the midst of the garden, as the knowledge of the covenant of God in Christ, guarded round with the law, with its curses in its hand, must not be eaten upon pain of death, spiritual, temporal, and eternal.

First. Now Adam cannot eat to desire knowledge above that he had, being it was forbidden, but he must make a God of it, and of him whom he believed, rather than God; here is one command broken.

Secondly.

sacrifices, but made him to serve with their sins, though they impiously wearied him with their iniquities, yet he informs them, (and who dares call the propriety of his conduct in question) I, even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins; Isaiah xliii. 24, 25.

The truth of this is further corroborated by the existence of a covenant, a covenant well ordered in all things and sure. Being well ordered it necessarily meets with all the wants and difficulties of God's people, and in its bosom are contained all that they can need: this covenant is their stay in adversity;, it forms an immoveable base for their hope, and assures them a safe conduct through the storm, and a sure protection from danger; and whatever circumstances attend the christian, whether they are adverse or prospe

rous,

Secondly. He bows his affection to his knowledge, or fruit, and falls down to it; here is two commands broken.

Thirdly. He had vain and light esteem of God, or he would have believed him: here is three commands broken.

Fourthly. He could not eat, but he broke his rest in his conscience, and with God, and that probably on the seventh day too; here is the first table broken.

Fifthly.

rous, they cannot affect the stability of the covenant or the interest of the christian in its blessings: Isaiah liv. 10, For the mountains shall depart, and the hills,-but the covenant shall not be shaken, even by that "mighty shock that hurls creation down." This covenant as it respects us, is all of grace, as it respected Christ with whom it was made, (I have made a covenant with my chosen ; I have sworn, &c. Psalm lxxxiii. 9.) It was an awful agreement of obedience and sufferings, and having complied with all its terms as our surety and head, this Divine covenant irresistibly operated to the removal of all all the obstacles arising from the breach of the Adamic covenant: we were originally branches of that family, and the only method by which we could possibly be betrothed unto another, was by becoming dead to the law; in ourselves it could

Fifthly. He honored not his Father, but dishonored him, in that he believed not that God gave him his command for good; besides, he was the cause that obedience was never given perfectly to parents more, (Christ excepted;) here is

five broken.

Sixthly. He is a self-murderer, and kills all his posterity with him; here are six commands broke.

Seventhly. He committed adultery several

ways;

not be obtained, for the rights of the law are unalienable, but being dead to the law through the body of Christ, we are lawfully married' to another: This truly interesting subject is thus expressed by the holy spirit, Rom. vii. 2. 4, for the woman which hath an husband, is bound by the law to her husband, as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband; wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law, by the body of Christ, that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth our fruit unto God.

Now, in consequence of this procedure of mercy and mysterious love, the sinner, or rather the church, is legally constituted the bride of the Lamb. This divine union has therefore these

four

ways; first, he committed with another God; secondly, in friendship to his wife, in hearkening to her voice, James iv. 4; thirdly, in desiring that which was forbidden; here is the seventh broken.

Eighthly. He stole, for it was none of his ; here is eight broken.

Ninthly. He bore false witness, in as much as he rendered himself incapable of ever witnessing for the truth more, for as much as he had believed

four divine pillars for its support ;—the electing love of God,the covenat of eterna! mercy,the actual betrothing of the church by Christ, -and the justice of God sanctioning the whole, seeing the whole is lawful, just, and right.

Seeing then, that in all these gracions acts, that God is for us, we join in the apostolic enquiry, who shall seperate us from the love of God? No tongue has yet framed a reply. Had the covenant of grace not brought us into a dead state to the law, this could not have been the case, for the law would e'ernally have condemned us, though it is fitly called a dead letter;— being weakened through the sinfulness of our nature having no power to give life, yet it is a killing letter, for it worketh death: since the fall, it never pronounced a single sentence to any of the children of men, save this dreadful monosyllable,

Death!

believed a lie, and had given the truth the lie; here is nine commands broken.

Tenthly. He broke this also, for he coveted ever thing in this.-Now, Adam, if thou eatest, thou breakest all these.

Now, what shall we say? Was there any intrinsical virtue in this tree, to give knowledge of good and evil? No: but only as the eating of it was the breach of God's law; the tree had no power in itself, but the command.

Now,

Death!" Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things, written in the book of the law, to do them :" it has consigned millions to darkness and hell its language in life, in death, and for ever to every one who is in any case whatever imperfect: "Pay me what thou owest." Who then can be saved? not one who looks to the law for aid. This is going to Egypt for help with a vengeance; this is cooling the fever of the mind, by dropping into the flames of hell; they that are saved, are happily made partakers of that which the law requires, and by it are exonorated from all its demands, and freed from its curse. What the law can do, was emblematically represented by the Cherubim, with their flaming swords, guarding the tree of life;-none dared approach; death, and the most tremendous death. awaited them: there is a sense in which the law

has