occurred. He saw the woman near the forbidden tree, and at a distance from her husband. So fa- vourable an occasion was not to be lost. He instantly took possession of a serpent ; which being confessedly the most subtle of all animals, was least likely to create suspicion in her mind, and fittest to be em- ployed in so arduous a service. Through the in- strumentality of this creature, Satan entered into conversation with her; and, as we learn from the history before us, succeeded in withdrawing both her and her husband from their allegiance to God. In the text we have a summary of the fatal tragedy : in it, as connected with the context, the whole plot is developed, and the awful catastrophe declared.
That we may have a just view of the conduct of our first parents, we shall consider,
I. Their temptation —
The scope of Satan's conversation with Eve was to persuade her that she might partake of the forbidden tree,
1. With safety —
[With this view, his first attempt was to raise doubts in her mind respecting the prohibition. And here his subtilty is very conspicuous ; he does not shock her feelings by any strong assertion ; but asks, as it were for information, whether such a prohibition as he had heard of had been really given. Nevertheless, his mode of putting the question insinuates, that he could scarcely credit the report; because the im- posing of such a restraint would be contrary to the generosity which God had shewn in other respects, and to the distin- guished love which he had professed to bear towards them.
Now, though he did not so far prevail as to induce her to deny that God had withheld from her the fruit of that tree, yet he gained much even in this first address : for, he led her to maintain a conversation with him : he disposed her also to soften the terms in which the prohibition had been given a : and though she might intend nothing more than to prevent
a God had said, " In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die :" and she, in reporting it, said, " Ye shall not eat of it or touch it, lest ye die ; " thus converting a most positive threatening of instant and certain death, into a gentle caution against a possible, or probable, misfortune : " Touch not, for fear ye die."