is a natural body"-or, if one might use such an expression, "There is a soulish body; that is, a soul properly suited to the body—oãμa ↓vxínòv: and when it is said, "The last Adam was made a quickening spirit," there is a plain reference to the other assertion, "There is a spiritual body," or, a body proper to a spirit-owμa avevμalixóv. And so in the verse following the text, "Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual "-or, proper to a spirit" but that which is natural" to a soul: and afterward "that which is spiritual," proper to a spirit.

If I have made myself understood in pointing out this connexion of the text with the context-which will be quite obvious at once to every reader of the original-I think it furnishes us with the true key to the nature of the comparison which is here made between the first Adam and the last Adam. It is a comparison, first, in the way of resemblance; and, secondly, in the way of distinction or contrast. The point in which our Lord, the last Adam, resembles the first man Adam, is this-in that he is the federal head of a race; the covenant head of a race. For as Adam by creation was constituted the head, the representative, and the fountain of derivation, to all mankind who were to spring out of his loins; so the man Christ Jesus, by resurrection (which in Scripture is called " a new creation") and by being endowed with the fulness of the Spirit, was constituted the head, and representative, and fountain of derivation, as it were, to the whole body of the church, or of the elect; who were to be begotten again from the womb of death by him, as the "quickening spirit," by the power of the Holy Ghost, which he possessed in its fulness.

Here, then, is the point of resemblance between the first and the last Adam. As the natural life, or the life of the soul, is by every one to be traced to the first man Adam, as its great original; so the spiritual life in the believer, or the life of the spirit, is to be traced to Jesus Christ, the last Adam, as its great original.

The

But here, however, the resemblance between the two Adams ends. contrast on the other hand is two-fold. There is, first, the contrast between the substance of each; that whereas the first man, Adam, was made a soul, the last Adam was made a spirit: and secondly, there is a contrast between the quality or the character of each substance; that whereas the soul was but a "living" soul, the spirit was a "quickening," life-giving, or life-causing, spirit. That is, as I conceive, that while Adam-endued with a soul, or lower life-had placed within him the power of continuing, by means of his descendants, that life which he himself possessed; so Jesus Christ-raised from the dead, constituted a spirit, partaking (that is) of a higher life—is invested with the power, not only of continuing life, but of quickening others into the same life with himself—causing them to live-communicating life unto the dead. Adam was but a living soul, capable of continuing the same life in others who should succeed him; but Christ, by his resurrection from the dead, has become “ a quickening spirit," capable of giving life unto the dead; thus verifying his own words—“ As the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will."

Having thus endeavoured to explain the meaning of the text by the light thrown upon its context, I shall now seek to make a practical use of it, by

showing its bearing, first, on the foundation of the Christian's salvation; secondly, on the trial of his present condition; and, thirdly, on the blessedness of his future prospects.

SALVATION.

First, see the practical bearing ON THE FOUNDATION OF THE CHRISTIAN'S The passage opens before us that which constitutes the great mystery both of our fallen condition and of our redemption. The Apostle here enumerates only two men of all the men that have ever lived: because all men stand in such a relationship to the first Adam, and all in the church of Christ stand in such a relationship to the second Adam, as they can stand in to no other man. Though we are not the immediate sons of Adam, we are born in his likeness, and we inherit his condition and this is the way in which it can be inherited from no other man. We do not see, in the ordinary course of human generation, that all children are born with what is peculiar in the sinful propensities, or in the degraded habits, of their immediate progenitors. True it is that bad example, and the neglect of instruction, and the absence of prayer for God's blessing, do often cause the sins of men to be in a measure hereditary : but this is easily traced to its true cause. Put the child of the most worthless and degraded of parents into Christian training, and under the advantages of the instructions of piety and of virtue; and you will not discover in him-at least, generally-—any traces of those crimes which disgrace his parents.

