O PRINCETON. N. J. <Jf 
 
 Presented by Mr. Samuel Agnew of Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 sec 10,776 
 
 Carne, Robert Harkness 
 Three letters on the generat 
 of the manhood of the Son o 
 
THREE LETTERS 
 
 THE GENERATION OF THE MANHOOD OF THE 
 SON OF GOD. 
 
 A REVIEW 
 OF THE DISCUSSION ON THIS SUBJECT. 
 
 AND AN ESSAY 
 
 ON THE NATURE AND CAUSE OF THE DEATH OF 
 
 CHRIST. 
 
 WITH NOTES. 
 
 BY ROBERT HARKNESS CARNE, A.B. 
 
 LATE OF EXETEK COLLEGE, OXFORD; AND NOW MINISTER OF HIGH- 
 STREET CHAPEL, EXETER. 
 
 SOLD BY EBENEZER PALMER, 
 
 18, PATERNOSTEU-ROW, LONDON ; 
 
 W. STRONG, 26, CLARE-STREET, BRISTOL, AND 56, HIGH-STREET, 
 EXETER, AND W. C. POLLARD, NORTH-STREET. 
 
 MDCCCXXXIII. 
 
 Price Is. 6d. 
 
A DEFENCE AND EXPLICATION OF THE SINLESS 
 
 NESS, IMMORTALITY, AND INCORRUPTIBILITY 
 
 OF THE HUMANITY OF THE SON OF GOD. 
 
 PEIHCETOxT ^,^ 
 ,REC. NOV IS&O 
 
 A LETTER TO THE EDiTaS^Wmfg"* MORNING WATCH, 
 OR, QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF PROPHECY. 
 
 BY ROBERT HARKNESS CARNE, A.B. 
 
 I.ATE OF EXETEK COLLEGE, OXFORD; AND NOW MINISTER OF 
 HIGH STREET CHAPEL, EXETER 
 
 PRINTED FOR EBENEZER PALMER, 
 
 18, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON. 
 
 MDCCCXXIX. 
 
LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED BV E. JUSTINS AND SON, 
 
 BRICK LANE, SPITALFIELDS. 
 
'^■^C, 1\'0V 1860 
 
 rv^*vv'VN» 
 
 A LETTEP%, 
 
 Mr. Editor, 
 
 In your first number, I see much said about the 
 body assumed by the Son of God, and the nature of 
 the flesh of which it was constituted, and the condition 
 it was in when he assumed it; and from the whole of 
 the statements, I conclude, that thus much is meant ; 
 namely, that the body prepared by God for his Son 
 was substantially the flesh of sin, and not only having 
 some likeness to it; but that at his resurrection a change 
 ensued in it, so as that it then became sinless. Thus, 
 for example ; Mr. Irving says, in your 2!4th page, 
 ' Christ, for the love he bore the human soul, consented 
 to become a servant to her, and to be clothed with her 
 body of sin and death.' — ' God prepared a body of 
 fallen humanity for his Son, through the power of the 
 Holy Ghost.' And, in page 30, he avers of Christ, 
 that * he bears their naked and complete sufferings 
 without a remedy, in order that, after he had sucked 
 all the poison of suff'ering out, and into himself, i?ito 
 his body compressed all the venom of sin, he might, 
 by dying, make it all die, and by rising again, triumph 
 over it in the souls of his people, who, if they had 
 faith, would have no suff'ering, as they would have no 
 sin.' And then, in the theological department, I find 
 it stated at page 98, that the Son of God * did by the 
 Holy Ghost take a soul; and with and in that soul, he 
 
did take flcs}i and blood of the Virgin,' that is, as it 
 follows, ' fallen flesh.' To tliis it is added, that ' his 
 perfect holiness, in the liuman nature, is as necessary 
 to the orthodox faith, as is the unhoVmess of the nature 
 whicli he took.' And in the 99th page, I read, that 
 ' his days of flesh put him into possession of our pitiful 
 case, which he had undertaken to advocate; his taking 
 liohj flesh at the 7esiirreciion, brought him up into 
 God's presence, to advocate it there. Each is needful 
 in its place to our Mediator; both must meet together 
 in our High Priest; and this hath ever been the doc- 
 trine of the orthodox church, and must remain so unto 
 tlie end.' 
 
 Now, Mr. Editor, you will allow me to confine my 
 remarks to the body of Christ, or what may be called, 
 his flesh and blood. For, with respect to the soul^ it 
 does not interfere with the present question; nor would 
 the question be at all materially affected by any parti- 
 cular opinion we might adopt relative to the soul's 
 origination, whether it were that of its generation, or 
 that of its immediate creation by God. With respect 
 to the hody then, I think, that the expression, at tlie 
 beginning of your Theological Department, page 75, 
 exceptionable; namely, that Christ is * man, of the 
 siibstance of his mother /' I know that this has place 
 in what is called, the Creed of St. Athanasius; and I 
 can suppose that it has found its way into the creeds of 
 what are styled orthodox churches. But as there is 
 only one orthodox church, which is the body of Christ, 
 and is built on the foundation of the apostles and pro- 
 phets; so there is but " ouefaith^'' or creed. Similar to 
 the above expression, to which I make exception, is 
 tliat already quoted, ' He did take flesh and blood of 
 tile Virgin.' Is this, Mr. Editor, common sense? Is it 
 matter of fact? Is it scripture ? Did you ever see a 
 man, or hear or read of a man, who owed his substance 
 
to his mother?' But, to heighten the mystery, we are 
 told that Christ had no father. ' With respect to his 
 human nature,' says Doddridge, on Heb. vii. 3. ' he had 
 no father r Gill tells us the same story; *as man, he 
 had no father ! Joseph was his reputed father only ; 
 nor was the Holy Ghost his father ; nor is he ever said 
 to he begotten^ as man, but was horn of a Virgin !' 
 Here is a birth, without any begetting. Here is a case 
 of equiv^ocal generation ; a perfect man, spontaneously 
 produced, without seed, and without a sower ! But 
 your Journal, Mr. Editor, steers clear of this mistake ; 
 because it expressly refers the incarnation of Christ to 
 * the power of the Holy Ghost.' But we are not told 
 how ; except that the human flesh in Christ, owed all 
 its substance to the Virgin mother. And as sin is sup- 
 posed, though as I think erroneously, to have its chief 
 seat in the body, hence we are told that the Son of God 
 came into the world in the flesh of sin ; and by conse- 
 quence in a mortal condition, as other men. 
 
 But, in the first place, tliis is contrary to the quota- 
 tions actually made in your Journal ; in the two first of 
 which wc read thus, he * became man, in all things like 
 unto us, except sin.' Again, ' Christ did take flesh, 
 which of nature was subject to sin ; which, notwith- 
 standing, lie sanctified, even in the very instant of his 
 conception.'' And again, ' in all things like unto his 
 brethren ; not only as touching nature, but also quali- 
 ties, only sin except.'' Every creature is, of nature, 
 subject to sin, if left to itself; and therefore, angels 
 sinned, and Eve sinned, and also Adam. It is of God 
 only, that we can say, he, of nature, cannot sin. But 
 if " the Word that was God," and " was made flesh," 
 or a man, did sanctify that flesh or man-nature which 
 he assumed, not only from the womb, but in the very 
 instant of its conception there, it was never, from the 
 first moment of its embryo formation, subject to the 
 
6 
 
 contagion of sin, or liable to the desert of sin, which is 
 death. Your Journal admits he was kept from sinning, 
 but the above quotations assert that he was without sin. 
 Without that quality, or principle, or property ; without 
 the being of sin. So the apostle tells us, that God 
 " made him sin," in the eye of law and justice, " who 
 knew not sin" at all himself. He does not say, that 
 Christ knew no sin, as though he referred to action ; 
 but that, though he was legally and judicially consti- 
 tuted that, for the abolition of which he was the des- 
 tined victim, namely, sin, in its entire l)eing, in relation 
 to his body, the churcli, yet he himself had no know- 
 ledge of sin, or acquaintance with it, as a person has 
 who has it in his own nature and constitution. For if 
 God the Son sanctified the bodv he assumed, even from 
 its conception, through the intimate union subsisting 
 between it and himself, then, as the union continued 
 undissolved, so the consecration remained unbroken and 
 undisturbed. Now you quote Hooker to prove this 
 indissoluble union. ' These natures, from the moment 
 of their first combination, have been, and are, for ever 
 inseparable. For even when his soul forsook the taber- 
 nacle of his body, his deity forsook neither body nor 
 sold.'' You also quote Archbishop Sancroft ; who says, 
 ' Always full of the Holy Ghost, and free from sin, 
 he needed no cleansings nor expiation.' And again, 
 ' clothed with all the innocent infirmities of our nature, 
 and indulging himself in none of the contentments 
 thereof, but exercising a perfect abnegation of himself, 
 and of his own will, he suffered, being perfectly inno- 
 cent.' And, to refer to but one witness more, you 
 quote Calvin against Menno : and to meet his objec- 
 tion, that no one sprung from sinful flesh could fulfil 
 the law of God, he points to the 8th of Romans, where 
 * Paul teaches that expiation was made in the similitude 
 of sinful flesh,' and not in the flesh of sin itself. * For 
 
the nature of man, it is well known, was not corrupt 
 from the beginning, but through a vitiosity accidentally 
 superinduced. What then makes it less possible for 
 God to sanctify the flesh of his Son?' 
 
 Butj in the second place, as there was an impeccable 
 sanctification of the manhood in Christ, both through 
 its union with the person of the Son of God, and 
 through the unction of the Holy Spirit, so I contend 
 that it had an original holiness in its primitive forma- 
 tion; this I must endeavour to prove from the scrip- 
 tures ; your quotations, Mr. Editor, not supplying me 
 with sufficient evidence to substantiate this part of my 
 subject. 
 
 It was said of John Baptist, " he shall be filled 
 with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb." 
 And to Jeremiah, the Lord said, '* Before thou earnest 
 forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee." And in the 
 Notes to Barker's English Translation of the Bible, in 
 1608, we have already noticed this declaration, 'Christ 
 did take flesh, which he sanctified even in the very 
 instant of his co7iception' But I am to shew still fur- 
 ther, that the manhood was itself holy in its generation. 
 We have remarked on the error of Gill and Doddridge, 
 in respect to \\\q fatherless origin of it. We have now 
 to ascertain the generator of it, and also the generative 
 principle. For the Virgin herself was no more than the 
 ^mother of our Lord,' as is well expressed by the Rev. 
 Henry Cole, in his treatise on the Immortahty of Christ's 
 Human Nature, ' the Virgin herself was a passively re- 
 cipient vessel;' whilst he himself, as incarnated, was the 
 seed, that is to say, the offspring of the woman. Seed is 
 used often in the scriptures for issue, for progeny ; nor in 
 any other sense is it ever applied to a woman. Nor can 
 it be applied to the female in any other sense ; because 
 the seed, as the principle of production, is always in 
 the male ; and this holds generally good through all 
 
8 
 
 nature, whether human, or merely animal, or vegetable. 
 So that Dr. Gill, as quoted by Mr. Cole, is at a fault, 
 when he asserts of the Holy Ghost, that ' he first took 
 a part and portion of the Virgin, of her semen, or 
 blood, and conveyed it to a proper place ; and purified 
 and sanctified it.' .For this is perfectly unnatural ; it is 
 a doctrine of self-impregnation ; it is in diametrical 
 opposition to what is now certainly known to be matter 
 of fact, namely, that semen does not belong to the fe- 
 male, and is a secretion entirely foreign from her. And 
 therefore, the promise to Eve, about " her seed," related 
 to the man Christ Jesus, as destined to spring from a 
 future daughter of her's, namely, Mary; as, on the 
 other hand, the denouncement on Satan, " I will put 
 enmity between thee and the woman, between thy seed 
 and her seed, respects those whom Christ calls " the 
 children of the wicked one." 
 
 Now, because of the first promise to Eve, therefore it 
 was that the predicted Shiloh, Messiah, and Prince of 
 Peace, became " the desire of women ;" and marriage 
 and fruitfulness became so honorable among them. For 
 they were held ignorant of the manner in which the 
 child to be born, and the Son to be given, was to be 
 produced. For although it was told them by Isaiah, 
 " A virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and they 
 shall call his name, Emanuel," yet they did not imagine 
 that this would transpire without the intervention of a 
 human father. And although Jeremiah had said, " Tlie 
 Lord will create a new thing in the earth, a woman 
 shall compass a man," still, the precise fact intended in 
 this, was not understood, until she, who was a travailing 
 without human agency, had brought forth her first-born 
 son. For even Mary herself replied to the angel, and 
 said, *' How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?" 
 
 But now for the generator. " Now the birth of 
 Jesus Christ was on this wise; when as his mother, 
 Mary, was espoused to Joseph, before they came toge- 
 
9 
 
 ther, she was found with child by the Holy Ghost," or, 
 was found, having a foetus or embryo in the womb, by 
 or from the Holy Spirit. "And the angel said to Jo- 
 seph, Fear not to take unto thee Mary, thy wife ; for 
 that which is begotten in her, is by the Holy Ghost, 
 And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his 
 name, Jesus." And this was done, adds the evangelist, 
 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the pro- 
 phet, " a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring 
 forth a son; and they shall call his name, Emanuel, 
 which, being interpreted, is, God with us." 
 
 Such is the account of Matthew. Let us now pro- 
 duce that of Luke. " Gabriel was sent from God to a 
 virgin, espoused to a man whose name was Joseph; 
 and the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel said 
 unto her. Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb," or, 
 " shalt become with child, and bring forth a son, and 
 shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall 
 be called the Son of the Highest:' And on Mary's 
 enquiry, as to how this should be effected, which comes 
 most naturally and most satisfactorily in, as it so clearly 
 flows instantly from her, from a consciousness of her 
 being then actually in a virgin state, " The angel said 
 unto her, the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and 
 the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee ; there- 
 fore also, that holy thing which shall be born of thee," 
 or rather, " wherefore also, the holy offsprings shall be 
 called the Son of GocV* 
 
 With such scriptures before us, how can we hesitate 
 for a moment to acknowledge the Holy Spirit to be the 
 generator in this most highly important case? Here is 
 a virgin. She conceives ; that is, receives impregnation, 
 and becomes pregnant. This is said to be by the Holy 
 Spirit. That which is begotten in her is by this blessed 
 agent. That holy thing, or offspring, which was to bo 
 born of her, or of which she was to be delivered, was 
 
10 
 
 from him. And for this purpose the Holy Spirit was to 
 come upon the Virgin, and to overshadow her with his 
 all-efficient energy and influence. Now Gill confesses, 
 of the first of these phrases, " shall come upon thee," 
 that it most plainly answers to ha el, in frequent use 
 among the Jews, in respect to man and wife. And of 
 the other phrase, " shall overshadow thee," he tells us, 
 * that some have thought the. allusion may be to the 
 nuptial covering, which was a veil or canopy like a 
 tent under which the bridegroom and bride were be- 
 trothed.' Or, as Dr. Lightfoot thinks, ' it is a phrase 
 alluding to a man's spreading the skirt of his garment 
 over the woman ; which Ruth desired of Boaz.' And 
 then, in perfect coincidency with the other particulars 
 of the evangelical records, the Virgin's child was to be 
 called the "Son of the Highest;" her "holy offspring" 
 was to be called " the Son of God." 
 
 So far, Mr. Editor, in respect to the party who is the 
 generant and begetter, all is plain ; because the scrip- 
 ture leaves not the thinnest vapour to obscure the aspect 
 of the transaction in this particular of it. But another 
 point remains to be disposed of. What was the gene- 
 lative principle, element or suljstance ? For the gene- 
 rative faculty or power is one thing, and the mean 
 employed is another. At the creation God originated 
 man, the inferior animals, and the teeming subjects of 
 the vegetable kingdom, with seed in themselves, accord- 
 ing to their kinds. And the seed involves in itself, and 
 preserves, and determines, the nature of the production. 
 So that although there be but one common mother 
 earth, whose womb is the matrix for all descriptions of 
 seeds, yet every seed produces its own peculiar body ; 
 nor, because the same earth is the nurse which yields 
 her own nutriment to all these innumerable bodies, do 
 they, on this account, become deprived of their pri- 
 mordial and specific differences and distinctions. But 
 
11 
 
 there must be seed sown. For it seems now an univer- 
 sally acknowledged principle, that there is not, in all 
 nature, any perfectly and absolutely spontaneous gene- 
 ration ; but that all things come, somehow or other, by 
 propagation. Therefore, in the account of the genera- 
 tion of Jesus Christ by both Matthew and Luke, there 
 is not merely the announcement of the intended fact 
 to the Virgin by the angel, that she should have a child, 
 without the consummation of her marriage with Joseph, 
 but there is also the most explicit avowal of the pro- 
 posed agent. And this agent was able to create seed, 
 and with it to impregnate the Virgin. In the instance 
 of Abraham, who was through old age as one dead, 
 God renewed the powers of nature in him, as well as in 
 Sarah ; so as that, by virtue of this miraculous renova- 
 tion, the generation of Isaac should be in the ordinary 
 way. But here the miracle was after another manner; 
 it consisted in an instant act of the Spirit, who created 
 what was requisite for the occasion. Yet it was no 
 greater a miracle in itself than the creation of the wine 
 at the marriage feast in Cana of Galilee; or than the 
 multiplication of the loaves and fishes, to feed the five 
 thousand ; or indeed, than the begetting of John, when 
 Elizabeth was barren, and Zacharias and herself, " were 
 both well stricken in years." This then I consider 
 to be the plain, obvious, and positive matter of fact. 
 The Lord the Spirit did, in a way consistent with his 
 personal divinity, " create a new thing in the earth." 
 This hadashaJi could not refer to a woman, as such, 
 • encompassing or enclosing a man-child ; but to the 
 virgin, as a novel daughter in Israel, who would be the 
 nechehah or maternal receptacle of this gehiir, this 
 El-gebur, or mighty God, who would be called Emanu- 
 el, God with us. It w^as a new creation ; it was the 
 zera-el, or seed of God, the zera-kedosh, or holij seed, 
 which was the substance of the manhood in the second 
 
12 
 
 man and the last Adam. It is true tliat the Virgin 
 was the medium of the production of this man, who 
 was God's fellow, or associated One, the very Levi or 
 united One; and that she did yield nutriment to the 
 manhood, both before and after the birtli ; but it is not 
 true that the substance of the manhood was derived 
 from her.* Will any one contend for the substance of 
 the oak being inherent in the ground, and not in the 
 acorn ? Where is the germ of life for all bodies, unless 
 in their several seeds ? A soil is requisite as a matrix 
 for them, and this aids and assists in their develop- 
 
 * This mistake has been generally made by divines, from a deficiency 
 of physical knowledge, as by the following — ' The act of the Holy Ghost 
 in this matter was a creating act. Not indeed like the first creating act, which 
 produced the matter and substance of all things out of nothing, causing 
 that to be which was not before, neither in matter nor form, nor passive 
 disposition ; but like those subsequent acts of creation, whereby, out 
 of matter before made and prepared, things were made that which before 
 they were not, but of themselves they had no active disposition unto, nor 
 concurrence in. So man was created or formed of the dust of the earth, 
 and woman, of a rib taken from man. There was a previous matter unto 
 their creation, but such as gave no assistance, nor had any active dispo- 
 sition to the production of that particular kind of creature whereunto 
 they were formed by the creating power of God. Such teas this act of 
 the Holy Ghost in forming the body of oiir Loid Jesus Christ. For 
 although it was effected by an act of infinite creating power, yet it xuas 
 formed or made of the substance of the blessed Virgin.' — Dr. Owen, 
 vol. ii. p. 182. 
 
 ' He formed Christ's body in the womb of the Virgin and of her sub- 
 stance ; it was not like the first creation, wherein all things were made 
 out of nothing : but like the forming the body of Adam out of the earth, 
 and the body of Eve out of a rib taken from Adam. There was previous 
 matter to work upon, though such matter as would never have produced 
 that body but by an almighty creating power. Such the Holy Ghost 
 exerted in forming Christ's body, and animating it with a living soul, 
 that he might in all things be like to us, sin only excepted; for the Holy 
 Ghost in this wonderful work, purified and sanctified that part of the 
 substance of the Virgin Mary, so that what was conceived and born of 
 her was perfectly holy and void of sin.' — Uurriov^s Works, vol. Hi. p. 
 291. 
 
13 
 
 nient, expansion, growth, and maturity ; but their sub- 
 stance is in themselves, a principle seminally inherent 
 in them and vital. 
 
 As then the virgin did bring forth a son, so she must 
 have conceived ; as she conceived, she must have been 
 impregnated ; and this impregnation requires not only 
 an agent, but the implanting of precisely that species 
 of seed which is the organized germ from which alone 
 7nan can be produced. Nor would the connexion with 
 the maternal soil in which it was sown, and where it 
 was quickened, and nourished, essentially alter its na- 
 ture or qualities. It would remain itself in itself, and 
 would be tlie rudiment, radicle, or root, of the specific 
 body about to be produced from it ; and which there- 
 fore would at last prove the truth of the apostolic 
 position, " God giveth" to the seed sown, " a body, as 
 it hath pleased him ; and to every seed its oivn body." 
 And hence, as the seed in question was holy, and it was 
 the seed of God, that is, of God's creating, even by the 
 power of the Lord the Spirit, so the offspring was 
 " holy," and was called " the Son of God," and was 
 made " a quickening spirit," and it had " a spiritual 
 body," and not a natural. For so in truth we find in 
 the process of budding, ingrafting, and so on, the 
 foreign stock into which the bud or the scion is inserted, 
 does not change their nature; but whilst they get nutri- 
 ment from a source not precisely similar to themselves, 
 they still preserve their own species, and at length pro- 
 duce their own respective fruits. As therefore Christ's 
 prepared body was holy, or sinless, so it was naturally 
 immortal ; it had in itself no principle of mortality or 
 corruption, nor did he become actually guilty by any 
 personal criminality so as to deserve death ; but when 
 he died he laid down his own life, or offered up himself, 
 voluntarily, yea officially also as priest, a living sacri- 
 fice, holy and acceptable to God. Death is, properly 
 
14 
 
 speaking, that necessary tl)ing which must come to man, 
 soon or late, as being the appointment of God on 
 account of sin ; the original sin of man being the trans- 
 gression of the first law God gave to him, and whose 
 declared penalty was death. Now Christ was not 
 mortal in this sense. Death is also the one desert of 
 sin, or its wages, under whatever law of God, whether 
 natural or revealed, the sin may be committed. But 
 Christ did no sin, and knew none ; and hence there 
 could be found no cause of death in him. Again ; death 
 is the consequence, and the outward expression of our 
 moral condition, we being '* dead in sins." Here 
 plainly we have cause and effect, but in Christ we have 
 neither; not a birth in sin, and therefore no innate prin- 
 ciple of mortality. But yet again, children m.ay be 
 involved in the mortal estate of their parents at least 
 two ways ; the one by a derivation of a mortal disease 
 from them, the other by a legal act including them in 
 the state of their parents. Thus Adam begat in his 
 own likeness, and this posterior to his sin and the sen- 
 tence of death which ensued ; and therefore his offspring 
 are all naturally sinful and mortal. Thus, too, the law 
 of Moses involves the children, even to the third and 
 fourth generation, in the fate of the offending parents. 
 But neither of these cases apply to Christ. For not 
 Joseph, but the Holy Ghost, was the begetter; and 
 he produced a holy q;^sprhfg. Accordingly, not being 
 sem'malhj in Adam, he could not be any more involved 
 in Adam's penalty of death, than he could derive from 
 him a fallen, sinful, and sinning nature. But as Christ 
 was constituted sin for us, or in our stead, by a legal 
 transfer at his own option, so it is clear that the curse 
 and penalty were undergone by him voluntarily, and 
 in consequence of his own suretyship undertakings. 
 Here I would just add a word or two from Mr. Top- 
 lady. " We no where find, to the best of my remem- 
 
15 
 
 brance, that Christ ever so much as once experienced 
 any attack of sickness or disease. The reason of this 
 extraordinary circumstance was, no doubt, owing to 
 the sinless formation of his humanity, by the immediate 
 operation of the Holy Ghost. Sin was that which 
 introduced every kind of ataxia (ov disorder), into the 
 human system, and disease among the rest. But the 
 Man Christ Jesus was formed and conceived totally 
 without stain. Hence he was like our first parents 
 before the fall, naturally immortal ! Nor could he have 
 died, had he not, by an act of gracious susception, 
 taken the guilt of man upon himself, and became res- 
 ponsible to divine justice for the utmost payment of 
 their penal debt. And even under those circumstances 
 we read that his death though violent, was voluntary. 
 His resignation of life is constantly represented in scrip- 
 ture as his own act and deed. For exclusively of his 
 union with the second Person in the Godhead, his abso- 
 lute freedom from sin would, of itself, have been a 
 certain security from dying. Hence the evangelists 
 express themselves thus, " He dismissed, or let go, his 
 Spirit. He resigned, delivered up, or made a surrender 
 of his Spirit." 
 
 I shall now, Mr. Editor, in the third place, confirm 
 my main position by particular scriptures; meet some 
 grand objections ; and then show reasons for the neces- 
 sity of my position. 
 
 1. The first scripture I pray your attention to, is 
 that of Paul to the Corinthians ; " for the man is not 
 of the woman ;" that is, from the woman, from her sub- 
 stance. The man was not originally from the woman 
 or her substance ; nor does the man now owe his being 
 to the woman. For whatever man exists, is indebted 
 to man for his being and substance. The next scripture 
 will confirm this ; it is that of Paul to Timothy, " I 
 sufler not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority 
 
16 
 
 over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first 
 formed, then Eve." And therefore, Adam could not 
 owe his existence to Eve. But another scripture will 
 carry us still further ; for in Genesis v/e find, not only 
 that the man came not of the woman, and that he 
 preceded her in his formation ; but, what is more, that 
 the woman was indebted for her being and substance to 
 the man. " And the Lord God took one of Adam's 
 ribs, and the rib made he a woman, and brought her 
 unto the man. And Adam said, this is now bone of 
 my bones, and flesh of my flesh ; she shall be called 
 woman," or aishah, " because she was taken out of 
 man," or aisJi. And what woman is there now, who 
 traces her origin to any other source than to some man ? 
 Therefore Paul observes to the Corinthians, " But the 
 woman is of the man." And again, " for as the woman 
 is of the man." But " nevertheless, neither is the man 
 witJioiit the woman, neither is the woman without the 
 man in the Lord. For although the woman is and was 
 " of the man," of his substance ; " even so is the man 
 also through the medium of the woman. The preposition 
 is purposely changed here from ek to dia, to preserve 
 the necessary distinction. But if the first man was not 
 of or from the substance of a woman, from whom came 
 he ? Adam, says Luke in his genealogy, was " the 
 son of God." His son by his own creative energy. 
 And how well this type and figure becomes the great 
 Antitype, we have now reason to admire, seeing that 
 the second man and last Adam was generated in tiie 
 Virgin by the Spirit of God, and tlience was called the 
 Son of God, and became a life-giving Spirit to his body 
 and spouse the church. He is thus '• the beginning of 
 the creation of God." He is the " living stone" laid in 
 Zion for a foundation. He is " the heavenly man," 
 as Paul styles him in the 15th chapter of his 1st epistle 
 to the Corinthians. " There is a natural body, and 
 
17 
 
 there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, the first 
 man Adam was made a living soul, but the last Adam 
 was made a quickening Spirit. Howbeit, that body 
 was not first which is spiritual," namely, Christ's, *' but 
 that which is natural," or the body of Adam. For 
 '* the first man was of the earth, earthy ; the second 
 man was the Lord from heaven." That is, in his per- 
 sonality he was the Lord, and even as to the manhood 
 he assumed, it was itself from heaven. " As was the 
 earthy man, such are they also that are earthy ; and as 
 was the heavenly man," namely, begotten hij the Holy 
 Spirit, " such are they also that are heavenly." 
 
 This scripture, Mr. Editor, seems of great import- 
 ance in the debate. Here is a heavenly man ; not 
 merely from the union of the manhood to the Lord, but 
 because the assumed body is spiritual, and from heaven. 
 That it was from heaven we have already shown from 
 Matthew and Luke's account of the impregnation of 
 the Virgin by the Holy Spirit ; not through any per- 
 sonal contact with her, inconsistent with a pure imma- 
 terial Spirit, but simply through creation of the 
 generative principle.* And in the 3rd of John, Jesus 
 speaks of this as one of the heavenly things, in the 
 contrast with which our regeneration by the Spirit is 
 but as an earthly thing. " If I have told you earthly 
 things and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell 
 you heavenly things ? For no man hath ascended up 
 to heaven, but he who came down from heaven, even 
 the Son of Man who is in heaven." I grant that this 
 may refer to his official character, in which he was with 
 the Father always as the Son of Man; and Daniel 
 speaks of him iu his 7th chapter under this very title; 
 but I think it likewise alludes to the celestial origin of 
 
 * See my Sermons on the Two Covenants, published by E. Palmer; 
 particularly Sermon VIH. p. 237, on I Cor. xv. 44—49. 
 
 B 
 
18 
 
 his manhood. Because John proceeds strongly to 
 enforce his superiority over himself on this ground. 
 " He that cometh from above," anooihen, " is above all. 
 He that is of the earth," has his origin from the earth, 
 *' is earthly," in his nature and propensities ; " and 
 speaketh of the earth. But he who cometh from heaven 
 is above all." Besides, in the 6th of John, Jesus says, 
 " I am that hread of life. This is the bread which 
 cometh Hiown from heaven^ that a man may eat thereof 
 and not die. And the bread that I will give is mj flesh. 
 Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Mem, and drink 
 his hlood, ye have no life in you." Now this I hold to 
 be a new lump ; bread, unleavened with the acid and 
 bitter of sin. This flesh I take to belong to him, who 
 is proposed to every true Israehte as the Lamb of God, 
 as Abraham's lamb for a burnt-offering of God's own 
 special providing, as the true passover lamb, as a lamb 
 without blemish and without spot. And this blood I 
 coimt it to be unpolluted—the precious blood of Christ 
 — the blood of God, the God-man, with which he has 
 purchased the flock, and redeemed it from all thraldom. 
 It is the blood that hath life in it, and not death ; that 
 transmits life to the body and all its members, and not 
 death. It is the blood, not of that one man, who be- 
 came polluted in his blood, and by whose one disobe- 
 dience the mass of mankind became sinners, and by 
 vi^hose one offence death reigns over all his progeny ; 
 but it is the blood of the second man, of the last Adam, 
 even of him by whose one obedience the mass of his 
 people are made righteous, and by w^liose one righte- 
 ousness they attain unto justification of life. 
 
 But if I contend for Christ's manhood being from 
 heaven, from above, and spiritual, on the ground of 
 its being gendered by the Holy -Ghost, I feel I am 
 countenanced in this by what is averred of those who 
 are "God's w^orkmanship, created in Christ Josus." 
 
19 
 
 Of such, the above scripture declares, that they are 
 heavenly ; " such are they also that are heavenly." 
 They are elsewhere said to be " created in righteous- 
 ness and true holiness ;" to be " renewed in knowledge 
 after the image of him who created them ;" and to be 
 " conformed to the image of the Son of God." But 
 what is the origin of their celestial character ? Their 
 celestial descent. " Except a man be born," that is, 
 begotten " again," but rather anoofhe?i, " from above, 
 he cannot see the kingdom of God." That which is 
 begotten, or is the offspring of " the flesh is flesh ; and 
 that which is begotten of the Spirit is spirit." It is 
 well known that the ordinary sense of the greek verb, 
 is, to be, to be made, formed, created, produced, and so 
 on ; whereas our bible renders it to be horn. Birth is 
 the consequence ; but there is a very necessary antece- 
 dent, and that is, a begetting. It is passing strange 
 to say we are born of him by whom in fact we have 
 been begotten, namely, the Spirit. So in the first chap- 
 ter of John, we are said to be born, not of the will of 
 man, " but of God." But it really means that we are 
 begotten by God. " Of his own will he hath begotten 
 us," says James, " through the word of truth ;" which 
 word of truth Peter calls the " incorruptible seed." 
 And if we ask for a mother, Paul will direct us to 
 Sarah, or Shurah, the elect lady, the true spouse of 
 him who is the great Shur, or Prince and Lord of 
 jjeace ; he w^ill direct us to the church in her gospel 
 dignity and liberty, even to " Jerusalem, which is 
 above, and is free, and is the mother of us all." Here, 
 all looks like nature ; the Spirit the agent ; the word 
 of truth the principle; and the church as the free- 
 woman, the medium. We want a similar simplicity of 
 process in the incarnation of the Son of God. And 
 the scriptures help us to it ; the virgin, the mother of 
 our Lord, and the Spirit, the agent in her impregnation ; 
 
20 
 
 and from whose creative power, the embryo, or first 
 germ of conception must have sprung. The apostles' 
 creed therefore, says not amiss, of Christ, " who was 
 conceived by the Holy Ghost," that is, formed in the 
 womb, and *' hotm of the Virgin Mary."* 
 
 But I must produce one scripture more, and then 
 pass on. " Destroy this temple,'" said Jesus ; " and I 
 
 * Charnock has given a good sketch of Christ's body, but a sorry- 
 account of its origin. ' It was a body so fitted, as to be obedient to 
 the soul ; to have no rebelHous power in it, against reason and com- 
 mand ; but to be fully and readily obedient in all its motions to God ; 
 not barely a body, but a body so tempered as to do the service required 
 of it. It was not indeed fit, that the body wherein the Deity was to 
 tabernacle, should be framed by a less wisdom, and slighter order, than 
 the Mosaical tabernacle, which was a shadow of it, which was done by 
 exact Older, and by the inspiration of the Spirit, filling the workmen 
 with skill. lixod. xxxi. 2, 3. Yet he was to have a holy body, free 
 from any taint of moral imperfection, fit for the service he was devoted 
 to; for which the least speck on his humanity had rendered him unfit; 
 this could not have been had he descended from Adam by way of ordi- 
 nary and natural generation. He had been a debtor himself, a lamb 
 with blemish ; and so wanted a sacrifice for himself. His sacrifice 
 would have been defective, and have needed some other sacrifice to fill 
 up the gaps of it. It was necessary he should descend from Adam in 
 a way of birth, but not in a way of seminal traduction ; that he might 
 have the nature of Adam, without ihe spot. Such a knot could not be 
 untied without infinite skill, nor such a way of production be wrought 
 without the infinite power of God. Therefore, the Holy Ghost frames 
 this body of Christ of the seed of the woman, that it might be mortal, 
 and have his heel bruised by the devil,' (Gen. iii. 15.) — Vitle his 
 fVorks in folio, Vol. II. pp. 198. 
 
 Who would have expected what follows from what had gone before.^ 
 Therefore, because so holy and so spiritually fitted and disposed a body 
 was required, ' the Holy Ghost frames this body of the seed of the woman .'" 
 And this too, ' that it might be mortal !' To which is added, ' not of 
 ihe seed of the man, in an ordinary way of generation, that it might be 
 without any taint of sin, sanctifying therefore the seed of the woman in 
 a peculiar manner !' First, there is no such seed of the woman. Se- 
 condly, if it could have been so produced, to make it mortal, it must 
 have been clearly sinful. But if it was really gendered, without any 
 taint of sin, it was naturally exempt from death. 
 
21 
 
 will raise it up in three days. But he spake of the 
 temple of his body.'* And who built this temple? 
 *' A body," says Jesus, " hast thou prepared me." It 
 was God's building. It was the true tabernacle, which 
 the Lord pitched, and not man. The greater and 
 more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is 
 to say, " 7iot of this huilcUng;" but rather, not of this 
 creation. Christ was a new creation ; and if any man 
 be in Christ, he also is assimilated to him, he is a new 
 creature. This Holy One could not see corruption 
 even in the grave ; but his very flesh rested in hope. 
 He offered himself without spot to God. He rose 
 released from the sin of his church ; of which, having 
 made an end by expiation, he could not possibly be 
 holden in the bands of death. He rose, in his own 
 manhood, precisely as he died. " Ye denied the Holy 
 One and the Just," said Peter; he was so, when they 
 denied him. He was " the holy child Jesus." And 
 was it not as typical of Christ, that every hebrew male 
 child was reckoned holi/ to the Lord ? In a word, 
 as he was begotten at first by the Spirit, so he was 
 afterwards begotten again from the dead by the same 
 quickening agent ; and in both instances he has the 
 pre-eminence over all his brethren as the first begotten. 
 He is " the most Holy," of whom Daniel spoke; the 
 holy place of the Holy Ones, or temple of the God- 
 head. Therefore Jolin says, of the true Jerusalem, 
 " 1 saw no temple therein ; for the Lord God Almighty 
 and the Lamb are the temple of it." This, as it is the 
 Bethel, or house of God, so it is the dwelling-place of 
 God's people. " Lord, thou hast been our dwelling- 
 place," said Moses, " in all generations." And is it 
 not to this sanctuary that the apostle allydes when he 
 says, " For we know, that if our earthly house of this 
 tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, 
 a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens?" 
 
22 
 
 I think it possible, that whilst he plainly refers to the 
 dissolution of the body at death, he delicately hints at 
 the then very near approaching destruction of that 
 once holy and beautiful house at Jerusalem, in which 
 the Jews were wont so much to glory. 
 
