DISC. "Lord, that is WISDOM; and to DEPART

IV.

"FROM EVIL IS UNDERSTANDING."

Whoever shall attentively reflect on the evidence which has been produced, and duly confider the perfect coincidence and harmony of the Scriptures and dispensations of God upon the subject, will, perhaps, be convinced, that, in the main, we must have fixed upon the true expofition of the knowlege of good and evil," and the nature of man's original trial. There is a doubt, or difficulty, which offers itself, and may feem to require a folution. It is this. We all know, as the state of human affairs is at present, by what manner, and by what temptations, the world folicits our defires after objects forbidden but what temptation, you will fay, could it hold forth to our first parents, exifting alone, invefted with fovereignty over it, and poffeffed of all it's pleasures, and it's glories, in the Garden of Eden? This question will, perhaps, be beft anfwered by asking one or two more. What

tempta

蘑

IV.

temptation, then, let it be asked, could the DISC. world prefent to the people of God, when placed in the land of Promife, and bleffed with every fpecies of temporal felicity? What temptation can the world prefent to a pious Chriftian, placed by Providence in a state of affluence, and furnished with every good that his heart can wish for? The truth is, that the world, even fuppofing it to have been lawfully attained, and to be in ever fo good hands, has this power of temptation; it may engage the attention of the human mind, and attract to itfelf the affections of the human heart, till, by degrees, it's Maker is forfaken and forgotten. It may induce a man to confider it as an abode, and no longer to defire a removal to higher and better things with God above. "Beware," fays Mofes, “left "when thou haft eaten, and art full, thine "heart be lifted up, and thou forget the "Lord thy God"." This proved to be the cafe of the Ifraelites. It is the temptation too often fatal both to nations and

n Deut. viii. 14.

indivi

IV.

DISC. individuals, when indulged by Heaven with fuccefs and profperity. And if the world, obfcured as it's brightness has been by the fall, can and does now produce fuch an effect on the wifeft of thofe that are at any time favoured with a large share of it, how much more muft it have been able to charm, and to deceive, when first formed in perfect beauty! Confidering this circumftance, and withal, how "the Crea"ture," in the earlieft ages, was "worshipped and served, instead of the Crea"tor," one is almoft ready to think it po1fible, that Idolatry itself might take it's beginning in Eden.

From the fad experience of those who

before us,

have gone
us, let us learn to have
recourse to the law of God, for our know-
lege of good and evil, and to refrain from the
fruit of the forbidden Tree, the Tree of
Death. Of this fruit, though proceeding
from the fame root, there have been differ-
ent kinds put forth and exhibited in dif-
ferent periods of time, agreeable to the turn

and

1

IV.

and temper of each. In the days of the DISC. patriarchs, and of the Ifraelites, it was the worship of the material elements, or powers of nature, in the place of Him who made them, accompanied with every kind of impurity. Such was the religion of the revolted nations, and fuch the rites with which it was celebrated. Yet fuch a reli gion, and fuch rites, the people of God, for many ages, notwithstanding all that he did for them, and faid to them, ftrange as it may appear to us at prefent, were ever ready to adopt and embrace. They apoftatised to idolatry, with the divine glory blazing before their eyes, on the top of Sinai. Nor could the wifeft and greatest of their princes afterwards escape the contagion. This corruption, which the Babylonish captivity, like a well applied cauftic, served to eat out, and to do away, was fucceeded by a disease of another kind, but one that stuck to them, till it destroyed them; a mistake as to the nature of their œconomy; a confidence in externals; a deep hypocrify; a spirit wholly fecularized;

an

DISC. an ambition to have all the kingdoms of IV. the world subject to Jerusalem, and the

wealth and glory of them centered there. "The defire of the flesh, the defire of the 66 eyes, and the pride of life," were chofen in oppofition to the celestial fruits of love and obedience, humility and charity, faith and holiness, produced among them by Jefus Chrift, the Tree of immortality. They 66 put forth the hand, and tafted." But foon the exterminating angel difpoffeffed them of their Paradise, and they died the death.

Since the ascension of Christ, the heathen world has been converted to the Gofpel, and that defert has become the garden of the Lord. But in this garden also—is there no Tree of Death? no fpecious fruit held forth to entice the unwife to perdition? What is the doctrine, which, in fome parts of Chriftendom, gives adoration to beings that are not God; or that, which, in others, denies it to Him who is fo? What is the fcheme, that afferts the

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