decreed punishment of it, before she persuaded Adam to eat of it also?
The schools dispute much and variously about the superior power, and the inferior power of reason. They hold, that Adam possessed the superior power of reason, and Eve the inferior. We will cast aside all such half-learned and scholastic arguments and seek the true meaning of the passage, which is as follows:
In the first place the long-suffering of God is great. Therefore he does not punish sin immediately. If he did we should soon perish. This long-suffering of God Satan ever abuses. And it just suits his purpose that man should not immediately feel his sin. For because punishment is thus deferred, Satan fills the mind with security and unconcern. So that a man is not only kept blind to the fact that he has sinned, but is caused to take delight and to glory in his sins.
All this we behold in the popes and the Papists. If they could see with their eyes and hearts the slaughter-house of conscience, yea, the perdition into which they bring men by their impious doctrine, they would without doubt change their doctrine. But now, Satan so dazzles their eyes as it were with his delusions, that they cannot perceive their own judgment and the wrath of God which hangs over them. Therefore in the very midst of these mighty sins, they live with the greatest security, even with gladness and rejoicing, displaying their magnificent triumphs as if they had performed the most noble achievements.
This was exactly the case with Eve. By her disbelief she rushed from the Word into a lie. Therefore in the eyes of God, she was now dead. But as Satan still held under his power her heart and eyes, she not only did not see her death, but was gradually more and more inflamed with a longing for the fruit; and was positively delighted with this her idolatry and with her sin.
Now if Eve had not departed from the Word, thus to look upon the fruit with a desire to taste it, it would have been to her an abhorrence. But having thus departed, she turns over the sin in her mind with gratification. Whereas had she before seen any other stretch forth the hand to touch this tree, she would have recoiled with horror. But now, she is impatient of delay. Sin has burst forth from her heart, and has descended to the lower members of her body, her mouth and tongue. This desire and delightful longing therefore to eat the fruit are as it were the diseases gendered by the sin of her heart from which death follows; though Eve, while sinning, feels it not. This is plain from the next portion of the context.
V. 6.And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat; and she gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat.
Mark here the manner in which sin diffuses itself through all the five senses. For what did Eve neglect that could be used in the service of sin when once she had believed Satan contrary to the Word of God, and had listened to his lies in telling her that she would not surely die, but that her eyes would be opened and that she would know both good and evil. Her eyes could not be satisfied with seeing. It was nothing to her now that she possessed the knowledge of God, and that she had a sound and perfect mind. She was not content without the addition of the knowledge of evil also. And this was the very essence of Satan's poison; her desire to be wise above that which God had spoken to her as his command. For such wisdom was death and the very enemy of that wisdom of God, which had been delivered to her in his Word. For this wisdom caused her to consider that to be righteousness, which was really sin, and to look upon that as most desirable wisdom which was utter madness.
The whole point therefore lies in this which the Latin version has omitted to express: that the tree was a tree to be desired, because it made the eaters thereof wise. And this is the very aim of the devil, to cause a man to think his knowledge and wisdom the greater, the further he departs from the Word.
Hence the Sacramentarians think it the sum of all wisdom to assert that bread is bread, and that wine is wine; but that bread is not the body, nor wine the blood of Christ. So Arius considers that he has carried off the palm of all wisdom, when he asserts, from certain Scriptures evilly distorted from their manifest sense, that the Logos was indeed before all creatures; but that still he was created. In like manner the Anabaptists imagine that they trumpet forth the very height of wisdom, when they declare aloud with full-swollen cheeks that water cannot reach the soul or the spirit, but that it washes the naked skin only, and that therefore baptism avails nothing to the remission of sins. Hence we have known fanatical spirits to baptize here and there without any water at all, who nevertheless continued to boast that they never dissented from us or our doctrine. And truly, this is wisdom. But it is the wisdom of the devil; and directly contrary to the Word and wisdom of God. And it is the peculiar and proper temptation of the devil thus to render us wise in our own conceits contrary to and above the Word of God. Just as he himself was once in heaven, and then fell. And this high wisdom is a temptation of his, far exceeding in destructive efficacy all the grosser temptations of lust, avarice, pride, etc.
The verbHISKILsignifies "to be prudent" or "wise." Hence,MASKILis "wise" or "prudent," as in Psalm 14:2, "Jehovah looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek after God." And again, Is. 53:11, "By the knowledge of himself,JASKIL, shall my righteous servant justify many." The word signifies properly that wisdom by which God is known and acknowledged. And Eve had this light or rather this sun of knowledge in her heart before she fell; because she had the Word. And she had moreover the knowledge of all the creatures. But not content with this wisdom, she wished to mount higher and to know God otherwise than he had revealed himself to her in his Word. This was her fall. She let go the true wisdom, and that being lost, she rushed into utter blindness.
Just as Satan acted in the garden of Eden, so he acts now. God commands us to believe the Gospel of his Son, that we may thus be saved. This is true wisdom, as Christ himself also affirms: "This is life eternal, that they should know thee, the only true God, and him whom thou didst send, even Jesus Christ," John 17:3. This wisdom the monk utterly disregards, and turns aside to other things. He puts on a cowl, girds himself with a rope and takes upon him the vow of celibacy; and he thinks that by such means he shall please God and be saved. And all this is that sublime wisdom which is exercised in the worship of God, and in a great religious observance toward him; all of which is the implantation of Satan, engrafted on the original sin of our fallen nature; causing men to turn away from the Word of God, which he has himself "set forth" as the way of salvation, and to turn aside to following their own cogitations. Just like Eve. She was created the wisest of all women that ever existed; but she longed for another wisdom contrary to and above the Word; and on account of this newly desired wisdom she fell and sinned, in a multiplicity of forms, with all her senses, with her thoughts, with her sight, with her desire, with her touch, with her taste, with her whole act.
They are not to be listened to, therefore, who argue it was cruelty that this nature of ours should be thus miserably corrupted, sunk under death, and involved in all the other calamities to which it is subject for the simple act of tasting a certain fruit. The Epicureans, indeed, when they hear these things, laugh at them as a mere fable. But to a careful reader, who duly ponders these recorded facts, it will at once be manifest that the simple bite of the fruit was not the cause of these awful consequences. Such an one will see that the sin committed was the cause of the whole calamity which followed, even the sin of Eve, which she committed against both tables of the law, against God himself and against his Word. For her sin was of that description that she cast aside the Word of God and gave herself up wholly to Satan, and to his teaching as his disciple.
