Here therefore you have another sight of the magnitude of that original sin which is born in us at our birth, and implanted in us by the sin of our first parents. And this sight, as I have said, enables us to understand negatively or by a comparison of contraries, what original righteousness was. It contained in it such a beautiful confidence in man toward his God, that he could not have feared even though he had seen the heavens falling in ruins upon his head! With what complete confidence did Eve listen to the serpent? We do not talk to a little house-dog brought up in our family circle and to whom we have been accustomed for years, nor with a favorite chicken, more familiarly than Eve did with that then beautiful creature. Before their sin therefore Adam and Eve sought no hiding-places; but stood upright in all their created wisdom and righteousness, praising God with uplifted eyes. But now they are terrified at the sound of a shaking leaf. O! how awful a fall! To fall from the safest security and delight in God into fear and dread so horrible, that man can no longer endure the sight of his God, but flees from his presence as from the presence of the devil! For it is not the devil from whom Adam and Eve are now fleeing. They are rushing from the sight of God their Creator, whose presence is now more dreadful and intolerable to them than that of Satan; Satan is now more congenial to their feelings than the adorable God; for from Satan they flee not, nor are filled with his dread. This dread therefore, is actually a flight from and a hatred of God himself. It is instructive here to mark the gradual increase and progressive steps of sin, which goes on until it becomes, as Paul is wont to express it, "exceeding sinful," Rom. 7:13. For man first falls from his faith into unbelief and disobedience. Upon unbelief follow the dread and hatred of God and fleeing from him; and these are soon succeeded by despair and impenitence. For whither shall the heart flee when thus dreading the presence of God? Shall it flee unto the devil? That of course is vain, and is never expected to be the case; and yet to this it all comes. For this history shows that God created man and made him lord over all created things. And yet that same man now flees from him and considers nothing more hateful or intolerable than the presence of this same Creator. Were it not so he would not now thus turn away from his God nor flee from him in instant dread of the voice of his approach. For all this is not during the night, not under thunderings and lightnings as at the mount of Sinai, but in the bright light of "day" while a gentle breeze is breathing and the leaves of the trees softly rustling by its touch! There is nothing therefore more intolerable to endure, nothing filled with greater misery than a conscience alarmed by the law of God and by the sight of sins committed.