perfevered in obedience unto the end, he DISC. would have been admitted, in the kingdom

of heaven, to that state of eternal life with God, for which he was always defigned, and of which Paradife was the earthly refemblance. He would have been removed from the fhadows of this world to the realities of a better. His removal must have differed, in the manner of it, from that of which we now live, or ought to live, in expectation. Without fin, death could have had no power over him. He would have been tranflated alive, as Enoch and Elijah, for particular purposes, afterwards were. The change would have been wrought in him at once, as it was in them, and as it will be in those who shall be found alive, at the coming of our Lord to judgment.

When tranfgreffion had subjected Adam to a sentence of condemnation, the cafe was altered. Glory and immortality could no longer be obtained upon the terms of the first covenant, now broken and void.

The

III.

III.

DISC. The very attempt became criminal. Man was to be put under a new covenat, and in a new courfe of trial. He was to fuffer in the flesh for fin, and to pay the penalty of death. But, through the merits of a furety, that death was to be made the gate of immortality. By faith he was to acquire, upon the mediatorial plan, a fresh right or power to eat of the Tree of Life, and live for ever, after the resurrection from the dead, with his propitiated and reconciled Maker. In mercy, therefore, he was excluded from the garden of Eden, and from the original fymbol of that eternal life, which was now to be fought after by other means, and reprefented by other facraments. He was fent forth into the world, to pafs his time in toil, pain, and forrow; in mourning, contrition, and penance; till death fhould fet him free, and introduce him to the joys purchased and prepared for him by that bleffed person, "in whom is Life, and the Life is the

III.

fon was always the fource of immortality, DISC. however the facred symbols, instituted to adumbrate it, have been varied under different difpenfations. To our first parents, before the fall, he ftood in the relation of Creator and Lord. To them, and to their pofterity, fince that fad catastrophe, he hath ftood, and ever continueth to ftand, in the new relation of Saviour and Redeemer. The man who doth not now acknowlege him in this latter character, will find him, in the former, an avenger to execute wrath and what wrath can be so fierce and terrible, as that of the Lamb? It is oil fet on fire. The finner, unless he be in love with condemnation, muft not revert to the first covenant, and aim at the acquifition of eternal life, on the foot of the law of works, or the performance of unfinning obedience. In this cafe the rebel claims promotion, instead of suing for pardon. He puts forth his hand to the fruit of the now forbidden tree, which is no longer food for man. It's nature is changed, with our condition. To the eye

of

III.

DISC. of human pride it ftill looks fair and tempting; but it's contents, when eaten, are afhes and fulphur; and immortality, without redemption, would prove the reverse of a bleffing.

Such being the state of this matter, and the order of the divine œconomy concerning it, all that is faid in the Scriptures from the fall downward, with regard to the new method of obtaining eternal life, and the appointed means of fo doing, will throw light backward and ferve to illustrate the account already given of the Tree of Life in Paradise.

To this end may be adduced the texts, which speak of the Redeemer, his religion, truth, grace, and falvation, under the very original expreffion of the Tree of Life.

And here, the first place is due to that charming defcription, left us by king Solomon, in the Proverbs, of divine WISDOM perfonified, and represented as having been

III.

with God in the beginning, yet rejoicing DISC. in the habitable parts of the earth, and delighting to be with the fons of men; as the way, the light, and the life, the author and giver of peace and comfort, joy and gladness; the Creator of all things, by whom the worlds were made, and without whom was not any thing made, that was made.-" Happy" fays the great teacher of Ifrael—"Happy is the man that findeth “ Wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding. For the merchandise of it "is better than the merchandise of filver, "and the gain thereof than fine gold. She " is more precious than rubies, and all the

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things thou canst defire are not to be "compared unto her. Length of days is "in her right hand, and in her left hand "riches and honour. Her ways are ways "of pleasantness, and all her paths are

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peace. She is a Tree of Life to them

"that lay hold upon her, and happy is