butes of these, must be maintained. But some liberalist will say, Who can be sure that his ideas respecting them, are scriptural, amidst the confusion and clamouring of discordant sentiments respecting the ordinances?—and if he cannot affirm with confidence, he ought to be charitable towards a belief the reverse of his own. That man, we reply, may know that he is of the truth, who can advance one plain positive law, or declaration, respecting an institution; and to remove all doubt, can point to one circumstance in which it was performed according to that law. Such an one need not be afraid of saying that an adverse doctrine cannot be smiled upon by charity.

Be it remembered, that the assertion that charity cannot be exercised towards certain doctrines, is equivalent to this-that religious communion cannot be given him who maintains them. To grant fellowship to any one whose sentiments are obnoxious to charity, is a practice condemned by God and his faithful people. Such a procedure will ever assuredly result in strife and division. And, on the other hand, to be charitable towards certain doctrines, and yet, on account of the selfsame doctrines, to refuse any one communion in all the privileges of religion, is one of the greatest absurdities of which intelligent men can be guilty.

Here we leave the subject till another moon hath filled her horns.

EDITOR.

Essays on Man in his Primitive State, and under the Patriarchal, Jewish, and Christian Dispensations.-No. I.

PRIMITIVE STATE.-No. I.

66 THE PROPER STUDY OF MANKIND IS MAN."

"KNOW thyself," was the wisest maxim of the wisest philosopher of the wisest pagan nation of antiquity. "Know thyself" is inculcated by all the Prophets and Apostles of all the ages of revelation. And while the wisest man of the wisest nation in theology taught as his first maxim, that 66 the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom ;" and while the Saviour of the world taught, that "it is eternal life to know the only true God, and his Son Jesus Christ whom he commissioned,” both concur in inculcating the excellence, and in teaching the utility and importance of self-knowledge. Our origin necessarily engrosses the first chapter of self-knowledge; and here the Bible begins. This volume, replete with all wisdom and knowledge requisite to the happiness of man during every period of his existence, in time and to eternity, wisely and kindly opens with the history of man's creation, and closes with his eternal destiny. To it we are indebted for every correct idea, for every just sentiment on this subject in all the volumes and in all the intellects on earth. Destroy it and all that has been deduced, borrowed, or stolen from it, and man is

not only a savage in disposition, but as rude and ignorant of his origin as the beasts that perish. This is an assertion made with full knowledge of all that is claimed by sceptics, and alleged by unbelievers, from the days of Celsus down to the era of Mental Independence. And the day is not far distant in which we trust this will be universally admitted.

Considering the Bible, therefore, as the only oracle on this subject; viewing it as containing the whole sum total of all that mortal man can know of his origin, we shall only hear and attend to its representations of the origin of man. And first we shall attend to his creation :-After God Almighty had formed the heavens and the earth, and fitted the latter for the abode of that creature for whom it was made, he proceeded with singular deliberation to create this most august of all the creatures of his vast empire. When suns were to be lighted, and all the hosts of the heavens and the earth marshalled, he was pleased without a preamble | or a preface, to command them into being; but when man, the sovereign of this globe, was to be fashioned, he pauses, and retires within himself for a model, and makes his own image the grand archetype of man. He builds his body from the elements of the earth. He gives him a soul or animal life in common with all the animals created; but he infuses into him from himself directly, without any intervention, a spirit, a pure, intellectual principle. So that man stands erect, one being, possessing body, soul, and spirit. His body was as earthly as that of any other creature, only of more delicate and exquisite organization. His soul or animal life, which gives him all the passions, was like theirs, save that it was not the governing principle; but at the head of all, and above all, his intellect or spirit was enthroned, which placed him incomparably above every other inhabitant of the earth. Thus Adam stood a triune being, having a body, a soul, and a spirit, each of them perfect in every respect, and perfectly united and subordinated in one sublime constitution; the spirit enthroned in the head and as the head; the soul resident in the heart, and not only animating but energizing the whole body in perfect obsequiousness to the intellectual department.

By the way, we may observe, that the Jews, the Greeks, the Romans, as well as the English, have had three terms which they used as distinctly expressive of these three. These are the body, soul, and spirit, of the English; the corpus, anima, and animus, of the Latins; the soma, psuche, and nous, of the Greeks; and the nerep, nepesh, and ruth, of the Hebrews. These in each language are representatives of each other; and the most of the modern languages have the same distinctness of phraseology in marking each of the constituents of man. The body is organic mass, animated and pervaded by the soul or animal life, which, || as the Scriptures say, is in the blood; and the spirit is that pure intellectual principle which acts immediately upon the soul and mediately upon the body. We know that in popular use, the terms soul and spirit

