cern'd in them; and the Devil, in his Temptations, applies himself to the Circumstances of thofe, whom he would feduce: And it cannot be conceiv'd, that the most remarkable thing that ever has befallen Mankind, (except the Redemption of the World by Chrift) fhould fo come to pafs, as not to be told to Posterity, but in an Allegory. For if the literal truth had ever been known, it was impoffible it should be forgotten in fo few Generations, and that Mofes fhould put an Allegory in the room of it. Did the Children of Ifrael know the Hiftorical Truth of the Fall, or did they not know it? If they did, why fhould Mofes disguise it under an Allegory, rather than the rest of the Book of Genefis? If they did not know it, how could it be forgotten in fo few Generations of Men, fuppofing it had ever been known to Adam's Pofterity? If it were never known, but the relation of it were always conveyed down in Metaphor and Allegory, then this Allegory muft pafs for Hiftorical Truth in thofe Ages; and the reafon why it was delivered to them in Allegory, muft be, because that manner of delivering it, was most fuitable to that Age, and most credible, and every way most proper; and if it were most fitting that it fhould be thought to have happened fo, this is a good Argument that it did really happen fo, fince there is nothing hinders, but it might fo have happened, and it was most probable at least to the first Agès of the World, that it did so come to pafs, or else it would not have been requifite to relate it in this manner.

3. The Fall of our First Parents brought a Curse upon their Pofterity. And here it must be acknowledg'd, that God may bestow his infinite Grace and Mercies upon what terms he pleafeth, and therefore he might ordain, that the Happiness or Unhappiness of their Pofterity fhould depend upon the Obedience or Difobedience of our First Parents.

(1.) God

(1.) God might ordain, that the Condition of their Pofterity in this World should depend upon it, fo that they should have been immortal upon their Obedience, and should become mortal upon their Difobedience; that they should be made fubject to Cares and Labours, to Diseases and Dangers, by reason of the Fall of our First Parents, from which, otherwise they should have been exempt. This is esteem'd just in all Governments amongst Men, that Children should be reduced to Poverty and Difgrace by the fault of their Parents, from whom Riches and Honours were to have defcended upon them: And this way of proceeding is juft, both in Humane Laws, and in the Difpenfations of Providence; because God and our Country have an antecedent right and intereft in us, fuperior to any Man's private Title or Welfare; and this they may juftly make use of to reftrain Men from thofe Crimes, out of love and concern for their Pofterity, from which no confideration of themselves could have with-held them. The Experience of the World has found this to be the most effectual Remedy with many Men; and therefore, the wisest and juftest Governments have made ufe of it; and the moft wife and just God might think fit to deal in this manner with our First Parents, by reprefenting to them, that the Happiness or Mifery of their Pofterity depended upon their good or ill Behaviour in this one Inftance of their Duty. We daily fee, that Children commonly inherit the Diseases of their Parents; and an extravagant and vicious Father leaves his Son Heir to nothing but the Name and Shadow perhaps of a Great Family, with an infirm and fickly Constitution, and little or nothing to fupport and relieve it. Now if thefe Miferies and Calamities had been entail'd upon all the Race of Mankind from Adam, the thing would have been the fame in the nature and juftice of it (for Numbers cannot alter the nature of things) as it is now, when they defcend upon fome,

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only from their immediate Parents. And therefore it must be much rather juft, that the Fall of our First Parents fhould make their whole Race only liable to fuch Calamities, but not involve All neceffarily in them.

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(2.) The Communications of God's Loving-kindnefs, and the Favours and Bleffings of 'his more immediate Prefence, might depend upon the Behaviour of the First Parents of Mankind. He might fend them out of Paradife, and might withdraw his free and ufual Communications of himself from them and their Pofterity, upon this Forfeiture, by their Difobedience. It was his undeferved, voluntary Bounty and Goodnefs, to vouchsafe them at first; and there could be no injustice in withdrawing them, after this Offence.

