but nothing that could adapt him for the enjoyment these moral qualities, but Lord of heaven, possess send them to dience, wher promised r eternal ba petent to the Le he di and the W ¿ C པ the 4.stract a state ee passive; en vien the I are arty made, 007 ze miy mani$ own with the soul, S over 1 is every Beween mind and 1.de comer u operate DIC tre power and 1 y sus or my object, seech; if I feel in, Y. 15. (Sony) in calling my VESELJENJ, Laleviation; if JLCE apostion, I am BY: MONG, A walking to - My sve o illustrate esgut as tis ability at ass wwer at any STINGOS (cse its resoluuwer willing or „<~AVI SPUSKIJ u he willings Bar wil all, cannot -nardinul "strom itself, from JUKWUrang une desire of Im Judy possess Dways L. eording to the diny, if the body Chus wil of the soul; is courses by the Jesu tease to supply the in denpovest state. If my “Map My turn its feet measure of meeting ise to carry me to start a man be determined ll always find his hands ready to do mischief, verse evil paths, his mouth ripened for the y be suggested, upon this hypothesis being V ges of scripture to be explained, which pposition to the spirit, and the spirit of the flesh? DIY next.) Magazine.) .. INCARNATION OF THE SON OF ONSEQUENCES CONNECTED THERE ND RESULTING THEREFROM. "A body hast thou prepared me."-Heb. x. 5. AUL, in his letter to his son Timothy, makes this sublime and mportant declaration, "Great is the mystery of godliness; God manifest in the flesh :" and in his epistle to the Hebrews, "A body hast thou prepared me." The apostle's reference is to Psalm xl. 7, 8. In this scripture it is, "Lo! I come; I delight to do thy will, O my God." Paul, in our text makes an addition by way of explication and enlargement; the addition must be correct for this obvious reason, Paul was inspired, consequently wrote as the Holy Ghost moved him; infallibility was peculiar to the apostolic character. The church of God is called the body of Christ; as such, they in the great act of sovereign choice were foreknown, foreappointed, or prepared; by virtue of ancient union, are distinctly marked out. Christ, the glorious Godman addressing his Father, says, Psalm cxxxix. 15, 16, "My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth; thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect, and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them." This scripture has reference both to Christ the head, and the church the members of his mystical body. This blessed doctrine of union, so extensively stated in scripture, namely, Christ, the head; the church, the members, makes up the one mystical body; hence the church is called Christ, 1 Cor. xii. 12. In the words of the text, the apostle is speaking in the name of Christ; the glorious Godman, as addressing his Father, says, "A body hast thou prepared me;" which means, a nature, a pure nature, to be united to and inhabited by the second person in the essence, Jehovah the Son, which we term the hypostatic union. In a decretive point of light, the Godman, the grace and glory man was set up from everlasting; therefore, under the character of Wisdom, says, "The Jehovah possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his that materialism with which it is united. It has power to exercise the various organs of the body either in a good or an evil cause, and can never be resisted in its progress by the organs Our themselves. daily experience attests the power which our souls have of moving the limbs of our animal system; they cannot hasten the motion of the blood or the lymph, nor alter the time of the beating of the pulse; still they can at pleasure move the hands, feet, &c. &c.; and all those organs of the body which give visibility and manifestation to their desires and intentions: therefore, whilst their influence in the former respect is limited, yet its power over the muscular parts is absolute. The will is a power in the mind which directs the operative faculties of the body, either to action or inaction: abstractedly considering spirit, it is ever active; angels are never in a state of inactivity abstractedly considering matter, it is ever passive; the bodies of men become immediately unable of action when the spirit is withdrawn: therefore, the conclusion may be fairly made, that as the actings of the various organs of the body are daily manifest, they arise from a force derived by its union with the soul, which soul exerciseth the supremacy of its power in its every dictate. There can be no natural connexion between mind and matter; and, consequently, no native ability in the former to operate upon the latter but God has sovereignly created both the power and the union; so that if I possess an affection in my soul for any object, I have power to express it through the faculty of speech; if I feel sympathy for the distressed, I have ability to display it in calling my hands into exercise in the way of communication and alleviation; if I have esteem for a person labouring under indisposition, I am enabled to express it in putting my feet into motion, and walking to visit and console him. These suppositions may serve to illustrate my meaning; and in order to prove that the soul has this ability at all times, I shall make it appear, that the body has no power at any time over the soul, to impede its progressions, or oppose its resolutions. As the body in itself possesses not any power of willing or acting, it is impossible that it can offer any opposition to the willings or actings of the soul; that which cannot think or will at all, cannot think or will oppositely; and that which cannot act from itself, from any inherent ability, can never help acting according to the desire of that from whence its power is derived. Thus, if my body possess no native principle of action, it must always act according to the desire of my soul, which actuates it. To speak plainly, if the body have no will of its own, it cannot will against the will