t a jar in the whole frame; but man in paradise, the beasts in the
field, the fowl in the air, the fish in the sea, the lights in the
heavens, the fruits of the earth; yea, the air, the earth, the water, and
fire, worshipped, praised, and exalted his power, wisdom, and goodness.
O holy sabbath! O holy day to the Lord!

But this happy state lasted not long; for man, the crown and glory of the
whole, being tempted to aspire above his place, unhappily yielded,
against command and duty, as well as interest and felicity, and so fell
below it; lost the divine image, the wisdom, power, and purity he was
made in; by which, being no longer fit for paradise, he was expelled that
garden of God, his proper dwelling and residence, and was driven out, as
a poor vagabond, from the presence of the Lord, to wander in the earth,
the habitation of beasts.

Yet God that made him had pity on him; for he, seeing man was deceived,
and that it was not of malice, or an original presumption in him, but
through the subtilty of the serpent, who had first fallen from his own
state, and by the mediation of the woman, man's own nature and companion,
whom the serpent had first deluded, in his infinite goodness and wisdom
provided a way to repair the breach, recover the loss, and restore fallen
man again by a nobler and more excellent Adam, promised to be born of a
woman; that as by means of a woman the evil one had prevailed upon man,
by a woman also he should come into the world, who would prevail against
him, and bruise his head, and deliver man from his power: and which, in a
signal manner, by the dispensation of the Son of God in the flesh, in the
fulness of time was personally and fully accomplished by him, and in him,
as man's Saviour and Redeemer.

But his power was not limited, in the manifestation of it to that time;
for both before and since his blessed manifestation in the flesh, he has
been the light and life, the rock and strength of all that ever feared
God; was present with them in their temptations, followed them in their
travels and afflictions, and supported and carried them through and over
the difficulties that have attended them in their earthly pilgrimage. By
this, Abel's heart excelled Cain's, and Seth obtained the pre-eminence,
and Enoch walked with God. It was this that strove with the old world,
and which they rebelled against, and which sanctified and instructed Noah
to salvation.

But the outward dispensation that fol