Page:The Works of the Reverend George Whitefield, M.A. (1771 Vol 1).djvu/184

 eat of every tree of that garden, except one; but if they ate the fruit of that particular tree, they should die; they should return to the dust from whence they were taken, lose the comforts they enjoyed in their souls, and be unhappy for ever in another world. But if they did not eat this fruit, none of these things should come upon them. A being, which we call the devil, (and who for his pride had been cast out of heaven) envying their happiness, tempted them to eat the forbidden fruit. They consented, they ate, they died. Their bodies became mortal, their souls were deprived of the presence and love of ; and unless a way was found out to make satisfaction for what they had done, they must have been lost for ever. These were our parents, and made this agreement with us their children, as well as with them. For they acted in our name, as a king acts in the name of his people, or a father in the name of a child—What therefore befel them, befel us. We died in them; and come into this world poor and miserable, blind and naked, as they were, when they had eaten of the forbidden tree. Hence it is, that we are given to lust, anger, envy, hatred, pride, and malice, and all those troublesome passions which you all must feel in your own hearts, and cannot but see even in the hearts of your children. If then, you only look into yourselves, you must confess these things are so. But hath given us a book, wherein he assures us of the truth of all this:—And we know that book came from, because none but could tell us the things therein contained. And I speak first of this, because 'till you feel and believe this, you cannot come to the knowledge of ; and without the knowledge of you cannot be saved. For after our first parents, Adam and Eve, had taken the forbidden fruit, and with all their children, thereafter to be born, became guilty before, out of his own free love sent his only begotten Son into the world, to die, and so to make an atonement for the sin of fallen man, and also to obey the law, which man had broken; so that though fallen man had no righteousness of his own, yet upon believing in 's Son, he should find a perfect righteousness in him. This Son is called, "A Saviour," because he was to save us from