ruinous dictates; then opportunity arises for the fostering of the seeds of iniquity and the child of sin. This frame of body and mind has the prince of this world for its champion, the heart's cabinet of defilement for its supplies, and the poisonous pastures of pride for its rumination and delight. Lethargic feeling is the foundation upon which is built the superstructure of apostacy; and the inbred lusts, passions, and vices of the carnal man are employed in the accursed edifice.

In attempting a more extended elucidation of my meaning, I would observe, 1st. That the soul of a saint is the subject of two principles, directly opposite in their quality and tendency; the one arising from the awful apostacy of man, the other proceeding from the sovereignty of God.

That all true followers of the Lamb have a principle of sin, and a principle of sanctity, is positively affirmed in the scriptures of truth, and attested in the experience of the saints themselves from the day of their spiritual creation by the Holy Ghost, to their departure from the world in order to the possession of their promised rest—each believer discovers a law in his members warring against the law of his mind; and, under the tuition of the divine Paraclete, gradually perceives his inmost soul to be a very capacious receptacle for defiled stores. All are partakers of a sinful and corrupt nature received in their natural conception, and on account of their connexion with Adam, the lapsed head of an innumerable posterity. "By man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." "We were by nature the chil

dren of wrath even as others." Sin had its entrance on the earth by the transgression of inquisitive Eve; this was speedily followed by the disobedience and rebellion of Adam against his Creator, in an open premeditated violation of his commands; and as all his posterity were then seminally in him, so in their procreation they imbibed universally the impurity of his nature. As the whole progeny of Adam would have been entitled to share the felicity of their progenitor's paradise upon their creation, had he remained in a course of unsinning obedience; so they are destined to participate in that misery, corruption, and curse, which he entailed upon himself and them, in the day of his awful apostacy and estrangement from God. The justice of Jehovah was exemplified in the continuation of the happiness of the creature in his innocence; this perfection was equally illustrated in a consignment to eternal misery when he became a sinner. Alteration in the nature of man occasioned no variation in the nature of God; equity secured his bliss as a perfect creature; equity pronounced his curse as an imperfect criminal. Indwelling sin is the legacy which our firrt parents bequeathed to every branch of their numerous family; and it is impossible that any member can be begotten in its absence. The refractory tempers of children in the hours of their infancy, sufficiently demonstrate the pollution of their minds; and when to youthful estate they have

arrived, then more especially is the internal principle of depravity manifested in extrinsic acts of immorality and daily expression of abhorrence to the commandments of God. Sin, as a malady, has been unexceptionably felt; under it all the sons of men in past ages have lived and died, and with it the whole world of creatures is still attainted, although unconverted hosts, through the blindness of their hearts and vitiosity of their nature, are well pleased in the rapidity of its courses and sensual progressions. It is a fever with which all are affected, the most violent and dangerous contagion; yet such are its delusive properties, that the creature in the midst of its most awful ragings and ravages will sleep unconcernedly sound. It is in some respects similar to mortification; the more it increases, the less it disturbs; the greater its advances, the less is it dreaded; and as the "deepest waters are the stillest," so the more depraved the heart of man, the more does he exult in his carnal ease and unhallowed occupations and indulgences. Persons disordered with the Cholera Morbus will seek instantaneous relief, and retain in their dwellings some chemical preparation for its speedy eradication; this at the worst can only cause a temporary decease: but the Cordis Morbus, which ensures a death eternal, may be endured with self-complacency and contentment. Here, Satan is the sole physician; and under pretence of removing the disease, continues to administer cherishing libations, only suffering the patient to prescribe the medicine, when he selects the most pernicious potion; and should a pricked conscience suggest any that might have a balsamic tendency, he refuses it with fiery indignation. These are some of his stratagems to retain the sick in their sick chambers, to increase the obduracy of the heart against God, and to divert the attention from the one thing needful; all of which he may have power to effect, whilst his patient's soul is destitute of any goodly principle; but when that is implanted, the heart is unfettered, and its tyrant dethroned. Satanic politeness extends not further than as it can act in conjunction with infernal policy. Satan will willingly follow behind, while the creature travels straight forward to hell; but will appear with his banners before in the pathway to heaven. The best of men are forward to acknowledge they are not freed from the being of sin this side the chilling streams of Jordan; their spirits are clogged and circumvented with the weight of corruption; and how incessantly do they discover their most holy services polluted and connected with inborn lust: hence, the necessity of the blood of Messiah to purify every devotion from that impurity it contracts from the unclean devotee.

