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for his own proper actions; such is the constitution of our nature, that one man frequently acts for many others, who are subject to the evil effects of his conduct, or enjoy its good effects, as fully and entirely as if they had acted for themselves. This is what we understand by representation. He who thus acts for others, is called their representative, and they who are subject to the good or evil consequences of his actions, are said to be represented by him. Thus, by the marriage covenant, the husband becomes the representative of his wife in a vast variety of civil transactions; by the law of nature, parents are the representatives of their children; and by the constitution of civil society, magistrates are the representatives of their respective tribes and nations. In a word, representation diffuses itself through all the ramifications of social life. Art is man's nature, society man's element, and representation the chief and grand characteristic of human society. Now whether this system of representation should exist, or should not, is not left to the free will and suffrage of mankind. It must exist. The law of our nature, which determines that we should be born helpless babes, and grow up to maturity, through various stages of increase, has imposed on us the invincible necessity of standing in relations wonderfully diversified to each other; from whence the virtues and vices of others shall influence and affect our well-being equally as if they had been our own virtues and vices. Upon the whole, though each of us possesses his own individuality, and must exist as an individual, in order to support any social relation, yet the social character of man predominates over his individual character.

Now, as all the destinies of man in this life depend on his representative character, it might be expected that

to come, to rest entirely on their ancestor's obedience or disobedience, upon his virtue or his vice, upon his righteousness or unrighteousness.

I grant, indeed, that it is an awful thought, that I, who am conscious of my own free will and personality, who can think and act for myself, and who have so important interests at stake, should be placed in circumstances where I am liable to be doomed to toil and pain, and death in one world, and everlasting misery in another, for the conduct of a man over whom I had no control, and for a sin which no volition of mine could either effect or prevent. This is the view of the subject which always presents itself to our fallen race; it is the precise profile of the subject which is placed in our view, in the position which we occupy as fallen sinners. And it is on this view that so many have denied the existence of the covenant of works, and sturdily denied the representative character of Adam; on the allegation that such a constitution of things were incompatible with the moral justice of God. But this objection, which I have no doubt many have made in the sincerity of their hearts, proves by far too much ; it concludes against the moral justice of ten thousand things which we know God to have done, and which we see him every day doing, and under which we are every day smarting. Is it just, I ask, that a brave nation should bleed at every pore, that millions of most industrious men should be stripped, every year, and

every day, of the fruits of their labour, and doomed to suffer the combined affliction of excessive toil, and excessive hunger because their supreme magistrate chooses to plunge them into ambitious wars? Is it justice that millions of men, ardent lovers of liberty, should be doomed to the most degrading bondage and grinding oppression, for centuries together, because their supreme magistrate chooses to play the tyrant? Is it just that millions of our race should be born to no inheritance but disease and infamy, because their parents choose to be vicious? These things indisputably occur in the government of a righteous God; and how shall they be reconciled with his justice? But you will say, that these evils grow out of the system of human things. True, and God of his own free will at first established, and still supports, that system; and produces and regulates all its movements. The system of human nature is worthy of God, because he has established it; and it is a representative system, in which the good or evil conduct of a representative entails blessings or curses, happiness or misery, on those whom they represent; and of consequence, there is nothing repugnant to the moral perfections of the Supreme Being in a system which shall stake the inte rests, the highest interests-of millions, and of miriads of millions of men, on the conduct of a single re presentative.

SECTION II.

Of Adam's Representative Character.

The doctrine of Adam's representation is admitted among ourselves; but as this piece may chance to fall

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lowing well known passages. Rom. v. 12, 13, 14,— "Wherefore, as by ONE MAN sin entered into the world and DEATH by sin; and so death passed on ALL men, for that all have sinned; (for until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed where there is NO LAW,) nevertheless death reigned, from Adam unto Moses, even over them who had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that is to come." See also ver. 15-19. I forbear any other quotations; as my intention is, simply to state the doctrine as exhibited in scripture, and not to illustrate it at large. From the passage quoted, and that referred to, we collect the following points of doctrine:

1. That by one man's (Adam's) sin-and that a single transgression-sin entered the world.

2. That in consequence of sin, death, which is its wages, also entered into the world.

3. That from the universality of death in this world, we must infer that all men are sinners.

4. That as sin is the transgression of the law, all men who are under Adam's sin, were under the law which Adam transgressed.

5. But, since it might be alleged, that men die for their own personal transgressions, and not for Adam's sin; the apostle states, that "death reigned from Adam to Moses," not only over those who had forfeited their lives by their own actual transgressions, but "even

over them who had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression," namely, infants and idiots, who were incapable of sinning voluntarily. And therefore, since death is the wages of sin, and sin the transgression of the law; and, that those persons who never transgressed the law by any act of their own die, it follows, that they are under the law because Adam was under it, transgressed it in Adam's sin, and suffer the penalty of death for that transgression.

This is the outline of the scripture doctrine, on the subject of Adam's sin, and its imputation to those whom he represented, exhibited in the simplicity of the scriptural stile.

But two questions have been moved and much agitated on the subject, to which we must pay some attention; or rather, a great deal of attention, for a great deal will be necessary to qualify us for thoroughly understanding the exact amount of their meaning. The first of these questions respects the formal consideration in which mankind were viewed in the covenant of works. The second regards the bond which connects mankind with Adam, and brings them under the operation of the covenant. Instead of dealing in subtle speculations and strifes of words, I think it the most advantageous course to state, from indisputable scriptural facts, what I know of the subject, in a manner that shall be as intelligible to the plainest Christian at the spinning-wheel or at the loom, as to the first metaphysician of the age.

It is granted on all hands, that in the covenant, Adam represented human nature as it existed in his own person. This is nothing more than to say, that he became personally responsible for his personal conduct, But the passage which has been quoted from the epis

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