nitely more desirable, and more truly honourable, than a triumph gained amidst the confused noise of ten thousand warriors, and as many garments rolled in blood; for "he that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city."* Remember, my friends, that to be a child of God is far more honourable than to be descended from kings; and that a christian is a much higher character than a hero. And let this consideration influence all that you undertake, all that you do. Act as if the eyes of Cato were always upon you, was the precept given, and the motive urged, to the Roman youth, in order to excel in virtue. The eyes of God are in truth continually upon you. Live then as in his sight; and knowing that every action as it is performed, every word as it is spoken, and every thought as it arises, is recorded in the book of God's remembrance, and must come into judgment, "keep thy heart with all diligence," set a watch on the door of thy lips, "and whether you eat or Prov. xvi. 32. drink, or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God." 7 We are about to review ages past, aud to converse with men long since dead. And the period is fast approaching, when time itself shall be swallowed up; when Adam and his youngest son shall be contemporaries, when the mystery of providence shall be cleared up, the mystery of grace finished, and the ways of God fully viudicated to men. In the humble and solemn expectation of that great event, knowing and be lieving the scriptures, and the power of God, let us study to live a life of faith and holiness upon the Son of God; "redeeming the time, because the days are evil," and working out our own salvation with fear and trembling." And may the God of our fathers be our God and the God of our offspring, and conduct, us through the dangerous and difficult paths of human life, and through the valley of the shadow of death, to his own "presence, where there is fulness of joy, and to his right hand, where there are pleasures for evermore." Amen. HISTORY OF ADA M. LECTURE IL plunge into the dark regions of the remotest antiquity, lighted by that gracious SPIRIT, to whom all nature stands confessed, and with whom the whole extent of time is a single point, an unchanging NOW. And all the days that Adam lived, were nine hundred and thirty years, and he died.-GENESIS v. 5 Ir to trace the origin of particular nations; quences of whose actions we are all to this if to mark, and to account for, the rise and day involved? progress of empire, the revolutions of states, In pursuing this important inquiry, we the discovery of new worlds, be an interest-have GOD himself for our guide, and we ing, pleasant, and useful exercise of the human mind; how amusing, interesting, and instructive must it be, to trace HUMAN NATURE itself up to its source! Placed beneath the throne of God, it is pleasing to observe how the heavens and the earth took their beginning; and by what means this globe was at first peopled, and continues to be filled with mer. If there be a natural, and not illaudable propensity, in individuals, to dive into the pedigree of their families; and in nations, to fix that of their princes, heroes and legislators; is it possible to want curiosity, or to miss entertainment, when the history of the venerable Father of all Men is presented to our attention--that of Adam, to whom we feel ourselves closely ullied by condition and by blood, however unconnected we may seem to be with most of the collateral branches of the family: of whose nature we all partake; by whose conduct we are all affected, and in the conse God having framed and fitted up this vast fabric, this magnificent palace, the earth, worthy of the inhabitant whom he designed to occupy it, and worthy of himself; having formed, arranged, and fructified the various and innumerable vegetable and animal tribes; having created, suspended, and balanced the greater and the lesser lights, and settled the economy of the whole host of heaven; at length, with all the solemnity and majesty of Deity, as with the maturity of deliberation, as with a peculiar effort of divine power and skill, he designs and produces ADAM, the first of men. When the earth is to be fashioned, and the ocean to be poured into its appointed bed; when the firmament is to be expanded, and suns to be tighted up, God says, Let them be, and they | mission and gratitude; entering on his emare created. But when MAN is to be made, ployment with alacrity and joy; surveying the creating Power seems to make a so- his ample portion with complacency and delemn pause, retires within himself, looks for light. The prosecution of his pleasant task a model by which to frame this exquisite unfolds to him still new wonders of divine piece of workmanship, and finds it in him- power and skill. The flower, and the shrub, self. "And God said, let us make man in and the tree, disclose their virtues, uses, and our image, after our likeness; and let them ends, to his observing eye. Every beast of have dominion over the fish of the sea, and the field spontaneously ministers to his pleaover the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, sure or his advantage; all the host of heaven and over all the earth, and over every creep- stands revealed to his capacious soul; and ing thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God himself, the great Lord of all, delights God created man in his own image, in the in him, and converses with him as a father image of God created he him, male and fe- and a friend. male created he them."