The greatness and awfulness of the sin of Eve therefore can neither be lessened nor made too great. This greatness and awfulness of the sin of Eve are the pregnant causes of all the calamitous punishments which we endure. So awful was the sin, and so awful the turning away from God! And this horrible turning away from God is the great solemn fact which our minds ought to contemplate. They ought not to dwell upon the mere plucking or swallowing the fruit; for those who look upon the act only, and not upon the sin of the heart, from which the act proceeded, must naturally be led to accuse God of cruelty for having inflicted upon the whole human race such terrible punishments for so small and insignificant a sin. Such reasoners on the matter, therefore, hate God and despair; or like the Epicureans they laugh at the whole matter as a fable.
What we have to consider therefore is the Word. For that, against which Eve sinned, was the Word of God. As great therefore as was the Word, so great was the sin which Eve committed against the Word. It was under this sin that all nature fell, and under which it still lies. For, how can nature overcome that sin! It is of a magnitude infinite and inexhaustible. Consequently, to overcome this sin there is need of him who brings with him an inexhaustible righteousness, even the Son of God.
That Satan knew all this, his subtlety proves. For he does not immediately entice Eve with the sweetness of the fruit; he attacks at once the chief strength of man, faith in the Word! The root and source of all sin therefore is disbelief, and turning aside from God. Even as, on the contrary, the root and source of all righteousness is faith. Satan therefore first of all draws Eve aside from faith to unbelief. When he had accomplished this and had brought Eve not to believe the Word of God's commandment spoken unto her, he had no trouble in accomplishing the rest, in causing her to rush up to the tree, to pluck the fruit and eat it. For when sin is ripened in the heart by unbelief, the external act of disobedience soon follows. This is the manner in which the nature of sin is to be considered, namely, according to its true magnitude, under which magnitude we are all ruined. Next follows the description of sin, with its punishments.
V. 7.And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig-leaves together, and made themselves aprons(girdles).
I have remarked above that the form of all Satan's temptations is the same. He first plies his temptation upon a man's faith, and then draws him away from the Word. Upon this follow various sins against the second table. This procedure of Satan we may see plainly manifested in our own experience. That which follows therefore in the present chapter, is a particular description of sin, what it is in the act, and what it is afterwards, when the act is performed. For, while sin is in the act, it is not felt. If it were truly felt, we should return to the right way, warned by the sorrows which sin ever brings upon the sinner. But because these sorrows lie hidden, after we have departed from integrity of soul and from faith, we go on without concern into the act itself. Just as Eve sinned in eating the fruit, after she had been persuaded by Satan, contrary to the Word of God, "that she should not die" but that the only effects would be, "that her eyes would be opened," and that she would become wiser. After she had drunk in this poison of Satan through her ears, she stretched forth her hand to the forbidden fruit, plucked it and ate it with her mouth; and thus she sinned with all the senses of her mind and of her body. And yet she did not even then feel her sin. She ate the fruit with pleasure and entreated her husband also to do the same.
The essential principles are the same in all temptations and in all sins, whether of lust, of anger, or avarice, etc. While the sin is in the act, it is not felt; it terrifies not, it stings not, but it rather flatters the passions and delights. And no marvel that the case should be so with us when we are infected with this poison of original sin, from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head, and especially when we reflect that the sins of paradise took place in nature while it was yet sound and perfect. Hence it is that we see in the cases of profane men, of fanatical spirits and of those who have no faith, or who have fallen from the faith, how secure and unconcerned they are, how vehement and pertinacious in defending their errors; so much so that they will not hesitate even to die in the defence of them. Such is the nature of sin, while it remains unfelt. But afterwards when the sin is made manifest by the law, then it comes down upon the man with all its intolerable weight.
So before this discovery of her sin, while it was inwardly preparing for the act, the eyes of Eve were not opened. Had they been she must have died before she could have touched the fruit; but because her eyes were not yet opened, and because her unbelief yet remained, there remained also the longing for the fruit prohibited, and there remained also the purpose and the desire to obtain the Satan-promised knowledge, which was also forbidden. Poor miserable Eve, she is so wrapped up in disbelief, both in soul and in body, that she sees not the mighty evil she is committing! Similar examples of the insensible security and unconcern of sin are furnished by our ecclesiastical histories. Arius securely blesses himself, as long as he can find means of eluding the Scripture testimonies concerning the Divinity of the Son.
But this security lasts not very long. As soon as the eyes of Eve were opened, she remembered the law of her God spoken to her, which before she had forgotten, "that she and Adam should not eat of the forbidden tree." Before she had this knowledge of God's law she was "without sin," as Paul expresses it, Rom. 7:9, "And I was alive apart from the law once." Not because the law really did not exist, but because the apostle did not feel the threatenings and punishments of it; and hence he seemed to himself to be "without the law." "For through the law cometh the knowledge of sin," Rom. 3:20. When therefore the law revived in his knowledge of it, his sin revived also with that knowledge, Rom. 7:9.
All this Moses would indicate in his history of our first parents, when he says, "And the eyes of them both were opened," as if he had said, Satan had closed, not the eyes only of Eve, but her heart also by unbelief and by the disobedience of all the members of her body and of her soul without and within. But after her sin was committed and "finished," he willingly suffers the eyes of them both to be opened, that they might see what they had done. For this is Satan's manner of cutting short the ruin of those who sin under his temptations; when they have sinned, he leaves them to perish in despair.
This portion of sacred history therefore is like a complete exposition of the sentence of Paul's words, "For through the law cometh the knowledge of sin," Rom. 3:20. For the law does nothing but make known and cause to revive that sin, which before the knowledge of the law lay asleep as it were and dead. Just as in the following chapter it is said to Cain, "If thou doest evil, thy sin sleepeth until it be made known to thee," Gen. 4:7. For it lieth asleep, while it is in the act. But when the law comes then the eyes are opened, so that the man then sees what God had commanded, and what punishment he had decreed for the transgressors of his command. When this takes place, so that the law fully rules in the conscience; then a man arrives at the true knowledge of his sin, which knowledge no human hearts can endure unless consolation be given them from above.
What Moses next adds, therefore, that after they had eaten the fruit, "they saw that they were naked," are words by no means superfluous nor without special import. For if duly considered, they contain a beautiful description of original righteousness.
The schoolmen indeed argue that original righteousness was not connatural; that is, not a part of human nature as originally created; but a certain ornament, only additionally bestowed on man as a separate gift. Just as if one should place a garland on the head of a beautiful maiden. A garland is certainly no part of the nature of a virgin, but something separate from her nature as such; something added from without, which might be taken away again without any violation of her nature. These schoolmen therefore argue, both concerning man and concerning devils, that, although they lost their original righteousness, yet their natural properties remained pure as they were originally created. This doctrine however detracts from the magnitude of original sin and is to be shunned as a deadly poison.
