the absurd hope of being so much more intelligent, and independent and happy, she held forth the fruit to her husband, and invited him to be partner in the baneful deed. Ah! temptation is but too successful with the mind, when the person who presents it, is tenderly beloved. Adam too easily yielded. Eve, at once betrayed him, as she herself was betrayed by Satan. When she offered the fair enticing fruit, he, hapless man! rather than see her, whom he loved,who was his dearer self, perish alone, chose to eat with her, and be involved in the same common ruin.

"Earth trembled from her entrails, as again "In pangs, and Nature gave a second groan; Sky lour'd, and muttering thunder, some sad drops "Wept, at completing of the mortal sin.”

Mortal, indeed, it was: it intercepted the favour of God, deprived the unhappy pair, who committed it, of all their pristine joys, and exposed them to that "fiery indigna"tion which shall devour the adversaries." Let none then, in the wantonness and wickedness of their hearts, dare to make light of it. They are fools, and worse than fools, who "make a mock of sin ;"-and what

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then must they be, who make a mock of this original sin, which we can safely say, is fruitful and inclusive of every other. However it may appear to the shallow and careless thinker, it certainly includes in it, pride, infidelity, intemperance, ingratitude, injustice, and cruelty: a frightful assemblage!—and such, that surely we need not wonder at its being branded with the most signal marks of the Divine displeasure.

This original sin included in it pride.Our first parents seemed impatient of control and ambitious of independence. They could not brook that submission which, as creatures, they owed to their Creator; but in the true spirit of Lucifer, the first grand apostate, ate of the forbidden fruit, that they might rise to an equality with the Creator himself.

Their sin included in it, likewise, infidelity.-God strictly prohibited them from eating of the tree of the knowledge of good "and evil;" promised them, if obedient, all the happiness which his bounty had provided; and threatened, if disobedient, to drive them from his presence, and doom

them to destruction. But they disbelieved his word, and, like infidels of later times, treated both his promise and his threatening with contempt. And when they ceased to hearken to Him, to whom did they commit themselves? To" the Prince of darkness,"" the Father of lies, and the Enemy of all righteousness."

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Their sin included in it, intemperance. They gave loose to their irregular desires, and indulged them, though in direct opposition, not only to the command of God ; but to the voice of their own conscience. And why? Disgraceful intemperance ! merely because the tree seemed " "food, and pleasant to the eyes."

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They were guilty of the blackest ingratitude. God had assigned them a distinguished place in his works, made them only a little lower than the angels, adorned them with his own image, and poured around them the varied delights of paradise. But they were base enough to forget this vast munificence, and join even the devil himself against their most bountiful benefactor :and that, too, because one baneful tree in

the garden was graciously forbidden them. When we consider this, well may we blush for our nature, and with the Psalmist exclaim," Lord, what is man !”

Our first parents were likewise guilty of gross injustice. They put forth their hand to what was notoriously not their own, and what they were peremptorily prohibited by their righteous God.

And who does not see their monstrous cruelty? For the momentary gratification of a foolish and wicked desire, awakened and inflamed by an infernal foe, they were so unnatural as to bring ruin upon themselves, and entail it, dreadful inheritance! upon all their posterity.

Let none, then, presume to say, that theirs was a trifling or a venial sin. It was committed against the fullest knowledge of duty, and the strongest obligations to obedience. It was an act of the most horrid presumption in man, and of the most impious rebellion against his Maker.—It is, indeed, in all circumstances, in every possible case, "an evil and a bitter thing to

"sin against God;" and it hath passed into an unalterable decree, that under his government, " though hand join in hand, sin "shall not pass unpunished."-A question here, then, evidently occurs,-What was the punishment which followed the sin or fall of our first parents?

Thus, are we naturally led, after having considered the orignal sin itself, to attend, as was proposed, in the SECOND PLACE, to its direful consequences.

And here, what a dismal scene is presented to us! The authority of God contemned, his law broken, and its dreadful penalty incurred !-Ah! will Satan now make good his bold assertion?" Ye shall not surely die."-Alas! Alas! in this he triumphs, that he has deluded the unhappy pair, and " brought death into the world, "and all our woe."- What a melancholy contrast does their present state of guilt exhibit to their former state of innocence ! Formerly every thing conspired to make them happy; but now every thing is conspiring to overwhelm them with misery. All nature is changed. The elements be