* Thus then was brought into existence, the father and founder of the human race. And O, how fair nust that form have been, which the fingers of God framed, without the intervention of a second cause? How capacious that soul which the breath of God immediately inspired! But glorious and perfect as he is, Adam, upon his very first reflection, feels himself a dependent and a limited being. No sooner has his eye ascended to God who made him, than it returns to the earth from whence he was taken; and the very first excursion of reason informs him that he is at the disposal of another, and restrained by a law. He receives a whole globe, over which he is permitted an unlimited sovereignty: but one tree is reserved, as a token of his subjection. Every plant in paradise offers itself to gratify his sense, every animal does homage at his feet; but the sight of one kind of fruit in the midst of the garden continually reminds him, that he himself is dependent upon, and accountable to God; and while six parts of time are allowed for his own employments and delights, the seventh is set apart, sacred to his Maker. But yet he is alone; and therefore, even in paradise, but half blessed. The exulting heart of man pants for communication of satisfaction, and the rich profusion of Eden is but half relished and enjoyed, because there is no partaker with him. Being corporeal and earthly, he is unfit for the society of pure spirits; being rational and divine, he is above the society of the most sagacious of the subject tribes. "For Adam," in the wide extended creation, "there was not found an help meet for him." But no sooner is the want felt, than it is supplied. God, who does nothing imperfectly, at length makes the happiness of paradise complete, and fills up the measure of Adam's joy. "And the Lord caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the rib which the Lord had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.' What an important era in the life of Adam! What a new display of the Creator's power, and skill, and goodness! How must the spirit of devotion be heightened, now that man could join in social worship! What additional satisfaction in contemplating the frame, order, and course of nature, now that he possessed the most exalted of human joys, that of conveying knowledge to a beloved object! Now that he can instruct Eve in the wonders of creation, and unfold to her their Maker's nature, perfections, and will! What a new flavour have the fruits which grow in the garden of God acquired, now that they are gathered by the hand of conjugal affection, and recommended to the taste by the smile of complacency and love!-Ah! why were not joys like these permanent as they were pure? Was bliss like this bestowed but to be blasted? And must Adam's chief felicity Behold him then taking possession of his fair inheritance, of his vast empire, in all the majesty of unclouded 1eason, all the beauty of perfect innocence; possessed of every bodily, of every mental endowment. His numerous vassals of the brute creation present themselves before hin; at one glance he discovers their nature and qualities, and gives them suitable names. But, while he is invested in the property of a world, he receives it as a charge for which he is to be responsible: "The Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden, to keep it;" and he for whom God and nature had produced all things in a luxuriant abund-issue in his ruin? ance, has nevertheless employment assigned We are reluctantly brought forward to him; he is placed in the garden to dress it. that awful revolution, which at length took And can any of his degenerate sons then place in Adam's condition and character. Of dream of independent property; or reckon the duration of his innocence and happiness want of employment to be an honourable we have no account. His history now bedistinction? comes blended with that of the wicked and Behold him accepting his charge with sub-malignant spirit, who had "left his first es tate" of holiness and felicity: and who, hav- of love, has in a moment learned to reproach And now too a revolution in outward circumstances takes place, corresponding to that which had passed on his internal constitution and character. Adam must no longer possess that paradise of which he had ren The circumstances of the case, according to the scripture account of it, were these. The devil observed the serpent to be an animal of peculiar sagacity and penetration, and fixes on him as a fit instrument of seduction. Fearing a repulse from the superior firmness and discernment of the man, he watches for, and finds the unhappy moment, when the woman, being separated from her husband, opposed to his wiles inferior powers of reason and intelligence, with greater softness and pliancy. He addresses himself to a principle in her nature, the immoderate indulgence of which has proved fatal to so many thousands of her daughters, curiosity; curi-dered himself unworthy. Justice drives out osity, the investigator of truth, the mother of invention; curiosity, the prompter to rashness, the parent of danger, the guide to ruin. Having first gained her attention, he excites her to doubt and to reason in the face of a positive command; rouses in her a spirit of pride and ambition; and at length persuades her to make the fatal experiment. She eats of the prohibited tree, and, by transgression, acquires the knowledge of evil, whereas she had hitherto known only good. By what arguments Adam was prevailed upon to become a partner of her guilt, we are not informed. From the apology he made for his conduct, it is to be inferred that female insinuation and address misled him from the law of his God. And thus were both ruined by the operation of principles in themselves good and useful; but carried to excess, unchecked by reason, unawed by religion. Eve perished by a curious