types of the law, the visions of the prophets, | are drawn to illustrate things eternal, by Him and the sacraments of the Gospel, with the who has a perfect knowledge of the nature numberless expressions and descriptions borrowed from them, and referring to them. These constitute a kind of sacred language, peculiar to holy writ, and only explicable by it. The knowledge of this language is a science by itself, and the study of it well worthy the attention of such as have leisure and abilities to prosecute it, its own rich and exceeding great reward. The subjects are of such infinite moment, that all others must, in comparison, appear to be as nothing. And the dress in which they are presented to us, is the most ornamental and engaging in the world. It is of that kind to which both eloquence and poetry, among men, owe all their charms. The doctrines of Scripture are not proposed, in a naked logical form, but arrayed in the most beautiful and striking images which the creation affords.* A celebrated and well-known author, whose essays have long been the established standard of true taste and fine writing, makes, in one of them, the following observations-"By similitudes drawn from the visible parts of nature, a truth in the understanding is, as it were, reflected by the imagination: we are able to see something like color and shape in a notion, and to discover a scheme of thoughts traced out upon matter. And here the mind receives a great deal of satisfaction, and has two of its faculties gratified at the same time, while the fancy is busy in copying after the understanding, and transcribing ideas out of the intellectual world into the material. It is this talent of affecting the imagination that gives an embellishment to good sense, and makes one man's compositions more agreeable than another's. It has something in it like creation, and bestows a kind of existence. It makes additions to nature, and gives greater variety to God's works. In a word, it is able to beautify and adorn the most illustrious scenes in the universe, and to fill the mind with more glorious shows and apparitions than can be found in any part of it."+ and properties of the objects from whence they are drawn, as well as of those to which they are applied; nay, who doubtless created the visible world, among other purposes, for that to which he himself, in his revelations to mankind, has so continually employed it, that of serving as a picture, or representation, of the world at present invisible?" Eye hath not seen," says an apostle, "nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive the things that God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit ; "* and the Spirit, knowing our infirmities, and whereof we are made, hath revealed them, from the beginning, by external signs, symbols, sacraments, and a figurative language, supplied by them. Upon this very principle it is, that another acknowledged master of style and composition, grounds the character of the sacred writings, considered in that view"Eloquence," says he "is that which persuades: it persuades by moving; it moves by things and palpable ideas only and hence no eloquence is so perfect as that of the Scriptures; since the most spiritual and metaphysical things are there represented by sensible and lively images."+ The In justification of this remark, let the appeal, in the instance now before us, be made to every one endued with sensibility. position to be laid down is, that, through the alone merits of the Redeemer, we now inherit eternal life. Is it possible for all the art of man to convey this truth in terms so pleasing and informing, as those few used by St. John, with allusion to the scenery in Eden?" And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God, and of the Lamb. And in the midst of the street of the new Jerusalem, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the heal To whom, then, blessed Lord Jesus, should we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. * 1 Cor. ii. 9. Perhaps it is impossible any where to meeting of the nations." with juster sentiments than these are, clothed in more apt and elegant expressions. And this single passage would have sufficed to establish the reputation so justly acquired by its author. The inference I would beg leave to make from it is this: if such be the case in human compositions, where similitudes are drawn by short-sighted man, to illustrate things temporal, what must it be, when they See Lord Bacon's Advancement of Learning, b. vi. c. 3. Mr. Addison's concluding paper on the Pleasures of the Imagination Spectator, vi. No. 421. † Rollin, Belles Lettres, ii. 360.-" To quarrel with our Maker about this way of proceeding, would be to blame him for conveying truths to us in the most affecting and agreeable manner; or for creating us with those faculties, which are fitted to receive truths thus conveyed. For the most important truths, as we are framed at present, can make but a slight impression on the mind, unless they enter first, like a picture, into the imagination, and from thence are stamped on the memory." Peters, Crit. Diss. on the Book of Job, part. i. Sect. 10. Thou art the true tree of life, in the midst of | cinal are thy leaves to heal every malady, and thy fruits are all the blessings of immortality. It is our hope, our support, our comfort, and all our joy, to reflect, that, wearied with the labors, and worn out with the cares and sorrows of a fallen world, we shall sit down under thy shadow with great delight, Medi- and thy fruit shall be sweet to our taste! the Paradise of God. For us men, and for our salvation, thou didst condescend, to be planted, in a lowly form, upon the earth. But thy head soon reached to heaven, and thy branches to the ends of the earth. Thy head is crowned with glory, and thy branches are the branches of honor and grace. DISCOURSE IV. THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE. GENESIS II. 17. Of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat. THIS is the first