 But 2. I must now meet objections. And the first 
 is this. Was not Christ predicted as the seed or the 
 woman, and of Abraham, and of David ? And does 
 not Matthew call him the son of Abraham, and the son 
 of David ? This is very true, and the one expression 
 will suffice to explain the other. Seed means offspring. 
 " 1 am," said Jesus, " the offspring of David." Literally, 
 seed signifies the matter in which is contained the 
 procreative property, whether in reference to man, to 
 the irrational animals, or to vegetables. But figura- 
 tively, it stands for the product ; the cause is put for 
 the effect. Thus Eli said to Elkanah, " The Lord 
 give thee seed of this woman ;" that is, a child from 
 or out of this woman. And in this sense alone is 
 Christ the seed of Eve. He is her offspring by her 
 grand-daughter Mary ; and by the same medium Christ 
 is the son of Abraham, and of David ; Mary springing 
 from that line. For in the literal, primary, proper, 
 and direct sense, seed is peculiar to the man ; and 
 only as figuratively employed, the causative principle 
 being put for the thing produced, can it ever be applied 
 to the woman. And therefore, in the genealogy by 
 Matthew, the men heget from Abraham, down to 
 " Joseph, the husband of Mary ;" and then, instead of 
 its being added, and Joseph begat Jesus, it is said " of 
 whom was begotten Jesus." Not of Joseph ; but of 
 Mary ; for the whom, in the greek, is feminine, and not 
 masculine. Jt will therefore read thus, " And Jacob 
 begat Joseph, the Iiusband of Mary, out of which Mary 
 was begotten Jesus, who is called Christ.'* Now Joseph 
 being thus excluded from this begetting, it remained 
 
23 
 
 for the evangelist to supply the omission ; which he 
 does by instantly declaring that, *' when as his mother 
 Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came to- 
 gether, she was found having that in he?' ivomh, which 
 was from the Holy Ghost.'' Jesus then was truly the 
 seed or son of Eve, of Abraham, and of David, by their 
 daughter and his mother's side, as proved by Luke ; 
 who calls Joseph, her husband, the son of Heli, be- 
 cause he was betrothed to Heli's daughter Mary. For 
 Joseph himself was the son of Jacob ; and Mary was 
 the daughter of Heli ; but in virtue of tlie betrothment 
 between them, Joseph became the son-in-law of Mary's 
 father. This reconciles the two genealogical accounts ; 
 Matthew proving Joseph, the reputed husband of Mary, 
 to have been the son of Jacob, who was lineally de- 
 scended from Abraham, Judah, and David ; and Luke 
 calling Joseph the son of Heli, because of his union 
 with Heli's daughter Mary, who was likewise lineally 
 descended from Abraham, Judah, and David, though 
 by a different family. They came of the same tree, 
 though by different branches ; and the tree itself, with 
 all its branches, is then shown to have had but one 
 root, and that one root to have had but one origin ; 
 that is to say, Adam, who was planted by God. " God 
 hath made," said Paul at Athens, " of one blood," or 
 " from the blood of one man, all nations of men." For 
 the seed, or producing principle, is nothing but a secre- 
 tion from the blood of the man ; and therefore it follows 
 necessarily, that all mankind, as naturally engendered 
 of the offspring of Adam, owe their origin equally and 
 alike to that one original fountain, the first man, who 
 was from the earth, and was earthly. But in the 
 special case of Christ, the natural order was broken ; 
 Joseph was superseded from being the communicating 
 channel ; and as in tlie first formation of the first man 
 Adam, he could call the earth his mother, but could 
 
24 
 
 only look to God as his Father, whose son therefore 
 he is said to have been, so in respect to Christ ; Mary, 
 that earthen vessel, was truly the mother of our Lord, 
 and his nurse ; but God was his Father. Here was, as 
 it were, " the residue of the Spirit ;" and it produced 
 " a godly seed ;" or literally, the seed of the Alehim. 
 
 A second objection is this. If Christ took not a 
 fallen nature, as immediately from the offspring of 
 fallen Adam, how could he be at all a subject for temp- 
 tation ? And how, more especially, could he suffer, 
 being tempted ? And how, except he was of our fallen 
 nature, and was tempted just as we are, and did suffer 
 just as we do, how else can he be touched with the 
 feeling of our infirmities, and sympathize with us ? 
 
 For the first particular in this complex objection, 
 how could he be subject to temptation ? The answer 
 is easy. None but God is by nature immutable, be- 
 cause none but God is impassable ; he cannot suffer 
 from without, because he cg,nnot become a patient, so 
 as to be acted upon by external causes ; and being in 
 his own constitution absolutely perfect, infinitely and 
 everlastingly, he cannot suffer from within. But the 
 creatures differ from the Creator in this. They may 
 suffer from within and from without. Not being of an 
 infinite understanding, they are limited in their appre- 
 hensions of things ; this leads them to reason about 
 them; and reason is very liable to deceive them. Thus 
 the angels were created pure and perfect according to 
 their kind; but, somehow or other, they M^ere beset by 
 a temptation, when as yet they had no sin, and knew 
 it not. So Eve ; she was at that instant what God had 
 made her, when the serpent tempted her. And so was 
 Adam, when Eve tempted him. Now God could have 
 restrained them from complying with the temptation, 
 had it been his pleasure to have prevented their fall ; 
 and in that case, they would have severallv been 
 
25 
 
 tempted, and yet severally without sin. God being a 
 sovereign, and having no superior, his own will is his 
 sole law ; and therefore, in this view also, it is impos- 
 sible for God to be tempted to any transgression. But 
 men and angels, even though they had no sort of super- 
 natural revelation made to them, relative to the being 
 and will of God, could yet be tempted to evil, in run- 
 ning counter to the dictates of right reason, and to the 
 deductions which reason ought to make from those proofs 
 of the Creator's Godliead, eternity, and power, which 
 are so amply afforded them in the visible universe. And 
 tlie manhood in the person of Christ, considered simply 
 as a creature, was liable to be tempted to evil. The 
 rational soul, if left to itself, might have gendered de- 
 sires or imaginations contrary to God's will ; or else it 
 might have been solicited, through the medium of the 
 body, to some improper indulgence of the lusts of the 
 flesh. Else, how could it have so happened in the in- 
 stance of Eve, who was the immediate creature of 
 God? Yes, Christ was in all points tempted like as 
 we are. Nay, it was impossible for him to have the 
 perfect human nature, and to be any time performing 
 his part on the stage of this world, without being 
 tempted. If he had only taken a body and not a soul, 
 clearly he could not have been tempted by any impro- 
 per " desires of the mind ;" or, if he had taken a 
 human soul alone, with merely the semblance of a 
 corporeal frame, without the substance of flesh and 
 blood, then he could not have been tempted through 
 the medium of the senses to indulge in " the lusts of 
 the flesh." But since he was invested with the entire 
 humanity in its full perfection, he was liable to every 
 possible temptation, whether mental or corporeal. 
 
 But then, in the next place, how could he suffer, 
 being tempted, except he assumed the flesh of sin? The 
 query is, how did he suffer? Are we to suppose that 
 
26 
 
 he suffered as Eve did, and as Adam after? That is, 
 that he suffered a fall into actual sin : — no. For it is 
 admitted that he " did no sin ;" and that he " knew no 
 sin." Therefore, even Calvin, who contends for Christ's 
 having taken manhood of the very seed and substance 
 of the woman, says, that ' the same apostle, where he 
 teacheth that Christ was sent in the likeness of sinful 
 flesh to satisfy the law, doth so expressly sever him 
 from the common estate? of men, that he be very man, 
 without fault and corruption.* And again, ' we do 
 not make Christ free from all spot, for this cause, that 
 he is only engendered of his mother, without the inter- 
 vention of man, but because he is sanctified by the 
 Holy Ghost; that the generation might be pure and 
 uncorrupted, such as it should have been before the fall 
 of Adam. And this always remained steadfastly de- 
 termined with us, that so oft as the scripture putteth 
 us in mind of the cleanness of Christ, it is meant of 
 his true nature of manhood ; because it were superflu- 
 ous to say, that God is clean. Also, the sanctification 
 that he speaketh of, in the sentence of John, could have 
 no place in the nature of God. Neither are there 
 feigned two seeds of Adam, although there came no 
 infection to Christ ; because the generation of man is 
 not unclean or vicious of itself, but accidental by his 
 falHng. Therefore it is no marvel, if Christ, by whom 
 the estate of innocency was to be restored, were exempt 
 from common corruption.' On no principle then, could 
 Christ have suffered by temptation precisely as we 
 ourselves do, unless on that ; not only of his liability 
 simply as a creature to commit sin, or of his having 
 taken a portion of our fallen humanity in its corrupt 
 condition, but on that of his having actually trans- 
 gressed at times, through the force of overwhelming 
 solicitations. If, however, he did not so suffer, how 
 did he suffer, being tempted? The very temptation to 
 
27 
 
 evil, to a holy nature, is the severest of all sufferings. 
 The presentation of any thing evil to it, and much 
 more, the solicitation of it to the commission of evil, 
 necessarily grieves and distresses it. And we may 
 safely argue, that in exact proportion to tJie holiness of 
 Christ's manhood, in that very degree he suffered from 
 every particular instance of temptation. And as he 
 had all the feelings, emotions, passions, yea, and all the 
 innocent infirmities of the human nature, he could not 
 but have incessantly come into contact with one soli- 
 citation or another ; and, therefore, his whole life on 
 earth was one unbroken chain of connected trials, be- 
 cause he was called on to deny himself, in respect to his 
 manhood, almost every thing in which it was able to 
 take delight. So truly did he therefore declare, that 
 he came not into the world to do his own will, but the 
 will of his God and Father. Nor was it only and 
 singly in the garden of Gethsemane that Jesus was 
 constrained to exclaim, " Nevertheless, not my will, 
 but thine be done!" But now, if Jesus suffered, being 
 tempted, although his nature was holy from its concep- 
 tion, and united to his divine person as the Word that 
 was God, and always under the imction of the Spirit of 
 grace and truth, how well and truly could he feel for 
 his body, the church, and for all and every of her 
 members, exposed, as he knew them to be, to an en- 
 tire world of temptation, and to all the subtle devices 
 of the infernal spirits, and rendered so liable to concur 
 in all and every solicitation through the frailties of their 
 own corrupt constitution! 
 
 This, then, brings us to the third particular in the 
 objection. How can Christ be touched with the feel- 
 ing of our infirmities, so as to sympathize with us in 
 them, and help us out of them, or succour us in the 
 midst of them ? I reply at once, as above, that having, 
 although without sin, suffered severely from exposure 
 
28 
 
 to the strongest temptations of the world and of hell, he 
 cannot but feel most intensely for his people, obnoxious 
 as they are to such hostile attacks, and having in them- 
 selves a traitor feeling, always but too disposed to be- 
 tray them into the power of their enemies. 
 
 But now, genuine sympathy or fellow-feeling sup- 
 poses some existing relation. Christ is the head of 
 the church ; and so he sympathizes with it, and becomes 
 the Saviour of the body. The church is of his flesh and 
 of his bones ; and therefore, he nourisheth and cherish- 
 eth it. He is the bridegroom, and the church is the 
 bride, the Lamb's wife ! therefore " he gave himself for 
 it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it, and present it 
 to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, 
 or any such thing, but that it should be holy and with- 
 out blemish." He is the shepherd of his people ; and so 
 he gives his life for the sheep, and pledges himself to 
 them that they shall never perish. But then, if with 
 the existence of relationship, there exist no natural af- 
 fection, then there is no sympathy. Can a woman for- 
 get her sucking child ? Yea, she may. Created beings 
 are liable to the most mortifying defects, because they 
 are susceptible of all sorts of impressions from external 
 circumstances. And hence, in the extremity of the 
 siege of Jerusalem, " the hands of the pitiful women," 
 of women who are pre-eminently endowed with tender- 
 ness towards their offspring, even these " have sodden 
 their own children ; they were their meat, in the de- 
 struction of the daughter of my people. Even the sea- 
 monsters draw out the breast, they give suck to their 
 young ones ; but the daughter of my people is become 
 cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness." But in 
 Christ there is love in agreement with every relation in 
 which he stands connected with his people ; and such 
 love, too, as never faileth. Zion saith, *' the Lord hath 
 forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. Can a 
 
29 
 
 woman forget ? Yea, that is possible. Yet ivill I not 
 forget thee ! Behold, I have graven thee upon the 
 palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me !'* 
 Thus, Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it. 
 *' He loved me," says Paul, " and gave himself for me.'* 
 " Unto him that loved us," sings John, " and w^ashed us 
 from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings 
 and priests to God !" And having loved his own, 
 says the evangelist, which were in the world, *' he loved 
 them unto the end." Nor were the ancient declarations 
 other than these more recent ones. " Yea, I have loved 
 thee with an everlasting love, and therefore with lov'ing- 
 hindness have I drawn thee.'* And again ; " I will 
 mention the loving-kindnesses of the Lord, and the 
 praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord hath 
 bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the 
 house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on them 
 according to his mercies, and according to the multi- 
 tude of his loving-kindnesses. For he said, " Surely 
 they are my people ! children that will not lie. So he 
 was their Saviour ! In all their afflictions he was 
 afflicted : and the angel of his presence saved them. In 
 his love and in his pity he redeemed them ; and he bare 
 them and carried them all the days of old." 
 
 But there is another requisite, in order to universal 
 sympathy between Christ and his people ; and that is 
 knowledge. I may have a friend that loveth at all 
 times; and yet, from ignorance of my situation and 
 circumstances, it may often be impossible for him to 
 sympathize with me. I may not feel disposed to tell 
 him every thing ; or distance may intervene, combined 
 with other obstacles, so that I cannot tell him of my 
 troubles, distresses, or dangers, if I would. Now, Christ 
 knows all men, and needs not that any should testify 
 of man to him, for he knows what is in man. This he 
 does, as the wisdom of God, universally. But of his 
 people, his church, to whom he is intimately related to 
 
30 
 
 and united, as head over all things to it and them, it 
 is superlatively true, that he " knoweth us altogether/* 
 And this recondite knowledge of, this profound acquaint- 
 ance with his people, and with whatever relates to them 
 or concerns them, so far from confounding tlie faithful, 
 and dismaying them, and making him a terror and a 
 dread to them, becomes a vigorous and a copious spring 
 of consolation to them. Hagar very beautifully called 
 the name of the Lord who spake to her in her afflic- 
 tion, tlio^i God seest me! He does not look and see 
 as a spy, to become an informer, and to betray ; he is 
 no more the accuser, than he is the tempter of his 
 brethren ; no! but as God looked after Hagar, to espy 
 her in her trouble, and to relieve her wants in the wil- 
 derness, so is it with Christ, the Shepherd and Bishop 
 of our souls. The consequence is, that we naturally 
 looh after him; casting all our cares upon him, because 
 he caretli for us. And, therefore, with exquisite feeling, 
 did Hagar superadd to the name which she had given 
 to the Lord : this, as a reason for it — " for she said, 
 have I also here looked after him, who looketh after 
 me !" And she also called the well of water, " the 
 well of Him who liveth, who looketh after me!" 
 Well, this is just what Paul states to the Hebrews 
 for their encouragement, in his fourth chapter, 
 " For the word of God is living and powerful, and 
 sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the 
 dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints 
 and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and in- 
 tents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that 
 is not manifest in his sight; but all things are naked, 
 and opened up unto the eyes of him with whom we 
 have to do." He sees all men and devils, and watches 
 all their movements, yea, and all their inmost devices ; 
 as is obvious in that instance of Peter. " Simon, Satan 
 hath desired to have thee, but I have prayed for thee." 
 And what then? Why, says Paul,—" Seeing then that 
 
31 
 
 we have a great High Priest, who is passed into the hea- 
 vens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our pro- 
 fession. For we have not a High Priest, who cannot 
 sympathize with us in our weaknesses and sufferings, 
 but he was tempted and tried after a similar manner, 
 although without sin. Let us therefore come, with all 
 liberty of access, and freedom of speech, unto the throne 
 of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to 
 help, in time of need." 
 
 But there is one ingredient more, necessary to the 
 constitution of an efficient sympathy; and that is j^oiver. 
 Vain would be the love of Christ, was he not also tiie 
 wisdom of God ; and equally vain would be his wis- 
 dom as his love, was he not likewise the power of God. 
 Now, his power is not mere force; is not a mere re- 
 sistless might ; a mere overwhelming omnipotency. 
 But his power is founded in the purest justice. With 
 him, power is not. right ; but right is power. He first 
 conflicts with what is liostile to the welfare of his peo- 
 ple ; and then, becoming victorious, he turns all his suc- 
 cess to their favour. " Forasmuch then, as the chil- 
 dren are partakers of flesh and blood, he also, himself 
 likewise, participated of these; that through his own 
 death he might destroy him that had the 2)oiver of 
 death, that is, the devil; and deliver them, who, through 
 fear of death, were all their life-time subject to bondage. 
 For, verily, he took not hold on the angels, but he took 
 hold on the seed," that is, " the children of Abraham," 
 who is the father of all them that believe. " Where- 
 fore, in all things it behoved him to be made like unto 
 his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful 
 High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make recon- 
 ciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he 
 hath suffered, being tempted," and also tried, " he is 
 able," he has legitimate power and authority, " to 
 succour them that are tried and tempted." He has his 
 
proper commission from the court of heaven, as the 
 captain of our salvation ; he is the leader and com- 
 mander of the people; and he has been perfected as 
 such, by his own individual sufferings in our favour, 
 and on our express account; so that he is entirely jus- 
 tified in bringing the many sons unto glory, as he is 
 thoroughly qualified for the undertaking. 
 
 3. It now remains, Mr. Editor, that I show reasons 
 for the necessity of my position. 
 
 The first reason I have alluded to already. It is a 
 matter-of-fact reason ; the manhood of Christ must owe 
 its existence to seed created by the Holy Ghost, be- 
 cause there is no source in the woman whence it could 
 otherwise arise at all. Calvin, indeed, asserts, " that he 
 was man, truly issued of the seed of mariJcind!^* And 
 to establish this, he avers that to " affirm that women 
 are seedless," is to " overthrow the principles of nature!" 
 This we must resolve into the want of thorough infor- 
 mation on the subject, in the days of this great reformer. 
 The Greek word for a father, is derived in the lexi- 
 cons from the verb to sow seed. The Hebrew word «Z>, 
 whence the Greek ahha, equally shows the father to be 
 the author, cause, or origin of offspring. Besides, the 
 scriptures speak with the most philosophical precision 
 on this subject, tracing the origin of offspring to the 
 loins of the man. " Kings shall come out of thy loins," 
 said God to Jacob. And in the new testament, Paul, 
 with the most exact physical propriety, says of Israel, 
 that " they came out of the loins of Abraham." 
 
 My second reason grows out of the preceding state- 
 ment. For if Christ is to be considered as the seed of 
 Abraham, in any other sense than as being begotten by 
 the Holy Ghost, and born of the Virgin Mary, who 
 was Abraham's grand-daughter, — if Christ is at all 
 considered, beyond this, to have derived his manhood 
 from the seed and substance of Abraham, then was 
 
3.^ 
 
 Christ seminally and radically in Abraham's loins. It 
 is said of Levi, comprehending the whole tribe, that 
 they "came out of the loins of Abraham;" and what 
 then ? Why it follows of course, that prior to their 
 birth, or begetting, they were substantially " yet in the 
 loins of their father, when Melchisedec met him." 
 Well, and what was the consequence? Just this: that 
 the Levitical priesthood, who received tithes under the 
 law, did, prior to the law of Moses, pay tithes to Mel- 
 chisedec, in the person of their forefather Abraham ; 
 and by this act, they acknowledged the superiority of 
 Melchisedec over themselves, as well as by receiving 
 from him, and not giving to him the sacerdotal bene- 
 diction. But if this argument hold good against the 
 Aaronic order, it is equally strong against the claim of 
 Christ to the priesthood ; supposing we admit that he 
 also was seminally and radically in the loins of Abra- 
 ham. For it was not peculiar to Levi, as counted to 
 have thus paid tithes " in Abraham ;" for if any tribe 
 had been exempted from this inference, it would have 
 been this, on the ground of its right to receive, instead 
 of paying tithes : and, therefore, we must certainly in- 
 clude, in the apostolic inference, all the other tribes, 
 whose bounden duty it was to pay tithes to the priests 
 of God. And then it would clearly follow, that Christ 
 himself did likewise pay tithes in Abraham, and did in 
 him receive the blessing from Melchisedec, and did, by 
 l)oth acts, confess the superiority of his type and figure 
 over himself 
 
 My third reason is near of kin to the above. If we 
 imagine Christ to be the Son of Man, as owing his sub- 
 stance to man's seed, proceeding from a fallen indivi- 
 dual of Adam's race, then was he not only born of 
 Mary, when the church was in a fallen co7iditton, but 
 he was begotten of the substance of the church's fallen 
 and polluted nature. Not in " the likeness of," but in 
 
 c 
 
34 
 
 "the flesh of sin." Of course, the consequence is ine- 
 vitable. Christ was seminally and radically in Adam, 
 when Adam was created ; and he was in Adam, when 
 Adam fell. And because the wages of sin is death, 
 and so, " in Adam all die ;" therefore the man Christ 
 Jesus must equally have deserved death, for his own 
 share in Adam's transgression, with every other man ; 
 and then, truly, he would have taken our fallen and 
 mortal nature. Nay, and besides the involving of 
 Christ in the original offence, and all its consequences, 
 this doctrine makes Christ a brother to all men, as 
 men ; whereas, Christ restricts brotherhood to the 
 church, to the children of Abraham, to the children 
 of God. And therefore he lays hold on these; he be- 
 comes tiieir Goel, or near kinsman Redeemer; not by 
 taking manhood from the seed, or substance, of a fallen 
 son or daughter of Adam, but by being born of a vir- 
 gin and believing daughter of Abraham, f^^om seed ge- 
 nerated in her by the Holy Ghost. And thus he was 
 truly, as is said cf the regeneration of his people, " be- 
 gotten, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of 
 the will of man, — but of God." Accordingly, Mr. 
 Editor, he is properly the second man; the second man 
 of God's creating. And he is the last Adam. 
 
 In conclusion. As the chief stress seems to be laid on 
 the sympathy of Christ for his people, which is much 
 doubted of by many, supposing him to have been with- 
 out sin, I would add, to what has been already advanced 
 on that subject, the following remarks : — When God is 
 said to be love, and to have purposed to himself as ob- 
 jects of his love an entire family of children, what is the 
 circumstance introduced, which was to become tlie proof 
 and the commendation of his love ? It was this. " Herein 
 is love ; not that we loved God, but that he loved us, 
 and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." 
 He felt for us in our low estate. He knew our condi- 
 
35 
 
 tion, that we were ungodly, that we were full of enmity 
 to him, and that we were without strength to deliver 
 ourselves. And then he " commended his love towards 
 us, in that whilst we were yet sinners, Christ died for 
 us." Again ; " But God, who is rich in mercy, and 
 for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we 
 were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with 
 Christ." But God's language to Ephraim — it is the 
 very utterance of sympathy itself. " Is Ephraim my 
 precious son ? Is he a child of delights ? For since I 
 spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still. 
 Therefore, my bowels are irouhled for Mm; I will 
 surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord." Thus, 
 it was not necessary for God to be in the circumstances 
 of his people, to feel for them ; but it was necessary 
 that he should be well acquainted with them, and with 
 their circumstances, in order to the calling forth of this 
 commotion and yearning of the bowels in tender affec- 
 tion towards them. The whole is a beautiful process 
 of natural affection ; because God begins by establish- 
 ing a relationship ; " At the same time, saith the Lord, 
 will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they 
 shall be my people." He then avows a corresponding 
 passion for them ; " Yea, I have loved thee with an 
 everlasting love, and therefore with loving-kindness 
 have 1 drawn thee." And this love, as it exerts its in- 
 fluence in alluring the objects of it to itself, so it is ex- 
 cited by every thing relating to them, and drawn forth 
 in strong expressions of powerfid sympathy. For when 
 he sees them in captivity, he then says, " behold, I will 
 bring them from the north country, and gather them 
 from the coasts of the earth ; they shall come with weep- 
 ing, and with supplications will I lead them ; I will 
 cause them to walk by the rivers of waters, in a straight 
 way, wherein they shall not stumble. For I am a Fa- 
 ther to Israel, and Ephraim is my first-horn^ 
 
30 
 
 Now we are sure that parental sympathy does not flow 
 from a recollection of the parents, in respect to their 
 having been once themselves in a helpless infantile 
 state ; for the state of infancy is gone through by us in 
 a sort of unconsciousness ; and although afterwards we 
 trace our maturity back to its beginning, and feel satis- 
 fied we were at first in a condition of childhood, yet we 
 cannot be said to act from our own past experience of 
 what childhood is, in a way of sympathy towards our 
 children, because we really cannot pretend to any posi- 
 tive consciousness of what transpired during the season 
 of our babyhood. But parental sympathy springs from 
 a knowledge of the helpless situation of the new-born 
 babe, and of the various wants with which it is encom- 
 passed, and from the natural affection existing towards 
 it in the parental bosom. And this is strikingly alluded 
 to in the l6th of Ezekiel. For here is the church in 
 her infancy, and polluted, and cast out, and abandoned. 
 But the Lord passes by, and looks on her, and his eye 
 affects his heart, for her time was the time of love. It 
 was the season for the display of his love to her. And 
 her miserable and destitute condition was itself an irre- 
 sistible appeal to his heart. Short of love, in such a 
 case, there might be pity and compassion, and relief 
 might be extended ; as in the acts of benevolence, we 
 relieve, befriend, and so on, without having any parti- 
 cular affection for the persons on whom we bestow our 
 benevolence. And in return, the utmost we can expect 
 is gratitude, that memory of the heart. But God's was 
 a case, not of pity, but of love ; and which demands, in 
 return, the very gratitude of the heart, or love for love. 
 In him, it was not compassion excited by the wretched- 
 ness of the object ; but it was pre-existing love drawn 
 forth into sympathy and into correspondent action, by the 
 situation of the object beloved. " God, who is rich in 
 mercy, zmAJor his great love wherewith he loved us. 
 
37 
 
 even when ive were dead i?i sins, hath " said unto us, 
 live P' and so saying, *' hatli quickened us, together with 
 Christ ;" that is, caused us to live. Thus, then, all 
 that was required to excite sympathy, was, a combina- 
 tion of love and knowledge ; as is well shown also in 
 that of Isaiah. " He said, surely they are my people ; 
 children that will not lie. So he was their Saviour. 
 In all their affliction he," God, " was afflicted ; and 
 the angel of his presence," or the Son in his official 
 character, " saved them. In his love, and in his tender 
 compassion,'' that is, in his compassion issuing fron ten- 
 der affection, " he redeemed them." 
 
 Now, if we apply this to the question as it relates to 
 the Lord Jesus, clearly there is no apparent necessity 
 for his being polluted in his blood, precisely as his 
 church was; nor for his birth and his nativity to be of 
 the land of Canaan. In other words, what reason, Mr. 
 Editor, for the Son of God assuming a fallen nature ? 
 If a fallen nature, it must be a condemned nature ; and 
 it must itself have required to be redeemed from sin 
 and death: nay, if a fallen nature, it was seminally, 
 radically, and substantially, in Adam, when he fell. 
 Yea, it was federally in Adam, and must have been in- 
 volved in his breach of the paradisaical covenant. It 
 must have been personally in Adam. The whole of 
 Adam's offspring, or all those who were to spring from 
 the seed of that first man, were in his loins, personally 
 and individually considered, as certainly as ever Levi, 
 in every member of that tribe, was in the loins of 
 Abraham. If Christ's manhood had thus a prior se- 
 minal existence, before its being begotten in the Virgin 
 by the Holy Ghost, and that, into an instantaneous 
 union with the person of God the Word ;— then it ex- 
 isted, as all others of the seed of Adam, not merely in a 
 portion of his fallen nature, but in its own proper person- 
 ality; as in every acorn, there is not only the nature of an 
 
38 
 
 oak, but radically the tree itself. And thus Christ would 
 be personally involved in the fall of Adam, and would 
 not merely be invested with a part or parcel of his fallen 
 nature. And even if we did not push this argument, 
 in respect to personality, what becomes of the state- 
 ment of those who say, he took our fallen nature, but 
 sanctified it even from its conception ? For so Hooker 
 states it, He " therefore took the seed of Abraham, the 
 very first original element of our nature^ before it was 
 come to have any personal human subsistence." This 
 supposes Christ could derive it from the woman, which , 
 is impossible.* Besides, prior to sancfification, there ' 
 must be redemption. If Christ's manhood was semi- 
 nally of Adam's fallen nature, tlie only basis for its 
 sanctification must be laid in an atonement being made 
 for it. The instant Adam had sinned, sacrifice was 
 established, to figure Christ as the great atonement for 
 sin ; and this was the foundation laid in righteousness ;, 
 for our sanctification. Hence he who redeems is tlie 
 Messiah, Christ, or anointed, through whom tlie Spirit 
 of grace is communicated to us by the Father. And 
 hence the reason why we were chosen in Christ, and 
 blessed in him with all spiritual blessings; he would, 
 *' by himself, purge our sins,'' and thus do away our 
 attainder, and restore us to heritable blood. For as 
 the law had said, of the holy oil, " on man's flesh,'* or 
 on the flesh of man, " it shall not be poured ;" so, in 
 virtue of Christ's incarnation, in which in effect he took 
 hold on, and invested himself with, the perso7is of his 
 people, of all nations and kindreds, and they thus vir- 
 tually became his body and members, " of liisjiesh and 
 
 * So, Mr. Vaughan, of Leicester, in his Translation of Luther, 
 says, ' The Holy Ghost's impregnation gave Christ a spotless soul ; and 
 the daughter of Adan) gave him a sinful body.' 
 
39 
 
 of his bones," — the Lord said by the prophet Joel, " I 
 will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh.*' 
 
 In fine, to give one illustration more, of the genuine 
 spring of sympathy having its unfailing source in rela- 
 tionship, love, and knowledge, I would adduce, Mr. 
 Editor, the holy and elect angels. Christ is their head 
 and Lord. By and through him they were upheld 
 when their fellows revolted from their allegiance to 
 him who was then, as he is now, " the truth.'* And 
 the cause of their preservation was the same as that of 
 ours, even their " election of God ;" for they continued 
 holy, because elect. Now, although not elected as chil- 
 dren, but rather as serving or ministering spirits, yet 
 when they reflect on the fate of their fallen fellows, 
 and revolve with themselves how infinitely more glo- 
 rious, as well as unutterably more blessed it is to serve 
 in lieaven than to reign in hell, they cannot but glow 
 with love truly seraphic towards him in whose employ 
 they are engaged, and who, whilst he is our Saviour 
 and brother, as well as Lord, was their preserver from 
 eternal ruin. But being thus in the house of Christ, 
 and appointed to wait upon, serve, and administer to 
 the necessities of those whom they know to be the heirs 
 of salvation, and who constitute that very house or 
 family of which their sovereign Lord and Master is the 
 first-born and most loving head, they cannot but be 
 most deeply concerned for their welfare, and full of the 
 most lively and intense interest in relation to them. 
 And thus, at the first moment of a sinner's conversion, 
 these angels betray a responsive feeling ; *' there is joy,"' 
 said Jesus, " in the presence of the angels of God, over 
 a sinner that repenteth." They see what hell is, in the 
 doom of the devils ; and they see what heaven is, in 
 the goodly heritage of the saints in glory ; and there- 
 fore, when they witness another and another brand 
 plucked from the burning, they recognize in it the 
 
40 
 
 handy-work of their great preserver and sovereign, and 
 hail it with transports of rejoicing. Indeed, with what 
 manifest delight did those morning-stars sing together, 
 in celebration of the Saviour's birth ? And this, too, 
 under the feeling of the vast benefit accruing by it to 
 the children of men, as well as of the glory that would 
 redound to God in the highest heavens ; *' on earth, 
 peace ; good-will towards men !" And their unceasing 
 watchfulness and tender care over every little one that 
 believeth, is strongly implied in that touching remark 
 of Christ ; " whoso shall offend one of these little ones 
 which believe in me, it were better for him that a mill- 
 stone were hanged about his neck, and that he were 
 drowned in the depth of the sea. Take heed that ye 
 despise not one of these little ones 'yfor I say unto you, 
 that in heaven their angels do always behold the face 
 of my Fatlier who is in heaven." Again ; as Jesus was 
 " seen of angels," that is to say, nicely contemplated 
 by them all through his mysterious career on earth, so 
 they " desired to look deeply into" those secrets of wis- 
 dom which relate to him and his church. And what 
 for ? unless that they might glory in the glory of the 
 church, as being the body and bride of Christ ; and that 
 they might rejoice in her joy ; and triumph in her 
 triumphs ; and join in her songs, and swell her sound- 
 ing mirth ? For so we find, that when we are come 
 to Mount Zion, and to the general assembly and church 
 of the first-born, we are no less come to an innumerable 
 company of angels ; and who, because their heart-strings 
 are in unison with those of the saints, were heard by 
 John echoing their hymn of praise to the Lamb. For 
 he had no sooner listened to the new song of the elders 
 or presbyters, those representatives of the church, than 
 he hears a grand chorus to it bursting from '* ten thou- 
 sand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands of 
 angels." And they said, with a loud voice, " worthy 
 
41 
 
 is the Lamb that was slain, to receive power, and 
 riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and 
 glory, and blessing !" And I do not question, Mr. 
 Editor, that whilst the Lord gives those ministering 
 spirits charge over us, to keep us in all our ways, al- 
 though they know not by personal experience what sin 
 is, and what are the multiplied miseries and evils that 
 grow out of it, yet they verily sympathize with us in 
 all our trials and temptations, at the same time that 
 they are ever on the alert to assist and befriend us. I 
 cannot but think that these highly gifted intellectual 
 beings felt intensely for the Lord Jesus, when, having 
 been at a distance spectators of his terrible conflict in 
 the wilderness with satan, at its termination they were 
 at liberty to draw near to him ; " Behold, angels 
 drew near, and ministered to him !" And much less 
 can we doubt of the sympathy of that greatly honoured 
 instrument employed in succouring the Prince of Life 
 amid his agony in the garden of Gethsemane ; when 
 " there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, 
 strengthening him." And I can well suppose, too, that 
 in the instance of the pauper, Lazarus, the angels who 
 were watching his last moments of suffering on earth, 
 and were ready to waft him away to his glory in 
 heaven, were full of the finest sensibilities on the occa- 
 sion. The inference, then, Mr. Editor, is this : — If 
 God, Father, and Son, and Spirit, can, by means of self- 
 created relationship and self-conceived love, combined 
 with knowledge of all our circumstances, so sympathize 
 with us as to neutrahze every evil, and bestow on us 
 every blessing ; and if the angels also can feel for us, 
 and with us, whilst they are ministering to us ; and if 
 parents can feel for and with their children, as far as 
 they are acquainted with the existing state and circum- 
 stances of their offspring ; surely the Son of God, who 
 has clothed himself with our very nature, in the fullest 
 
 D 
 
42 
 
 perfection of all its faculties, feelings, sensations, appe- 
 tites, and propensities, both corporeal and intellectual, 
 and who has actually travelled himself the whole cir- 
 cuit of a life on earth, and felt and seen all that is 
 to he seen and felt, save and except that only which of 
 all other things blunts the keen edge of natural feel- 
 ing, and dims the quicksightedness of human percep- 
 tion, as it no less cools, if it does not quench and quite 
 put out, the intensity of the fire of natural affection ; 1 
 mean sin ; surely, I say, tlie Son of Man is not such an 
 one as cannot be touched with the feeling of our infir- 
 mities, merely because in all his sufferings, in all his 
 temptations and trials, we are obliged to introduce an 
 although, or a yet, in his particular case, to intimate 
 that He " was still without sin." 
 
 THE END. 
 
 E. JUSTINS and SON, Printtrs, 41, Brick Lant, Spila(fi«lds. 
 
THE TRUE HUMANITY OF CHRIST. 
 
 A SECOND AND THIRD LETTER TO THE EDITOR OF 
 THE MORNING WATCH. 
 
 BY ROBERT HARKNESS CARNE, A. B. 
 
 LATE OF EXETER COLLEGE, OXFORD ; AND NOW MINISTER OF 
 HIGH STREET CHAPEL, EXETER. 
 
 PRINTED FOR EBENEZER PALMER, 
 
 18, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON. 
 
 MDCCCXXIX. 
 
 [PRICE Tiro SHILLmGS.] 
 
LONDON 
 
 PRINTED BY E. JUSTINS AND SON, 
 Brick Lane, Spitalfields. 
 
SECOND AND THIRD LETTER, 
 
 Sfc. Sj'c. 
 
 7, PARK PLACE, EXETER, 
 September, 1829. 
 
 Mr. Editor, 
 
 Some months ago, early in the present year, I 
 addressed my first Letter to you, on the subject of the 
 Humanity of the Son of God. I certainly expected 
 some reply to have been made to it, or at any rate 
 some notice to have been taken of it, in the second 
 Number of your Quarterly Journal. But in the 
 place of this, you w^ere pleased to write me a private 
 letter, in which you assigned your reason, for not 
 discussing the topic, in debate, publicly ; and endea- 
 voured to show that I was ' entirely mistaken in the 
 physical facts,* in which I seemed so confident, and 
 from whence alone, as you intimated, I drew my ' in- 
 ferences.' To this private communication of your's I 
 immediately returned you an answer in a second Let- 
 ter, and attempted to prove to you that in respect to 
 the physical facts adduced, or alluded to, by me in 
 my pamphlet, or first letter to you through the press, 
 1 was verily right, and not mistaken. You did not 
 reply to this explanatory and confirmatory statement 
 of mine, and in consequence of your silence, I have 
 been looking forward to the appearance of the third 
 Number of the Morning Watch, in the expectation 
 of meeting with something in its pages in reference 
 to the point in dispute. I have just received it ; 
 and I am not disappointed. I find a paper from Mr. 
 
Irving * on the Humanity of Christ ;' and a ' Defence 
 of the Athanasian Creed,' in direct reference and 
 reply to my pamphlet, by Thomas William Chevalier, 
 Esq. 
 
