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Adam and Eve hide themselves.

A. M. 1. B. C. 4004.

GENESIS.

8 And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. 9 And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?

10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.

11 And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?

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means, even while the lawful means and every available help are at hand. 2. They are endeavouring to be independent, and to live without God in the world; hence prayer, the language of dependence on God's providence and grace, is neglected, I might say detested, by the great majority of men. Had I no other proof than this that man is a fallen creature, my soul would bow to this evidence. 3. Being destitute of the true knowledge of God they seek privacy for their crimes, not considering that the eye of God is upon them, being only solicitous to hide them from the eye of man. These are all proofs in point; but we shall soon meet with additional ones. See on ver. 10 and 12.

Verse 8. The voice of the Lord] The voice is properly used here, for as God is an infinite Spirit, and cannot be confined to any form, so he can have no personal appearance. It is very likely that God used to converse with them in the garden, aud that the usual time was the decline of the day, on leruach haiyom, in the evening breeze; and probably this was the time that our first parents employed in the more solemn acts of their religious worship, at which God was ever present. The time for this solemn worship is again come, and God is in his place; but Adam and Eve have sinned, and therefore, instead of being found in the place of worship, are hidden among the trees! Reader, how often has this been thy case! Verse 10. I was afraid, because I was naked] See the immediate consequences of sin. 1. SHAME, because of the ingratitude marked in the rebellion, and because that in aiming to be like God they were now sunk into a state of the greatest wretchedness. 2. FEAR, because they saw they had been deceived by Satan, and were exposed to that death and punishment from which he had promised them an exemption. How worthy is it of remark that this cause continues to produce the very same effects! Shame and fear were the first fruits of sin, and fruits which it has invariably produced, from the first transgression to the present

time.

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12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

13 And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

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14 And the 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 shalt thou go, and "dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

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cxix. 120; Isa. xxxiii. 14; lvii. 11; 1 John iii. 20.— Chap. ii. 18, 20; Job xxxi. 33; Prov. xxviii. 13; Luke x. 29; James i. 13, 15.- Ver. 4; 2 Cor. xi. 3; 1 Tim. ii. 14.— Exod. xxi. 29, 32.- "Isa. lxv. 25; Mic. vii. 17. that the consequences of that state extend to his remotest posterity. 1. On the question, Hast thou eaten of the tree? Adam is obliged to acknowledge his transgression; but he does this in such a way as to shift off the blame from himself, and lay it upon God and upon the woman! This woman whom THOU didst give to be with me, y immadi, to be my companion, (for so the word is repeatedly used,) she gave me, and I did eat. I have no farther blame in this transgression; I did not pluck the fruit; she took it and gave it to me.

2. When the woman is questioned she lays the blame upon God and the serpent, (nachash,) The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. Thou didst make him much wiser than thou didst make me, and therefore my simplicity and ignorance were overcome by his superior wisdom and subtlety; I can have no fault here, the fault is his, and his who made him so wise and me so ignorant. Thus we find that, while the eyes of their body were opened to see their degraded state, the eyes of their understanding were closed, so that they could not see the sinfulness of sin; and at the same time their hearts were hardened through its deceitfulness. In this also their posterity copy their example. How few ingenuously confess their own sin! They see not their guilt. They are continually making excuses for their crimes; the strength and subtlety of the tempter, the natural weakness of their own minds, the unfavourable circumstances in which they were placed, &c., &c., are all pleaded as excuses for their sins, and thus the possibility of repentance is precluded; for till a man take his sin to himself, till he acknowledge that he alone is guilty, he cannot be humbled, and consequently cannot be saved. Reader, till thou accuse thyself, and thyself only, and feel that thou alone art responsible for all thy iniquities, there is no hope of thy salvation.

Verse 14. And the Lord God said unto the ser

pent] The tempter is not asked why he deceived the woman; he cannot roll the blame on any other; selftempted he fell, and it is natural for him, such is his enmity, to deceive and destroy all he can. His fault ( 5 )

The serpent and the woman

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thee

CHAP. III.

