The PRAYER.

Leffed Lord, who haft caufed all Holy Scriptures to be written for our Learning; Grant that I may in fuch wife hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digeft them, that, by Patience and Comfort of thy Holy Word, I may embrace, and ever hold faft, the bleffed Hope of everlasting Life, which thou haft given me, in my Saviour Jefus Chrift. Amen.

DIALOGUE

VII.

An Account of the Fall of Man, and what followed thereupon, till the Coming of CHRIST.

Yo

Indian.

OU affured me, Sir, when I was laft with you, that God had made known to you many things, which our Reafon cannot account for :-I am now come to put you in mind of one Difficulty, which I beg you would explain to me: How Man, "the Creature of an Holy and Good God, "came to have fuch a ftrangely difordered "Nature, and fo prone to. Evil ?"

Miff. I am obliged to do fo; for, without the Knowlege of this, you can have no true

No

Dial

.

Notions of the Justice and Mercy, and Goodness of God.

What therefore he has made known to us in the Holy Scriptures, is:-That after he had made this World, and all things in it, in Six Days, and that he might have Creatures capable of praifing him for his wonderful Works, he made one Man and one Woman, called ADAM and EvE, determining to make of one Blood all Nations of Men to dwell upon all the Face of the Earth all which are the Offspring of that one Man and Woman, -He has alfo made known to us, That these Two Perfons were at first made after the Likeness of their Creator, being endued with Reason in Perfection, and other heavenly Gifts. We learn alfo, that thefe our First Parents, being thus made perfect and good, and capable of living for ever, were placed. in an happy State called Paradife, with a Promife of Life and Happiness, as long as they continued obedient to their Maker's Commands. Now thefe Two Perfons were in a State of Trial and Probation, as we all are at this Day, tho' in a Manner quite different from ours-For they, coming out of their Maker's Hands perfect, that is, endued with clear and ftrong Apprehenfions of their indifpenfable Obligation to perform all the great Points of Morality, could not well be fup+ Wifd. ii. 23.

-

As xvii. 26.

pofed

posed to lie under any Temptation of violating that chief Part of their Duty.—It was therefore neceffary, that fome other TEST, fuitable to the Place and Circumstances they were in, fhould be required of them, to prove what was in their Hearts; and whether they would chufe, under the moft tempting Of fers, to break an exprefs Commandment of GOD, their CREATOR, PRESERVER, and GoVERNOR, even tho' the Reafon of fuch a Commandment was not made known unto them.

A pofitive Injunction, of this kind, God was pleafed to give them ;-at the fame time. enforcing their Obedience to it, by Threats of a most dreadful Penalty, if they should ever tranfgrefs it.

And we are to confider the Command given to Adam concerning the Forbidden. Tree, not as if God only ipoke concerning That, but He herein commanded him this One thing,-OBEY MY VOICE :-That is, You are to do whatever I fhall declare to be the Duties of your Life :-For it was neceffary, that Man fhould obey the Divine Being, and never be left to his own Guidance, but to be always kept in the Hand of God's Counfel.

How long our First Parents continued in their Duty, we are no-where told; but at length, by yielding to the Temptation of an evil Spirit, and not regarding the Command · of

of their Maker*, they did fall from that holy and happy Condition they were in; and by that moft grievous Crime (for fo it appears by the Punishment a moft righteous God inAlicted on them for it) they highly displeased their Maker, who left them to themselves ;and, having loft their Innocence, and that Image of God in which they were created †, their Nature became fadly changed for the worse. And the Children which they afterwards begot, being born of finful Parents, became, even like their Parents, difobedient, and prone to Evil, as you fee they are at this Day: All which these FIRST PARENTS OF MANKIND brought upon themselves, and their Pofterity.

It was thus that Sin, and Evils of every kind, and Death at last, entered into the World, as the just Punishment of their Dif obedience to the Commands of God;by which all Right to his free Promife of eternal Life and Happiness was forfeited and loft.

Ind. This is indeed a plain Account how Sin and Wickedness entered into the • World; and we ought to believe it to be a just Account, fince God has made it known to you in his Revealed Will.'

Mill. As to the Corruption of our Nature, and the Sin that does fo easily beset us, your own Experience will convince you of the + Ibid. v.

* Gen. iii,

Truth

Truth of it.-And no other reasonable Account can be given how it came into the World. And you will learn by what followed this Act of Difobedience, how dif pleafing to God it was, and the Punishment it deserved.

Ind. Will you be fo kind as to let me know what followed this fad Calamity?" Milf. You will eafily conceive how miferable the Condition of these our First Parents was now become: -They knew that they had failed in their Duty to their Maker;their Reafon could not inform them how to help themselves :-The Lofs of their Innocence, and of their Maker's Favour;their Forfeiture of the Happiness they had enjoyed, with their dreadful Apprehenfions of that Death which was threaten'd ;the Sense of these things, would most certainly have overwhelmed them, had not the Goodness of God immediately interpofed to keep them from Despair. For tho' his

perfect Holiness could not but hate the Sin, yet his Goodness inclined him to have Compaffion on the Sinner; and from thence he took occafion to make known another of his most glorious Perfections, his infinite Mercy. Ind. I am most defirous to hear how that was done.'

Miff. Why, as a Remedy for what had been done amifs, and could not be undone,

5.

their