SERM. Prefence, now hide themselves from the PreIV. fence of the Lord God among the Trees of the Garden. Unhappy Change! That heavenly Voice, that once left fuch pleafing and delightful Sounds behind, is now become a Voice of Fear and Terror: I heard thy Voice in the Garden, fays Adam, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself. Naked indeed! when his native Innocence was gone, and he had thrown off the beautiful Garment of an upright Mind. Thus thofe, whom we fee in the foregoing Chapter at the Head of the Creation, the Favourites of Heaven, who were thought worthy to appear before God, and receive his Orders and Commands in Perfon, we find, in the Compafs of a few Lines, standing before God, that very God by whom they were once fo highly favour'd, in order to receive Sentence for their Difobedience, of which Death was before threatned as the Penalty. But God, whose Property is always to have Mercy, came down in Pity as well as Judgment, and soften'd the Penalty with a moft gracious Promife That tho' they had incurr'd the Penalty of Death, and involv'd themfelves in a great deal of Trouble and Affliction, yet in the End they fhould get out of it all, and come

off

victorious. For when Sentence was pafs'd SERM. upon the Serpent, and he was pronounced VI curfed above all Cattle, and above every Beaft of the Field, and commanded to go upon his Belly, and eat Duft all the Days of his Life, it follows, And I will put Enmity between thee and the Woman, and between thy Seed and her Seed; it fhall bruife thy Head, and thou shalt bruife his Heel; i. e. Tho' thou haft deceiv'd her now under the Shew of Friendship, yet hereafter fhe fhall be convinc'd that thou art not a Friend, but an Enemy; and, accordingly, there fhall be Enmity and Variance between you, and between thy Offspring and hers her Offspring shall fruftrate and difappoint thy malicious Contrivances and Defigns, and thou fhalt only be able to do fome bodily Hurt in return. This, I think, is meant by bruising the Heel; becaufe when it is faid, the Seed of the Woman ball bruife the Serpent's Head, if by that is meant, as it moft certainly is, that it fhall fruftrate the grand Defigns of that old Serpent the Devil; which were to deftroy the whole human Race, and which no doubt he thought he had effected when he had feduc'd the Wc

man, imagining that the Sentence of Death, which was the Penalty of Difobedience,

H 2

would

SERM. would extend to the Soul as well as the IV. Body, and fo not being able to gain his Purpose this Way, and yet being to have fome Advantage ftill, that must be suppos'd to relate to the Body, fignified, figuratively, by the Heel. I know the Bruifing of the Heel is confin'd by fome to the Sufferings of our bleffed Savionr in his human Nature; but tho' it is more eminently true in that Senfe, yet there feems to be no Reason to confine it to that only, becaufe, as we are able to bruise the Serpent's Head by his Affiftance, tho' he is the principal Agent, fo tho' he was the principal Sufferer, and the Serpent bruis'd his Heel in a more particu lar Manner, yet his Power over the Body extends to the whole human Race.

I fhall not wafte fo much of your Time, or my own, as to give you a Detail of all the Opinions that have been conceiv'd about the Fall of Man; but, taking it for granted, that the Bible stands at least upon as good a Bottom of Truth as any prophane Author, I fhall prove,

I. The Certainty of it; which will make way in the

II. Place

IV.

II. Place, to fhew the Certainty of Man's SER M. Recovery, founded upon the Prophefy in the Text.

III. I fhall fhew what we are to learn from these two Things.

First, then, I am to prove the Certainty. of the Fall of Man. We are told, in the firft Chapter of Genefis, that God made Man in his own Image, after his own Likeness; and that he faw every thing that he had made, and Man among the reft, and behold it was very good. The next Thing we meet with is, that the Lord God planted a Garden Eastward in Eden, and there he put the Man whom he had form'd: In this Garden was every Tree that was pleasant to the Sight, and good for Food, which was allow'd to be made ufe of; but in the midft of it were two Trees, the Tree of Life, and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, which laft was forbidden to be caten of, upon Pain of Death. Of every Tree of the Garden thou may'ft freely eat, but of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil thou shalt not eat of it; for in the Day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt

Surely

SERM Jurely die. But, notwithstanding this, we IV. find the Serpent feducing the Woman, and telling her, That if they did eat it they should not die, but be as Gods, knowing Good and Evil. So that when the Woman

faw that the Tree was good for Food, and that it was pleasant to the Eyes, and a Tree to be defired to make one wife, he took of the Fruit thereof and did eat, and gave also unto her Husband with her, and he did eat; and, as a Confirmation of their Guilt, we find them, in the next Verfe, hiding themfelves from the Prefence of the Lord God amongst the Trees of the Garden.

This is the Scripture Account of it; and a very plain and clear one it is. If this be disbeliev'd, it must be, either because it can be obviated by fome other Part of Scripture, or elfe that it implies fome Abfurdity' or Contradiction, As to the firft, the Scripture is fo far from obviating this any where, that it abundantly confirms it. St Paul fays exprefly, that by one Man Sin enter d into the World, and Death by Sin. And in an older Book than any befides in the Bible, I mean Job, Zophar traces Wickedness and Mifery up to the first Man. Then, as to the fecond, it is fo far from implying any Abfurdity or Contradiction, especially if we take along with us the Account of Man's

Recovery,