organized, or a sentient being ever breathed through his nostrils, the breath of life.

And there is yet another consequence that flows from Paul's premises, that grinds human dogmas to powder: "That was not FIRST which is SPIRITUAL; but that which is NATURAL;" or of the earth, earthy. Away, then, and for ever-away with your Heathen, pagan dogma of the immortality of the soul-'Tis a lie! Man was not created immortal. No spirit existed in man that can survive the death! "The SOUL that sinneth IT SHALL DIE!" And death hath passed, as the besom of December's blast sweeps o'er the field, and the foliage falls beneath the scythe of winter, so men, in their generations, fall before the FIAT of Omnipotence-" DUST THOU art, AND UNTO DUST SHALT THOU RETURN." It is when that Spirit which is the Lord from Heaven, breathes, a Divine Afflatus, into the soul of man, and raises him from the grave of moral death, to the everlasting life of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, that the Divine promise is heard, "Whoso. ever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?" Then, and not till then, had man a Spirit, a life, a zoe that can never die !*

* Reader, I submit for your serious consideration, the following: The gospels of men teach, that man has an immortal soul, or spirit, as they sometimes qualify the term soul, to save. Therefore the preachers of these gospels of men, for a certain sum of money per annum, undertake to save these immortal souls; and to save them, too, from a future, and an endless Hell, that exists nowhere in the universe, save in the gospels of men; where, and nowhere else, the immortal souls are found. Would our Great and Good Father in Heaven, confide, or intrust immortal souls to such keepers? Would it not be a greater mistake, than the putting

the new wine into the old bottles?

Look at the absurdity, stripped of the false glosses of designing, or ignorant men―Immortal souls in vile, earthy bodies of corruption! Im mortal souls, too, without any spirit; for, says Paul, "that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is NATURAL.

Reader, behold the truth: God intrusted men with mortal souls; and they have all lost them, in a certain Scriptural sense. Then He sent His Son to seek, and to save that which is lost. He gave them to the Son: and the Son came, and affirmed, as the end to be effected by his mission, that "of all which the Father had given him, he should lose nothing; but should raise it up again at the last day." (See John vi.) And there are men who contradict the Lord Jesus Christ; and deceive their fellowmen; and obtain their money on pretence of saving their souls from $ future and an endless Hell!

This is not all: They affirm that the heathen, the Gentiles, to whom Christ was given, as a covenant of peace and salvation, are going to their Hell by millions, for want of money to save them! Not to God's Hell, reader; the blessed God keeps no such wicked places in all his dominions.

THE OPENING OF THE BOOKS.

In the parabola of the Scriptures, when the King commenced his reign in Zion as Mediator, "the books were opened." (See Rev. xx. 12.) Books in the plural; viz: The book of life and death, or human sentient existence; that necessarily includes all that are created or born in the earthly image, or made subject to vanity, in a bondage of corruption; agreeably to the declaration which includes all as sinners in the image of the earthly Adam, and concludes all in sin; in the expressive parabola of the Scriptures.

The second book, therefore, the Book of the Law, which condemns all, converts the Book of natural life in the earthly image, or human sentient existence, to a book of death; as part and parcel of the sense of the imagery. For, it should be remembered, the law is "the letter that killeth." The book of the Law, therefore, writes all of fenders, or those who have not rendered a perfect obedience to all its requisitions, in words of condemnation ; denouncing death as the sentence against the entire race of Adam. Hence the sweeping declaration, "Judgment came upon all men to condemnation." But the justification, which is God's free gift, leads us to the third book

This is the "Lamb's Book of Life;" the zoe aionios, life of knowledge; knowledge of God and Jesus Christ, etc., (Rev. xxi. 27,) called both, the book of life, and the Lamb's book of life: and is to be considered in contradistinction to the Book of Sentient Existence in the earthly image; the names in which book, are blotted out by the second death. In the Lamb's book of life, "The law of the Spirit of life," maketh men free from the law

Neither is it God's immortal souls, that they are playing saving-No. God's immortal souls are safe in His Heaven; and all God's mortal souls, are safe in Christ's care; for he says he shall lose nothing!

