fect the plan of salvation is allowable. To imagine that that plan was
being carried into effect in Eden, even before the sin of man, is in
opposition to the spirit of the declaration that Christ came to call not
the righteous, but sinners to repentance--to the truth that the
salvation of man, was a salvation from sin, and that the God of
salvation is He who pardoneth iniquity, nay, to the whole tenor of
Scripture. To admit, however, that the world was a scene on which man in
innocence, throughout whatever period God might have willed, might have
enjoyed good, the wisdom of Him who arranges not, nor commands what may
not be fulfilled, requires. But the sentiment that the Covenant of Works
secured the continuance of man upon the earth, even after the fall, is
not merely gratuitous, but in direct opposition to the consideration
that the world was destroyed by the flood on account of the sin of man,
and that God's covenant with Noah secured those outward advantages of
which not merely the righteous but the wicked were to partake. It seems
inconsistent with the sentiments which we should entertain of the wisdom
and other attributes of God, to suppose that the world was created
either for man in a state of innocence exclusively, or for him
exclusively in a state of sin. Even facts show that the world was
adapted to both. That the facts of providence upon our world, however,
which have occurred in consequence of a system of forbearance, which
depends on the arrangements of the Covenant of Redemption, and others
that show his grace, flow directly from these, is most manifest. The
erection and continuance of the Church in the world, directly flow from
that covenant. Faith in God in every age, interests in Christ the
surety, and through him in all the blessings of the covenant. Even
before some of its signs were given, those to whom it was given to
believe upon Him, were taken into covenant. "We say that faith was
reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. How was it then reckoned? when he
was in circumcision or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in
uncircumcision." And in every age, they who believe are the children of
the covenant. In the first ages of the world, we find a righteous Abel,
an Enoch who walked with God, men who had the name of God called upon
them, the sons of God, and Noah, a preacher of righteousness. And we
find that all who, like Abraham, believe in God, have their faith
counted to them for righteousness: