made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all that obey him." (Heb. v. 9.) So that we are still in Paradise, just where our first parents were; no sin in our conscience, no condemnation, no death, if we believe in, and obey God in Christ. My dust may return to dust, when my probation-day is at an end; my spirit will quit this tenement; but if I die to-day, according to human parlance, I do not die, I believe I shall be here to-morrow as much as I am to-day, under condemnation, or under the beatitude of no condemnation, with the full faculty of ranging through all worlds.

But evil having entered our world, I must look at the two principles, "good and evil." Let us go to the seat of the disease, to the origin of its antidote. "Thy seed and her seed." (Gen. iii. 15.) It would seem by this that good and evil are inherent, dare I say native qualities of human nature? Yes, I think I dare say so, because I think God in Christ stood in the breach from the first moment man fell. I do not think His image was wholly obliterated ; lost, it is true, as it regarded Adam, but an impress retained in, and through Christ. "Thy seed and her sced." The fruit of "the tree of life" was essential life; the fruit "of the knowledge of good and evil," was death mixed with good. Therefore, as I have said, I think good was retained in human nature, a redemptive inheritance of God through Christ. What shall I call that redemptive gift?-the first calling of the true Church in our world to the great com

mission given her of God, and which she holds to this moment," I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed." This was a proclamation of war, to be vigorously sustained till ended by the bruising of the head of the old serpent. By this is meant his end-death, utter destruction, as the seat of life in the serpent lay near the head; and, therefore, the manner of attacking him was to crush the head, his poison. Evil, deadly power lay there. "That through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil."

Then it is these two conflicting natures I would set forth to my readers. In some, I think the two natures are inherited; in all, the evil one. I must prove the first of these assertions from Scripture; the last is proved from Scripture, and from our own too sad experience.

CHAPTER II.

UPON THE GOOD AND EVIL NATURE IN MAN.

It is impossible to deny the truth that good and evil are inherited qualities; spiritual generation, and inherited moral corruption, are doctrines taught in Scripture; and in this chapter I shall just glance at them as I find them there.

First, St. Peter said, "A chosen generation." (1 Pet. ii. 9.) "Who shall declare his generation?" (Isa. liii. 8.) "When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed." (v. 10.) "God is in the generation of the righteous." (Ps. xiv. 5.) "Doth his promise fail to generation and generation?" (lxxvii. 8.) "Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, that delighteth greatly in his commandments. His seed shall be mighty upon earth; the generation of the upright shall be blessed." (cxii. 1, 2.) In the calling of Adam, we have seen the holy seed left in him; in the calling of Abraham the same inheritance,—“ I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee, in their generations, for an everlasting covenant,

to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant, thou, and thy seed after thee, in their generations." (Gen. xvii. 7, 9.)

And in the calling of the Jewish Church, God said, "The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations." (Exod. iii. 15.) "Know, therefore, that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations." (Deut. vii. 9.) "Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I the Lord, the first, and with the last; I am he." (Isa. xli. 4.) I am only maintaining the truth, reality of spiritual generation. In the institution of the new government of the prophets we see the same: "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee." (Jer. i. 5.) And so again in the institution of the Christian Church, "He shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb." (Luke i. 15.) We have seen in the Epistle of Peter, "a chosen generation." And does it not do one's heart good to read "The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham." (Matt. i.) And again in the 3d of Luke, from Jesus backward to "Adam, which was of God," for all the sons of this chapter have no business there, the meaning

is more vital, spiritual generation is what is intended, God in the long line from Adam till the seed of the covenant became flesh and dwelt amongst us. The true Church is not only an organ of God's power, but a generative being of His nature. I know Christ said, "Ye must be born again," but we must remember that this was said to Nicodemus, one by sect a Pharisee; he had been a rejecter of Christ in heart and life. "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." Christ came by this Spirit, water, and blood; and we have seen His seed in the human womb regenerate by the same, called of God from the womb. I remember an eminent Christian once said to me, "I wish I could remember the time of my new birth, but I have been so brought up in the lap of the family of God that all my life recollections have been of Him. Good and evil there is in all to the latest moment of our lives, but I do believe that God is in the generation of the righteous,' and there as surely to be the conqueror over evil as He has Himself said, 'it shall bruise thy head.'

I do here solemnly pause, because this doctrine of spiritual generation is a very important and a very vital one; and yet I do not know how it can be avoided,-the fact of God having called a people from the midst of a world lying in wickedness (Amos iii. 2), is proof of the doctrine; but while I teach it I would teach too that it is an awful privilege! Grace to end in condemnation or in glory. Called instruments of God's grace and glory. Look at the Church in