age is to be found. The authentic records of the civil and political transactions of man, from the earliest times, are full of the effects of his wickedness; no date is fixed in these records for the first introduction of sin into the world; and all our information with regard to this most important era in chronology is derived from Scripture.

SECTION I.

It is well known that in the third chapter of the book of Genesis the first act of disobedience is related, and that the history of this act is connected with a command and a threatening, which had been mentioned in the second chapter. This interesting history demands our particular attention, when we are beginning to speak of that state of moral evil for which the gospel brings a remedy; and in order to prepare you for the information which it conveys, it may be proper to mention two extremes, which are to be avoided in the interpretation of this chapter.

1. Several parts of the history cannot be understood in a literal sense. Thus it is not to be supposed that the tree, of which man was forbidden to eat, had the power which the name seems to imply, and which the serpent suggests, of making those who ate the fruit of it wise, knowing good and evil; neither is it to be supposed that the serpent at that time possessed those powers of speech and reason which the narration seems to ascribe to him, or that the plain meaning of these words, "the seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent," expresses the whole punishment of the tempter.Several writers, indeed, who are disposed to turn the Scriptures into ridicule, have stated what they call the absurdity or the frivolousness of the literal sense, as a reason for rejecting both the narration and the books in which it is contained. But it has been well answered, that the narration bears upon the face of it the marks of that symbolical style which prevailed amongst all nations in early times from the poverty of language, and which, even after it has ceased to be necessary, continues to be used, both because it is ancient and because it is expressive. In this symbolical style, the objects of sense are employed to represent the conceptions of the mind; actions or things material to represent things spiritual; and under words which are true when interpreted literally, there is couched some more exalted meaning. To the learned it cannot appear surprising, that the book which claims to be the most ancient should adopt a style which occurs in other early productions; that a transaction, which assumes a date next to that of the creation, and the memory of which had probably been preserved amongst the first men by symbols, should be recorded by the historian of a future age in a language which referred to these symbols; and that circumstances might prevent him from attempting to remove the veil which this symbolical language threw over the transaction.

If the rules for expounding the symbolical style, which have been investigated by the learned, are applied to the narration in the third

chapter of Genesis, with the same candor with which they are usually applied to every other subject, the difficulties arising from the literal sense of the words will in a great measure vanish. It will readily be admitted, that although the tree did not possess any power of making those who ate the fruit of it wise, it might be called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because, the prohibition to eat of it being the trial of man's obedience, it was made known to other beings, by means of this tree, whether he was good or evil, and he himself, in eating of it, learnt by sad experience the distinction between good and evil; it will be admitted, that if an intelligent spirit chose for a season to conceal himself under the body of a serpent, the actions of this spirit might, during that time, be ascribed to a serpent; and that if Moses had no commission to explain the rank, the character, and the motives of this spirit, because the state of religious knowledge which the world then possessed rendered it inexpedient for them to receive this communication, he could in no other way record the transaction but by retaining the name of the animal under whose form the spirit had appeared; and, if these things be admitted, it will follow that the words of the sentence, "it shall bruise thy head," are the most proper words that could have been used upon the occasion, because, while they apply literally to the animal, they admit easily a higher sense, in which they express the punishment of the spirit.

2. But although it be necessary to look beyond the literal sense of the words, in order to perceive the aptness and the significancy of this history, I must warn you against another extreme. Some, with an excess of refinement, have sought to avoid the inconveniences of the literal sense, by considering the third chapter of Genesis as an allegory, not the history of a real transaction, but a moral painting of the violence of appetite, and the gradual introduction of vice in conjunction with the progress of knowledge and the improvements of society. But, however true it may be, that vice arises from the prevalence of appetite over reason, and that men in a civilized state know vices of which barbarous times are ignorant, yet there are two reasons which seem to render it impossible for those who respect the authority of Scripture, to admit this as the true interpretation of the third chapter of Genesis. 1. This chapter is part of a continued history. It is inserted between the account of the creation of the first pair and the birth of their two sons; and it explains the reason of their being driven out of that place, which we had been told in the second chapter had been allotted them by their Creator. Now, not only is it inconsistent with the gravity of an historian, but it detracts in a high degree from the authority of his writings, that in the progress of relating facts so important he should introduce a chapter which, with all the appearance of being a continuation of the history, is only an allegorical representation of the change of manners. The references to this third chapter, which are found in the New Testament, are to us unquestionable vouchers of its being a real history. If you look to 2 Cor. xi. 3, you will perceive that the allusion of the apostle implies his conviction of the fact to which he alludes; and, if you look to 1 Tim. ii. 13, 14, 15, you will find, that what was only implied in the former passage is there expressly asserted.

