transgression: the disciple of Christ, overcoming the inveterate habits of evil, shall yet rise to a purity and goodness short only of infinite perfection. The first man possessed an earthly and natural body capable of immortality: the disciple of Christ is yet to possess a glorious body, spiritual, heavenly, and indissoluble by death. The first man had dominion over the animals of God's creation; the disciple of Christ is to "judge the world," to "judge angels,” and to "reign with the Son of God, for ever and ever1." "To him that overcometh," saith our blessed Redeemer, "to him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne "." 2 The first man was created in the image and similitude of Him that made him the disciple of Christ is yet to be exalted to a communion, an in-dwelling, a

1

1 Cor. vi. 2, 3. Rev. xxii. 5. comp. Rom. v. 17. 2 Tim. ii. 12. Rev. v. 10. xx. 4, 6. See also, Eruvin, or a volume of Miscellaneous Essays, &c. Essays iii. and v. Lond. 1831.

2 Rev. iii. 21.

unity with God, so transcendent, and so mysterious, that I dare not presume to describe it in words of mine. Let any man weigh the utmost which holy Scripture has revealed touching the position of our first parents: and then set its sum beside the words of our blessed Saviour, in His last solemn prayer for His disciples, and see, if any language, by which finite greatness and perfectibility can be expressed, can be too strong, to describe the distance, between the glory we have lost, through the transgression of the first Adam, and the glory purchased for us, by the obedience of the second. "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the

out of evil to effectuate a greater good than that which had been lost. His hand is put forth, not merely to restore the shattered ruin, but to raise a fabric more glorious than its original.

On such But, from

What might have been the ultimate destiny of mankind, had our first parents never deviated from their original rectitude, we have no means of knowing. a subject invention is profane. any thing we can collect out of the sacred writings, there seems no reason whatever for supposing, that the human race would ever have attained that elevation of moral and spiritual happiness and greatness, to which the children of God are now rendered capable of being advanced, by the incarnation of His eternal Son. Nothing short of this, I apprehend, can be collected from the language of St. Paul. In answering the question, which had been asked by those who doubted the resurrection of the body," how are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come 1?"—the Apostle contrasts our future glory, not

1 1 Cor. xv. 35.

merely with the degradation of our present condition, but with the capabilities of our original nature. "It is sown," he says, "in corruption; it is raised in incorruption : it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power: it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, the first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening Spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly 1."

It is impossible to give these words their due weight without perceiving, that the future destiny of the saints is something

and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me1."

If such then be the destiny of the sons of God, can we be surprised that, in the formation of our eternal and incorruptible character, we are called to suffer that course of trial and temptation, by which alone, (for anything we can see to the contrary,) such a character can be indelibly fixed, in beings capable of choice and reason? Can we be surprised, that, if it were only as a penance for his transgression, man should be called to endure and to resist temptation, by yielding to which he fell? Can we be surprised, that he should suffer something in retrac ing his steps, and that he should feel some difficulty in an uphill return, after a descent so fearful? Can we be surprised, that he should be required to fight his way to a crown and a glory, greater, inconceivably greater, than that which he lost by his imprudence? Can we be surprised, that he should be required to purchase back his inheritance, not indeed by an equivalent, (for

1 John xvii. 20-23.