QUESTION VIII. 305 from sinning. But if we collect together all that is revealed concerning this subject, we shall find thatthe word of God leads us into many of the same solutions of these difficulties which our reasoningpowers have proposed. Scripture gives us much the same representation of the entrance of sin and misery into the' world, as we have already heard, if we will attend with dill- gence to the revelation which God has made, and this appears in the followingparticulars : Proposition I. It is plainly taughtus in scripture, that God introduced mankind into the world by the formation of one single pair, "one man and woman, whom he called Adam and Eve." Gen. ii. 7. " The Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a livingsoul." Verse 18. " And the Lord God said, it is not good that man should be alone : I will makehim a.help meet for him." Verse 22. " The Lord made a woman out of the rib which he had taken from the man, and brought her unto the man." Gen. i. 27, 28. " So God created man, male and femalecreated lie them ; and God blessed them, and said to them, be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth." Gen. iii. 20. iÓ And Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living." Acts xvü: 26. " He hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth." II. God created man at first in a holy and happy state, in his own likeness and in' his own favour ; Gen, i. 20. " And God said; let us make man in our image; after our likeness ;" and that none of the brute creatures might molest or injure hint, but all of them might be for his service, he said, " Let them have dominion over the fish and the fowls, and cattle, &c. so God created man in his own image ;" verse 27. And what this image consisted in, besides in his spiritual nature, and his immortal state, and his dominion over other creatures, we are told by St. Paul, Eph. iv. 24. where the apostle speaks of the newmalt, or the restoration of fallen man to his primitive temper, "which," says he, " after God, that is, after the likeness of God, is created in righteousness and true holiness." Eccles. vii. 29. Solomon .assures us, God hath made man upright. And Moses says, when God had finished all his creation, he surveyed it, and found it all agreeable to his mind ; Gen. i. 31. " God saw every thing that he had made, and behold it was very good ;" It was all according to his idea and his will, and well -pleasing in his sight: Man the last of his creatures, as well as all the rest, was very good, was holy and happy. III. God originally appointed, that Adamwhen innocent should produce an offspring in his own holy image, or in the same circumstances of holiness and happiness in which he himself was created And appointed also orr the other hand, that if he sinned VOL. 1V. U
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