 Now this I consider to be purely an editorial 
 manouvre, to get out of a difficulty ; for this gentle- 
 man, who comes forward as champion in your cause, 
 makes his attack on the pamphlet by itself, without 
 any reference to my second letter addressed to you, 
 in which I had gone still further into the subject in 
 an especial regard to its physiological aspect, and to 
 meet your objections to my statements. The least 
 you should have done, would have been to place 
 before this volimteer in your service that letter of 
 mine ; for then, he would either have relinquished 
 the projected enterprise, or he would have come 
 into the field better furnished for the strife. ' Strange 
 as it may seem, the most prominent point of their 
 arguments is built,' says your correspondent, ' upon 
 their peculiar opinions with respect to a question in 
 physiology. Holding it an essential part of my pro- 
 fessional duty, Sir, to maintain the consistency of 
 those sciences, to which, as a medical man, I owe 
 my temporal livelihood, I cannot consider it un- 
 becoming in me to answer the reverend teacher as a 
 physiologist. Now all these seemingly triumphant 
 queries arise, Mr. Editor, from the reverend gentle- 
 man's unfortunate ignorance of the facts, as they are 
 in all nature ; of the conviction of the best physiolo- 
 gists of all ages on the subject ; and of what it is that 
 constitutes the esseiice of the maternal relation.* 
 
 After this charge, you cannot be surprised at my 
 determination to publish your letter to me, and my 
 reply to the samej and I shall append to these epistles 
 some observations on Mr. Chevalier's defence of the 
 Athanasian Creed. But before concluding these 
 
introductory remarks, I beg to offer a few thoughts 
 on Mr. Irving's paper on * the True Humanity of 
 Christ.' 
 
 1. He tells us that ' the eternal Son of God, in 
 taking human nature, did truly and literally take it 
 of the virgin's substance ; and that the properties of 
 his mother's substance, body and soul, were the 
 properties of Christ's human natine, considered in 
 itself, without reference to the work wrought in it 
 by the Holy Ghost.' 
 
 This tells us flatly, that if the human nature in 
 the virgin's substance was sinful, Christ's human 
 nature was sinful also ; that if sin was at all a pro- 
 perty of his mother's substance, bod}^ or soul, or 
 both, sin was no less absolutely a property of the 
 human nature of Christ ; and that as sin was a pro- 
 perty of the virgin mother, body and soul alike, sin 
 was equally a property in the body and soul of 
 Christ. And this doctrine is thus confirmed in the 
 same page. ' I believe that my Lord did come down, 
 and toil, and sweat, and travail, in exceeding great 
 sorrow, in this mass of iniquity, with which I, and 
 every sinful man, are oppressed.' This Air. Irving 
 then calls Christ's ' self-inflicted degradation, for 
 the end of meeting sin in its own strong hold, and 
 redeeming both soul and body from its dominion,' 
 
 So then, if all this be true, the account of the 
 miraculous impregnation of the virgin by the Holy 
 Ghost, must not be understood as the origin of that 
 holy offspring which was begotten in her, and born 
 of her, but we are to consider it to have been wholly 
 of Mary "s substance, and to have had the self-same 
 properties in body and soul, sin not excepted, 
 that Mary's substance had, and that the work 
 wrought in it by the Holy Ghost, to whatever extent 
 it was carried, could be no other than what, in 
 
6 
 
 reference to the body and members of Christ, the 
 scriptures call regeneration, and a being renewed, 
 and born again, or from above, and born of God. 
 
 2. But then we are told, notwithstanding this sup- 
 posed work of the Holy Spirit, that at all events thejiesh 
 of Christ underwent no change 'in its conception, or 
 at any other time anterior to the resurrection ! Every 
 passage of scripture which declares Christ to have 
 come in the flesh, which declareth the Word to be 
 made flesh, which declareth God to be manifested in 
 the flesh, is a proof, total and complete, that he came 
 in sinful flesh!' 
 
 No ! it is a proof that he came " in the likeness of 
 men" and " in fashion as a man," and possessed of 
 the true genuine original nature of man, who is the 
 image and glory of God : " for a man indeed ought 
 not to cover the head, forasmuch as he is the image 
 and glory of God." But it is no proof at all, that 
 God was manifest in sinful manhood, merely because 
 he is said to have been manifest in the flesh. Flesh 
 is not necessarily a sinful substance. Oh yes it is, 
 cries Mr. Irving : * for what is the meaning of flesh in 
 scripture ? Is it not the sinful, mortal, corruptible, 
 fleeting thing, of which it is said, " all flesh is grass ; 
 the flesh warreth against the Spirit ; in it dwelleth 
 no good thing ?" If then it be said, that Christ 
 came in flesh, who shall dare to interpret that word 
 flesh, otherwise than all scripture doth interpret it ? 
 Who shall interpret it otherwise than sinful flesh ?* 
 ' All scripture !' Why what sort of a bible is in use 
 in the Scotch church ? Or with what eyes does 
 this Scotch churchman read his bible ? Flesh was 
 the creature of God in Adam ; and then out of his 
 flesh God made the woman ; " And Adam said, this 
 is now bone of my bone, andjlesh of my flesh." And 
 " I'heiefore shall a man cleave unto his wife ; and 
 
they shall be one ^esh.** This marriage was truly 
 honourable ; and at least in this first pair, flesh was 
 not sin. Again; "We are members of his body, 
 of his flesh, and of his bones," as the bride, the 
 Lamb's wife: and "they two shall be one Jiesh" 
 *' This is a great mystery," cries Paul, " but I speak 
 concerning Christ and the church.'* For " Christ 
 loved the church, and gave himself for it, that he 
 might sanctify and cleanse it." But he gave him- 
 self for the church as the true sin-offering. And 
 " This is the law of the sin-oifering, it is most holy ! 
 In the holy place shall it be eaten, in the court of the 
 tabernacle of the congregation. Whatsoever shall 
 touch the Jlesh thereof shall be holy." We must 
 therefore expostulate, Mr. Editor, with that sect 
 newly arisen in the British metropolis, after the 
 manner of the Lord by Jeremiah ; *' What hath my 
 beloved to do in my house, seeing she hath wrought 
 lewdness with many, and the holy Jlesh is passed from 
 her?"' Nay, the very "holy seed,'* which is the 
 imwithering substance of God's heritage, rather, of 
 the cleeroi, his clergy ^ his allotted tenth or tythe ot 
 the people, whom Moses therefore calls laos hat 
 cleeros, "Thy people and thine allotted portion," the 
 only genuine clergy of the genuine church of God; 
 I say, the very zera kedosh, or holy seed, is passed 
 away from this new sect, and let them see well to it 
 in time, lest its members be left as " Trees, whose 
 fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked 
 up by the roots !" 
 
 Why, Sir! this imposition on the professing church 
 of Christ, — this cheat and fallacy — this sturdy, bold, 
 and unblushing — this shameless imposture, it proves 
 its propagator to be utterly regardless of the che- 
 rubic mystery. " The sound of the wings of the 
 cherubim," that is, of the likeness of the mighty 
 
Ones, " was heard to the outer court, as the voice 
 of the Almighty God when he speaketh. And there 
 appeared in the midst of the cherubim, the form of 
 a man's hand under their wings. And their whole 
 Jlesh" or the bodi^ prepared, in which God would be 
 manifested, namely, " their whole body ofjlesh, and 
 their backs, and their hands, and their wings, and 
 the wheels, were full of eyes round about:" will 
 your prophet turn this also into abominable flesh, 
 and out of it will he cook his broth of abominable 
 things, as though it were no better than swine's 
 flesh, and as though the United One of the Alehim 
 of heaven and earth was no better than those ancient 
 paramours of Israel, the Egyptians, " whose flesh was 
 as the flesh of asses, and whose issue was as the issue 
 of horses?" Rather, this is the flesh which the living 
 God brings up upon his people, when in themselves 
 they are like withered skeletons, and their dry bones 
 are all covered over with nothing but the sordid 
 dust, or with the nakedness of death. This is the 
 flesh of the holy child Jesus ; who said, " my flesh, 
 — even that bread which came down from heaven, 
 I will give for the life of the world." With it, 
 having put on Christ, we are clothed with immor- 
 tality and incorruption ; and on it we feed, and find 
 his flesh to be meat indeed, and his blood drink 
 indeed. Thus our youth is renewed like that of 
 eagles ; yea, says God to each of his reclaimed ones, 
 — " his flesh shall be fresher than a child's; he shall 
 return to the days of his youth ;" there shall remain 
 no wrinkle of age, no blemish of imperfection, dis- 
 ease, decay, or damage, no spot or stain of pollution. 
 Nay, the king's daughter shall be inwrapt in wrought 
 gold of Ophir, in the most fine gold, precious and 
 brilliant, as well as pure ; and she shall also be 
 " all glorious isoithin.^' And how ? Why, besides my 
 
9 
 
 Spirit dwelling in you, *' A new heart also will I give 
 you; I will give you — a heart of flesh!** Can this 
 intend a heart of sin ? 
 
 3. * The only two objections to this doctrine,' says 
 its advocate, ' which I can give a form to, are these. 
 To what then served the miraculous conception of 
 Christ? The second, how could he render an atone- 
 ment for others, if so be that his flesh was sinful?' 
 
 For the first, your oracle responds thus. * Con- 
 ception by natural means, is that which declares 
 another human person to be brought into existence. 
 We are persons, composed of a soul immortal and a 
 body mortal, from the instant of our conception by 
 natural means. And, had Christ been conceived by 
 natural means, he must have been a human person. 
 And then we should have had, not two natures in 
 Christ, but two persons. The soul is given by the 
 inspiration of God. This is the part which God 
 hath, in the creation of every human being ; that it 
 is of Him to bless his own ordinance for propagation, 
 with the fruit of an immortal perso?i. But when by 
 conception he hath blessed his own appointed ordi- 
 nance, then, from that instant of time, a human 
 person is constituted by God. Ordinary conception 
 is the method and act by which God manifests the 
 existence of a responsible person. If Christ there- 
 fore had come by ordinary generation, he must have 
 been concluded a human person. And the union 
 herewith, of the person of the Son of God, would 
 not have destroyed the personality of the man.' 
 
 This is another specimen of Irvingism. Adam 
 the first derived his body from God, as well as his 
 soul; he gat neither by ordinary means, whether by 
 generation or conception ; yet Adam, the first man, 
 was a person. " Adam, who was of God." Now 
 this extraordinary generation of Adam, and after- 
 
10 
 
 wards of Eve, bore some similitude to ' the gene- 
 ration,* not regeneration, ' of Jesus Ciirist.' The 
 scripture says of the virgin, that ** that which was 
 conceived in her, was of the Holy Ghost." Could 
 this mean only the immortal soul of Christ ? Yes, 
 says Mr. Vaughan, ' The Holy Ghost's impregna- 
 tion gave Christ a spotless soul; and the daughter 
 of Adam gave him a sinful body.' But how then 
 does he differ from other men? For you tell us, 
 Mr. Editor, that men owe their corporeal substance 
 or flesh to their mothers. This, your correspondent 
 confirms ; " nay truly, from the days of Aristotle 
 until now, there never was any doubt, that the germ 
 of every living creature, that is, the rudiment of its 
 future body, together with all the nutriment which 
 the foetus, and afterwards the suckling, receives, are 
 produced from, and of the substance of, the mother. 
 And as Mr. Irving refers the soul to the inspiration 
 of the Almighty, in conception, in every ordinary 
 case, truly the shade of difference is all but nothing. 
 " The Spirit of God hath made me ;" said Elihu ; 
 " and the breath," or inspiration " of the Almighty 
 hath given me life." Say that the difference is, that 
 whilst Christ and every ordinary man equally obtain 
 their immortal souls from God, the first got his flesh 
 or body from his mother, without any father at all, 
 neither human nor divine, and that the latter do get 
 their flesh or bodies likewise from the substance of 
 their mothers, with some little inconsiderable co- 
 operation and contribution from their fathers ; but 
 so little this, as to amount, in fact, to — any thing 
 short of nothing! For — 'a little yellow^ dust, as 
 much as the tiniest insect may waft upon its wing, 
 and every particle of which, upon contact with 
 moisture, explodes into innumerable minuter glo- 
 bules, is all, that the germ, in the female plant, can 
 
11 
 
 receive from the male! Nay, there are experiments, 
 which tend to prove, that any single atom of the 
 pollen, is sufficient to fecundate the germ pre-ex- 
 istent on the female plant !' And thus, * the body, 
 or quantity of pollen, requisite to the impregnation 
 of the pre-existent germ, may be more or less, — as 
 little as the mind can conceive; any thing short of 
 7ione ! Or, in other words, that it is merely acci- 
 dental; a non-essential to its effect !' And this is 
 produced, to show by analogy, that man is merely 
 to this amount necessary to the woman, in the pro- 
 pagation of the human species, because she really 
 possesses within herself, every thing essentially re- 
 quisite for the same ! 
 
 I have heard, Mr. Editor, a saying sometimes 
 uttered, I think the Latins render it by multum in 
 imwo, which intimates that some things possess 
 much of substance, or of power, or of value, within 
 an exceedingly small space or bulk. " Behold how 
 great a matter a little fire kindieth !'* says James. 
 A spark might kindle the universal conflagration. 
 Would you argue in favour of the insignificancy, of 
 the impotency, of the non-essentiality of fire, Mr. 
 Editor, from such proofs of its amazing power and 
 efficiency? Weigh a spark of fire in your scales, 
 Mr. Editor ; or measure its bulk ; and see if you can 
 calculate its quality in agreement with its quantity, 
 or weight, or size. Some poisons are fatal, in the 
 smallest quantities imaginable ; are these, Mr. Edi- 
 tor, in quality as they are in quantity, little, and in- 
 significant, and almost of no power in operation at all ? 
 Or is not the very least, the most minute quantity 
 of poison required, where there is superior quality ? 
 Suppose then we step beyond even Mr. Chevalier 
 himself, and for the sport, and play, and pastime of 
 argument contend, that the very aura seminalis, is 
 
12 
 
 enough ; that the mere seminal vapour would suffice, 
 both in reference to animals and to plants ; what 
 would this prove ? Just what the breeze, the merest 
 breathing of the gentlest zephir proves, when tainted 
 with some raging plague, or mortal poison, not its 
 own impotency in accordance with its own insignifi- 
 cance, so much as the subtile power of that which 
 rides unseen upon its wings, and scatters desolation 
 as it flies. Or rather, it would remind us of that 
 aura vitalis, that breath of life, which can be but 
 most poorly estimated from the term employed for 
 its designation, the breath, or the breathing in of life, 
 but whose omnipotency inheres in this, and is deve- 
 loped here, .that only with a breath it can waft 
 through all the infinitude of unbounded space, exist- 
 ence, substantial existence, to worlds, themselves 
 unnumbered, and to their incalculable myriads of 
 living beings, which seem, when considered as teem- 
 ing in water, air, or earth, as absolutely multitudi- 
 nous as the solid atoms in the solid substance of the 
 material universe, if they do not rather immensely 
 exceed them. " By the word of the Lord were the 
 heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath 
 of his mouth." To me, then, this new position of 
 your large contributor, Mr. Irving, in respect to 
 personality, is any thing but common sense. In 
 truth, your zealous theologist, seems to aim through- 
 out, at something altogether uncommon. I fancy, 
 sometimes, as I read his papers, I meet with neither 
 common sense nor common nonsense ; they are both 
 most uncommon ; so that his sensible things when 
 exhibited, are so uncommon, as rather to dazzle and 
 bewilder than inform ; whilst his nonsense is so 
 overpowering with conviction, as to render it utterly 
 impossible for any one to misunderstand it. When 
 God adds a soul, by his creative power, to the fleshly 
 
13 
 
 substance in and of the woman, (for as for the man 
 he must henceforth rank but as a cipher in the great 
 account) then, from that instant, a ' human person,' 
 a ' responsible person,' an * immortal person,' is 
 existent. But if the same eflfect be produced, the 
 same creature created, the same substances gendered 
 of one and the same nature and properties, * a soul 
 immortal, and a body mortal,' by means a little dif- 
 fering, and but very little, God still being the sup- 
 posed Creator of the soul, and the sinful woman the 
 contributor from her substance of the sinful flesh, 
 and only the little accidental non- essential interven- 
 tion of the man superseded or dispensed with ! — Oh, 
 why then there is no person projected ; no human, 
 or responsible, or immortal person produced ! 
 
 But it is time to descend from the clouds, Mr. 
 Editor ; and alighting from our air-balloon, to tread 
 once more on the humble turf of our mother earth. 
 If you had been born king, Mr. Editor, would you 
 have ever had personal existence as a subject ? 
 Would not your birth-union to the crown, have 
 severed you from the condition of a subject at your 
 birth? You might do what you would voluntarily, 
 for your subjects ; but your native royalty could not 
 be altered by that. Christ was " born King ;" and 
 he humbled himself; but in the very act of humilia- 
 tion, he asserted his dignity ; " Know you what I 
 have done to you ? Ye call me master and Lord, and 
 ye say well, /or so I am/'* Again ; suppose Eve to 
 have been created at once into a nuptial union and 
 oneness with Adam ! she certainly was so ; why then, 
 I say. Eve never had that separate personal character 
 of a single woman and unbetrothed female, which 
 belongs to others not actually born into a wedded 
 state. And therefore it is said that God created the 
 Adam in his own image ; male and female (but still 
 
14 
 
 as it were the man), created he them. And he called 
 " their name Adam." In the same manner then, 
 I would say, that the mere hoiv a man is created or 
 gendered, cannot interfere with his distinct person- 
 ality as a man ; but that the instance of Christ, in 
 his assumption of manhood, does quite alter the case. 
 Because the manhood assumed by him, was created 
 at once into an union with the personal Word ; and 
 the prior personality of the Eternal Word took pre- 
 cedence of, or rather prevented that of the manhood, 
 so that " that holy offspring" which was begotten in, 
 and born of Mary, was " called" immediately from 
 the birth " the Son of God." And Mary herself; 
 prior to the birth of Christ, was saluted by Elizabeth, 
 as " the mother o^my Lord" 
 
 4. ' These men do set forth something positive ; 
 it is,' says Mr. Irving, ' that in the act of conception, 
 his' (Christ's) 'flesh underwent a change, which put 
 it altogether out of the category of sinful flesh, into 
 •that of sinless flesh.' This, it is true, was the old 
 doctrine •, at least, some seemed to state, that his 
 body was gendered holy by the Holy Ghost, as 
 Toplady did, without hinting how ; whilst others 
 made it to have been sayictijied only from its concep- 
 tion, as did Dr. Owen and others. 
 
 Now then for something positive beyond this old, 
 and which Mr. Irving entitles, ' rare' doctrine. He, 
 as well as Mr. Vaughan, assigns the formation of 
 Christ's soul to God. How does he account for his 
 body? Mr. Vaughan says, ' the daughter of Adam 
 gave him a sinful body.' But who was its father ? 
 " We have had fathers of ourjiesh," Mr. Editor, and 
 not mothers only; and so had Christ! And although 
 Mr. Chevalier would fain have the stagyrite on his 
 side, Aristotle is introduced from Browne by John- 
 son, as quite on the other side; " Aristotle, affirming 
 
that women do not spermatize, and that they confer 
 a receptacle rather than essential principles of genera- 
 tion, deductively includes both sea:es in mankind.' 
 Then let us be positive here ; and let Mr. Irving 
 aver one thing or another ; let him aver that the 
 body of Christ was the spontaneous production of 
 Mary, as one would imagine Mr. Vaughan meant to 
 intimate, or let him declare that God created the sin- 
 ful flesh, as well as the spotless soul of Christ, and 
 that thus he took ' humanity, fallen, sinful, and un- 
 der the sentence of death,' according to his own de- 
 scription of it, by God's own immediate creative 
 power. 
 
 5. ' The Person of the Son of God took a reasona- 
 ble soul and corruptible flesh joined together, after 
 the constitution of a man, as men are found to sub- 
 sist j he, for his condescension to take that soul, and 
 therein to honour his Father, did receive the Holy 
 Ghost ; which, ever receiving, and ever using, he 
 did sustain his human will against the law of the 
 flesh. But then, if Christ's body and mind were 
 after the same manner of existence with a regenerate 
 man, how can we pronounce him holy, when we can- 
 not say the same of any regenerate man, whose flesh 
 we declare to be sinful, whatever we may say of his 
 mind or will? I answer; the resurrection of his flesh, 
 without seeing corruption, proved it to have never 
 sinned ; the relief of his soul from hell (hades), 
 proved it to be without sin. That it was corruptible, 
 proved it to be fallen Jlesh, to the last ; that his soul 
 descended into hell (hades), proved it to be a fallen 
 
 soul r 
 
 This is one of the finest specimens of proof positive, 
 of ' proof total and complete,' ever yet exhibited to 
 the world. But I chiefly make this quotation, in or- 
 der to offer a remark or two on that part of it which 
 
16 
 
 first takes for granted that the ' soul' of Christ ' de- 
 scended into hell,' and then from this its descent 
 thither proves ' it to be a fallen soul !' 
 
 In the first place, Mr. Editor, the descent of the 
 soul of Christ into hell, is a wretched figment. Mr. 
 Irving confesses the soul of Christ to have been the 
 instant creation of God ; whilst Mr. Vaughan de- 
 clares the impregnation of the Holy Ghost to have 
 given him a spotless soul. Besides which, they ac- 
 knowledge it never to have had a distinct and sepa- 
 rate personal subsistency of its own, but to have been 
 taken up by the Son of God into union with himself, 
 by which act its own otherwise natural and necessary 
 personality was anticipated and prevented. To which 
 also they add, that in the taking of the human soul 
 * he did receive the Holy Ghost.' In such circum- 
 stances, Mr. Editor, can you imagine the soul of 
 Christ to have descended into hell ? If you say, the 
 sins of his people merited hell ; and as their Surety, 
 Christ must undergo the utmost of their desert ; I 
 reply, that then the entire manhood must have gone 
 thither, body and soul alike. But the cross was the 
 climax of Messiah's sufferings. It was on the tree 
 he was made sin and a curse for us, and thereon he 
 redeemed us from both. From thence therefore, 
 with his fast fleeting breath and ebbing life, he de- 
 clared, " It is finished !" 
 
 But what is more, Mr. Editor, father Abraham 
 declared a great gulph impassable to lie betwixt the 
 paradise of God and the hell of the ungodly ; " so 
 that they which would pass from hence to you, can- 
 not ; neither can they pass to us, that would come 
 from thence." But methinks I hear you say, Mr. 
 Irving's hell is hades ; very well, and so is that called 
 hades, which the rich man found to be the " place of 
 torment." For the evangelist writes thus ; " And 
 
17 
 
 in hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torments !" 
 Nay but, say you, there are two divisions in hades; 
 there is hell, and there is paradise, in agreement with 
 the tartarus and the elysium of the ancients. Con- 
 ceding this, for the sake of the argument, I contend 
 that, whatever the ancients held, about their elysian 
 fields and tartarian regions, as being both alike infer- 
 nal or beneath, the scripture gives a very different 
 representation of its paradise and its hell ; always 
 picturing tfiis as beneath, below, and do'wn^ in refer- 
 ence to heaven, as the presence-place of God, whence 
 men, yea, and angels, are driven far off for ever, when 
 once they are cast down into hell ; and always pic- 
 turing paradise as above, on high, and up^ even where 
 father Abraham is, and Enoch, and whence came 
 down Elijah and Moses to discourse with Christ on 
 the holy mount, even in the third heavens, hard by 
 the throne of God. Paul tells us of himself, " how 
 that he was caught up into paradise." The Lord 
 Jesus promises thus; " To him that overcometh, will 
 I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst 
 oi the paradise of God.'* Now^ the only place be- 
 sides, in which we meet with any mention of this 
 destination in the new testament, is that which im- 
 mediately affects the case before us. Whither did 
 Christ go, in soul, on that day in the which he left 
 his body hanging lifeless on the accursed tree ? The 
 thief said, " Lord! remember me, when thou comest 
 into thy kingdom;" and to this petition Jesus replied, 
 " To-day shalt thou" thyself be there with me, even 
 " with me in paradise /" 
 
 But in the second place, Mr. Editor, what is all 
 this but popery ? The apostle says, " I delivered 
 unto you, first of all, that which I also received; how 
 that Christ died for our sins, according to the scrip- 
 tures; and that he was Z^wnVfi?," not soul, but body; 
 
 B 
 
18 
 
 " and that he rose again on the third day." Now see 
 the addition made to this, in the creeds of superstiti- 
 ous men. First, in what is most falsely named the 
 creed of the apostles, we read thus, — " was crucified, 
 dead, and buried, — he descended into hell;" that is, 
 into hades, the exact language of Luke in respect to 
 Dives in the place of torment. Then in the no less 
 falsely called creed of St. Athanasius, it stands thus, 
 " who suffered for our salvation ; descended into 
 hell." The Nicene creed is a goodly exception alto- 
 gether ; it states it thus; *' who for us men, and our 
 salvation, came down from heaven ; and was incar- 
 nate, by the Holy Ghost, of the virgin Mary, and 
 was made man ; and was crucified also for us under 
 Pontius Pilate. He suffered; and was buried; and 
 the third day he rose again." But in the second and 
 third articles of the thirty-nine articles of the esta- 
 blished religion, we have the old popish story again. 
 '* Who truly suffered, was crucified, dead, and buried, 
 to reconcile his Father to us, and to be a sacrifice, 
 not only for original guilt, but also for actual sins of 
 men. As Christ died for us, and was buried, — so also 
 is it to be believed, that he uoent down into hellP* 
 
 The sense of this last clause bishop Burnet con- 
 fesses to have been, ' that Christ descended locally 
 into hell; and preached to the spirits there in prison. 
 And this (sense) has one great advantage on its side, 
 that those who first prepared the articles in king 
 Edward's time, were of this opinion. For they made 
 it a part of it, by adding in the (3rd) article, those 
 words of St. Peter, (1 Pet. iii. 19.) as the proof or 
 explanation of it. Now though that period was left 
 out in queen Elizabeth's time (as it is now), yet no 
 declaration was made against it. So that this sense 
 was once in possession, and was never expressly re- 
 jected. Besides that it has great support from the 
 
19 
 
 authority of many fathers ; wlio understood the de- 
 scent into hell according to this explanation.' The 
 bishop means the later fathers. ' For it is plain/ he 
 adds, * that the use of them,' of those words ' in the 
 creed, is 7iot very ancient, nor universal. None of the 
 fathers, in the Jirst ages, in the short abstracts that 
 they give us of the christian faith, mention any thing 
 like this.* 
 
 The original article was as follows. * As Christ 
 died for us, and was buried, so also it is to be 
 believed that he went down into hell. For his 
 body lay in the grave till his resurrection ; but his 
 soul, being separate from his body, remained with the 
 spirits which were detained in prison, — that is to say, 
 in hell, and there preached unto them.' Now, says 
 Burnet, * these words, said to be left out, are found 
 in the original articles, signed by the chief clergy of 
 both provinces, now extant in the manuscript libraries 
 of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, in the book 
 called, Synodalia, but distinguished from the rest by 
 lines of minium (which is red) ; which lines plainly 
 appear to have been done afterwards, because the 
 leaves and lines of the original are exactly numbered 
 at the end; whicli numbers, without these lines, (now 
 lackered over with the minium, or red oxide) were 
 manifestly false.' 
 
 The origin of this sentiment is found in the church 
 of Rome ; from which, when the church of England 
 seceded, she borrowed, or rather retained it. For in 
 the creed of Pope Pius the IVth, the 19th article 
 reads thus ; ' I do firmly believe that there is a pur- 
 gatory ; and that the souls, kept prisoners there, do 
 receive help by tlie suffrage of the faithful ; that the 
 souls of the patriarchs and holy men, who departed 
 this life before the crucifixion of Christ, were kept as 
 in prison, in an apartment of hell, without pain ; that 
 
20 
 
 Christ did really go into local hell, and delivered the 
 captive souls out of this confinement.* The fathers 
 assert,' that our Saviour descended into hell; went thi- 
 ther specially, and delivered the souls of the fathers out 
 of that mansion.' Bishop Horsley confesses that this 
 tenet came to us from Rome. It has no place in the 
 Nicene creed, the earliest of all the creeds, it having 
 been drawn up at Nice in 325, and confirmed at 
 Constantinople in 381. As for the creed of Athana- 
 sius, it, says Bishop Burnet, ' was never heard of> 
 before the eighth century !* And as for what the 
 rubric styles ' the apostles' creed,' he says, ' there is 
 no reason to believe that this creed was prepared by 
 the apostles ; or, that it was of any great antiquity ; 
 since Ruffin (who lived in the end of the fourth and 
 beginning of the fifth century), was the first that 
 published it. It is true he published it as the creed 
 of the church of Acquileia; but that was so late, that 
 neither this, nor the other creeds, have any authority 
 upon their own account.* 
 
 So much for Mr. Irving's hades, or hell. And now, 
 Mr. Editor, for your letter, and my reply. 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 (from the EDrroR of the morning watch, received 
 JUNK 3, 1829.) 
 
 ' Sir, 
 
 ' As I do not intend noticing your pamphlet on 
 * the Human Nature of Christ,* in the Morning Watch, 
 I think it right to inform you of the reasons for having 
 come to this determination. 
 
21 
 
 ' I am not deterred by any fear of meeting you on 
 the open field of argument, I have no lurking suspi- 
 cion that I should prove to be in the v^rong ; but I 
 could not notice one part of your book, without no- 
 ticing the whole ; and one of the lines of argument 
 which you, and those who agree with you, have taken 
 up, appears to me so very unfit to be brought before 
 the public, and even so offensive to delicacy and good 
 taste, that I will never be so far a party to shocking 
 the delicate mind, as even to reply publicly to any 
 such arguments. The nature of our blessed Lord is 
 wholly sui generis. Analogies may help to illustrate, 
 but can never wholly explain, much less limit or 
 define that which has no exact analogy, but is that 
 great mystery which angels desired to look into. 
 This mystery is not a question of natural history, or 
 physics, it is supernatural and metaphysical, and to 
 reason upon it according to the laws of ordinary 
 generation appears to me a degree of hardihood little 
 short of blasphemy; and I should have thought that 
 the universally acknowledged fact, of his mother be- 
 ing a pure virgin, might suffice to stop at once all 
 such speculations. But having said thus much to 
 account for my avoiding public discussion of this 
 branch of your argument, and waiving the insupera- 
 ble objection to your view of the matter which the 
 virginity of Mary opposes, I do in this private letter 
 most positively assert, that you, and Mr. Cole, and 
 Mr. Eedes, are entirely mistaken in the physical facts 
 in which you seem so confident, and from whence 
 alone you draw your inferences. Now, Sir, I charge 
 you, as you love truth, not to rest in your pre-con- 
 ceived notions on these subjects ; nor on the other 
 hand do I expect any assertions of mine to be re- 
 ceived by you ; but I charge you to ask any able 
 surgeon, or any well-informed naturalist, and they 
 
22 
 
 will confirm what I am now about to say. I have 
 studied surgery, though not practising, and I have 
 consulted an eminent surgeon before writing this, 
 and I do assert, that the proper semen always comes 
 from ihejemale, and that tiie male only quickens what 
 already ea^ists in the female. If you find this to be 
 true, you must allow that it subverts your whole argu- 
 ment, and completely establishes ours. I maintain that 
 this fact of the ovum always being furnished by the 
 body of the female is an universal law of nature : it 
 may be seen every spring in poultry, where the eggs 
 are previously formed, waiting the impregnation of 
 the male ; and if this be prevented, every farmer 
 knows, that though the eggs are laid they come to 
 nothing : it may be seen in fishes, where millions of 
 roe are at once impregnated: it maybe seen in frogs, 
 where the spawn is drawn out by the hind feet of the 
 male, and impregnated in the act of drawing out : it 
 may be seen in bees, where one impregnation, which 
 is always fatal to the male, gives life to all the eggs 
 which the queen bee lays during her life : it may be 
 still more wonderfully seen in the green blight of 
 the rose, in which it has been proved (which else, 
 from its marvellousness, would be denied) that the 
 impregnation of one female renders prolific ten suc- 
 cessive generations of females. I might extend this 
 catalogue to almost any length, but these will suffice ; 
 for if any ofie of them is brought home with convic- 
 tion to your mind, it destroys the universality of your 
 position, and we are fully entitled to rest on that one 
 analogy, even if it stand alone, for maintaining that our 
 Lord took flesh of his mother ; but if you enquire of 
 a competent naturalist, he will confirm them all. 
 
 ^ You have the candour to confess that all the great 
 names are against you; this surely may lead to a sus- 
 picion that you are mistaken. I have shown above 
 
T3 
 
 that physical analogies are against you, thus destroy- 
 ing the main basis of your arguments. Your pamphlet 
 is written in a candid tone, and I am bound to pre- 
 sume that you are a sincere inquirer after truth, and 
 do therefore hope you may see reason to abandon 
 the opinions you now profess. In a theological and 
 doctrinal point of view I shall still continue to bring 
 the subject before the pubHc; and when your mis- 
 taken physics are cast away, these arguments may, I 
 trust, commend themselves to your mind with greater 
 persuasiveness than they have before: and that we 
 may both see all essential truths in their full verity, 
 and ultimately reach the same haven of blessedness, 
 is the earnest desire and prayer of 
 
 ' Your sincere Friend, 
 'THE EDITOR OF THE MORNING WATCH.' 
 
 (PRIVATE.) 
 
 LETTER II 
 
 (from MR. CARNE IN ftKPLY.) 
 
 27, DUKE STREET, PICCADILLY, LONDON. 
 
 Junes, 1829. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 In reply to your communication received just 
 an hour ago, permit me first, to thank you for its 
 gentlemanly and christian spirit, and then, to com- 
 ment freely on its contents. You are well aware 
 that, but too often, whilst we would be valiant for 
 the truth, or what we think to be truth, we are more 
 resolute in regard to the thing, than courteous in 
 
24 
 
 the manner in which we contend for it. But in the 
 present instance, as you allow my pamphlet to be 
 * written in a candid tone,' and as becomes * a 
 sincere inquirer after truth,' so I feel most happy 
 in acknowledging the proper temper which pervades 
 your letter; nor can I refrain from adding an ex- 
 pression of hope, that as it has been given us thus 
 to begin well, we may be kept in the same line of 
 conduct as long as we may have to communicate 
 with each other. 
 
 1. The first hint of your's, which requires notice, 
 is, that which conveys to me the reason of your deter- 
 mining not to reply to my pamphlet in the Morning 
 Watch, You consider the subject ' unfit to be 
 brought before the public,' because its discussion is 
 ' so offensive to delicacy and good taste.' 1 cer- 
 tainly felt it desirable to study to steer clear of any 
 expression, or sentiment, or allusion, which was un- 
 necessary for the elucidation of the point at issue ; 
 and for this purpose I submitted the manuscript to 
 a highly respected friend, who, I was aware, had 
 the strongest repugnance to excess in this respect; 
 and at his suggestion I made several alterations and 
 omissions. But I cannot agree with you beyond this. 
 I count it a false delicacy, that would deter from the 
 investigation of any branch of sacred truth. This 
 artificial sense has led people to dislike to read the 
 scriptures themselves, particularly those of the old 
 testament; conscious that they are written in strict 
 accordance with the nature of things, and that even 
 whenever the things of nature are employed as illus- 
 trations of such as are supernatural, they are intro- 
 duced in their native simplicity, and without being 
 encumbered and disguised by any drapery of man's 
 fabrication. This I esteem at once false delicacy 
 and bad taste; not a pure sensation resulting from 
 
25 
 
 the moral sense, but a species of reprehensible * effe- 
 minacy,' the offspring of what is spurious and coun- 
 terfeit. And therefore it will not stand the test of 
 the new testament. For here, too, the operations of 
 nature are spoken of in the language of nature; 
 and until I reflected coolly on it, I have, many a 
 time, refrained from selecting the fourth chapter of 
 the Romans, to read publicly, or in social worship, 
 because of the nineteenth verse; and of course the 
 same annoyance beset me in other parts of the holy 
 scriptures. And this is the ground laid down by 
 yourself ' for avoiding public discussion* of the in- 
 carnation of the Word that was God, and was made 
 flesh. Whereas the accounts of Matthew and Luke 
 are full, express, and particular; and still more 
 strikingly so, in the original language of the Holy 
 Ghost, the Greek, than in our English translation. 
 Still, it never occurred to me, to go into the in- 
 vestigation, until 1 read the first number of the 
 Morning Watch ; and then found that Mr. Irving*s 
 opinion on the human nature of the Son of God 
 was gaining ground, and that, too, amongst some of 
 my own friends. Till then, I was satisfied witli the 
 conviction, that the manhood assumed was a holy 
 thing, ' owing,' as Mr. Toplady expresses it, ' to its 
 sinless formation, by the immediate operation of the 
 Holy Ghost.' But when I perused Mr. Irving's bold 
 declarations, and your defence of the sentiment 
 conveyed in them, with the quotations made from 
 churches, creeds, and divines, to establish the same 
 as on the adamantine basis of universal consent, I 
 felt an irresistible impulse to go to the field of battle, 
 and go out against the sentiment so supported as 
 against an uncircumcised Philistine; and to say to 
 those of my brethren who would deter me, or would 
 insinuate that the emotion sprung not from the love 
 
26 
 
 of truth, but from pride and naughtiness of heart, 
 * what have I now done ? Is there not a cause?' 
 
 2. I have next to notice your allusion to " those 
 who agree with me;' and whom you afterwards 
 mention, as being * Mr. Cole, and Mr. Eedes.' 
 What may be the opinion of the latter, respecting 
 my hypothesis, or proposed interpretation, I know- 
 not; as I never had any acquaintance or commu- 
 nication with that gentleman. Of the opinion of 
 the former, I can speak more certainly, for I intro- 
 duced myself to him yesterday, calling on him at 
 his residence, and taking a copy of my pamphlet 
 with me. But Mr. Cole did not agree with me; he 
 strongly protested against my view of the subject, 
 as far as he could judge, merely at the moment from 
 my statement, of its merits. He however accepted 
 of the pamphlet, in order to give it a more deliberate 
 consideration. 
 
