and inanimate beings, with all their variegated hues, the exquisite formation of their parts, their individual symmetry, their harmonious configuration, their wonderful adaptation to their respective ends. Can we conceive a richer feast for our eyes? Behold how the earth is strewed with flowers, that cast their perfumes to the wind, and regale us with their odours! Where, amongst all the contrivances of art, will any thing be found to equal the fruits of the earth, in the variety and richness of their flavour? or where will the sons of harmony produce such exquisite notes as the feathered tribes gratuitously afford to the meanest cottager? Take the feelings for which so many myriads of mankind sacrifice their eternal interests; and we will venture to affirm, that even those are called forth with keener sensibility and richer zest in the way of God's appointment, than they ever can be in a way of licentious and prohibited indulgence. What need have we then of forbidden fruit? If nothing were left us in this world but the favour of God and the testimony of a good conscience, we should have a feast which nothing but heaven can excel: but when, together with these, we have all that can conduce to the comfort of the body; when we have "the promise of the life that now is, as well as of that which is to come," is it not madness to seek for happiness in sin; to relinquish "the fountain of living waters, and to hue out to ourselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water?" Let us but learn to enjoy God in every thing, and every thing in God, and we shall find that this world, polluted as it is, is yet a Paradise: with God's favour, pulse is better than royal delicacies, and the meanest dungeon is a palace.]

2. With what abhorrence should sin be viewed by us!

[Look through the creation which God pronounced to be very good, and see how all things are out of course: the earth that should nourish us, struck with barrenness; the elements that should administer to our comfort, armed against us for our destruction. See the smallest insects in the creation invading us with irresistible force, and by their united efforts desolating our fairest prospects. Look at man himself, once the image of his Maker; see with what malignant dispositions he is filled. See him passing his time here in labour and sorrow, and generation after generation swept away from the face of the earth. Follow him into the eternal world, and behold him banished from the presence of his God, and cast into a lake of fire and brimstone, there to endure the full penalty of all his crimes. Behold all this, I say, and consider that this is the work of sin. One sin introduced it all; and successive generations have lived only to complete what our

first parents began. O that we could view sin in this light! O that we could bear in mind the judgment denounced against it," In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die!" We have warnings sufficient to intimidate the stoutest heart: "The wrath of God is revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men ":" "The soul that sinneth, it shall die:""Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death "." Only let sin be stripped of its deceitful attire, and be viewed in all its naked deformity, and we shall shudder even at the thought of it, and flee from it as from the face of a serpent.]

3. How thankful should we be for the tree of life!

[Blessed be God, the tree of life yet grows in the midst of us. No cherubim with flaming swords obstruct our way to it; on the contrary, all the angels in heaven are ready to exert all their influence to conduct us to it; and God, even our Father, invites and intreats us to gather its life-giving fruits. This tree of life is no other than the Lord Jesus Christ: "it bears twelve manner of fruits," suited to all our various necessities; and its very "leaves are for the healing of the nations'." Let us then flock around this tree: let us with humble boldness stretch forth our hands to gather its fruits. We may see around us many who have already experienced its efficacy to heal the sick, and to revive the dead. Let us view the Saviour as God's instituted ordinance for this very end and now that he is accessible unto us, let us approach him; lest haply the accepted time be terminated, and we eat for ever the bitter fruits of our transgression.]

IV.

THE SERPENT BEGUILING EVE.

Gen. iii. 4. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die.

IN reference to the fact before us, St. Paul says, "The serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty." And great is the subtilty which appears throughout the whole of his conduct on this occasion. He took an opportunity of addressing himself to Eve when she was alone, that so she might become an easier victim to his wiles. He insinuated his temptation

n Rom. i. 18. 9 Rev. ii. 7.

o Ezek. xviii. 20.
Rev. xxii. 2.

P Jam. i. 15.

first in a way of inquiry only; "Hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree in the garden?" By this he intimated, that she had made some mistake respecting the supposed prohibition, since it was scarcely probable that her Maker, who had granted her every thing else in the garden, should impose such an unnecessary restriction upon her. When, in answer to this, Eve informed him, that not only was the restriction really given, but that it was enforced with the most tremendous sanction that could possibly be imagined, he again insinuated that she must be under a mistake, since it could not be that so good a God should inflict so heavy a judgment for so slight an offence: "Ye shall not surely die."

