"And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and he became a living soul." The image, observe, was previously made, that is, the likeness to God; but in the gift of the living soul there is no mention made of any resemblance to God. The summary, therefore, of the information, if taken according to the succession of the three passages in which the creation of man is related, may surely be apprehended to run thus :-" God made man in his own image, but male and female created he them, and gave unto them a living soul:" for such summary in no way departs from the probable meaning of the relation; on the contrary, it completes a tenor of information which is in unison with reason, and the elucidations of the New Testament.

In the garden of Eden, Adam knew not good and evil, and his allotted occupation was to dress the garden and be obedient to God's commands. This subject and terrestrial state did not require a mind like that of the Deity. And if Eve had possessed such a mind, the serpent could not have succeeded by imposition, nor would he have prof

fered the temptation he did, which was, that by tasting the fruit of the tree of knowledge she would become wiser, and that they should be like Gods. And in respect to knowledge, they were advanced beyond what God had intended they should be; but in respect to form, there is no intimation that they were ever altered. But still further in Scripture it is again repeated, that man was made in the image of God; and the frequent repetitions to establish that fact, must incline us to think that the future generations would not have been so carefully instructed, concerning the likeness of Adam's form to God, if they were not inheritors of the same distinction.

THE SEED OF THE WOMAN AND THE SEED OF THE SERPENT

CONTEMPORARY ON EARTH.

In addition to the information given to us concerning the formation of this earth, and the creation of man, it appears that the Deity also chooses to afford us an insight into some circumstances which will affect the whole course of our lives. And, first, we find that we have an adversary who, by extreme subtlety, prevailed upon the newly-created pair to disobey God's great command; and, ap→ parently, from that dereliction, the evil spirit gained some particular advantage, probably the power of participating in the new world, as the earth is cursed immediately after; and we find that he is to be our enemy and tempter to the end of our days; notwithstanding which, we attribute the chief of our transgressions to original sin, about which we say a great deal more than Scripture does. Yet, when Scripture informs us that Satan's seed will be upon the earth, we take little comparative notice of it.

The promulgation, nevertheless, is from the mouth of the Deity himself: and though, seemingly, the subject ceases, and no further mention or prototype of the course of Satan's seed upon earth has been avowedly traced in Scripture, it does not follow that there is none latent there: for when we consider

the great corruption of the Jewish people, the martyrs of Jesus, the prevalence of the Mahometan religion, and the extreme darkness of the Pagan nations—are we not ready of ourselves to exclaim, this is not like the perfect works of God; this discrepance must be from the intervention of Satan?

And as God has shown that he is not averse to our understanding the scheme of human movements, no doubt but the traces of these are afforded in the instructions of our sacred volume.

Although subordinate, we are allowed to see all through Scripture that Satan has great power and license to act in this world: his station was once high, and our Saviour styles him a prince, John xiv. 30, "For the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me." He is also frequently mentioned as having a kingdom; and in Matthew,

chap. iv. Satan offers the sovereignty of this world to our Saviour, provided he will worship him. And after the brief view just taken of the dark shades upon the face of this earth, can we do otherwise than allow the probability that Satan has a sovereignty in this world? Indeed we are frequently told so in Scripture; but our doubts as to whether we are to take a scriptural notice in the literal, or in a figurative sense, often leaves us in uncertainty. Yet our Saviour plainly tells us, that his kingdom is not of this world; and the daily prayer he teaches us, is to solicit for that kingdom of God which is

to come.

By collecting the passages where Satan or the Devil is mentioned, it may be observed, that he fell from heaven with all his company; that God cast him down from thence for the punishment of his pride; that, by his envy and malice, sin, death, and all other evils came into the world; that, by the permission of God, he exercises a sort of government in the world over his subordinates-over apostate angels like himself; that God makes use of him to prove good men, and to chastise bad ones; that