DISC." which after God is created in righteouf

I.

nefs and true bolinefs, οσιότητι της αληθείας, "the holiness of, or according to truth." The divine image, then, is to be found in the understanding, and the will; in the understanding which knows the truth, and in the will which loves it. For when the understanding judges that to be true which with God is true, the man is " renewed in knowlege after the image of him that "created him ;" when the will loves the truth, and all it's affections move in the purfuit and practice of it, the man is "new "created after God in righteousness and ho"linefs." This divine image is restored in human nature by the word of Chrift enlightening the understanding, and the

in

grace of Christ rectifying the will. These are, the end, to render man what he was at first created, according to that paffage in the writings of King Solomon, which is the shortest and best comment upon the words of Mofes "God made man upright"— the original word fignifies ftraight, direct;

I.

there was no error in his understanding, no DISC. obliquity in his will. He who fays this, fays every thing. It is a full and comprehenfive account of man in his original ftate; nothing can be added to it, or taken from it.

Such, then, was Adam, in the day when God crowned him king in Eden, and invested him with sovereignty over the works of his hands, giving him " dominion over "the fish of the fea, 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.”

It appears to have been the order of Providence, that while the flesh continued in fubjection to the spirit, and man to God, fo long the creatures fhould continue in subjection to man, as fervants are subject to their lord and mafter. This original fubjection we must fuppofe to have been univerfal and abfolute. From the creatures man has much to learn, but nothing to

DISC. fear. If, to answer the purposes of creaI. tion, or to convey to his mind ideas of his

invifible enemies, any were at that time wild and noxious, with regard to him they were tame and harmless. In perfect fecurity he faw, he confidered, he admired. But when he rebelled against his God, the creatures renounced their allegiance to him, and became in the hands of their common Creator inftruments of his punishment. The beafts of the field" were no longer at peace with him." Yet, in confequence of the new covenant and promise to redeem man and the world, we find it faid after the flood-" The fear of you " and the dread of you shall be upon every "beast of the earth, and upon every fowl "of the air, upon all that moveth upon "the earth, and upon all the fishes of the "fea P." So far is the fuperiority of the human species still preserved, that “ every "kind of beafts, and of birds, and of fer"pents, and things in the fea, is tamed, " and hath been tamed of mankind ." In

P Gen. ix. 2.

9 James iii. 7.

fome

fome cafes, for the fake of eminently holy perfons, favoured by heaven on that account, the instincts of the most favage and ravenous have been fufpended; as when fome of every kind affembled and lodged together in the ark, and when the mouths of the lions were ftopped in the den of Babylon, while the righteous and greatly beloved Daniel was there. The Redeemer of the world endued his difciples with the original privilege- -"Behold I give you

power to tread on ferpents, and on fcor"pions; and nothing fhall by any means "hurt you'." And, agreeably to fuch promise, St. Paul “fhook off the viper into "the fire, and felt no harm'." The viiith pfalm is a beautiful reprefentation of the extent of this privilege, as it was poffeffed, at the beginning, by the firft Adam, and as it hath been fince restored to the second "O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! Who haft "fet thy glory above the heavens. Out of

66

DISC.

I.

Acts xxviii. 5.

• Luke x.

x. 19.

"the

DISC. "the mouth of babes and fucklings haft

I.

66

"thou ordained ftrength, because of thine
"enemies, that thou mightest still the ene-
66 my and the
avenger. When I confider
thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the
"moon and the ftars which thou haft or-
"dained; what is man, that thou art
"mindful of him? and the fon of man
"that thou vifiteft him? For thou haft
"made him a little lower than the angels,
"and haft crowned him with glory and
"honour. Thou madeft him to have do-
"minion over the works of thy hands ;
"thou haft put all things under his feet:
"all sheep and oxen, yea and the beasts of
"the field; the fowl of the air, and the
"fifh of the fea, and whatfoever paffeth

through the paths of the feas. O Lord "our Lord, how excellent is thy name in "all the earth!"

Let us indulge a few reflections on the foregoing particulars.

The imagination naturally endeavours to

form