and ambitious desire after a condition for which God and nature had not designed her, a desire to be "as God, to know good and evil;" Adam fell by complaisance to his wife, carried to unmanly weakness and compliance, yielding to his subject, bidding defiance to his sovereign. And what words can express, what heart can conceive the bitter change! All his posterity have experienced the melancholy transition from health to sickness, from ease to pain: very many have passed from affluence to indigence, from glory to shame, and not a few have exchanged empire itself for banishment or a dungeon. But more than the accumulated weight of all these at once, falls on the devoted head of our guilty first father. The eyes, which before met the approach of God with rapture, now are clouded with sorrow, tremble with fear, or strain with remorse and horror, at the voice of the Almighty. That tongue, which was once tuned only to the accent and the language from Eden the man, who had cast himself out But will God contend for ever, will he be the naked soul. And thus early, distinctly and unequivocally was Christianity taught to mankind. designed of God to be, and is in itself, the dearest bond of union among men. An event now took place in Adanı's family In process of time, however, Adam has by which every former grief must have been the felicity of becoming a father; and en- renewed and embittered; and to his inexjoys the satisfaction of seeing the blessing pressible mortification he finds himself a root pronounced upon him in his better state, of bitterness, of which all his branches must notwithstanding his apostacy, taking effect. and do partake. Cain, incensed at the preferEve becomes the joyful mother, perhaps at ence given to his brother's offering, burning one birth, of two sons, and the earth begins with envy and resentment, watches his opporto be replenished. Behold the first parents tunity, and finding himself alone with him in of mankind exulting in affections unknown, the field, puts Abel to death. Thus man unfelt before; exulting in this fresh proof becomes the executioner of the dreadful senthat God had not forgotten to be gracious. tence of the divine law, upon man-brother Behold the nuptial tie strengthened and con- upon brother. What must have been the firmed; the voice of upbraiding and re-emotions of Adam's soul when these sad proach turned to the language of gratulation, complacency, and love. Adam observes, with growing delight, his sons increasing in stature and wisdom. Stung with keen reflection upon the happiness which he had vilely thrown away, and the misery which he had entailed upon his hapless children, how would he exert himself to repair that loss! How forcibly inculcate, by his own fatal example, the obligations of God's holy law! With what gratitude lead them to the promised atonement! With what heartfelt delight infuse knowledge into their opening minds! Man is destined to labour from the beginning; and, for his punishment, guilty man must labour with the sweat of his brow. But all the punishments of Heaven in reality, and in the issue, are blessings. It is the privilege and the happiness of Adam and all his sons to be employed, though to weariness and fatigue. Accordingly the heirs and possessors of the whole globe, as soon as they arrive at man's estate, betake themselves to the humble and necessary occupations of that simple state of human nature. "Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain was a tiller of the ground." news were brought him! To lose a son, a pious, promising son: almost an only one; prematurely, unexpectedly, by the hand of his own brother! The one dead! the other worse than dead; a wretch unworthy to live! How would his own transgression again stare him in the face! How would he again accuse himself as the author of his own wretchedness, and the propagator of wo on wo to his posterity! The empire of Satan over this miserable world would now seem confirmed; and the purpose of the divine grace would be apparently defeated. But God yet takes pity on fallen, guilty man, being mindful of his promise; and Seth is given to supply the loss of Abel-Seth, in whose line the promise runs, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ should come. And thus the divine interpositions always seasonably and suitably meet our necessities and wants. Adam's own forfeited life is prolonged to many generations, and he lives to see his posterity increased to a great multitude, inventing and cultivating the arts which support, adorn, or comfort life. But the time approaches, at last, that he must die. Mercy flew as on the wings of a dove to his relief; justice walks with slow and steady steps to his punishment. By himself sin had entered into the world, and death must inevitably follow, and pass, upon him and upon all men. He had seen the ghastly appearance of death, in the person of his murdered son; he must now drink the bitter cup for himself; "And the days that Adam lived, were nine hundred and thirty years, and he died." This is the end of all men, and the living should lay it to his heart. And thus at But Adam, we find, has taught his sons to blend religion with their secular employments; nay, to make their very employments the monitors and the means of religious worship. "In process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. And Abel he also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof; and the Lord had respect to Abel, and to his offering; but unto Cain and his offering he had not respect."