ELPIS ISRAEL BEING An Exposition of the KINGDOM OF GOD
with reference to THE TIME OF THE END and THE AGE TO COME
By JOHN THOMAS, MD.
"For the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain." -- Paul

Part First

THE RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD

CHAPTER 1

The Necessity of a Revelation to make known the origin, reason, and tendency of things in relation to man and the world around him. It is an intelligible mystery, and the only source of true wisdom; but which is practically repudiated by the Moderns. -- The study of the Bible urged, to facilitate and promote which is the object of this volume.

REVOLVING upon its own axis, and describing an ample circuit through the boundless fields of space, is a planet of the solar system bearing upon its surface a population of over nearly a thousand millions subject to sin, disease, and death. This orb of the starry heavens shines with a glory similar to that of its kindred spheres. Viewed from them, it is seen sparkling "like a diamond in the sky;" and with the rest of the heavens, declares the glory of God, and shows forth the handiwork of Him that did create it.

This celestial orb, which is a world or system of itself, is styled THE EARTH. It is the habitation of races of animals which graze its fields, lurk in its forests, soar through its atmosphere, and pass through the paths of its seas. At the head of all these is a creature like themselves, animal, sensual and mortal. He is called MAN. He has replenished the earth and subdued it, and filled it with his renown. His crimes, however, rather than his virtues, have illustrated and distinguished him with an unhappy pre-eminence above all other created things. His heart is evil; and, left to its uncontrolled impulses, he becomes licentious, merciless, and more cruel than the fiercest beast of prey.

Such is the being that claims the independent sovereignty of the globe. He has founded dominions, principalities, and powers; he has built great cities, and vaunted himself in the works of his hands, saying, "Are not these by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?" He repudiates all lordship over him, and claims the inalienable and inherent right of self-government, and of establishing whatever civil and ecclesiastical institutions are best suited to his sensuality and caprice. Hence, at successive periods, the earth has become the arena of fierce and pandemoniac conflicts; its tragedies have baptized its soil in blood, and the mingled cries of the oppressor and the victim have ascended to the throne of the Most High.

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Skilled in the wisdom which comes from beneath, he is by nature ignorant of that which is "first pure, and then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy." This is a disposition to which the animal man under the guidance of his fleshly mind has no affinity. His propensity is to obey the lust of his nature; and to do its evil works, "which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, sects, envying, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like."¹ All these make up the character of the world, "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life," upon which is enstamped the seal of God's eternal reprobation. "They who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God," but "they shall die."

Such is the world of human kind! The great and impious enemy of God upon the earth. Its mind is not subject to His law, neither indeed can it be. What shall we say to these things? Is the world as we behold it a finality? Are generations of men, rebellious against God, and destroyers of the earth, to occupy it successively through an endless series of ages? Are men to repeat the history of the past for ever? Is the earth always to be cursed, and sin and death to reign victorious? Who can answer these inquiries? If we survey the starry canopy, thence no sign or voice is given expressive of the truth. They declare the eternal power and divinity of their Creator, but they speak not of the destiny of the earth or of man upon it. If we question the mountains and hills, the plains and valleys, the rivers, seas, and oceans of the earth, and demand their origin, why they were produced, to what end they were created; their rocks, their strata, their fossils, or deposits, afford us no response. Turn we to man and ask him, "Whence comest thou, and what is thy destiny? Whence all the evil of thy nature, why art thou mortal, who made thee, who involved thee in the wide-spread ruin and calamity on every side?" Ask an infant of days the history of the past, and he can as well detail it, as man can answer these inquiries without a revelation from Him who is before all, and to whom is known from the beginning all He intends shall come to pass. So true is it, that, unaided by light from heaven, "since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what is prepared for him that waiteth for him"; but, adds the apostle in his comment upon these words of the prophet, "God hath revealed these things unto us by his spirit * * * "which things we (apostles) speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the holy spirit teacheth; interpreting spiritual things in spiritual words."²

To the Bible, then, all must come at last if they would be truly wise in spiritual things. This is a great truth which few of the sons of men have learned to appreciate according to its importance. A man may be a theologian profoundly skilled in all questions of "divinity"; he may be well versed in the mythology of the heathen world; be able to speak all languages of the nations; compute the distances of

¹Gal. v.19. ²1 Cor. ii.9,10,13.

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orb from orb, and weigh them in the scales of rigid calculation; he may know all science and be able to solve all mysteries, -- but if, with all this, he be ignorant of "the things of the spirit;" if he know not the true meaning of the Bible; he seemeth only to be wise, while he is, in fact, a fool. Therefore, the apostle saith, "let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. And again, the Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. Therefore let no man glory in men."¹ If our contemporaries could only attain to the adoption of this great precept, "let no man glory in men," they would have overleaped a barrier which as a fatal obstacle prevents myriads from understanding and obeying the truth.

But while God lightly esteems the wisdom of the reputed wise, there is a wisdom which he invites all men to embrace. This is styled "the wisdom of God in a mystery;" it is also termed "the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world which none of the princes of this world knew." It is said to be hidden in a mystery, because until the apostolic age, it was not clearly made known. This will appear from the following texts: "Now to him that is of power to establish you according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret (cronoiv aiwnioiv) in the times of the ages, but now (in the time, or age, of the apostles) is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets made known to all nations for the obedience of faith."² "By revelation God made known unto me, Paul, THE MYSTERY, which in other ages (former ages under the law of Moses) was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto the holy apostles and prophets by the spirit, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel."³ Here is "the knowledge of God," in which are contained "exceeding great and precious promises," the understanding of which is able to make a man wise, and "a partaker of the divine nature." Now, although these hidden things have been clearly made known, they still continued to be styled the mystery; not because of their unintelligibility, but became they were once secret. Hence, the things preached unto the Gentiles, and by them believed, are styled by Paul, "the mystery of the faith," and "the mystery of godliness," some of the items of which he enumerates; such as, "God manifest in the flesh, justified by the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in glory."⁴ Thus an intelligible mystery characterizes the once hidden wisdom of God, and becomes the subject matter of an enlightened faith. This, however, is not the case with regard to religious systems which are not of the truth. Unintelligible mystery is the ultima ratio for all difficulties which are insoluble by the symbols of ecclesiastical communities, whose text of universal application is, that "secret things belong to God, but the things which are revealed, to us and to our children." This is true; but, then, these

¹1 Cor. ii.,9,10,13; iii,18-21. ²Rom. xvi.,25,26. ³Eph. iii.,3,5,6. ⁴1 Tim. iii.9,16.

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things which were secret in the days of Moses, have been revealed by God to the apostles and prophets for our information. No one has any right to set up his own ignorance as the limit of what God hath revealed. A thing may be unknown to such a man, but it doth not therefore follow that it is either absolutely unintelligible or a secret. He may not know of it, or, if explained to him, he may not have intellect enough to comprehend it, or his prejudices, or sectarian bias may darken his understanding -- this by no means makes the thing unintelligible or mysterious to other people. All that such persons have a right to say is, "We do not know anything about it." They may confess their own ignorance, and resolve to look into the matter, or not; but they are presumptuously overstepping the bounds of propriety to venture to do more. Those who have no secondary interests to subserve apart from the truth only desire to know that they may believe and do. But where to know more would jeopardize the "vested interests" of a sect, and extort the confessions of its leaders and members that they were in error and knew not the truth, investigation is discouraged, and the things proscribed as too speculative and mysterious for comprehension, or, if understood, of no practical utility. In this way mankind infold themselves as in the mantle of their self-esteem. They repress all progress, and glorify their own ignorance by detracting from things which they fear to look into, or apprehend are far above their reach.

Beside glorying in men, this unfortunate peculiarity of the human mind has developed the organization of a system of things impiously hostile to the institutions and wisdom of Jehovah. It is a system of many subordinate parts. It is animated by one spirit which, under various modifications, pervades and actuates the whole. It is an evil spirit, and may be detected wherever the dogma of unintelligible mystery is at work. The name of this system is "MYSTERY." Its baneful effects began to be visible in the apostolic age. It was then styled, "the Mystery of iniquity," which, as was predicted, has, like a cancer, eaten out the truth, and submitted in place thereof a civil and ecclesiastical constitution, styled "Harlots and the Abominations of the Earth," such as we behold on every side.

"Wisdom," say the scriptures, "is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom; and with all thy getting get understanding. Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her. She shall give to thy head an ornament of grace; a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee." If thou wouldst, O reader, get this wisdom, happy art thou if thou findest it. "For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies, and all things thou canst desire are not to be compared to her. Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a TREE OF LIFE to them that lay hold upon her; and happy is every one that retaineth her."¹ Before the Son of God sent

¹Prov. iii. 14-18

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forth his apostles to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom in his name, "He opened their understanding that they might understand the scriptures." If thou wouldst gain the knowledge of the wisdom of God which is so inestimable, and which is contained in the word they preached, thou must also be the subject of the same illumination. This is indispensable; for there is no obtaining of this commodity except through the scriptures of truth. These "are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. For all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for teaching, for conviction, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." What more dost thou want than perfection, and a crown of life and glory in the age to come? Search the scriptures with the teachableness of a little child, and thy labour will not be in vain. Cast away to the owls and to the bats the traditions of men, and the prejudices indoctrinated into thy mind by their means; make a whole burnt offering of their creeds, confessions, catechisms, and articles of religion; and, after the example of the Ephesian disciples, hand over your books of curious theological arts, and burn them before all. These mountains of rubbish have served the purpose of a dark and barbarous age; the word, the word of the living God alone, can meet the necessities of the times. Let the example of the noble-minded Bereans be ours. They searched the scriptures daily to see if the things taught by the apostles were worthy of belief; "therefore they believed." If, then, not even the preaching of an apostle was credited unaccompanied by scriptural investigation, is it not infinitely more incumbent on us that we should bring to a like test the opinions and precepts of the uninspired and fallible professional theologists of our day? Let us believe nothing that comes from "the pulpit," "the altar," or the press, not demonstrated by the grammatical sense of the scriptures. Let us be contented with nothing less than a "thus it is written," and a "thus saith the Lord"; for He has laid it down in His law, that no one is worthy of belief who does not speak after His rule. "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." If then their light be darkness, how great is that darkness.

The scriptures can do everything for us in relation to the light. This is known, felt, and keenly appreciated by all interested in the support of error. Hence, in the days of Diocletian, one of the pagan predecessors of Constantine, a decree was issued commanding the surrender of all copies of the Holy Scriptures: for it was found that so long as they obtained circulation the Christian doctrine could never be suppressed. The Popes, as deadly, and more insidious, enemies of the truth than the pagan Roman emperors, followed the example of Diocletian. The Bible and popery are as mutually hostile as the light of the sun and the thick darkness of Egypt that might be felt. But it is not paganism and popery alone that are practically hostile to a free and untrammelled investigation of the word of God. The Protestant world, while it deludes itself with the conceit that "the Bible,

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the Bible alone, is the religion of Protestants" -- while it spends its thousands for its circulation among the nations in their native tongues -- is itself hostile to the belief and practice of what it proclaims. The "Bible alone" is not its religion; for if it were, why encumber its professors with the "Common Prayer," Thirty-nine Articles, and all the other "notions" of a similar kind? To believe and practise the Bible alone would be a sufficient ground of exclusion from all "orthodox churches." When Chillingworth uttered the sentiment, there was more truth in it than at this day; but now it is as far from the fact as that Protestantism is the religion of Christ. To protest against an error, such as Romanism, and to affirm that every man has a right to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience, is a very different thing to believing and obeying the gospel of the Kingdom of God, and walking in all the institutions of the Lord blameless. To do this would unchristianize a man in the estimation of State churches and sectarian denominations; for the Bible religion requires a man to "contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints," which in these times cannot be done without upheaving the very foundations of the self-complacent, self-glorifying, and self-laudatory communions of the antipapal constitution of things. It is true that no man or power has a right to interfere between God and the conscience; but it is also true that no man has a right to worship God as he pleases. This is a Protestant fallacy. Man has a right to worship God only in the way God has Himself appointed. "In vain do ye worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." This is the judgment pronounced by the wisdom of God upon all worship which He has not instituted. He declares it to be vain worship; concerning which the apostle to the Gentiles says: "Let no man judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a holy-day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath; let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels. Be not subject to dogmatisms (dogmativzesqe) after the commandments and traditions of men; which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will-worship and humility." These exhortations apply to all faith and worship, Papal and Protestant. If Popery judges men in meats, Protestantism doth the same in drinks, and in the Sabbath; they both judge men in holy-days and "movable feasts"; and though Protestantism repudiates the worshipping of angels, it proclaims in its "fasts," "preparations," "concerts," etc. a voluntary humility, anti celebration of "saints and martyrs," renowned in legendary tales for "the pride that apes humility." Let the reader search the scriptures from beginning to end, and he will nowhere find such systems of faith and worship as those comprehended in the Papal and Protestant systems. The gospel of the Kingdom of God in the name of Jesus is not preached among them; they are communions which are uncircumcised of heart; theological dissertations on texts, called "sermons," are substituted for "reasoning out of the scriptures" -- for "expounding and testifying the Kingdom of God, and persuading men concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of the Prophets;"

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Puseyism, Swedenborgianism, and all sorts of isms, to which in apostolic times the world was a total stranger, run riot among them; the lusts of the flesh, of the eye, and of the pride of life have extinguished even the energy and zeal of the antipapal rebellion out of which they have arisen; they are dead, twice dead, plucked up by the roots, and therefore the time is come to cut them off as a rotten branch from the good olive tree. Let therefore every man that would eschew the wrath which is begun, and who would become an heir of the kingdom of God, save himself from the unholy, lifeless, and effete denominations of these "Latter Days." By remaining in them, a man partakes of their evil deeds, and subjects himself to their evil influences. The word of man has silenced the word of God in their midst; and religion has degenerated into a professional commodity sold for cash according to the taste which most prevails in the soul-markets of the world.

Let us then "cease from men, whose breath is in their nostrils; for wherein are they to be accounted of? " "They be blind leaders of the blind," in whom is no light, because they speak not according to the law and the testimony of God. Let us repudiate their dogmatisms; let us renounce their mysteries; and let us declare our independence of all human authority in matters of faith and practice outside the word of God. The scriptures are able to make us wise, which the traditions of "divines" are not. Let us then come to these scriptures, for we have the assurance that he who seeks shall find. But we must seek by the fight of scripture, and not permit that fight to be obscured by high thoughts and vain imaginations which exalt themselves against the knowledge of God. Great is the consolation that "the wise shall understand," and "shall shine as the brightness of the firmament." Be this then our happiness, to understand, believe, and do, that we may be blessed in our deed, and attain to the glorious liberty and manifestation of the sons of God.

To the Bible then let us turn, as to "a light shining in a dark place," and, with humility, teachableness, and independence of mind, let us diligently inquire into the things which it reveals for the obedience and confirmation of faith. The object before us then will be, to present such a connected view of this truthful and wonderful book as will open the reader's eyes, and enable him to understand it, and expound it to others, that he may become "a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth"; and be able intelligently to "contend for the faith"; and by "turning many to righteousness, to shine as the stars for ever and ever."

In effecting this purpose, we must proceed as we would with any other book, or in teaching any of the arts and sciences; namely, begin at the beginning, or with the elements of things. This was the method adopted by the spirit of God in the instruction of the Israelites by Moses. He began His revelations by giving them, and us through them, an account of the creation of the heavens and the earth; of animals; and of man. This then would seem to be the proper place

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for us to start from; and as we have the system completely revealed, which they had not, we may extend our enquiries into the reason, or philosophy of things farther than they. Be this, then, our commencement; and may the Lord himself prosper our endeavours to decipher and understand His word, and to disentangle it from the crude traditions and dogmatisms of contemporary theologies, useful in their beginnings as "oppositions" to the Mystery of Iniquity, but now "waxed old and ready to vanish away" with the thing they have antagonized; but which, though consumptive of the civil and ecclesiastical tyranny of the Image of the Beast, have by their glosses in effect taken from the people "the Key of Knowledge," and thus shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men. Our endeavour will be to restore this "Key," that they may understand "the mysteries of the kingdom," and "have right, to the tree of life, and enter in through the gates into the city." And this we will do if God permit.

CHAPTER 2

The general account of the work of the six days is contained in the first chapter of Genesis; while in the second is presented among other things, a more particular narrative of the work of the sixth day in the formation of the first human pair. Let the reader peruse the history of the creation as a revelation to himself as an inhabitant of the earth. It informs him of the order in which the things narrated would have developed themselves to his view, had he been placed on some projecting rock, the spectator of the events detailed. He must remember this. The Mosaic account is not a revelation to the inhabitants of other orbs remote from the earth of the formation of the boundless universe; but to man, as a constituent of the terrestrial system. This will explain why light is said to have been created four days before the sun, moon, and stars. To an observer on the earth this was the order of their appearance; and in relation to him a primary creation, though absolutely pre-existent for millions of ages before the Adamic era.

The duration of the earth's revolutions round the sun previous to

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the work of the first day is not revealed: but the evidences produced by the strata of our globe show that the period was long continued. There are indeed hints, casually dropped in the scriptures, which would seem to indicate that our planet was inhabited by a race of beings anterior to the formation of man. The apostle Peter, speaking of the "false teachers" that would arise among Christians "by reason of whom the way of truth would be evil spoken of" illustrates the certainty of their "damnation" by citing three cases in point; namely, that of certain angels; that of the antediluvian world; and that of Sodom and Gomorrah. Now the earth, we know, was the place of judgment to the contemporaries of Noah and Lot, and seeing that these three are warnings to inhabitants of earth, it is probable that they are all related to things pertaining to our globe in the order of their enumeration -- first, judgment upon its pre-Adamic inhabitants; secondly, upon the antediluvian world, which succeeded them; and thirdly, upon Sodom after the flood.

Peter says that "the Angels," or pre-Adamic inhabitants of the Earth, "sinned"; and Jude, in speaking of the same subject, reveals to us the nature of their transgression. He says, verse 6, "the angels maintained not their original state, but forsook their own habitation." From which it would appear that they had the ability to leave their dwelling if they pleased; secondly, that they were sometimes employed as messengers to other parts of the universe; this their name (aggelo, angelos, one sent) implies; thirdly, that they were forbidden to leave their habitation without special command to do so; and fourthly, that they violated this injunction and left it. Having transgressed the divine law, God would not forgive them; "but casting them down," or driving them back, "he committed them to everlasting chains of intense darkness to be reserved for judgment." (2Pe 2:4) Hence, it is clear, when they were driven back to their habitation, some further catastrophe befell them by which their committal to darkness was effected. This probably consisted in the total wreck of their abode, and their entire submergence, with all the mammoths of their estate, under the waters of an overwhelming flood. Reduced to this extremity, the earth became "without form and empty; and darkness overspread the deep waters." Its mountains, hills, valleys, plains, seas, rivers, and fountains of waters, which gave diversity of "form" to the surface of our globe, all disappeared; and it became "void," or empty, no living creatures, angels, quadrupeds, birds, or fishes, being found any more upon it.

Fragments, however, of the wreck of this pre-Adamic world have been brought to light by geological research, to the records of which we refer the reader, for a detailed account of its discoveries, with this remark, that its organic remains, coal fields, and strata, belong to the ages before the formation of man, rather than to the era of the creation, or the Noachic flood. This view of the matter will remove a host of difficulties, which have hitherto disturbed the harmony between the conclusions of geologists and the Mosaic account of the physical constitution of our globe.

Geologists have endeavoured to extend the six days into six thou

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sand years. But this, with the scriptural data we have adduced, is quite unnecessary. Instead of six thousand, they can avail themselves of sixty thousand; for the scriptures reveal no length of time during which the terrene angels dwelt upon our globe. The six days of Genesis were unquestionably six diurnal revolutions of the earth upon its axis. This is clear from the tenor of the sabbath law. "Six days shalt thou labour (O Israel) and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it." Would it be any fit reason that, because the Lord worked six periods of a thousand or more years each, and had ceased about two thousand until the giving of the law, therefore the Israelites were to work six periods of twelve hours, and do no work on a seventh period or day of like duration? Would any Israelite or Gentile, unspoiled by vain philosophy, come to the conclusion of the geologists by reading the sabbath law? We believe not. Six days of ordinary length were ample time for Omnipotence, with all the power of the universe at command, to re-form the earth, and to place the few animals upon it necessary for the beginning of a new order of things upon the globe.

But what is to become of the Evil Angels in everlasting chains of darkness, and who shall be their judge? Jude says, they were committed "for the judgment of the Great Day." He alludes to this great day in his quotation of the prophecy of Enoch, saying: "Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his Holy Ones (angels of his might -- 2 Thess. 1:7) to execute judgment upon all," etc. This coming of the Lord to judgment is termed by Paul, "the Day of Christ" -- "a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by Jesus Christ" -- during which, the saints, with angels ministering to them, having lived again, will reign with Christ a thousand years on the earth. This is the Great Day of Judgment, a period of one thousand years, in which Christ and his saints will govern the nations righteously; judge the raised dead in his kingdom according to their works; and award to the rebel angels the recompense awaiting their transgression. "Know ye not," saith Paul, "that we (the saints) shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life? " From these data, then, we conclude that these angels will be judged in the Day of Christ by Jesus and the saints.

In the period between the wreck of the globe as the habitation of the rebel angels and the epoch of the first day, the earth was as described in Gen. 1:2, "without form and void, and darkness upon the face of the deep" -- a globe of mineral structure, submerged in water, and mantled in impenetrable night. Out of these crude materials, a new habitation was constructed, and adapted to the abode of new races of living creatures. On the first day, light was caused to shine through the darkness, and disclose the face of the waters; on the second, the atmosphere called Heaven was formed, by which the fog was enabled to float in masses above the deep; on the third, the

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waters were gathered together into seas, and the dry land, called the Earth, appeared. It was then clothed with verdure, and with fruit and forest trees, preparatory to the introduction of herbivorous creatures to inhabit it. On the fourth day, the expanded atmosphere became transparent, and the shining orbs of the universe could be seen from the surface of the earth. Our globe was then placed in such astronomical relation to them as to be subjected by their influences to the vicissitudes of day and night, summer and winter; and that they might serve for signs, and for years. Thus, the sun, moon, and stars which God had made, by giving the earth's axis a certain inclination to the plane of the ecliptic, became diffusive of the most genial influences over the land and sea. It was now a fit and beautiful abode for animals of every kind. The dwelling-place was perfected, well aired, and gloriously illuminated by the lights of heaven; food was abundantly provided; and the mansional estate waited only a joyous tenantry to be complete.

This was the work of the fifth and sixth days. On the fifth, fish and water-fowl were produced from the teeming waters; and on the sixth, cattle, reptiles, land-fowl, and the beasts of the earth, came out of "the dust of the ground," male and female, after their several kinds.

But among all these there was not one fit to exercise dominion over the animal world, or to reflect the divine attributes. Therefore the Elohim said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the living creatures." So Elohim created man in His image; male and female created He them. Further details concerning the formation of the human pair are given in the second chapter of Genesis, verses 7, 18, 21-25. These passages belong to the work of the sixth day; while that from verse 8 to 14 pertains to the record of the third; and from 15 to 17 is parallel with chapter 1:28-31, which completes the history of the sixth.

"Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them"; and the Jehovah Elohim, on reviewing the stupendous and glorious creation elaborated by the Spirit; pronounced it "very good." Then the Elohim or "Morning Stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." (Job 38:4-7)

OF THE SABBATH DAY

On the seventh day, which was neither longer nor shorter than the days which preceded it, "God ended his work which he had made"; and because of this notable event, "he blessed and sanctified it." A day is blessed, because of what is or will be imparted to those who are commanded to observe it. The sanctification of the day implies the setting of it apart that it might be kept in some way different from other days. The manner of its original observance may be inferred from the law concerning it when it was enjoined upon the Israelites. To them it was said, "Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy." If it be asked, how was it to be kept holy? the answer is, "in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor any one or thing belonging to thee";

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and the reason for this total abstinence from work is referred to the Lord's own example in that "he rested the seventh day." The nature of its observance in the ages and generations, and the recompense thereof, is well expressed in the words of Isaiah: -- "If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord, and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it."

In this passage, the conditions are stated upon which faithful Israelites might inherit the blessing typified by the rest of the seventh day. They were joyfully to devote themselves to the way of the Lord. They were not simply to abstain from work, yawning and grumbling over the tediousness of the day, and wishing it were gone, that they might return to their ordinary course of life; but they were to esteem it as a delightful, holy, and honourable day. Their pleasure was to consist in doing what the Lord required, and in talking of "the exceeding great and precious promises" He had made. To do this was "not speaking their own words," but the Lord's words. Such an observance as this, however, of the sabbath day, implies a faithful mind and a gracious disposition as the result of knowing the truth. Neither antediluvian nor postdiluvian could "call the sabbath a delight" who was either ignorant or faithless of the import of the promise, "thou shalt delight thyself in the Lord, and ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed with the heritage of Jacob." A man who simply looked at the seventh day as a sabbath in which he was interdicted from pleasures, and conversation agreeable to him, and from the money-making pursuits in which he delighted, would regard the day more as a weekly punishment, than as joyous and honourable. Though he might mechanically abstain from work, he did not keep it so as to be entitled to the blessing which belonged to the observance of the day of the Lord. It was irksome to him, because, being faithless, he perceived no reward in keeping it; and "without faith it is impossible to please God."

The reward to antediluvian and postdiluvian patriarchs and Israelites, for a faithful observance, or commemoration of Jehovah's rest from His creation-work, was "delight in the Lord, riding upon the high places of the earth, and feeding with the heritage of Jacob." This was neither more nor less than a promise of inheriting the Kingdom of God, which is a summary of "the things hoped for and the things unseen," or the subject matter of the faith that pleases God. When that kingdom is established, all who are accounted worthy of it will "delight or joy in the Lord"; and occupy "the high places of the earth," ruling over the nations as His associate kings and priests; and share in the "new heavens and earth," in which dwells righteousness, when Jerusalem shall be made a rejoicing, and her people Israel a joy. The knowledge and belief of these

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things was the powerful and transforming motive which caused Abel, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, etc. to "call the sabbath a delight, holy of the Lord, and honourable"; and to observe it as the sons of Belial cannot possibly do. But while this was the motive, even faith, which actuated the sons of God in their keeping holy the seventh day, Jehovah did not permit the faithless to transgress or desecrate it with impunity. We know not what penalty, if any, was attached to its violation before the flood; but its desecration under the Mosaic constitution was attended with signal and summary vengeance, as will appear from the following testimonies: --

1. "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak thou unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep; for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore: for it is holy unto you. Every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death; for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days may work be done, but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord; whosoever doeth any work on the sabbath day shall surely be put to death. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed."

2. "Remember (O Israel), that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm; therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day."

3. "Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day mere shall be to you a holy day, a sabbath of rest to the Lord: whosoever doeth work therein shall be put to death. Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations on the sabbath day."

4. "And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day. And they that found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congregation. And they put him in ward, because it was not declared what should be done to him. And the Lord said unto Moses, The man shall surely be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp. And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died; as the Lord commanded Moses."

5. "Thus saith the Lord; Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem: neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the sabbath day, neither do ye any work, but hallow ye the sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers. "And it shall come to pass, if ye diligently hearken unto me, saith the Lord, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the sabbath day, to do no work therein: then shall there enter into the gates of this city kings and princes sitting

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upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and upon horses, they, and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: and this city shall remain for ever. And they shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin and from the plain, and from the mountains, and from the south, bringing burnt-offerings, and sacrifices, and meat-offerings, and incense, and bringing sacrifices of praise, unto the temple of the Lord. But if ye will not hearken unto me to hallow the sabbath day, and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day; then I will kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched."

6. "Abide ye every man in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day." From these testimonies it is clear that it was unlawful for servants in the families of Israel to light fires, cook dinners, harness horses, drive out families to the synagogues, or priests to the temple to officiate in the service of the Lord. The visiting of families on the sabbath day, the taking of excursions for health or for preaching, and conversing about worldly, or family, or any kind of secular affairs, was also illegal, and punishable with death. The law, it will be observed also, had regard to the seventh, and to no other day of the week. It was lawful to do all these things on the first or eighth day (some particular ones, however, excepted), but not on the seventh. On this day, however, it was "lawful to do good"; but then, this good was not arbitrary. Neither the priests nor the people were the judges of the good or evil, but the law only which defined it. "On the sabbath days the priests in the temple profaned the sabbath, and were blameless"; for the law enjoined them to offer "two lambs of the first year, without spot, as the burnt-offering of every sabbath." This was a profanation of the seventh-day law, which prohibited "any work" from being done; and had not God commanded it, they would have been "guilty of death." It was upon this ground that Jesus was "guiltless"; for he did the work of God on that day in healing the sick as the Father had commanded him. "The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: therefore ," said Jesus, "the Son of Man is Lord also of the sabbath Day ." It was a wise and beneficent institution. It prevented the Israelites from wearing out themselves and their dependents by incessant toil; and revived in them a weekly remembrance of the law and promises of God. It was, however, only "a shadow of things to come," the substance of which is found in the things which pertain to the Anointed One of God. It was a part of "the rudiments of the world" inscribed on "the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us," and which the Lord Jesus "took out of the way, nailing it to his cross." When he lay entombed he rested from his labours, abiding in his place all the seventh day. Having ended his work, he arose on the eighth day, "and was refreshed."

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The shadowy sabbath disappeared before the brightness of the rising of the sun of righteousness; who, having become the accursed of the law. delivered his brethren from its sentence upon all. The ordinances of the law of Moses are styled by Paul "the rudiments," or "elements of the world," which, in Galatians, he also terms "weak and beggarly elements, whereunto they desired again to be in bondage." They evinced this desire by "observing days, and months, and times, and years"; not being satisfied with the things of Christ, but seeking to combine the Mosaic institutions with the gospel. This was Judaizing, and the first step to that awful apostasy by which the world has been cursed for so many ages. When the Mosaic constitution, as "the representation of the knowledge and the truth," had "waxed old" by the manifestation of the substance to a sufficient extent to nullify it, it "vanished away" by being "cast down to the ground" by the Roman power, and with it the law of the seventh day. Even before its abolition, Paul expressed his fear of the Galatians, "lest he should have bestowed labour upon them in vain," seeing that they were becoming zealous of the ordinances of the law. They seemed not to understand that the Mosaic economy was only a temporary constitution of things, "added because of transgressions, till the seed should come"; that when he came, "he redeemed them from the curse of the law, being made a curse for them"; and that therefore they had nothing to fear, nor to hope for from keeping, or transgressing its methods. They had got it into their heads that "except they were circumcised and kept the law of Moses," as well as believed and obeyed the gospel of the kingdom, they could not be saved. Therefore they "desired to be under the law," and began to busy themselves about "keeping the sabbath," and doing other works which Moses had enjoined upon Israel. Paul was very much distressed at this, and describes himself as "travailing in birth again until Christ be formed in them." They had been delivered from "the yoke of bondage," by putting on Christ; but by seeking to renew their connection with Moses' law, they were selling their birth-right for a mess of pottage. "I say unto you," saith Paul, "that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace." A partial observance of the law can do no one any good. If he kept the sabbath in the most approved manner, but neglected the sacrifices, or ate swine's flesh, he was as accursed as a thief or a robber; for to one under the law it saith, "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them"; hence even the sinless Jesus was cursed by it, because he was crucified; for it is written, "Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree." What hope then is there for Jew or Gentile of escaping the curse of the law, seeing that from the very nature of things connected with the present state of Jerusalem it is impossible to observe it, save in the few particulars of "meat and drink, or in respect of the sabbath" partially, etc. The

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observance of the seventh day was regulated by the Mosaic law, and the penalties due to its "desecration," or "profanation," are pronounced by it alone; but it is dear that the law being taken out of the way, or abolished, by Jesus, who nailed it to his cross, there remain no more retributions for the non-observance of its appointments; and therefore there is no transgression in working or pleasure-taking, or in speaking one's own words on the seventh day.

On the first day of the creation-week God said, "Let there be light, and there was light"; so on the first day of the week "the true light" came forth from the darkness of the tomb "like dew from the womb of the morning." It is a day to be much remembered by his people, because it assures them of their justification "in him," of their own resurrection to life, and of the certainty of his ruling or "judging the world in righteousness" as Jehovah's king, when they shall also reign with him as kings and priests to God. This day is also notable on account of the special interviews which occurred between Jesus and his disciples after his resurrection. He ascended to heaven on this day, even the forty-third from his crucifixion; and seven days after, that is the fiftieth, being "the day of Pentecost," the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the apostles, and the gospel of the kingdom preached for the first time in his name.

Power being in the hands of their enemies, the Christians of the Hebrew nation still continued to observe the seventh day according to the custom. Hence we find the apostles frequenting the synagogues on the sabbath days and reasoning with the people out of the scriptures. To have done otherwise would have been to create an unnecessary prejudice, and to let slip one of the best opportunities of introducing the gospel to the attention of the Jewish public. They did not forsake the synagogues until they were expelled. While they frequented these, however, on the seventh day, they assembled themselves together with the disciples whose assemblies constituted the churches of the saints and of God. They ordained elders over these societies, and "taught them to observe all things whatsoever Jesus had commanded them." In his letter to the Hebrew Christians, Paul exhorts them "not to forsake the assembling of themselves together." Such an exhortation as this implies a stated time and place of assembly. On what day, then, did the churches of the saints meet to exhort one another so as to provoke to love and to good works ? Certainly not on the seventh day, for then the apostles were in the synagogues. What day then more appropriate than the first day of the week ? Now it cannot be affirmed that the saints were commanded to meet on this day, because there is no testimony to that effect in the New Testament. But it is beyond dispute that they did assemble themselves together on the first day of the week, and the most reasonable inference is that they did so in obedience to the instruction of the

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apostles, from whose teaching they derived all their faith and practice, which constituted them the disciples of Jesus.

To keep the first day of the week to the Lord is possible only for the saints. There is no law, except the emperor Constantine's, that commands sinners to keep holy the first, or eighth, day, or Sunday, as the Gentiles term it. For a sinner to keep this day unto the Lord he must become one of the Lord's people. He must believe the gospel of the kingdom and name of Christ, and become obedient to it, before any religious service he can offer will be accepted. He must come under law to Christ by putting on Christ before he can keep the Lord's day. Having become a Christian, if he would keep the day to the Lord, he must assemble with a congregation of New Testament saints, and assist in edifying and provoking them to love and good works, in showing forth the death of Jesus, in giving thanks to the Father, in celebrating the resurrection of Christ, and in praising and blessing God. Under the gospel, or "law of liberty," he is subjected to no "yoke of bondage" concerning a sabbath day. It is his delight when an opportunity presents, to celebrate in this way the day of the resurrection. He requires no penal statutes to compel him to a formal and disagreeable self-denial, or "duty"; for it is his meat and drink to do the will of his Father who is in heaven.

The law of Moses was delivered to the Israelites and not to the Gentiles, who were therefore "without the law." "What things soever the law saith, it says it to them who are under the law"; consequently the nations were not amenable to it; and though they obtained not the blessings of Mount Gerizim (unless they became faithful Jews by adoption), neither were they obnoxious to the curses of Mount Ebal. The faithless Jews and Gentiles are equally aliens from the precepts of Christ and his apostles. What these prescribe is enjoined upon the disciples of Jesus. They only are "under law to Christ." "What have I" says Paul, "to do to judge them that are without? God judgeth them." He has caused the gospel of the kingdom to be preached to sinners "for the obedience of faith." When they are judged, it will be for "not obeying the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ," and not because they do not "go to church," or do not keep a sabbath instituted by a semi-pagan emperor of the fourth century. The sabbath God requires sinful men to observe is to cease from the works of the flesh, as completely as He rested from the work of creation on the seventh day, that they may enter into the millennial rest that remaineth for the people of God.

