The world began with innocency; all was, then good that the good God had made. And he blessed the works of his hands; so their natures and harmony magnified him, their Creator.

But this happy state lasted not long; for man, the crown and glory of the whole, being tempted to aspire above his place, unhappily yielded against command and duty, as well as interest and felicity, and so fell below it; lost the divine image, the wisdom, power, and purity he was made in; by which, being no longer fit for Paradise, he was expelled that garden of God, his proper dwelling and residence, and was driven out as a poor vagabond from the presence of the Lord, to wander in the earth, the habitation of beasts.

Yet God that made him, had pity on him; for he, seeing that man was deceived, and that it was not of malice, or an original presumption in him, but through the subtilty of the serpent, in his infinite wisdom and goodness, found out a way to repair the breach, recover the loss, and restore fallen man again, by a nobler and more excellent Adam, promised to be born of a woman; that as by means of a woman the evil one had prevailed upon man, by a woman also, He should come into the world, who would prevail against him, and bruise his head, and deliver man from his power; and which, in a signal manner, by the dispensation of the Son of God in the flesh, in the fulness of time, was personally and fully accomplished, by him and in him, as man's Saviour and Redeemer.

FROM I. PENNINGTON.

THE fall of man is such, that it hath benumbed all his senses, yea, so bereft him of them, that he cannot feel his own estate. He is dead, spiritually dead, and can no more feel his death, his spiritual death, than a man naturally dead, can his natural death. Men speak of the relics of the image which the first man had. Ah, poor deceived hearts! what relics of life are there in a dead man? what relics of purity in a man wholly degenerated and corrupted? Nay, nay, the spiritual image, the divine image, the eternal life, the pure power and virtue, is wholly löst, and there is nothing left but what is captivated and destroyed through the degenerating power. So that it is impossible for fallen man to attain to so much as one true breathing or desire after God again. This can only arise by the power of grace, in mercy extended, begetting in us (by the free gift) that divine life and image again, which was slain in man, and the impression of it on him wholly lost.*

Bishop Wilson, on John iii. 6, says, "In this text, flesh and spirit do plainly denote the two states of Man by nature and grace; that which is born of the Spirit partakes of the properties of that spirit, by which he is regenerated: so, that which is born of the flesh, partakes of the properties of the flesh. The birth of the spirit, is as real as the birth of the flesh."

In Fletcher's Discourse on the New Birth, he says, "Thou hast lost the life of God out of thy soul, and thou canst not recover it but by being born again. Without a spiritual birth, it will be as impossible for thee to see God, and rejoice in the brightness of his face, as for an infant not yet born, to discover the sun, and rejoice in his light."

"By knowing our own nothingness and inability, that we have no capacity for good, but that of receiving it from God alone, self is wholly denied, its kingdom is destroyed, no room is left for spiritual pride and self esteem; we are saved from a pharisaical holiness, from wrong opinions of our own works and deeds, and from a mul

FROM G. FOX.

Now whilst Adam and Eve were in Paradise, and kept God's commandment, and obeyed his voice, they were helpmeets in the image of God, both male and female; and God gave them dominion over all that he had made, and blessed them: but after they disobeyed God's voice and command, and hearkened unto the serpent's, and so were subjected, under hope of being as gods, and of being wiser than God had made them, and thought that fruit was good for food and to make wise, which brought them surely to die that day they did eat thereof. So Adam and Eve came to be dead to God, and instead of being wiser, came to be fools, and got the cursed ground, and thorns and thistles, instead of Paradise.

But you may see that Adam and Eve were alive after this. Yea, they were alive outwardly, but they died from the image and likeness of God, and righteousness and holiness which God Almighty made them in, and from that power in which the Lord gave them dominion over all the works of his hands.

"The Lord God said, thou shalt not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."

"But the serpent said, if ye eat thereof ye shall

titude of errors the most dangerous to our souls. But when we once apprehend, but in some good degree, the ALL of God and the nothingness of ourselves, we have got a truth whose usefulness and benefit no words can express. "When our religion is founded on this Rock, it has the firmness of a rock, and its height reaches unto heaven." Law's Spirit of Prayer.

not surely die ;" and they did eat, and disobeyed the Lord's voice and command, and did surely die, [as above expressed, to the image and likeness of Gol,] and so death passed upon all men, and all died in Adam.

Now all being in the fall of Adam, and Adam and his whole house being fallen from the image of God. into sin and darkness, Christ, the second Adam, died for them all and enlightens them all.

Now, dear friends, you that are redeemed from the death and fall of Adam, by Christ, the second Adam, in him ye have life, rest, and peace. Blessed be the Lord for ever through Jesus Christ who hath tasted death for all men to bring them out of the death of Adam, aud is a propitiation for the sins of the whole world, and gave himself a ransom for all.

FROM R. CLARIDGE.

By the propitiatory sacrifice of Christ without us, we, truly repenting and believing, are, through the mercy of God, justified from the imputations of sins and transgressions that are passed, as though they had never been committed. And, by the mighty work of Christ within us, the power, nature, and habits of sin are destroyed; that "as sin once reigned unto death, even so now grace reigneth through righteousness unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord." And all this is effected, not by a bare or naked act of faith, separate from obedience, but in the obedience of faith, Christ

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being the author of eternal salvation to none but those that obey him.*

WILLIAM DEWSBURY, speaking of man in his fallen state, says "Your minds are feeding on created objects, which will perish; some there are that feed upon the letter of the Scripture, comprehending God and Christ in their wisdom, from what the saints of the Most High spake forth from the life they enjoyed in Christ Jesus, which was in them the hope of their glory; and man, in his own wisdom, steals the words into his understanding, and knows not this life and power thereof in himself; and so while he speaks to others, himself is a castaway. Every man and woman in particular, deal justly with your own hearts, and see what is the ground of the hope of your calling, and by what power you are acted; whether by the power of the first Adam, or the second; for if thou, upon the convincement of the evil of thy ways, do not wait in the light which is in thy conscience, that convinceth thee of the

* G. Monro, Vicar of Letterkenny, in Ireland. “ 'Hear,' saith the wisdom of God to the souls of Men, Prov. viii. 6. 'for I will speak of excellent things and the opening of my lips shall be of right things;' clearly intimating, that in order to be taught by the Holy Spirit, and receive from him the knowledge of divine things, we must carefully listen to his voice. Now a scholar, if, when his master is speaking and using endeavours to instruct him, he should suffer his attention to be broken and scattered, by playing and unseasonably talking with his comrades, or otherwise, cannot hear the voice of his teacher nor be benefited by him; so neither can we hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, nor receive any profit by his loving care to assist us, as long as our attention is diverted by the cares of the world, by the tumults of our unruly passions, by inordinately pleasing our sensuality, and indulging ourselves in the liberty of speculating vainly. His gentle voice is heard only in silence and recollection, when the mind is serious and undisturbed, our passions hushed, and the world secluded.

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