III.

" and of either fide of the river, was there DISC. "the Tree of Life, which bare twelve "manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit 6a every month; and the leaves of the Tree "were for the healing of the nations."

To whom, then, bleffed Lord Jefu, should we go? Thou haft the words of eternal life. Thou art the true Tree of Life, in the midst of the Paradife of God. For us men and for our falvation, thou didst condefcend to be planted, in a lowly form, upon the earth. But thy head foon reached to heaven, and thy branches to the ends of the earth. Thy head is crowned with glory, and thy branches are the branches of honour and grace. Medicinal are thy leaves to heal every malady, and thy fruits are all the bleffings of immortality. It is our hope, our fupport, our comfort, and all our joy, to reflect, that, wearied with the labours, and worn out with the cares and forrows of a fallen world, we shall fit down under thy shadow with great delight, and thy fruit shall be sweet to our taste !

DISCOURSE IV.

THE TREE OF KNOWLEGE.

GENESIS

II. 17.

Of the Tree of the Knowlege of good and evil thou

ΤΗ

fhalt not eat.

IV.

HIS is the firft and the only law DISC.
recorded to have been promulged
It may

in the state of man's innocence.
therefore be reasonably fuppofed to have.
contained in itself the fubftance of many
other laws. It's comprehenfion may be
inferred likewife from it's importance.
The tranfgreffion of it occafioned the fall

DISC. of the human race, and introduced the

IV.

neceffity of a redemption by the Son of

God.

Could we afcertain with precision what is intended by the knowlege of good and evil, fuch a discovery might poffibly furnish us with a key to this part of Scripture, and to the transactions relative to the trial of our first parents in Paradise. Let us therefore begin with an enquiry into the true meaning of these words.

By the knowlege of good and evil the generality of commentators understand experimental knowlege; and they fuppofe the name to have been given to the tree by a prolepfis, because, in the event, through man's tranfgreffion, it was to become the means of his attaining the experimental knowlege of evil; thus purchafing to himfelf a knowlege of good, manifested and illuftrated by comparison with it's oppofite; as a perfon is then faid to understand

the

IV.

the nature and value of health, when he DISC. has been deprived of it by fickness.

That fuch was the effect of the tranfgreffion is certain: but it is not, perhaps, fo certain, that this is the right interpretation of the phrafe, which is by no means peculiar to this place, but occurs in other parts of the facred writings, where it cannot be taken in the fenfe affigned. Nay, there are two paffages even in the third chapter of Genefis itself, which do not admit of such expofition. The tempter asfures the woman, that, on eating the fruit, they should be as gods, "knowing good "and evil.” And the Almighty afterwards fays, "Man is become like one of us, knowing good and evil." Now the knowlege of good and evil poffeffed by the Deity cannot poffibly be that produced by the experimental knowlege of evil. Let us examine into the ufage of the words elfewhere.

In Deuteronomy we read- -"Moreover

G 4

"your