it. To him therefore, in addition to the moral law which was written on his heart, and from which he could not deviate without opposing all his innate propensities, a positive precept was given : the will of his Creator was enacted into a law : and that which was indifferent in itself, was made a test of its obedience. All the trees in Paradise were given to him for the nourishment and support of his body. But that he might have an opportunity of acknow- ledging his dependence on God, and his ready sub- mission to the divine will, one tree was excepted ; and the use of it was prohibited under the severest penalties. This prohibition is to be the subject of our present consideration : and, in order that it may be understood in all its bearings and relations, we shall endeavour to explain,
I. Its import —
The name given to the forbidden tree strongly marked the importance of abstaining from it —
[Adam was created in the perfect image of his God. He knew every thing that was good, but nothing that was evil. This was his honour and his felicity. The knowledge of evil would have marred, rather than augmented, his happiness. Such knowledge, if speculative, would be only vain ; if prac- tical, be ruinous. We have no reason to think that the fruit of the tree was at all noxious in itself; but, as being forbidden, it could not be eaten without guilt : and therefore the desig- nation given to the tree itself was a standing memorial to Adam on no account to touch it; since by eating of it he would attain the knowledge of evil, which, through the per- fection of his nature, he was hitherto unacquainted with.]
The necessity of abstaining from it was yet more awfully inculcated in the penalty annexed to dis- obedience—
[The death which, in the event of his transgressing the command, was denounced against him, was three-fold ; it was temporal, spiritual, eternal. His body, which had not in it naturally the seeds of dissolution, was to be given up a prey to various diseases, and at last to return to the dust from which it sprang. His soul was to lose both the image and enjoyment of God, and to be consigned over to the influence of every thing that was earthly, sensual, and devilish. And, after a certain period, both his body and soul were to be