and the only law recorded | phrase, which is by no means peculiar to this to have been promulged in the state of man's place, but occurs in other parts of the Sacred innocence. It may, therefore, be reasonably Writings, where it cannot be taken in the supposed to have contained in itself the sub- sense assigned. Nay, there are two passages stance of many other laws. Its comprehen- even in the third chapter of Genesis itself, sion may be inferred likewise from its impor-which do not admit of such exposition. The tance. The transgression of it occasioned the tempter assures the woman, that, on eating fall of the human race, and introduced the the fruit, they should be as gods, "knowing necessity of a redemption by the Son of God. good and evil." And the Almighty afterCould we ascertain with precision what is wards says, "Man is become like one of us, intended by the knowledge of good and evil, knowing good and evil." Now the knowsuch a discovery might possibly furnish us ledge of good and evil possessed by the Deity with a key to this part of Scripture, and to cannot possibly be that produced by the exthe transactions relative to the trial of our first perimental knowledge of evil. Let us exaparents in Paradise. Let us, therefore, begin mine into the usage of the words elsewhere. with an inquiry in the true meaning of these words. By the knowledge of good and evil, the generality of commentators understand experimental knowledge; and they suppose the name to have been given to the tree by a prolepsis, because, in the event, through man's transgression, it was to become the means of his attaining the experimental knowledge of evil; thus purchasing to himself a knowledge of good, manifested and illustrated by comparison with its opposite; as a person is then said to understand the nature and value of health, when he has been deprived of it by In Deuteronomy we read- "Moreover your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, and your children, which in that day had no knowledge of good and evil, they shall go in thither." Here, to know good and evil, is, evidently, to know the nature of both, and so to form a judgment upon that knowledge, as to choose the one, and refuse the other. Thus, again, the same sentiment is expressed in the well-known passage of Isaiah, " Before the child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good." And again, the woman of Tekoah says to David, "As an angel of God, so is my lord the king to discern good and bad." that is, to distinThat such was the effect of the transgres-guish, judge, and act accordingly. This last sion is certain; but it is not, perhaps, so certain that this is the right interpretation of the sickness. * Deut. i 39. † Isa. vii. 16. ‡ 2 Sam. xiv. 17. passage is similar to those before cited from | difficulty lies here: why an action to appearGenesis, and must explain them; namely, ance so unimportant and insignificant as that "Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and of eating, or forbearing to eat, the fruit of a evil;" and, "Man is become like one of us, tree, should have been appointed as the test to know good and evil." It may be added, of his obedience? that a New Testament writer uses the words in the same sense. For the apostle, speaking of adults in Christianity, as opposed to babes in the faith, styles them such as have their senses exercised to discern good and evil." Such being the plain and acknowledged import of the expression in other parts of Scriptures, why should we suppose it to be different in the instance before us? Let us rather conclude it to be the same. 66 The question then will be, how could this tree in the garden of Eden confer a knowledge of good and evil? How could it enable man to discern the nature of each? How could it inform him which was to be pursued, and which to be avoided? To solve this difficulty, let it be considered, that, beside those laws usually termed moral, and supposed to speak their own fitness and propriety, from an obvious view of the nature and constitution of things, it is not strange or uncommon, for God to try the love and obedience of man by other precepts, styled positive and ceremonial. Such was the order for Abraham to quit his country and kindred, and afterward to offer his son Isaac: upon which latter occasion, notwithstanding the proofs before given by him of an obedient spirit, God was pleased to say, "Now I know thou fearest God."* Such were the ritual observances regarding sacrificature, and other particulars observed among the patriarchs, and afterwards, with additions, republished in form by Moses. Such are the injunctions to abstinence and self-denial, with the institutions of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, among Christians. What hath been thus done under every other dispensation, was done likewise in Paradise. Shall we say, with the Jewish writers, that there was any virtue in the fruit, to clarify the understanding, and so to teach man knowledge? But if so, why was it prohibited? For the knowledge, which we suppose to be implied in the phrase, is perfective of man's nature; it is true wisdom: and if he really acquired it by tasting the forbidden fruit, he And as touching the same precepts called was much benefitted by transgression. We positive, even they are not, what they are must, therefore, determine, that the tree was sometimes deemed to be, arbitrary precepts, designed to teach the knowledge of good and given for no other reason, but because it is evil, or to be productive of true wisdom, not the will of God to give them. They carry in a physical, but in a moral way. It instruct-in them a reason, which, though it may not ed our first parents to fly from, and avoid, death, and the cause of death, which must have been in some manner denoted by this tree; as they were directed to choose life, and the cause of life, signified to them by the other tree, which bore that appellation. be discoverable unless revealed, is yet nevertheless founded on the state of human