CHAP. VIII.

ON THE APOSTASY OF MAN, AND THE EVIL CONSEQUENCE TO HIM.

MAN, who was placed in a happy and honourable situation, did not continue in it; but by transgressing the divine command, and violating the holy covenant, plunged into a state of infinite guilt and wretchedness, under the curse and threatened penalty of the law of God.

Moses gives a particular history of this first apostasy of man, in the third chapter of the book of Genesis. He does not tell us how long man continued innocent and obedient, after he was created; or give us a history of what passed, and of all the particular events and transactions which took place in a state of innocency; such a history being of no use and importance to us, while we continue in the present state. The whole will doubtless be revealed to all mankind at the day of judgment.

The SERPENT is said to be the tempter, by whom Eve was deceived, and led to eat of the fruit of the forbidden tree; and then gave it to Adam, and he eat of it also. It is said, "The serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made." He appeared to have more sagacity than any other of the brute creation. Probably he had an erect and very beautiful form, and had nothing of the appearance and form of serpents since the fall of man. He appear ed near the forbidden tree, or on it; perhaps eating of the fruit of it. It seems probable that Eve, seeing him there, and eating of the fruit of the tree, was surprised; upon which the serpent spoke, "Hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden ?" Eve replied, that God had given them full liberty to eat of every tree in the garden, except that one; but had forbidden them to touch that, upon the severest penalty. The serpent said, "Ye shall not surely die. For God doth know, that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened; and ye shall be as gods, knowing good

and evil." It is most probable that the serpent told the woman that by eating of the fruit of that tree, he had obtained the use of reason, and the faculty of speech, which she saw him now to exercise; and therefore said, that from his own experience, he could assure her, that if she would eat of this fruit, she should be so far from dying, that she should arrive to a much higher degree of perfection and knowledge. The first motion in her mind disposing her to regard and believe the serpent, rather than God, who had said, she should surely die, if she eat of that tree, was wrong and sinful: so that she really fell from her innocence, before she actually took of the fruit, and ate. Her doing the latter was completing her apostasy, by a full exertion of her will in open rebellion. And the first motion of Adam's heart, which implied the least degree of inclination to hearken to the woman, and eat of the forbidden fruit, was a sinful one; and he was a rebel in heart, before he actually ate.

Nothing is spoken of as the tempter but the serpent ; because nothing else was visible but the serpent speaking and reasoning; or rather deceiving and lying. But the story itself, when properly considered, will necessarily lead us to conceive of some superior, invisible agent, speaking and acting in and by the serpent, making him the instrument, by which he effected his design. And as it could not be a good spirit, which by the serpent acted this part, it must be an evil one; which is confirmed by what God said to the serpent, after the apostasy of man, which will be considered more particularly in its place. But this is reduced to a certainty in succeeding divine revelation, where the devil and his angels are brought into view: And Christ evidently alludes to this instance of ruining mankind by deceit and lying when he says, "The devil was a murderer from the beginning; and he is a liar, and the father of it." And the devil is repeatedly called the dragon, and the serpent, "That old serpent called the devil, and satan which deceiveth the whole world," plainly alluding to the serpent which in the beginning deceived and seduced our first parents. The devil, in order to carry on his

* Rev. xii. 9, 14, 15.-xx. 2.

design, made use of the serpent as his instrument, he being a creature best suited to answer his purpose. And God saw fit to suffer him to do it.

By this act of disobedience, our first parents violated the covenant which God had made with them, and forfeited all the good promised to obedience, and brought upon themselves the penalty threatened. It was not, indeed, completely executed upon them immediately. They fell under the divine displeasure and wrath, which was sufficiently great to destroy them forever; and which, if fully executed on them, must make them miserable, without end. They were condemned, and fell into a state of complete eternal ruin, being totally and forever undone and lost, without any help or hope. Thus they died immediately on sinning: Though the full execution of the punishment did not take place immediately; yet as they were condemned and cursed, and utterly undone, and had nothing in their reach or view to prevent infinite evil coming upon them, the evil threatened in a true sense fell upon them, and they died in the day on which they transgressed. The sentence of death, and the penalty threatened in the law under which the angels were, fell upon those who sinned immediately; but it will not be completely executed till the day of judgment; nor will it ever be, because it is endless punishment, to which they are condemned. will be in execution without end, and so, strictly speaking, will never be fully executed: And yet the execution is according to the threatening. So it is in the case of man; he fell under the threatening immediately on his sinning, though the full and complete execution of it, do not take place for many ages.