 3. My next remark must be on your observation, 
 that * the nature of our blessed Lord is wholly siii 
 gefieris.' This is precisely what I contend for. In 
 the first of Genesis, from the eleventh to the twenty- 
 fifth verse inclusive, God is represented by Moses as 
 creating vegetables and animals all * according to 
 their kind ;' and each and every one of these had 
 ' seed in itself according to its kind.* Then follows, 
 in the twenty-sixth verse, the creation of man. 
 ** And the Alehim said, we will make man, in our 
 image, according to our likeness;" that is, another 
 creature of another kind; perfectly sui generis, of 
 his own particular and peculiar kind; not vegetable, 
 nor merely animal, nor yet simply rational and in- 
 tellectual, or mental and immaterial, as the angels, 
 —but the Adam, created in the image of the Alehim; 
 " in the image of the Alehim created He him, — 
 male and female created He them." Now whereas 
 
27 
 
 the man was thus constituted a new kind, and did 
 consist of male and female, there was seed also in 
 the self of this creature, as of the others, for its pro- 
 pagation and continuation. And as the woman owed 
 her very substance to the man, so in the after ac- 
 count of the propagation of the species, we are told 
 in the fifth of Genesis, that " Adam begat,'* that is, 
 generated offspring, " in his own likeness, after his 
 image." And because the first man was indebted 
 solely to God for his being, and was moulded in 
 some strong sense after the image and likeness of 
 God, therefore Luke denominates him — " Adam, 
 who was the son," or offspring, or production, " of 
 God." We must not omit to remark here, that the 
 man was not permitted to extend his kind, until the 
 moral image was forfeited by him, through a breach 
 of the Eden compact ; nor until, with the moral 
 image of God, he had forfeited for himself and off- 
 spring the garden of the Lord ; so that when Adam 
 begat progeny, in his own demoralized image and 
 likeness, he truly begat men, or creatures ^z/i ^'^^zm^, 
 according to his own nature or kind, consisting of a 
 rational soul and human flesh, — but he begat them 
 sinful, and sinning men, and under the penalty of 
 death, and in a state of exilement from the paradise 
 of God, and obnoxious to everlasting destruction. 
 
 Now then for ' the second man.' In his dignity 
 he is truly sui generis; even "the Lord from heaven." 
 And indeed, as you admit, the nature of our blessed 
 Lord was purely of its own kind; for ' the last Adam 
 is a life-giving Spirit.' The two epithets, the second 
 and the last, do impress us with the notion of his 
 being a neiv man, and a new stock, and who is never 
 to be superseded by another. And of course, to 
 propagate his own kind, there must be seed in him- 
 self after his kind. Now of what nature are the seed 
 
28 
 
 of Christ ? " He shall see his seed, — of the travail 
 of his soul." These are declared in the gospel to be 
 spiritual, — to be heavenly, — to be anoothen from 
 above, and to be begotten of the Spirit. But if the 
 seed of Christ are so represented, what is told us of 
 Christ himself? " The last Adam is a Spirit;" not 
 merely a living soul, as the first Adam was, or simply 
 a rational and intelHgent creature, but spiritual and 
 heavenly, and having his entire manhood both sin- 
 less in its formation by the creating energy of the 
 Holy Ghost, and preserved such through the com- 
 bined influence of its inseparable union to the divine 
 Logos, and of the continued unction of the blessed 
 Spirit. And thus he was fitted to beget, in his own 
 likeness, after his own image. *' To them he gave 
 power," as the Christ of God, "to become the sons 
 of God." These have within them * the seed of 
 Godj' and the seed of God remaineth in them. 
 Hence the Lord is declared to be, not only a Spirit 
 in himself, or spiritual in his whole constitution, but 
 also " a quickening," a life-giving, a life-creating, and 
 life-imparting Spirit, to his body the church. " As 
 is the heavenly man, such are they also that are 
 heavenly." 
 
 4. But further; I am next called on to touch on 
 the grand topic in debate, namely, as to how the 
 second and last Adam was generated ? I have said 
 in my pamphlet, to this amount, that his man- 
 hood, as far as his body is concerned, must have 
 owed its substance to seed created by the Holy 
 Ghost. On this point, you first admit that the 
 nature of Christ was sui g-eneris, or of a kind of its 
 own; you then contend that its production is a 
 * great mystery,' and that ' this mystery is not a 
 question of natural history, or physics; it is super- 
 natural and metaphysical ; and to reason upon it 
 
29 
 
 according to the laws of ordinary generation appears 
 to you a degree of hardihood little short of blas- 
 phemy ;' and, in a word, that ' analogies may help to 
 illustrate, but can never wholly explain, much less 
 limit or define, that which has no exact analogy.' 
 
 Now, in the first place, as I have already shown 
 our blessed Lord's nature to be of its own peculiar 
 kind, I shall at once proceed to remark on your next 
 position, that ' to reason on its production according 
 to the laws of ordinary generation is near akin to 
 blasphemy.* But the real fact is, that I am contend- 
 ing for the statement of the Holy Ghost against the 
 statements of men. " She was found with child by 
 the Holy Ghost ;" and " the holy offspring which 
 shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God." 
 This is scripture ; but what say your divines ? Why, 
 that this holy offspring, begotten by the Holy Ghost, 
 and born of the virgin, was nothing better than ' a 
 body of fallen humanity,' the human soul's " body of 
 sin and death," and that ' into his body, he com- 
 pressed all the venom of sin !' And you, alas, as 
 the Editor of a new journal on prophecy, counte- 
 nance this ! 
 
 Then, in order to give plausibility to your doctrine 
 of 'the u7iJioliness of the nature which he took,' you 
 quote the creed of Athanasius, which teaches us that 
 Christ was " man, of the substance of his 7nother." 
 And now, in reply to my observations on this incor- 
 rect statement, in which I proved it to be contrary 
 to nature, yea, to nature in all her departments ; you 
 retort, ' I do most positively assert, that you are en- 
 tirely mistaken in the physical facts in which you 
 seem so confident, and from whence alone you draw 
 your inferences. Now, Sir, I charge you, as you 
 love truth, not to rest in your pre-conceived notions 
 upon these subjects ; but I charge you to ask any 
 
30 
 
 able surgeon, or any well-informed naturalist, and 
 they will confirm what I am now about to say : I 
 have studied siu'gery, though not practising, and I 
 have consulted an eminent surgeon before writing 
 this ; and I do assert that the proper semen always 
 comes from the female ; and that the male only 
 quickens what already exists in the female ! If you 
 find this to be true, you must allow that it subverts 
 your whole argument, and completely establishes 
 ours.' Most true. And therefore we come to phy- 
 sics at last. And most clearly, there is a very serious 
 mistake on one side or the other. I must confess, I 
 never was a regular student of surgery, and much 
 less a practitioner, nor am [ a professed naturalist ; 
 but I am fond of getting information as I can, upon 
 every branch of science, under the thorough convic- 
 tion that the more the true nature of things shall be 
 understood, the more will the genuine ' form of 
 knowledge and of the truth,' as contained in the 
 scriptures be developed. I am at this moment in 
 lodgings, and therefore without the books to which, 
 on such an occasion, I should most probably refer, 
 was I at home. But, Sir, I recollect perfectly the 
 term ' semen masculinumj' as the ordinary one in 
 use in medical treatises ; and on this, impregna- 
 tion entirely depends. True, the female is fitted for 
 the reception of this, and for being made to be fruit- 
 ful by it, and for the nourishment of it, and its 
 growth ; but the manner of this, or the process as 
 it respects the mother, we are not now concerned 
 about ; what we want to decide is, whether the pro- 
 ducing principle does not belong to the father ? Or 
 whether, as you state, * the proper semen always 
 comes from the female ; and that the male only quick- 
 etis what already exists^ of course you mean the pro- 
 per semen, ' in the female ?' This is perfectly new 
 
31 
 
 doctrine to me ; and I am happy to find, in the only 
 book of authority I have to consult, and that is the 
 Lancet, for the 2nd of May, 1829, that it is yet un- 
 known to the medical profession. At page 136, Dr. 
 Harrison observes, that ' in the ovaria of the female, a 
 vivifying fluid is generated, which, being mixed with 
 the male semen, forms the rudiments of the human 
 embryo.' With exquisite accuracy, therefore, are 
 children called in the scriptures, *' the fruit of the 
 loins" as it regards the father; and "the fruit of 
 the womb," in relation to the mother. Because in 
 the loins of the man are situated the spermatic arte- 
 ries, which convey the blood from the aorta, or great 
 artery, which rises immediately out of the left ven- 
 tricle of the heart, to be secreted, and prepared into 
 that very specific seed, which you assert to belong 
 always and exclusively to the female. It is peculiar 
 in its constitution, consisting of myriads of micro- 
 scopic animalculcE, which exist not in the blood 
 itself, but only in this singular secretion from it in 
 the male. This nice investigation in modern times, 
 proves the truth, and shows the point of that ancient 
 remark of Bildad the Shuhite to Job; " How much 
 less man, who is a worm ? and the son of man, who 
 is an animalcule ?" Not that this is exclusively the 
 case with man ; for the case of the inferior animals 
 is the same ; the seed of the males, which is the 
 cause of impregnation, is in these also entirely ver- 
 miculous, or full of an infinite number of the most 
 minute living creatures, discernible only, like those 
 which inhabit by myriads a globule of water, through 
 the medium of a powerful microscope. "^ ow, because 
 it is a positive secretion from the blood of tlie male 
 in man, therefore, in the new testament, God is 
 represented as having " made, out of one blood," or 
 " from the blood of one man, all nations of men ;" 
 
32 
 
 whilst, in the old testament, God pronounces con- 
 cerning it, that " it is the life of all flesh. The blood 
 of it is for the life thereof. Therefore I said unto 
 the children of Israel, ye shall eat the blood of no 
 manner of flesh ; for the life of all flesh is the hlood 
 thereofJ" I do not here wish to be understood to 
 restrict the vitality of the blood to this one only 
 sense, because there is a second sense in which it 
 may fairly be entertained ; for as the producing prin- 
 ciple, as it regards the human body, is from the 
 blood, so no less does it assimilate itself to all the 
 parts of the corporeal frame for its sustentation and 
 renovation. Therefore, in Hebrew, the blood is 
 called dam, and which Hebrew phrase likewise 
 means red ; and hence perhaps the name of man, 
 A-dam, as being a red-blooded animal. But at all 
 events the verb damah^ the root of this noun, admi- 
 rably expresses its wonderful property of assimila- 
 tion, as noticed by Parkhurst, Horsley, and others ; 
 since it signifies to assimilate itself, or become like 
 to, et ccetera. And in allusion to this property it is 
 asked, in the Lancet already quoted, ' what is it 
 that makes the blood, in the living body, when im- 
 pelled to the remotest fibre of the frame, deposit in 
 each part, from one simple fluid, the endless variety 
 of dissimilar materials, which in their aggregate con- 
 stitute the different organs ?' 
 
 But having disposed of this point, I proceed, in 
 the second and last place, to the topic of analogies. 
 ' I maintain,' you say in your defence of the female 
 origin of Christ, * that this fact of the ovum always 
 being furnished by the body of the female, is an 
 universal law of nature.' So then, if analogy makes 
 for your hypothesis, you have no objection to it ; and 
 you show no disposition to fly from natural history 
 and physics, to take refuge in what is supernatural 
 
33 
 
 and metaphysical, or to assert, as before, that * to 
 reason upon it according to the laws of ordinary 
 generation appears a degree of hardihood little short 
 of blasphemy.* Unhappily, however, the universal 
 law of nature is all against you. The ovum, you now 
 correctly say, is in the female ; whereas in the pre- 
 ceding sentence you had most incorrectly averred, 
 ' that the proper semen always comes from the female!' 
 You have confounded these two together. And in 
 this confusion of ideas, you proceed to say, ' it may 
 be seen every spring, in poultry ; where the eggs are 
 previously formed.* Ay, but where are the chickens? 
 You very properly add, that, in order to tJieir pro- 
 duction, the eggs are * waiting the impregnation of 
 the male ! And, if this be prevented, every farmer 
 knows, that though the eggs are laid, they come to 
 nothing!* That is, there are no chickens. Conse- 
 quently, the chick, or living creature, is from the 
 male bird ; but the female is provided with every 
 thing for its nutrition. Suppose the egg in the hen 
 impregnated by the male bird, and it is laid, and the 
 hen sets on it; the chick grows, and gradually feeds 
 on the egg^ and consumes it, and breaking the shell 
 comes forth to open view. But suppose the egg to 
 be put into boiling water, soon after it is laid ; we 
 then, on breaking the shell, see the principle of im- 
 pregnation, and the substance of what would have 
 been the future fowl, distinct from, although con- 
 nected with, the meat of the egg itself This one 
 instance, the first adduced by yourself, throws suffi- 
 cient light on all the rest ; for whether in fishes, in 
 frogs, in bees, or in the green animalculiu on the 
 blighted rose, impregnation on the part o? the male is 
 indispensable. My argument, therefore, is perfectly 
 invincible ; and I do pray that it may be given you 
 to feel and acknowledge the force of it,— abandon 
 
 c 
 
34 
 
 and abjure the opinions you now profess, — and to 
 alter your present determination as thus by you 
 expressed, — ' in a theological and doctrinal point of 
 view, I shall still continue to bring the subject before 
 the public' 
 
 In conclusion, I would wish to subscribe myself 
 most sincerely your's, in so far as you are a sincere 
 inquirer after, and lover of " the truth, as the truth 
 is in Christ Jesus," 
 
 .,..4,,s2. R. H. CARNE. 
 
 I shall subjoin a few notes to these letters, and 
 then proceed to comment on Mr. Chevalier's De- 
 fence of the Athanasian Creed. 
 
 1. * The accounts of Matthew and Luke are full, 
 express, and particular; and still more strikingly 
 so, in the original language of the Holy Ghost, the 
 Greek, than in our English translation.' Indeed, 
 these accounts are to me proof, total and complete, 
 of the fact as I have stated it. I shall therefore just 
 write them down here, as they will confirm what has 
 been contended for, and will form a contrast to Mr. 
 Chevalier's statements. 
 
 " And Jacob hegat Joseph, the husband of Mary ; 
 out of which Mary was begotten Jesus, who is called 
 Christ." Here, as Joseph is begotten by Jacob, 
 without mention of the mother, so Jesus is begotten 
 out of Mary, but with no mention of her husband 
 as the begetter. Therefore the explanation of this 
 follows thus, to account for his generation {genesis^ 
 Matt. i. 1.) his original extract, descent and birth ; 
 * Now the {genneesiSy from gennaoo), begetting of 
 Jesus Christ was on this wise. When as his mother 
 Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came 
 together, she was found, having that in the womb 
 
35 
 
 which was from,' not Mary, but * from the Holy 
 Spirit.' Again; " Fear not to take unto thee Mary 
 thy wife ; for that which is begotten in her, is," not 
 from herself, but " from the Holy Spirit." On this 
 passage of Matthew, Parkhust has this note from 
 Scott ; * gennaoo, when applied to females, does not 
 signify to conceive, but to bririg forth.'' To conceive, 
 on their part, is only {sidlambanehi), to take, receive, 
 apprehend ; and what is conceived or begotten in 
 them, is not of themselves, but of the begetter. And 
 thus, in the original prophecy, here quoted, it is, as 
 here translated, " a virgin shall be big with child,'* 
 or, " shall be with child," or, " have a foetus in her 
 womb, and shall bring forth a son." This, in Isaiah, 
 is loosely rendered, " a virgin shall conceived And 
 the prediction in the 31st of Jeremiah is to the same 
 amount ; " For the Lord will create a new seed in 
 the earth ; a woman, " nechebah, the receiving vessel, 
 " shall compass,'* or enclose " a man child." 
 
 We shall find Luke*s account an entire corrobora- 
 tion of the above. " Behold, thou shalt conceive 
 in thy womb,'* sulleepsee en gastrin comprehend in thy 
 womb ; or as Doddridge translates it, " Behold thou 
 shalt be with child.** This verb is used in Luke v. 9 
 " The draught of the fishes which they had taken^* 
 sunelaboUy had comprehended in the fiet. It had 
 before been used, in Luke i. 24. relative to Elizabeth, 
 who " conceived ;" that is, sunelaben, had become 
 recipient of a child. In verse 36, this is still more 
 clearly stated ; " Thy cousin Elizabeth, she also hath 
 conceived a son in her old age ;** that is, suneileefuia 
 yiony received a son. In Luke ii. 21. we read of 
 Christ, " Before he was conceived," or comprehended 
 " in the womb'' And the remainder of Luke's ac 
 count of the miraculous conception is in exact agree- 
 ment with this. " He shall be great, and shall be 
 
36 
 
 called the Son of the Highest. Then said Mary, how 
 shall this be, seeing 1 know not a man ? The angel 
 said, the Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the 
 power of the Highest shall overshadow thee ; there- 
 fore also the holy begotten,^' or offspring, *' shall be 
 called the Son of God,'' And thus the first Adam, 
 being the son of God by original creation or gene- 
 ration, was '* a figure," or type of him that was to 
 come " as the second man and last Adam." 
 
 2. You quote the creed of Athanasius, which 
 teaches us, that Christ was ' man of the substance of 
 his mother.' And now, in reply to my observations 
 on this incorrect statement, in which I proved it to 
 be contrary to nature, yea to nature in all her depart- 
 ments, you retort, * I do most positively assert, that 
 you are entirely mistaken in the physical facts, in 
 which you seem so confident, and from whence alone 
 you draw your inferences. I do assert, that the 
 proper semen always comes from the female.' 
 
 I have already shown from Burnet, the non-anti- 
 quity, and the no-authority of the Athanasian Creed; 
 I have also shown from Matthew and Luke what is 
 the process of nature, and what are the physical facts, 
 relative to the male and female, in the affair of the 
 propagation of the human species; I have no less 
 shown how most perfectly, in the strictest accord- 
 ance with nature, the incarnation of the Son of God 
 was effected, although entirely miraculous in the 
 superseding of Joseph, and the substitution of the 
 Holy Ghost, in the actual impregnation of the 
 virgin mother. I have now to add a few authorities 
 for * the proper semen' being peculiar to the male, 
 and utterly unknown to the female, in direct oppo- 
 sition to your favourite position. 
 
 In the first place, you will admit that the blood, in 
 the human species, is the great reservoir, from which 
 
37 
 
 all the other fluid, as well, indeed, as solid parts, are 
 extracted. All the other fluids therefore, are called 
 secretions ; secretion being that process, by which is 
 separated from the blood, every species of animal 
 fluids, and in truth of animal solids ; because 
 although in a state of solution, when thrown out of 
 their respective vessels, yet all parts, even the most 
 compact of the frame, the very bones themselves, are 
 built up, as it were, through the medium of the 
 secretory process. 
 
 In the second place, in the number of secretions 
 you must acknowledge the semen virile. Connected 
 with this peculiar secretion in tlie male, are the two 
 spermatic arteries. And in its nature this secretion 
 differs from every other, whether in the male or the 
 female, as it is designed for an express and peculiar 
 purpose. It is composed of vast numbers of animal- 
 culae. Lewenhock discovered a thousand or more, 
 within the space a grain of sand would occupy. 
 Huguens says, these animalculee appear to be born 
 with it (the semen) ; and are in such great numbers, 
 that it seems to be entirely composed of them. They 
 differ materially from the infusory animalculee ; and 
 in fact are coiifined to this animal secretion alone. 
 Nothing, that has the least token of life, can be 
 discovered, by the best glasses, either in the blood 
 itself, or in the other secretions, whether the spittle, 
 urine, gall, or chyle. 
 
 In the third place, these creatures are found in the 
 semen jnasculiniim of every kind of animal ; so that all 
 animal life springs from living matter, vital seed ; 
 the producing i^iinciple of animal life^ is animal life. 
 So that not only, as Dr. Blundell remarks, in 
 reference to the corpuscular stage of the embryo, 
 when from the size of a mustard seed it comes to be 
 like a cheese maggot, ' in our Pisiform we are wotms,' 
 
38 
 
 but we are no less certainly such in our origination. 
 The number of these vital worms in the semen mas- 
 culinum of some animals, is almost incredible. In 
 the milt or sperm of a living cod-fish, Lewenhock 
 supposed ten thousand capable of being contained in 
 the bulk of a grain of sand ; whence he concludes 
 that the soft roe of this single fish contained more 
 living animals than the population of the world. 
 And Huguens asserts, that in the same given space 
 of a grain of sand, fifty thousand may be counted in 
 the semen of a male fowl. 
 
 In the fourth place, I will show the male semen in 
 its proper living perfection, to be absolutely essential 
 to impregnation. Dr. Blundell brings a case, in the 
 Lancet for November, 1828, of a ram, which, from a 
 defect stated, was incapable of procreating his species, 
 although it retained the power of sexual intercourse, 
 and perhaps more so than the perfect animal. * If 
 one of these rams be employed, the whole flock 
 remains unimpregnated ; yet unions are frequent. 
 In the ram (in this case), the seminal Jiuid wants the 
 generative power. But the defect rests there.' This 
 fact will derive confirmation from this, that these 
 vital atoms in man, have not their form or condition 
 alv/ays the same, in different periods of life. For in 
 the vesiculce seminales of an infant, the fluid, not yet 
 proper to generation, has its animalculse, but not of 
 the same figure as those in the adult. Whilst in old 
 men, the semen has lost these animals ; and in some, 
 they are either all dead, or so dull as to survive but 
 a short period. And hence the strict propriety of 
 the remark in scripture respecting Abraham in his 
 old age ; " Being not weak in faith, he considered 
 not his own body no*w dead f that is, seminally so. 
 " Therefore sprang there," or were begotten, " even 
 from one man, and him as good as dead" or rather 
 
39 
 
 " and he in this respect dead, so many as the stars of 
 the sky in multitude." But Sarah, you will say, Mr. 
 Editor, Sarah also, ay, '* Sarah herself, received 
 strength, to conceive seed, and was delivered of a 
 child, when she was past age 1" Both parts of the 
 story must be true, I readily concede ; they are 
 counter or corresponding parts. God, who " quick- 
 eneth the dead," he revived the defunct powers of 
 nature in Abraham, to cause him to become a ' father' 
 in his old age. And after her manner, as the mother, 
 Sarah received strength, not ordinary at her time of 
 life, " for the casting down of seed :" that is, for the 
 bringing forth of offspring; which, as it was her first 
 child, and in her old age, required supernatural 
 power. But in scripture the first-born is ever dis- 
 tinguished as the beginning of the strength or vigour 
 of the Jhther, but never of the mother. " Reuben," 
 said the aged Jacob, with all the energy of fond 
 recollection, " thou art my first-born, my might, and 
 the beginning of my strength,* the excellency of 
 dignity, and the excellency of power !" Because the 
 strength or substance of reproduction, that is, the 
 
 * The word here, is aven. " It refers particularly," says Parkhurst, 
 " to procreation. Gen. xlix. 3. and Deut. xxi. 17." He means, that 
 it refers to the procreative substance in the man. So Horsley says, 
 aven, " signifies activity, or strength and vigour in actual exertion ; and, 
 specifically, the generative strength and vigour of the male;" or, as he 
 better expresses it after, " the activity of the fecundating principle," or 
 substance. " From this primary sense," he adds, " this noun became 
 a name or title of the sun, incessantly active in the perpetual propagation 
 of light and heat to the utmost limits of the universe, and in his genial 
 influences on all nature, as the first physical principle o{ fecumiily in the 
 animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms." And hence, the Bclh-aven, 
 or " temple of the sun," amongst the idolatrous Canaanites, as in Josh, 
 vii. 2. ; and likewise, a city of this name in Egypt, as mentioned in 
 Ezek. xxx. 17., in which place, the Greek translation renders aven, by 
 Heliopolis, the city of the sun. See Horsley on Hosea, p. 102-4. 
 
40 
 
 lwi7ig seed, is wholly in the husband. Hence Dr. 
 Gill observes, on this passage, that ' sometimes 
 strength itself signifies seed, as in Proverbs xxxi. 3. 
 And so, to receive strength, is to receive seed ; which 
 the female does from the male. Hence that saying 
 of the Jews ; ' the male does not receive strength 
 from another, but the female receiveth strength 
 from another.' ' ' But here,' adds the Doctor, ' it is 
 to be understood of receiving power of God to retain 
 seed (and nourish it), received from man, and to 
 conceive by it ; which Sarah, in her circumstances, 
 without the interposition of the almighty power, 
 could never have done.' Somewhat different, but to 
 precisely the same point, is Parkhurst's sense of the 
 phrase. * By faith Sarah herself received ability for 
 the dejection of seed ; that is, for nourishing and 
 bringing to a perfect foetus, the seed cast down and 
 received. For I think, with Beza, Capellus, and 
 other learned men, that katabolee is to be referred to 
 Abraham, not to Sarah. Raphelius, in his annota- 
 tion on this place, cites a passage from Lucian's 
 Amores, where katabolas spermatoon is expressly 
 referred to the male. And the verb katahallein is 
 often applied, in like manner, by the medical writers 
 among the Greeks.' 
 
 But there is, Mr, Editor, another possible sense of 
 this phrase; " Sarah received strength for the foun- 
 dation of seed," or of offspring. For we know that 
 the rudiments are with the female; that is, as you 
 rightly state it, in one place, although all wrong in 
 another, — ' I maintain, that this fact of the ovum 
 always being furnished by the body of the female, is 
 an universal law of nature.' Had you but appended 
 to this, ' and I maintain, that the fact of the chicle 
 being furnished by the body of the male, to be fed 
 and nourished in and by the egg of the female, is an 
 
41 
 
 equally universal law of nature,' — all had been well. 
 However, I will close this paragraph with a quotation 
 from the London Encyclopaedia, by Tegg, under the 
 article. Physiology. ' There still remains some dif- 
 ference of opinion, as to the part which the female 
 performs in the process of generation. It was for- 
 merly thought, that the ovaria secreted a seminal 
 fluid, which, mixing with the male semen in the 
 uterus, impregnation was the result of the union. 
 That notion is now, however, pretty generally aban- 
 doned; but it is still supposed, that the ovarium 
 prepares something essential to generation (but not 
 the seed, Mr. Editor !) since its removal renders the 
 female sterile. Dr. Blundell, who has given his at- 
 tention much to this subject, supposes, that the aura 
 seminalis is not sufficient for impregnation; but that 
 the semen of the male must come in contact with the 
 rudiments. This is a return to the old doctrine of 
 impregnation, before the time of Harvey ; and it is, 
 most probably, the correct one.* 
 
 Now before I dismiss this topic, allow me to sub- 
 join the substance of a lecture on it, delivered in 
 London many years ago, by a celebrated surgeon 
 and eminent physiologist; whose exact words I may 
 not, perhaps, be able to repeat, but his sentiments 
 will be pretty correctly stated. ' You will now ex- 
 pect, that I shall tell you something relative to con- 
 ception. Well, I will endeavour to tell you all I know 
 about it; and when I have told you, perhaps you 
 will say, then you know very little. Now that is 
 very true. But, after all, let me tell you, they are 
 only my ideas concerning it.* 
 
 ' Now, I do not like the word semen ; because we 
 have been so used to call the progeni/ of plants by 
 that name, — for that in fact is what we call their 
 seed^ — that it raises a wrong idea in the mind. 
 
42 
 
 Therefore, I am inclined to substitute the word life, 
 for it. And I would use the same word, whether I 
 was talking about the impregnation of plants, of 
 mere animals, or of man ; for the pollen on the anther 
 giveth life to the seed contained in the germen; 
 otherwise, there is no procreation of their kind.' 
 
 * But, I will give you some reasons, why I fix, in 
 preference, on the word life. It is said (namely, in 
 scripture,) that the life is in the blood. And I dare 
 say, it is very true ; for the seminal fluid, or life, is 
 secreted from it, and carried by the spermatic vessels 
 to its proper place, and there deposited for use. 
 Again; a man is said to be dead, when he gets so 
 advanced into years, as not to secrete this fluid (in 
 its proper perfection ;) because then, he cannot pro- 
 create his own life, or perpetuate it, as Adam has 
 done his. An eunuch is also considered a dead man, 
 or dry tree, without vital sap, for the same reason ; 
 he secretes none of this (fluid) life.' 
 
 ' Now then, this life (or vital principle,) seeks for 
 itself a proper nidus or nest; in vegetables, the style; 
 in birds, &c. the egg ; in mankind, the female ovum 
 (where it reposes, feeds, thrives, and grows.) There, 
 it immediately sets about building itself a house to 
 dwell in. In process of time, the female is said to 
 have conceived; that is, become great with child.' 
 So the Hebrew verb harah, in Genesis iv. 1.— means; 
 pregnant, large, swollen ; and in Genesis iii. 16. the 
 word " thy conception," means thy pregnancy, thy 
 mountain-state ; for from this root comes the deri- 
 vative hor^ for a mountain. * And when life has com- 
 pleted its mansion, parturition takes place; and then 
 the proper seed of man shows itself, — or, his progeny; 
 or another branch of the same tree is produced. The 
 regularity of the work of this workman, life (or the 
 vital principle of reproduction,) may easily be in- 
 
43 
 
 spected in oviparous animals, if a proper degree of 
 warmth is applied to the eggs, without any further 
 connexion with the mother; on the contrary, if the 
 most perfect egg from the female, without this life 
 taking possession of it from the male, is placed 
 underneath the hen for incubation, she only brings 
 on it, the egg's, putrefaction, the sooner.' 
 
 S. * The verb damah^ the root of the noun (dam 
 the blood,) admirably expresses its wonderful pro- 
 perty of assimilation, as noticed by Parkhurst, 
 Horsley, and others; since it signifies to assimilate 
 itself, or become like to.' See Parkhurst's Hebrew 
 Lexicon ; and Bishop Horsley's Hosea. This is 
 effected by means of secretion. And ' this function,' 
 it is well observed, in the London Encyclopaedia, 
 * considered in all its bearings, is one of the most 
 astonishing which vitality unfolds. For, from pre- 
 cisely the same fluid, the blood, are elaborated mat- 
 ters, or substances, both widely different from each 
 other, and as different, in some of their constituents, 
 from the material, the blood itself, out of which they 
 are manufactured ! Thus, what can be more unlike, 
 than urine and the blood ? Or than urine, and the 
 other secretions ? And when we attempt to explain 
 the subject, upon mechanical, or even chemical prin- 
 ciples, we still, allowing that our premises and con- 
 clusions should be correct, remain in perfect ignorance 
 of the power, which directs to these nice combi- 
 nations and results.' 
 
 Then, in speaking of the mode, in which the vital 
 fluid (the blood), effects its circuit,' they say, ' vital 
 fluid, we say, not under the notion, that vitality can be 
 predicated of the blood, any more than of other parts 
 of a living organized body; but merely to express, 
 that this fluid is, as it were, ihe fountain from whence 
 «// parts of the system are supplied with pabulum, for 
 
44 
 
 the various processes and operations of life. That 
 life is in the blood, is as bad philosophy almost, as to 
 say, that the soul is in the pineal gland ; or, that 
 affections reside in the heart. All notions, of thus 
 localizing the living principle , ought to be abandoned; 
 with indeed every other, that leads to the inference, 
 that we can, by searching, find out what life is, or, 
 where it is.' Certainly there is no great show of 
 philosophy in this, either good, bad, or indifferent. 
 First, the blood is introduced as a vital fluid. Then 
 it is flatly denied, that in the face of common sense 
 vitality can at all be predicated of the blood, or said 
 afore-named vital fluid, any more than of any other 
 part of the body, even the raw bones of the skeleton. 
 But instantly it is declared, nevertheless, that this 
 vital, yet non-vital fluid, is the fountain whence all 
 parts of the living system are supplied with pabulum, 
 to sustain life in them, and for all the processes and 
 operations of animal life ! Of course, if we add to 
 these concessions, what we have already proved, that 
 the 'vital principle oj" procreation also is in the blood, 
 we shall be certainly assured, against all such as- 
 sumptions and presumptions, that ' the lije of all 
 Jlesli^ from first even to last, ' is in the blood.' 
 
 4. ' Suppose the egg in the hen impregnated by 
 the male bird, and it is laid, and the hen sits on it ; 
 the chick grows, and gradually feeds on the ^^^^ 
 and consumes it.' When impregnated by the male 
 bird, the egg, in the female, contains an embryo or 
 foetus, of the same species. Life is communicated. 
 Within the shell is the albumen^ or white, and the 
 vitellus^ or yolk. The white of vi fecundated egg is as 
 sweet and free from corruption, during all the time 
 of incubation, as it is in new laid eggs ; as is also the 
 yolk. When the yolk grows warm with incubation, 
 it becomes more humid, and like melting wax or fat, 
 
45 
 
 whence it takes up more space. For as the foetus 
 increases, the white insensibly wastes away and con- 
 denses ; the yolk, on the contrary, seems to lose little 
 or nothing of its bulk when the foetus is perfected, 
 and only appears more liquid and humid, when the 
 abdomen of the foetus begins to be formed. The 
 chick in the egg is first nourished by the white ; and 
 when this is consumed, by the yolk, as with milk. 
 Not long before the exclusion of the chick from the 
 shell, the whole yolk is taken into its abdomen ; and 
 after its exclusion thence, the yolk is gradually 
 wasted, being conveyed into the small intestines by 
 a small duct. M. Reaumur observes, that hens' eggs 
 are a sort of chrysalis of the animal; their germ, af- 
 ter impregnation by the male, containing the yoimg 
 animal alive, though inactive and insensible, and 
 waiting for warmth, et catera, to grow to its proper 
 form. 
 
 5. ' Impregnation, on the part of the male, is in- 
 dispensable.' That is, for the communication of life, 
 and the continuation of it in every species. Else, a 
 maiden pullet may lay eggs ; but not give birth 
 to a chick ; because not having received the matter, 
 which only has the quality of life, and the power to 
 transmit and confer it. And this is equally true of 
 fishes; since the ova, or hard roe, in the females, must 
 be indebted for a vital principle to the milt, or soft 
 roe in the males. With respect to frogs (and toads 
 also) ' where,' you say, ' the spawn is drawn out by 
 the hind feet of the male, and impregnated in the act 
 of drawing out,' — the fact is just this; that in some 
 reptiles, there are in the males, hard, brown, or 
 blackish tubercles, attached to the thumb and palm 
 of the fore feet; which are most visible during the 
 pairing season. This structure is found in frogs and 
 toads. The female organs resemble those of birds. 
 
46 
 
 except that, in some species, as turtles and tortoises, 
 there are two ovaries. In the female of one species 
 or toad, the Pipa, or Surinam toad, there are nume- 
 rous hollow cells in the back of the animal, in which 
 the ova are placed by the male, after being fecundated y 
 and where they remain shut up, by the skin contract- 
 ing round them, till they are capable of maintaining 
 a separate existence. As for the bee, what you say 
 of the fate of the male, singularly confirms my doc- 
 trine, and but little accords with Mr. Chevalier's in- 
 significancy and non-essentiality relative to the males 
 in general, in the various kinds of beings, in the affair 
 of generation. ' It may,' most truly, ' be seen in bees, 
 where one impregnation, which is always fatal to the 
 male, gives life to all the eggs which the queen bee 
 lays during her life !' It is the same with the silk- 
 worm ; when arrived at its perfect or moth state, it 
 endeavours only to propagate its species ; after which, 
 the male immediately dies, and the female also as 
 soon as she has deposited her eggs. And in the 
 green blight of the rose, if the impregnation of one 
 female renders prolific ten successive generations of 
 females, surely this is proof of power and efficiency, 
 instead of the reverse. This is of the genus Aphis. 
 It is supposed that each of the many species of the 
 Aphides, is attached to one kind of vegetable only. 
 These had long been considered among the Andro- 
 gynes, or Hermaphrodites, uniting in themselves the 
 attributes of both sexes. But Bonnet's experiments, 
 with those of his countryman, Trembley, confirmed 
 the course of their generation. Trembley, in a letter 
 from the Hague, dated January 27, 1741, says, ' who 
 knows, but that one copulation may serve for several 
 generations?' This, who knows, induced Bonnet 
 to bring it to the test of experiment. He discovered 
 that the Aphides are males and females; that the 
 
47 
 
 males are produced only in the tenth generation, and 
 are but few in number ; that these, soon arriving at 
 their full growth, copulate with the females ; that the 
 virtue of this copulation is not exhausted until the 
 tenth generation ; and that all these generations, ex- 
 cept the ^ fir St, from the fecundated eggs, are produced 
 viviparous. Thus all nature declares male impregna- 
 tion necessary to female fruitfulness ; the mode may 
 vary beyond calculation, but the fact remains the 
 same ; whether there be a pair or couple only, as in 
 the human species and others ; or one male to many 
 females, as in sheep ; or many males to each female, 
 as among toads, there being thirty of the former to 
 each one of the latter ; or one generation of males 
 for ten generations of females, as in the Aphides. 
 
 But sixthly and lastly, you conclude by saying, ' I 
 might extend this catalogue to almost any length,' to 
 which you might have added, — and weakened its 
 force in proportion to the elongation of it ; ' but 
 these will suffice. For if anj/ one of them is brought 
 home with conviction to your mind, it destroys the 
 universality of your position. And we are fully en- 
 titled to rest on that one analogy, even if it stand 
 alone, for maintaining, that our Lord took flesh of 
 his mother.' 
 
 Now, first, what is the universality of my position ? 
 It is this. That through all nature, there is no posi- 
 tive equivocal generation ; but that some process 
 obtains for the orderly propagation of species ; or, 
 for the reproduction of its like by like, or rather of 
 same by same. As to what we call plays or sports of 
 nature, those freakish productions, as they are but 
 exceptions, so they can never be brought forward as 
 objections to the general rule itself 
 
 But in the second place, I ask for one, any one, 
 one only instance,- of a mother's child without a sire. 
 
48 
 
 * That one analogy/ I will concede to it all the bear- 
 ing and influence on the subject it can possibly have, 
 
 * even if it stand alone,' amid the countless crowd of 
 creatures ; and will admit that such an instance, soli- 
 tary as it may stand amid the press and throng of 
 nature's all prolific families, which people air, and 
 earth, and water, demands its due consideration. 
 But you have advanced not one. You have ex- 
 hibited proof upon proof, of the marvellous virtue, 
 power, efficiency, of the male, as in the bee, and still 
 more so in the Aphides, where the female is not 
 merely empowered to be fruitful only for life, but 
 for ten generations ; but you have not even distantly 
 hinted at the barest possibility of a mother's offspring 
 without a father. And therefore that sentiment of 
 Dr. Gill I do pronounce again to be utterly unte- 
 nable ; namely, that * as man he had no father. Jo- 
 seph was his reputed father only. Nor was the Holy 
 Ghost his father. Nor is he ever said to be begotten, 
 as man, but was horn of a virgin.' And to the same 
 effect Dr. Doddridge writes, that ' with respect to his 
 human nature he had no father.' Now of these as- 
 sertions, your's, Mr. Editor, is but the echo ; ' that 
 our Lord took flesh of his mother.' 
 