We may now consider the other principle-sanctity, as springing from the sovereignty of God, through the sacrifice of Christ, to the whole election of grace. I do not intend that sanctity which Adam knew in the garden of Eden, that was loseable and lost, destructible and destroyed; but I allude to that spiritual sanctity which is the qualification of all the children of God for the celestial presence of Jehovah in Christ, in that spiritual and eternal world, in which are

contained pleasures unheard, unseen, unconceived. " Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive the things which God hath prepared for them who love him," &c. True sanctity creates an appetite which cannot be contented with the most delightsome lily of the earth, and which alone finds satisfaction in the great Lily of heaven, and that comely Rose of Sharon, whose unfading bloom and beauteous scent shall both adorn and perfume his adopted seed, ad infinitum, in the angelic world. This principle is involved in the second and spiritual birth, apart from which the kingdom of heaven is equitably inaccessible. It was provided in the everlasting covenant of grace by the love of Jehovah in the person of the Father; it was secured in the fulfilling of the conditions of that covenant in the life and death of Jehovah in the person of the Son, in personal union with pure creature nature; and it is sovereignly conveyed through the invincible operations of Jehovah in the person of the Holy Ghost, when he appears in the impartation of the divine life of Jesus, and in a sacred impression of the sinner with the love-creating influences of his priesthood. Hence we find a Trinity of Persons unitedly acting for the welfare of the church, prior to her possessing any ability to appreciate the interposition. The Holy Spirit has taken this part in the immutable covenant of mercy; it is his sole prerogative to quicken the deadto open the eyes of the blind-to impart a principle of action, and that holy seed which makes its existence undeniable in the exhibition of its sacred fruits; he alone can inculcate an attachment to the spirituality of God's law-he alone can place an opponent to the prince of this world in the soul of the creature, manifesting Christ as the head and root of sanctity, and by his melting and convincing energy bringing the church to an enjoyment of Immanuel's fulness, in an appropriation of his possessions, and in a happy participation of the benefits accruing from his well-sustained cross. Unless this evangelical principle be communicated, there can be no prospect of any permanent alteration-no appearance of any godly sorrow for sinno repentance of a true and scriptural description. Here, man is altogether passive, Satan very restive; for although he is not entirely dethroned in the day of regeneration, his monarchy remains no longer absolute but limited; which accounts for the evidencing of his uneasiness and discontentment. We may say, this principle is essential to the existence of a saint, since there can be no saint in its absence. It is this which distinguishes the children of God from those of the devil; creating an appetite for the ordinances of the sanctuary, signalizing the heaven-going multitude, engendering indignancy at evil, and making way for the enjoyment of those duties and privileges which had been very laboriously and formally (if at all) performed. When this holiness has been conveyed unto those for whom it was anciently stored in the constituted person of Immanuel, then they begin to enjoy those blessings which were given them in Christ, or with which they were blessed before the world

