LECTURE II.

THE CHRISTIAN REDEMPTION.

ROMANS vi. 23.

"The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord."

THE Conclusion to which we came in the last lecture, on the important question touching the original and actual constitution of man was, we think, necessitated by the obvious teaching of the sacred narrative. We then saw, after a plain and impartial examination of all the circumstances connected with the creation and probation of the first man, that in consequence of the unsuccessful issue of his trial, as the representa. tive of his posterity, he was exiled from Eden, where was "the tree of life," the symbol and pledge of immortality. In that dishonourable banishment was involved the wreck of the moral excellence and immortality of the race.

It is true, that we do not derive from the Mosaic account of the fall any very definite information with respect to the precise relation which Adam officially sustained to his descendants; this we learn from other portions of the sacred writings. Thus we read, "If

through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God and the gift by grace, which is by one man Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. For if by one man's offence death reigned by one, much more they which receive abundance of grace, and of the gift of righteousness, shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ."* And again, "As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive; for *Rom. v. 15, 17.

since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead." * That Adam sustained a representative relation to his posterity, a relation, that is, wholly distinct from his natural or parental relation, resulting from the divine pleasure and appointment, is supported moreover by the fact, that the effects of the fall are entailed upon them even before the period of their moral accountability, as in the case of infants. It is in this view of the correspondence between the fall by representation, and the recovery by the same scheme, that the apostle denominates our Lord Jesus Christ the second Adam,"the first man Adam was made a living soul," a mere animated existence; "the last Adam was made a quickening," or life-giving "spirit."+

"A reason for the representative aspect of the arrangement has been suggested, as brought to light by the representative character of the grand remedial economy which followed. Foreseeing that men, if placed on probation individually, would all incur the penalty of transgression, God was pleased to make their escape from such an issue possible, by the representative arrangement which we have been considering, in order (it has been said) to foreshadow the representative nature of the evangelical economy. The first was, in this particular, a rehearsal of the second. Adam was 'the figure of him that was to come.' The gospel was preached before unto Adam.' Now, doubtless, the event has disclosed the analogous relation of the first constitution to the second; and inspiration itself affirms a resemblance. And a grand display it presents of the all-related and comprehensive nature of the divine plans. Still we can only regard the analogy supplied as an incidental, not a primary or leading reason for the existence of the economy which supplies it. For, from the moment the first became, in the particular in question, an * 1 Cor. xv. 21, 22.

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+ 1 Cor. xv. 4

analogy of the second, the second itself was actually promised. In the same moment in which the shadow appeared, the substance itself was coming into view."*

It is of great importance to observe, that the divine arrangement which constituted the first Adam the representative of the human race, has entailed upon his posterity exclusively the effects of his fall. It is to misconceive and misrepresent the nature of that catastrophe to teach that the entire race, by virtue of this constituted relation, have become personally guilty of Adam's sin. The guilt of that act of disobedience in Eden was exclusively Adam's; and he alone can, strictly speaking, be said to have been punished. What mankind are exposed to in consequence of the fall, is neither the charge of guilt, nor the desert of punishment; but simply loss. The acts of the first man, in his representative capacity, are participated by his progeny in their consequences only, since guilt is not transferable nor hereditary. In correspondence with these remarks, I may quote the language of the late Dr. Payne: "I must again call the reader," he says, "to observe most carefully that our statement is not that guilt, in the proper sense of the term, i.e. desert of punishment, rests upon the race in consequence of Adam's sin; nor that the results of his sin overtake us as punishment, strictly so called; but that his federal failure has brought upon us legal exposure, or liability to suffer the consequences of that failure; that is, has exposed us to the loss of chartered blessings."

Now, what were these "chartered blessings which Adam might have enjoyed and transmitted to his posterity? I reply, the privilege of an unending existence, or immortality, together with such

* "Man Primeval, A Contribution to Theological Science :" by Dr. Harris, p. 424.

+ Congregational Lecture-" Original Sin," p. 113.

local and conditional circumstances, and the bestowment of such spiritual aid, as should effectually secure the moral and spiritual integrity of the race thus immortalized. In the failure, therefore, of Adam, we read, not the indictment of our own guilt, but the privation of such "chartered blessings.

دو

This statement, that we are deprived by the fall, not of personal rights and previous possessions, but chartered blessings, will meet an objection which many feel, and some have even ventured to express. While all admit that the doctrine of Adam's representative relation is distinctly revealed in the Bible, yet, seeing that such momentous issues to the human race are involved in this constitution, it is alleged that such an arrangement has the aspect of injustice towards the race, since it is presumed that their highest interests would have been safer in their own custody than intrusted to another; and this arrangement being made without the possibility of their being a party to it. Such an objection is of course nothing short of an impeachment of the Eternal Wisdom and Benevolence; and, although the Divine Being needs no apologists for His proceedings, I may be permitted to observe, in the hope of removing this painful and erroneous judgment, that it is based upon the common error of contemplating the fall insulated from the entire scheme, and necessary oneness of revealed truth. Ruin by Adam is not to be regarded per se, but in connection with its grand complement,-redemption by Christ.

The

Apostle Paul has, as we have seen, expressed the correspondence between these two great parts of the evangelic system; and has affirmed that mankind are indeed gainers by this original arrangement with Adam, since it became possible to institute a second representative head in the person of Christ, by whom all the lost privileges might be again recovered. "If,” he reasons," through the offence of one, many be

dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound; that as sin hath reigned unto death. even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord."*

This inspired reasoning neutralizes the objection against the representative arrangement, and shows us that every man is now his own keeper; and thus, through the new representative relation of Jesus Christ, who has again planted the tree of life, all men are made probationers for immortality; and, with a second opportunity of being enriched with the forfeited chartered blessings, are challenged to prove themselves worthier and safer guardians of their own interests.

But, independently of this correspondence between the two schemes upon which the fall and recovery of mankind depend, and which exhibit an incalculable over-compensation in the gift of Christ, by which more extensively beneficial ends are generally secured, had no such restoring scheme been devised as that of the Christian redemption, on what principle, we ask, could injustice be charged upon God in the representative arrangement which he made with Adam? "Nay, but, Oman, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus?" Let it be distinctly remembered that the loss mankind şustained in Adam was not personal rights, but chartered blessings. This disposition to impeach the justice of the Great Moral Govenor arises in part, and I am fain to believe chiefly, from a mistaken apprehension of the nature and consequents of the fall. The most erroneous statements have been made by some writers on this subject. One expositor of the Epistle to the Romans maintains, "that the sin *Rom. v. 15, 20, 21.