come to and unite with Christ by faith, and lay hold on his covenant,
this deliverance, when the sentence was passed on all: —the perfection of it; it takes away this first sin, and all others too. How strong must the power of the grace of Christ be, that could stop the torrent of Adam's sin, when increased with innumerable actual transgressions? (Rom. 5:16)
5. Lastly, Quit your hold of the first Adam and his covenant, and come to and unite with Christ by faith, and lay hold on his covenant, (1 Cor. 15:22). Flee to and make use of his blood for the taking away of the first sin in particular, and mourn for it before the Lord. If this be not removed, it will ruin you. And to stir you up to a concern about this sin, consider how we are naturally writing after this copy, by our unbelief of the word, our affecting mainly what is forbidden, &c. as I showed before. The offer of Christ as a Saviour from sin is made to you; and ye are called to embrace him as a Saviour to you in particular. Accept the offer, as ye regard the salvation of your souls; otherwise you will be ruined, not only by the breach of the first covenant, but by despising the second, which is the only means devised by infinite wisdom for the recovery of fallen sinners.
Of the First Sin in Particular
"And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked: and
they sewed fig-leaves together, and made themselves aprons." Genesis 3:6-7
In these words we are distinctly informed how the covenant of works was broken, and our first parents stripped of their primitive innocence and integrity. Eve seduced by the devil, first ate of the forbidden fruit, and Adam followed her example. The act being completed by both, they immediately discovered, to their shame and dishonor, the miserable state they were reduced to.
The words sufficiently found the following doctrine.
Doctrine: "Our first parents fell from the estate wherein they were created, by eating the forbidden fruit."
I have already shown why the forbidden tree was called the tree of knowledge of good and evil, as also of what use it was in the covenant of works. It remains that we skow,
I. How the eating of the forbidden fruit was the first sin of our first parents, by which they fell.
II. Why this fruit was forbidden.
III. The aggravations of it.
IV. Deduce some inferences.
I. I am to show how the eating of the forbidden fruit was the first sin of our first parents, by which they fell. It is not to be thought, that they were wholly innocent till they had the forbidden fruit in their mouths; for their coveting it in their hearts behooved of necessity to go before that; but the eating of it was that whereby their sin and apostasy from their Creator was completed. The first step of their sin