nature, its relation to God, and its various wants, at different times, and in different situations. The observation, indeed, made by an eminent casuist, with respect to human laws, holds The prohibition, being calculated for man's much stronger with respect to laws divine : trial, was at the same time calculated to give "The obedience of that man is much too him the information necessary for that pur- delicate, who insists upon knowing the reapose. Such is the nature and design of every sons of all laws before he will obey them. law. It conveys the knowledge of good and The legislator must be supposed to have given evil, by prohibiting the latter, and conse- his sanction from the reason of the thing; quently enjoining the former. "By the but where we cannot discover the reason law," says St. Paul, " is the knowledge of of it, the sanction is to be the only reason of sin. I had not known lust, except the law our obedience." This observation, I say, is had said, Thou shalt not covet."* It is the most certainly a just one. But as a wise law, in every case respectively, which gives God acts not without the highest reason, so a the knowledge of good and evil. Obedience gracious God, in his dispensations to his reato it is good, and the reward is life; diso-sonable creatures, has, in many instances, bedience is evil, and the penalty death. And the trial of man, thus informed, is, whether he will obey or disobey, in order to the manifestation of the law-giver's justice, wisdom, power, and glory, by rewarding or punishing him, as he does the one or the other. The * Romans, vii 7 with his commands, communicated the reasons on which they were founded, and has even condescended to argue with his people, on the justice and rectitude of his proceedings. Services outward and visible have been enjoined. But then they have always been † Bishop Taylor. * Gen, xxii. 12. symbolical of dispositions and actions inward | ness elsewhere, and apply for it to some and spiritual. When this is the case, from forbidden object, of which the tree must have unimportant and insignificant, they become been an emblematical representation. the most important and significant transactions You will ask, what that object was, and in the world. An uninformed person, living what information, as to the knowledge of in the times of persecution under the Heathen good and evil, Adam could receive from the emperors, must have been, to the last degree, prohibition? By answering the last question, astonished and confounded, when told, that a a way may, in some measure, perhaps, be Christian was in danger of eternal rejection opened, for an answer to the first. from the presence of God, if he scattered a handful of incense on the fire; and that he was bound, by his religion, rather to die in torments, than submit to do it. But every objection vanishes in a moment, when we know that such an action, in a Christian so circumstanced, was a token of renouncing his God and Saviour, and acknowledging a false object of worship. To come a little nearer to the point in question. Know we not, that the action of eating, in particular, from the beginning, both among believers and unbelievers, has ever been esteemed and constituted an action symbolical of religious affection; and that, in the days of St. Paul, a man denominated himself either one or the other, as he partook of the Lord's table, or the table of an idol? What were these, in the new Paradise, the church Christian, but the tree of life, and the tree of death? Why should it seem incredible, or absurd, that, in man's original trial, the same action should have been, in some manner, significative of the same affection? And if, in that truly golden age of innocence, health, and felicity, the food allotted to man was of the vegetable kind, then the fruit of a tree must, of course, be the subject of the prohibiton. In after ages, under the law of Moses and the permission of animal food, the figurative system of rites was artificial and sanguinary; but in the sacred grove of Eden, that first tabernacle or temple, planted for a place of worship as well as of abode, the whole of the religious scenery was composed of the beautiful and luxuriant productions of primeval nature, unstained with blood, when as yet there was no malediction upon the ground. This consideration satisfies the mind, and removes every objection made to the nature of the test, and the wisdom of God in appointing it. For if in this, as in other dispensations, the act of eating was intended to be symbolical of some mental disposition or affection, whether we can now ascertain particulars, or not, all the buffoonery of infidelity falls to the ground at once. The trial of Adam, like that of every other man, was, whether he would so far believe in God, as to look for happiness in obedience to the divine command; or would seek that happi A due contemplation of the prohibition might naturally suggest to the mind of our first parent the following important truths; especially if we consider (as we must and ought to consider) that to him, under the tuition of his Maker, all things necessary were explained and made clear, how obscure soever they may appear to us, forming a judgment of them from a very concise narrative, couched in figurative language, at this distance of time. : Looking upon the tree of knowledge, then, and recollecting the precept of which it was the subject, Adam might learn that God was the sovereign Lord of all things: that the dominion vested in man over the creatures, was by no means a dominion absolute and independent: that without and beside God, there was no true and real good that to desire any thing without and beside him, was evil: that no temporal worldly good, however fair and tempting its appearance, was to be fixed upon by man, as the source of his felicity: that the sole rule for shunning, or desiring, things sensible, should be judged of by that standard alone: that the obedience which God would accept, must be paid with all the powers and affections of the mind, showing itself careful and prompt in every the least instance: that man was not yet placed in a state of consummate and established bliss; but that such state was by him to be earnestly expected, and incessantly desired; and that he must take the way to it, marked and pointed out by God himself.