Whence, then, do we derive the tenet of the universal corruption? For if you should imagine that all sin arises from evil example, and the absence of education, experience will soon undeceive you. Although, by dint of care, you may guard against the outbreaking of those sins which have been peculiar to the immediate progenitor; though you may in this way stop the progressive and accumulating power of evil, which otherwise, in successive generations, would grow and increase to such an extent as to render life in this world absolutely intolerable, you will not be able by your utmost care to root out the evil which is in the heart of man. Though the child does not, as it were, commence its sinful career at the point which its profligate parent may have reached, (for what would become of the world if it were so ?) yet there is an eril within human nature-there is an evil in every human being which no care, no training can eradicate—which no absence of bad example can prevent from exhibiting itself at some season. And what is the inference from this, but that there is a connexion between us and the first man Adam, which does not subsist between us and our immediate parents, or any intermediate link of the chain by which we are connected with our first progenitor? And so it is written of Adam, that he " begot a son in his own image, after his own likeness;" who thus deriving from him his life of nature, shared with Adam in all the miserable circumstances of his fallen condition. Thus "by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed on all men, for that all have sinned." All have sinned in Adam. In fact, when God created Adam, he created all men: there has been no creation of the human species since that creation. All therefore stood, and all fell in Adam: all in him became not only exposed to the consequences, but also infected with the very nature, of his sin.

This, it is admitted, is an unopened mystery as to the way and the method of

it but it is a matter of common observation as to the fact itself. We cannot explain how the sin of Adam attaches to every being of the human race, but it is a plain matter of fact which meets us at every turn.

Now the use which is to be made of this in the text, is this: That there is, in truth, no greater difficulty in the idea that having union with the last Adamı as a quickening spirit-with Jesus Christ raised from the dead—we are endowed with his life and his likeness, and are thereby partakers of his condition, as much as we are, in our natural state, partakers of the life, and likeness, and condition of the first Adam. By raising him from the dead, God has constituted his Son Jesus Christ a quickening spirit: as a man invested with the fulness of the spirit, he quickens with eternal life, as many as the Father has given him. He so quickens them, as that they are his seed as truly now as they have been hitherto the seed of the first Adam; and so his seed, that they have his life, that they have his likeness, that they are the partakers in all the blessedness of his condition. Even as Christ is, so are we in this world.

:

Here then, beloved brethren, is the only foundation of our salvation; it is the life which Christ now possesses. Union with him in his risen glory is the only source of spiritual life, the only link by which we can retain it. There is no way of being saved but by becoming the recipients of this new life from Christ; no other way of being saved but by our becoming thus the part of a new creation, members of a new body, joined to a new head, built upon a new foundation. Of one or the other Adam, we must necessarily hold our life; for there is no other head of life except these two Adams, the first and the last and if our life be but of the first Adam, then we are partakers of that life under the forfeit incurred by the fall; we have but, as it were, a kind of dying life, or living death-whichever you please to have it. But if it be of the last Adam, then are we partakers of that life which he received out of death. He is the quickening spirit; but we are spirits quickened by him: he living by the Father, and we living by Him; He the living stone, the tried stone, the sure foundationstone; but we also living stones, built up upon him, a spiritual building for the habitation of the Lord: He the vine; we the branches grafted into him, deriving the living sap from him as the root.

Here then, my brethren, I repeat, I would affectionately urge it upon you— here is the only foundation for a sinner's salvation. Away with all the vain subterfuges which the wisdom of this world hath invented wherewith to deceive the souls of men. Away with all the shallow resources of a ruined nature; as if man, by his own efforts, or by any power within himself-by his prayers, his repentance, his tears, his sorrows, or any other mode, could find his way back to God. Away with all dependence on such and such works; and equally with such and such frames of spirit. Away with all dependence on a sound faith. Salvation is not to be found in these things: it is not to be found in the reformation of conduct; it is not to be found in a difference of feeling; it is not to be found in an act of the mind, whatever the act may be; it is not to be found in the feelings of the heart, whatever those feelings may be: but it is to be found in a vital union with Jesus Christ, and with a supernatural existence in Christ. "Ye must be born again:" "Marvel not that I said unto you, Ye must be born again." You must live by union to Jesus Christ: you must live by feeding upon Jesus Christ; for he hath said, "Except ye eat the flesh of

the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you :" which is equivalent to his having said, "Except you have that union with me which alone is to be sustained and kept up by this spiritual food, you have no life in you."

