soul, which Adam in his first creation was constituted, "receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." From this we learn that there is in that form of being, called the soul, after which Adam was created, a natural incapacity for receiving or knowing the things which the Spirit teacheth, which are the same things which Christ revealeth; and that this is a form of being preparatory for a higher and more perfect one, which God might perhaps have given to our first parents if they had stood faithful unto him who created them. They were perfect in that kind in which they were created; according as it is written, "This only have I found, that God made man upright;" but that kind was not of the perfectest, which yet awaited them, and to which they perhaps would have been translated, if they had not fallen. And this doth exactly agree with what is written by the Apostle Paul in another place, where, in sketching the same parallel between the first and the second Adam, he calleth the former a type of the latter: "which is the type of Him that was to come." (Rom. v. 14). And certainly Adam, in his creation, was the fullest type of Christ, being without sin, and invested with the sovereignty of the creatures; being planted in a paradise, and having a wife taken out of his bleeding side, who might be to him for a help, and the mother of many children, having also to contend with the serpent, But he was no more than the type,-the prophet, priest, and king of the garden of Eden, typifying the Prophet, Priest, and King of the whole creation of God; and while he stood in this con

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dition he was not capable of receiving that knowledge of God unto which we have been brought by the manifestation of Jesus Christ. He was the perfection, and, as it were, the fountain-head, of all that knowledge which, without revelation, the soul of man is capable of: as the knowledge of nature and of natural life, the knowledge of his own being, and the knowledge of all the beings over whom he was constituted king; all natural sciences, when perfected, being but the fragments of Adam's intuition; but into the knowledge of God he could only go so far as to acknowledge him for his Creator, and the Creator of the things which were around him. Of God's spiritual being, I am in great doubt whether he could have any distinct apprehension or knowledge; because Paul expressly saith, that the natural man, or the man of the soul, of which Adam was the perfect form, knoweth not the things of the Spirit of God: he could not know the Father, who is known only by the Son, who was not yet come forth from the bosom of the Father; and not knowing the Son, he could not know the Spirit, whose procession succeedeth that of the Son. More than the knowledge of a Creator he could not have. His being was only, if I may so speak, preparatory to a spiritual being: wherefore the Lord God presented himself to him in some revelation proper to that state; walking, as it is said, in the garden in the cool of the day; with some attributes kindred to Adam's nature, which delighted in the garden, and loved the cool time of the day. In like manner, Satan the tempter presented himself with like accommodation, not as a bright and powerful spirit, whirling him away whi

ther he would, and making the round world reveal before him all its attractions, but as a serpent, one of the subject creatures; and he beguiled him with the prospect of being preferred to become as gods, knowing good and evil; whereby we perceive that Adam, in this former state of his being, was inferior to the angels, whom I understand here by the word "gods:" whereas the heirs of salvation enjoy the same as their ministers and servants. From all which I conclude, that even his knowledge of God as a Creator, was very inferior to that which we now have by the revelation of Christ Jesus. But into this subject I only open a door of thought, without entering, lest I should be diverted from my great subject of God glorified in the Son of man, having said enough for our present purpose of shewing that man in his original creation was not the glory of God, but only the type of "the Son of man," who was prepared in the counsels of eternity to manifest that glory'; and that his creation was but a step towards the introduction of the God-man into the visible universe. In which inferior form of manhood I believe him to have been created, that when he should fall he might not utterly fall, but in falling rise through deep distress, and, by omnipotent grace, into that most excellent form of being whereof paradise saw but the goodly bud.

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Nevertheless, to this new creature, the expectation of the elect, and the envy of the apostate angels, was directed; the former resting assured that in it the great desire of the heavens, and the latter being assured, or at least dreading, that in it the great terror of hell, was to be revealed. And Satan, the prince of darkness, and the ruler

of the powers of darkness, having set himself to destroy this creature, did so far forth succeed in destroying him as was necessary for his own destruction he accomplished the breach which he sought to accomplish; but he little imagined that through that breach the Eternal Light against which he warred was to stream into the visible world, and revive the hearts of the elect, against whom he wageth perpetual war. He thought that if this creature should fall, as he himself had fallen, the fall would be irretrievable, and the word of God, against which he warred, falsified for ever;-insufficient knowledge ever outwitting itself, inefficient light of falsehood always extinguished by the omnipotent light of truth.-This fall of man being accomplished, the expectation of heaven, though not defeated, was again projected forward: and the song of joy which they sung over the creation was turned into sorrow and sadness, when they saw the earth also possessed by Satan, and mankind bereaved of the image of God. But their hope and faith was not utterly defeated, any more than was that of man. For a new revelation of the promise was given, and that, I doubt not, more distinct than any hint or intimation of it which had been given before. Yet were they all again suspended upon hope; and the word of God seemed, to the eyes of the beholders, again contraverted, and his purpose again contravened: and sin to have gained another advantage over holiness; another veil to be drawn over the sanctuary, and thicker clouds to envelop the dwelling place of God.

And now, thenceforward, all heaven and earth looked forward for the Man, by eminency called THE SON OF MAN; that is, the child for whom

manhood was created, and through whom the great secret was to be revealed, and the Divine nature for ever manifested in an outward form ;-which was, as it were, the great deliverance for which the womb of all creation had longed, and made an empty and abortive effort to produce it at the birth of Adam, when things were not yet ripe for the great discovery. To see God, and to be able to name his name, had been the two great desires of heaven and earth, and, I may say, must ever be the great desire of every creature. Adam did but hear his voice as he walked in the garden; and whenever any apparition or manifestation of him was given to the Patriarchs or to the Prophets, they expected that they should instantly die, because, as they thought, they had seen God, whom no man can see and live. The cherubim are represented as veiling their faces from the greatness of his glory; and the light in which he dwelleth is said to be unapproachable, and clouds and darkness to be around him. Hence also the exclusive honour of Moses above all men, was to speak face to face with God; which could yet be no more than the beholding of the manifestation of the glorified humanity of the Lord Jesus, symbolised in the Shechinah above the mercy seat; and this, we think, was granted unto the man Moses, in order that, by this solitary exception, while the mysteriousness of the thing was no-wise weakened, the desire of attaining unto it might be rendered more intense, and the expectation of one day possessing it might be encouraged. No doubt, also, herein consisteth the Lord's abomination of all idolatry, that by presenting a feigned likeness of himself, decked out with the lustrous glory of gold and precious