We conclude therefore that original righteousness was not a superadded gift, which was bestowed from without, separate from the very nature of man; but a truly natural righteousness; so that it was the very nature of Adam to know God, to love God, to believe in God, to acknowledge God and to worship God, etc. These things were as natural in Adam, as it is natural to the eyes to see the light. When the eye is injured by the infliction of a wound, you may rightly affirm that nature is violated; so after man fell from his original righteousness, it is correctly maintained, that the properties of nature were no longer sound and whole, but defiled and corrupted by sin. For as it is the nature of the eye to see, so it was the original nature of the reason and of the will of Adam to know God, to trust in God, and to fear God.
Since therefore it is evident that all these natural powers are lost, who is so mad as to assert that the faculties and properties of nature are still sound and whole? And yet, there was nothing more common nor more fully received in the schools than this doctrine. How much greater then must be the absurdity and the madness, to affirm this doctrine concerning devils to be true, especially since Christ himself declares "that they abode not in the truth," and when we ourselves know them to be the most bitter enemies of Christ and of his Church!
The natural faculties in man therefore created originally sound and whole, were the knowledge of God, faith in God, the fear of God, etc. All these Satan corrupted by sin in the same manner as leprosy defiles the whole flesh. The will and reason of man therefore are so corrupted by sin, that he not only does no longer naturally love God, but flees from him and hates him and wishes to live without him, and to be without him altogether.
Therefore Moses has exactly described in this portion of his sacred history that corruption which succeeded original righteousness and its glory. For it was the peculiar glory of Adam and Eve not to know that they were naked. What corruption then can be greater than that the nakedness, which was originally the glory of our first parents, should now be changed into the basest turpitude. Thus no one blushes on account of his eyes, when sound and perfect. But when the eyes are distorted or partially blind, they cover us with a certain cloud of defect and with a feeling of shame. In like manner in their state of original innocency, it was entirely a matter of glory for Adam and Eve to walk in nakedness. But when, after their sin, "they saw that they were naked," they were overwhelmed with shame and looked about them for "girdles" wherewith to hide their turpitude. How much greater turpitude then is disclosed by the fact, that the slaughtered will, the corrupted understanding and the wholly defiled reason have changed man into an utterly altered being. Are all these woeful things proofs, I pray you, that the qualities and faculties of man's original nature still remain sound and whole?
But consider for a moment what will necessarily follow from the doctrine of making original righteousness, not to have been an essential part of created nature, but only a certain superfluous and superadded gift or ornament. If you lay it down as a fact, that original righteousness was not an essential quality of the nature of man, it must inevitably follow that the sin, which followed original righteousness, was also not an essential quality of the nature of man. And if so, was it not an utterly vain thing that Christ should be sent into the world as the Redeemer of man, if it was man's original righteousness only, which was merely a foreign and separate addition to his nature, that was lost; and if that loss still left the faculties and qualities of his original nature sound and perfect? But what doctrine can be worse than this? What doctrine more unworthy a divine to utter?
Flee therefore from such mad dreams as from a real pestilence and from corruption of the Holy Scriptures; and let us instead follow actual experience which teaches us that we are born of corrupt seed and that we derive from the very nature of that seed, ignorance of God, self-security, unbelief, hatred of God, disobedience, impatience and numberless other kindred evils; all which are so engendered and implanted in our very nature, and are a poison so wholly diffused throughout our flesh, body, soul, nerves and blood, yea, through all our bones and their very marrow; and so wholly poisoning our will, our understanding and our reason, that the poison not only can never be extracted, but that we cannot even acknowledge, or feel, or see that this is our state of sin!
It is a well known sentiment of the old Greek comedian, Aristophanes, "that to visit harlots is no disgrace to a youth." Pardon however may be extended to such a sentiment in a heathen poet. But it is most awful in such as call themselves Christian men, and men professing a knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, to incline toward such a sentiment that whoredom is not positive sin. And yet, whole colleges of our canonicals actually approve the sentiment, with one consent by their lives and manners. When this is the case therefore with respect to actual outward sins, what must we conclude to be the state of men's minds, with respect to the uncleanness of the heart and the motions of sin in our very nature? These motions of nature, wicked men cannot of course understand to be sins.
Thus a wicked man cannot understand that the glory of nakedness was lost by sin. For the fact of Adam and Eve walking abroad naked was their highest adornment in the sight of God and before the whole creation. But now since the entrance of sin we not only recoil at the thought of walking naked before men for their sakes, but we are filled with shame for our own sakes; as Moses here testifies, concerning the feelings of Adam and Eve. And this very shame witnesses that our confidence in God as well as in man is lost, whereas this confidence in both existed before sin entered by the fall. But after the entrance of sin, Adam even though blinded would yet have been abashed to present himself naked before the eyes of God or of men; because by his disobedience, his former confidence in God, his glorious Creator, was lost.
All these things therefore abundantly testify that original righteousness was an essential quality of the nature of man, when first created; and as that original righteousness was lost by sin, it is manifest that no qualities or properties or powers of nature remain perfect and sound, as the schoolmen madly dream. For, as it was the original nature of man to go forth naked, full of innocent confidence and security toward God and with the knowledge that such nakedness pleased both God and men, so now since the entrance of sin man feels that this same nakedness of nature, originally so glorious, is displeasing to God, to man himself and to all rational creatures. And accordingly man prepares himself girdles, and carefully covers his "uncomely parts," 1 Cor. 12:23. Is this not an awful change in nature? Nature does indeed remain, but corrupted in numerous forms. For all innocent confidence in God is lost, and the heart is full of distrust, fear and shame. So, also the members of nature all remain the same. But those members which were once beheld in all their nakedness with glory are now cautiously covered, as dishonorable and base, lest they should be seen, because of the great internal defects of nature; because nature has lost all confidence in God by sin. For if we possessed that confidence in innocency, as Adam enjoyed it, we should know no shame, no blush in our nakedness.
From this corruption, which immediately followed sin, arose another evil. Adam and Eve were not only ashamed on account of their nakedness, which before their sin was most honorable, and a most glorious adornment; but they even make for themselves coverings to hide from sight those parts of their body which, in their original nature, were thus so honorable and so glorious. For what in all nature is so wonderful, so noble and so glorious, as the fact of generation! And this fact, so noble, so glorious, is not assigned of God to the eyes or to the face, which we consider to be the more honorable and dignified parts of our body, but to those parts which thus, taught by our awful state of sin, we cover from sight with all possible carefulness lest they should be seen. And thus as the fact of generation in the innocent state of nature, had it continued, would have been most pure and most holy; so since the entrance of sin, even this fact is filled with the leprosy of lust, as are also all the parts of the body connected with it. Those therefore who live without marriage, "burn" in lust, most impurely. And those also who live in marriage, unless they rightly moderate their feelings and affections, and carefully guard their "due benevolence," 1 Cor. 7:3, are variously tempted and afflicted.
