(a.) The natural image of God-consisting of spirituality, immortality, (b.) The moral image proved from the following passages of Scrip- (5.) As to the degree of Adam's perfection in the image of God, there are two extreme opinions. Without falling into either of these, we have the following conclusions: 1. Adam was sinless both in act and principle. 2. He possessed the faculty of knowledge, and also 3. Holiness and righteousness, which express not only sinlessness, but positive and active virtues. 3. Objection to the creation of man in the moral image of God, by Dr. Taylor, answered. (1.) The fallacy of the objection lies in confounding habits of holiness with the principle. (2.) Answer quoted from Wesley. (3.) From Edwards. 4. Final cause of the creation of man--the display of the glory of God, and principally of his moral perfections. U. THE FALL OF MAN. (P. 19.) The Mosaic account, (the garden, serpent, &c.,) teaches of, (1) the existence of an evil spirit; (2) the introduction of a state of moral corruptness into human nature; and (3) a vicarious atonement for sin. There are three classes of opinions held among the interpreters of this account. (I.) Class. Those which deny the literal sense, and regard the whole narration as an instructive mythos. (A.) Two facts sufficiently refute these notions. 1. The account of the fall of the first pair is a part of a continuous history. If, then, the account of the fall may be excepted as allegorical, any subsequent portion of the Pentateuch may in like manner be taken away. 2. The literal sense of the history is referred to, and reasoned upon, as such, in various parts of Scripture. (Pp. 22, 23.) (B.) Objections have been started to the literal and historical interpre tation, of which the following are specimens : 1 "It is unreasonable to suppose that the fruit of the tree of life could confer immortality." But (1.) Why could not this tree be the appointed means of preserving health and life? (2.) Why may not the eating of the fruit be regarded as a sacra mental act? 2. "How could the fruit of the tree of knowledge have any effect upon the intellectual powers ?" (1.) Surely the tree might be called "the tree of knowledge of good and evil," because by eating of its fruit man came to know, by sad experience, the value of the good he had forfeited, &c.; or, (2.) It was the test of Adam's fidelity, and hence the name was proper. 3. Objection has been made to the account of the serpent, (a.) That it makes "the invisible tempter assume the body of an animal." Who can prove this to be impossible? (b.) "But the serpent spoke!" So did Balaam's ass. (c.) "But Eve was not surprised." Why should she? or, if she were, the history need not mention so slight a matter. (d.) "But the serpent was unjustly sentenced, if merely an instrument." The serpent certainly held its rank at the pleasure of the Creator. (C.) Tradition comes in to support the literal sense of the history. 1. The ancient Jewish writers, Apocrypha, &c. 2. The various systems of heathen mythology-Greek, Egyptian Indian, Roman, Gothic, and Hindoo. (II.) Class. Those who interpret the account in part literally and in part allegorically. (P. 30.) Sufficiently answered by quotation from Bishop Horsley. (III.) Class. Those who believe that the history has, in perfect accordance with the literal interpretation, a mystical and higher sense than the letter. This sentiment, without running into the extravagances of mysticism, is the orthodox doctrine. The history is before us;but rightly to understand it, these four points should be kept in view, viz.:— 1. Man was in a state of trial. (1.) This involved power of obedience and disobedience. (2.) That which determines to the one or the other, is the will. (3.) Our first parents were subject to temptation from intellectual pride, from sense, and from passion. (4.) To resist such temptation, prayer, vigilance, &c., were requisite. 2. The prohibition of a certain fruit was but one part of the law under which man was placed. (1.) Distinction between positive and moral precepts. (2.) The moral reason for this positive precept—as indeed for ṛrobably all others may be easily discovered. 8. The serpent was but the instrument of the real tempter, who was that evil spirit whose Scriptural appellatives are the Devil and Satan. Existence and power of this spirit clearly declared in Scripture. 4. The curse of the serpent was symbolical of the punishment of Satan. This symbolical interpretation defended by three considerations (Pp. 39-42.) ILL RESULTS OF THE FALL. (Pp. 43-87.) (I.) To Adam, inevitable death, after a temporary life of severe labour (Pp. 43-51.) 1. Statement of opinions as to the extent and application of this penalty (a.) Pelagian notion,-Adam would have died had he not sinned. (b.) Pseudo-Arminian doctrine of Whitby and others. (Pp. 43-45.) (c.) Arminius's doctrine, taken from his writings. With this nearly agree the Remonstrants, Augsburg Confession, Church of England, French and Scottish churches. 2. Import of the term death, as used in Scripture. (P. 48.) (a.) "Death came into the world by sin." (b.) It does not imply annihilation. (c.) It extends to the soul as well as to the body, thus embracing (1.) Bodily death, i. e., the separation of the soul from the body. (2.) Spiritual death, i. e., the separation of the soul from God. (3.) Eternal death, i. e., separation from God, and a positive infliction of his wrath in a future state. Taylor's objection answered by Wesley and Edwards. (II.) This sentence extended to Adam's posterity. (Pp. 52–61.) 1. The testimony of Scripture explicitly establishes a federal connexion between Adam and his descendants. Rom. v; 1 Cor. xv, 22. 2. The imputation of Adam's sin to his posterity, is the result of this con nexion. Not mediate—not immediate—but the legal result of sin. 3. The consequences of this imputation are, 1.) Death of the body. 2.) Spiritual death. 3.) Eternal death. 