ance and salvation, or convinced in the event of his rejection and damnation. For neither is it possible, that God should lay any plan or make any decree, which would contradict or thwart the intelligence, reason or free agency with which man is indued by his Creator, as being his offspring. Because, take away man's reason and free agency, or require that which is contrary thereto and out of man's reach, and he is no more amenable for his actions, or subject to praise or blame. But of this hereafter.

The decrees of God may be divided into two general classes. The first class comprehends all the purposes of God, concerning what he intends to do immediately as at the beginning, or by the agency of his creatures at any time after they had an existence in their proper order. The fixed determination of God to effectuate such works as he sees are necessary and proper, may be properly called a decree. The second class comprehends those things which creatures are required to do as acts of obedience to God's will, and on the doing of which their own acceptance depends, as, If ye be willing and obedient ye shall eat the good of the land. Or any established law or rule for the people, may be called a decree, as the sentence passed by the apostles and elders at Jerusalem concerning circumcision. So a determinate rule of court is called a decree of the court, and the courtiers are required to observe it, and in case of violation are punishable.

The decrees of God are to be known and understood by the revelation of his true character, the declaration of his will by the word revealed, and by the works of creation and providence, or by the works of nature and grace. Beyond these sources we have no occasion to inquire after the decrees of God; these are sufficient; for God doth not work inconsiderately; what he doeth he purposed to do, and that which he requireth his creatures to do, is also according to counsel. Neither is it to be forgotten that in all God's decrees and works, he hath consulted the good of his creatures as really as his own glory; for notwithstanding that his own glory is his ultimate end, the happiness and final glorification of his creatures, each in his proper sphere and lot, are so connected with his glory, that the one serves to promote the other. And it is not possible it should be otherwise; because, for God to create beings capable of everlasting happiness and not have respect thereto, in all his purposes and works, would tarnish his glory and be incompatible with his goodness, love, mercy and other attributes; and it is also impossible that creatures, as men are, created in the image of God and after his likeness, should be happy and not glorify God. True happiness, therefore, in the proper sphere and order which belong to men, as the offspring and accountable creatures of God, is a justifiable motive to duty, and not contrary to the purposes of God; a motive which God uniformly proposes to induce men to obedience, and without which no motive can reach them to profit, in a state of nature, fallen as it is. And whereas God promotes his own glory by his creatures, through their agency and the good which he doeth for them, according to the counsel and wisdom of his own will, although it remains true, that a man cannot be profitable to God as he that is wise may be profitable to himself, yet in filling up the purposes of obedience, and the work which God hath appointed him to do, a man may, in his own sphere, be profitable to God in the promotion of his glory.

But we are particularly interested in the decrees of God, and the execution of them, as they relate to men. And here let it be remembered according to what has been already stated, that it is impossible God should decree any thing to be done by himself or otherwise, unless it is his will it should be done. This is a natural inference from the nature and character of God as he is revealed to men he is not a capricious, uncertain being like them; "He is of one mind." It would, indeed, be inconsistent with the voluntary and free agency of a man, acting without constraint, to decree any thing to the contrary of his own will, and how much more so in the infinitely free and perfect Being who is of one mind and none can turn him, and to whom all his works are known from the foundation of the world. This is a first principle, a dictate of common sense, and needs no farther proof.

CHAPTER V.

OF MAN AS THE IMAGE AND REPRESENTATIVE OF GOD, AND OF

HIS RESPONSIBILITY.

THAT God created man according to his purpose or decree, needs not be denied if we attend to the counsel or reasoning which he held at his creation. "And God said: Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image; in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them; and God said to them: Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” Thus man was created of God a living being as his representative on earth; in the image of God, as it were God in miniature, the image and glory of God; God in his sphere, having dominion over all; yet a dependent creature of God; indued by him in the creation, with the capability of propagating his own species, the offspring of himself in his own likeness. This capability of propagation was found in the co-operation of the organs of the material body in the male and female; which material body stood in so intimate a relation to the spirit which came directly from God, that the two constituted in each one distinct person, one man and one woman; so that, by the co-operation of the procreative powers in the male and the female, a race of beings were propagated and continued, who are not merely material bodies, but men like their original in all their physical powers and properties. Thus mankind are the image and representatives of Deity in the world, to this day, in a dignity superior to all natural creatures. We shall consider their fall and corruption by sin hereafter.

This material body was made of the earth, earthy; adapted to serve

as a habitation of the spirit, and to answer every necessary purpose for the time being. So that the first man is said to be of the earth, earthy; and not only the first man, but all his posterity, for as is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy. Adam's sons are like himself. But the spirit was given of God, and, as a rational being, is more properly the representative and offspring of God than any other creature or thing in the natural world, and that in which the man properly and finally consists, and without which man would not be man in his proper order. "And the LORD God formed man of the dust

of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul"-indued with rational intelligence. In this soul, or spirit, man is capable of rising again to God, notwithstanding all which he hath suffered by the fall, and of being manifestly the image and glory of God, in the redemption which is in Christ Jesus the Lord; for, He who is joined to the Lord is one Spirit; and again, The second man is the Lord from heaven; and as is the heavenly such are they also that are heavenly.

and

Thus God, in the execution of his purpose and decree, created man to be the true representation of himself, and to stand as the image glory of God forever, and so to declare his power and set forth his glory more perfectly than all the material heavens and earth could do besides.

But man transgressed the law of God, violated the will of God made known to him, and so fell from his proper lot and place in which he was created. It appears needless to consume time and labour in this place to prove this point, which is so abundantly acknowedged, and on which so much hath already been written. All man's works from his infancy declare, that they spring from a source which cannot pertain to God, being utterly subversive of all good. All men, in their natural state, evince by their works the truth of the Scriptures, "That God hath made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions." (Eccl. vii. 29.) And again; "There is none righteous, no not one; there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God; they are all gone out of the way, they are altogether become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one: destruction and misery are in their ways; and the way of peace have they not known; there is no fear of God before their eyes."

