In his Plot against Adam, the Deceiver was deceived; for he made no doubt but the Sentence of Death would be immediately executed upon Adam and Eve, and upon the Extinction of the human Species, God would lose all his Honour upon Earth. Why did not he appear to our first Parents in a human Form? probably because he might apprehend, that there was no other Man or Woman, but themselves.
Having considered Adam in his probationary Capacity, I shall in the next place observe these three Things, by way of Illustration.
I. It was most congruous that Man’s first State should be a State of Trial. II. That his Trial should be by the Laws of his Creator. III. That those Laws should be inforced by a proper Sanction.
I. IT was congruous and fit, our first Parents should begin their Life in a way of Trial, as they were moral Agents: In which Situation I apprehend all the Angels to be at first, to see how they would behave towards the Great Author of their Being and Blessedness, before they were establish’d. No Creature, as such, is capable of Immutability, any more than of Omnipotence. To be naturally, and necessarily immutable, is the sole Prerogative of the Almighty: The perpetual Duration of created Beings, is not from their Nature, but from the Divine Will.
Our first Parents were under a strong Guard, and not to be disarm’d without their own Consent; tho’ the Devil, as he was a Spirit, excelled in Power, yet he could not by Force subdue the weaker Vessel, therefore conducted the bloody Design by Stratagems. When the Woman was sollicited by the Tempter, one strong Negative would have put him to flight. A resolute Denial, without any other Means, would have made her victorious, tho’ assaulted by all the Legions of Hell; therefore, no room to complain of Deficiency in Divine Goodness.
’Tis beyond all doubt, that the Revelation given to Adam (as that to Christian Churches in After-ages) made it a fundamental part of his Duty, not to attend to any Insinuations contrary to those delivered to him by his Creator, tho’ recommended even by an Angel from Heaven: Temptations to forbidden Fruit, however pleasant, should not be parley’d with, but peremptorily rejected.
II. IT was equally proper, that a Creature should be govern’d by the Laws of his Creator; as it implies a Contradiction for a Creature to be independent, which it must suppose itself to be, when govern’d by its own Laws. The Will of the Creator was surely the fittest, for the Obedience of Creatures; one part of which was, that they must not have an Indulgence of all the Trees in Eden.
It follows hence, that Self-denial was a Duty in Paradise. Adam was not an absolute Sovereign to do what he pleased, but what his Almighty Creator and Patron prescribed; tho’ endowed with Reason, yet was he to govern himself by the Will of another, that is, of him who was the Donor. His Reason was a bright, but borrowed Light, borrowed from the uncreated Sun, therefore ought to move by its Direction.
Thus we see that Restraints on the human Nature, were necessary even in Man’s Paradisaical State: To deny Self, was one of the Precepts of Religion in the Garden of Innocence; nor is this strange, if we consider, that for any rational Creature to live according to his own Will, is to make a God of his Will.
Why did God forbid the Fruit of one Tree? This might be to signify Adam’s Dependance upon his Maker, and that he had no Claim to any thing without his Leave: The sovereign Lord of the Creation made over to Adam large Dominions, and the Mannour of Paradise for the Seat of his Empire, reserving nothing to himself but a small Rent of Acknowledgment, which was only the Fruit of one Tree. The Exemption of this Tree from human Use, notify’d Man’s Subjection, and God’s supreme Dominion. By this Reservation he tried their Obedience, whether they would be content with all the Earth, and Appurtenances thereunto belonging, one Tree only excepted. N. B. This forbidden Tree might have something of a natural Tendency to corrupt the animal Juices, and introduce Diseases and Death into the human Nature. If the Tree of Life could immortalize our Existence in Happiness, is it not equally rational to suppose the Tree of Knowledge ... would destroy it?