general character, as fallen sons of fallen Adam..

Now, without a knowledge and serious consideration of these important points, it is impossible to form a true, much less a competent estimate of Christ's sufferings upon the cross, of the efficacy of his resurrection, or of the fruits of the Holy Spirit, consequent thereupon. Whence it fol lows, that the first step towards the attainment of all true spiritual knowledge is the knowledge of ourselves. For no man can know how justly to appreciate what has been done for him, till he knows what,' under the circumstances of his condition, was necessary to be done; on the principle that he cannot duly estimate the value of what has been regained, but by the comparative importance of what had been previously lost.

With a view to this knowledge as indis pensable to the forming a proper judgment on man's actual condition, the object of a former Discourse, was to place Adam in his primeval state of perfection, described in Scripture by his being "created in the image of God;" to the end, that

being

being made acquainted with man's origi nal condition, his trial under the first dispensation, and the fatal consequence of his failure; you might be prepared to understand the nature of that spiritual. conflict, into which the second Adam entered with the grand deceiver; together with the purpose designed to be auswered by it..

The two scenes which have been already made to pass before you, may however be considered as introductory only to that, in which we are immediately concerned. The first scene in the history of man, which divine revelation has brought hefore us, places Adam, the appointed lord of this lower world, invested with powers sufficient to have enabled him to attain to eternal life, yielding to the base proposal of the insidious Tempter, and thereby bringing sin, sorrow, and corruption, on his descendants. The second. great scene presents us with a more consolatory spectacle. In this, to us, most. interesting scene, we behold the second Adam, the Lord from Heaven, led up into the wilderness to be tempted by that

same

same evil spirit, by which our first parents had been tempted in Paradise. In this memorable scene we behold on one side a creature so powerful, that he once dared to contend with God himself; on the other we behold God humbled into a man; that, as our Representative, he might conquer that evil one which had originally triumphed over man; and thereby shew what man, in his perfect state, might have done; and what, through the assistance of divine grace, he may be enabled still to perform.

The concluding, and to us most important scene of this great spiritual: drámà, remains now to be brought before you'; the subject of which is briefly contained in, the words of the text, which speak a lauguage that ought to be intelligible to every Christian. Seeing that ye have "put off the old man with his deeds, and "have put on the new man, which is re"newed in knowledge, after the image of "Him that created him." Language strictly corresponding to what the Apostle made use of on another occasion; when, professedly describing the state of Chris

tians, in contradistinction to that of those Heathens who still continued to walk in the vanity of their mind, in the inherit, ance of all the fatal consequences of the Fall; "having the understanding dark. "ened, and being alienated from the life "of God, being past feeling, and work❝ing all uncleanness with greediness." "But ye," continues the Apostle, addressing himself to his Christian converts at Ephesus," have not so learned Christ. "If so be that ye have heard him, and "have been taught by him, as the truth ❝is in Jesus, that ye put off concerning "the former conversation the old man, "which is corrupt according to the de

ceitful lusts; and be renewed in the "spirit of your mind. And that ye put ("on the new man, which after God is "created in righteousness and true holi

ness." Eph. iv. 20. &c. By the old and the new man is clearly to be understood that characteristic distinction between the carnal and spiritual man, necessary to render the language of Scrip-ture on this subject intelligible. The old -man refers to that state to which Adam

reduced

reduced his descendants by the Fall, a state of blindness, corruption, and alienation from all spiritual things. The new man places this fallen creature before us in his state of renovation, by virtue of that gracious covenant into which the Son of God entered on his behalf; in consequence of which he has it in his power through the renewing of the Holy Ghost, so far to do away the effects of the Fall, as still to become qualified for that happiness for which the beneficent Creator of man designed him, and for which his original creation in the image of God was calculated to prepare him. Hence it follows, on a principle of reason, that the restoration of what is to be understood by the image of God in man, must constitute a necessary prelude to the recovery of that state, which was orginally made to depend on its continued preservation. It is to be expected therefore that the language of Scripture should strictly correspond with the nature and design of that gracious covenant, which, for the comfort of fallen man, it was intended to reveal, by which he is given to understand, that under the Gospel