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eternal death threatened in the garden. If the serpent knew all this, had he not good authority for saying, "Ye shall not surely die?" For, according to this idea, we may eat as much forbidden fruit as we choose, and afterwards repent, and go to heaven!-You see this subject plainly. Of all men in the world to manage an accusation of the kind I have adverted to, our opposers are in the most miserable condition; for they are doing the very thing of which they

accuse us.

The attention of the hearer is now specially requested. "The serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die." According to our opposers, the death here alluded to was eternal death in the world to come. Let us suppose that a day or two after the transgression, the serpent paid the woman a visit, and asked her respecting her condition, and whether she had eaten any of the fruit? "Yes, I ate of it." Well, are you dead? "No, I am not dead." Has the threatened penalty come upon you? "No."-Now, would not the serpent have had a right to say to the woman, "I told you, you would not surely die! You are comfortable and well; eternal death has not come upon you; you are here alive; death has not come upon you!" Now, my hearers, be careful to remember, that God did not say; If ye eat of this fruit, ye shall die in eternity; but in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." In the day of the transgression. There is nothing future in the declaration. And if that death did not take place in the day of the transgression, we have no Scriptural authority to believe that it ever did, or ever will take place.

Leaving the doctrine of the serpent, and the doctrine of our opposers, out of the question, we come directly to the subject of inquiry- What was that death, and when did it take place?-We shall not venture to be very particular, in describing that death theoretically; but we have no hesitation as to the time it was experienced. It took place in the day of transgression. I understand the text to mean precisely what it says; and I understand, too, that the language of the serpent denies, what was asserted by the Almighty.

The question resolves itself into something that you can judge of, just as well as the speaker. I simply ask the question: Do you know any thing. about the nature of transgression? Have you ever been so unhappy as to know yourself a transgressor? You will answer in the affirmative. Do you know what kind of death you died in the day of transgression? If you do, you know the truth of the subject for the death that every transgressor dies, is the death spoken of in the word of God. It is the very death that the serpent said should not take place.

My hearers, you have all been little children. Let me speak to you as such. Your parents laid certain restrictions upon you, and required of you the performance of certain duties. I ask you to recollect, if you ever disobeyed your parents? What feelings did a consciousness of wrong doing bring. upon your minds? It must have produced some effect. You must have felt differently from what you did before you transgressed. What, then, was the effect of transgression? You say, "I felt very miserably, indeed, when I came to consider that I had

done what my parents forbade me to do, or failed to perform what they had commanded to be done." Now, my hearers, it makes no difference what name you give it but the sensations you then experienced, the Scriptures call death. How did you feel about coming into the presence of your parents, after you had transgressed? You felt unpleasantly, and gladly would you have kept out of their sight. How exactly your feelings corresponded with those of Adam and Eve, when the Lord visited them in the garden, in the cool of the day! They were afraid, and hid themselves. They were conscious of transgression; and so every child in the community feels, after disobeying the commands of his parents. He feels a disturbed operation within. -Well, you have grown up from childhood to manhood and womanhood; and does transgression now induce any better feelings than it did when you were children? I fervently desire you to weigh this matter seriously.

Another point claims our attention. You never transgress without temptation. How does temptation talk to you? Does it not always promise something agreeable? Does it not tell you, that it is not a matter of certainty you will be detected and punished? Let us suppose a case. Do you suppose a man would steal from his neighbours, unless he thought the thing stolen would be of some use to him? No. Would he steal if he knew he would certainly be detected and punished? No, he would not. Now and manner of temptayou see the power tion. It promises something good, and it promises an éscape from detection and punishment. And un

less a person believes these two things, he will not become a transgressor. I am now speaking of the principles on which the human mind acts. Man never transgresses unless he expects to gain something by it; and unless, also, he thinks there is some way to escape with impunity, the natural, proper penalty that belongs to the crime. It is precisely so in every situation of life. This is what produces sin. If a person can be persuaded that he will be profited by sinning, and that he can avoid punishment, he will commit sin. But if he be not persuaded to believe these two things, he will not transgress. Eve was in this condition precisely. She was told that the fruit was good, and she believed it. She was told, that if she transgressed, "she should not surely die." She believed the serpent-she ate, and died!

"But," says the hearer, "does not the speaker know that he is talking against his own sentiments? Does he not believe that the sinner can avoid all punishment?" If you think so, my friends, you are under a mistake. I believe that no individual can commit a single sin, without receiving punishment therefor.. "Do you not believe," says the hearer, "that Jesus came into the world to save the world?" Yes. "Do you not believe that God wills the salvation of all men?" Yes. "And do you not believe it is necessary for every man to repent?" Yes. But I do not believe that Jesus came into the world to save mankind from being punished, if they sin. I believe that all disobedience will receive a just recompense of reward. The Apostle says, Heb. ii. 2, 3: "For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience re

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ceived a just recompense of reward; how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation." Neither under the law, nor under the gospel dispensation, is there any provision made for man to avoid the punishment of sin. There is but one way to avoid punishment; and that is, to avoid sin. All walk in death, so long as they walk in sin. I appeal to the experience and consciences of all, both young and old; and I ask, whether you ever did wrong without bringing condemnation to your souls? You will say, that you never did. This is all I ask you to acknowledge. "But," says the hearer, "what do you make out by that?" Plainly, that what God said was true-" In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." When does condemnation come? Do you commit sin, and then does condem nation come like something without either wings or legs, as though it would never overtake you? No. It comes like lightning. The moment you know yourself to be a transgressor, you feel the deadly sting; and it is impossible to commit wrong, without feeling the infliction of that poisonous arrow which causes death. "The wages of sin is death." Every one must die in the day of transgression.

Do you not see that we hold precisely the reverse of what the serpent held, and precisely the reverse of what our accusers hold? In the way in which our accusers have explained the subject, they make out that man can live in sin, year after year, and finally never experience the death they say was threatened. Here is a great error, and I am very sorry it exists. Our accusers not only commit that error, but they have really united with, and contend in favour of the position of the serpent. They tell

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