of the soul; doubtless, therefore, the body is directed in all its courses by the soul with which it is connected, and if the soul cease to supply the vis actionis, the body is ever found in an unemployed state. If my soul be bent upon journeying southward, will my body turn its feet northward? If my mind were elated with the pleasure of meeting with saints in the house of God, did my feet refuse to carry me to the place where it was situate? So if the heart of man be determined upon iniquity, he will always find his hands ready to do mischief, his feet prepared to traverse evil paths, his mouth ripened for the utterance of curses. It may be suggested, upon this hypothesis being admitted, how are those passages of scripture to be explained, which represent the flesh as in direct opposition to the spirit, and the spirit as totally repugnant to the desires of the flesh ? (To be concluded in our next.) (For the Spiritual Magazine.) THE MYSTERY OF THE INCARNATION OF THE SON OF GOD, AND CONSEQUENCES CONNECTED THEREWITH, AND RESULTING THEREFROM. "A body hast thou prepared me."-Heb. x. 5. PAUL, in his letter to his son Timothy, makes this sublime and important declaration, "Great is the mystery of godliness; God manifest in the flesh:" and in his epistle to the Hebrews, "A body hast thou prepared me." The apostle's reference is to Psalm xl. 7, 8. In this scripture it is, "Lo! I come; I delight to do thy will, O my God." Paul, in our text makes an addition by way of explication and enlargement; the addition must be correct for this obvious reason, Paul was inspired, consequently wrote as the Holy Ghost moved him; infallibility was peculiar to the apostolic character. The church of God is called the body of Christ; as such, they in the great act of sovereign choice were foreknown, foreappointed, or prepared; by virtue of ancient union, are distinctly marked out. Christ, the glorious Godman addressing his Father, says, Psalm cxxxix. 15, 16, My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth; thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect, and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them." This scripture has reference both to Christ the head, and the church the members of his mystical body. This blessed doctrine of union, so extensively stated in scripture, namely, Christ, the head; the church, the members, makes up the one mystical body; hence the church is called Christ, 1 Cor. xii. 12. 66 In the words of the text, the apostle is speaking in the name of Christ; the glorious Godman, as addressing his Father, says, "A body hast thou prepared me;" which means, a nature, a pure nature, to be united to and inhabited by the second person in the essence, Jehovah the Son, which we term the hypostatic union. In a decretive point of light, the Godman, the grace and glory man was set up from everlasting; therefore, under the character of Wisdom, says, "The Jehovah possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old; I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was." Prov. viii. 22, 23. Also, verse 30 and 31, "Then was 1 by him as one brought up with him, and was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him; rejoicing in the habitable parts of his earth, and my delights were with the sons of men." Christ's choice of his people as a mystical body was from the pure mass of creatureship; yet, foreviewed as fallen, the union alliance was upon the supralapsarian standing. The church is fallen by virtue of union to her earthly, natural, and federal head, Adam, yet the body of Christ still. It has been affirmed by some, that if the church had not fallen, her glorious head would have assumed her nature.' Be this as it may, we are sure that certain reasons are assigned for his becoming incarnate, such as "to bruise the serpent's head," "to destroy the works of the devil," to magnify the law of God, to satisfy justice, and redeem his chosen. Thus, by assuming our nature he became really and truly man, made under the law, made of a woman; thus became competent to obey the law perfectly, suffer, bleed, and die, sustain penal wrath merited by the church's sins, and "become the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." Blessed thought! the surety suffered that I might not suffer; he died, that I might live; he, being God and man in one person, dignity and capacity were sweetly combined. We need not conjecture how it would have been, had not the church lapsed in Adam. It must be admitted, that the fall was a link in wisdom's chain; and, as one expresses it, the fall wrought the channel where mercy should run.' There are three things to be observed arising out of the text First. The fact recorded; "A body hast thou prepared me." The In the fact recorded, 66 a body thou hast prepared me," we are to understand a nature; when I say a nature, I mean, both body and soul. It is necessary to enquire concerning the materials of which this body was made, or fabric reared, the seed of the woman. question is, in taking the seed of the woman did he take the sin of her seed or nature? Indeed he did not. He took our nature into union with his divine person, but it was a holy portion of our nature, and as holy as that possessed by Adam before the fall; that very nature, in all its spotless purity, as it came up in the divine decree, in the pure mass of creatureship. But it is said, he took a nature from a fallen woman, therefore, he must take a sinful nature, or nature fallen, which do not follow as a matter of consequence; for although no creature can bring a clean thing out of an unclean, who dare say that Jehovah cannot ?-that which is impossible to creatures is possible with God. I presume, that a perfect agent cannot perform an imperfect act, nor can perfection beget imperfection. In the first act of creation, the Creator said, "Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness." Man was formed in the image of his holiness, |