know that if they be made in my likeness, reasonable creatures, that it will be reasonable for them to keep a law; therefore I will enter into covenant for mine, and thou shall impute my obedience to them. Prov. viii. 14, Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom. Well, saith the Father, how shall my mercy and grace be manifested? How shall my love to thee and them (which is so infinite) be manifested before men and angels? This will never reach the depths of

it,

awful the scene, for this end Christ was the elect of God, for this end and purpose; and God knowing the state of his chosen people, constituted him who never approved of sin, a sin-offering for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him, 2 Cor. v. 21. Having, by an unremitting adherence to the preceptive part of God's law, obeyed, and by his painful death, met the full penalty annexed to the transgression, he removed the curse and rendered it eternally honorable. The result of both obedience and sufferings, in the language of the holy spirit, was well pleasing unto God: pleasing, as it afforded a sufficient protection to the objects of his love, from the awful consequences of sin, and served as an impenetrable shield against the malignant opposition, and the destructive power of Satan. The Lord is well pleased for his righteousness' sake, he will obey the law and

make

it, nor the height, nor the breadth, nor the length of it and besides, the reprobates will have reason to complain, because they are set in a head by themselves. Well, saith infinite Wisdom, I confess that my body cannot know the depths of thy love, nor mine neither, except they sin, therefore let us appoint them all one head, both for the vessels of wrath, and for the vessels of mercy; let us furnish him with sufficiency and strength, and the liberty of his will, and give him an easy law, with a threat, that if he sin, he and his posterity shall bear the uttermost of thy wrath; and thou shalt lay all the sin of thine upon me, and I will make satisfaction to thy justice for them. Well, saith the Father, I accept it. Psalm xx. 3, Remember all thy offer

ings

make it honorable; Isaiah xlii. 21. Sin he "took away by the sacrifice of himself," and Satan he compleatly vanquished, for he destroyed death, and him that had the power of death, that is the Devil: Heb. ii. 14. Neither is it possible for them, by any act or acts of theirs, to destroy the council of God, for this union of choice is strengthened by another endearing tye, compared as we have seen, to a marriage union, and the comparison is drawn, when the person betrothed possesses no qualification whatever, to entitle him to that exalted state.

For

ings and accept thy burnt-sacrifices: verse 4, Grant thee according to thine own heart, and fulfil all thy counsel. Well, saith the Father, I will impute thy obedience to them, for righteousness, and I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sin and iniquity I will remember no more: and, as for thee, call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.

Now let us make man in our own image, after

our

For the manifestation of it is made, when the subject of it is implicated in the foulest guilt; and guilt arising not only from the contamination of nature unrestrained by an internal principle, but after a discovery of the tenderest regard, and the most unbounded affection on the part of God. Why is not the axe of Divine vengeance laid to the root of the guilty tree, and God consign it to the flames of Hell? Why does not Justice unsheath its sword, and plunge it into the victim's heart? Why does not Equity shut every avenue of comfort against such a faithless and polluted traitor?-Why? God gives the reason why, Jer. iii. 14, Turn, O backsliding Israel, saith the Lord, for I am married unto you. There is no power existing that shall dissolve this union, not even sin in its foulest form; for, when' this union took place, the ex

I

our own likeness; let him have dominion. must add, because it has been sweetly upon my spirit all this day. Gen xlii. 9, I will be surety for him; of my hand shalt thou require him; if I bring him not unto thee, and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame for ever. This was the language of the lion of the tribe of Judah, to prove what portion of Scripture in the whole book of God, amplifies the covenant of God in Christ, more, or so much, as this about Adam; insomuch,

istence of sin, of every sin, was predicated, and the grand end of the constituted union, was to prevent its evil consequences; my soul would instantly and irrecoverably sink into utter despair, did I once believe the existence of one sinful thought intransferrible to the account of the Son of God; that thought and that act not foreseen when the union took place, must of necessity be of the above description. Had we had any hand in the imputation of our crimes to Christ, we would have been the means of our own damnation; for would we not, prior to the commission of innumerable guilty acts that gall our consciences, had we heard them enumerated, instantly have said, No, Lord, do not lay thine hand so heavy upon him, after so much favor shewn, and mercies received, we can never act so base, so vile part. Suppose for instance, that Peter

had

insomuch, that the Apostle sets them up one against another, in respect of their constitutions, both general heads of their respective bodies, as having none of their members concerned with their covenant's conditions, but themselves alone, I say, no covenant in heaven or in earth, did amplify or manifest this covenant as this of Adam's; First, for matter; Secondly, for form,

First; In respect of matter. This beautiful tree of the knowledge of good and evil, set up in

the

had a power given him, to transfer his sins to the account of Jesus, would he at the period he transfer was made, ever have thought it possible for him to have spat in the Saviour's face, by denying him? Had any of his associates affirmed the possibility of such an event's taking place, he would haughtily have charged them with a lie, and served them as he did Malchus, if not worse: If all the world deny thee, yet will I not deny thee. It is our mercy that it is the work of God.

As obedience was not the source from whence it sprang, disobedient as all the children of God have been, and still are, their disobedience shall not disannul the everlasting covenant. "If thy children forsake my ways," &c. though they bought him no sweet cane with money, though they never gladdened him with the fat of their sacrifices,

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