fubject to Vanity for the guilt of Adam's Offence,

Rom. viii. 20.

Phil. But who was the Judge upon this weighty occafion ?

Didas. Jehovah-Elohim, or One of the Elohim, Gen. iii. 9, 23. This One was the fon of God, as was afterwards Revealed. For the "Father Judgeth no man, but hath committed all Judgment unto the Son;" with " Authority to Execute Judgment, BECAUSE HE IS THE SON OF MAN." This is the fame intended by Eve under the name of A MAN, "THE JEHOVAH." Comp. Gen. iv. 1. with Joh. v. 22, 27.

Phil, But, my dear Didas. was it the voice of Judgment, or of Mercy, that fwift pursued the criminals, to fummon them to the Bar?

Didas. Doubtlefs of both. The compaffionate Judge in the midst of wrath remembered mercy. While Juftice held the Scales, to pass a sentence equivalent to their crime, Mercy erected a Throne of grace, that, in the iffue, will foon triumph over Judgment: By this, the honour of the Lawgiver will be fecured, and the cafe of the guilty rendered falvable. An inftance of this will appear in the following procefs. Where you may obferve,

Firft. The judge himfelf gives the fummons, with an "Adam! where art thou?" The judge was neither ignorant of the offence, nor where the offenders were. This was the language of a parental fovereign, in purfuit of a rebellious fon-a fummons to the bar, where juftice, compounded with mercy, will pafs a fentence, at once exibiting the heinoufnefs of the offence, the juftice of the punishment, and the exuberant goodnefs of the judge. This procefs will point out fuch a method of falvation fer man, as will properly display a wonder of wonders! It will aftonifh angels, confound devils, and afford fubjects for the fongs

of

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of the Redeemed in future ages and future worlds! Phil. At the fummons of the judge, methinks I fee the guilty couple advance with reluctance from the Thicket, as from a felf-made prifon. Behold! trembling they ftand empannelled at the awful Bar! Guilt reddens their countenance-with appalled hearts and trembling limbs, they liften for the voice that will fix their doom. Pleafe permit me to attend that folemn affize, where all the world was fentenced for Adam's fin-fentenced to fuffer-to die!

Didas. Second. Solemn indeed! and probably attended by thoufands of invifible fpectators, waiting to hear the iffue. And firft, the man is fummoned, and examined at the dread tribunal. Thus the Judge proceeds, "Haft thou eaten of the Tree of which I commanded thee, faying, Thou fhalt not eat of it "The trembling culprit circumftantially Confeffes his crime, The woman which Thou gavest to be with me, She gave me of the Tree, AND I DID EAT." Second, The waman is then examined, being by her husband accufed as a principal in the action: Thus the Judge proceeds, "What is This that Thou haft done ?? She confeffes her guilt, but pleads deception in mitigation of it, "The Serpent beguiled me, AND I DID EAT." Here the judge fufpends their fentence until He had condemned the Serpent. being the first grand offender.

Third. The Serpent neither denied nor replied to the woman's allegation.

The Judge immediately proceeds to pafs fentence upon the Serpent. This fentence contained, 1ft. a Curfe; 2d. Degradation in his body and in his food; 3d. in the iffue, the bruifing of his Head.

Phil. Have you not intimated above, That both Adam and Eve penitently confeffed their crime unto the Judge?

Didas.

Didas. Moft certainly I have, and fo I think

both of them did.

Phil. But the current of Commentators and Divines, with Mr. Pool, fay, that Adam "Excufed himfelf, and charged God foolishly with his fin." Pray why do you feem to think otherwife?

Didas. If Mr. Pool, &c. were prefent, I would beg leave humbly to propose a few questions, out of many more that might be afked, not by way of litigation, which I always decline, but of information. I would beg leave to enquire

ift. Do his words neceffarily infer fuch a confequence? Is it impoffible fairly to conftrue them in a more amiable light, and lefs offenfive?

2d. May not his cafe be rather confidered, in fome degree, like that of a legal penitent, under the terrors of a guilty confcience and the fears of deferved punishment? Fears which a Deift may and ought to feel?

