Eve out of one of his own ribs, and when, as soon as he awoke, she was brought to him by the invisible One, he gladly welcomed her as "bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh." 1

To be made as Adam and Eve were in the Divine image and likeness, implied a rational, reflective, and moral nature, that would at once express itself by gratitude to God for life and its abundant enjoyments.

Now for what purpose were they created? Unquestionably that they might obey the revealed will of Him who gave them life and everything they could reasonably desire. And what was the positive part of that revealed will? Abstinence from the fruit of one tree under the penalty of death, whilst everything else was for their use and benefit. The first thing that arrested their attention was a garden carefully prepared, and that demanded their habitual cultivation. They were also to keep it, which suggested an enemy desirous of depriving them of their present enjoyments. Having no bias to moral evil, though they were, as finite creatures, liable to fall, they ought to have been sensitively alive to the smallest approach to sin. Still they were free to choose, and whether obedient or rebellious, their conduct would be their own, and, as all sin when rightly viewed is inexcusable, the strongest motives are never truly, but only through blindness and perversity on the side of sin. We have here then an example of a finite

Gen. i and ii.

being, for a time under discipline either for better or for worse.

The crisis of trial at length arrived. No hint was given of the quarter from whence it would come, or of the mode of attack. When it actually began, Eve by parrying the thrust of base insinuation, saw the presence of an enemy, and ought at once to have dismissed the subject, but, alas, she cherished what she condemned, by toning down the restriction into a threat, that might perhaps be defied with impunity. Seeing his advantage, the serpent at once boldly declared not only that God knew they would not die, but their eyes being opened through tasting the forbidden fruit, they would, unhurt, know good and evil as God does.

But why was the prospect of having their eyes opened a temptation to our first parents? Because it promised to remove a difficulty they had often felt. Hitherto God was known to them only by a voice, and though they were as convinced of his existence as of their own, they naturally desired a fuller disclosure, which, indeed, within due bounds, was right and laudable. So congenial to human nature is the conception of another world, that once made known, it has never been lost sight of, except where men have degenerated into an abnormal state. And here God made himself known to man as a pure spirit in exact accordance with the deductions of the purest and highest intellect. Now could our first parents re

gard this disclosure as a fact merely? Would not their intercourse with the great Invisible incline them to hope that a purer and more exalted world was within their reach, and a legitimate object of desire? They perceived that God was present though hidden from their view, and that another mode of being was as undeniable as their own. Their young, vigorous, and active intelligence must have intently dwelt upon this patent fact, and hence they realized not only a world of matter and a world that imagination creates, and revels in, but also the hidden world, wherein God resides. The serpent therefore, touched a vibrating chord when it promised that their eyes would be opened and they would be as God by eating the forbidden fruit. Other emotions were likewise awakened in them; jealousy, suspicion, thirst for knowledge, and a desire to rise, degenerating into selfishness and ambition, all here combined together to deceive and corrupt our first parents. On the other hand was there harshness or want of consideration in this ordeal? None at all; dependence upon the Creator justifies the reasonableness of prompt and cheerful obedience. It does not become a finite creature to demand a reason for every restraint that may be imposed. If we would know much of God we must be prepared to wonder at as well as approve of his measures. The profound and unknown bring our littleness and ignorance before us, deepen our sense of dependence, and make the obedience of faith our undoubted obligation.

The history of the fall is briefly told. Eve turned away from facts, and Adam yielding to the voice of his wife was implicated in her guilt. How quickly now were their eyes open to their sin and folly; but, as they still lived, they were perhaps for a while puzzled, though little inspired with hope. But terror and dismay were at hand, when they heard the voice of the great Invisible demanding where they were, in order to withdraw from them the reason of their concealment, so different from their previous conduct.

They had now to learn the nature of death. It was the loss of innocence, and of Paradise its dwelling place. The new spirit imbibed from the serpent turned them away from God, and was in itself a wretchedness and self-reproach that wild beasts are unconscious of, whose savage nature and life of slaughter entail no remorse or shame. Transformed into his spirit, they became the first of the serpent's seed on earth. God however had not abandoned man, accordingly the covenant of grace is immediately revealed, which announced the Divine intention of raising up a seed hostile to the serpent's, and in the end its destruction. Adam would have kept the covenant under which he was created had he retained his sense of dependence upon God; but, when he rebelled, he was no longer able to repair the mischief he had introduced, or to regard God as his friend. Accordingly the second covenant is from first to last the work of God. It says, "I will put enmity between thee and

the woman, between thy seed and her seed, it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel." God here engages to raise up and perpetuate a seed in the likeness and image that Adam had effaced by the fall, and to make it contemporary with, and finally destructive of the serpent's seed. As the two seeds. comprehend the whole human race, the terms "woman and serpent" metaphorically denote, first, those in every age who have been renewed in the Divine image by the sovereign grace of God; and, secondly, the rest of mankind who resist the Holy Spirit, and are termed by Christ the children of the devil.

As our first parents approached God acceptably through the burnt offering or substitutionary death, they probably saw that the same gracious being who delivered them from the penalty, would equally snatch them from the dominion of sin. The former would bestow no lasting benefit without the latter. It is not improbable that the fiery sword referred to the fire and knife that were used at the burnt offering. At any rate, these two most destructive things were indispensable to the right service of God. As Aaron, and even Christ himself were divinely set apart for the priesthood, so were all priests, as far back as Abel, who, by faith in God, was a more acceptable worshipper than Cain.1

Faith probably began to waver in the time of Enoch, to counteract which, he brought a warning from God, 1Gen. iv. Heb. v, 4, 5.