frequent Communion with God in the Ordinances of Religion; feeing in the very next Chapter we find Cain and Abel engaged in an Act of folemn Worship; which the latter fo rightly performed, that the Lord had refpect unto him and to his Offering. And if Cain was not accepted, it was not because he had loft Communion with God on account of his Father's Sin, for that would have equally affected Abel and his Sacrifice, but because he did not do well. The Fault was in himself.

Gen. iv. 7. And at fundry Times God appeared to the Patriarchs and Prophets, and they had Communion with him without any Fear. And at length the Son of God came into the World, and fpake unto us the gracious Things of the Gofpel; and ftill fpeaketh to us by his Word and Spirit; and Fellowship with the Father and the Son, bleffed be God, is a happy Advantage to this Day to all who are wife to understand and improve it. So that as we could not justly, by Adam's Sin, lofe Communion with God, it is true, in Fact, that we have not loft it.

IF you fay, This is owing to the Mercy of God in the Redeemer, which reftoreth us to what we loft in Adam: I anfwer, The Scripture, (as I have fhewn, Part I.) faith, that all we loft in Adam was that Life which ceaseth when we leave this World; and that all that God's Grace doth for us in Chrift, to repair that

Lofs,

Lofs, is raifing us up at the laft Day. And therefore Communion with God is either the fame Grace, which was vouchfafed to Adam, continued to us: Or, if there be any thing extraordinary in it, it belongeth to the Redundancy of Grace, which overfloweth above and beyond the Confequences of Adam's Sin, and hath no Relation to any thing we loft by it. However, this Text, where there is no Mention made, nor Intimation given of Adam's Pofterity, doth not prove that they, (fuppofing they were to have a Being, and to defcend from him) loft Communion with God for his Sin, though 'tis true he did forfeit it for himself.

Ver. 24. So he drove out the man: and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden, cherubims, and a flaming fword, which turned way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

every

THE Tree of Life can, with any Shew of Truth, be confidered only as either a Pledge and Sign of Immortality, or as a Mean of preventing the Decay of the human Frame in Innocence; in which respect it could be of no Ufe or Significancy to Man now doomed to Mortality. And being alfo condemned to a laborious Life, it was fit he should be banished. out of the Garden to the common, and lefs fruitful Ground. This Text, in both Parts, hath immediate Relation only to the Dura

1

tion of Man's Life, and his outward Condition in the World; and therefore is no Proof of Mankind's lofing Communion with God, Nor, for the Reason just now given, can any fuch Proof poffibly be produced, any farther than as Men, by their own perfonal Wickedness, cut themselves off from the Love and Bleffing of their Creator.

PROP. The Fall brought upon MankindGod's Difpleafure and Curfe, fo as we are by Nature the Children of Wrath.

SENSE. By Adam's one Tranfgreffion, and for no other Reason, all Mankind became fubject to God's Difpleafure and Curse.

PROOF. Ephef. ii. 2, 3. This we have confidered before.

REFLECTIONS.

"How Mankind, who were perfectly in"nocent of Adam's Sin, could for that Sin, and upon no other Account, be justly brought under God's Difpleasure and Curfe, we cannot understand. But, on the contrary, we do understand, and by our Faculties muft neceffarily judge, according to all Rules of Equity, it is unjust. "And therefore, unlefs our Understanding, or Perception of Truth, be falfe, that is, unlefs we do not underftand what we do underftand; or understand that to be true,

" which

" which other Minds understand to be false, "it must be unjust. But if Understanding clearly difcerning its Object, were thus "various, then it would be no Understanding "in fome Beings or other. For inftance; if my Understanding difcerneth that twice two is equal to four, and another Understanding difcerneth that it is equal to fourteen, "then either his or my Understanding is no Understanding; i, e. either he or I do un"derftand what we do not understand; which "is abfurd. Therefore Understanding can"not be various, but must be the fame in all

Beings as far as they do understand. And "therefore if we understand, that it is unjust, "that the Innocent fhould be under Dif

pleasure, or a Curfe, (and we fee it very "clearly, as clearly as we fee that that which

is, is, or that which is not, is not) then "God understands it to be fo too.

tr

"AND pray, confider feriously what a "God he must be, who can be difpleafed with, and curfe his innocent Creatures, even before they have a Being. Is this thy God, O Chriftian? But fo far is "God from curfing his innocent Creatures, "that he hath not only turned the Sentence "of Mortality into a general Good; but "hath alfo fupply'd a fuperabundance of "Grace in his Son. And I will be bold to "fay, that neither from Epb. ii. 2, 3. nor from

I 4

"from any other Scripture, can the Propo"fition be proved."

PROP. The Fall brought unto Mankind God's Difpleasure and Curfe, fo as we are by Nature-bond Slaves to Satan.

SENSE. By Adam's one Tranfgreffion, and for no other Reason, Men, every Man, and all Mankind, are become bond Slaves to the Devil; that is, he reigneth over us, governeth us, and worketh in us.

PROOF. 2 Tim. ii. 26. And that they may recover themselves out of the Snare of the Devil who are taken Captives by him at his Will.

SPEAKING, I fuppofe, of any of the unconverted Gentiles, who oppofed themselves to the Gofpel, and were ftill under the power of darkness, and lived, according to the prince of the power of the air, the fpirit that wrought in them, the children of difobedience, Ephef. ii. 2. But this their Servitude to Satan is neither here, nor in any other Part of Scripture, afcribed to Adam's Sin, as the Caufe and Reafon of it; but always to the Wickednefs, filthy Luft, and Idolatry in which the Gentiles lived. Adam himfelf was taken in the Snare of the Devil, not because he was a bond Slave to bim by Nature, nor on account of the Tranfgreffion of any other Perfon, but thro'