Sidebilder
PDF
ePub

DISC. and redemption, and ferve our generation.

I.

in the most effectual manner. And though, when this is done, we must close our eyes in death, and fleep with our fathers; yet the hour cometh, in which we shall open them again, to“ behold thy face, O God, "in righteousness; we shall be fatisfied, "when we awake with thy likeness"."

Was Adam invefted with fovereignty over the creatures? Obferve we from hence, that man was made to rule. Majestic in his form, he was ordained to trample upon earth, and afpire to heaven, which, without putting a force upon nature, he cannot but behold, and regard. In the original fubjection of the creatures we see what ought to be that of every defire and appetite, terrestrial and animal, to the ruling principle within us. The fubtlety of fome creatures, and the fierceness of others, now exhibit to us the difficulty of fubduing and governing the paffions, broken loose, like

» Pf. xvii. 15.

them,

I.

them, from the dominion of their master; DISC. infomuch, that the apostle, who afferts, that every creature may be, and has been tamed of man, yet fays of one part of man, the tongue, "it is a deadly evil, which no "man can tame," meaning by his own powers. Through the redemption and grace which are by Chrift Jefus, this dominion, as well as the other, is reftored, not only over our own paffions, but over ftill more formidable opponents, the evil fpirits in arms against us. For thus our Lord gave his difciples power not only over the natural" ferpents and fcorpions," but over fome, whofe venom is of a more malignant and fatal kind; "over all the power "of THE ENEMY." The apoftles returned, accordingly, crying out, " Lord, the very "DEVILS are fubject unto us, through thy "name!" And we have a general promise, that, in our combats with them, God will give us victory, and bruife their leader, Satan himself, under our feet. Our Redeemer is exalted above the heavens and human nature in the fecond Adam, restored to dominion

C 2

[ocr errors]

DISC. minion over all the earth. And though, at

I.

prefent, the apoftle's lot may be ours, to

[ocr errors]

fight with beafts," with evil men, evil paffions and evil spirits, yet through God we shall do great acts; it is he that shall tread down thofe that rife up against us; till finally triumphant over the last enemy, and exalted to the eternal throne, we fhall view the earth beneath us, and the fun and ftars fhall be duft under our feet.

DISCOURSE II.

THE GARDEN OF EDEN.

GENESIS II. 8.

And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed.

Na preceding difcourfe fome confi- DISC.

IN

derations were offered, tending to elucidate the particulars related by Mofes concerning the origination of man; namely, the time of his formation; the refolution taken by the Deity on the occafion; the materials of which he was compofed; the divine image in which he was created; and the dominion over the creatures with which he was invested.

The words now read mark out the hiftory of that habitation in which it pleased

II.

DISC. the Almighty to place him at the beginII. ning, for the fubject of our prefent enquiries-a subject not only curious, but highly interefting. For if Levi be faid to have paid tithes to Melchizedek, as being in the loins of Abraham, at the time of that tranfaction; we may, in like manner, regard ourselves, as having taken poffeffion of Eden; being in the loins of our ancestor, when he did fo. And though it can afford but small comfort, to reflect upon the excellence of an inheritance which we have loft, it may infpire into us due fentiments of gratitude and love towards that bleffed person who hath recovered it for us. And thus every confideration which enhances the value of the poffeffion, will proportionably magnify the goodness of our great benefactor.

For these reasons, we fometimes, perhaps, find ourselves difpofed to lament the conciseness and obfcurity of that account, which Mofes hath left us of man's primeval estate in paradise. But when we recollect, that to this account we owe all the information

« ForrigeFortsett »