The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 28

the Foll. We need not dwell on this further than as it affects our argument. The necessity for s:m10 external 11nd positive law in pamdise we have concluded from general considerations, as well as from some to which the teachings of the New Testa- ment direct us. The force and meaning of the particular prohibition are apparent from the story itself. While there is no sufficient reason for questioning its literal truth, and supposing that it is only o. myth or allegory, yet we must ever bear in mind that in Holy Scripture it is not the letter but" the spirit that profiteth," though the letter is the vase that holds the precious ointment. vVe must observe, then, in this case, that the prohibition was to eat of the '' tree of lcnowledge of good and evil." The temptation, though acting through the fleshly appetite, was addressed to tho spirit; 1 "Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." And such was the result. Their eyes were opened, though first of all to their own shame, through the sense of evil in themselves and the consciousness of their own alienation from God by trans- gression. But it must be remembered that in itself the knowledge of good and evil is a higher spiritual state than one of ignorance of the difference between them. This knowledge is indeed nn essential condition to all spiritual wisdom. 2 "The man is become as one of us, to know good and evil," are the words of God himself, and to suppose that this is irony is to misapprehend the whole philosophy of the fall of man. And it might he supposed that now man, possessing the power to distinguish between good and evil, the principles also of all religious and moral duty having been established in his creation, would henceforth need no e.x:ternal law; for he must he a law to himself. But that very knowledge, as the sacred record indicates, and as the subsequent history of the world abundantly proves, was his fall. And the effect of this inward law was the same as that of the law given by Moses, namely, that sin multiplied and abounded. The sin of eating the forbidden tree filled the earth with sin and guilt and death, not only by" the fault and corruption of the nature" of man which was transmitted from Adam by natural generation, 3 but through the necessary consequences of the knowledge of evil. Separated from God by transgression, and conscious of the evil desire in his fleshly nature, man was now out of harmony with tl:e Divine order to which his own nature, as a whole, belonged; and having no inherent -ability to restore himself, the knowledge which he possessed gave him no spiritual power, but on the contrary increased his tendency to evil. It was equally true of thi!! inward law, as of the law from Mount Sinai, that because by it was the lmow- ledge_of sin,t therefore by it man could not obtain righteousness and life. There- fore, as St. Paul says, 6 11 death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression," that is, who had not, like our first parents, transgressed any positive command of God, but who ~inned against " the law written in their hearts," 6 and justly incurred the con- demnation of God. The exceptional cases of men who served God and wulked with him and pleased him 7 were the result of a supernatural principle superior to this natural law in man, even of that faith which was in them, as it is in all ages, 11 the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." In such men the hopes were founded on the tokens of God's goodness and mercy to fallen ruan, and specially on the promises of redemption and deliverance from evil, which began in the assurance given immedit1tely after the fall, that "the seed of the woman " should after n severe conflict crush the serpent's head. 17. During the antediluvian age, as described in tile sacred history, although there are indications of God's manifesting himself to man, yet there are no tr:i.cea whatever of any law, in tho true sense of the word, either human or DiYine. The sacrifices 1 Gen. iii. 4-6. 2 Heb. v. H. ' Gen. Y. 3. 4 Rom. iii. 20, 6 7 See Heb. xi. 1-7, &c. Rom. v. 14. 6 Rom. ii. 15.  aiv INTRODUCTION TO THE PENTATEUCH.