out at his door, but leave him to flay his defenceless children in the street? I fhall, after what I have obferved, beg liberty to say, I am so far from believing any such story respecting the cause of fin, that I have not even the fhadow of evidence, from fcripture or reafon, to fupport the fentiment. But I have been told, that man, ftanding in a state of finless purity, could not have fallen from that rectitude, unless there had been fome finful being to have tempted him. Admitting there is any force in this obfervation, it stands as directly against the fall of Satan, without a finful temptation, as it does against man's tranfgreffion, without a tempter. Was man more pure, before he finned, than that holy angel in heaven? If not, how could that angel fin, without a temptation, easier than man, who was made in a lower grade? But fuppofing we should admit that God commanded an angel to worship his Son Jefus, and the angel refused, and call that the first fin ever committed, it would not determine its origin or caufe. A caufe, or origin, muft exist, before an ef fect, or production. So, after all our journeying to heaven after a finning angel, and after purfuing him to hell, and from hell to the earth, we have not yet answered the question, viz. What is the origin of fin? We have only fhown, that the way in which this question has been generally folved, is without foundation.

Having ftated what I have been told was the origin of fin, and given my reafons why I do not believe it, I now come to give my own ideas of the matter.

Scripture, with the affiftance of that reafon, without which, the scriptures would be of no more service to us than they are to the brute creation, I fhall take for my guide, on the question before me. Almighty God is a being of infinite perfections; this the fcriptures will fupport, and reafon de

clare: He was the author of our existence, being the creator of the first man and woman, the occafion of their being formed of the duft of the ground, and the director of that providence by which we are all introduced by ordinary generation. Our Maker must have had a defign in the works of his hands; this the fcriptures argue, and reason fays. The whole of God's defign must be carried into effect, and nothing more, admitting him to be an infinite being. We are informed, that God created man in his own image; that he bleffed him, and fet him over the works of his hands; and reafon cannot deny the truth of it. But what was this image of God, in which man was created? Anfwer, it was Chrift, who, in fcripture, is called "the beginning of the creation of God;" who, St. Paul fays, is the brightness of the Father's glory, and exprefs image of his perfon. Now there is no need of faying much, where the truth is easy to come at. If Chrift is the image of God, and man was created in God's image, it is plain, that man was created in Chrift, was blessed in Christ, and in Christ fet over the works of God's hands. After God had finifhed his work of creation, confecrated the feventh day, and refted from his labor, we are informed that there was not a man to till the ground, This information is reafonable, and authorifes me to say, that as man ftood in his created character, which is Chrift, the heavenly man, he was not, at that time, formed of the dust of the ground, was not of the carth earthly, and therefore was not a tiller of the ground. We are then informed, by the facred text, that God formed (not created) man of the duft of the ground, breathed into his noftriis the breath of life, whereby man became a living foul, or creature. Man is now a partaker of fleth and blood; is, as the apofile fays, "made jubject to vanity, not willingly, but by reafon of him who fubjeЯted the fame in hope." He has now, not an immortal, but a mortal conftitution; is poffeffed of natural ap

petites and paffions; and being unacquainted with the ways of his own imperfect felf, knew neither the good or evil of a mortal ftate. If it be faid, that man was not mortal, before he finned, and that he became mortal by fin, it is a faying as diftant from good reason as imagination can go. For if man was not mortal before tranfgreffion, he muft have been immortal; if he was immortal, he was not subject to change, but remains ftill in the fame immortal ftate; and all our notions about the mortality of man is nothing but a groundless chimera. But every day's experience contradicts fuch abfurdities.

Man, according to these statements, is of heavenly extraction; is, in his nature, allied to the heavenly state, în which he was created, before he was formed of the dust of the ground. And I call on the reason of my reader to testify to the rationality of the idea. If the mind, fpirit, foul, or whatever the reader pleases to call the immortal part of man, originated from the earthly nature of the formed creature, what is the reafon that the good, which fupports the formed nature, does not fatisfy the foul? Our natural appetites originate in the elements of which our bodies are compofed, and aliment produced from them is fufficient to fatisfy any natural appetite of the body; but can it give a cup of confolation to the heavenly stranger within? No; her food is of a different kind. Was the earth, with all her mines and fruits, my own, this moment, on condition that I fhould give up the riches which I fee in this heavenly relation, my bargain would make me poor.

As man ftood in his formed ftate, cloathed with mortal flefl and blood, before his mind became obfequious to the elementary paffions, a law was fhadowed to his mind from the heavenly and fpiritual man. The full fpirit, power and beau

ty of the law, were not perfectly understood, only a fhadow of the heavenly nature paffed on his mind, and the nature of that spirit being eternal, and immortally pure, was opposed to the paffions which would immediately rife from the fleshly nature, and faid, in the understanding of the creature already made subject to vanity, yield not to the passions and powers of the flesh, for they are death. But immediately the powerful vibrations of the fleshly nature absorbed his mind, he fought to the carhal man for food, ate, and died. Thefe things are figuratively reprefented, in the fcriptures. There man is reprefented as being placed in a garden of delights, to keep it and to drefs it. The tree of life was in it, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; he was bid welcome to the tree of life, but was forbidden the other. A fubtle ferpent comes to the woman, and tempts her with the forbidden fruit; fhe eats, and gives it to her husband, and he alfo partakes Their eyes are opened to the knowledge of good and evil; they fee that they are naked, and hide themfelves from God; few fig-leaves together for garments to hide their nakedness. God comes into the garden, in the cool of the day, calls for the man, and afks him if he had eaten of the borbidden fruit. He anfwers, that the woman whom God gave him, gave unto him and he ate. The woman is next interrogated, and fhe lays it to the ferpent's guile. The ground is curfed, for Adam's fake; when he tills it, it is to produce briars and thorns; he is to eat his bread, by the fweat of his face, and at last return to the duft. The wo

man's conception was to be multiplied in forrow, and her defire was to be to her husband, and he was to rule over her. The ferpent was curfed above all cattle, was to go on his belly, and to eat duft as long as he lived. This is, in fhort, the fcripture representation of the first fin; be figurative.

and I confider it to

That the Almighty ever planted a literal garden on earth, without ufing man as an inftrument by which he did it, I have not evidence enough to believe. The garden, undoubtedly meant the moral state in which man was placed, which, like a garden, would become foul, if it was not dreffed and kept. The tree of life, was then, what it is now, the law of the fpirit of life in Chrift Jesus; and the little of that spirit which was then manifested, was all the moral life which man poffeffed at that time; and, therefore, all which he was able to fin against. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil, was what it is now, the fleshly nature, which I have before defcribed. The oppofition of the law of the heavenly man, to that of the fleshly, is meant by the prohibition. The ferpent, fignifies the carnal mind, which is enmity against God, is not fubject to the law of the heavenly man, neither indeed can be. The carnal mind getting the victory over the law of life, in the understanding of the creature, is meant by the woman's being deceived. Adam is here the figure of him who was to come; and his partaking with the woman, shows that Chrift would bear the infirmities of human nature, his bride, who, in respect to individuality, should be multiplied in forrow, but fhould finally turn her defire towards her Redeemer, and he should protect her. The ferpent, the curfed, is the carnal mind. His going on his belly, fignifies his always being moved by fleshly lufts; and his feeding on duft, teaches that carnal mindedness never feeds on heavenly things, but on things of an earthly nature. And we may justly obferve, that after all the cultivation which is beftowed on the carnal or fleshly nature, it produces nothing better than briers and thorns.

Should it be faid, that this garden was a literal garden, that the tree of life was a literal tree, and that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was alfo literal; I should be glad

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