 I must now pay my respects to Mr. Chevalier ; in 
 reply to his ' Defence of the Athanasian Creed.' 
 
 1. For the Creed itself, I have disposed of that 
 already, by the sentence of no less a judge than 
 bishop Burnet. But I can bring almost a whole 
 bench of bishops, or of eminent dignified clergy- 
 men, as a jury, to give in their verdict against it. 
 Waterland ascribes it to Hilary, bishop of Aries. 
 
49 
 
 This Creed obtained in France about A. D. 850; 
 was received in Spain about a hundred years later; 
 and was not admitted at Rome until about A. D. 
 1014. As to the Greek and oriental churches, it 
 has been questioned whether any of them ever re- 
 ceived it at all. Tillotson says, * the account given 
 of Athanaslus's Creed, seems to me no wise satis- 
 factory. I wish we were well rid of it.' Taylor 
 says, ' To me it seems very hard, to put uncharitable- 
 ness into the Creed, and so to make it become as an 
 article of faith.' Tomline laments, ' that assertions 
 of so peremptory a nature, unexplained and un- 
 qualified, should have been used in any human 
 composition.* And even Horsley acknowledges, 
 ' that our church would have acted more wisely, if 
 it had not adopted the damnatory clauses of the 
 Athanasian Creed.' 
 
 But I do not object to this Creed, on the ground 
 of the doctrine of the Trinity, in defence of which 
 I have written and published four or five several 
 times; nor on the ground of the incarnation; but 
 on the ground of its explications of these doctrines, 
 and of its condemnations and reprobations, of those 
 persons, who acknowledge these doctrines indeed, 
 but disallow their explications as given in it. 
 
 2. ' Who are all agreed in maintaining, that the 
 female contributes, equally with the male parent, 
 towards the production of their common offspring.' 
 Very well; but did they maintain, that the female 
 contributes the semen as well as the ovum ? Or that 
 the hen contributes the chick as well as the egg? Or 
 that the female fish is the melter as well as the 
 spawner, contributing the sperm as well as the 
 spawn, or the soft as well as the hard roe? If the 
 Creator has wonderfully diversified the process of 
 reproduction, then let us investigate and admire the 
 
 D 
 
50 
 
 existing diversity; but do not let us be concluding, 
 from the process observed in one description of 
 creatures, that the same process will suffice for 
 another. Of analogical reasoning, it has been well 
 observed, that it ' may be of excellent use, in 
 answering objections against truths, which have other 
 evidence. It may likewise give a greater or a less 
 degree of probability, in cases where we can find no 
 other evidence. But, as this kind of reasoning can 
 afford only probable evidence at best, unless great 
 caution be used, we are apt to be led into error by 
 it. To give an instance of this ; early anatomists 
 seldom dissected human bodies; but very often, the 
 bodies of those quadrupeds, whose internal structure 
 was thought to approach nearest to that of the human 
 body; and were led into many mistakes, by their 
 arguing on a greater similarity between the structure 
 of men and of animals, than there is in reality. And 
 arguments, drawn from analogy, become weak, a5///<? 
 disparity^ between the things composed, increases.'' 
 
 Now, in the case before us, we have other evi- 
 dence than what can be deduced from analogy. I 
 therefore first proved the thing from scripture, that 
 the woman is of the man, and not the man of the 
 woman; that thus God made, from one man Adam, 
 and from the blood of that one man, all nations of 
 men; and that, when in the case before us, the man 
 Joseph was suspended, the Holy Ghost himself came 
 upon the virgin, and the power of the Highest over- 
 shadowed her, insomuch that, the holy offspring of 
 Mary was said to be " of," or from " the Holy Ghost." 
 I then adduced instances, somewhat, although not ex- 
 actly similar; I mean those of Abraham and Sarah, 
 and of Zacharias and pjlizabeth. After this, it was 
 all fair to have recourse to analogy, in answering 
 objections to a truth, which has other evidence. This 
 
51 
 
 led me to make my declaration universal, as to some 
 sort of male impregnation being necessary to female 
 fruitfulness. Or, as Mr. Abernethy has very judi- 
 ciously altered the term, there must be life given to 
 the rudiments ; * and I would use the same word, 
 whether I was talking about the impregnation of 
 plants, mere animals, or men ; for the pollen on the 
 anther giveth life to the seed contained in the ger- 
 men; otherwise, there is no procreation of their 
 kind.' Now, the difference between the oak, with 
 its pollen and acorns, and the hen with her eggs, is 
 this; that the oak bears the acorn, which has within 
 it the parts of a perfect tree, and the pollen which 
 imparts life to the same. Whereas the hen bears the 
 eggs; but these eggs have not within themselves the 
 parts of a perfect fowl, but only a provision for the 
 nourishment of the chick ; which chick is indebted 
 for its origination not immediately to the hen or her 
 egg, but to the semen of the male bird. Hence 
 Lord Bacon says, " The yolk of the Qgg conduceth 
 little to the generation of the bird, but only to the 
 nourishment of the same; for if a chicken be opened, 
 when it is new-hatched, you shall find much of the 
 yolk remaining." This being the true state of the 
 case, the question arises out of it, between which 
 does the least disparity exist ? Between the hen and 
 her eggs, and the human female with her ova; or 
 between the latter, and the oak with its acorns alnd 
 pollen? Clearly, the difference is great, between 
 the acorn of the oak and the ovum of the wo- 
 man; whereas between this last, and the egg of 
 the hen, there is a wonderful resemblance. Why 
 then, if the ancient anatomists blundered, in dissect- 
 ing quadrupeds, whose structure very nearly resem- 
 bled that of the human subject, instead of directly 
 dissecting the human subject itself, what else but 
 
5^ 
 
 blunders can be expected, if we now set to work 
 in dissecting seeds, buds, and flowers? ' Let any one 
 tear open the unripe bud of a flower,' says Mr. Che- 
 valier; ' for example, that of the lily or the eglantine; 
 and he shall find, or ever the anthers have yet burst, 
 and when the pollen is still a moist and unformed 
 pulp, with care he shall find the rudiments of those 
 favourite herbs already extant within the germen or 
 ovary.' Very excellent indeed; but now for the use 
 and application of this. So, in the same manner, if 
 you dissect an egg, even prior to impregnation, you 
 shall find therein the several component parts of a 
 living chick! No indeed you will not. But now re- 
 verse this matter. Instead of taking an acorn, or a 
 bud, or a seed, which method has led thousands 
 astray, through inadvertency, let us take an egg, both 
 before and after impregnation by the male bird; let 
 us be certain of its contents before and after; and 
 then upon incubation, let us nicely investigate it, 
 from the first day to the twenty-first; surely we shall 
 certainly conclude for the male origination of the 
 chick, as we shall, for the female origin of the egg 
 itself. Let us apply this to the human subject; not 
 from mere choice or caprice, but because all obser- 
 vation and scripture declare the man to be the spring 
 of life in the propagation of the species, and the 
 woman to be the recipient and the nurse. Thus in 
 the first of Genesis, at the 27th verse, we read that, 
 in the formation of *' the Adam," God created the 
 first pair of the species " zechur and iiechebah ; im- 
 plying that the strength mid vigour for multiplication 
 centered in the man, and that the female was the 
 proper receptacle. Therefore in the 51st of Isaiah 
 at the first verse, God says to Israel, " Look unto 
 the rock whence ye are hewn^^ or from whose sub- 
 stance ye are cut out, namely, " Abraham your 
 
53 
 
 father i^—-^^ and to the hole of the in t whence ye are 
 digged," even " unto Sarah that bare you," or rather 
 " brought you forth." And as for human authority, 
 Galen, that prince of Greek physicians, entertained 
 the opinion sixteen hundred years ago, * that the 
 embryo was produced from the male, but that it ob- 
 tained nourishment from the female.' Whilst Dr. 
 Blundell, now existing, asserts that ' it may be de- 
 monstrated, that in this curious process of generation, 
 the male furnishes the semen, and the female the ru- 
 diments.' In other words, I'fe is communicated from 
 the man to the ovum of the woman; and this is the 
 proper quickening. The English law is founded on 
 an error; as though, at a certain period after con- 
 ception, the foetus became endowed with the prin- 
 ciple of life. On the contrary, from the moment of 
 impregnation the foetus is in possession of the vital 
 principle; but at this particular time, when the child 
 was supposed to quicken, it only affords increased 
 manifestations of this property already existing. 
 
 3. ' The earth is to the seed, as an oven to the 
 eggs hatched therein.' This is an additional proof 
 of bad comparison, and which goes to the demolition 
 of truth, and the erection of error on its ruins. The 
 heated oven contributes the necessary wartnth to the 
 eggy the egg being already impregnated with life 
 from the male bird, and containing within itself all 
 the nourishment requisite for its support, growth, 
 and maturity. Whereas the seed, say the acorn, if 
 you please, must be indebted to the earth for nourish- 
 ment adapted to its nature ; it must strike root in 
 the proper soil, and then through this, * its slender 
 root attached to the earth,' there flows to it, not its 
 life indeed, for that it has in itself, but all the pabu- 
 lum required for its growth, solidity, and expansion, 
 of tlu-ee hundred years. And thus the Imnvdn foetus 
 
54> 
 
 has a distinct individual personal life of its own, 
 communicated from the vital fluid of the male, and 
 is irrespective of, and independent on the life of the 
 mother ; but then, as the chick in its egg, provided 
 for it by the hen, and as the seed rooted to the earth 
 for food, so no less, in ihejietus in utero, the umbili- 
 cal cord is the channel of communication between 
 the mother and the child. For although, for some 
 weeks after conception, if the embryo be examined, 
 no trace of the umbihcal cord can be perceived, yet 
 the abdomen of the child firmly adheres to that 
 which afterwards becomes the placejita ; this bond of 
 union, by its subsequent extension, becoming con- 
 verted into the Jlinis umhilicalis. The placenta is 
 composed of two portions, the maternal and the 
 foetal, each having its own peculiar blood ; ' it is 
 also admitted, that the blood of the fcetus^ with re- 
 gard to its formation, increase, and circulation, is 
 totally unconnected with, and independent of the 
 parent, except that the matter by which the blood of 
 \hQ fcetus is formed, must be derived from the pa- 
 rent.' So speaks the London Encyclopaedia on 
 midwifery ; and it quotes Harvey as saying, that 
 as the pullet in the egg, and separated from the hen, 
 is wont to delight in its own proper blood, which it 
 forms for itself out of the aliment provided for it in 
 the egg by the mother, so also does the Jktus, whilst 
 yet contained in the womb, derive nourishment and 
 growth, not from the blood or life of the mother, but 
 by a fruition of its own life and powers. In other 
 words ; the child is nourished by means of the nutri- 
 tious material which is absorbed at the placenta, the 
 vessels of the Jietus acting like the root of a plant in 
 the earth. For instead of the integral red blood of 
 the mother, the subtler parts of it only, the serum 
 and coagulable lymph, are absorbed into the vessels 
 
55 
 
 of the ^a'tus^ just as the root of the plant supplies it 
 with, not the gross earth itself, but with nutriment 
 from it, duly concocted into proper purity and per- 
 fection ; or, in fine, as the chick in ovo, forms blood 
 tor itself from the yolk and white of the eggy which 
 it absorbs, digests, and sanguifies, so the human 
 foetus in utero draws nourishment from the blood in 
 the placentar cells, to be afterwards converted into 
 blood by the action of its own vascular system. In 
 a word, the earth is to the seed rather, what Mr. 
 Chevalier has in another place confessed it to be, 
 ' its foster-mother, or nurse ;' and not as a mere oven 
 to the impregnated egg* Originally, indeed, the 
 earth was the proper and universal mother, producing 
 all. For who was the first father of all the vegetable 
 tribes but God ? And what, but the earth was the 
 all-fruitful mother ? The grass, as a general term 
 for pasturage, has its name in Hebrew, dasha, to 
 intimate its sprouting or springing up from the 
 earth. " And the Alehim said, let the earth bring 
 forth grass," or sprout forth her sprouting, *' Her- 
 bage yielding seed," and scattering it. " And the 
 earth brought Jorth grass ; herbage yielding seed 
 according to its kind." And from that first mater- 
 nal production of original offspring, the earth has 
 
 * " Seeds, endowed with vitality, remain unchanged, under circum- 
 stances in which they would certainly be destroyed, were they destitute of 
 the principle of life. I'hey remain buried thousands of years deep in 
 the bowels of the earth; yet when accident throws them to the surface, 
 and they fall into a soil which is favourable to their vegetation, they 
 immediately begin to develope properties which had lain latent for 
 unknown ages, and spring into active life with all the vigour of a seed 
 formed under our own eye." Animal Physiology, No. 59, of " Library 
 of Useful Knowledge." And so, in the parable of the sower, in the I3th 
 of Matthew, whilst the seed sown is all the same, the difference of soil 
 produces the varied results; and that which succeeds, and brings forth 
 fruit, is the portion which " fell into good cjround.'' 
 
56 
 
 ever continued to foster and feed the reproducing 
 seeds of the same. Hence, the Lord alludes to this 
 in reference to his being buried in the earth, and 
 rising or springing up thence again, to be as a vital 
 root to his church. " Verily, verily, I say unto you, 
 except a corn of wheat Jail into the ground, and die, 
 (as to the outer husk) it abideth alone ; but if it 
 die, it (the living seed) bringeth forth much fruit." 
 To this we may add, as still more explicit, that of 
 the apostle Paul : " That which thou sowest is not 
 quickened, except it die. And that which thou 
 Sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but 
 bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other 
 grain. But God liath given to it a body as it hath 
 pleased him, and to every one of the seeds its own 
 peculiar body." And thus too with regard to the 
 trees, the earth was their first mother ; " And the 
 earth brought forth the tree yielding fruit, whose 
 seed was in itself, according to its kind." The oak, 
 for instance, produces its fruit, the rudiment of the 
 future tree, as also the pollen necessary to its im- 
 pregnation ; and when this has been communicated 
 from the male flowerets, amenta, or catkins, to the 
 said fruit, these do afterwards become proper acornSy 
 and these acorns are the living seed sown in the 
 bowels of the earth, and which, being nurtured there, 
 as in their proper matrix, do shoot up gradually into 
 several oaks. Nay, and man himself, as God was his 
 original Father, or the giver of life to him, was not 
 the earth as his mother ? And does not tlie earth 
 still yield of her abundance, not to give life or im- 
 part vitality to man, for the man has seed in himself 
 according to his kind, but to sustain life in man, as 
 well as in all other animals, and all the tribes of the 
 vegetable kingdom ? 
 
 Thus then, whether we consider the chick en- 
 
57 
 
 veloped in the egg, or the foetus in the womb, or the 
 acorn in the bowels of the earth, we contemplate 
 cases which tend to illustrate each other : for the 
 earth is to the acorn what the mother is to the child, 
 and what the hen's egg is to the chick of the male 
 bird. In this manner, analogy is of service ; be- 
 cause we do not make it the foundation of our doc- 
 trine ; but we merely institute a comparison in order 
 to ascertain what existing resemblance there may 
 be ; and then employ it for illustration and confirma- 
 tion. For as there is a similitude between the earth, 
 the mother, and the egg of the hen, each contributing 
 support and sustentation ; so there is a similitude 
 between the acorn, the child, and the chick, each 
 having in itself all the component parts of the oak, 
 the man, the fowl ; at the same time that there is 
 this still further resemblance, in that the root of the 
 acorn connecting it with the earth, and becoming a 
 medium of communication for necessary supplies, is 
 similar to the membrane which unites the chick to 
 the egg, and to the cord which ties the child to its 
 mother, and stands for a channel of communication 
 between them. And in the employment of this 
 method of comparison, we have only to remember, 
 that things as they may have two ends, and we may 
 take hold on the wrong one, instead of the right, so 
 there is a wrong as well as a right use of things. For 
 a man might grasp a sword by the blade instead of 
 the hilt, and cut himself with it ; or take a candle 
 by its lighted end, and burn his fingers. Or else if 
 he seize the sword by the hilt, he might use it badly, 
 and kill himself instead of his enemy ; or he might 
 take the lighted candle by its opposite end, and set 
 the house on fire with it, instead of merely filling it 
 with its beams. 
 4. According to ' Sir William Blane, nine energies 
 
d8 
 
 constitute animal life, or, the life of an animal. These 
 are what the unimpregnated egg of a virgin hen is 
 destitute of; the aggregate of these is all that the 
 impregnated and fecund ovum has received. They 
 are all, that ever human art either hath or can dis- 
 cover to have been added to the pre-existent barren 
 germ, to make it an independent offspring, a distinct 
 being. These nine energies,' whose aggregate con- 
 stitutes animal life, or the life of an animal, as an in- 
 dependent offspring, a distinct being, ' these energies, 
 I say, are conveijed from the male, to the pre-existent 
 substance, or germ (the ovum), within the body of 
 the female. For in all the animal kingdom, whatso- 
 ever exhibits a body of flesh possessed of these nine 
 energies, as the impregnated egg^ both before, and 
 during incubation, is a distinct individual. I appeal 
 to all the natural history, both of animals and vegeta- 
 bles, for the truth of my statement ; and I say, that 
 the germ, before it receives those energies (from the 
 male), is a lifeless body.' Admirable, Mr. Editor ; 
 most exquisitely correct in sentiment, in most per- 
 fect correspondency with matter of fact, and most 
 clear and intelligible in the enunciation ! The nine 
 energies in detail I confess my ignorance about; but, 
 that the aggregate of life, of independent offspring, of 
 distinct being, whatever its constituents be, whether 
 nine or nine hundred energies, that this is actually 
 conveyed to the rudiments in the female, * from the 
 male,* this, Mr. Editor, is verily sound speech that 
 cannot be condemned; in doctrine, this is uncorrupt- 
 ness itself. And if we consider, that after this man- 
 ner the human life was conveyed to the virgin Mary 
 by the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost creating what was 
 required, in order to render Joseph unnecessary in 
 the transmission of life, we have then the incarnation 
 before us, simply as Matthew and Luke have both 
 
59 
 
 recorded it. And the objections of Mr. Chevalier 
 will be at once met ; who says, ' Mr. Carne objects, 
 that if Christ was the woman's seed, as he is called 
 in Genesis iii. 15. although the reverend gentleman 
 does not believe him to have been any such things — 
 that he must consequently have been seminally and 
 radically (yes, and individually and personally), in 
 Abraham's loins when Melchisedec received his 
 tithes ; and he adds, that of course the consequence 
 is inevitable, that Christ, as well as ourselves, was 
 seminally and radically (yes, and personally and in- 
 dividually), in Adam, when he fell ; and so had share 
 in Adam's transgression.' The woman's seed is, the 
 woman's offspring ; but the woman's offspring is be- 
 gotten in her by the seed of the male. And hence 
 in Genesis, chapters four and five, whilst Eve becomes 
 pregnant, or large with child, and obtains or acquires 
 a man, or man child, it is Adam who is himself the 
 begetter of the same. He is the original substantial 
 entity, as it were; and is therefore called aish, or ish^ 
 the existing being ; whilst Eve borrows her name 
 aishah, or ishah^ from the man's, in token of having 
 derived her substance from his. — " She shall be called 
 ishah, because she was taken out ofish,*' Her name 
 and being are alike derivations from his. But in the 
 incarnation of the Word, who was God in himself, 
 the life was supernaturally induced ; and he became 
 truly of man's nature in union with his personal 
 divinity, and Mary, the daughter of Eve, of Abraham, 
 and of David, became the mother of the Lord, and 
 the Lord incarnate became her first-born son, al- 
 though the Holy Ghost, and not Joseph, was the 
 begetter. Consequently, he became a " second man," 
 in correspondency with " the first ;" the first, as his 
 figure or type, getting his being from God, although 
 
60 
 
 out of the womb of the earth, — and he was therefore 
 called the Son of God : as Christ also was generated 
 in the virgin, that earthly vessel, and derived nou- 
 rishment from the maternal soil in which this tree of 
 life was planted, although the Spirit himself was really 
 the generator and begetter of his manhood ; inso- 
 much that whilst he was Mary's seed or offspring, or 
 son, he was no less, even as born of her, but because 
 also as begotten for birth, and to the birth, by the 
 Spirit of God, he was called " the Son of God." 
 
 5. ' That which our Lord assumed not from man, 
 was, first, the nine energies that constitute animallije. 
 Secondly, whatsoever may be added to those (afore- 
 said nine) to complete the miimiis, or that living' soul, 
 which is common to man and all other animals. 
 Thirdly, those energies, which constitute the anima, 
 or the spirit of man, as distinguished from the rest.' 
 Beautiful, Mr. Editor ! We begin to emerge from 
 the clouds, and to make a rapid ascent towards a 
 pure, bright, unclouded heaven. ' So then, our 
 adored Redeemer was truly and properly man, as we 
 are ; and he was likened unto us in all points, as 
 respects our essence,* that is, as above, body, and soul, 
 and spirit, with their respective energies ; ' although 
 he was himself the light of all living, kindled of the 
 everlasting God. For, that is animal \ife, which con- 
 sists of those nine energies enumerated above, and 
 none others; and that is the life of the animal bi-ma- 
 nus, or homo, (or man), which consists of those nine, 
 togetlier with such others, as give to man his generic 
 distinctions.* Now sin has no original place here ; it 
 had no being in the male and female Adam when 
 created by God ; nor is sin a generic distinction of 
 the human race ; nor is it peculiar to man ; nor is it 
 confined to the flesh of rational beings, seeing tliat 
 
61 
 
 tlie unfleshly incorporeal angels sinned, and marred 
 their nature and essence by this grand defect, and 
 ruined it by this mortal disease. And therefore, if 
 Christ took body, soul, and spirit, with all their 
 several native and vital energies, without any thing 
 foreign from true, genuine, unadulterated humanity, 
 in its full health and vigour, and without the hurt of 
 sin, he was verily man, as, by the frequent display of 
 his power and wisdom, whilst on earth, he manifested 
 forth his glory, and demonstrated his proper God- 
 head. For as in the instance of Adam the first, he 
 was a proper man, although instantly created by 
 God, and not begotten by another male of his own 
 species ; so in this instance of the second man, and 
 last Adam, Mr. Chevalier propounds his opinion sub- 
 limely as well as most charmingly, by saying, that, 
 ' no matter whence derived. Those energies are 
 human life ; the life of a man : and of such a man 
 (in real original nature and properties), as ourselves. 
 Even as the flames of two torches, are in all points 
 alike, if the substance of both be the same, although 
 one should have been lighted from a third of its own 
 kind, and the other with the concentrated rays of the 
 sun /' Superlatively good ! Mr. Editor ; and what 
 follows is no less supremely conclusive. ' In what 
 then did the holy child Jesus differ from the rest of 
 men?' This question, Mr. Editor, I proceed to 
 answer; in observing, that the sentence upon Adam, 
 in Genesis ii. 17. afl^ected the life of man j and 
 nothing else, unless mediately. Or, in other words, 
 that that fatal doom exclusively concerned that^ which 
 every natural offspring receives from its male parent. 
 Adam forfeited his life; and if, through the interven- 
 rion of a Mediator, if under the shelter of an Inter- 
 cessor, for gracious purposes, that life, which he had 
 
62 
 
 forfeited, was prolonged, still it is prolonged as a 
 forfeited life. And, as all that our progenitor could 
 give, towards the production of his children, is life, 
 so all that we receive from him, and that which we 
 do receive from him, is, a forfeited life. And herein 
 behold the explication of the fact, of our participation 
 in the consequences of Adam's transgression; namely, 
 as I have said, that we, as the seed of evil doers, 
 possess only a forfeited life. While Jesus Christ, in 
 all truth participating our nature, possessed a life in 
 all points the same as ours (that is, a proper human 
 life) except in the accidental circumstance, of its not 
 having been kindled from the forfeited Jiame, but with 
 the concentrated effulgence of God ! So then, it is 
 explained, that as ImmanuePs life was not of the for- 
 feited life of Adam, therefore he came not under the 
 penalty (that is, death), of Adam's transgression; and 
 was in our nature pure from sin, even as God is pure; 
 while, nevertheless, we may love him as our brother, 
 and know that he can be touched with a feeling of 
 our infirmities, having been tempted in all points as 
 we are. 
 
 I will but transcribe here, by way of contrast, Mr. 
 Irving's statement, and add no more. ' God pre- 
 pared a body of fallen humanity for his Son.* ' Christ, 
 for the love he bore the human soul, consented to 
 become a servant to her, and to be clothed with her 
 body of sin and death.' He took * humanity, fallen, 
 sinful, and under the sentence of death.'' And again ; 
 ' he was made of a woman ; his substance then, was 
 woman's flesh, and that is sinful. He apprehended 
 not the angels, but the seed of Abraham ; and the 
 seed of Abraham is sinful. He was made under the 
 law ', and the law is not for a righteous thing, but for 
 a sinful thing. Certainly he was mortal, and mor- 
 
63 
 
 tality doth not belong to a siiiless, but a sinful sub- 
 stance /' ' And in the face of all these certainties, 
 of mine, (Edward Irving), if a man will say, that his 
 flesh was not sinful flesh as ours is, with the same dis- 
 positions, and propensities, and wants, and afflictions, 
 the?i I say (O temporal O mores!) God hath sent 
 that man strong delusion, that he should believe a 
 lie!!!' 
 
JUST PUBLISHED, BY THE SAME AUTHOR, 
 
 THE TWO COVENANTS ; or, Law aud Gospel. Twelve Sermons, on 
 the Abrogation of the Moral Law, delivered in High Street Chapel, Exeter. 
 Handsomely printed in octavo, price in extra boards, I0s.6d. 
 
 A DEFENCE AND EXPLICATION OF THE SINLESSNESS, IMMOR- 
 TALITY, AND INCORRUPTIBILITY OF THE SON OF GOD. A Letter to 
 the Editor of the Morning Watch, or Quarterly Journal of Prophecy. Price \s. 
 
 ALSO, PREPARING FOR PUBLICATION, 
 
 THREE DISCOURSES, Preached at Torquay, Devon, on Gal. iii. 7— 9. 
 Psalm ex. 4. I Cor. ii. 13. 
 
 Also, a New Edition of FAMILIAR THOUGHTS on JOHN XVII, 21, 24. 
 considerably enlarged and corrected. 
 
 E. JUSTINS & SON, Printers, 41, Brick Lane, Spitalfields. 
 
REVIEW OF THE DISCUSSION ON THE ORIGINA- 
 TION OF THE MANHOOD OF THE SON OF GOD, 
 
 OCCASIONKD BY STATEMENTS OF EDWARD IRVING, AND THE 
 MORNING WATCH ON THAT SUBJECT; 
 
 WITH SUPPLEMENTAL REMARKS, 
 
 KELATIVE TO THE BOTANICOANATOMICO THEOLOGICATv ESSAY ON THE 
 SAME TOPIC, BY THOMAS WILLIAM CHEVALIER, ESQ. SURGEON, LONDON; 
 
 PUBLISHED IN THE MORNING WATCH, AND REPRINTED IN A PAMPHLET 
 BY — MOGRIDGE, ESQ, OF SIDMOUTH, DEVON; 
 
 AND CONCLUDED BY 
 
 AN ENQUIRY INTO THE NATURE AND IMMEDIATE CAUSE OF THE 
 DEATH OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 
 
 BY ROBERT HARKNESS CARNE, A. B. 
 
 iLATE OF EXETER COLLEGE, OXFORD; AND NOW MINISTER OF HIGH 
 STREET CHAPEL, EXETER. 
 
 PRINTED FOR EBENEZER PALMER, 
 
 18, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON. 
 
 MDCCCXXXII. 
 
LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED BY E. JUSTINS AND SON, 
 
 BKICK LANE, SP1TALFIELD8. 
 
REVIEW, 
 
 Sfc. Sfc. 
 
 In reviewing this discussion, I propose to give the 
 statements of the Athanasian Creed on the subject in 
 question, — those of eminent Divines, — and those of the 
 Morning Watch, Evangelical Magazine, the New Jeru- 
 salem Church, and one of the modern Millennarians, — 
 followed by the declarations of the Scriptures, and the 
 concurring testimony of Nature. 
 
 The statement of the Athanasian Creed is this : " It 
 is necessary to everlasting salvation, that he also believe, 
 rightly, the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. For 
 the right faith is, that we believe and confess, that our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man ; 
 God, of the substance of the Father, begotten before 
 the worlds; and man, of the substance of his mother, 
 born in the world." 
 
 The most eminent divines have followed this lead. 
 Dr. Doddridge says, on Hebrews vii. fi. — " Christ, 
 with respect to his human nature, had no father." Dr. 
 Gill tells us, that "Christ as man, is without father. 
 For though as God, he has a father, — yet, as man, he 
 had no father. Joseph was his reputed father only. 
 Nor was the Holy Ghost his father ! Nor is he ever 
 said to be begotten as man, but was born of a Virgin !" 
 And again ; the Holy Ghost, " he first took a part and 
 portion of the virgin, of her semen, or blood, and con- 
 veyed it to a proper place ; and purified and sanctified 
 
it." Barker's bible, 608, in the notes, says, " Christ 
 did take flesli, which he sanctified, even in the very 
 instant of his conception.'* Dr. Owen is very explicit. 
 *' The act of the Holy Ghost, in this matter, was a cre- 
 ating act. Not indeed like the first creating act, which 
 produced the matter and substance of all things out of 
 nothing, causing that to be, which was not before, nei- 
 ther in matter, nor form, nor passive disposition ; but 
 like those subsequent acts of creation, whereby, out of 
 matter before made and prepared, things were made 
 that which before they were not, but of themselves 
 they had no active disposition unto, nor concurrence in. 
 So man was created or formed of the dust of the earth; 
 and woman, of a rib, taken from man. There was a 
 previous matter unto their creation ; but such as gave 
 no assistance, nor had any active disposition to the pro- 
 duction of that particular kind of creature, whereunto 
 they were formed by the creating power of God. Sucli 
 was this act of the Holy Ghost, in forming the body of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ. For though it was effected by 
 an act of infinite creating power, yet it was formed or 
 made of the substance of the blessed Virgm.'^ Hur- 
 rion gives us a similar account. " He formed Christ's 
 body in the womb of the Virgin, and of her substance: 
 It was not like the first creation, wherein all things 
 were made out of nothing ; but like the forming the 
 body of Adam out of the earth, and the body of Eve 
 out of a rib taken from Adam. There was previous mat- 
 ter to work upon ; though such matter, as would never 
 have produced that body, but by an almighty creating 
 power. Such the Holy Ghost exerted, in forming 
 Christ's body, and animating it with a living soul, that 
 he might in all things be like to us, sin only excepted; 
 for the Holy Ghost in this wonderful work, puri/ied 
 and sanctified that part of the substance of the Virgin 
 Mary, so that what was conceived and born of her, was 
 
perfectly holy and void of sin." Charnock*s statement 
 is similar. " He was to have a holy body ; this could 
 not have been, had he descended from Adam by way 
 of ordinary and natural generation. He liad been a 
 debtor himself, a lamb with blemish ; and so, wanted 
 a sacrifice for himself. His sacrifice would have been 
 defective, and have needed some other sacrifice to fill 
 up the gaps of it. It was necessary he should descend 
 from Adam in a way of birth, but not in a way of 
 seminal traduction ; that he might have the nature of 
 Adam, without the spot. Such a knot could not be 
 untied, without infinite skill; nor such a way of pro- 
 duction be wrought, without the infinite power of God. 
 Therefore the Holy Ghost frames this body of Christ 
 of the seed of the woman, that it might be mortal, and 
 have his heel bruised by the devil. Not of the seed of 
 the man, in an ordinary way of generation, that it 
 might be v/ithout any taint of sin, scmctifi/ing therefore 
 the seed of the woman in a peculiar manner!" Calvin 
 says, " he was man, truly issued of the seed of man- 
 kind!" For that, " to affirm that women are seedless 
 is to overthrow the principles of nature !" And " we 
 do not make Christ free from all spot, for this cause, 
 that he is only gendered of his mother, without the 
 intervention of man, but because he is sanctified hy 
 the Holy Ghost !" Hooker says, he " therefore took 
 the seed of Ahraham, the very first oiiginal element of 
 our nature, before it was come to have any personal 
 human subsistence.*' And Vaughan, of Leicester, in 
 his Translation of Luther, tells us, "The Holy Ghost's 
 impregnation gave Christ a spotless soul ; and the 
 daughter of Adam gave him a sinful body." 
 
 The Morning Watch informs us, " We have always 
 held, that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is 
 God and Man ; God, of the substance of the Father, 
 begotten before the worlds; and Man, of the substance 
 
of his mother, born in the world. Or, to express it in 
 our own words, we believe that the eternal Son of God, 
 in becoming Son of Man, took our very nature into 
 union with himself, with all the infirmities brought 
 upon it by the fall; but upheld it from sinning, and 
 sanctified it wholly, and constrained it, in his person, 
 to do the entire will of God.'* And then, Mr. Irving, 
 as a contributor to this new and novel periodical, says, 
 *' The eternal Son of God, in taking human nature, did 
 truly and literally take it of the Virgin's substance; and 
 the properties of his mother's substance, body and soul, 
 were the properties of Christ's human nature, consi- 
 dered in itself without reference to the work wrought 
 in it by the Holy Ghost." 
 
 Then comes the Evangelical Magazine, giving its 
 authority to this non-generation, this merely re-genera- 
 tion of the manhood of the Son of God, by the Holy 
 Ghost. In its number for March, 1830, at page 103, 
 we read as follows. " Mr. Irving has also discovered, 
 that Christ was regenerated in the conception. But 
 what can this eccentric Divine mean, by such an asser- 
 tion ? That, out of the sinfid suhstance of the Virgin, 
 the Holy Ghost formed the immaculate body of our 
 Lord ? If this be what he intends, why then we are 
 one with him, save in the absurdity of his diction." 
 And thus, truly, the Evangelical Magazine, the great 
 organ of the Independents, is one with Mr. Irving in 
 absurdity of sentiment ; it only varies from him some- 
 what in absurdity of expression ! They both deny " the 
 generation" of Jesus Christ by the Holy Ghost in the 
 Virgin; and alike contend for the formation of the man- 
 hood of Christ by the Spirit out of the sinful substance 
 of Mary, and for its regeneration or sanctification in 
 its formation. 
 
 But now for the " New Jerusalem Church." In a 
 Tract published in London, in 1829, on " The True 
 
Object of Christian Worship," are these statements, 
 worthy the pen of the enlightened editor of the Evan- 
 gelical, or of the Morning Watch, or of Edward Irving 
 himself. Page 22 ; " When he had by himself purged 
 our sins — denotes, when he had, by his own divine 
 power, purified the assumed humanity from all imper- 
 fections inherited Jrom the human another , and thus 
 had glorified or made it divine, and united it com- 
 pletely to his own divine essence." Page 30 ; '* The 
 soul of this humanity was, from conception, the Divine 
 Essence ; which, by j)urifying the nature thus assumed, 
 from all corruptions, and at length from all finite imper- 
 fections, made it also divine, and united it with itself; 
 to accomplish which, every thing taleenfrom the mother 
 was gradually put off; and divine principles, in the same 
 degree, brought forth fiom within, and assumed in the 
 place of the former." Page 33 ; " The period was 
 approaching, when all sense of separation and distance, 
 arising from the imperfections inheritedfrom the mother, 
 would be done away." 
 
 I promised, lastly, a quotation from one of our mo- 
 dern Millennarians ; he is, I think a Scotch Minister, 
 but not of the Kirk. His pamphlet is a Defence of the 
 speedy Personal Advent of the Lord, according to the 
 sentiments of the Morning Watch, Edward Irving, 
 Thomas William Chevalier, Henry Drummond, and 
 other disciples of the school of the prophets. At page 
 15, we read thus ; " We are taught that the offspring of 
 this miraculous conception ivas holy, being pmged 
 from all sin and taint of impurity, notwithstanding the 
 substance out of which it was produced, and the place 
 in which it was fashioned." Again ; " As a miracu- 
 lous operation was needful, for the sanctifying of the 
 substance, out of which the body was prepared, it was 
 most convenient to be generated in a virgin, according 
 to prediction ; which was done by the benediction of 
 
the Holy Ghost, and not by any communication of his 
 essence." Again ; *' The only question therefore is, as 
 to the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost in actually 
 purging the fallen suhstaTice, so that in its assumption 
 by the Word, it was so thoroughly holy, as to require 
 no subsequent progress or process of purification.'* 
 Again ; " Without controversy, the substance forming 
 jmrt of the Virgin, was fallen and sinful ; but, as sanc- 
 tified in preparing a body for the Eternal Word, it 
 was immaculate, when assumed into union with his 
 Person, apart from which it never had a distinct sub- 
 sistence." And again, at page 16 ; " No sooner is the 
 reference to the work of the Holy Ghost properly con- 
 sidered, than it follows, that the suhstatice, as formed 
 into Christ's humanity, having been purged of impurity, 
 sin being only accidental to human nature, was imma- 
 culate, having only its original properties, and entirely 
 free from every taint or tendency of a sinful kind." 
 
 Now in all these various, and very varying statements, 
 who sees not, that the authors are all in a most perfect 
 agreement on one point ; which is, that the substance 
 of Christ's manhood was wholly from the substance of 
 his mother? Ay, and on a second point, that such as 
 the whole original lump was, in Mary, such was the 
 part subtracted from her, both being at once fallen and 
 sinful ? Ay, and on a third point, that being such in 
 itself, as well as in its original, the subtracted part did 
 require, what one party calls sanctification, and another 
 a purging or purification, and another regeneration? 
 