Do we not then, from all these considerations, feel how foul and horrible a thing sin is? For lust is the only thing that cannot be cured by any remedy! Not even by marriage, which was expressly ordained from above to be a remedy for this infirmity of our nature. For the greater part of married persons still live in adultery, and thus sing practically the well-known song of the heathen poet of old:—
"Nec tecum possum vivere sine te."(OVID)
"Nec tecum possum vivere sine te."(OVID)
Neither with thee, nor yet without thee, wife, can I by nature, live. Such is the horrible turpitude which arises out of this most honorable and most excellent part of our natural body! I call it most excellent, on account of the noble and marvelous work of generation, which is indeed most excellent, and wonderful and glorious; because it preserves the continuation of the race of mankind! By reason of sin therefore the most excellent and effectual members of our body have become the most vile and base.
But this would not have been the case with Adam and Eve, had they continued in their innocency. They were full of innocent confidence in their God. Therefore whenever they wished to devote themselves to the procreation of children, they would have come together, not maddened with that lust which now reigns in our leprous flesh, but with an admiration of the ordinance of God, in obedience to God and in the worship of God; and also with the same holy quietness and solemnity of mind, as that in which we go to hear the Word of God and to worship God. But all these things we have lost by sin, so that we can now only conceive of them and understand them negatively, not positively. For from the awful state of evil in which we now stand, we can only gather negatively an idea of the greatness of that good and that glory which we have lost. But we owe a deep debt of gratitude to God, even for the remnants of the original glory still left us, however corrupt the noble, wonderful and glorious work of generation now may be; of which both the Church and the State have need for the perpetuation of saints and of citizens.
And it is a marvelous fact that in all the writers, of all tongues not one iota is found which sets forth the glory of that original nakedness, which is now through sin so filled with turpitude and shame; but which before sin entered into the world was so honorable and glorious. Here we have Moses alone as our great teacher, who however sets forth the whole matter in but very few, and those very simple words, teaching us that man, having fallen from faith, was filled with confusion, and that the glory of his organs of generation was changed into utter turpitude and ignominy, so that he was compelled to make coverings to hide them from sight.
The Hebrew termHEGORAH, of which we here have the plural, properly signifies a girdle or apron-girt, so that we are to understand that these fig leaves covered the upper parts of the thighs all round in every part, in order that the part of the body which before sin was the most honorable, 1 Cor. 12:23, might now be covered as being the most uncomely and base, and utterly unworthy the sight of men. O how horrible was the fall by sin! For after it the eyes of man were so opened that what was before the most honorable and glorious, he now looks upon as most dishonorable and base.
And so it is to this day. As soon as the law has come, we then first discover what we have done. And sin thus made known seems to have in it such awful baseness that the enlightened minds of men cannot endure the sight, and therefore they endeavor to cover their turpitude. For no one ever, though he be a thief, an adulterer or a murderer, etc., is willing to appear to be such. So also heretics are never found to acknowledge their error in any degree, but defend it most pertinaciously and wish to appear to hold the catholic truth. And that they may secure this appearance, they sew together fig leaves as broad as possible; that is, they try all things which seem likely to color over and cloak their heresy.
This same nature of sin is seen even in children, who frequently, though caught in the very fact of doing evil, yet busy themselves in discovering means whereby they can persuade their parents to the contrary; thus excusing themselves, speaking lies, Ps. 58:3. In precisely the same manner do men also act. Even when caught and held fast, they yet endeavor to slip away that they may not be confounded, but may still appear good and just. This portion of poison also has been infused into our very nature, as the present passage of Moses likewise testifies.
V. 8.And they heard the voice of Jehovah God walking in the garden in the cool (breeze) of the day: and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Jehovah God amongst the trees of the garden.
This is now the third evil of original sin, bearing its additional proof, that original righteousness was lost. But here again Lyra is entangled in the opinions of Rabbins, some of whom interpret the expression in the breeze of the day,ad auram diei, as referring to place, or to the climate between the south and the west, while others explain the expression as referring to time, holding that this sacred circumstance occurred in the evening. When the heat begins to subside, the winds commence their breathing.
My mind is however that we should receive breathing (spiritum) here, as simply signifying "the Word," and understand the passage as meaning that after the conscience of Adam and Eve were convinced by the divine law, they were terrified at the sound of a leaf. Just as we see to be the case with all fearstricken men, when they hear the creak of a beam, they dread the fall of the whole house. When they hear a mouse moving they are terrified lest Satan should be at hand with an intent to destroy them. For by nature we are so wholly filled with alarm, that we really fear even those things which are perfectly safe.
Adam and Eve therefore, as soon as their consciences are convinced by the law and they are brought to feel their turpitude in the sight of God, and of themselves having lost their faith and confidence in God, are so filled with fear and alarm that when they hear a breeze or breath of wind, immediately imagine that God is at hand as an avenger, and hide themselves from him. I believe therefore that by the voice of the Lord walking in the garden, Moses really means a breath or sound of wind which preceded the appearance of God before them. Hence Christ says in the gospel, when speaking of the wind, "Thou hearest the sound or voice thereof," John 3:8. For when Adam and Eve heard the rustling of the leaves as if shaken by the wind, they thought on a sudden within themselves, Hark! there is the Lord coming to take vengeance upon us!
When therefore Moses adds "in the breeze of the day" to the words "the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden," he seems to me to do so by way of particular explanation of the meaning he intended to convey. As if he had said by way of comment, This voice was like a breezy blast of the day; and as if he wished the emphasis of his expression to rest on the word day. For he does not speak concerning a wind in the night, in order to exaggerate the greatness of the terror which follows upon sin; as if he had said in further explanation they were so stricken with fear that they were alarmed at the sound of a leaf, even in the clear light of day. What therefore, he seems to intend to intimate, would have been the result if God had come to them in the night and in the solemn darkness? Then the terror must have been more dreadful still. For as the light gives animation, so the darkness increases dread. This terror therefore, with which Adam and Eve after their sin were struck in the very broad light of day, is indeed a manifest proof that they had fallen utterly from the confidence of faith.
