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the purpose of watering the earth, and causing it to CHAP. be fruitful.

53. And it is equally certain, that the law of the eternal WORD, which created man soul and body, male and female, intended by the very law of their creation, that they should be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it.

54. For this very purpose, they were endowed with those animal faculties and sensations, which in due subordination to the law and command of God, would have innocently constituted therp one flesh, in the work of generation.

55. But it is as certain and positive a truth, that those instincts of nature, or animal properties never were intended to lead and govern the soul, or even to act, without the soul's decided approbation. And therefore, while the soul kept its first rectitude, and subdued every inferior passion, which might arise in consequence of his state of probation, there never could have been the least cause or foundation for shame.

56. And thus, while the man and the woman stood in uprightness and innocence, they were both naked, and were not ashamed, "which certainly implies," says a judicious author, "not only that their naked'ness was no just cause of shame, but that they nev'er could have known it, had their innocence con'tinued."

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57. "Before the fall, they doubtless knew that they had no cloathing; but now their eyes were opened, and they had acquired a criminal knowledge, and Hist. of 'became sensible of a passion, to which they had ' ever before been strangers, namely, shame."

58. "The origin of this will be easier to account 'for, if we suppose with some, that the juice of this tree was inebriating [i. e. intoxicating;] since we 'know from common observation, that juices of such 'a quality will excite debauchery, produce strange

Milton gives a striking description of the effects of the forbidden fruit on Adam and Eve, in the following lines:

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Redemp.

P. 70.

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CHAP. commotions in the animal frame, and give a strong 'predominancy to the animal appetites."

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P. 71.

59. "Under these circumstances we need not won'der at the subterfuges, [tricks or evasions] to which 'they ran, since it is never expected that the conduct ' of persons under the power of intoxication, or the 'oppression of guilt, should be perfectly consistent 'with the rules of cool reflection."

60. According to the above, shame was the effect of a criminal knowledge, which is most strictly true. By eating the forbidden fruit, they knew that they were naked; and hence that shameful act is so commonly expressed by the term knowing.

61. Adam knew Eve his wife. Doubtless he was well acquainted with her before; but now he knew her in a shameful and criminal manner, in consequence of which they walked naked, and their shame appeared. And from hence the above author makes the following plain observation.

62. "It is remarkable, that the custom of covering Redemp. the private parts should so generally obtain, even among barbarous nations; an entire disuse of cloath'ing in both sexes, is, perhaps no where practised, ( except where promiscuous intercourse is also allowed, and men and women couple like the brutes.”

63. Therefore as shame is the effect of a criminal knowledge, and as the seat of that criminal knowledge is manifest by the universal practice of all nations in hiding it; hence it is evident that the criminality of that knowledge, arose from an unseasonable, and untimely use of those bodily organs and animal faculties, which were created to be under the government and direction of a superior law.

64. And as the first transgressors of the human race, covered the parts with fig-leaves, through which they had violated the command of God; so under a specious pretext, sin has reigned since the fall, and deceived the nations of the earth. And this is Isai. . brought to light that the words of God might be fulfilled: The Lord will discover their secret parts.

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65. And yet that LAWLESS and unruly passion of LUST, in polluting and corrupting the order of creation, has claimed either the law of nature, or the ex

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press command of God for its authority; although it CHAP is so evident that by the very first act of that kind in which man went forth, he violated not only the law of nature, but God's express command!

66. It is also generally acknowledged, (as we have shown from eminent authorities,) that shame is the effect of sin, and that the sin of Adam and Eve is conveyed to their posterity by the very act of natural generation!

67. How then is it, that the fallen posterity of Adam, have under the sacred pretext of a command or ordinance of God, pretended to solemnize that which in itself is profane, and to sanctify that unclean thing, out of which they have proved to a demonstration that they can bring nothing clean?

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68. Well therefore said Boston: "Adam confes- Four-fold seth his nakedness, which he could not get denied; p. 49, so. but not one word he says of his sins: here was the 4 reason of it, he would fain have hid it if he could.

