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such important sanctions and consequences about such a trifling subject ? I answer : Doth not common sense dictate to us all , when we undertake a course of trials and exercises with a view to improvement and gradual advancement towards perfection , to begin with little things , and to increase in proportion as the state of improvements from time to time will allow ? Is it not in a similar manner that we think it prudent to treat our young children in order to fix in them a habit of obedience to us , which , when attained , we account of real
and great importance , although the means employed may appear trifling ? Adam and Eve were the young children , I had almost said the infants , of the human species . Had they approved their obedience on this first trial , probably the Divine Wisdom would have appointed them others of a higher and more perfect nature in proportion as their knowledge and experience had enlarged , and their good dispositions gathered strength . The abstaining from or eating an apple was intrinsically oflittle moment , but their performing one act of obedience or disobedience to a law of God in relation to it was of great importance .
But if the state of the knowledge and affections of the first pair was , in any measure , such as I have supposed it to be at the time when they received this law , I think it will appear , that the prohibition contained in it was a very considerable , I had almost said a hard , trial for them . The name given to the prohibited tree was , the tree of knowledge of good and evil . Ever since they came into being , they had experienced inexpressible delights from growing accessions to their knowledge . We feel by experience how delightful knowledge is to the soul : but to us the first dawnings of knowledge are on the
feeble capacities of infancy and childhood ; we acquire it slowly and with difficulty , and our relish for it is considerably palled by time , by the fatigues and sufferings we endure . How then can we conceive of the extasy of delight they must have enjoyed who came into life with mature capacities , exempt from wants and pains , into whose minds knowledge was hourly poured in copious streams and without fatigue ! How ardent must be their aspirations after it ! It was the knowledge too of good which was suggested , and this alone they had hitherto experienced and enjoyed . As to the knowledge of evil , they had no experience , and could form no conception of it , and
therefore could be little alarmed with the apprehension . So that the very name of the tree carried in it a strong temptation to spirits influenced by such affections and directed by so little experience : a temptation which they could overcome only b y recollecting their dependence on God , their obligations to him , their hopes in him , the authority of his commandment , and the admonition he had given them , that the fear of the Lord , that is wisdom ; and to depart from evil is understanding . Now , we find , that the subsequent temptation turned upon these two
capital hinges ; first , it addressed their warm desire after increase of knowledge , and secondly , flattered them with the hope of becoming independent on God , and self-sufficient—like Gods themselves . For God doth know , that in the day ye eat thereof , then your eyes shall be opened , and ye shall be as Gods , knowing good and evil . Their crime , therefore , consisted partly in an irregular pursuit of knowledge b y prohibited means , and partly in violating their dependence upon , and withdrawing their subjection to , the government of God , not in this one transgression only , but in aiming to do it wholly and for ever . That in this last consisted the chief malignity of their sin , I think the Apostle means to intimate in that much controverted text , Philipp . ii . 6 ,
where , I apprehend , he alludes to the story of the fall . In recommending it to us to imitate the example of Christ ' s humility , he says of him , Who being in the form of God , ( in a much superior degree to our first parents , who are said to have been made after the image and likeness of God , ) thought it not robbery to be equal with God , Ov % dynaypov ^ yrj < raro to nvoct tcra < $£$ > , He led not a seizure to be like God , i . e . did not , like Adam , set an example of an arrogant attempt to be like unto God , or as gods . N . B . If you think there is any justness in this criticism , I don't pretend it is my own , but send you here-
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92 Correspondence between T . Amory , Esq ., and Rev . fV . Turner .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1827, page 92, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1793/page/12/
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