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receive their sentence.

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15 And I will put enmity between | sorrow thou shalt bring forth chiland the woman, and between dren; and thy desire shall be a to thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. 17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I com

16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in

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Isa. xiii. 8; xxi. 3; John xvi. 21; 1 Tim. ii. 15.
Or, subject to thy husband.- 1 Cor. xi. 3;

22, 23, 24; 1 Tim. ii. 11, 12; Tit. ii. 5; 1 Pet.
Sam. xv. 23. Ver. 6. Chap. ii. 17.

admits of no excuse, and therefore God begins to pro- fastens on his mind, and shudders at the thought of nounce sentence on him first. And here we must being in league with the old murderer. But there is consider a twofold sentence, one on Satan and the a deeper meaning in the text than even this, especially other on the agent he employed. The nachash, whom in these words, it shall bruise thy head, or rather, N I suppose to have been at the head of all the inferior hu, HE; who? the seed of the woman; the person is animals, and in a sort of society and intimacy with to come by the woman, and by her alone, without the man, is to be greatly degraded, entirely banished from concurrence of man. Therefore the address is not to human society, and deprived of the gift of speech. Adam and Eve, but to Eve alone; and it was in conCursed art thou above all cattle, and above every beast sequence of this purpose of God that Jesus Christ was of the field-thou shalt be considered the most con-born of a virgin; this, and this alone, is what is imtemptible of animals;` upon thy belly shalt thou go― | plied in the promise of the seed of the woman bruising thou shalt no longer walk erect, but mark the ground the head of the serpent. Jesus Christ died to put equally with thy hands and feet; and dust shalt thou away sin by the sacrifice of himself, and to destroy eat-though formerly possessed of the faculty to dis-him who had the power of death, that is, the devil. tinguish, choose, and cleanse thy food, thou shalt feed henceforth like the most stupid and abject quadruped, all the day's of thy life-through all the innumerable generations of thy species. God saw meet to manifest his displeasure against the agent employed in this melancholy business; and perhaps this is founded on the part which the intelligent and subtle nachash took in the seduction of our first parents. We see that he was capable of it, and have some reason to believe that he became a willing instrument.

Verse 15. I will put enmity between thee and the woman] This has been generally supposed to apply to a certain enmity subsisting between men and serpents; but this is rather a fancy than a reality. It is yet to be discovered that the serpentine race have any peculiar enmity against mankind, nor is there any proof that men hate serpents more than they do other noxious animals. Men have much more enmity to the common rat and magpie than they have to all the serpents in the land, because the former destroy the grain, &c., and serpents in general, far from seeking to do men mischief, flee his approach, and generally avoid his dwelling. If, however, we take the word nachash to mean any of the simia or ape species, we find a more consistent meaning, as there is scarcely an animal in the universe so detested by most women as these are; and indeed men look on them as continual caricatures of themselves. But we are not to look for merely literal meanings here it is evident that Satan, who actuated this creature, is alone intended in this part of the prophetic declaration. God in his endless mercy has put enmity between men and him; so that, though all mankind love his service, yet all invariably hate himself. Were it otherwise, who could be saved? A great point gained towards the conversion of a sinner is to convince him that it is Satan he has been serving, that it is to him he has been giving up his soul, body, goods, &c.; he starts with horror when this conviction

Thus he bruises his head-destroys his power and lordship over mankind, turning them from the power of Satan unto God; Acts xxvi. 18. And Satan bruises his heel-God so ordered it, that the salvation of man could only be brought about by the death of Christ; and even the spiritual seed of our blessed Lord have the heel often bruised, as they suffer persecution, temptation, &c., which may be all that is intended by this part of the prophecy.

