more spiritual and heavenly men are, the higher they come to a perfection of knowledge. But, above all, Adam knew his great creator with a knowledge of love and delight; and he knew the law that God had given him; and I think he knew something of the rebellion and fall of angels; for the scriptures tell us, that when he went into sin he was not deceived, neither by the devil, nor by Eve; he transgressed with both his eyes open; he knew and understood what he was going about before he fell, as will appear hereafter.

2. Adam was created in righteousness and true holiness. These two things being lost in the fall, the apostle hints that these are brought to the soul when we are renewed by the Holy Spirit; for so he speaks," 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 holiness," Eph. iv. 23, 24. Adam's righteousness was native, and it was creative; it was a part of God's image in which he was made, and it lay in the rectitude and uprightness of his whole man; and it was what the Holy Spirit of God impressed upon him, and influenced him with; but the highest degree of righteousness in him lay in real love to his great Creator, and in the delight and happiness which Adam had in him. The spouse informs us that it is the upright that love the Lord, Song i. 4; and Wisdom adds, "This only have I found, that God hath made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions," Eccl. vii. 29. The Saviour

tells us, that love to God and our neighbour is the grand hinge on which the whole law and the prophets hang; if so, love must be the principal article in Adam's native righteousness, yea, love and delight in God is the quintessence of all real righteousness, as may be gathered from the cheerful expectations of the second Adam, the Lord our Righteousness: "Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God; yea, thy law is written within my heart," Psalm xl. 7, 8. And now we will look at the good report that Christ obtained by love: "Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder; the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under foot. Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name," Psalm xci. 13. 14. Christ, in his obedience, set his love on God, and delighted to do his will; and this was the righteousness of Adam, which the Holy Ghost adorned his soul with; and in this he stood complete before the law that was given him, and before his righteous Creator, without any dread or slavish fear of him, for there is no fear in love; charity thinketh no evil, and therefore can do none.

3. Adam was created holy. The image of God, says Paul, is in true holiness. The Holy Spirit entered him when God breathed into him, and influenced all the powers of his soul with holiness; so that he was not only pronounced good, and was

pure from every spot or stain, but Paul says, The image of God is in righteousness and true holiness. Wherever the holy and blessed God has condescended to appear, there is holiness spread all round about him. When Isaiah saw him on his throne, high and lifted up, the seraphims cried, Holy, holy, holy! And the very glory overwhelmed the prophet till he appeared, under that influence, a leper from head to foot, Isa. chap. vi. When God dwelt in Jerusalem it was called the holy city; the temple in which he resided, was called the holy place; yea, when God appeared to Moses in the bush, and Moses was turning round to see the sight, he bids him not draw nigh, but tells him to pull off his shoes from his feet, for, "The place whereon thou standest is holy ground." And he ordered Joshua to do the same in the plains of Jericho, and assigns the same reason, "The place wheron thou standest is holy ground." It is the Holy Spirit's influence upon all the elect angels that gives them the character of holy angels; and it was the entering of the Holy Spirit into Adam that made him a holy man. And it is no less now than the divine influence of the Holy Spirit, which he is pleased to spread throughout the whole church, that makes it a holy temple in the Lord, and therefore it is said to be built for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

4. The sacred writings instance that there was a glory that attended the image of God in Adam, which may be concluded from the following passage: "For a man, indeed, ought not to cover his

head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of the man," 1 Cor. xi. 7. And this glory was a divine radiance which shone through all the faculties of his soul, which gave him such light and understanding, and such insight into things, as soon as he was made, so that he spake immediately and sensibly off hand, without ever learning letters or words; and I have no doubt but Adam's face, when he communed so familiarly with God, shone as much as ever the face of Moses did; for something of this glory sl ines now on the face of every new-born soul when his image is restored. God is the health of their countenance. In every glorious appearance, that the Saviour has made to the children of men, I say glorious appearance, it has always been with rays of glory on his face, as the eternal God dwelling in the light; and his face is often compared to the sun shining in his full strength, and sometimes to the face of an angel of God, very terrible; as every appearance of divine light is, and must be terrible to poor corrupted mortals. Adam, as he was a figure of him that was to come, had a divine lustre on his face, as Moses had at the giving of the law, which supported his countenance on that tremendous day; and the same kept the countenance of Stephen from falling when the perjured witnesses and desperate magistrates were driving him to his grave. This is what I take to be the apostle's meaning by the man being the image and glory of God. If this be denied,

I know not what the glory was to which the apostle alludes. With love to God in Adam's heart, and beams of divinity on his face, he spake freely and familiarly with God face to face, as Moses did under the same rays, and that without horror, dread, or fear. Every creature that God brought to him he named, and that was the name of it. And the Almighty seemed very well pleased to hear this little petty prince talk away as he did. As God is the fountain oflight, and Christ the true light, it cannot be supposed that God's image in Adam should be express without such a heavenly lustre; and, if I might assert what I really believe, I would say that the Spirit of God shone in Adam, and through him, and that it was the Spirit of God that spoke in him; and many, besides me, think the same. God was the health of David's countenance, much more the light of Adam's, who was made in the image of God. Oh what a place was paradise! and what a sight was there! There was God the Father, and Christ the express image of him; and there was Adam in the image of Christ, as a figure of him that was to come; and there was Eve, the image and glory of the man. This image was the noblest work in all the creation. Wisdom and power appear in the whole fabric of nature; and faithfulness and truth in the seasons of the year. Justice and judgment appear in the wars and commotions of the world. But his image in Adam had a trait of every perfection of the divine majesty ; and therefore this was the noblest work. And this is more plain, be