Adam was a figure, or type, of Him who was to come; and of all the Old Testament figures in which we are given to behold, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, there is none fuller, or more remarkable, than that which Adam constitutes. Here, however, we do not speak of all the respects in which Adam figured Christ. He figured Him in the manner of his creation, in the original purity and perfection of his nature, in the remarkable constitution of his person as a spiritual being incarnate, in the offices with which he was invested, and for which by the constitution of his person he was so remarkably qualified, and in the woman and marriage that were conferred upon him. But besides and beyond all this, Adam was to be the father and head of a house and family, he was to possess a rich and wide extending inheritance, and so also he was to be a glorious king, crowned with a very remarkable royalty. Thus, farther, was Adam to be manifested, but in these respects also he figured Christ; and it is to the remarkable and instructive figure which he constituted of Christ in these respects, that we wish here to call attention.

For this purpose we first observe the Figure; and here, if we enter into some details that may seem at first sight strange, I hope that the reader will bear with them for a little, for the sake of what follows, and until he reads the whole.