THEOLOGY.

723

penalty; but Christian divines, have differed widely in opinionrespecting the full import of the Hebrew words which our transla-tors have rendered by the phrase “ thou shalt surely die.” All, how-ler, agree that they threatened death, in the common acceptationof the word, or the separation of the soul and body, as one part ofthe punishment to be incurred by eating the forbidden fruit; andhence we must infer, that had the forbidden fruit not been eaten,our first, parents would never have died, because the penalty ofdeath was denounced against no other transgression. What there-fore is said respecting the fruit of the tree of knowledge, impliesnot only a law but also a covenant promising to man, upon theobservance of one positive precept, immortality, or eternal life;which is nut essential to the nature of any created being, and can-not be claimed as the merited reward of the greatest and mostdistinguished virtue or most fervent piety. This obvious truth willenable.us to dispose of the objections which have been sometimesbrought by free-thinking divines against the wisdom and justice ofpunishing so severely as by death a breach of a mere positive pre-cept ; which, considered in itself, or as connected with the generalprinciples of moral obligation, appears to be of little importance.We have only to reply, that as an exemption from death is not dueeither to the nature or to the virtue of man, it was wise and just tomake it depend upon the observance ot a positive precept, to im-press upon the minds of our first parents a constant conviction thatthey were to be preserved immortal, not in the ordinary course ofdivine providence, but by the special grace and favour of God .The same consideration will shew us the folly of those men who,because the terms of the first covenant, as stated in some systemsof theology, agree not with certain philosophical maxims whichthey have adopted, are for turning all that is said of the trees ofknowledge and of life into figure and allegory. But the othertrees which Adam and Eve were permitted to eat were certainlyreal trees, or they must have perished for want of food. AndWhat rules of interpretation will authorize us to interpret eating andtrees literally in one part of the sentence, and figuratively in theother? A garden in a delightful climate is the habitation, and thefruits produced in that garden the food, prepared for the progeni-tors ot the human race ; and though in the garden actually fittedUp for this purpose two trees were remarkably distinguished fromthe rest, perhaps in situation and appearance as well as in use, thedistinction was calculated to serve the best of purposes. The onecalled the tree of life, of which, while they continued innocent,they were permitted to eat, served as a sacramental pledge or as-surance on the part of God , that as long as they should observethe terms of the covenant their life should be preserved ; the other,of which it was death to taste, was admirably adapted to impressUpon their minds the necessity of implicit obedience to the Divinewill, in whatever manner it might he made known to them.It appears plain from the whole Mosaic account, that Adam andtve were endued with such powers of body and mind as fittedthem to exercise dominion over the other animals; that thosePowers constituted the image of God , in which they are said tohave been formed ; that they received by immediate revelationthe. first principles of all useful knowledge; that they lived fors °me time entitled to the natural rewards of piety ; that they wereafterwards translated into paradise, where they were placed under? new law, with the penalty of death threatened to the breach of?t> and,the promise of endless life if they should faithfully observe* and that they were endued with the gifts of the Holy Ghost,*° enable them to fulfil the terms of that covenant.

Of the Fall of Adam , and its Consequences.

I’rom the preceding account of the primeval state of man, it isev 'ident that his continuance in the terrestrial paradise, togetherWith all the privileges which he there enjoyed, were made to de-pend upon his observance of one positive precept. No other dutyWas incumbent on him, except, perhaps, to keep the Sabbath,li 'en first instituted. This punishment was denounced only againsteating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Toll 'e word death in that passage divines have affixed many differentfailings, which we need not enumerate, most of them being verya hsurd, and the meaning of the word is sufficiently obvious. Ina "y acceptation of the w ord, it denoted something new to Adam,which he could not understand without an explanation of the term;aiH ‘ therefore, it was threatened as the punishment of the only

transgression he could commit. The abstaining from a particular.fruit in the midst of a garden abounding with fruits of all kinds,was a precept which at first view appears of easy observation; andthe penalty threatened against the breach of it was, in every sense,awful. The precept, however, was broken notwithstanding thatpenalty; and though we may thence infer that our first parentswere not beings of absolute perfection as by some divines theyhave been represented, we shall yet find, upon due consideration,that the temptation by which they were seduced, when taken withall its circumstances, were such as no wise and modest man willthink himself able to have resisted. The short history of this im-portant transaction is related in Gen. iii. which the reader mayconsult. The covenant, which, on the introduction of our firstparents into paradise, their Creator was graciously pleased tomake with them, being broken by their violation of the conditionon which they were advanced to that happy state, whereupon thehistorian tells us, that “ lest they should put forth their hand andtake also of the tree of life and eat, and live for ever, the Lord God sent them forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground fromwhence they were taken?’ Their minds must now have beenburdened with the inward sense of guilt, and they must havedreaded the threatened death; of which, however, they hadprobably no idea. God , however, did not send them forth thushopeless and forlorn from the paradise of delights which they hadso recently forfeited. He determined to punish them for theirtransgression, but at the same time to give them hopes of recover-ing more than their lost inheritance. Calling therefore the variousoffenders before him, and inquiring into their different degrees ofguilt, he began with pronouncing judgement on the serpent interms which implied that there was still mercy for man. " Andthe Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this,thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field ;upon thy belly shall thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the daysof thy life; and I will put enmity between thee and the weman,and between thy seed and her seed : it shall bruise thy head, andthou shalt bruise his heel.” But the serpent was only the instru-ment of the temptation. We are told, that when the foundationsof the earth were laid, the morning stars sang together, and all thesons of God shouted for joy; and it is at least probable that therewould be similar rejoicing when the six days work of creation wasfinished. If so, Adam and Eve , who were but a little lower thanthe angels, might be admitted into the chorus, and thus be madeacquainted with the existence of good and evil spirits. At allevents, their gracious and merciful Creator would inform themthat they had a more powerful enemy than a brute ; that he was arebellious angel capable of deceiving them in many ways; andthat they ought therefore to be constantly on their guard againsthis wiles. They must have known too that they were themselvesanimated by something different from matter; and when theyfound they were deceived by the serpent, they might surely, with-out any remarkable stretch of sagacity, infer that their malignantenemy had actuated the organs of that creature in a manner some-what similar to that in which their own souls actuated their ownbodies. If this be admitted, the degradation of the serpent wouldconvince them of the weakness of the tempter when comparedwith their Creator: and confirmed their hopes, (hat since he wasnot able to preserve unhurt his own instrument of mischief, ljeshould not be able finally to prevail against them; but that thoughhe had bruised their heels, the promised seed of the woman shouldat last bruise his head, and recover the inheritance which theyhad lost. Having thus punished the original instigator to evil, theAlmighty Judge turned to the fallen pair, and said to the woman,« I will greatly multiply thy sorrow ; in sorrow shalt thou bringforth children; and thy desire shall he to thy husband, and lieshall rule over thee. And unto Adam he said, Because thou hasthearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and has eaten of the tree ofwhich I commanded thee, saying. Thou shalt not eat of it;cursed is the ground for thy sake ; in sorrow shalt thou eat of itall the days of thy life. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forthunto thee, and thou shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat ofthy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground ; forout of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shaltthou return.” Here is a terrible denunciation of toil and misery,.and death, upon our first parents, which has since been continuedin a, greater or less degree upon all their posterity. But they were

not