I ask you, reader, Is there not just cause of action, against these pretended saviours of immortal souls from their future and endless Hell? Would not an intelligent and honest jury, return a verdict, kata against them, for obtaining money on false tokens, and false pretences? Heaven be praised that my soul is high above their reach, for weal or for woe. And these impious men would save my soul, too, from their Hell, if I would fee them well! "He that sitteth in the Heavens shall laugh; the LORD shall have them in derision." Souls may be saved from death, but not from Hell. Mortal souls are in danger of dying, not living endlessly in a Hell! See James v. 20.

of sin and death.-These, sin and death, distinguish the first two books, viz: That of sentient existence in the earthly image; and the book of the Law, the letter that killeth. Remember, that which is first in the order of the Divine parabola, is first in the order of time and eventstherefore we read, that the earthly or natural man is first; afterward that which is Spiritual, or heavenly.*~ And death, in the order of things, is first, and precedes the zoe, life. That is, as expressed by Paul, sin deceives, and slays the sinner. It is the dead sinner that believes and

I make this note, February, 1840. I would specially direct the attention of the reader again to the subject of man's identity, considered in its relation to the resurrection of the dead, etc. The reader, if not already familiar with, has undoubtedly heard of, the DAGUERREOTYPE; & discovery, by which the rays of light are refracted, and the image of objects, aided by a camera obscura, impressed, in a miniature size, on metallic plates. My son has recently shown to me a perfect miniature likeness (of the large miniature size,) of himself; (i. e. the bust,) obtained by a new process or modification of reflected light, (according to the principle of Dioptrics,) on metallic plates; a likeness so perfect, so incomparably above the painter's art, that it imbodies the living-expression of the countenance !

This truly wonderful, and astonishing effect, is caused by the light of Heaven, or the Sun; reflected from a metallic reflector, (received, in the first instance from the face of the person sitting for his likeness, on the reflector; and then transmitted) to a prepared metallic plate; that, as it were in a moment, (only one minute and fifteen seconds! being required,) is permanently impressed with the perfect image of the person!

Here is a similitude, of heavenly origin! of a wonderful power! a supernatural (so far as man's agency is concerned,) agent! An effect, produced by the light of Heaven; absolutely creating man's perfect image and identity; by a process as foreign to man's agency, as the "giving of seed to the sower, and bread to the eater," by the rain and sun of Heaven, is foreign to man's agency, as a doer, or actor, in the thing done!

To the reflecting mind, it is an astounding fact, that every discovery that the Deity permits and enables man to make, while in the flesh, of the laws which Infinite wisdom and knowledge, affined with Almighty power, have ordained, goes to exalt the Great Supreme; and to increase, were it possible, the immeasurable distance that exists between the Infinite JEHOVAH, and finite man! And the knowledge of this fact, should, in a corresponding ratio of influence, tend to generate humility in man; increase his love, wonder and admiration of the Great Father of all; inspire him with a spirit of devotion; and fill him with hope, joy, and confidence. For this is our God! and "OUR GOD is the GOD of SALVATION; and unto God the LORD belong the issues from death!" So saith the Spirit. (Psa. Ixviii. 20.)

Look again at this, Heaven's similitude: Man is to be, in the resurrection, made, (a new creation,) in the image and likeness of his Redeemer. Man's image here, is "an earthly image ;" his likeness, is “sinful flesh." Reader, the Heavenly Image, reflected by our Head, the glorified Humanity, will impress on every soul of the earthly Adam, the likeness of his Father, God! The Sun of Righteousness will impress the

lives; and being the recipient of this first resurrection, from this first death of sin, the second death, the death of mortality, or the body, hath no power over him. In the Scripture parabola, therefore, the dead in sins, are represented as standing before the throne, and being judged. The same as expressed by Paul, when the prophetic metaphor is dropped, in 2 Cor. v. 10. At the parabolic epiphaneian of Christ, the earth, the Jewish temporal dominion, and the heaven, the Jewish church or Levitical priesthood, fled away; so effectually was the prophecy fulfilled, that no place was found for them. Then, the dead in sins were judged out of the books, viz: in the parabola, “the things written in the books, according to their works."

