DE 
fiichteft appearance of beginning eu pee affords ae 
cient fecurity againft any revifitings of life ; and marks of this 
nature are almolt ys vilible, before fhe date "7 interment 
i ate 
heology. The nature and extent of death, 
n with the fall of our firft parents, and de- 
n rien in me wt of their tranfgrefiion, 
afforded occafion for a difference’of opinion among 
i iti It has been al ly fuppofed 
at the privilege of continued life was connected by a di- 
vine con{titution with the innocence or finlefs obedience of 
and evil, wa ime intende ee prevent Seal one 
he lofs of life, on which their happincis 
eer .  jJofephus and fome of sie aeons abfurdly 
imagined, that this ine tree was fo called, becaufe there 
was fomething in its fruit that by its own nature conveyed 
knowledge or wifdom ; but this is the effort of ftudy and 
4nquiry, and not of eating or drinking, at leaft in any other 
way than by the experience it gives, ‘and the effects it pro- 
. In this fenfe eating indeed conveys a great deal of 
‘knowledge of good, viz. of the value of the eafe and health 
that are loft, by the evil that it introduces. ‘This, if we un- 
deritand the ape in a literal fenfe, (fee Pauu,) may be 
the true reafon of the name of this tree, that of the know- 
ledge of good andevil. Thus, the tree of life, and the tree of 
the knowledge of good and evil, feem to ftand in oppofition 
to each other, and to be of dire@tly contrary qualities. The 
ree of life certainly of an healing, reftorative nature, 
rand sae have prolonged life to the longeft P iod of du- 
n. e n 
paflage iis tree ts alluded to. ) In oppofit ion to cae was the 
tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the fruit of which, 
ernic 
note dil diforders in the body, which would eventually, and 
in their own nature, lead to and iffue in death. The prohi- 
bition of the fruit of this tree was juftly made by the great 
Creator and Lord of man, not merely for the exercife of his 
an inftance o 
of experience, from deftroying himfelf. 
this tree may be confidered partly as a friendly caution, and 
principally as an exprefs prohibition, carrying init a pofitive 
injunction wholly to ee = its fruit 5 be in this fenfe - 
our firft parents underftood it. (Gen. iii. ie 
nalty threatened againft the ics of a prohibition i is 
exprefled in thefe words, “ thou fhalt furely die,’’ or ‘¢in 
dying thou thal die: a form of {peaking which commonly 
has an emphatical meaning ; fometimes denoting the abfolute 
certainty of any thing, and having in it the nature of a ftrong 
affir mation ; and fometimes fignifying what is extraordinary 
of, and 
ie] 
“oO 
t 
thereof, i in dying thou fhalt die,” é, é. inflantly become incur- 
-life and h 
tru 
ATH. 
ably mortal, and tending all thy days to diffolution and 
dea 
ath, threatened as a penalty im confequence of finy 
nft the ee nt we bleft with all the 
ar a3 a defirable 
privilege, muft bea fubbantal canner and an awful 
inftance of the divine difpleafure againft fin: and as the re- 
covery to‘life is as far beyond the reach of the power of 
s, this threatening, “ thou 
was not only a condemnation to certain 
death, but as to any thing man could ¢o to prevent it, to 
perpetual and eternal death, and the entire and final lofs of 
was not executed immediately, or on the day 
of the trangreffion ut the exoreffion, “in dying thou 
fhalt die,”’ my interpreted, furnifhes ro ground for 
this obje& for it. fignifies, thou fhalt certainly, but 
gradually die, inftantly become liable to death, and be per- 
petually tending to it, witho y pofiibility of a val 
reprieve, or knowing when the fentence fhall be executed 
in its full weight and extent. me pe 
jected to the equity of this fentence, or of 
between the eating of the forbidden fruit and che punith- 
ment of death that attended it. r. Cha ear in cong. 
dering this objection, (Sermons, sD. 
ferves, that as eating the Paden. frait nd lie iti 
ment of death arofe out of the nature of things, and had 
he connection of caufe and effet, nothing more need be 
faid in vindication of it than for any other natural connec- 
tion of this d whatfoever. Befides, no creature has a 
right to life long, or upon any other terms than the Paneael 
laa $ crime, when 
proper view, will 2 appear to be extraordinary, 
and his guilt attended with peculiar a eee aggravations, 
and oft fome accounts with unqueltionably much greater 
than ever was, or ever could be committed by any of his 
et 
= 
ofterit 's tranfgreffion was folly in its nature, and 
a high immorality ‘of "molt enormous ‘gid, and a fin ime 
mediately againit God, with the worft aggravations attend- 
ing it. reover, it involved their ariel to the end of 
in the common government o f’ God , and anne is allowed 
reafonable and it, upea the principles of natural as well as re- 
vealed religion. The facred hiftory informs us, that o 
parents, by eating the forbidden fruit, i ¢. by indulging their 
appetites contrary to their knowledge and conviGtion of du- 
uffering inclination to 
of an forfeited the favour of 
od, and Tabjeded themfelves to affliGtion, mifery,and death, 
And as far as this arofe from the natural conneétion of things, 
does not the fame connection till hol Do n ae the fame 
Moreover, 
eing irrecoverably given u ondemnation of 
death, was, if the matter be rightly connec! an act of 
Z 2 
real 
