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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 whom thou gavest 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 whom thou gavest 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 the Seed that 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.

PART IV. THE SERPENT AND SATAN CURSED. THE FIRST PROMISE

I. V. 14. And Jehovah God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, cursed art thou above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.

After judgment has been pronounced and the whole case completely gone through, follows the execution of judgment, in which, as we shall now hear, there is rendered to each party according to their work, but not one like the other. Now this passage claims our thoughtful attention in the first place, because there is not found throughout the five books of Moses so long a speech in the person of God. And in the next place, because this divine speech contains no law whatever as to what the serpent or man was required to do. The whole speech is occupied in promising that good or threatening that evil, which should come upon each party concerned.

And it is worthy our particular observation here that, after the sin of the fall, no further law whatever was imposed on Adam, though nature in its state of perfection had a divine law set before it. The reason of this was, because God saw that nature, being now fallen and corrupt, could not only derive no help or relief from any law given to it, but that, being thus corrupted and also disorganized and confused altogether, it could not bear any syllable of law whatsoever. Wherefore God did not increasedly oppress nature, already thus oppressed by sin, with any further law of any kind. But on the contrary God mercifully applied unto sin as a terrible wound, a healing plaster, that is, the promise concerning Christ, still using that caustic, the curse on sin, which the devil had caused to be inflicted. For as wholesome plasters, even while they heal, yet corrode and pain the flesh; so the healing promise is so set before Adam that the threatened curse on sin should be added, to operate with it in curing the lust of the flesh. By the lust of the flesh I mean, not only that foul motion and itching of lust, but also "all manner of concupiscence" and uncleanness of soul, as Paul terms them, Rom. 7:8; Eph. 4:19, through which we are by nature inclined to idolatry, unbelief, self-security and all other horrible sins against the first and second Table. To curb and cure all this depravity of nature, we have need of the operation of this burning caustic, the curse of God on sin.

I would that I could handle the text now before us in a manner becoming its depth and dignity, for it embraces all that is glorious in the whole Scripture, containing in it the curse of God on Satan and the destruction of the seed of the serpent by the seed of the woman. The former part of the text is wholly figurative. God speaks to the serpent, but it is manifest that the serpent alone is not here to be understood as addressed by God. For these are not the words of God as a Creator, as were those words above, when he said unto the beasts of the earth, "Be fruitful and multiply;" nor when he said to the earth itself, "Let the earth bring forth grass, and herbs, and trees, yielding seed after their kind." They are words of divine threatening and a declaration of mind and will, such words as God never speaks to an irrational creature, but to an intelligent creature only.

God does indeed address the "serpent" by name, but he is all the while especially speaking to Satan, who ruled in the serpent, and by the serpent deceived the first parents of mankind. Nevertheless as, on account of the sin of man, the lord of the whole creation, all animals and all trees perished in the flood, just as the subjects of a nation are often punished on account of the misdeeds of their prince, so it befell the serpent. That animal also was punished because of the sin of the devil, who had abused the serpent in making use of it to work so mighty an evil as the sin of the fall. God however intends, figuratively, to be represented under this punishment of the serpent, the deluging punishment of Satan.

The obscurity which lies in this figurative representation has been the reason why this text, which ought to be most clearly known and understood by all, has never to my knowledge been explained by any one with sufficient diligence and clearness. And I have often wondered what the fathers and the bishops could have been about, who, when occupied in the government of churches and in the condemnation of heretics, did not feel that they had a still more important duty to perform in devoting themselves with greater diligence to the explanation of such passages of the Scriptures as these. Such bishops and fathers possess nothing more than the name, for they may with more truth be called destroyers than watchmen or guardians of the churches. I am now speaking of those of our fathers and bishops who really excelled in holiness of life and doctrine. Even among these not one is found to have explained the text before us in any manner becoming its great dignity. Perhaps those various engagements which generally beset the rulers of churches too deeply involve them to leave them time for the purpose.

