of man, placed, as God was pleased to place Adam, in a ftate of trial? It was a ftate of trial, no doubt: but very different from ours. All that mode of trial, which arifes from an intercourfe with fociety, was excluded.-But we are apt to judge of things by our own times. If we could enter fully into the idea of Adam's state, we might perhaps fee, that no kind of trial could have been fo proper. Be the prohibition however what it would; by his difobedience, he loft his own happy ftate, and entailed the mischief on his pofterity, though it does not appear that he had any at that time; as parents, we fee, now by their wickedness often entail diseases, infamy, and beggary on their children. It is a course of nature, which God hath appointed as a check to wickedness.

It

By this fad event death entered into the world: in Adam all die, and the world itself became a fcene for fuch an inhabitant as man. proper was made neceffary for him to procure his daily bread by labour, and at an allotted period to mingle again with the duft.-But this was not all; had mere temporal death been the worst he could fuffer, the confequence had been lefs deplorable. But he had an immortal foul within

him,

him, which could not lie down, like his body, in the grave; and how immortality was to be re gained was the great point *.

Now this is just the Bible-history of the entrance of fin and death into the world. It is a plain account, evidenced by the present state of things; and shews at once, what none of the philofophers, with all their wifdom, could find out that evil was not of God's fending, but of man's own bringing in: it shews us how man became a finful creature, and threw himfelf, by his own fault, out of God's favour.

And indeed this is the only history of our wicked world that is at all confiftent. We fee it in a depraved ftate. We afk how it came to be fo? Nobody can give us an account in any degree fatisfactory, till we open the word of God. There the fatal story is recorded. There we learn, in few words, that in Adam all die.

* I think it appears from various parts of Scripture, that the death threatened to Adam was fpiritual, not temporal. As in Adam, fays the text, all die; fo in Chrift shall all be made alive. But how? Not in this world, for we fee men are here ftill fubject to death. It must therefore mean a fpiritual death; and on this fenfe the grand fcheme of redemption is a comment. We lay hold of eternal life as the gift of God through Jefus Chrift.

VOL. III.

L

The

The next great question is, in this diftreffed fituation of things, What was to be done? Man. could not help himfelf.-One fhould think then, it was agreeable to the infinite goodness of God to afford him fome affiftance. A reftoring power, in many inftances, pervades all nature; and one should suppose, that in a peculiar manner it would be reached out to man. Without fome affiftance he was loft for ever.

That affiftance God graciously afforded through Jefus Chrift. As in Adam all die, even fo in Chrift Shall all be made alive. The Gospel was intended as the grand restoration of man. It was intended to reftore him, as far as fuch a creature as man could be restored, to that purity which he had loft. It firft makes himacquainted with the nature of God. Instead of that variety of gods, which were before worshipped, the majefty of one divine almighty Creator is now displayed, clothed with justice and mercy, tempering each other-a God, not like what the heathen conceived, unconcerned at human events, but present to all our actions, intimate with all our thoughts, about our bed, about our path, and fpying out all our ways.

With juft conceptions of God, the Chriftian religion introduces alfo a rational worship of him.

ΙΣ

Instead

Inftead of lifelefs forms and ceremonies, it enjoins its difciples to worship the God of heaven in fpirit and in truth. Man is permitted to open his wants to his heavenly Father. Prayer is confidered as one of the gracious means of intercourse between God and man. It is the means of inftruction alfo. It fills the mind with pious fentiments; and, while we fupplicate God's bleffing, contributes to render us more worthy of it.

In the government of our lives, the Gospel is as kind a director. Man is no longer left to wander in error, or to walk by the doubtful light of his own reafon. His way is plainly marked out, and every kind affiftance to lead him on his road is afforded. The aim of his life has a higher direction. A future ftate is opened to his view; and the great neceffity of him for that ftate, is fet

ftrongeft light.

a

holy life to qualify

before him in the

To ftrengthen his endeavours, he is farther affured, that if those endeavours are fincere, he fhall be affifted by the holy Spirit of God.

With these aids, he is taught to look on this world only as a state of preparation. Heaven is his great home, and this world only the road which leads to it. As he is fhewn the unworthiness of his nature, he is fhewn alfo the dignity of

it. Though born in fin, and the child of wrath, by his new birth in Chrift, he becomes allied to angels and archangels, the heir of God, and joint heir with Chrift.

But unless one step farther had been taken in his favour, all would have been ineffectual. He had his duty indeed plainly pointed out, but he could not live up to it, and yet had no ground to expect pardon for his tranfgreffions. The principal end therefore of Chrift's coming, was to obtain pardon for him by laying down his life; and to restore him by that great atonement, if he should not be wanting to himself, to thofe heavenly hopes, which by the tranfgreffion of Adam he had loft.

These are the great events which peculiarly dif tinguish the Gospel. Of these things the heathen had no idea. They offered indeed in facrifice the lives of animals, and hoped to appease the anger of their gods, by fhedding the innocent blood of beafts; which fhewed at leaft, they had ideas of atonement for fin: but their best hopes were mixed with all the fears and doubts of fuperftition. The blood of bulls and of goats, as the apoftle

argues, could never take away fin.

They were yet unacquainted with that great facrifice, which made an all-fufficient atonement for the fins of mankind.

This