This I believe to be the true sense of the present passage, and it fully agrees with that threatening of Moses, Lev. 26, where he is speaking of the punishments which should assuredly follow the commission of sin, that the sinners should be chased by the sound of a shaking leaf and that they should flee from it as from a sword, Lev. 26:36. For when the conscience is truly alarmed on account of sin, the man is so oppressed by it that he not only cannot do anything, but cannot even direct his thought to any purpose. And just as they say is sometimes the case in an army when the soldiers, overpowered by fear, cannot move a hand, but give themselves up in entire helplessness to be slaughtered by the enemy; in the same manner so horrible is the punishment which follows sin that the conscience of the sinner is struck with alarm at the sound of a leaf. Nay, that he cannot endure that all-beautiful creature, the light of day, by which all nature besides is enlivened and refreshed.
Here therefore you have another sight of the magnitude of that original sin which is born in us at our birth, and implanted in us by the sin of our first parents. And this sight, as I have said, enables us to understand negatively or by a comparison of contraries, what original righteousness was. It contained in it such a beautiful confidence in man toward his God, that he could not have feared even though he had seen the heavens falling in ruins upon his head!
With what complete confidence did Eve listen to the serpent? We do not talk to a little house-dog brought up in our family circle and to whom we have been accustomed for years, nor with a favorite chicken, more familiarly than Eve did with that then beautiful creature. Before their sin therefore Adam and Eve sought no hiding-places; but stood upright in all their created wisdom and righteousness, praising God with uplifted eyes. But now they are terrified at the sound of a shaking leaf. O! how awful a fall! To fall from the safest security and delight in God into fear and dread so horrible, that man can no longer endure the sight of his God, but flees from his presence as from the presence of the devil! For it is not the devil from whom Adam and Eve are now fleeing. They are rushing from the sight of God their Creator, whose presence is now more dreadful and intolerable to them than that of Satan; Satan is now more congenial to their feelings than the adorable God; for from Satan they flee not, nor are filled with his dread. This dread therefore, is actually a flight from and a hatred of God himself.
It is instructive here to mark the gradual increase and progressive steps of sin, which goes on until it becomes, as Paul is wont to express it, "exceeding sinful," Rom. 7:13. For man first falls from his faith into unbelief and disobedience. Upon unbelief follow the dread and hatred of God and fleeing from him; and these are soon succeeded by despair and impenitence. For whither shall the heart flee when thus dreading the presence of God? Shall it flee unto the devil? That of course is vain, and is never expected to be the case; and yet to this it all comes. For this history shows that God created man and made him lord over all created things. And yet that same man now flees from him and considers nothing more hateful or intolerable than the presence of this same Creator. Were it not so he would not now thus turn away from his God nor flee from him in instant dread of the voice of his approach. For all this is not during the night, not under thunderings and lightnings as at the mount of Sinai, but in the bright light of "day" while a gentle breeze is breathing and the leaves of the trees softly rustling by its touch! There is nothing therefore more intolerable to endure, nothing filled with greater misery than a conscience alarmed by the law of God and by the sight of sins committed.
This it was that made Adam and Eve do the worst of all things they could do, namely, to shun their Creator and their God, and to flee to the truly vain refuge of fig leaves, in order to cover themselves from his sight and to hide themselves among the trees! And what could be more indescribably horrible, than thus to flee from God and to hide themselves from his sight?
Wherefore this affords a further view of alterations of the rectitude of the will and of the understanding after the sin of the fall. The very facts show that the will was corrupted and depraved. For Adam and Eve long for those very things which God had prohibited, and they so long for them as to become disobedient to God and obedient to Satan. Nor can we entertain any doubt of the corruption of the understanding also, when we see the counsel of covering themselves which Adam and Eve adopted, and by which they thought they were safe. Was it not, I pray you, the very extreme of folly, first to attempt impossibilities in trying to flee from God, whom no one can escape or avoid? And was it not in the next place greater folly still, to attempt that escape from the presence of God in so absurd a manner, as to believe themselves safe when hidden among the trees of the garden, when they must otherwise have known that no walls of iron nor mighty mountains of brass can save from the presence or the grasp of God?
All confidence in God being thus lost by sin, there now follows a horrible dread upon the will. And all wisdom and understanding being lost, those most beautiful gifts of God, there follows in their place the extremity of folly; such folly that men attempt impossibilities by means the most absurd. So inexhaustibly deep is the evil of original sin! And even all these calamities are but the prelude to that which is yet to come. For we are not yet brought to the judgment of God. Then follows:
V. 9.And Jehovah God called unto the man, and said unto him, Where art thou?
Here we have a description of the judgment of God. When Adam, terrified by the consciousness of his sin, fled from the presence and sight of God he found not only paradise, but the whole world too narrow in which to find a corner where to hide himself from God in safety. But all his anxiety makes manifest the folly of his mind in seeking a remedy for his sin by fleeing from his God. But he had fled from him much too far already. For his very sin was, that he, departing from God at the first, needed not therefore to flee farther from him still. But so it is. That is the very nature of sin, the farther a man departs from God, the farther he wants to depart. And thus the man who has once departed and apostatized from God, goes on departing and departing to all eternity. Hence it is truly said concerning the punishments of hell, that its greatest punishment is that the wicked there are always wishing to flee from God, but feel that flee they cannot. Just in the same manner Adam, though found out and apprehended of God, yet ceases not to attempt to flee out of his hands.
When therefore Moses here says, "Jehovah God called unto Adam," we are to understand that the Lord called him to judgment. But a question is raised here concerning the person by means of whom Adam was called of God, and it is by no means out of the way to suppose that all these things were carried on by the ministration of angels, and that an angel here acted in the place of God, as God spoke all these things to Adam. Just as magistrates when they say or do anything, say and do it not in their own person, but in the person of God, as his representatives. Hence it is that the Scriptures call those judgments, which are exercised and administered by appointed men, the judgment of God. It by no means displeases me therefore that it should be considered that Adam was here called by an angel, and that it was shown him by that same angel that all flight was impossible.
It is here especially to be noticed moreover that Moses expressly tells us that it was Adam who was called; seeing that it was to Adam alone that the Word of God was spoken on the sixth day, concerning that tree of which they were both forbidden to eat. As therefore Adam alone heard the command, so he alone is first called to judgment. But as Eve herself also had sinned and departed from God, she also hears the judgment at the same time and becomes a partaker of the punishment.
