command, the mind of Asaph was deeply impressed when he penned the following words; "For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children; that the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born, who should arise, and declare them to their children, that they might set their hope in God, and not for get the works of God; but keep his commandments." The inspired Psalmist evidently reasoned on this ground, that as the generations before him were commanded to stand in their lot, and transmit the laws and institutions of God to their posterity; so it was the incumbent duty of the generation, in which he lived, to stand in their lot, in defence of the same divine laws and institutions, and communicate the same invaluable blessings to their posterity. Every succeeding generation, from that time to the present, has been under the same obligation; and the obligation has increased in proportion to the increase of light and privileges.

The duty of communicating divine instruction to children may be urged on the score of gratitude. Parents and guardians must be careful not to hide from the generation to come what their fathers have told them respecting the interesting things of religion. Having themselves been taught these things, they must be chargeable with awful ingratitude not to communicate the knowledge of them to their children. Freely they have received, freely they must give.

How great would be the sin, in the present generation, of withholding or suppressing that instruction, in regard to the doctrines, duties and institutions of the gospel, which their fathers were at the pains of communicating to them? Did their fathers put the Holy Scriptures into their hands? They are bound, from this consideration, to commit that precious treasure into the hands of their children. Did their fathers labour to make them acquainted with the character of God, and with the great and interesting truths of his holy word? They are bound, from this consideration, to labour as much, at least, to teach the same things to their children. Do they call to mind, that when they were under the care and instruction of their fathers, they were taught by example and precept, to remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy? It will be the basest ingratitude, for them to be silent on this subject, or to exhibit before their children a careless observance of holy time. Did their fathers teach them the importance of honouring God in the house of prayer, by constantly attending themselves, and byproviding for their attendance? This may be urged as a reason, why they should be assiduous to impress on the minds of their children the importance of regular public worship. Were their parents constant in pleading for them in family prayer? They ought also to plead for their children, and by their example to teach them to plead for theirs. Do they recollect, that their parents, in many ways, expressed a concern for their immortal souls? The sin of ingratitude

will lie at their door, if their children do not see, in them, a concern for their souls. Did their parents publicly dedicate them to God, and obligate themselves, in the most solemn manner, to bring them up in his nurture and admonition? They will, then, be guilty of great ingratitude, to withhold from God their own children. These things are not mentioned, as involving all in equal obligations; for they who have filled the place of parents have not been equally faithful to their trust. But, although our fathers, who are gone, were chargeable, in the sight of God, with unfaithfulness to us; yet, through them, generally speaking, we have enjoyed such privileges, as have brought upon us a great debt, which we can never discharge unless we do it to the rising generation. It will be the basest ingratitude, not to do as well, at least, by our children, as our fathers did by us. Shall the knowledge of God's word and ordinances, communicated to us by the generation from which we have descended, be laid aside as useless, like the talent, which the wicked and slothful servant hid in the earth? Shall we, by our unfaithfulness, put out all the light, which has been transmitted to us from our fathers, and leave our children to grow up as heathen? Our consciences, unless seared as with a hot iron, will be prompt in deciding these questions.

The only way for this generation to keep themselves pure from the blood of their children, is to be faithful in communicating divine instruction to them. We are taught in the word of God, that the connexion between parents

and children is of vast importance. All children have souls which are liable to be lost. Great indeed must be such a loss. Committed by God to the care of their parents, they are liable to be lost, through their unfaithfulness. God hath constituted parents the guides of their offspring. And what if they guide them wrong? The effect will certainly be seen in their children. If they give wrong instruction, it is to be expected that wrong instruction will be received, When received, how is it to be rooted out? If they give no instruction, it is to be expected that their children will grow up in ignorance. Means and ends, under the government of God, are connected. He who neg lects to sow, may not expect to reap; and he who sows tares,

may expect to reap tares. In like manner, he, who is unfaith, ful in his house, who neglects to give divine instruction, and whose example is bad, has no reason to expect that his chil dren will be seen walking in the truth. How can those children love and honour their Maker, who have never been taught his character? Trained up in ignorance of divine things, their stu pidity is not a matter of surprise. It is the natural fruit of their education. What ground is there to indulge a hope that they will have any concern for themselves, as sinful, undone creatures, if their parents neglect to acquaint them with their character and condition? What is called conviction always takes place in view of truth. Instruction, or light, is necessary to conviction. Not that mere instruction is the cause of convic

tion; but it is essential to it. That person, who is duly concerned for his soul, is brought into that situation by having some just views of truth; for we cannot conceive of an exercise of mind, whether painful or pleasant, without an object. Hence we see the importance of gospel instruction. Those parents, who withhold it from their children, will find themselves, in the great day, guilty of the blood of their souls. In consequence of their unfaithfulness, they may go down to destruction, and draw after them their children and their children's children.

To all parents this subject must be interesting, especially to those, who have lately entered into the family state. For those, who are in this case, it was more especially designed.

Such parents, as have been unfaithful in their houses, until the characters of their children are formed, and their influence over them nearly or quite at an end, are in a most unhappy case. The opportunities they once enjoyed are past, and can never be recalled. Their children will no more be young. They are gone, or are going, from under their care; and perhaps many of them are in their graves. The parents, if their feelings are in any measure awake, must carry their burdens all their days; knowing that it must be forever said of them, that they have been unkind and unfaithful parents. They may ardently wish they had opportunity to call their children around them, and make them acquainted with their Maker; but, alas, it is to late. Their case is similar to that of a person, who has robbed a fellow

creature, and who has no opportunity to make restitution, because it has been neglected, until the injured person is no more among the living.

