Section 6. Man crowned with Glory and Honor.

As Chrift is called the Image of God on account of the expreffion of the divine will in him, one part of which is expressed in his being fet up in the glory of the eternal Majefty; fo, according to the ftate of Christ, man being made in the image of God, he was crowned with glory and honor.

All rational union in the fcriptures is confidered as covenant union more or less explicit; and the principle of covenant union between men and Chrift being uniformly the fame as that of a fellowship, partnership, or marriage, which places the parties, as to interefts, upon an equality; confequently, the union of Adam with Chrift, as Lord of Creation, which is properly called the covenant of life, made man the lord of the creation; the fame as the union with the Lord our righteousness, called the covenant of grace, entitles believers to all the immunities of the holy city, new Jerufalem, and makes the church the Lord our righteoufness, Jer. xxxiii. 16. and by which union all the faithful have a right to the diftinguishing glories of the Head, and Lord of the new world, fuch as the refurrection, and the life, which, in its nature, is eternal; and power, as lords, to triumph over death, and live and reign in that world in which he liveth and reigneth by his own

and his Father's righteousness, in the execution of the glorious eternal covenant.

It appears, therefore, that the exaltation, glory and honor of Adam was a matter of mere bounty bestowed upon him in the conflitution of his creation, uniting him with the all glorious, all-meritorious Lord of Creation, and confifted no more in any inherent virtue and merit of his, than the exaltation and glory of the redeemed faints in the kingdom of God, confifts in any holiness and merit of theirs; and that without this union he could not have enjoyed the honors of a crown and the riches of a dominion. Thus we find that all glory is of Chrift; he was, and is, and is to come, the alone fource of riches, and honor, and glory, and bleffing.

Had man been created in a form answera. ble to the other creatures of God, and had he been placed in the condition of a subject merely, and made a fellow-servant with the angels under the dominion of the Lord of heaven and earth, his ftate would have been natural; his formation then, together with the whole frame of the univerfe, would only have manifefted the power, fkill and benevolence of the Creator; and there would have been nothing in the human nature myfterious and calculated to excite wonder, more than in the nature of the angels. But that man, yefterday the duft of the ground, fhould be made in the image of God, and be capacitated for dominion; that he fhould be clothed with the robes of majefty, have á crown fet upon his head, and be placed over worlds! this

has been a wonder from the beginning, it is now, and through the endless ages of eternity it will never ceafe to be a wonder.

This is the wonderful subject which is introduced with such pathos and folemnity in the eighth Pfalm. What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the Son of man, that thou vifiteft him? For thou haft made him a little lower than the angels, and haft crowned him with glory and honor. Thou madeft him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou haft put all things under his feet: All Sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field: The fowl of the air, and the fifh of the fea, and whatfoever paffeth through the paths of the feas.

This indeed is a deep myftery, a hard queftion; but it is opened in the fame Psalm, at leaft, a clue appears to be given to the interefting answer in the words of the firft verfe, which are repeated in the laft, where the Holy Ghoft fignifies, that this glory and honor of Adam arose from his being, by the fovereign pleasure of his Maker, united to and set up in the glory of Chrift; who is here spoken of, as in many other places, under the appellation of the Lord's name, from whose merit and excellency all this honor and glory was, and is ftill to be derived to man; to whom, therefore, our whole attention is called, and all must be afcribed. O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!

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Section 7. The Covenant with Adam. The divine transaction of the explicit covenant with Adam, was calculated merely to fhew and perfect his true ftate by creation. It was the express declaration of the truth of his exiftence as a living foul, viz. that he liv ed in union with the Divine Word, on that medium his life abfolutely depended; and fhould he leave that for any other fuppofed medium of knowledge or life, death muft inevitably enfue. It will be remembered, that when we now fpeak of an union of Adam with Chrift, the view refpects merely that state of Chrift which is unfolded in the creation, and the life here intended, is that which he thus received by the breath of his Creator.

As Chrift was fet up in covenant union with the Father, and was the Chrift of God, and his name, glory and bleffedness fubfifted in the truth of a rational and divine com. pact; and as in fuch an holy relation he was the image of God; for Adam, therefore, to be the figure of Chrift, and to fland up, as it were, in his eftate and glory, as the Beginning and Lord of the Creation, and fo to be in the image of God, it was neceflary that he fhould be covenanted with him, and that his life, glory and bleffednefs, by virtue of a covenant union with his Lord, should fubfift in the fame divine, facred and rational way. Not merely, therefore, as man was to be

treated as a moral agent, but in order to perfect his ftate, as being made in the all-glorious image of God, it was, upon this ground, neceffary that he fhould be put on trial.This pofition, confiftently with that exalted ftate in which man was placed by being affociated with Chrift; in which covenant relation he was deftined to hold communion with the Lord himself, in the glory of the creation; this, I fay, could not, in the nature of things be avoided; for a covenant neceffarily implies an obligation of faith or fidelity, and covenant fidelity neceffarily implies trial; fo that this tranfaction with Adam, refulted merely from the glorious and most bountiful conftitution of his creation, and was neceflary to carry that constitution into full effect.

And it is very evident that the moral agency of Adam, the exercife of which is fo much infifted on by many, in explaining this transaction, was itself constituted in this covenant; for, what idea can be formed of moral agency, which does not respect some covenant or law? Had man been placed in the fame relation with the angels, their law would have given to his condition the folemnity of obligation; but his ftate being entirely different from theirs, this divine injunction alone could fo form his mind, and make him subject to duty and accountable.

We find, therefore, this tranfaction very fimple, and merely the perfecting of the ftate of man by creation, and the manifeftation and explicit verbal declaration of that won