" cast into the lake which burnetii with fire and brimstone ; which is the second death."
That such was the penalty, appears from the event : for, upon transgressing the divine command, he became mortal : a change also instantly took place in his intellectual and moral faculties ; as he shewed, by attempting to hide himself from God, with whom he had hitherto maintained the most familiar converse. The eternal duration of his punishment may be inferred from the penalty annexed to sin at this time : for if the wages of sin be eternal death now, there can be no doubt but that it was so then a.
There was, however, an implied promise, that, if he per- severed in his obedience, he should live for ever. In the law which God has since published, and to which the same penalty is annexed for disobedience, we are assured, that whoso doeth the things which are commanded, shall live in them1': from whence we may conclude, that there was a similar reward prepared for Adam, if he should continue to obey his God. It is true that the law can not give us life now c ; but that is not owing to any change in God's regard for obe- dience, but to our incapacity to render that obedience which his law requires d. If we could keep all the commandments, we should, by keeping them, enter into life e. And it is mani- fest that the same reward would have been given to Adam ; since we are told, that " the law was ordained to life f."]
The import of the prohibition being made clear, let us consider,
II. Its nature —
It could not be expected that in so brief a history as that before us, every minute particular should be explained: indeed, it was intended that the subse- quent revelations of God's will should clear up things which were left in a state of obscurity. Now from other parts of scripture we find, that this prohibition was, in reality, a covenant; in which, not Adam only, but all his posterity were interested. In this cove- vant, Adam was the head and representative of all his seed ; and they, to the remotest generations, were
a In Rom. vi. 23. death, which is the wages of sin, and the life which is the gift of God, are contrasted ; both being of the same duration. Compare also Matt. xxv. 46.
b Compare Deut. xxvii. 20. and Gal. hi. 10. with Lev. xviii. 5. and Rom. x. 5. and Gal. hi. 12. c Gal. hi. 21.
(i Rom. viii. 3, 4. e Matt. xix. 17. f Rom. vii. 10.