voice of tradition, and the writings of philosophy, confirm the Mosaic history of the fall of man, the antiquity of facrifices, the flood, and the general difperfion of mankind, beyond the poffibility of doubt.-And if the truth of this narrative can be thus established by an impartial examination of fuch unconnected evidence, it can scarcely remain a question in the mind of any one, who confiders the impoffibility that Mofes fhould obtain the knowledge of thefe facts by any human means, and their fingular agreement with the principles of the Chriftian Religion-whether this narrative was written by infpiration ?-I therefore confider the Divine authority of this narration, as ftanding firm upon a mafs of external and internal evidence, the combined ftrength of which has never yet been shaken; whatever whatever may be the affertions of ignorance or enmity, or however plaufibly the mifrepresentations of fome of the parts may feem to contradict its claim to our belief.

may

: Notwithstanding the obfcurity which hangs over these first pages of the Mofaic history, the great truths, which it concerns us to know, are clearly difcernible. We may plainly fee, that God had revealed himself to Adam by

actual

actual communications, previous to the forfeiture of his happiness. The bleffing pronounced, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and fubdue it ""-the authority given, "Have dominion over the fish of the fea, and the fowl of the air, and over every thing that moveth upon the earth" -the fingle prohibition, "Of every tree in the garden thou mayeft freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it"—and the awful denunciation of punishment in case of disobedience, "In the day that thou eateft, thou fhalt furely die," fufficiently prove, that Adam was clearly informed of the existence of God, from whom himself and all things had received their being, and to whom himself and all things were confequently fubject; and thus was furnished with the best guide and support to reason, and the strongest defence against the power of temptation.

This important truth, which is confirmed by the whole tenor of Scripture, and of early history, at once vindicates the justice and goodness of God, and difplays the heinous nature of man's tranfgreffion. It teaches us

2 Gen. ch. ii.

to

to confider the declared will of God, as the moft folid foundation of moral virtue; for if, in his original state of innocence and perfection, man was not trufted to the dictates of deductions of his reason, it furely looks like extreme folly to build in this our fallen state upon the weak, uncertain ground of general expediency. And when we are affured, that God manifefted himself as God to the first of the human race, before guilt had corrupted his nature, and perverted his reason: we may affert, that this original Revelation of God to man, of his own exiftence, and of the relation, in which man ftands to God, is also the foundation of all religion.-By thus deriving our knowledge of the Deity immediately from the Deity himself-not only through the médium of his works, of which men know fo little, and judge fo ill-and tracing our knowledge of the divine will through a series of confiftent prophecies, and inftructions, and records; Faith, Reason, and History will unite to form that "triple cord, which fhall never be broken" from the anchor of our Chriftian hope. But I proceed to obferve, that Adam confeffed both his knowledge of the voice of God, when the confcioufnefs of guilt made him try to avoid his presence, and his fear of the punishment, which had been previously

threat

threatened, when he said, "I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid." The intercourse therefore, which God had vouchfafed to hold with Adam in his ftate of innocence, and the change, which he experienced in himfelf on tranfgreffing the command, enabled him to judge perfectly of the Divine authority of that gracious promise of final Redemption, which began the wonderful scheme of Prophecy, and founded the hope of immortality upon the basis of Revelation.

And the Lord God faid unto the Serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art curfed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy feed and her feed: it fhall bruife thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heelb.

The language of this Prophecy is metaphorical; but the metaphors used in it are by no means of uncertain fignification .-Taking the whole account of the fall, as it stands recorded in Scripture, it is clear that Satan, or the Evil Spirit, who affumed the form of a

Gen. iii. 14, 15.

Sherlock on the Prophecies, Dif. III.

ferpent,

!

ferpent, was the original caufe of all the guilt and mifery of man. "And the wo

man faid, The ferpent beguiled me, and I did eat." Immediately, therefore, does the juftice of God pronounce his doom". The feed of the woman whom he had tempted to difobedience, was to be inftrumental in executing his punishment-a punishment far more fevere than that, which disobedience had brought upon mankind.-Because thou haft done this, I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy feed and her feed: it fhall bruife thy head, and thou shalt bruife his heel. Thus " in the midft of wrath, remembering mercy," God was pleased to communicate to our first parents, in the fentence pronounced upon their enemy, fuch a

St. Paul declares it was the purpose of the Gospel of Christ" to open their eyes, and to turn them from darknefs to light, and from the power of Satan unto God." Afs xxvi. 18. and in his Epistle to the Romans xvi. 20. he refers to the promise made to Adam, "And the God of peace fhall bruise Satan under your feet fhortly." The fame Apoftle, 2 Cor. xi. 14. favours the interpretation of Patrick (see his Commentary on the third chapter of Genefis, proving the word faraph to mean both a ferpent and an angel), "And no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light"-Eve might be thus beguiled" by him, who was " a liar from the beginning."

66

B. C. 4004.

promife