ple against the idea of any similitude or image discernible by the mortal eye, when he en forces the worship of God. See Deut. iv, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, "Take ye, therefore, good heed unto yourselves (for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the Lord spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire,) lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female; the likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that fiieth in the air; the likeness of any thing that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the Lord thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven."

With this scripture we may now reason from cause to effect. When God appeared and spake to the ancient Israelites, they "saw no manner of similitude." Therefore man, as the offspring and image of God, exhibits no similitude that can be seen.

But St. Paul determines the sense in which God is to be considered our Father, and we his offspring in Hebrews xii. 9, with great clearness of language."Furthermore, "says he, "we have had fathers of our flesh, which corrected us, and we gave them reverence; shall.

we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live ?" Here we learn the distinction between our earthly fathers and the heavenly Parent. Those are fathers of our flesh, and this, the Father of our spirits. The fathers of our flesh are mortal, and so are their offspring. The Father of our spirits is immortal, and, what then are his offspring? Does immortality beget mortality, or can God be the Father of perishable nature ?

There is one passage that says of God, "Who only hath immortality." But if this be considered proof against the immortality of the soul, it is equal proof against man's ever becoming immortal, and likewise of the immortality of all celestial beings.

God is independently immortal, possessing an underived existence, which cannot be true of any created being, in its highest state of perfection. When we read the whole text, we find it does not exclude immortality from others, but excludes the idea of that perfection in the most happy condition of creatures, that belongs to the Creator. "Who only hath immortality dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto." No man can reach the perfection of God or his independent immortality.

When it is said, "the soul that sinneth shall die;" "destroy soul and body;" "save a soul from death," &c. we are not to understand this death or destruction to be a cessation of

existence; but a deprivation of spiritual life, which we, undoubtedly, are ever to look for as the wages of sin. Hence the soul or spirit of man may be perishable as it respects virtue and felicity, but not in relation to exist

ence.

We will next turn our attention to the account St. Peter gives of Christ's preaching to the spirits in prison.

If it be proper to understand this account according to the plain import of words, these ideas are evident:

1. That Christ who is just, suffered for the sins of the unjust, to bring them to God; and being put to death in the flesh, showed the power of the resurrection in the body that died, by the spirit.

2. By this quickening spirit, the power of the resurrection, he went and preached unto the spirits in prison, being then able to prove the doctrine of the resurrection, in his own

person.

3. This preaching was after he was quickened by the spirit, or arose from the dead.

4. Those spirits to which he preached, were the spirits of the antediluvians, who were disobedient in the days of Noah.

5. The design of this preaching was to give them the privilege, when judged according to men in the flesh, or as if they were present in the flesh, of living according to God in the spirit. Without this privilege, they must unavoidably be condemned.

These ideas appear as clearly expressed in this account of St. Peter's, as any thing we can gather from any scripture whatever. But some will not assent to them, because it proves an alteration after death, and the possibility of receiving divine mercy. Others do not allow them, because they find in them a bar to the immediate felicity of all men when they enter another state of existence. One, strongly attached to the sentiment of an unal. terable state, fixed on all at death, will say, it is a dark saying. Another, who can find his sentiment in almost any language, will profess to see a beauty in it, according to his system, which few are able to discern.

But if St. Peter did not mean as he said, we have no reason to believe he intended to be understood, for no language is less ambiguous, than his in this particular account.

The common opinion is, that Noah, who in a certain place is called a preacher of righteousness, performed this preaching, in his day, to the antediluvians, whose spirits are now in the prison of hell. The quickening spirit of Christ in Noah, dictated the preaching. But when we turn to the account, we find nothing said of Noah's preaching. All that is said of Noah, is, that the spirits were disobedient, when once the long suffering of God waited in his days.

It is said of Herod, he sent forth and slew all the children in Bethlehem, from two years old and under." We therefore conclude he

did not go himself. Christ, speaking of his disciples, says to his Father, "As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world." But in this account of Christ's preaching, it does not say, he sent and preached to the spirits in prison, but it says he went; and yet, strange to tell, it remains a disputable point among us, whether he sent or went!

It does not appear that Christ himself preached to the antediluvians in the days of Noah, nor do any attempt to support the idea. It is then evident from this consideration as well as the connexion of St. Peter's account, that he preached to them after they bad departed this life. And if he preached by the spirit that raised him from the dead, he undoubtedly preached after his crucifixion and resurrection. He preached to them that they might be judged according to men in the flesh. This seems to imply, they were not in the flesh. If they were, this object would be useless; for any one may be judged according to the state in which he is, without hearing the preaching of the gospel. Indeed a man can be judged in no other than the state in which judgment finds him. The term flesh, applied to Christ, when it was said he was put to death in the flesh, is undersood of his natural body. Ought not the same phrase, applied to the spirits in prison, in the same account, to have the same meaning? Various scriptures have been brought, which have no

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