2.

The transgression of Adam is introduced as a fact of the same authority and notoriety as his creation. The occasion of the transgression, viz. deceit the order of the transgression, that the woman, not the man, was deceived-and one part of the punishment of the transgression, viz. "in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children”—these three important circumstances are mentioned in such a manner by the apostle, that the historical sense of the whole chapter may be considered as having the sanction of his authority.

It appears from these remarks that we are sufficiently warranted by the rules of sound criticism, in adopting that interpretation which lies in the middle between the two extremes; and the middle interpretation is this, to consider the third chapter of Genesis as the history of a real transaction which took place soon after the creation; and as a history related after the symbolical manner common in early times, but exhibiting clearly under this manner the following important facts. Adam and Eve, being tempted by the suggestions of an evil spirit who appeared to them under the form of a serpent, transgressed the commandment of their Creator. In consequence of this transgression, the ground which God had given them was cursed, sorrow became the portion of their life, and they were subjected to death, the sanction which God has annexed to his commandment. Sentence was also pronounced upon the tempter. As he appeared before God in the same shape in which he tempted the woman, the whole of the sentence is applicable to a literal serpent: and the first part of it, Gen. iii. 14, has been generally understood to imply a degradation of the serpent from the figure which he had, and the life which he led before the temptation, to the state in which we see him. But the second part of the sentence, Gen. iii. 15, although applicable to the antipathy with which the human race regards an odious and dangerous animal, admits also of a higher sense; and whatever it might convey to Adam and Eve, is now understood by us to be significant of that victory which the seed of the woman, i. e. a person descended from the woman, was at a future period to gain through suffering, over the evil spirit, who had assumed the form of a serpent.

This middle interpretation of the third chapter of Genesis, which the rules of sound criticism warrant, is very much confirmed by its being agreeable to the sense of the Jewish church. Bishop Sherlock, with the ingenuity and ability which distinguish all his writings, has collected the evidence of this point in the third of his discourses upon prophecy, and in a dissertation annexed to them, entitled, The sense of the ancients before Christ upon the circumstances and consequences of the fall. His account of the history of that transaction is so sound and clear, that I shall give a short specimen of the manner in which he attempts to prove, that what I called the middle interpretation, is agreeable to the sense of the Jewish church.

We know that the books of the Apocrypha were written before the days of our Saviour; and in them we find the following expressions, which are clear evidences that the Jews of those days considered the third chapter of Genesis as the history of a real transaction, and at the same time looked beyond the literal sense. Wisd. ii. 23, 24, “For God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of

his own eternity. Nevertheless, through envy of the devil, came death into the world, and they that do hold of his side do find it.” Eccles. xxv. 24, "Of the woman came the beginning of sin, and through her we all die." Dr. Sherlock traces in the book of Job, which we have reason to believe was written before any of the books of Moses, many delicate allusions to the circumstances mentioned in the third chapter of Genesis, sufficient to show that the transaction there recorded was known to the author of this book. The words of Zophar, Job xx. 4, 5, 6, have a good moral meaning according to any interpretation which you can give them. But if you understand by the hypocrite, as the Chaldee paraphrast has done, the tempter or accuser, i. e. the spirit who tempted by deceit, and at the same time recollect the views suggested to Eve, and the punishment pronounced upon Adam, you will feel that the significancy and energy of the verses are very much improved. The twenty-sixth chapter of Job is a magnificent description of the works of creation, and it concludes with these words, " By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens, his hand hath formed the crooked serpent. If nothing more is meant than the formation of the animal, it appears strange that an exertion of power so much inferior to all the others should be mentioned after them. But if the crooked serpent is employed to mark the spirit who once assumed that form, this expression forms a fit conclusion of the whole description, because it is the most explicit declaration of the sovereignty of God, in opposition to an opinion which early prevailed, that there is in nature an evil principle independent of the good. Dr. Sherlock further observes, that in different places of Isaiah and Micah, the enemies of God are metaphorically styled Leviathan, the crooked serpent, the dragon; that the Son of God is represented by the Psalmist as treading upon the adder, and his enemies as licking the dust; and that in one of those figurative descriptions of the new heavens and the new earth, i. e. the blessed change introduced by the dispensation of the Gospel, which occur often in Isaiah: the concluding words are, “And dust shall be the serpent's meat." Isaiah lxv. 25.