The disgrace of our more recent divines is notorious. They have even shamefully corrupted this whole passage, and out of the neuter pronoun ipsum they have made the feminine, ipsa, which, with the most open wickedness, they have thus wrested, and have applied it to the Virgin Mary, "She shall bruise thy head," verse 15. I can pardon Lyra, who was as it appears a good man, but he conceded too much to the authority of the fathers, and hence he suffered himself to be drawn aside by Augustine, to the most weak and foolish allegorizings, which system Gregory also follows in his "Morals," maintaining that by the woman in this part of the sacred record ought to be understood the inferior power of reason, as by the man, the superior power of reason; and by her seed, the operation of good; but by the seed of the devil, his evil suggestions.

But what need, I pray you, friendly reader, is there of all such darkness of the most absurd allegories in all this clear light of the truth? But grant that we might with any propriety divide reason into two qualities or powers, the superior and the inferior. With how much greater propriety may we term that the inferior power of reason which is adapted to the government of domestic and political affairs, and not that which is concerned in swine-like pleasure and gratification? calling that the superior power of reason by which we contemplate those things which are separate from economy or polity, and which pertain unto religion, the solemn things of the Word, in which we do nothing operatively, but only contemplate and learn? Although we thus speak upon these things what have they to do after all with the sacred text before us? Do they not altogether encumber and keep out of sight its real sense, and substitute a spurious sense in its stead, a sense which is not only useless but pernicious? For what can reason do or what light can it give in the divine matter of religion?

There is also a further absurdity in this mode of interpretation, by which Eve is made to be the inferior power of reason. For it is perfectly evident that Eve was not inferior to her husband Adam in any sense whatever; that is, neither in body nor in soul. It is from this ridiculous mode of interpretation that all those profane disputations concerning free-will have arisen, and concerning the doctrine "that reason always prays for the best," etc., until all theology is lost in philosophy and sophistical absurdities.

Wherefore let us, casting away all such pernicious and absurd follies, enter upon a new road of interpretation, caring naught for having disregarded the footsteps of those who have gone before us. For we have the Holy Spirit as our guide, not setting before us in Moses a heap of absurd allegories, but teaching us through him the mightiest truths and the mightiest things which took place between God the Creator and man the sinner, and Satan the author of sin.

First of all then let us settle it as a fact that the serpent here spoken of by God was a natural and real serpent, but a serpent besieged and occupied by Satan, who spoke through and by that serpent. Let us next consider it to be a truth, that those things which God spoke to the serpent are not to be understood as having been spoken to the serpent abstractedly as a brute animal, but that the person immediately spoken to was Satan, to whom God was all the while more expressly speaking. By this manner of interpretation, I am sure that I retain the plain and simple historical and literal meaning, and a meaning in accordance with the whole passage; by which meaning, as divinely intended, the serpent remains a serpent though occupied and possessed by Satan, the woman remains a woman, and Adam remains Adam, all which is proved by what follows in the sacred narrative. For it is not an inferior power of reason and a superior power of reason, who begat Cain and Abel, as recorded in the following chapter, but Adam and Eve, that is, the first parents of mankind, who fell by sin into death and became subject to the dominion of Satan.

When therefore God says to the serpent, "Thou art cursed above all cattle and above every beast of the field, upon thy belly shalt thou go," the divine meaning is not that which Augustine gives, and which his disciples follow. They understand that by "belly" is to be allegorically understood pride. But the divine mind in the passage is, that as Satan abused the serpent in effecting the sin of the fall, so the serpent is compelled of God to bear a part of the punishment of that sin and therefore is thus cursed above all cattle, that it might be the most hateful of all the beasts of the field. At the beginning of the creation it was not so; but now through the divine curse, such a nature has been imparted to the serpent, that the creature which before the curse was the most delightful and the sweetest of all creatures, is now hated and dreaded above every other animal of the creation. Hence we find by experience that we have a natural abhorrence of serpents, and that serpents as naturally dread and flee from us. Thus the serpent is indeed made to bear this curse as part of the punishment of sin.