Men frequently err in their speculations from inattention to the marked distinction which subsists in the scriptures between those classes of mankind termed "saints" and "sinners." They confound what is said to, or concerning, the one, with what is said in relation to the other. Relatively to the institutions of God they are as near or afar off as are "citizens" and "foreigners" to the laws and constitution of the United States. "What the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law." This is a principle laid down by Paul concerning the law of Moses, which is equally true of the codes of all

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nations. "Citizens" are the saints, or separated ones, of the particular code by which they are insulated from all other people; while "foreigners" or "aliens" from their commonwealth are sinners in relation to it; for they live in other countries in total disregard of its institutions, and doing contrary to its laws, and yet are blameless: so that if they were to visit the country of that commonwealth, they would not be punished for their former course, because they were not under law to it. Let them, however, while sojourning there continue their native customs, and they would become guilty and worthy of the punishment made and provided for such offenders. It is a fact, that "God blessed and sanctified" or set apart, "the seventh day"; and doubtless, Adam and his wife rested, or intermitted, their horticultural tendance upon that day. Yea, we may go further and say, that it is extremely probable that "the sons of God" before the flood, worshipped God according to "His way" upon that day; but in all the history of that long period, which intervened from the sanctification of the seventh day to the raining down bread from heaven for the Israelites in the wilderness, there is not the least hint of any punishment for breaking the sabbath day. Guiltiness before God cannot therefore be argued against the Gentiles so as to entitle them to death or reprobation, predicated on the threatenings of the patriarchal code. Whatever the appointment might be, it was no doubt significative of the blessings to be obtained through observing it; not alone, but in connection with the other matters which made up "the way of God."

As I have shown, the observance of the seventh clay was obligatory only upon the Israelites so long as the Mosaic code was in force, being "a sign" between God and them. The sabbaths belong to the land and people of Israel, and can be only kept according to the law while they reside in the country. This will appear from the fact that the law requires that "two lambs of the first year without spot" should be offered with other things "as the burnt-offering of every sabbath"; an offering which, like all the offerings, etc., must be offered in a temple in Jerusalem where the Lord has placed His name, and not in the dwelling places of Jacob. Israel must therefore be restored to their own country before even they can keep the sabbath. Then, when "the throne is established in mercy; and he (the Lord Jesus) shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David, judging, and seeking judgment, and hasting righteousness," then, I say "shall the priests, the Levites, the sons of Zadok, that kept the charge of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from me, come near to me to minister unto me, and they shall stand before me to offer unto me the fat and the blood, saith the Lord God: and they shall hallow my sabbaths." (Eze 44:15,24)

But these sabbaths will be no longer celebrated on the seventh day. They will be changed from the seventh to the eighth, or first day of the week, which are the same. The "dispensation of the fullness’ of times," popularly styled the Millennium, will be the antitype, or substance, of the Mosaic feast of tabernacles which was "a shadow of things to come." In this type, or pattern, Israel were to rejoice before

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the Lord for seven days, beginning "on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when they had gathered the fruit of the land." In relation to the first day of the seven, the law says, "it shall be a holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein." This was what we call Sunday. The statute then continues, "on the eighth day," also Sunday, "shall be a holy convocation unto you, and ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord: it is a solemn assembly; and ye shall do no servile work therein." Again, "on the first day shall be a sabbath and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath." Thus, in this "pattern of things in the heavens," the first and eighth days are constituted holy days in which no work was to be done. It also represents the palm-bearing or victorious ingathering of the twelve tribes of Israel from their present dispersion to the land of their fathers, "when the Lord shall set his hand a second time to recover the remnant of his people." Three times in four verses does Zechariah style the yearly going up of the Gentiles to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, there, the keeping of the feast of tabernacles; an event which is consequent upon the destruction of the dominion represented by Nebuchadnezzar's image, and the re-establishment of the kingdom and throne of David. This national confluence of the Gentiles to Jerusalem is characteristic of Messiah's times; and of the true or real festival tabernacles, when he will "confess to God among the Gentiles, and sing unto his name," and "they shall rejoice with his people," Israel. Referring to this time, the Lord says, "the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever, and my holy name shall the House of Israel no more defile, neither they, nor their kings, by their whoredom, nor by the carcases of their kings in their high places. - They have even defiled my holy name by their abominations that they have committed: wherefore I have consumed them in mine anger. Now let them put away their whoredom, and the carcases of their kings, far from me, and I will dwell in the midst of them for ever." This is clearly a prophecy of what shall be hereafter, because the House of Israel still continues to defile God's holy name by their abominations; but when this comes to pass they shall defile it "no more."

After the declaration of these things, Ezekiel is commanded to show them the description of the temple which is destined to be "the house of prayer for all nations," with the ordinances, forms, and laws thereof. The Lord God then declares, "the ordinances of the altar in the day when they shall make it," and when the Levites of the seed of Zadok shall approach unto Him. The "cleansing of the altar," and the consecration of the priests, is then effected by the offerings of seven days. "And when these days are expired, it shall be that upon the eighth day, and so forward, the priests shall make your burnt offerings upon the altar, and your peace offerings; and I will accept you (O Israel), saith the Lord," Thus, the day of the Lord's resurrection from his seventh-day incarceration in the tomb, becomes the sabbath day of

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the future age which shall be hallowed by the priests of Israel, and be observed by all nations as a day of holy convocation in which they shall rejoice, and do no manner of servile work at all.

This change of the sabbath from the seventh to the eighth, or first, day of the week, is the full development and establishment of the observance of the Lord's day by the disciples of Jesus since the time of the apostles. Constantine, though not a Christian himself, paid homage to the truth so far as to compel the world to respect the day on which Christ Jesus rose from the dead. Hence, in 328, he ordained that the day should be kept religiously, which a Judaizing clergy construed into sabbatical observance according to the Mosaic law concerning the seventh day. This is the origin of that sabbatarianism which so ludicrously, yet mischievously, illustrates the Blue Laws of Connecticut, the zeal of the Agnews and Plumptres of the House of Commons, and the rhapsodies of the pietists of the passing day. These well-meaning persons, whose zeal outruns their knowledge, seem not to be aware that Christ and his apostles did not promulge a civil and ecclesiastical code for the nations, when they preached the gospel of the kingdom. Their object was not to give them laws and constitutions; but to separate a peculiar people from the nations who should afterwards rule them justly and in fear of the Lord, when the dispensation of the fullness’ of times should be introduced. To be able to do this, these peculiars were required to be "holy, unblameable, and unreprovable before God." To this end instructions were delivered to them, that under the divine tuition "they might be renewed in the spirit of their mind; and put on the new man which after God's image is created in righteousness and true holiness ." As for "those without" "who receive not the love of the truth, that they might be saved, God sent them a strong delusion, that they should believe a lie," as a punishment. They are left to govern themselves by their own laws until the time arrives for Christ to take away their dominion and assume the sovereignty over them conjointly with "the people of the saints." If they please to impose upon themselves yokes of bondage, binding themselves to keep the first day of the week according to the Mosaic law of the seventh day, they are left at liberty to do so. But for this act of "voluntary humility" they are entitled to no recompense from God, seeing that He has not required it of them. The reward due for observing a Judaized Lord's day voluntarily inflicted upon themselves; or, the pains and penalties to which they may be entitled for its "profanation," are such, and such only, as result from the will and pleasure of the unenlightened lawgivers of the nations. It is a wise regulation to decree a cessation from labour and toil for man and beast during one day in seven; but it betrays egregious misunderstanding of the scriptures and singular superstition to proclaim perdition to men's souls in flaming brimstone, if they do not keep it according to the Mosaic law of the seventh day. All I need say in conclusion is, that if it be necessary to keep Sunday as the Jews were required to keep Saturday

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by the law of Moses, then those who make so much ado about sabbath-breaking are themselves as guilty as those they denounce for the unholy and profane. "He that offendeth in one point is guilty of the whole." If they do not keep open shop, or perambulate the parks and fields, or take excursions, or go to places of public resort and amusement on the Lord's day -- yet, they light fires in the dwellings and meeting houses, they entertain their friends at comfortable warm dinners, drive to church in splendid equipages, annoy the sick and distract the sober-minded with noisy bells, bury the dead, speak their own words, etc. -- all of which is a violation of the divine law which saith, "Thou shalt not do any work, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle"; and "Thou shalt not speak thine own words." This would certainly put to silence nearly all the preachers of the day; whose "sermons," when made by themselves, are emphatically their own in thoughts and words without dispute. It is not only ridiculous, but downright Pharisaism, the fuss that is made about breaking the sabbath. Let the zealots "first cast the beam out of their own eyes; and then will they see clearly to cast out the mote from the eyes of others." If they would "keep the day to the Lord," let them believe and obey the gospel of the kingdom in the name of Jesus; and then "continue steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers" on the "first day"; and cease from the works of sinful flesh every day of the week; and they will doubtless "delight in the Lord, and ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed with the heritage of Jacob" in the Kingdom of God, as the mouth of the Lord hath spoken.

Of the things then which have been written under this head this is the sum.

1. The six creation-days were each as long as the seventh, whose duration is defined by the Mosaic law; and consequently the geological notion of their being six several periods of many centuries each, falls to the ground as a mere conceit of infidel philosophy.

2. The Lord God ended His work on the seventh day,. "and was refreshed" by the songs of the Morning Stars, and the joyous shouts of the Sons of God.

3. To celebrate His rest, He constituted it holy and a day of blessing. Hence it was commemorative of the past, and "a shadow of things to come."

4. The seventh day was observed by Adam and Eve as a day of delight before they became sinners. The immediate cause of their joyousness on the day of rest is not testified. It is certain it was not a burdensome day; for sin had not yet marred their enjoyments. It was probably because of the gracious interviews granted them by the Lord God on that day; and of the revelations made to them of the things contained in the blessing pronounced upon it when He "blessed and sanctified it."

5. There is no record, or hint, of the existence of a penal statute for not observing the seventh day, from the sanctification of it till the

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raining down bread from heaven for the Israelites in the wilderness of Egypt.

6. The observance of the seventh day by absolute rest from every kind of work and pleasure-taking, accompanied by a peculiar sacrifice on the brazen altar of the temple, and spiritual delight in its blessedness, was its Mosaic celebration enjoined upon the Israelites, and their dependents in Palestine, and upon them alone.

7. Its profanation by citizens of the commonwealth of Israel was punishable with death by stoning.

8. Israel was especially commanded to remember the seventh day and keep it as appointed by the law; because God in creating their world brought them out of Egypt, and rested from the work of its creation when He gave them a temporary and typical rest under Joshua in the land of Canaan.

9. For an Israelite to remember the seventh day to keep it holy, spiritually as well as ceremonially, so as to obtain the blessing which it shadowed forth, he must have had an Abrahamic faith in the promised blessing, and have ceased or rested from the works of "sinful flesh."

10. The blessing promised to Israelites, who were Abraham's sons by faith as well as by flesh descent, for a spiritual observance of the seventh day (and which, until "the handwriting," or Mosaic law, was blotted out and nailed to the cross, could not be spiritually observed and ceremonially profaned) was, that they should "delight in the Lord, ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed with the heritage of Jacob their father," when the time to fulfil the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob should arrive.

11. The blessing pronounced on a national observance of the seventh day was the uninterrupted continuance of the throne of David, and great national prosperity. Its desecration to be punished by the breaking up of the commonwealth of Israel and desolation of their country.

12. The Mosaic observance of the seventh day was appointed as "a sign" between God and the twelve tribes of Israel. It was a holy day to them, and to be observed perpetually throughout their generations.

13. It was lawful for Israelites to do good on the seventh day; but they were not permitted to be the judges of the good or evil. This was defined by the law. The priests profaned the sabbath by hard work in slaying and burning the seventh day sacrifices on the altar, yet they were blameless; because this was a good work which the Lord of the sabbath commanded them to do.

14. Having finished the work the Father had given him to do, on the sixth day of the week, Jesus, while suspended on the accursed tree, cried with a loud voice, "It is finished! " "All things were now accomplished," so that the Mosaic handwriting was blotted out, being nailed with him to the cross, and taken out of the way as a rule of life. The Lord Jesus, "rested from his labours" on the seventh

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day in the silent tomb, and "his disciples rested according to the commandment." (Luk 23:56) He abode in his place. and did not go out of it until the sabbath was at an end. (Mar 16:1) But on the eighth day, styled also the first day, God gave him liberty, (Mat 28:2) he left the tomb, and "was refreshed." Having "spoiled the principalities and the powers" constituted by the handwriting, he made the spoliation manifest, "triumphing over in himself" (en autwi), that is, in his resurrection; thus, for ever delivering men from the bondage of the law, which, Peter says, "was a yoke which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear." With the abolition of the Mosaic handwriting the obligation to keep the seventh day as a rule of spiritual life was cancelled as a matter of course.

15. The apostles and Christians of the Hebrew nation in Palestine continued a ceremonial observance of the Mosaic festivals (the annual atonement for sin excepted) and of the seventh day, until the destruction of the commonwealth by the Romans, on the same principle that New Testament Christians among the nations now observe Sunday and the laws; not as a means of justification before God, but as mere national customs for the regulation of society.

16. Hebrew Christians who proposed to blend the law of Moses with that of Jesus as a spiritual rule, or means of justification, and consequently to keep holy the seventh day, were severely reproved by the apostles, who stigmatised it as "Judaizing" (ioudaizein).

17. The Judaizing Christians endeavoured to impose the observance of the law upon the Gentile converts, which would have compelled them to keep holy the seventh day. But the apostles and elders of the Christian community at Jerusalem positively forbade it, and wrote to them, saying, "We have heard that certain who went out from us have troubled you with words subverting your souls, saying, Be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment." On the contrary, "it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: that ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication; from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well."

18. Upon the first day of the week (or day after the seventh, and therefore sometimes styled the eighth day), the disciples of Christ assembled to show forth his death, and to celebrate his resurrection; which, with an enduring rest from the works of "sinful flesh," was all the sabbatizing they practised.

19. There is no law in the scriptures requiring the nations to keep this day in any manner whatever during his absence at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens. So long as they continue faithless and disobedient to the gospel of the kingdom, neither nations nor individuals can present an acceptable observance of the day before the Lord; on the principle that "Jehovah is far from the

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wicked, whose way and sacrifice are an abomination to the Lord": -- and,

20. The "first day" was Judaized by Constantine, the manchild of sin, and his clergy. His present representative is the Italian high priest of Papal Christendom. When his power, and that of his kings, is finally destroyed in "the burning flame"; when Israel is engrafted into their own olive again, and the nations are subdued to the glorious sceptre of the king of saints -- then will this day become the holy sabbath, "blessed and sanctified" of God instead of the shadowy seventh day, which was merely "a sign" of the things which will then have come to pass.

THE FORMATION OF MAN.

"Out of the ground wast thou taken; for dust thou art. "

That "the sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath," is a truth of general application to all the institutions of God. Upon this principle, man was not made for religion, but religion was made for him. If this be true, then it follows that it was adapted to man as God had formed him. Hence, the institutions of religion, if it be of God, will always be found in harmony with his constitution and not at variance with it. They are devised as a remedy, for certain irregularities which have invaded his intellectual and moral nature; by which, phenomena have been superinduced which are destructive of his being. Now the exact adaptation of the Bible religion to the curative indications suggested by the intellectual, moral, and physical infirmities of human nature, which everyone who understands it cannot fail to perceive, proves that the mind which framed it is divine; and that the religion of the scriptures, and the constitution of man, are the work of one and the same Creator. God is truly the only wise physician, whose practice is based upon perfect knowledge; for He alone (and they to whom He hath revealed it) knows "what is in man." Hence, no incongruities are discoverable in "His way" when His method of cure is understood.

In medicine, a scientific practice is directed, and founded, upon a knowledge of the structure or mechanism of the body, the motive power thereof, and of the functions which are manifested by the working of this power on its several parts. The absence of this knowledge in a professional, constitutes empiricism; and is one cause of such vast multitudes "dying," as it is said, "of the doctor." Being ignorant of the motive power of the living creature, they are as unsuccessful in correcting its irregularities as a watchmaker, who was ignorant of the principles and laws by which a timepiece was moved, would be in rectifying its errors. Now this may be taken in illustration of the predicament of others who undertake the "cure of souls." To treat these as "a work-man that needeth not to be ashamed," a man should be acquainted with "souls" as God hath formed and constituted them. He should know what "a living soul" is; what its condition in a healthy state; what the peculiar morbid affection

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under which it languishes; what the nature of the cure indicated; and what the divinely appointed means by which the indications may be infallibly fulfilled. An attempt to "cure souls" without understanding the constitution of man as revealed by Him who created him, is mere theological experimentalism; and as bootless, and more fatally destructive than the empiricism of the most ignorant pretenders to the healing art. What! men undertake to "cure souls" and not to know what a soul is; or to imagine it a something, which it is admitted cannot be demonstrated by "the testimony of God." This is like pretending to repair a timepiece without knowing what constitutes a watch or clock, or while imagining it to be a musical box, or any other conceivable thing.

Speculation has assumed that the soul is something in the human body capable of living out of the body, and of eating, drinking, feeling, tasting, smelling, thinking, singing, and so forth; and of the same essence as God Himself. In times past some have busied themselves in calculating how many such souls could stand on the point of a needle; a problem, however, which still remains unsolved. A vast deal is said in "sermons" and systems about this idea; about its supposed nature, its wonderful capacity, its infinite value, its immortality, and its destiny. I shall not, however, trouble the reader with it. We have to do with "the law and the testimony"; and as they are altogether silent about such a supposed existence, we shall not occupy our pages in superadding to the obsolete print concerning its attributes, which has already merged into the oblivion of the past. I allude to so much as this, because it is made the foundation corner-stone, as it were, of those experimental systems of spiritual cure, which are so popular with the world, and so utterly exclusive and proscriptive of the divine method.

Upon the supposition of the existence of this kind of a soul in the human body are based the current notions of heaven, hell, immortality, infant salvation, purgatory, saint-worship, Mariolatry, spiritual millenniumism, metempsychosis, etc., etc. Its existence both in the body and out of the body being assumed, it is assumed also to be immortal. An immortal disembodied existence requires a dwelling place, because something must be somewhere; and, as it is said to be virtuous or vicious according to its supposed life in the body, and post mortem rewards and punishments are affirmed -- this dwelling-place is exhibited as an elysium, or, as an orthodox poet sings, "a place of goblins damn'd." To deter men from crime, and to move them to "get religion" that their souls may be cured of sin, frightful pictures are painted, sometimes on canvas, sometimes on the imagination, and sometimes sculptured on stones, of the crackling and sulphurous flames, hideous devils, and horrid shapes, which fill the Tartarian habitation of the immortal ghosts of wicked men. This destiny of condemned ghosts was a part of the "vain philosophy" of the Greeks and Romans before the advent of Christ. It was introduced into the churches of the saints soon after "God granted repentance to the Gentiles." But, as the apostles taught the resurrection of the mortal

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body, (Rom 8:11, 1Co 15:42-54) the dogmatism of the Greeks was variously modified. Some admitted the resurrection of the dead; but, as it interfered with their hypothesis about souls, they said it was already past; and consequently, that "there is no resurrection of the dead." This gentilizing the hope of the gospel filled Paul with zeal, and caused him to pen the fifteenth chapter of his first letter to the Corinthians to counteract its pernicious influence. He wrote to Timothy to put him on his guard against it; and styles the gentilisms, "profane vain babblings; and oppositions of science falsely so called." He exhorts him to shun them, and "not to strive about words to no profit"; for they "would eat as doth a canker."

If there were no other evidence in Paul's writings of inspiration, this prediction would be sufficient to establish it. It has come to pass exactly as he foretold it. The dogma of an immortal soul in mortal sinful flesh has eaten out the marrow and fatness, the flesh and sinew, of the doctrine of Christ; and has left behind only an ill-conditioned and ulcerated skeleton of Christianity, whose dry bones rattle in the "winds of doctrine" that are blowing around us, chopping and changing to every point of the compass. The apostles taught two resurrections of the dead; one at "the manifestation of his presence" (epifaneia tes parousaiasa autou) -- EPIPHANEIA Ten epiphaneia tes parousias autou), the other, at the delivering up of the kingdom to God at the end of the dispensation of the fullness’ of times. But this did not suit the theory of dogmatists. They resolved the first into what they term "a glorious resurrection of spiritual life in the soul"; and the second, into a re-union of disembodied ghosts with their old mortalities to be sent back whence they came. In this way they reduce the second resurrection to a very useless and superfluous affair. Their systems send "souls" to their account as soon as death strikes the bodies down. Some torment them in purgatory, or in an intermediate state; others send them direct into unmitigated punishment; while both, after they have suffered for thousands of years before trial and conviction, reunite them to their bodies; and if it be asked for what purpose? system replies, "to be judged! " Punish souls first and judge them after! This is truly human, but it is certainly not divine justice. The truth is, that this article of the creed is brought in to defend "orthodoxy" against the imputation of denying the resurrection of the body, which would be a very inconvenient charge in the face of the testimony of God. But this will not avail; for, to believe dogmas that make the resurrection of the mortal body unnecessary and absurd is equivalent to a denial of it. In saying that there was no future resurrection, Paul charged the Corinthians with the mortal sin of repudiating the resurrection of Jesus; "for," said he, "if the dead rise not," as ye say, "then Christ is not raised." Their heresy ate out this truth, which stands or falls with the reality of the "first resurrection" at his coming. (verse 28)

The question of "infant salvation" and "non-elect infant damnation," also rests upon the dogma before us. "Orthodoxy" sends

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some infants to hell and some to heaven; though many "orthodox" persons are getting heartily ashamed of this part of the creed. The apprehension of the damnation of their "immortal souls" on account of "original sin," has given rise to the Romish conceit of the rhantismal regeneration of infants by the Holy Spirit in the scattering of a few drops of water upon the face, and the use of a certain form of words. This has been recently declared to be regenerative of infant souls by an English court of law! This question was actually gravely discussed by bishops, priests, lawyers and ministers, in the year of grace 1849! So true is it that "great men are not always wise; neither do the aged understand judgment."

As far as the infant is itself concerned, this Romish ceremony is of no importance, for it does it neither good nor harm. In one sense, however, the subject of "the ordinance" is deeply injured. He is indoctrinated by system into the notion that he was truly baptized when rhantismally "regenerated": and, therefore, when he is grown he troubles himself no more about the matter. Alas, what havoc the apostasy has made with the doctrine of Christ! Believers' baptism transmuted into rhantizing an unconscious babe for the regeneration of its "immortal soul"! Would such a thing ever have been thought of but for the Nicolaitan "oppositions of science" "which," says the Lord Jesus, "I hate"? I trow not.

How important, then, it is that we should have a scriptural understanding of the constitution of man. If it should appear by an exposition of the truth, that there is no such kind of soul in the universe as that conceited by the pagan Greeks and Romans, and gentilized into the doctrine of the apostles by contemporary perverters of the gospel, the faith and hope of which it hath ulcerously consumed -- and handed down to us by "orthodox divines" -- and fondled in these times as an essential ingredient of a true faith: -- what becomes of the "cure of souls" by the dogmatical specifics of the day? They are resolved into theological empiricism, which is destined to recede like darkness before the orient brightness of the rising truth.

Let us then endeavour to understand ourselves as God has revealed our nature in His word. On the sixth day, the Elohim gave the word, saying, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." In this word was life, spirit, or energy. "It was God. All things were made by it, and without it was not anything made that was made." Hence, says Elihu, "the Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life"; or, as Moses testifies, "the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of lives; and man became a Living Soul."

Now, if it be asked, what do the scriptures define "a living soul" to be? -- the answer is, a living natural, or animal, body, whether of birds, beasts, fish or men. The phrase living creature is the exact synonym of living soul. The Hebrew words nephesh chayiah are the signs of the ideas expressed by Moses. Nephesh signifies creature, also life, soul, or breathing frame, from the verb to breathe:

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chayiah is of life -- a noun from the verb to live. Nephesh chayiah is the genus which includes all species of living creatures; namely, Adam, man; beme, beast of the field; chitu, wild beast; remesh, reptile; and ouph, fowl, etc. In the common version of the scriptures, it is rendered living soul; so that under this form of expression the scriptures speak of "all flesh" which breathes in air, earth, and sea.

Writing about body, the apostle says, "There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body." But, he does not content himself with simply declaring this truth; he goes further, and proves it by quoting the words of Moses, saying, "For so it is written, the first man Adam was made into a living soul -- eij" yuch;n zw`san; and then adds, "the last Adam into a spirit giving life, eij" pneu`ma zwopoiou`n." Hence, in another place, speaking of the latter, he says of him. "Now the Lord is the spirit -- oJ de; cu;rio" to; pneu`maj ejstin. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are changed into his image from glory into glory, as by the Lord the Spirit -- ajpov curivou pnevumato"."

The proof of the apostle's proposition that there is a natural body as distinct from a spiritual body, lies in the testimony, that "Adam was made into a living soul"; showing that he considered a natural, or animal body, and a living soul, as one and the same thing. If he did not, then there was no proof in the quotation, of what he affirmed.

A man then is a body of life in the sense of his being an animal, or living creature -- nephesh chayiah adam. As a natural man, he has no other pre-eminence over the creatures God made than what his peculiar organization confers upon him. Moses makes no distinction between him and them; for he styles them all living souls, breathing the breath of lives. Thus, literally rendered, he says, "The Elohim said, The waters shall produce abundantly sheretz chayiah nephesh, the reptile living soul"; and again, "kal nephesh, chayiah erameshat, every living soul creeping." In another verse, "Let the earth bring forth nephesh chayiah, the living soul after its kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth," etc. ; and "lekol rumesh ol eretz asher bu nephesh chayiah, to every thing creeping upon the earth which (has) in it living breath," that is, breath of lives. And lastly, "Whatsoever Adam called nephesh chayiah, the living soul, that was the name thereof."

Quadrupeds and men, however, are not only "living souls" but they are vivified by the same breath and spirit. In proof of this, I remark first, that the phrase "breath of life" in the text of the common version is neshemet chayim in the Hebrew; and that, as chayim is in the plural, it should be rendered breath of lives. Secondly, this neshemet chayim is said to be in the inferior creatures as well as in man. Thus, God said, "I bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh wherein is ruach chayim, spirit of live." And in another place, "They went in to Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, in which is ruach chayim, spirit of lives ." "And all flesh

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died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing, and every man; all in whose nostrils was neshemet ruach chayim, breath of spirit of lives." Now, as I have said, it was the neshemet, chayim with which Moses testifies God inflated the nostrils of Adam; if, therefore, this were divina particula aura, particle of the divine essence, as it is affirmed, which became the "immortal soul" in man, then all other animals have "immortal souls" likewise; for they all received "breath of spirit of lives" in common with man.

From these testimonies, I think, it must be obvious to the most unlearned, that the argument for the existence of an "immortal soul" in "sinful flesh," hereditarily derived from the first sinner, predicated on the inspiration of his nostrils with "the breath of lives" by the Lord God, and the consequent application to him of the phrase "living soul," if admitted as good logic, proves too much, and therefore nothing to the purpose. For if man be proved to be immortal in this sense, and upon such premises as these, then all quadrupeds are similarly immortal; which none, I suppose, but believers in the transmigration of souls, would be disposed to admit.

The original condition of the animal world was "very good." Unperverted by the production of evil, all its constituents fulfilled the purposes of its existence. Begotten of the same power, and formed from the substance of a common mother, they were all animated by the same spirit, and lived in peace and harmony together. Formed to be living breathing frames, though of different species, in God they lived, and moved, and had their continued being; and displayed His wisdom, power, and handiwork.

But, to return to the philology of our subject, I remark that by a metonymy, or figure of speech in which the container is put for the thing contained, and vice-versa, nephesh, "breathing frame," is put for neshemet ruach chayim, which, when in motion, the frame respires. Hence, nephesh signifies "life," also "breath" and "soul" -- Life, or those mutually effective, positive and negative principles in all living creatures, whose closed circuits cause motion of and in their frames. These principles or qualities, perhaps, of the same thing, are styled by Moses Ruach Elohim, or Spirit of Him "who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto, which no man hath seen, nor can see," and which, when the word was spoken by "the Holy Gods," first caused a motion upon the waters, and afterwards disengaged the light, evolved the expanse, aggregated the waters, produced vegetation, manifested the celestial universe, vitalized the breathing frames of the dry land, expanse, and seas; and formed man in their image and likeness. This ruach, or spirit, is neither the Uncreated One who dwells in light, the Lord God, nor the Elohim, His co-workers, who co-operated in the elaboration of the natural world. It was the instrumental principle by which they executed the commission of the glorious Increate to erect this earthly house, and furnish it with living souls of every species.

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It is this ruach, or instrumentally formative power, together with the neshemeh or breath, which keeps them all from perishing, or returning to the dust. Thus, "If God set His heart against man, He will withdraw to himself ruachu veneshmetu, ie., his spirit and his breath; all flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again to dust." In another place, "By the neshemet el, or breath of God, frost is given." Speaking of reptiles and beasts, David saith, "Thou withdrawest ruachem, ie., their spirit -- they die; and to their dust they return. Thou sendest forth ruhech, ie., thy spirit -- they are created." And again, "Whither shall I fly, meruhech, from thy spirit."

From these testimonies it is manifest that the ruach or spirit is all pervading. It is in heaven, in sheol, or the dust of the deepest hollow, in the uttermost depths of the sea, in the darkness, in the light, and in all things animate, and without life. It is a universal principle in the broadest, or rather, in an illimitable sense. It is the substratum of all motion, whether manifested in the diurnal and ellipsoidal revolutions of the planets, in the flux and reflux of the sea, in the storms and tempests of the expanse, or in the organism of reptiles, cattle, beasts, fish, fowl, vegetables, or men. The atmospheric expanse is charged with it; but it is not the air: plants and animals of all species breathe it; but it is not their breath: yet without it, though filled with air, they would die.

The atmosphere, which extends some forty-five miles in altitude, and encircles the globe, is styled the expanse, by Moses; and the breath of God, in Job. It is a compound body, consisting, when pure, of nitrogen and oxygen, in the proportion of 79 of the former and 21 of the latter, in 100 parts. These are considered as simple bodies, because they have not yet been decomposed; though it is probable they have a base, which may be the ruach. This may exist free or combined with the elementary constituents of the neshemeh. Uncombined, it is that wonderful fluid, whose explosions are heard in the thunder, whose fiery bolts overthrow the loftiest towers, and rive the sturdy monarchs of the woods; and in less intensity gives polarity to light, the needle, and the brain. These three together, the oxygen, nitrogen, and electricity, constitute "the breath" and "spirit" of the lives of all God's living souls. Thus, from the centre of the earth, and extending throughout all space in every direction, is the Ruach Elohim, the

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existence of which is demonstrable from the phenomena of the natural system of things. It penetrates where the neshermet el, or atmospheric air, cannot. When speaking, however, of the motivity and sustentation of organized dust, or souls, they are co-existent within them. In this case, the ruach Elohim becomes the ruach chayim, or "spirit of lives"; and the neshemet el, the neshemet chayim, or "breath of lives"; and both combined in the elaboration and support of life, the neshemet ruach chayim, or "breath of the spirit of lives." Living creatures, or souls, are not animated, as physiologists and speculative "divines" erroneously imagine, by "a vital principle," capable of disembodied existence as the ghost of a man, or the transmigrating spectres of other animal species: -- ghostly things, the laws and functions of which in the animal economy physiologists are unable to discover; and theologists are nonplussed to prove the existence of from the word of God. On the contrary, "souls" are "made living" by the coetaneous operation of the ruach chayim and neshemet chayim upon their organized tissues according to certain fixed laws. When the as yet occult laws of the all-pervading ruach, or spirit, shall be known, this subject will be understood; and men will then be as astonished at the ignorance of the "divines" and physiologists of this "cloudy and dark day," respecting "living souls," as we are at the notion of the ancients, that their "immortal gods" resided in the stocks and stones they so stupidly adored. This, however, is quite as reasonable a theory as that of "immortal souls" dwelling in sinners of Adam's race.

The ruach chayim and neshemet chayim are lent to the creatures of the natural world for the appointed period of their living existence. But, though lent to them, they are still God's breath, and God's spirit; nevertheless, to distinguish them from the expanse of air and spirit in their totality, they are sometimes styled, "the spirit of man," and "the spirit of the beast"; or collectively, "the spirits of all flesh," and "their breath." Thus, it is written, "They have all one ruach, or spirit; so that man hath no pre-eminence over a beast; for all is vanity or vapour." "All go to one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again." And in the sense of supplying to every living creature, or soul, "spirit" and "breath," Jehovah is styled by Moses, "God of the spirits of all flesh."

Besides the ruach and neshemeh without, there are certain elementary principles, in a state of combination, within all living souls, which are related to them by fixed and appropriate laws, for the manifestation of living actions. The light to the eye, and the eye to the light; so also, the breath and the spirit of God to the constituents of blood, and the blood to them. These, acting and re-acting upon each other in the lungs of all breathing frames, cause that motion throughout their structure which is termed life. The following testimonies will throw some light upon this part of our subject.

"Flesh, be-nephesh-u, with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat." This teaches that blood is the nephesh, or life of the flesh; hence it continues, "and surely your blood, lah-nephesh-tikam, for your lives will I require." We often find life put for blood, and blood for life, as elsewhere in the context. "Be sure that thou eat not the blood, for the blood is the nephesh or life; and thou mayest not eat the life, nephesh, with the flesh." But, to this it might be objected, that if the blood be the life, then so long as it is in the body it ought to live; on the contrary it dies with the blood in it. True. Moses, however, does not teach the dogma of an abstract vital principle; but life, the result and consequence of the decomposition and re-combination of the elements of certain compounds. The blood abstractly considered is not life; yet relatively, it is "the life of the flesh." The following testimony will show the sense in which the

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phrase "the blood is the life" is used. "I will set my face against that soul that eateth blood. For the life of the flesh is in the blood itself. I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for nephesh-tikem, your lives: for it is the blood that atones, be-nephesh, for the soul" or life. "Whosoever catcheth any fowl that may be eaten, he shall even pour out the blood thereof, and cover it with dust. For it is the life of all flesh; the blood of it is for the life thereof. Ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh; for the life of all flesh is the blood thereof." Nothing can be plainer than this. There are three kinds of living manifestations, which are characterized by the nature of the organization, or being, through which they occur. Hence, we have vegetable life, animal life, and incorruptible life. The last is immortality: because the body through which the life is manifested, being incorruptible, never wears out; so that being once put into motion by the spirit of God, it lives for ever. Vegetable and animal life, on the contrary, is terrainable or mortal; because the materials through which it is revealed are perishably organized. Mortality, then, is life manifested through a corruptible body; and immortality, life manifested through an incorruptible body. Hence, the necessity laid down in the saying of the apostle, "This corruptible body must put on incorruption, and this mortal put on immortality," before death can be "swallowed up in victory." This doctrine of "life and incorruptibility" (zwh; cai; a;dqarsiva) was new to the Greeks and Romans; and brought to light only through the gospel of the kingdom and name of Jesus Christ. It was to them foolishness; and is to the moderns incredible, because they understand not the glad tidings of the age to come.

Incorruptible life. might with equal propriety be styled spiritual life, as indicative of that with which spiritual bodies are endowed. But here I use not the word spiritual, lest it should be confounded with that intellectual and moral life a man possesses when the "incorruptible seed" of the kingdom takes root in his heart; and when, in "obedience of faith," he passes from under the sentence of death to the sentence of justification unto life eternal. But, at present, we have to do with animal or natural life, which is all the life the fleshly sons of the first Adam can boast of. Enough, however, I think has been advanced to show the scriptural import of the text already quoted, that "the Lord God formed man, the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of lives, and man became a living soul."

The simple, obvious, and undogmatic meaning of this, is, that the dust was first formed into "clay," which was then modelled by Jehovah Elohim into the form of the soul called "man," as a potter shapes the substance of his vessels. Thus, Elihu said to Job, "I also am formed out of the clay" and again, "We are the clay, and thou our potter; and we are all the work of thy hand." The fashioning of the clay being accomplished in all its component parts, which in the aggregate constitute man; that is, the dust being animalized, and then organized, the next thing was to set all the parts of this exquisite mechanism into motion. This was effected by the in-

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rush of the air through his nostrils into his lungs according to the natural laws. This phenomenon was the neshemet el, or "breath of God," breathing into him; and as it was the pabulum of life to all creatures formed from the dust, it is very expressively styled "the breath of lives" in the plural number. Some imagine that Jehovah Elohim placed His mouth to the nostrils of the as yet clay-cold man-soul prostrate before Him, and so breathed into them. Be this as it may; of this, however, we are without doubt, that God breathes into every man at his birth the breath of lives to this day; and I see no scriptural reason why we should deny that He breathed it into Adam as He hath done into the nostrils of his posterity, namely, by the operation of the natural, or pneumatic, laws. Hitherto, man, though a soul formed from the ground, had been inanimate; but, as soon as he began to respire, like the embryo passing from fetal to infant life, he "became a living soul," not an everliving, but simply nephesh chayiah, a living breathing frame, or body of life.

