In his Plot against _Adam_, the Deceiver was deceived; for he made no doubt but the Sentence of Death would be immediately executed upon _Adam_ and _Eve_, and upon the Extinction of the human Species, God would lose all his Honour upon Earth. Why did not he appear to our first Parents in a human Form? probably because he might apprehend, that there was no other Man or Woman, but themselves. Having considered _Adam_ in his probationary Capacity, I shall in the next place observe these three Things, by way of Illustration. I. _It was most congruous that Man’s first State should be a State of Trial._ II. _That his Trial should be by the Laws of his Creator._ III. _That those Laws should be inforced by a proper Sanction._ I. _IT was congruous and fit, our first Parents should begin their Life in a way of Trial, as they were moral Agents_: In which Situation I apprehend all the Angels to be at first, to see how they would behave towards the Great Author of their Being and Blessedness, before they were establish’d. No Creature, as such, is capable of Immutability, any more than of Omnipotence. To be naturally, and necessarily immutable, is the sole Prerogative of the Almighty: The perpetual Duration of created Beings, is not from their Nature, but from the Divine Will. Our first Parents were under a strong Guard, and not to be disarm’d without their own Consent; tho’ the Devil, as he was a Spirit, excelled in Power, yet he could not by Force subdue the weaker Vessel, therefore conducted the bloody Design by Stratagems. When the Woman was sollicited by the Tempter, one strong _Negative_ would have put him to _flight_. A resolute Denial, without any other Means, would have made her victorious, tho’ assaulted by all the Legions of Hell; therefore, no room to complain of Deficiency in Divine Goodness. ’Tis beyond all doubt, that the Revelation given to _Adam_ (as that to Christian Churches in After-ages) made it a fundamental part of his Duty, not to attend to any Insinuations contrary to those delivered to him by his Creator, tho’ recommended even by an Angel from Heaven: Temptations to forbidden Fruit, however pleasant, should not be parley’d with, but peremptorily rejected. II. _IT was equally proper, that a Creature should be govern’d by the Laws of his Creator_; as it implies a Contradiction for a Creature to be independent, which it must suppose itself to be, when govern’d by its own Laws. The Will of the Creator was surely the fittest, for the Obedience of Creatures; one part of which was, that they must not have an Indulgence of all the Trees in _Eden_.