These words however are not spoken unto the serpent only, God is dealing all the time with Satan in the serpent. It is on Satan that this sentence is pronounced, as his final judgment. It is Satan that is here placed before God's tribunal.

For God here speaks to the serpent in far different language from that which he used toward Adam and Eve, when he called them back in love from their sin. His language then was, "Where art thou?" "Who told thee that thou wast naked?" All these particulars indicate the love of God towards the whole human race; showing forth that God will seek after man and will call him back after he has sinned, that he may reason with him and hear what he has to say. All this was a sure announcement of grace. For although these words of God, spoken to Adam and Eve, were legal and judicial words; yet they set before them a hope by no means obscure, that they should not be condemned for ever.

But with the serpent and Satan God by no means dealt so mercifully. He did not call Satan to him and say, "Why hast thou done this?" He pronounced upon him at once the sentence of judgment; and that too, in the most awful words, "Because thou hast done this." As if he had said, Thou, Satan, hadst sinned before this and hadst been condemned, when thou didst fall from heaven; and now to that sin thou hast added this one. Thou hast by the abuse of the serpent hurled man into sin also. Therefore in the first place the serpent shall bear this punishment; that whereas before it partook of that blessing which all other beasts also enjoyed; now it alone shall remain under my curse.

From all these circumstances it must follow as a manifest consequence, that the serpent before the sin of the fall was the most beautiful creature among the beasts which God had made, and most delightful to man; as are at this day kids, and lambs, and kittens to us, and also that it moved with its head erect; and moreover that it now creeps upon the ground is not a property of its original nature, but the consequence of the divine curse. Just in the same manner as they are the consequences of the curse, that the woman conceives in uncleanness, brings forth in sorrow, and nurses and trains her offspring with toils and griefs. Were there no curse the whole process of creation would be most pure and holy; the giving birth to children most easy and delightful, and the training up of children the highest pleasure. Sin therefore has not only utterly corrupted nature itself, but most basely defiled it.

And yet the human reasoners even of our day dare to affirm that the original properties of nature have remained essentially sound and whole, even in devils. But if the serpent, which Satan had abused to effect the sin of the fall, bore such a punishment on account of that sin; that whereas before it was the most beautiful of all creatures, it now on a sudden crawled on the ground upon its belly and drew after it its viperous tail before the eyes of Adam, and thus all on a sudden became an object of hatred and of dread; how can we doubt that the same was the utterly changed case with the man, who was the very one who had committed the sin and had imbibed into his very nature the poison of Satan? As therefore the Egyptians beheld not without the greatest amazement the rod thrown down by Moses suddenly changed into a serpent, just so in paradise, immediately upon God's uttering this word of the curse, the serpent was changed from a form the most beautiful into an object the most disgusting and revolting.

And to this same curse pertains that which God moreover said, "And dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life." The allegorists explain this, as meaning that Satan would render men given up to the love of earthly things one with himself by deceiving them. But as I have said, God is here speaking to the serpent as such and cursing the serpent, causing it to bear its punishment of the sin of the fall. For there are other beasts which also feed upon the earth, but the serpent eats the earth as its curse; that whereas before it had a certain peculiar gift of subtlety and of beauty, and of food also, which it enjoyed in common with man, it now bore as its punishment that the nature of its food was changed.

It is the glory of sheep, of oxen and of other beasts, that they feed on herbs and even on the fruits of trees, and also that they produce various things useful for the food of man, such as butter, milk, their own flesh, etc. The serpent also possessed this glory of his feeding in common with the other beasts. But now he is cast out from this society, and as it were from this common table and common feasting on account of the sin of the fall, so that he is not permitted to feed upon even the most useless herb; nor on apples, or pears, or nuts, on which even the mice feed. These he dare not taste. He eats the crude earth only. These are not my words, but the words of Moses; and they teach us that the nature of the serpent is entirely changed and wholly different from what it originally was.