* These particulars seem to flow from the prohibition in an easy and natural train. And they lead us to answer the other question, namely, what was the object represented by the tree of knowledge? It was that object, on which man is prone to set his affections, instead of placing them on a better; it was that object, which, in every age, has been the great rival of the Almighty in the human heart; it was that object, which, in one way or other, has always been "worshipped and served rather than the Creator; " it was the CREATURE, the WORLD; and the grand trial See Vitringa, Observat. Sacr. vol. ii. lib. iv. cap. 12, from whom many of the sentiments in this Discourse are borrowed. was, as it ever hath been, and ever will be, till the world shall cease to exist, whether things visible or invisible, should obtain the preference; whether man should walk "by sight, or by faith." To know this, was the knowledge of good an evil; and this knowledge came by the law of God, which said, "Thou shalt not covet." Man's wisdom consisted in the observation of that law; but an enemy persuaded him to seek wisdom by transgressing it. He did so; and had nothing left but to repent of his folly: a case that happens, among his descendants, every day, and every hour. Let us, therefore, consider the tree of knowledge, in this light, with respect to its nature, situation, design, qualities, effects, and the knowledge conferred by it. The fruit of this tree was, to appearance, air and pleasant; but, when tasted, it became, by the divine appointment, the cause of death. Now, what is it, which, in the eyes of all mankind, seems equally pleasing and alluring, but the end thereof, when coveted in opposition to the divine command, proves to be death? It is the world, with its pleasures and its glories, desired by its votaries, per fas atque nefas, to the denial of God, and to their own destruction. The Scriptures proclaim this aloud, and the experience of all generations confirms their testimony. Indeed, what is there in the universe, but the Creator and the creature? And between whom, but them, can the contest subsist, for the love and obedience of man? of Paradise? But imagination cannot form to itself a more exquisite and affecting piece of scenery upon this subject than that exhibited by king Solomon in the book of Proverbs; a book whose end and design is to teach us the true' knowledge of good and evil, that we may pursue the one, and avoid the other. In his seventh chapter, under the usual figure of a harlot, loosely decked in a profusion of vain ornaments, he introduces the world, or the false wisdom thereof, by its several fictitious charms, and meretricious blandishments, alluring the unwary to the chambers of destruction. In the succeeding chapter, by way of perfect contrast, appears, in the beauty and majesty of holiness, the offspring of the Almighty, the Son of the Father, the true and eternal Wisdom of God, with all the tender love and affectionate concern of a parent, inviting men to the substantial joys and unfading pleasures of immortality, in the house of salvation. Again, we are presented with the tree of death and the tree of life. From Solomon let us pass to St. Paul. "To be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life. If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live."* Behold once more the trees of death and life. Such, in good truth, is the face of things every where offering itself to view; such is the contest incessantly carrying on in this present world, which, on the one hand, entices the children of Adam, by giving themselves up to its enjoyments, to taste the tree of death: while the Redeemer, on the other, still continues to cry aloud by his word, "To him that overcometh will I The tree of knowledge was situated in the midst of the garden, as was the tree of life. They stood near together, but they stood in opposition. The divine dispensations are al-give to eat of the tree of life." ways best illustrated by each other. Under the Gospel, Jesus Christ is the tree of life. What is it that opposes him, and, notwithstanding all that he has done, and suffered, and commanded, and promised, and threatened, is continually, by its solicitations, being ever present and at hand, seducing men into the path of death? Scripture and experience again join in assuring us, that it is the world. When we are in the house of God, which is Eden restored, engaged in hearing his word, and in the exercises of devotion, we sit down, as it were, under the shadow of the tree of life. No sooner are we gone from it, and too often even while we are there, the world intrudes, and draws off to other subjects our thoughts and our affections. What saith Moses under the law? "Behold I set before you, this day, life and death, good and evil; choose ye."† Are not these the two trees The tree of knowledge was designed to be the test of Adam's obedience, the subjectmatter of his trial. The world, with its desirable objects, is the test of our obedience, the subject-matter of our trial, whether we will make it our chief good, or prefer the promise of God to it. Thus the trial of Abraham was, whether he would quit his country and kindred, and yield up his only son in obedience to the divine command, trusting to a recompense in reversion. The trial of Job was, whether he would still serve God, when deprived of his possessions, his family, and his health. After this sort was our Lord Jesus Christ himself proved by the most powerful incitements of the human passions. Of the tree of knowledge Satan tempted him to put forth his hand, and take and eat, that the second Adam might be tried after the example of the first. The disciples also are *Rom viii. 6, 13. |