feited thy life and being, and shalt suffer a total and eternal extinction of it.

This sense and language of Law must be understood only as a declaration, that the penalty is just and due; which is all that can be done by Law as a rule of justice, declaring, in general, that he who is difobedient to his Maker hath justly forfeited his being; and that, in confequence of his disobedience, his Maker may justly deprive him of it. The Law can only declare the truth of this denunciation, as it hath no power to put it in execution: the execution of this threatening must necessarily and entirely rest in the hands and power of the Lawgiver; who therefore may mitigate, respite, or suspend it, as he, judging of circumstances, shall in his wisdom think proper. This is the prerogative of the Sovereign or Lawgiver, which is allowed to be fit and reafonable all the world over. For, if this were not allowed, in proper cases, there could be no such thing as pardon, or the mitigation of the sentence of Law, either with God or man; which in every nation, and throughout the whole universe, would be a state of things the most severe and the most dreadful.

Thus room is made for the exercise of favour or grace, without doing any violence to truth. The penalty indeed is due; but according to the true natures of things, there may be alleviating circumstances in the case of the tranfgreflor, which, though Law can make no provision for them without destroying itself, yet the Lawgiver may, and, in reason and truth, ought to confider and allow, with respect to the infliction of the penalty. Wisdom and goodness ought to have place in him, and certainly do take place in God, as well as justice. Justice consists in executing the penalty of the Law according to the letter of it; which letter (2 Cor. iii. 6.) killeth, or destroys, the sinner, by subjecting him to eternal death, or to a total extinction of life; according to which rule, there could be no place for mercy, and the whole world must be ruined. But wisdom and goodness may mitigate the rigour of this constitution, not by abrogating the Law, as a rule of life; for so the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy, just and good, (Rom. vii. 12.) and can never be abrogated, being, in its general intention, agreeable to the everlasting and immutable nature of things: much less by finding out some expedient to fatisfy Law and justice, which can be satisfied no other way than by the death of the offender; for justice, as used in this cafe, is acting strictly according to Law.

Nothing, therefore, but the execution of the Law can fatisfy Justice. The wisdom and goodness of the Sovereign may do what the Law cannot do; that is to say, may suspend the execution of the sentence as long as he shall think fit; and so may leave what space he pleases for the sinner's repentance, and provide what means he shall think proper to induce him to repentance; and upon his repentance, may restore him to the affurance of eternal life, by an eternal fufpenfion of th of the execution of the Law. For as to that, he cannot be limited to any space of time. If he hath a right by prerogative to suspend at all, it must be a difcretionary right to fufpend as long as he chooseth. This is grace, or gospel; by which

2

which the finner may be restored to the hope of immortality, and actually invested in it, by the wisdom and favour of the Lawgiver. This new, or remedying conftitution, the Apostle calls fpirit, which quickens the finner condemned to death by the letter of the Law, or makes him to live. 2 Cor. iiu 6. Who also hath made us [Apostles] able ministers of the New Testament [or conftitution], not of the letter but the spirit; for the letter kills, but the spirit giveth life. Which spirit, he inforins us, ver. 17, is the Lord, or the Gospel of our Lord. Now the Lord is that Spirit, that life-giving spirit, or the latter Adam, who is a quickening, or life-giving, fpirit, I Cor. xv. 45.

That the penalty, in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt furely, or utterly, die, is to be understood, not of the event, as if he should certainly die, but of the demerit of tranfgreffion, that he would deserve to die; and that, notwithstanding this threatening, the Sovereign might refpite the execution of it, and not only allow the tranfgreffor the benefit of repentance, but also appoint means to lead him to repentance, and to eternal life; may be clearly proved from Ezek. iii. 18. xxxiii. 8, 11, 14, 15. Where God repeats the very same sentence of the Law upon the wicked perfon, whom yet, at the same time, he charges the Prophet to warn, in order to bring him to repentance, promifing pardon and life in cafe he did repent. Ezek. iii. 18. When באמרי in dicendo me, whereas[ I fay [in the Law] unto the wicked מות תמות thou shalt furely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way to fave bis life. Chap. xxxiii. 8. When [whereas] I fay [in the Law] unto the wicked, wicked man, מות תמות thou shalt furely [utterly] die, if thou doft not speak to warn the wicked from his way, &c. Ver. 14. Again; when [whereas) I fay (in the Law) unto the wicked, מות תמות thou Shalt furely [totally] die; if he turn from his fin, and do that which is lawful and right, ver. 15. - חיו יחיה לא ימות vivendo vivet, he shall furely [totally, eternally] live, he shall not die.

