opinion of most of the fathers, vid. Irenæus, lib. v. cap. ix. lib. ii. cap. xxxiii. Ed. Par. Clem. Alex. Strom. iii. p. 542. Ed. Oxon. Origen. Philocal. p. 8. Ignat. Ep. ad Philadelph. ad calcem. See also Joseph. Antiq. lib. i. cap. ii. p. 5. Constitut. Apostol. lib. vii. cap. xxxiv. But above all these is the authority of scripture, which, speaking of the original formation of man, mentions the three distinct parts of his nature; Gen. ii. 7, viz. the dust of the earth, or the body; the living soul, or the animal and sensitive part; and the breath of life, i. e. the spirit or rational mind. In like manner, the Apostle Paul divides the whole man into (to πvevμa, n Juxn, xxι to caμx,) the spirit, the soul, and the body, 1 Thess. v. 23; and what he calls aux he calls vs, Rom. vii. 24, the word which Antoninus uses to denote the same thing. They who would see more of this, may consult Nemesius de Natura Hominis, cap. i. and Whiston's Prim. Christ. vol. iv. p. 262. All the observations I shall make hereupon is, that this consideration may serve to soften the prejudices of some against the account which scripture gives us of the mysterious manner of the existence of the divine nature; of which every man (as created in the image of God) carries about him a kind of emblem, in the threefold distinction of his own; which, if he did not every minute find it by experience to be a fact, would doubtless appear to him altogether as mysterious and incomprehensible as the scripture doctrine of the Trinity. "Homo habet tres partes, spiritum, animam, et corpus; itaque homo est imago S. S. Trinitatis." August. Tractat. de Symbolo.-Mason on Self Knowledge, Part I. ch. 2. THE GOSPEL OFFERED, NOT FORCED UPON MANKIND.-The influence of the gospel is of a moral nature. It does not break in on the constitution of the human mind by any necessitating and irresistible power. Men are left to judge of its nature and qualities by the common lights of the understanding; and it is in the power of the will to resist its evidence. If the faculties were controlled by its force, there could be no merit in yielding to its influence. It would cease to be a moral means of conversion, if it left no exercise for the judgment, and no choice for the will. As so much depends on a man's own conduct, in order to constitute him a moral agent, a subject of rewards and punishments, we cannot conceive any scheme that would necessarily prevent the admission, and, in some situations, the prevalence of errour, without a total alteration in the plan of moral government. The faculties that may be employed to a good purpose, are liable to be perverted to a bad one. Divine wisdom from time to time corrects and restrains the abuses that arise from their mismanagement; but to prevent them alto. gether, would require such a perpetual intervention of a miraculous power, and such a constant bias irresistibly preponderating over the mind, as would destroy the very design of the gospel, which is intended to produce a voluntary service by moral motives; and not a necessary effect by a constraining and irresistible impulse.-White's Bampton Lecture Sermons. Notes, pp. iii. iv. FOR THE GOSPEL ADVOCATE. EXTRACT FROM THE MESSIAH. BOOK H. Translated from the original German of Klopstock. (CONCLUDED FROM PAGE 320.) MEANWHILE had Adramelech, with his lord, Yet only thee? Why scale not those bright stars, O yes! There, too, shall death reign; from one orb Within the Thunderer's view! Then, would I not, Myself and death alone. And then I'd gaze, I go, All our rebellious train: Give, or I curse thee, When our robb'd realm of heaven has sent below So my soul hopes, its fall eventual.) To murder Satan ere Messias. This, O this shall end eternal servitude. "Twill be the first of those bright deeds through which, Arch-monarch of the gods I hope to rise. Satan, 'tis hard for thee to butcher God, A nameless thing which winds shall round disperse. To kill, annihilate the soul. Do thou Who dar'd to threaten God. Jehovah heard Thus Adramelech and the arch fiend found END OF THE SECOND BOOK. Here ended the labours of the author of this translation of the two first books of Klopstock's Messiah-Mr. John Temple Palmer. Immediately after completing the above, he left Boston; and on the 25th of March, 1822, was drowned while crossing a brook near Durham, Connecticut, in the mail stage. For an account of this melancholy event, and some notice of the character of our lamented correspondent, see our volume for 1822, p. 103. FOR THE GOSPEL ADVOCATE. HYMNS FOR CHRISTMAS. DAYS of affliction! your gloom is declining; Welcome, O welcome, the promis'd salvation; Blest be the hour when, to mortals admiring, Saviour Almighty! accept our devotion; Days of affliction! your gloom is declining; S. II. L. M. THE prophet's weeks, at length, fulfill'd, The altar fires more faintly glow, Which long has veil'd their guilty land. And now, low bending from on high, And this the burden of their song: Mortals, awake! with transport rise, And view your great Deliv'rer near; Go, seek, in David's town, your Lord, Go, worship the incarnate Word, And thus, with angels, praise the Son: Glory to Him who comes from heav'n! The world's Redeemer! Prince of peace! And Jesus' reign shall never cease. S. RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE. NORTH CAROLINA. FROM the journal of the proceedings of the eighth annual convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in this diocese, holden on the 6th, 7th, 8th, and 10th of May, 1824, the following particulars are selected. The committee on the state of the Church report, "That since the last convention, the Church has continued to prosper, in a degree commensurate with all reasonable hopes and expectations. The Sunday schools have generally continued in a flourishing condition. Four new congregations have been added to the Church; the number of communicants has been greatly augmented. It has pleased the great Head of the Church, to bless the efforts of the ministry, and to dispose the hearts of the people to increased piety and purity; and the progres Sur faith is such, as to call for renewed gratitude to God for |