LETTER VIII. OBSERVATIONS ON THE STATE OF MAN BEFORE AND AFTER THE FALL. It seems evident, from the second chapter of Genesis, that Adam and Eve had lived for some time on this earth, how long we know not, before they were placed in the garden of Eden; and during that period they were, undoubtedly, taught the first principles of natural religion. It seems likewise to be evident, that they were even then instructed to keep holy the Sabbath, which must have been the first day of their lives, as they appear to have been created towards the very end of the sixth day from the period at which the "Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters," and began to reduce the chaos into that beautiful and magnificent system, of which the sun is now known to be the centre. How the Sabbath was to be employed by the first pair, we are nowhere expressly told; but the analogy of Scripture leaves no room for doubt but that it was to be in praising and glorifying God for his works of creation. This is indeed so reasonable a duty, obviously resulting from the relation of the creature to the Creator, that it may be ranked among the duties of natural religion, in the only sense in which I understand any religion to be natural; but the appointment of this sacred duty to be more solemnly performed on the seventh than on any other day of the week, is certainly what is called a positive, and not a natural law, which may therefore be altered, and has in fact been altered in the Christian Church. On the introduction of our first parents into the garden of Eden, there was prescribed to them another positive law of greater importance than even the sanctification of the Sabbath. Hitherto they had not probably heard of death, nor, of course, formed any notion of so awful an event. Milton indeed represents Adam as apprehending, "when gentle sleep first found him, and with soft oppression seized his drowsed sense," that he was "then passing to his former state insensible ;" and this supposition is by no means improbable, for Adam, we may be certain, was not, at so early a period of his life, such a metaphysician as to conclude that his mind or soul would continue a conscious being, after his body should be, as the poet expresses it, "dissolved.” When he awoke, however, all apprehension of dissolution and insensibility would be banished from his mind; and as he could have seen nothing perishing about him, he might, not unnaturally, come in a short time to imagine that nothing was ever to perish. On his introduction into the garden of Eden, indeed, his notions on this subject were soon rendered more correct, and the difference between death and the soundest sleep awfully exhibited to him. In the midst of the garden, we are told, were two remarkable trees, called by the sacred historian the one" the tree of life," and the other "the tree of knowledge of good and evil." Of the qualities of the former of these trees we know nothing with certainty. Different hypotheses have indeed been formed by learned men concerning its qualities and its use some supposing it to have had a sacramental virtue to preserve the lives of those who should eat of its fruit with religious reverence; and others, that, by its natural qualities, it could cure every disease, and preserve the lives as well of sinners as of saints. The former of these opinions is certainly the more probable of the two; but as we cannot ascertain which of them is correct, or, indeed, whether either of them be so, it would be idle to waste time on the subject, since the qualities of the tree of life, whatever they may have been-whether natural or supernatural-have had no effect whatever on either Adam or his posterity. The case is far otherwise with what is called "the tree of knowledge of good and evil;" for when "the Lord God placed man in the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it," we are told that he commanded the man, saying, " of every tree of the garden thou mayst freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest of it, thou shalt sure ly die." When this denunciation was pronounced, the meaning and import of the word death was undoubtedly explained to Adam; for no wise and benevolent legislator ever enforces his laws by undefined sanctions; but many disputes have arisen in the Christian church concerning the import of that death, which was the threatened penalty of eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. That it implied the dissolution of the body is admitted, I think, by all Christians, though many contend that, as the soul alone is the subject of innocence or guilt, and yet is naturally immortal, it implied likewise the eternal suffering of Adam and Eve's souls in hell-fire with the devil and his angels! This, of itself, seems an interpretation of the words abundantly harsh; but when it is added, that the original sin―the sin of eating the forbidden fruit-“ is conveyed from our first parents unto their posterity by natural generation, so as that all who proceed from them in that way are conceived and born in sin; are under the displeasure and curse of God; bond slaves to Satan, and justly liable to all punishments-not in this world only, but also in that which is to come; and that the punishments to which, for the original sin, they are liable in the world to come, are everlasting separation from the comfortable presence of God, and most grievous torments in soul and body * in hell-fire for ever;" when * Those who believe this doctrine cannot possibly believe that Christ is the resurrection and the life, as to Martha he declared himself to be. indeed, his notions on this subject were soon rendered more correct, and the difference between death and the soundest sleep awfully exhibited to him. In the midst of the garden, we are told, were two remarkable trees, called by the sacred historian the one" the tree of life," and the other "the tree of knowledge of good and evil.” Of the qualities of the former of these trees we know nothing with certainty. Different hypotheses have indeed been formed by learned men concerning its qualities and its use some supposing it to have had a sacramental virtue to preserve the lives of those who should eat of its fruit with religious reverence; and others, that, by its natural qualities, it could cure every disease, and preserve the lives as well of sinners as of saints. The former of these opinions is certainly the more probable of the two; but as we cannot ascertain which of them is correct, or, indeed, whether either of them be so, it would be idle to waste time on the subject, since the qualities of the tree of life, whatever they may have been-whether natural or supernatural-have had no effect whatever on either Adam or his posterity. The case is far otherwise with what is called "the tree of knowledge of good and evil;" for when "the Lord God placed man in the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it," we are told that he commanded the man, saying, " of every tree of the garden thou mayst freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest of it, thou shalt sure |