implanted in his nature, not a bestowment independent of such use.

There was probably, however, another circumstance, by which the first man was distinguished, and must have been distinguished, from all his descendants. However mature and in full perfection his faculties were, he could not have been left to their direction alone, to the mere unaided guidance of his own reason. Wanting those instincts by which other animals are guided, he must have perished before he could have learned the use of his own faculties, or in what manner to apply the objects about him to the purposes of his subsistence or safety, so as to supply his most ordinary wants. We have accordingly sufficient intimations, that the necessary instructions and requisite aid were given him by the great Creator. He was not left to wander at random, and seek a precarious subsistence, and learn unaided what things would be useful to him, and how to provide them. He is represented as being placed in a garden provided for him; not left to discover, in the first instance, what was necessary and what was salutary; but taught what was good. Nor was he only instructed as to natural good; he was not neglected as to intellectual and moral good. He was taught from whence he sprung, the origin and the author of his being, the law under which he was placed, the obedience which he owed to his Maker, and the certain consequences annexed to the performance or neglect of his duty. No more was probably made the subject of direct communication, than was necessary to the subsistence,

preservation, and improvement of his physical nature, and to constitute him a moral agent in the simplest form, and accountable for his actions. Acquisitions in knowledge and attainments in virtue were to be the fruit of discipline, and of the use and exercise of the faculties and affections implanted by nature. He was placed in a state of trial suited to the infant state of his being and faculties. Life and death were set before him. By sustaining the trial, to which he was first exposed, the principle of virtue would be strengthened; and by this, together with the improvement and growth of the faculties, by the increase of knowledge, and by new relations constantly forming, that were connected with new duties, he would become competent to other, more extended and complicated trials; and the principle applied to the first would be extended to every succeeding trial. The temptations and dangers would accordingly be constantly multiplying, on the one hand; while, on the other hand, their individual power, and perhaps even their aggregate power, would be constantly diminishing, by the constantly increasing strength of the virtuous principle.

The reverse must be the effect of failure, the power of resistance weakened by the neglect to use it. By yielding to the first temptation, he finds himself less competent to each succeeding trial. And as the trials are multiplied, not only the aggregate power of the whole, but the individual power of each is increased; and this, not only relatively, the proportion being altered between the temptation and the power

of resistance, by weakening that power; but also positively, the same proportion being altered, by adding to the strength of those passions and appetites, which constitute the temptation, or without which the temptation could not exist.

However, then, we may understand and interpret the penalty of death annexed to the positive command, we see, by the constitution of nature, a moral death, closely and certainly connected with the first violation of the law of our being, with the first, and every offence against our moral constitution;-a moral death, answering to the moral life, which is certainly and closely connected with the first and every conformity with that constitution.

Thus endued with faculties, by which he was distinguished from the other creatures on this earth, and fitted for that dominion over them, which he was appointed to have, and which constituted the image and likeness of God; placed in a situation, in which every necessary provision was made for his comfort and well being, for the exercise and improvement of his faculties, and his gradual advancement in intellectual and moral attainments; and instructed as far as was necessary in the infancy of his existence, before he had learnt by exercise and experience the use of his natural powers; his condition was that of innocence, purity, and happiness; but it was also a state of trial; and the terms and conditions of his probation imply quite clearly, that his continuance in this happy state, or his loss of it, depended upon himself. The threatening of death as a penalty of disobedience was the

pledge and assurance of at least the continuance of life, and his present privileges, so long as he should continue to maintain his innocence, and obey the law under which he was placed.

In what manner the trial was actually sustained, we have a brief, but sufficiently humiliating and deplorable account.

Man being in honor abode not. Created in innocence, and formed for virtue, and for high degrees of perfection, he lost his innocence by transgression, incurred the guilt of disobedience, and subjected himself to its penalty.

What was that penalty, and how was it executed, how was his subsequent condition affected, in what circumstances do his descendants come into being, how are the effects of sin to be counteracted, and the forfeited favor of heaven recovered, and man restored, wholly or in any degree, to the privileges and the hopes, which were lost or impaired by the loss of innocence? These are questions of high import and of universal interest, and will call for our attention.

CHAPTER XVI.

EFFECTS OF THE FALL. CONSEQUENCES ON HUMAN

CONDITION.

THE account of the primitive state of man in the Old Testament, and of the change in his condition, which took place when he ceased to retain the character of innocence and obedience, we have seen, is very brief; and the allusions to it in the New Testament are less frequent and less formal and distinct than we should have expected, upon the supposition of the truth of the doctrines, relative to the influence of the first transgression upon all the succeeding generations of mankind, which have been usually held by Christians. It is remarkable that in the Old Testament, excepting the direct account of the transaction in the first of Genesis, we find no certain, or even probable allusion to the influence of the first transgression upon the condition or the character of the whole race.

There are several instances in which we read, as we daily witness in the common course of providence, of the sins of one generation visited in punishment or suffering upon the next; but with no direct or visible reference to the particular consequences or influence of the first transgression. Such is the visiting of the iniquities of the fathers upon the children, in the second Command of the Decalogue, and such the