Matthew Poole and continuators on Genesis 3:22

22. And the LORD God said , Behold, the Man is become , as one of us , to know Good and Evil , and now lest he put forth his hand , and take also of the Tree of Life, and eat and live for ever :

Either within himself, or to the other persons of the Godhead.

(i. e.) Adam and Eve both are become such according to the Devils promise and their own expectation. This is an Holy Irony or Sarcasm, like those, 1 King. 18. 27. Eccles. 11. 9. q. d. Behold! O all ye Angels, and all the future Generations of men, how the first man hath over-reached and conquered us, and got the Divinity which he affected, and how happy he hath made himself by his Rebellion! But this bitter scorn God uttereth not to insult over mans misery, but to convince him of his sin, folly, danger and calamity, and to oblige him both to a diligent seeking after and a greedy embracing the remedy of the promised Seed which God offered him, and to a greater watchfulness over himself and respect to all Gods commands for the time to come.

i. e. As one of the Divine Persons, of infinite Wisdom and Capacity. Here is an evident proof of a plurality of persons in the Godhead, compare Gen. 1. 26. and 11. 7. If it be said, God speaks this of himself and the Angels; besides that as yet not one word hath been spoken concerning the Angels, it is an absurd and unreasonable conceit that the great God should level himself with the Angels, and give them a kind of equality with himself, as this expression intimates.

To know all things; both good and evil.

The speech is defective and to be supplyed thus or some such way, But now care must be taken, or man must be banished hence▪ lest he, &c.

i. e. As he did take of the Tree of knowledge.

(i. e.) And thereby prophane that Sacrament of Eternal Life, and fondly perswade himself that he shall live for ever. This is another scoffe or irony, whereby God upbraideth mans presumption, and those vain hopes wherewith he did still feed himself.