destroyed himself and all whom he drew af ter him; and instead of continuing the illuftrious and rational being he once was, he is now ranked with the brute creation, named and described as a dreadful beast, a dragon, lion, or dog.

The change of the character of this angel, which took place immediately upon his fall, from being the Son of the Morning, to that of a horrible fiend;--and the change of his condition, from being free in the habitation of light, to that of a beaft chained in darkness, will illustrate to all eternity the infinite worth of Christ, and shew the absolute dependence of all the excellence and felicity of creatures upon him.

Section 2. The Fall of Man.

The devil, having departed from the beginning, and become an enemy to the truth, immediately determined upon war, if by any means he might dethrone his sovereign, and overthrow his kingdom; and as man was affociated with the Lord Christ, and stood with him in the interest and on the party of the government, his ground became, as it were, the out poft or frontier of the empire, and presented the natural point for commencing the attack.

As man was made in the image of God, and crowned with his glory and honor, it might be fuppofed that the mysterious char

ter of his dominion extended to an ascendancy over the angels; for, indeed, without any exception, he was by the Lord God set over the works of his hands; against man, therefore, this proud, disobedient and rebellious spirit rose up, as against his lord and sovereign. And as man had begun to exercise the highest acts of sovereignty, by giving names to the creatures, which were among the first exercises in a way of administration that existed in the creation; he was confidered as standing high upon the ground of this dominion; so that, in this his wonderful union with Christ, the reasons are apparent, why the devil aimed at man his first blow.

And here, again, we may view and admire the depth of the divine counsel, that the same circumstance in the state of man which occafioned his overthrow, led to his recovery, viz. that the matter which raised against him an eneiny, was a cause of infinite value, and an intereft in common between him and the Lord Christ, in which the Lord his maker had the greatest share!

The serpent, which for powers of intelli. gence was above all the beasts of the field, was the proper instrument to be employed in carrying this dark design into effect; for which purpose, the neceffary trial of man, to give him the knowledge of truth and obedience, according to the good pleasure of God, afforded a fair opening.

From what has been observed, respecting a certain analogy subsisting between the fubjects of both worlds, the affociation of this

angelic spirit with the ferpent, may not seem so strange: for in such a political concern, or matter of state, whilst the Lord of Heaven associated with man in the interest of the government, a design of rebellion would naturally lead those subjects of the upper world to feek a correspondence abroad, in order to draw into their interest the fubjects of this, where immediately the scene of action was designed to commence.

And it should ever be a warning to all who are diftinguished for their natural endowments, not to truft even to fuperior fagacity and genius; that the most subtile and intelligent of all the creatures of the world, was the first to be drawn into that accursed enterprize, in which he was crushed to the ground and irrecoverably loft; for, though the other creatures will be preferved, and enjoy at laft the glorious liberty of the children of God; yet, by the irrevocable decree of Heaven, the ferpent and all his generation shall die. On account of this early connexion of the arch rebel with the serpent, and also of his fubtile and wily character, he himfelf is doomed to bear the hateful name of the ferpent.

Upon this ground, therefore, of the inte est of the kingdom, and the question who shall have the dominion? the war of ages first broke out; and notwithstanding the fuccefsful attempts which have been made, in these last days, to conceal the nature of Jefus Chrilt's gospel, and to divert the attention of men from the Hope of Ifrael in the reftor

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ation of the kingdom, to systems of mere piety, religion and morality; the kingdom-the doctrine of the kingdom is still, and to the great day of decifion, will be the point, the all-interesting ground of the folemn controVersy. And being thus at once asfaulted, by the fubtilty of the ferpent, and the falsehood of the devil, the woman was deceived and fell; and by one of the deepest stratagems that was ever conceived, together with the natural force of, perhaps, as tempting an object as ever allured the human eye, the man alfo was overcome and ruined.

By the fall, man lost the image of God, and as necessarily expired as a living foul, as the body expires feparated from air; the crown of glory and honor fell from his head, and he ceased to be lord of the creation, and became like the beasts that perish, as neceffarily as the breathless body lofes its glory and strength, and changes into a corpfe. This event most strikingly illuftrated the all-important truth, that all the blessedness, glory and power of creatures arife from their union with the bleffed, glorious and almighty Word; that life, and the favor of God is enjoyed only through the Lord of Life, the beloved One, who was fet up from everlasting.

And being thus without strength, having left the Rock of Ages, man, and the whole creation with him, necessarily fell under the pow. er and tyranny of the great enemy the devil, who, by the displacing of Adam, came in and took poffeflion of the whole realın, and fet up over man and all the creation, the reign of death.

This finished what is called the threatening to Adam, dying thou shalt die. Falling from Christ his life, fatan rose over him armed with power derived from his feparation from the only fource of life, and which is therefore called the power of death, and set up over him the dominion of darkness, tyranny and horror. But the darkness and misery of the power and reign of the devil in the world, serves thus to brighten the illustration of the light and blessedness of the power and reign of the Lord of Light and Blessedness.

Section 3. Depravity.

The doctrine of the entire depravity of man by the fall, properly stated, can admit of no difpute but what implies either ignorance or disbelief of the whole divine system; for as the uprightness and perfection of man all confisted in the divine constitution of his creation; his being made in the image of God; the lofs of this standing in covenant union with Christ, must imply a state of total and universal depravity.

The idea of the covenant of life being partly broken, and partly kept, or of the divine union with Christ being partly lost, and partly retained, has never been advanced; fuch a thing is inconceivable; what was declared by the word of God, was the most evident truth, that in the day man should eat of the tree that was the article of the trial of his co

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