Verse 16. Unto the woman he said] She being second in the transgression is brought up the second to receive her condemnation, and to hear her punishment: I will greatly multiply, or multiplying I will multiply; i. e., I will multiply thy sorrows, and multiply those sorrows by other sorrows, and this during conception and pregnancy, and particularly so in parturition or child-bearing. And this curse has fallen in a heavier degree on the woman than on any other female. Nothing is better attested than this, and yet there is certainly no natural reason why it should be so; it is a part of her punishment, and a part from which even God's mercy will not exempt her. It is added farther, Thy desire shall be to thy husband-thou shalt not be able to shun the great pain and peril of child-bearing, for thy desire, thy appetite, shall be to thy husband; and he shall rule over thee, though at their creation both were formed with equal rights, and the woman had probably as much right to rule as the man; but subjection to the will of her husband is one part of her curse; and so very capricious is this will often, that a sorer punishment no human being can well have, to be at all in a state of liberty, and under the protection of wise and equal laws.

Verse 17. Unto Adam he said] The man being the last in the transgression is brought up last to receive his sentence: Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife" thou wast not deceived, she only gave and counselled thee to eat; this thou shouldst

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have resisted;" and that he did not is the reason of monly, and is so mischievous, is a sufficient proof how his condemnation. Cursed is the ground for thy sake-well the means are calculated to secure the end. The from henceforth its fertility shall be greatly impaired; genista, or spinosa vulgaris, called by some furze, by in sorrow shalt thou eat of it-be in continual per- others whins, is allowed to be one of the most misplexity concerning the seed time and the harvest, the chievous shrubs on the face of the earth. Scarcely cold and the heat, the wet and the dry. How often any thing can grow near it, and it is so thick set with are all the fruits of man's toil destroyed by blasting, prickles that it is almost impossible to touch it without by mildew, by insects, wet weather, land floods, &c.! being wounded. It is very prolific; almost half the Anxiety and carefulness are the labouring man's portion. year it is covered with flowers which produce pods Verse 18. Thorns also and thistles, &c.] Instead filled with seeds. Besides, it shoots out roots far and of producing nourishing grain and useful vegetables, wide, from which suckers and young plants are connoxious weeds shall be peculiarly prolific, injure the tinually springing up, which produce others in their ground, choke the good seed, and mock the hopes of turn. Where it is permitted to grow it soon overthe husbandman; and thou shalt eat the herb of the spreads whole tracts of ground, and it is extremely field-thou shalt no longer have the privilege of this difficult to clear the ground of its roots where once garden of delights, but must go to the common cham- it has got proper footing. Such provision has the just paign country, and feed on such herbs as thou canst God made to fulfil the curse which he has pronounced find, till by labour and industry thou hast raised others on the earth, because of the crimes of its inhabitants. more suitable to thee and more comfortable. See Hale's Vegetable Statics.

In the curse pronounced on the ground there is much "Verse 19. In the sweat of thy face] Though the more implied than generally appears. The amazing whole body may be thrown into a profuse sweat, if fertility of some of the most common thistles and hard labour be long continued, yet the face or forehead thorns renders them the most proper instruments for is the first part whence this sweat begins to issue; this the fulfilment of this sentence against man. Thistles is occasioned by the blood being strongly propelled to multiply enormously; a species called the Carolina | sylvestris bears ordinarily from 20 to 40 heads, each containing from 100 to 150 seeds.

Another species, called the Acanthum vulgare, produces above 100 heads, each containing from 3 to 400 seeds. Suppose we say that these thistles produce at a medium only 80 heads, and that each contains only 300 seeds; the first crop from these would amount to 24,000. Let these be sown, and their crop will amount to 576 millions. Sow these, and their produce will be 13,824,000,000,000, or thirteen billions, eight hundred and twenty-four thousand millions; and a single crop from these, which is only the third year's growth, would amount to 331,776,000,000,000,000, or three hundred and thirty-one thousand seven hundred and seventy-six billions; and the fourth year's growth will amount to 7,962,624,000,000,000,000,000, or seven thousand nine hundred and sixty-two trillions, six hundred and twenty-four thousand billions. A progeny more than sufficient to stock not only the surface of the whole world, but of all the planets of the solar system, so that no other plant or vegetable could possibly grow, allowing but the space of one square foot for each plant.