The words, "Where art thou?" are the words of the law, spoken by God and reaching unto the conscience of Adam. For although all things are naked and open unto the eyes of God, as it is written, Heb. 4:13, yet he speaks unto our sense, feeling and understanding; for he sees us aiming at the one thing of fleeing away from him and attempting our escape from his sight and presence. When therefore God says, "Where art thou?" it is as if he had said, "Thinkest thou that I see thee not?" For he will have Adam to see and feel that though hidden he is not hidden from God! And that though he flees from God, from God he cannot flee. For this is the very nature of all sin; it causes us to attempt to flee from the wrath of God, from which wrath we find it impossible to flee. It is indeed the utmost folly to think that we shall find a remedy in fleeing from God, rather than in returning to him; yet it is the very nature of sin that the sinner cannot return to God. What then can we possibly conceive to have been the exceeding folly and state of mind in Adam? He had heard the voice of Jehovah, and yet he hoped that he could conceal himself from his presence; when lo! he was now standing before the tribunal of God and was demanded of God for punishment!
V. 10.And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
As it was the utmost folly that Adam fled from God, so in the utmost folly he answers him, so utterly deprived by sin is he of all wisdom and counsel. He now really wishes to teach God that he is naked, who had himself created him naked. Thus does he wholly confound himself, and betray and condemn himself out of his mouth. He confesses that he heard the voice of Jehovah and was afraid. And had he not also heard the voice of Jehovah before, when Jehovah forbade him to eat the fruit of that tree? Why did he not then fear also? Why did he not then also hide himself? How was it that then he stood with uplifted countenance and with joy before him, rejoicing in his presence and delighting to hear him speak? Now he trembles at the sound of a shaking leaf! It is at least evident that he is no longer the same Adam he then was; he is totally changed, and become quite another man; he now looks about for a lie and a false cause for his defense. For how can it be true, that "the voice of Jehovah is the real cause of his fear," when before he feared not that divine voice, but heard it as the voice of his God with happiness and joy?
Learn then from this solemn history that perverseness and folly ever accompany sin, that transgressors by all their excuses only accuse themselves, and that the more they defend the more they betray themselves, especially before God! Thus Adam here attempts to conceal his sin and to adorn himself as innocent, in that he alleges, as the cause of his fleeing, not his having sinned, but his having heard the voice of the Lord; and he makes that to be the cause of his alarm and of his being ashamed because he was naked. Poor wretched man! He never thinks that he had no such fear as this when he heard the same voice of God at first. He never recollects that he was not then ashamed because he was naked. For as that nakedness was the creation of God, why should he the creature be ashamed of that which God had made! He then walked in all his nakedness in the sight of God and of the whole creation in paradise, perfectly secure and happy that such was the will of God and delighting in God on that very account. But now he is covered with shame, because he is naked and flees from God and hides from him on that account. Every one of these things is an argument by which Adam condemns himself, and betrays his present state of sin. And just in the same manner will the wicked condemn themselves in the final judgment, when all the darkness shall be driven away from all the hearts of men and the sins of all men shall be read in the "book" when "opened"!
God knew perfectly well that Adam had sinned and was guilty of death. Yet he calls him that he might be condemned by the testimony of his own mouth, as having sinned. For he flees from God when he calls him, which fact was itself the very essence of sin, even as it is the very essence of righteousness to flee unto God as a refuge. This fleeing from God therefore is the strongest possible testimony of Adam against himself. Yet even still he vainly hopes that his sin can be covered by a lie, for he alleges as the real causes of his flight the voice of God and his own nakedness.
From this we learn therefore that such is the nature of sin, that unless God bring the medicine immediately after it is committed and call back the sinner to himself, he will flee from his God farther and farther, and by mendaciously excusing his sin he will add sin to sin until he runs at length into blasphemy and despair. Thus sin draws after it by its own weight as it were sin upon sin, and causes eternal ruin, until the sinner finally will rather accuse God himself than acknowledge his own sin.
Adam ought to have said, Lord, I have sinned! But this Adam does not. He rather actually accuses God of sin; and in reality he says, thou, Lord, hast sinned. For I should have remained wholly in paradise after my eating the fruit, if thou hadst remained perfectly quiet. For the words of Adam bear all this import in truth, when he says in substance, I should not have fled if thy voice had not terrified me from thy presence. Thus man, when accused of sin by his God, instead of acknowledging his sin, rather accuses God as being the cause of it and transfers his sin from himself and lays the blame of it on his Creator. Hence sin increases to infinity, unless God by his mercy come to succor the sinner. And yet Adam all the while considers this excusing himself and blaming his Creator, the highest wisdom. For he is so confounded by the terror of his conscience, that he knows not what he says nor what he does. Although by thus excusing himself, he only accuses himself the more grievously and increases his sin to the utmost extent.
Let us however by no means think that all this happened to Adam only. Every one of us does the very same thing; nor will nature of herself ever permit us to do otherwise. For after having sinned we all rather accuse God than acknowledge our sin before him; just as Adam here did, who asserted that the voice of God was the cause of his fleeing from him; thus actually making God himself to be the cause of his flight. And next, upon the back of this sin quickly follows another and further sin. For he that spares not his Creator himself, how shall he be likely to spare the creature? Therefore Adam next charges God with his nakedness, thus making him the Creator of a thing that was vile and base. For by his sin Adam is so deprived of his senses that he turns the glory of his nakedness into a reproach to his Creator.
V. 11.And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat?
Here the conscience of Adam is pierced with the true sting of the law. It is as if God had said, Thou knowest that thou art naked, then and therefore thou hidest thyself from me. But nakedness is my creature. Dost thou condemn that creature then as vile and base. It is not thy nakedness therefore that hath confounded thee, nor is it my voice that hath terrified thee. It is thy conscience that accuseth thee of sin, because thou hast eaten the fruit of the forbidden tree. This is the cause of thy flight from my presence. Here Adam being thus pressed by the law and by his conscience is in the midst of death; yea, in the midst of hell. For he is compelled to confess that there was no evil in his nakedness, because it was so created of God. But he was forced to acknowledge that the mighty evil was that he now had a guilty conscience concerning his nakedness, in which before he had gloried as in a beautiful adornment; and that he now dreaded that same voice of God, which before he had heard with supreme delight.
It is to this state of mind, which the Lord now perceives in Adam, that the words of this passage expressly speak. As if Jehovah had said, Since thou hast an evil conscience and art filled with dread, most assuredly thou hast eaten of the forbidden tree. For thou receivedst no command from me that thou shouldst not commit murder nor that thou shouldst not commit adultery, but that thou shouldst not eat of the fruit of this tree. As therefore thou art filled with terror, thou thereby makest it manifest that thou hast sinned against that commandment.
