DISC. of the human race, and introduced the

IV.

neceffity of a redemption by the Son of God.

Could we afcertain with precision what is intended by the knowlege of good and evil, fuch a discovery might poffibly furnish us with a key to this part of Scripture, and to the tranfactions relative to the trial of our first parents in Paradise. Let us therefore begin with an enquiry into the true meaning of these words.

By the knowlege of good and evil the generality of commentators understand experimental knowlege; and they suppose the name to have been given to the tree by a prolepfis, because, in the event, through man's tranfgreffion, it was to become the means of his attaining the experimental knowlege of evil; thus purchafing to himfelf a knowlege of good, manifested and illustrated by comparison with it's oppofite; as a perfon is then faid to understand

the

the nature and value of health, when he DISC. has been deprived of it by fickness.

That fuch was the effect of the tranfgreffion is certain but it is not, perhaps, fo certain, that this is the right interpretation of the phrase, which is by no means peculiar to this place, but occurs in other parts of the facred writings, where it cannot be taken in the fenfe affigned. Nay, there are two paffages even in the third chapter of Genefis itself, which do not admit of fuch expofition. The tempter affures the woman, that, on eating the fruit, they should be as gods, knowing good " and evil.” And the Almighty afterwards fays, "Man is become like one of us,

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knowing good and evil." Now the knowlege of good and evil poffeffed by the Deity cannot poffibly be that produced by the experimental knowlege of evil. examine into the ufage of the words elfewhere.

Let us

IV.

1

DISC. " your

little ones which ye

IV.

faid fhould be

"a prey, and your children which in that

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day had no knowlege of good and evil, they "fhall go in thither." Here, to know good and evil is, evidently, to know the nature of both, and fo to form a judgment upon that knowlege, as to chufe the one, and refuse the other. Thus again the same fentiment is expreffed in the well-known paffage of Ifaiah, "Before the child shall "know to refufe the evil and chufe the

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good." And again, the woman of Tekoah fays to David, “As an angel of God, "fo is my lord the king to difcern good " and bad," that is, to distinguish, judge, and act accordingly. This laft paffage is fimilar to thofe before cited from Genefis, and must explain them; namely, "Ye "fhall be as gods, knowing good and " evil;" and, "Man is become like one "of us, to know good and evil." It may be added that a New Teftament writer uses the words in the very same sense. For

с

a Deut. i. 39.

2 Sam. xiv. 17.

b Ifai. vii. 16.

the

IV.

the Apostle, fpeaking of adults in Chrif- DISC. tianity, as opposed to babes in the faith, styles them such as have " their senses ex"ercised to discern good and evil 3."

Such being the plain and acknowleged import of the expreffion in other parts of the Scriptures, why should we suppose it to be different in the inftance before us? Let us rather conclude it to be the fame.

The question then will be, how could this Tree in the Garden of Eden confer a knowlege of good and evil? How could it enable man to difcern the nature of each? How could it inform him which was to be purfued, and which to be avoided?

Shall we fay, with the Jewish writers, that there was any virtue in the fruit, to clarify the understanding, and fo to teach man knowlege? But if fo, why was it prohibited? For the knowlege, which we

DISC. fuppofe to be implied in the phrase, is per→ IV. fective of man's nature; it is true wisdom

;

and if he really acquired it by tasting the forbidden fruit, he was much benefited by tranfgreffion. We must therefore determine, that the Tree was defigned to teach the knowlege of good and evil, or to be productive of true wisdom, not in a phyfical but in a moral way. It inftructed our first parents to fly from and avoid death, and the cause of death, which must have been in fome manner denoted by this Tree as they were directed to chufe life, and the cause of life, fignified to them by the other Tree, which bore that appellation.

;

The prohibition, being calculated for man's trial, was at the fame time calculated to give him the information neceffary for that purpose. Such is the nature and defign of every law, It conveys the knowlege of good and evil by prohibiting the latter, and confequently enjoining the former. By the law," fays St. Paul," is the

knowlege of fin. I had not known luft,

"except