The Carduus vulgatissimus viarum, or common hedge thistle, besides the almost infinite swarms of winged seeds it sends forth, spreads its roots around many yards, and throws up suckers everywhere, which not only produce seeds in their turn, but extend their roots, propagate like the parent plant, and stifle and destroy all vegetation but their own.

the brain, partly through stooping, but principally by the
strong action of the muscles; in consequence of this
the blood vessels about the head become turgid through
the great flux of blood, the fibres are relaxed, the pores
enlarged, and the sweat or serum poured out.
then the very commencement of every man's labour
may put him in mind of his sin and its consequences.

Thus

Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.] God had said that in the day they ate of the forbidden fruit, dying they should die-they should then become mortal, and continue under the influence of a great variety of unfriendly agencies in the atmosphere and in themselves, from heats, colds, drought, and damps in the one, and morbid increased and decreased action in the solids and fluids of the other, till the spirit, finding its earthly house no longer tenable, should return to God who gave it; and the body, being decomposed, should be reduced to its primitive dust. It is evident from this that man would have been immortal had he never transgressed, and that this state of continual life and health depended on his obedience to his Maker. The tree of life, as we have already seen, was intended to be the means of continual preservation. For as no being but God can exist independently of any supporting agency, so man could not have continued to live without a particular supporting agent; and this supporting agent under God appears to have been the tree of life.

Ολιγη δε κεισομεσθα

Κονις, οστεων λυθέντων, Anac. Od. 4., v. 9. "We shall lie down as a small portion of dust, our

As to THORNS, the bramble, which occurs so com- bones being dissolved."

Adam and Eve are

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bread, till thou return unto the LORD God make coats of skins, ground; for out of it wast thou and clothed them. taken for m dust thou art, and "unto dust shalt thou return.

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20 And Adam called his wife's name Eve; P because she was the mother of all living. 21 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the

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22 And the LORD God said, a 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;

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emblem and type of that death which should conquer Satan, destroy his empire, reconcile God to man, convert man to God, sanctify human nature, and prepare it for heaven.

Verse 20. And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.] A man who does not understand the original cannot possibly comprehend the reason of what is said here. What has the word Eve to do with being the mother of all liv- Verse 22. Behold, the man is become as one of us] ing? Our translators often follow the Septuagint; it On all hands this text is allowed to be difficult, and the is a pity they had not done so here, as the Septuagint difficulty is increased by our translation, which is optransation is literal and correct: Ka ekaheσev Adau posed to the original Hebrew and the most authentic το όνομα της γυναικός αυτού Ζωη, ότι μητηρ παντων versions. The Hebrew has 77 hayah, which is the TWV (WVTW" And Adam called his wife's name Life, third person preterite tense, and signifies was, not is. because she was the mother of all the living." This The Samaritan text, the Samaritan version, the Syis a proper and faithful representation of the Hebrew riac, and the Septuagint, have the same tense. These text, for the nn Chavvah of the original, which we lead us to a very different sense, and indicate that there have corrupted into Eve, a word destitute of all mean- is an ellipsis of some words which must be supplied in ing, answers exactly to the Zwn of the Septuagint, order to make the sense complete. A very learned both signifying life; as does also the Hebrew 'n chai man has ventured the following paraphrase, which to the Greek Swvrov, both of which signify the living. should not be lightly regarded: "And the Lord God It is probable that God designed by this name to teach said, The man who was like one of us in purity and our first parents these two important truths: 1. That wisdom, is now fallen and robbed of his excellence; though they had merited immediate death, yet they he has added ny ladaath, to the knowledge of the should be respited, and the accomplishment of the sen- good, by his transgression the knowledge of the evil; tence be long delayed; they should be spared to pro-and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of pagate a numerous progeny on the earth. 2. That though much misery would be entailed on his posterity, and death should have a long and universal empire, yet ONE should in the fulness of time spring from the woman, who should destroy death, and bring life and immortality to light, 2 Tim. i. 10. Therefore Adam called his wife's name Life, because she was to be the mother of all human beings, and because she was to be the mother of HIM who was to give life to a world dead in trespasses, and dead in sins, Eph. ii. 1, &c.

