and the personal experience of happiness or misery. We infer, like the apostle Paul, the doctrine from the fact. And that a covenant, which was to affect human persons, and human persons alone, should regard them in their human personality, appears to me too plain to require much proof. But, to make assurance doubly sure, to concentrate every ray of divine light which we have it in our power to concentrate, on a subject so deeply interesting to every mortal man, I shall show, that Adam did not represent human nature generally-but human nature, existing in human personality. The fact is simple, the proof is short.

Jesus of Nazareth was a man; his Heavenly Father prepared him a body-sent forth his son, made of a woman. He possessed human nature in all its parts, a true body, and a reasonable soul. He was of the blood of that Adam, with whom the covenant was made in paradise, a living part of that human nature, which was represented by Adam in the covenant. Now, I ask, was he represented by Adam in that covenant,—or was he not? If he was, then he appeared in more than the likeness of sinful flesh : he was sinful flesh; he was born under the wrath and curse of God, like other sinners of the race; he was not a holy thing, born of the virgin; he could not become the Lamb of God that taketh way the sin of the world. But these are conclusions which no one wearing the name of Christian ever has drawn. And I would not have

troubled the reader with a detailed state of the argument, but to prepare him for a question which I shall propose, when he takes the other side of the dilemma.

Let it be denied, then, as it must, that Adam represented the Redeemer of the world, Jesus of Nazareth ; I ask, then, why was not Jesus represented in that covenant? Here is human nature, entire human nature; why is it exempted from the law of human nature? What attribute of a human being did Adam possess, which Jesus of Nazareth possessed not? The answer is simple, he did not possess human personality ; in other words, he was not a human person: and it was the want of that human personality, and that want alone, that exempted him from the personal guilt common to mankind. I know my reader is quite impatient to pour in upon me an objection, or to give a dif ferent solution. I shall not trifle with his patience a moment longer. I shall state his solution myself.

The solution contemplated is, that Jesus did not descend from Adam by ordinary generation; and that, as ordinary generation is the bond which unites us to Adam, the extraordinary generation of our Lord prevented a federal union with Adam, and acquitted him from any personal responsibility for Adam's conduct. And 1 acknowledge, that this is the solution of the question given in the confessions, and catechisms, and formularies of all the reformed churches, and in the writings of the ablest divines; and the solution to which Mr. M'C. repeatedly recurs, through all his publications on federal representation. And I feel that it must excite prejudice against me, to declare, that I am not satisfied with it: a pruriency to deal in new words and phrases, is at once a proof of shallow science and false taste. But, several years ago, when engaged in

studying the covenant of works from the inspired page itself, I was compelled to drop this account of the matter, and search for another; which, I hope, will prove as satisfactory to my reader as it is to myself. I must, however, be indulged, in justice to myself, to say, that I advance no new doctrine; I admit, that Adam's natural posterity are under the covenant; and that Jesus Christ was not—but I insist, that natural generation is not the circumstance that brought the former under, nor extraordinary generation the circumstance that exempted the other from it.

The jet of the question is here-Was Eve represented by Adam in the covenant of works?

It appears, from the sacred history, that after the Creator had formed Adam in his own image, he took him into the garden of Eden, and surrendered into his possession all its vegetable treasures, save the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; and this he made the object of his supreme law, of that divine constitution, which, viewed simply as a law, flowing from supreme authority, bound the conscience of man, as a voluntary subject of Jehovah's government; and which, viewed as a law sanctioned both with penalty and reward, possesses the strict nature of a covenant. "Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." After this God brought to Adam the various tribes of domestic animals, teaching him their natures, names, and uses; and delivering them into his possession. It was not till after all these transactions had taken place, and till Adam was made experimentally to know, that, notwithstanding all the rich resources of his pure and exalted soul, notwithstanding the rich and exuberant abundance of this blessed planet, a life

of solitude would be a life without happiness. It was not till after all this, that the Lord formed for him a rational and moral companion; a companion that he could love, with whom he could hold rational conversation, with whom he could enjoy, in high and holy moral communion, all the bounties and blessings of God. "And God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept, and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof: and the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto man-and God blessed them, and God said unto them, be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowls of the air, and over every living thing that moveth on the earth."

From the scriptural account of this whole transaction, I presume every candid inquirer after truth will see cause to believe, that when the covenant was made with Adam, he had not so much as an idea of any human being but himself. How should he? But when Eve was formed and brought to Adam, and the blessing of fruitfulness pronounced on them both, I have no doubt (though the matter is not stated in so many words) that he was commanded to instruct her, and their progeny, when they should in due time arise, in the nature of the divine law under which they were placed; and told, that he was to act for them, as well as for himself, in his covenant relation, and that obedience on his part should be life-and disobedience death, not only to himself, but to them all. I think all this obviously true, and shall not inquire, at present, whither it may carry me.

But, one thing is certain, from Eve's reply to

the tempter, that she did consider herself under the bond of the covenant. "The woman said unto the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said ye shall not eat of it." Certainly Eve did consider herself as under the covenant; and, as she had no instructor but either God or Adam, it is impossible she should have been instructed wrong. It is true, some commentators (suo more) have borne hard upon the phrase neither shall ye touch it, as an officious addition to the divine law; but they forget that Eve was, at that time, female innocence in person, and stood as yet far too high for the censure of any of her degenerate sons or daughters: and even though these words should not have been in the original institute, (a point on which, as we know nothing, we need say as little) they should be suffered to pass as the amiable comment, of an innocent female; who, timid least she should tarnish her honour, is willing to keep farther from danger than is absolutely necessary to avoid it.

We may argue Eve's interest in the covenant of works, from a different set of promises. For, if she had no interest in that, she can have none in the covenant of grace; if she be not one of them that died in Adam, neither is she of those who shall be made alive by Jesus Christ. If Eve was not under the law, and Jesus Christ was made under the law to redeem them that were under the law, she has neither lot nor portion in his redemption; and then, as the law of works and the law of grace, are the only laws ever God gave to mankind, it will follow, that Eve never was under any law. The koran of Mahomet alone can inform us for