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A Sermon

DELIVERED BY THE REV. H. MELVILL,
AT CAMDEN CHAPEL, CAMBERWELL, OCTOBER 24, 1830.

Genesis, iii. 24.-" So he drove out the man."

IT hath been often argued, and upon the common notion of futurity I think very justly, that heaven, whatever its joys, whatever its delights, would be a place of tedium and irksomeness, rather than enjoyment, to any one who has never been renewed by the grace of the Most High; and that before the immediate presence of God, and the chaunting his praises, can avail to the constitution of our happiness, an essential change must pass over the desires and affections of the inner man ; and a new train and current must be given to the feelings, ere they can afford felicity in the occupations and pursuits which we generally suppose allotted to glorified saints.

Now, there is truth in this reasoning; but possibly it may have been pushed somewhat beyond its due and It is not much legitimate bounds.

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that is revealed to us of our future condition; but even the little which has been revealed, is diminished and ground down by our manner of handing it and we are not always wise to the extent of what is written, through fear, it may be, of seeking to be wise above what is written. If the scriptural notices of heaven are obscure, our apprehensions are obscurer: and although the Bible has introduced all the imagery of materialism into its descriptions of heaven, we seem unequivocally to conclude, that heaven will certainly be immaterial; and we entertain no notion, save of a shadowy and unsubstantial scene, inhabited by aërial and impalpable forms; forgetting all the while, that we shall ourselves have bodies, and that though these bodies shall be spiritual, they shall not, and cannot be actually spirit. This idea I mean that of materialism in heaven-has been powerfully worked out by one of the greatest living masters of thought and language-I mean Dr. Chalmers-in a

discourse on the New Heavens and the New Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness and the orator contends with all the strength of argument, that what is material is not necessarily sinful; and that New Heavens and New Earth may justly denote a material creation rising in purity from the renovation of the Old. And whatever may be thought in respect of this introduction of materialism into the coming state of the church, it strikes me that the common conception of heaven, as a place wherein a wicked man could find no possible enjoyment, has a direct tendency to lessen the awful sanctions with which God has girded about the future. For if you can prove to the sinner, as I have often known it attempted to be proved, that even if he obtain admission into heaven, he would find it so wearisome a scene that he would soon desire expulsion; it is quite manifest that you render heaven less desirable to him, and the fear of banishment from heaven less appalling. If he is certain that he could not enjoy it, why assuredly he must be somewhat less startled at the prospect of losing it: and thus I venture to contend, that by throwing materialism out of the question, and allowing heaven to be occupied by none of the furniture and imagery with which we have become familiar as dwellers on the earth, we do virtually fritter away the apparatus of motive and stimulous which is applied by the rewards and punishments of another state; inasmuch as we give the impenitent transgressor ground for concluding, that although had he been converted he would have gained much which he would have then felt to be precious, yet still, remaining unconverted, he loses nothing which to him could ever have been valuable.

You will naturally ask me what connection these remarks have with

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the words I have brought forward as the subject of meditation-" So he drove out the man." These words describe the ejection of our first parent from Paradise, when by eating the forbidden fruit he had fallen away from the innocence of his early creation. It appears to me that they nececessarily denote there was a reluctance in Adam to depart, which rendered it needful to exercise some kind of compulsion. You cannot read the words, "He drove out the man,' without figuring our offending ancestor lingering amid the lovely scenes of his primeval habitation, retreating with slow and weary footsteps, and turning ofttimes back to catch another glimpse of the sparkling land from which he was exiled: and when you add to this, that no sooner had the man been driven out by the strength of the Almighty, than the Cherubim with the flaming sword was placed to watch the entrance of the garden, you will conclude, that as Adam was loath to leave, so did he long to return into Eden. We may imagine him wandering about the precincts of the glorious spot, able just to mark the waving of its lofty cedars, and to catch the music of its distant waterfalls; but prevented from again entering, whatever be the avenue by which he approached; for the sword, we are told, turned every way, guarding the tree of life from human intrusion.