It

St. Paul says, "When the commandment or law came, sin revived, and I died :" That is, he found himself dead. He found himself under the curse of the law, which was contained in the original threatening, "In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." If Paul found himself dead, agreeable to the threatening of the law, then Adam did really die in the sa me sense, or the same death: and sin, even the first act of disobedience, wrought this death in him. The evil which the ław threatened, "Thou shalt surely die," in this sense,

came upon him. He fell under the curse. tence fell upon him, and he was a dead man. this death, or dying; and by this tells us means in the threatening; and that Adam that day in which he ate the forbidden fruit.

This sen Paul calls what dying did die on

But if this were not so, and Adam did not die the death threatened on the day he sinned, this may be consistent with the execution of the threatening, according to the true intent of it. The threatening," In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die," expresses two things, viz. The certainty of the punishment, as infallibly connected with transgression; and that the threatened penalty should follow on one or the first act of rebellion. We find much the same language used, to express one or both these; and not that the threatening should be immediately executed, or on the day in which the crime was committed. "The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression. As for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall thereby in the day that he turneth from his wickedness: Neither shall the righteous be able to live in the day that he sinneth; but for his iniquity that he hath com nitted, he shalt die for it."* This does not express the time when death should be executed or take place; but the certainty of the punishment. "For it shall be that on the day that thou goest out, and passest over the brook Kidron, thou shall know for certain, that thou shalt surely die." This does not mean, that he should die on the same day in which he should pass over Kidron; but that he should certainly be put to death for this offence, without any farther trial.

This apostasy of our first parents, was a total apostasy That is, by giving themselves up to this sin, an inclination to sin took the dominion in their hearts, and they wholly lost all their moral rectitude and holiness, or the moral image of God, in which they were created. This is not expressly asserted in the history of their sin; but it may be inferred from the nature of the case. By this transgression they forfeited all favour from their Maker, and fell under his displeasure, and were cursed,

VOL. I.

* Ezekiel xxxië, 12, 13.

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+1 Kings ii. 37.

according to the law and constitution, under which they were when they sinned; and it was inconsistent therefore to shew them any favour; especially such a favour, as preserving them from total apostasy, or their being continued in the exercise of love to God, while they were under that constitution, and antecedent to the revelation of the dispensation of grace. Moreover, the first act of sin carried in it an inclination to universal sinfulness, and opposition to holiness in general, or to all and every degree of holiness; and according to the natural course of things, would issue in total depravity, in the exclusion of all moral good, and the complete possession and reign of moral evil in their hearts. This consisted in their ceasing to love God, and loving themselves only; which self love, or selfishness, was in every degree of it opposed to the law under which they were, and the fruitful source of all sin; which will more fully appear, when this subject will come more particularly into view, in its proper place. There was nothing therefore that could prevent their total apostasy, or becoming wholly sinful, and opposed to the law of God, and all holiness, unless God had miraculously interposed, contrary to the law and constitution under which they sinned, to prevent it, and exercised mere sovereign favour, which, as has been observed, would be inconsistent with the constitution under which they sinned.

The above reasoning, to prove that the apostasy of man was total, appears to be confirmed by the apostasy of the angels who sinned. It is presumed all will grant that their first apostasy was not partial, but total. If the angels fell totally in their first rebellion, why not man also? It is true that under another and a new dispensation of grace through a Mediator, holiness is introduced and maintained in the heart of the believer, in a small and low degree, while there is also a degree of sinful exercise; and both these, sin and holiness, continue through life; and particular acts of sin of which believers are guilty, do not bring on total depravity, and wholly extinguish every degree of divine love: But this may with propriety be called a miracle, being contrary to the course of nature, and the constitution of things, which originally took place, and is the effect of the new consti