The Gofpel of the great Day OfÀ'tdnement. 4 And if he had flood out the wholeSabbath-day, it is probable he had been confirmed by eating of the Tree ofLife. For it is probable, that upon the Sabbath he fhould have enjoyed all the Ordinances of God ; and confequently that the Sacrament of that Eftate should have been the concluding Ordinance ; as under the New Testament they were wont to break Bread every Lord's Day. And in the primitive Times the Sacrament was the concluding Ordinance. But Man did: not eat of the Tree of Life for then he had been confirmed and lived for ever, Gen. 3. 22. therefore it is not likely that he flood in his lu. tegrity to the end of the Sabbath. And as to the Time of the Day wherein he finned, it feems to have been about eating Time, at Dinner, about Noon ; eating what they Mould not, being theThing wherein they finned. And after his Fall it is Paid, That God came and fpake to them in the cool of the Day, Gen, . 3. Verf. 8. This feems to have been about that time of the Day which the Scripture calls the ninth Hour, which is after our reckoning about three a Clock in the Afternoon. So long they were in Darkness, and under Guilt of their Sin, before the Promulgation of the Gofpel to them. Wherein force have obferved a Congruity, in that Jefus Chriff was under thofe his infinite Sufferings upon the Crofs the fame fpace. of Time, from the fixth Hour to the ninth, Matth. 27. 45, .6. And it being thus, Man in his firfi Sin and Fall did break all the Com- mandments at once As he brake all the reft, fo he finned upon the Sabbath -day. This feems by all the Circumstances of the Story to have been the Time of his Fall. But to think that he fell on Toefday, the tenth Day from the Creation, there is nothing in the Hillary to evince it. Others think, this Fall on the tenth Day of the feventh Month -was appointed in Remembrance of that great Sin, the Idolatry of the Golden Calf, Exod. 32. But wemay reft in that the Text mentioneth as the occafion of this Ordinance, vit. theSin and Death of Nadab and Abihu. And there are a three-fold Inftruaion weare here to learn Obf. z. Here we are taught first, That there muff be holy Fear and Reverence in approaching to God in his Ordinances, an holy Fear and Dread of finning in the manner of his Worship ; and that it is a dan- gerous thing to Worship God otherwife then he hath appointed. Mea should take heed of it, that they die not as Nadab and Abihrs did for this Sin : They incur thedanger of Death, both Death temporal and eternal. Tho' God doth not usually finite Men with vifible Judgments, but when they are firlt in any Tran%grefon ; yet there is a Spiritual M m m 2 Fire
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