Now Adam was a fallen being; there had passed over his soul that change which gave a perverse bias to his desires and affections: and Paradise was a holy place; and the peculiar presence of God was there; and it had been prepared as the residence of creatures possessing in all its unsullied beauties the image of the Creator: and nevertheless the fallen being clung to the pure and holy dwelling. The man had become depraved; yet Paradise had not become distasteful: he had rendered himself unworthy its enjoyments; but it does not appear he had made himself incapable of them. "So be drove out the man." Adam could still have gladly tarried and although compelled by a sense of his guiltiness to hide himself when he heard the voice of his Maker, he would willingly have remained amid the very scenes over which this voice was wont

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to roam there being so much left, even when so much had been lost, that Paradise could not be quitted without reluctance, although it could not be retained without alloy.

Now, there can be no doubt that Paradise was in many respects a representation of heaven. The imagery by which, in the Book of Revelation, the final condition of the Church is described, borrows sundry of its chief figures from the garden of Eden: the city with the gates thrown openand the pure river of water-and the tree of life-and superadded to all this material scenery, the shining and illuminating presence of the Lord God Almighty. But am I warranted in saying, that by all this phraseology there is a description of blessedness, no portion whereof can be appreciated by nature, and that in its very details it is susceptible only of being relished by grace? I think that such a conclusion is utterly at variance with the tenor of the words-" So he drove out the man." If the first transgressor still found Paradise exquisitely delightful, why would every other find heaven most wearisome? And I ask again, whether, with the scrupulous anxiety with which we have been wont to shun the introduction of materialism into the composition of our heaven, we have not spiritualized away much of the motive and enjoyment which might solace the godly? We make the next world to possess nothing in common with the present world: and by thus removing it wholly without the sphere of present knowledge, we render it comparatively inefficient either for stimulous or comfort.

I throw out these hints as suggested by the peculiar character of the expression, "He drove out the man;" which it would be easy to enlarge into a lengthened discoure. But I know not how it can be doubted that the garden of Eden was in no sense a luxurious and a Mahomedan dwelling; but that it served as a holy temple, as the tabernacle of Israel when crowded with its altars, and cherubim, and sanctuary. It has been conceded, that at least the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and the tree of life, must have been of a sacramental nature: there could have been no inherent virtue in the fruit of a material tree to

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communicate knowledge or life. "But such fruits," says Bishop Horne," might be ordained as a sacrament, on the participation of which certain effects would follow; such an institution being conformable to reason, and to the nature of man and religion." And the more we thus survey Paradise as an actual school of piety and devotion, the less surprising appears the reluctance of the fallen being to depart from its sphere and I draw from this reluctance more and more strongly the inference, that we err in refusing to associate the happy manifestation of God's countenance with glorious exhibitions of material beauty: for it is undeniable that the very creature unto whom communion with the Most High had become terrible, and who had disqualified himself for sharing in the pure and simple worship that was on all sides figuratively enjoyed, was nevertheless torn away from Paradise. And if therefore I discourse to an unconverted man on the glories that are laid up in heaven, I feel I am taking low and unscriptual ground, if I tell him heaven is a place in which he could find no pleasure-that every thing around him would be so uncongenial to his taste that he would speedily long for emancipation from the celestial abode. When I tell him that although he hath not the capacity of relishing the chief blessings of heaven -that he possesses not the faculties by which he might appreciate the noblest joys that are reserved to the faithful, still that the new heavens and the new earth shall be paved with a jewelry, and carpetted with a drapery, on which his eye would gaze delighted-so vast should be the development of splendour that if once admitted (though such admission can never be independent of conversion) he would cling to the place, and rejoice in the place, and never think of departing, until God by the strength of his resistless arm should literally drive him out.

