good for man to be alone. Ver. 20, 21, compare. So it appears plainly, that the covenant was made with Adam alone and only; but it may be objected. Did not she, reasoning with the serpent, Gen. iii. 3. saying, God hath said, ye shall not eat of it, prove that she thought she must die for her eating? First, I answer: She was the weaker vessel, therefore prevention, nor the want of goodness to incline him, had he thought proper: the non-prevention of it must therefore be the result of a determination of mind; and the determination of such a being must have for its governing principle, the best, the happiest consequences. Before I come to ascertain by the Divine testimony, the design of God in giving the law in question, you'll permit me to propose a few questions, for the perusal of the contemplative reader. Did God, and that from all eternity, design that his people should be redeemed by the death of Christ? While you retain, or profess to retain, any veneration for the Bible, you cannot answer in the negative. Did God design to redeem them in any other state but as fallen creatures? there are but two states in which they possibly can be considered, either innocent or guilty; as innocent they could not be redeemed, for the innocent needs no ran som: 125 therefore not so much to be regarded: but, suppose she had thought so, that did not make it true; she was the more like the wife of Adam that knew no other but she must die for eating, neither before she did eat, nor after. Secondly. Farther; It appears that her personal obedience was not required, because she was not then a distinct person from Adam. Thirdly, som: then they must be considered as guilty; for Christ was made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, under the curse of the law, and their guilt reduced them to that state. Has God ever decreed any end, without implying in the decree, the means that will accomplish that end? If he has, he has designed to obtain an end, without means to effect it. To believe this, is to suppose, that God decrees not only without any certainty of obtaining the end, but also without a possibility of attaining it; for there can be no possible effect produced without a corresponding cause. Could the Devil, by his subtile intrigues, cause the fall of man, had not God given Adam a law. No; "for where there is no law, there is no transgression. If God intended Adam to abide in his original state, and if Adam could not fall without a law, does it not, from the nature of things, appear more Thirdly. She could not sensibly receive the law from the mouth of God whilst she was in 25. Adam. Fourthly. She must have received the law from Adam, as her head and rector, or governor under God, for her obedience to God. Eph. v. 22. From all which it appears plainly there was no obedienee required in this covenant, but the more consistent with that supposed design, that God should either support him under the attacks of Satan, or not to have given him a law at all? In the former instance he would have retained his integrity unsullied in the latter, his mind would for ever remain unimpressible. But, you will ask, what kind of being must Adam be without a law? What kind? the same as when he came out of the hand of his Maker, without sin, and without the least propensity to sin. Let those who cavil at the truths of God, seal their Cavil. tongues in silence, until they see that all the ways of God are mysteriously awful, yet mercifully consistent. Has the fall been succeeded by a dispensation glorious, of greater wisdom, greater goodness, greater love, Contrast. and compassionate tenderness, than could otherwise have been revealed? Yes: the mysteries of electing love, the unbought grace of the everlasting covenant, generate in the mind such ex alted obedce the obedience of Adam's person. I say, there was no obedience required as the conditions of life and death, neither for Adam nor his posterity, but Adam's only. The doctrine is this: that all Cov't the covenants that God has made with particular men, and theirs have been the amplification and confirmation of the covenant of grace, and not the covenant itself. First of Adam. And first, alted, such transporting ideas of the Most High, that nature, could we even pry into all her hidden secrets, and explain all her mysterious laws, appears but a feeble effect of his power; while the other unbosoms his heart, and brings the weary and distracted mind of the guilty, to repose upon the covenanted lap of uncreated faithfulWhat sight can be compared with a God in our nature bleeding, that the wounded infant, weltering in his blood might live. Ezek. xvi. ness. 6. 14. : Do the children of God here and in Heaven, consider themselves under greater obligations for their redemption than creation? Yes for in Heaven, where every power of the mind is properly attuned, to celebrate the praises of God, there is no mention made of creation, but reX demption, Rev. i. 5, 6. and this is perfectly consonant with the nature of things, for the means that. + » creation starts back at REDEMPTION. "Pothill Div: Deer How the cnvenant of grace was amplified or manifested in Adam's covenant. First. In respect of Adam himself. Adam Adam was formed of the dust of the earth. Gen. ii. 7. formed There was the substance of every particular member of his body formed or framed, every organ fitly prepared and compared, fit for action, according to their several offices, only wanting a principle 25-3.3 that obtain an end, have no glory, by reason of the finelu, glory that excelleth in the end itself. noticed! If it is admitted, (such in fact are the professions of all that seem to have an attachment to revealed religion, whether Calvinists or Neonomians) that greater glory results to God, and greater happiness flows to man, in consequence of the new order of things, than could have been, had Adam retained the dignity of his original state. How can we exonerate man from some kind of obligation to the Devil, for the introduction of that misery into the world, which has been suc ceeded by such a bright effulgence of compassion, which, while it absorbs the guilty tear, and removes misery from the heart; awes the power of Satan into nihility, and obliges him, with a distracted roar, to contract his claw and drop his prey: "thus the prey is taken from the mighty." The idea of an event's (which involves such astonishing consequences) taking place without the consent |