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SERMON II.

ADAM'S PRIMITIVE CHARACTER, AND CONDition.

1st. CORINTHIANS XV. 45.-The first man, Adam, was made a living soul.

THE origin, primeval character, and condition of the human race is a subject of profound interest. To it antiquity lends a potent charm. Consanguinity claims our affectionate feeling, and its connexion with our moral character, our present and future, our temporal and eternal condition, gives it immense importance. Where the guidance of divine revelation was not enjoyed and followed, this subject has always been wrapt up in inscrutable mystery, and the speculations of men have been characterized by wild absurdity and irreconcilable discordance. It is in its own nature a question on which faithful history alone can shed the needful light,—or, in its absence, the testimony of Him to whom all things are known. Without one or other of these guides, in this inquiry human wisdom can ascertain nothing. The aborigines of our own country afford an illustration and a proof of what I have now affirmed. Neither credible history nor tradition makes any direct report on their origin or former condition-and without these, no wisdom of man can make the discovery. How, when, where, or under what circumstances the race of man began to exist, would to us, without the records of the Bible, be as much unknown, and the knowledge of it would be as inaccessible as that which respects the most distant futurity. But, in this matter "God has not left himself without witness." On a subject to us of such deep concern and practical interest, he has furnished the needful information. He who created the heavens and the earth, gave existence to man. "Male and female created he them"-one only pairthe first parents of all the race-"one blood from which descended all nations that dwell on the face of the whole earth."

The first fruits were holy, but soon became corrupt, and propagated that corruption to all which has thence been derived. "God made man upright, but they have sought many inventions." The first man Adam was made a living soul-beauteous in the image, and happy in the favor of Him who created him. Let us contemplate him in his primeval glory-what he was, and what was his condition-before he lost his innocence and forfeited his bliss. I propose to consider

1st, His personal excellencies;

2nd, The external felicities of his condition;

3rd, His probationary character; and

4th, His peculiar relation to his posterity.

We are, 1st, To consider his personal excellencies.

It deserves particular remark, that the creation of man was distinguished by a circumstance peculiarly solemn, and which was expressly designed to denote his importance as transcending all the preceding effects of creative power, as seen on earth. Of all other things it was said, "Let them be," and they existed. But man was the result of counsel and design eminently profound. "And God said, Let us make man in our own image." I wait not to examine the argument here implied, in proof of a plurality of Persons in the Divine nature. That doctrine has, elsewhere, its explicit and abundant proofs. The account here given of man's creation marks it as an event of preeminent importance. And such in fact it is in all respects. His nature, his destinies, and the prominent place which he holds in the works, purposes, and dispensations of Heaven, render him an object of immeasurable interest. In the constitution of his person there is the singular union and fellowship of matter and of mind, of body and of spirit. Each of these has its own peculiar attributes and excellencies. His body, though formed of the dust, and in this respect no better than those of the inferior animals, is however possessed of special endowments, and invested with a surpassing excellence and dignity, which bespeak its nobler and more elevated destiny.

What was the beauty and perfection of Adam's external form, we cannot positively nor definitely affirm. That in these respects

it far surpassed that of any of his natural posterity, is altogether credible. This may be inferred from the fact that it was formed by God immediately, without the instrumetality of any secondary causes or agencies. The whole must have been divinely complete-its proportions perfect-every part entire, and adapted to its place and its uses-every power vigorous, every motion easy and graceful. Its majesty, symmetry and beauty corresponded to the God-like spirit with which it was to be associated, of whose external operations it was to be the appropriate instrument, and many of whose inward thoughts and emotions it would faithfully reveal and strongly express. The countenance, no doubt, beamed with intelligence, and gave manifest indications of the tranquillity, piety, benevolence, peace and joy which reigned within. It probably wore some of that beauty and glory with which it will be invested after the resurrection.