But again as this expression, "He drove out the man," implies a reluctance on Adam's part to quit Paradise, so it may also denote a repugnance to the new dwelling whereof he was to be the tenant. He must henceforward go forth to eat his bread in the sweat of his brow, and to till the ground on which there rested the curse of its Creator, and from whence thorns and thistles were to spring up: the earth thus figuring by its produce, the heart with its cares and its anxieties. Now, I admit, that repugnance to enter the new, may be as strongly marked by the words of the text, as reluctance to quit the old habitation. The practical and important position remains unchanged-namely, that all that preaching proceeds upon a false assumption, which taunts the unregenerate man with an absolute incapacity of finding any happiness in heaven. Heaven would be heaven in contrast to hell, even if it were not heaven by the enjoyment of its peculiar delights. Heaven could never be so irksome to the sinner, that hell should cease to be appalling; and he never would exchange the tedium of the one for the terror of the other, without being driven out by the mighty hand of the Supreme.

But I forbear enlarging on the singular lesson which is thus incidentally taught by the expression, "He drove out the man." Adam is, and must be, regarded as the representative of our race; and his expulsion from Paradise requires to be surveyed in its effects upon ourselves as well as in reference to himself. I proceed therefore to discourse on the words, "So he drove out the man," considering generally the human race as the party thus driven and I enquire,-FIRST, Whence, or from what, has this race been driven-SECONDLY, Whither, or to what, has this race been driven. God's justice will be made conspicuous under the first topic : God's mercy will shine as illustriously under the second.

(To be continued.)

London: Published for the Proprietors, by T. GRIFFITHS, Wellington Street, Strand; and Sold by all Booksellers in Town and Country.

Printed by Lowndes and White, Crane Court, Fleet Street.

SERMON BY THE REV. H. MELVILL.
SERMON BY THE REV. T. MORTIMER.
SERMON BY THE REV. B. NOEL.

No. 12.]

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1830.

[Price 3d.

(The Rev. H. Melvill's Sermon concluded.)

Created originally in the image of of this character are not so much the Most High, man was the object of points to be explained, as points to be God's especial favour; and he pre-established. pared for him a present home of happiness; and he designed for him a future abode of righteousness. It was but a slight trial of obedience which the Creator imposed on this his yet innocent creature: and had he passed unblemished through the term of his probation, then we suppose, that, like the elect angels, he might have been confirmed in his uprightness, and secured for ever from the possible risk of falling away from his first estate. But transgression brought with it the universal forfeiture of all these blessings; and so soon as man fell, he was driven at once to the very extremity of the scale of being, and banished to all human appearance, hopelessly and finally, from communion and intercourse with Jehovah. Now, it is much, yea, infinitely more than we have the power of estimating, from whence the human race was driven out. They were driven from all in which mainly consisted the image of the Creator. They were driven from rectitude of judgment, and uprightness of will, and from holiness of affection: and so indissoluble was the connection between sin committed and nature corrupted, that a depraved heart was the result of a vitiated practice. The transgressor, by one and the same act, drove himself from all favour with God, and from all dignity as man. And here it is that the doctrine of human apostacy gives most common offence, and raises objections. Adam might have incurred punishment, but how could he have changed his very nature? - how could he have been driven from the possession of his original and inherent capacities? Points

VOL. I.

You cannot read the brief record of occurrences following immediately on the fall, without perceiving that such a change had actually passed on the dispositions of Adam; and that this father of our race had parted with the principles of innocence, as well as provoked the penalties of guilt. The excuse which he makes to God for having eaten the forbidden fruit, involves almost a direct "The woand deliberate blasphemy. man whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat." I pass over the paltry and disingenuous evasion by which he endeavours to shift the blame on Eve; although this demonstrates that lofty integrity no longer bore sway within him.-"The woman whom thou gavest to be with me." He tacitly insinuates that God himself was the author of evil: he traces his disobedience to the gift of the Creator; implying, if not directly affirming, that had that gift been withheld, or been more capable of resisting temptation, he should not himself have incurred displeasure: and thus his representation was strongly tinc. tured with blasphemy. This stands forth as sufficient witness, that Adam had become a corrupted as well as a condemned creature: he was demned, for he had broken a positive command; he was corrupted, for he had arraigned the proceedings of a perfect being. Thus we must take the consequences of the fall under a twofold aspect we have a share in the guilt of Adam; and we have a share in the degeneracy of Adam: there is penalty hanging over us on the one hand, and there is pollution attaching to us on the other. And when you

