dise itself, the place of God's special presence: there he fell, and trampled on God's command before his face. What just cause of astonishment is it, that a reasonable creature should bid open defiance to the Author of its life! that a little breathing dust should contemn its Creator! that a man should prefer servile compliance to the will of the tempter, before free subjection to his Father and Sovereign! To depose God, and place the devil in his throne, was double treason, and provoked his infinite jealousy.

5. Unaccountable and amazing folly. What a despicable acquisition tempted him out of happiness! If there had been any possible comparison between them, the choice had been more excusable. But that the pleasures of taste and curiosity should outvie the favour of God which is better than life; that the most pernicious evil, gilded with the thin appearance of good, should be preferred before the substantial and supreme good, is the reproach of his reason, and makes the choice so criminal. And what less than voluntary madness could incline him to desire that, which he ought infinitely to have feared, that is, the knowledge of evil? for nothing could destroy his happiness but the experience of evil. What but a wilful distraction could induce him to believe, that by defacing God's image, he should become more like him? Thus "man being in honour," but without understanding, became "like the beasts that perish," Psalm xlix. 12.

6. A bloody cruelty to himself and all his posterity. When God had made him a depository, in a matter of infinite moment, that is, of his own happiness and all mankind's, this should have been a powerful motive to have kept him vigilant: but giving a ready ear to the tempter, he betrayed his trust, and at once breaks both the tables of the law, and becomes guilty of the highest impiety and cruelty. He was a murderer before he was a parent; he disinherited all his children before they were born, and made them slaves before they knew the price of liberty.

II. And that which increases the malignity of this sin, and adds an infinite emphasis to it, is, that it was per

fectly voluntary; his will was the sole cause of his fall. And this is evident by considering:

1. That Adam innocent had a sufficient power to persevere in his holy state. There was no subtraction of any grace which was requisite to his standing; he left God before he was forsaken by him. Much less was there any internal impulsion from God. It is inconsistent with the divine purity to incline the creature to sin. As "God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man." It is injurious to his wisdom, to think that God would spoil that work which he had composed with so much design and counsel; and it is dishonourable to his goodness. He loved his creature, and love is an inclination to do good; it was impossible, therefore, for God to induce man to sin, or to withdraw that power which was necessary to resist the temptation, when the consequence must be his inevitable ruin.

2. The devil did only allure, he could not ravish his consent. Though his malice is infinite, yet his power is so restrained, that he cannot fasten an immediate, much less an irresistible impression on the will: he, therefore, made use of an external object to invite him. Now objects have no constraining force; they are but partial agents, and derive all their efficacy from the faculties to which they are agreeable. And although, since sin hath disordered the flesh, there is difficulty in resisting those objects which pleasantly insinuate themselves; yet such a universal rectitude was in Adam, and so entire a subjection of the sensual appetite to the superior power of reason, that he might have obtained an easy conquest. A resolute negative had made him victorious; by a strong denial he had baffled that proud spirit: as the heavenly Adam, when he who is rich in promises only, offered to him the monarchy of the world with all its glory, disdained the offer, and cast off Satan with contempt. The true Rock was unmoved, and broke all the proud waves that dashed against it.

3. It will fully appear that the disobedience was voluntary, by considering what denominates an action to be

SO.

The two springs of human actions are the understanding and will; and as there is no particular good

but may have the appearance of some difficult, unpleasant quality annexed, upon which account the will may reject it; so any particular evil may be so disguised by the false lustre of goodness, as to incline the will to receive it. This is clearly verified in Adam's fall; for a specious object was conveyed through the unguarded sense to his fancy, and from that to his understanding, which, by a vicious carelessness, neglecting to consider the danger, or judging that the excellency of the end did outweigh the evil of the means, commended it to the will, and that resolved to embrace it. It is evident, therefore, that the action which resulted from the direction of the mind and the choice of the will, was absolutely free.

Besides, as the regret that is mixed with an action, is a certain character that the person is under constraint; so the delight that attends it, is a clear evidence that he is free. When the appetite is drawn by the lure of pleasure, the more violent, the more voluntary is its motion. Now the representations of the forbidden fruit were under the notion of pleasure. The woman saw the "fruit was good for food," that is, pleasurable to the palate, and pleasant to the eyes, and to be desired to make one wise," that is, to increase knowledge, which is the pleasure of the mind; and these allurements draw her into the snare. Adam with complacency received the temptation, and by the enticement of Satan, committed adultery with the creature, from whence the cursed race of sin and miseries proceed.

