awful the situation of those to whom it is hostile! Nothing can withstand or escape it. With what earnestness and solicitude should every human being, who is yet in the place of repentance, seek to make the Almighty God his friend?

Again-Who can measure, or comprehend, the wisdom displayed in all the Creator's works-every thing adapted to its intended effect, and all harmonizing in perfect order, and in perfect subserviency to the designs of the great Author and Governor of all! Once more-The goodness of God shines throughout the universe. It is written in legible characters, on all his works. All have a tendency to promote the happiness of his sensitive creatures. "He openeth his hand and satisfieth the wants of every living thing." But you, my young friends-you are formed not for the enjoyment only of this passing, momentary state, but as probationers for a felicity as lasting as the existence of God himself. Will any of you neglect to make sure of this felicity? Will any sacrifice it for fugitive gratifications? Will any regard it as less than "the one thing needful?" No language can express the madness and folly of such conduct. O! let it be the first and immediate concern of all who hear me, to take care for the happiness of eternity.

2. But the subject we have been considering leads us to reflect on the imperative obligations to duty, gratitude, and love, under which our relation to God. has placed us. He is our Creator: He made us what we are: He has given us all that we possess: He upholds us in being: we depend on him, every moment, for all that we enjoy, and for all that we can hope for. Has he not a clear and absolute right to our service, our obedience, our gratitude, our love? Can any thing be so wicked, and so base, and so rebellious, as to refuse to obey and love him? Is he not worthy of our warmest affections, our highest esteem; the consecration of all our powers, of all that we have and are, to his service and glory? Has he made us-not like the brutes-but more like the angels-capable of knowing, adoring, worshipping,

and enjoying himself, to all eternity? And shall any of us prostitute these capacities to lower and baser objects? Shall we give them to his rivals and enemies? Shall we violate all the strong and tender ties, that bind us to a true allegiance-to a willing and delightful obedience to the Sovereign of the universe? Shall we not rather commence at once the enjoyment of God, by holy communion with him, and a sweet surrender of our whole selves to his rightful demands? Shall we not thus begin a preparation for an eternal heaven, while we draw a present portion of it down to earth? I suggest to you, my dear young friends, some of my thoughts, in this questionary form. The questions carry with them their own answers: or rather they are too full of import to be answered in words, or even in thought. We can never conceive, either of the folly and danger of having God for our enemy, or of the wisdom and happiness of making him our friend.

Do not, I entreat you, satisfy yourselves with mere speculations on the important subjects which I am bringing before you. Your attendance-your manifest diligent and serious attendance here-is indeed gratifying. But I cannot endure the thought, that your knowledge should be increased, and that your hearts should remain unaffected-That would be only to increase your responsibility, and to aggravate your final condemnation. Let every subject we discuss be followed with serious, with devout meditation; with application to your hearts and consciences; with fervent prayer that it may be blessed to your everlasting benefit. So treat the subject of your attention this evening. Retire meditating on God; on yourselves, as the work and creatures of God; and on the indispensable duty that you owe him. Go thus to your families and your closets; and there worship the God whose you are, and whom you ought to serve. Make him in Christ Jesus, your covenant God; that thus you may be prepared to dwell for ever in his immediate and blissful presence. Amen.

LECTURE XII.

HOW DID GOD CREATE MAN?

THE subject of our present lecture is the tenth answer of our Catechism, expressed in these words: "God created man male and female, after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, with dominion over the creatures."

1. God created man. I have already had occasion to treat of creation in general, and of the formation of the first parents of our race. But as the Catechism again resumes the subject in its particular relation to man, so this is exactly agreeable to what we find in the sacred records. The account of the other parts of creation is there cursory and general. The account of the creation of man is more full and particular. It was for man that the earth, and all which it contains, was formed. Of all terrestrial things, man alone can know and understand his origin, and adore the hand which gave him being. Of the origin of man therefore, more was to be told than merely that he was made. Indeed my young friends, there is nothing which shows the dignity of your nature in the scale of being more strikingly, than the account which is given of this transaction in your Bible. When the world was formed and completely furnished for his residence, a council of the Godhead is held on the creation of man-" Let us make man.” Man was to be God's viceroy in this lower world, the only image of his Creator in his moral perfections; and it was the purpose of God, though not then revealed, that the second person of the Godhead should become man; and hence the solemnity of the transaction, and of the account which is given of it"Let us make man, in our image, after our likeness." -What can be the intention of this remarkable use

of language in the plural number, on this occasion? We have already given some explanation of it. let us examine it a little more closely.

But

There are only three ways of accounting for this manner of expression that deserve a serious attention; and indeed it is only the last of the three, that can have any thing that is even plausible said in its fa

vour.

The first is, that the Deity is here represented as using the royal style, agreeably to what takes place in modern times, in which kings, or sovereigns, speak of themselves in the plural number. But Poole, in his Synopsis on the passage, quotes Aben Ezra, one of the most profound, learned, and candid, of all the Jewish Rabbies, as denying that this was ever the regal style among the Hebrews. He says that the regal style with them, was to use the second and third persons of the singular number-"Thou hast done it," in speaking to a king-" He hath done it," when a king spoke of himself. But he says there is not one example in the Jewish Scriptures or writings, of a king or sovereign speaking in the first person plural "let us do it" or, "we will do it." This, one would suppose, should be conclusive on this point.

The second supposition is, that the Deity here addresses angels, or some other creatures, when he says, "Let us make man." But this is monstrous in the extreme. Creation is the prerogative of God alone, as the Scriptures abundantly show; and "he will not give his glory to another." To represent him as putting his creatures on a level with himself, and associating them with himself in the exercise of the divine prerogatives, seems to savour at once of the extravagance of folly and the extreme of impiety.

As the expression then is not a Hebraism, and cannot be accounted for on the hypothesis just mentioned, there is every reason to believe, with the current of the most judicious and pious commentators, that it is a direct reference to the Trinity of persons in the divine essence:-That they are here repre

sented (to speak, as we are permitted to do, after the manner of men) as consulting and uniting in the formation of that intelligent being, by whom in the issue, the glory of the Triune God was to be so illustriously and widely displayed. How should every human being reverence himself, when he thinks of this origin! How should he feel himself bound, by the most sacred ties, to glorify God, in his body and his spirit which are God's!

It may be proper to remark on the clause of the answer now under consideration, that the whole work of creation was completed on the sixth day. I notice this, because in the second chapter of Genesis, there is a particular account of the formation of woman, which seems to come in after the first Sabbath. This however is nothing more than a peculiarity of manner in the Hebrew writers. They are often found first to record a series of facts, rapidly and shortly, and afterwards to take up one of the most important items, and consider it in detail.

2. God created man male and female. The sacred text informs us that "he called them Adam." Here it may be proper to remark, that Hebrew proper names are all significative. Adam, in that language, denotes earthy; and both the man and woman were named Adam or earthy, to remind them of their original. Thus, after the fall, it was said "dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return." The circumstance that woman was formed out of man, and not immediately from the earth, did not render the declaration improper. Their common ultimate origin, as to their bodies, was the earth-their souls were immediately from God. Henry, in his commentary on the formation of woman, has a remark which, notwithstanding its quaintness, I have often admired for its justness. and comprehension. It contains what some writers might have expanded to a volume, and yet not have said as much. "The woman (says Henry) was made of a rib out of the side of Adam: not made out of his head, to top him; not out of his feet to be trampled upon by him; but out of his side to be equal with