Thus Law in the rigorous sense is to be understood; and thus it stands in connexion with the pardon of tranfgreffors, or their attainment to eternal life through the favour of the Lawgiver. That our first parents, while in the garden of Eden, were under Law, or a rule of Action with the penalty of death annexed, is manifest from the very form of the prohibition But of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt utterly die. And the Apostle Paul evidently supposes, that Adam was under Law, Rom. v. 13, 14. For until the law [of Mofes] fin was [committed] in the world; but fin [though committed] is not imputed [unto death) μη οντος νομe when Law is not in being. This supposes, 1. That Law is the only conftitution which fubjecteth the finner to death. 2. That Law was not in being in the times preceding the giving of the Law of Moses. ver. 14. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses [while Law was not in being], even over them that had not finned after the likeness of Adam's tranfgreffion. That is to fay, "Death reigned all the long space of about 2500 "years from Adam to Mofes, even over those who did not fin, as Adam "did, against Law, making death the penalty of their fin; because du***ring that period mankind were not under Law, but under the general "covenant,

د

covenant, or constitution, of grace, given to Adam immediately after "his tranfgreffion."..

:

This evidently supposes, that Adam was under Law with the penalty of death annexed, while he was in the garden, or before he tranfgreffed, and that the same severe constitution was again revived by Mofes, after it had been fufpended from the time of Adam's tranfgreffion till the Law was given by Moses. Whence the Apostle concludeth, that, as Death reigned all that long period, while fin was committed in the world, and yet no positive Law subsisted, making death the penalty of fin, he con cludes, I say, that men, in general, did not die for their own tranf greffions, but in consequence of Adam's one tranfgreffion.

It must be observed, that the Apostle Paul doth not always use Law in the rigid sense, but sometimes for the whole Jewish Code, or the Old Testament. Rom. iii. 19; sometimes for any inward principle which influenceth and governeth a man-vii. 23; sometimes for a rule in general iii. 27; and sometimes for a rule of action, with the penalty of death annexed. Rom. v. 20. vi. 15. vii. 4, &c.

ADAM's calling all beafts and fowls by names doth not imply, that

a perfect knowledge of the natures and intrinfic qualities of all animals; an opinion destitute of all evidence; but that God gave him dominion over them, as a master over his bond-fervants, according to the force of the phrase, to call things or persons by name. Pfal.cxlvii. 4. Ifai. xl. 26. xliii. 1. God allowing Adam to give the creatures what names he pleased, was the form of conveying or making over to him the property of them, and dominion over them. It hath also reference to the formation of woman; that Adam, our first parent, having furveyed all other animals, and having observed that they were created in pairs, for the propagation of their several kinds, might be sensible of his own folitary, destitute condition, and of the importance of his being also provided of a mate suitable to his nature, (which, by reason of its fuperior excellency, could not be matched with any of the brutal, kind) a companion in body and mind, fit to cohabit with him, for mutual converse, delight, comfort, and assistance, especially for propagating the human species; without which the world would have been stocked with only brutes.

1

And it was fitting, or agreeable to the true nature of things, that the formation of the first woman should be attended with some circumstance expressive of the nearness of that relation which was to be the fountain of

the

the existence of all mankind, and of all the near and dear relations fo beneficial and comfortable to the life of man; and no circumstances could do that more significantly, than taking the woman out of a part of the man's body. Thus she became another self; and this was intended as a document to all posterity, that a wife should be regarded and treated as fuch. Ephes. v. 28. So ought men to love their wives, as their own bodies; he that loveth his wife, loveth himself.

Ver. 23. And [when the Lord God brought to him the woman, his wife, and informed him in what manner she was produced) Adam faid, [with much fatisfaction and joy] this is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh, the dearest to me of all creatures! she shall be called אשה Woman, because she is taken out of איש Man a sign of Adam's property in her], ver. 24. And the Lord God faid, (Mat. xix. 4, 5.) Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. Thus marriage was instituted; a sacred and honourable ordinance, of high difstinction, as it is very nearly connected with the dignity and happiness of the human nature.