* And O, how early did the differ-length decayed the fabric which God himent passions and affections of the human self had reared; thus "the dust returned to mind discover themselves! Abel brings with the earth as it was, and the spirit to God who his offering, an humble, pious, and believing gave it." And thus must conclude the hisspirit. Cain approaches the altar of God tory of every life, though protracted to a with a proud, selfish, murderous heart. And thousand years, whether adorned with virmelancholy it is to observe, the first quarrel tues, or sullied with vice, whether passed in the world, the first human blood that was with noise on the great theatre, or obscurely shed, were occasioned by religion, which is spent in the shade. To this complexion the wise and the beautiful, the brave and the * Gen. iv. 4, 5. 66 good, as well as the simple and the homely, the timid and the vicious, must come at last. 'Here the rich and the poor meet together; here the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest." The next Lecture, if God permit, will attempt to exhibit to you, the comparison and contrast of the first and second Adam: in the former of whom all died; and by the latter, an elect world is made alive, and "raised up together, and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Let us endeavour to improve what has been said; by learning habitually to acknowledge, adore, and serve the great Author and preserver of our being, who has lavished so much goodness upon us, who adorned our nature with his own glorious image, pitied us in our low and lost estate, and has laid help for us on one who is mighty to save: and who, by the exceeding great and precious promises of the gospel, is aiming at making us partakers of a divine nature, and delivering us from that bondage of corruption, in which we are sunk by reason of sin. Let us learn, secondly, from the sad example of the first transgression, to rest contented with that state and condition which Providence has assigned us in life; to use only lawful means for bettering it; to make the known will of God the only rule of conduct; never to reason and tamper with temptation; but to repel or flee from it at once and to shun those as our worst enemies, who, on any occasion or pretence, would attempt to make us think lightly of the law of God. furnishing matter for a little conversation. There must be more virtue, religion, and good sense among the young men of the age, before this crying evil be remedied. Finally, let us take the conclusion of the book of God, and the bright prospect which it discloses to our view, to support and cherish us under the melancholy scene exhibited to us in the beginning of it. "According to his promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." "And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold I make all things new."* "And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God, and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse; but the throne of God, and of the Lamb, shall be in it, and his servants shall serve him. And they shall see his face, and his name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there, and they need no candle, neither light of the sun: for the Lord God giveth them light, and they shall reign for ever." "I beheld, and lo, a great multitude which no man could number, of all nations and kindreds, and people and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. Let me take occasion, thirdly, from that And all the angels stood round about the institution which God designed for the com- throne, and about the elders, and the four pletion of human happiness in a state of in- beasts, and fell before the throne on their nocence, and for the mutual assistance and faces and worshipped God; saying, Amen: comfort of the sexes, in their fallen condi- blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thankstion, to censure and condemn that spirit and giving, and honour, and power, and might practice of celibacy, which is one of the be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen. crying vices of our own age and country, And one of the elders answered, saying unto and which is equally inimical to religion, to me, What are these which are arrayed in good morals, to public spirit, and human white robes? And whence came they? And comfort. He who says, or lives as if he I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he thought, that it is "good for man to be said unto me, These are they which came alone," gives the lie to his Maker; sins out of great tribulation, and have washed against the constitution of his nature, dis- their robes, and made them white in the honours his parents; defrauds another of one blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they be of the justest rights of humanity, and in a fore the throne of God, and serve him day case too where it is impossible so much as to and night in his temple, and he that sitteth complain; and exposes himself to commit on the throne shall dwell among them. offences against society which are not to be They shall hunger no more, neither thirst mentioned in this place. In truth, celibacy any more, neither shall the sun light on is a vile compound of avarice and selfish- them, nor any heat; for the Lamb, which is ness, which would fain pass upon the world in the midst of the throne shall feed them, for prudence and self-denial; and the state and shall lead them unto living fountains of of our own country at present, in this re-waters: and God shall wipe away all tears spect, looks as if a single state, as in Ro- from their eyes."‡ Juan Catholic countries, were established by a law, but that the laity, not the clergy, were bound bu But, alas! I am only | Thus the mercy of God, and the blood of the Lamb, remove the guilt, and rectify the * Rev. xxi. 5. + Rev. xxii. 1-5 Rev. vii. 9-17. |