made the least possible, consisting simply in his abstaining from one tree amongst the thousands with which the paradise of Eden abounded. This little thing he had to render unto creation's Lord; this only shewed that he was inferior unto God, in that province over which he had received the supremacy. And, in order to make him still more abhorrent of the act of disobedience, it was declared unto him, that "in the day he ate thereof he should surely die." But with all these advantages of his condition, which, without any offence to Divine power, we may say were the greatest possible, he also did soon reveal the infirmity and inferiority of every creature; he fell into transgression, subverted the end of his creation, defrauded the Christ of his faithful testimony, and threw off subjection to his Maker: and so the end of his creation, and of the creation of all things here below, was subverted. Therefore they must die, because they no longer declared the truth; they must utterly perish, because now they bear testimony to a lie or, if they remain, they must be constituted for some end of witnessing to the truth, which in the first instance they have denied and frustrated. And that they remained and died not, is the proof that God's purpose had not been defrauded altogether, yea, not defrauded at all; that, in fact, he had a far deeper purpose than shewed itself at the first-which was, to permit the sin and to over-rule the Fall, to the destruction and extermination of sin: so as that his Son, in becoming manifest, might, as the blessed conjunction and high prerogative of that happy hour of his most blessed nativity, bring along with him the destruction and utter detrusion of sin from the abode

of the saints of God. But, this purpose requiring time to develope itself, it was necessary, in the mean while, so to over-rule and restrain the wickedness which had been introduced, and would soon have brought about the death of all things, as that it should be not only a testimony of sin present, but also a testimony of sin about to be east out; not only the testimony of a Fall, but also the testimony of a Restoration; not only the testimony of a death from a life that once was good, but also the testimony of a resurrection to a life that should be much better. And, accordingly, this was done, because it was possible to be done, through the sacrifice of that Lamb of God which was slain before the foundation of the world. And what rendered it possible? This only rendered it possible-namely, that in the councils of eternity the purpose was to bring in the Christ through the avenues of sin and through the jaws of death. Which being an integral and substantial part of the purpose of the Godhead, for the revelation of their own being, and for the blessedness of all elect creatures, who by faith and hope in the great expectation had stood fast, maketh every thing connected with the introduction of sin to be not only profitable, but prolific of all good; maketh the apparent changes of the Divine operations to be only the harmonious unfoldings of one mighty plan-which is, to bring in the Christ through the avenues of sin and the jaws of death; and to establish all things by the method not of first creation, but of restitution: which I believe to be the only way capable of making known the manifold wisdom and perfections of God.

We are therefore, dear brethren, devoutly to

regard the world which we inhabit, ourselves who inhabit it, and every thing that hath a being therein, as having been preserved from death, placed in their present posture, and constituted according to their present laws, because of the merit of that sacrifice which was offered up from the day of eternity: and being by Christ preserved, then also for Christ preserved, for the end of lifting up, in the midst of the apostasy of the creature, which now must run its course, a faithful witness in behalf of Him who was yet to come and be the righteous standing and stability of all the things which sin had laid waste, and over which ruin had for a while driven its fatal ploughshare.

For no one can doubt that the world is under a different constitution than it was in paradise; and this constitution is not the threatened one of death: what then is it? There is no room for a third, unless it hold of the redemption of Christ. As man in the midst of the curse had the promise of redemption, so the creatures in the midst of the curse had also their promise of redemption; and they are waiting on, no less than we, for the manifestation of the Redeemer in the likeness of the unfallen, as he hath been already manifested in the likeness of the fallen Adam; to come as the heir of the dominion. and power and glory, as he heretofore came the heir of the servitude and the weakness and the curse. The creatures must have been arrested in their road to death, and placed as they have been found since the Fall, for some reason: God would not for nothing contravene his threatened word of death: "He is not a man, that he should

lie; nor the son of man, that he should repent." Well, then, and for what was it ? It could not be for an idle monument of what they once were, unless they were to return to that good condition again; for that were but to sicken reflective minds with profitless despondency and to drive ambitious minds into madness. And yet, if this world is to be destroyed and annihilated from the things that be-as the most part of men conceit-what is it that it declareth, but an idle memorial of things that once were, and are no more to be for ever? I wonder whither the good sense of those men is gone, and their prudence, in which they pride themselves, who hold on and keep by such a distracted and disjointed system. What do the heavens preach, what doth the sun go forth from his chambers to declare, what doth the providence of God over all things intend, if it be not the keeping of things together, and the restraining of their downward tendency to ruin and death, in virtue of that redemption which was purposed in eternity, and is bringing about in time; in purchase of which redemption Christ took a body, and died upon the cross; in pledge and assurance of which he arose from the dead, and is seated on the right hand of power, expecting till the times of the Father be fulfilled, and all his enemies be made his footstool?

From these premises I conclude, that all the appointed laws and ordinances of God, whereby the earth is appointed to yield her fruits into the lap of man-the hardy tillage of the ground, the hopeful sowing of the seed, the long waiting-for of harvest, the unavoidable mixture of the tares and wheat, their careful separation in the time

of harvest, the storing of the one in precious garners, and the consuming of the other with fire -will all be found to prefigure the beginning and the progress and the consummation of that more excellent husbandry, which the Lord is carrying forward over the face of all the fallen creation, and which is to end in the plentiful and joyful harvest of the Lord's coming. For why? Are they not also a part of the redemption from death, which, being one in beginning and one in end, must be one in demonstration? From the same premises I would infer, that all which is found convenient and necessary for reclaiming man from the lowest condition of savage wretchedness, tending to moral death, and preserving him in peaceful and harmonious societies, tending upwards to moral life-such as criminal laws, punishments, and judgment-seats, the royal fountain of mercy, meritorious preferments of rank and honour, and the inviolate sacredness of domestic rights; the whole ordinance of king and subject, nobles and people, judges and magistrates, crimes and punishments, whereby men are reclaimed and redeemed from that wretchedness in which they are found in the state of nature-will all be found to shadow forth that Divine government which God exerciseth over his church, and by which he preserveth the peace and prosperity of Zion. And this same observation I would extend to every ordinance of God by which the health and well-being of the creatures are preserved: for they are only parts of that great work of redemption which was procured by the death of Christ; and to what else then should they tend, but to declare and foreshew