Infer
1. What an awful change has sin brought into the world!
[Survey the character before drawn : and compare it with men in the present state : " How is the gold become dim, and the fine gold changed ! " Men are now enveloped in darkness, and immersed in sin. They " know nothing as they ought to know," and do nothing as they ought to do it. No words can adequately express the blindness of their
minds, or the depravity of their hearts. Yet all this has
resulted from that one sin which Adam committed in Para- dise. He lost the divine image from his own soul; and "begat a son in his own fallen likeness:" and the streams that have been flowing for nearly six thousand years from that polluted fountain, are still as corrupt as ever. O that we habitually considered sin in this light, and regarded it as the one source of all our miseries !]
f 1 John i. 5. s Eccl. vii. 29. h 2 Cor. iv. 4.
1 Col. i. 15. k Heb. i. 3. > Heb. vii. 26.
m Col. iii. 10. » Eph. iv. 24. ° 1 Cor. xi. 7.
l.J CREATION OF MAN. 5
2. What a glorious change will the Holy Spirit effect in the hearts of all who seek Him !
[In numberless passages, as well as in those before cited p, the Holy Spirit is spoken of, as "renewing" our souls, and making us "new creatures q." What Adam was in Paradise, that shall we be, " according to the measure of the gift of Christ." " Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle- tree1." He will " open the eyes of our understanding," and cause us to "know all things" that are needful for our salva- tion s : and at the same time that he " turns us from darkness unto light, he will turn us also from the power of Satan unto God:" " He will put his laws in our minds, and write them in our hearts1." Let not any imagine that their case is despe- rate ; for He who created all things out of nothing, can easily create us anew in Christ Jesus : and he will do it, if we only direct our eyes to Christ: " We all beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord"."]
3. What obligations do we owe to the ever-blessed Trinity !
[If we looked no further than to our first creation, we are infinitely indebted to the sacred Three, for making us the subject of their consultation, and for co-operating to form us in the most perfect manner. But what shall we say to that other consultation, respecting the restoration of our souls ? Hear, and be astonished at that gracious proposal, " Let us restore man to our image." " I," says the Father, " will par- don and accept them, if an adequate atonement can be found to satisfy the demands of justice." " Then on me be their guilt," says his only dear Son : "I will offer myself a sacri- fice for them, if any one can be found to apply the virtue of it effectually to their souls, and to secure to me the purchase of my blood." " That shall be my charge," says the blessed Spirit: "I gladly undertake the office of enlightening, re- newing, sanctifying their souls ; and I will " preserve every one of them blameless unto thy heavenly kingdom." Thus, by their united efforts, is the work accomplished ; and a way of access is opened for every one of us through Christ, by that one Spirit, unto the Father x. O let every soul rejoice in this Tri-une God ! and may the Father's love, the grace of Christ, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with us all evermore ! Amen.]