Thus those very things which were Adam's thoughts, those same things he now hears from the mouth of the Lord. Adam was thinking thus: I have eaten the fruit, but I will not say that I have fled from God on that account. I will say nothing about my sin. I will say that I was afraid, because I was naked, and that I was terrified into flight by his voice. But while he is saying these things to himself he is compelled to condemn himself, and he hears his conscience within convicting him of a lie and condemning his sin. In addition to this accusation of his own conscience, the Lord himself now accuses him of his sin openly, and in the plainest words. But not even now can Adam be brought to the honest acknowledgment of his sin. For now follows,
V. 12.And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
Only mark the true colors, the essential evil and real nature of sin. It is depicted in this excuse of Adam. It shows that a man can in no way be brought to an open confession of his sin, but that he will deny his sin or excuse it as long as he can find that there is any hope or any probable ground of excuse left him. For it was not so wonderful that Adam should at first hope that his sin could be covered, and that he should rather accuse God than acknowledge the sin he had committed. The great wonder was that after he was convicted in his own conscience, and after he had heard his sin declared from the mouth of God himself, he should still persist in excusing that sin. For he does not say, "Lord, I have sinned; forgive me the debt of my sin; be merciful unto me;" for the very nature of sin is, that it will not suffer the mind to flee unto God, but instead compels it to flee from God. But he transfers all the fault from himself to the woman.
It is a well known rule, taught in the schools of legal and civil orators, that when a charge of crime is brought against the defendant, the act should either be denied totally or defended as having been done rightly. Adam here does both. He first of all denies his sin altogether and asserts that his terror arose, not from his sin, but from the voice of the Lord. And then when so far convinced of his sin in what he has done he attempts to defend the act, as having been done rightly and unavoidably. "If," says he to the Lord, "thou hadst not given me this woman, I should not have eaten the fruit." Thus he further lays all the blame of what he had done on God himself, and positively accuses him as being after all the real cause of his sin.
Wherefore there is no end to a man's sinning, when he has once turned aside from the Word. Adam at first sinned by unbelief and disobedience, and now he heaps upon that sin reproaches of God and positive blasphemy, saying in effect, It was not I who listened to the serpent; it was not I who was captivated by looking on the fruit of that tree; it was not I who stretched forth my hand to pluck the forbidden fruit. The woman whomthougavest me did all this. In a word Adam has no desire to acknowledge his sin. On the contrary he wishes to be considered pure and clean.
This portion of the divine record contains a further description of sin and of the real nature of sin. For whenever the promise of the remission of sins or faith in that promise is not immediately at hand, the sinner cannot do otherwise than Adam did. If God had said, Adam, thou hast sinned, but I will pardon thy sin, then Adam would have acknowledged his sin with all humility and candor and with the utmost detestation of what he had done. But because the hope of the remission of sin was not present to his mind on account of his having transgressed the commandment of God, he can see nothing, he can feel nothing but death, the certain punishment of such transgression. And because human nature cannot but be shocked at the sight of that certain death, therefore Adam cannot be brought to the confession of his sin, but he tries all possible means by which he has the least hope of warding off the blame of his sin. And thus does every sinner hate the punishment of his transgressions; and because he hates that punishment, he also hates the justice of God, and God himself, and endeavors by all means in his power to persuade both God and men that he suffers innocently.
Just in this manner does Adam here endeavor to lessen his sin by saying that it was not he who listened to the serpent, nor he who plucked the fruit. "The woman whom thou gavest me," says he, "offered me the fruit of this tree." In the same state of mind as Adam are those who, when they have come to a knowledge of the sins they have committed, filled with despair, either cut short their life with a halter or curse God as the cause of their transgressions. The words of Job are familiarly known: "Let the day perish wherein I was born; why died I not from the womb?" Job 3:3, 11. For such lay all the fault of their sin on God, and complain against God that they were ever created to destruction and damnation. Nor can any sinner do otherwise, when the hope of pardon and the promise of grace are not present to his soul. Because death is intolerable to human nature, therefore it produces desperation and blasphemies.
It is an utterance full of pain and of wrath against God, when Adam says, "The woman whomthougavest me." It is as if he had said, thou thyself has laid upon me the burden of this evil; if thou hadst given to the woman some separate garden to herself and hadst not burdened me with thy command that I should live with her, I might have continued without sin. As therefore I have sinned, the fault is thine in adding to me a wife. In the case of Adam therefore is set before us an exact example of all those who sin and who despair under their sin. They cannot do otherwise than accuse God and excuse themselves, for seeing as they do that God is omnipotent they consider that he could have prevented these their sins. So horrible is sin, whenever the minds of sinners are not soon relieved and lifted up with the promise of the forgiveness of sins. And this is the true effect of the law, whenever the law is alone, without the gospel and the knowledge of its grace, it always leads to despair and to final impenitence.
V. 13.And Jehovah God said unto the woman, What is this thou hast done? (Why hast thou done this?) And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me and I did eat.
Here the example of Eve is also set before us, who being corrupted by sin is seen to be in no degree better than Adam.
Adam wished to appear innocent, and laid the blame on God, because he had given him a wife. Eve also attempts to excuse herself and accuses the serpent, which also was a creature of God. She confesses indeed that she had eaten the fruit, but she says, The serpent, which thou createdst and which thou permittedst to go about in paradise, imposed upon me. Now is not this actually accusing her Creator and removing the fault from herself? Hence we see that sin is always and everywhere the same and works in the same way. It is never willing to be punished as sin, but ever wishes to appear to be righteousness. And as it cannot accomplish this it turns the blame from itself upon God; so that when God accuses a man of sin the man actually charges God with falsehood in that accusation. So that sin, from being a human sin, becomes positively a devilish sin; and the unbelief of the man is turned into blasphemy, and his disobedience into reproach against his Creator!
I term this a devilish and not a human sin; because the devil hates and accuses and condemns God, and justifies himself to all eternity; nor can he possibly from his heart say, "Lord, I have sinned; pardon my sin." Were it not so the devil would not eternally despair of pardon. But that pardon is impossible, as long as he acknowledges not his sin, but blasphemes God as exercising unjust cruelty against him as a creature without just cause.
Hence we see Adam and Eve so deeply fallen and sunk under sin, that they could not sink any lower. For upon their unbelief followed the disobedience of all the powers and all the members in man. Upon this disobedience, immediately afterwards, followed the excuse and defense of their sin. This defense was next followed by an accusation and condemnation of their God. This is sin's last step, to reproach God himself and to make him the author of sin. This nature of ours can ascend no higher than this in its sin against God. And these are the onward steps of sin, unless the minds of fallen sinners are lifted up by a confidence in God's mercy.