began; their consolation arises as they are the called, renewed, and sanctified children of Jehovah, since they could gather no benefit from their secret love interest, anterior to their open and powerful conversion. How vastly different then are the two principles which are proved to occupy the soul of the true believer; the one fits him for hell, the other prepares him for heaven; the one connects him with Belial, the other joins him manifestly with Belial's Conqueror; the one he possesses by nature, the other he receives by grace; the one disqualifies him to love his Maker, the other renders an aversion impossible; the one disgraces him, the other dignifies him; the one condemns him, the other acquits him; the one abases him in God's estimation, the other abases him in his own; the one leaves him a sinner, the other makes and keeps him a saint. These are their opposite features and tendencies: nor can we suppose they are in the smallest degree mixed; they are as oil and water cast into a goblet, each is preserved distinct; the one retains its purities, the other its defilement. Persons or things are generally improved or corrupted by a superior or inferior association; but here is an exception necessary to be observed. Sanctity is not contaminated by dwelling in a sinful soul; sin is not sanctified by its residence with holiness; and the continual warfare between them experienced by the children of God, and expressed by the apostle in his seventh chapter of his Epistle to the Romans, plainly demonstrates their enmity is much strengthened. The more they discover of each other, the more they abhor each other; so that they two" can never become one flesh." Sin will at times gain ascendancy to the joy of the world; but sanctity, regaining its authority, will rejoice the church. Great is the privilege to be confidently assured that the evil shall be shortly chased away, that its very root shall be eradicated, and no remaining symptom attest its prior residence; then shall holiness find new peace in the realization of an undisturbed sway to which she had hitherto continued stranger. And, as sin reigned first without opposition, so the sanctity shall reign last; as the sin was unrestrained in its licentious engagements, so shall the sanctity in its heavenly employ. With pleasure, therefore, may we anticipate that blessed period which shall terminate our warfare with iniquity, and commence our welfare with perfect sanctity; with patience may we endure every privation till its arrival; pass our sweetest moments on the watch tower; for assuredly, the devil will not forget we have indwelling sin; so long as there is the smallest particle remaining, he will violently strike upon our steady hearts, endeavouring to inflame our carnal desires, and to bring to open manifestation the sinful properties secretly possessed; he will not cease troubling this side the grave. Let us aim to be as assiduous in evading the missile weapons of our adversary, as he is unwearied in their jaculation; proving thereby that we are the purchase of Immanuel, and the temples of his praise through the regenerating operations of the Spirit from on high.

(To be continued.)

AN ESSAY TOWARDS AN INTRODUCTION TO THE PROFITABLE READING OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

BY SAMUEL EYLES PIERCE.

(Continued from Page 267.)

JOSEPH and all his brethren having followed their father to his grave, return to Egypt after Jacob's funeral was finished. Joseph lived fifty-three years after his father, and saw Ephraim's children to the third generation. He lived ninety-three years in Egypt; thirteen of them in Potiphar's house and prison, and eighty years he lived in great honour and prosperity, as the second man in the nation; and seventeen, before all this, he lived with his father in the land of Syria and Canaan. Before his death, he called his brethren and people to him; he expressed before them his faith, that the Lord would bring them up out of the land of Egypt into the land of Canaan. The apostle says, "By faith, Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel, and gave commandment concerning his bones."

The Jewish writers say, he died the first of the twelve patriarchs, though he was the youngest of them except Benjamin. He died in the year of the world, according to Ainsworth and Usher, 2369, and before Christ, 1635, aged one hundred and ten. From Jacob's death to Joseph's was fifty-three years. From Joseph's death to the birth of Moses, was seventy-five years. From Moses' birth to the departure of the Israelites out of Egypt, was eighty years.

Joseph being dead, his body was embalmed. The Egyptian manner of embalming is said by historiographers to be thus. They take out the bowels of the dead, cleanse them, and wash them with wine of dates; and after that, again with wine of odours. Then they fill the bowels with pure myrrh beaten, and cassia, and other odours, (except frankincense,) and sewed them up. After this, they seasoned the corpse, hidden in nitre seventy days, not longer. After seventy days, they washed the corps, and wrapt it in fine linen cloth, gummed with gum, which the Egyptians often used instead of glue. The nitre consumeth the flesh, and leaveth only the skin and bones of the dead person. So says the renowned Herodotus.

Joseph's body being embalmed, it was put into a chest, or coffin, that it might be readily removed by his successors at their departure out of Egypt. The book of Genesis, which endeth with the death of Joseph, contains an history from the creation of two thousand three hundred and sixty-nine years.

During the interval between Joseph's death and Israel's deliverance out of Egyptian bondage, the nephews of Joseph, viz. the Ephraimites, are supposed to have attempted their own deliverance before the time appointed by the Lord; even while their father Ephraim was yet alive. This attempt of theirs ended with ill success, to the great grief of their aged father, who mourned for this