as, in Christ, Jehovah could and did behold with complacency and delight. Chosen in Christ, and adopted in Christ, and accepted in Christ; she was, as Christ said of her," thou art all fair, my love, there is no spot in thee." Song iv. 7. This is the first view of the church, and as she was in Christ. For it is proper to observe, that nothing in the church is, or can be lovely, but as she is beheld in Christ. Jehovah, in his Trinity of Persons, can behold nothing lovely, or to be pleased with, but as beheld in connection with himself. The choice of the church, and the adoption of the church, and the acceptation of the church, is "in the beloved." Eph. i. 6. Moreover the church's beauty and holiness, and glory, is not only in Christ, but for Christ. God the Father so speaks to the church when calling her daughter, because of her marriage with his son. "Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear, forget also thine own people and thy father's house, so shall the king greatly desire thy beauty, for he is thy Lord God, and worship thou him." Ps. xlv. 10, 11. What a blessed testimony is here given by God the Father himself to the Godhead of his dear Son, and to the union of Christ with his church.

And to add no more. What a plain and palpable,

and incontrovertible truth doth the whole contain in this portrait of the church as she was before all time, and as she will again be to all eternity, when this time-state is over, that as she was first presented to Christ in all those jewels of grace, and holiness, and glory, so she shall be when Christ shall bring her home, and present her to himself “a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that she shall be holy and without blemish." Eph. v. 27.

Such is the first view of the church in our most glorious Christ, as she came up at the command of God before all worlds. And this is the portrait according to the statement of holy scripture, which the Holy

Ghost hath drawn in this original compartment of the picture!

We have viewed the outlines of the church of our most glorious Christ, drawn according to scripture, in her first and original features, when to the infinite mind of God in his Trinity of Persons, and at his command, she came up before him in all that loveliness of charac ter, "chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, holy and without blame before him in love.” Eph. i. 4.

In the prosecution of the portrait, in the next compartment of it, we come down to the time-state of the church, when, as the same holy scripture hath stated, God was pleased to go forth in acts of creation, and the church was called into being in her state of nature, in the person of the first man of the earth, Adam. And here we find similar features, of a corresponding purity and holiness to the original design. We are told, that "God created man in his own image," Gen. i. 27. Hence, he was formed with all inward rectitude; and not necessarily subject to fall, by any outward temptation. And from being placed at the head of all creatures in this lower world, of consequence, he became eminently included in the account given by the Lord himself, when beholding his works of creation, it is said, that "God saw every thing that he had made, and behold it was very good." Gen. i. 31.

The sacred records, in presenting this statement of primitive innocence, do not proceed but a little further, before that we read of a woeful change wrought upon the first man, and in him, the wreck of all nature, when by transgression he offended God, and pulled down misery, ruin, and death upon himself, and all his posterity. The account given of this apostacy, and the effects, are related in a few words; but in terms enough to make our whole nature tremblingly alive in the relation.

"Sin entered into the world, and death by sin:

and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." Rom. v. 12. The Lord's own testimony of this universal delinquency of mankind is most awful: "God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth; and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Gen. vi. 5.

It doth not come within the province of portrait painting, to sketch any thing more than the picture itself. Nevertheless, as there have not been wanting some, in all ages, who have ventured to impeach God, as if the apostacy of man was in the divine decree, (confounding fore-knowledge with fore-appointment,) I would pause in this place, before I go on to the prosecution of the church's picture, to observe, that all such ideas have their origin solely in the presumptuous reasonings of the human mind; untaught of God, unfounded in truth, and unwarranted by holy scripture. A few considerations will set this matter in a clear light. As, first, all creatures, as creatures, are necessarily, by their very nature, mutable. It belongs only to the infinite and eternal mind to be unchangeable. Sameness and immutability, constitute the distinguishing attributes of Jehovah in his Trinity of Persons: no creature, therefore, can possess them. Of consequence it will follow, that the very mutability of man's nature, though made perfect, implied a liability to imperfection, and of falling from his integrity. Here, therefore, is found a sufficient cause, in accounting for the apostacy of man, without impeaching the sovereignty of God. And this doctrine was placed upon its proper basis as many ages since as the days of Solomon, when, under divine inspiration, that wise man thus stated it :-" He applied his heart (he tells us) to search and to seek out wisdom, and to know the wickedness of folly." And what was the upshot? "Lo! this only (said he) have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have found out many inventions." Eccles. vii. 29. But, secondly, upon the

footing of creature obedience; -the very standard of character rested on this ground: for though man was necessarily, by nature, a mutable creature, and could be no other, as distinguished from his infinite Creator, yet that mutability did not subject him to fall, though it left him capable of it. The test of his obedience, as relative to the tree of life, is a proof. For otherwise, a state of being not liable to change, would have subjected the possessor of it to a mere nugatory existence; to whom neither the merit of obedience, or the demerit of disobedience, could have been annexed. And lastly, to add no more, the fall of Adam not only manifested his mutability, but that the fall was in himself. His yielding to temptation could not be the result of the divine decree; for "God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man." James i. 13. Hence, the sovereignty of Jehovah stands where it hath from everlasting, and will to everlasting stand, unimpeachable in relation to the Adam fall. The conclusion of Solomon is the unerring conclusion of the subject-God made man upright; it is man that found out many inventions. I cannot fold up these observations on manʼs fall, without adding a short remark on what the Holy Ghost hath said on this subject, by his servant James, namely, that "God cannot be tempted with evil;" for the doctrine brings with it, according to my view, one of the most blessed of all considerations, in respect to our future and eternal state. And though what I have to offer herein, I would desire may be read as within a parenthesis, (like that of John's first epistle, i. 2. which is among the sweetest parts of that chapter,) yet such a parenthesis, as contains in its bosom a fulness, for the most enlarged joy. The spiritual church of our most glorious Christ, by regeneration, is made "a partaker of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." 2 Pet. i. 4. Of consequence, she is part of Christ, united to Christ, one

with Christ; and as she is now preserved in Christ, from this union with her glorious Head, so will she be everlastingly preserved in him to all eternity. Hence in that eternal world her mutable nature, derived from Adam, will be done away, and her being derived from Christ will preserve her in his immutability for ever. If the church had been simply recovered from the ruins of the fall, without this union and oneness in Christ, by his almighty salvation, she might, (had the Lord so willed) have continued in glory as the elect angels are, by Christ's dominion. But now, her everlasting continuance is secured from an higher and a nearer source, namely, her union with Christ; without this she could not have been made eternally secure. For as angels have fallen, angels might fall; and were they not elect angels upheld by Christ, they would fall; themselves being mutable. But the church stands upon no slippery ground of any thing changeable; for she is in Christ, when recovered from her Adam-fall transgression and as "God cannot be tempted with evil," so neither can the church, which is in Christ, be evermore liable to temptation. What a ray of light, and life, and glory, doth this view of our most glorious Christ bring in upon the redeemed and regenerated church of Christ! What a proof is at once given of the certainty of her eternal and everlasting state! Now do I see, and by God the Holy Ghost's gracious unction enjoy a double blessedness, in those words of my Lord, when he saith, "Because I live, ye shall live also." John xiv. 19.

The reader will not fail to recollect, that what I have just said, (yea, the whole of the preceding paragraph,) I desire may be included in a parenthesis. In prosecuting the portrait of the church, I must now call back his attention to that part, which having represented the purity of nature in which we were created, in the person of our first father, Adam; then stated the miserable