3d. If the charging God with his fin, appeared to him a fufficient excufe for his crime, why did his fears make him fly from his Maker? Why endeavour to hide himself at all, being poffeft of fo good an excufe, or at least a palliation for his crime?

4th. If Adam did not now humbly confefs his fin, I beg to be informed, where do we read that he ever did? Did Adam never repent at all? Or did Mofes, who recorded his crime, forget or neglect to record his repentance?

5th. Is not repentance a prerequifite for par don? Is not to charge God foolishly with a fin, a most diabolical prefumptuous fin in itself? Could any thing aggravate his firft fin more than fuch a charge?

6th. Before ever the Judge paffed a word of the fentence upon the human culprits, did he not firft publish the glad tidings of pardon and falva

tion in their hearing, while he gave out his divine Oracle in ver. r. 15?

17th. Did not Adam believe that gracious Oracle, in which it was Promifed, that the woman--the woman, his wife, fhould have a Seed, whose name he changed, upon the authority of this very oracle,, from Ihah to Chevah, because the was, or was to be, the Mother of all living of Mankind?

8th. If Adam then believed this evangelical oracle, was he not then pardoned, or juftified by faith? And now, did not his maker difcover his. prefent reconciliation unto both, by cloathing, them, &c. as Adam did his faith by changing and giving a new Name to his wife? The pardon that Adam received, like that of ours, was partial--a pardon for his fin as to the eternal penal fentence due to him, but not to exempt his body from fufferings and death. This is the true reafon, that in his fentence, there is no mention made of either curfe or of fufferings in another world. Can this remark be fairly denied? If it cannot, the confequence, is evident, namely, That no one will be finally condemned to hell folely for the Sin of Adam?

9th. Is not this fuppofition exactly agreeable to the tenor and fcope of divine Revelation, touching the important doctrine of Juftification by faith? A doctrine which is the fame in all ages, and under all difpenfations, whatever many miftaken good+ and great men have or do believe to the contrary.

10th. I afk, was it not at one and the fame: time, that the culprits were examined, the oracle, fuer. 15.) delivered, and the fentence paffed both upon the Serpent-the Earth-Adam and Eve ? If fo, and if Adam believed that oracle, then upon, its delivery, what can equal the abfurdity, which fuppofes that Adam both excufed' himself, and, charged God foolifaly with his fin, at the very moment his Judge moft mercifully forgaye, his fin?:

Phil. You fay, that Adam made a circumftan. tial confeffion of his fin.

Didas. I do. And is it not both true and plain? Did not God give the woman, and the woman the fruit to Adam? It was to these historical facts, beyond doubt, that Adam referred, and that without any malignant reflection upon either his Maker or beloved Bride. Could he have confelied his fin w.hout mentioning these circumftances? On the contrary, they appear to me rather to aggravate than extenuate his fin in his own fight. Did he not know that it was his Maker's love to him, as well as other reafons, that måde her and married them? What but love to her could induce him to liften to her perfuafive arguments, when he "Hearkened to her voice," and took and eat at all hazards? What ingratitude was this to his Maker, he would naturally refle&t ! He gave her himself had abused the gift, by too fondly attending to her perfuafions inftead of his duty to his God! He loved her-Love liftened to her-alas! "I did eat." Thoughtless, rebellius, ungrateful, to the laft degree!

Phil. Indeed, my dear Didas. I thank you for thefe Remarks; in which you have rescued an important paffage from the ridicule of Deifts; the conduct of Adam from the mifconftructions of the friends of Revelation; and refolved, I hope fatisfactorily, the doubts of thoufands concerning the repentance, faith, and confequent falvation, of the common Parents of Mankind.

Didas. Now, my dear Phil. we are arrived at a very important period of Providence, which demands our attention.

Firft. The primitive state of the world, in which every thing was very good, is now at an end. Paradife, deftitute of human inhabitants, becomes an habitation of devils. The immortalizing fruit of

the