regards their motions and their influences, are obedient to certain determinate rules, or fixed laws. Thus do we find, that, throughout the whole of what we can perceive, of what is termed the natural creation, certain fixed and determinate rules of action or laws are established, to which, all that we can perceive, throughout the whole range of that creation, yields strict, and undeviating obedience.

We observe, then, that it has pleased God to establish certain definite, fixed rules, or laws, throughout all that we can perceive of his works of creation; in accordance with which, he orders, and directs, and overrules, his creation. We obtain a knowledge of these laws, solely from observation and experience.

But, those works of creation which we behold in the heavens and on our earth, form but a part of God's empire. We read, not only of things visible, but of things invisible; of principalities, of powers, of angels, of spirits that surround the throne of God. Are there then fixed rules or laws, in compliance with which these Beings, act, and to which they yield strict, and undeviating obedience? We know not, nor can we conceive, aught that relates to spiritual existences; but, we know, that righteousness is dwelt upon as the lead

ing feature in the character of the inmates of the courts of heaven; and, that it is the indispensable qualification for admission into, and a residence in, that glorious abode. Righteousness implies being righteous, doing right; and right implies something of a fixed, immutable character, determined and defined by certain laws. Righteousness is the opposite of un-righteousness; and unrighteousness is sin; and sin is the violation of, or disobedience to, certain fixed laws.

As we are unable to form any conception of the Being, or the attributes of God; or of the spiritual beings which dwell in his more immediate presence ; or of the glory and purity of the heavenly mansions; so, are we utterly unable to form any conception of that exalted holiness, that perfect righteousness, which characterizes every inmate of those blessed abodes. But, unable though we are to conceive such a degree of holiness, and of righteousness, as belongs to heaven and its inmates; we can, too well, perceive and feel, that we fall, immeasurably, short of that standard of holiness and of righteousness which is established in God's courts. We are all conscious to ourselves of having violated many of God's express commands; of

having acted in opposition to what our consciences dictated as right; of having, wilfully, done wrong. No man that ever lived on earth has ever attained unto the righteousness which, alone, could qualify him for admission into Heaven. He never has attained unto it; and incarnate man never can, never could, attain unto it. Why? Because in the flesh it is impossible to please God. Because, the flesh and the Spirit are diametrically opposed, in nature and in influence, to each other. Because the flesh is always lusting against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. Because there is, in the flesh, a constant tendency to act in opposition to moral restraints; so that, in it, there dwelleth not any good thing. Because, even, although the Spirit, the inward man, delight in the law of God; it sees another law, in its bodily members, warring against the law of the mind, and bringing the inward man into captivity to the law of sin which is in its members. Because the Spirit is so intimately connected with, and dependent upon, its body; that it derives from, and through it, all its own perceptions, and holds all its own faculties in subordination to the condition of its body; while, on the other hand, the

e

e Rom. vii. 18-23.

body, is, in a great degree, independent of all influence and controul on the part of the Spirit; so that, in a struggle for mastery, between these antagonist and conflicting parts of man; the body possesses so many advantages over its opponent, that, in many cases, it almost always obtains the victory. Because, the maintenance of perpetual conflict with the body is irksome to the Spirit; whereas an indulgence in the appetites derived from the flesh is not only in itself pleasing, but, for a time at least, causes a cessation of that conflict. Because, spiritual things can only be spiritually discerned; while all our present perceptions are derived through the instrumentality of the body, which only affords to us the perception of earthly things. Because of all these things, it is impossible for incarnate man to attain to such degrees of holiness and righteousness as characterize the inmates of heaven. But, it pleased God that man should be incarnate. We presume not to inquire, why a state of incarnation was made preliminary to a state of perfect spiritualization ; why a σώμα ψυχικον was to be worn by God's image before it was clothed with a σωμα πνευματικόν. We presume not to institute such an inquiry. It was part of God's eter

nal purpose, part of that mysterious scheme, which, from the beginning, He kept hid in Himself. It was a part of that scheme, that man, the off-spring of GoD, should be clothed with flesh, should dwell in a σώμα ψυχικον, an animal body, should be placed in a condition at variance with its own nature; should be burdened with flesh, to which it was to be indebted for its perceptions; with a body, which should control its faculties, should preclude it from all perception of spiritual existences, and should unfit it for spiritual exercises. Such was a part of God's eternal scheme. But, it was, also, a part of that scheme, that, in the fulness of time, no less an image of GOD" than that Being, who

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was with GOD, and was GOD" the Creative Word; that He, also, should become incar

nate, should put on a σμa as (OTN) man, or Adam.

xIKOV, should exist And, as the first

man, or Adam, was the representative of the whole human race, of which he was destined to be the ostensible progenitor; so, was incarnate Christ to be the representative, also, of the whole Adamite race. Christ was to represent man, or Adam, in as much, as He was to be similarly formed: The " Image of GOD" in a form of flesh.

1

He was to pass