be more analogous to the ordinary course of Providence, than that they who had no other parents, should be instructed by an Almighty Father?

Concerning this inhabitant of the garden of God, dignified with power over all other creatures, the language might be adopted: "Thou hast made him a little lower than the Angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour." But if he charged his Angels with folly in aspiring above their condition, if he spared not them, but cast them down, his justice would have been impeachable, had he spared beings, who, though inferior in might and power, aspired to the highest station, even to be as Gods.

Milton makes Satan exclaim, in one of his solįloquies―

"Behold, instead

Of us outcast, exiled? his new delight,

Mankind, created; and, for him, this world."

Book iv.

This presents the idea, that when one class of beings, render themselves unworthy of longer

continuance in the favour of the Supreme Governor of the universe, he transfers it from them to others; and it unquestionably accords with the general order of Providence, remarkably exemplified in his casting off his chosen people Israel, and receiving the Gentiles. The Apostle to the Romans says of this: "Behold therefore the goodness, and the severity of God; in those which fell, severity; but towards thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness; otherwise thou also shalt be cut off."

"Of the duration of the innocence and happiness of our first parents, we have not any account; we must therefore proceed, however reluctantly, to that awful revolution which at length took place in their condition and cha

racter.

Their history now becomes blended with that of the wicked and malignant spirit, who had left his first estate of holiness and felicity; and who, having artfully seduced them from their allegiance and fidelity, occasioned their incurring divine wrath, their expulsion from Paradise, and rendered them a prey to fear, shame, and remorse; and also subjected them to pain, disease, and death.

The devil, observing the serpent to be a creature of peculiar sagacity, fixed on him as a fit

instrument of seduction; and, as fearing a repuls from the superior firmness of man, he watches for and finds an opportunity when the woman was separated from her husband. He artfully ad dresses himself to a principle in nature, the unlawful indulgence of which has been ruinous to thousands; he excites her curiosity, then prompts her to doubt and reason in the face of a positive command. Having so far gained her attention, he rouses in her a spirit of pride and ambition, and then persuades her to make the dreadful experiment. She eats of the forbidden fruit, and, by transgression, acquires the knowledge of evil, whereas, hitherto, she had known only good. Eve fell by a curious and ambitious desire of a condition for which God had not designed her; a desire to be as God, to know good and evil: Adam, through unmanly weakness, in yielding to the persuasion of his wife, in defiance of his Sovereign.

He to whom the approach of God was lately the highest gratification, now trembles with fear at his voice, and shrinks from Him with horror and remorse. That tongue, to which, before, gratitude and love had given utterrance, now learns to reproach and upbraid: "The woman thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the

tree, and I did eat." The change which had taken place in his internal disposition and character, required a correspondent revolution in his outward condition. Adam must no longer possess that paradise of which he had rendered himself unworthy. Justice drives the man out of Eden, who had cast himself out from the favour of his gracious Benefactor. The flaming sword of the cherubim, excluded from all access to the tree of life.

His labour, which, before, was altogether delightful, because it was inspired with gratitude, must, henceforward, be attended with pain; and it may be concluded, that mutual reflections and reproaches, embittered the happiness and increased the misery of our first parents. "But will God contend for ever, will he be always wroth ? Then the spirit should fail before him, and the souls which he hath made." He who saw that man had been deceived, that it was not out of malice, or an original presumption in him, that he had fallen; but through the subtilty of the serpent, who had first fallen himself; and by the mediation of the woman, his own nature and companion, whom the serpent had first deluded; in his infinite wisdom and goodness, found out a way to repair the loss. He declared that the old serpent, who is the devil and satan; who had, in

G

deceiving her, destroyed her posterity, should, by one who was peculiarly her posterity, be himself destroyed and slain: "Her seed shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." In this promise is the first opening of christianity, and the work of redemption.

Thus they leave Eden supported and cheered with the expectation of triumph over their bitter enemy, and of being restored to the favour of their offended God. Whether gratitude inspired by this hope, induced Cain to bring the fruit of the ground, and Abel the firstlings of his flock, each for an offering unto the Lord; or was it for averting his wrath in future, we are not informed; but in Abel, we have the first instance on record of the exercise of faith, which renders an offering unto God acceptable; by which he obtained witness that he was righteous.

But an event soon took place in Adam's family, which furnishes a melancholy instance, that the first quarrel in the world occasioned the shedding of human blood. Contemplating this as the sad consequence of his own transgression, what an inexpressible source of disappointment it must have been! How must it have embittered all his former grief! How would he accuse himself as not only the author of his own wretched