Now this is the very temptation with which he has ever since, even to this present hour, assaulted unwary men, and by which he is yet daily ruining millions of the human race. We will therefore endeavour to put you on your guard against it, by shewing,

I. The falsehood of the suggestion

Two things were here insinuated, namely, That the threatening was not of such a terrific import as she imagined; and that, whatever it might import, it should not be eventually executed. But in both these things" he lied unto her;" for,

1. God will fulfil his threatenings to whatsoever they may relate

[See his threatenings to individuals-Ahab, in dependence on his false prophets, and on Satan who inspired them, thought to come off victorious: but, notwithstanding his device to escape the notice of the Syrians, he was slain, according to the prediction of the prophet Micaiah. Hiel the Bethelite would rebuild the city of Jericho: but did he escape the judgment denounced, many hundred years before, against any person who should presume to make the attempt? Did he not lay the foundation in the death of his first-born, and raise up the gates in the death of his youngest son? See his threatenings against the whole nation of Israel: Were they not carried captive to Babylon, according to His word? and

a Josh. vi. 26. with 1 Kings xvi. 34.

is not the dispersion of the Jews at this day a proof, that no word of God shall ever fall to the ground? See his threatenings against the whole world-Did not the deluge come according to the prediction, and sweep away every living creature (those only excepted that were in the ark) from the face of the earth? Let us be sure that God is true: and that whatever He has spoken shall surely come to pass.]

2. He will fulfil them in the extent that is here declared

[Death temporal, spiritual, and eternal were included in the sentence denounced against transgression: and on our first parents it came, the very day that they ate of the forbidden tree. They did not, it is true, cease on that day to live, because God had purposes to serve by their continuance in life but the seeds of death were that day implanted in their constitution; and in due time they returned to their native dust. That they died at that very moment a spiritual death, is evident from their conduct: for they foolishly hoped to hide themselves among the trees of the garden from the eyes of the omniscient God; and offered vain excuses for their transgression, instead of humbling themselves for it before God. To eternal death also they were subjected; and to it they would have been consigned, had not God, of his infinite mercy, provided a way of deliverance from it, through that seed of the woman, who was in due time to bruise the serpent's head. If it be doubted whether God will execute so heavy a judgment on the sinners of mankind, I hesitate not to declare, that he most assuredly will; since he has himself declared it in terms that admit of no reasonable doubt and "he is not a man that he will lie, nor the son of man that he will repent."] But since so many are deceived by this suggestion, I will endeavour to shew, more distinctly,

II. The danger of listening to it—

The effect of this sad delusion is visible in all around us. It is entirely owing to this that Satan retains so many in bondage, and leads them captive at his will.

1. Hence it is that men make so light of sin—

[Whence is it, I would ask, that men are drawn aside by every temptation, and that for a momentary gratification they will offend their God? Is it not from a secret persuasion, that God will not fulfil his threatenings, and that they may

b See Matt. xxv. 46. the Greek and Mark ix. 43-48.- and Rev, xiv. 10, 11.

sin against him with impunity? If men saw before their eyes the instruments of torture whereby the violators of a law were to be put to a lingering and cruel death, and knew at the same time that there was no possibility of escape to any one who should transgress the law, would they incur the penalty with the same indifference that they now transgress the laws of God? How much less then would they rush into wretchedness, if they saw hell open before them, and heard the groans of those who are now suffering under the wrath of God? No verily they would not then "make a mock at sin," but would tremble at it, and flee from it as from the face of a serpent. If then you would be preserved from sin, listen not a moment to this accursed suggestion: and if the whole world should unite in saying, "Ye shall not surely die," reply to them, "Get thee behind me, Satan," for "thou art a liar from the beginning."]

2. Hence it is also that men make so light of salvation

[Salvation by Christ is offered to a ruined world. But who believes our report? Who receives it with that gratitude which it might well be expected that a perishing sinner should feel towards his reconciled God and Saviour? With the exception of a few, the whole world regard the Gospel as little better than a cunningly devised fable; so faint are the emotions it excites, and so transient the effects which it produces. And what is the reason of this? Is it not that men do not feel their need of such a Saviour, and that they do not believe that God's threatenings will ever be executed upon them? Yes: to this source must it be traced: for if they verily believed, that the wrath of God, which is revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, would fall upon them, and that all their hope of escaping it was by embracing the Gospel, they would flee to Christ with their whole hearts, and cleave unto him with their whole souls, and not rest a moment till they saw themselves within the gates of the city of refuge. Were they duly sensible of their danger, even a hope, a mere peradventure that God might have mercy upon them, would be sufficient to make them weep before him day and night. Not a word of mercy was mixed in Jonah's message to Nineveh: yet the most distant hope of niercy was sufficient to encourage that whole city to repent in dust and ashes. What then would not all the promises of the Gospel effect, if men really felt the greatness of their guilt and danger? It is evident, that all the indifference of men about the Gospel must be traced to this one source, their believing of Satan's lie in preference to the truth of God: and, if ever the Gospel is to have a saving influence on our hearts, we must begin by