(3.) The pronenefs, which we cannot but observe in our felves to Sin, might proceed from hence: We daily fee and feel the corruption of our Nature, by whatsoever means we became fubject to it. So that it is in vain to object, that it would be unjuft that all. Mankind fhould be involv'd in Adam's Sin. For the Condition which we are in, is Matter of Fact, of which no Man doth, or can doubt: The Question is only, how we come into this Condition; and fince we are born in it, and it is our natural and hereditary Evil, the Juftice and Goodness of God is cleared and vindicated, by affigning a Caufe for it; from the imputations of fuch as muft acknowledge the fame corruption of Nature, but will allow no Caufe or Reason for it, except the arbitrary Will and Pleasure of the Creator; unless they ascribe it to habits of Vice contracted in a state of Pre-existence, which, as I have fhewn, is a mere Fiction, or Suppofition, not only without Proof, but against all Reafon. The Children of vicious Parents are generally most enclin❜d to Vice; and if Men may partake of the evil Difpofitions and Inclinations of their more immediate Parents,

why

why might not the corruption of the humane Nature in our First Parents defcend upon all their Pofterity?

(4.) The Happiness of Men in the next Life, might depend upon the Obedience of our First Parents. For when God proposed to bestow upon Men Rewards of Glory and Happiness, which far furpafs any pretences of Defert or Claim of Right, that they in a state of Righteousness and Innocency could have been able to make, fince the Promises were fo great, and the Happiness so far exceeding any thing to which Men could pretend a Right; we must be very unreasonable, unless we will confefs that God might beftow his own Gifts upon his own terms. his own terms. He might therefore debar Men from Heaven upon the tranfgreffion of our First Parents, because the Promife of Heaven was an A&t of his free Bounty. For no Man can pretend, that an innocent Creature which preferves its Integrity, must, for that reason, be advanced to the unspeakable Joys of Heaven. No Creature can be profitable to his Maker, and an unprofitable Servant can merit no fuch Reward. And what God was not obliged to bestow, tho' Men had continued in the state of Innocency, he might with all the Juftice and Reason in the World refuse, when Men became divefted of their Innocency, and thereby forfeited all pretences to that Happinefs which was promifed upon condition, that our First Parents had continued in their Primitive and Original state of Righteousness.

(5.) God might ordain, that all Men fhould become liable to eternal Mifery by the Fall of our First Parents; and that those who would not accept of the Means appointed of Salvation by Faith in Chrift, to refcue them from it, fhould perish eternally. We no fooner read of the Fall of Man, but Chrift is forthwith promised, even before the punishment was denounced upon Adam and Eve for their Offence; the Seed of the Woman is immediately promised to bruife the Serpent's Head, and afterwards the Judgment is denounced,

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denounced, first upon Eve, and then upon Adam, for their Tranfgreffion; and the Seed of the Woman's bruising the Serpent's Head, is to be understood of Victory over our spiritual Enemies, and that Conqueft which fhould be obtained over Death and Hell by Christ. For the temporal Punishment which was to befal Adam and Eve, and their Posterity, is afterwards added, and therefore this Promife cannot be understood of a Deliverance from that, but from the Wrath of God, and of Redemption from Sin upon Repentance, under whatever condition of this Life.

The confequence of the Sin of our First Parents, is to entail Grief, and Trouble, and Labour, and Pain upon their Posterity, and a frail and infirm Nature, exposed to Temptations, and deftitute of the Aids of Grace, and the Prefence of God in their Hearts, uncapable of Heaven, and in no capacity of avoiding Hell without Chrift's Merits. But Adam was the Figure of him that was to come. Therefore as by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation: even fo, by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men unto juftification of life, Rom.v. 14, 18. Chrift was, at that very time, promised to take away all the Curfe and Vengeance confequent upon the Tranfgreffion of our First Parents, nay, his Death was pre-ordained and determined before-hand. For Chrift is the Lamb flain from the foundation of the world, Rev. xiii. 8. Who verily was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world, í Pet. i. 20. He was flain in the determinate Counfel, and Fore-knowledge of God, even before the Fall of our First Parents came to pafs: the whole Scheme and Defign of Man's Salvation, was laid from all Eternity in God's Counfel and Decree; he forefaw that Man would fall, and he determined to fend his Son to redeem him; and this he had determined to do fo long before the Fall of Man, even by an eternal Decree. So that the Goodness and Wifdom of God had effectually provided against the ill

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