Verse 21. God made coats of skins] It is very likely that the skins out of which their clothing was made were taken off animals whose blood had been poured out as a sin-offering to God; for as we find Cain and Abel offering sacrifices to God, we may fairly presume that God had given them instructions on this head; nor is it likely that the notion of a sacrifice could have ever occurred to the mind of man without an express revelation from God. Hence we may safely infer, 1. That as Adam and Eve needed this clothing as soon as they fell, and death had not as yet made any ravages in the animal world, it is most likely that the skins were taken off victims offered under the direction of God himself, and in faith of HIM who, in the fulness of time, was to make an atonement by his death. And it seems reasonable also that this matter should be brought about in such a way that Satan and death should have no triumph, when the very first death that took place in the world was an

the tree of life, and eat and live for ever in this miserable state, I will remove him, and guard the place lest he should re-enter. Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden," &c. This seems to be the most natural sense of the place. Some suppose that his removal from the tree of life was in mercy, to prevent a second temptation. He before imagined that he could gain an increase of wisdom by eating of the tree of knowledge, and Satan would be disposed to tempt him to endeavour to elude the sentence of death, by eating of the tree of life. Others imagine that the words are spoken ironically, and that the Most High intended by a cutting taunt, to upbraid the poor culprit for his offence, because he broke the Divine command in the expectation of being like God to know good from evil; and now that he had lost all the good that God had designed for him, and got nothing but evil in its place, therefore God taunts him for the total miscarriage of his project. But God is ever consistent with himself; and surely his infinite pity prohibited the use of either sarcasm or irony, in speaking: of so dreadful a catastrophe, that was in the end to occasion the agony and bloody sweat, the cross and passion, the death and burial, of Him in whom dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, Col. ii. 9.

In chap. i. 26, 27, we have seen man in the perfection of his nature, the dignity of his office, and the plenitude of his happiness. Here we find the same creature, but stripped of his glories and happiness, so

Adam and Eve expelled

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GENESIS.

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from the garden.

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23 Therefore the LORD God sent | placed at the east of the garden him forth from the garden of Eden, of Eden " Cherubims, and a flaming to till the ground from whence he was taken. sword which turned every way, to keep the 24 So he drove out the man; and he way of the tree of life. Chapter ii. 5; iv. 2; ix. 20; Ecclesiastes v. 9.- Chapter

ii. 8.

that the word man no longer conveys the same ideas it did before. Man and intellectual excellence were before so intimately connected as to appear inseparable; man and misery are now equally so. In our nervous mother tongue, the Anglo-Saxon, we have found the word Lod God signifying, not only the Supreme Being, but also good or goodness; and it is worthy of especial note that the word man man, in the same language, is used to express, not only the human being so called, both male and female, but also mischief, wickedness, fraud, deceit, and villany. Thus a simple monosyllable, still in use among us in its first sense, conveyed at once to the minds of our ancestors the two following particulars: 1. The human being in his excellence, capable of knowing, loving, and glorifying his Maker. 2. The human being in his fallen state, capable of and committing all kinds of wickedness. "Obiter hic notandum," says old Mr. Somner in his Saxon Dictionary, "venit, Lrod Saxonibus et DEUM significasse et BONUM : uti man et hominem et nequitiam. Here it is to be noted, that among the Saxons the term GoD signified both the Divine Being and goodness, as the word man signified both the human being and wickedness." This is an additional proof that our Saxon ancestors both thought and spoke at the same time, which, strange as it may appear, is not a common case their words in general are not arbitrary signs; but as far as sounds can convey the ideal meaning of things, their words do it; and they are so formed and used as necessarily to bring to view the nature and properties of those things of which they are the signs. In this sense the Anglo-Saxon is inferior only to the Hebrew.

