hold the man to whom it was said that he should become like unto myself! look upon this new specimen of the adversary's fraud and malice, for to what a deplorable condition is my once happy creature now reduced! But now, lest wile follow upon wile, and the enemy should suggest to the unhappy sinner, that as my former sacramental pledge of life was no mere sign of blessing, but identical with life eternal, he has now only to put forth his hand that he may eat and live for ever, I will avert the too possible catastrophe of a yet further developement of ungodliness, and cut off all possibility of access to the now deceptious pledge of life, that my guilty creatures may be preserved from the yet more fatal ruin which must needs ensue, should they think to live for ever by the miserable substitution of the fruit of the earthly tree, denominated tree of life,' in lieu of faith in Him who will be to them the bread of life, the heavenly bread, the divine food upon which feeding by faith, death will have no dominion over them."

Nor can we reasonably doubt, but that Satan would have attempted a new fraud upon the sinful weakness of our first parents, by means of the tree called "tree of life," had not the Lord interposed to prevent the dire attempt. And do we err in making use of so strong an epithet in reference to such a supposed design of the adversary? Surely not: for had Satan succeeded in that second wile, there could have been no salvation for his wretched victims. As yet the unhappy culprits had made no attempt to take heaven by storm, and to resolve upon effecting their own salvation. They had been instructed by the Lord in the use of sacrificial rites, they had been

taught by Him to look for the pardon of their sin to the woman's seed, who should bruise the serpent's head. It had been shewn them that eternal life was now to come to them in the way of a free gift from God, for the merits and work's sake of His own wellbeloved Son; but should they now resolve, under the instigation of the wicked one, to attempt to procure life in some other way, even by the means of a violent and unlawful seizure of a mere earthly symbol of a tree, whose fruit could by no possibility impart life to the dead sinner, should they thus delude their wretched souls, sport with death, and do their utmost to seal to themselves damnation, by turning from the Lord's Christ to the earthly element, to the symbol which was now without life or significance for them, -should they thus reject the newly-instituted sacrifices, the typical way of the sinner's approach to God, and daringly resolve upon procuring for themselves the life they had lost by disobedience,-should they do all this, (and all this they would inevitably do, should they put forth their hand to eat of the tree of life,) what could ensue but their utter, their irretrievable destruction? The justified sinner shall live by his faith. But if the sinner have no faith, how shall he become justified, how shall he live? Had Adam refused to avail himself of the promise of life by means of the woman's seed, and had he madly turned from the bleeding victim typical of the Lamb slain for the sin of the world, to the now (to him) unmeaning type of the tree of life, where had been his eternal life? By that sacrilegious act, Adam would have trampled under foot the Son of God, and would have put Him to an open shame, and then what further sacrifice for sin had remained

for him? Heb. x. 26, 27. Assuredly none: but the Lord graciously interposed to prevent the possibility of Adam's ruin, by making any approach to the now fatal tree altogether impossible, even as the pious King Hezekiah, in a later period of the church's history, destroyed the once life-giving serpent of brass, lest it should become a continued occasion of delusion to his people; (2 Kings xviii. 4.) and even as the Apostle Paul also, keenly alive to the too probable contempt of Christ, by the substitution of legal obedience in the place of His righteousness, sternly denounced in after ages, the practice of that rite of circumcision, which God had Himself enjoined at an earlier period upon His people, under the awful penalty of death. Gal. v. 2-6.

That there was a purpose of mercy intended to our first parents, in denying them all possibility of access to the tree whose fruit would from henceforth become to them the pledge of death instead of life, we may clearly discern; but at the same time it is not necessary to restrict the divine intention in the institution of the guard of cherubims, and the flaming sword, to the one purpose only of an actual prevention of any access on the part of the elect church to its now baneful fruit, for we may properly believe, that the heavenly guard and swiftly-turning sword which prevented all approach to the tree of life, were also symbolic of the great truth, that the first connexion between man's obedience and man's life

* Paul forbade the Galatians, who were Gentiles, to become circumcised as a means of justification, as recommended by some erring teachers. With circumcision as the seal of God's promises to Abraham concerning the land of Israel, Paul never interfered. It is singular how writers mystify themselves by leaving out of sight the distinction between the Jewish people and the Gentiles.-EDITOR.

having been dissolved by sin, that connexion was never more to be restored upon its former conditions, which were now and for ever annulled.

By the deeds of the law, no flesh should be justified in God's sight. Rom. iii. 20. A right to eat of the fruit of the tree of life, could never more appertain to the fallen creature, in connexion with any righteousness of his own. He must now desist from claiming life as the reward of his own obedience, and must learn to seek for it in some other way, even in the way which the Lord his God would reveal to him. Should any man, that is, should any sinner, (for all men are now such, Rom. v. 12.) presume to lay hold upon eternal life on the plea of having been obedient to the law of God, the broken law, of which the flaming sword was the expressive symbol, would become its own avenger, and would slay the sinner. "For as many as are of the works of the law, are under the curse; (Gal. iii. 10.) and how then obtain a blessing by pleading the fulfilment of the legal precept, which can now only convince of sin? Rom. iii. 20. Death must be the penalty of any sacrilegious attempt forcibly to lay hold upon that life, which from henceforth could only become the sinner's in the way of a free gift from God, irrespective of any merit on the part of the creature. It is probable that we are not wrong in this interpretation of the symbolic sword, and we may also believe that Adam was instructed in the truths that it typified. As to what the actual appearance may have been, which was visible to the eye of our first parents, we may conclude from the text, that it was a species of lightning of a terrific character, whose vivid and swiftly vibrating flashes assumed the form of a venge

ful flaming sword. Any recourse to allegory in the explanation of the present passage would be altogether out of place, as it is evident that the sacred historian is describing a fact that really took place, and appearances that were visible. No further mention being made of these celestial phenomena, we cannot assign the period of their duration. It may be conjectured, however, with some show of probability, that the entrance to the garden of Eden continued impracticable till that fair abode was destroyed on the occasion of the deluge, and with it every tree swept away "which was pleasant to the eyes and good for food, the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and the tree of life also in the midst of the garden." (chap. ii. 8, 9.)

The tragic history of our race, has proceeded rapidly to the close of its first awful consummation; and how completely is the scene changed! The Adam who was alive, is now dead. Luke xv. 32. The pleasant child, the dear son, (Jer. xxxi. 20.) has left his father's house, has become a prodigal, and roams at large through the wide earth. Forgetful of his lineage and high extraction, he will ultimately be reduced so low as to be compelled to take on him the care of swine; and instead of freely feeding upon the fruits of Paradise, he will even desire to partake of the husks which these unclean beasts do eat. Luke xv. 11-16. Unhappy Adam, thou didst expel thyself from that blest Eden, from that garden of delights, and where art thou now, poor wanderer? Surely in the wilderness caused by thine own sin. Psalm cvii. 33, 34. And now on every side, thou dost behold the myrtle changing itself into the brier, and the fir-tree into the thorn; (Isaiah