Adam's children need not be taught this hellish policy; for before they can well speak (if they cannot 'get the fact denied) they will cunningly lisp out 'something to lessen their fault, and lay the blame "upon another!"

69. Nay, so natural is this to men, that in the greatest of sins, they will lay the fault upon God himself And was not this one of Adam's tricks after his fall? The man said, The woman whom thou 'gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. He makes his apology in the first place: and then comes to his confession! His apology is long, but his confession is very short! as if he was afraid his meaning should have been mistaken!”

70. "The woman, says he; or that woman! as if he would have pointed the judge to his own workThere was but one woman then in the world; yet she is as carefully marked out in his defence, as if • there had been ten thousand !

71. "The woman whom thou gavest me! Here he 'speaks as if he had been ruined with God's gifts! and to make the shift look the blacker, it is added to all this, Thou gavest to be with me, to stand by me

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CHAP. as a helper! as if he would have fathered an ill de6 sign upon the Lord, in giving him this gift!

72. He says not, The woman gave me, but, The 'woman she gave me! emphatically, as if he had said, 'She even she gave me of the tree. This much for his apology: But his confession is quickly over.— And I did eat. And there is nothing here to point 'to himself, and as little to shew what he had eaten :— How natural is this black art to Adam's posterity? He that runs may read it."

73. So plainly have discerning men pointed out the very root and foundation of all iniquity, and proved their remarks, not only from the sacred writings, but from common observation, drawn from the most noted and universal facts.

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CHAPTER V.

The subject continued.

FTER all that has been said concerning the root of human depravity, yet such is the deceitfulness of that lawless and corrupt nature of the serpent, which man imbibed by the fall, and such is the depth of that Mystery of Iniquity, as to claim its right of indulgence, under the covert of the original law of God! An ordinance of heaven!

2. And not only so, but whenever it is molested by God's claim to the principal seat of man's affections, it has the impertinence to question: "How could Adam violate the law of nature in knowing his wife, when she was designedly made for him, and nature had furnished them with those faculties by which they came together in that order?"

3. Those who have light and reason enough to know what the perfect law of nature requires, will not ask this question, knowing that God is not the author of sin, nor of that lawless instinct which gives the predominancy to the animal appetites, and which debases the dignity of man below the order of the brutes, while it is not governed by a superior law.

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4. But to such as (according to what is written) know CHAP. nothing but what they know naturally, and even in those things corrupt themselves, and that under a pre- Jude 10, tended cloak of obeying God's command, the answer is plain and evident from the following natural similitudes.

5. Would it not be just and right in a wise and prudent parent, who had planted an apple tree among the trees of his garden, more excellent than the rest, for the express use of his children, to lay them under an entire prohibition from eating or touching that tree, until the fruit was fully ripe? And would it not be time enough for that prohibition to be taken off when the fruit was ready for use?

6. And should the children, through some disorderly influence upon their youthful appetites, be so deceived by the appearance of the blossoms or green fruit, as to pluck and eat them, would not this be an express violation of the law of nature in that case, as well as of the express command of their parent?

7. Here then would be the deceitfulness of the transgression, in corrupting their blood, and continually abusing the tree and themselves, under the pretence that their father gave it to them, and neither suffering their tree to bring forth ripe fruit, nor themselves to enjoy that benefit from it which their father intended.

8. The smallest capacity may apply this to the original and present state of Man. The law of nature established in the creation of man, could not be inferior to the law established in the tree yielding fruit, whose seed is in itself; and being regulated by the times and seasons of God's appointment, must bring forth fruit according to that appointment.

9. Thus in the creation of man, his seed was in himself by the very law of his existence. And had his conduct been regulated according to God's appointment, he would have propagated his own species agreeable to the perfect will of the Creator, and also according to the perfect law of nature, in the times and seasons which he appointed.

10. Therefore, by the very existence of the laws of creation, Adam and Eve were forbidden to come

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