law of creation, or the covenant of works; which covenant he broke, and this bleffed image was loft, and another obtained; and in that image, and after that likeness, Adam begot a fon, and all his children by nature bear the fame, which image God defpifes; and therefore he has chosen his elect in a better head, and appointed them a better father, and has predeftinated them to be conformed to this image; which comes not through Adam, but through Chrift; not by natural generation; not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God, and that by spiritual regeneration; and this image is now fecured to us by a better covenant, established upon better promifes, &c. All this must be granted; yet it makes no difference in the image, The image that was in Adam, and that in a real believer, feems to me to be one and the fame most holy thing; fo that, if the latter be a fpiritual man, as was before obferved, the former must be very much like one.

14. The way by which the apostle expreffes it makes it one and the fame, both in Adam and in all believers; and I believe that the image and likenefs, in which Adam begat his fons, is the fame thing which the apostle calls the old man of fin, which is the exprefs image of the devil, and which is said to be put off when the new man, with the image of God, is put on. Lie not one to another, Jeeing ye have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man, which is renewed in know

ledge,

9, 10.

ledge, after the image of him that created him. Col. iii. And again: But according to his mercy be, faved us, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. Titus iii. 5. This word renewing feems to mean reftoring fomething to mankind which mankind had before. We read of renewing an altar, which means repairing of it, and making it look as it did when it was new, or when first built. So we read alfo of renewing the kingdom of Saul, which means reinstating him, and confirming him in his kingdom, and making it more public and more strong. Hence the apostle's meaning feems to carry this in it: When Adam was first created, and appeared a new creature in the world, he appeared in the image of God; but in entered, and death by fin; and fo the divine image, with which the Holy Ghost adorned Adam, was defaced and loft; but God has chofen us in another head, and creates us anew in Chrift Jefus; for, being chofen in him, and united to him in the purpose and covenant of God, the Holy Spirit comes upon us, and washes away the guilt and filth of fin, and in a measure blots out the devil's image in us; and, by producing the abundance of grace, we are renewed, and the new man is formed; and this new man is, by every believing and transforming view of Chrift by faith, renewed afresh, after the image of him that created man at the firft. This seems to be the unftrained fenfe of the apoftle. And, when Christ is fpeaking of the old man of fin, and the

;

new

new man of grace, he fays, That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. He does not fay that be which is born of the Spirit, but that which is born of the Spirit, is fpirit; nor does Christ say it is of a spiritual nature; the words exprefs a ftronger fenfe :-that which is born of the Spirit is fpirit. And, if this be true of every foul renewed, it is no less true in Adam, while he stood in the image of God.

Furthermore. We are not to understand, by the image of God in man, any external form or fhape; for to whom will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him? Ifa. xl. 18. Adam, like the King's daughter, was all glorious within. God's image confifted of the endowments of the mindthe divine adornings and embellishments of his foul. There was in him the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. A divine radiance fhone through himi Hence man is called the image and glory of God. I Cor. xi. 7. He was created in righteousness and true bolinefs. Col. iii. 10. The great commandment, in the law of creation, is love to God with all the foul. This law was his rule of righteoufnefs, and it was spiritual; it reached to his foul, and threatened both body and foul with temporal and eternal death; it was holy, it was juft, and it was good. Adam's righteousness, therefore, must stand on an equal footing with this law. He therefore muft love God with all his foul; he muft be inspired, he must be holy, he must be just, and he

must

must be good; and God faid he was very good, otherwife he could not be strictly righteous in the eye of this law. Diveft him of any one of these, even of infpiration only, and where is the image of God? God is a fpirit; and where is Adam's righte oufnefs? The law is fpiritual, but I am carnal, fold under fin, fays Paul. Adam loft inspiration when he fold himself and us under fin; nor can we ever ftand before that law till infpiration be restored again. The law of the spirit of life in Chrift Jesus (and nothing else) can make us free from either the law of fin, which is in our members, or from the law of death, engraven on tables of frone. Adam was created in true holiness; and that which made him fo was the divine influence of the Holy Ghoft, which was divinely spread throughout all his foul; and that which made the temple holy was the fame; and it is the fame now which makes the church a holy temple; and therefore it is called an habitation for God through the Spirit.

15. But it may be objected, from the following paffage, The first man Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam a quickening fpirit. Howbeit, that was not first which is fpiritual, but that which is natural, and afterward that which is fpiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy; the fecond man is the Lord from beaven. As is the earthy, fuch are they also that are earthy; and as the heavenly, fuch are they also that are beavenly: and as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. 1 Cor. xv.

45, 46. There is not one word in all this quotation that affords any fupport to my opponents. Neither Paul, nor any other infpired penman, ever called Adam, in his state of innocency, a natural man, according to the prefent acceptation of that term, nor in any other fenfe. Nor was the whole, and every part of Adam, of the earth, or earthy; his foul was not of the earth, nor earthy; and much lefs the image of God in him. What the apoftle is there proving is the refurrection, and nothing else; and we know that there is nothing raised at the refurrection but the body; and fo fays Paul, There is a natural body, and there is a fpiritual body. 1 Cor. xv. 44. And this he proves by the two heads, Adam and Chrift. Adam's body was a natural one, fupported by natural food, and capable of fuffering; and fo was Chrift's body a natural one; he took part of the children's flesh and blood, and in all things (fin excepted) was made like unto his brethren, and lived upon natural food, and was capable of hunger, thirst, forrow, and fuffering. But, after his refurrection, afcenfion, and glorification, Chrift's body is a spiritual, a heavenly, and a glorious body. And then the apoftle affirms that all who die in the Lord, though their bodies be fown natural bodies, yet they fhall be raised spiritual bodies; and, though they have borne the image of fallen Adam's body in frailty, mortality, and death, being fubjected to this vanity, which came upon us