But, those who have but lately entered into the family state, have opportunity to save themselves from the distressing pain of having been unfaithful. Their children are yet under their care, and they are looking to them, as their instructors and guides. How important that they improve the price which is put into their hands; that they begin early to instruct their children, and to make them acquainted with eternal things. If they know the things, which belong to their own peace, and to that of their children, they will suffer no time to be lost.

H.

PARTS

[The reader will take the trouble to look over the chapter.]

HAVING noted the blessings, which come to believers through Jesus Christ; free justification, peace with God, a standing in the grace of the everlasting covenant, and joy in the hope of glory, with several important concomitants; the apostle, from the 12th verse, remarks a resem. blance between the manner in which sin and death pass upon the world of mankind, and the manner in which the justifica tion of life, with all its benefits, passes upon all, who are in Christ. "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all

have sinned" [So righteous ness and life, through Christ alone, pass upon all the heirs of mercy.]

In some such manner as this, according to the connexion, the ellipsis in ver. 12 ought to be supplied; as may be seen by looking forward to ver. 15.

The two intervening verses appear to form a parenthesis, by which the apostle explains, as he goes along, what he had just said. "Sin," he observes, "is not imputed where there is no law." But, in fact, sin was in the world, and was imputed from Adam to the time of Mo ses. If there was not a written law to charge it, there was a law of nature. And there, was the original command Adam was under, and which he transgressed. And death reigned all that time, even over them, who had not committed overt acts of sin. In this respect, as in others, Adam the sinner was a figure of Adam the righteous, through whom the gift of life is convey ed to those by whom no act of virtue had been performed.

To return then to verse 12. How sin came into the world by one man, and death by sin, will be understood, if we can explain that judgment unto condemnation mentioned in ver. 16. What is it then, but a judgment concluding the whole race under sin; and then passing sentence of death upon that ground, i. e. a sentence to mortality, to the loss of communion with God, and to whatever else was included in the original threatening? I say upon that ground, passing sentence; because this is the language of the 12th verse, in the last part of it: "And so death passed upon all

men, for that all have sinned." Calvin's interpretation agrees with that of our translators:Forasmuch as all have sinned. But if, with others, we choose to read, so death passed upon all men, unto which all have sinned; the same ground of condemnation is implied; and all having sinned unto death, in one sense or other, is the declared reason why death passes upon all.

Still the exact sense in which all are adjudicated sinners, by means of the first man's offence, is variously explained. Whether that judgment implicates them by imputation, in virtue of their father's offence, and because he acted as their federal head; and on that ground consigns them to a contaminating influence of the original sin, as part of the death incurred; Or whether the judgment, in the first instance, brings them in sinners, upon the ground of contam, ination and inherent depravity, and so dooms them to the reward of sin: Or whether there be an explanation more perfect than either, and which more clearly "vindicates the ways of God to man," I wish rather to leave with Him whose ways are surely unimpeachable, than with any human expositor; and much rather than decide myself in a peremptory manner.

In the mean time, how interesting in the most general view, is the parallel here introduced? "As by one man's disobedience many were made sinners;" say generally, involved in depravity and guilt, as the natural consequence of such rebellion of their father, under a wise and holy constitution of God; so by perfect obedience of another Father,

under a new constitution, shall many, (that is, as many as believe on Him with a uniting faith) rise to a justification, founded upon his merits, and not their own; which shall, however, be followed with a complete restoration of original righteousness; and what is more, the complete image of Jesus Christ, our head and father.

But the apostle hints that there are circumstances in which the parallel does not hold; and some of these he specifies; chiefly with a view to show, as a well known expositor observes, "that Adam could not propagate so strong a poison, but that Jesus Christ could propagate an antidote much stronger; and that the stream of grace and righteousness is deeper and broader than the stream of guilt."

V. 15. "But not as the of fence, so also is the free gift. For if, through the offence of one, many be dead; much more, the grace of God, and the gift by grace"-i. e. the gift of righteousness and life" which is by Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many." The explanation of this may be found in part, by a little varying of the expression. If Divine Justice had a signal display in sending death upon the world through the of fence of the first transgressor; the grace of God has a more sig nal display in the recovery by such a Redeemer; by the amazing love that gave Him to the world in a way of such humiliation and suffering; by the foundation laid in his important obedience, for such blessings to sinners; and by the grace actually bestowed-which countervails the death and wretchedness from which it de

livers: Especially considering how momentary and transient that death is, in the ultimately redeemed (though without redemption it must have been eternal) and how endless is the life of holiness and glory to which they are raised up.

In verse 16, another point of difference is noted. The judg ment to condemnation—i. e. the original sentence which involved the world in death and wretchedness-passed upon the ground of a single offence of the first transgressor: (whether we say upon the demerit of it as his act; whether we say in virtue of our interest in it, as the act of our father and head; or whether on the ground of the contamination, which by the law of nature it must impress, unless that law were suspended ;) but the free gift prevails over the multiplied offences of millions of subjects, unto their discharge from condemnation and their instatement in divine favour. The argument appears to intend this ; if one offence, by the just judgment of God, brought such a death upon a whole world, how great must be the GRACE which can triumph over such a multitude of offences, of innumerable guilty subjects, and confer upon them such immense positive blessings.

In verse 17 there is another comparison. "If by one man's disobedience, death reigned by one; much more, they who receive abundance of grace, and of the gift of righteousness, shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ." The general intention seems to be, how greatly will that life, whichtrue believers shall possess by the abundant grace conferred on