It will not appear to any person of taste that some of these allusions are of little avail in this argument, because they are expressed in few words; for it is universally allowed that the shortest incidental reference to an historical fact, by a subsequent writer, may be of such a kind as to afford a decisive proof of his knowledge of that fact; and when we add to these allusions, what Bishop Sherlock's subject did not lead him to mention, the frequent references to this history which are found in the New Testament, it seems to be a matter beyond doubt that he has given a just account of the sense of the ancient Jewish church. Thus Paul says, Rom. v. 12, "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin." Satan is styled in the book of Revelation, xii. 9, “the old serpent which deceiveth the whole world ;" and John viii. 44, our Lord calls him a murderer and a liar from the beginning, ανθρωποκτονος απ' αρχής, και ψευστης, two names which most fitly express his having brought death upon the first pair by deceit. John says, 1 John iii. 8, "The devil sinneth from the beginning; for this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil ;" and, Rev. xx. 2, xii. 10, he represents

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the coming of the kingdom of God, and the power of his Christ, by "that old serpent the accuser of the brethren being cast down." Christians are represented as partaking in this triumph; for as Christ, while he was upon earth, gave his disciples power over all the power of the enemy, and made the spirits subject to them, so the apostle, writing to the church of Rome, says, Rom. xvi. 20, " And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly;" and the last chapter of the book of Revelation describes, with the most marked allusion to the third chapter of Genesis, a time when all the effects of his temptation are to disappear. In Genesis, the ground is cursed, and a flaming sword guards the tree of life. In the Revelation, they who enter through the gates into the city, which is there described, are said to have a right to the tree of life; the tree grows in the midst of the street, and on either side of the river; and the leaves of it are for the healing of the nations; and, it is added, there shall be no more curse. The effects of the curse are exhausted with regard to all who enter into the city. Thus the beginning and the end of the Bible lend their authority in support of each other. The transaction recorded in the beginning explains the reason of many expressions which occur in the progress of Scripture; and the description which forms the conclusion reflects light upon the opening. Whatever opinion we may entertain of the third chapter of Genesis when we read it singly, it swells in our conceptions as we advance; and all its meaning and its importance become manifest, when we recognise the features of this early transaction in that magnificent scene by which the mystery of God shall be finished.

SECTION II.

I HAVE judged it necessary to unfold thus fully the principles upon which we interpret the account given in Scripture of the introduction of sin. The event thus interpreted is known by the name of the fall; a word which does not occur in Scripture, but which has probably been borrowed by Christians from Wisdom x. 1. "She preserved the first formed father of the world, that was created alone, and brought him out of his fall." "His fall" is expressive of that change upon his mind, his body, and his outward circumstances, which was the consequence of Adam's transgression.

Wishing to begin with the simplest view of the subject, I have not hitherto spoken of this event in any other light than as if it had been merely personal. But I have now to engage in those. intricate questions that have been agitated concerning the effects, which the fall of Adam has produced upon his posterity. The opinions with regard to this matter may be reduced to four; and the order of stating them is dictated by their nature, for they rise above one another in the following gradation.

1. The first opinion is that which was published by Pelagius, a Briton, A. D. 410, which was adopted by Socinus in the sixteenth century, and is held by the modern Socinians. It is admitted, even according to this opinion, that Adam, by eating of the tree of the