wisdom, this their understanding, to keep and observe all that the Lord their God should declare? The natural event of their herein preserving themselves, could be no other, than that using all the powers of their own minds, whereinsoever God did not think fit specially to interpose, but strictly conforming to whatever he directed; man, though made with lower powers of reason than angels, being guided by his Creator, and ripening himself, might have gradually advanced unto all truth. But when, instead of thus proceeding, our first parents deviated from obeying the voice of God, to hearken to the words of a lower speaker, and to break the commandment of Him who made them, because it seemed to be pleasant to their eyes so to do, and a thing to be desired to make them wise; what else did they herein, but take themselves out of the hand of God's counsel, into the hands of their own? And what could this possibly lead to, unless they had been created with greater actual knowledge, or with the powers of a more unerring understanding, but to all mistake, and by degrees, unto every evil work. Another part of the objection is, " that if our first parents had not been tempted from without by a deceiver, they would not have broken the commandment of their God." But we see things very superficially indeed, if we do not perceive enough to apprize us, that if we say this in our heart, we certainly do not enquire wisely into this matter. That, in fact, a serpent speaking in man's voice, occasioned in our first parents (whilst they two were the all of mankind as yet in the world) a sentiment, that what God had prohibited, was both pleasant and desirable, in the reason of the thing, to be done, to make them wise, is indeed true; and that this sentiment was too hard for them; but it can in no wise follow, that, had it not been thus incidentally occasioned, earlier, perhaps, than otherwise they might have thought of it, it would never have had rise in the heart of man. If we consider it's nature, no thought here took hold of them, but what is common to man ;* for it has in all ages been a captivating point in human theory, that what seems to us contrary to what we account wisdom, may not be a real revelation from God. And if the breaking the commandment concerning the forbidden tree had not happened until our first parents. had gradually formed their hearts more deliberately to reject it; how do we know but a thought might have been raised in them, which could never be changed1 in the way and manner in which it must be ever fit, that God should govern, but not absolutely force the moral world. Or, had it not taken effect until the sons of men were many, until mankind were multiplied upon the earth, can we say, whether the fall of mankind would, in the measure and manner of it, have been so suited to the great and deep purpose in the hidden counsel of God, to bring man out of all his evil to salvation at last ? The nature of virtue or vice in moral agents must require, that it be really in our own choice, to do the one or the other; but the times and seasons when the incidents shall happen, that may give us an oppor tunity of standing or falling by our own choice, are best * See Connect, vol. iii. b. ix. Wisdom xii. 10. m See Eph. i. 4-12. iii. 11. Rom. v. 12-19. left unto God, to have them ministered to us as he sees. to be most proper. The Jews were permitted to complete our Saviour's death, whilst yet they protested, that if he would have come down from the cross, they would have believed in him." Whether they really. would or not, we cannot say; but if God knew they would not, it was a mercy to them that he let their transgression be finished, whilst yet it might be prayed for. That mankind would not so govern that spark of reason, wherewith God had endowed them, as not through it to break away from that dependance which they ought to have on him, was undoubtedly foreseen by God before the worlds were; which, duly considered, will suggest a thought to us, that if we could be admitted to see the whole counsel of God, we might find, that in permitting sin and death to come by one man into the world, as related by Moses, he best knew how to link and connect his design of bringing mankind unto salvation by the obedience of one. But there remains one suggestion more, which I think a few observations may very clearly refute. It will be said, "What if our first parents did break this positive command, concerning the tree, of which no reason could tell them it was intrinsically good or evil; will it follow, that they therefore would have disobeyed God in any one moral law, which he would have been pleased to make known to them ?" Although Adam and Eve did not keep inviolate the observance, not to eat of the tree; we do not see that they proceeded, or had ■ Matth. xxvii. 42. • Luke xxiii. 34. r any desire to think of breaking the law concerning man and wife, which God declared to them;" might they not have been as punctual in observing every moral law for the duties of life, whenever such law should have been made known to them? I answer, we may judge very rashly in this great matter; and, in all we thus say of it, only darken the counsels of the Most High, by words without knowledge. The Israelites, I question not, believed, that both they and their posterity would keep their solemn resolution to serve their own God, and not be corrupted to go after the idols of Canaan; although they did not so strictly expel the Canaanites out of their land, as God had commanded them; but the event soon shewed that their imagination was only vain. God, who sees into us, and sees through us, knows best what observances may be necessary to exercise us to our duties; and could best judge, whether, whenever our first parents would go beyond the restraint he had pre scribed them, they would not therein cherish a thought which would naturally fill apace every measure of error, and heap it up, to run over into their bosom. The principle intended to be established by the command concerning the tree, was, as I have said, that our first parents, having no actual science of life, should proceed in the hand, under the direction of God's counsel, to make it their wisdom and understanding, strictly to practise whatsoever God should enjoin them. And the con P Gen. ii. 24. ut sup. 52, 55. Job xxxviii. 2. Sce Judges i. Numb. xxxiii. sequence of rejecting to be under this direction, to follow, instead thereof, what seemed agreeable in their own eyes, and desirable in their own judgment; might naturally plant in them the root, from whence all these shoots have sprung, which have been the great prescr vation of human life. This being duly considered, must lead us, not to think of the positive command given our first parents, as a thing indifferent, or of no real moment; rather, to use the words of St. Paul, as equally applicable to this the beginning of revealed religion, as to the end and completion of it. God, in giving our first parents the law of the prohibited tree, abounded towards them in all wisdom and prudence; to give them, such creatures as he had made them, a law, which, observed as it ought, would, in its natural event, have been their life and salvation. We may speculate at random as we please upon the subject; but if fact is at all to guide us, we must observe, that this beginning of error being once admitted, notwithstanding God's immediately proceeding to denounce and ascertain the terrible punishment he had declared should be the wages of it; yet the error itself did not cease, although it could not be again committed in the same fact which was Adam's transgression; but rather grew luxuriant, and abounded in the world. We read of one person in the first world, who most eminently walked with God," in the obedience of faith; Enoch herein so ́pleased God, as to be translated.ă There were others, who were found faithful in their ge * Eph. i. 8. Gen. v. 22, 24. * Heb. xi. 3. |