But especially did the covenant seal all spiritual blessings to Adam. This involved the perpetual vigour and continual growth of all the features of God's image in his soul,-free and unreserved communion with his condescending and beneficent Creator, and final confirmation in holiness, termination of the state of trial, and translation to a higher sphere,—to life in heaven, to that mansion, of which it is written, "In thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore."-Psalm xvi. 11.

CHAPTER X.

ADAM THE COVENANT HEAD OF THE RACE.

THUS far we have viewed Adam as an individual, personally the object of God's creative and providential power and care, 1. Proof of sustaining to his Maker relations of peculiar priAdam's head- vilege and responsibility, by gift and covenant. ship. But, did we stop here, we should have exceedingly inadequate conceptions of his real position, in transacting with God; and of the true extent of the responsibilities which he sustained, and the ruin which he incurred by his sin. In creating, his Maker endowed him with a prolific constitution; and in the blessing pronounced upon him at his creation, prior to any of the external actions by which the covenant of nature was formally sealed, he was ordained to multiply,—to become, of one, the myriads of the human race. In all God's dealings with him, he is regarded in this light, as the root and father of a race who should proceed from him. They, by virtue of this derivative relation to him, were contemplated by God, as, in him their head, parties in all the transactions which had respect to the covenant. Thus, they sinned in his sin; fell in his apostasy; were depraved in his corruption; and in him became children of Satan and of the wrath of God.

By the phrase, covenant head, we do not mean that Adam was by covenant made head of the race; but that, being its head, by virtue of the nature with which God had endowed him, he stood as such in the covenant. Adam sustained in his person two distinct characters, the demarcation of which must be carefully observed, if we would attain to any just conclusions, as to the relation he held toward us, and the effects upon us of his actions. First, in him was a nature of a specific character, the common

endowment of the human race; and transmissible to them, by propagation, with their being. Again, he was an individual person, endowed with the nature thus bestowed on him in common with his posterity. Personal actions, and relations of his, which did not affect his nature, were peculiar to him as a private person. But such as affected his nature, with him, and to the same extent, involved all those to whom that nature was given, in its bestowal on him. He was endowed, as we have seen, with knowledge, righteousness and holiness; and with a liberty of will, which, whilst fully competent to stand in untarnished and perpetual holiness and rectitude, was free and unrestricted in the power of apostatizing from God, and embracing sin instead. of holiness. Any exertion of his will or powers, the effect of which had been to strengthen holy principles within him, affecting as it would his nature, would have been imputed to those who in him were partakers in his native holiness. Any act of his will, or exertion of any of the powers of his being, the tendency of which had been to weaken those principles in his nature, would have been in like manner imputed. On the contrary, actions which bore no relation to such effects as these, were personal to the actor, and not imputed to others. To the former class belonged acts of obedience to God, such as tilling the ground, observing the Sabbath, and worshipping God,— acts, which, by the force of habit, gave increasing strength to the holy nature in which he was created; or any want of watchfulness in view of the dangers which were at hand, or failure to seek divine strength to uphold him in integrity. To the latter class of actions pertained such as partaking of food, and indulging in nightly slumber,—acts which had no special moral character, and exerted no plastic influence on his nature. Adam was thus constituted, and the covenant was engraved on his heart and nature, as he was a propagative being, the father of the race. As thus engraved, it is actually transmitted to us, although the transgression has abrogated its power as a covenant of life. It follows inevitably, from these facts, that it was given to Adam, not only for himself, but for his posterity,— that he was in it their representative; receiving the covenant

for them; and acting under it on their behalf, as well as on his

own.

In all God's other dealings with Adam he is looked upon and addressed, not as an individual merely, but as representing in his person all men. So it was in his endowment with God's image, and with the name, "Adam,"-a name not only proper to his person, but in the Bible constantly recognised and used as the generic name of the race. So that, in fact, when we say that God made a covenant with Adam, it is equivalent, by the very force of the terms, to saying, that the covenant was made with the human race. This relation of Adam's name, and the representative office in which he was originally contemplated, is indicated very forcibly in the use of the plural, which occurs in the decree of creation:-"Let us make man (Adam) in our image, after our likeness; and let THEM have dominion."-Gen. i. 26. The blessing,-"Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion," which is in the same connection, and in fulfilment of that creative decree,-in terms addresses not him alone, but in him all his seed. It was, as multiplied, that they were to replenish, subdue and rule the earth. So, too, the declaration that "it is not good for man to be alone," and the institution and blessing upon marriage, all contemplated not Adam alone, but in him all his children. To it Christ appeals, quoting the law recorded in Genesis ii. 24, as of perpetual and universal obligation:-"For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they twain shall be one flesh. Wherefore," says Christ, "they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder."-Matt. xix. 5, 6.

That the curse, which was addressed to Adam, upon occasion of the transgression, included all his seed, is unquestionable. If it be viewed in its more extensive comprehension, as including the fierceness of the wrath and curse of almighty God, this is in operation by nature against all the children of Adam. They are all "by nature the children of wrath."-Eph. ii. 3. If it be viewed in its more restricted sense, as having regard to the positive terms in which it was pronounced upon our first parents, this also in

cludes all the race. All Eve's daughters bitterly prove that not she only was meant, when it was said to her, "I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee."-Gen. iii. 16. All the sons of Adam realize their interest in the sad inheritance of the curse which he incurred, in barrenness to the earth, and toil and sorrow to its possessor. All, too surely, anticipate a personal experience of the dread assurance, "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." The curse of the violated covenant, thus addressed to Adam, but, in the terms so addressed, denouncing all his seed, shows conclusively that the transgression of Adam implicated them, that in the covenant of which that curse was the sanction, they were recognised in his person.

We are not, however, left to mere inference on this question, strong and conclusive as are its deductions. The statements of the Scriptures are clear and explicit in respect to Adam's representative office. They will be considered hereafter.

Here, however, it is necessary to enter more particularly into consideration of the manner in which Adam was invested with 2. Cause of the functions of a representative. That the cause his headship. of that office was the will of God, is not disputed by any who recognise the office. But it is a question how the Creator gave effect to his will in this matter. Was it by a positive arrangement, unessential to the completeness of the constitution of nature, extraneous to it, and superimposed upon it after the work of creation was complete? Or, did He so order that the relation between the representative body and its head should be an organic one,-a relation implied in the very structure of Adam's nature, incorporated with the substance of his being, and constituting an element essential to the completeness and symmetry of the whole system, physical, moral and spiritual? By many orthodox theologians of the present day, it is held, that the representative relation of Adam did not exist, until the positive provision was made respecting the tree of knowledge; when it was constituted by a decretive act of God's sovereignty. We are constrained to take the opposite view,