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and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife"- most touchingly expresses the character and the extent of the love which Jesus entertained for perishing sinners when He left His Father's bosom, and the glory of His heavenly estate, to woo His lost ones back to holiness and peace. Who can doubt that He might have continued to enjoy uninterrupted felicity in the heavenly mansions though man had perished under the sentence of a violated law? But that was not his choice. His infinite benevolence yearned for exercise, and where could it find more fitting objects than in this sin-blighted world? The human race doomed-no effort of their own could save themand sacrifices and offerings of beasts God would not accept. Then said the only begotten-"Lo, I come," Psalm xl. 7. I am content to leave my Father, and to incur even a sense of his abandonment of me, see Mat. xxvii. 26, that I may be joined to my beloved ones in their sorrow and their humiliation now, so that I may associate them with me in my glory hereafter. The necessity of expatriation from the paternal house was laid upon the Divine husband, but he did not shrink from it in her favour to whom he said, "How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse! How much better is thy love than wine! and the smell of thine ointments than all spices," Cant. iv. 10.

7. Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. Eve, or Chavah (marginal reading), means life; and this name was given to the woman, because by her human life was to be sustained in the earth. It also may have had a prophetical reference to the Seed of the woman, who is our eternal life. Thus, the Church of Christ, His spouse, is the mother of the living members of God's family, and we must not allege or imply that His Church can admit, as members, those who are yet dead in trespasses and sins. Churches of human construction must associate together the dead and the living, because discerning of spirits is not vouchsafed to those who construct them; and, therefore, members must be admitted to fellowship merely on their profession. But in the heavenly Jerusalem, "who is the mother of us all," Gal. iv. 26, this cannot be; for her "foundation standeth sure, having this seal: the Lord

knoweth them that are His, and let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity," 2 Tim. ii. 19. Into her, therefore, "there shall in no wise enter anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie, but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life," Rev. xxi. 27. In other words, none but those who have been made alive unto God by the quickening influences of His Holy Spirit. It is in this sense that the Church or spouse of Christ is the mother of all living-she herself having derived her life from the God-man, and having children born to her in His likeness, who, because He lives, shall also live for ever in Him, John xiv. 19.

And now, my friends, can we doubt that our great Creator loves those whom He has made in His own image? The fact is proved-first, by the state of dignity and happiness in which He originally placed them, superior to that of all other created things, and endowed them with faculties capable of understanding and enjoying everything around them. Might not Jehovah ask, "what more could I have done for my intelligent creatures than that which I have done for them?" But, secondly, and above all, by designing and foreshadowing, even in Eden, that glorious plan of redemption in Christ Jesus, which we are all invited to partake of to our eternal recovery from sin and condemnation.

Some people, who would be wise above what is written, seek to know whether God intended that man's Eden state should continue. To this and similar enquiries, we may confidently reply, that He "worketh all things after the counsel of His own will," Eph. i. 11, "and who may say unto Him, what doest thou?" Eccl. viii. 4; the judge of all the earth will do right, Gen. xviii. 25. Two great objects ever occupy the mind of the Eternal in His purposes towards us-His own glory, that is, the manifestation of His divine character, and our ultimate good. We may believe, therefore, that our future blessedness in Christ Jesus will more advance the honour of our God, and the real interests of His creatures, than the continuance of our first parents in a state of innocence, and whatever advantages to themselves or their posterity that might secure.

ADAM.

MAN AS HE WAS AND SHALL BE.

Vastly subordinate, however, to any satisfaction to the enquirer upon this subject is the due consideration of our actual position now. My friends, you and I are exiles from Eden, as Adam and Eve were when they had sinned, As, therefore, we share in their punishment, it must be because we share in their transgression; for a God of justice and love would not visit the sins of the fathers upon the children, unless the children were implicated in their father's guilt, see Ezekiel xviii. 14-17, 20; but which of us can say that we have not often done what God has forbidden? This was Adam's sin, and for this he lost paradise. If one act of disobedience expelled him, surely we cannot be surprised if many such acts should exclude us. If, for one sin, he was cast out into a wilderness world to suffer and die, God, who is the same God, could not admit us to Eden and life, unless we were pardoned and renewed. But that is the double work which our beloved Redeemer has undertaken for us, and hence He has become our second Adam; and if we groan under the consequences of the first Adam's transgression, we may rejoice in the complete recovery from his sin and his condemnation, provided for us in the second.