MAN IN THE IMAGE AND LIKENESS OF THE ELOHIM

"Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels."

Men and beasts, say the scriptures, "have all one ruach or spirit; so that a man hath no pre-eminence above a beast." The reason assigned for this equality is the oneness of their spirit, which is proved by the fact of their common destiny; as it is written, "for all are vanity": that is, "all go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again." Yet this one spirit manifests its tendencies differently in men and other creatures. In the former, it is aspiring and God-defying, rejoicing in its own works, and devoted to the vanity of the passing hour; while in the latter, its disposition is grovelling to the earth in all things. Thus, the heart of man being "deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know or fathom it? " -- Solomon was led to exclaim, "Who knoweth the spirit of the sons of Adam, ruach beni headam, which exalts itself to the highest, and the spirit of a beast which inclines to the earth? " We may answer, "None, but God only"; He knoweth what is in man, and needs not that any should testify of him.

But, from this testimony someone might infer that, as man was made only "a little lower than the angels," and yet has "no pre-eminence over a beast," the beast also is but a little lower than the angels. This, however, would be a very erroneous conclusion. The equality of men and other animals consists in the kind of life they possess in common with each other. Vanity, or mortality, is all that pertains to any kind of living flesh. The whole animal world has been made subject to it; and as it affects all living souls alike, bringing them back to the dust again, no one species can claim pre-eminence over the other; for "one thing befalleth them; as the one dieth, so dieth the other."

Man, however, differs from other creatures in having been modelled after a divine type, or pattern. In form and capacity he was made

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like to the angels, though in nature inferior to them. This appears from the testimony that he was made "in their image, after their likeness," and "a little lower than the angels," or Elohim. I say, he was made in the image of the angels, as the interpretation of the co-operative imperative, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." The work of the six days, though elaborated by the power of Him "who dwelleth in the light," was executed by "his angels, that excel in strength, and do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word." These are styled Elohim, or "gods," in numerous passages. David says, "Worship him, all ye gods"; which Paul applies to Jesus, saying, "Let all the angels of God worship him." Man, then, was made after the image and likeness of Elohim, but for a while inferior in nature. But the race will not always be inferior in this respect. It is destined to advance to a higher nature; not all the individuals of it; but those of the race "who shall be accounted worthy to obtain that age (aijw;n mevllwn, the future age) and the resurrection from among the dead (ejc necrw`n) … who can die no more; for they are equal to the angels (ijsavllegoi); and are the sons of God, being the sons of the resurrection."

The import of the phrase "in the image, after the likeness" is suggested by the testimony, that "Adam begat a son in his own likeness, after his image, and called his name Seth." In this respect, Seth stands related to Adam, as Adam did to the Elohim; but differing in this, that the nature of Adam and Seth was identical; whereas those of Adam and the Elohim were dissimilar. Would any one be at a loss to know the meaning of Seth's being in the image of his father? The very same thing is meant by Adam being in the image of the Elohim. An image is the representation of some form or shape; metaphorically, it may signify the exact resemblance of one character to another. But in the case before us, the parties had no characters at the time of their birth. They were simply innocent of actual transgression; no scope having been afforded them to develop character. The Elohim, however, were personages of dignity and holiness, as well as of incorruptible, or spiritual, nature. The resemblance, therefore, of Adam to the Elohim as their image was of bodily form, not of intellectual and moral attainment; and this I apprehend to be the reason why the Elohim are styled "men" when their visits to the sons of Adam are recorded in the scriptures of truth. In shape, Seth was like Adam, Adam like the Elohim, and the Elohim, the image of the invisible Increate; the great and glorious archetype of the intelligent universe.

Seth was also "in Adam's own likeness." While image, then, hath reference to form or shape, "likeness" hath regard to mental constitution, or capacity. From the shape of his head, as compared with other creatures, it is evident that man has a mental capacity which distinguishes him above them all. Their likeness to him is faint. They can think; but their thoughts are only sensual. They have no moral sentiments, or high intellectual aspirations; but are grovelling in all their instincts, which incline only to the earth. In

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proportion as their heads assume the human form in the same ratio do they excel each other in sagacity; and, as in the monkey tribe, display a greater likeness to man. But, let the case be reversed; let the human head degenerate from the godlike perfection of the Elohim, the standard of beauty in shape and feature; let it diverge to the image of an ape's, and the human animal no longer presents the image and likeness of the Elohim; but rather, the chattering imbecility of the creature most resembling it in form. Adam's mental capacity enabled him to comprehend and receive spiritual ideas, which moved him to veneration, hope, conscientiousness, the expression of his views, affections, and so forth. Seth was capable of the like display of intellectual and moral phenomena; and of an assimilation of character to that of his father. He was therefore in the likeness as well as in the image of Adam; and, in the same sense, they were both "after the likeness of the Elohim."

But, though Adam was "made in the image and after the likeness" of the "Holy Ones," the similitude has been so greatly marred, that his posterity present but a faint representation of either. The almost uncontrolled and continuous operation of "the law of sin and death," styled by philosophers "the law of nature," which is an indwelling and inseparable constituent of our present economy, has exceedingly deformed the image, and effaced the likeness of God, which man originally presented. It required, therefore, the appearance of a New Man, in whom the image and likeness should re-appear, as in the beginning. This was "the man Christ Jesus," whom Paul styles "the last Adam." He is "the Image of the invisible God" (eijcw;n tou` Qeou`); "the effulgent mirror of the glory, and the exact likeness of his person," (ajpauvladma th`" dovxh" cai caracth;or th`" uJpostavsew" aujtou`). Hence, in another place, Paul says, he was "in the form of God" (ejn morfh`/ Qeou`) and also "made in the likeness of men, and in the form of a man." Being thus the image and likeness of the invisible God, as well as of man, who was created in the image and likeness of the Elohim, he made himself equal with God in claiming God for his Father, though born of "sinful flesh." Though thus highly related in paternity, image and character, he was yet "made a little lower than the angels"; for he appeared not in the higher nature of Elohim, but in the inferior nature of the seed of Abraham. This was the first stage of his manifestation, as the present is of the saints who are his brethren. But he is the appointed "heir of all things, on account of whom" (di? ou|), "the ages were rearranged (cathrti;sqai tou;" aijw`na") by the word of God, so that the things seen exist not from things apparent." But, says the apostle, "we do not yet see all things put under him: but we see. Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that by the grace of God he should taste death for every man." Having been thus laid low, and for this gracious purpose, he is no longer "lower than the angels." He is equal to them in body: and made so much superior to them in rank,

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dignity, honour, and glory, "as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they"

In Jesus, then, raised from the dead incorruptible, and clothed with brightness as when he was transfigured upon the Holy Mount, we behold the image and likeness of the invisible God. When we contemplate him by faith, as we shall hereafter by sight, we see a Mirror from which the glory of Jehovah is reflected in intellectual, moral, and physical grandeur. He that would know God, must behold Him in Christ. If he be acquainted with Him as He is portrayed in the prophets and apostles, he will understand the character of God, whom no man hath seen, nor can see; Who chargeth His angels with folly, and before Whom the heavens are not clean. Jesus was the true light shining in the darkness of Judea, whose inhabitants "comprehended it not." Through him, God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, shone into the hearts of as many as received him; to give them the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ; that so they might receive power to become the sons of God, believing on his name.

How consoling and cheering is it, then, amid all the evils of the present state, that God hath found a ransom, who is willing and able to deliver us from the power of the grave; and not only so, but that "at the manifestation of the sons of God," when he shall appear in power and great glory, "we shall be like him; because we shall see him as he is." Then will the saints be "changed into the same image from glory," now only a matter of hope, "into glory," as seen and actually possessed, "even as the Lord" himself was changed, when he became "the spirit giving life," or "a quickening spirit."

THE SPIRITUAL BODY.

"There is a spiritual body."

The subject of this section is the second member of the apostle's proposition, that "there is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body." It is contained in his reply to some of the Corinthian disciples, who, to their shame, had not the knowledge of God, and therefore foolishly inquired, "How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come? " He showed them that the animal body had a similar relation to the spiritual body that naked grain has to the plant produced from it according to the law of its reproduction. He explained, that before a plant could be reproduced from a seed, the seed must be put into the soil, and die, or decay away. By the time the plant is established, all vestige of the seed is gone from the root; yet, the identity of the seed with the plant is not lost, inasmuch as the same kind of seed re-appears in the fruit of the plant. The plant is the secondary body of the seed-body, which is the first. There are different kinds of vegetable seed-bodies; and also of animal seed-bodies. These classes of seeds are terrestrial bodies, and have their glory in the bodies produced from them. But there are also celestial

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bodies, whose glory is of a different character. It is a light blazing and sparkling in the vault of heaven, as may be seen by every eye. Such is the apostle's illustration of the resurrection of the dead; or, of how they are raised, and for what kind of body they spring forth. "So also," says he, "is the resurrection of the dead." We are in this state of the naked grain. We die and are buried, and go to corruption; leaving only our characters behind us written in the book of God. When decayed, a little dust alone remains, as the nucleus of our future selves. When the time comes for the righteous dead to rise, then "He that raised up Christ from the dead will also make alive their mortal bodies by his spirit," operating through Jesus upon their dust, and fashioning it into the image of the Lord from heaven. Thus, as the Elohim made man out of the dust in their own image and likeness; so, the Lord Jesus, by the same spirit, will also re-fashion from the dust, the righteous of the posterity of the first Adam, into his own image and likeness. This is wonderful, that by a man should come the resurrection of the dead. Truly may he be called the "Wonderful." Once a babe fondled at the breast, and hereafter the creator of myriads, now only dust and ashes, but then equal to the angels of God; and "sons of the resurrection," of which he is himself "the First Fruits."

Having shown "how," or upon what principles, the righteous dead are raised, the apostle gives us to understand, that their "glory" will consist in brightness; for he cites the splendour of the celestial bodies as illustrative of theirs. This reminds us of the testimony in Daniel, that "They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever." This is repeated by the Lord Jesus, who says, "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father," which assurance Paul also revives in his letter to the saints at Philippi, saying, "Our commonwealth (hJmw`n to; polivteuma) has a beginning (uJpavrcei) in the heavens (ejn oujranoi`"), out of which also we wait for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who will transfigure the body of our humiliation, that it may become of like form with the body of his glory, by the power of that which enables him even to subdue all things to himself." When we die we are buried, or "sown," like so many seeds in the earth. We are sown, says the apostle, "in corruption," "in dishonour," "in weakness," and with an animal nature; but, when we are raised to inherit the kingdom, we become incorruptible, glorious, powerful, and possessed of a spiritual nature, such as Jesus and the Elohim rejoice in. Now, a spiritual body is as material, or substantial and tangible, a body as that which we now possess. It is a body purified from "the law of sin and death." Hence it is termed "holy" and "spiritual," because it is born of the spirit from the dust, is incorruptible, and sustained by the ruach, or spirit, independently of the neshemeh, or atmospheric air. "That which is born of the flesh," in the ordinary way, "is flesh," or an animal body: and

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"that which is born of the spirit," by a resurrection to life, "is spirit," or a spiritual body. Hence, in speaking of Jesus, Paul says, "born of David's seed according to the flesh; and constituted the son of God in power, according to the spirit of holiness, through the resurrection from the dead." Thus, he was born of the spirit, and therefore became "a spirit"; and, bemuse highly exalted, and possessing a name which is above every name, he is styled "the Lord the Spirit."

That the spiritual body is independent of atmospheric air for its support, is clear from the ascension of the Lord Jesus. An animal body can only exist in water, or in atmospheric air, and at a comparatively low altitude above the surface of the earth. Now, the air does not extend beyond forty-five miles; consequently beyond that limit, if they could even attain to it, creatures supported by breath in the nostrils, could no more live than fish in the air Beyond our atmosphere is the ether; through which they only can pass, who, like the Lord Jesus and the angels, possess a nature adapted to it. This is the case with the spiritual nature. Jesus was changed eij" pneu`ma, into a spirit, and was therefore enabled to pass through it to the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens. Enoch, Elijah, and Moses, are also cases to the point.

The spiritual body is constituted of flesh and bones vitalized by the spirit. This appears from the testimony concerning Jesus. On a certain occasion, he unexpectedly stood in the midst of his disciples, at which they were exceedingly alarmed, supposing they beheld a spirit, or phantasm, as at a former time. But, that they might be assured that it was really he himself, he invited them to handle him, and examine his hands and feet: "For," said he, "a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have." Incredulous for joy, he gave them further proof by eating a piece of broiled fish and of a honeycomb. Thomas thrust his hand into his side, and was convinced that he was the same who had been crucified. What stronger proof can we need of the substantial and tangible nature of the spiritual body? It is the animal body purified, not evaporated into gas, or vapour. It is a bloodless body; for in the case of Jesus he had poured out his blood on the cross. The life of the animal body is in the blood; but not so that of the spiritual body: the life of this resides in that mighty power which suspends "the earth upon nothing," and is diffused through the immensity of space. When the Lord Jesus said, "A spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have," he did not mean to say that a spiritual body had not; but a spirit such as they thought they saw. "They supposed they had seen a spirit." In the received reading the same word, pneuma, is used here as in the text which speaks of Jesus as "the Lord the Spirit"; but evidently, not in the same sense. Indeed, the reading in Griesbach's edition of the original text is clearly the correct one. The word rendered spirit is properly favntasma, a phantom or mere optical illusion; and not pneuma, spirit. When Jesus walked upon the sea both Matthew and Mark make use of the same phrase as Luke, and say that the disciples when they saw him, "supposed they had seen a spirit, and they cried out for fear." In both these places the word is phantasma, and not pneuma.

Having affirmed that man stands related to two kinds of body, the apostle gives us to understand, that in the arrangements of God the spiritual system of things is elaborated out of the animal, and not the animal out of the spiritual. The natural world is the raw material, as it were, of the spiritual; the bricks and mortar, so to speak, of the mansion which is to endure for ever. In relation to human nature, two men are presented as its types in the two phases it is to assume. These Paul styles "the First Adam," and "the Last Adam," or "the first man," and "the second man." The former, he terms "earthy"; because he came from the ground, and goes thither again: and, the latter, "the Lord from heaven"; because, being "known no more after the flesh," he is expected from heaven as the place of his final manifestation in "the body of his glory." Then, says John, "we shall be like him." If, therefore, we have been successful in depicting the Lord as he is now, while seated at the right hand of God; namely, an incorruptible, honourable, powerful, living person, substantial and tangible, shining as the sun, and able to eat and drink, and to display all mental and other phenomena in perfection: if the reader be able to comprehend such an "Image of the invisible God," he can understand what they are to be, who are accounted worthy to inherit His kingdom. Therefore, says Paul, "As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly," or, Lord from heaven.

This corporeal change of those, who have first been morally "renewed unto knowledge after the image of him that hath created them" from "sinful flesh" into spirit, is an absolute necessity, before they can inherit the Kingdom of God. When we come to understand the nature of this Kingdom, which has to be exhibited in these pages, we shall see that it is a necessity which cannot be dispensed with. "That which is corruptible cannot inherit incorruptibility," says the apostle. This is the reason why animal men must die, or be transformed. Our animal nature is corruptible; but the Kingdom of God is indestructible, as the prophet testifies, saying, "It shall never be destroyed, nor left to other people; but shall stand for ever." Because, therefore, of the nature of this Kingdom, "flesh and blood cannot inherit it"; and hence the necessity of a man being "born of the spirit," or "he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God." He must be "changed into spirit," put on incorruptibility and immortality of body, or he will be physically incapable of retaining the honour, glory, and power of the Kingdom for ever, or even for a thousand years. But, before the apostle concludes his interesting exposition of "the kind of body for which the dead come," he makes known a secret which was previously concealed from the disciples at Corinth. It would probably have occurred to them, that if flesh and blood could not inherit the Kingdom of God, then those who were living at the

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epoch of its establishment, being men in the flesh, could have no part in it. But to remove this difficulty, the apostle wrote, saying, "Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep (koimhyhsomeya, met. to die, be dead), but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for it (the seventh trumpet) shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible (afyartoi, equal to the angels), and we shall be changed (ej" pneuma, into spirit). For this corruptible (body) must put on incorruptibility (ajfqorsivan), and this mortal (body) must put on immortality (ayanasian). Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, "Death is swallowed up in victory." But, that the saints might not misapprehend the matter, especially those of them who may be contemporary with the seventh trumpet-period, he gave further particulars of the secret in another letter. The disciples at Thessalonica were deeply sorrowing for the loss of some of their body who had fallen asleep in death; probably victims to persecution. The apostle wrote to comfort them, and exhorted them "not to sorrow as the others (oiJ loipoiv, ie., the unbelievers), who have no hope. For if we (the disciples) believe that Jesus died and rose again"; and be not like those, who, by saying, "There is no resurrection of the dead," in effect deny it; "even so," as he rose, "them also who sleep in Jesus will God bring forth (a[xei, lead out, or produce), with him." He then proceeds to show the "order" in which the saints are changed into spirit, or immortalized, by the Son of Man. "For" says he, "this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we, the living, who remain at the Lord's coming, shall not anticipate them who are asleep. For the Lord himself shall come down from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: after that we, the living, who remain, shall be snatched away together with them in clouds to a meeting of the Lord in the air: and thus we shall be with the Lord at all times. Wherefore comfort one another with these words."

It will be seen from this, that survivors of the dead were not consoled in the first age of Christianity for the loss of their friends as they are now by those who "improve the death" of the influential among them. In "funeral sermons," the "immortal souls" of the deceased are transported "on angels' wings to heaven," and the living are consoled with the assurance that they are singing the praises of God around the throne; feasting with Abraham, and the prophets, with the saints and martyrs, and with Jesus and his apostles in the Kingdom of God; and they are themselves persuaded, that the souls of their relations, now become angels, are watching over them, and praying for them; and that when they die their own souls will be re-united with them in the realms of bliss. Need I say to the man enlightened in the word, that there is no such comfort, or consolation, as this in the law and the testimony of God? Such traditions are purely mythological; and come of the Nicolaitan dogma of saved

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"ghosts, and goblins damn'd" which has cancerously extirpated "the truth as it is in Jesus." No, the apostles did not point men to the day of their death, and its immediate consequents, for comfort; nor did they administer the consolations of the gospel to any who had not obeyed it. They offered comfort only to the disciples; for they only are the heirs with Jesus of the Kingdom of God. They taught these to look to the coming of Christ, and to the resurrection, as the time of a re-union with their brethren in the faith. At death, they should "rest from their labours, and their works should follow them"; and "to them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation." Such were the practical and intelligible "words" with which the apostles comforted their brethren; but words which have become sealed and cabalistic, both to the unlearned and "the wise."

In conclusion, then, as far as power is concerned, God could have created all things upon a spiritual or incorruptible basis at once. The globe could have been filled with men and women, equal to the angels in nature, power, and intellect, on the sixth day; but the world would have been without a history, and its population characterless. This, however, would not have been according to the plan. The animal must precede the spiritual as the acorn goes before the oak. This will explain many difficulties which are created by systems; and which will for ever remain inexplicable upon the hypotheses they invent. The Bible has to do with things, not imaginations; with bodies, not phantasmata; with "living souls" of every species; with corporeal beings of other worlds; and with incorruptible and undying men; but it is as mute as death, and silent as the grave, having nothing at all to say about such "souls" as men pretend to "cure"; except to repudiate them as a part of that "philosophy and vain deceit," "which some professing have erred concerning the faith."

THE FORMATION OF WOMAN

"The woman was of the man."

Adam, having been formed in the image, after the likeness of the Elohim on the sixth day, remained for a short time alone in the midst of the earthborns of the field. He had no companion who could reciprocate his intelligence; none who could minister to his wants, or rejoice with him in the delights of creation; and reflect the glory of his nature. The Elohim are a society, rejoicing in the love and attachment of one another; and Adam, being like them though of inferior nature, required an object which should be calculated to evoke the latent resemblances of his similitude to theirs. It was no better for man to be alone than for them. Formed in their image, he had social feelings as well as intellectual and moral faculties, which required scope for their practical and harmonious exercise. A purely intellectual and abstractly moral society, untempered by domesticism, is an imperfect state. It may be very enlightened, very dignified and immaculate; but it would also be very formal, and frigid as the

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poles. A being might know all things, and he might scrupulously observe the divine law from a sense of duty; but something more is requisite to make him amiable, and beloved by either God or his fellows. This amiability the social feelings enable him to develop; which, however, if unfurnished with a proper object, or wholesome excitation, react upon him unfavourably, and make him disagreeable. Well aware of this, Jehovah Elohim said, "It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a help fit for him." (Gen 2:8)

But previous to the formation of this help, God caused "every living soul" (kol nephesh chayiah) to pass in review before Adam, that he might name them. He saw that each one had its mate; "but for him there was not found a suitable companion." It was necessary, therefore, to form one, the last and fairest of His handiworks. The Lord had created man in His own "image and glory"; but He had yet to subdivide him into two; a negative and a positive division; an active and a passive half; male and female, yet one flesh. The negatives, or females, of all other species of animals, were formed out of the ground; and not out of the sides of their positive mates: so that the lion could not say of the lioness, "This is bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh; therefore shall a lion leave his sire and dam, and cleave unto the same lioness for ever." The inferior creatures are under no such law as this; as primaries, indeed, the earth is their common mother, and the Lord, the "God of all their spirits." They have no second selves; the sexes in the beginning were from the ground direct; the female was not of the male, though the male is by her: therefore, there is no natural basis for a social, or domestic, law to them.

But in the formation of a companion for the first man, the Lord Elohim created her upon a different principle. She was to be a dependent creature; and a sympathy was to be established between them, by which they should be attached inseparably. It would not have been fit, therefore, to have given her an independent origin from the dust of the ground. Had this been the case, there would have been about the same kind of attachment between men and women as subsists among the creatures below then. The woman's companionship was designed to be intellectually and morally sympathetic with "the image and glory of God," whom she was to revere as her superior. The sympathy of the mutually independent earthborns of the field, is purely sensual; and in proportion as generations of mankind lose their intellectual and moral likeness to the Elohim, and fall under the dominion of sensuality; so the sympathy between men and women evaporates into mere animalism. But, I say, such a degenerate result as this was not the end of her formation. She was not simply to be "the mother of all living"; but to reflect the glory of man as he reflected the glory of God. To give being to such a creature, it was necessary she should be formed out of man. This necessity is found in the law which pervades the flesh. If the feeblest member of the body suffer, all the other members suffer with it; that is, pain even in the little finger will

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produce distress throughout the system. Bone sympathizes with bone, and flesh with flesh, in all pleasurable, healthful, and painful feelings. Hence, to separate a portion of Adam's living substance, and from it to build a woman, would be to transfer to her the sympathies of Adam's nature; and though by her organization able to maintain an independent existence, she would never lose from her nature a sympathy with his, in all its intellectual, moral, and physical manifestations. According to this natural law, then, the Lord Elohim made woman in the likeness of the man, out of his substance. He might have formed her from his body before he became a living soul; but this would have defeated the law of sympathy; for in inanimate matter there is no mental sympathy. She must, therefore, be formed from the living bone and flesh of the man. To do this was to inflict pain; for to cut out a portion of flesh would have created the same sensations in Adam as in any of his posterity. To avoid such an infliction, "the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept." While thus unconscious of what was doing, and perfectly insensible to all corporeal impressions, the Lord "took out one of his ribs, and then dosed up the flesh in its place." This was a delicate operation; and consisted in separating the rib from the breast bone and spine. But nothing is too difficult for God. The most wonderful part of the work had yet to be performed. The quivering rib, with its nerves and vessels, had to be increased in magnitude, and formed into a human figure, capable of reflecting the glory of the man. This was soon accomplished; for, on the sixth day, "male and female created he them": and "the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, he made a woman, and brought her unto the man." And "God blessed them, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish (fill again) the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that creepeth upon the earth." Believing this portion of the testimony of God, need our faith be staggered at the resurrection of the body from the little dust that remains after its entire reduction? Surely, the Lord Jesus Christ by the same power that formed woman from a rib, and that increased a few loaves and fishes to twelve baskets of fragments after five thousand were fed and satisfied, can create multitudes of immortal men from a few proportions of the former selves: and as capable of resuming their individual identity, as was Adam's rib of reflecting his mental and physical similitude. It is blind unbelief alone that requires the continuance of some sort of existence to preserve the identity of the resurrected man with his former self. Faith confides in the ability of God to do what He has promised, although the believer has not the knowledge of how He is to accomplish it. Believing the wonders of the past, "he staggers not at the promise of God through unbelief; but is strong in faith, giving glory to God."

The testimony of Moses in regard to the formation of woman brings to light a very interesting phenomenon, which has since been amply proved to be the result of a natural law. It is, that man may

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be made insensible to pain by being placed in a deep sleep. The Lord Elohim availed Himself of this law, and subjected the man He had made to its operation; and man, because he is in His likeness, is also able to influence his fellow-man in the same way. The art of applying the law is called various names, and may be practised variously. The name does not alter the thing. A man's rib might be extracted now with as little inconvenience as Adam experienced, by throwing him into a deep sleep, which in numerous cases may be easily effected; but there our imitative ability ceases. We could not build up a woman from the rib. Greater wonders, however, than this will man do hereafter; for by "the Man Christ Jesus" will his Bride be created from the dust, in his own image after his own likeness, "to the glory of God, throughout all ages, world without end. Amen."

When the Lord God presented the newly formed creature to her parent flesh, Adam said, "This is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Ishah (or Outman), because she was taken out of Ish, or man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh." Thus, Adam pronounced upon himself the sentence that was to bind them together for weal or woe, until death should dissolve the union, and set them free for ever. This was marriage. It was based upon the great fact of her formation out of man; and consisted in Adam taking her to himself with her unconstrained consent. There was no religious ceremonial to sanctify the institution; for the Lord Himself even abstained from pronouncing the union. No human ceremony can make marriage more holy than it is in the nature of things. Superstition has made it "a sacrament," and inconsistently enough, denied it, though "a holy sacrament," to the very priests she has appointed to administer it. But priests and superstition have no right to meddle with the matter; they only disturb the harmony, and destroy the beauty, of God's arrangements. A declaration in the presence of the Lord Elohim, and the consent of the woman, before religion was instituted, is the only ceremonial recorded in the case. This, I believe, is the order of things among "the Friends," or nearly so; and, if all their peculiarities were as scriptural as this, there would be but little cause of complaint against them.

"Man," says the apostle, "is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of the man"; and the reason he assigns is, because "The man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man." She was not formed in the image of man, though she may have been in the image of some of the Elohim. "Man" is generic of both sexes. When, therefore, Elohim said, "Let us make man in our image"; and it is added, "male and female created he them," it would seem that both the man and the woman were created in the image and likeness of Elohim. In this case some of the Elohim are represented by Adam's form, and some by Eve's. I see no reason why it should not be so. When mankind rises from the dead, they

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will doubtless become immortal men and women; and then, says Jesus, "they are equal to the angels"; on an equality with them in every respect. Adam only was in the image of Him that created him; but then, the Elohim that do the commandments of the invisible God, are the virile portion of their community: Eve was not in their image. Theirs was restricted to Adam; nevertheless, she was after the image and likeness of some of those comprehended in the pronoun "our." Be this as it may, though not in the image, she was in the likeness of Adam; and both "very good" according to the subangelic nature they possessed.

A GREAT MYSTERY.

"We are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones."

In writing to the disciples at Ephesus, the apostle illustrated the submission due from wives to their husbands by the obedience rendered to Christ by the community of the faithful in his day. "As the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing." This was an injunction of absolute submission to their Christian husbands as unto the Lord himself; because "the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the Church." But, while he enjoins this unqualified obedience, he exhorts their husbands to return them due benevolence, not to treat them with bitterness, but to love them "even as Christ loved the church, and gave himself up for it." If unbelieving wives, however, were disobedient and perverse, and chose to depart, "let them; a brother is not under bondage, in such cases." The love which should subsist between Christian brethren and sisters in the married state, is such as Christ manifested for the church by anticipation. "While we were yet sinners Christ died for us," says the apostle. This is the greatest love a man can possibly show, that he should die for his enemies; and this is the kind of love which Paul commends to the attention of the Ephesians; though always on the supposition, that the wives "adorn the hidden man of the heart with that which is incorruptible, even a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection to their own husbands: even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord: whose daughters such women are, as long as they do well, and are not dismayed at any threat."

As he had introduced the subject of matrimonial love and obedience, and had adduced the love of Christ for them all as his church, by way of illustration; he proceeds to show the object for which he loved them even unto death; the relationship which was consequently established between them; and the sacrifice which they ought cheerfully to make for him, who had loved them so devotedly. His object in giving himself for the church before it was formed, was that whose who should afterwards compose it "might be sanctified and cleansed

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in the laver of the water (toi loutrwi ton udatos) BY the word (en rvmati,) that," at the resurrection, "he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but holy and without blemish." "Ye are clean," said Jesus to his disciples "through the word which I have spoken to you." This word, which is defined to be "the law and the testimony," is the great instrument of holiness and purification. It changes men's minds, loosens their attachment to earthly things; causes them to place their affection on things above; creates a new and right spirit within them; diffuses the love of God abroad in their hearts; separates them from sinners, leads them into Christ; and developes in their lives, fruit characteristic of that repentance which needs not to be repented of. The Lord Jesus styles it, "the word of the kingdom;" and Peter, the incorruptible seed; and Paul, "the word of the truth of the gospel;" and John, "God's seed;" and by James it is termed "the word of truth," with which the invariable and unvacillating Father of lights begets his children, that they should be "a kind of first fruits of his creatures." It is by this word than an individual is renewed or renovated; so as, in an intellectual and moral sense, to become a "new man;" as appears from what the apostle says to the brethren at Colosse: "Ye have put on the new man, which is renewed by knowledge after the image of him that created him." This renewing affects the spirit of the mind, which may be known to be renovated, by a man having turned from his natural suserviencey to "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life," to "righteousness and true holiness." When the mental disposition, called "the heart," is renewed, it becomes a mirror, as it were, in which one skilled in the word of the kingdom, can discern the spirit, or behold a reflection of the Divine Nature. This image of God in a man's character can only be created the word of the truth of the gospel of the kingdom. A man may be very "pious" according to the standard of piety set up and approved by his fellow-men; but, if he be ignorant of the renewing elements, -- if he neither know nor understand, and consequently, and necessarily, be faithless of the law and testimony of God, "there is no light in him." He walking in a vain show "in the vanity of his mind, having his understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in him, because of the blindness of his heart." The law and the testimony are styled by Peter, "God's knowledge;" "whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that BY THESE," i.e. by the understanding and belief of these, "ye might be partakers of the Divine Nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. Now, the "testimony of God" came by the Holy Spirit, by which God testified in his prophets; and, in the last days spoke through his son and the apostles. Hence, the effects of the word believed are attributed to the spirit; and because the word sets men to breathing in God's moral atmosphere, it is termed "spirit

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and life." These remarks will explain the saying of the apostle to Titus, "according to his mercy God saved us through the laver of regeneration, and renewal of the Holy Spirit." This is parallel to the saying, "sanctified and cleansed in the laver of the water by the word;" for the reader must not suppose, that any man, woman or child, can be regenerated, or born again, by being plunged into a bath, who is ignorant of the word. The Holy Spirit does not renew the heart of man as he renews the mortal body, when through Jesus he raises it from the dead. In this case, the power is purely physical. But, when the heart is the subject of renewal, it is by the knowledge of the written testimony of God, or the word. "God," says Peter, speaking of the gentiles believers, "purified their hearts by fait;" and Paul prays, "that Christ may dwell in their hearts by faith." Now, faith comes by hearing the word of God; in other words, it is the belief of God's testimony concerning the things to come, which are not seen; and without which, it is impossible to please him. When a man is renewed by the truth, he is renewed by the spirit, and not before. There is no such thing in the scriptures as a renewed ignorant man. Ignorance of the testimony of God, and regeneration, are utterly incompatible. The truth is the purifier to those only who understand and obey it; and there is no moral purity, or sanctification of spirit before God, without it. It is only believers of the truth, then, who can be the subjects of a regeneration by being submerged "in the laver of water." When they come out of this, they have been "washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, by the spirit of God.

The truth to be believed is the gospel of the kingdom and name of Jesus Christ. When this is understood, and heartily received, it produces a disposition of mind, such as was in Abraham and Jesus, and which is called repentance. Believers, so disposed, are the begotten of God, and have become as little children. They believe "the exceeding great and precious promises," together with the things testified concerning the sufferings and resurrection of Jesus. He fell into a deep sleep; and, while thus unconscious and insensible, his side was opened by a spear, and forthwith rushed blood and water. Being awakened out of his sleep, he was built up a spiritual body, flesh and bones; and, by his ascension, presented to the Father as the federal representative of his church. This is the aggregate of those, who, believing these things, have been introduced into Christ through the laver of the water; according to the saying of the scriptures, "Ye are all the children of God in Christ Jesus through the faith. For as many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ" (ejneduvsasqe * "Ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." A community of such individuals as these constitutes the mystical body of Christ. By faith, its elements are "members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones." Hence, they are "bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh"; and therefore, the beloved

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Eve of the last Adam, the Lord who is to come from heaven, and make her of the same holy spiritual nature as his own. Thus, the church is figuratively taken out of the side of her Lord; for every member of it believes in the remission of sins through his shed blood; and they all believe in the real resurrection of his flesh and bones, for their justification unto life by a similar revival from the dead. "Your bodies are the members," or flesh and bones, "of Christ; … and he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit." "I have espoused you to one husband," says Paul, "that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ." It will be perceived, then, that the church as defined, is in the present state the espoused of Christ, but not actually married. She is in the formative state, being moulded under the hand of God. When she shall be completed, God will then present her to the Man from heaven, "arrayed in fine linen, clean and white." This is she of whom the psalmist sings, "Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people and thy father's house; so shall the king greatly desire thy beauty: for he is thy Lord; and worship thou him. The king's daughter is all glorious within; her clothing is of wrought gold. She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework; the virgins, her companions that follow her, shall be brought unto thee. With gladness and rejoicing shah they be brought: they shall enter into the king's palace." The presentation of Eve to the first Adam was the signal of rejoicing to the Morning Stars; and we perceive that the manifestation of Messiah's Queen will be attended with the "Alleluia" of a great multitude, sounding like the roaring of many waters, and the echoes of mighty thunderings, saying, "Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to the Lord God omnipotent: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his betrothed hath made herself ready."

Such is the relationship and destiny of the true church, styled by Paul, "the One Body." It is forming by the word; or, taking it as formed in the apostolic age, but not presented, the apprehension of the apostle has been sadly realized. "I fear," says he, "let by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." The tempter has seduced the betrothed. The simplicity in Christ is no longer characteristic of a community. It is corrupted on every side; and the ruin of the transgression alone prevails. Nevertheless, although there be no hope for the professing world, seeing that it is too "wise in its own conceit"; too self-satisfied with its supposed illumination; glorifying itself, and saying, "I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing," and knows not, and will not be persuaded, "that it is wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked" -- seeing, I say, that this is the irremediable condition of the religious public, yet there remains scope for the deliverance of those who are disposed to obey God rather than men. If they would become bone of Christ's bone, and flesh of his flesh, they must "leave father and mother, and be joined unto the wife." They find themselves now, perhaps, members of denominations as they

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happen to be led. These are their parentage according to the fleshly mind. They must be forsaken, and men must become "one flesh" and "one spirit" in the Lord, if they would inherit the kingdom of God. "This is a great mystery," says Paul; "but I speak concerning Christ and the church." This mystery, I have endeavoured to elucidate in these remarks, though necessarily in a very brief, and therefore imperfect manner. When I shall have finished the work before me, it will have been more minutely unfolded, and, I trust, convincingly explained.

