never seeks his victims among the unsinning, (save in the voluntary subjection of Christ,) fail to perceive its character for turpitude and guilt. And to the eye of him who came not to save the righteous, but sinners, its guilty character is apparent. It is on this principle alone that infants are brought within the scope of a Saviour's mission. To suppose he came, or died to save them from condemnation, but not from guilt, goes far to impeach the equity of God, by supposing that he held a condemnation over them which was unjust. Such a view would make Christ to have died to prevent an act of injustice on the part of God, rather than "to save sinners."

To this generative perpetuation and continuation of sin, its universal development in man, bears ample testimony, especially as the origin of sinful actions is defined by the Saviour himself. "Make the tree good and his fruit good, or the tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt." Nothing can be plainer than that Christ regarded sinful actions as the development of a sinful nature within, and not the sinful nature as resulting from bad actions. Of this sinful nature, the apostle regards Adam as the generative head. And herein is he "a figure of him that was to come." For even so is Christ regarded as the generative head of all his posterity, and as thus imparting to them those moral traits of character which give them to be called the sons of God. He is the holy seed of promise, who, by a spiritual generation, is multiplied into all true believers. "By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven and as the sand upon the sea-shore, and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies," Gen. 22: 17, 18. "And he said not, unto seeds as of many, but unto one, that is, Christ." Christ was this seed; and how is he multiplied but by transferring his spirit, his tendency to holiness, to all his children? Except the spirit of Christ be in you, ye are none of his. "Wherefore thou art no more a servant but a son, and if a son, an heir of God through Christ. Wherefore God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying abba Father."

This generative transfer of the moral excellency of Christ to all his posterity, as figured forth in this Adamic analogy, is perhaps more fully expressed by the apostle,

when he speaks of him as "the head, from which all the body, by joints and bands having nourishment ministered and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.” By this generative impartation it is that many are made righteous.

"The first Adam was made a living soul," and such he propagated. "The last Adam was made a quickening spirit.' "The second man is the Lord from heaven," and "as is the heavenly such are they also that are heavenly. As we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly."

This generative analogy between the first and second. Adam, is not only thus obvious and striking, but it enters as an indispensable element into the equity and justice of the second analogical resemblance between the two, viz.

Secondly. In that they are regarded in the government of God as the federal head of their respective pos

terities.

"For if through the offence of one many be dead." "For the judgment was by one to condemnation." "For if by one man's offence, death reigned by one." "Therefore, as by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation." "For as by one man's sin many were made sinners," etc. In all these passages the federal connection between Adam and all his posterity is most clearly and unequivocally asserted. It is thought by many that the last passage quoted,-many were made sinners,means only that by his act they were constituted sinners constructively in the eye of the law; but we prefer the understanding of it, that they were constituted such in the eye of the law, as they were indeed made such by the generative descent of sin. Any other view would seem to be a confirmation of that proverb which God himself contradicts, viz. "The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge," that is, that the children suffer abstractly for what the father has done, while this view makes the sin as federal as the suffering. Thus it might be said in truth, the fathers have eaten sour grapes and their teeth are set on edge; and that the children eat sour grapes, and their teeth are set on edge; and thus it is in justice that God visits the "sins of the fathers upon the third and fourth generations of them that hate me," etc. But be this as it may, nothing can be

clearer than that, in the judicial regard of God, Adam acted and was regarded as the federal head of his posterity, securing for them in the eye of the divine law what he secured for himself. His sin and the condemnation were

theirs.

And here, too, the analogy between him and Christ is clearly set forth.

"Much more the grace of God and the gift by grace which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many."

"But the free gift is of many offences unto justification." "Much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ."

i. e. upon

"Even so, by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life; all who are justified, or all of Christ's posterity.

in a

"So by the obedience of one, shall many be made righteous." We use the word made in the last quoted passage as in the former connection, that is, they are made. righteous by their generative connection with Christ, and constituted such in the eye of the law by his federal act, as their representative. So that as the federal condemnation of the sinner in Adam is vindictive but not arbitrary, so the justification of the believer in Christ is not arbitrary, though purely of grace. Nothing can be more obvious than that the Bible constantly regards all men, state of nature, as children of wrath,-as obnoxious to the penalty of God's violated law, and that it regards them all thus, from the act of Adam's apostacy. While on the other hand it regards with equal constancy all the redeemed as justified in Christ, and Christ as the end of the law to them. And this generative and federal connection between Adam and his condemned posterity, is used by the apostle as an analogical illustration of the generative and federal connection between Christ and those who are justified in him and by him.

There is another analogical connection between the first and second Adam, on which a few thoughts will close this brief essay.

We allude to certain contingencies resulting in a similar manner from each of the two, not penalties or rewards, but simple contingencies, upon what they have done.

Such is temporal death and a literal resurrection. In the 15th of 1st Corinthians, where these events are the theme of the apostle's discourse, it is said, "For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead." "For as in Adam all die, (not died or fell, but die,) even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” analogy here consists in that they are both a cause. Adam was the cause of literal death, even so Christ is the cause of a literal resurrection. In this causality of these universal events which happen to all, consists the analogy.

The

As

So far from regarding temporal death as the penalty of the law threatened to Adam, we regard it as no part of it. If the sufferings of hell, or that which shall follow the judgment, is the penalty, it is all of it. Had Adam been called directly to judgment, had no Saviour been provided, there had been neither time nor place for temporal death. But on the interposition of Christ, judgment is suspended, the session of the court is put off till the end of the world. And so, it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this, the judgment.

In all judicial proceedings, the infliction of the penalty does not precede, but follow, the session, and decision of the court. When it is affirmed that men are condemned already," and that "the wrath of God abideth on them," it is to be understood as legislative, not as executive condemnation.

The sufferings of the wandering fugitive from justice, or his arrest and imprisonment, are reckoned as no part of the penalty for his crime, but as evils incident to, and contingent upon, his transgression. His penalty will be embraced in the sentence which follows his conviction. So with the sinner, when he is arrested and taken to the prison of the grave; no part of his penalty is thereby paid, neither will his resurrection release him from it. It will be to him "a resurrection to damnation," because it will bring him to the court, the trial, the sentence, and the penalty. Neither is the believer exempted from temporal death. Though Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to him, and though "in Christ" he is exempted from all condemnation; though believing in Christ, he shall never die, (the death threatened in the law,) yet he, too, as well as the sinner endures the incidental inconveniences of sin, such as arrest, imprisonment and trial.

"In Adam, all die." True there is this difference in the case of the believer. He enters the prison of the grave with the cheering confidence that a resurrection morning shall bring him forth to a judicial vindication and acquittal, and to that justification and life to which the righteousness of Christ, which he has received by faith, entitles him.

Such is temporal death, and such a literal resurrection. To the former all are subjected by the first Adam. The prison of death and its inconveniences, are rendered the necessary progress to the judgment, by him. The latter, is. secured by him who will bring all before him for judgment. The prison will be rendered useless by the decisions of his court, and be demolished by him who hath abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light by the gospel. This is the analogy of contingencies to which the apostle here alludes.

We will only remark in conclusion, that this analogy of contingencies is in perfect harmony with the generative and federal analogy which we have before noticed. And well has the apostle succeeded thus, by the aid of analogy, to present Christ as the author of regeneration, of justification and salvation to his people. The origin and the energy of their moral change is in him. Their justifying righteousness is in him, and their emancipation from death and their final glory are from him who is the "resurrection and the life." Truly, Christ is all in all to the believer.

VOL. XIII.NO. LII.

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