blander affections of the heart, proceed and multiply into an almost infinite variety of modes, constituting the perfection, if properly regulated, of the moral man. It is the active agent of all spiritual, as well as of all physical, benefit; however it may be perverted to the worst ends, and made to realize the most deplorable evils. Although it may be converted into a bane, it is of itself a blessing; for it is a divine gift, and no divine gift can be otherwise.

Now, the subject embraced in the text contains two commands, both of which are absolute. These commands are that we shall love God and man: the One above all; the other for His sake. Here the divine principle, upon which I have dwelt at large in the preceding Discourse, is called into its highest activity. But, as those two great features of it, the love of God and man, rise out of, and are reflected from, self-love, I shall, on the present occasion, occupy your attention with this preliminary branch of the subject, and endeavour to show how it may be made to conduce to the Christian's sanctification, though it is so commonly employed to work out those issues contemplated by the enemy of souls.

Adam was brought into the world a perfect man; nevertheless, all the elements of human passion were within him. They were essential to his happiness. They were the life of his innocent enjoyments; as, while he continued perfectly guiltless, no evil could arise out of them. These elements, though since productive of so

much misery, were not produced, but acted upon, by the Fall. They formed originally a part of the perfect man, and must, consequently, have been essential to the perfection of his humanity, since the endowments bestowed by the Divinity, who can do nothing in vain, could not have been given for a vain purpose. These endowments then, were, in themselves, good, before guilt converted them into evil, because they belonged to perfection, for man was perfect in his kind when created by the Divine Love; therefore, no part of his constitution, either physical or moral, could be evil. The elements of either, justly regulated, could conduce only to good, though they were capable of being diverted to evil, and this the introduction of sin into the world effected. The Fall, though it produced a pravity of the human nature, did not overthrow its constitution. Man was the same being, physically and morally the same, though corruption had entered into both parts of his being, his soul and body being alike depraved by sin. He had the same free-will; the same appetites; the same apprehension of right and wrong; the same directing principles of conduct before as after his lapse from innocence; but these were warped by it from good to bad. They were perverted, not destroyed, by that sad event. Before it had depraved the original manhood, the constituents of passion were purely attempered. They were directed within the just boundary-line of propriety, and therefore of security. They were, however, all dislocated by

the triumph of temptation, and turned into the impetuous current of evil. The moment the latter touched them, it pervaded their entire frame and texture. They lost their original purity in the taint thus communicated, as acid cast into milk destroys its sweetness, curdling and thus deteriorating the whole mass.

When Adam was placed upon the earth as lord of the whole primitive creation, framed in the image and after the likeness of Deity, love was as dominant in his heart, as it has since been in that of any of his descendants under the abrasion of that image, or the distortion of that likeness; but it was pure love, "pure and undefiled before God." It was not corrupted by the taint of debasing desire. Guilt had not infused it with her deadly virus. It was fresh and fragrant as it came from heaven. Self-love was the ruling impulse of his unerring life-unerring till he fell for until then "he knew no sin." The condition of the first covenant, "thou shalt surely die," which was the penalty attached to the violation of it, was addressed exclusively to Adam's self-love. The desire of life was paramount, and naturally so, because, in a state of innocency, being one of unmixed and exquisite enjoyment, life was the greatest boon of heaven; the loss of it was, consequently, the greatest privation that could be endured. Had he not loved himself, there could have been no motive for complying with the interdiction, neither could there have been any apprehension upon incurring the pe

nalty. Without self-love there could have been no fear, and fear-that is, holy fear-is the buttress of faith; the watch-tower whence the approaches of the assaulter are descried, and the outworks of religion, by consequence, availably defended. Without self-love the thought of death could have presented no terrors; thus, the penalty threatened to transgression would have been nugatory as a covenant condition. It was man's love of himself that rendered it effectual, though not in keeping him from falling under the first essay of the tempter, at least from becoming subject to his everlasting domination.

Self-love, then, in the first man, was recognized by God. It was sanctioned by Him. It was made part of man's then unsullied and perfect nature. In short, it was a divine communication-consequently, a divine blessing. For, when Adam was formed and the covenant between the Divinity and him established, "God saw all that he had made, and behold it was very good." It was perfect in its kind. The self-love of His creature was approved, and on this the Creator relied for the fulfilment of the condition of obedience. Out of this love proceeded Adam's trust in God. Apart from it he could have had none, because this trust was a reliance upon God for personal benefit, which was the great bond of alliance between Creator and creature-between the Giver and the receiver. Adam loved God through himself, and himself through God; because He had created him, because He had

rendered him eminently happy, because He had made him immortal. These were at once the motives of his love and the security for its continuance. Out of it arose all the blander affections of sinless humanity, before the tempter triumphed and laid waste the noblest productions of the Godhead. Without it those affections would have been unknown. Gratitude, one of the most attractive features of love, yet which has its origin in self-love, was the impelling impulse that woke in the heart of the first man, veneration for the august Author of his being. He venerated His power, His majesty, His dominion -in short, all His attributes. Why? Because he was fully sensible of their influence upon himself; how they were capable of affecting him, and what awful consequences must arise to him if their influence were withdrawn. Self-love, therefore, was the magnet which attracted him to the Great Giver of life. It was through himself that he loved his God.

But man, before his Fall, not only loved God for the reasons assigned, because He was supremely good, but himself likewise because he was good. His goodness warranted the love of himself; all good being of God, and therefore to be loved for God's sake. Thus, self-love in the first man was divine love, for God abode in him, he being good without exception, and such goodness is of God alone. But when man fell, the tempter traversed that love in the soul, which was God in it, a bright reflection from His image and likeness, and