and overcome all sin, notwithstanding of his having been encumbered with all the disadvantages arising from Adam's fall, contains an instruction which I could not have had if these blessings had been bestowed upon me in unexplained sovereignty.

I am instructed by these two facts, to consider spiritual darkening and weakening, to be the consequence of voluntary alienation from God,-and spiritual enlightening and strengthening to be the consequence of a voluntary surrender of self to God; for I can never in my conscience suppose that I shall suffer a true and permanent evil from the acts of the First Adam, except by yielding myself to that spirit of self-pleasing which brought on his penalty, or that I shall derive a real benefit from the acts of the Second Adam, except by yielding myself to that spirit of self-sacrifice, which brought on his reward.

And thus if the condition in which Adam was placed after the fall, was one in which he was called to greater exertions and sufferings, than in his former state; and at the same time, if his supply of strength was proportionally increased, so that by using that strength faithfully in meeting his trials

he had the certainty of obtaining to a much higher place both in holiness and happiness, than he could have reached under his original condition-then we may say that Adam was a gainer by his punishment, and that his posterity, notwithstanding of what they suffer through him, have a higher hope set before them than they would have had if they had stood with him, in the original condition in which he was created.

But it will be answered on the other side, that although the truth of all this be granted, still it must be taken into the account, that whilst they have a higher hope set before them, on this new footing, they have also a greater risk, as well as a more arduous task, and that therefore they are tempted to wish that they had an easier part to act, and less responsibility, though at the expense of having a lower hope before them.

They may be tempted to wish this; but they cannot in their consciences deny that such a temptation proceeds from an evil source, that it proceeds from a base, low-minded slothfulness,-indifferent and careless about the gracious purpose of God to lead us upward to Himself-and, at all events, they cannot charge their Maker with unrighteous

ness, in calling them to a good and righteous conflict against evil, whilst He does not fail to provide them with strength adequate to their needs. They might as well complain, that they are not in the condition of a wild horse in the plains of Tartary, or of an eagle amongst the Andes,-set free at once from all responsibility. Nay, they might as well complain that they have a God at all over them, and that they are not their own gods.

But they may change the ground of their objections, and take another view of the subject, and say, that the perversion of our nature is something more than a mere increase of our trial and conflict, nay, that it is an actual disabling of us for any trial or conflict whatever, and that to speak of a supply of strength being provided for creatures in such a situation, is really as much a mockery as it would be to speak of providing a sword and shield for a man who had lost both his arms.

If my reader is at all acquainted with Calvinistic writers, he will feel that this is really no exaggeration of the language commonly used on this subject; and, in fact, as I have already often observed, our systematic theologians seem to consider, that since the fall

man has never been, in the true meaning of the words, a responsible creature; for they teach that he not only by that event became spiritually dead and incapable of any good thing, but that he has ever since continued in that state. And accordingly they account for the appearance of any spiritual life in any of the race, since that time, not by attributing it to the exercise, on the part of these individuals, of any permanent power, brought by the redemption within the reach of all men, and for the exercise of which all are responsible, but by attributing it to distinct isolated special acts of divine interposition in behalf of these individuals.

I need not repeat here what I have said in a former part of the book on this subject, ---in connection with those passages of the Bible which speak of the "word being nigh us" and in our hearts, that we may do it,— I need only to refer to the argument of the Apostle in this very chapter now before us, which most distinctly goes to prove, that whatever the damage sustained through the fall may have been, that damage is abundantly repaired, and compensated in Christ. So that if Adam before the fall had it truly in his power to walk with God, and if by

M

the fall he lost that power, then if the Apostle's authority is to be received, he must have had it restored to him with advantage, in the gift of Christ.

And if the objector still urges, that though the power was restored, yet the will remains biassed to the side of evil, then I make answer, that if the will received this bias by the fall, then the gift did not truly compensate the damage, unless there were counterbalancing weights laid on the other side, so as to restore the equilibrium, or to deliver the will from the preponderating influence of the supposed bias.

I know well that an objector, of the description that I have been supposing, will not be satisfied with these answers-for I know that his objection really rests on a different ground; and as I wish to show the fallacy of that ground, I shall pursue the argument, by stating in his name, what I believe he would say, if he were to speak his mind freely. He would say then, "Do you expect me to be persuaded by any words, in opposition to the facts which I see and feel? You say that the damage of the fall has been universally remedied by the gift of Christ; but look around you and into your own