Again, this angel of light must have been very ignorant of the power and goodness of the Almighty, in order to have possessed a thought, that to rebel against him could be of any possible advantage, or that he could have carried and maintained a contest with him. If he were as ignorant as all this, the inhabitants of Heaven must have been extremely uncultivated, in that age of eternity, and no great ornament to a place so much famed for glory and grandeur. If Heaven, which is said to be God's throne, be, or ever were inhabited by defectable beings, the place itself must be a defectable place ; and why the Almighty should take up his special abode in a defectable place, surrounded by defectable beings, I cannot imagine. But I pass on

After Satan was turned out of Heaven, he saw no possible way to injure his adversary, only by contamniating his creatures, which he had just made, and placed in the happy situation before described. Here observe, the matter appears strange. Did God not know the evil disposition of Satan? Had he forgotten the awful difficulty but just settled? Or would he leave an innocent Lamb to the ferocity of. a bear robbed of her whelps? God had driven Satan from Heaven, from his own presence, but left him at loose ends to prey on his tender offspring, whom he had just left in a defenceless situation, on this ball of earth! What would appear more unnatural and shocking, than for a father to chase his enemy out at his door, but leave him to slay his de fenceless children in the street? I shall, after what I have observed, beg liberty to say, I am so far from believing any such story respecting the cause of sin, that I have not even the shadow of evidence, from scripture or reason, to support the sentiment. But I have been told, that man, standing in a state

of sinless purity, could not have fallen from that rectitude, unless there had been some sinful being to have tempted him. Admitting there is any force in this observation, it stands as directly against the fall of Satan, without a sinful temptation, as it does against man's transgression, without a tempter. Was man more pure, before he sinned, than that holy angel in Heaven? If not, how could that angel sin, without a temptation, easier than man, who was made in a lower grade? But supposing we should admit that God commanded an angel to worship his Son Jesus, and the angel refused, and call that the first sin ever committed, it would not determine its origin or cause. A cause, or origin, must exist, before an effect, or production. So, after all our journeying to Heaven after a sinning angel, and after pursuing him to hell, and from hell to the earth, we have not yet answered the question, viz. What is the origin of sin? We have only shown, that the way in which this question has been generally solved, is without foundation.

Having stated what I have been told was the origin of sin, and given my reasons why I do not believe it, I now come to give my own ideas of the

matter.

Scripture, with the assistance of that reason, without which, the scriptures would be of no more service to us than they are to the brute creation, I shall take for my guide, on the question before me. Almighty God is a being of infinite perfections; this, the scriptures will support, and reason declare He was the author of our existence, being the creator of the first man and woman, the occasion of their being formed of the dust of the ground, and the director of that providence by which we are all introduced by ordinary generation.

Our Maker must have had a design in the works of his hands; this the scriptures argue, and reason says. The whole of God's design must be carried into effect, and nothing more, admitting him to be an infinite being. We are informed, that God created man in his own image; that he blessed him, and set him over the works of his hands; and reason cannot deny the truth of it. But what was this image of God, in which man was created? Answer, it was Christ, who, in scripture, is called "the begin ning of the creation of God;" who, St. Paul says, is the brightness of the Father's glory, and express image of his person. Now there is no need of saying much, where the truth is easy to come at. If Christ be the image of God, and man was created in God's image, it is plain, that man was created in Christ, was blessed in Christ, and in Christ set over the works of God's hands. After God had finished his work of creation, consecrated the seyenth day, and rested from his labor, we are informed that there was not a man to till the ground. This information is reasonable, and authorises me to say, that as man stood in his created character, which is Christ, the heavenly man, he was not, at that time, formed of the dust of the ground, was not of the earth earthly, and therefore was not a tiller of the ground. We are then informed, by the sacred text, that God formed (not created) man of the dust of the ground, breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, whereby man became a living soul, or creature. Man is now

a partaker of flesh and blood; is, as the apostle says, "made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who subjected the same in hope." He has now, not an immortal, but a mortal constitution; is possessed of natural appetites and passions; and being unacquainted with the ways of his own

imperfect self, knew neither the good or evil of a mortal state. If it be said, that man was not mortal, before he sinned, and that he became mortal by sin, it is a saying as distant from good reason as imagination can go. For if man were not mortal before transgression, he must have been immortal; if he were immortal, he was not subject to change, but remains still in the same immortal state; and all our notions about the mortality of man is nothing. but a groundless chimera. But every day's experience contradicts such absurdities.

Man, according to these statements, is of heavenly extraction; is, in his nature, allied to the heavenly state, in which he was created, before he was formed of the dust of the ground. And I call on the reason of my reader to testify to the rationality of the idea. If the mind, spirit, soul, or whatever the reader pleases to call the immortal part of man, originated from the earthly nature of the formed creature, what is the reason that the good, which supports the formed nature, does not satisfy the soul? Our natural appetites originate in the elements of which our bodies are composed, and aliment produced from them is sufficient to satisfy any natural appetite of the body; but can it give a cup of consolation to the heavenly stranger within? No; her food is of a different kind. Was the earth, with all her mines and fruits, my own, this moment, on condition that I should give up the riches which I see in this heavenly relation, my bargain would make me poor.

As man stood in his formed state, cloathed with mortal flesh and blood, before his mind became obsequious to the elementary passions, a law was shadowed to his mind from the heavenly and spiritual man. The full spirit, power and beauty of the law,

were not perfectly understood, only a shadow of the heavenly nature passed on his mind, and the nature of that spirit being eternal, and immortally pure, was opposed to the passions which would immediately rise from the fleshly nature, and said in the understanding of the creature already made subject to vanity, yield not to the passions and powers of the flesh, for they are death. But immediately the powerful vibrations of the fleshly nature absorbed his mind, he sought to the carnal man for food, ate and died. These things are figuratively represented, in the scriptures. There man is represented as being placed in a garden of delights, to keep it and to dress it. The tree of life was in it, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; he was bid welcome. to the tree of life, but was forbidden the other. A subtle serpent comes to the woman, and tempts her with the forbidden fruit; she eats, and gives it to her husband, and he also partakes: Their eyes are opened to the knowledge of good and evil; they see that they are naked, and hide themselves from God; sew fig-leaves together for garments to hide their nakedness. God comes into the garden, in the cool of the day, calls for the man, and asks him if he had eaten of the forbidden fruit. He answers, that the woman whom God gave him, gave unto him and he ate. The woman is next interrogated, and she lays it to the serpent's guile. The ground is cursed, for Adam's sake; when he tills it, it is to produce briars and thorns; he is to eat his bread, by the sweat of his face, and at last return to the dust. The woman's conception was to be multiplied in sorrow, and her desire was to be to her husband, and he was to rule over her. The serpent was cursed above all cattle, was to go on his belly, and to eat dust as long as he lived. This is, in short,