Wherefore the state of the Church under the pope, was most horrible; for in it was neither seen nor heard anything whatever which could lift up the mind of a sinner, laboring under his sin and guilt; except that once a year the history of the passion of our Lord was slightly taught. And the statement of that history showed forth in some slight manner the source from which pardon was to be sought. But everything else on every side led men away from the promise of the remission of sins to their own righteousness. Hence it was that we saw in many monasteries men alarmed by their sins through their whole life time, who were filled with despair as they walked about, and at length died in agony, worn out with sorrow and pains of spirit. And as to the rest of their brethren, this doctrine of pardon being wholly unknown, they did nothing but stand in their places and procure the protection of their saint by idolatrous prayers. Thus were these miserable creatures worn out and consumed with the most terrible pains of soul, without hope, without counsel and without any help whatever. Was not this then, I pray you, a horrible state of things?
Wherefore if the papacy and all the monasteries together could be overturned by the touch of one finger, it ought at once to be done on account of the whole papal church being this most wretched slaughter-house of consciences! For there is nothing more horrible than for a man to be under the weight of his sins, and yet never to hear or have the remission of sins and the promise of grace. Now the pope was the very cause of the remission of sins being utterly kept out of men's sight. For no sound doctrine nor any true worship whatever was retained in the church. And if any were saved in these times they were saved by the bare annual recital of the sufferings of Christ, apprehended by faith, contrary to the will of the pope and in defiance of his opposition. For through him men in the extreme perils of their souls were brought down to the necessity of imploring the intercession of Mary and of the saints. For these sayings filled every place: that the mother Mary showed her breasts to her Son, and that the Son showed his wounds to his Father, and that the man was thus saved; not by the intercession of the Son, but by the intercession of his mother.
I earnestly entreat you therefore with all the persuasion in my power, to set the highest value possible upon the doctrine of the Gospel. For what do we see in this history of Moses that Adam and Eve suffered when their sin was before them, and this knowledge of the promise of grace and of pardon was out of their sight? The very same do we also see in the damnation of Satan; for as he is destitute of the promise of grace he is not able to cease from his sins, nor from his hatred of God, nor from his blasphemies against him. Hence it is that the condition of Adam was so different from that of Satan, and so much better and more blessed. For Adam was called to judgment that he might acknowledge his sin, that being terrified by his sins he might afterwards be lifted up again and comforted by the promise of the remission of his sins; as we shall now further see in this most beautiful part of the sacred history of Moses, in which we shall also find the preaching of Christ.
For as the issue of this whole transaction sets forth the very great goodness and mercy of God toward man, seeing that God calls him back to the remission of sins and to eternal life through theSeedthat was to come; so also these very beginnings of this divine mercy, if we view them aright, are much better and greater than Adam deserved at God's hand. For we have not here a display of that terrible majesty of God, which was witnessed on Mount Sinai, where there were thunderings and lightnings mingled with the loud soundings of trumpets. Here God approaches with the soft sound of the gentle breeze, signifying that he came in this case to seize with the tender hand of an affectionate Father. He does not drive Adam from him on account of his sin, but calls him away from his sin to himself. This fatherly care however Adam, overwhelmed with his sin and its terrors, does not at first understand or perceive; he does not consider how differently God deals with him than with the serpent. For he did not call the serpent to him. He did not ask the serpent why he had sinned, in order that he might call him from his sin unto repentance. He charges the serpent with his sin, and pronounces his doom. These things show us that Christ our deliverer interposed himself even then, between God and man as a mediator. For it was the greatest display of grace, that even after the sin of Adam God was not silent, but spoke; and that too in many and plain words, with the intent of showing forth evidences of his fatherly mind toward sinners. His carriage towards the serpent was altogether different. Wherefore although the promise concerning Christ was not yet given, it may be plainly discerned in the thoughts and counsel of God on this occasion.
Thus far therefore Moses has set before us the judgment which God exercised after the sin of the fall of our first parents. He calls them to his tribunal, and convicts them, and interrogates them, and hears them. They, poor creatures, desire indeed to escape that judgment, but they cannot; nay, while they attempt to excuse themselves they doubly accuse and betray themselves. The woman acknowledges what she had done. Adam attempts to conceal the fact, although according to the very nature of sin he does not wish it to appear to be really sin at all. For as long as grace is withheld from the sinner it is impossible for him to do otherwise than excuse himself, and try to make his sin appear to be righteousness. God therefore is always compelled thus to contend with us by his laws, until he extorts from us the confession of our sins and brings us to justify him; as it is written in Ps. 51:4, where this confession is fully described. But as long as the law rules alone and galls the conscience, the conscience thus terrified cannot bring out this confession, as the examples of Adam and Eve here fully show.
From this portion of the sacred record of Moses the holy prophets drew many divine truths; for they studied this book of Moses with far greater diligence and stronger faith than we do. From this source they derived the following holy sentences: "The wicked flee when no man pursueth," Prov. 28:1. "The wicked are like the troubled sea, for it cannot rest; there is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked," Is. 57:20, 21. "He that believeth shall not be ashamed," Is. 28:16. "The righteous are bold as a lion," Prov. 28:1. "The just shall live by his faith," Hab. 2:4. From this same place of Moses Christ also drew that memorable saying of his, which we find in the Evangelist John, "For every one that doeth evil hateth the light," John 3:20. For it is the very nature of sin that whoso committeth sin desires to remain hidden in darkness, and not to be brought into the light, just as Adam covered himself with fig-leaves and fled to conceal himself among the trees.
And we must also here touch upon that passage of the Apostle Paul, 1 Tim. 2:13, 14, "For Adam was first formed, then Eve; and Adam was not beguiled but the woman being beguiled hath fallen into transgression." This passage nearly all interpreters understand to mean that Adam was not deceived, but that he sinned knowingly; not from yielding to the persuasion of the devil as Eve had done, but from being unwilling to distress the delight of his life, that is, his wife; and thus preferring the love of his wife to the command of God. And they attempt to render this interpretation likely and probable by saying, that the serpent reverenced the male as his lord, but that he attacked the female, whom, although she was holy as the man, yet as being the weaker creature, he considered to be the better adapted to yield to his persuasion, and that therefore Eve was deceived by the serpent, and not Adam. Adam, they maintain, was deceived both by himself and by the woman, but not by the serpent; by the woman when she presented to him the fruit to eat; by himself when, because he did not see Eve die immediately when she had eaten the fruit, he was induced to believe that the punishment which God had threatened would not "surely" follow. Just as a thief, when he has found his theft to have succeeded once or twice, goes on stealing in security. Whereas had the law-officer or the gallows been kept before his eyes, he would have ceased to steal.
Wherefore I do not altogether condemn the above interpretation, for it makes both views to stand true, that Adam was deceived and that he was not deceived. He was not indeed deceived by the serpent as Eve was, but he was deceived both by his wife and by himself, when he persuaded himself that the punishment which God had said should follow would not really come. Then follows the execution of judgment upon all the parties concerned.