DISC. equally trees of life, being, as we are told,

JII.

good for food." And indeed, the matter feems to be clearly determined otherwise, by the twenty-fecond verfe of the third chapter, where we find fallen man excluded from Paradife, left he should put forth "his hand, and take alfo of the fruit of "the Tree of Life, and eat, and live FOR "EVER." Immortality, therefore, was to have been obtained, according to God's original appointment, by eating the fruit of the Tree of Life; not furely, as the Jews idly talk, by any medicinal quality, or virtue, preserving the eater from ficknefs and death, neither of which, by the way, was in the world, till introduced by fin. No; the thing speaks itself. A material tree could only confer eternal life as a divinely instituted symbol, or facrament ; as, "an outward visible fign of an inward fpiritual grace, given to Adam, as a "means whereby he was to receive the fame, and a pledge to affure him there"of." Hereby he would be continually

66

.לעולם *

reminded

III.

reminded of the truth communicated to DISC. him, without all doubt, from the beginning; that there was another and a better life than that led by him in the terreftrial and figurative Paradise; a life, on which he was to fet his affections, and to which he was to look, as the end, the reward, the crown of his obedience; a life, fupported, as it was given, by emanation from that Being, who only hath life in himself, and is the fountain, from which, in various ways, it flows to all his creatures. Him, as the glorious fun of the intellectual world, and of his gracious gift, ftreaming, like light through the heavens, to enliven and bless the spiritual fyftem, the Tree of Life, with it's fruit, in the midst of Eden, is apprehended to have been ordained, as an instructive and comfortable symbol; that fo a memorial of his abundant goodness might be shewn upon earth, and new created man might fing of his righteousness.

Of

The facramental defignation of the Tree of Life in Paradife may be farther evinced, perhaps,

III.

DISC. perhaps, by a paffage or two in the book of St. John's Revelation. To him that over"cometh," fays the captain of our salvation, "will I give to eat of the Tree of "Life, which is in the midst of the Para"dife of God"." And again "Bleffed "are they that do his commandments, "that they may have right to the Tree of "Life"." By "eating of the Tree of Life "in the Paradife of God," is here evidently meant a participation of eternal life with God in heaven. Of this eternal life the faithful followers of their great leader are to be put in poffeffion, as the reward of their labours, when thofe labours fhall have been accomplished; when they shall have walked to the end of their journey in the path of Chrift's commandments, and shall have finally overcome their fpiritual enemies. May we not therefore, by parity of reafon, infer from hence the fignification and intent of the Tree of Life in Eden ? By means of that facrament, had Adam gone happily through his probation, and

b Rev. xi. 7.

e Rev. xxii. 14.

perfevered

perfevered in obedience unto the end, he DISC. would have been admitted, in the kingdom

of heaven, to that state of eternal life with God, for which he was always defigned, and of which Paradife was the earthly refemblance. He would have been removed from the fhadows of this world to the realities of a better. His removal must have differed, in the manner of it, from that of which we now live, or ought to live, in expectation. Without fin, death could have had no power over him. He would have been tranflated alive, as Enoch and Elijah, for particular purposes, afterwards were. The change would have been wrought in him at once, as it was in them, and as it will be in those who shall be found alive, at the coming of our Lord to judgment.

When tranfgreffion had fubjected Adam to a sentence of condemnation, the cafe was altered. Glory and immortality could no longer be obtained upon the terms of the first covenant, now broken and void.

The

III.

III.

DISC. The very attempt became criminal. Man was to be put under a new covenat, and in a new courfe of trial. He was to fuffer in the flesh for fin, and to pay the penalty of death. But, through the merits of a furety, that death was to be made the gate of immortality. By faith he was to acquire, upon the mediatorial plan, a fresh right or power to eat of the Tree of Life, and live for ever, after the refurrection from the dead, with his propitiated and reconciled Maker. In mercy, therefore, he was excluded from the garden of Eden, and from the original symbol of that eternal life, which was now to be fought after by other means, and reprefented by other facraments. He was fent forth into the world, to pass his time in toil, pain, and forrow; in mourning, contrition, and penance; till death fhould fet him free, and introduce him to the joys purchased and prepared for him by that bleffed perfon, “in whom is Life, and the Life is the