second Adam had firmly repulsed the temptation in the wilderness, we are told that the devil de

parted from him for a season. But had our general ancestor vanquished him in this primary assault, it would doubtless have so materially strengthened his virtue, and set him on his guard against all future attacks, as would have extremely weakened the power of that impotent enemy, who flies from them who stedfastly resist him, and also have given the most promising hopes of his passing his probation with safety and with honour-though not exempt, during the period of its duration, from occasional sorrow and sufferings. And supposing Adam to have persevered in virtue and obedience, not only in this first, but every subsequent conflict, there is no reason to imagine that whilst the forbidden fruit remained untasted by him, that the tree would have been removed, or that the busy adversary would have omitted his invidious endeavours to mislead every other individual probationary who might have become the occupiers of our globewho would, without doubt, have been required, in an exact proportion to the talents and powers with which they had been severally gifted, to reject his machinations, in whatever shape he may have found it most suited to his malign purposes to have framed them, and to have resisted each for themselves every allurement, and with patience to have abided every affliction, rather than violate the commands of God. But when the pernicious fruit had been once partaken of both by Adam and by Eve, the parent germ then lost its

pristine use; the subtle venom contained in its deadly produce quickly infused its baneful influence into the deep recesses of the human heart, leaving its victims to combat with augmented foes-a sinful nature and a sinful world.

The united force, however, of these allied opponents, seldom, if ever, works out a conflict more severe than that endured by man while in his glorious, perfect, innocent estate; thus clearly proving that our globe was, in its original estate, merely designed as a seminary for the trial and cultivation of virtue, and our residence on it never intended as a state of permanent and unmixed felicity; for how soon was Adam exposed to the most afflictive deprivation, (to a trial which the natural amiability of his disposition only served to render more difficult,) to a contest, every circumstance of which considered, would, to a virtuous mind and an affectionate heart, prove infinitely more arduous than any that is usually allotted to us, and to which thousands of our race, even in our present contaminated state, would prefer the loss of life itself. The certainty of this loss has indeed been entailed on us by our great progenitor; his was forfeited through want of faith, and that awful termination was thereby imposed on every human being, which now compels the exercise of that essential principle, as that alone can support them under it; for it is appointed unto all men once to die, and turn again to dust; death has reigned from Adam, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of his transgression, (Rom. v. 14,) it

VOL. I.

K

being pronounced impossible that corruption could inherit incorruption; of the former, Adam, immediately after his disobedience, gave the most evident proof, demonstrating, both by his conduct and answers, how speedily the baneful poison of allowed sin had infected and changed his own perfect and innocent nature: for on hearing the voice of the Lord God-a voice which he had doubtless been accustomed to hear with delight, both he and his wife hid themselves from his presence amongst the trees of the garden ; "Guilt for the first time had made them afraid of it."* And on his being interrogated by the Lord God whether he had eaten of that tree whereof he had been commanded that he should not eat, his reply fully evinced the fatal consequence of wilful transgression, and how powerfully he had thereby imbibed, and how obstinately he had himself retained, the spirit of his evil adversary in his heart, by the resemblance it bore to the character of the great Accuser. For after the lamentable sacrifice he had made through love of his fair partner, instead of kindly endeavouring to palliate her crime by pleading any extenuating circumstances in her behalf, or even urging the excuse of which she subsequently availed herself, and which she, without doubt, previously made to her husband, we now find no attempt whatever employed to restore her to the Divine favour-not one supplication offered for her. Her brightest charm, her innocence, was gone, and his tender affection seemed quite

* Horne.

estranged; her virtue was sullied, and his love and delight in her entirely alienated : he openly comes forward as the accuser of this idol, this usurper of his heart from God, and even impiously implicates his Maker in the blame, "The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat." Her weaker intellect and gentler nature does not appear to have become so strongly impregnated with evil; for on being more mildly questioned by the Lord God, "What is this that thou hast done?" her reply was far more humble and ingenuous than that of her husband's. It implied a tacit confession of her guilt, contained an acknowledgment of her frailty, which had been so easily deceived, and imputed the cause of her transgression to the real source: "The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat." The different degree of turpitude we have attached to each delinquent, is clearly confirmed by Scripture; Adam proudly covered his transgression, and hid his iniquity in his bosom. (Job. xxxi. 33.) And St. Paul fully charges him with wilful and presumptuous sin, by declaring that he was not deceived; but imputes the transgression of the woman to the same reason she had herself assigned, namely, that she had been deceived through subtlety of the devil. (2 Cor. xi. 3.)

The divine image being thus effaced, the fountain polluted, the offspring became tainted, for a corrupt thing could not engender an incorrupt one. Adam's long posterity have, therefore, all commenced their probationary career under

very widely different circumstances to what he had done-that is, in a contaminated state, rendering it impossible but that offences come. It would, therefore, have been utterly inconsistent with the faithfulness and justice of God, had no method of reconciliation been ordained for unavoidable frailty; but the gospel was immediately preached, (as it was afterwards unto Abraham, Galat. iii. 8,) an assurance immediately given that both these attributes would be eminently exercised towards fallen man; and the woman informed that her seed should bruise the serpent's head-that human nature, over which he had gained a temporary triumph, should ultimately vanquish him in every assault, and that even Adam, who, though he had most presumptuously sinned against hope, but who had fallen, not as the angels, through excess of a malignant passion, but by having indulged excess of an amiable one, should be included in the benefit of that grand propitiation which was to be offered for the sins of the whole world.

The nature and design of that typical religion received by the disposition of angels, (Acts vii. 53,) and subsequently established by the Mosaic institution, was also, without doubt at this juncture explained and imparted to man;* for immediate mention is made of beasts

* The reason of our entering so particularly into the nature and design of the typical religion, which we are now about to do, is the having heard the whole of that religion ridiculed as a religion impossible to have been imparted by a wise and good being, and wholly unworthy of regard.