gospel! So, again, both in the one and the other, proposing the reward of eternal life on obedience, though every creature, without any such reward, is bound to obedience to his Creator.

4. How wise is the "Great King!" How suitable and comprehensive are his laws! And he has summed them up in one word-LOVE. Their promulgation, also, was, in a manner, eminently calculated to engage attention and respect. With what means and motives too has he enforced them. As to means, the "work of the law he has written on the heart;" he has also "written to us the great things of his law" by prophets and apostles; he has enjoined it on parents and teachers to make them known, and has raised up orders of men to urge them upon our attention. To these means of instruction he has added all sorts of motives. Are similitudes and signs calculated to move us? He has given them in abundance. Are invitations, exhortations, commands, expostulations, promises, and threatenings incitements to duty? All these are every where in Scripture presented to us. Nay, even lamentations—which, if all things else fail, may be expected to succeed-are, in not a few instances, made over us. And how suitable are all these things to our rational nature, to our physical faculties, and to our self-love! What king has ever adopted methods so wise, or has taken such pains to teach and enforce his laws?

5. How futile are the pleas and pretexts of sinners! "Sin is inherent in our constitution, for we were born in sin;" "we can do nothing;" "God must give us grace, and he will do so some time or other." And thus

they speak peace to themselves, and like the sluggard fold their arms to sleep! But you were not born to “walk” in sin, and in spite of all inducement and helps to the contrary; if sin has abounded in our ruin, grace has much more abounded in our recovery; you can as "natural" do something, if you cannot as "spiritual"-you can read and set your mind to the thing read-you can hear and hearken-you can pray from natural self-love, though not from filial love to God; as children of the common parent of mankind, though not as "children of God by faith in Christ Jesus;" unconverted as you are, you are exhorted to "labour for the meat that endureth to everlasting life;" and to strive to enter in at the "strait gate" of faith into the way of life; and you can do so by the use of your physical faculties. In fact, nothing prevents your salvation but your STUBBORNNESS, and that stubbornness is your own, engendered by the practice of evil deeds. We speak not this upbraidingly, but in the spirit of affectionate warning; "labour," therefore, and "strive"-not to "establish your own righteousness," for that would be wresting our scriptural exhortation to your own destruction-but to acquire that faith by which man is regenerated, and by which you may be justified and saved, and possess eternal life.

6. How mistaken are the hyper-Calvinists of our day! They have some knowledge of the great worker and his work, but they appear to overlook the wonderful machinery by which he does his work. But, as in the world of nature, he does his work by machinery, so it appears from Scripture and experience he does in the world of grace. And as for addresses to

human will and human agency, while they are altogether in accordance with God's plan, they are useful to the sinner, inasmuch as they serve to assert God's claims and man's duty-tend to detect man's weakness and perverseness-and so, causing him to feel the necessity of the Divine grace, induce him to seek for that grace so as to find it.

A VIEW OF THE

CHAPTER III.

PROBATIONARY GOVERNMENT, AS DESIGNED FOR A

TESTIMONY UNDER ITS SUCCESSIVE ADMINISTRATIONS.

SECTION I.

Its Administration to Adam, as the common Father and federal Head of Mankind, under a Covenant of Life upon condition of Obedience.

HERE it may be proper to notice separately, man's condition in Adam originally-his condition as wisely comprehended in Adam as a covenant head-his probation as thus in him, and the testimony for God herein.

1. Man's condition in Adam originally.

With the volume of inspiration in his hand, who can doubt that the condition of our first parents, both physically and morally considered, was, as the Creator himself pronounced it, "very good." In the physical view of it, we see that they had bodies "curiously wrought" by the immediate hand of their Creator; that each of them possessed a soul capable of the most delightful sensations; that each was endowed with a

spirit, the "understanding," which, unobscured as it then was, would be a "well-spring of life;" and that this happy state of things was heightened by mutual intercourse. They were brought into a world prepared for their accommodation; and not only so, but they were introduced into a garden planted for them, and ready furnished with every thing "pleasant to the eyes and good for food." Moreover, the creatures around them were placed under their dominion, and administered to their supply: and, above all, they enjoyed the privilege of intercourse with their Maker. Thus circumstanced, how could they fail of being happy?

As to their condition, morally considered; while the Creator bore witness to himself by his works, he endued them with a capacity of knowing and seeing his glory therein; for this glory is said to be "manifest in them," God having "shewed it unto them." Nor could his peculiar goodness to them as creatures rational and immortal, placed too at the head of creation around, be unobserved by minds so constituted. And all would proclaim distinctly to them his "eternal power and godhead." They also knew their Creator's will-they had a power of consideration respecting it, and also freedom of will to choose the good and refuse the evil, with access to their God for direction in any emergency that might occur. Such was our first parents' condition, morally considered; and thus, both in a physical and moral sense, “all was very good," in reference to them as individuals, or as a social couple.

But we propose to consider another important topic, connected with our subject.

2. Man, as comprehended in Adam, as a covenant head, and that wisely and benevolently.

An important circumstance in the administration of the Divine government in regard to Adam, was, that he should be not only the father of the human race, but their head and representative. Adam and all his posterity were reckoned as though one man, the whole common nature being in him. That such was the constitution of things we learn from Scripture. Why else should Adam and Christ be contrasted as the first and last Adam, if they were not both public persons, or representatives of their respective seeds? More. over, in what other possible sense could Christ be called "the second Man?" Adam and all his posterity are of one dust and one blood, that is, of one nature; and no wonder then that they should be considered as one in law or covenant. Moreover, on the same ground, we find that the Scriptures denominate the whole genus or race collectively "Adam," and every one of the species, or every particular man, "Adam;" which on no other ground than this can be accounted for. The Hebrew word is used for the race, as well as for Adam the person; and also for Adam and Eve, as one by marriage, though distinct persons of the race. The Hebrew word too has no plural. Hence in Prov. viii. 4, it is sons of man, w, not sons of men,"

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That the fate of Adam's posterity was involved in his, is another argument in favour of the proposition insisted on. Of this no one can reasonably doubt, who attentively reads what the apostle Paul says about it in his epistles to the Romans, and to the Corin