I will simply say, in conclusion, that I shall not imitate Mr. Hudson, for I do challenge a confutation of my opinions. Though I have no disposition to continue this controversy, unless it can be made profitable to the reader, I must say it ought to be continued, for all that is valuable to man in religion is involved in it. And so far from being convinced of the incorrectness of my views, I can say the more I examine the subject the more I am convinced of their truth. The subject is now submitted to the candor and judgment of an impartial public, believing that by reading, as well as by many running to and fro, knowledge will increase and truth prevail.

LETTER IX.

SIR, I HAVE now finished my examination of your book. In addition to what is advanced in the preceding pages against your doctrines and in favor of my own opinions, a few more letters must be added to the present discussion. In this letter I shall examine the question-was Adam created an immortal being? Let us

1st. Notice some popular opinions concerning Adam's original condition. And 1st. It has been generally believed that Adam was created a perfect being. The Bible says-" God made man upright," but there is an essential difference between uprightness and perfection, as could be easily shown. Adam was created upright, or innocent, but he was not created so perfect but that he might sin as the event showed.

If he was capable of choosing good, he was also liable to be tempted to evil. Though he was not created a sinner, he was created so imperfect that he might become one. Had not this been the case he

never would have sinned.

2d. It has also been generally believed, it was God's design in creating Adam, that he and all his posterity should continue forever upright, sinless creatures. But the event showed this could not be God's design, for if it was, he was frustrated in it. It would also follow that all God has done, or promises to do for man by Jesus Christ, was an after thought, an expedient resorted to, having been disappointed in his original design. Man never was designed to continue innocent or to spend his life in paradise. His expulsion from it was in perfect agreement with what God said to him at his creation. He was to multiply and replenish the earth, and subdue it. He was to have dominion over this lower creation. He was to till the ground, and by its produce was he to be supported. But all this could not be done in the garden.

3d. It has also been generally believed that had Adam continued innocent, after a long life of happiness in Eden, God would have translated him to an endless life in heaven. The Bible affords no evidence of this. Adam had no promise of life beyond the life he enjoyed. Besides, life and immortality are brought to light only in the gospel. As Adam had no need of a Saviour before he sinned, so he had no need for a revelation about salvation in his innocent condition.

4th. It has also been generally believed Adam's original condition was a very happy one. Hence many have deplored the wretched condition into which Adam has brought his posterity. Adam's fall has been a subject of long and loud lamentation, and

the human race have lost a great deal by it. But certainly this is a great mistake, for no sacred-writer deplores the fall of Adam as a ruinous event to our race. So far from this, Adam was a figure of Christ, Rom. 5: 12-21, and the benefits by the second Adam, far exceed the loss by the first. Adam's original state, his fall and its consequences, have only been introductory to a greater display of the divine character, and of greater good to man by Jesus Christ.

5th. It has been very generally believed that Adam was created with an immortal soul and if he had not sinned he never would have died. This seems to be your belief, for your whole system is predicated on it. But against this view of the subject I have several things to offer. Had Adam been created immortal how could he die, for can that which is immortal die? We read of this mortal putting on immortality, but what sacred writer speaks of this immortal putting on mortality? You said, p. 172, "immortality simply denotes endless life." You add "the same is true of the Greek word athanasia, or athanatos, which Parkhurst derives from a, not, or without, and thanatos, death; so the word literally signifies without death. He then gives but one definition, viz. immortality, exemption from death." By your own showing then, if Adam was created immortal, he must have been exempted from death. But let us exam

ine Moses' account of the formation of man.

In Gen. 2: 7, it is said, "and the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living. soul." When it is said "God formed man of the dust of the ground," it will be conceded that this refers to his bodily frame. Other Scripture writers speak in a similar way respecting the formation of man's body from the dust. See Gen. 3: 19. Job.

4: 19, and 33: 6. Ps. 103: 14. 1 Cor. 15: 47. 2 Cor. 4: 7, and 5: 1. We do not deny God's ability to form an immortal body from dust, but as this is no where asserted in Scripture, we ought not to assert it. Should this be asserted, the beasts were created immortal, for both men and beasts were formed from the same perishable materials. See Gen. 1: 24, 25, and 2: 7. 19. In this respect men and beasts are See Eccles. 3: 19, 20. Both are from the dust, and both return to it. Solomon predicates the mortality of neither on Adam's sin, but on the original materials of which both were composed.

the same.

No promise was given to Adam that he should never die. If we infer his immortality from the silence of Scripture about his death, we ought to draw the same inference respecting all the other creatures which God made. If we say his immortality is implied in the threatening-" in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die," we deny that this is a fair inference, for no man reasons so when human laws threaten the murderer with death. The Scriptures do not say if Adam had never sinned he would have lived forever. To predicate death on his sinning, and his immortality on his remaining innocent shows that at best his immortality was conditional, which is rather a singular kind of immortality. Besides, as the brutes never sinned, why should they die? Was their immortality suspended also on the ground of Adam's continuing a sinless being? I find nothing which proves all this in the Bible.

But perhaps Adam's immortality is inferred from his being created in the image of God. This will not answer, for Christ was the image of the invisible God, yet he died. Believers are created in Christ Jesus after the image of God. Col. 3: 10. Eph. 4: 24. But they die like other men. In short, mere innocence or freedom from all moral guilt, could not

prevent Adam from dying, for surely Jesus Christ had no sin, and if his innocence, yea, his perfect holiness did not render him immortal, how could mere innocence render Adam so?

But again. Adam in his innocent condition was to live by eating and drinking. The perishable nature of the things on which he subsisted, and his requiring such sustenance, showed he was created mortal. To support life by eating and drinking, implies that if these were withheld death would ensue, unless a constant miracle was wrought to preserve life without them. But a miracle could preserve our lives as well as his. It is apparent from Gen. 1, and 2, that Adam and the beasts were both to subsist on the produce of the earth. The perishable nature of the materials and the necessity of a constant supply, showed both were subject to decay and death. Adam could have lived forever without food so could the beasts, and if a proper supply of food would have continued the life of Adam forever had he not sinned, why not also to the brute creation?

If

But further. Could not Adam have been bled to death? Would not a dose of poison have killed him? Or if a tree or a rock had fallen upon him would it not have crushed him to death? If all this is denied, it is evident sin altered the whole organization of man. But the Scriptures no where warrant such a conclusion: Adam, and all other creatures at their creation, were so organized that they were to live on the same principles of nutrition as we now do. Who can deny this, or that Adam ate, drank, and slept as we do? The history shows this.

But the passage says further, God-"breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." See the following texts where the same or similar things are stated. Job 33: 4, and 27: 3. Acts 17: 25. Isai. 2; 22. Num. 16: 22. Zach. 12: 1.