represent him. For may we not argue in DISC. fome fuch manner as the following?

If fo fair a world was created for the use and fatisfaction of his terrestrial part, formed out of the duft, can we imagine, that the better part, the immortal spirit from above, the inhabitant of the fleshly tabernacle prepared for it, should be left in a ftate of deftitution and defolation, unprovided with wisdom, it's food, it's fupport, and it's delight?

If men, fince the fall, and labouring under all the disadvantages occafioned by it, have been enabled to make those attainments in knowlege which they certainly have made; and we find the understanding of a Solomon replete with every fpecies of wisdom, human and divine; can we conceive ignorance to have been the characteristic of the firft formed father of the world, created with all his powers and faculties complete and perfect, and living under the immediate tuition of God?

II.

DISC.

11.

If upon the trial of Adam, as the head and representative of mankind, their fate, as well as his own, both in time and eternity, was to depend, can we ever think, his Maker would expofe him to fuch a trial, with a mind not better informed than that of a child or an idiot?

If redemption reftored what was loft by the fall, and the second Adam was a counterpart of the first, muft we not conceive Adam to have once been what man is, when reftored by grace to " the image of "God in wisdom and holiness?" And does not he, who degrades the character of the Son of God in Paradife, degrade in proportion the character of that other Son of God, and the redemption and reftoration which are by him?

Our first father differed from all his defcendants in this particular, that he was not to attain the ufe of his understanding by a gradual procefs from infancy, but

64

Luke iii. 38-" Which was the fon of Adam, which was the Son of God."

came

II.

came into being in full ftature and vigour DISC. of mind as well as body. He found creation likewife in it's prime. It was morning with man and the world.

We are not certain with regard to the time allowed him, to make his obfervations upon the different objects with which he found himself furrounded; but it should feem, either that fufficient time was allowed him for that end, or that he was enabled, in fome extraordinary manner, to pervade their effences, and difcover their properties. For we are informed, that God brought the creatures to him, that he might impose upon them suitable names; a work which, in the opinion of Plato' must be ascribed to God himfelf. The ufe and intent of names is to express the natures of the things named; and in the knowlege of thofe natures, at the beginning, God, who made them, must have been man's inftructor. It is not likely, that, without fuch an inftructor, men could

1

Τα πρώτα ονόματα οι Θεοι έθεσαν- In Cratylo.

VOL. I.

D

ever

DISC. ever have formed a language at all; fince

II.

it is a task which requires much thought; and the great mafters of reafon feem to be agreed that without language, we cannot think to any purpofe. However that may be, from the original impofition of names by our firft parent, we cannot but infer that his knowlege of things natural must have been very eminent and extensive; not inferior, we may fuppofe, to that of his defcendant king Solomon, who "fpake of "trees, from the cedar to the hyffop, and "of beafts, and fowl, and creeping things " and fishes." It is therefore probable, that Plato afferted no more than the truth, when he afferted, according to the traditions he had gleaned up in Egypt and the east, that the first man was of all men DoroPararos, the greatest philofopher.

As man was made for the contemplation of God here, and for the enjoyment of him hereafter, we cannot imagine, that his knowlege would teminate on earth, though it took it's rife there. Like the patriarch's ladder, it's foot was on earth,

but

II.

but it's top, doubtlefs, reached to heaven. DISC. By it the mind afcended from the creatures to the Creator, and defcended from the Creator to the creatures. It was the golden chain, which connected matter and fpirit, preferving a communication between

the two worlds.

That God had revealed and made himself known to Adam, appears from the circumstances related; namely, that he took him, and put him into the garden of Eden; that he converfed with him, and communicated a law, to be by him observed; that he caufed the creatures to come before him, and brought Eve to him. In these transactions, God probably affumed fome visible appearance; because, otherwife than by fuch affumed appearance, no man, while in the body, can fee God. And we find, by what paffed after the fatal tranfgreffion, that "the voice or found of "the Lord God walking in the garden," was a voice or found to which Adam had been accustomed, though guilt for the first time had made him afraid of it.