choice; and what especially constitutes them sinners. To this I

answer,

1st. Spiritual Death ought, in relation to this question, to be considered as threatened to Adam, and not as threatened to those who were already sinners.

Spiritual Death, or habitual and immoveable sin, in the view of Adam, a holy, spotless being, and hating wholly every sin, might, I think, be regarded, not only as not chosen, or loved, by him, but as an object of supreme dread and horror. Let it be, for a moment only, considered, how such a being must feel, under a sense of losing his holy character for ever, and of being confirmed, beyond recall, in a perpetual hatred of God, and a perpetual love and practice of sin; and I believe all serious persons will agree, that this debased, odious, and contemptible character must appear to him an evil literally infinite. To sin, once, was to him an object of horror; but to be consigned for that sin to habitual and eternal rebellion and iniquity, and to become thus for ever hateful, vile, and despicable, must be, on the one hand, a loss; and on the other, a suffering, dreadful beyond all conception, except that of experience. It was, therefore, capable of being the subject of threatening, or penalty; and that to any supposable degree.

2dly. Spiritual Death is plainly the chief evil, which is, or perhaps can be, suffered by guilty beings.

Perpetual and habitual sin, or that depraved state of soul, which operates only in sinful actions, is an evil, greater, if considered only as mere suffering, than, perhaps, all others.

It is, in the first instance, the source of all the opposition, or rather is itself all the opposition, of the Soul to God; the alienation from God; consciousness of his disapprobation and wrath; fear of his vengeance; and that miserable murmuring and repining against his government and dispensations, which is felt by every sinful being.

It is, also, the source of the hatred, malevolence, envy, revenge, deceit, violence, and injustice, which so universally and dreadfully distress, and destroy, Intelligent creatures, in the present world; and in every world, where these dispositions prevail. It also cuts up by the roots, all inclination in rational beings to befriend each other; and prompts them to become, as much as possible, the means of each other's misery.

Finally; the several emotions of the soul, in this state, are in themselves misery. This will readily be acknowledged concerning many of these emotions. It is true of them universally. If we suppose them to be increased to a given degree, and to rage without gratification, nothing more is, or can be, necessary to complete the misery of a creature. Is not envy alone sufficient to make wretchedness complete? Is not murmuring against God? Is not the consciousness of being perfectly, and eternally, hateful and despicable? Is not any vehement and ungratified desire; if, at the

same time, that desire is felt to be unlawful, base, and vile? Consider all such affections as invariable and endless; and, what they are clearly known to be, most unworthy and abominable; and so inwrought into the Soul, that they cannot be separated from it, but by annihilation; and, I think, you will acknowledge readily, that a more perfect curse cannot be named.

3dly. The things which, in various places, are said in the Scriptures, concerning the state of damnation, in which this penalty is actually inflicted, seem fully to imply, that spiritual Death is a part of the curse.

In the first Chapter of Proverbs, Wisdom, that is, Christ, in denouncing the same curse against the impenitent, particularly under the Gospel, closes the threatenings with this remarkable declaration: Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.

In this passage, the curse may be said to be repeated, and explained: and here, one part of the explanation is, that the impenitent shall be filled with their devices. The devices of a man are his aims, pursuits, and plans, in which his affections are all exerted. With these, and all of them, the very pursuits and plans, which are their own; that is, which have in this life been their own; Christ declares, the impenitent shall not only be afflicted, but filled. Thus also, Solomon says, The Backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways; and the good man from himself; that is, from his own mind, affections and character; from the remembrance of what he was, and the consciousness of what he is; the wicked and the good man shall either suffer or enjoy, hereafter, in an eminent manner. Again; Wisdom, or Christ, addressing himself to sinners, in the eighth Chapter, says, All they that hate me, love Death. It can hardly be said, that Sinners love either temporal or eternal Death, considered as mere suffering; but that they love spiritual death is unquestionable. But the Death, here loved, is, I think, clearly the Death beyond the grave.

The fact is also undoubted, that the damned are not only unhappy, but wicked. Nor will it be denied, that they are thus judicially; that they are given over by God to this character in the same manner, as persons are judicially given up to blindness, hardness of heart, and final ruin, in the present world. It will also, I presume, be readily conceded, that their misery will, in a great measure, arise from their own sinful affections and pursuits, and those of their companions in wo. These facts appear to be a comment on the curse of the Law, and to explain to us in this particular its true import.

REMARKS.

1st. This subject affords strong proof of the divine Origin of the Scriptures.

The manner, in which the declarations in this sentence have

been already fulfilled, is certainly a very interesting testimony to the truth of the history, of which it is a part; a history of vast comprehension, and involving a great proportion of all the things contained in the Bible; and a history probably more objected to by Infidels than any other found in Revelation.

Of the fulfilment of the sentence on the Serpent, literally understood, there cannot be a question. A hostility, totally singular, has always existed between him and mankind; and a war has always been carried on with peculiar enmity. To destroy this animal, has been a settled pursuit in the heart of man, through every age and every country. The manner, in which this destruction has been accomplished, has also been continually that, which is here predicted; and the extent of the destruction has been in a sense without bounds. It has not been originated by a spirit of selfdefence, but of hatred. It has been a war of the kind, which the Romans describe as carried on ad internecionem; or to the final destruction of one or the other of the combatants. The cause of this will in vain be sought for in conviction and contrivance. Serpents are certainly far less mischievous to mankind than many other animals, which, yet, are not thus hunted and destroyed. Their shape is such, and their whole appearance, as in other cases is regarded not only without disgust, but with pleasure. Yet the sight of a serpent is instantly productive of a dread, a horror, a chill, totally singular, and extending to all the race of Adam. An enmity innate and irremoveable exists between us and them, felt even at the mention of the name, and strongly and proverbially expressed in a great variety of forms. Even those serpents which are known to be harmless, are, like the rest, hated in the same manner, seen with the same horror, and killed with the same eagerness. How striking an exhibition is this of the reality of the sentence! How strong a proof, from fact, of the truth of the history!

