joyed in paradise or heaven? What appears certain in this matter, is the fact, viz.: that God on the conditions above explained, engaged to bestow eternal life, and that the life promised was a something greater than the felicity Adam already possessed. As to the certainty of the fact, a scripture reference or two will be sufficient to evince. The passage above quoted, (Rom. vii. 10) which affirms, that the commandment was ordained unto life,' is of itself sufficient proof that Adam's probation, had it been successfully terminated, would have been crowned, (so wonderful is the divine goodness) with an eternity of happiness. This the Apostle here affirms:for to whom but to Adam, as covenanting with God have the requirements of the moral law ever been ' ordained unto life,' i. e. appointed as the condition to obtain life? And that the life here intended is eternal life, is by all confessed. Again on this point, such language as the following deserves consideration :-Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, that 'the man which doth those things shall live by them. (Rom. x. 5.-Gal. iii. 10.—12.) He that would obtain life by the law, must 'continue in all things written in the book of the law to do them:' for this is the righteousness which the law requires. Thus the Apostle, to teach men the impossibility of salvation by works, and to shew that it can be obtained alone by grace, i. e. God's free favour, through faith, viz., in the God-head and righteousness of Christ. Then with respect to the purpose for which the above language is here quoted,

you must be reminded that it teaches, that if Adam had done those things which God required of him he would have lived by them, i. e. would have been rewarded with eternal life. And although this point is sufficiently proved, yet it may be of use to remark, that where the Scriptures, which they often do, dissuade men from seeking to the law for salvation, they never do it as the learned Wilsius observes, by the argument that the law never contained a promise of life, but by such arguments as this:-' that the law has become weak,' i. e. unable to free us from the consequences of sin, and confer upon us a title to heaven, through the flesh,' i. e. through that corruption of our nature, by which we are disabled from that perfect obedience which the law requires of such as expect to be saved by their own works.

This particular being made obvious, I shall very briefly add, that it seems natural to think that the happiness promised to Adam was a something greater than the felicity which he already possessed ere sin entered. On this subject one remarks:The reward annexed to Adam's obedience, was the continuance of him and his posterity in such perfect holiness and happiness, as he then had while they remained upon earth, and the translating of them in due time to the celestial regions, where they should be for ever blessed with the full enjoyment of God. To have been merely confirmed beyond the possibility of falling from the happy state wherein man was created, would have been an unspeakably valuable accession to his bliss. Whether, in addition

to this, one after another, Adam's posterity would have been taken to heaven, and there elevated, perhaps by degrees, to a state approximating nearer to that next to infinite dignity and felicity, to which the redeemed will be raised at the last day, are questions on which it would be unprofitable to speculate. The rather, for although it becomes us to examine what the Scriptures reveal, whether they be things of less or of greater importance, yet that which principally concerns us is, not what Adam's state would have been had he stood; but as he fell, what are the consequences of his sin in respect of ourselves, and especially what our end will be when we die ? Can we say with the Apostle, 'For to me to live, is Christ, and to die is gain?' Is Christ formed in us the hope of glory'? Are we born again or regenerated by God's Spirit? If so, then are we by regeneration and adoption, in a better state than Adam was by creation--especially in two respects:

1. Adam's state was very delightful, but then not being confirmed in it, he lost it. Whereas, that state of salvation into which we enter by the new birth and faith in Christ, is a state from which we cannot fall finally.' 'Who shall confirm you,' says the Apostle, unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ,' 1. Cor. i 8. God by creation began a good work in Adam, but he was left to finish it himself. But in the heart of every believer, God not only begins a good work, viz., in regeneration, but himself, even God finishes it, i. e. in edification, sanctification and glo

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rification. How plainly, copiously and even emphatically do the Scriptures teach the doctrine of the Saints conservation in faith and holiness. Thus the Apostle Phil, 1. 6. Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you, will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ.'

2. Believers are in a better state than Adam,— placed under a better covenant' than he was, for not only is the life promised them more certain than that promised to Adam, it is likewise more glorious. Is not Jesus more glorious than Adam was even in all his glory? So shall Jesus raise his followers, by his obedience, to a more exalted felicity than Adam's obedience would have raised, his posterity had he stood. Indeed, the happiness of a redeemed and glorified sinner will have, I am much inclined to think, a decided advantage over even that of angels. The rather therefore should we by each of these arguments be induced to seek it. And may the Lord of his infinite mercy prepare us for it. Lord bring us into that state of salvation from which we could not fall, as Adam did-bring us into the road to that elevated happiness to which the second Adam will raise the ruins of the first.

LECTURE IV.

COVENANT OF WORKS CONTINUED.

IV. On this subject we have now arrived at a more difficult topic, viz., the penalty or punishment annexed to the breach of this covenant, of which Gen. ii. 17, speaks thus :- -For in the day thou eatest thereof (viz., of the tree of knowledge of good and evil) thou shalt surely die,'—' dying, thou shalt die,' says the Hebrew, the ingemination or doubling of the word die, importing, as usual in that language, the certainty and importance of the truth spoken. In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.' And these words were literally fulfilled in these respects: the very moment that man sinned he died spiritually—he felt the beginning of death corporeal, and became obnoxious to death eternal. What, was Adam thus to die for eating of the forbidden fruit ? So these words declare-declare likewise, that death and all other evils are the consequences of sin. This we notice, because some Socinians and Pelagians have denied that natural death is the fruit of sin, or that it was originally intended as a curse, but rather, say they, as a blessing. As if death were here promised, ra