Had man then been destroyed, the race would have been extinct. But he
was spared; suffered long to continue and rear a family, from which
the myriads of human kind have descended. Though exiled Eden, and
doomed to labor and sorrow, he was still at the head of this lower
creation, and creatures below him generally subservient to his
comfortable subsistence. The ground was indeed cursed for his sake and
fatiguing cultivation rendered necessary; but still it yielded the
necessaries, and many of the comforts of life; though not the sweets
of its primitive state.

These effusions of divine goodness were probably the wonder of angels,
though so little noticed by men, the ungrateful objects of them.

But these were inconsiderable, compared with the strange provision
made for their eternal salvation.

That God bears good will to mankind, not--withstanding their apostasy,
and is desirous of their salvation, is from many considerations
apparent. It is the spirit of the text, and the general language of
the scriptures, as will be shewn in the sequel.

That God is willing that all should be saved, appears from the
sufficiency of the provision which is made for the salvation of
sinners; the frequent declarations that it is designed for all; the
offers which are made indiscriminately to all; and the suitableness of
the provision to the circumstances of all.

1. From the sufficiency of the provision which is made for the
salvation of sinners, This is adequate to the salvation of the whole