Ver. 1. Now the serpent was more subtile, &c.] And so a more fit instrument of that old serpent the devil, that deceiveth all the world. (Revelation 12:9) Good natural parts abused, prove rather as pressmoney to impiety, as he phraseth it, and their wisdom was the crime counselor, [culpa suasoria] as Ambrose speaketh. Wit unsanctified is a fit tool for the devil to work with. Neither is there a likelier anvil in all the shop of hell, whereon to forge mischief, than one that is learned and lewd, wittily wicked. [ingeniose nequam] And he said,] that is, the devil in the serpent, as the angel in Balaam’s ass. [Satan istius prima fabulae poeta fuit, serpens histrio.] By the ear he brought death into the world; and God, to cross him, brings life in by the same door; for it is, “Hear, and your souls shall live”. (Isaiah 55:3) The dragon bites the elephant’s ear, and thence sucks his blood; because he knows that to be the only place which he cannot reach with his trunk to defend. So here, that great red dragon dealt with miserable mankind, setting first upon the woman as the weaker vessel—where the hedge is lowest, there the beast leaps over—and so climbing by Adam’s rib to his heart, as by a ladder, as I said before, out of St Gregory. Yea, hath God said?] In the Chaldee, Is it true that God hath said? A concise expression, implying that this was not the first of their discourse; something had been said before. It is not safe parleying with the devil. [Satan et si semel videatur verax, millies est mendax et semper fallax.] Halter him up therefore, and stop his mouth soon, as our Saviour did. Or do as the French say in their proverb, When the Spaniard comes to parley of peace, then double bolt the door. The Hollanders are said to make no conditions with the Spaniard, but such as are made at sea, and scaled with great ordinance, &c. He shoots with Satan in his own bow that thinks by parleying with him to put him off. Hath God said, Ye shall not eat?] Here he began his assault upon our first parents; here, upon Christ, (Matthew 4:3,3:17) and here he doth still upon us; endeavonring to elevate the truth and certainty of God’s word, and to weaken our faith in his precepts, promises, and menaces. And here, if he take us out of our trenches, if he can but wring this sword of the Spirit out of our hands he may do what he will with us. Get but the heretics, said that subtle sophister, out of the paper walls of the Scriptures, into the open fields of fathers and councils, and ye shall soon do well enough with them. πανουργος Theodotion; cui Paulus opponit την απλοτητα, “simplicity,” (2 Corinthians 11:3) quam mundus vocat silliness, sheepishness. Authoramentum majoris infidelitatis.— Tertul. Pliny, l. viii., c. 25. Vide simile, Ruth 2:21, in Hebraeo. φιμωθητι Greenham, Spec. Bel. Sacr. Levis: make light of Bristow’s Motives.
Ver. 2. And the woman said unto the serpent.] Our first parents were not, in the state of innocency, silly and witless, like young children, as Socinians make them; but very knowing, though but of small experience. But if they fell the same day wherein they were created, as most hold, how sudden was the serpent’s seducing, the woman’s consenting, Adam’s yielding, and God’s executing! ημερα επλασθη και εξηλασθη
Ver. 3. Neither shall ye touch it.] This is of the woman’s own addition, and of a good intention doubtless. For afterwards, when she had drunk in more of the serpent’s deadly poison, from gazing upon the fruit, she fell to gaping after it, from touching to tasting. He that would not feed on sin’s meat, must beware of the broth; “keep thee from an evil matter,” saith Moses. (Exodus 23:7) A good man dare not come near the treachery, though he be far off the blow; he dare not venture on the occasion, lest his tinder should take fire. It is ill playing upon the hole of the asp, or coming too near hell-mouth; for by so doing, you may beseem to drop in. “Watch therefore, and pray” too, “that ye enter not into temptation,” saith our blessed Saviour; and mark his reason, “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak”: q.d., though the spirit purpose otherwise, the flesh will falter, and be foiled: witness the woman here with her “lest ye die.” She held the precept in the utmost extent of it, but that which she failed in, was that she minced the matter, and opposed not the commination to the temptation. And see how the devil works upon her weakness, as he watcheth for our haltings, and where to have us on the hip. Hausit virus peritura, et perituros paritura.— Bern. Circa serpentis antrum positus, non eris diu illaesus.—Isidor.
Ver. 4. Ye shall not surely die.] He saith not, Dying ye shall not die, or, Surely ye shall not die; this had been too plain a contradiction to that word of God that had threatened assured death; but, Ye shall not die in dying; that is, It is not certain ye shall die. And this latter is more nice and ambiguous. She seems to doubt of the certainty of what God had said. He plainly and cleanly impugns it: whereas had God’s word abidden in her, she had overcome that wicked one. (1 John 2:14) The word is compared to mustard seed, which being mixed with vinegar, is, they say, a sovereign medicine against serpents.