getfulness of God, is manifested by the loosening of these ties, the cooling of these affections, the breach of these obligations. Adam's thoughts were solely fixed upon extricating himself from his perilous situation, and escaping his impending punishment. So will it be with sinners on the great day that is approaching; each will criminate each, however closely they may have been united, and all would sacrifice all, to purchase self-exemption, and to escape the horrors of an offended God.

13. And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

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Far better excuse than that of Adam, for she at least could truly say that she had been beguiled" into this disobedience, which he could not; since the apostle to Timothy expressly declares, "Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression." (1 Tim. ii. 14.) Each, however, alike fell, and both, in the moment of their fall, alike disregarded the feelings of uprightness and candour. You, and I, and all of us, are falling every day, for "there is no man that liveth and sinneth not." Let not, then, this first sin of our erring parents be without its lesson. Do you ever feel, when looking back at night on the events of the day that is

closing upon you, that you have in thought, word, or deed, wilfully offended God? Let not Satan prevail upon you to endeavour to conceal, or to extenuate your guilt. Think not that by criminating another, you can excuse yourself. Suppose not that you can hide even one guilty thought from that all-seeing eye. It is a vain, a futile, a wicked attempt; for, as David truly says, even of the most secret, most hidden of your transgressions, "Shall not God search it out? for he knoweth the very secrets of the heart.” Lay open, then, your heart, at once, to the God who made it, and who deeply feels for it; hide nothing from him, confess your guilt, humbly and sincerely to him; plead the blood of a crucified Redeemer, and the promise that it "cleanseth from all sin," and you shall not plead in vain. Ask, for his sake, a deep, heartfelt repentance, and you shall not ask in vain; sue, in his name, for a pardon, full, free, and boundless as the depth of iniquity within the guiltiest breast, and you shall not-for never did penitent sinner coming to a loving Father, in that best beloved name-sue in vain.

EXPOSITION XII.

GENESIS iii. 14, 15.

14. And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

15. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

In our last reading, we reviewed the poor and miserable excuses made by our first parents for the crime of which they had been guilty; we have now to consider the sentences passed, by a perfectly just God, upon the three different offenders. The Almighty commences with the serpent, the mere instrument of Satan-for even the very instrument is included in the curse-to mark yet more plainly God's deep abhorrence of sin. The serpent, then, is sentenced to be the most degraded, most loathsome, most hateful of all "the beasts of the field," for ever crawling in the dust, equally spurned and detested. But, through the serpent, a still deeper curse is in

flicted upon him, who had used it as his instrument in his great work of destruction and ruin, even upon Satan himself: for it is to him that these mysterious words were spoken, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed.” An enmity that has ever since existed, between both Satan and the spiritual seed of Satan, against the seed of the woman, the Lord Jesus Christ, and his spiritual seed, the Church. A hatred so deep, so inextinguishable, that never has a single individual of that seed placed his foot within the threshold of heaven, without having suffered from the stings and assaults of Satan by the way. Never has one of that fallen woman's fallen seed passed through the dry and desert land of his pilgrimage, without receiving many a fiery dart, shot from that serpent's brood, who for ever crawl and cluster round his path. Evil men and evil tongues have followed, and do still follow, the Israel of God, throughout every mile of their weary pilgrimage, with an enmity that nothing can soften, nothing can subdue, until the waters of Jordan shall be placed between them; and the enemies which the people of God see and suffer from to-day, shall be seen again no more for ever.

There yet remains, however, the most import

ant portion of Satan's sentence, and of our own most blessed promise, to consider. Speaking of the best and greatest of woman-born, of our Divine Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, as preeminently the seed of the woman, the Almighty now declared, "It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." How unspeakably merciful is God! Here, even before the curse was uttered, which would lay our first parents in sorrow in the dust, the remedy is promised, the Saviour is foretold; there shall be One, who, although he shall not pass unscathed through the terrific conflict; though he shall be a suffering, shall still be a conquering Messiah, and even amid the pangs of Calvary shall place his foot in triumph upon that serpent's head; nay, shall go down into the grave, (now for the first time to be opened, as the receptacle of all who live,) and shall unbolt the doors of its prisonhouse, and shall free its captive myriads, and shall triumph over Satan, death, and sin, and "shall bring life and immortality to light through the Gospel." Blessed be God for Jesus Christ! "Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift,” for this first faint dawn of that glorious daylight, which for four thousand years was gradually opening upon our fallen race, until the Sun of Righteousness blazed forth in midday radiance