The choice set before us is this: continuance in union with Adam, who sinned and died, which is our natural state, or acceptance of the offered union with Adam who was God's beloved Son, in whom He was well pleased, and "who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification," Rom. iv. 25. The happiness which the first man enjoyed, when yet without sin, would no doubt have been ours had we been born in his unfallen image. To the far superior happiness which the second Man shall eternally enjoy we are freely invited, as born again through His word, 1 Pet, i. 23, in His likeness, and into his redeemed family. There is, there can be, no alternative between the curse under which man and this world now lie, and the redemption of both by the sacrifice of the Son of God.

LECTURE II.

ADAM.

MAN AS HE WAS AND AS HE IS.

ye

"And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die; for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat." -Gen. iii. 4-7.

"And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden."

-Gen. iii. 8.

We cannot doubt that Adam was perfectly happy in paradise; but it was not the beauty of the place-the undying freshness of the trees or flowers-the abundance or deliciousness of the fruits-the unclouded sunshine the fragrant scented breezes the cool music-making rivulets-the shady groves-the warbling birds-or the peaceful habits of the numerous living creatures around him, that made him so it was his own healthy state of mind and body. God had made him perfect, and he rejoiced in the perfection of his being. Let us consider his state :

1.—INTELLECTUALLY, His mind was certainly not over-wrought, nor painfully exercised. It had a large capacity for acquiring knowledge, and that was flowing in gently, gradually, pleasurably. The heavens, himself, his garden, and its variously formed and endowed living creatures, were his books. These, we may suppose, he studied with delight, and, assisted by light from above, made therein, every day, new discoveries of Almighty skill, power, and goodness. The hand of a beloved Creator was everywhere traced, and everywhere adored.

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2.-SPIRITUALLY. As creation's lord, he held constant intercourse with creation's Author-and thus his spiritual faculties were exercised and enlarged. this respect he soared immeasurably above the most sagacious of the brutes around him: their intercourse was with him-his with God. Hence he de

rived spiritual enjoyment from such feelings as veneration, gratitude, love, confidence, adoration-from familiar converse with the great Being whom he knew to be his Maker, Benefactor, Preserver, Lawgiver, Teacher. In this he stood alone and unapproachable in dignity and blessedness.

3.-SOCIALLY. He saw in the companion whom God had given him a counterpart of himself, made of one blood, Acts xvii. 26, and in one likeness; he, therefore, naturally loved her as himself. Loving himself only in and through God, he found the same reasons for loving her; and as the happiness of God consists in the exercise of His divine attributes, so Adam's happiness was enhanced by every new opportunity for calling into use the endowments of His Godlike nature. It was his highest enjoyment, there fore, next to intercourse with his Creator, to promote the happiness of his companion. In him there could be no selfishness, since there could be no gain in confining his attention to himself. He loved God and he loved all God's creatures; but of the latter, that one he loved most of all in whom he saw most of his Creator's image, and upon whose well-being he could exercise most of those feelings which his Creator had implanted, and which His beneficence called into daily activity.

4.—MAGISTERIALLY. In the exercise of his superiority over the other creatures he acted as the delegate of the great Lord of all. The greatest of created beings, he was endowed with a godlike capacity for ruling, and he ruled for God, not for himself. No doubt he rejoiced in his pre-eminence, but not for the mere consciousness of power, but because it brought him into immediate relation to God, and gave him the ability, as he had the desire, to keep everything in a state of subordination to Him. Delighting in all things that God had made, and feeling his own identity with the meanest of the creatures subjected to his