ted, it would not determine its origin or caufe. A cause, or origin, must exist, before an effect, or production. So, after all our journeying to heaven after a finning angel, and after pursuing him to hell, and from hell to the earth, we have not yet answered the question, viz. What is the origin of fin? We have only fhewn, that the way in which this question has been generally folved, is without foundation.

Having ftated what I have been told was the origin of fin, and given my reafons why I do not believe it, I now come to give my own ideas of the matter.

Scripture, with the affiftance of that reafon, without which, the fcriptures would be of no more fervice to us than they are to the brute creation, I fhal! take for my guide, on the queftion before me. Almighty God is a being of infinite perfections; this the fcripture will fupport, and reafon declares: He was the author of our existence, being the creator of the firft man and woman, the occafion of their being formed of the duft of the ground, and the director of that providence by which we are all introduced by ordinary generation. Our Maker must have had a defign in the works of his hands; this the fcriptures argue, and reafon fays. The whole of God's design muîl be carried into

effect, and nothing more, admitting him to be an infinite being. We are informed, that God created man in his own image; that he bleffed him, and fet him over the works of his hands; and reason cannot deny the truth of it.

But what was this image of God, in which man was created? Anfwer, it was Chrift, who, in fcripture, is called "the beginning of the creation of God ;" who, St. Paul fays, is the brightness of the Father's glory, and exprefs image of his perfon. Now there is no need of faying much, where the truth is eafy to come at. If Chrift is the image of God, and man was created in God's image, it is plain, that man was created in Chrift, was bleffed in Chrift, and in Chrift fet over the works of God's hands. After God had finished his work of creation, confecrated the feventh day, and refted from his labor, we are informed that there was not a man to till the ground. This information is reafonable, and authorifes me to say, that as man food in his created character, which is Chrift, the heavenly man, he was not, at that time, formed of the duft of the ground, was not of the earth earthly, and therefore was not a tiller of the ground. We are then in. formed, by the facred text, that God formed (not created) man of the duft of the ground, breathed into his noftrils the

powerful vibrations of the fleshly nature abforbed his mind, he fought to the carnal man for food, ate, and died. The fe things are figuratively reprefented, in the fcriptures. There man is reprefented as being placed in a garden of delights, to keep it and drefs it. The tree of life was in it, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil; he was bid welcome to the tree of life, but was forbidden the other. A fubtle ferpent comes to the woman, and tempts her with the forbidden fruit; fhe eats, and gives it to her huf band, and he alfo partakes: Their eyes are opened to the knowledge of good and evil; they fee that they are naked, and hide themselves from God; few fig leaves together for garments to hide their nakednefs. God comes into the garden, in the cool of the day, calls for the man, and afks him if he had eaten of the forbidden fruit. He anfwers, that the woman whom God gave him, gave unto him and he ate. The woman is next interrogated, and fhe lays it to the ferpent's guile. The ground is curfed, for Adam's fike; when he tills it, it is to produce briars and thorns; he is to eat his bread by the fweat of his face, and at last return to the duft. The woman's conception was to be multiplied in forrow, and her de fire was to be to her kufband, and he was to rule over her. The

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ferpent was curfed above all cattle, was to go on his belly, and to eat duft as long as he lived. This is, in fhort, the fcripture reprefentation of the firft fin; and I confider it to be figurative.

That the Almighty ever planted a literal gå en on earth, without using man as an inftrument by which he did it, I have not evidence enough to believe. The garden, undoubtedly meant the moral ftate in which man was placed, which, like a garden, would become foul, if it was not dreffed and kept. The tree of life, was then, what it is now, the law of the fpirit of life in Chrift Jefus ; and the little of that fpirit which was then manifefted, was all the moral life which man poffeffed at that time; and, therefore, all which he was able to fin againft. The

tree of the knowledge of good & evil, was what it is now, the fleshly nature, which I have before defcribed. The oppofition of the law of the heavenly man, to that of the fleshly, is meant by the prohibition. The ferpent, fignifies the carnal mind, which is enmity againf God,is not subject to the law of the heavenly man, neither indeed can be. The carnal mind getting the victory over the law of life, in the understanding of the creature, is meant by the woman's being deceived. Adam is here the figure of him who was to come; and his partaking

with the woman, fhows that Chrift would bear the infirmities of human nature, his bride, who, in refpect to individuality, should be multiplied in sorrow, but should finally turn her defire towards her Re. deemer, and he fhould protect her. The ferpent, the curfed, is the carnal mind. His going on his belly, fignifies his always being moved by fiefhly lufts; and his feeding on duft, teaches that carnal mindednefs never feeds on heavenly things, but on things of an earthly nature. And we may juflly obferve, that after all the cultivation which is beftowed on the carnal or flefhly nature, it produces nothing better than briars and thorns.

Should it be faid, that this garden was a literal garden, that the tree of life was a literal tree, and that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was alfo literal; I fhould be glad to be informed, what evidence can be educed in fupport of fuch an idea. Where is the garden now? Where is the tree of life now? Where is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil now? Are thofe trees now growing on the earth as literal trees? We are not informed, in the fcriptures, that this garden was carried off to heaven, or that either of thofe trees was removed. It is written, that God drove the man whom he had made out of the garden, and placed cherubims