Death was threatened in case of disobedience; and this shews that mortality was the consequence of sin, and not an accompaniment of man's sinless nature, or of the perfect constitution of the human frame at the period of its creation. How his body would have been preserved without undergoing death or suffering decay, is a question our reason is unable to solve. There was the tree of life erected for his use, and of which he was permitted to eat. Respecting this tree, it has been supposed by some, that it possessed a physical power to preserve human life from decay and death. But whether or not this conjecture be true, it was doubtless a sacramental pledge given by God, that man should never die as long as he continued faithful and obedient. God, who created him in his own image, was doubtless able to preserve him from death. But as Adam and Eve forfeited the blessing of immortality, it was proper they should be deprived of the sacramental pledge of it; and therefore they were precluded from the use of the tree of life, as soon as, by sin, they had deprived themselves of the promise attached to it. Hence, part of the curse denounced against man for his transgression was, dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." Thus we see the reason and the truth of the apostle's testimony: "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin." Sin was the door by which death entered the habitations of mankind, and by which he became the universal conqueror and destroyer of the human race.

Having taken a view of man as created in the

image of God, I shall conclude with two reflections obviously arising from the subject.

1. How widely different is the present condition of man, from that in which the first parents of the human race were originally formed!

Heathen poets have attempted to paint a golden age of the world. This allegory probably derived its origin from the traditions they had received of a primeval state of unalloyed happiness. But, alas! the fall has destroyed the beauty and marred the perfection of that creation which its Almighty former, in the beginning," pronounced "very good. "How is the gold become dim, and the fine gold changed!" Now our name is ICHABOD ! "where is the glory?" When our first parents were created in the divine image, they had the moral law written in their hearts, by which they were inclined, as well as bound, to the exercise of that love of God and his creatures, which is the substance and fulfilment of the law. But there was a prohibition imposed on them as a peculiar test of their obedience. One tree in Paradise was forbidden them. Concerning this it was said, "Thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day thou eatest of it, thou shalt surely die;" or as more emphatically expressed in the Hebrew, "Dying thou shalt die." This evidently implied, as explained by the event, that by transgression they should forfeit their Creator's favour and incur his displeasure with all its awful effects; that they should become liable to pain and disease, which should only terminate with the dis

solution of their body; that they should lose the image of God in which they were created; that they should be deprived of the divine presence and consolations; that they should experience the torment of sinful passions and the dread of their Maker's justice and vengeance, which, according to this covenant, should be co-existent with the immortality of the soul. This prohibition was reasonable; it was a test of the obedience and love of rational and holy creatures, formed in the divine image. It was no hard condition nor difficult precept, and, as far we can judge, no possible command could more easily have been observed. But this reasonable injunction our first parents disobeyed, and thus the covenant of works was irreparably destroyed. The devil, the enemy of God and man, observing the beauty of the new-made world, and envying the happiness of man, formed the malicious design of ruining the whole. With reference to the circumstances of the fall of man, the subject of this discourse does not require any amplified particulars for their illustration. A few brief remarks is all that can here be offered. Satan tempted and deceived the mother of the human race, by the agency of the serpent. But reason and the scriptures evidently shew that the serpent was only the instrument, Satan the real actor in this transaction. He is therefore called the serpent, the old dragon, a liar, and a murderer, from the beginning. The word of God assures us of the existence of spirits, holy and unholy. On this subject we could have had no knowledge, but by revelation. Faith receives this

doctrine, but unbelief rejects it, to the infidel's ruin. From the scriptures we learn that "angels have sinned, and kept not their first estate." Being created holy and happy, by transgression they lost the favour and incurred the displeasure of their Creator. They became unholy, miserable, and desperate; but being still endued with vast capacities and powers, as well as with wonderful knowledge, sagacity, and subtilty, through their inveterate malice, pride, and ambition, they maintain determined rebellion against their maker. The devil, or Satan, the arch-apostate, full of enmity against God and jealousy towards man, devised the means of our ruin. For this purpose, with wily craftiness, he concealed himself in the subtle serpent, and made his attack upon the woman, when alone; perhaps insinuating, that by eating of the fruit of the forbidden tree, he had himself acquired the gift of reason and speech. He persuaded her that it was a tree to be desired, to make one wise. She believed the testimony of the father of lies; and, without consulting Adam, or allowing herself time for consideration, she took of the fruit, and did eat: she allured her husband, and he also did eat.

Her rash hand in evil hour,

Forth reaching to the fruit, she plucked, she eat:
Earth felt the wound; and Nature from her seat,
Sighing, through all her works, gave signs of woe
That all was lost."

They eat, and their eyes were opened-opened, in a sense far different from what the tempter had pretended. They saw the snare into which they had

All

fallen; they saw the misery before them, with horror and dismay; and their new discoveries were their torment. They saw and felt themselves stripped of the robe of innocence, despoiled of the image of God, and deprived of His presence and protection. They perceived that they were made naked to their shame; and, sensible of their guilt and misery, they attempted to hide themselves among the trees of the garden. Such was the transgression of our first parents; and all mankind have felt the tremendous effects of their sin. "By the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation." mankind being in the loins of their common father, as their federal head, sinned in him. Adam's sin is imputed to all his posterity. We see this, by the sufferings and death of infants, before they have committed any actual sin in their own persons. If the guilt of sin had not been imputed, there could have been no suffering for it. But "Death reigns over those who have not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression." It may also be remarked, that not only is guilt imputed to all the descendants of Adam; but also his corrupt and depraved nature. They are all "born in sin, and shapen in iniquity.” It is said of Adam, after his fall, that "he begot children in his own likeness, after his own image;" and not in the image of God, in which he was created. We may indulge the hope and confidence, that our first parents were personally pardoned, and recovered to holiness. But Adam, after his fall, was no longer the federal representative of his posterity,