sinners, an apology for the compliance. Let no one $ cast the first stone at our common parent, who is not conscious that he himself has not sinned in the same

manner.

3. We learn from this story, that the only time g successful resistance to temptation is the moment when it is presented.

I have already remarked, that had our first parents promptly refused to listen, they would in all probability have escaped the snare. What is true of them is true of all their posterity. The very act of deliberating, results from want of sufficient faith in God, and sufficient firmness in our duty. In our deliberations also, we are exposed to many dangers. We are ignorant, yet believe ourselves knowing: foolish, yet are vain of our wisdom; weak, yet are always ready to confide in our strength. Hence we form false conclusions from miserable premises: yet we think both the premises and conclusions sound, because they are devised by such sagacious beings as ourselves. In our love to sin, we have an enemy within us, of whose presence, or even existence, we are usually not aware, ever ready to aid the assaults of the enemy without. From onr ignorance we are easily perplexed, from our vanity easily flattered, and from both easily overcome. Of our perplexity, every tempter takes advantage, while he covers the hook with a bait for our vanity. The more we reason, the more we plunge ourselves into difficulties, and the less hope do we find of an escape. The longer the assault continues, the more feeble, embarrassed, and irresolute do we become; and the more bold, powerful, and assured, our seducer: till at length, that resolution and understanding which at first would have gained an easy and certain victory, become an unresisting prey. Resist then the devil,' resist every tempter at first, at the moment of soli. citation, and he will flee from you.'

4. We are also taught by this passage of Scripture, that the ultimate safety of mankind, when they are tempted, lies in God only.

Had Eve sought the protection of God, when she was assailed by the adversary, she had never fallen. Had she remembered the character of God, she had never believed the declarations of the tempter. Had she admitted no jealousy, no suspicion, of the divine wisdom and goodness, she had in all probability kept her happy state.

The same dangers attend all her descendants. II we wish to overcome, or escape temptations, it is indispensable that we remember the presence, and acknowledge the character of God; that we distrust in no degree his sincerity or kindness, and that we go directly to him for the succour which we need. The closing petition in the prayer taught by Christ to his disciples is, 'Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil :' that is, Suffer us not to be led into temptation: but should this danger betide us at any time, deliver us from the evil to which we shall be then exposed. Of six petitions only, of which this prayer consists; a prayer taught by him whe knew all the dangers and necessities of man, this is one. So necessary did he determine this assistance and guardianship to be; and so necessary our continual prayer that it might be afforded.

In the first temptation, we see the doctrine strongly illustrated. Here no prayer ascended for aid. Here therefore no aid was given; and here, left to themselves, the miserable victims were of course destroyed. Let us then learn wisdom, both from their example and their end. Let us avoid the one, that we may escape the other. For protection from tempters and temptations, both within us and without us, let our prayers unceasingly rise with fervent repetition. Especially, when the serpent approaches when the charm is about to begin, and when his mouth is ready to open and swallow us up, let out cries for help ascend to heaven, that He, who is swift to hear, and always prepared to pity and relieve, may mercifully extend his arm, ard snatch us from the jaws of destruction.

SERMON XXVIII

PROVIDENCE.

THE SENTENCE PRONOUNCED ON MAN

And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field: upon thy belly shalt thou go; and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception: in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it; cursed is the ground for thy sake: in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.-GEN. iii. 14 -19.

In my last Discourse, I considered at length the Temptation of our first parents, and their consequent Fall from holiness, and from the favour of God. The next subject which, in a system of theology, invites our attention, is the sentence which followed their ransgression.

This sentence is contained in the text, and naturally divides itself, for our consideration, into thre parts:

I The sentence pronounced on the tempter: Il That pronounced on the woman: and, 111. That pronounced on the man.

The order in which this subject is exhibited to us, is the same which existed in the temptation itself, and in the transgression also. The serpent first sinned in tempting the woman; the woman sinned next, in yielding to his solicitations, and eating the forbidden fruit; and the man last, in yielding to the solicitations of the woman.

On the sentence, as here pronounced, it will be proper to remark generally, that it is not a mere repetition of the words of the law. Nor is it to be considered, as in fact involving the whole of the sentence contained in the law. That sentence seems to have been left by God as it was originally denounced; and nothing more to have been now inended as a threatening, except to disclose to our first parents various evils, attendant on the state of guilt and degradation to which they had reduced themselves, and to remind them of the mortal condition in which they were now finally fixed. On the serpent indeed, a sentence new, and before undisclosed, was declared. The evils which he was to suffer in consequence of this sin, were announced : while in the same threatening was included also, a promise of great and singular benefits to those whom he had most wickedly seduced.

The original threatening of the law, or covenant, under which our first parents were placed, involved all the evils which they and their posterity were ever to suffer. The sentence now passed on the transgressors, unfolded, particularly, several distresses which they were hereafter to experience under this original threatening; and at the same time, furnished them with consolations of high importance.

I. The sentence passed on the serpent claims a twofold consideration; in its literal meaning, and in its princiful meaning.

In the literal meaning of this denunciation, the serpent is cursed beyond all other beasts,' is doomed to creep on the ground, and to eat dust all the days of his life.' Perpetual war, it is declared, shall exist between 'his seed and that of the woman;

in which he shall bruise the heel' of his adversary, while his adversary shall bruise his head.'

This, which I have chosen to call the literal meaning of the sentence, is, I acknowledge, rather an application of it to the literal serpent. The language in which it is explained is, I think, plainly figurative; and involves, generally, a state of peculiar degradation and suffering. It has been supposed and I apprehend justly, that the original condition of the serpent, as an animal, was superior and disinguished. Ancient opinions considered the serpent as winged, beautiful, and privileged above other animals. If these opinions be allowed to be just, it will be easily seen that the degradation was remarkable, and altogether calculated to convince our first parents of the miserable tendency and influence of transgression. In every view the condition specified is a condition deeply degraded, and suited obviously to shew the proper effect of sin on all the instruments by which it was accomplished. What ever the serpent lost, as well as whatever he suffered, was an infliction, properly evincing the hatred of God to every thing concerned in the seduction of mankind; and to shew to their progenitors, in immediate consequence, both the evil of which they had been guilty, and the certainty of their future punishment.

The enmity which was announced, and which has existed between the seed of the woman generally. that is, mankind, and the seed of the serpent, ha been a source of innumerable evils to the serpent Animals of this kind have ever been peculiarly hated and hunted, peculiarly attacked and destroyed, from the beginning. Even the harmless ones do not escape. A war of extermination has plainly been declared against them, and carried on through all generations with unrelaxing and unceasing animosity. In consequence of this hostility, millions of them have probably perished, which otherwise might have continued through the date allotted by providence to their being. In the mean time, not a smal