But, Secondly, It may be considered in an awful sense, to which I rather incline, because it does not say they shall lie down together, nor that they shall eat the green pastures of Christ, but straw. It may signify a person who has heard the Gospel and rejected it, to whom it has become the savour of death unto death. These may become fierce and cruel opposers of the Gospel; the worst opposers, as they attempt to stab religion in its vitals. These are called by the Apostle, the Adversaries, who have scorned the Saviour, despised his blood, and opposed his truths. Witness some that have heard the Gospel, and once professed all the truth, who have since turned Deists, Arians, Socinians, Muggletonians, and Sabellians, and are now wickedly and spitefully using all their arguments and influence against the truth, and to deceive souls. These Lions are coupled with the Bullock in the text; by whom we may understand Persecutors. Hence our Lord explains, Fat Bulls of Bashan enclose me in on every side. David prays, Rebuke the company of Spearmen, the multitude of the Bulls, with the Calves of the People. And God, by Isaiah, threatens them in tremendous language—Chap. xxxiv. 7.
These characters are said to eat straw—by which we may understand the refuse of the Lord’s floor; not Wheat, but Chaff, Stubble, and Straw, fit fuel for fire—who must, and will be driven out of the Church, the Barn Floor—whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his Floor—he will burn up the chaff with fire! These hypocrites, Apostates, Imposters, and their errors, are the delight of such characters, and God has coupled them together, in the 1st Chapter of Isaiah—And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together; and they that forsake the Lord shall be consumed. Thus the Lion shall eat Straw like the Bullock.
I come now to that part of the verse I first read. I shall consider, First, the Serpent—Secondly, the Food that is appointed him. Dust SHALL be the Serpent’s meat.
First, The Serpent, absolutely and figuratively.—The word Serpent, in Scripture, means, First, Naturally the creature itself. Now the Serpent was more subtil than any beast of the Field.—Secondly, A miraculous one, as Moses’ Rod was turned into a Serpent.—Third, A delusive one, or one in shew. The Magicians cast their Rods on the ground, and they became Serpents. Fourth, An artificial one. Moses made a Serpent of Brass. But sometimes it signifies the Devil—hence he is called that Old Serpent. And sometimes the enemies of Jesus and his People—Ye Serpents! ye generation of Vipers! How can ye escape the damnation of Hell? Satan is called a Serpent, because he hid himself in the Serpent in his first stratagem against our first Patents. Because of his serpentine disposition, in his poison and malice against Christ and his Church; and in his winding, by his flattery, craftiness, and his accursed condition.—The first account we have of him is very early. Originally created in light, he envied the honors paid the adorable Trinity; or he envied the Lord Jesus Christ the glory he was to obtain as God-Man. He disbelieved the eternal power and faithfulness of God. He drew millions of angels into rebellion with him. He abode not in the truth; for which he was cast in the prison of Hell. His sin seems to be an awful complication of pride, envy, and unbelief. Cast out of bliss; held in the chains of darkness, he is permitted to wander like a vagabond and thief, to fill up the measure of his iniquity. Permitted to enter the Garden of Eden, where the image of Christ was, even Adam, who was made in that image our dear Lord intended to assume. Satan envied him his bliss; hated the image of God, and adopted a plan to overturn it. He selected out the most subtil beast God had formed, and through it he addressed our Mother, in artful and insinuating language. He temped her with the lust of the eye; she saw the tree was good. With the pride of life—Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. This was done in the form of the Serpent—so that the Devil and his agents have gone by this name ever since. We will quote the passage, and make a few remarks on it, which will lead us to understand what is meant by the Serpent and his Food. Gen. iii. Now the Serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field—and having seduced our Parents, when the Lord appeared to them, they laid the blame on him. Then in the 14th verse, the Lord God said unto the Serpent, Because thou hast done this thou art cursed above all cattle, and every beast of the field. Upon thy belly shall thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. And I will put enmity between thee and the Woman, and between thy seed and her seed—he shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.—Thus runs the curse upon the Serpent.
I humbly offer my opinion, that this curse did not fall upon that creature in general; though no doubt the Serpent that was the agent received the curse of God. But that Satan was the character is evident, as he is in full possession of the curse to this hour.
Josephus was of opinion that till this curse was denounced the Serpent went erect, and had the use of speech like man; and this opinion is still received among many—the Scriptures are silent upon it.—Our English Poet, John Milton, speaks in very striking terms, probably, though, in general, conjecturally.
“So spake the enemy of mankind, inclos’d
In Serpent, inmate bad! and toward Eve
Address’d his way: not with indented wave,
Prone on the ground, as since; but on his rear,
Circular base of rising folds, that tower’d
Fold above fold, a surging maze! His head
Crested aloft and carbuncle his eyes;
With burnish’d neck of verdant gold erect,
Amidst his circling spires, that on the grass
Floated abundant; pleasing was his shape
And lovely—never since, of Serpent kind,
Lovelier. He, uncall’d, before her stood
The eye of Eve to mark his play; he, glad
Of her attention gain’d with Serpent tongue
Organic, or impulse of vocal air,
His fraudulent temptation then began.”
Mr. Allen observes, on the clause, On thy belly shalt thou go—that the Serpent, before it was concerned in seducing our first Parents, went erect, or upright; which shews they have still some of their original nature in them, for they will now erect themselves upon the hinder part of their bodies, and go a considerable way in that position. The truly-excellent Dr. Gill’s remarks, I think, excel all I ever read.
Yet now the Serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.—Many instances are given of the subtilty of Serpents, in hiding their heads when struck at; rolling themselves up; stopping their ear at the voice of the charmer; putting off their skin; lying in sand of the same colour as themselves; biting the feet of horses; and many such things. But it does not appear now to be more subtil than many other creatures, whatever it might be when first created.—The words therefore may be rendered, That Serpent, that particular Serpent, was made more subtil than any beast of the field—not naturally, but through Satan being in it; for though a real Serpent, yet not that only, but as possessed and used by Satan, as an instrument of his, to accomplish his designs, as evident from its having the faculty of speech and the use of reason, employed in a very artful and sophistic manner. Nor is it rational to suppose that human nature, in the height of its glory and excellency, should be out-witted by a creature so inferior to it. The Scripture always alledges the fall of man to the seduction of the Devil, who, on that account, is called the Serpent, the old Serpent, the Devil and Satan. He said unto the Woman. She being alone, he took the advantage of it—not the Serpent, but Satan in it, just as the Angel spoke in Balaam’s Ass.
It is very probable that good Angels appeared in Paradise to our first Parents, in one form or another, and conversed with them—it may be in human forms, and it may be in the form of a beautiful flying Serpent, which looked very bright and shining, and that sort called the Seraph. Hence angels bear the name of Seraphim, as some have thought; so that it might not be at all surprising to Eve to hear the Serpent speak, it being what she might have been used to hear, and might take it to be a good angel sent to her with a message from God.