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Of the Confequences of the firft Tranfgreffion, there is not one certain Word spoken from the third Chapter of Genefis to the last of Malachi in the Old Teftament. David, Solomon, and the Prophets fay nothing certain about them. Our Saviour faith not ONE WORD of them in any of his Doctrines and Inftructions, nor any of the Apostles and Writers of the New Teftament in their Sermons and

Epiftles, except the Apostle Paul, and he

but thrice.

OUR next Bufinefs therefore is to examine thefe Places fingly and feparately, and then to compare them together, and fee what Conclufion we can fairly draw from them. And pray do not forget, that I am only helping you as well as I can. I impofe nothing upon your Faith and Confcience. I pretend not to judge for you; you must judge freely for yourself: Leaft of all do I pretend to be infallible. Poffibly I may be mistaken: But if I am, fure I am, it is through Defect, not of Integrity, but of Understanding; and therefore I claim your Candour and Charity as a due Debt, where you think I am in an Error.

THE firft of the forementioned Places is

GENESIS, Chap. II.

Ver. 17. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in

the

the day that thou eateft thereof, thou shalt furely die.

GOD having created Man after his own Image, a living Soul, endowed with the Powers of Reafon, in order to form in him all the Habits of Virtue, befides the Obligations resulting from the NATURES and RELATIONS of THINGS, was pleafed, in a Command of pure Authority, to exercise his Obedience to HIMSELF, his MAKER, by forbidding the Ufe of one Tree in the Garden, called the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil. The Threatening, in Cafe of Tranfgreffion, was, that ke fhould furely die. Death was to be the Confequence of his Difobedience. DEATH is the lofing of LIFE. DEATH is oppofed to LIFE; and must be understood according to the Nature of that Life to which it is oppofed. Now the Death here threatened can, with any Certainty, be oppofed only to the Life God gave Adam when be created him, ver. 7. Any thing befides this must be pure Conjecture without a folid Foundation. For no other Life is fpoken of before, to which Death can be opposed: Nor can we conceive, from any thing in the Hiftory, how Adam could understand it of the Lofs of any other Life than that which he had newly received. In this Light, the Sense of the Threatening will ftand thus: Thou fhalt furely die; as if he had faid, B 4

"I have

"formed

"formed thee of the Duft of the Ground, "and breathed into thy Noftrils the Breath "of Life; and thus thou art become a living "Soul. But if thou eatest of the forbidden "Tree, thou fhalt ceafe to be a living Soul: "For I will take from thee the Breath of "Life, and thou fhalt return unto the Duft "of which I formed thee." Lefs than this, I think the Threatening cannot fignify; and I do not fee how any thing more can be made of it. However, if this appear doubtful, let us fufpend our Affent till we fee how this Affair turneth out in the other Places.

REFLECTION S.

"OBSERVE, here is not one Word re"lating to Adam's Pofterity. Though it "must be true, that if Adam was to have "died immediately upon his Tranfgreffion;

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if his Life was to have been extinguished "in the very Day he finned, then of course "all his Pofterity, as he tranfgreffed before " he had a Child, must have been extinct "with him: For from the dead Bodies of "Adam and Eve, they could not have pro"ceeded in the ordinary Courfe of Genera"tion."

WELL, Adam and Eve did tranfgrefs the Law of their Trial; and the immediate Confequences of their Tranfgreffion are related

GENE

GENESIS, Chap. III.

Ver. 7. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked: and they fewed fig-leaves together, and made themfelves aprons.

8. And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: And Adam and his Wife bid themfelves from the prefence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.

9. And the LORD God called unto Adam and faid unto him, Where art thou?

10. And be faid, I heard thy voice in the garden: and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myfelf.

11. And be faid, Who told thee that thou waft naked? Haft thou eaten of the tree, where of I commanded thee, that thou shouldest not

eat?

12. And the man faid, The woman, whom thou gavest to be with me, he gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

13. And the LORD God faid unto the woman, What is this that thou haft done? And the woman faid, The Serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

14. And the LORD God faid unto the Serpent, Because thou haft done this, thou art curfed above all cattle, and above every beast of the

field upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust fhalt thou eat all the days of thy life.

15. And I will put Enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy feed, and her feed: it fhall bruife thy head, and thou shalt bruife bis beel.

16. Unto the Woman be faid, I will greatly multiply thy forrow and thy conception: in forrow thou shalt bring forth children: and thy defire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

17. And unto Adam he faid, Because thou haft bearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and haft eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, faying, Thou shalt not eat of it: curfed is the ground for thy fake: in forrow shall thou eat of it all the days of thy life.

18. Thorns alfo and Thistles fhall it bring forth to thee: and thou shall eat the herb of the field.

19. In the fweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it waft thou taken: for dust thou art, and to duft fhalt thou return.

20. And Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.

21. Unto Adam alfo and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of fkins, and clothed them.

22. And the LORD God faid, Behold the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil. And now left he put forth his hand, and

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