but even made it a canon or rule, to mix that cup with water. And as we have no reason to doubt, but our Saviour made use of such a cup, at the institution of the other sacrament of the christian church, which we term the Eucharist, or Lord's Supper; so there is all the ground in the world to believe, that his apostles and their more immediate successors continued the same rite with the same view. Any objection, therefore, which may be now started against this emblematical mixture, founded as it undoubtedly is in scripture usage, can only proceed either from ignorance of the design of the paradisaical water, as alluded to and made use of to express and typify the blessings of cleansing, refreshing, &c. in one continued chain of connection from the 2d chapter of Genesis to the 22d of the Revelation, or from a reprehensible inattention to that design.

Besides this river in Paradise, we read too of a plantation of trees'—' Every tree that is pleasant to 'the sight, and good for food;' which last expression is to be taken in a sacramental sense for the food of the soul, as we find that man had been otherwise supplied with bodily food before. I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is the face of the earth; and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed, to you it shall be for meat. This grant, according to the order

upon

order of narration, was made before Paradise was planted; which was not done until after the sabbath was sanctified; and, by the grant here referred to, trees and their fruit, as distinct from the trees of Paradise, are particularly set apart for the food of man; for which reason these last seem to have been given for a typical, as the trees of the earth had been before given for a natural, end. What these paradisaical trees were, or by what names they were all distinguished, we cannot know. Whether that character given to the cedar, 'The cedars of 'God,' (not as our translation has it, the goodly cedars), will bear so much as that there were cedars in Paradise, I shall not positively say: But of two of these paradisaical trees we have the particular names left on record; the one distinguished as the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which, by the dismal consequences that followed on eating of it, was an emblem of mortality, and of the danger of departing from the ways and means of God's appointment, to seek knowledge, however desireable in itself, by means of men's own devising. That there must have been some innate noxious quality in that tree, which so soon perverted man's faculties, and destroyed his innocence, is the opinion of some; while others are inclined to believe, that this tree was designed to promote the completion, or highest extent of man's knowledge on earth; and that he would have been allowed, nay called upon, to eat

of

I Psalm 1xxx. 10.

of it immediately before his removal into the beatific vision in heaven; and consequently, that the heinousness of his crime consisted in eating of it too soon, contrary to the commandment of God, and to the original design of that emblem.

But which ever of these two opinions, as to this tree of knowledge, is most worthy of regard, (for I own this last is objected to, and perhaps not without reason), certain it is, that we have more full indications of the nature and design of the other tree, called the tree of life, the symbol or sacrament of immortality; and consequently emblematical of Christ, who, in some places of scripture, particularly in the writings of the inspired Solomon, is even designated and set forth by this very title. Thus in his book of Proverbs, among other characters of wisdom, by which we are to understand Christ, according to what St Paul says of him, that He is made of God unto us wisdom and * righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption;' it is said *, ‘She is a tree of life to them that lay hold ́ on her.' Again3, the fruit of the righteous' (a name of Christ) is a tree of life. * Hope deferred mak'eth the heart sick, but when the desire cometh,' (the desire of all nations shall come), it is a trec of life.' St John, referring as it were to Ezekiel's vi

4 "

vision', writes thus, In the midst of the street of it, and on every side of the river was the tree of life; the same tree of life, of which if our first parents had eaten in Paradise, they should have lived for ever,' and of which Jesus Christ promises to give him that overcometh a right to eat 3.

This river, then, and the tree of life were two principal emblems or symbols of the divine presence, two chief parts of the sacred furniture of the paradisaical tabernacle, into which man was entered for the purposes already mentioned, and of which Adam, the first man, was constituted the high priest. How long our first parents remained in this state of innocence, cannot be exactly determined. Some have said, that they fell the same day in which they were created; which in my opinion seems directly contrary to the tenor of scripture history. Others have extended their abode in Paradise to the third day; for which conceit I know of no foundation, unless it be that the account of the fall is to be found in the third chapter of Genesis. If we would attend to the several particulars recorded by the Spirit of God, such as Adam's considering, and giving significant names to all the beasts, the manner of our first parents' confession before God, and plain acknowledgement of their fault, without pretending either ignorance or shortness of warning

1 Ch. xlvii. 12.

2 Gen. iii. 22.

Revel. xxii. 2.

3 Rev. ii. 7. xxii. 14.

ing for their excuse, which they would have probably done, had their temptation and fall so soon followed their creation, we might suppose that their stay in paradise was of longer duration than is commonly imagined'. But waving this, it will be more instructive, as well as more pertinent to the present purpose, to enquire into the nature of their employment, and how they spent their time, whether long or short, in Paradise.

That their general employment was to contemplate the works of God, to study not only the several parts of creation, but likewise the sacred symbols of religion, and to perform certain instituted acts of worship and adoration to Jehovah Aleim, the Lord God, is what I presume will not, because it cannot, be denied. For this purpose a set time was appointed, to be more especially occupied in devotional services: The Sabbath, or seventh day was blessed and sanctified, that is, set apart and consecrated to some peculiar sacred work

1 Among other arguments against the shortness of Adam's stay in Paradise, there are two adduced by a Mr Whaley, in a letter to Archbishop Usher. 1. There being no mention made of Adam's knowing his wife till after the fall, and if he could abstain from that for two or three days, why not for two or three years; as in a state of innocence, he was free from that concupiscence, to which men are now subject. 2. At the birth of his third son, Seth, Adam is said (Gen. v. 3.) to have been 130 years old; by which it seems either that other descendants of his are omitted, or that the distance of time betwixt Eve's births was very long, none of which is so probable, as that their stay in paradise, before Eve's beginning to bear, made a considerable part of these 130 years.