 It is fair to observe here, that one of my arguments 
 against this vulgar view of the many, respecting the 
 humanity of our Emanuel, was this ; that the sanctifi- 
 cation, or purification, or regeneration of man, is founded 
 on, and grows up out of his 7'edemption. So that if 
 the original substance of Christ's human nature was 
 fallen and sinful, it must be redeemed, or it could not 
 
be the lawful subject of a perfect renovation. It has 
 occurred to me, as an after thought, that a reply of 
 this kind might be made to that particular objection. 
 The Virgin Mary was an elect vessel ; and as such, she 
 was included, body and soul entire, in the contemplated 
 redemption of Christ ; and who, in a way of credit 
 given to his pledge and compact, and in a way of anti- 
 cipation of the consequences of his incarnation, suffer- 
 ings, and death, is entitled, " the Lamh slain from the 
 foundation of the world." And therefore Mary, being 
 recorded in " the book of life of the Lamb," as one of 
 " the ransomed of the Lord," was in her whole person 
 and substance holy before God and righteous, and with- 
 out spot or blemish, and stood unblameable and unre- 
 proveable in the sight of God in love. Consequently, 
 the substance of Mary, being thus judicially rendered 
 sinless, was a fit subject in any portion of it, for the 
 positive unction of the Spirit, in order to its actual 
 sanctification. But then it must be retorted to this 
 reply of mine, to my own objection, that in this view 
 of the case, there could be no more impropriety in ad- 
 mitting Joseph for the father of Christ as man, than in 
 holding for his deriving his human substance from the 
 Virgin Mary ; Joseph being as sinless before God, as 
 one of his elect in Christ, as Mary herself. For both of 
 them were " elected," according to the foreknowledge of 
 God the Father, and through the sanctification of the 
 Spirit, " unto the obedience and the sprinlding of the 
 blood of the Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Pet. i. 2. And then, 
 in either case, admitting Joseph or rejecting him, since 
 Christ's was but an instance of sanctification or regene- 
 ration, the substance of his manhood being originally 
 polluted, whether coming instantly from Mary, or 
 through her from Joseph, it is no novel case— because 
 Johanan the baptizer was not only '' filled with tlie 
 Holy Ghost even from his mother's womb," but lie 
 
10 
 
 was anointed by the Spirit whilst there. *' For lo !" 
 said Elizabeth to Mary, " as soon as the voice of thy 
 salutation sounded in mine ears, the hahe leaped in my 
 womhforjoy r Luke i. 15, 44. 
 
 Waiving then all conjectures, we proceed to the mere 
 matter of fact ; first, as it is laid down in the deposi- 
 tions of the inspired penmen ; and next, as confirmed 
 to us by the concurring testimony of nature. 
 
 I. The matter of fact is this ; that we read of no 
 taking of the substance of Mary, whether of her blood, 
 as one describes it, or of her semen or seed, as another, 
 or any thing else of the sort ; but we do read of a some- 
 thing being begotten in her, and of her being with 
 child in consequence, and of the proper birth of a male 
 offspring in the usual season. We will produce the 
 testimonies of the New Testament first; and then refer 
 to those of the Hebrew scriptures. 
 
 The Evangelist Matthew records " the generation'' 
 not the re-generation, "of Jesus Christ; the Son of 
 David, the Son of Abraham." He then shows the 
 males in succession to have begotten offspring. The 
 mothers^ out of whom they were begotten by the 
 several fathers, are not generally introduced. But 
 there are four exceptions ; and these all equally prove 
 the course of nature ; according to which, the mothers 
 are but the mediums, and the fathers the principals, in 
 the affair of the propagation of the species. The first 
 three exceptions occur in the 5th and 6th verses of 
 the first chapter of Matthew. " And Salmon begat 
 Booz, out of Rahab,*' the Canaanitish harlot ; " and 
 Booz begat Obed out of Ruth ;" the daughter of 
 Moab. *' And Obed begat Jesse. And Jesse begat 
 David the king. And David the king, begat Solomon, 
 out of her,*'' namely Bathsheba, " that had been the" 
 adulterous *' wife," but now the widow " of Uriah," 
 and the wife of David the king. The fourth exception 
 
11 
 
 occurs in the 16th verse. " And Jacob hegat Joseph, 
 the husband of Mary,~-oui of whom was begotten 
 Jesus, who is called Christ." But there is this soli- 
 tary peculiarity, in this fourth exception, in which the 
 mother of the offspring is mentioned — that its beget- 
 ting is not, as in every other instance, throughout the 
 whole chapter, attributed to the husband Joseph ! It 
 is said to have been begotten, indeed, and not only 
 born ; contrary to that most superlatively inconsiderate 
 declaration of Dr. Gill; " nor is he ever said to be 
 begotten, as man — but, was born of a Virgin!" But 
 Joseph, the betrothed husband of Mary, was not the 
 begetter. Much less is it, in the most distant manner 
 hinted, that Mary was self-impregnated. However, to 
 supply the deficiency, it is expressly, and in the most 
 unequivocal manner announced, that the Holy Spirit 
 was himself the begetter. " Now the birth of Jesus 
 was on this wise. When as his mother Mary was 
 espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was 
 found, having that in the womb which was from the 
 Holy Spirit.** This is the literal translation ; the 
 sense of it is given in our English Version. " She was 
 found with child by the Holy Spirit." Then, Joseph 
 being minded to put her away privily, " the angel of 
 the Lord appeared, saying, fear not to take unto thee 
 Mary, thy wife ; for that which is conceived in her," — 
 or rather, as the margin more correctly renders it, — 
 " is begotten in her, is of," or from, or by, " the Holy 
 Spirit ! and she shall bring forth a Son." Then it fol- 
 lows ; " Now all this was done, that that might be ful- 
 filled which had been spoken by the Lord through the 
 prophet. Behold ! a Virgin shall be with child," or 
 shall have a foetus or embryo in the womb ; " and she 
 shall bring forth a Son ; and they shall call his name, 
 Emanuel; which, being interpreted, is, God with us! 
 Then Joseph, being raised from sleep, did, as the angel 
 
12 
 
 of the Lord had bidden him ; and he took unto him 
 his wife ; but he knew her not, until she had brought 
 fortli her first-born Son. And he called his name 
 Jesus." 
 
 We pass on, now, to the deposition of Luke, the 
 beloved physician. He first records the case of Eliza- 
 beth and Zacharias ; the former of whom had been 
 always '* barren," and " who was called barren ;'* or 
 went by this name of reproach. Besides this circum- 
 stance, — *' I," said Zacharias, " am an old man ; and 
 my wife well stricken in years." Notwithstanding, 
 the powers of nature being miraculously restored in 
 them both, as in ancient time in Abraham and Sarah, 
 " his wife Elizabeth conceived ;*' that is to say, re- 
 ceived itnpregiiation from her husband, Zacharias. Dr. 
 Johnson, therefore, well explains the verb conceive, as 
 signifying, " To admit into the womb ; to form in the 
 womb." We have a somewhat parallel case to this, 
 in the woman of Shunem, in the 4th of the second of 
 Kings. " Gehazi answered, verily she hath no child ; 
 and her husband is old. And Elisha said, call her. And 
 he said, about this season, according to the time of 
 life, thou shalt embrace a son. And the woman con- 
 ceived,''* that is, swelled, and became big with child. 
 The verb is horah, the root of ho?% a mountain. This 
 was an effect ; but the cause must have been, the reno- 
 vation of the powers of the aged husband ; and the 
 removal of obstructions, if any, from the Shunemite 
 herself. 
 
 Luke then states the case of Mary. " And in the 
 sixth month," namely, from the impregnation of Eliza- 
 beth by her husband Zacharias, " Gabriel was sent from 
 God to a Virgin. And the angel said. Hail, thou that 
 art highly favoured ! the Lord is with thee ! Blessed 
 art thou among women ! And she was troubled at his 
 saying. And the angel said, fear not, Mary ; for thou 
 
13 
 
 hast found favour with God ! And behold, thou shalt 
 conceive in thy womb ;" or hterally, thou shalt receive 
 in the womh^ " and shalt bring forth a Son, and shalt 
 call his name Jesus. Then said Mary, How shall this 
 be, seeing I know not a man ? And the angel answered, 
 The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee ; and the power 
 of the Highest shall overshadow thee ; therefore also, 
 that holy offsprings which shall be horn of thee, shall 
 be called the Son^^ or the offspring or begotten " of 
 God !" Now this derivation of the manhood from God, 
 by the personal energy of the Eternal Spirit, is con- 
 firmed by his titles of the '* second man " and " the last 
 Adam,'' 1 Cor. xv. For, in the third chapter of Luke, 
 in which we have a genealogical account from Christ 
 to Adam, in every instance the begetting of offspring is 
 traced to some man ; so much so, that, in the instance 
 of Christ himself, it is said, " being, as was supposed, 
 the son of Joseph ;" that is, by those who knew not 
 of his being begotten by the Holy Spirit. And then, 
 when the evangelist draws to the spring-head, he says, 
 of " Seth, who was the son of Adam ; who was him- 
 self the Son of God.''' This is the conclusion of Luke's 
 genealogy ; and he had prefaced the beginning of it 
 thus : " And the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily 
 shape like a dove upon him,*' namely, on Christ ; " and 
 a voice came from heaven, which said. Thou art my 
 beloved Son; in thee I am well-pleased." 
 
 But to return to Mary. " And Mary said, Behold 
 the handmaid of the Lord! be it unto me according to 
 thy word. And the angel departed from her." And 
 Mary, being soon after conscious of having received 
 seed, perhaps in a night vision, and from actual internal 
 sensation and enjoyment, when the ovum escapes from 
 the ovaria through the fallopian tube into the uterus, 
 and comes in contact with the semen ; and to which 
 natural circumstance Sarah of old seems to have 
 
14 
 
 alluded, in saying, " After I am waxed old, shall I have 
 p/eas2ire, my lord being old also?" being, I say, assured 
 of her real impregnation, from the declaration of the 
 angel, made good by her consequent feelings, she makes 
 haste to go, and tell the wonder to Elizabeth. For 
 the angel had acquainted her with her cousin's case. 
 *' And behold, thy cousin Elizabeth, she hath also 
 conceived a son," or literally, " received a son in her 
 old age. And this is the sixth month with her who 
 was called barren. And Mary went into the hill 
 country with haste, and entered into the house of 
 Zacharias and saluted Elizabeth. And when Eliza- 
 beth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in 
 her womb. And she said, Blessed art thou among 
 women ! And blessed is the fruit of thy womb ! And 
 whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord 
 should come to me?" 
 
 But we will pass on to John. '* In the beginning 
 was the Word ; and the Word was,'* in a peculiar offi- 
 cial character and capacity, " with God ;" for being 
 constituted the head of the church, we were chosen in 
 him before the foundation of the world, Ephesians i. 4, 
 — as all the twelve tribes of Israel were chosen in 
 Abraham, when God called him alone, and blessed 
 him; Isaiah li. 2. " And the Word was himself God! 
 The same was in the beginning with God ;'* in the 
 beginning' of his way, and before his works of old. 
 Proverbs viii. 22. " All things were made by him ;'* 
 by him, in his official character and capacity; for God 
 created all things by Jesus Christ, Eph. iii. 9- " And 
 the Word was made flesh ; and he tabernacled among 
 us ; and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only 
 begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth," 
 
 Now that he was made flesh, intimates that he took 
 proper manhood, body as well as soul. But although 
 he came in the likeness of sinful flesh, and not in the 
 
15 
 
 external beauty of its unfallen, sinless, and original 
 condition, yet he did not come in the flesh of sin. For 
 first ; he was " the holy child Jesus," yea, " that holy 
 offspring," whicli was called from the womb " the Son 
 of God." In the second place, in prospect of his death, 
 and the burial of his body, it was predicted, " Neither 
 wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption." For 
 Peter shows it refers to his flesh ; " neither his flesh did 
 see corruption,'' Acts ii. 25 — 31. And Paul declares 
 the same thing ; " But he whom God raised again, saw 
 no corruption," Acts xiii. 37. In the third place, 
 during the days of his flesh, Jesus proved his manhood 
 capable of instant glorification. " We beheld his glory," 
 says John ; and Peter says, " We were eye-witnesses 
 of his majesty." This was on the holy mount, which 
 was sanctified by his glory ; as, when he appeared to 
 Joshua, and to Moses, his presence made the spot holy 
 ground. And in the fourth place, it is hinted here, 
 that his manhood was to be considered as God's taber- 
 nacle, which he had said, should be with men, and in 
 which he would dwell with them, as their own God, 
 even their Emanu-el, God with us. Now of his man- 
 hood in this peculiar view of it, Jesus himself said to 
 the Jews, " Destroy this temple ; and in three days I 
 will raise it up. But he spake of the temple of his 
 body," John ii. 18—22. Matt. xxvi. 61. xxvii. 40. 
 Paul says, " God was in Christ," 2 Cor. v. 19. " For 
 in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily," 
 Col. ii. 9. And " God was manifested in the flesh," 
 1 Tim. iii. 16. Besides, in the Revelation, xxi. 22. 
 John remarks of the New Jerusalem, " And I saw no 
 temple therein ; for, the Lord God Almighty and the 
 Lamb are the temj)le of it;" the Lamb its temple, by 
 the in-residence of the Lord God Almighty. For as a 
 king's residence is called a palace, so is that of God 
 called a temple. To confirm this, Christ's flesh, or 
 
16 
 
 corporeal frame, is called " the vailT and this belonged 
 to the temple at Jerusalem. And that was rent in 
 twain, when Christ's body was pierced ; to intimate, 
 that " the secret place of the Most High," was no longer 
 to be sought to, for protection and a refuge, at Jeru- 
 salem, and in Solomon's temple, but in the person of 
 Christ ; and in whom, therefore, is developed the 
 Psalmist's meaning, who says, " Lord ! thou hast been 
 our dwelling-place in all generations ;" and " because 
 thou hast made the Lord, who is my Refuge, even the 
 Most High, thy habitation, there shall no evil befal 
 thee," Heb. x. 20. Ps. xc. 1* 2. xci. 1, 9, 10. Well, 
 and how was this " tabernacle of David" raised up? 
 Paul quotes from the 40th Psalm, relative to Christ's 
 advent, to do the will of God, to the uttermost extent 
 of that predicted law from out of Ziotiy according to 
 which the sacrifices of the law from mount Sinai were 
 to cease ; and a part of the quotation is this saying of 
 the Messiah, " A body thou hast prepared me," Heb. 
 X. 5 — 10. Isa. ii. 3. This then seems to be the same 
 with the tabernacle in Hebrews viii. 2. — " A minister 
 of holy things ; and of the true tabernacle which the 
 Lord pitched and not man ;" and likewise with that 
 in Heb. ix. 1 1. *' Christ is become a High Priest of 
 the good things that were to come, by a greater and 
 more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is 
 to say, not of this building," or of this old creation. If 
 it should be objected, that heaven itself is called the 
 holiest of all, whither Jesus went, there to apjiear in 
 the presence of God for us with his own blood, having 
 obtained eternal redemption for us, I would reply, that 
 in this particular view of the subject, I should still look 
 on Christ as the body of the temple, which was the 
 place of worship for all Israel, and called the court 
 of the congregation, and his pierced flesh and shed 
 blood as the vail opened, and the new and living way 
 
17 
 
 consecrated for us, by which we have " boldness to 
 enter into the holiest,*' Heb. x. 19, 20. 
 
 2. But we will now pass to the Hebrew scriptures. 
 The first promise declared, that Eve's seed, that is, 
 a' male child from her, through some grand-daughter 
 of her*s, " He shall bruise" the serpent's " head," Gen. 
 iii. 15. Thus, in God's eternal purpose, Christ ranked 
 as his first begotten, who was destined to revenge the 
 wrongs of the whole family on the head of the betrayer 
 and murderer. And so, in 1 Pet. i. 20. we read, that we 
 were " redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, as of 
 a Lamb without blemish and without spot ; who verily 
 was Jbre-ordained before the foundation of the world, 
 but was manifested in these last times for you." This 
 .laid the foundation for a typical holy seed, or family of 
 children, that should continue until the advent of Christ 
 himself, Isa. vi. 13. Ixv, 8, 9. In Gen. vi. 2, they are 
 called " the sons of God," or of the " Alehim," in con- 
 trast with " the daughters of men ;" these extended 
 from Seth to Noah ; and from Noah, through Shem, 
 to Abraham ; and from Abraham, through his Isaac, 
 not Ishmael, and through Isaac's Jacob, not Esau, to 
 all the twelve tribes of Israel. And Israel was God's 
 "Son," his " first begotten," Exod. iv. 22. Hosea xi. 1. 
 Matt. ii. 15. And as such, " Israel was holiness unto 
 the Lord," Jer. ii. 3. But to show that this was through 
 a medium, there was sacrificial worship established, and 
 there was a sacrificing person, the high priest— and he, 
 as the grand figure of our Emanuel, was designated, in 
 the engraving on the golden forefront of his mitre, 
 "Holiness unto the Lord !" Exod. xxviii. 36—38. 
 
 The next grand promise of « seed^ that is, a Son, was 
 given to Abraham ; in which seed or son, he was to be 
 the father of many nations, and the heir of tiie world, 
 for that in that seed or son all the nations and kindreds 
 of the earth were to be blessed. " And that seed was 
 
18 
 
 Christ," Rom. iv. and Gal. iii. " To him," said Jacob, 
 " shall the gathering of the peoples be," Gen. xlix. 10. 
 And " to him shall the Gentiles seek," sung Isaiah ; 
 " and his rest shall be glorious." Thus then, because 
 the children of God were not angels, but men, and 
 " partakers of flesh and blood," so Christ did at length 
 '* take part of the same ;" that in him man's nature 
 might be generated afresh, and that he might thus 
 become the sanctifier of his polluted members, and they 
 his sanctified brethren. Heb. ii. 11 — 18. These are 
 called '* the seedy' that is, the children " of Abraham." 
 For " if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed^ 
 and heirs according to the promise," Gal. iii. 29. 
 Heb. ii. 16. Now because of this design, the flesh 
 of the typical Israel was esteemed holy, whilst that of 
 the Gentiles was as a polluted thing. Therefore they 
 were to eat nothing unclean, nor any thing torn of 
 wild beasts, Exod. xix. 4 — 6. xxii. 31. Besides, the 
 holy oil was restricted to them, their prophets, priests, 
 and kings, who were to spring from themselves alone. 
 " Upon mail's flesh it shall not be poured ; it is holy, 
 and it shall be holy unto you ; whosoever putteth any 
 of it upon a stranger, shall even be cut off from his 
 people," Exod. xxx. 30 — 33. But so soon as Christ 
 had been generated, as the body, flesh, and temple of 
 the cherubim of glory, then the restriction was re- 
 moved; because he came as a second man, and a final 
 Adam, and not as another Abraham, but as Abraham's 
 seed, son, and heir ; and therefore, said the Lord by 
 Joel, " I will pour out of my Spirit upon all fleshy 
 Christ's holy flesh came not upon the Jews alone, but on 
 all the families of mankind alike. " What God hath 
 cleansed," said the Lord to Peter, " that call not thou 
 common." And, as he had himself remarked just be- 
 fore, " Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for 
 a man that is a Jew, to keep company with, or come 
 
19 
 
 unto one of another nation ; hut God hath showed me 
 that I should not call any man common or unclean," 
 Ezek. X. 12. i. 26—28. Acts ii. 16—18. x. 28. xi. 9. 
 The consequence is, that we now find the ransomed 
 of the Lord to consist no longer of Israel alone, but 
 " redeemed to God otit of every kindred, and tongue, 
 and nation, and people, and made unto our God kings 
 and priests," Rev, v. 10. 
 
 Well, in Isaiah vii. 14, we have the Virgin mother 
 introduced, and the Virgin's Son Emanuel ; but no 
 father mentioned. But Matthew interprets it thus ; 
 " A Virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a 
 son ;" and as for this Virgin, even Mary, " that which 
 is begotten in her," is not from herself, but " from the 
 Holy Ghost." For—" she was found with child by the 
 Holy Ghost." 
 
 In the 8th of Isaiah, it is said of our Emanuel, " and 
 he shall be for a sanctuary ;" this scriptui-e being ap- 
 plied to Christ, in 1 Peter ii. 8. And in Isaiah ix. 6, 
 we have him as the child born, and Son given ; on 
 whose shoulder rests the government ; and his name is 
 called, " Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the 
 everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace.'* And in 
 fine ; in Jeremiah xxxi. 22, — we read, " The Lord 
 hath created a new thing in the earth ; a woman shall 
 compass a man." First ; Jehovah creates a novel thing; 
 that is, either he causes to come to pass a hitherto 
 unheard of event ; or, he causes to exist a phenomenon, 
 '* a novel daughter" in Israel ; " a woman," who, with- 
 out knowing a man, "shall compass a male child;" 
 shall receive and encompass a man child in her womb, 
 with the hymen of virgin purity unbroken ; and which, 
 therefore, would be only ruptured by the birth of her 
 child, and not at its begetting! Deut. xxii. 13 — 17. 
 Consequently, Mary remained a Virgin until she was 
 delivered of the Man-child ; in perfect agreement with 
 
20 
 
 Isa. vii. 14. and Matt. i. 23. "A Virgin shall swell," 
 or grow large, " with child"—" and she/' the Virgiti, 
 " shall bring forth a son." 
 
 3. The fact being thus clearly established from reve- 
 lation, let us comfirm it by the concurring testimony of 
 nature. 
 
 The first circumstance of note is this ; that the 
 semen of the man is a peculiar secretion from the blood. 
 The second circumstance is this ; that in the man are 
 the spermatic arteries ; and that those are situated in 
 the loins of the man. Now in reference to the first 
 circumstance, the scriptures declare the blood to be 
 " the life of all flesh j" that is, the mean of animal life ; 
 it is the life of all flesh, indeed, both in the propagation 
 of life by semen, and in its preservation by its other se- 
 cretions; from the blood is secreted the semen, the 
 propagator and procreator of life, Genesis ix. 4 — 6 : 
 Lev. xvii. 10 — 14. In this view it is a vital substance 
 in itself, and it aids in communicating and preserving 
 vitality to all the parts of the body ; as will be shown 
 in the instance of the egg of a hen. This is confessed 
 in the Library of Useful Knowledge, under animal 
 physiology. " The blood not only maintains the life 
 of all the other parts of the body, but it is itself 
 alive. Hunter states the fact distinctly ; and since his 
 time, the opinion has been extending; and the evidence 
 of its truth may now be considered as completely satis- 
 factory.*' And again ; '* the blood cannot owe the 
 preservation of its fluidity only to its motion or cir- 
 culation ; nor to motion and a given temperature ; but 
 the blood maintains its fluidity, in the living body, in 
 consequence of its being endowed with the property of 
 life." But it is the arterial blood, flowing fresh and 
 direct from the heart, being of a bright scarlet colour, 
 as opposed to the dark-coloured modena-red blood of 
 the veins, which is the proper vital and nutritive fluid ; 
 
21 
 
 the venous blood being that which remains, after the 
 arterial has been subjected to the various processes of 
 nutrition, and it is therefore carried back to the lungs 
 to be renovated there, by fresh accessions of oxygen 
 from the air of the atmosphere continually inhaled. For 
 if the circulation of arterial blood, through the brain, be 
 stopped, if only venous blood flow through its vessels, 
 instant insensibility supervenes, and death follows in a 
 few seconds. This then demonstrates the oxygen gas 
 of the atmospheric air to be the source of the vital pro- 
 perties of the blood; for during its passage through the 
 lungs, those admirable air-vessels, the vital properties 
 which it had expended, are received again, and noxious 
 qualities contracted, are removed. Now the Hebrew 
 scholar well knows, that as in Gen. iv, 10, so often 
 elsewhere, the word for the blood is plural ; in the just 
 cited place it has also a plural verb, — dam-im zak-im ; 
 "thy brother's bloods cry." This may refer to its two- 
 fold condition ; whilst its name dcwi, from the root dam- 
 ah, declares its wonderful property of assimilation. The 
 same accuracy is seen in the plural form used for the 
 atmospherical expanse or expansion, improperly trans- 
 lated " firmament" in the first chapter of Genesis ; for 
 in Job xxxvii. 18. we read, — " Hast thou, with him, 
 spread out," or expanded, — " the dancing ethers, which 
 are constringed together," cohering while dilating " like 
 a mirror of melted and consolidated metal?" Now in 
 the composition of the air, modern science has detected 
 at least two distinct species of elastic fluid, — the one, 
 oxygen gas, or vital air ; and the other azotic or nitro- 
 gen gas. 
 
 But be it next observed, that as the blood has vital 
 properties, though not to the exclusion of those of other 
 constituents of the animal frame, — as it furnishes pabu- 
 lum to the organized system, as it feeds, and renovates, 
 and restores it, and even forms a cement for ga})ing 
 
22 
 
 wounds and broken bones, so likewise is it the great 
 fountain from which all the secretions issue, as fluids, 
 and out of which again all the solids are formed- 
 '* Every part," says Hunter, " is formed from the 
 blood ; we grow out of it.*' But this is not all ; it 
 yields that peculiar secretion, in the man, which is the 
 sole principle of the propagation of the species. " It is 
 a general law,'* says the Library of Useful Knowledge, 
 <' that living beings derive their origin from pre-existing 
 living beings, by a process termed generation." The 
 mode may vary ten thousand times ten thousand-fold ; 
 from those minutest of animalculi, hatched and deve- 
 loped in, but not generated by, animal and vegetable 
 infusions, up to man himself. Even the polypus must 
 be itself alive, or the cutting of it into halves or quar- 
 ters will not suffice for the multiplication of its kind ; 
 a dead polypus cannot develope in any of its parts, what 
 it has not in its own self; that is, vitality. But where 
 life is generally diffused, as in worms, the polypus, and 
 in trees, and plants, there a part severed from the pa- 
 rent whole, will frequently retain and carry with it the 
 essence and all the peculiarities of the original ; as we 
 see in offsets, and layers, and cuttings, and ingrafted 
 scions, and inserted buds. But as, in others of the vege- 
 table kingdom, nothing will prove effectual but the 
 seed', and this, as injected into the bowels of the 
 mother earth ; so it is with the re-production of the 
 rational creature man. Now on this account it is said 
 that " Adam," the first man, who was himself created 
 by God, but with seed in himself for propagation, 
 " Adam" and not Eve, *' begaty in his own likeness, 
 after his own image," Gen. v. 8. And then, to inti- 
 mate the origin of the re-producing seed, the apostle 
 Paul remarks, that God " hath made of one hlood^'* 
 or out of the blood of one man, " all nations of men,** 
 Acts xvii. 26. 
 
23 
 
 But it may here be asked, may not the necessary 
 seed proceed in part from the womb-man ; the female 
 possessing blood of the same nature and properties with 
 that of the male ? I answer, no ! because our second 
 notable circumstance was this ; the spermatic arteries 
 are in the man and not in the woman ; and, what is 
 more, they are situated in his loins. The secretion^ 
 then, from the animal blood, in the human species, 
 which we call the semen, has place only in the nialco 
 Hence it is called the strength of the man, Gen. xlix. 3. 
 Prov. xxxi. 3. And for the want of it we call a man 
 impotent. Besides, although progeny may be entitled 
 in scripture the fruit of the womb, of the belly, and 
 bowels of the mother, it is especially referred to the 
 loins of the father; " kings shall come out of thy loins," 
 said God to Abraham, Gen. xxxv. 11. see also Gen. 
 xlvi. 26. Exod. i. 5. 1 Kings viii. 19- And in the New 
 Testament, Acts ii. 30. and Heb. vii. 5, 10. Clearly 
 then, the Lord Jesus Christ, in relation to his man- 
 hood, came out of the loins of David, in so far as it 
 was generated in his own grand-daughter Mary, and 
 sustained there, until the birth, and afterwards nou- 
 rished by her milk, which is itself another of the secre- 
 tions from the blood ; but not as relates to generation 
 itselj] because Joseph, David's grand-son, and Mary's 
 reputed husband, had nothing to do in the transac- 
 tion ; " for that which was begotten in her was from 
 the Holy Ghost,'' Matt. i. 20.; and that can be nothing 
 less than semen impregnating the ovum; without which, 
 no action for the production of offspring can possibly 
 go on in the female constitution. 
 
 On the whole, then, we may say it would be well 
 if, after the investigations of our modern men of 
 science can lead them no further, they would just 
 allow the scriptures to take them by the iiand. For 
 truly, if we dare not assert, as of old, that where there 
 
24 
 
 are tliree medicals, there, there will be two atheists 
 detected, yet we seem compelled to aver, that at least 
 two out of the three will turn out to be infidels. In the 
 case of the brain, after they have anatomized that, and 
 scrutinized it, because they see nothing but medullary 
 substance, and its accompaniments, in the head of a 
 man, the seat of sensation and intelligence, they con- 
 clude there is no immaterial soul. Then, of the blood, 
 they question its property of vitality, notwithstanding 
 that it carries the pabulum of life in its current to the 
 whole animal frame, and supplies every requisite for 
 the continuation of its existence, and for the growth, 
 perfection, conservation, and proper vigour and energy 
 of its every part, while it yields the peculiar secretion 
 for its proper propagation. And then, again, they pro- 
 long the interminable strife about the origin of the 
 producing principle in man; whether it is peculiar to 
 the male, or to the female, or whether it is common to 
 them both, or, in a word, whether or not it is to be 
 held absolutely and essentially necessary at all ! And 
 to make the darkness darker, and the confusion worse 
 confounded, what an admirable expedient has Thomas 
 William Chevalier had recourse to ! He rakes together 
 all the instances, imaginary or real, natural, casual, or 
 monstrous ; all the instances, I say, ever fancied, ru- 
 moured, or recorded, of Jiermaphroditism — and this, 
 from all the fruitful fields, through all the departments 
 of nature, belonging to the respective empires of the 
 animal and the vegetable creation ! But no ! I correct 
 myself; our practitioner and operator hardly touches 
 with the edge of his knife the living creatures ; with 
 truly Pythagorean sensibility he spares these, and is 
 bold only in the unfleshly and bloodless di£,section of 
 vegetable subjects ! 
 
 But overpassing all other illustrations, let us confine 
 ourselves to the egg of the hen. Mr. Chevalier tells 
 
25 
 
 us, at page 10, " Among birds, it is notorious, tiiat tfie 
 virgin will lay an egg ; and it has been demonstrated, 
 by Haller and Bonnet, that such an egg contains the 
 embryo." "Article,^ fetus est a matre ;" that is, the fetus 
 is from the mother. What is this to illustrate ? Is it 
 adduced to show, that the Virgin Mary, might possibly 
 have in her womb, and give birth to, a man child, to 
 her first-born son, without any impregnation of the 
 ovum at all? If not, of what use is this case? For 
 except Mr. C. can give us instances of virgin women 
 bearing children, as virgins, the instance of the virgin 
 pullet, with its egg, is no more to the point than if he 
 had told us of the male bird sometimes laying an egg ; 
 or, of a boy that once was found with a fetus in his 
 abdomen ; or of a mountain in labour, and bringing 
 forth a mouse; or of a block of marble being cleft 
 asunder, and suddenly delivered of a live toad I 
 
 However, the other part of the story is of more con- 
 sequence ; I mean, that the Jetus is from the mother ; 
 and, that the virgin pullet's unimpregnated egg con- 
 tains tlie emhryo. For the first, we know that " Galen 
 believed that the embryo was produced from the male ; 
 but that it obtained nourishment from the female." 
 Lond. Ency. " Midwifery," p. 538. As for the "illus- 
 trious Harvey, whose researches on generation occupied 
 a considerable part of his life, he seems to have been 
 fully aware of the almost impenetrable mystery in which 
 the process was involved." Ibid. And, *' with him," 
 namely, Doctor Denman, say the Editors, " we believe 
 that the first part of the process, by which primordial 
 existence is established, from the minuteness and com- 
 plication of the objects to be described, and from the 
 retirement of the attending circumstances, is probably 
 involved in too much obscurity to be discovered." After 
 these admissions, we can of course only smile at the 
 disposal of the question in such a summary way as this ; 
 
26 
 
 " the fetus is from the mother!" To have a fetus or 
 embryo in the womb, is for a woman to be with child ; 
 and as this is ordinary language, so is it agreeable to all 
 scripture ; and which likewise declares, that that which 
 is thus in utero, is from the male ; which is, the life 
 in the semen in action upon the ovum ; and, as regards 
 the Virgin Mary, that it was " from the overshadowing 
 power or energy of the Holy Ghost/* But from Mr. 
 C.'s remarks, the Virgin seems to be considered by him 
 as already in possession of the fetus or embryo, and 
 only requires impregnation to enliven it; which runs 
 quite counter to the phraseology of scripture on the 
 subject. I should prefer saying, that " impregnation is 
 that function, wliereby the seminal fluid of the male, 
 or sperma arrenikon^ applied to the female genital 
 organs, excites the various generative actions, and thus 
 ultimately produces the fetus." And as Mr. C. is a 
 sort of popular divine, being one of the prophets, as 
 well as a medical practitioner, he ought to give some 
 consideration to the apostolic declaration, " For the 
 man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man. 
 Nevertheless, neither is the man without the woman, 
 nor the woman without the man. For, as the woman 
 is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman," 
 1 Cor. xi. 8 — 12. In Heb. vii. 5 — 10. children are 
 both said to come from the loins of the father, and also 
 to be, prior to procreation, in his loins seminally, but not 
 in the mother, because the spermatic arteries are situated 
 in those of the male alone ; and because the secreted 
 seed is deposited in the region of the thighs, hence those 
 allusions in Gen. xlvi. 26. Exod. i. 5. and Judges viii. 
 30. in all which places the phrase is incorrectly trans- 
 lated, it being this, *' which came out of his thigh.'* 
 
 Now that I have not deduced too much from Mr. C.'s 
 statements, in representing him as supposing the human 
 female to be, not only the womb-man, but the original 
 
27 
 
 fetus or embiyo-possessing-man, is clear from his selected 
 illustration. He produces to us a virgin pullet: see there, 
 he says, and in undissembled triumph — there is a maiden 
 hen, and she has laid an egg; ay, and what is the climax 
 of the story, this maiden pullet's egg, this very unim- 
 pregnated ovum of the virgin fowl, " contains the em- 
 bryo !" Gentle reader! Was this so, the triumph were 
 apparently complete. But although I have heard of 
 the embryo plant, or plantlet, in the seed, in which it 
 lies ready formed, and only requiring the cherishing 
 and nourishing womb of mother earth, for its being 
 developed; and although I have heard also of the em- 
 bryo of an egg before incubation, as the seed has its 
 life before deriving from the earth its genial influences, 
 for its manifestation ; yet until now I have never heard, 
 so far at least as I at present recollect, of the embryo 
 of a maiden pullet s egg, or what is the same thing, of 
 the embryo of a chick in the egg of a hen before im- 
 pregnation! 
 
 But I will here just set against this marvellous dis- 
 covery of Haller and Bonnet, and retailed by T. W. C, 
 and his friend Mogridge, the simple statement of one of 
 our own master geniuses on the subject in debate. " It 
 is said, the life is in the blood; and I dare say it is very 
 true; yd?' the seminal fluid or life is secreted from it, 
 and carried by the spermatic vessels*' of the male " to 
 its proper place, and there deposited for use. A man 
 is said to be dead when so old as not to secrete this 
 fluid, because then he cannot procreate his own life, or 
 perpetuate it, as Adam has done his. An eunuch is a 
 dead man, or dry tree, without this vital sap ; for the 
 same reason, he secretes none of this life. Now then, 
 this life seeks for itself a proper nest; in vegetables, the 
 style; in birds, et caetera, the egg; in mankind, the 
 female ovum" as it descends from the ovaria to the 
 uterus for the purpose. " In time, tlie female is said 
 
28 
 
 to have conceived; that is, become great with child ;" 
 owing to the ovum from the ovaria being impregnated 
 in the uterus by the male semen : " and when life has 
 completed its mansion, parturition takes place ; and 
 then, in the birth, the proper seed of man shows itself, 
 or his jirogeny; or another branch of the same tree is 
 produced.'* 
 
 Then follows the illustration thus: " the regularity 
 of the work of this w^orkman, life, may be inspected in 
 oviparous animals, if a proper degree of warmth is 
 applied to the eggs, without any further connection ivilh 
 the mother. On the contrary, if the most perfect egg 
 from the female, without this life taking possession of 
 it from the mcde, is placed underneath the hen for incu- 
 bation, she only brings on its putrefaction the sooner!" 
 
 On these extracts, I remark, in the first place, that 
 the blood is allowed to have vitality in it, from the cir- 
 cumstance of the male semen, or principle of reproduc- 
 tion being a secretion from it. And, in the second 
 place, it is to be observed, that the life or vitality in the 
 vivifying fluid, communicated from the male bird to the 
 egg of the hen, is that only which preserves it from 
 putrefaction. 
 
 These are two very important concessions. I think 
 they have a grand bearing, not only on the topic in dis- 
 cussion between Mr. C. and myself, but on some expe- 
 riments and deductions of our most justly celebrated 
 countryman, Mr. John Hunter, in his Treatise on the 
 Blood, edition of 1812. I shall proceed to quotations, 
 and offer remarks on them occasionally. 
 
 1. " All the solid parts of the body are formed from 
 the blood." 
 
 2. " A seed, put into moist ground, grows; but the 
 moist ground is only a necessary attendant, and not 
 the immediate cause. The life of the seed, stimulated 
 to action by the moisture, is the immediate cause of its 
 
29 
 
 growth ; and it continues to grow, because its action is 
 always excited. All the water in the world, would not 
 make a dead seed grow." This is all true; but only 
 that humidity alone would not suffice for growth, for 
 the generality of seeds ; various substances or agents, 
 in combination with humidity, doubtless afford the 
 nutriment on which vegetables live. Otherwise, soils 
 would know no exhaustion, from being too frequently 
 cropped ; so as, I mean, to require such varieties and 
 quantities of proper manure. But neither is this all ; 
 for vegetables require, as a fit soil, as well as moisture, 
 so likewise some portion of oxygen or vital air. Seeds 
 may remain buried deep in the earth for strange 
 lengths of time, still preserving their vital jyrincijyle, 
 and without germination ; but when thrown to the 
 surface by some circumstance, what with the soil, 
 moisture, warmth, and air, vegetation commences, and 
 they develope the peculiar properties essentially inhe- 
 rent in their own living germs. 
 