are generally used as synonymous, and have been so in the practice of all languages; but when we wish to speak with the greatest perspicuity or emphasis, we distinguish these from one another. Thus Paul prays for the Thessalonians, that God would sanctify them wholly, their body, soul, and spirit. The body and soul, in common usage, denote the whole man; but when we speak philosophically, we say, body, soul, and spirit. Each of these has its respective attributes and powers. The spirit has the faculties we call the powers of understanding; the soul has its passions and affections; the body has its organs and their functions. In man reason and all intelligence belong to the spirit, together with volition in its primary character. All the passions and affections belong to the soul, and are identified with animal life; all the appetites and propensities strictly belong to the body. But so united are these constituents of man, that what one does the others do likewise. So that while we define thus, we know that in all the acts of the man there is such a combination of energies that the whole spirit, soul, and body, move in perfect concert in all those acts which are properly called human. A hint or two of this sort, without an elaborate disquisition, illustration, or proof, we suppose necessary to a correct view of man; but to enter largely into this matter would require a volume itself, and would not, perhaps, repay for either the trouble of writing or reading it. The government belonged to the spirit; its ministers were the passions, and the whole body moved in subordination to these. So intimate were the soul and spirit in all their acts and movements, that they became perfectly identified with each other, and the one term became the representative of both-as one family name represents both husband and wife. But while contemplating man in his first state, we must call in all the helps we have to conceive of him in accordance with his primitive dignity. As a perfect being, then, his reason, his passions, and his appetites existed in the most regular and harmonious connexion with each other. Their natural and necessary dependance was duly felt and acknowledged; and their subordination was founded in perfect reason. Capable of deriving pleasure from a thousand sources in the material system by means of his senses, he was also qualified to enjoy the most intimate relation and acquaintance with the spiritual system by means of his intellectual faculties. Thus the pleasures and enjoyments of two worlds were made accessible to man in the state in which he was created.

Being thus constituted capable of enjoyments so numerous and multiform, he was the most perfect creature in the universe, as far as human knowledge extends. He was the last, and if we may judge by the regular gradation of all the works of creation, as narrated by Moses, he was the best work of God. But as he was endued not only with the powers of acquiring and accumulating enjoyment from two worlds, but with the faculties for communicating it, he was in his very nature social, and re

quired co-ordinate beings for the gratification of his powers of communication. Hence from himself God created a co-ordinate being of the same endowments, but of still more delicate organization.

Kindred society became the consummation of human bliss, because necessary to fill up all man's capacities for enjoyment. A male and a female, possessed of one common nature, mutually dependent on each other for all the higher enjoyments of that nature; in their creation inseparably allied to each other; and in all their wants, desires, and enjoyments, reciprocal, finish the picture of primitive bliss in man's original state. Thus was man created and circumstanced; and after the intelligent, pure and happy pair were introduced to each other, God, their Creator, inducted them by his own hand into the garden of delights, which for them he had previously formed and beautified with all the exquisite charms which the combined influences of virgin heaven and earth were capable of producing. Then the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." And here we shall leave them for the present.

THE SPIRIT AND BODY OF CHRIST.

A. C.

A NEW AND FORCIBLE ILLUSTRATION OF THE OPERATION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

THAT the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ, is plain from many places in the New Testament. He is said to be "Lord of the Spirit," implying that the Spirit is under his dominion; and of the Holy Spirit it said, "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." The Holy Spirit was to be sent in the name of Jesus; and it was necessary after the Spirit came to have faith in Jesus, to reform towards him, and to be baptized in his name, in order to receive the Holy Spirit.

That the church is the body of Christ, is also equally plain. "For his body's sake, which is the church-we being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another-the bread [loaf] which we break, is it not the communion of the lody of Christ? For we being many are one bread [loaf] and one body-the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and he is the Saviour of the body-we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones-ye are the body of Christ, and members in particulargave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body -he is the head of his body, the church," &c.

It is as equally plain, then, that Christ is the head of the church, as that it is his body, or the Holy Spirit his Spirit. But as there is a consistency preserved in all the figures used in the Bible, Christ is never spoken of as a head, only in reference to the church as a body. The figure is drawn from the human constitution or body, and is a

It is in the head of man, in

remarkably appropriate and striking one. his brain, that his spirit or mind sits enthroned, and from which it animates his body. This is the most appropriate place for it in his whole physical constitution, as it is here that the nervous system has its origin or beginning, by which impressions are conveyed to and from the brain, and which branches out from it into the whole body. Here the mind sits, and directs by means of the nerves and muscles, the motions and movements of all the body. But it is not by merely thinking that the mind can perform any thing. Although it may conceive a superstructure, or a piece of work of any kind, yet the simple act of conception will not cause the one to rise, or the other to be performed. This is the office of the members of the body, animated and directed by the Spirit, and kept in life and motion.

The figure is in excellent keeping. Christ, the head of his body the church, has the Spirit, and with him is its source or origin. It is from him as the head, that his body the church is animated, directed, and kept alive and in operation by the Spirit. The Holy Spirit thus operates through the church as a body and members, collectively and individually. Hence the important office of the church in the conversion of the world!-and in keeping itself pure and sound and vigorous! -To be animated by the Spirit we must become united to the body, and with it to the Head. Separate a finger, or hand, or arm, from the body, and it dies, withers, and decays. Separate a member from the body of Christ, and spiritual life is extinguished, and spiritual death ensues! When a member becomes diseased it must be healed if possible: but if found to be incurable, must be amputated, or the rest of the body will suffer or die. J. R. H.

PARAPHRASE ON ROMANS VIII. 7—25.

BY REQUEST.

THE proposition which the Apostle has in design to enforce, is that contained in the last clause of verse 17. viz. "If we believing Jews and Gentiles suffer, without apostacy, the bodily afflictions incident to our obeying the Lord, as he suffered the afflictions attendant on his humiliation, we shall be glorified with him at the resurrection of the just, at which time we shall be fully revealed as the adopted sons of God."

For my part, says Paul, I do not esteem the afflictions of our bodies in the present life as worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be exhibited in us at the resurrection of our bodies from the grave. For such is the transcendant glory to be revealed in us, that the earnest desire of the believing Jew and Gentile looks in hope for the manifesta