tree of life a church, to which Adam and all his posterity were to resort to receive the sacrament; to take, eat, and live for ever.

2. The tree of knowledge of good and evil. In determining what kind of tree this was, divers learned men have been both too curious and too confident. It is a rule which we have as much occasion to observe in our searches into these first three or four chapters of Genesis, as any where else in all the Bible, that where God hath not a mouth to speak, we should not desire to have an ear to hear, nor covet to be wise above what is written. This tree was not called so because it had any virtue or power by being eaten, either to work or increase knowledge; but (1.) From the event, as the well of contention, Gen. xxvi. 20, was called Esek, because they contended about it; so this was called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because Adam, by eating it, did come to know, that is to experience, to know to his cost, the difference between good and evil;-to know the worth of Paradise; good, by the loss of it; and the weight and burthen of all evil, by the sense of it. (2.) Others think it was called so, because it was the visible rule by which to know moral good and evil, not in and of itself, but by virtue of the command which God gave concerning it. (3.) Some think this tree was another sacramental sign annexed to the cove

nant of works, sealing to Adam death, if he did eat of it. Obey and live, was one part of the covenant, and the seal of that was the tree of life, of which Adam might eat and live: Disobey and die, was the other part of the covenant, and the seal of that was the tree of knowledge of good and evil, of which Adam did eat and die.

10 And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.

11 The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;

12 And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.

13 And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia:

14 And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.

'Tis clear that this garden was a part of the habitable earth; and, by following the description of it

here laid down, (which seems to justify such enquiries,) some learned men have given very great light concerning the particular place of it. We find the region of Eden mentioned in Isa. xxxvii. 12, and Ezek. xxvii. 23; and it is known at this day by that name in the parting of the two regions of Assyria and Babylonia, and is a place extraordinarily fruitful, especially in palm trees. Yet still we are at uncertainties; God having left us so much in the dark concerning this earthly paradise, that we may make sure to ourselves a place in the heavenly paradise, whence we shall fall no more.

15 And the LORD God took the man, and put him in the garden of Eden, to dress it and to keep it.

The house being ready and furnished, nothing is wanting but the tenant; and behold he comes, led by his Lord and Maker, who (as it was meet) accompanies him, to put him in possession of this happy place! The same that was the Author of man's being, is here the Author of his well-being. Adam did not run, as soon as he was made, to seek his fortune, and fix where he himself thought best; but leaves it to God, to put him where he pleased. A man may be with comfort in any place, though it

be a prison, in which he can see God by his providence putting him; but he that puts himself in a place without God, let him take what follows.

Man was made out of the garden, of common clay, not of paradise dust; and was afterwards taken and put in, which was for three ends: (1.) To show that his being there was an act of free grace, and pure love. He that made him out of paradise, might have kept him out of paradise, if he had so pleased. (2.) To keep him humble; that when he was pleasing himself with his paradise comforts, the remembrance of the rock whence he was hewn, and the hole of the pit whence he was digged, might serve to keep him low in his own eyes. (3.) That seeing the difference between being in and being out of paradise, and having found it by experience, he might be the more careful to walk circumspectly.

Adam, even in innocency, had a calling. If greatness or goodness, height or holiness, knowledge or wisdom, parts or perfection, could give a writ of ease, Adam had certainly been without a calling; but God puts him in a calling, and a calling he must have. Eden was a place of happiness and delight, and to be idle there would have been a double fault. Paradise was a type of the church, in which our Master will have none to be idle. 'Tis

a standing rule, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. 2 Thess. iii. 10.

16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:

17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

The covenant which God entered into with Adam, is sometimes called a covenant of life, because life was the reward promised; sometimes a covenant of works, because works were the duty required. This covenant is much more obscurely laid down than the covenant of grace after the fall; but that it was not only a law, but also a covenant, is clear from this scripture, where the threatening of death to disobedience, plainly implies a promise of life to obedience. Besides, if God did not deal with Adam in a covenant way, how came his posterity to be guilty of his sin? Not by natural propagation, for then the sin of our immediate parents would be made ours, as well as Adam's; (whereas the apostle charges it upon one man, Rom. v. 15-19;) but by a federal agreement made with Adam as a public person, whilst he was in an innocent estate.

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