Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing"." It was on this "ground" that Adam was to contend with the "thorns" which the earth was to raise up to him, and if he proved victorious in the contest, he was to be "accepted 9."

[ocr errors]

P Hebr. vi. 8.- "The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof, because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth 1." I "Sow not among thorns 2"

[ocr errors]
[blocks in formation]

"And the Lord GOD said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field: upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life 3." This curse denounced against Satan, implies his degradation and subjugation. The lowest state of humiliation is expressed by the figure going on the belly and licking up the dust; "our soul is bowed down to the dust, and our belly cleaveth unto the earth 4," " My soul cleaveth unto the dust 5." It is said, with relation to Christ; of "kings" and "queens:" "they shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet" of "the nations:" "they shall lick the dust like a serpent";" they that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him; and his enemies shall lick the dust 8" The complete destruction of the power of Satan is announced in the words that follow: "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel 9." This promised "seed" of the

3 Gen. iii. 14.

• Psalm xliv. 25.

5 Psalm cxix. 25.

[ocr errors]

7 Micah, vii. 17.
8 Psalm lxxii. 9.

Gen. iii. 15.

• Isaiah, xlix. 23.

[ocr errors]

Such was the nature, such were the conditions, of the covenant which was established between the Deity and man, through the transgression of Adam; and which may, therefore, be termed the Adamite covenant. Now, since the frailty and imperfection of human nature is such, that our members are continually warring against the law of our minds", which "law is "the knowledge of good and evil" ("the law written in" our "heartsTM"), " for the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other [ἀντίκειται ἀλλήλοις]ς;” we are unable to fulfl the obligations which the covenant of works imposes upon mankind; and, failing so to do, we cannot, under that covenant, "see the salvation of God." For," there is none upright among men;""There is not a just man upon earth

"him

woman was the Incarnate Word, who hath destroyed that had the power of death, that is, the devil1°;" for all enemies are put under his feet, being made his footstool 12. "The GOD of peace shall bruise [œuvrçı↓&] Satan under your feet 13," "Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces 14." "The great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil and Satan-and his angels were cast out with him 15."

[blocks in formation]

that doth good and sinneth not ";" "There is, none that doeth good, no not one ";""There is none good but one, that is GOD *." As the posterity of Adam, then, are included in his covenant of works; as they also possess "the knowledge of good and evil;" as they inherit the frailty of his nature, the infirmity of the fleshy, being "weak through the flesh2;" they, like him, are unable to comply with the terms of that covenant; 66 so, then, they that are in the flesh, cannot please GOD a." In this way, we "children of the flesh b" are, by one man's disobedience, made sinners, and are "concluded all under sind." So that, under the Adamite covenant, "shall no flesh be justified," but "death hath passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." And, as by Adam, "sin entered into the world, and death by sinf;" as his transgression led to the establishment of the covenant of works; and as we inherit his nature, so it is said, "In Adam all die."

Was the "death" of mankind, then, rendered, by this covenant, fixed and inevitable e; was man for ever deprived of all hope of salva

[blocks in formation]

tion; and were there no means whereby this fatal covenant could be " disannulled?"

We have seen that there was a remedy, by which the fatal error of Adam might be retrieved, and by which, not only might his "death" be averted, but "eternal life" might be imparted to him. This remedy was the "tree of life," which remained in "Eden" after Adam's expulsion, and which St. John describes as being yet"in the midst of the paradise of GOD." This "tree of life" represented Him who hath said, “I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." Christ, then, affords the sure and the only remedy for the transgression of Adam. He, who was "the Son of GOD k," "the appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds'; "the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person ";"" the image of the invisible God";""whose goings forth have been from of old from everlasting";" whom all the angels of GOD worshipped; the beloved Son in whom the Father was well pleased; whom He

,

h Gen. iii. 22.
i John, xi. 25, 26.

* John, xx. 31.

! Hebr. i. 2.

m Hebr. i. 3.

m

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]
[ocr errors]

66

[ocr errors]

99

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

loved" before the foundation of the world";" who was in glory with the Father "before the world was ";" who was one with the Fathert; and, in the beginning," was with GOD;" " and was GOD";"" the Lord of glory"; "Christ who is over all, God blessed for ever*; "His arm brought salvation." "The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world 2; "through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God ":" " then said He, Lo! I come to do thy will, O God "." "He gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity:" "the Lord laid upon him the iniquity of us all ";""He gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time"." He 66 was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times f;'

99

according to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest, and by the Scriptures of the Prophets 5." He became "the mediator of the new covenant, that by means of death,

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small]
« AnteriorContinuar »