Verse 24. So he drove out the man] Three things are noted here: 1. God's displeasure against sinful man, evidenced by his expelling him from this place of blessedness; 2. Man's unfitness for the place, of which he had rendered himself unworthy by his ingratitude and transgression; and, 3. His reluctance to leave this place of happiness. He was, as we may naturally conclude, unwilling to depart, and God drove him out.

He placed at the east] the garden of Eden, before what gate or entrance; Cherubims, THE cherubim.

Exod. xxv. 2, 20; 1 Kings vi. 25-28; Josh. v. 13; Psa. civ. 4; Heb. i. 7.

From the description in Exod. xxvi. 1, 31; 1 Kings vi. 29, 32; 2 Chron. iii. 14, it appears that the cherubs were sometimes represented with two faces, namely, those of a lion and of a man; but from Ezek. i. 5, &c.; x. 20, 21, we find that they had four faces and four wings; the faces were those of a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle; but it seems there was but one body to these heads. The two-faced cherubs were such as were represented on the curtains and veil of the tabernacle, and on the wall, doors, and veil of the temple; those with four faces appeared only in the holy of holies.

The word 7 or 1 kerub never appears as a verb in the Hebrew Bible, and therefore is justly supposed to be a word compounded of ke a particle of resemblance, like to, like as, and rab, he was great, powerful, &c. Hence it is very likely that the cherubs, to whatever order of beings they belonged, were emblems of the ALL-MIGHTY, and were those creatures by whom he produced the great effects of his power. The word rab is a character of the Most High, Prov. xxvi. 10: The great God who formed all; and again in Psa. xlviii. 2, where he is called the Great King,melech rab. But though this is rarely applied as a character of the Supreme Being in the Hebrew Bible, yet it is a common appellative of the Deity in the Arabic language.

rab, and

,rabulalameen Lord of both worlds, or رب العالمين

Lord of the universe, are expressions repeatedly used to point out the almighty energy and supremacy of God. On this ground, I suppose, the cherubim were emblematical representations of the eternal power and Godhead of the Almighty. These angelic beings were for a time employed in guarding the entrance to Paradise, and keeping the way of or road to the tree of life. This, I say, for a time; for it is very probable that God soon removed the tree of life, and abolished the garden, so that its situation could never after be positively ascertained.

By the flaming sword turning every way, or flame folding back upon itself, we may understand the formidable appearances which these cherubim assumed, in order to render the passage to the tree of life inaccessible.

mikkedem, or before may be conceived its 'n hakkerubim, Thus terminates this most awful tragedy; a tragedy Hebrew plurals in the masculine end in which all the actors are slain, in which the most in general in im: to add an s to this when we intro- awful murders are committed, and the whole universe duce such words into English, is very improper; there- ruined! The serpent, so called, is degraded; the fore the word should be written cherubim, not cheru-woman cursed with pains, miseries, and a subjection to bims. But what were these! They are utterly unknown. Conjectures and guesses relative to their nature and properties are endless. Several think them to have been emblematical representations of the sacred Trinity, and bring reasons and scriptures in support of their opinion; but as I am not satisfied that this opinion is correct, I will not trouble the reader with it.

the will of her husband, which was never originally designed; the man, the lord of this lower world, doomed to incessant labour and toil; and the earth itself cursed with comparative barrenness! To complete all, the garden of pleasure is interdicted, and this man, who was made after the image of God, and who would be like him, shamefully expelled from a

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