The inquiry at present is, Did God decree that man should act as he did, and so fall from his primeval state of rectitude and happiness ? To this we are obliged, by the force of truth, to answer in the negative; That God did not decree that man should commit such a deed, neither was it the genuine fruit nor necessary consequence of any of

God's appointments. God made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions for themselves. For, as before stated, it is impossible that God should appoint or decree any thing contrary to his own will or any of his perfections: and for his creatures to do his will, or to act according to his will or appointment is no transgression, but obedience; and no fall or evil consequence could be the result of such doing, but on the contrary life and peace; Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father who is in heaven." "But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear

him, and his righteousness to children's children; to such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them." (Matt. vii. 21. Psa. ciii. 17, 18.) It cannot be transgression in men to act as they are called to act by God's appointment; and to say that it was necessary that man should sin according to the order of his creation, or by God's appointment, is to say that God is the proper and primary author of sin, or rather that there is no such thing as sinning against God.

It was no doubt necessary that man should be tried and learn by experience to resist temptation; and admitting that God knew that his fall would be the result of his trials, that was not to prevent God from placing him in those circumstances which were necessary to that experience without which he could never have been a tried and safe subject of obedience, or a safe keeper of his own peace and happiness; especially considering that God gave him warning of his danger, and foretold him the consequence of disobedience: "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." But it was, and still is impossible, that God should place man in circumstances where he would unavoidably be unnecessarily tempted.

But if God did not decree that man should fall, it may be asked: Did he decree or appoint that he should not? To this we may answer in the affirmative, that God did pass a decree that man should not sin or fall; for without sinning he could not have fallen. This decree was the law of God which man broke, and by the violation of which he fell. For without such a decree, he could not have sinned; because, "Where there is no law there is no transgression; for sin is the transgression of the law." And without such a decree, neither could man ever have proved his obedience nor have been ever confirmed in happiness, for he would have remained untried. And so necessary is trial in the servants of God, that he would not finally crown his own Son, or place him as the foundation on which to build his Church, until he was perfectly tried even to death tried stone, and was made perfect through sufferings. Neither vil any of his saints. ever be finally crowned with the crown of righteousness and eternal life, until they pass through the perfect fiery trial, and experience that trial of their faith which is more precious and more refining than that of gold, and learn by the things which they suffer-until they know how to keep themselves in the love of God. It was, therefore, as correct and necessary that the first Adam and his posterity should be tempted and tried as that the second and his seed should.

From what is here said, it will naturally be understood, that God did not decree in that order of decrees which was first described, that man should not sin or fall, that is, he did not decree absolutely that he should not sin, nolens volens, or that he would interpose an arbitrary or forbidding power to prevent him in the face of motive and man's free agency. Such a decree or preventing act would have annulled all accountableness in man and made his withstanding of the temptation a necessary act, destitute of either praise or blame, justification or condemnation. So that there existed no possible way for man to arrive at the perfection of his order, or that summit of blessedness of which he was capable by creation, and which was his ultimate destination in the spirit, the glory of God and the enjoyment of

him, only to let him be tried by temptation, and the result be attended to as occasion required.

God did decree, absolutely and without reserve, to provide a remedy for man, to recover him from the fall and its consequences. Not indeed to restore Adam and his posterity into his first order in the flesh, or mend up that order, but to reinstate them into the favour of God, and in the line of their duty and happiness, in Christ the second Adam, so much farther on their way-as many as will yield obedience to that plan. This decree is executed in Christ, in his first and second appearing, after it had been set forth by many shadows and various forms in the law of Moses. And as we desire to make as short work on this subject as will consist with duty and perspicuity, we are now ready to enter on the ground where the things immediately relating to salvation concentrate, and where we may inquire with freedom into the decrees of God as they respect men in their present standing.

But as God is a free, moral agent, who worketh all things according to the counsel of his own will, or in other words, who doeth all things as he seeth and judgeth it best to do them, all things considered; as the representative of God, therefore, man is also a free, moral agent, influenced in his actions by his own mind and judgment.

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But as we have now to treat of man in his fallen, corrupt state, it becomes necessary to inquire, whether by the fall his moral agency was destroyed, or is become at all different from what it was. this proposition the reply is negative. It is not destroyed; it is not different from what it was in the creation; for let that be taken away and a man is no more amenable for his conduct. This will become evident by inquiring wherein moral agency consists, or on what it depends. Whether on a man's holiness and the rectitude of his actions, or on the physical powers of the mind. And it is evident it cannot depend on the first; because in that case, having once become corrupt or unholy, he could no more be a moral agent, consequently no longer responsible; but it is granted that man has not lost his responsibility to God and to his fellow-creatures. Besides; in that case he could no more be influenced by reason, or by motives presented to the intellect. But man is still influenced by motive, and gained by reason; and God always addresses himself to man according to these principles. "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD." Moral agency, therefore, depends on the other source, the physical powers of the mind-those powers without which man would not be man, or the representative of God in his own image. Now these powers were not taken away by the fall, for the change produced by sin was not physical but moral. It left the man physically what he was, constituted of body and mind, or rational spirit, with the animal life. The result then of this inquiry is, that man is found to be a moral agent, that his actions have respect to good and evil, sin, duty, obedience and disobedience, since the fall as really as before; and that his moral agency depends on the physical powers or faculties of the mind, or rational spirit.

I have not continued to use the double epithet, free, moral agent, from the consideration that the single phrase is sufficient, as I know no difference between a moral agent, and a free, moral agent; for the