EDEN.

"In Eden."

When Moses penned the words "in Eden," he was westward in "the wilderness of the land of Egypt." From the expression, then, we are to understand that there was a country styled Eden in his day, which lay to the eastward of his position. Adam and Eve were its aborigines. It was "the East" of the Egyptians, as Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois are "the West" to the Atlantic American States. It was quite an extensive range of country, and in after times became the seat of powerful dominions. It appears to have been well watered by the branches, or tributaries, of "a river that went," or flowed, "out of it." These were four principal streams, whose names, as given by Moses, are the Pison, "which compasseth the whole land of Havilah"; the Gihon, "the same is it which compasseth the whole land of Khush," or Khushistan; the third, the Hiddekel, or Tigris, "that is it which goeth eastward to Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates," frequently styled in the scriptures, "the Great River." On the map before me, there are four rivers which flow together, and at length form a river which fails into the Persian Gulf. This indicates the country called Eden, namely, that which is watered by these rivers; so that we may reasonably conclude that in early times it comprehended the land east of the Jordan, Syria, Assyria, part of Persia, Khushistan, and the original settlements of Ishmael.

This country, in after ages, came to be denominated "the Garden of the Lord"; and the kings who reigned in it, "the Trees of Eden." It was no doubt termed the Lord's garden as a whole, from the fact of His having, in the beginning, planted a garden in it, where He put the man; so that the name of a small part of Eden came to be applied by his family in the time of Seth, Noah, Shem, Abraham, and Moses, to the whole region; more especially as the future paradise is to occupy a considerable portion of its ancient limits.

The plain of Jordan appears to have been part of Eden from the following texts. "Lot beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere as the garden of the Lord. Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyed east; and dwelled in the cities of the plain"; that is, in the East, or Eden. There is a prophecy in Ezekiel, predicting the overthrow of the

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Egyptian Pharaoh by the King of Babylon, "the mighty one of the heathen." In setting forth the certainty of his overthrow, God recapitulates the power and dominion of the Ninevite dynasty of Assyria; which, however, was not able to withstand the King of Babylon, and therefore there was no hope for Egypt of a successful resistance. In the recapitulation, the Ninevite Assyrian is styled, "a cedar in Lebanon"; that is, his dominion extended over the land of the ten tribes of Israel, in which are the cedar-crowned mountains of Lebanon. After describing the greatness of his power by the magnitude of the cedar, the Lord says, "the cedars in the garden of God could not hide him; nor was any tree in the garden of God like unto him in his beauty. I made him fair by the multitude of his branches; so that all the trees of Eden, in the garden of God, envied him." These trees are representative of the royalties of Mesopotamia, Syria, Israel, etc., which the king of Assyria had abolished; and which "could not hide him," or prevent him getting the ascendancy over them. It is clear, then, from the terms of this beautiful allegory, that the countries I have indicated are comprehended in Eden; that as a whole it is styled the garden of the Lord; and that the trees are the royalties of the land.

That Eden extended to the Mediterranean, or "Great Sea," appears from Ezekiel's prophecy against Tyre. Addressing the Tyrian royalty, he says, "Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God. … Thou wast upon the holy mountain of God. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. Therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God. Thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more." The meaning of this is obvious to one acquainted with the history of the kingdom of Tyre. It was a royalty of Palestine in Upper Galilee, whose king, Hiram, was in intimate alliance with Solomon. He appears to have been a proselyte worshipper of the God of Israel; whom his successors some time afterwards forsook; and therefore God suppressed the kingdom of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar for seventy years; and finally by the Greeks.

Eden has been a field of blood from the beginning of the contest between the "Seed of the Woman" and the "Seed of the Serpent," until now; and will yet continue to be until the serpent power be broken upon the mountains of Israel. It was in Eden that Abel died by the hand of Cain. There also Abel's antitype was wounded in the heel, when put to death upon the accursed tree; and lastly, to fill up the measure of iniquity of the blood-defiled land, the serpents of Israel slew the son of Barachias between the temple and altar. But the blood of

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God's saints shed in Eden, did not cry to Him for vengeance without effect: for as the Lord Jesus declared, so it came to pass. "Behold," said he to the vipers of his day, "I send you prophets, and wise men, and scribes; and some of them ye will kill and crucify; and some of them ye will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city; that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the land, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zecharias, son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar."

Eden is emphatically the Lord's land, or garden; and from the creation till the breaking off of Israel's olive branch, the principal, and almost only, theatre upon which He exhibited His wonders to the nations in the days of old. Egypt and its wilderness may be excepted for forty years. Beyond its limits was outer darkness. Eden only was favoured with light, until the gospel found its way among the nations of the west; and although darkness covers the land, and gross darkness the people; yet the Lord, its light, will arise upon it and His glory shall be seen there.

THE GARDEN OF EDEN.

"And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden."

While Eden was "the East" eastward of the wilderness, the garden of Eden was eastward in Eden. "Eden the garden of the Lord," and "the garden of Eden," are quite different ideas. The former designates the whole of Eden as the Lord's garden; the latter, as merely a plantation in some part of it. To plant a garden is to fence in a certain piece of land, and to adorn it with fruit and ornamental trees and shrubs. If unenclosed, and consequently unguarded, it is not a garden. The name of the plantation implies that its surface was protected from the invasion of the animals, whose habits made them unfit tenants of a garden. The place, then, was an enclosure, planted with "every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food." Its situation, Moses says, was "eastward," having a river flowing through it to water it. I suspect from this, that it lay somewhere between the Gulf of Persia, and the junction of the Euphrates and the Tigris. The text reads, "And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads"; which I should interpret thus: -- a river flowing out of Eden was caused to water the garden on its way to the sea; and from the garden northward, the river diverged into its branches, which terminated at four several heads. The heads were not in the garden, but at remote distances from it. The garden of Eden was watered by only one, and not by four rivers; as it is written, "a river went out to water it"; which certainly excludes the four from its enclosure.

In the Septuagint of this text, the word garden is expressed by paravdeiso," which is transferred into our language without translation. Paradise is a Persian word adopted into the Greek, and expressed in Hebrew by parades or pardes. It signifies a park, a forest, or preserve; a garden of trees of various kinds, a delightful grove, etc. It is found in these texts: "I made me gardens (paradises) and orchards, and I planted trees in them of all kinds of fruits"; and, "A garden enclosed (a paradise) is my sister spouse etc.; thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates," etc. The latter text is part of a description of Solomon's vineyard, representative of that part of Eden

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over which he reigned; and metaphorical of its beauty, fertility, and glory, when the Heir of the vineyard, the "greater than Solomon," shall come to Zion, and "marry the land" of Eden, as defined in the everlasting covenant made with Abraham. For so it is written, "Thy land, O Zion, shall no more be termed desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzibah (ie., my beloved is in her), and thy land Beulah (ie., married): for Jehovah delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married. For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee: and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee."

When the marriage, or union, takes place between the sons of Zion, and their king, with the Land of Promise in Eden, it will again become the garden of the Lord, or Paradise, which His own right hand hath planted. For "the Lord shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody." "Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off." At that time, "I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, and the myrtle tree, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box together: that they (Israel) may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the Lord hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it." These testimonies reveal a future state in regard to Eden, of which its primitive garden is a beautiful and appropriate representation. Once the seat of a paradise on a small scale, it is destined to be transformed from its present desolation into "the Paradise of God." The country of the four rivers, even to the west from sea to sea, is predetermined to shine forth as "the glory of all lands." Paradise hath no other locality. Other orbs may have their paradises: but as far as man is concerned, the Paradise of God will be by Him planted in Eden according to "the promise." "In that day, shall Israel be the third with Egypt and Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land"; that is, of Eden: "whom the Lord of Hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt, my people, and Assyria, the work of my hands, and Israel, mine inheritance."

In the letter to the congregation at Ephesus, the Spirit says, "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the Tree of Life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God." The simple import of this is as follows. The saints of God are termed in scripture, "Trees of Righteousness," which bring forth good fruit; and the King of Saints, the Tree of Life. This, then, is the symbol of Christ as the giver of life. "As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father; so he that eateth me," says Christ, "even he shall live by me."

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Hence, to give a man to eat of the Tree of Life, is for the Lord Jesus to raise a true believer from among the dead to incorruptible life. He will then eat, or partake, of that life, which he is ordained to bestow, who said of himself, "I am the way, and the truth, arid the life." But none of the believers, or heirs of life, can partake of the life-giving tree, until it is manifested in the Paradise of God; that is, until the Lord appears in his Kingdom. We shall see in the second part of this work the particulars concerning this Kingdom. I shall, therefore, content myself with remarking here, that when it is manifested, it will be established in the Lord's land; that is, in Eden: hence, the promise, interpreted into plain English, is -- "To the believer that overcomes the world, will I, the Lord, who am the life, give glory, honour, and immortality, when I come to stand on the Mount of Olives, and to re-establish the kingdom and throne of David, as in the days of old." There is no immortality, nor Paradise until then; neither can any attain to them unless they "overcome the world"; for the promise is only "to him that overcometh."

But to this doctrine sceptics object, that Paradise must have a present existence somewhere; seeing that, on the day of his crucifixion, Jesus told the thief that he should be with them in Paradise on that day; as it is written, "I say to thee, to-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise." I admit, that it is so written in English; but I find there are various readings and punctuations in the Greek. In the first place, the thief's petition is differently worded in some manuscripts. In the common version it reads "Remember me, Lord, when thou comest in thy kingdom," ejn th`/ basileiva sou but in others, it is various, though in sense the same -- as, "Remember me when thou comest in the day of thy coming," ejn th`/ hJmevra/ th\" ejleuvsew" sou. Now the Lord "comes in his kingdom" "in the day of his coming"; therefore, I say, the two phrases are in sense the same, only the latter more plainly suggests to "the unskillful in the word of righteousness," the import of the term "to-day" in the answer to the petition.

In the next place, Jesus did not evade the thief's prayer, but gave him a direct and intelligible reply. He told him, in effect, that what he requested should be granted: in other words, that when he was himself in his kingdom he should be there too. But does the reader imagine, that Jesus told him the time when, seeing that he was not even himself acquainted with the time when the Jewish State, as constituted by the Mosaic code, should be abolished? And, till this was set aside, he could not come in his kingdom; for then he is to sit and rule, and be a priest upon his throne; which he could not be co-existent with the law: because the law of Moses would permit no one to officiate as a priest, who was not of the tribe of Levi; and Jesus was descended from Judah. "Heaven and earth," or the Mosaic constitution of things in Eden, "shall pass away," said Jesus: "but of that day and hour knoweth no man -- no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father."

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Furthermore, does the reader suppose, that the Lord informed the thief of the time when he would come in his kingdom; or that it could possibly be, that he came in his kingdom on the day of his suffering; seeing that on the forty-third day afterwards, he refused to tell even the apostles, the times and the seasons when he would "restore again the kingdom to Israel"? "It is not for you to know the times and the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power." This was his language to the apostles. The kingdom could not be restored again to Israel under the Mosaic code. This had "decayed, and waxed old, and was ready to vanish away." It was to be "cast down to the ground," the daily sacrifice was to be taken away, and the temple and city to be demolished, by the Little Horn of the Goat, or Roman power. To tell them of the times and the seasons of the kingdom, would have been to have informed them of this national catastrophe; of which they were kept in ignorance, that they might not fall asleep, but be continually on the watch.

But, though Jesus did not then know the times and the seasons of the kingdom, he knows them now; for, about thirty years after the destruction of Jerusalem, "God gave him a revelation of the things which shortly must come to pass"; and in this apocalypse, the times and seasons are set forth in order. But, to return to the case of the thief. In saying "to-day," Jesus did not, and could not, tell him the precise time when he should be with him in Paradise. In some translations, there is a various, and no doubt the correct, punctuation. The comma, instead of being after "thee," is placed after "to-day"; as, "I say unto thee to-day, -- thou shalt be with me in the Paradise, ejn tw`/ paradeivsw/": that is, "At this time, or, I now say to thee, thou shalt be with me in my kingdom in the day of my coming."

But, if the objector insist upon an interpretation of the passage as it stands in the common version, then let it be so; his position will be by no means less easy to carry. His instantaneous translation of souls to Paradise at death, as far as it is fortified by this passage, hangs upon a thread, like the sword of the Syracusan tyrant; and that is, the word "to-day." This is a scripture term, and must be explained by the scripture use of it. In the sacred writings, then, the term is used to express a period of over two thousand years. The use of it occurs in David, as it is written, "To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, lest ye enter not into my rest." The apostle, commenting upon this passage about one thousand years after it was written, says, "Exhort one another daily, while it is called to-day"; and, "Labour to enter into the rest that remaineth for the people of God." Thus, it was called "to-day," when David wrote; and "to-day," when Paul commented upon it. This was a long day; but one, however, which is not yet finished; and will continue unclosed until the manifestation of the rest in the Paradise of God. If it be admitted, that we are still in "the day of salvation," then it must be received as true, that we are living "while it is called to-day" -- that "to-day" is now; and this "now" will be present until the Lord

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Jesus enters into his rest which he cannot do until he has finished the work God has given him to do. "Behold, now is the time of acceptance; behold, now is the day," or the "to-day" "of salvation," -- a period of time from Joshua to the future glorious manifestation of Christ in the kingdom, to say nothing of "the accepted time" to the patriarchs, before the typical rest of Israel in the promised land.

Lastly, is it not the very climax of absurdity to talk of Jesus being "in his kingdom" or "in the Paradise" which were synonymous, while he was lying dead in the tomb? Is his kingdom among the dead? He told the Pharisees it was among the living. "Oh, but," says one, "he descended into hell." "True" says another, "and while he was there he preached the gospel to the dead, and proclaimed repentance to the spirits in prison. He and the thief, that is to say, their souls, were there together as soon as death released them. This was Paradise." "Not exactly so," adds a third. "That savours too much of purgatory. They were in an intermediate state of blessedness before the throne of God, in the kingdoms beyond the skies." "How can that be," says a fourth; "is the blessedness in God's presence only intermediate? They went straight to the fullness’ of joy for evermore." Why, then, was Jesus raised that he might go to the Father, if he were with the Father before; and, where did he leave the thief, for he was not raised; and if not raised, but left behind, how can he be with the Lord in Paradise? When this question is answered, it will be time enough to glance at the traditions extant upon this subject -- dogmatisms, however, which none who understand the gospel of the kingdom can possibly entertain.

MAN'S DOMINION.

"Let them have dominion."

The garden being prepared in Eden, the Lord placed the man there whom He had formed. It was there the "deep sleep" came over him, and he first beheld his bride. They were now settled in Paradise; and, protected by its enclosure from the intrusion of the inferior creatures, they passed their days in blissful tranquillity; innocent of transgression, and in peaceful harmony with God and the creatures

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He had made. Adam dressed the garden and kept it. This was his occupation. Though as yet sinless, it was no part of his enjoyments to be idle. To eat bread in the sweat of the face is sorrowful; but to work without toil is an element of health and cheerfulness; and is doubtless the rule of life to all the intelligences of the universe of God. But he was not simply an inhabitant of the Paradise, placed there "to dress and keep it." The work before him was to begin the replenishing and subjugation of the earth. For in the blessing pronounced upon them, God said, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it." The material was all before him. The earth was to be peopled; and the culture of the garden, as the model of improvement, to be extended as his posterity spread themselves over its surface.

This command to "replenish the earth" strengthens my previous conclusion, that the earth had been inhabited at some period anterior to the creation of the six days; and that its population had all been swept away by a catastrophe similar to the Noachic flood. That "replenish" means to fill the earth again, is manifest from the use of the word in the blessing pronounced upon Noah. As it is written, "And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth." There is no room for dispute here. Every one must admit that it signifies to fill again; for, having been filled by Adam, all his posterity, except eight persons, were swept away by the deluge; and Noah and his sons were to supply their place, or refill it, as at this day. I see, therefore, no good reason why the same word should not be similarly interpreted in both cases; which I have concluded to do.

Man's conquests in a sinless state were to be over rocks, mountains, seas, and rivers, by which he might subdue them to his own convenience and enjoyment; and, perhaps, had he continued innocent of transgression until his mission was accomplished; that is, until by his faithfulness he had filled the earth again with people, and had subdued it from its natural wildness to a paradise state -- his nature would have been exalted to an equality with the Elohim; and the earth, without any violent changes, have become his dwelling-place for ever. But, the Creator foreseeing that man would transgress, laid the foundation of the earth upon such principles as would afterwards accommodate it to his altered circumstances. Had He foreseen a result different from what has actually come to pass, He would, doubtless, have framed or constituted it with reference to that result. But, while He did not necessitate man's transgression, His plan was to constitute a natural world with reference to it as its basis; and then, on the other hand, without necessitating man's obedience, to constitute a spiritual, or incorruptible, order of things upon the earth, having an intelligent and voluntary conformity to His precepts, as the foundation upon which it should be built. This, then, is the present order of things. Man is replenishing the earth and subduing it. He is reducing it from its natural wildness. Subduing land and sea to the convenience of nations; and subjugating, likewise, the wild creatures of his own

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species to law and order, and exterminating the untameable; -- he is preparing the world for an advance to a more exalted, yet not perfect, state, which the Man from heaven shall introduce, and establish; not, however, upon the destruction of nature and society, but upon the improvement of the first, and the regeneration of the last; which shall continue for a thousand years, as the intermediate state between the present purely animal and natural, and the final purely spiritual, or incorruptible, and unchangeable constitution of the globe.

In carrying his mission into effect, it was necessary that the animal man should have dominion. He was too feeble to execute it without assistance; and there was no source from which he could receive voluntary aid. It was needful, therefore, that he should receive power by which he could compel the co-operation he required. For this reason, as well as for his own defence against the inconvenient familiarity of the inferior creatures with their lord, God gave him dominion over them all. "Have dominion," said He, "over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." This was the charter of man's sovereignty over flesh and blood. Himself the king, and all living creatures the subjects of his dominion. As to his own species, however, he was permitted to be neither a law to himself, nor to his fellows.

The right of man to exercise lordship over his fellow-man beyond the circle of his own family, was not granted to him "by the grace of God." God's grace only conferred upon him what I have already stated. Even his domestic sovereignty was to cease, when the time came for one to leave father and mother. After this separation, all paternal rule ended, and the only bondage which continued was the yoke of affection. Man rules in his family by the grace of God, which says, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord; for this is right. Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise; that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long in the land." This obedience is founded on the fitness of things; but even this is not enjoined absolutely. It is only "parents in the Lord," who have a divine fight to expect unqualified obedience from the Christian children of their household. If parents not in the Lord, require their children to do contrary to, or to abstain from doing, His will, obedience should be firmly, but affectionately, refused. This would probably produce trouble and division in the family, if the parent were an uncultivated man of the flesh, or a bigot. In that case, he would behave like a tyrant, and endeavour to coerce them to obey him, rather than their conviction of the truth; whose nature it is to divide between flesh and spirit, sinners and saints, and to create a man's foes out of the members of his own household. But such children should remember that "it is better to obey God than man" and that he that loves parents more than Jesus, is not worthy of him. Better leave the paternal roof as an outcast, than dishonour him by preferring their laws to his.

If man's domestic sovereignty be thus qualified and limited by the

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grace of God, shall we say that he conferred on man "a divine right" to govern his species in its spiritual and civil concerns? To found kingdoms and empires, and to invent religions as a means of imparting durability to their thrones? What God permits and regulates is one thing; and what He appoints is another. He permits thrones and dominions, principalities and powers, to exist; He regulates them, setting over them the basest of men, if such answer His intentions best; prevents them circumventing His purposes; and commands His saints to "be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God; the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves punishment. For the magistrates are not a terror to good deeds, but to the evil. … Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: for he is a servant of God unto that which is good for thee."

God did not commission man to set up these powers. All He required of him was to obey whatsoever He chose to appoint. But, when man became a rebel, his rebellious spirit was transmitted to his posterity; and, refusing to be governed by the grace of God, they founded dominions of their own, upon principles which were utterly subversive of the government of God upon the earth. He could as easily have quashed their treasonable proceedings as He stopped the building of Babel; but in His wisdom He chose rather to give them scope, and to subject their usurpations to such regulations as would in the end promote His own glory and their confusion. Therefore it is that Paul says every power is of God; and the powers that be are ordained of Him. This is matter of great consolation and rejoicing to His saints; for, though the tyrants may propose, it is God only that disposes events. The saints who understand the word will keep aloof from politics. None are more interested in them than they; but they will mix themselves up neither with one party nor another; for God regulates them all: therefore to be found in any such strife would be to contend in some way or other against Him. The servant of the Lord must not strive, except "for the faith once delivered to the saints." For this he is commanded to "contend earnestly," because such a contention is to "fight the good fight of faith," and to "lay hold on eternal life."

In the beginning, then, God reserved to Himself the right of dominion over the human race. He gave it not to Adam, nor to his posterity; but claimed the undivided sovereignty over all man's concerns for Himself by right of creation; and for him whom He might ordain as His representative upon earth. All the kingdoms that exist, or have existed, with the exception of the Commonwealth of Israel, are based upon the usurpation of the rights of God, and of His Son, Jesus Christ; nor is there a king or queen, pope or emperor, among the Gentiles, who reigns "by the grace of God." They reign by the same grace, or favour, by which sin reigns over the nations. They

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have no favour in the eyes of God. He bears with them for a time: and makes use of them as His sword to maintain order among the lawless; until His gracious purposes in favour of His saints shall be manifested, according to the arrangement of the times He has disposed. Then "will his saints be joyful in glory; and the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand; to execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people; to bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; to execute upon them the judgment written: this honour have all his saints. Praise ye the Lord."

THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL.

"Out of the ground made the Lord God to grow the Tree of Life in the midst of the garden, and the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil."

These are the most remarkable trees that have ever appeared in the vegetable kingdom. They were "pleasant to the sight, and good for food." This, however, is all that is said about their nature and appearance. They would seem to have been the only trees of their kind; for, if they had been common, Eve's desire to taste the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, and their inclination to eat of that of the Tree of Life, could have been gratified by eating of other similar trees. What the fruits were we cannot tell; not is it important to know. Supposition says, that the Tree of Knowledge was an apple tree; but testimony makes no deposition on the subject; therefore we can believe nothing in the case.

These trees, however, are interesting to us, not on account of their natural characteristics, but because of the interdict which rested upon them. Adam and Eve were permitted to take freely of all the other trees in the garden, "but of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil," said the Lord God, "thou shalt not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Naturally, it was as good for food as any other tree; but, as soon as the Lord God laid His interdict upon it, its fruit became death to the eater; not instant death, however, for their eyes were to be opened, and they were to become as the gods, or Elohim, being acquainted with good and evil even as they. The final consequence of eating of this tree being death, it may be styled the Tree of Death in contradistinction to the Tree of Life. Decay of body, and consequent termination of life, ending in corruption, or mortality, was the attribute which this fatal tree was prepared to bestow upon the individual who should presume to touch it.

In the sentence, "Thou shalt surely die," death is mentioned in the Bible for the first time. But Adam lived several centuries after he had eaten of the tree, which has proved a difficulty in the definition of the death there indicated, hitherto insuperable upon the principles of the creeds. Creed theology paraphrases the sentence thus -- "In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die figuratively, thine immortal soul becoming liable to the pains of hell for ever; and thy body shall die

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literally afterwards." But, it is very evident to one unspoiled by the philosophy of the creeds, that this interpretation is not contained in the text. The obscurity which creates the difficulty does not lie in the words spoken, but in the English version of them. The phrase "in the day" is supposed to mean that on the very day itself upon which Adam transgressed, he was to die in some sense. But this is not the use of the phrase even in the English of the same chapter. For in the fourth verse of the second chapter, it is written, "in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, and every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew." This, we know, was the work of six days; so that "in the day" is expressive of that period. But in the text before us, the same phrase represents a much longer period, for Adam did not die until he was 930 years old; therefore, the day in which he died did not terminate till then.

But it may be objected that the day in the text must be limited to the day of the eating; because it says, "in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die": and as he was not eating of it 930 years, but only partook of it once on a certain natural day, it cannot mean that long period. But I am not prepared to admit that the physical action of eating is the only eating indicated in the text. Adam fed upon the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge all the time from his eating of the natural fruit until he died. The natural fruit in its effect was figurative of the fruit of transgressing the interdict, which said, "Thou shalt not eat of it." The figurative fruit was of a mixed character. It was "good," or pleasant to the flesh; but "evil" in its consequences. "By the law," says the apostle, "is the knowledge of sin"; for "sin is the transgression of law." Sin is pleasant to the flesh; because the deeds forbidden are natural to it. It is that "good" fruit which the animal man delights to eat. The flesh, the eyes, and life, have all their desires, or lusts, which, when gratified, constitute the chiefest good that men under their dominion seek after.

But God has forbidden indulgence in these lusts. He says, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world." And again, "The friendship of the world is enmity with God. Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God": and, "If ye live after the flesh ye shall die." This language is unmistakable. To indulge, then, in the lawless pleasures, which "sinful flesh" terms "good," is to "bring forth sin," or to bear fruit unto death; because the "wages of sin is death." "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption." All "the ills that flesh is heir to" make up the "evil" which has come upon man as the result of transgressing the law of God, which said to Adam, "Thou shalt not eat thereof." The fruit of his eating was the gratification of his flesh in the lusts

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thereof, and the subjection of himself and posterity to the "evil" of eating of the cursed ground in sorrow all the days of their lives.

All the posterity of Adam, when they attain the age of puberty, and their eyes are in the opening crisis, begin to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil. Previous to that natural change, they are in their innocency. But, thenceforth, the world, as a serpent-entwined fruit tree, stands before the mind, enticing it to take and eat, and enjoy the good things it affords. To speculate upon the lawfulness of compliance is partly to give consent. There must be no reasoning upon the harmlessness of conforming to the world. Its enticements without, and the sympathizing instincts of the flesh within, must be instantly suppressed; for, to hold a parley with its lusts, is dangerous. When one is seduced by "the deceitfulness of sin," "he is drawn away of his own lusts, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin; and sin when it is finished, bringeth forth death": in other words, he plucks the forbidden fruit, and dies, if not forgiven.

Furthermore, the sentence "Thou shalt surely die," is proof that the phrase "in the day" relates to a longer period than the day of the natural eating. This was not a sentence to be consummated in a moment, as when a man is shot or guillotined. It required time; for the death threatened was the result, or finishing, of a certain process; which is very clearly indicated in the original Hebrew. In this language the phrase is muth temuth, which literally rendered is, dying thou shalt die. The sentence, then, as a whole reads thus -- "In the day of thy eating from it dying thou shalt die." From this reading, it is evident, that Adam was to be subjected to a process, but not to an endless process; but to one which should commence with the transgression, and end with his extinction. The process is expressed by muth, dying; and the last stage of the process by temuth, thou shalt die.

This view is fully sustained by the paraphrase found in the following words: -- "Cursed is the ground for thy sake: in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return." The context of this informs us, that Adam, having transgressed, had been summoned to trial and judgment for the offence. The Lord God interrogated him, saying, "Hast thou eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? " Adam confessed his guilt, which was sufficiently manifest before by his timidity, and shame at his nakedness. The offence being proved, the Judge then proceeded to pass sentence upon the transgressors. This He did in the order of transgression; first upon the Serpent; then upon Eve; and lastly upon Adam, in the words of the text. In these, the ground is cursed, and the man sentenced to a life of sorrowful labour, and to a resolution into his original and parent dust. The terms in which the last particular of his sentence is expressed, are explanatory of the penalty annexed to the law. "Thou shalt return into the ground,"

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and "Unto dust shalt thou return," are phrases equivalent to "Dying thou shalt die." Hence, the divine interpretation of the sentence, "In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die," is, "In the day of thy eating all the days of thy life of sorrow, returning thou shalt return unto the dust of the ground whence thou wast taken." Thus, "dying," in the meaning of the text, is to be the subject of a sorrowful, painful, and laborious existence, which wears a man out, and brings him down to the brink of the grave; and, by "die," is signified the end, or last stage of corporeal existence, which is marked by a ceasing to breathe, and decomposition into dust. Thus, man's life from the womb to the grave is a dying existence; and, so long as he retains his form, as in the case of Jesus in the sepulchre, he is existent in death; for what is termed being is corporeal existence in life and death. The end of our being is the end of that process by which we are resolved into dust -- we cease to be. This was Adam's state, if we may so speak, before he was created. He had no being. And at this non-existence he arrived after a lapse of 930 years from his formation; and thus were practically illustrated the penalty of the law and the sentence of the Judge. For from the day of his transgression, he began his pilgrimage to the grave, at which he surely arrived. He made his couch in the dust, and saw corruption; and with its mother earth commingled all that was known as Adam, the federal head, and chief father of mankind.

TREE OF LIFE.

"Eat and live for ever."

This was planted "in the midst of the garden." It was also a fruit-bearing tree. It would seem to have been as accessible as the Tree of Knowledge; for after the man had eaten of this, he was driven out of the garden that he might not touch that likewise. Its fruit, however, was of a quality entirely opposite to that of which they had eaten. Both trees bore good fruit; but that of the Tree of Life had the quality of perpetuating the living existence of the eater for ever. This appears from the testimony of Moses, who reports that after the transgressors had received judgment, "the Lord God said, Behold the man has become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the Tree of Life, and eat and live for ever: therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground whence he was taken." From this, we learn that the Lord God had instituted this tree to give life, and that Adam was aware of what would result from eating of its fruit. It is probable that, had he been obedient to the law of the Tree of Knowledge, he would have been permitted to eat of the Tree of Life, after he had fulfilled his destiny as an animal man; and, instead of dying away into dust, have been "changed in the twinkling of an eye," as Enoch was; and as they are to be who shall be ready for the Lord at his coming. But of this we can say nothing certain, because nothing is testified on the subject; and

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beyond the testimony our faith cannot go, though opinion and credulity may.

If, then, Adam had eaten of the Tree of Life, he would have been changed from a living soul into a soul capable of living for ever: and not only capable, but it would seem, that being immortal, the Lord God would have permitted him to remain so. For, we are not to suppose, that, if a thing become capable of undecaying existence, therefore its creator cannot destroy it; consequently, if Adam as a sinner had eaten of the Tree of Life, his immortality would have been only permitted, and not necessitated contrary to the power of the Lord God. To have permitted Adam and Eve to become deathless, and to remain so, in a state of good and evil such as the world experiences, would have been a disproportionate and unmerciful punishment. It would have been to populate the earth with deathless sinners; and to convert it into the abode of deathless giants in crime; in other words, the, earth would have become, what creed theologians describe "hell" to be in their imagination. The good work of the sixth day would then have proved a terrible mishap, instead of the nucleus of a glorious manifestation of divine wisdom and power. But a world of undying sinners in a state of good and evil, was not according to the divine plan. This required first the sanctification of sinners; then their probation; and afterwards, their exaltation, or humiliation, according to their works. Therefore, lest Adam should invert this order, and "put on immortality" before he should be morally renewed, or purified from sin, and the moral likeness of God be formed in him again; the Lord God expelled him from the dangerous vicinity of the Tree of Life. He drove him forth that he should not then become incorruptible and deathless.

The first intimation of immortality for man is contained in the text before us. But, in this instance it eluded his grasp. He was expelled "lest he should eat, and live for ever." It was because immortality belonged to this tree; or rather, was communicable by or through it to the eater, that it was styled etz ha-chayim, that is, the Tree of the Lives; for that is its name when literally rendered. The phrase "of the lives" is particularly appropriate; for it was the tree of endless life both to Adam and Eve, if permitted to eat of it. If the world enticing to sin, be fitly represented by the serpent-entwined tree, imparting death to its victim, Christ, who "has overcome the world," as the giver of life to his people, is well set forth by the other tree in the midst of the garden; which was a beautiful emblem of the incarnated power and wisdom of the Deity, planted as the Tree of Life in the future Paradise of God.

MAN IN HIS NOVITIATE.

"God made man upright."

When the work of the six days was completed, the Lord God reviewed all that He had made, and pronounced it "very good.”

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This quality pertained to everything terrestrial. The beasts of the field, the fowls of the air, reptiles, and man, were all "very good"; and all made up a natural system of things, or world, as perfect as the nature of things required. Its excellence, however, had relation solely to its physical quality. Man, though "very good," was so only as a piece of divine workmanship. He was made different from what he afterwards became. Being made in the image, after the likeness of the Elohim, he was "made upright." He had no conscience of evil; for he did not know what it was. He was neither virtuous, nor vicious; holy, nor unholy; but in his beginning simply innocent of good or evil deeds. Being without a history, he was without character. This had to be developed; and could only be formed for good or evil, by his own independent action under the divine law. In short, when Adam and Eve came forth from the hand of their potter, they were morally in a similar condition to a new-born babe; excepting that a babe is born under the constitution of sin, and involuntarily subjected to "vanity"; while they first beheld the light in a state of things where evil had as yet no place. They were created in the stature of a perfect man and woman; but with their sexual feelings undeveloped; in ignorance, and without experience. The interval between their formation and their transgression was the period of their novitiate. The Spirit of God had made them; and during this time, "the inspiration of the Almighty was giving them understanding." In this way, knowledge was imparted to them. It became power, and enabled them to meet all the demands of their situation. Thus, they were "taught of God," and became the depositories of those arts and sciences, in which they afterwards instructed their sons and daughters, to enable them to till the ground, tend the flocks and herds, provide the conveniences of life, and subdue the earth. Guided by the precepts of the Lord God, his conscience continued good, and his heart courageous. "They were naked, both the man and his wife, and were not ashamed." They were no more abashed than children in their nudity; for, though adults in stature, yet, being in the infancy of nature, they stood before the Elohim, and in the face of one another, without embarrassment. This fact was not accidentally recorded. As we shall see herealter, it is a clue, as it were, given to enable us to understand the nature of the transgression. While in the state of good unmixed with evil, were Adam and Eve mortal or immortal? This is a question which presents itself to many who study the Mosaic account of the origin of things. It is an interesting question, and worthy of all attention. Some hastily reply, they were mortal; that is, if they had not sinned they would nevertheless have died. It is probable they would after a long time, if no further change had been operated upon their nature. But the Tree of Life seems to have been provided for the purpose of this change being effected, through the eating of its fruit, if they had proved themselves worthy of the favour. The animal nature will sooner or later dissolve. It was not constituted so as to continue in

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life for ever, independent of any further modification. We may admit, therefore, the corruptibility, and consequent mortality, of their nature, without saying that they were mortal. The inherent tendency of their nature to death would have been arrested; and they would have been changed as Enoch and Elijah were; and as they of whom Paul says, "We shall not all die" The "we" here indicated possess an animal, and therefore corruptible nature; and, if not "changed," would surely die: but inasmuch as they are to "be changed in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet," though corruptible, they are not mortal. In this sense, therefore, I say, that in their novitiate, Adam and his betrothed had a nature capable of corruption, but were not subject to death, or mortal. The penalty was "dying thou shalt die"; that is, "You shall not be permitted to eat of the Tree of Life in arrest of dissolution; but the inherent tendency of your animal nature shall take its course, and return you to the dust whence you originally came." Mortality was in disobedience as the wages of sin, and not a necessity.

But, if they were not mortal in their novitiate, it is also true that they were not immortal. To say that immortals were expelled from the garden of Eden, that they might live for ever by eating of the tree, is absurd. The truth is in few words, man was created with a nature endued with certain susceptibilities. He was capable of death; and capable of endless life; but, whether he should merge into mortality; or, by a physical change be clothed with immortality, was predicated on his choosing to do good or evil. Capacity must not be confounded with impletion. A vessel may be capable of holding a pint of fluid; but it does not therefore follow that there is a pint in it, or any at all. In the Paradise of Eden, mortality and immortality were set before the man and his companion. They were external to them. They were to avoid the former, and seek after the latter, by obedience to the law of God. They were capable of being filled with either; but with which depended upon their actions; for immortality is the end of holiness, without which no man can see the Lord.