 3. " The time that we can live, without air, or 
 breathing, is shorter than that, in which we die from 
 a defect in any other natural operation. Breathing, 
 therefore," that is, the air inspired or inhaled, " seems 
 to render lije to the blood," or rather renovation of life 
 to the blood; " and the blood" re-oxygenated, "con- 
 tinues it in every part of the body.'* No\v we know 
 that the blood is also replenished by food, through the 
 process of digestion, and by the digestive apparatus. 
 For this is a power in living beings, to assimilate 
 foreign matter to their own substances ; vegetables 
 receiving it, by means of their roots, and animals into 
 their stomachs. 
 
 4. •* That the blood has lije^ is an opinion I have 
 started for above thirty years." It is—" a living 
 fluid." " Every part is formed from the blood ; we 
 grow out of it ; and if it has not life, previous to this 
 
30 
 
 operation, it must then acquire it in the act of form- 
 ing.'* " Organization and life do not depend in the 
 least degree on each other. Organization may arise 
 out of living parts, and produce action ; but life can 
 never rise out of, or depend on organization. An 
 organ is a peculiar conformation of matter, to answer 
 some purpose, the operation of which is mechanical \ 
 but mere organization can do nothing, even in mecha- 
 nics,— it must still have something corresponding to a 
 living principle ; namely, some power.'* 
 
 " J conceived, that the same principle" of life, 
 " existed in animal substances devoid of apparent 
 organization and motion, where there existed simply 
 the power of 'preservation. I was led to this, about 
 the year 1755 or 1756, when making drawings of the 
 chick, in the process of incubation. I observed, when 
 an Q^<g was hatched, the yolk, which is not diminished 
 in the time of incubation, was always perfectly sweet 
 to the very last j and that a part of the albumen, 
 which is not expended on the growth of the animal, 
 some days before hatching, was also sweet ; although 
 both were kept in a heat of 103° in the hen's ^g^^ for 
 three weeks, and in the duck's for four."' " If an egg 
 did not hatch, it became putrid, in nearly the same 
 time with any other dead animal matter. An ^^^ 
 therefore, must have the power of self-preservation ; 
 or in other words, the simple principle of life." 
 
 " From these experiments, it appears that afresh 
 Gg'g has the power of resisting heat, cold, and putrefac- 
 tion, in a degree equal to many of the more imperfect 
 animals, which exhibit exactly the same phenomena, 
 under the same experiments ; and it is more than pro- 
 bable, that this power arises from the same principle 
 in both. Similar experiments have been made on the 
 blood." 
 
 " The embryo of the chick in the incubated ^.^'g^ is 
 
31 
 
 here shown, " at three different stages of its formation, 
 beginning with the earliest visible appearance of dis- 
 tinct organization. These preparations are meant to 
 illustrate two positions laid down in this work ; namely, 
 that the blood is formed before the vessels, and when 
 coagulated the vessels appear to arise ; and that, when 
 new vessels are produced in a part, they are not always 
 elongations from the original ones, but vessels newly 
 formed, which afterwards open a communication with 
 the original." 
 
 "1. In this figure," of the embryo chick, " the only 
 parts that are distinctly formed, are, two blood vessels ; 
 on each side of these, is a row of small dots or specks, 
 of coagulated blood, which are afterwards to become 
 blood vessels.** 
 
 " Figure 2. The formation of the embryo is further 
 advanced; vessels appear to be rising up spontaneously, 
 in different parts of the membrane ; and the specks, 
 out of which they are produced, are in many parts 
 very evident." 
 
 " Figure 3. The number of blood vessels is very 
 considerably increased ; they now form a regular sys- 
 tem of vessels, composed of larger trunks, and a vast 
 number of ramifications going off from them." 
 
 Now from these quotations, John Hunter should 
 seem to esteem the vitality of the blood, in the incu- 
 bated eggi to be the power which preserves its whole 
 substance from putrefaction. And he seems also to 
 think the blood the origin of our being ; " we grow 
 out of it" — he says ; and of course he would think the 
 same of the chick in the egg. But, blood in animals 
 is only as the 5«p in vegetables ; now it is not the 
 blood itself, from which animals spring, but from that 
 particular secretion of the blood, the male seed ; just 
 as the vegetable tribes owe not their immediate 
 origination to sap, but to seed. The saplings are, in 
 
32 
 
 these cases, seedlings in their beginning. The blood 
 and the sap are for nourishment and growth, but it is the 
 seed alone, in both departments, which will suffice for 
 propagation. " Nothing exists, within the vegetable or 
 animal kingdom, but secreted substance ; and whether 
 we look to the meanest shrub, or to the noblest animal, 
 the most splendid variety of substance and of quality 
 is observed. In the one kingdom, we find flowers of 
 the gaudiest colours, SM^eets of the most delicious 
 tastes, odours of the most captivating fragrance, — all 
 formed out of a simple and almost insipid sap ; and 
 in the other, we discover bones hard and insensible, 
 muscles soft and contractile, nerves tender and irri- 
 table, fluids insipid, sour, bland, and acrid, juices the 
 most agreeable, and poisons the most pernicious, — all 
 proceeding from one common fluid," the blood ! Animal 
 Physiologij in Useful Knowledge. But then to prove 
 that the original life of vegetables is concentrated in 
 nothing else but the seedy it is well observed again, 
 that " seeds, endowed with vitality, remain unchanged 
 for years,'' — and this, without any vegetation going 
 on. " Seeds pass uninjured even through the digestive 
 organs of animals, exposed with impunity to the most 
 powerful of all solvents of vegetable and animal matter, 
 the gastric juice. And irresistible as the action of that 
 wonderful fluid is, upon all dead vegetable and animal 
 substance, it has no perceptible influence whatever 
 upon any of those substances, as long as they retain 
 their vitality." Again, we know that melon-seed, in 
 particular, keeps so well, without germination, as to 
 better itself by age ; and therefore it is advised to be 
 of from three to six years old, before it is used for 
 vegetation. And again, many of our common seeds, 
 such as clover, charlock, &c. will lie dormant for ages 
 within the earth, well preserved for vegetation, when- 
 ever they may happen to be thrown to the surface, 
 
33 
 
 and exposed to the atmospyierical influences. Mi\ 
 Adanson asserts, that the seed of the sensitive plant 
 preserves its virtue, or the germinating faculty, thirty 
 or forty years. And if life preserves itself so well 
 in vegetable seeds, does it not so also in the pro- 
 perly impregnated egg of a fowl? For the parallel of 
 example does not lead us to the incubated egg, but 
 rather to the egg fecundated by the male bird. This 
 contains the seed, nay, the very life, of the future chick; 
 the embryon of the young animal. Short of this re- 
 ception of the vital principle, no egg will keep sweet 
 for any length of time ; and if subjected to incuba- 
 tion, it only corrupts the sooner ; whereas the egg, 
 which is laid with the se/ninal vitality in it, is possessed 
 of the j)f'6servative 2ioive7\ — for varnish, prepared with 
 spirit of wine, and rubbed carefully all over the shell, 
 has been found to prevent its perspiration, and thus to 
 enable it to preserve itself, at least for two years, as 
 fresh as if laid but the same day, and so sweet that the 
 nicest palate could not distinguish it from a new-laid 
 egg. And supposing the fecundated egg instead of 
 being varnished, to be placed underneath the hen, how 
 comes it to keep itself so pure, in circupjstances in 
 which the most perfect unimpregnated egg immedi- 
 ately begins to turn to putrefaction ? " It is well 
 known," it is said in Animal Physiology, "'that the egg 
 possesses the power cf self-preservation for several 
 weeks, although exposed to a degree of heat, which 
 would certainly occasion the putrefaction of dead ani- 
 mal matter. During the period of incubation, the egg 
 is kept at a heat of 103", the hen's egg for three, and 
 that of the duck for four weeks ; and yet, when at the 
 end of this time, the chick is hatched, the entire yolk 
 is found perfectly sweet, and that part of the albumen 
 or while, which has not been expended in the nourish- 
 
 c 
 
34 
 
 merit of the young animal, is also quite fresh." On the 
 other hand, "it is found, that if the 'preservative 'prin- 
 ciple be destroyed, as it may be instantaneously, by 
 passing the electric fluid through the egg, it becomes 
 putrid in the same time as other dead animal matter." 
 What then is this preservative principle ? Evi- 
 dently, after the manner of John Hunter, these editors 
 suppose it to be the blood. For they reason thus ; " the 
 blood must be a living substance, because it is capable 
 of dying. It is capable of sudden death. For if the 
 electric fluid be passed through zV,it,"the hlood,^^^^ killed 
 instantaneously ; as has been stated already, in a former 
 part of this treatise.*' This refers to the quotation just 
 made above. Besides ; they, along with John Hunter, 
 make the blood in the fecundated egg to be the originating 
 principle of the first motions and actions that commence 
 their operations in the egg upon its being subjected to in- 
 cubation. " Hunter," say they, " adduces some facts, to 
 show that the blood, like other living substances, origi- 
 nates motion and action. We know, that if a living 
 egg be placed underneath a hen, or even exposed for a 
 certain time to a degree of artificial heat equal to that 
 in which it is maintained during incubation, certain 
 motions or actions spontaneously arise within it, which 
 terminate in the development of the chick.'* And 
 again, — " the incubated egg commences a series of 
 movements, which terminate in the development of 
 the chick." But now, I rather incline to the notion of 
 our late metropolitan lecturer ; namely, that life, even 
 the life conveyed to the ovum of the hen by the male 
 bird, and this, in the seminal fliiid, that peculiar secre- 
 tion ^'07?^ the blood of the male, is at once the jweserver 
 of the purity of the egg prior to incubation, and which 
 we have shown may be maintained for at least two 
 years, — and likewise the workman and operator that 
 originates motion and action, upon its dormant energies 
 
35 
 
 being roused and excited by the natural warmth of the 
 sitting hen, or the artificial heat of the oven. For this 
 may be illustrated by the instance of the dormant ani- 
 mals; these in winter fall into a perfect state of torpor and 
 inaction ; but as the life still remains, their torpor ceases 
 with the cold, for nothing seems to awaken them effectu- 
 ally from their lethargy to proper and full action but 
 gradual heat. If we consider that no food whatever is 
 taken in by them, during their state of hybernation, we 
 must be sure that the usual vital processes are either 
 wholly suspended, or go on in a very circumscribed way, 
 and with extraordinary slowness. But there are some, 
 as the cuckoo, that, when hybernating, appear like a 
 dead mass of matter; they may be rolled about, and 
 even struck with considerable violence, without their 
 betraying any the least sign of sensation ; nay and even 
 their resjyiratiori, as well as every other manifest vital 
 action, seems to be wholly suspended. In such cases, 
 then, it is the vital principle, whatever that may be, 
 but which we must confess to originate in the will of 
 the Creator, and to be dependent on his pleasure, and 
 conserved by his secret concourse, — it is the continuing 
 vitality which is possessed of the preservative power. 
 For if we proceed to certain extreme, but exceedingly 
 well authenticated examples of the condition of some 
 hybernating animals, such as the migratory swallows, 
 we shall find that the actions of life in them are totally 
 at a stop, and that latent and dormant life only remains ; 
 just as a machine, when stopped, is as perfectly inactive 
 as a block of marble, but still possesses its main spring, 
 by means of which it may again be put into full play 
 and operation. In the severer climates, the swallows 
 are said to precipitate themselves into the sea, and into 
 deep lakes and rivers, at whoie bottom they remain 
 during winter, in a state of profound torpor. How 
 
36 
 
 wonderful must be the power of the vital principle, in 
 preserving an animal under circumstances so extraordi- 
 nary ; in an element which would be fatal to it in a few 
 moments in its ordinary state ; with its respiration sus- 
 pended,— its circulation stopped, — and its Mood, if it 
 do not coagulate, if it remain alive, and therefore fluid, 
 although at perfect rest, yet exposed to a degree of 
 cold for such a length of time. — " How striking an 
 illustration," says the Useful Knowledge, " would this 
 most singular fact afford, of the uninterrupted and 
 enduring and efficient action of the vital principle, 
 under circumstances which would seem absolutely in- 
 compatible with its existence even for a few moments!" 
 But to return to the egg. The new-laid impreg- 
 nated ovum is fresh and living, prior to its being put 
 under the hen ; and it can be preserved living and fresh 
 for a length of time. In this condition, then, fecun- 
 dated but not incubated, suppose the electric fluid to 
 pass through it,~what would be killed? Would it be 
 the seminal life conveyed in the male fluid ; or would 
 it be the vitality of the hlood P With regard to the 
 latter, is it certain that the merely impregnated and 
 non-incubated egg contains any positive blood ? If it 
 does, where is it ? Is it in the vitellus, or in the albu- 
 men, or in the membrane, or in all these ? And as 
 there is no action or motion, no circulation going on, 
 what preserves it in its purity ? In the dormant ani- 
 mals, this power has been acknowledged to be in the 
 vital principle. In the seeds of vegetables also, that 
 may be kept uninjured for years, the same has been 
 confessed. What, then, in the egg, can have power 
 to preserve it fresh, and sweet, and living, except the 
 male impregnation ? 
 
 But in fact, is there any positive blood in the non- 
 incubated egg ? Is not the egg thaty in both its white 
 
37 
 
 and its yolk, which is to be sanguified^ but which does 
 not ab'eady contain blood ? May we not then suppose, 
 that the vital principle in the seminal fluid, roused to 
 action by the application of warmth in the commence- 
 ment of incubation, is that which operates on the sub- 
 stance of the ^g^, and in such a manner as to lead to 
 the production oj hloodf For the blood is formed 
 first, according to Mr. Hunter himself; and then, 
 being coagulated, it produces the blood vessels. Now, 
 in his first stage of observation, he saw but two vessels 
 already formed, in the incubated egg ; and a row of 
 small dots or specks of coagulated blood, ready for the 
 formation of additional vessels. In the second stage 
 he saw vessels rising up spontaneously, in different 
 parts of the membrane ; and the specks of blood out 
 of which they are produced, were in many parts very 
 evident. And in the third stage, the number of vessels 
 were very considerably increased ; and they now were 
 seen to form a regular system of vessels, composed of 
 larger trunks, and a vast number of ramifications going 
 off from these. What a regular and very gradual pro- 
 cess is here ! The vessels multiply by degrees ; and 
 these gradually multiplying vessels owe their substance 
 and formation to previously seen specks or dots of 
 coagulated blood ; the vessels of course multiply, in 
 proportion to the succession of fresh globules of newly 
 produced blood ; and the production and re-production 
 of bloody must at last be traced to some stimulating 
 cause ; and this, what other can it possibly be, within 
 the shell of. the ovum, than the life, or vital principle^ 
 at work, in its proper season, and proper sphere of 
 action, and under the animating influence of the 
 exactly necessary warmth of the incubating hen, or 
 of the heated oven ? 
 
 Now for confirmation of this view of the case. 
 
38 
 
 deduced from John Hunter's own representation, let 
 us attend for a moment to William Harvey : he says, 
 *' that the pullet in the egg, and separated from the 
 hen, is wont to delight in its own proper blood, which 
 it forms for itself out of the aliment provided for it 
 in the egg by the mother." But where then does the 
 snnguifying system originate ? For true it is, that 
 whilst the chick is still enclosed within the e^g^ it 
 possesses a sanguiferous system as minute, as after 
 incubation has been completed ; its arteries carry 
 scarlet red, and its veins purple blood. '' How then 
 is the noxious carbon," asks the Useful Knowledge, 
 " which is ever adulterating the vital current, ab- 
 stracted from the blood ? Where is oxygen procured, 
 to convert it into carbonic acid ? And if carbonic acid 
 be formed, how is it expelled ? In the incubated egg, 
 this seems to be accomplished in the following way. 
 The shell is exceedingly porous ; and it is in close 
 contact, internally, with a very vascular memhrane^ 
 which forms the external envelope of the contents of 
 the egg. This membrane circulates more blood than 
 is devoted to the body of the chick ; and it is separated, 
 at the greater end of the egg^ into two layers, which 
 form a circular space, or bag, that is filled with air. 
 This bag or air-cell, is at first not more than a quarter 
 of an inch in diameter ; but as incubation proceeds, it 
 progressively enlarges ; and towards the close of the pro- 
 cess, occupies a very considerable portion of the general 
 cavity. Now Spailanzani has ascertained, that eggs 
 freely absorb oxygen from the atmosphere ; that the 
 degree of this absorption is directly as the quantity of 
 animal matter they contain ; and that the air, enclosed 
 within these air-cells, betrays a deficiency of oxygen, 
 and an excess of carbonic acid. It is therefore believed, 
 that the conversion of venous into arterial blood, during 
 
incubation, is accomplished, by bringing the blood, as 
 it deteriorates, to this vascular membrane which lines 
 the shell ; where it is purified by the air, which enters 
 through the pores with which the shell is permeated. 
 This vascular membrane is equivalent to the minute 
 ramifications of the pulmonary artery in man ; and 
 the porous shell is a counterpart to the walls of the 
 air-cells of the human lungs. The former furnishes 
 a sufficient surface whereon the venous blood may be 
 spread ; and the latter, a convenient medium, through 
 which the oxygen of the external air may exert its 
 peculiar influence upon this fluid, yiir is as essential 
 to the progress of an incubated egg, as to the existence 
 of the chick after the shell is broken ; and nothing 
 more is necessary, to arrest this process by suffocating 
 the chick, than to exclude the external air by closing 
 the pores of the shell with oil." And thus, the very 
 thing which is necessary to the egg's preservation, 
 prior to incubation, and to the formation of blood, and 
 so on, namely, the exclusion of air by shutting the 
 pores of the shell, would, if had recourse to, subse- 
 quently, effect the destruction of the chick. 
 
 In reply then to the question, Where does the san- 
 guiferous system originate ? It may at once be said, 
 with the vital principle, and in connexion with the 
 niemh7'ane, lining the shell, and overspreading the 
 whole egg. Before incubation, this membrane is not 
 vascular, but is a very thin, and pretty tough, and white 
 lining, as may be seen in the boiled Ggg upon breaking 
 the shell. But upon incubation. Hunter saw vessels 
 rising up spontaneously in different parts of the mem- 
 brane, and at length forming a regular system of ves- 
 sels. The immediate connexion between the chick and 
 the rest of the egg is formed, by the production of two 
 branches of umhilical veins, one of which goes to the 
 
40 
 
 vitellus, and the other to the albumen. The one of 
 these substances is for immediate use, and the other 
 a provision in store for the future ; for as the fetus 
 increases, the albumen insensibly wastes away and 
 condenses ; the vitellus, on the contrary, seems to lose 
 little or nothing of its bulk when the fetus is perfected, 
 and only appears more liquid and humid when the 
 abdomen of the fetus begins to be formed ; but, not 
 long before the exclusion of the chick from the shell, 
 the whole yolk is taken up into its abdomen. 
 
 The conclusion of the whole matter, then, is this ; 
 that either there is no blood at all, in the virgin pul- 
 let* s egg, to preserve it; or if there is blood, it is totally 
 powerless and unavailable, in the absence of the vital 
 principle inherent alone in the seminal fluid of the 
 male bird ; and that, consequently, in the properly 
 impregnated hut non-iticuhated e^g^ whether there be 
 blood or no, its purity is preserved, not by the blood, if 
 there be any, but by the vitality existing in the male 
 impregnation ; and that, as a further consequence, in 
 the fecundated and incubated egg, although when the 
 blood and blood vessels are formed, and the sanguiferous 
 system is all entire, and in full and efficient operation, 
 the circulation, refreshed ever and anon by new acces- 
 sions of oxygen from the atmospheric air, has very much 
 to do in preserving the substance of the ^^'g pure and 
 sweet, during the whole period of incubation ; yet still, 
 the origination of the blood, the vessels, the whole 
 sanguiferous system, and the circulation, must be 
 traced to the male impregnation excited to action by 
 the genial warmth of the incumbent hen ; and that, 
 in fine, in this view of the whole case, the life of the 
 maternal ovum is communicated to it from the male 
 parent ;— but that, if we admit the blood to exist in 
 the egg before incubation, and contend that in the 
 
41 
 
 blood is the preservative vitality of the egg, since the 
 blood, on this supposition, must be that of the hen, and 
 in it. is the true life of the egg, the egg does wo/^ receive 
 life from male impregnation, but is possessed of the 
 vital principle, before, and irrespective, and indepen- 
 dent of the male fecundation, which only affords a 
 perfect example of the pure rediLctio ad ahsui^dum. 
 
 I beg to close the whole, with the brief testimony 
 of a medical friend, Mr. William Wilson Cox, in the 
 neighbourhood of London. " The seed is the essence 
 of the body produced ; and this seed quickens the 
 ovum, and from it strike off all the blood vessels into 
 the ovum. This semen, as it was not of Joseph in 
 the generation of Jesus Christ, nor of any other man, 
 must have been from the creative power of the Holy 
 Spirit." 
 
 Thus then, Mary was both a medium and a mean, a 
 nest and a nurse ; but not the principal in this trans- 
 action. Still, her seed was the reputed son of Joseph, 
 and the real son of Abraham and David. For both 
 Mary and Joseph descended from their loins; and by the 
 patriarchal usage, as well as according to the law, after 
 the seed raised up by another man, but through the 
 wife of one deceased, was reckoned the seed of the 
 dead husband. Joseph, the seed and son of Abraham 
 and David, was to be as one dead, and the Holy Spirit 
 supplies his place, and raises up by Mary a seed, to 
 those, to whom the promise was made, namely, 
 Joseph and Mary's grandfathers, Abraham and David. 
 Gen. xxxviii. 8 — 10. Deut. xxv. 5 — 10. And thus, 
 when Naomi says, '* Are there yet sons in my womb ?" 
 she means to say, there cannot be any more, " for, I 
 am too old to have a husband." Ruth i. 11 — 13. 
 
 In looking into I'egg's London Encyclopaedia on 
 *' agriculture," I found this concession ; '* the manner, 
 
42 
 
 in which the eggs of birds are impregnated, by the 
 male, has ttever been properly determined T' P^ge 338. 
 Thus have we, not miraculous conception only, but 
 still mysterious impregnation to be explained, if we 
 hold to the doctrines of the old schools. 
 
 AN INQUIRY INTO THE NATURE AND THE IMME- 
 DIATE CAUSE OF THE DEATH OF THE LORD JESUS 
 CHRIST. 
 
 In my first letter to the editor of the " Morning 
 Watch," at page 14, I have quoted, as follows, from 
 Augustus Montague Toplady. " We no where find, 
 to the best of m}^ rememjjrance, that Christ ever so 
 much as once experienced any attack of sickness or 
 disease. The reason of this extraordinary circumstance 
 was, no doubt, owing to the sinless formation of his 
 humanity, by the immediate operation of the Holy 
 Ghost. Sin was that which introduced every kind of 
 ataxia or disorder into the human system, and disease 
 among the rest. But the Man Christ Jesus was formed 
 and conceived totally without stain. Hence he was, — 
 like our first parents before the fall, — naturally m- 
 mortal. Nor could he have died, had he not, by an 
 act of gracious susception, taken the guilt of man upon 
 himself, and became responsible to divine justice for the 
 utmost payment of their penal debt. And even under 
 these circumstances, we read, that liis death, though vio- 
 lent, was voluntary. His resignation of life is con- 
 stantly represented, in scripture, as his own act and 
 deed. For exclusively of his union with the second 
 person in the Godhead, his aI)so(ute freedom from sin 
 
43 
 
 would, of itself, have l>een a certain security from 
 dying. Hence the Evangelists express themselves 
 thus ; *' he dismissed, or let go, his Spirit ; he resigned, 
 delivered up, or made a surrender of his Spirit." 
 
 Now we know, that at man's creation the tree of 
 life, or rather, of lives, for the Hebrew word is plural, 
 was placed in the centre of the garden of Eden, for a 
 pledge of continual existence to Adam and Eve, and 
 this, in relation to their bodies, as well as their souls, so 
 long as they should abstain from sin, by a non-trans- 
 gression of the interdict of their Creator. We likewise 
 know, that " as by one man sin entered into the world, 
 and death by sin, — even so death hath passed upon all 
 men, for that all have sinned." Clearly then, accord- 
 ing to the original enactment in Eden, mortality is 
 connatural to man, because of sin ; " by nature" we 
 are said to be " the children of wrath." This I pro- 
 duce, at once, before regularly entering on the nature 
 of the death of Christ, because Mr. Chevalier, who dab- 
 bles in divinity, as children in the water, only to puddle 
 it, tells us, at page 38 of his pamphlet, that, — " it is 
 not sin, but the declared will or fiat of God ; — it is not 
 transgression, but the law, which dooms us to die." 
 To be sure, this is very deep, and very exact ! For 
 what is sin, except transgression ? And what is trans- 
 gression unless the passing beyond some limitation of 
 the Creator, which is the law, or the declared will or 
 fiat of God ? And then, what is death, but the doom 
 denounced on transgressors as the penalty of sin, by 
 that " one Lawgiver^ who is able to save and to 
 destroy ?" The doom, our divine admits — " the law 
 dooms us to die ;" but he would omit the thing on 
 which the judicial sentence passes. " Therefore also," 
 he adds, " the unclouded intellect of our British Phi- 
 lologist," Dr. Johnson, " defined mortality, not the 
 
u 
 
 state of being subject to death Jor sin, or doomed to 
 die for sin ; but simply, subject to death, or doomed 
 to die." It were to be wished, that when Mr. C. finds 
 an intellect unclouded, he would leave it as he finds it, 
 and not becloud it by his own crudities and obscuri- 
 ties. Dr. Johnson's third quotation, under the word 
 mortal, is from Milton's Paradise Lost ; and in it we 
 have the all-comprehensive expression, " man's mortal 
 crime !" The crime of which man was guilty was a 
 mortal offence ; and mortal means, even by consent of 
 Mr. C. doomed to die; and according to Sanjuel John- 
 son, to be doomed to die, signifies nothing less than to 
 be " condemned" to it by a " judicial sentence," as " to 
 a pimishment." But on looking to Johnson's second 
 sense of the word tnortal, (for the above quotation from 
 Milton occurs under his first sense) I was greatly sur- 
 prised at Mr. C.'s most inexcusable unfaithfulness, and 
 on such a topic too; for Johnson defines mortal thus — 
 '' deadly^ destructive, procuring death." And he 
 afterwards gives, as a fourth sense, " inferring divine 
 condemnation !" Now ail this is in perfect agreement 
 with the language of scripture, relative to the Lord 
 Jesus Christ. For first, " he hath made him to be sin 
 for us, who himself knew no sin." Secondly, being 
 made sin, he was " made a curse for us ;" katara, from 
 kata, against^ and ara^ a curse — ?i thing or person 
 execrated, or doomed to some punishment ; but not 
 without a cause. For *' the curse causeless shall not 
 come." And reason and common sense would expect, 
 that if an express penalty be incurred, and be exacted 
 too, and undergone, some expressed crime is the foun- 
 dation of the whole judicial process. This mortal crime 
 is in scripture entitled sin; and " the wages of sin is 
 death .'" Accordingly, in the third place, v\ e read of 
 Christ, that " in that he died, he died unto siny And 
 
45 
 
 fourthly, that *' God sending his own Son in tlie simili- 
 tude of the flesh of sin, condemned shi in the flesh." 
 
 These observations will not be quite impertinent as 
 introductory to our first point ; and that is, the nature 
 of the death of Christ. 
 
 In the first place, then, the death of Christ was not 
 owing to disease, or to debility, or to exhaustion, or to 
 accident, or even to external violence offered to his 
 person . 
 
 In the second place, it was not as the direct con- 
 sequence of the offence of the first man Adam ; this 
 could not affect the second man, the last Adam, the 
 Lord from heaven. If the grand-sou of Abraham and 
 David had been his father, as their grand-daughter was 
 certainly his mother, he must have been seminally in 
 their loins ; and if in theirs, in Adam's when he fell ; 
 and by consequence, he must have been involved in. 
 Adam's transgression. But because Joseph was ex- 
 cluded, and the Holy Spirit was himself the begetter, 
 therefore his manhood was the production of a per- 
 fectly original " generation ;" it was a new lump, and 
 a new or second man, at once unleavened with the old 
 leaven of sin, and unimplicated in the primeval disobe- 
 dience ; and therefore, neither was he by nature, or 
 according to natural descent, a child of wrath, as be- 
 gotten in sin, and shapen in iniquity ; nor yet was his 
 death the self-earned wages of sin. 
 
 In the third place, he w^as himself naturally, mo- 
 rally, and legally, unobnoxious to death; because he was 
 begotten " a holy offspring ;" and " he did no sin ;" and 
 both the Eden-law, and the after Mount Sinai code, 
 restricted death to sin — '* the soul, that sinneth, it shall 
 die." 
 
 But, in the fourth place, Christ was capable of 
 death ; that is to say, of dissolution ; or, of a tempo- 
 
4,6 
 
 rary suspension of the positive union between himself, 
 as a human rational soul subsisting in and with the 
 divinity of his person and " the body of his flesh." For, 
 *' the body, without the spirit is dead." And here, 
 therefore, he appears as made in the scale of being, '* a 
 little lower than the angels,"^ and "for the suffering of 
 death ;" for the angels are not naturally capable of 
 death ; nothing but necessity, that is, the necessary 
 omnipotency of the God who created them, could cause 
 them to cease to live ; and which extinction of life in 
 therp, would be a total annihilation. Whereas, in man, 
 it is possible to compass death, by the killing of the 
 body, and so rupturing thejunction between it and the 
 soul, without any sort of annihilation whatsoever of 
 man's personality. 
 
 In the fifth place, then, the death, of which Christ 
 was capable, but not naturally obnoxious to, nor of him- 
 self deserving of, was a 'coluntary death. He was a 
 most perfect volunteer in this affair. He was the shep- 
 herd of the sheep : and " the good shepherd giveth his 
 life for the sheep." And " therefore doth my Father 
 love me," he says, " because I lay down my life, that I 
 might take it again." He was no less the Bridegroom, 
 and the church was the Bride the Lamb's wife ; and 
 " Christ loved the church, and gave himself {oy it." So 
 the apostle Paul avers ; he " loved me, and gave him- 
 self for me." And John also ascribes glory "unto him, 
 that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own 
 blood." And again ; " Be ye followers of God, as chil- 
 dren beloved ; and walk in love, as Christ also hath 
 loved us, and hath given himself for us, an offering and 
 a sacrifice to God, for a sweet- smelling savour." Now 
 what is so free as love ? What gift is so free, as that 
 which love bestows ? What makes a man so ready a 
 volunteer? What principle, motive, emotion, feeling, or 
 
47 
 
 passion, gives birth to voluntary action, equally with 
 love ? Or if we should call it a kind of compulsion, we 
 must confess it to be the purest, most seraphic, and god- 
 like force, the compulsion of the heart. "God so loved, 
 — that he spared not his own Son ;" and " Christ so 
 loved the church, as not to spare his own self, but en- 
 dured the cross, and despised the shame." 
 
 But now, in the sixth place, as Christ was capable of 
 death, and love made him willing to die, and he did 
 really die, in what light may we view his death, that 
 we may see further into the nature of it ? We may 
 consider it as the act of a Surety, — of a Redeemer, — 
 of one who has made and executed his last will and tes- 
 tament, — and of a High Priest. 
 
 It was as the act of a Surety. A surety is a person, 
 free in his body, will, and property ; but who, from 
 some motive known to himself, whether compassion, 
 friendship, gratitude, relationship, or love, involves 
 himself in the affairs and circumstances of some other. 
 He puts himself into the power of a third party, on the 
 account of a second. Sins are called debts, in scripture ; 
 and death is called the wages of sin, or what is due^ on 
 the score of it. Now the Lord Jesus " suffered for 
 sins, the Just One, for the unjust ones, that he might 
 bring us to God, he being put to death in the flesh." 
 Here is the thing he was involved in — our sins; here 
 is the payment of those debts, or the receipt of those 
 wages — put to death in the flesh ; here is the party, on 
 whose account, or who had contracted the debts, or 
 earned the wages — the unjust; and here is also the 
 party to whom he had made himself answerable — even 
 God his Fatlier, as the Judge of all, and whom he 
 satisfied, and to whom he therefore brings us all free 
 from sin, and unobnoxious any longer to the curse and 
 death j " And you," says Paul, " that were sometime 
 
48 
 
 alienated, and enemies in your mind by wicked works, 
 yet now hath he reconciled, in the body of his flesh 
 through death, — to present you holy, and unblameable, 
 and unreproveable, in his sight.'' For, " He hath made 
 >^m to be sin for us, who himself knew no sin; that 
 we might be made the righteousness of God in 
 him.^* 
 
 The death of Christ was also as the act of a Re- 
 deemer. Under the law of Moses, the redeemer or 
 goel^ must be a near kinsman to the party to be avenged. 
 In such a case, he was the proper executioner of justice 
 on the culprit. The mortal offence, — I hope Mr. 
 Chevalier will, with the further use of the unclouded 
 intellect of our British Philologist, understand the 
 epithet, — the mortal offence, committed on a relative, 
 was to be esteemed as though done to a component part 
 of his own and very self, and he was to avenge it, as by 
 a law of retaliation, demanding, not only eye for eye, 
 or tooth for tooth, but blood for blood, and life for life. 
 *' The murderer shall surely be put to death. The 
 revenger of blood himself shall slay the murderer ; when 
 he meeleth him, he shall slay him." This supposed 
 the murder committed, "in enmity," and not " at una- 
 wares." Numb. XXXV. Now the Lord Jesus Christ 
 fastened the crime of murder, and inscribed the cha- 
 racter of murderer, on the prince of the devils. " He 
 was a murderer, from the beginning." John viii. 44. 
 And as if to beget, a sort of shadow of himself, in the 
 first of the progeny of fallen man, he stimulated Cain 
 to the slaughter of his immediate brother; "Cain, who 
 was of that wicked one, and slew his brother," 1 John 
 iii. 12. This then was the enemy to be destroyed by 
 Christ, in favour of his ruined people, and whom he 
 is not ashamed to call his brethren. " I will declare 
 thy name unto my brethren ; in the midst of the 
 
49 
 
 church will 1 sing praise unto thee." Now as Satan 
 had obtained dominion over the Lord's fallen brethren, 
 through sin, so it was by destroying this work of the 
 devil, that the Lord would strip him of his authority 
 as lawful executioner in the cases of all those related 
 to him. " Forasmuch then, as the children were par- 
 takers of flesh and blood," and not of rational souls only, 
 ** he also himself likewise took part of the same ; that, 
 through death, he might destroy him that had the power 
 of death," or rather, depose him who had the empire of 
 death, "that is, the devil, and might deliver them who, 
 through fear of death, were all their life-time subject to 
 bondage." The Gentiles, observe, considered death as 
 the king of terrors; they described it as the most ter- 
 rible of all terribles ; and, it was a hopeless event with 
 them, because they had not the slightest notion of a 
 future resurrection. They are therefore characterised 
 as " having no hope." But the gospel was to be the 
 good news to them, and the glad tidings of " Jesus and 
 the resurrection ;" on which kindred topics the apostle 
 enlarged, when he was at Athens. And in his second 
 epistle to Timothy, he says, " God hath saved us, and 
 called us, with a holy calling, not according to our 
 works, but according to his own purpose and grace, 
 which grace was given to us in Christ Jesus, before the 
 world began ; but which grace is now made manifest, 
 by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ,— w^o 
 hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immor- 
 tality to light by the gospel." He had of old said, by 
 Hosea, " I will be thy King ; 1 will redeem from deaths 
 and ransom from the power of the grave" And this he 
 has now done; so that the believer will undergo a tempo- 
 rary dissolution, and sleep awhile in body in the dust; 
 but he will not die the death of a transgressor, nor 
 by the authority or instrumentality of Satan, nor as 
 
 D 
 
50 
 
 paying a debt due, or as suffering a penalty incurred, 
 or as mortally wounded by "the sting of death," which 
 **is sin ;" on the contrary, he will " die in the Lord," 
 and "sleep in Jesus," and his "flesh shall rest in hope," 
 whilst his soul, being absent from the body, will be 
 " present with the Lord." Now all this is briefly com- 
 prehended in that declaration of the Lord Jesus to 
 Martha, the sister of Lazarus ; " I am the resurrection 
 and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were 
 dead, yet shall he live ; and whosoever liveth, and 
 believeth in me, shall never die. Believest thou this ?" 
 Yea, saith Paul ; " O death ! where is thy sting ? O 
 grave ! where is thy victory ? The sting of death is 
 sin ; and the strength of sin is the law ; but thanks be 
 to God, who giveth to us the victory, through our 
 Lord Jesus Christ." 
 
 But the death of Christ was likewise as that of one, 
 who had made and executed his last ivill and testament. 
 He seemed to sign, seal, and deliver it, as his own act 
 and deed, when, in immediate prospect of his appre- 
 hension, trial, condemnation, and death, he took the 
 wine, and said to his disciples, " This cup is the New 
 Testament in my blood, shed for many for the remis- 
 sion of sins." For he himself was constituted " heir of 
 all things," and " Lord of all," in order that by dying 
 for the atonement of our sins, he might at once cleanse 
 us from all our sins, and bring the New Testament into 
 full force in our favour. " And for this cause," says 
 Paul, ** he is the mediator of the New Testament, that, 
 by means of death for the redemption of the trans- 
 gressions that were under the first testament, they 
 which are called, might receive the promise of eternal 
 inheritance. For where a testament is, there must 
 also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a 
 testament is of force, after men are dead ; otherwise, it 
 
51 
 
 is of no strength at all, whilst the testator liveth." 
 And to show, and record, the extent of its bequests, 
 Paul not only calls us the heirs of God through Christ, 
 and joint or co-heirs with Christ, but says expressly, — 
 " All things are yours ; whether Paul, or Cephas, or 
 Apollos ; or the world ; or life, or death ; or things pre- 
 sent, or things to come ; all things are yours, — for ye 
 are Christ's, and Christ is God's." Now that, in this 
 character, as well as in all the others, Christ resigned 
 his life voluntarily, we gather from his own speech. 
 *' I am the good Shepherd. The good Shepherd giveth 
 his life for the sheep. Therefore doth my Father love 
 me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it 
 again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down 
 of myself. I have power," jmwer and legitimate 
 authority, " to lay it down ; and I have power," power 
 and authority " to take it again. This,'* in fact, " I 
 have received" in charge, or as a '* commandment," in 
 the execution of my official engagements, *' from my 
 Father." 
 
