the thraldom. Thenceforth, human nature became a compound of jarring and contrary affections, of innate propensities warring with each other, of enfeebled love of good, and strong concupiscence of evil, of domineering appetite, and reason unable or disinclined to assert its rightful superiority. By a being so constituted, neither goodness nor happiness could be attainable. Not only would the evil continually overbalance the good within him; but even his better actions and his better affections would partake so much of his inherent infirmity, as to fall far short of that measure of excellence which would satisfy his own sense of duty, and still further short of that which could abide the scrutiny of an allrighteous and omniscient Judge. Thus in every son of Adam is original righteousness so obscured, so depressed and debased by original sin, as to be incompetent of itself to maintain the conflict with its adversary. The consequences we know full well;-self-condemnation, shame, sorrow, disquietude, fear, evils temporal and spiritual, in this life; death, terminating these evils here, but accompanied with a fearful looking-for of judgment in a world unknown.

"Who," then, says the Apostle, “shall de"liver me from the body of this death?"

Let the same Apostle give the answer: "I "thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord"." Through the Gospel, "life and immortality "are brought to light"." The darkness that overspread them-whether the darkness of ignorance and incredulity, or the darkness of uncertainty with respect to the misery or bliss to be expected-is now dispersed. Under this dispensation, man is as certain now of life and immortality, as when he was at first created to inherit both. Together with this assurance, he is again brought into covenant with his Maker, that he may know on what grounds this blessing, once forfeited, is now restored. The covenant itself is proportioned to his wants and his infirmities, to the change his nature has undergone, and to the increased difficulties with which he has to contend. If spotless innocence, if unsinning perfection, were the terms of this covenant, then were it necessary that man should literally be created anew, to enable him to fulfil them. But the Gospel contemplates man as he now really is, not only as liable to sin, but actually an offender; not only as accessible to temptation, but as unable, without superior aid, to resist or to escape from evil. Its whole system is adapted to • Rom. vii. 24, 25.

P 2 Tim. i. 10.

this view of his circumstances and condition. It flatters not his vain philosophy; it encourages no fallacious notions of his natural perfectibility; it offers no empirical expedients for his spiritual maladies.

The conditions of this covenant point both to what man was intended to be, and to what he actually is. In the first covenant made with him in paradise, faith was an implied, if not an express condition;-faith in the promise of life annexed to obedience, and in the threatening of death annexed to disobedience. And this is now the basis of the Gospel dispensation, or rather, of that second covenant which was made with man immediately after his fall, and which continues in force from thence to the end of the world; having changed only in its circumstances, with the varying circumstances of mankind. With the Patriarchs, it was faith in the general promise of a future Redeemer. With the Jews, it was faith in a Redeemer, still future, but more distinctly revealed and made known by type and prophecy. With Christians, it is faith in a Redeemer already come, who hath personally fulfilled all righteousness, who hath made one effectual propitiation for the sins of the whole world; and who ever liveth

to make intercession for us at the throne of

grace.

Again, obedience, no less than faith, is attached to both covenants, before and since the fall. Under every dispensation, this is still an unceasing obligation. It may vary in its circumstances, but in principle it is the same. The creature can never be absolved from duty to his Creator, can never plead a will or purpose of his own, at variance with the will of infinite perfection.

But while faith and obedience both equally belong to man in his original and in his fallen state, there is a manifest difference with respect to his capability of fulfilling these requisitions in the one state and in the other. Perfect powers and defective powers, though subject to one and the same principle of action, cannot attain to the same practical perfection: nor will the same measure be meted by an all-merciful and righteous Judge to corruption and to incorruption, to the weak and to the strong, to the being of unimpaired faculties, and to the being labouring under infirmity and disorder. Repentance, therefore, is graciously admitted in the one case, to supply the want of that unsinning obedience requisite in the other. But even this re

pentance, as well as the faith and obedience still exacted from fallen man, becomes meet for the Divine acceptance, only through that pervading influence of the Holy Spirit, which is requisite to render either of them fit offerings at the throne of grace.

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The general result is this. Man's condition now is a mixed condition of hope and fear, of trial and discipline, of preparation and of conflict. His redemption does not exempt him from the evils of mortality: his regeneration does not remove him from the assaults of temptation, or the dangers of sin. The corruption of our nature "doth remain," says our ninth Article, "yea, in them that are regenerated." The body of sin is never totally destroyed, while we continue in this mortal state. But its dominion is shaken, and may be overthrown. "Greater is he "that is in you," saith St. John, "than he "that is in the world." An invisible power upholds us in danger, consoles us in tribulation, gives us resolution and perseverance. But the responsibility is with ourselves. To us, as to the Israelites of old, may be addressed the awful warning, "I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and

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9 1 John iv. 4.