We meet with no traces in the Mosaic history of ceremonial observances, or religious worship, pertaining to the novitiate. To rest one day in seven; believe that the Lord God would perform His word if they transgressed; and to abstain from touching the Tree of knowledge, was all their gracious benefactor required. There was no "religion" in the garden of Eden -- no sacrifices, or offerings; for sin was as yet a stranger there. The tenure of the Paradise was predicated upon their abstinence from sin; so that it could be forfeited only by transgression of the law of the Lord.

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GOD'S LAW, AND HOW SIN ENTERED INTO THE WORLD.

Probation before exaltation, the law of the moral universe of God -- The temptation of the Lord Jesus by Satan the trial of his faith by the Father -- The Temptation explained -- God's foreknowledge does not necessitate; nor does He justify, or condemn, by anticipation -- The Serpent an intellectual animal, but not a moral agent, nor inspired -- He deceives the woman -- The nature of the transgression -- Eve becomes the tempter to Adam -- The transgression consummated in the conception of Cain -- A good conscience, and an evil conscience, defined -- Man cannot cover his own sin -- The carnal mind illustrated by the reasoning of the Serpent -- It is metaphorically the serpent in the flesh -- God's truth the only rule of right and wrong -- The Serpent in the flesh is manifested in the wickedness of individuals; and in the spiritual and temporal institutions of the world -- Serpent-sin in the flesh identified with "the Wicked One" -- The Prince of the World -- The Kingdom of Satan and the World identical -- The Wiles of the Devil -- The "Prince" shown to be sin, working and reigning in all sinners -- How he was "cast out" by Jesus -- "The works of the Devil" -- "Bound of Satan"; delivering to Satan -- The Great Dragon -- The Devil and Satan -- The Man of Sin.

Man in the first estate is "a little lower than the angels"; but, in the second, or higher, estate, he is to be "crowned with glory and honour"; and to take his stand in the universe upon an equality with them in nature and renown. Man's first estate is the natural and animal; his second, the spiritual, or incorruptible. To be exalted from the present to the future state and inheritance, he must be subjected to trial. From the examples recorded in the scriptures, it is evident, that God has established it as the rule of His grace; that is, the principle upon which He bestows His honours and rewards to prove men before He exalts them. Probation, then, is the indispensable ordeal, to which every man is subjected in the providence of God, before he is accepted as "fit for the Master's use." By these examples, also, it appears, that man's probation is made to bear upon the trial of his faith by testing his obedience. An untried faith is worth nothing; but a faith that stands the test of trial, "is much more precious than gold which perisheth, though it be tried with fire"; because the sustained trial will be "found unto praise, and honour, and glory, at the appearance of Jesus Christ." An untried faith is a dead faith, being alone. Faith without trial finds no scope for demonstration, or evidence of its existence. Thus, it is written, "Faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works. Thou believest that there is one God: thou doest well; the devils also believe, and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? … Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and

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not by faith alone." "Without faith," says Paul, "it is impossible to please God"; and it is also apparent from James' testimony just recited, that the faith with which He is pleased, is a faith that is made manifest by works; of which Noah, Abraham, Job, and Jesus, are pre-eminent examples. Now, this "precious faith" can only be educed by trial; for the trial elaborates the works. This is the use of persecution, or tribulation, to believers; which in the divine economy is appointed for their refinement. Peter styles the "manifold persecutions," to which his brethren were subjected, "the trial of their faith"; and Paul testified to others of them, that "it is through much tribulation they must enter the Kingdom." Probation is a refining process. It purges out a man's dross, and brings out the image of Christ in his character; and prepares him for exaltation to his throne. We can only enter the Kingdom through the fire; but, if a man be courageous, and "hold fast the confidence and rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end," he will emerge from it unscorched; and be presented holy, unblameable, and unrebukeable before the King. A man cannot "honour God" more than in believing what He promises, and doing what He commands; although to repudiate that belief, and to neglect, or disobey, those commands, should highly gratify all his senses, and place at his disposal the kingdoms of the world, and all their glory. Not to believe the promises of God is in effect to call God a liar; and no offence, even to men of integrity in the world, is so insulting and intolerable as this. "Let God be true," saith the scripture. His veracity must not be impeached in word or deed; if it be, then "judgment without mercy" is the "sorer punishment" which awaits the calumniator. The unswerving obedience of faith, is the "faith made perfect by works," tried by fire. God is pleased with this faith, because it honours Him. It is a working faith. There is life in it; and its exercise proves that the believer loves Him. Such a man it is God's delight to honour; and, though like Jesus he be for the present, "despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief," the time will certainly come, when God will acknowledge him in the presence of the Elohim, and overwhelm his enemies with confusion of face. Probation before exaltation, then, is upon the principle of a faith in the promises of God, made precious by trial well sustained. There is no exemption from this ordeal. Even Christ himself was subjected to it. "By the grace of God he tasted death for every man. For it was fitting for God, that in bringing many sons to glory, He should make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. … For in that he himself hath suffered being put to the proof (peirasqeiv"), he is able to succour them who are tried." And "though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered: and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him. ." He was first morally perfected through suffering, and then corporeally, by being "made into a spirit" by the spirit of holiness in his resurrection from the dead.

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I say, "morally perfected"; for, although he was without transgression, his perfection of character is predicated upon his "obedience unto death."

The probation of the Lord Jesus is an interesting and important study, especially that part of it styled the Temptation of Satan. Paul, speaking of him as the High Priest under the New Constitution, says, "He was put to the proof in all things according to our likeness, without transgression"; that is, "having taken hold of the seed of Abraham," "being found in fashion as a man," the infirmities of human nature were thus laid upon him. He could sympathize with them experimentally; being, by the feelings excited within him when enticed, well acquainted with all its weak points. By examining the narrative of his trial in the wilderness, we shall find that he was proved in all the assailable points of human nature. As soon as he was filled with the Spirit at his baptism in the Jordan, it immediately drove him into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. This was very remarkable. The Spirit led him there that he might be put to the proof; but not to tempt him; for, says the apostle, "Let no nan say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man." God, then, did not tempt Jesus; though His Spirit conducted him thither to be tempted, and that, too, "by the devil," or the enemy. This enemy within the human nature is the mind of the flesh, which is enmity against God; it is not subject to His law, neither indeed can be. The commandment of God, which is "holy, just and good," being so restrictive of the propensities, which in purely animal men display themselves with uncontrolled violence, makes them appear in their true colours. These turbulent propensities the apostle styles "sin in the flesh," of which it is full; hence, he also terms it "sinful flesh." This is human nature; and the evil in it, made so apparent by the law of God, he personifies as "pre-eminently a sinner," kay uperbolhn amartwlov. This is the accuser, adversary, and calumniator of God, whose stronghold is the flesh. It is the devil and satan within the human nature; so that "when a man is tempted, he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed." If a man examine himself, he will perceive within him something at work, craving after things which the law of God forbids. The best of men are conscious of this enemy within them. It troubled the apostle so much, that he exclaimed, "O, wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death," or, this mortal body? He thanked God that the Lord Jesus Christ would do it; that is, as he had himself been delivered from it, by God raising him from the dead by His Spirit. Human nature, or "sinful flesh," has three principal channels through which it displays its waywardness against the law of God. These are expressed by "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life." All that is in the world stands related to these points of our nature; and there is no temptation that can be devised, but what assails it in one, or more, of these three particulars.

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The world without is the seducer, which finds in all animal men, unsubdued by the law and testimony of God, a sympathizing and friendly principle, ready at all times to eat of its forbidden fruit. This sinful nature we inherit. It is our misfortune, not our crime, that we possess it. We are only blameworthy when, being supplied with the power of subduing it, we permit it to reign over us. This power resides in "the testimony of God" believed; so that we "are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation." This testimony ought to dwell in us as it dwelt in the Lord Jesus; so that, as with the shield of faith, the fiery assaults of the world may be quenched by a "thus it is written," and a "thus saith the Lord."

Jesus was prepared by the exhaustion of a long fast, for an appeal to the desire of his flesh for food. Hunger, it is said, will break through stone walls. "He was hungry." At this crisis, "the Tempter came to him." Who he was does not appear. Perhaps, Paul refers to him, saying "Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light." Some one "came to him" who was his adversary, and who desired his ruin; or, at least, acted the part of one on the same principle that the adversary was permitted to put the fidelity of Job to the proof. The trial of this eminent son of God, was perhaps recorded as an illustration of the temptation of the Son of God, even Jesus, to whom "there was none like in the earth, a perfect and upright man, one that feared God, and eschewed evil." From his birth to his baptism in the Jordan, he was faultless. But in the words of Satan concerning Job, "Did Jesus fear God for nought? Had not God made a hedge about him? " Yes; God was his defence: and "in keeping his testimony there is great reward." But, the adversary calumniated Jesus, in suggesting that his obedience to God had been prompted by mercenary motives. He "feared," not simply for what he should get, but because of his love for his Father's character as revealed in the divine testimonies. The adversary affected to disbelieve this, and to suppose that, if God would just leave him in the position of any other man, he would distrust Him; and eat of the world's forbidden fruit, by embracing all it would afford him. Thus, the adversary may be supposed to have moved the Lord to permit him to put the fidelity of Jesus to the test. God, therefore, allowed the experiment to be tried; and by His spirit sent him into the wilderness for the purpose. So the adversary went forth from the presence of the Lord, and came to him there.

Having arrived at the crisis when Jesus was suffering from the keenest hunger, the adversary assumed the character of an angel, or messenger of light to him. Being acquainted with "the law and the testimony," for which he knew Jesus had a profound regard, he adduced it in support of his suggestions. He invited him to gratify the cravings of the flesh by helping himself. He was God's son; but then his Father seemed to have abandoned him; why not therefore use the power he possessed, whose presence in him was of itself a proof of God's approval of its exercise, and "command that the stones be made bread"? But Jesus disregarded the reasoning; and

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set it aside by "It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Failing in this, the scene of the temptation was then removed to "the pinnacle of the temple"; and, as Jesus fortified himself by the word, the adversary determined to be even with him; and in appealing to the pride of life, so strong in the nature laid upon him, to strengthen himself with the testimony likewise. "If thou be the son of God, as thou proudly assumest to be, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and they shall bear thee up in their hands, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone." But Jesus met him with "Again it is written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." Lastly, the scene was shifted to a lofty mountain. From this position, by the power granted him, he showed Jesus "all the kingdoms of the world," visible from that elevation; "and the glory of them." He knew that Jesus was destined to possess them all; but that he was also to obtain them through suffering. Jesus knew this, too. Now, as the flesh dislikes suffering, the tempter proposed to gratify the desire of his eyes by giving him all he saw, on the easy condition of doing homage to him as the god of the world. "All this power," said he, "will I give thee, and the glory of them; for that is delivered to me, and to whomsoever I will, I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine." But Jesus resisted the enticement; and said, "Get thee hence, adversary: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." "Having ended all the temptation he departed from him for a season." And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee. In this manner, then, was he put to the proof in all things according to the likeness of his nature to ours, but without transgression. He believed not this angel of light and power, and would have none of his favours. He preferred the grace of God with suffering, to the gratification of his flesh with all the pomp and pageantry of this vain and transitory world. Its "glory" is indeed delivered to the adversary of God, His people, and His truth: and to whomsoever he wills he gives it. The knowledge of this truth ought to deter every righteous man from seeking after it; or even accepting it, when offered upon conditions derogatory to the truth of God. And, if those who possess it, such as kings, priests, nobles, etc., were what they pretended to be, they would follow Jesus' and Paul's examples, and renounce them all. Christianity in high places, is Christ falling down before the adversary; and doing homage to him for the honour, riches, and power of the world. What fellowship hath Christ with Belial? Certainly none. If the principles upon which the temptation of the Lord Jesus was permitted, be understood, the necessity of putting the first Adam to the proof will be readily perceived. Would he retain his integrity, if placed in a situation of trial? Or, would he disbelieve God and die? The Lord God well knew what the result would be; and had made all necessary provision for the altered circumstances which he

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foresaw would arise. His knowledge, however, of what would be, did not necessitate it. He had placed all things in a provisional state. If the man maintained his integrity, there was the Tree of Lives as the germ of a superior order of things; but, if he transgressed, then the natural and animal system would continue unchanged; and the spiritualization of the earth and its population be deferred to a future period. God's knowledge of what a man's character will be, does not cause Him to exempt him from trial. He rewards and punishes none upon foregone conclusions. He does not say to this man, "I know you are certain to turn out a reprobate, therefore I will punish you for what you would do"; nor does He say to another, "I know thee that thou wouldst do well all the days of thy life: therefore, I will promote thee to glory and honour, without subjecting thee to the tribulation of the world." His principle is to recompense men according to what they have done, not for what they would do. Thus he dealt with the Two Adams; and with Israel: to whom Moses says, "The Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thy heart, whether thou wouldest keep His commandments, or no." And thus also the Lord Jesus treated Judas. He knew he was a thief, and would betray him; yet he trusted him with the bag, and made no difference between him and the rest, until his character was revealed. The Lord knew what was in the heart of Israel, and whether they would obey Him; but He subjected them to such a trial as would cause them to reveal themselves in their true character, and thereby justify Him in His conduct towards them. With these remarks, then, by way of preface, I shall now proceed to the further exposition of things connected with this subject in the Mosaic account.

THE SERPENT.

"It was more subtle than any beast of the field."

The Serpent was one of "the living things that moved upon the earth," and which the Lord God pronounced "very good." Moses says, it was more subtle, or shrewd, than any of the creatures the Lord God had made. It was, probably, because of this quality of shrewdness, or quickness of perception, that Adam named it nachash; which is rendered by dravcwn in the New Testament, from devrcomai to see; as, drakonta ton ofin ton arcaion the Dragon, the old serpent. It was doubtless, the chief of the serpent tribe, as it is styled "the" serpent; and, seeing that it was afterwards condemned to go upon its belly as a part of its sentence, it is probable it was a winged-serpent in the beginning: fiery, but afterwards deprived of the power of flight and made to move as at present. Its subtlety, or quickness of perception by eye and ear, and skilfulness in the use of them (panourgiva), was a part of the goodness of its nature. It was not an evil quality by any means; for Jesus exhorts his disciples to "be wise as the serpents; and unsophisticated

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( ajcevraioi ) as the doves." This quality of shrewdness, or instinctive wisdom, is that which principally strikes us in all that is said about it. It was an observant spectator of what was passing around it in the garden, since the Lord God had planted it eastward in Eden. It had seen the Lord God and His companion Elohim. He had heard their discourse. He was acquainted with the existence of the Tree of Knowledge, and the Tree of Lives; and knew that the Lord God had forbidden Adam and his wife to eat of the good and evil fruit; or so much as to touch the tree. He was aware from what he had heard, that the Elohim knew what good and evil were experimentally; and that in this particular, Adam and Eve were not so wise as they. But, all this knowledge was shut up in his own cranium, from which it could never have made its exit, had not the Lord God bestowed upon it the power of expressing its thoughts in speech. And what use should we naturally expect such a creature would make of this faculty? Such a one, certainly, as its cerebral constitution would enable it to manifest. It was an intellectual, but not a moral, creature. It had no "moral sentiments." No part of its brain was appropriated to the exercise of benevolence, veneration, conscientiousness, and so forth. To speak phrenologically, it was destitute of these organs; having only "intellectual faculties" and "propensities." Hence, its cerebral mechanism, under the excitation of external phenomena, would only develop what I would term an animal intellectuality. Moral, or spiritual, ideas would make no impression upon its mental constitution' for it was incapable, from its formation, of responding to them. It would be physically impossible for it to reason in harmony with the mind of God; or with the mind of man, whose reasoning was regulated by divinely enlightened moral sentiments. Its wisdom would be that of the untutored savage race, whose "sentiments," by the desuetude of ages, had become as nothing. In short, we should expect that, if the faculty of speech were bestowed upon it, it would make just such a use of it, as Moses narrates of the serpent in the garden of Eden. Its mind was purely and emphatically a "Carnal Mind," of a more shrewd description than that of any of the inferior creatures. It was "very good"; but, when he undertook to converse upon things too high for him; to speak of what he had seen and heard; and to comment upon the law of the Lord, he lost himself in his dialogisms, and became the inventor of a lie. Thus prepared, he commenced a conversation with the woman. "Yea," said he, as though he were familiar with the saying, "hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? " In this manner he spoke, as if he had been pondering over the matter to find out the meaning of things; but, not being able to make anything of it, he invited her attention inquiringly. She replied, "We may eat of the fruit of the tress of the garden: but of the fruit of the tree in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die." This was enunciating "the law of the spirit of life," or the truth; for "the law of God is the truth" Had she adhered to the letter of this, she would have

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been safe. But the serpent began to intellectualize; and, in so doing "abode not in the truth; because there was no truth in him." When he may be speaking the falsehood (otan lalh to qeudov ) he speaks out of his own¹ reasonings (ek twn idiwn lalei) He could not comprehend the moral obligation necessitating obedience to the divine law; for there was nothing in him that responded to it. Hence, says Jesus, "there was no truth in him." This, however, was not the case with Eve. There was truth in her; but she also began to intellectualize at the suggestion of the Serpent; and from his reasonings to doubt, and finally to conclude, that the Lord God did not mean exactly what He said. This was an error of which all the world is guilty to this day. It admits that God has spoken; that He has promulgated laws; that He has made promises; and that He has said, "He that believeth the gospel, and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be condemned." All this professors admit in theory; while, as in the case of Eve, in practice they deny it. They say He is too kind, too loving, too merciful, to act according to a rigid construction of the word: for if He did, multitudes of the good and pious, and excellent of the earth, would be condemned. This is doubtless true. Sceptics, however of this class should remember that they only are "the salt of the earth" who delight in the law of the Lord, and do it. Every sect has its "good and pious" ones, who are thought little or nothing of by adverse denominations. The law of God is the only true standard of goodness and piety; and men may depend upon it, attested by the examples in Scripture, that they who treat Him as not meaning exactly what He says in His word, "make God a liar," and are anything but good and pious in His esteem.

Eve having repeated the law in the hearing of the Serpent, he remarked that they should not surely die: "for" said he, "God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." The falsehood of this assertion consisted in the declaration, "Ye shall not surely die," when God had said, "Dying ye shall die." It was truth that God did know that in the day of their eating their eyes would be opened; and it was also true that they should then become as the Elohim, in the sense of knowing good and evil. This appears from the testimony of Moses, that when they had eaten "the eyes of them both were opened"; and from the admission of God Himself, who said, "Behold, the man is become like one of us, to know good and evil." The Serpent's declaration was therefore an admixture of truth and falsehood, which so blended itself with what Eve knew to exist, that "she was beguiled by his shrewdness" from the simplicity of the law of God.

But, how did the Serpent know that the Lord knew that these things would happen to them in the day of their eating? How came he to know anything about the gods, and their acquaintance with good and evil? And upon what grounds did he affirm that they should not surely die? The answer is, one of two ways -- by

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inspiration; or, by observation. If we say by inspiration, then we make God the author of the lie; but if we affirm that he obtained his knowledge by observation -- by the use of his eyes and ears upon things transpiring around him -- then we confirm the words of Moses, that he was the shrewdest of the creatures the Lord God had made. "Hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree? " This question shows that he was aware of some exceptions. He had heard of the Tree of Knowledge and of the Tree of Lives, which were both in the midst of the garden. He had heard the Lord Elohim, and the other Elohim, conversing on their own experience of good and evil; and of the enlightenment of the man and woman in the same qualities through the eating of the Tree of Knowledge: and of their living for ever, if obedient, by eating of the Tree of Life. In reasoning upon these things, he concluded that, if they did eat of the forbidden fruit, they would not surely die; for they would have nothing more to do than to go and eat of the Tree of Life, and it would prevent all fatal consequences. Therefore, he said, "Ye shall not surely die." The Lord God, it is evident, was apprehensive of the effect of this reasoning upon the mind of Adam and his wife; for He forthwith expelled them from the garden, to prevent all possibility of access to the tree, lest they should eat, and put on immortality in sin.

The reasoning of the Serpent operated upon the woman by exciting the lust of her flesh, the lust of her eyes, and the pride of life. This appears from the testimony. An appetite, or longing for it, that she might eat it, was created within her. The fruit also was very beautiful. It hung upon the tree in a very attractive and inviting manner. "She saw that it was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes." But there was a greater inducement still than even this. The flesh and the eyes would soon be satisfied. Her pride of life had been aroused by the suggestion that by eating it their eyes would be opened: and that she would be "made wise" as the glorious Elohim she had so often seen in the garden. To become "as the gods"; to know good and evil as they knew it -- was a consideration too cogent to be resisted. She not only saw that it was good for food and pleasant to the eyes, but that it was "a tree to be desired as making one wise" as the gods; therefore "she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat." Thus, as far as she was concerned, the transgression was complete.

THE NATURE OF THE TRANSGRESSION.

"The eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked."

The effect produced upon the woman by the eating of the forbidden fruit, was the excitation of the propensities. By the transgression of the law of God, she had placed herself in a state of sin; in which she had acquired that maturity of feeling which is known to exist when females attain to womanhood. The Serpent's part had been performed in her deception; and sorely was she deceived. Expecting to be equal to the gods, the hitherto latent passions of her

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animal nature only were set free; and though she now knew what evil sensations and impulses were, as they had done before her, she had failed in attaining to the pride of her life -- an equality with them as she had seen them in their power and glory.

In this state of animal excitation, she presented herself before the man, with the fruit so "pleasant to the eyes." Standing now in his presence, she became the tempter, soliciting him to sin. She became to him an "evil woman flattering with her tongue"; "whose lips dropped as a honeycomb, and her mouth was smoother than oil." She found him "a young man void of understanding" like herself. We can imagine how "she caught him, and kissed him; and with an impudent face, and her much fair speech, she caused him to yield." He accepted the fatal fruit, "and ate with her," consenting to her enticement, "not knowing that it was for his life": though God had said, transgression should surely be punished with death. As yet inexperienced in the certainty of the literal execution of the divine law, and depending upon the remedial efficacy of the Tree of Lives, he did not believe that he should surely die. He saw everything delightful around him, and his beautiful companion with the tempting fruit; and yet he was told that his eyes were shut! What wonderful things might he not see if his eyes were opened. And to be "as the gods," too, "knowing good and evil," was not this a wisdom much to be desired? The fair deceiver had, at length, succeeded in kindling in the man the same lusts that had taken possession of herself. His flesh, his eyes, and his pride of life, were all inflamed; and he followed her in her evil way "as a fool to the correction of the stocks." They had both fallen into unbelief. They did not believe God would do what He had promised. This was a fatal mistake. They afterwards found by experience, that in their sin they had charged God falsely; and that what He promises, He will certainly perform to the letter of His word. Thus, unbelief prepared them for disobedience; and disobedience separated them from God.

As the Mosaic narrative gives an account of things natural, upon which things spirotual were afterwards to be established in word and substance; the key to his testimony is found in what actually exists. When, therefore, he tells us that the eyes of Adam and Eve were closed at first, in that he says they were opened by sin, we have to examine ourselves as natural beings for the meaning of his words. Moses, indeed, informs us in what sense, or to what phenomena, their eyes were closed, in saying, "They were both naked, the man and his wife, and they were not ashamed." If their eyes had been surreptitiously opened, they would have been ashamed of standing before the Lord Elohim in a state of nudity; and they would have had emotions towards one another, which would have been inconvenient. But, in their unsinning ignorance of the latent possibilities of their nature, shame, which makes the subject of it feel as though he would hide himself in a nutshell, and be buried in the depths of the sea, found no place within them. They were unabashed; and had they been created with their eyes open, they would have been equally so at all times. But, seeing that their eyes were opened in connexion

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with, and as the consequence of doing what was forbidden, having "yielded their members servants to uncleanness, and to iniquity unto iniquity"; and their superior faculties being constituted susceptible of the feeling, they were ashamed; and "the uncomely parts of the body" became "their shame"; and from that time have been esteemed dishonourable, and invariably "hid." The inferior creatures have no such feeling as this, because they have never sinned: but the parents of Cain in their transgression, having served themselves of the members they afterwards concealed, were deeply affected both with shame and fear; and their posterity have ever since more or less partaken of it after the same form.

Having transgressed the divine law, and "solaced themselves with loves," "the eyes of them both were opened" as the consequence; and when opened, "they knew that they were naked" which they did not comprehend before. "By the law is the knowledge of sin," and "sin is the transgression of the law"; so, having transgressed the law, "they knew they were naked" without lawful use of one another in His own time. They were quite chagrined at the discovery they had made; and sought to mitigate it by a contrivance of their own: so "they sewed fig-leaves together, and made themselves aprons."

Although thus corporeally defended from mutual observation, the nakedness of their minds was still exposed. They heard the voice of the Elohim, which had now become terrible; and they hid themselves from His presence amongst the trees. They had not yet learned, however, that the Lord was not only a God at hand, but a God also afar off; and that none can hide in secret places and He not see them; for He fills both the heaven and the earth. Their concealment was ineffectual against the voice of the Lord, who called out to him, "Where art thou Adam,? " And he answered, "I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself." Adam's heart had condemned him, therefore he lost confidence before God.

A GOOD, AND AN EVIL CONSCIENCE.

The reader, by contemplating Adam and Eve in innocency, and afterwards in guilt, will perceive in the facts of their case the nature of a good conscience, and of an evil one. When they rejoiced in "the answer of a good conscience," they were destitute of shame and fear. They could stand naked in God's presence unabashed; and instead of trembling at His voice, they rejoiced to hear it as the harbinger of good things. They were then pure and undefiled, being devoid of all conscience of sin. They were then of the truth, living in obedience to it as expressed in the law; and therefore their hearts were assured before Him. No doubts and fears oppressed them then. But mark the change that after-wards came over them. When they lost their good conscience, terror seized upon them at the voice of God, and shame possessed their souls; and they sought to get out of His sight,

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and to remove as far from Him as possible. Now, what was the cause of this? There is but one answer that can be given, and that is -- SIN

Sin, then, takes away "the answer of a good conscience towards God," and converts it into an evil conscience; which may be certainly known to exist, when the subject of it is ashamed of the truth, and harassed by "doubts and fears." They are ashamed of the truth, who, being enlightened, feel themselves condemned; or, being ignorant, apprehend it. Such, on account of unbelief, or of "a dead faith," may well be ashamed and afraid; for to be ashamed of God's truth is to be ashamed of His wisdom and power. People of this description proscribe all conversation about the truth as unfashionable, and vulgar; or as calculated to disturb the peace of the family circle; others, again, make a great outcry against controversy as dangerous to religion; as though God's truth could be planted in the hearts of men, already prepossessed by God's enemy, without controversy: others subjected to the timidity of sin, reduce everything to opinion, and inculcate "charity"; not that they are more liberal and kind than other people; but that they fear lest their own nakedness may be discovered, and "men see their shame"; while another class of bashful professors cry out, "Disturb not that which is quiet," which is a capital maxim for a rotten cause, especially where its subversion would break up all "vested interests," and pecuniary, emoluments. So it is; while "the righteous are bold as a lion, the wicked flee when no man pursueth." Sinners, however "pious" they may be reputed to be, are invariably cowards; they are ashamed of a bold stand for their own profession; and afraid of an independent and impartial examination of the law and testimony of God.

Understanding then, that sin, or the transgression of God's law, evinced by doubts, fears, and shamefacedness, is the morbid principle of an evil conscience, what is the obvious indication to be fulfilled in its removal? The answer is, blot out the sin, and the conscience of the patient will be cured. The morbid phenomena will disappear, and "the answer of a good conscience towards God" remain. From the nature of things, it is obvious that the sinner cannot cure himself; though superstition has taught him to attempt it by fastings, and penances, and all "the voluntary humility and vain deceit," inculcated by "the blind." Adam and Eve vainly imagined they could cover their own sin, and efface it from divine scrutiny; but the very clumsy device they contrived, betrayed the defilement of their consciences. Their posterity have not learned wisdom by the failure of their endeavour; but, to this day, they are as industriously engaged in inventing cloaks for their evil consciences, as were their first parents, when stitching fig leaves together to cover their shame. So true is it that, though God made man upright, he hath sought out many inventions. But after all the patching and altering, and scouring, they are but like "the filthy garments" taken from the high priest, Joshua; to which all the iniquity laid upon him adhered with the inveteracy of a leprous plague.

Men have not yet learned the lesson, that all they are called upon

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by God to do is to believe His word and obey His laws. He requires nothing more at their hands than this. If they neither believe nor do, or believe but do not obey, they are evil doers, and at enmity with Him. He asks men for actions, not words; for He will judge them "according to their works" in the light of His law, and not according to their supposititious feelings and traditions. The reason why He will not permit men to prescribe for their own moral evils is because He is the physician, they the lepers; He their sovereign, they the rebels against His law. It is His prerogative, and His alone, to dictate the terms of reconciliation. Man has offended God. It becomes him, therefore, to surrender unconditionally; and, with the humility and teachableness of a child, to receive with open heart and grateful feelings, whatever in the wisdom, and justice, and benevolence of God, He may condescend to prescribe. Until they do this, they may preach in His name; make broad the phylacteries; sound trumpets in the synagogues and in the streets; make long prayers in public; disfigure their countenances with grimace that they may appear to fast; build churches; compass sea and land to make proselytes; found hospitals; and fill the world with their benevolences: -- all is reducible to mere fig-leaf invention as a substitute for "the righteousness of God." "Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered;" but this blessedness came not upon Adam, nor upon any of his posterity, by garments of their own device. The Lord's covering for sin is "a change of raiment," even "white raiment," which He counsels men to buy "that they may be clothed, and that the shame of their nakedness do not appear." He alone can furnish it. His price is that men should believe, and put it on.

THE CARNAL MIND

"The thinking of the flesh is enmity against God."

When the Lord bestowed the faculty of speech upon the Serpent, He enabled it to give utterance to its thoughts. The possession of this power did not, however, confer upon it moral accountability. This depends on a different constitution of "the flesh" Where no "moral sentiments" exist as part of "the flesh," or brain, there is no ability in the creature to render an account for its aberrations from the requirements of moral, or spiritual, institutions. Speech only enabled it to utter the thinkings of its unsentimentalized intellect. It spoke, like Balaam's ass, under the impulse of the sensations excited by what it had seen and heard. The thinkings of its flesh could not ascend to faith, being destitute of the organic ability to believe; therefore its speech could express only fleshly thoughts. Faith was too high an attainment for it. The light of God's law could not shine into it. Like all the inferior animals, it was a creature of mere sensation; and could utter only sentences formed of combinations resulting from the impressions of sensible objects transmitted to

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its sensorium by the five senses; it transcended them, however, in being more observant and reasoning than they.

What it had done, and not what it intended to do, was made the ground of the Serpent's condemnation. "Because thou hast done this," said the Lord God, "thou art cursed above all cattle," etc. It was incapable of moral intention. It did not intend to deceive; but it did deceive; therefore, it was a deceiver. It did not intend to lie; but it did lie; therefore, it was a liar, and the father of a lie. It did not intend to cause the woman's death; but still it brought her under sentence of death; therefore, it was a murderer: and became the spiritual father of all intentional liars, deceivers, unbelievers, and man-killers, who are styled "the Serpent's seed."

The Serpent had propensities and intellect, and so had the woman; but her mental constitution differed from his, in having "moral sentiments" superadded to her propensities and intellect. By the sentiments she was made a morally accountable being; capable of believing, and able to control and direct her other faculties in their application. The propensities enable a creature to propagate its species, take care of its young, defend itself against enemies, collect food, and so forth: intellect enables it to do these things, for the gratification of its sensations; but when, in addition to these, a being is endowed with the sentiments of conscientiousness, hope, veneration, benevolence, wonder, etc. it possesses a spiritual, or sentimental, organization, which makes it capable of reflecting as from a mirror, the likeness and glory of God. The appropriate sphere of the propensities is on things sensual and fleshly; while that of spiritual, or sentimentalized, intellect, is on "the things of the spirit of God." In the mental constitution of man, God designed that the sentiments, enlightened by His truth, should have the ascendancy, and preside over, and govern his actions. Under such an arrangement, the thoughts of the man would have resulted from spiritual thinking as opposed to the thoughts of the inferior creatures, which are purely the thinking of the flesh. Where the truth has possession of the sentiments, setting them to work and so forming the thoughts, it becomes the law of God to them; which the apostle styles "the law of his mind"; and because it is written there through the hearing of "the law and the testimony," which came to the prophets and apostles through the spirit, he terms it, "the law of the spirit" inscribed "on fleshy tables of the heart"; and "the law of the spirit of life" because, while obeyed, it confers a right to eternal life.

But in the absence of this law and testimony, the "moral sentiments" are as incapable of directing a man aright, as though he were all intellect, or all propensities. By a right direction, I mean, according to the mind of God. The sentiments are as blind as the propensities when intellect is unenlightened by divine revelation. The truth of this is illustrated by the excesses into which mankind has plunged in the name of religion. Mohammedanism, Romanism, Paganism, and the infinite varieties of Protestantism, are all the result of the co-workings of the intellect, and sentiments, under the impulse of the

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propensities. They are all the thinkings of the flesh, predicated on ignorance, or misconception, of the truth. Hence, they are either altogether false; or, like the dialogisms of the shrewd Serpent, a clumsy mixture of truth and error.

The Carnal Mind is an expression used by Paul; or rather, it is the translation of words used by him, in his epistle to the Romans. It is not so explicit as the original. The words he wrote are to; frovnhma th`" sarco;," the thinking of the flesh. In this phrase, he intimates to us, that the flesh is the thinking substance, that is, the brain; which, in another place, he terms "the fleshy tablet of the heart." The kind of thinking, therefore, depends upon the conformation of this organ. Hence, the more elaborate and perfect its mechanism, the more precise and comprehensive the thought; and vice versa. It is upon this principle such a diversity of mental manifestation is observable among men and other animals; but after all, how diverse soever they may be, they are all referable to one and the same thing -- the thinking of the flesh, whose elaborations are excited by the propensities, and the sensible phenomena of the world.

Now, the law of God is given, that the thinking of the flesh, instead of being excited by the propensities within and the world without, may be conducted according to its direction. So long as Adam and Eve yielded to its guidance, they were happy and contented. Their thoughts were the result of right thinking, and obedience was the consequence. But when they adopted the Serpent's reasonings as their own, these being at variance with the truth, caused an "enmity" against it in their thinkings, which is equivalent to "enmity against God." When their sin was perfected, the propensities, or lusts, having been inflamed, became "a law in their members"; and because it was implanted in their flesh by transgression, it is styled, "the law of sin"; and death being the wages of sin, it is also termed, "the law of sin and death"; but by philosophy, "the law of nature."

The thinking of the flesh, uninfluenced by the ameliorating agency of divine truth, is so degenerating in its effects, that it reduces man to savagery. There is nothing elevating or ennobling in fleshly thoughts; on the contrary, they tend to physical deterioration and death; for "to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." If ferocious creatures become tame, or civilized, it is the result of what may be termed spiritual influences; which, operating from without the animal, call into exercise its highest powers, by which the more turbulent are subdued, or kept in check. It is unheard of that wild beasts, or savage men, ever tamed or civilized themselves; on the contrary, the law in the members when uncontrolled in its mental operations is so vicious in its influence as to endanger the continuance of the race. If, therefore, God had abandoned Adam and his posterity to the sole guidance of the newly-developed propensities, the earth would long ere this have been peopled by a population not a whit above the aborigines of Australia, or the savage tribes of Africa. Notwithstanding the antagonism established between His law and the flesh, by which a whole-

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some conflict has been maintained in the world, a vast proportion of its people are "blind of heart" and "past feeling," in consequence of their intellect and sentiments having fallen into moral desuetude; or of being exercised upon the reasonings of the flesh, as were Eve's upon the speculations of the Serpent.

The unilluminated thinking of the flesh gives birth to the "works of the flesh; which are, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, dissensions, sects, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings and such like." Unchecked by the truth and judgments of God, the world would have been composed solely of such characters. Indeed, notwithstanding all His interference to save it from the ruinous consequences of its vicious enmity against His law, it seems to have attained a state of immorality in the apostolic age well nigh to reprobation. "They were," says the apostle, "without excuse: because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise (or philosophers) they became fools, and changed the glory of the Incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible men, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. For this cause, God gave them up unto vile affections: working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient; being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful."

