he very works described in the
narrative now under consideration, namely, the seduction of man from his
allegiance to God, with the misery and death that followed. The
primitive history of man's apostacy contains, then, the very key to the
plan of redemption. So it is plainly regarded by the apostle Paul. He
builds upon it arguments relating not to the outworks of redemption, but
to its inward nature. He makes the universality of man's fallen
condition through the sin of Adam the platform on which is built the
universality of the provisions of salvation through Christ. "As by the
offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so by
the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto
justification. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners,
so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." Rom. 5:18, 19.
"Since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." 1
Cor. 15:21, 22. How could the original transaction of the fall, through
the wiles of the devil, and the manifestation of God's Son to destroy
the works of the devil, be more indissolubly bound together as parts of
one great whole than in these words of an inspired apostle?

_Secondly_, the Abrahamic covenant connects itself immediately with the
mission and work of Christ. It was made with Abraham, not for himself
and his posterity alone, but for all mankind: "In thy seed shall all the
nations of the earth be blessed." Gen. 22:18. And if the Abrahamic
covenant had respect to the whole human family, the same must be true of
the Mosaic economy in its _ultimate_ design; since this did not abrogate
the covenant made with Abraham, as the apostle Paul expressly shows,
Gal. 3:17, but rather came in as subordinate to it, and with a view of
preparing the way for the accomplishment of its rich provisions of mercy
for "all families of the earth." The Mosaic economy was then a partial
subservient to a universal dispensation.

The Abrahamic covenant was also purely spiritual in its character, the
condition of its blessings being nothing else than faith. The apostle
Paul urges the fact that this covenant was made with Abraham before his
circumcision, lest any should say that it was conditioned wholly or in
part upon a carnal ordinance: "He received the sign of circumcision, a
seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being
uncircumc