The immediate visible agent in the seduction of man to sin was the serpent; but the testimony of Scripture is in proof that the real tempter was that subtile and powerful evil spirit whose general appellations are the devil and Satan; the former signifying traducer and false accuser, and the latter, an adversary. That the devil was the real tempter is the uniform teaching of the Scriptures, and that an order of fallen spirits, under the guidance of an arch-leader, are permitted to have influence on earth, to war against the virtue and peace of man, though under constant control and government, and that this entered into the circumstances of the trial of our first parents, and that it enters into ours.
It is not our purpose in this connection to discuss either the theory of temptation, or the extent of Satanic influence, but to present man's relation to the Divine government as revealed in the Scriptures. In consequence of the apostasy of Adam, all men have sinned. After Adam had lost the image of God he begat a son in his own likeness. The image of God, in which Adam was created, we have shown to have been divine knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness. The likeness of Adam is, by unquestionable analogy, the moral character which he possessed after his apostasy. In this likeness Seth is said to have been begotten. That Cain was depraved will not be denied. The same thing is indirectly, but conclusively, taught concerning Abel; for he is declared to have lived and died in faith; and that faith had reference to a future promised Redeemer. Christ, as a Redeemer, could not have been an object of faith to Abel had he not been a sinner; or, in other words, had he not borne the likeness of apostate Adam. If this was the nature of the immediate children of Adam, it can not be denied that it is equally the nature of his remotest progeny, or that they do not all bear the likeness of their common parent. St. Paul argues this doctrine at length in his Epistle to the Romans, and his conclusions are that all are under sin—that judgment has come upon all men to condemnation. St. Paul teaches the same doctrine by asserting the impossibility of being justified by the works of the law. If one sinless man existed in this world, he could not fail to be justified by the works of the law; for the law itself says: "He that doeth these things"—that is, the things required in the law—"shall live by them." As, therefore, no flesh—no child of Adam—shall be justified by the works of the law, it follows conclusively that every one is sinful. The necessity of the new birth, as taught by our Savior to Nicodemus, is founded on this doctrine: "Except a man be born again he can not see the kingdom of God." The only use or effect of the new birth is, that in it holiness is implanted in the mind. But if any man were sinless he could not need regeneration, nor be regenerated. He would already possess that holiness which is communicated in regeneration, and, of course, would see the kingdom of God as certainly and easily, at least, as sinners who had been born again. In 2 Cor. v, 14, Paul says: "We thus judge, that if one died for all then were all dead;" that is, in sins. What the Scriptures thus clearly assert is fully borne out by observation and experience. Men, every-where, are sinful. It is not an incident of climate, or education, or surroundings; it is as universal as humanity.
Human laws are made to repress and restrain sin. They exist in every country, and are enforced upon men by an iron necessity. The penalties by which they attempt to restrain and punish sin are various and dreadful. And although the most efficacious that human experience and ingenuity can devise, yet they always fall short of their purpose. The propensity to evil in the human heart has defied all their force and terror, and boldly ventured on the forbidden perpetration in the face of all their threatenings. No ingenuity on the one hand, and no suffering on the other, has, in any country, or in any age, been sufficient to overcome this propensity. The conclusion is therefore irresistible, that human nature is universally sinful, and in the language of the creed, that "man is very far gone from original righteousness, and of his own nature inclined to evil."
CHAPTER I.
MAN'S PRIMEVAL STATE.
1. Made Under Law.
Gen. II, 16. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
17. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Deut. VI, 5. And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
Deut. X, 12. And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul.