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GOD drives Adam and Eve (after their Fall) out of Paradise, and places the Cherubims to keep them out.
THE first Effect which Adam and Eve did feel, as a Consequence of their un∣happy Fall, was to see that they were Naked; they were not sen∣sible, or at least not ashamed of their Na∣kedness, as long as they continued in the State of Innocency, because they were then pure like Angels, and their Body was perfectly subject to the Soul. It was then, immediately after their Fall, that they begun to be asha∣med, and to take Fig-Leaves to cover their Nakedness.
As soon as they heard afterwards the Voice of God walking in the Garden, instead of rejoycing at it, as they had always done before, they fled from his Presence, and hid themselves amongst the Trees. And GOD calling Adam, saying, Adam, Where art thou? He answered and said, Hearing thy Voice in the Garden, I was afraid to appear before thee, because I was Naked, and I hid my self. And the LORD said, Who told thee, that thou wast Naked? Hast thou eaten of the Tree, which I commanded thee not to eat of?
GOD having upbraided him with his Diso∣bedience, which alone had discovered his Nakedness to him, he excused himself, and accused his Wife; The Woman (saith he) whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the Tree, and I did eat. The Woman being ask'd, why she had done so? excused her self in the like manner, and cast the blame of her Sin upon the Serpent; saying, The Ser∣pent beguiled me, and I did eat. But GOD admitting of no such Excuses, for their Vin∣dication in violating his Law, did presently curse the Serpent, the first Author of it; saying, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all Cattel, and above every Beast of the Field; upon thy Belly shalt thou go, and Dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy Life. And I will put Enmity between thee and the Woman, and between thy Seed and her Seed; it shall bruise thy Head, and thou shalt bruise his Heel.
He pronounced afterwards his Sentence against both Adam and Eve: In Sorrow (saith he to the Woman) thou shalt bring forth Children, and thy desire shall be to thy Hus∣band, and he shall Rule over thee. And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkned unto the Voice of thy Wife, and hast eaten of the Tree, &c. cursed is the Ground for thy sake, Thorns and Thistles shall it bring forth to thee; in the Sweat of thy Face shalt thou eat Bread, till thou return unto the Ground, for out of it wast thou taken; for Dust thou art, and unto Dust shalt thou return.
He made them also Coats of Skins; and then he said, Behold the Man is become as one of us, to know Good and Evil; Let us therefore prevent his eating of the Tree of Life, lest he live for ever. So the LORD drove the Man out of the Garden of Eden, and placed at the East of it Cherubims, and a Flaming-Sword, which turned every way, to to keep the Way of the Tree of Life.
Thus they were expelled out of that De∣licious place, to lament their Sin and Misery in the other parts of the Earth: In which they saw every where the sad effects of their Rebellion; they remembred the Happiness they were formerly possest off; and being sensible of the Misery they had brought upon themselves, this Melancholy Comparison of their former and present Condition, (which they could make then by their own woful Experience, much better than we can now) cast them into a deep Sorrow.
The Consideration of so many Children, of whom they were the Murtherers, before they were Parents, pierced them to the Heart; so that if they were the first Authors of Sin, they were also the first Patterns of Penitence.
All Men are infinitely beholding to that Saviour, who hath repaired the Loss and Prejudice they all suffered by Adam's Fall, in such advantagious a manner, that the Church may now call his Sin an Happy and an Useful Sin. The Consideration of this Future, but certain Reparation, was the only comfort Adam and Eve had, to mitigate their Sorrow and Grief.
Before Christ 4002 Years.