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and no more necessarily connected with, that in which consists its appropriate life, as is the existence of the material atoms which compose the human body with its appropriate life. These do not perish:-it is demonstrable, that not a particle of matter has been annihilated since the creation. Incessant changes and combinations are going on, but there is no such thing as the absolute destruction of the least portion of the Creator's works. Nature abhors annihilation. The particles which compose our bodies may indeed. be separated, and resolved into their primary elements, and be assumed into new productions by entirely new combinations;-yea they may even enter into the composition of other living creatures, but they will not by such process be destroyed. And when death has deranged the entire organization of the human body; and in the alembic of the grave, it has been resolved into its simple elementsthese elements still remain. There is, strictly speaking a perpetuity attributable to the body. The particles of which it is composed may lie dormant in the grave, or pass through a thousand successive changes, but shall be re-combined and re-organized in all the bloom and beauty of immortal youth. Of this no one can doubt who admits the truth of the sacred record. That record is short and decisive. "The hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth, they that have done good unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil to the resurrection of damnation." No one however thinks of identifying the essential existence of the elementary dust with the life of the body. Wherefore we conclude that as the life of the body consists in something distinct from the mere existence of the material particles of which it is composed; so the life of the soul does as certainly consist in something distinct from the mere existence of its spiritual essence. It follows as a corollary from this 2. That the life of the soul does not consist in its spirit1 John, v. 29.

uality. Spirit is but one mode of being, as matter is another; and with equal propriety might it be said, that the life of material beings consists in their material essence, as of spiritual beings in their spiritual essence. The life of the body we have already seen consists in its appropriate action. It is not now necessary to refer to the proof and illustrations by which we attempted to establish the correctness of this definition. Our business here is to apply it to the rational soul of man by which we shall obtain some definite ideas on a subject exceedingly intricate and perplexed. Wherefore we conclude that

V. THE LIFE OF THE RATIONAL SOUL CONSISTS IN THE REGULAR SERIES OF THOSE ACTIONS WHICH ARE APPROPRIATE TO ITS SUSCEPTIBILITIES AND CAPACITIES. Το understand this, it is necessary for us to inquire what actions are appropriate; and this can best be done by a reference to the primitive constitution of man. It cannot be expected however, nor is it at all necessary that we should undertake any minute analysis of the capacities of the human soul, which fit it for various action. It will be enough for us to adopt some general classification, as suggested by the character of the actions themselves.

It is said that man was created in the image of God, and whatever may be our opinion as to that image's being the combination in man of the different orders of life, thus constituting a trinity in unity, certain it is that a resemblance may be traced in the moral qualities of his rational soul to perfections of the divine nature. These may be all classed under the three following heads, which it is not a little remarkable are designated as the perfections more especially manifested by the three persons of the Godhead, viz., knowledge corresponding with the purposes, and plans, and revelations especially attributable to the Father, who is the great source of all:-Righteousness corresponding with the peculiar perfection of the Son, who is denominated the

righteous one and the Lord our righteousness, as he appeared and acted fulfilling all righteousness:-Holiness, corresponding with the more especial attribute of the spirit who receives the denomination of the Holy One, the Holy Spirit. The regenerate sinner is said by the apostle to be "renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him,” and in another place to have "put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness," as though regeneration secured the restoration of properties originally characteristic of man.

Without venturing into any thing like minute investigation with regard to the import of these expressions, it may suffice to remark, that they are properties appropriate to the different capacities of man's moral nature. Knowledge implies, and is appropriate to the power of perceiving and understanding the truth-his intellectual capacities: Righteousness to his active powers or capacities for voluntary action: and Holiness to his sensitive powers or capacities for feeling and emotion. Where there is knowledge, there must be truth or fact, and a mind to perceive and apprehend it. Where there is righteousness, there must be a law or standard of right and actions conformed to it. Where there is holiness, there must be some sensitiveness to take alarm at the approach and presence of any thing improper, and impure, and to preserve the harmony of all the powers, passions and affections of the soul. When man therefore was created, he was possessed of a mind capable of perceiving, and stored with the knowledge of, truth; he was strictly and perfectly conformed to the law of God both in letter and in spirit, in outward act and inward volition; and he was so sensitive to every thing that concerned the honor and glory of God-so fully under the influence of love to Him, as to be devoid of any of those selfish, sordid and 2 Eph. iv. 24.

1 Col. iii. 14.

morbid passions and affections which now oppose themselves to the truth and justice and purity of God.

Our first' parents, unlike their progeny, were created in full possession of all the powers of their being, and that in a state of perfection. They were created in knowledge. Nature spread forth her rich treasures to their enraptured attention, and immediately on inspection they understood their use and character. The Lord brought the beasts of the field to Adam, to receive their names; and the names he gave them-if, as it is most probable, the Hebrew dialect approaches nearest to the first language spoken by manare to this day most appropriate, and plainly show, that he understood their nature. His skill in language, therefore, must have been equal to his acquaintance with natural history. Nor should we conclude that he was ignorant of God and spiritual realities. It was his great employment, and, while he continued innocent, his great enjoyment to rise

From nature up to nature's God.

He knew God, not by any abstract process of reasoning; but by intuition. The whole creation, in all the brightness of its primitive glory, stood forth as the polished mirror, to reflect the perfections of Deity; and man had but to behold, admire and adore. At every turn he met the ever, and everywhere present God. In every plant and shrub he traced the workings of His hand. His converse with nature, was his communion with the Divinity.

And while his mind was exercised, in those contemplations, and with that knowledge, by which a blissful intercourse, and communion with God were maintained, his outward actions, and inward volitions, were in exact conformity with the will of God, or law, which he had given for their regulation. Being created in righteousness, his powers were adapted to that law, or, the law was adapted to them. At all events, the adaptation was reciprocal and

complete. Man inclined to obedience, and till the mo ment of his fall, perfectly conformed himself in all the exercise of his varied powers, to the equitable precepts of God's most holy law. No thought of rebellion entered his mind. No act of rebellion ever appeared in his deportment. No feeling of rebellion, lurked in his heart.

He was also created in holiness, with powers so attuned, if we may thus speak, as to be pleasureably affected with the knowledge of God, and obedience to his will, and pained and distressed with the contrary. Thus knowing, acting, and being affected, man was the object of the divine favour, and did certainly and continuously apprehend that favour, as the means of his highest and most ennobling blessedness. Such was the design of his being. Such was the appropriate exercise of his intellectual, active, and sensitive powers. Such was his life. Such was his life. It consisted in the actings of his mind and will and heart toward God, as his supreme good and chief end.

VI. THIS LIFE, MAN LOST IMMEDIATELY ON HIS GIVING PLACE TO THE TEMPTER. His belief in the testimony of the prime apostate obscured his perceptions of the truth of God, deranged his conceptions, destroyed his rectitude, and disordered his affections, so that he died, in a spiritual sense, as really, the moment he yielded to the seducer, as he did, in a natural sense, when several centuries after his body dropped into the grave. His peaceful and blissful intercourse with God was interrupted, and instead of rejoicing to hear His voice-that voice which he was wont to hear with delight-and of wishing to meet His benificent Creator, and receive His gentle embrace, he shrunk amazed, appalled, and flying, vainly thought to shun His presence. Communion with his God, was no longer blissful. The source of that happiness, for which all the susceptibilities and capacities of his being had been adapted, became the fruitful spring of misery. The object

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