Such is the carnal mind, or thinking of the flesh, as illustrated by the works of the flesh: a hideous deformity, whose conception is referable to the infidelity and disobedience of our first parents: by whom "sin entered into the world, and death by sin." It is the serpent mind; because it was through his untruthful reasonings believed, that a like mode of thinking to his was generated in the heart of Eve and her husband. The seed sown there by the Serpent was corruptible seed. Hence the carnal mind, or thinking of the flesh, unenlightened by the truth, is the serpent in the flesh. It was for this reason that Jesus styled his enemies "serpents, and a generation of vipers." Their actions all emanated from the serpent-thinking of the flesh, which displayed "a wisdom not from above," which was at once "earthly, sensual, and devilish"; as opposed to that which "is from above," and which is "first pure, then peace-

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ful, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy."

The carnal mind, or serpent in the flesh, is the subject of a two-fold manifestation -- namely, individually and collectively. An individual manifestation is more or less observable in persons who "mind the things of the flesh," or "earthly things." To do this is to be "after the flesh," and "in the flesh"; of whom it is testified, "they cannot please God." By a figure, sin is put for the serpent, the effect for the cause; seeing that he was the suggester of unbelief and disobedience to man, by whom it entered into the world. Hence, the idea of the serpent in the flesh is expressed by "sin in the flesh"; which was "condemned in the flesh" when Jesus was crucified for, or on account of, sin, "in the likeness of sinful flesh." In the animal man there dwelleth no good thing. The apostle affirms this of himself, considered as an unenlightened son of the flesh. "In me, that is, in my flesh," says he, "dwelleth no good thing." Hence, whatever good was in him, did not originate from the thinking of the flesh excited by the propensities, and traditions of Gamaliel; but from "the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus"; that is, from the influence of "the testimony of God" concerning "the things of the kingdom and name of Jesus Christ," upon "the fleshy tablet of his heart," most assuredly believed. Submission to this "made me free," says he, "from the law of sin and death." This attests the truth of the Lord's saying, that "if the truth made a man free, he should be free indeed." Sin, though still in the flesh, should no more reign in his mortal body, nor have dominion over him.

If it were not for the law, or truth, of God, we should not know what sin is; for, says the apostle, "I had not known sin, but by the law"; "for without the law, sin is dead." If a man committed theft, or adultery, or any other thing, he would not know whether he did right or wrong in God's esteem, if God had not said they shall not be done. The lower animals steal, kill, and obey their propensities uncontrolled; but, in so doing, they do not sin, because God has made them with the ability and disposition so to do, and has not forbidden them. Wrong consists not in any particular act of which we are capable; but in that act being contrary to the letter and spirit of the divine testimony: in other words, right is the doing of the will of God. Hence, if we saw a man bowing down before an image of the Virgin Mary, which is death by His law, and He commanded us to kill him, we should do wrong to refuse, although He has said, "Thou shalt not kill." Men have lost sight of this truth. They know not, or seem not to know, that the only true standard of right and wrong, truth and error, is the divine law. Hence, they inflict upon themselves and one another all sorts of pains and penalties, making their lives miserable, because of nonconformity to standards of faith and morals, which know no other paternity than the serpent-thinking of sinful flesh.

Sin was in the world from the fall to the giving of the law through

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Moses. But it did not appear to be sin to those who obeyed its impulses; because, there being no such law as the Mosaic, "the sons of God" did not know when they might have erred. They were not held accountable to any future retribution for doing things, which, under Moses' law, were punishable with death. They were amenable only to "the way of the Lord," even as the disciples of Jesus are at this day. This required them to walk by faith in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, whose love was shed abroad in their hearts by the testimony they believed.

The Serpent in the flesh shows itself in individuals in all the colours of its skin. It manifests itself in all the deceptions men practise upon themselves and one another. Its most insidious and dangerous manifestations emanate from the pulpit, and ecclesiastical thrones. In these, the Serpent presents himself to mankind, presumptuously entertaining them with things he does not understand. From thence he delights them with the assurance of wisdom upon principles in harmony with their nature. "God doth not mean," saith he, "exactly what He says. Trouble not your consciences about the letter of His word. He knows that the circumstances in which you are placed prevent a rigid construction of it. Besides, the times are changed, and the world is better than it used to be. He takes the will for the deed. The spirit is everything; the letter is nothing; for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. Eat, then, and drink, and be merry. Be diligent in business, fervent in the cause of your church, serving your clergy; and when you die, ye shall be as gods in the elysian fields!"

But, the serpent in the flesh manifests itself in all the high places of the earth. It obtrudes itself upon all occasions, and through all the channels of human life. Popes, cardinals, and priests; bishops, ministers, and deacons; emperors, kings, and presidents; with all who sustain them, and execute their behests, are but the fleshly media through which the thinking of the flesh finds expression. They are "the high things that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God," which are to be cast down. They are faithless of this knowledge, which they make of no effect by their traditions; and "whatsoever is not of faith is sin." My business will be to show what this knowledge is; and, if it be found that I speak not according to "the law and the testimony" it will be because there is no light in me; and that, like them, I speak my own thoughts as of the flesh, and not according to the gospel of the kingdom of God.

As I have remarked before, sin is personified by Paul as "preeminently a sinner"; and by another apostle, as "the Wicked One." In this text, he says, "Cain was of that Wicked One, and slew his brother." There is precision in this language which is not to be disregarded in the interpretation. Cain was of the Wicked One; that is, he was a son of sin -- of the serpent-sin, or original transgression. The Mosaic narrative of facts is interrupted at the end of the sixth verse of the third chapter. The fact passed over there, though implied in the seventh verse, is plainly stated in the first verse

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of the third chapter. These texts conjoined read thus: "And Eve gave unto her husband, and he did eat with her. And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived. And the eyes of them were both opened, and they knew that they were naked." Now, here was a conception in sin, the originator of which was the Serpent. When, therefore, in the "set time" afterwards, "Eve bare Cain," though procreated by Adam, he was of the Serpent, seeing that he suggested the transgression which ended in the conception of Cain. In this way, sin in the flesh being put for the Serpent, Cain was of that Wicked One, the pre-eminent sinner, and the first-born of the Serpent's seed.

Now, they who do the works of the flesh are the children of the Wicked One, or of sin in the flesh; on the like principle that those Jews only were the children of Abraham who did the works of Abraham. But they did not the deeds of Abraham, but evil deeds. They were liars, hypocrites and murderers: therefore, said Jesus, "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye are willing to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and stood not in the truth, because there is no truth in him." We have seen in what sense this is affirmed of the Serpent, the unaccountable and irresponsible author of sin. Every son of Adam is "conceived in sin and shapen in iniquity," and therefore "sinful flesh"; on the principle that "what is born of the flesh is flesh." If he obey the impulses of his flesh, he is like Cain, "of the Wicked One"; but if he believe the "exceeding great and precious promises of God," obey the law of faith, and put to death unlawful obedience to his propensities, he becomes a son of the living God, and a brother and a joint-heir of the Lord Jesus Christ of the glory to be revealed in the last time.

But serpent-sin, being a constituent of human nature, is treated of in the scripture in the aggregate, as well as in its individual manifestations. The "lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life," generated in our nature by sin, and displayed in all the children of sin, taken in the aggregate constitute "the world," which stands opposed to God. Serpent-sin in the flesh is the god of the world, who possesses the glory of it. Hence, to overcome the world is to overcome the Wicked One; because sin finds its expression in the things of the world. These things are the civil and ecclesiastical polities, and social institutions of the nations, which are based upon "the wisdom that descendeth not from above" -- the serpent wisdom of the flesh. If this be admitted, it is easy to appreciate the full force of the saying, "The friendship of the world is enmity against God. Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." Let no more, then, who would have God's favour, seek the honour and glory of the world in Church or State; for promotion in either of them can only be attained by sacrificing the principles of God's truth upon the altar of popular favour, or of princely patronage. Let no man envy men in place and power. It is their misfortune, and will be their ruin; and though many of them profess

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to be very pious, and to have great zeal for religion; yea, zeal as flaming as the scribes and Pharisees of old; they are in friendship with the world, which in return heaps upon them its riches, and honour, and therefore they are the enemies of God. It is unnecessary to indicate them in detail. If the reader understand the scripture, he can easily discern them. Wherever the gospel of the kingdom is supplanted by sectarian theology, there is a stronghold of "the carnal mind, which is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." This is a rule to which there is no exception; and the grand secret of that formality, coldness, and spiritual death, which are said to paralyse "the churches." They are rich in all things, but the truth; and of that there is a worse than Egyptian scarcity.

THE PRINCE OF THIS WORLD.

"The prince of this world shall be cast out."

Sin made flesh, whose character is revealed in the works of the flesh, is the Wicked One of the world. He is styled by Jesus oJ a[rcwn tou` covrmou touvtou the Prince of this world. Kosmos, rendered world in this phrase, signifies, that order of things constituted upon the basis of sin in the flesh, and styled the kingdom of Satan, as opposed to the kingdom of God: which is to be established upon the foundation of "the word made flesh" obedient unto death. Incarnated sin, and incarnated obedience, are the bases of the two hostile kingdoms, of God and of the adversary. The world is Satan's kingdom; therefore it is, that "the saints," or people of God, both Israelites outwardly, and "Israelites indeed," are a dispersed and persecuted community. Satan's kingdom is the kingdom of sin. It is a kingdom in which "sin reigns in the mortal body," and thus has dominion over men. It is quite fabulous to locate it in a region of ghosts and hobgoblins, remote from, or under the earth, where Pluto reigns as "God of Hell." This notion is a part of the wisdom of those fleshly thinkers, who, as the apostle says, "professing themselves to be wise, became fools"; a wisdom, too, which "God hath made foolishness" by "the light of the glorious gospel of Christ." The kingdom of sin is among the living upon the earth; and it is called the kingdom of Satan, because "all the power of the enemy," or adversary, of God and His people, is concentrated and incarnated in it. It is a kingdom teeming with religion, or rather forms of superstition, all of which have sprung from the thinking of sinful flesh. This is the reason why men hate, or neglect, or disparage, the Bible. If the leaders of the people were to speak honestly they would confess that they did not understand it. Their systems of divinity are the untoward thinkings of sinful flesh; and they know that they cannot interpret the Bible intelligibly according to their principles. At all events they have not yet accomplished it. Hence, one class have forbidden their people the use of the scriptures at all, and

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have placed it among prohibited books. Another class advocates them, not because it walks by the light of them, but because they hate the tyranny of Rome. These, in their public exhibitions, substitute their sermonizings for "reasoning out of the scriptures," and "expounding out of the law of Moses and the Prophets." Thus they neglect the Bible, or use it only as a book of maxims and mottoes for their sermons; which, for the most part, have as much to do with the subject treated of in the text as with the science of gymnastics, or perpetual motion. But the carnal policy does not end here. The neglect of the preachers might be supplied by the searching of the scriptures by the people themselves. But this is discouraged by disparagements from the pulpit. The word is proclaimed to be "a dead letter. "; the prophecies are said to be unintelligible; the Apocalypse incomprehensible, and utterly bewildering; that it is necessary to go to college to study divinity before it can be judiciously explained; and so forth. The people for whom I write, know this to be the truth. But what is the English of all this? It is that the pulpit orators and newspaper scribes are consciously ignorant of "the sure word of prophecy": so that, in order to maintain their ascendancy, they must repress the enterprise of the people, lest they should become "wiser than their teachers"; and find that they could do infinitely better without their services than with them, and thus their occupation would be gone. As for a college education in divinity qualifying boys for "preaching the word," the absurdity of the conceit is manifest in the fact that the "college-bred divines" are all at variance among themselves upon its meaning. Call a convention of priests and preachers of all religious sects and parties, and assign to them the work of publishing a scriptural and unanimous reply to the simple question, What do the scriptures teach as the measure of faith, and rule of conduct, to him who would inherit the Kingdom? Let it be such a reply as would stand the scrutiny of deep and earnest investigations -- and what does the reader expect would be the result? Would their knowledge of all the languages living and dead; of Euclid's Elements; of Liguori, Bellarmine, Luther, Calvin, and Arminius; of the mythologies of the Greeks and Romans; of all the creeds, confessions, catechisms and articles of "Christendom"; of logic, ancient and modern; of the art of sermonizing; and of all religious controversies extant: -- would their acquaintance with such lore as this bring them to unanimity; and cause them to manifest themselves as "workmen that need not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth? " What can we reason upon this point, but from what we know? Experience, then, teaches us that their performance of such a thing, so simple and easy in itself, would be utterly impracticable; for "the thinking of the flesh is enmity against God"; and until they throw away their traditions, and study the Word, which is very different from "studying divinity," they will continue as they are, perhaps unconsciously, the perverters and enemies of the truth.

The kingdom of Satan is manifested under various phases. When

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the Word was embodied in sinful flesh, and dwelt among the Jews, the Kosmos was constituted of the Roman world, which was then based upon the institutions of paganism. After these were suppressed, the kingdom of the adversary assumed the Constantinian form, which was subsequently changed in the west to the Papal and Protestant order of things; and in the east to the Mohammedan. These phases, however, no more affect the nature of the kingdom than the changes of the moon alter her substance. The lord that dominates over them all from the days of Jesus to the present time is Sin, the incarnate accuser and adversary of the law of God, and therefore styled "the Devil and Satan."

The words 'o arxwn signify the prince, or one invested with power. All persons in authority are styled a[rconte" in the New Testament, such as magistrates, and chiefs among the people. Hence, the archoµn of the archoµns would be the chief magistrate of the kingdom. Now, sin in its sovereign manifestations among the nations executes its will and pleasure through the civil and ecclesiastical authorities of a state. What, then, is decreed by emperors, kings, popes, and subordinate rulers, are the mandates of "the Prince of the World," who works in them all to gratify their own lusts, oppress the people, and "make war against the saints," with all the energy they possess. Taken collectively from the chief magistrate to the lowest, they are styled ajrcaiv and ejxousivai, principolities and powers; the cosmocravtore" tou` saovtou" tou` aijw`no" touvton, the world-rulers of the darkness of this age; who are ta; pneumatica; th`" ponhriva" ejn toi`" ejpouranivoi," the spirituals of wickedness in the high places of the kingdoms. So the apostle writes of the rulers of the world in his day; and from the conduct they now exhibit before the nations in all their kingdoms, it is clear that the style is as characteristic of the rulers, and of these times, as it was in the first century of the Christian era. Iniquity has only changed its form and mode of attack against the truth. The world's rulers, temporal and spiritual, are as essentially hostile to the gospel of the kingdom as ever. They could not embrace it and retain the friendship of the world. This is as impossible now as at the beginning. But things are now quiet with respect to the gospel; not because the world is reconciled to it, but because there are scarcely any to be found who have intelligence of it, faith and courage enough earnestly to contend for it as it was originally delivered to the saints.

In apostolic times, it was the privilege of the church to make known to the world-rulers "the manifold wisdom of God." This mission brought the disciples of Christ into contact with them, as is related in the Acts. When they stood before these men of sin, in whom the thinking of sinful flesh worked strongly, the truth of God proclaimed to them brought out the evil of the flesh in all its malignity. They imprisoned the disciples of Christ; threatened them with death; tempted them with rewards; and when they could not shake their fidelity to the truth, tormented them with the cruellest tortures they could invent. The apostle styles these the meqodeivai tou` diabovlou, the artifices, or wiles of the accuser: against which he exhorts

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believers to stand firm, being panoplied with the whole armour of God. The war being thus commenced by an attack upon the strongholds of power, the magistrates, urged on by the priests, were not content to take vengeance against them when they came in their way; but they obtained imperial decrees to hunt them out, and destroy them. This they did with destructive energy and effect. They calumniated the disciples, charging them with the most licentious and impious practices; and employed spies and informers, who personated brethren, to walk among them, and watch an opportunity of accusing them before the judge. These adversaries of the Christian, being actuated by the same spirit of sinful flesh, the apostle terms oJ ajntivdico" uJmw`n diavbolo," your adversary the accuser; and to express the ferocious spirit that impelled the enemy, he compared him to a roaring lion, walking about, on the look out for prey. "Resist him," says he; not by wrestling with flesh and blood in personal combat; but by continuing "steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are inflicted in the world upon your brethren."

To walk being dead in trespasses and sins, is to live according to the course (aijwvn) of this world. So says the apostle. The course of the world is according to the thinking of sinful flesh, in whatever way it may be manifested or expressed. If a man embrace one of the religions of Satan's kingdom, he is still "dead in trespasses and sins," and walks according to the course of the world. In brief, anything short of faith in the gospel of the kingdom, and obedience to the law of faith, is walking according to the course of the world. To walk in sin is to walk in this course. Hence, the apostle terms walking according to the course of the world, walking according to the Prince of the Power of the Air -- oJ a[rcwn th`" ejxousiva" tou/ ajevro": which he explains as "the Spirit now working in the children of disobedience." The "power of the air," or aerial power, is the political power of the world, which is animated and pervaded by the spirit of disobedience, which is sin in the flesh; and styled above, the Prince of the Power of the Air. This is that prince of whom Jesus spoke, saying, "Now is the judgment (crivsi") of this world; now shall the Prince of this World be cast out," that is, "judged." The key to this is suggested in what follows: "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all unto me. This he said, signifying what death he should die."

The judgment of the Prince of the World by God, was exhibited in the contest between Jesus and the civil and spiritual power of Judea. "Its poison was like the poison of a serpent," when "the iniquity of his heels compassed him about." "The battle was against him" for a time. They bruised him in the heel. "The enemy smote his life down to the ground; and made him to dwell in darkness, as those that had been long dead." But here the serpent-power of sin ended. It had stung him to death by the strength of the law, which cursed every one that was hanged upon a tree. Jesus being cursed upon this ground, God "condemned sin in the flesh,"

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through him. Thus was sin, the Prince of the World, condemned, and the world with him according to the existing course of it. But Jesus rose again, leading captivity captive; and so giving to the world an earnest, that the time would come when death should be abolished and sin, the power of death, destroyed. Sinful flesh was laid upon him, "that through death, he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil," or sin in the flesh: for, "for this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy

THE WORKS OF THE DEVIL."

It is clear to my mind that sin is the thing referred to by the apostle in the word devil. The sting of the Serpent is its power of destruction. The "sting of death" is the power of death; and that, the apostle says, in one place, "is sin"; and in another, "is the devil." There are not two powers of death; but one only. Hence, the devil and sin, though different words, represent the same thing. "Sin had the power of death," and would have retained it, if the man, who was obedient unto death, had not gained the victory over it. But, thanks be to God, the earth is not to be a charnel house for ever; for he that overcame the world in his own person, is destined hereafter to "take away the sin of the world," and to "make all things new." Every curse will then cease, and death be swallowed up in victory; for death shall be no more.

The works of the devil, or evil one, are the works of sin. Individually, they are "the works of the flesh" exhibited in the lives of sinners; collectively, they are on a larger scale, as displayed in the polities of the world. All the institutions of the kingdom of the adversary are the works which have resulted from the thinking of sinful flesh; though happily for the saints of God, "the powers that be" are controlled by Him. They cannot do what they please. Though defiant of His truth, and His hypocritical and malignant enemies, He serves Himself of them; and dashes them against one another when the enormity of their crimes, reaching to heaven, demands His terrible rebuke.

Among the works of sin are the numerous diseases which transgression has brought upon the world. The Hebrews, the idiom of whose language is derived from the Mosaic narrative of the origin of things, referred disease to sin under the names of the devil and Satan. Hence, they inquired, "Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? " A woman "bowed together with a spirit of infirmity for eighteen years," is said to have been "bound of Satan," or the adversary, for that time; and her restoration to health is termed "loosing her from the bond." Paul also writes in the same idiom to the disciples at Corinth, commanding them to deliver the incestuous brother "unto Satire for the destruction of the flesh"; that is, inflict disease upon him, that he may be brought to repentance, "that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus."

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Thus he was "judged and chastened of the Lord that he might not be condemned with the world." This had the desired effect; for he was overwhelmed with sorrow. Wherefore, he exhorts the spiritually gifted men of the body to forgive and comfort, or restore him to health, "lest Satan should get an advantage over them" by the offender being reduced to despair: "for," says the apostle "we are not ignorant of his devices," or those of sin in the flesh, which is very deceitful. Other of the Corinthians were offenders in another way. They were very disorderly in the celebration of the Lord's Supper, eating and drinking condemnation to themselves. "For this cause," says he -- that is, because they sinned thus -- "many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep," or are dead. Many other cases might be adduced from scripture to show the connection between sin and disease; but these are sufficient. If there were no moral evil in the world, there would be no physical evils. Sin and punishment are as cause and effect in the divine economy. God does not willingly afflict, but is long-suffering and kind. If men, however, will work sin, they must lay their account with "the wages of sin," which is disease, famine, pestilence, the sword, misery and death. But let the righteous rejoice that the enemy will not always triumph in the earth. The Son of God was manifested to destroy him and all his works; which, by the power and blessing of the Father, he will assuredly do.

THE GREAT DRAGON

o ofiv o arcaiov o kaloumenov diabolov kai o satanav o planwn thn oikoumenhn olhn

"The old Serpent, surnamed the Accuser and the Adversary, who - deceives the whole habitable. "

The oijconmevnh o{lh, or whole habitable, in the days of the apostles, was that part of the earth's surface which acknowledged the dominion of Rome. Upon this platform had been erected the largest empire then known to the world. By its imperial constitution was aggregated in one dominion all "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life." These lusts found free course through the constituted authorities of the pagan church and state. Of the horrors perpetrated upon the world lying under them by their wanton riot, the reader will find an ample account in the history of pagan Rome. In the progress and maturity of this dominion, sin reigned triumphant over the human race. Its lusts were let loose, and the propensities alone directed the policy of the world. The only antagonism experienced by sin was established in Judea. There, as we have seen, the first battle was fought, and the first victory won over sin, by the Son of Mary. These were the two combatants -- sin, working in the children of di obedience; and "the truth," in the person of Jesus. Sin bruised him in the heel; but God healed him of his wound, and so prepared him for the future contest, when he should bruise sin in the head. Now, sin could only have crucified him by the hands of power; for as this world is a con-

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crete, and not an indigested concourse of abstractions, sin, which in the abstract "is a transgression of law," must be incorporate to be competent to act. Sin corporealized attacked Jesus through the Roman power instigated by the chief priests of Israel. At this crisis, sin was brought to a head, and ready to sting its victim to death. The event was now about to happen, which the Lord God predicted, saying to the Serpent, "Thou shalt bruise his heel." No one would be simple enough to suppose that the literal Serpent was to do this in propria persona. He was, however, to do it, in the sense of his being the instrumental cause of sin; which, through those that should afterwards obey it, should inflict a violent death upon the son of the woman. Hence, the Roman power, which put Jesus to death (for the Jews had not power to do it) represented the Serpent in the transaction. And, as sin had been working in the children of disobedience for 4,000 years; and manifesting itself in the Ninevite, Assyrian, Chaldean, Persian, and Macedonian empires, whose power was at length absorbed into the Roman, the last came to be symbolized as "the Old Serpent." When the woman's seed rose from among the dead, and "led captivity captive," the war upon the Old Serpent began in good earnest. The manner in which it was conducted on both sides, may be learned from the Acts of the Apostles. The parties were the Jewish and the Roman power on the one hand, and the apostles and their brethren on the other. These enemies were the two seeds; the former, the "Seed of the Serpent"; and the latter, by constitution in Christ Jesus, the "Seed of the Woman." Hence, in the Apocalypse, "the Old Serpent," and "the Woman," became the symbols by which they are represented. During 280 years; that is, from the Day of Pentecost, a. d. 33, to a. d. 313, when Constantine established himself in Rome, the contest raged between the pagan power and the woman with intense fury. She was calumniated, accused, and tortured, by the Old Serpent without pity. Hence the Spirit of God surnamed him Diavbolo," or the Accuser; and Satana`," or the Adversary; so that, when he was "cast out" from the government of the empire, "a loud voice" is represented as "saying in the heaven, Now is come deliverance, and power, and the kingdom of our God, and the dominion of his Christ: for the Accuser of our brethren, who accuseth them before God day and night, is cast down." The history of this period is a striking illustration of the "enmity" God has put between the seed of the Serpent and the seed of the woman. In the war between them the heel of her seed was bruised by the Serpent power, as it had bruised that of their great Captain; but thanks be to God who gives them the victory, the time is at the door, when they will leave the dead, and with him bruise the Old Serpent's head upon the mountains of Israel. There can be no friendship between these parties. Death or victory is the only alternative. There can be no peace in the world till one or other be suppressed. The "enmity" is the essential hostility betwixt sin and God's law, which

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is the truth. Either truth must conquer sin, or sin must abolish the truth; but compromise there can be none. I have great faith in the power of truth, because I have faith in God. He is pledged to give it the victory; and though deceivers in church and state may triumph for the time, and tyrants "destroy the earth," their end is certain and their destruction sure.

The Dragon is the organic symbol of the Old Serpent power, as the Leopard with four heads and four wings was of the quadrupartite constitution of the Macedonian. The Dragon appears in four principal scenes in the Apocalypse; first, in taking him who hindered out of the way a. d. 313; second, in the surrendering of the power, throne, and extensive dominion of the west, to papalized imperio-regal Europe, a. d. 800; third, in the present crisis of the gathering of "the powers that be" to their last conflict for the world's dominion; and fourth, in the suppression of the Serpentpower by the Lord Jesus, when he bruises his head, and restrains him for 1,000 years. As the symbol of the Old Serpent in its pagan constitution, with Rome as his satanic seat, he is styled "the great Red Dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads"; but after the revolution by which paganism was suppressed, the serpent-power of Rome is simply styled "the Dragon." About a. d. 334, a new capital was built, and dedicated, by Constantine, and called New Rome by an imperial edict; which, however, was afterwards superseded by the name of Constantinople. Old and New Rome were now the top capitals of the Dragon-dominion; and so continued to be until Old Rome was surrendered to the imperio-papal power of the West. New Rome, or Constantinople, then became the sole capital of the Dragon empire; and Old Rome the capital of the Seven-headed and Ten-horned Beast; an arrangement which continued for more than a thousand years: so that "they do homage to the Dragon, and they do homage to the Beast," that is, they of the east are subject to Constantinople; and they of the west, to Rome.

But the time is at hand when the dominion, divided between the Dragon and the Beast, may be re-united; and the old Roman territory, the ojicoumevnh o{lh, with an immense addition of domain, again subject to one sovereign. This may be by the fall of the Two-horned Beast, and the expulsion of the Turks from Constantinople, which will then become the throne of the dominion, represented by Nebuchadnezzar's Image, which is to be broken to pieces in "the latter-days." The establishment of this sovereignty being accomplished, it stands upon the earth as the Accuser and Adversary of God's people Israel; and will make war upon them; and will combat with the faithful and True One, and his saints, as did the Old Serpent-power against Michael Constantine and his confederates in the early part of the fourth century. The result will be the same. The victory will be with Jesus, the G0reat Prince of Israel, who

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will break his power to pieces upon the mountains of Israel in the Battle of Armageddon. This great Adversary of the latter days, is the Northern Autocrat for the time being. He is styled Gog by Ezekiel. In him will be acuminated "all the power of the enemy"; that is, of Sin, imperially manifested in a dominion, such as the world has never seen before. Because of this, it is styled the Old Serpent; and because it will exist upon the old Roman territory, it is called the Dragon: and from its hostility to God and His truth, it is "surnamed the Devil and Satan."

THE MAN OF SIN.

"The Man of Sin, the Son of Perdition."

The Dragon, the Old Serpent, surnamed the Devil and Satan, being representative of Sin in its imperial constitution, as manifested in the past, present, and future, upon "the Habitable," or Roman territory; the Man of Sin is that dynasty, "whose coming was after the energy of the Adversary with all power, and tokens, and prodigies of falsehood, and with all the deceit of iniquity in them that perish." This is what he was in his coming, or presence. The power is styled, "the Man of Sin" not because it is to be found in only one man, but because it is sin preeminently incarnate in an order of men. This order occupying one throne, was to "be revealed" out of an apostasy from the original apostolic faith; but before its presence could be manifested, a certain obstacle was to "be taken out of the way." No order of men such as the apostle describes, could make its appearance upon the territory of the Roman Dragon, so long as the constitution of the empire continued pagan. This, then, was the obstacle to be removed. While it continued, the elements of the new power were at work in the Christian body; but incapable of the exercise of political authority. These elements are collectively styled "the Mystery of Iniquity," the open manifestation of which was withheld for a time. When the "Red" or pagan aspect of the Dragon was changed for the "Catholic," by the victories of Constantine, the opposing power was removed; in fact, the Adversary, or Satan, now a professor of Christianity, took "the Mystery of Iniquity" under his patronage; and as he found paganism no longer fit for the contest against the apostolic faith, he determined to change his weapon, and to fight it with the apostasy in the name of Christ. Hence, the first thing he did was to impose this apostasy on the world as its religion. He married it to the state, and established it by law. The National Establishment, as it now became, assumed the character of "Mother Church"; and the community in Old Rome, with its bishop now converted into the chief magistrate of the city at its head, claimed to be the mistress of all churches. The apostasy being united to Satan, became the open enemy of God, and the worse than pagan persecutor of His truth. Its name is Catholic; and since the division of the Dragon territory into east and west, and the great schism about image-worship, it is surnamed Greek Catholic, and

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Roman Catholic. The undivided catholic apostasy in its first establishment is represented in the Apocalypse by "a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars." This woman, after nine months of years, or "a set time," and not long before she was clothed with the imperial robes, was "pained to be delivered" of her child, which had been conceived in her by sin. As the betrothed of the Second Adam, the Serpent had beguiled her, and had corrupted her mind from the simplicity that is in Christ. Part of her body had embraced another Jesus, another Spirit, and another gospel; by which they were so corrupted that they were prepared to take the sword; declare for the first military chieftain, whose anti-pagan ambition of supreme power should induce him to embrace their cause; and to turn Christianity into a State Religion. This party found a semi-pagan suited to their purpose in Constantine, surnamed "the Great." When he avowed himself their champion, all the power of the Old Serpent was brought to bear against him and his confederates. They fought; and victory perched upon the standard of the Cross, now become "the mark" of the Apostasy.

Constantine was the man-child of sin, who began that iron-rule, which, in the name of Christianity, has soaked the dust of the earth with the best and noblest blood of its inhabitants. He set himself up as the arbiter of faith, and the corrector of heretics; and though pretending to believe, yet refusing to be immersed till within three days of his death, that he might commit all the sins he would be likely to do before he was baptized for remission of sins -- yet he is belauded by ecclesiastics as a great and pious Christian! What Constantine began, his successors on the Dragon throne, Julian excepted, perfected. For the Bishop of Old Rome, they conceived an especial veneration and regard; seeing that he was more of a hypocrite, and as much of a serpent as themselves. They energized him with all power, and set him up as the supreme pontiff of the world. This God upon earth, whom the pagan predecessors knew not, they "honoured with gold, with silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things." A humble bishop of an obscure society in Rome, they acknowledged as a god, and increased with glory; so that "by the energy of Satan with all power," the dominion founded by the man-child of the apostasy was matured; and at length possessed by the Roman bishop as the full-grown Man of Sin.

The presence of the Man of Sin in Rome for upwards of twelve centuries past may be determined by Paul's description of him. If we find an order of men there answering to the character recorded against them, we may know that the Man of Sin has been revealed. He describes him as one "who opposes and exalts himself above every one called a god, or an object of veneration; so that he sits in the temple of the god as a god, exhibiting himself that he is a god." This in few words is highly descriptive of the Popes. "God" in the passage signifies a ruler of whatever kind; for "god" in the scriptures is applied to angels, magistrates, and the whole nation of

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Israel; as "I said, ye are gods; but ye shall die as one of the princes"; and "worship him, ye gods"; the former being addressed to Israel; the latter, to the angels concerning Jesus. The "temple of the god" is St. Peter's at Rome. Now, the history of the papacy shows the applicability of the description to the Popes, and to them exclusively. They have systematically opposed and exalted themselves above every ruler, whether emperors or kings, and above all bishops and priests; so that they have sat in St. Peter's as gods, exhibiting themselves thus, because they claim to be gods upon earth. The incarnate devilism of these blasphemers of God's name, and of His people, and murderers of His saints, cannot be surpassed by any power that could possibly arise. They are essentially sin corporealized in human shape; and therefore most emphatically the order of the Man of Sin; as "the Holy, Apostolic, and Roman Catholic Church" is the "Mother of Harlots, and of all the abominations of the earth."

Paul styles this dynastic order 'o anomos, the Lawless One; and because of its destiny, "the Son of Perdition." In the Apocalypse, it is represented by an Eighth Head of the Beast, which divides "the habitable" with the Dragon. Of this head, the Spirit saith, "It goeth to perdition." It is a head, which exercised both civil and pontifical dominion over the west; and when resolved into other symbols its conjoint dominion is represented by a Two horned Beast; and an image of the sixth head of the Seven headed Beast; the former symbolizing the Austrian power; and the latter, his ally, the Lawless One. These are both doomed to perdition together. Their present intrigues are contributing to kindle a flame in Europe, that will convert it into "a lake of fire burning with brimstone." Into this will the Beast, and the Lawless One, his pseudo-prophet, be "cast alive." The dominions they represent will be utterly destroyed by the lightning and thunderbolts of war; and their power transferred to the Dragon, the Old Serpent, surnamed the Devil and Satan, of whom I have already spoken in the last section. The binding of the Dragon will terminate the struggle which began in 1848. Sin will then be chained; and all flesh implicated in maintaining its ascendancy, be put to shame before the universe of God.

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The trial of the Transgressors -- Of the Literal and the Allegorical -- The sentence upon the Serpent particularized -- The "Peace and Safety" cry -- Jesus came not to send peace, but a sword -- The Peace Society the enemy of God -- Cain, Abel, and Seth -- Atheism defined -- Cain rejected as the progenitor of the Woman's Seed, and Seth appointed -- The Antediluvian apostasy -- The Cainites and Sethites distinct Societies -- Their union the ruin of the old world of which eight sons of Seth only survive -- The Foundation of the World -- The sentence upon Woman -- Her social position defined -- The sentence upon Adam -- The Constitution of Sin -- Of sin as a physical quality of the flesh -- Of the hereditary nature of Jesus -- Of "original sin" -- Men, sinners in a two-fold sense -- The Constitution of Righteousness -- Men become saints by adoption -- The Three Witnesses -- The "new birth" explained -- The Two Principles -- Of "the light within" -- The scripture revelation the divine principle of illumination -- The awful condition of "the church" -- Of the Hidden Man of the Heart.

In the previous chapter, I have treated of the introduction of sin into the world; its immediate effects upon the transgressors; and of some of its remoter consequences upon their posterity. We left Adam and his companion hid among the trees of the garden, greatly alarmed at the voice of God; and overwhelmed with shame at the condition to which they had reduced themselves. But, though hid, as they supposed, they soon found the truth of the saying that is written, that "there is not any creature that is not manifest in his sight; but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do." When the Lord God called to Adam, he said, in answer to the question, "Where art thou? " "I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself."

This was the truth as far as it went; but it was not the whole truth. Fear, shame, and concealment are plainly avowed; but why he was ashamed he was not ingenuous enough to confess. The Lord God, however, knowing from the mental constitution He had bestowed upon him, that man could not be ashamed unless his conscience was defiled by transgression of His law in fact or supposition, directed His next inquiry so as at once to elicit a confession of the whole truth. "Who told thee," said He, "that thou wast naked? " Did I tell thee, or did any of the Elohim? Or, "Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? " Thou hast no cause to be afraid of Me, or ashamed of thine appearance as I have formed thee; unless thou hast sinned against Me by transgressing My law. Thou hast heard My voice, and stood upright and naked in My presence before, and weft not ashamed; what hast thou done? Why coverest thou thy transgression by hiding thine iniquity in thy bosom? But Adam, still unwilling to be blamed according to his demerits, in confessing reflected upon the Lord God, and turned evidence against Eve. "The woman," said he, "whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave

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me of the tree, and I did eat." As much as to say, If thou hadst not put her in my way, and I had been left to myself, I should not have done it. It is she who is chiefly to blame; for she not only ate herself, but tempted me.