I am not aware of any absurdity in alleging that in this, in part, consisted man's original likeness to God. This must, of necessity, refer to the visible form in which the Son of God oft times appeared, previously to his actual incarnation. Creation is expressly and specially ascribed to him, and the language of scripture seems to teach that all the manifestations of Deity in providence and grace were made through and by him. The brief notices given of the communion of God with our first parents in their state of innocence, lead us to conceive of some visible manifestation of the divinity, and that his presence was known, and actual converse maintained by something which was distinctly recognised by the eye and by the ear. Nor am I able to see why it should be considered unreasonable or unscriptural to believe that God the Son did then, as he often did subsequently, prior to his actual incarnation, manifest himself in a visible form, which was the pattern according to which the bodies of our first parents were fashioned. I am aware that the Apostle, writing to the Philippians and Romans, recognises it as a part of the humiliation of the Son of God that he was made in the likeness of sinful flesh. But the special import of this may be in his actual assumption of our nature, and in that condition too into which

it is reduced by sin-divested of its beauty, its strength, its glory and immortality. He was indeed perfectly free from every taint of moral pollution; but his bodily form, and its conditions and circumstances, in other respects, were conformable to that of man in his sinful state, in which, as to all its lustre and beauty, "the fine gold is changed," and "the crown has fallen from our heads." His glorified body is that to which the bodies of the redeemed will be assimilated, and it may be true, that the original pattern in man's creation, from which his body had its form, was one worn by the Son of God, when a sensible manifestation of his presence was given, and, that the effect of redeeming grace and power in this respect will be to reinvest the body of man with its primeval glory, as it is to restore the soul to "knowledge, righteousness and true holiness." These suggestions I make; their truth I do not positively affirm. That man's body, however, as God made it, excelled in glory, I cannot doubtand that now, in all respects, it has been greatly impaired by sin, its vigor and its loveliness much, very much abated by the influence of disease, and the operation of sinful passions. The testimony of God expressly assigns sin as the cause of death. Continuance in holiness would have secured perfect exemption from an event so awful to nature, as also from all those accumulating infirmities, injuries and fierce diseases which now lead to that tragical result.

But man's noblest personal excellencies were found in his intellectual and moral nature. In these, eminently, he possessed the image of his Creator. The rational spirit, in its faculties, holiness, and duration, reflected in a peculiar manner the character and perfections of the invisible God. In its nature it was like his removed from the grossness and sluggishness of matter. Uncompounded, it was incapable of division or dissolution: assimilated in its refined and sublime constitution to "the Father of spirits," it possessed an innate vigor, the power of thought, ardor of affection, and active and voluntary operation. It also was a spirit, and thus in its measure partook of a divine nature, claimed kindred with angels, and stood distinguished from, and

in real excellence far transcended all diversified orders of mere animal existence.

In its duration it was immortal. Suns may exhaust their splendors and cease to be: its existence will experience no abatement, and know no end. Material nature may grow old and infirm by years. The soul will be vigorous in unfailing strength and ever enduring youth.

This spiritual and immortal nature was intelligent-endowed with knowledge, and capable of advances in it, to an amount unlimited, and through a duration which is endless. What was the actual measure of Adam's knowledge, we pretend not to say. It was, no doubt, fully equal to all the duties, necessities and enjoyments of his glorious and happy condition. There is no reason, however, to believe that it was a part of his original constitution, or created with him-but was acquired as knowledge now is, by sensation, reflection, experience and instruction. That a large portion of it was directly and expressly communicated by God, is not to be doubted. To receive, understand and retain this, the perfection and purity of his mind were eminently favorable. He had an ear to hear; a heart docile and ready to receive the truth in the love of it; no wayward prejudices to pervert his judgment; no irregular passions to obscure or mislead it. To a mind thus sound, vigorous and pure, the volume of nature would present an ample page, richly stored with various knowledge, which, added to the experience and observation of every day, would furnish the materials of accumulating wisdom. In the communion of his God, in the contemplation of his works, their grandeur, variety and beauty; and in the profusion of enjoyments presented on every side, his active mind must have found the means of augmenting treasures of knowledge, and of pure, elevated, and interminable intellectual progress and pleasure. Knowledge was one of the noble and God-like attributes of "the first man Adam." In his measure he resembled him whose understanding is infinite.

We have yet to contemplate the brightest gem in his crown of glory. "It was the beauties of holiness." It was this which

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