Of the fulfilment of this sentence on the Serpent, figuratively considered, we have no knowledge, except from the Scriptures themselves. In them, as I have already shown, we have a full account of the complete and wonderful accomplishment of it in the Redemption of Man. In this account, although contained in the Scriptures, we are presented with high evidence of their divinity. It is not conceivable, it is not possible, that Moses, unless inspired, should have written this prediction, with even a conjecture, that it would afterwards be thus fulfilled. Nor is it much more consistent with possibility, that the Apostles should have contrived the subsequent story so, as thus wonderfully to have accorded with this singular prophecy. The fulfilment is here as complete as it is wonderful; and, although dependent on myriads of events, these all appear in one perfect system, tending always to this end, and in this end consummating the scheme of the prophecy. He, who can believe these things to have been accidental, or to have

been contrived by mere human ingenuity, must have a peculiar facility of believing at his pleasure; and must be wholly freed from the shackles of evidence, whether certain or probable.

Nor is the fulfilment of the sentence on the Woman less remarkable. In all ages, countries, and climates, of the world, Women have been distinguished, from every species of animals, by the pains and sorrows, which they have experienced in bearing, and bringing forth, their offspring; a striking proof, that the human race have forfeited, and lost their original supremacy over the inferior inhabitants of the Earth. A great part of all the dangers and sufferings of the tender and delicate sex, are plainly derived from this source. No experience, no watchful observation, no medical skill, however laboriously exerted, and however long continued, have been sufficient to lessen this great portion of human wo, or materially to prevent the entire fulfilment of the sentence, pronounced on the general mother of mankind. The same sorrow,

pain, and fear, still remain; the same dangers still betide; the same diseases still ravage; and Death, in the same humiliating and distressing forms, and in the same proportion and number of instances, still triumphs over one half of our species; in exact accordance with the threatening of the Text.

Nor has the other part of the prediction been less wonderfully, or much less affectingly, accomplished. Throughout all savage nations, (and savage nations have constituted a great part of mankind, in every age of the world, with which we are acquainted) women have been reduced to extreme humiliation, dependence, and distress, by the stronger sex. Brutal strength and agility are the only attributes valued by savages; and women being inferior to men, in these attributes, have, by savages, been universally depressed. Of course, they have been destined, and compelled, to all those employments, which men disliked, or contemned. The very feebleness of frame, which, in the view of Men, rendered them inferior to themselves, might, one would think, naturally excuse them from the fatigue and hardship of severe labour, and plead for them an exemption from business, to which their strength was totally unequal. Still it has pleaded in vain. They have been made mere drudges, and doomed to the most toilsome, distressing, and servile offices, for the mere convenience of men. Men, when not roused to the pleasures and glories of hunting and war, have, in the savage life, spent their time in sloth, in sleep, and in diversion; while women have been forced to plant, and gather their corn; to make their utensils; and to perform, besides, all the domestic business. They have also been obliged to bear most of the burdens, and to carry the children, while infants, in their various journeys.

All the savages, of the several parts of the globe, have pursued one course of life, in this respect. In some nations, women have been condemned to such wretchedness, in consequence of their

subjection, as to expose their female children to destruction, in order to prevent them from suffering the same misery with themselves; esteeming an untimely and violent death a happier lot than life, when doomed to suffer such dreadful oppression.

In all the Mohammedan nations, also, and throughout the vast empires of Hindostan and China, women have suffered, in a manner not much less humiliating. In Mohammedan countries, they are bought and sold like cattle; are considered as mere property; are imprisoned, as they are in China also, for life; and are regarded, universally, and only, as instruments of amusement, and pleasure, by their brutal masters.

Christianity has indeed, in a great measure, in this as well as in other respects, reversed the curse. In 1 Tim. ii. xv. the Apostle, speaking of women, says, Nevertheless she shall be saved in (that is, by means of) child-bearing, if they continue in faith, and charity, and holiness, with sobriety. I apprehend the true meaning of this passage to be, that child-bearing shall eminently prove the means of salvation to the sex; through the influence of that system of Christianity, which was intended to be the general reversion of the curse. According to this declaration of the Apostle, we actually see that the danger and distress, to which women are peculiarly exposed, are the means of their piety and salvation. Women are usually pious, in far greater numbers, than men. The late President Edwards, of Nassau Hall, considered the proportion, within the limits of his information, as at least two to one; and various other Divines, of great knowledge in the religion of mankind, have concurred with him in this opinion. This interesting fact is probably owing, chiefly, if not wholly, to the danger, sorrow, and death, to which the sex are especially exposed; and which, always before their eyes, operate as solemn, and effectual monitions of their speedy departure to the eternal world. In this way they are usually more sober-minded, more attentive to spiritual and eternal things, and more disposed to give them their due influence, than men; and, thus far oftener become the subjects of piety, and the heirs of endless life.

'In Christian countries, also, Women have risen from the miserable state of humiliation and servitude, which I have described, to their proper importance and dignity. In such countries, to a great extent, they are educated, informed, refined, and elevated to the character of respectable, rational, and moral beings. The character which they sustain, and the treatment to which they are entitled, in the Gospel, are highly becoming its refined and noble character. Refined and elegant tenderness was unknown, until it was made a part of the revealed system. There it is enjoined in the strongest of all terms, and by the noblest of ali allusions. Husbands love your wives, even as Christ loved the Church, and gave himself for it, is the affecting language of the great Apostle of the Gentiles, on this interesting subject; and such language, as was