Suppose the devil had so disguised the temptation, that notwithstanding all circumspection and care, Adam could not have discovered its evil; his invincible ignorance had rendered the action involuntary: but Adam was conscious of his own action; there was light in his mind to discern the evil, and strength in his will to decline it. For the manner of the defection, whether it was from affected ignorance, or secure neglect, or transport of passion, it doth not excuse: the action itself was of that moment, and the supreme Lawgiver so worthy of reverence, that it should have awakened all the powers of his soul to beware of that which was rebellion against God and ruin to himself.

Or suppose he had been tried by torments, whose extremity and continuance had vehemently oppressed his nature. This had only lessened the guilt, the action had still been voluntary; for no external force can compel the will to choose any thing but under the notion of comparative goodness. Now to choose sin rather than pain, and to prefer ease before obedience, is highly dishonourable to God, whose glory ought to be infinitely more valuable to us than life and all its endearments, Job xxxvi. 21. And though sharp pains, by discomposing the body, make the soul unfit for its highest and noblest operations, so that it cannot perform the acts of virtue with delight and freedom; yet then it may abstain from evil. But this was not Adam's case: the devil had no power over him (as over Job, who felt the extremity of his rage, and yet came off more than conqueror) to disturb his felicity; he prevailed by a simple suasion. Briefly, though Adam had strength sufficient to repel all the powers of darkness, yet he was vanquished by the assault of a single temptation. Now, that man, so richly furnished with all the perfections of the mind, and the excellent virtues of which original righteousness was composed; endued with knowledge to foresee the incomparable evils that would redound to himself and be universal to his posterity by his disobedience; so well tempered in his constitution, that all his appetites were subject to reason; notwithstanding these preservatives, should be deceived by the false persuasions of an erring mind and overcome by carnal concupiscence, these are the circumstances which derive a crimson guilt to his rebellious sin, and render it above measure sinful.

III. This will more fully appear in the dreadful effects that ensued. By his disobedience he lost original righteousness, and made a deadly forfeiture of felicity.

1. He lost the original righteousness; for that so depended on the human faculties, that the actual violation of the law was presently attended with the privation of it. Besides, the nature of his sin contained an entire forsaking of God as envious of his happiness, and a conversion to the creature as the supreme good. And whatever is desired as the last end perfective of man, virtually

includes all subordinate ends, and regulates all means for obtaining it. So that, when that was changed, a universal change of moral qualities in Adam necessarily followed. Instead of the rectitude and excellent holiness of the soul, succeeded a permanent viciousness and corruption.

Now holiness may be considered in the notion of purity and beauty, or of dominion and liberty, in opposition to which sin is represented in Scripture by foul deformity and servitude.

(1.) His soul degenerated from its purity; the faculties remained, but the moral perfections were lost, wherein the brightness of God's image was most conspicuous. The holy wisdom of his mind, the divine love that sanctified his will, the spiritual power to obey God, were totally quenched. How is man disfigured by his fall! How is he transformed, in an instant, from the image of God into the image of the devil! He is defiled with the filthiness of flesh and spirit; he is ashamed at the sight of his own nakedness that reproached him for his crime; but the most shameful was that of the soul: the one might be covered with leaves, the other nothing could conceal. To see a face of exquisite beauty devoured by a cancer, how doth it move compassion! But were the natural eye heightened, to such clearness and perspicacity, as to discover the deformity which sin hath brought upon the soul, how would it strike us with grief, horror, and aversion!

ment.

(2.) He was deprived of his dominion and liberty. The understanding was so wounded by the violence of the fall, that not only its light is much impaired, but its power is so weakened as to the lower faculties, that those which, according to the order of nature, should obey, have cast off its just authority and usurped the governThe will then lost its true freedom, whereby it was enlarged to the extent and amplitude of the divine will, in loving whatsoever was pleasing to God, and is contracted to mean and base objects. What a furious disorder is in the affections! The restraint of reason to check their violent course, provokes them to swell higher and to be more impetuous; and the more they