The Scriptural Account,
The Scriptural account of the Fall, as given in the book of Gen- esis, is, That God placed Adam in "the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying* Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat : but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it : for in
the (lay that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die Now
the Rer])ent was more subtile than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman. Yea, hath (xod said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden : but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye' touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman. Ye shall not surely die. For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened ; and ye shall be as gods (as God), knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes^ and a tree to be desired to make wise ; she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat : and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat."
The consequences of this act of disobedience were, (1.) An immediate sense of guilt and shame. (2.) The desire and effort to hide themselves from the face of God. (3.) The denunciation and immediate execution of the righteous judgment of God upon the serpent, upon the man, and upon the woman. (4.) Expulsion fi'om the garden of Eden and prohibition of access to the Tree of Life.
That this account of the probation and fall of man is neither an allegory nor a myth, but a true history, is evident, (1.) From internal evidence. When contrasted with the mythological accounts of the creation and origin of man as found in the records of early heathen nations, whether Oriental, Grecian, or Etruscan, the differ-
1-i PART n. Cn. VL — THE FALL.
eiice is at once apparent. The latter are evidently the product of crude speculation, the Scriptural account is simple, intelligible, and pregnant with the highest truths. (2.) From the fact not only that it is presented as a matter of history in a book which all Christians recognize as of divine authority, but that it also forms an integral part of the book of Genesis, which is confessedly historical. It is the first of the ten divisions into which that book, in its internal structure, is divided, and belongs essentially to its plan. (3.) It is not only an essential part of the book of Genesis, but it is also an essen- tial part of Scriptural history as a whole, which treats of the origin, apostasy, and development of the human race, as connected with the plan of redemption. (4.) We accordingly find that both in the Old and New Testaments the facts here recorded are assumed, and referred to as matters of history. (5.) And finally, these facts underlie the whole doctrinal system revealed in the Scriptures. Our Lord and his Apostles refer to them not only as true, but as furnishing the ground of all the subsequent revelations and dispen- sations of God. It was because Satan tempted man and led him into disobedience that he became the head of the kingdom of darkness; whose power Christ came to destroy, and from whose dominion he redeemed his people. It was because we died in Adam that we must be made alive in Christ. So that the Chui^h universal has felt bound to receive the record of Adam's temptation and fall as a true historical account.
There are many who, while admitting the historical character of this account, still regard it as in a great measure figurative. They understand it as a statement not so much of external events as of an internal process of thought ; explaining how it was that Eve came to eat of the forbidden tree and to induce Adam to join in her transgression. They do not admit that a serpent was the tempter, or that he spoke to Eve, but assume that she was attracted by tiie beauty of the forbidden object, and began to question in her own mind either the fact or the justice of the prohibition. But there is not only no valid reason for departing from the literal interpretation of the passage, but that interpretation is supported by the authority of the writers of the New Testament. They recognize the serpent as present, and as the agent in the temptation and fall of our first parents.
The Tree of Life. According to the sacred narrative, there were two trees standing side by side in the garden of Eden which had a peculiar symbolical