The offence being traced to Eve, the Lord Elohim said to her, "What is this that thou hast done? " But her ingenuousness was no more conspicuous than Adam's. She confessed that she had eaten, but excused herself on the ground of a deception having been practised upon her by the serpent: "The serpent beguiled me," said she, "and I did eat. "

There is no evidence that the Serpent either touched the tree, or ate of its fruit. Indeed, if he had he would have committed no offence; for the law was not given to him, but to Adam and Eve only; and "where there is no law there is no trangression." Besides, Paul says Eve was the first in the transgression. The Lord God, therefore, did not interrogate the Serpent as He had the others. He had, by his clumsy interpretation of what he had seen and heard, corrupted Eve's mind from the simplicity of faith, and obedience to the divine law; but he was incapable of showing upon what moral grounds he had called in question its literality. He thought they would not surely die; because he thought they could as well eat of the tree of life as of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. He thought nothing of the immorality of the Lord God's solemnly declaring a thing, and not performing it. Cognizance of the morality of thoughts and actions was beyond the sphere of his mentality. With all his superior shrewdness, he was neither responsible, nor able to give an account.

All the evidence in the case being elicited, the Lord God proceeded to pass sentence upon the accused in the order of their conviction. Being incriminated by Eve, and having, in effect, accused God of lying, the Lord began with him, and said, "Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life; and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: He shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."

This sentence was both literal and allegorical, like the rest of the things exhibited in the Mosaic account; being "representations of the knowledge and the truth." For the information of the unlearned reader I remark, that to allegorize is to speak in such a way that something else is intended than is contained in the words literally construed. The historical allegory has a double sense, namely, the literal and the figurative; and the latter is as real, as the former is essential to its existence. Thus, the literal serpent was allegorical of "sin in the flesh"; which is therefore figuratively styled the serpent, etc., as before explained. The literal formation of Eve out of Adam's side was allegorical of the formation of the church out of him, of whom Adam was the figure; therefore, the church is the figurative Eve, and its temptation illustrated by that of the literal one. The

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examples of this are almost infinite. That of Abraham, Sarah and Hagar as allegorized by Paul in the text below, is a beautiful illustration of the relation between the literal and the figurative, as they are employed in the scriptures of truth. The discernment of the due limit between them is acquired, not by rules, but by much and diligent study of the word.

The literal is the exact construction of the sentence as it reads, and is found in strict accordance with their natural habit, and mutual antipathy between serpents and mankind. They go upon the belly, and lick the dust; and by the deadly quality of their venom, or "sting," they are esteemed more hateful than any other creatures. In walking with a naked foot one would be bitten in the heel, whose retaliation would be instinctively to bruise the reptile's head. This is all perfectly natural; but what does it suggest?

Much that might be said upon the allegorical meaning of this passage is already before the reader. I shall add, therefore, by way of summary, the following particulars: --

1. The Serpent as the author of sin is allegorical of "sin in the flesh"; which is therefore called oJ ponhrov" "the Wicked One"; and symbolized in its personal and political agency by "the Serpent."

2. The putting of "enmity" between the Serpent and the woman is allegorical of the establishment of enmity between sin, incorporate in the institutions of the world, or the serpent: and the obedience of faith, embodied in the congregation of the Lord, which is the woman.

3. The "seed of the Serpent" is allegorical of those over whom sin reigns, as evinced in their obeying it in the lusts thereof. They are styled "the servants of sin"; or, "the tares."

4. The "seed of the woman" is allegorical of "the children of the kingdom, " or "the servants of righteousness." They are also termed "the good seed," who hear and understand the word of the kingdom, sown in their hearts as "incorruptible seed."

5. The seed of the Serpent, and the seed of the woman, are phrases to be taken in the singular and plural numbers. Plurally, in the sense of the fourth particular. and singularly, of two separate hostile personages.

6. The serpent-bruiser of the heel is the sixth, or Imperial, head of the Dragon, to be crushed at the period of its binding, in the person of the last of the Autocrats.

7. The head-bruiser of the dragon, the old serpent, surnamed the Devil and Satan, is emphatically the Seed of the woman, but not of the man.

The allegorical reading of the text founded upon these particulars is as follows: "I will put the enmity of that mode of thinking thou hast elicited in Eve and her husband against My law, between the powers that shall be hereafter, in consequence of what thou hast done, and the faithful and unblemished corporation I shall constitute: and I will put this enmity of the spirit against the flesh, and of the flesh against the spirit, between all who obey the lusts of the flesh which thou hast excited, and those of My institution who shall serve me:

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their Chief shall bear away the world's sin which thou hast originated, and shall destroy all the works that have grown out of it: and the sin-power shall wound him to death; but he shall recover it, and accomplish the work I now pre-ordain him to do."

THE PEACE AND SAFETY CRY.

"There is no peace to the wicked, saith God."

The allegorical signification of the sentence became the plan of "the foundation of the world," under the altered circumstances which sin had introduced. It constitutes the earth the arena of a terrible strife between two hostile powers, which was not to terminate until His law gained the ascendancy over the sin of the world, and but one sovereign will be obeyed by the sons of men. The enmity He put between these parties was not a mere unfriendly verbal disputation, but one which reeked of blood. It began with the dispute which caused Abel to lose his life, and has continued unto this day. For nearly 6,000 years has this enmity made the earth a field of blood, and yet the war is not ended. The sin-power still lords it over the world, and is marshaling its forces for a last decisive blow. The "powers that be" have laid low the saints of God in all the countries of their dominion; they have bruised them in the heel; and are now taking up their positions, and preparing themselves to arbitrate their relative and future destiny by the sword. They have forgotten, or are indifferent to, the enormities of the past. They know not that the righteous blood they have shed upon the earth cries loudly for vengeance in the ears of God. Truth, justice, and equity their souls hate; and all that they propose is to destroy the liberty and happiness of mankind; and to make eternal their own vicious and hateful rule.

But God is as just as He is full of goodness, mercy, and truth. "The death of his saints is precious in the sight of the Lord": and He will not permit them to go unavenged. The "powers that be" can, therefore, no more perpetually exist than convicted robbers and murderers can escape the punishment due to their crimes. The law of retribution to which God has assigned the adjudication of their punishment says, "Give them blood to drink, for they are deserving; because they have shed the blood of saints and prophets"; "Reward them even as they have rewarded you, and double unto them double according to their works. in the cup which they have filled, fill to them double."

But, though the scriptures of truth are so explicit with respect to the blasphemous and felonious character of the governments of the world. though they denounce the judgments of war, pestilence, and famine upon the nations subject to them. though they declare that the wicked are the Lord's sword to execute his judgments upon one another; though they most emphatically and solemnly aver that God says "there shall be no peace to the wicked"; and though men see, and profess to deplore, the whoredoms and witch-crafts of the Roman Jezebel, and the enormities of the cruel tyrants who pour out

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her victims' blood like water to uphold her: notwithstanding all this, there are multitudes of people who pretend to take the Bible as the rule of their faith. who claim to be "pious," and class themselves among the saints of the Lord: I say, men of these pretensions, headed by political and spiritual guides, are clamouring for the abolition of war, and the settlement of all inter-national differences by arbitration!

Such persons may be very benevolent, or very covetous; but they are certainly not very wise. Their outcry about "peace" evinces their ignorance of the nature of "sinful flesh," and of the testimony of God; or, if cognizant of them, their infidelity, and shallowness of mind. Before peace can be established in the world, "the enmity" which God has put between good and evil, in word and deed, must be abolished. Peace is to be deprecated as a calamity by the faithful, so long as the Roman Jezebel and her paramours are found among the living. "What peace, so long as her whoredoms and witchcrafts are so many? " Will they destroy the divisions among powers and people, which God's truth is ever calculated to make where it is received in whole or part? Arbitration indeed! And who are to be the arbitrators? The popes, cardinals, priests, emperors, and kings of the nations? Can justice, integrity, and good faith, proceed from such reprobates? Do the Quakers, and financial, or acquisitive, reformers imagine that a righteous arbitration could emanate from them upon any question in which the interests of nations as opposed to theirs were concerned? Really, the conceit of pious infidelity is egregiously presumptuous. If this peace mania be a specimen of "the light within," alas! how great is the darkness of that place which professes to be enlightened by it.

But the most absurd thing imaginable is that the arbitrationists profess to advocate peace upon scriptural grounds! Because one of the titles of the Lord is "the Prince of Peace," they argue that war is displeasing to God. and that Jesus came to establish peace as the result of preaching. But war is not displeasing to God any more than a rod is displeasing to him that uses it for correction. God instituted war when he put enmity between the serpent and the woman. It is a divine institution for the punishment of the transgressors of His law; and a most beneficent one too: for all the little liberty the world enjoys is attributable to the controversy of the tongue, the pen, and the sword. What would have been the fate of the thirteen trans-Atlantic Colonies, if they had been left to the arbitrative justice of George the Third's contemporaries? The heel of spiritual tyranny backed by the civil power, would have trampled upon them to this moment. The weak who contend for liberty and truth, have everything to dread from arbitration. With sword in hand, they may extort justice from the strong but, if under the necessity of expecting it at the conscience and tender mercies of "the powers that be," the award will be a mockery of justice, and an insult to the sufferings of the oppressed.

Yes, verily, the Lord Jesus is "the Prince of Peace"; and

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therefore, no peace society can give peace to the world. It is he alone who can establish "peace on earth and good will among men"; for he only is morally fit and potentially competent to do it. The peace of the arbitrationists is peace based upon the transgression of the divine law; and the hostility of the covenanters to the gospel of the kingdom. It is an impure peace. peace with the serpent power reigning over the blood-stained earth. Such a peace as this avaunt! Eternal war is better for the world than such a compromise with sin. The peace Messiah brings is "first pure." It is a peace the result of conquest. the tranquillity which succeeds the bruising of the Serpent's head. It is consequent upon the establishment of God's sovereignty over the nations, by the hand of him whom he hath prepared to "break in pieces the oppressor," and let the oppressed go free. "In his days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace so long as the moon endures. His enemies shall lick the dust; all nations shall serve him, and call him blessed." Then shall he judge among them, and rebuke them, and speak peace to them; and "they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."

But the Father did not send Jesus with the idea of bringing about this mighty revolution among the nations by preaching the gospel; neither did He propose to effect it in the absence of His Son. When he appeared in humiliation he came to take away peace from the earth, as both his words and history prove. "Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division. I am come to send fire upon the earth; and what will I if it be already kindled? " "I come not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set man at variance against his nearest and dearest relations. So that man's foes shall be they of his own household." This is the way the Prince of Peace spoke when on earth. The doctrine he taught is distasteful to the natural mind; and, by the purity of its principles, and astonishing nature of its promises, excites the enmity and incredulity of the flesh. Loving sin and hating righteousness, the carnal mind becomes the enemy and persecutor of those who advocate it. The enmity on the part of the faithless is inveterate: and where they have the power, they stir up war even at the domestic hearth. If the believer will agree to be silent, or to renounce his faith, there will then be "peace and love" such as the world, that "loves its own," is able to afford. But the true believers are not permitted to make any compromise of the kind. They are commanded to "contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints," and so long as they do this, they may lay their account with tribulation of various kinds. There is a vast deal of this false peace and spurious charity in the Protestant world. Men have become traitors to Christ, and betray him with their lips. They say, "O how we love the Lord! " and were he here they would doubtless kiss him; but, like Judas, they have colleagued with his

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enemies, and are as popular with the world as its god can possibly desire.

The truth is, judging from their arguments, the peace-mongers are not so man-loving as they pretend. The cry for peace is a piece of ventriloquism emanating from the pocket. Their strongest argument against war is based upon its cost. The taxes are burdensome because of the extravagance and warlike habits of past governments. This pinches them in the iron chest; and diminishes the profits of trade; and curtails the means of indulging the lusts of their flesh, of their eyes, and the pride of life. It is well these mammon-worshippers should feel the pinch. They are the enemies of God, and oblivious of His slaughtered saints, and, therefore, richly deserving of all the punishment the recklessness o the powers has entailed upon the world. Those who escape the sword and the famine groan under the expense of punishing the wicked at their own cost. Thus, the punishment re-acts upon all classes. I say, these peace-criers are the enemies of God; for with all their profession of piety, they are at peace with the world, and in high esteem and friendship with it; and "whosoever," says the scripture, "is a friend of the world is the enemy of God." Look at the peace congress at Paris, composed of popish priests, dissenting ministers, French politicians, self-illuminati of the Quaker School, English radicals, American priests of all colours, rationalists, infidels, etc., etc.,; all in such high favour with the liberticide dynasty of France, as to be let into "Egypt and Sodom" without passports, or custom-house scrutiny; and to be fêted by one of the state officials. In what way can the world show its friendship to the Peace Society more palpably; or the Society its reciprocity of feeling with the most godless and Christless portion of it? The Peace Society is the world's beloved friend. The world wants peace, that it may find a respite from the judgments of God for its iniquity; and that it may enrich itself by commerce, and enjoy itself in all the good things of fife. The Society is the world's employee; its zealous, utopian, missionary; and, therefore, individually and collectively "the enemy of God."

Still, even out of so impious a speculation as this Peace Society, "the wise who understand" may extract encouragement. They will discern a providence in the foundation of the Quaker sect. The unscriptural cry of "peace and safety" emanated from them. They have gained wealth in the temple of their god; and this, with their friend "the world," is a sufficient guarantee of their worth and respectability. Whatever they were in the beginning matters not; they are now the most popular of all religionists with the masses; to please whom a man must pander to their propensities. All sorts of anti-government factions colleague with the Quakers in their cry of peace; not because they love peace for its own sake; but by curtailing the resources of the state, and so necessitating the reduction of armies, they think they can the more easily supersede the existing tyrannies by a still worse one of their own, as it would doubtless prove. This unhallowed coalition proclaims its outcry to be "the world's cry.”

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We accept it as such. It is the cry of the world, which echoes in tones of thunder in the ears of the true believers. It is a cry, in the providence of God, which is a great "sign of the times"; announcing that "the Lord standeth at the door and knocks," and is about quickly and unexpectedly to appear. It is the world's cry, as the cry of a woman in travail, which has been extorted by sudden and tormenting pains. It blows a trumpet in the wise and understanding ear, sounding the approach of "the day of the Lord as a thief in the night"; for "so it cometh; and when they shall say, peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape." Such is the divine mission of the Quakers, and their allies the Cobdenite Reformers. Not satisfied with crying peace, they cry "safety" likewise. This is a peculiar feature of Cobdenism, which urges the disbandment of regiments, and the dismantling of ships, on the perverse presumption that danger there is none! Blind leaders of the blind! The groans of nations ascending to heaven on every side; the kindling embers of war smoking in Rome, Vienna, and Constantinople -- and yet ye cry "Peace and safety"; surely ye are incorrigibly demented, and ripe for capture and destruction.

CAIN, ABEL, AND SETH.

"If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? " The allegorical signification of the sentence upon the Serpent kindled the first scintillation of hope in the human heart of the appearance of One, who should deliver the world from all its ills, and advance it to a higher state. The promise of such a personage, and of such a consummation, was the nucleus of that "faith, which is the assured expectation of things hoped for, and the conviction of things unseen." The belief, and spiritualizing influence, of this hope, became the ground of acceptance with God in the earliest times. Faith in this promise was established as the principle of classification among the sons of Adam. Belief in what He promises is belief in God; and its influence upon "the fleshy tablet of the heart" is most edifying in its effect, making the subject of it "a partaker of the divine nature." Atheism in its scriptural import is not the denial of God's existence. None but a fool would say, "There is no God." It is Worse than this. It is to believe that He exists, and yet to treat Him as a liar. To do this, is not to believe His promises; and he that is faithless of these, is "without God, "a[qeo" -- ie., an atheist in the world. In the beginning, this kind of atheism soon manifested itself in the family of Adam. Cain, who was conceived in sin, true to his paternity, was as faithless of God's word as the Serpent; while Abel believed on God. Hence, the apostle says, "By faith Abel offered unto God a fuller sacrifice (pleivona qusivan) than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and by it

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he being dead yet speaketh." This is an important intimation, importing that no religious services are acceptable to God, which are not predicated on the belief of His promises; "for without faith it is impossible to please God." This was, therefore, the ground of Cain's reprobation. "The Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering: but unto Cain and his offering he had not respect." This made Cain fierce and sullen. He refused to "bring the firstlings of the flock, and of the fat thereof." He did not believe in its necessity, having no faith in the remission of sins by the shedding of sacrificial blood; nor in the fulfilment of God's promise concerning him, who, being "bruised in the heel," or slain as Abel's accepted lamb, should arise, and "bruise the Serpent's head," in destroying the works of sin. This is what Cain did not believe; and his faithlessness expressed itself in neglecting to walk in "the way of the Lord." Nevertheless, he continued "a professor of religion"; for "he brought of the fruit of the ground an offering to the Lord." But the Lord paid no respect to him or his offering; because, in neglecting the sacrifice, he had set up his judgment against God; and in being faithless had in effect treated God as a liar; for, saith the scripture, "he that believeth not God hath made him a liar."

But Cain's sullen anger against God could only wound himself. His refusal to obey Him could not injure the Most High. He insulted God with his "will-worship and voluntary humility," and convicted himself as an evil-doer. Self-condemned and impotent, he vented his rage against his brother, whom God respected and had accepted. He was wroth against him: "because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous." He was now a murderer in principle; and with this fratricidal feeling rankling in his heart, brought his gift to the altar. But God, who "discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart," called him to account for his lowering aspect, and anger against his brother, and said, "If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, a sin-offering lieth at the door. And his hope shall be towards thee, and thou shalt rule over him," or have the excellency as the first-born and progenitor of the Seed. But Cain was a genuine "seed of the Serpent." The thinking of the flesh called by Adam the Serpent, was strong within him. He talked with Abel, who doubtless, pleaded for the things repudiated by Cain. But Cain's reasonings were perverse; well-doing was not at all to his taste; so that, having no faith in the promise, he preferred to follow his own waywardness; and being determined to rid himself of his brother's expostulations, he mingled his blood with the dust of the ground.

Thus was slain by a brother's hand the protomartyr of the faith. A righteous man, respected and beloved of God. His only offence was, that, in believing the promises of God and doing well, his brother was reproved. The fleshly mind hates righteousness, and those who practise it; so that between the two parties the truth and righteousness of God lie as an apple of discord. Abel was the first

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of Eve's sons of whom honourable mention is made on account of "the obedience of faith." As Cain was of the evil one by transgression; so Abel was of God by the obedience of faith, which evinced that "God's seed remained in him." Hence though both of them were born of Eve according to the flesh, their spiritual paternity was as opposite as light and darkness. Cain was a man of sin; and Abel an accepted son of God. In these characters, they stood at the head of two divisions of their father's family; and proximately represented the seed of the Serpent, and the seed of the Woman. Cain bruised his brother's heel; but God appointed a substitute for Abel in the person of Seth, by whom Cain's headship was bruised, and his posterity superseded in the earth. Eve, says Moses, "bare a son, and called his name Seth: for, said she, God hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew." She had many other sons, but none of them are mentioned except Cain, Abel, and Seth. When, therefore, we are informed that Seth was "appointed instead of Abel," and trace the posterity of Seth terminating through a certain line in Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God; we are taught that Cain lost his excellency by sin, and was therefore set aside; and Abel provisionally appointed to be the progenitor of the seed, who is to bruise the Serpent's headship over the world. But, Abel having been bruised in the heel, it became necessary, in order to carry out the divine purpose, and to answer allegorically the indications of the sentence upon the Serpent, to appoint another son of Eve in the place of Abel. According to this arrangement, Abel became the type of Jesus, wounded in the heel; but whose sprinkled blood speaks better things than Abel's, which cried only for vengeance: while Seth typifies him in his re-appearance among the sons of men to bruise sin under foot, and to exterminate in the course of his reign the Serpent's seed from the face of the earth.

Notwithstanding his crime Cain was permitted to live. But the seed of evil-doers never gets renown. Sooner or later their deeds of villainy consign their names to reprobation. God hid His face from Cain, and exiled him from the settlements in Eden. He wandered still further to the east, "and dwelt in the land of Nod." There he founded a city, and called it Enoch. His offspring multiplied, and found out many inventions. They became wandering tribes, dwelling in tents and tending cattle; others of them musicians; and artificers in brass and iron. Their women were beautiful, and as the descendants of Cain, untrained in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, were vain in their imaginations, and demoralizing in their associations.

Seth's descendants in the direct line ended in Noah and Japheth at the time of the flood. His posterity, in this and the collateral branches, multiplied considerably; but for a time constituted a separate community from the progeny of Cain. During the lifetime of Enos, son of Seth, "they began to call themselves by the name of the Lord," or "sons of God": while the faithless and corrupt worshippers of the land of Nod were simply styled "men."

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The Sethires and the Camires stood related to one another as the church of God and the world; or, as the Woman and the Serpent. So long as the sons of God maintained their integrity, and walked in "the way of the Tree of Life," the two communities had no religious associations, or family intercourse. The time, however, arrived when the middle wall of partition was about to be laid low by a general apostasy. A spirit of liberalism had arisen among the sons and daughters of Seth, the result of an expiring faith, which predisposed them to a fraternity, or mixed community, with the Cainites; who, like their father, were religionists of a wilful stamp. The Serpent's seed enjoyed themselves in those days as they do now. They were men of the flesh, grovelling in their tastes, habits, and pursuits; and devoted to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Their religion sanctified what pleased them best; and doubtless afforded a fair specimen of the same sort of thing in all subsequent ages. It is probable that the precepts and example of the sons of God had considerably modified the original impiety of the Cainites so as to bring things to a similar state to that observable in our day. Sects, between whom there were no more dealings in their beginning than between the Jews and the Samaritans, are now so liberal that they agree to be silent upon all controversial topics for which they once contended to the death, and to recognize one another as brethren in the Lord! Thus, if they ever had the truth they have suppressed it by a tacit compromise; and have become highly respectable, and singularly amiable and polite; so that they "have need of nothing," but to enjoy the good things of the world within their reach.

The serpents had become so harmless, and even pious, under the influence abroad, and were withal so fair to look upon, and so enchanting in their ways, that the Sethites took them into their bosoms, and cherished them with the affection of their own flesh. "They saw," says Moses, "that the daughters of men were fair; and they took wives of all they chose." This was a fatal step. Can a man take fire into his bosom and not be burned? The sons of God corrupted themselves in marrying the daughters of Cain. Instead of bringing them over to "the Way of the Tree of Life," they were beguiled into "the Way of Cain." For sons of God to marry daughters of Belial is to jeopardize their fidelity to God. This practice has ever been fruitful of apostasy. Balaam was well aware of this; and knowing that the only way to bring a curse upon Israel was to involve them in transgression, he therefore taught Balak, the King of Moab, to tempt them with the fair daughters of his people, as the readiest way of beguiling them into the worship of their idols; which would cause God to hate them, and so facilitate their conquest by the Moabites. The policy succeeded but too well for the honour and happiness of Israel. Moses says, "They began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab." The consequence of this licentiousness was that the women invited Israel unto the

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sacrifices of their gods: and they did eat, and bowed down to them. And Israel joined himself unto Baal-Peor. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them; so that He slew four and twenty-thousand of them.

After the same example, the union of the Sethites and Cainites was productive of the worst results. The offspring of this union were "mighty men of renown," whose wickedness "was great in the earth"; for "every imagination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually" Their apostasy, however, was not perfected without remonstrance on the part of God. There was one eminent man of whom it was testified, that "he pleased God." He "walked with God" in the way of the Tree of Life for three hundred years after the birth of Methuselah. His name is Enoch. The spirit of prophecy was in him; and the gigantic wickedness of the Antediluvians aroused him to reprove their iniquity. Animated by the hope of the promise concerning the woman's seed, he prophesied of the serpents of his own and future time, saying, "Behold, the Lord cometh with myriads of his saints, to dispense justice towards all, and to convict all that are ungodly among them of their ungodly deeds which they have impiously committed; and of all their hard speeches, which ungodly sinners have spoken against him." But his expostulation was unheeded; and God graciously "translated him that he should not see death"; " thus rewarding him for his constancy, and giving the faithful a notable illustration and earnest of "The recompense of the reward," and the certainty of the punishment of the world.

Things went on from bad to worse; "for all flesh had corrupted His Way upon the earth"; "and the earth was filled with violence." Before, however, things had come to the worst the Lord made another effort to reclaim the Antediluvians. He had resolved to put an end to the wickedness of man upon the earth; for, said He, "My Spirit shall not always strive with him because he is but flesh." This intimates a limit to His forbearance; that it should have an end, but not immediately; for it is added, "Yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years"

Four hundred and eighty years before the announcement of this determination, a son was born to Lamech, the grandson of Enoch, whom he named Noah; that is, Comfort, saying, "This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed." This was the hope of those who remained faithful of the sons of Seth. They laboured in hope of a translation into a rest from their labours, when the curse should be removed from the earth. In process of time, Noah was "warned of God of things not seen as yet." Noah believed them; and "God by his spirit" in him, "went and preached to the spirits (now) in prison," that is, to the Antediluvians "who were disobedient in the days of Noah." He warned them of the coming flood, which would "destroy them from the earth"; and proved to them

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his own conviction of its certainty by "preparing an ark for the safety of his own house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith." But, his faith thus made perfect by his works, made no salutary impression upon his contemporaries. "They were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not till the flood came, and took them all away"; leaving only eight persons of the sons of Seth alive.

Thus was the mingled seed of Seth and Cain exterminated from the earth. Cain's race became utterly extinct, and those only of Seth remained, who were upright in their generations, and who walked with God. The distinction of seeds was temporarily suspended. The generation of vipers was extinct; but sin in the flesh survived -- a principle, destined in after times to produce the most hideous and terrible results.

THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD.

"Inherit the Kingdom prepared from the Foundation of the World."

As the woman had so wilfully sought the gratification of her flesh, when the Lord God passed sentence upon her He made it the ground of her punishment. "I will," said He, "greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children: and thy desire shall be subject to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." This being her portion as the consequence of sin, the reverse would have been her condition, so long as her animal nature should have continued unchanged, if she had remained obedient. She would have brought forth children without pain, and would have had fewer of them; nor would she have been deprived of that equality she enjoyed in the garden, and consequently she would have escaped that degradation she has experienced in all the countries of the world. The punishment, however, was not inflicted simply as an individual sorrow. The pain was personal, and the subjection likewise; but the multiplication of woman's conception became necessary from the altered circumstances of things; which were then being constituted for the ensuing seven thousand years. In the wax divinely instituted between the seeds of the Serpent and the Woman, there would be a great loss of life. The population of the world would be greatly thinned; besides which great havoc would be made by pestilence, famine, and the ordinary diseases of the flesh. To compensate this waste, and still to maintain an increase, so that the earth might be filled, necessitated that part of woman's punishment involved in the multiplication of the conception, which is a great domestic calamity under the Serpent-dominion of sin.

We hear much in some parts of the world of the political rights and equality of women with men; and of their preaching and teaching in public assemblies. We need wonder at nothing which emanates from the unenlightened thinking of sinful flesh. There is no absurdity too monstrous to be sanctified by unspiritualized animal intellect.

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Men do not think according to God's thinking, and therefore it is they run into the most unscriptural conceits; among which may be enumerated the political and social equality of women. Trained to usefulness, of cultivated intellect and with moral sentiments purified and ennobled by the nurture and admonition of the Lord's truth, women are "helps meet" for the Elohim; and much too good for men of ordinary stamp. The sex is susceptible of this exaltation; though I despair of witnessing it in many instances till "the Age to come." But, even women of this excellency of mind and disposition, were it possible for such to do so, would be guilty of indiscretion, presumption, and rebellion against God's law, in assuming equality of rank, equality of rights, and authority over man, which is implied in teaching and preaching. It is the old ambition of the sex to be equal to the gods; but in taking steps to attain it, they involved themselves in subjection to men. Preaching, and lecturing, women are but species of actresses, who exhibit upon the boards for the amusement of sinful and foolish men. They aim at an equality for which they are not physically constituted; they degrade themselves by the exhibition, and in proportion as they rise in assurance, they sink in all that really adorns a woman.

The law, which forms a part of the foundation of the world, says to the woman, "He shall reign over thee." The nature of this subjection is well exhibited in the Mosaic law. A daughter being yet in her youth in her father's house, could only make a vow subject to his will. If he held his peace, and said nothing for or against, she was bound by her word; but if when he heard it, he disallowed it, she was not bound to perform; and the Lord forgave the failure of the vow. The same law applied to a wife. A widow, or divorced woman, were both bound to fulfil; unless their husbands had made them void before separation. If not, being subject to God, they had no release.

This throws light upon the apostle's instructions concerning women. "They are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law." And "Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over man, but to be in silence." The reason he gives for imposing silence and subjection, is remarkable. He adduces the priority of Adam's formation; and the unhappy consequences of Eve's talkativeness and leadership in transgression; as it is written, "Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression" first. And then, as to their public ministrations, he says, "Let women keep silence in the congregations; for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but to be under obedience, as saith the law. And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the congregation." It is true, that in another place the apostle says, "Let the aged women be teachers of good things"; but then this teaching is not to be in the congregation, or in the brazen attitude of a public oratrix. They are to exercise their gift of teaching privately among their own sex, "that they may

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teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God (which they profess), be not blasphemed." Christian women should not copy after the god-aspiring Eve, but after Sarah, the faithful mother of Israel, who submitted herself in all things to Abraham, "calling him lord." Nor should their obedience be restricted to Christian husbands only. They should also obey them "without the word"; that is, those who have not submitted to it, in order that they may be won over to the faith when they behold the chaste and respectful behaviour of their wives, produced by a belief of the truth.

Such are the statutory provisions enacted in the world's constitution at the beginning, with respect to the position of women in the body social and political. Any attempt to alter the arrangement is rebellion against God, and usurpation of the rights of men to whom God has subjected them. Their wisdom is to be quiet, and to make their influence felt by their excellent qualities. They will then rule in the hearts of their rulers, and so ameliorate their own subjection as to convert it into a desirable and sovereign obedience.

A man should never permit the words of a woman to intervene between him and the laws of God. This is a rock upon which myriads have made shipwreck of the faith. Adam sinned in consequence of listening to Eve's silvery discourse. No temptation has proved more irresistible to the flesh than the enticing words of woman's lips. "They drop as a honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil: but her end is bitter as wormwood, and sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death; and her steps take hold on hell." Adam was a striking illustration of this truth, as appears from the sentence pronounced upon him. "Because," said the Lord God, "thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake: in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field: in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it was thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." Thus, having passed sentence upon the serpent, the woman, and the man, the Lord appointed them a new law, and expelled them from the garden He had made. These three sentences; and the New Law, constitute the foundation of the world. This is a phrase which occurs in various passages of the Bible. It occupies a prominent place in the following text: "Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." The words in the Greek are ajpo catabolh covsmou, which, more literally rendered, signify, from laying the world's foundation. The globe is the platform; the world that which is constituted, or built, upon it; and the Builder is God; for "he that built all things is God." Now, the world was not built out of

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nothing. The materials had been prepared by the work of the six days; and by the moral phenomena of the fall. At this crisis, there appeared a natural system of things, with two transgressors, in whom sin had enthroned itself; and who were endued with the power of multiplying such as themselves to an unlimited extent. This population, then, was either to act for itself under the uncontrolled dominion of sin; or, things must be so constituted as to bring it into order and subjection to the sovereignty of God. The result of the former alternative would have been to barbarize mankind, and to fill the earth with violence. This is demonstrated by what actually occurred before the flood when the divine constitution of things was corrupted and abolished by the world. Man when left to himself never improves. God made man upright; but look at the wretched specimens of humanity which are presented in those regions where God has left them to their natural tendency, under the impulse of their uncontrolled propensities. Man thus abandoned of God, degenerates into an ignorant savage, ferocious as the beasts of prey.

If the Lord God had renounced all interest in the earth, this would have been the consummation of His work. Man by his vices would have destroyed his own race. But, though transgression upon transgression marked his career, "God so loved the world," that He determined that it should not perish, but should be rescued from evil in spite of itself. This He purposed to do in such a way as to make man reflect the divine nature in his character: and to display his own wisdom, glory, and power in the earth. But chance could not bring this to pass. Human life, therefore, was not to be a mere chapter of accidents; but the result of a well-digested and unvarying plan. Things, then, were to be arranged according to this purpose; so that in their original constitution should be contained the rudiments of a "glorious manifestation"; which, as a grain of mustard seed, should so unfold themselves under the fostering hand of God as to become "a tree, which is the greatest among herbs," in whose branches the family of man might be refreshed.

In the acorn, it is said, can be traced by aid of the microscope the branches of the future oak. So in "the Rudiments of the World" are traceable the things of the future Kingdom of God. These rudiments, or elements, are exhibited in the sentences upon the serpent, the woman, and the man; and in that institution styled, "The Way of the Tree of Life." Out of these things was afterwards to arise the Kingdom of God; so that in constituting them, a foundation was laid upon which "the world to come" should be built; even that world of which Abraham was constituted the heir; and which, when finished at the end of six days of a thousand years each, will manifest the woman's Seed triumphant over the Serpent-power; resting from his work in the Sabbatism which remains for the people of God.

The things laid, or fixed, in the rudimental constitution of the world, may be summarily stated in the following particulars:

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· 1. Sin in the flesh, the enemy of God, contending for the dominion of the world.

· 2. Mankind in a state of nature, subject to the propensities; and to pain, trouble and death.

· 3. Labour and toil the condition of existence in the present state.

· 4. The subjection of woman to the lordship of man.

To these things was established a divine antagonism, by which they might be controlled; and a system of things elaborated in conformity with the purpose of God. This part of the foundation may be stated as:

· 1. The law and truth of God as expressed in "His Way," demanding unreserved submission to its authority.

· 2. Mankind under the influence of this truth assuredly believed, contending for it.

· 3. Divine power exhibited in the punishment of men, and in the performance of His promises.

The action and re-action of these agencies upon one another was to produce:

· 1. An enmity and war in the earth between the Sin-power and the Institution opposed to it.

· 2. A bloody persecution of the adherents of the truth.

· 3. The destruction of the Sin-power by a personage to be manifested for the purpose; and

· 4. The consequent victory of divine truth, and establishment of the Kingdom of God.

That the crisis of the fall was the period of laying the foundation of the world, in its civil, social, and spiritual relations, appears from the use of the phrase in the apostolic writings. The Lord Jesus, speaking of what was about to come upon the generation then living in Judea, said, "The blood of all the prophets shed from the foundation of the world shall be required of this generation"; and to show to what period of the world he referred, he added by way of explanation, "from the blood of Abel," the prophet of his day. The phrase is also applied by the apostle to the work of the six days; that is, as the bash, or substratum, in or upon which the social and political system was constituted. There is further proof of the judgment of the transgressors being the institutional foundation of the world, in the words, "all that dwell upon the earth shall do homage to him," the ten-horned papal Beast, "whose names are not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the laying of the world's foundations." By this is signified that, when the Lord God appointed coats of skins to cover the man's and woman's shame, lambs were slain, which they were taught to understand were representative of the Seed, who should be slain for the sins of all the faithful; and with whose righteousness they should be clothed, after the type of their covering by the skins of their sacrifices. Thus, from the institution of sacrifice in Paradise till the death of Jesus on the cross, he was typically slain; and the accepted worshippers, being full of faith in the divine promise, like Abel and Enoch, under-

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stood to what the slaughtered lambs referred. Their names were consequently written in the remembrance of God, as inheritors of the kingdom; whose foundation was commenced in Paradise, and has been preparing ever since, that when finished it may be manifested "in Eden the garden of the Lord."

THE CONSTITUTION OF SIN.

"The creature was made subject to evil, not willingly, but by reason of him who subjected it in hope."

