you with these dehghtful words, " Come, thou blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for thee, from the foundation of the world!"
1 Cor. XV. 22. As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
THE fall of man in Adam, and his recovery in Christ, comprehend the whole circle of Divine truth : every part of the revealed will of God is so connected with these two doctrines, that all must stand or fall together. Our death implies the former of them ; and our resurrection the latter. Hence St. Paul, proving the doctrine of the resurrection, adverts to our fall in Adam as an acknowledged truth, and draws a parallel between that and our recovery in Christ.
We shall, I. Establish the points mentioned in the text —
Nothing can be more certain than that " in Adam all died"—
[The penalty of eating the forbidden fruit was death, death teinporal, spiritual, eternal : and, on the very day that Adam fell, the threatened punishment was inflicted on him, so far, at least, as could consist with God's purposes towards the world at large : the seeds of death wei'e implanted in his body; a spiritual death seized upon his soul ; and everlasting death awaited him, unless divine mercy should interpose to deliver him from it. Nor was this a matter which concerned him alone ; it involved both him and all his posterity, insomuch that all the human race fell in him, and became obnoxious to temporal, spiritual, eternal death. The very words of the text prove this ; yea, they prove it more strongly than any mere assertion could do ; because they state it as an allowed fact ; and make it the foundation of a most important comparison. And we see it plainly before our eyes. We see that all in successive generations are swept away by death. And as to spiritual death, who does not see how awfully the whole world is " alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, and because of the hardness of their hearts?" As