Truths. The Fables of the Ancients, whether of the Eaft or Weft, were invented, as I have fhewn elfewhere, for this end, and for no other, namely, to hide from the People, under that cover, fuch Truths as were above the People's capacity to comprehend; or were judged inexpedient, for the fake of public utility, that they should know. This Veil, however, their Wife Men were able to penetrate; and fo could benefit themselves of all the Truth conveyed under it; and the Public, of just so much as was judged expedient for them to be made acquainted with. But what pretence is there to fay, that either of these caufes of concealment had any place in the MORAL, which the Doctor is pleased to tell us is conveyed under the fable of the Fall? The Moral contains a Truth of the utmost clearness, and moft general ufe; whofe publication could be of no poffible differvice to Society, or be abused by one fingle individual in it. On the other hand, if, instead of this MORAL, of a fimple lapfe from innocence to guilt, we believe that Jefus and his Apof < tles have rightly interpreted the Mofaic account of the FALL, where they inform us of the specific nature of the lofs which Adam fuftained thereby; and if, from the nature and course of God's Difpenfations, we see the fitnefs of its remaining a Myftery for many ages, that Myftery which (the Apostle tells us) was hid from ages and generations, but was at length made manifeft to the Saints*; if this, I fay, were the cafe, then, indeed, though the Doctor's Moral required none of this Cover to his MERE ALLEGORY; yet fuch a Cover very well fuited the History of Mofes; and juftified the interpretation of the Apostles. Thus the POSITIVE COMMAND, whatever it fpecifically was, is contained in the words of not eating of the Fruit of the tree of good and evil-the TEMPTER, THE EVIL BEING, is fhadowed under the Serpent -and the CONDEMNATION TO DEATH, by Adam's return to his firft ftate of MORTA LITY. Having thus cleared the revealed Doctrine of the FALL from the abfurdity of * Col. i. 26. this deistical interpretation, I now go on with my Subject. Man, having forfeited the free gift of Immortality, is driven out of Paradise, and returned back to the ftate and condition in which he was created, a Subject only of NATURAL RELIGION. With this difference, that, before his entrance into Paradife, he was altogether ignorant of the extent of his finite duration: on his expulfion from thence, he might learn, from the terms of his Sentence, that the execution of it, by DEATH, was at no great distance. -In the fweat of thy face fhalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it waft thou taken; for duft thou art, and unto duft fhalt thou return *. But when we speak of the two Religions, natural and revealed, we must distinguish (in our use of the term, REVELATION) between a System of revealed Religion, and an occafional Communication of the divine Will to Man, for his conduct on particular points, or for his comfort in general, when the courfe of God's moral government re * Gen. iii. 19. quired that he should, from time to time, have intimations given to him, more or lefs obfcurely, of the hidden purpose of Providence in his favour; and this, through various Difpenfations, till, at the final completion of them, life and immortality should be again brought to light and restored. These occafional Communications began with that contained in the Sentence denounced on the Serpent, or the EVIL ONE, that the Seed of the Woman should bruife his head; and that he should bruife its heel*: And ended with that given by the mouth of Jacob, that the fceptre should not depart from Judah, nor a Lawgiver from between bis feet, until SHILOH fhould come, to whom the gathering of the People should be †. What followed thefe occafional Communications was that SECOND SYSTEM of Revealed Religion, delivered to the Posterity of Abraham, by Mofes, preparatory to the THIRD and laft, under the Reign or rule of Shiloh, or JESUS CHRIST, which took in and embraced the whole Pofterity of Adam. * Gen. iii. 15. 4 Gen. xlix. 10. So that, of Revelations, in the sense of REVEALED SYSTEMS of RELIGION, there were but THREE: the firft, given to Adam when placed in Paradife; the fecond, to the Pofterity of Abraham, when going (under the miniftry of Moses) to poffefs the promised Land; and the third, promulged to all Mankind, by Jefus the Meffiah. Ignorance, of this matter, made the Rabbins invent a fanciful System of Revealed Religion, as given to the Sons of Noah, under the name of the SEVEN PRECEPTS. -So that it feemed proper just to hint at this diftinction; which, for want of attending to, hath been the occafion of much error and mistake. We have now feen MAN under the two firft States of God's Moral Government, the natural and the revealed; and how, by his misconduct in the second, he was returned back again to the firft; in which he remained throughout the long interval from Adam to Moses; when, by this time, the NATURAL LAW was become fo viciated, and obfcured, that all memory of the LAW 2 GIVER |