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radistical happiness and innocence, will he therefore become indifferent to clothing his person? Such a consequence cannot be admitted. I believe, for weighty reasons, that God never intended Adam and his posterity should go naked, even if they had not sinned. The reasons which I oppose to such a position are, first, the shocking and more than beastly appearance a population of naked human beings would present. It would be excessively unnatural to suppose, that the,, Creator intended his most glorious creature man, male and female, parents and children, strangers and friends, old and young, should associate together naked under every possible circumstance; which would have been the fact, if the position is true, that man was not to be clothed if he had not sinned.

Such a view is absolutely abhorrent to every delicate and chaste feeling of the soul, even now in its present low and depraved state. How much more so, then, if man had not fallen! Let none imagine that this opinion is irrelevant; because, being now fallen, and therefore not capacitated to argue upon any position belonging to a sinless state: but rather let it be recollected, that the views of propriety, honour, virtue, chastity, with all refined sentiments which may now be possessed by the mind, are the effects of a restoration, and, in a degree, are an approximation toward that height from whence we are fallen; and therefore by this light I argue, that nakedness could not have been the condition of our race, if we were now in an unfallen state. It is my opinion, that if man had been permitted to live on the earth after his fall in an unro,

deemed state, that his condition would have been a horrible delirium, utterly incapable of reasoning at all. Therefore this good and perfect gift of reasoning powers came down from the Father of Lights, through the promised Messiah or Redeemer, so that man was enabled to reason, and to choose between good and evil. By this gift, therefore, I judge that a world of naked human beings was not intended by the Creator.

If it is alleged, that in many countries of the torrid climates of the earth, that even now there are human beings who live naked, and in societies; and yet the fact is not abhorrent to their views of delicacy. But, it should be remembered, that such human beings are extremely wretched in other respects, not having sufficient knowledge to use the facilities which nature has put in their power for their comfort and well being But the moment the light of revelation, art and science shines upon them, they shrink from the gaze of huma、 eyes, and seek an instant refuge in the habiliments of refined society.

But ignorance was not the condition of our first parents, neither ought we to imagine it would have been the condition of their progeny, if they had never fallen into sin and consequent wretchedness; because such a supposition would imply a most flagrant imbecility in the very constitution of the creature man, and would as certainly have led to innumerable miseries as ignorance now leads its victims, and would reflect upon the wisdom of the Creator.

Nakedness, therefore, (excepting the two first, and even then a short time only) is incompatible with a

state of holiness, innocence, and knowledge, whether before the fall or after, in a restored state; and is repugnant to every primitive virtue and delicacy possible to be conceived of.

A second reason is, that we find an abundant provision, prepared for no other purpose but to clothe the creature man. Has God stored the great wardrobe of nature for nought? which must be the fact, if nakedness and holiness are inseparably connected; if neither the two first, nor their children, were to be clothed, as many suppose.

Neither will it do, in order to show a propriety in providing the rudiments of clothing, to say, that man was to fall, in order to be capable of enjoying this provision, because the object gained is not equivalent to the loss.

If we believe that God in six days made the earth,' and also clothed it with all green herbs, trees, and every plant bearing seed, which now exists-then we subscribe to the opinion, that he at first made provisión to clothe the human race; because among these are found the rudiments of various kinds of clothing, suited to the convenience of men. The animal race, with some insects, minister to the same effect: witness all furred animals, with sheep, goats, camels, and the skins of beasts.

A third reason that man was to be clothed, arises from the fact that he was created naked. But if he were not to be clothed, then it will follow, that in this respect he was privileged far beneath the brute creation; for these have their several vestures, some of für,

smoother than the downy velvet-others of feathers, with colours as it were dipped in a sunbeam—others, again, shine in the scaly lustre of gold and silver mail beneath the waters; but man alone, sole lord of earth, not clad in any of these, stalks forth in nakedness. From which it is evident, that a covering was designed his noble frame, of a different mode and manner than that of beasts. But the fact of his nakedness had not, till he sinned, amounted to an evil; and before such a consequence could have matured, a gracious God would have informed them of their situation, and also have clothed them, as we see he did when it became necessary.

But did they not get a knowledge of their unclad state by means of their sin? It cannot be denied, but he thereby gained a premature knowledge of it. But this circumstance does not militate against the idea, that God would, in his own good time, have informed im that he and his Eve were naked. For who will deny that the way of obedience to God is the true way of knowledge; for it is ordained of heaven, that men shall get knowledge in the ways of righteousness, and not of disobedience, and by thus doing, shall know more and more from time to time; which would have been the case with Adam, besides that which he already knew by intuition, if he had not fallen; and would have received a knowledge, not only of his nakedness, but of all things else which could consist with his happiness, as the circumstances of his continuance might have required, till he would have been translated.

NINTH DIVISION.

Embraces a position, that when man fell from original holiness, he lost his power of governing all wild animals, and became thenceforward exposed to their natural fury and dispositions; but in the Millennium shall recover his government again.

At first the morning stars, when shouting from the skies,
They saw the dripping globe from out of chaos risé :
'Twas then when all that swims, or flies, or walks the earth,
Had from the wondrous God receiv'd their joyous birth-
That by the Sovereign King dominion then was given,
To Adam's gen❜ral rule beneath the bending heaven.

An absolute government over all the beasts of the field, the fowls of heaven, and the fish of the sea, was given to man as soon as he was created. This dominion, if Adam had not sinned, would have continued to the present time, maintained by the superior majesty which shone out in every word and gesture of the then uncontaminated man. He, it is said, was created but a little lower than the angels; consequently, a glorious majesty sat upon his countenance, which, together with the subduing power of his voice, ruled at his pleasure

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