“And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.” She does not make use of so many words to excuse herself, as her husband; but her heart is as unhumbled as his. What is this, says GOD, that thou hast done? GOD here charges her with doing it. She dares not deny the fact, or say, I have not done it; but she takes all the blame off herself, and lays it upon the serpent; “The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.” She does not say, “LORD, I was to blame for talking with the serpent; LORD, I did wrong, in not hastening to my husband, when he put the first question to me; LORD, I plead guilty, I only am to blame, O let not my poor husband suffer for my wickedness!” This would have been the language of her heart, had she now been a true penitent. But both were now alike proud; therefore neither will lay the blame upon themselves: “The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. The woman which thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.”
I have been the more particular in remarking this part of their behaviour, because it tends so much to the magnifying of Free-grace, and plainly shews us, that salvation cometh only from the LORD. Let us take a short view of the miserable circumstances our first parents were now in: They were legally and spiritually dead, children of wrath, and heirs of hell. They had eaten the fruit, of which GOD had commanded them, that they should not eat; and when arraigned before GOD, notwithstanding their crime was so complicated, they could not be brought to confess it. What reason can be given, why sentence of death should not be pronounced against the prisoners at the bar? All must own they are worthy to die. Nay, how can GOD, consistently with his justice, possibly forgive them? He had threatened, that the day wherein they eat of the forbidden fruit, they should “surely die;” and, if he did not execute this threatening, the devil might then slander the Almighty indeed. And yet mercy cries, spare these sinners, spare the work of thine own hands. Behold, then, wisdom contrives a scheme how GOD may be just, and yet be merciful; be faithful to his threatening, punish the offence, and at the same time spare the offender. An amazing scene of divine love here opens to our view, which had been from all eternity hid in the heart of GOD! Notwithstanding _Adam_ and _Eve_ were thus unhumbled, and did not so much as put up one single petition for pardon, GOD immediately passes sentence upon the serpent, and reveals to them a Saviour.
Verse 14. “And the LORD GOD said unto the serpent, because thou hast done this, thou art accursed 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;” _i. e._ he should be in subjection, and his power should always be limited and restrained. “His enemies shall lick the very dust,” says the Psalmist. (Verse 15.) “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”