IMPROVEMENT.

Hath the divine decree doomed all mankind to return to duft for the first apoftacy? Are the unavoida ble evils of life and human depravity to be referred to

"As a created being, man is neceffarily dependent; as a moral being, endued with liberty of action, he must be refponfible. There could be no obedience before a law was promulgated, no responsibility before an obligation was impofed. The law which the Almighty gave to Adam was, Thou shalt not eat of the fruit of a particular tree. The prohibition was a teft of his moral obedience to his Creator, and it was accompanied with a penalty to enforce the obfervance of it: It was fimple, explicit, and appropriate to the situation of our first parents.

That the Almighty fhould permit the existence of a being conftantly employed in producing evil," (for fuch is the character of the tempter) " is one amongst other inftances of the divine difpenfations, on which human intellect_shews no light; and revelation, which affirms the fact, affords no information of the mo tive or design of the Almighty.

We readily admit the fuppofition, that there are beings of a fuperior order to men; all of whom, whatever their endowments may be, must stand at an infinite distance from the perfection of the Creator. As imperfect, we conceive them liable to errour and transgression”-in which case their fall may involve “a degradation of nature, proportionate to the magnitude of their original endow

ments.

The moral government of the Almighty may, for what we know, be admiaiftered more or less, through the agency of fpiritual beings, invisible to us, whose influence may be allowed to operate, in a greater or lefs degree, on our minds: They may be the inftruments of temptation as well as of protection, prompting fuggeftions to evil as well as good.

"Temptations of the fame nature" as that propofed to our progenitors" arc, in the difpenfations of providence, frequently proposed to us, as trials of our virtue and obedience; and there can be no difficulty in" their " temptation, but what refults from their peculiar fituation. The practice of self-denial is essential to the existence of religion. We are all fenfible of the fatal confequences to which unreftrained paflions muft lead: We feel that they are fubversive of our happiness as well as that of fociety: and the frailty of Adam and Eve contains a leffon of the highest importance to all generations. It teaches us alfo, that a defire of knowledge may be extended too far, and warns us against the prefumption of investigating the counfels of God: It inftructs us that obedience to his will is our first duty; and that we are bound to perform it, without enquiring into the motives of his conduct.

The corruption and depravity of mankind are certain. The cause of it affigned by Mofes, leads to the most important confequences, whilft the attempted fo lutions of man lead to nothing, and afford neither confolation nor improvement. The account given by Mofes of the fall of man is the foundation of the Chriftian religion. To renew him in the image of God, in which he was originally created, was the great object of our Saviour's incarnation.

The whole feries of prophecy through ages, is connected both with the fall of man, and with the appearance of the Meffiah-His coming, his character, his actions and fufferings are detailed with a particularity that identifies him, and excludes the poffibility of the application of them to any other person who has ever appeared in the world."

Chriftian Obferver, Vol. II, p. 524,-526.

that fource? We learn that fin is an evil of the greateft magnitude. This clearly follows, if it is the true cause of all other evils of pain, forrow, sickness and death of every curfe on man and beaft, and on the earth. It is a deadly poison-the disease and death of the foul. It separates from God: It takes peace from the mind-is inconfiftent with the enjoyment of ourfelves, and makes the author of our being a terror to us. If a man fin against the Lord, who fhall intreat for bim? The finner fets himself against the holy nature, law and government of God--forfakes the fountain of living waters, and hews out to himself broken cifterns. He feeks death in the errour of his life. God cannot view him but with abhorrence. For he is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. He hath awfully manifefted his holy displeasure against it ever fince its first existence: It banished angels from heaven, and man from the earthly paradife. The univerfal reign of death, the degeneracy derived from the fall, all the judgments which have been and are abroad, the groaning of the whole creation, proclaim the real nature of fin. They who are far from God fhall perish. Do not once imagine that fin is a small evil-that any fin against the great God is fmall. All fin is against him, and against our own fouls.

The fin of human nature calls for humiliation. We have fallen in the firft Adam, from original rectitude and immortality to corruption, weakness, infamy, and a carnal mind, which is enmity against God. Our original is fhame. The whole world is become guilty before God. Surely we have caufe to lay our hand on our mouth, and our mouth in the duft. "O Lord God! "thou art righteous in all that is brought upon us for "our great trefpafs." Man hath joined with apoftate fpirits to fubvert the order of the universe. "We are "afhamed and blush to lift up our faces to thee our "God. We lie down in our fhame, and our confu "fion covereth us."

Let not the offspring of the duft prefume to "reply "against God. Woe unto him who striveth with his "Maker! Let the potsherds ftrive with the potsherds "of the earth. Shall the clay fay to him that fashion"eth it, What makeft thou?”