The introduction of sin into the world necessitated the constitution of things as they were laid in the beginning. If there had been no sin there would have been no "enmity" between God and man; and consequently no antagonism by which to educe good out of evil. Sin and evil are as cause and effect. God is the author of evil, but not of sin; for the evil is the punishment of sin. "I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I, the Lord, do all these things." "Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it? " The evil then to which man is subjected is the Lord's doing. War, famine, pestilence, flood, earthquake, disease, and death, are the terrible evils which God inflicts upon mankind for their transgressions. Nations cannot go to war when they please, any more than they can shake the earth at their will and pleasure; neither can they preserve peace, when He proclaims war. Evil is the artillery with which He combats the enemies of His law, and of His saints; consequently, there will be neither peace nor blessedness for the nations, until sin is put down, His people avenged, and truth and righteousness be established in the earth.

This is the constituted order of things. It is the constitution of the world; and as the world is sin's dominion, or the kingdom of the adversary, it is the constitution of the kingdom of sin.

The word sin is used in two principal acceptations in the scripture. It signifies in the first place, "the transgression of the law"; and in the next, it represents that physical principle of the animal nature, which is the cause of all its diseases, death, and resolution into dust. It is that in the flesh "which has the power of death"; and it is called sin, because the development, or fixation, of this evil in the flesh, was the result of transgression. Inasmuch as this evil principle pervades every part of the flesh, the animal nature is styled "sinful flesh," that is, "flesh full of sin"; so that sin, in the sacred style, came to stand for the substance called man. In human flesh "dwells no good thing"; and all the evil a man does is the result of this principle dwelling in him. Operating upon the brain, it excites the "propensities," and these set the "intellect," and "sentiments" to work. The propensities are blind, and so are the intellect and sentiments in a purely natural state; when therefore, the latter operate under the sole impulse of the propensities, "the understanding is darkened through ignorance, because of the blindness of the heart." The nature of the lower animals is as full of this physical evil prin-

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ciple as the nature of man; though it cannot be styled sin with the same expressiveness; because it does not possess them as the result of their own transgression; the name, however, does not alter the nature of the thing.

A defective piece of mechanism cannot do good work. The principle must be perfect, and the adaptation true, for the working to be faultless. Man in his physical constitution is imperfect; and this imperfection is traceable to the physical organization of his flesh, being based on the principle of decay and reproduction from the blood; which, acted upon by the air, becomes the life of his flesh. All the phenomena which pertain to this arrangement of things are summed up in the simple word sin; which is, therefore, not an individual abstraction, but a concretion of relations in all animal bodies; and the source of all their physical infirmities. Now, the apostle says, that the flesh thinks -- to; frovnhma th`" sarcov" -- that is, the brain, as all who think are well assured from their own consciousness. If, then, this thinking organ be commanded not to do what is natural for it to do under blind impulse, will it not naturally disobey? Now this disobedience is wrong, because what God commands to be done is right, and only right; so that "by his law is the knowledge of sin"; and this law requiring an obedience which is not natural, flesh is sure to think in opposition to it. The philosophy of superstition is -- religion in harmony with the thinking of the flesh; while true religion is religion in accordance with the thoughts of God as expressed in His law. Hence, it need excite no astonishment that religion and superstition are so hostile; and that all the world should uphold the latter; while so few are to be found who are identified with the religion of God. They are as opposite as flesh and spirit.

Sin, I say, is a synonym for human nature. Hence, the flesh is invariably regarded as unclean. It is therefore written, "How can he be clean who is born of a woman? " "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one." "What is man that he should be clean? And he which is born of a woman that he should be righteous? Behold, God putteth no trust in his saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight. How much more abominable and filthy is man, who drinketh iniquity like water? " This view of sin in the flesh is enlightening in the things concerning Jesus. The apostle says, "God made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin"; and this he explains in another place by saying, that "He sent his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh" in the offering of his body once. Sin could not have been condemned in the body of Jesus, if it had not existed there. His body was as unclean as the bodies of those for whom he died; for he was born of a woman, and "not one" can bring a clean body out of a defiled body; for "that," says Jesus himself, "which is born of the flesh is flesh."

According to this physical law, the Seed of the woman was born into the world. The nature of Mary was as unclean as that of other women;

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and therefore could give birth only to "a body" like her own, though especially "prepared of God." Had Mary's nature been immaculate, as her idolatrous worshippers contend, an immaculate body would have been born of her; which, therefore, would not have answered the purpose of God; which was to condemn sin in the flesh; a thing that could not have been accomplished, if there were no sin there.

Speaking of the conception and preparation of the Seed, the prophet as a typical person, says, "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me." This is nothing more than affirming that he was born of sinful flesh: and not of the pure and incorruptible angelic nature.

Sinful flesh being the hereditary nature of the Lord Jesus, he was a fit and proper sacrifice for sin; especially as he was himself "innocent of the great transgression," having been obedient in all things. Appearing in the nature of the seed of Abraham, he was subject to all the emotions by which we are troubled; so that he was enabled to sympathize with our infirmities, being "made in all things like unto his brethren." But, when he was "born of the Spirit," in the quickening of his mortal body by the spirit, he became a spirit; for "that which is born of the spirit is spirit." Hence, he is "the Lord the Spirit," incorruptible flesh and bones.

Sin in the flesh is hereditary; and entailed upon mankind as the consequence of Adam's violation of the Eden law. The "original sin" was such as I have shown in previous pages. Adam and Eve committed it; and their posterity are suffering the consequence of it. The tribe of Levi paid tithes to Melchisidec many years before Levi was born. The apostle says, "Levi who receiveth tithes, paid tithes in Abraham." Upon the same federal principle, all mankind ate of the forbidden fruit, being in the loins of Adam when he transgressed. This is the only way men can by any possibility be guilty of the original sin. Bemuse they sinned in Adam, therefore they return to the dust from which Adam came -- ef w says the apostle, "in whom all sinned." There is much foolishness spoken and written about "original sin." Infants are made the subjects of a religious ceremony to regenerate them because of original sin; on account of which, according to Geneva philosophy they are liable to the flames of hell for ever! If original sin, which is in fact sin in the flesh, were neutralized, then all "baptismally regenerated" babes ought to live for ever, as Adam would have done had he eaten of the Tree of Life after he had sinned. But they die; which is a proof that the "regeneration" does not "cure their souls"; and is, therefore, mere theological quackery.

Mankind being born of the flesh, and of the will of man, are born into the world under the constitution of sin. That is, they are the natural born citizens of Satan's kingdom. By their fleshly birth, they are entitled to all that sin can impart to them. What creates the distinction of bodies politic among the sons of Adam? It is constitution, or covenant. By constitution, then, one man is English,

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and another American. The former is British because he is born of the flesh under the British constitution. In this case, he is worthy of neither praise nor blame. He was made subject to the constitution, not willingly, but by reason of them who chose that he should be born under it. But when he comes of age, the same man may become an American. He may put off the old man of the political flesh, and put on the new man, which is created by the constitution of the United States; so that by constitution, he becomes an American in every particular but the accident of birth. This will be exact enough to illustrate what I am about to say.

There are two states or kingdoms, in God's arrangements, which are distinguished by constitution. These are the Kingdom of Satan and the Kingdom of God. The citizens of the former are all sinners; the heirs of the latter are saints. Men cannot be born heirs by the will of the flesh; for natural birth confers no right to God's Kingdom. Men must be born sinners before they can become saints; even as one must be born a foreigner before he can be an adopted citizen of the States. It is absurd to say that children are born holy, except in the sense of their being legitimate. None are born holy, but such as are born of the Spirit into the Kingdom of God. Children are born sinners or unclean, because they are born of sinful flesh; and "that which is born of the flesh is flesh," or sin. This is a misfortune, not a crime. They did not will to be born sinners. They have no choice in the case; for it is written, "The creature was made subject, th mataiovthti to the evil, not willingly, but according to the arranging (dia tov upotaxanta). This subjection to the evil, is referable to the arranging, or constitution of things, which makes up the kosmos, or world. Hence, the apostle says, "By Adam's disobedience the many were made sinners"; that is, they were endowed with a nature like his, which had become unclean, as the result of disobedience; and by the constitution of the economy into which they were introduced by the will of the flesh, they were constituted transgressors before they were able to discern between right and wrong. Upon this principle, he that is born of sinful flesh is a sinner; as he that is born of English parents is an English child. Such a sinner is an heir of all that is derivable from sin. Hence, new-born babes suffer all the evil of the peculiar department of Satan, or sin's kingdom, to which they belong. Thus, in the case of the Amalekites, when the divine vengeance fell upon them, the decree was -- "Utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass." The destruction of "infants and sucklings" is especially commanded in divers parts of scripture. Not because they were responsible transgressors; but, on the same principle that men not only destroy all adult serpents that come in their way, but the thread-like progeny also; for in these is the germ of venomous and malignant reptiles. Had God spared the infants and sucklings of the Canaanitish nations, when they had attained to manhood,

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stiff-necked and perverse race, notwithstanding all the pains bestowed upon their education by the Lord God; how much more perverse would such a seed of evil serpents as the Canaanitish offspring have turned out to be? It is a law of the flesh that "like produces like." Wild and truthless men reproduce themselves in their sons and daughters. The experiment has been tried on Indian infants. They have been taken from their parents, and carefully educated in the learning and civilization of the white man; but when they have returned to their tribe as men, they have thrown off the habits of their patrons, and adopted the practices of savage life. The same tendency is seen in other animals. Hatch the eggs of the wild turkey under a tame one; and as soon as they are able to shift for themselves they will leave the poultry yard, and associate with the wild species of the woods. So strong is habit, that it becomes a law to the flesh, when continued through generations for a series of years.

But men are not only made, or constituted sinners by the disobedience of Adam, but they become sinners even as he, by actual transgression. Having attained the maturity of their nature, they become accountable and responsible creatures. At this crisis, they may be placed by the divine arranging in a relation to His word. It becomes to them a Tree of Life, inviting them to "take, and eat, and live for ever." If, however, they prefer to eat of the world's forbidden fruit, they come under the sentence of death in their own behalf. They are thus doubly condemned. They are "condemned already" to the dust as natural born sinners; and, secondarily, condemned to a resurrection to judgment for rejecting the gospel of the kingdom of God: by which they become obnoxious to "the SECOND Death." Thus men are sinners in a twofold sense; first, by natural birth; and next, by transgression. In the former sense, it is manifest they could not help themselves. They will not be condemned to the Second Death because they were born sinners; nor to any other pains and penalties than those which are the common lot of humanity in the present life. They are simply under that provision of the constitution of sin which says, "Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return." Now, if the Lord God had made no other arrangement than that expressed in the sentence upon the woman and the man, they and all their posterity in all their generations would have incessantly gone to dust and there have remained for ever. "The wages of sin is death." Sinful flesh confers no good thing upon its offspring; for holiness, righteousness, incorruptibility, and life for ever are not hereditary. None of these are inherent in animal flesh. Sinners can only acquire them by a conformity to the law of God; who offers them freely to all who thirst after the water of life eternal.

THE CONSTITUTION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.

"Constituted the righteousness of God in Christ."

The former things being admitted, if men would be righteous in God's esteem, they must become such by constitution also. The

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"good actions" of a pious sinner are mere "dead works"; for the actions of a sinner to be of any worth in relation to the future state, he must be "constituted righteous"; and this can only be by his coming under a constitution made and provided for the purpose. A stranger and foreigner from the commonwealth of the States, can only become a fellow-citizen with Americans, by taking the oath of abjuration, fulfilling the time of his probation, and taking the oath of allegiance according to the provisions of the constitution. Now, the Kingdom of God has a constitution as well as the Kingdom of Satan, or that province of it styled the United States. Before sinners come under it, they are characterized as "without Christ, being aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God (a[qeoi, atheists) in the world." They are termed "far off," "strangers and foreigners" "walking in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart." But, mark the sacred style descriptive of sinners after they have been placed under the constitution of Israel's Commonwealth, which is the Kingdom of God. "You that were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ"; "through him you have access by one spirit to the Father; and are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God" -- "fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of God's promise in Christ by the gospel." In this remarkable contrast is discoverable a great change in state and character predicated of the same persons. How was this transformation effected? This question is answered by the phrase, "In Christ by the gospel." The "in" expresses the state; the "by" the instrumentality by which the state and character are changed.

As the constitution of sin hath its root in the disobedience of the First Adam, so also hath the constitution of righteousness root in the obedience of the Second Adam. Hence, the apostle says, "As through one offence (sentence was pronounced) upon all men unto condemnation; so also through one righteousness (sentence was pronounced) upon all men (that is, Jews and Gentiles) unto a justification of life. For as through the disobedience of the one man the many were constituted (catestavqhsan) sinners; so also through the obedience of the one the many shall be constituted righteous." The two Adams are two federal chiefs; the first being figurative of the second in these relations. All sinners are in the first Adam; and all the righteous in the second, only on a different principle. Sinners were in the loins of the former when he transgressed; but not in the loins of the latter, when he was obedient unto death; therefore, "the flesh profiteth nothing." For this cause, then, for sons of Adam to become sons of God, they must be the subjects of an adoption, which is attainable only by some divinely appointed means.

The apostle then brings to light two sentences, which are coextensive, but not co-etaneous in their bearing upon mankind. The one is the sentence of condemnation, which consigns "the many," both believing

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Jews and Gentiles, to the dust of the ground; the other is a sentence which affects the same "many," and brings them out of the ground again to return thither no more. Hence, of the saints it is said, "The body is dead because of sin; but the spirit (gives) life because of righteousness"; for "since by man came death, by a man also came a resurrection of dead persons (ajnavstasi" necrw`n). For as in Adam they all die, so also in Christ shall they all be made alive. But every one in his own order: Christ the first fruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming." It is obvious that the apostle is not writing of all the individuals of the human race; but only of that portion of them that become the subject of "a justification of life," dicaivwsi" zwh`." It is true, that all men do die; but it is not true that they are all the subjects of justification. Those who are justified are "the many," oi polloiv, who are sentenced to live for ever. Of the rest we shall speak hereafter.

The sentence to pardon of life is through Jesus Christ. In being made a sacrifice for sin by the pouring out of his blood upon the cross, he was set forth as a blood-sprinkled mercy seat to all believers of the gospel of the kingdom, who have faith in this remission of sins through the shedding of his blood. "He was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification"; that is, for the pardon of those who believe in the gospel; as it is written, "He that believeth the gospel and is baptized shall be saved." Hence, "the obedience of faith" is made the condition of righteousness; and this obedience implies the existence of a "law of faith," as attested by that of Moses, which is "the law of works." The law of faith says to him who believes the gospel of the kingdom, "Be renewed, and be ye every one of you baptized in the name (ejpi tw ojnovmati) of Jesus Christ for remission of sins." Here is a command which meets a man as a dividing line between the State of Sin and the State of Righteousness. The obedience of faith finds expression in the name of Jesus as "the mercy seat through faith in his blood." Hence the apostle says to the disciples in Corinth, "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God? Be not deceived; neither fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, effeminate, abusers of themselves with mankind, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners; shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, sanctified, and made righteous (edicaiwvqhte) by the name (en tw onovmati) of the Lord Jesus, and by the spirit (en tw pneuvmati) of our God." Thus, the spirit, which is put for the gospel of the kingdom and name, renewed these profligates; the divine law and testimony attested by the spirit with signs, and wonders, and divers miracles, and gifts, and believed with a full assurance of conviction that worked in them by love to will and to do -- caused them to be "washed in the name," to be "sanctified in the name," and to be "made righteous in the name of Jesus Christ."

I say by the name; for it is the same Greek particle, namely, "en, which precedes the words "the spirit," and is translated "by" in the common version

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that goes before "the name." I have rendered them the same in both places; and upon authority of the phrase "washed by the name," I have translated baptisyhtw epi tw onomati be ye baptized by the name. It must be clear to any man, unspoiled by a vain and deceitful philosophy, that to be washed in a name is impossible, unless the individual have faith in the name, and be subjected to the use of a fluid in some way. Now when a man is "washed in the name of Jesus Christ," there are three witnesses to the fact, by whose testimony everything is established. These are the spirit, the water, and the blood, and they all agree in one statement. Jesus Christ was made manifest by water at his baptism; and by blood in his death; and by the spirit in his resurrection: therefore, the spirit who is the truth (to pneumav estin h ajlhvqeia), and the water, and the blood, or the truth concerning the Messiahship, sacrificial character, and resurrection of Jesus, are constituted the witnesses who bear testimony to a man's being the subject of "the righteousness of God" set forth in the gospel of His Kingdom. The testimony of these witnesses is termed "the witness of God," which every believer of the Kingdom and Name hath as "the witness in himself."

Water, then, is the medium in which the washing occurs. But, although water is so accessible in all parts of the world where the gospel has been preached, it is one of the most difficult things under heaven to use it so as to wash a man by the name of Jesus Christ. What! says one, is it difficult to get a man to be dipped in water as a religious action? No; it is very easy. Thousands in society go into the water on very slender grounds. But going into the water, and having certain words pronounced over the subject, is not washing in the name. The difficulty lies, not in getting men to be dipped, but in first getting them to believe "the things concerning the Kingdom of God and the Name of Jesus Christ"; or "the exceeding great and precious promises," by the faith of which they can alone become the "partakers of the divine nature." Without faith in these things, there is no true washing, no sanctification, or purification, from moral defilement, and no constitution of righteousness by the name of Jesus for the sons of men; for, says the scripture. "without faith it is impossible to please God"

It was the renewing efficacy of the exceeding great and precious promises of God assuredly believed, that changed the gay and profligate Corinthians into "the sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints"; of whom it is testified that "hearing, they believed and were baptized." Now, to these baptized believers he writes, and tells them that "God made (ejpoivhsen) Jesus, who knew not sin, to be sin (that is, sinful flesh) for them, that they might be constituted (ginwntai) God's righteousness in Him"; so that, being introduced into Him (for an individual cannot be in a federal person unless introduced into Him) the crucified and resurrected Jesus became "the Lord their righteousness"; as it is written, "Of Him, Corinthians, are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God was constituted (ejgenhvqh) for us

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wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption." So that, whosoever is in him, is said to be "complete in him"; in whom he is circumcised "in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh"; that is, all past sins; being buried with Christ in the baptism, in which also he rises with him through the belief of the power of God evinced in raising him from among the dead.

Now, because the unconstituted, or unrighteous, cannot inherit the kingdom of God, the law is revealed which says, "Ye must be born again"; for says the King, "Except a man be born again he cannot behold the kingdom of God." This saying is unintelligible to men whose thinking is guided by the flesh. They cannot comprehend "how these things can be": and, though they profess to be "teachers of Israel," "Masters of Arts," and "Bachelors," and "Doctors of Divinity," and of "Canon and Civil Law," they are as mystified upon the subject of "the new birth" as Nicodemus himself. But to those who understand "the word of the kingdom" these "heavenly things" are distinguished by the obviousness and simplicity of truth. To be born again, as the Lord Jesus expounds it, is to be "born of the water and the spirit"; as it is written, "Except a man be born out of water (ejx u{dato") and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." This is surely very explicit and very intelligible; who can misunderstand it, unless it be against his will to receive it?

The New Birth, like the old one of the flesh, is not an abstract principle, but a process. It begins with the begettal and ends with the having been born. A son of God is a character, which is developed out of the "incorruptible seed" of God, sown into the fleshy table of the heart. When this seed, or word of the Kingdom, is received, it begins to work in a man until he becomes a believer of the truth. When things have come to this pass, he is a changed man. He has acquired a new mode of thinking; for he thinks in harmony with the thoughts of God as revealed in His law and testimony. He sees himself, and the world around him, in a new light. He is convinced of sin; and experiences an aversion to the things in which he formerly delighted. His views, disposition, temper, and affections are transformed. He is humble, child-like, teachable, and obediently disposed; and his simple anxiety is to know what God would have him to do. Having ascertained this, he does it; and in doing it is "born out of the water." Having been begotten by the Father by the word of truth, and born of water, the first stage of the process is completed. He is constitutionally "in Christ."

When a child is born, the next thing is to train him up in the way he should go, that when he is old he may not depart from it. This is also the arrangement of God in relation to those who are born out of water into His family on earth. He disciplines and tries them, that He may "exalt them in due time." Having believed the gospel and been baptized, such a person is required to "walk worthy of the vocation," or calling, "wherewith he has been called," that by so doing he may be "accounted worthy" of being "born of spirit," that

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he may become "spirit," or a spiritual body; and so enter the kingdom of God, crowned with "glory, honour, incorruptibility, and life." When, therefore, such a believer comes out of the ground by a resurrection from among the dead, the spirit of God, worked by the Lord Jesus, first opens the grave, and forms him in the image, and after the likeness of Christ; and then gives him life. He is then an incorruptible and living man, "equal to the angels"; and like them capable of reflecting the glory of Him that made him. This is the end of the process. He is like Jesus himself, the great exemplar of God's family, born out of water by the moral power of the truth; and out of the grave by the physical power of spirit; but all things of God through Jesus Christ the Lord.

In the way described, sinners are transformed into saints; and it is the only way; their conversion being the result of the transforming influence of "the testimony of God." Those who are ignorant of "the law and the testimony," and who yet claim to be saints, and "teachers of divine mysteries," may demur in toto to this conclusion, because "in saying this thou condemnest us also." But truth knows no respect of persons; and while the oracles of God declare, that men are "renewed by knowledge," and "alienated from the life of God through ignorance," I feel entrenched impregnably in the position here assumed. According to the constitution of the human intellect, the knowledge of truth must precede the belief of it. There is no exception to this. If cases be cited as exceptions, the faith is spurious, and not that with which God is pleased. It is credulity; the faith of opinion, such as characterizes the spiritual philosophy of the age.

Lastly, the act demanded of a renewed sinner by the constitution of righteousness, that he may be inducted into Christ, and so "constituted the righteousness of God in him," is a burial in water into death. The energy of the word of truth is twofold. It makes a man "dead to sin" and "alive to God." Now, as Christ died to sin once and was buried, so the believer, having become dead to sin, must be buried also; for after death, burial. The death and burial of the believer is connected with the death and burial of Christ by the individual's faith in the testimony concerning them. Hence, he is said to be "dead with Christ," and to be "buried with Christ"; but, how buried? "By baptism into death," saith the scripture.

But is this all? By no means; for the object of the burial in water is not to extinguish animal life; but, by preserving it to afford the believer scope to "walk in newness of life," moral and intellectual. He is, therefore, raised up out of the water. This action is representative of his faith in the resurrection of Jesus; and of his hope, that as he had been planted with him in the similitude of his death, he shall hereafter be also in the likeness of his resurrection, and so enter the kingdom of God. To such persons the scripture saith, "Ye are all sons of God in Christ Jesus through the faith"; and the ground of this honourable and divine relationship is assigned in these words: "For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ; and if ye be Christ's, then are ye the seed of Abraham,

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and heirs according to the promise." They have thus received the spirit of adoption by which they can address God as their Father who is in heaven.

THE TWO PRINCIPLES.

"With the mind I myself serve the Law of God; but with the flesh the Law of Sin."

Although a sinner may have been "delivered from the power of darkness," or ignorance, and have been "translated into" the hope of "the Kingdom of God and of his Christ," by faith in the divine testimony and baptism into Christ -- yet, if he turn his thoughts back into his own heart, and note the impulses which work there, he will perceive a something that, if he were to yield to it, would impel him to the violation of the divine law. These impulses are styled "the motions of sins." Before he was enlightened, they "worked in his members," until they were manifested in evil action, or sin; which is termed, "bringing forth fruit unto death." The remote cause of these "motions" is that physical principle, or quality, of the flesh, styled indwelling sin, which returns the mortal body to the dust; and that which excites the latent disposition is the law of God forbidding to do thus and so; for, "I had not known sin, but by the law."

Now, while a righteous man feels this law involuntarily at work in his members, the law of sin, or of nature within him; he also perceives there a something which condemns "the motions of sins," and suppresses them; so that they shall not impel him to do what he ought not to do. The best of men -- and I quote Paul as an illustration of the class -- are conscious of the co-existence of these hostile principles within them. "I find," says he, "a law that, when I would do good, evil is present with me" Yes; the principle of evil and the principle of good are the two laws which abide in the saints of God so long as they continue subject to mortality.

The reader is invited to re-peruse pages eighty-nine and ninety on the subject of these laws, as it will prevent repetition in this place. The law of sin and death is hereditary, and derived from the federal sinner of the race; but the law of the mind is an intellectual and moral acquisition. The law of sin pervades every particle of the flesh; but in the thinking flesh it reigns especially in the propensities. In the savage, it is the only law to which he is subject; so that with his flesh, he serves only the law of sin and death. This is to him "the light within"; which is best illustrated by the darkness of Egypt, which might be felt. It was this internal light which illuminated "the princes of the world, who crucified the Lord of glory." It shined forth in the philosophy of Plato, and in the logic of Aristotle, who walked in it while "dwelling in the land of the shadow of death" and it is "the light within" all babes who are born of blood, of the will of the flesh, and of man under the constitution of sin, in all countries of the world.

Now, the scripture saith, "The commandment of God is a lamp; and his law is light"; so that the prophet says, "Thy word is a lamp

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unto my feet, and a light unto my path." And to this agrees the saying of the apostle, that the sure word of prophecy is "a light that shineth in a dark place." Now, Isaiah testifies, that the Word is made up of God's law and testimony, and that those who do not speak according to it, have no light in them. This is the reason that the savage has no light in him; because he is intensely ignorant of the law of God. Light does not emanate from within; for sin, blood, and flesh can give out none. It can only reflect it after the fashion of a mirror. The light is not in the mirror; but its surface is so constituted that when light falls upon it, it can throw it back, or reflect it, according to the law of light, that the images of objects are seen on the surface, whence the light proceeding from the objects is last reflected to the eye. Neither is light innate in the heart. This is simply a tablet; a polished tablet, or mirror, in some; but a tarnished, rusty tablet in others. It is called "the fleshy tablet of the heart." It was polished in the beginning, when God formed man after His likeness; but sin, "the god of this world," hath so tarnished it that there are but few who reflect His similitude.

No; it is a mere conceit of the fleshly mind that man is born into the world with the light within; which requires only to be cherished to be sufficient to guide him in the right way. God only is the source of light; He is the glorious illuminator of the moral universe; and He transmits His enlightening radiance through the medium, sometimes of angels, sometimes of prophets, and at others through that of His Son and the apostles, by His all-pervading Spirit. Hence it is that the scripture saith, "God is light," whose truth "enlightens the eyes." But what is the truth? It is "the light of the glorious gospel of Christ," who is the polished incorruptible fleshly mirror, which reflects the Image of God -- an image, at present, but obscurely impressed upon the fleshy tablets of our hearts; because we know only in part, perceiving things by the eye of faith, until hope shall disappear in the possession of the prize.

God, then, is the source of light; the gospel of the kingdom in the name of Jesus is the light; and Christ is the medium through which it shines; hence he is styled the Sun of Righteousness; also, "the true, light, which enlighteneth every man, that cometh into the world"; "a light to enlighten the Gentiles, and the glory of his people Israel." Now, the enlightening of every man is thus explained by the apostle: "God," saith he, "who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, is he who hath shined into our (the saints') hearts, with the illumination of the knowledge (pro;" fwtismo;n th`" gnwvsew") of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." But "every man" is not enlightened by this glorious knowledge; for to some it is hid. The tablets of their hearts are so corroded and encrusted with opaque and sordid matter that they are destitute of all reflecting power. Light will not shine in a black surface. Hence, saith the apostle, "If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of the world hath blinded the minds of them who believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should

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shine into them." He darkens the tablets of their hearts by "the care of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches"; and thus prevents them from opening their ears to hear the words of eternal life.

If a man have fight, then, it is very evident that it is acquired from without, and not an hereditary spark within. When the Lord Jesus appeared in Israel "he shined in the darkness." This nation was so darkened by the propensities and human tradition, that they did not perceive the light when it shined among them; "the darkness comprehended it not." If this were the condition of Israel, how intensely dark must have been the world at large. Still, the Gentile mind was not so totally eclipsed as that of the savage. The nations of the Four Empires had been greatly mixed up with the Israelites in their history; so that the light of their law must have been considerably diffused among them; though not given to them for their obedience. Hence, "the work of the law was written upon their hearts" to some extent; and created in them "a conscience, by the thoughts of which they accused or excused one another."

This shining of the truth in the darkness of the nations was considerably increased by the apostolic labours; for "their sound went into all the land, and their words unto the end of the habitable" (th oicoumevnh," or Roman Empire). Now, although this light was almost extinguished by the apostasy, lamps were still kept burning in its presence; so that the eclipse was not so total that the darkness of the Gentile mind was reduced to a savage state. When the scriptures were again disseminated in the tongues of the nations in the sixteenth century, the light of truth began again to stream in upon them. The scriptures were then like a book just fallen from heaven. The world was astonished at their contents; but "comprehended them not." Men discussed it, tortured it, perverted it, fought about it; until the stronger party established the foundation of the world as at present constituted. This world, called "Christendom," is much after the order of things in the days of Jesus. Were he to appear now, he would "shine in the darkness" as when among the Jews. These professed to know God, while in works they denied Him. Their clergy said, "We see"; but Jesus characterized them as "blind leaders of the blind"; therefore, "their sin remained." They boasted in the law; yet through breaking it, dishonoured God. They professed to be more conscientious and pious than Jesus; but he charged them with being hypocrites and serpents. They strained out gnats, and swallowed camels; and gave tithe of mint and cummin, and despoiled the fatherless and the widow. And, "like priest, like people." They crowded to the synagogues and the temple in splendid apparel. The bejeweled worshippers exhibited themselves in conspicuous seats; while the poor stood, or if seated, sat on footstools near the door. They made a great show of piety, sang the psalms of David with holy rapture, devoutly listened to the reading of the law and the prophets; and expelled Jesus and his apostles with great fury from their midst, when they showed the meaning of them. With the worship of God they combined the worship of Mammon. They

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heaped up gold and silver, and apparel till it was moth eaten; oppressed the hirelings in his wages; and ground the faces of the poor.

Such was the state of "the church" when Jesus and his apostles were members of it; and such is its condition now that "he standeth at the door, and knocks." "The Church" of the 20th century (by which I understand, not the "One Body"; but that thousand-headed monster presented by the ecclesiastical aggregate of "Christendom") is that Laodicean antitype which is neither cold nor hot, but lukewarm, and which saith, "I am rich, and increased in goods, and have need of nothing; but knows not that it is wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked"; the sputa once "spewed out of the Lord's mouth." Its eyes are blinded by the god of the world. Its zeal for faction: its devotion to Mammon; its ignorance of the scriptures; and its subjection to the dogmas and commandments of men -- have made its heart fat, its ears heavy, and closed its eyes. "The people of the Lord, the people of the Lord are we! " ascends as its cry to heaven from myriads of throats; but in the tablets of their hearts the light of the glorious gospel of Christ's kingdom and name finds no surface of reflection. Many who mean well lament "the decline of spirituality in the Churches"; but they fail to perceive the cause. The scriptures have fallen into comparative disuse among them. They are superseded by shallow speculations -- mere unintelligible pulpit disquisitions, the contradictory thinking of the flesh, trained to excogitate the creedism of the community that glorifies itself in the orator of its choice. The gospel is neither believed nor preached in the churches. In fact, it is hid from their eyes; and the time is come to break off the wild olive branch for its saplessness; to cut off these churches for their unbelief.

The principle, or spirit, that works in these children of disobedience, is neither the law of sin as exhibited in the savage; nor the law of God as it appears in the genuine disciples of Christ. It is a blending of the two; so as to make of none effect the little truth believed, as far as inheriting the Kingdom of God is concerned. This proportion of truth in the public mind is the measure of its morality, and exegetical of its conscience; and constitutes that scintillation, or "light within," which is struck out by the collision of ideas in the world around. Educational bias makes men what they are -- sinners, whose habitude of thought and action is "pious," or impious, civilized or savage, according to the school in which their young ideas have been taught to shoot. The divine law and testimony alone can turn these into reflectors of the moral image and similitude of God.

The "intellect" and "sentiments" of the apostle's brain, constituting "the fleshly tablet of his heart," had been inscribed by the Spirit of the living God, in a way that all believers are not the subject of. He was inspired; and consequently received much of "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God" by divine suggestion, or revelation; others receive the same knowledge, in words spoken,

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or written, by "earthen vessels" like himself, in whom "this treasure" was deposited. The means by which the knowledge is communicated matters not, so that it is written on the heart. When it gets possession of this, it forms that "mind" or mode of thinking or feeling (nou`") with which the apostle said he "served the Law of God." Being renewed by the divine testimony, his intellect and sentiments were sure to think and feel in harmony with the thoughts of God. Nevertheless, his "propensities" were only checked in their emotions. He kept his body under. This was all that he could do; for no spiritual perfection of thought and feeling could eradicate from the particles of his flesh the all-pervading principle of its corruption. While, therefore, with his mind he served the Law of God, his flesh obeyed the law of sin, which finally mingled it with its parent dust.

This new mode of thinking and feeling created in a true believer by the divine law and testimony, is variously designated in scripture. It is styled "a clean heart and a right spirit"; "a new spirit" and "a heart of flesh"; the "inward man"; "new creature" "the new man created in righteousness and true holiness"; and "renewed unto knowledge after the image of him that created him"; the "hidden man of the heart"; and so forth. This new and hidden man is manifested in the life, which is virtuous as becomes the gospel. He delights in the law of the Lord, and speaks often of His testimonies. He denies himself of all ungodliness and worldly lusts, and walks soberly, righteously and godly in the world. His hope is the glorious manifestation of Jesus Christ, with the crown of righteousness, even glory, honour, and immortality, promised to all who look for him, and "love his appearing," and desire his kingdom. Nevertheless, the law of sin, through the weakness of the flesh, fails not to remind him of imperfection. Being delivered from the fear of death, he looks forward to it as to the period of his change, knowing that, when he falls asleep in the dust, he will afterwards be delivered from the principle of evil by a resurrection to incorruptibility and unalloyed existence in the Paradise of God.

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CHAPTER 5

IMMORTALITY, RELIGION, "CLERGY" AND "LAITY"

The Lord God, having arranged the foundation of the world, in the sentences pronounced upon the transgressors; and commenced the preparation of the kingdom in the stipulations of the New Law: decreed their expulsion from the garden eastward in Eden. As the Serpent had said, the man had become "as the gods," or Elohim, "to know good and evil," in consequence of eating the forbidden fruit. He had known good only in his novitiate; but, being lifted up with pride, he had fallen into the condemnation of the devil, and had come to know also by experience both sorrow and pain. This was a great calamity; but not so great as that a greater might not befall him, even in Paradise. He had eaten of one tree, and his presumption might cause him to take and eat of the other. The consequences of this eating, superadded to the first, would have rendered his situation still more deplorable than it was. He now knew evil, as the Elohim had clone before him; but there was hope of deliverance from it when he should return to the dust whence he was taken; but if he should eat of the Tree of the Lives, this hope would be cut off; and he would live for ever the subject of weeping, sorrow, and pain. The misery of being the subject of evil for ever is forcibly expressed by Job. When reduced to the deepest distress, he laments, saying, "When I say, My bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaint; then thou scarest me with dreams, and terrifiest me through visions: so that my soul chooseth strangling, and death rather than my life. I loathe it; I would not live alway: let me alone; for my days are vanity," But, if Adam had eaten of the Tree of Life, when reduced to such misery as this he would have sought death, but it would have fled from him. He would have

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found no deliverance. This, however, would not have been the worst of it. He would have involved all his posterity in the same interminable calamity. The earth would at length have become crowded with undying generations of sensual and devilish men; who, if any virtue should survive, would afflict it a hundredfold. For this awful consummation there would have been no remedy but to break up the fountains of the abyss, and cast them down under chains of intense darkness, after the example of the terrene angels who sinned under a previous constitution of the globe.

But the repetition of the scenes of the pre-Adamic drama was not designed, although men were afterwards permitted to imitate it with a similar result; with this difference, however, that the race of the angels was one generation, while that of men was composed of many. To prevent, then, the replenishment of the earth with undying sinners, the Lord God said to Elohim, "Behold, the man has become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now lest he put forth his hand and take also of the Tree of the Lives, and eat, and live for ever: therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man." This is a very remarkable passage of scripture. It contains much in a few words. The points which stand out, shining like two stars, are the acknowledgement that man had become as the gods by h