4. Objections are raised against this doctrine-of two kinds, viz. :—one against high Calvinism, which we leave to take care of itself; and the other against the legal part of this transaction, without considering, in connexion with it, the evangelical scheme. The case may be considered (1.) With regard to adults. The remedial scheme offers, a.) In opposition to bodily death-the resurrection. b.) In opposition to spiritual death-spiritual life. c.) In opposition to eternal death— eternal life. (2) With regard to infants. a.) The benefits of Christ's death are coextensive with the sin of Adam, (Rom. v, 18;) hence all children dying in infancy partake of the free gift. b.) Infants are not indeed born justified; nor are they capable of that voluntary acceptance of the benefits of the free gift which is necessary in the case of adults: but, on the other hand, they cannot reject it; and it is by the rejection of it that adults perish. c.) The process by which grace is communicated to infants is not revealed: the ad ministration doubtless differs from that employed toward adults. d.) Certain instrumental causes may be considered in the case of children, viz., the intercession of Christ; ordinances of the church; prayers of parents, &c. 1) The moral condition in which men are actually born into the .-id. I. Several facts of experience are to be accounted for. 1. That in all ages great and general national wickedness has prevailed. 2. The strength of the tendency to this wickedness, marked by two ir cumstances:-1.) The greatness of the crimes to which mer have abandoned themselves. 2.) The number of restraints against which this tide of evil has urged its course. 3. The seeds of the vices may be discovered in children in their earliest years. 4. Every man is conscious of a natural tendency to many evils. 5. The passions, appetites, and inclinations, make strong resistance, when man determines to renounce his evil courses. II. To account for these facts, we derive from Scripture the hypothesis,— that man is by nature totally corrupt and degenerate, and of himself incapable of any good thing. The following passages contain this doctrine:-1.) Gen. v, 3: “Adam begat a son in his own likeness." 2.) Gen. vi, 5: "Every imagination," &c. 3.) Gen. viii, 21: The imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth." 4.) Book of Job xi, 12; v, 7; xiv, 47; xv, 14. 5.) Psalm li, 5; lviii, 3, 4. 6.) Pro. xxii, 15; xxix, 15. 7.) Romans iii, 10, quoted from Psalm xiv. 8.) That class of passages which speak of evil as a distinguishing mark not of any one man, but of human nature: Jeremiah, &c. 9.) Our Lord's discourse with Nicodemus, John iii. 10.) Argument in third chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. The doctrine of the natural and universal corruption of man's nature, thus obtained from Scripture, fully accounts for the above-mentioned five facts of experience. Let us see how far they can be explained on III. The theory of man's natural innocence and purity. (P. 74.) This doctrine refers these phenomena to 1. General bad example. But 1.) This does not account for the intro duction of wickedness. 2.) How could bad example become general, if men are generally disposed to good. 3.) This very hypothesis admits the power of evil example, which is almost giving up the matter in dispute. 4.) This theory does not account for the strong bias to evil in men, nor for the vicious tempers of chil dren, nor for the difficulty of virtue. The advocates of this doctrine refer also to Vicious education, to account for these phenomena. But 1.) Where did Cain get his vicious education? 3.) Why should education be generally bad, unless men are predisposed to evil. 3.) But, in fact, education in all countries has in some degree opposed vice. 4) As for the other facts, education is placed upon the same ground as example. V Somme take a milder view of the case than the orthodox, denying these tendencies to various excesses to be sinful, until they are approved by the will. (P. 77.) But why this universal compliance of the will with what is known to be evil, unless there be naturally a corrupt state of the mind, which is what we contend for. The death of children proves that all men are "constituted" and treated as "sinners." V. Nature of original sin. 1 A privation of the image of God, according to Arminius. 2. No infusion of evil into the nature of man by God, but positive evil, as the effect, is connected with privation of the life of God, as the cause. 3. As to the transmission of this corrupt nature, the Scriptural doctrine seems to be that the soul is ex traduce, and not by immediate creation from God. This doctrine does not necessarily tend to materialism. 4 It does not follow from the corruption of human nature that there can be nothing virtuous among men before regeneration. (P. 83.) But all that is good in its principle is due to the Holy Spirit, whose influences are afforded to all, in consequence of the atonement offered for all. The following reasons may be assigned for the apparent virtues that are noticed among unregenerate men:— 1.) The understanding of man cannot reject demonstrated truth. 2.) The interests of men are often connected with right and wrong. 3.) The seeds of sin need exciting circumstances for their full development. 4.) All sins cannot show themselves in all men. 5.) Some men are more powerfully bent to one vice: some to another. But all virtues grounded on principle, wherever seen among men, are to be ascribed to the Holy Spirit, which has been vouchsafed to "the world," through the atonement. (B.)-REDEMPTION. (Ch. xix–xxix.) (1) PRINCIPLES OF REDEMPTION. (Ch. xix-xxii.) L Principles of God's moral government. (Ch. xix.) The penalty of death was not immediately executed in all its extent upon the first sinning pair. Why was it not? In order to answer this question, the character of God, and the principles of his moral government, will be briefly examined. (L) The divine character is illustrated by the extent and severity of the punishments denounced against transgression. (P. 88.) (II.) It is more fully illustrated by the testimony of God himself in the Scriptures, (p. 89,) where 1. The divine holiness, and 2. The divine justice, are abundantly declared. Justice is either, 1) |