Muft our earthly frame return to duft? Let this thought hide pride from man. Shall he glory in any ornaments of perfon? any exterior beauty or diftinction? There is no diftinction in the grave, the house appointed for all the living. "Afhes to afhes, duft to "duft" is the common doom of all. All muft fee corruption. Their flesh fhall be clothed with worms, and clods of duft.

Our fubject enforceth divers counfels and cautions in fcripture against undue human dependence, and difproportionate earthly hopes. "Ceafe ye from man,

"whofe breath is in his noftrils. Put not your truft "in the fon of man, in whom is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth. Set your "affection on things above." Creatures disappoint our expectation. The world and things of it pafs

away.

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Blessed is the man whofe hope the Lord is. "He hath "not dealt with us after our fins. Of the Lord's mercy we are not confumed. Like as a father pitieth "his children, so he pitieth them who fear him, and "hope in his mercy. He formed us" of clay, and "knoweth our frame. He remembereth that we are "but duft. As for man, his days are as grafs; as a "flower of the field fo he flourisheth: For the wind "paffeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof "fhall know it no more. But the mercy of the Lord " is from everlafting to everlasting upon them that fear "him. Thy loving-kindness is better than life: "Therefore the children of men put their truft under "the fhadow of thy wings." He hath provided an all-fufficient Saviour for fallen man. Our only relief and hope is in the fecond Adam. He hath made "re

"conciliation for iniquity, and abolished death," having been "delivered for our offences, and raised for "our juftification." The laft Adam is a quickening Spirit. He hath procured more bleffings for believers in him than the firft loft. There is no condemnation to them

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who are in Chrift Jefus who have his Spirit of life in them. "The gift of God through Jefus Chrift is eter"nal life. Thanks be unto God for his unfpeakable gift." The fecond Adam hath not exempted his difciples from the common mortality of mankind; but they are fubjected to it in hope the hope of bearing his image in glory and immortality. "He must "reign till all enemies are put under his feet: The laft enemy that shall be deftroyed is death." At his call, all who fleep in the duft fhall awake. The dead "fhall hear his voice, and fhall come forth; fome "to the refurrection of life, and fome to the refur. "rection of damnation." Of the former number are all who fleep in Jefus, all who are by faith in him juftified from all things"-all who are "crucified "with Chrift, dead to fin, but alive unto God"—who live in the flesh by the faith of Chrift. In the latter clafs are all who believe not in him whom God hath fent-who fay by their practice, We will not have this man to reign over us.

Men find means to exclude from their mind the thought of death, though no event is more certain or more interesting. They can act as though affured of immortal youth. The time when, and manner how, we fhall die is concealed from us, that we may attend the duties of this life, and be always ready for our change. "Every man, at his beft ftate, is altogether "vanity." Let none prefume that they themselves are exemptions from the frailty of which millions and millions have been examples. Whoever reflects as he ought on the irreversible decree, Unto dust thou shalt return, and on the evils of the world, will ftand in awe, and not fin, make diligent enquiry into his fpiri

tual ftate; be quickened, to a faithful discharge of the duties of life; attend to the voice of God in his word and providence; and be in fubjection to the Father of fpirits, that he may live forever. To improve this mortal life in fuch a manner as will bear a review at death to confider our eternal ftate as dependent on our improvement of this probationary ftate, implies a like comparative indifference to earthly things, as ftrangers and foreigners manifeft to the country where they occafionally fojourn. Great is the danger of neglecting a prefent opportunity-of indulging a falfe hope of dying in fin.

To thofe who have not been enlightened by the beams of the Sun of righteoufnefs, the fhadow of death is grofs darkness. His rays difpel the darkness, fo that the believer in him is perfuaded that death will be the dawn of an eternal day. He confiders himself as a child of immortality; and lays up in ftore for himself a good foundation for eternal life. Habitual confideration of the hour of departure, and care to be prepared for it, is to be wife in the eftimation of all the inhabitants of heaven, and in the judgment of the only wife God.

The unlimited dominion of death, the lufts and paffions of men, and all the fruits of fin, witness the holiness and juftice of God, and the wifdom of his government. He hath taken occafion, from the apoftacy, to fhew the riches of his mercy in the fufferings and death of his own Son. Thanks be unto God, who giveth the victory over death through Jefus Chrift our Lord. To him let us refer the time and manner of our death; ever mindful, that the fpirit returns to him when the duft returns to the earth as it was.

Every death admonishes us to prepare for our own, to prepare for the coming of our Lord. Darkness and the fhadow of death vail human prospects at the early and most eligible ftages of life. Why fhould things feen fwallow up our thoughts? Why should we be folicit