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rigid as it hath been represented in the declarations of a morose and bigoted priesthood-then I would make that individual tremble at the words, "So he drove out the man." Thou canst not plead in extenuation the thousandth part of what Adam might have pleaded: thou canst not be beloved as Adam was beloved one offence his-millions of offences thine : thou canst not appeal as he might have appealed, to the holy communings of early days. He might have spoken pathetically of his former walking with God: he might have dwelt on the sweetness of departed hours: he might have implored for

demand of me to explain all that from which God drove out the human race, I must open before you two distinct and separate store-houses. In the first there shall be the glories of immortality, and the crowns and palms of accepted creatures: and from all the enjoyments of the eternal inheritance, I tell you God drove out the man. In the second there shall be holy dispositions, and pure affections, and lofty and noble desires; and from all the array of feelings which belong to unsullied innocence, I tell you that God drove out the man. Man, in the strictest and most unlimited sense, was driven out from God: punishment pursued him, and the power of seek-giveness by the memory of sanctified ing God was lost. So that it was not a temporary alienation; it was not the banishment of a day, or a year, or a century for even had the penalty incurred been a finite penalty, still, inasmuch as there was now an obliquity in the will, and a corruption in the desire, man freed from punishment would still have been man far from God; he would have possessed neither the inclination nor the ability to return; and we are forced to conclude in the largest sense, that he was driven out from holiness, driven out from happiness, yea, driven out from God, who alone is the centre of whatever is holy and whatever is happy.

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Now, I stated to you, that in this examination of the whence, or from what, man was driven, we should be met with a conspicuous display of the justice of the Most High. You behold this justice as a most righteous and unbending attribute: for here is the very being for whose reception God had prepared this earth, and adorned it with exuberant displays of his workmanship-the being to whom he had given dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowls of the air, and over every living thing that moveth on the earth-here is this being, the object of the tenderest solicitude of Deity, exiled and banished for one solitary offence. The penalty had been incurred, and not one jot of it shall be remitted the law had been infringed, and justice must be satisfied. If there be one individual who would presume on the compassion of the Creatorwho would ever flatter himself that justice shall not at length be found so

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and enraptured friendship-and yet "he drove out the man." I give you the words independent of their connection with Scripture history; I tell you not in what part of the Bible they are to be found and I ask you for the images which they must necessarily call up within you. Put the sentence, "He drove out the man," on canvass; and your picture will necessarily be that of two beings-the one reluctant to quit some scene of enjoyment, lingering in its precincts, clinging to its confines-the other armed with the apparatus of vengeance, relenting in no degree at the vehement supplications with which he is assailed, applying to them a determined and overpowering resistance, wrenching asunder the convulsive grasps of the agonized object of his indulgence, and compelling him to depart. Is not this the language of our text transferred to the pencil of the artist? And when this picture is before us, and I write under it, "GOD DRIVES OUT ADAM,” will there be one amongst us who will deem Almighty justice a thing with which he may trifle, an attribute on which he may presume without the danger of perishing in his presumption?

But I shall now pass on to the se-cond topic of discourse; and from considering whence, or from what, the man was driven, I would show you wHITHER, OR TO WHAT, THE MAN WAS DRIVEN.

I recently laid open to you the opinion, that the mediation of Christ Jesus interposed at the very first instant of human transgression, and

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