O then, brethren, submit your ways to the ways of God. Be content to be recipients of his grace. Behold, God has laid help upon One that is mighty. who, having put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, is now anointed with a higher life, wherewith to quicken you, and to make you alive, by grafting you into himself. Seek not for life from yourself; but be willing to receive it as a boon from Christ.

tion.

But further, let us look at this subject as it bears ON THE TRIALS OF THE CHRISTIAN'S PRESENT CONDITION. It furnishes the great Christian foundaFor what is the Christian's state? He is united to the risen Saviour; he is quickened by that quickening spirit; he is endowed with higher life and yet he dwells in a body derived from the first man Adam, who was only made a living soul, and by transgression became a fallen, guilty, and sinful soul. Contrast the first Adam and his being, with the last Adam and his being. "There is," says the Apostle, "a body proper to a soul; and there is a body proper to a spirit." But the great peculiarity in the Christian's condition in the present state of warfare, is this: that while he is a quickened spirit in union with Christ the quickening spirit, he yet has a body proper only to a soul, by still having, in his own nature, union with the first Adam : he has a body which, even in its origin, was fitted to contain no higher life than that of a living soul; which since its origin has been deteriorated and injured by the fall; and which yet must serve as the habitation (rather say the prison-house) to a spirit quickened by union with Him who quickeneth all things.

Bear this in mind, brethren, and it will throw a striking light on many passages in Scripture which are descriptive of the Christian experience. For instance, "We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this (tabernacle) we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life." Again: "We know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body." And again : "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" What do these (and a variety of similar passages which will readily occur to you) express, but the desires of the quickened spirit to be released from this prison-house in which it is pent up, and shackled, and hindered in all those exercises which it desires to have with God? They express the longing of the quickened spirit for an abode more suitable to its powers and its faculties; for a body which will not be a clog, but a help, in its goings towards the Author of its being.

And does not this also point out the Christian's resource under such trials? What is it, but to walk by faith and not by sight? What is it, but to realize

in the actings of our faith, what St. Paul realized when he said, "The body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." What is it, but to keep under the body? What is it, but to crucify and mortify this tabernacle of the flesh, that we may give free scope to the quickening Spirit? What is it, but to realize what the Apostle says: "If ye be risen with Christ”—that is, if you be indeed thus quickened of him" seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life"-your quickened life-" is hid with Christ in God."

And O! what does this part of the subject say, to those who feel no such burden, no such incumbrance, while they tabernacle in the body of this death; who find the enjoyments of sense congenial to the inner man ? O, how obvious must it be that such know not Christ as a quickening Spirit! How obvious that it is "because there is no life in them!" 66 They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh :" and what is the alternative? we live after the flesh we shall die:""To be carnally-minded is death.

"If

But finally, let us look at this subject, as it bears also ON THE CHRISTIAN'S FUTURE PROSPECTS. We are as yet, indeed, in the natural body—the body proper to a soul: but there is a spiritual body. Let us not forget that the body is a part of man as essentially as the spirit; and that as we are now by faith quickened in spirit, so there is a renewal unto holiness to this body also, which shall be revived, and glorified, and changed into the likeness of Christ's glorious body, according to the mighty working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.

This shall be-when? At the second glorious advent of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now he is gone to the Father; now he is quickening those whom the Father hath given him. He is hewing out the living stones, and building them together for temple of the Lord and when all the stones are prepared, and the number of the elect is accomplished, then will he return that he may gather all into one; not merely in a spiritual union-such a union as can be apprehended by faith; but also in a bodily, local union-such a union as can be apprehended by sense also.

66

This has been too much lost sight of in the church in these latter times. Man has been too much spoken of, and spoken to, as if he had no body to be saved; as if the saving of his soul were every thing. And this, besides giving a vagueness and indistinctness to the great subject of redemption, does also deprive the Lord Jesus Christ of the glory of one part of his work as a quickening spirit." For in deriving from him as the life, we must derive in body as well as in spirit. He came to save, not the soul, but to save the man, both body and soul. We are to be like him, not in spirit only, but, as the promise of Scripture expressly is, in body also. And then-but not till then-that which is imperfect shall be done away, and that which is perfect shall have come. It is this which will be the close of humiliation-this that will be the destruction of the last enemy. It is this that will blot out the last sharp and dreary memorial of the flesh, and