And by making only one woman for one man, God plainly declared, that this relation ought to subsist between two; as the Prophet well argues, Mal. ii. 14, 15. And did not he, God, make but one couple, one man and one woman, as a rule to all mankind, that should descend from them? yet had he the residue of the spirit, and could then have created more men and women, if promiscuous conversation had been for the greater happiness of the world. And wherefore did he make but one couple? That he might seek a godly feed, זרע אלהים an excellent feed; that man and wife, in chaste wedlock, in fincere and undivided affection, might propagate a posterity to the honour and service of God. This is an argument against polygamy and divorce, confirmed by our Lord's wisdom and authority, Mat. xix. 3, 4, 5, 6. Thus mankind are brought into the world in a way suitably to the excellency of their nature. For, confidering how weak and imperfect our infancy is, and in how great ignorance and dissoluteness of manners we muft neceffarily grow up to manhood, without good discipline and instruction, it is evident this world must have been the most wild and disorderly scene imaginable, were the race of mankind propagated in a vagrant, licentious manner, without parents to own them, and by their tender care and affection to give them a good education. The production of an intelligent being, in the most helpless and exposed circumstances, and which grows up to a due degree of understanding, no otherwise than by good culture, ought to be attended with all the proper advantages in the propagator's power. And therefore the propagation of the human species, according to the true nature of things, ought to be guarded and directed by the best exercise of reason, and not left to be done in a loose, brutal manner. God did not create man in jest; nor should the ordinary generation of a man be made a matter of lewd jest, or of lawless paffion. This is the rationale of marriage, and of modesty and fobriety.

Adam had no choice, but his descendants have great need to exercise prudence in the choice of a relation so important and lasting. The advice and approbation of parents is, in this cafe, one of the best rules. And

And as marriage lessens the interests of parents in their children, it is generally not dutiful to alienate it to another without their knowledge and confent: nor should parents unreasonably oppose the lawful inclinations of their children.

Ver. 25. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed, being free from fin and guilt.

H

CHAP. XI.

Of the TEMPTER who deceived Eve.

Gen. iii. 1-و.

ERF. Eve is deceived and tempted to transgress the law of God by some moral agent, who could speak and argue, called by Mofes הנחש the Serpent; which, he faith, was more fubtle than any other beast of the field which the Lord God had made. But a beast of the field, how fubtle or fagacious soever, could not speak and reason. Who then was the moral agent that deceived Eve? St. Paul, 2 Cor. xi. 3. speaks of the deceiver in the same manner as Moses doth; I fear, left by any means, as the Serpent beguiled Eve through his fubtilty, so your minds Should be corrupted from the fimplicity that is in Christ. The Apostle did not suppose the Corinthians might be corrupted by the fubtilty of an irrational creature; consequently, he did not suppose that Eve was beguiled by the subtilty of an irrational creature. But St. John comes nearer to the point in Rev. xii. 9. xx. 2. where he speaks of the Serpent as a deceiver, and describes him after this manner, and the great dragon was caft out, that old Serpent; called otherwise in Scripture, the Devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world. A dragon is a huge overgrown ferpent. That old Serpent, means that Serpent which of old, at the beginning of the world, deceived Eve, and still was deceiving the world. (And in several other places of Scripture, which we shall presently have occafion to take notice of, the Devil's temptation of Eve is plainly alluded to.) Therefore this Serpent, and the Devil and Satan, are synonymous, and mean one and the same being. Hence divines have justly concluded, that it was the Devil or Satan, an evil or malignant spirit, which tempted Eve, in the body, or affuming the form and shape, of a Serpent; which then might be a very beautiful as well as faga cious animal, familiar with Adam and Eve, and much admired by them. That there are wicked and malignant spirits, is undeniably true, from Scripture. 2 Pet. ii. 4. For if God spared not the Angels that finned, but σειραις ζεφε ταρταρωσας caft them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment. [Or rather, cast them down into a low, wretched condition, in chains of darkness, delivered them to be reserved VOL. I.

D