Let us endeavor to improve what has been said; by learning habitually to acknowledge, adore, and serve the great Author and Preserver of our being, who has lavished so much goodness upon us; who adorned our nature with his own glorious image, pitied us in our low and lost estate, and has laid help for us in one who is mighty to save and who, by the exceeding great and precious promises of the gospel, is aiming at making us partakers of a divine nature, and delivering us from that bondage of corruption, in which we are sunk by reason of sin.

Let us learn, secondly, from the sad example of the first transgression, to rest contented with that state and condition which Providence has assigned us in life; to use only lawful means for bettering it; to make the known will of God the only rule of conduct; never to reason and tamper with temptation; but to repel or flee from it at once; and to shun those as our worst enemies, who, on any occasion or pretence, would attempt to make us think lightly of the law of God.

Let me take occasion, thirdly, from that institution which God designed for the completion of human happiness in a state of innocence, and for the mutual assistance and comfort of the sexes, in their fallen condition, to censure and condemn that spirit and practice of celibacy, which is one of the crying vices of our own age and country, and which is equally inimical to religion, to good morals, to public spirit, and human comfort. He who says, or lives as if he thought, that it is "good for man to be alone," gives the lie to his Maker; sins against the constitution of his nature, dishonors his parents; defrauds another of one of the justest rights of humanity, and in a case too where it is impossible so much as to complain; and exposes himself to commit offences against society which are not to be mentioned in this place. In truth, celibacy is a vile compound of avarice and selfishness, which would fain pass upon the world for prudence and self denial; and

the state of our own country at present, in this respect, looks as if a single state, as in Roman Catholic countries, were established by a law, but that the laity, not the clergy, were bound by it. But alas! I am only furnishing matter for a little conversation. There must be more virtue, religion, and good sense among the young men of the age, before this crying evil be remedied.

Finally, let us take the conclusion of the book of God, and the bright prospect which it discloses to our view, to support and cherish us under the melancholy scene exhibited to us in the beginning of it. "According to his promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.' "And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold I make all things new," Rev. xxi. 5. "And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God, and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse; but the throne of God, and of the Lamb, shall be in it, and his servants shall serve him. And they shall see his face, and his name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there, and they need no candle, neither light of the sun for the Lord God giveth them light, and they shall reign forever," Rev. xxii. 1...5. "I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God, which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders, and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and

worshipped God; saying, Amen: blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen. And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? And whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said unto me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple, and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat; for the Lamb, which is in the midst of the throne, shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes," Rev. vii. 9...17.

Thus, the mercy of God, and the blood of the Lamb, remove the guilt, and rectify the disorders of sin. Thus guilty fallen man is recovered and restored. Thus the evils recorded in the first pages of the Bible, are remedied and done away in that bright revelation of a world to come, which is open to us in the close of it. Thus is Adam, and his renewed offspring, conducted from a terrestrial paradise, where the tree of knowledge, of good and evil, grew up among the trees of life, to the paradise of God, where no mixture, of evil intrudes itself, where none but the trees of life, find a place. And thus the several parts of divine revelation explain, illustrate, strengthen, and confirm each other; and the whole taken together exhibiting throughout one great leading object, carrying on one great design, and accomplishing, at length, the one original purpose of the ETERNAL, is gloriously perfect.

Adam and Christ compared.

LECTURE III.

And so it is written, the first man Adum was made a living soul, the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.... 1 Cor. xv. 45.

HE frame of nature, the ways of Providence, and the work of redemption, mutually illuminate, explain, and support each other. The invisible things of God are clearly understood by the things which are made the world is evidently upheld and governed by him who made it at first; and the suspension of the laws of nature, and the special interpositions of Divine Providence, constitute the proof, that the gospel dispensation is from Him who has the universe under his control, to continue or to change its appearance at his pleasure; who has all hearts in his hand, and consequently, all events at his disposal. When we attempt to contemplate the providence of God, we immediately find it to be a system infinitely too vast for human capacity to take in, too complex for our penetration to unfold, too deep and mysterious for our understanding to fathom. All that we can do is to consider the detached parts of this majestic whole, as they present themselves to our senses, or to our reason; as they are transmitted to us in the history and experience of others, or as they are discovered to us by a revelation from heaven. Without the bible, it were utterly impossible to give a tolerable account, much less one completely satisfactory, of the origin of the world, or of the appearances of nature; of the events which are

past and are recorded, or those which are every day presenting themselves to our observation. But when reason vouchsafes to kindle her feeble lamp with fire from the altar of God, and to supply it continually with fresh oil from the sacred stores, what was formerly dark becomes clear; and what before seemed intricate and perplexed, is found to be in perfect order and harmony; and the dim and scattered fragments become both legible and intelligible,

Nay, farther, the different parts of scripture itself, taken separately and without connection, may seem to have less force, beauty and importance; but when brought together, like the magnet and the steel, they immediately attract each other and unite; like the scattered bones in the valley, bone coming together to his bone, there starts up a perfect man, nay, an exceeding great army. Type meeting the thing typified, prediction squaring with event, promise tallying exactly with accomplishment, scripture acquires a solidity which bids defiance to all created force: becomes, in its own energetic language, "as a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces." The persons exhi, bited, the events recorded, the scenes described, the institutions ordained in one age and state of the world, which were the shadows of good things to come, are not only instructive and interesting in themselves, but acquire a weight and importance which they possessed not before, when viewed in their relation to Him, to whom all the prophets give witness, and whose person, character, and work, are the fulfilling of all that was written of old time.

The history of Adam ministers both pleasure and instruction to us as men but Christians feel a peculiar interest in the perusal of it, by considering Adam “ as the figure of him who was to come.".

Having, in the last Lecture, attempted a delineation of the life of the first man, according as it is transmitted to us in the holy scriptures, we proceed in pro