Paul, Rom. iii. 19, exhibits the whole world as guilty before God. But, in order to understand Paul's application of the term law, in this passage, as condemning the whole world, kosmos, men universally, all who wear the earthly image, and representing all as written in the book of death; and subsequently affirming, "that death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned;" it is necessary to examine the preceding connexion, in Chap. ii. 11 to 16th verses, inclusive, where the law of the Gentiles is explained. (See Sermon VII., p. 256.) And here is affirmed, as I have shewn, the great principle of Christ's gospel, as declared by Jesus to the Pharisees, "If ye were blind, ye should have no sin." John ix. 41.

In illustration of this particular of our subject, the fol lowing passages will be sufficient: Exod. xxxii. 32, 33. "Yet now, if thou wilt, forgive their sin; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written. And the LORD said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book." Psa. cxxxix. 16; "Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being imperfect; and in thy book all were written," etc. Dan. xii. 1. "Every one found written in the book," etc. Mal. iii. 16. "And a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name." Rev. v. 1. "And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne, a book written within, and on the

Divine, the Heavenly Image on the human soul; and the risen man, in the likeness of his Father, God, will ascend, like his Head, to the highest Heaven. And this, (not a brain of dirt! but) a birth from Above, will identify every man, in the parousia of our risen Lord, as a Son of God, and a joint-heir with Christ in the glories of eternity!

whose

backside, sealed with seven seals." Paul asks a favour for certain persons, whom he designates as those names are in the book of life." Phil. iv. 3.*

THE LAST TRUMP.

Paul's mode of expression is peculiar. If it were said, All men shall be raised from the dead, when "the last

I consider the phrase Book of life, in the parabola of the Scriptures, to be a metonymy for sentient existence. Man's existence is, first, in the design or purpose of God. Therefore the prophet David says, "Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being imperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them." (Psa. cxxxix. 16.) And John (Rev. xxii. 19.) “If any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city," etc. This includes the Lamb's book of life. Consider this prophecy to relate to the Mediatorial reign and kingdom of Christ, as King in Zion; and the life taken away, to deprive the sinner of any participation in the aionion life of the kingdom of Christ; and, as a consequence, to cause the sinner to endure the second death," until the parousia, or “times of restitution of all things," and it is all plain and harmonious. Every man's name is written in a Book, when he receives a sentient existence. Every man's name is blotted out of the Book of existence, that "dies the death;" the "second death," or death of mortality, which holds him captive, in a sense that destroys his sentient existence, until the resurrection of the dead sinner; therefore the man's life is taken from the book. Also, the Lamb's Book of life, a metonymy, in the Scripture parabola, of the aionion or everlasting life of the gospel-the life of believers, which saves them from the power of the second death; so that the death of mortality or of the body, has no power over them; but they immediately rise, in their order, and reign with Christ until the parousia, or resurrection of the literally dead sinners. Also consider, that a man's name must be in the Book of life, in a certain sense, in order to admit the possibility of its being blotted, or taken out. Also, that the resurrection of the dead, the literal dead, who have been destroyed, writes their names anew in the Book of life; of immortality, a life that cannot be dissolved.

We, therefore, see, that the Gospel of Christ excludes from the possi bility of being true, the abominable dogmas of a modern, self-styled orthodoxy. The second death, or mortality, with all its appendages, the false doctrines of the two beasts, that are exhibited under the various metonymical language of the Scriptures, metaphorically, according to the parabola of the prophets, all are to be destroyed, at the period when the second death shall be destroyed; and mortality, in all its shapes, guises, influence and tendencies, shall be blotted out for ever. For the phrase "Lake of fire," which is introduced as the medium, through which, the destruction shall be effected, is, in the parabola of highly figurative prophetic language, a metonymy for destruction itself; and is collateral testimony with Mal. iv. 1. Therefore, the destruction of death, in its parabolic sense, signifies the complete annihilation of sin, the sting of death; and of every thing that is opposed to life and immortality. Hence the purpose of God in sending His Son, as expressed in Heb. ii. 14, 15; the destruction of the cause of all evil.