 But, in fine, we noticed one other light in which we 
 might view Christ's death ; and that was, as being the 
 act of a High Priest, offering up a victim, and pouring 
 out its blood, to make an atonement for sin, and to 
 purify the people. In all the shadows of former dis- 
 pensations, the priest was a man, and the victim was 
 an irrational brute. In one instance, indeed, a more 
 powerful adumbration was afforded to the church; I 
 mean, in the affair of Abraham's offering up of his 
 son Isaac, ** for a burnt-offering." Here was a consci- 
 ous victim; and one therefore, who could give intima- 
 tions, either of acquiescence and satisfaction, or the 
 reverse. From the whole story, I incline to think that 
 Isaac entirely acquiesced. And then we gather from 
 the sequel, another peculiar and very important parti- 
 
52 
 
 cular, the designed triumph of the great victim over the 
 death to which he would devote himself. Isaac rose 
 uninjured from the fate, to which he, in compliance 
 with his father's will, had doomed himself; and so did 
 Christ, on the third morn. In all other cases, there was 
 never any revivication or resurrection of the devoted 
 victim; their death could never expiate sin, — their 
 blood never purge the people, and make their conscience 
 good and perfect ; and so, although they were delivered 
 up to death for the offences of the people, in a figure, 
 yet they did not any of them rise again for their justi- 
 fication from their offences. But Isaac, as he was 
 bound, and laid upon the altar, and the knife and the 
 fire and the wood were all ready, and his father's heart 
 fixed in its purpose, and his hand actually stretched out 
 to do the deed, — so his deliverance is esteemed as equi- 
 valent to a resurrection. The will, in this transaction, 
 was taken for the deed. " By faith Abraham, when 
 he was tried, offered up Isaac ; even he that had 
 received the promise, offered up his only begotten son ; 
 accounting that God was able to raise him up even 
 from the dead,— ^om whence also he did receive him, 
 in a figure.'" But as respects Christ, Isaac's antitype, 
 we read his willingness in the very deed. He had 
 declared his readiness before ; he had anticipated the 
 thing by a thousand years, and had said by David, — 
 " Lo, I come, to do thy will, O God ! / delight to do 
 thy will ; yea, thy law is within my hearts It was not 
 merely will, then, but desire ; it was even delight. 
 *' Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it." 
 Here, then, is the still greater mystery, that we find the 
 officiating priest, and the devoted victim, in the same 
 person, " Every high priest," says Paul, " is ordained 
 for men, in things pertaining to God, that he may offer 
 both gifts and sacrifices for sins.*' " Wherefore, it is of 
 
53 
 
 necessity that this one, have a somewhat also to offer.'* 
 And what had he, that could undergo death ? He tells 
 us; *' rt hody ihou hast prepared me." And, says Paul, 
 *' we are sanctified, through the offering of the body of 
 Jesus Christ once.*' For it was not necessary, " that 
 he should offer himself often ; for then must he often 
 have suffered since the foundation of the world; but 
 now once, in the end of the world, he hath appeared, 
 to put away sin, by the sacrifice of himself ." And 
 " so Christ was once offered, to bear," and bear 
 away^ " the sins of many.'* And how shall not then, 
 *' the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit, 
 offered himself without spot to God, purge your con- 
 science from dead works, to serve the living God?" 
 
 This may lead us on, directly, to our second proposed 
 topic ; namely, as to what might be the immediate cause 
 of the death of Christ. 
 
 If any one should say, it was the wound inflicted by 
 the spear of the Roman soldier ; I should answer, no ! 
 For Christ was dead before. Should any one intimate 
 that his death was occasioned by tlie cross, or by the 
 sufferings he endured thereon ; I would still reply, no ! 
 Because he evidently survived the extremity of his ago- 
 nies and conflicts, and yet expired before the ordinary 
 period, and in consequence of which the soldiers " brake 
 not his legs," although they came to do so. But I am 
 perfectly satisfied, thai he was *' saved from" a violent 
 death, from any quarter, " in that he feared" and 
 deprecated such a death, and prayed against it " with 
 strong crying and tears, and was heard;" and then, 
 having rode out the storm, he calmly and deliberately 
 yielded up his spirit, and dismissed it to its paradisaic 
 haven of rest. Heb. v. 5, 7. 
 
 However, these points must be severally tested by 
 the word of God. 
 
 First, then, the wound of the spear was not the 
 
54 
 
 immediate cause of the death of Christ. It was 
 designed for an assuring circumstance of his not 
 having been taken down from the cross alive. The 
 soldiers found him dead already, although he had 
 hung but about six hours on the cross, and therefore 
 they spared his limbs. But had nothing more tran- 
 spired, this would have been ground for suspicion and 
 surmise, of Joseph having taken him from the cross, 
 when not quite dead, and in a state of possible re- 
 covery. And as scripture had predicted, not only 
 that a single bone of him should not be broken, but 
 that he should be pierced, so an all-directing influence 
 prompted a soldier to thrust his spear into his side, 
 and inflict such a wound, and cause such a loss of 
 blood, as would give an effectual death-blow to any 
 such imaginations. Nay, it should seem, that the 
 hostile weapon reached so far as the immediate region 
 of the heart ; because John, who, it is likely, remained 
 very near^the cross, and for a longer time than the 
 other disciples, declares that an effusion of blood and 
 water took place. " Now," says John," there stood by," 
 that is, near to " the cross of Jesus," close under the 
 suspended sufferer, marking every circumstance with 
 the most intense interest, " his mother, and his 
 mother's sister," namely, " Mary the wife of Cleophas, 
 and Mary Magdalene." For of the others, Matthew 
 tells us, that they kept at a distance; " and many 
 women were there, beholding, afar off, who followed 
 Jesus from Gahlee, ministering unto him ;" the above 
 mentioned, along with John, alone drawing close to 
 the cross of Jesus. Mark notes the same thing; "there 
 were also women, looking on, afar off^ And Luke's 
 account is the same; " and all his acquaintances, and 
 the women that followed him from Galilee, stood afar 
 off, beholding these things." So that these three evan- 
 gelists relate the general circumstance ; but the fourth, 
 
55 
 
 namely, John, records the particular exception. To 
 the last, therefore, this disciple displayed, as from the 
 beginning, an undaunted courage ; most true to the 
 name given to himself and his brother James, who fell 
 the first martyr of the twelve apostles, — " Boanerges, 
 or, the sons of thunder." John was not so talkative 
 and boastful as Peter, but far more intrepid in the 
 hour of peril. James and John early displayed that 
 sort of spirit, which Jesus characterised by naming 
 them the sons of thunder. " Lord !" said these brothers, 
 on one occasion, '* wilt thou, that we command fire 
 to come down from heaven, and consume them, even 
 as Elias did?" On another occasion they filled their 
 fellow disciples with indignation, in preferring this 
 request to Christ, and prevailing on their mother to 
 back them in it. ** Grant unto us, that we may sit, 
 the one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left 
 hand, in thy glory !" And when Jesus said, " Can ye 
 drink of the cup that I drink of, and be baptized with 
 the baptism that I am baptized withal ? They say 
 unto him, we can." James fell, early, by the sword of 
 Herod the king; perhaps as making himself conspicuous 
 by his zeal in the cause of the gospel. And John's 
 career is strongly marked all through. On Christ's 
 apprehension, he followed him into the palace of the 
 high priest ; but he did not deny him there, as Peter 
 did. We have already seen him nigh the cross of 
 Jesus, at a moment of great danger, and when the 
 rest stood afar off. And on the first of the week, in 
 going to the sepulchre, John " did outrun Peter, and 
 came first to the sepulchre." These two, after their 
 Pentecost baptism, first went up to the temple, and pro- 
 claimed the gospel, and were seized and imprisoned 
 by the high priest and his attendants, but released 
 by the angel of tlie Lord. And whilst they noticed 
 
56 
 
 " the boldness of Peter and John," these, after being 
 " beaten," or scourged, " departed, — rejoicing that 
 they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his 
 name." But, in a word, as on a former occasion, 
 John developed a more unflinching and uncompromi- 
 sing temper than Peter, so he did, on a later occasion. 
 When Peter was at Antioch, Paul found him dissem- 
 bling; " and the other Jews dissembled likewise, 
 along with him ; insomuch, that Barnabas also," that 
 son of consolation, " was cairied away with their dis- 
 simulation." So did not John at any time betray 
 himself. And well was it for the church, that the 
 Lord had raised up another thunderer, in the person of 
 Paul, of a like spirit with John and James, and who 
 could withstand even Peter, and Barnabas, and their 
 companions, to the face, in order that " the truth of 
 the gospel*' might remain, unleavened with the leaven 
 of the Pharisaical and judaizing professors of the day. 
 
 Now I have exhibited John, as he was, to prove 
 him to have been the well-selected witness of the latest 
 scene of our blessed Lord's crucifixion. A fearful man 
 would, in such a situation, have been frequently 
 diverted from the one object; but not so John. 
 Leaving the others still afar off, he gets as nigh as he 
 can, to the cross of Jesus, along with the three women. 
 He is near enough to hear his voice. For " when Jesus 
 saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved 
 standing by," that is, near, or close at hand, " He 
 saith unto his mother, woman ! behold thy son ! then 
 saith he to the disciple, behold thy mother!" And 
 still John stands at his post ; and watches the soldiers 
 maiming the malefactors on either side of his now 
 already expired Lord, in order to accelerate their death, 
 and overpassing and sparing him, because " when they 
 came to Jesus," they themselves " saw, that he was 
 
57 
 
 dead already.'* " But" although they therefore brake 
 not his legs, and indeed because he was God's own 
 passover-lamb, and must not, as such, be mangled^ — 
 yet, as he must in this character bleed, so " one of 
 the soldiers with a spear pierced his side ; and forth- 
 with'* or instantly, " there came out blood and water. 
 And he that saw it, bare record; and his record is 
 true; and he knoweth" certainly, " that he saith true, 
 that ye might believe. For these things were done 
 that the scripture should be fulfilled ; a bone of him 
 shall not be broken. And again, another scripture 
 saith, they shall look on him whom they pierced." 
 These references at once identify the Lord with the 
 paschal lamb; and they at the same time point us to him 
 on whom we are to look as pierced for our sins, in his 
 character of Jesus, and as anointed on our behalf in 
 his character of Messiah or Christ; and from whom 
 therefore, as the fountain opened for sin and all un- 
 cleanness, and the fountain of living water, we may 
 expect the true blood of atonement, and the true 
 washing of regeneration. 
 
 It is further remarkable, that Matthew and Mark 
 and Luke were not to record the showing of the Lord's 
 side to his disciples, but only of his hands and feet. 
 " Behold my hands, and my feet, that it is I myself. 
 Handle me, and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and 
 bones, as ye see me have. And when he had thus 
 spoken, he showed them his hands and his feet.*' 
 The reason of this seems to be, that most of the 
 others might have been eye-witnesses of his cruci- 
 fixion, as they could perfectly discover him nailed, 
 hands and feet, to the tree, although standing and 
 beholding afar off; but John alone, with the three 
 women, had ocular demonstration of the flow of 
 blood and water, if not also of the wounding of his 
 
58 
 
 side by the soldier's lance. This last, indeed, the 
 infliction of the wound, it is possible for the distant 
 spectators to have witnessed ; but not, the flow of 
 blood and water. And therefore it was left to John 
 to bear witness. Accordingly, in his gospel he most 
 amply supplies the omission of the other evangelists. 
 " At evening, being the first day of the week, came 
 Jesus; and he showed unto them his hands, and his 
 side! But Thomas was not with them. The others 
 therefore said, we have seen the Lord. But he said, 
 except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, 
 and put my finger into the print of the nails," to feel 
 as well as see, " and thrust my hand info his side, I 
 will not believe. And after eight days," or on the 
 next first day of the week, " again came Jesus. Then 
 saith he to Thomas j reach hither thy finger, and 
 behold, my hands! And reach hither thy hand, and 
 thrust it into jnt/ side; and be not faithless, but be- 
 lieving.'* If it should be here asked, how came Thomas 
 to know anything about Christ's wound in his side ? 
 It is to be replied, first, that I have supposed it pos- 
 sible for the distant spectators to have seen the inflic- 
 tion of the wound itself; but, whether this was so, or 
 not, it makes no matter, because, in the next place, it 
 is to be recollected that, on his being taken down 
 from the cross, and delivered up at the solicitation of 
 Joseph of Arimathea, his body must have undergone 
 a nice inspection by him and others, whilst they en- 
 circled it with the profusion of spices, aloes and myrrh, 
 contributed by Nicodemus, and wrapped it up in the 
 customary envelope of linen, preparatory to their de- 
 positing of it in the sepulchre belonging to Joseph. 
 Now John was nigh at hand, to explain to the rest, 
 what he and the three women had seen. The positive 
 resurrection of Christ could only be established on the 
 
59 
 
 positivity of his death. And to confirm this, beyond 
 the possibility of dispute, John was chosen for an 
 especial witness. And from this ground, indeed, he 
 could well contend for Christ's proper manhood in 
 conjunction with his proper divinity, and for his pre- 
 existence, in his official character and capacity, before 
 all worlds, as well as for his after incarnation and open 
 manifestation, in the fulness of time. And thus there- 
 fore he begins his gospel with, — " In the beginning 
 was the Word ; and the Word was with God ; and the 
 Word was himself God. And the Word was made 
 Jlesh ; and dwelt amongst us ; and we beheld his 
 glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, 
 full of grace and truth." For the same reason he 
 begins his first epistle with, — ** That which was from 
 the beginning, which we have heard, which we have 
 seen with our own eyes, which we have narrowly 
 looked upon, and our very hands have handled, — of 
 the word of life, — for, the life was manifested, and 
 we have seen him, and bear witness, and show unto 
 you, that eternal life, which was with the Father, and 
 was manifested unto us; that which we have seen, 
 and heard, declare we unto you, — that ye also may 
 have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is 
 with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. And 
 these things write we unto you, that your joy may be 
 full." 
 
 But more particularly in the fifth chapter of this his 
 first epistle, does John contend for Christ's native 
 Deity on the one hand, and for his real humanity, as 
 proved by his death, on the other. His Deity he 
 bases on his oneness in the Godhead with the Father 
 and the Holy Spirit. " It is the Spirit who is the 
 witness, because the Spirit is the truth. For indeed 
 there are three parties who bear witness in the heaven, 
 
60 
 
 the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit ; and these 
 three parties are one ;" en theion, one Godhead. This 
 therefore is described as " the witness of God.'* If it 
 be said, we cannot deny the Father having witnessed 
 to Jesus at his baptism, and at other times, nor that 
 the Holy Spirit did so; but we object to Christ being 
 a third witness in his own favour ; I reply, that in the 
 eighth of John he says, " I am not alone ; but I my- 
 self, and the Father who sent me. It is written in 
 your law, that the testimony of two persons is true. 
 I am one person who bear witness of myself; and the 
 Father who sent me, he beareth his witness of me.** 
 Now if we superadd the Holy Spirit as the third, we 
 have, as here, all the fulness of the Godhead concurring 
 and uniting in one testimony. And then, to put the 
 Lord's manhood beyond dispute, he rests it on his 
 death. For as some of the Gnostics, or knowing ones 
 of John*s day, denied his divinity, so others gainsayed 
 his humanity, and likewise the reality of his sufferings 
 and death. Therefore, says John, " Every spirit that 
 confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the Jiesh, is of 
 God.** " And whosoever believeth that Jesus is the 
 Christy is begotten of (iod.** And " who is he that 
 overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus 
 is the Son of God f This is he that came by watei- 
 and blood, Jesus, the Christ; not by water only, but 
 by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who is the 
 witness, because the Spirit is the truth." The Holy 
 Spirit in the apostles, enabling them faithfully and 
 correctly to record what they had seen and heard ; 
 and also, the same Spirit in the hearts of the saints, 
 enabling them to receive the apostolical testimony, and 
 abide by it, 1 John iv. 4—6. and ii. 20—29. " But 
 indeed, there are three who bear witness in the hea- 
 ven — the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and 
 
61 
 
 these three are one. And there are three that beat 
 witness on earth ; the spirit, and the water, and the 
 blood; and these three agree in one," in one evidence. 
 And this is *' the witness of men j*' of John, as the 
 principal, who with the three women saw tlie side of 
 Jesus pierced, and the blood and water issue out of 
 the wound ; and of the others, who either saw at a 
 distance, or beheld the dead body after, and heard 
 from John, and the mother of our Lord, and the two 
 other women, all the particulars. Now, adds John, 
 you receive this testimony ; " but if we receive the 
 witness of men, the witness of God is greater; and 
 this is the witness of God, which he hath testified 
 concerning his Son. He that believeth on the Son of 
 God, hath the witness" of God " in himself. He that 
 believeth not God, hath made him a liar ; because he 
 believeth not the record that God hath given of his 
 Son. And this is the record of God ; that God hath 
 given to us eternal life ; and this life is in his Son. He 
 that hath the Son hath life ; and he that hath not the 
 Son of God hath not life. These things have I written 
 unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God ; 
 that ye may know" certainly *' that ye have eternal 
 life, and that ye may" continue to " believe on the 
 name of the Son of God." 
 
 Thus then you see how all these links form one 
 chain ; the Saviour is the Son of God, — he was made 
 flesh : — he is Jesus, and he is the Christ, — and he did 
 really suffer, and die, and thus expiate our sins, and 
 become the fountain of life to those who believe in his 
 name. 
 
 But now, to resume the immediate thread of our 
 discourse; the wound of the spear did not cause the 
 death of Christ, because the soldiers themselves de- 
 clared him dead already. This is one testimony. 
 
6!^ 
 
 Then Mark and Luke both give us that of the 
 centurion, in particular j *' when the centurion, who 
 stood over against him, saw^ that he so cried out," as 
 he did the second time, exclaiming, *' It is finished !** 
 and then, commending his spirit to his Father, '* he 
 " gave up the spirit/' " he said, truly this man was the 
 Son of God." He did not merely breathe out his last 
 breath, or expire, as we are wont to say ; but, as Luke 
 has it, " when Jesus had cried" the second time, " with 
 a loud voice, he said, Father ! into thy hands I com- 
 mit my spii'it. And having said thus, he then breathed 
 out his last breath." And with this, the statement of 
 John agrees, who says, — " And he bowed his head, 
 and gave up the spirit." The verb, here, signifies the 
 delivering over a thing from one person to another, or 
 from one place to another ; and it therefore well ex- 
 presses Christ's act, in his death, of delivering up his 
 soul or spirit to the care of his Father. Now Luke's 
 account confirms this, because he records Christ's, 
 prayer ; " Father ! into thy hands / put,''' or '* to 
 thy hands / entrust, my spirit." And Matthew's 
 phrase is much to the same purport; ** he sent 
 away," or " dismissed the spirit." Here then is, as 
 John avers, one of the three special witnesses on 
 earth ; not only the soldiers, who saw him dead, and 
 the centurion who saw him expire, attest his death, — 
 but his own dismissal of his soul or spirit, and his 
 commission of it to his Father's care : these acts of 
 Christ, in relation to his spirit, are a grand demon- 
 stration of his proper death. And then follow the 
 blood and water. The blood issues instantly from the 
 wound in the side ; and is followed by the water from 
 the pericardium ; a thin membrane, resembling a 
 purse, with a small quantity of water in it, and con- 
 taining the heart in its cavity, A wound so deep, 
 
63 
 
 could not have been inflicted by a Roman spear 
 without producing in the subject powerful symptoms 
 of life, had not life been already extinct ; and thus all 
 the three, the spirit, as dismissed, — and the water, 
 from the very region of the heart, — and the blood 
 from the side, agree in the one testimony of the death 
 of Christ ; and by consequence of his real and proper 
 manhood. 
 
 But we were, secondly, to enquire, whether the 
 cross itself, or the sufferings Jesus endured thereon, 
 may be esteemed the immediate cause of his death. 
 
 It must here be first granted, that Christ's death 
 was verily " the death of the cross." This death was 
 a Roman mode of punishment, and an infamous one. 
 In proof of this, it will suffice to observe, that when 
 Peter and Paul fell martyrs at Rome, the first was 
 crucified ; but the second, being a Roman citizen, 
 could not be subjected to such a disgraceful death ; 
 and he was therefore slain by the sword. It was so 
 scandalous, that it was inflicted as the last mark of 
 degradation on the vilest of the people. It was the 
 punishment of notorious robbers and murderers ; that 
 is, provided they were slaves also ; for if they were 
 Jree, as Paul was by his birth, and had the privilege 
 of the city of Rome, it was thought too infamous a 
 punishment for them, whatever might be their crimes. 
 And besides this, as it was similar to the Jewish fashion 
 of suspension on a tree, whose trunk and branches 
 formed a natural cross, so it was held equally infamous 
 by the Hebrews; and whose law, indeed, had denounced 
 it as a sort of execration of heaven. " If a man have 
 committed a sin, worthy of death, and he be to be put 
 to death, and thou hang him on a tree ; his body shall 
 not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in 
 any wise bury him that day, — for, he that is hanged, is 
 
64 
 
 accursed of God!" or, "is the curse of God." Deut. xxi. 
 Now this, although contrary to the Roman custom, took 
 place in the case of Christ. Well therefore, in the 
 humbling of himself, is it stated, that he became " obe- 
 dient unto death, even the death of the cross." And 
 again, that he " endured the cross, despising the shamed 
 And that, " Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of 
 the law, he being himself made a curse for us.*' 
 
 But the death of the cross was the most dreadful of all 
 others for the 'pain of it, as well as for its shame. This 
 kind of death, then, might intimate the severity of those 
 sufferings to whicii the Son of Man was doomed as made 
 sin, and by whose sufferings or *' stripes, we are healed." 
 But these were not the external violences done to his 
 body on the cross ; for these were not such, as to acce- 
 lerate death. The torment of the cross, was not from 
 intenseness, but from long continuation. It was hardly 
 possible for Christ to have expired in six hours, from 
 being nailed to the wood by his hands and his feet. 
 And because this never happened in so short a space of 
 time, therefore, to accommodate the Jews, when cruci- 
 fixion was resorted to in Judea, the Roman governors 
 allowed violence to be resorted to, to hasten death, that 
 the bodies might be removed before night. Of itself, 
 the cross proved fatal only by exhaustion. Sometimes 
 the victims lived long on it. St. Andrew is said to have 
 survived at least three days. Eusebius speaks of cer- 
 tain martyrs in Egypt, who were kept on the cross 
 until they were starved to death. The martyrs, Timo- 
 theus and Maura, are said to have continued lingering 
 for nine days. And among some nations, the criminals 
 were suffered to remain exposed, until, if exhaustion 
 did not previously deprive them of existence, the birds 
 of prey or wild beasts devoured them alive. Now as 
 the Lord Jesus hung but six hours on the accursed 
 
65 
 
 tree, and died witliout violence within that time, he 
 being manifestly defunct when the Roman military 
 arrived to execute the accustomed butchery, and on 
 which account thej spared his limbs, and only pierced 
 his side — it is clear, that although he did most truly 
 die the death of the cross, and was covered with all its 
 shame, yet he did not expire by the action of the ma- 
 terial cross. 
 
 Nor, in the next place, can I consent to it, that Jesus 
 underwent a violent death, by the action of his inward 
 conflicts upon the cross. That they were great, no ques- 
 tion ; no doubt they were awfully tremendous. Em- 
 phatically, here, he was the man of sorrows. He was 
 tossed on a raging ocean of affliction, all whose waves 
 and billows did not so much roll over him, and roar 
 around him, as break in and rush like so many mighty 
 torrents on his soul, to spend their fury there. " The 
 sorrows of death" did indeed encompass him, and the 
 very "pains of hell" gat hold upon him. His sufferings 
 then were sharp enough to have cut the thread of life 
 asunder; quite severe enough to have snapt it in a mo- 
 ment. Even his agony in the garden of Gethsemane 
 was amazing; for some little space it seemed all insuf- 
 ferable; and the inward anguish, at last producing an 
 universal perspiration of blood, appeared to threaten 
 immediate dissolution to the outer man. But it was 
 upon the cross he was to endure the climax of his woe. 
 He had undergone shame before, and suffering, but 
 these were only preludes; the catastrophe was reserved 
 for Golgotha, where the last scene was to be, for a while, 
 all derision, and desertion, and the extreme of unutter- 
 able sorrow, and inducing such consternation of spirit, 
 and such confusion of soul, as should compel the dolo- 
 rous exclamation, "My God ! my God ! why hast thou 
 forsaken me!" But iiere the proud waves were stayed; 
 
 E 
 
6^ 
 
 the storm was spent, and subsides, and leaves the vessel 
 unwrecked, to hail the succeeding calm. Like a ter- 
 rible distemper, which has run its stages, even to its 
 height, and in its latest paroxysm has exhausted all its 
 fury, and from that veiy crisis abates and declines, and 
 gradually forsakes its victim; the vial of the divine 
 vengeance was now emptied, and Jesus had drunken 
 up the full cup of fury to its last drop, and drained it 
 to its lowest dregs, and the dread potion had wrought 
 its deadliest effects, and a reaction succeeds — the life, 
 inextinguishable by foreign force, revives ; and, in the 
 perfection of its own self-possession, performs its proper 
 functions in the fulfilment of certain duties ; and then, 
 as its latest act, in the calmness of conscious innocency, 
 and with all the complacent dignity of conscious autho- 
 rity to make an immolation of itself for the benefit of 
 others, it pours out itself into the bosom of the paternal 
 divinity, and unto the death of his fleshly frame, that 
 it may become a vital current, a stream of life and sal- 
 vation to the sons of men. 
 
 This was our third question. If the cross, with all 
 its various external offensive and violent circumstances, 
 did not accomplish the death of Christ, and if his in- 
 ward and very mysterious conflicts and agonies did also 
 fail to effect this event, what was it which did ? My 
 answer is, his own self-will, strengthened, and invigo- 
 rated, and confirmed by the eternal Spirit, in unison 
 with the righteous will of his Father, and in corre- 
 spondency with his official character, and engagement, 
 and duty, as the great High Priest of God, provided as 
 he was with a " somewhat to offer," namely, the body 
 prepared for him, in order that he might make an 
 atonement for sin once for ever and aye, and obtain 
 ** eternal redemption for us." 
 
 Let us, then, try this sentiment by the scriptures; 
 
67 
 
 for if it be genuine, it will stand the test of that touch- 
 stone. 
 
 I would observe, at first, that Dr. Doddridge, al- 
 though he does not pursue the subject to any sufficient 
 or satisfactor}'^ length, yet makes the following coin- 
 ciding remarks. " The evangelists use different words 
 in expressing our Lord's death; which I a little wonder 
 that our translators render in the same manner — he 
 yielded or gave up the ghost. Mark and Luke say, 
 he expired; John, he yielded up his spirit; but Mat- 
 thew's language is yet more singular, he dismissed his 
 spirit." Though the fact is, that Luke's testimony of 
 Christ's saying, '* Into thy hands I deposit my spirit," 
 in connexion with John's, " He bowed his head, and 
 consigned over the spirit," is full as strong, or rather 
 stronger. Still, as the Doctor adds, " Now this expres- 
 sion," or better, these expressions, " seem admirably to 
 suit our Lord's words, '* No man taketh my life from 
 me, but I lay it down of myself;" showing, as the strong- 
 cry which so much impressed the centurion did, that 
 he died by the voluntarrj act of his own mind, accord- 
 ing to the power" or authority *' received from the 
 Father, and in a way peculiar to himself, by which lie 
 alone of all men that ever existed could have continued 
 alive even in the greatest tortures as long as he pleased, 
 or have retired from the body whenever he thought 
 fit. Which view of the case, by the way, suggests an 
 illustration of the love of Christ manifested in his death, 
 beyond what is commonly observed; inasmuch as he did 
 not use this power to quit his body, as soon as ever it was 
 fastened to the cross, leaving only an insensible corpse 
 to the brutality of his murderers, but continued his abode 
 in it with a steady resolution as long as it was proper ; 
 and then retired from it with a majesty and dignity 
 never known, or to be known, in any other death ; 
 
68 
 
 (lying\ if I may so express it, like the Prince of life /" 
 This, I think to be in the main, correct ; but defective 
 in one point, in not admitting the absolute necessity 
 our Lord was under to endure the entirety of the penal 
 sufferings for our sins, he having once consented to be 
 made sin and a curse in our room ; for as it was in the 
 agony in the garden, the conflict was all but insufferable 
 to the humanity, and it therefore wrung from his in- 
 most soul that deep sighing for a little respite, " If it be 
 possible, let this cup pass ! nevertheless, not my will, 
 but thine be done!" so was it in the full travail of his 
 soul on the cross, travailing in the birth of " his seed," 
 his " holy nation," the throes of labour, the pangs of 
 deliverance, such, in comparison, as sink the severest 
 pains of parturient women down to less than nothing, 
 extorted from him, as by the torture of intolerable an- 
 guish, that agonizing cry, " My God ! my God ! why 
 hast thou forsaken me !" Therefore, I esteem the 
 Doctor in part incorrect, in that he represents the 
 Lord Jesus as endowed with power or authority by his 
 Father, to ** have retired from the body, whenever he 
 thought fit;" although, as he confesses, "he did not 
 use this power to quit his body, as soon as ever it was 
 fastened to the cross." The fact is, he had power and 
 authority from the Father, to lay down his life, of his 
 own accord, and without any force at all, ctfter he 
 should have satisjied the divine justice for sin, by his 
 sufferings, and then again to resume his life by the 
 reanimation of his dead body and its resurrection from 
 the grave ; but he did not officially receive power and 
 authority merely to touch the cross, and then imme- 
 diately desert it. No ! He travailed there, and there 
 he was delivered ; and of no abortive offspring either, 
 but of a living seed ; and he survived the labour too, 
 and himself declared it " finished ;" and then, as some 
 
69 
 
 fond mother outlives her trouble and her sorrow, but 
 only just for a little moment, to see, and smile upon, 
 and bless her new-born babe, and to forget her gone by 
 anguish in the joy of a successful birth, being snatched 
 away at once by sudden death — so Jesus, having said, 
 *' I thirst," and then pronounced his labour finished, 
 and the birth complete, he resigns himself to the death 
 to which he had devoted himself, not from exhaustion 
 or disease, like the expiring mother of the living child, 
 but by a priestly act of self -oblation, and which is 
 thus interpreted by Paul ; " Christ hath loved us, and 
 hath given his own self for us, an offering and a sacri- 
 fice to God, for an odour of a sweet and grateful 
 smell;' Eph. v. 2. 
 
 But, in the second place, I have studiously enlarged 
 on this particular, in consequence of having some time 
 ago read a dissertation on the death of Christ in the 
 periodical work belonging to the connexion of the late 
 Countess of Huntingdon. It is by a highly respectable 
 
 physician of London, a Doctor S d; and is dated, 
 
 the first part, December, 1828, and the second part, 
 March, 1829. Some of the observations are good ; 
 but others seem decidedly exceptionable. Among the 
 latter, I rank the following. " The voice of prophecy 
 had proclaimed, that the Saviour of mankind would 
 suffer a deaths at once violent and voluntary. His 
 heart was to be pierced ; and he was to die, sud- 
 denli/, as a sin-offering, by the effusion of his lifers 
 blood, the appointed means of atonement. The 
 revolting, if not immoral supposition, of self-destruc- 
 tion, has been erroneously deduced from the declara- 
 tion of Jesus, that no man took his life from him, but 
 that he laid it down of himself; and from the expres- 
 sion of some of the evangelists, that he resigned or 
 dismissed his Spirit. But, the first of these phrases 
 
70 
 
 means only, that Christ voluntarily .submitted to a 
 violent death, which he had it in his 2^ower to avoid ; 
 and the second, signifies nothing more than the act of 
 dying. The assertions of the New Testament, that 
 Jesus was slain by his enemies, and suffered the 
 death of the cross, are in themselves sufficient to 
 show, that his death was tr?di/ and naturally induced 
 by the sufferings incidental to his crucifixion." So far 
 in the first part. In tlie second part, " It is at once 
 alleged, that the immediate cause of our Saviour's 
 death, was, rwpture of the heart, occasioned by agony 
 of mind ! Thus, on entering the garden of Gethse- 
 mane, he declared, " My soul is exceeding sorrowful, 
 even unto death.'* And it seems to be intimated by 
 the apostle Paul, in Hebrews v. 4 — 9. that death 
 would have been the speedy result of the awful conflict 
 in which he was engaged, had he not been strength- 
 ened by supernatural aid." 
 
 There is manifestly much confusion in all this. 
 " Christ was to die a violent death. He was to die 
 suddenly, by the effusion of his life's blood, through 
 the piercing of his heart. His death was truly and 
 naturally induced by the sufferings incidental to his 
 crucifixion. And it is at once alleged, that the im- 
 mediate cause of our Saviour's death, was, rupture of 
 the heart, occasioned by agony of mind !" Now, waiv- 
 ing any remarks on the other parts of this statement, 
 which have been anticipated, and refuted already, we 
 will bend our attention to the last particular; from 
 which, and from his whole dissertation, we gather, 
 that this physician's notion is, that agony of mind 
 caused a rupture of the heart of Christ ; that he 
 died in consequence of this, namely, of a broken or 
 ruptured heart ; and, that this accounts for the flow 
 of blood and water from his wounded side, or rather, 
 
71 
 
 through his wounded side, hxxi^from his pierced heart; 
 for " such rupture," he observes, " is usually attended 
 by instant death, without previous exhaustion, and by 
 an effusion into the pericardium of blood, which, in 
 this particular case, separates into its constituent parts" 
 the serum and the coagulum, ** so as to present the 
 appearance, commonly termed blood and water.'* 
 
 Now all this may be in some sort true ; but as I 
 cannot think his heart was pierced by the spear, nor 
 yet ruptured by sorrow, but only the side up to the 
 pericardium wounded, — so I think his previous death 
 was perfectly sudden as well as voluntary, by the 
 instant dismissal of his soul or spirit. In such a 
 case, the muscles would neither contract, nor would 
 the blood coagulate, but remain fluid ; the whole 
 entire body, in fact, would remain perfect, and unin- 
 jured, and only marked by those scars of honour, the 
 fruits of his humiliation and abasement, the impres- 
 sions of the thorns on his head, the print of the nails 
 in his hands and feet, and the wound of the spear 
 in his side. " Such deaths,'* says John Hunter, *' as 
 prevent the contraction of the muscles, or the coagu- 
 lation of the blood, are, I believe, always sudden." 
 And then there was a natural consequence to be coun- 
 teracted ; for " in all these cases," adds Hunter, *' the 
 body soon putrijies after death." But in the exces- 
 sively hot climate of Palestine, the dead body ordi- 
 narily corrupts most rapidly. True, the Lord Jesus 
 continued dead, only from Friday afternoon three or 
 four o*clock, to the first day of the week very early 
 in the morning. Still, the possibility of the sinister 
 action was prevented, by the recorded decree of the 
 Most High God. " He, whom God raised again,** says 
 Paul, ** saw no corruption." And Peter attests the 
 same; and quotes a prediction to this amount, from 
 
72 
 
 the 16th Psalm. There, David is personating his root 
 and offspring, the Messiah ; and says, — " Therefore 
 my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth ; my flesh 
 also shall I'esl in hope. For, thou will not leave my 
 animal frame in hades," or the grave ; " neither wilt 
 thou suffer thy Holy One even to see corruption there. 
 Thou wilt show me the path of life," in my speedy 
 resurrection and ascension ; " in thy presence is ful- 
 ness of joy ; at thy right hand are pleasures for 
 evermore." 
 
 At length, however, we must come to the test. 
 
 Now the scripture referred to, by Doctor S d, is 
 
 very important. In the 5th chapter of Hebrews, the 
 apostle is speaking of Christ as a High Priest, whose 
 office it is, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins ; and 
 having quoted the 110th Psalm to prove his priest- 
 hood, as not according to the Aaronic order, or Levi- 
 tical dispensation, but according to the earlier and 
 kingly priesthood of Melchisedec, he adds, — " who, 
 in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers 
 and supplications, with strong crying and tears, unto 
 him that was able to save him from deaths and was 
 heard., in that he feared, though he were a Son, yet 
 learned he obedience by the things which he suffered ; 
 and being made perfect, he became the author of 
 eternal salvation unto all them that obey him ; called by 
 God an Higli Priest, after the order of Melchisedec." 
 
 First, what was the death which Jesus feared ? It 
 implies a horrific sort of death, of which he had a sore 
 apprehension, and against which he felt a holy abhor- 
 rence of soul, and from which therefore he importuned 
 for deliverance. As there is a mysteriousness enve- 
 loping the sufferings of Christ, may not this tend to 
 develop a something of their nature? Jesus was to 
 suffer, on the score of sin. But the doom of sin 
 
73 
 
 reaches beyond death and the grave, and extends 
 even to an " everlasting destruction from the presence 
 of Jehovah, and from the glory of his power;" this is 
 " the second death." Now as the manhood was to be 
 exposed to the extremest point of possible suffering, 
 we may suppose that Satan, with his legions, who 
 began to tempt and try the Lord in the wilderness, 
 did latterly assay him with this terrible test ; *' thou 
 hast consented to be made sin, and a curse, and to die 
 a death the scriptures pronounce to be execrated by 
 God. What ground hast thou then, for any hope of 
 deliverance ?" For be it remembered, that the devil 
 assailed him with holy writ, in the desert ; and, that 
 he w^as busily engaged in the awful transaction of the 
 crucifixion, we see from his entering into Judas at the 
 supper ; and from the supper, it was, that Jesus pro- 
 ceeded to the garden of Gethsemane. He had just 
 told his disciples that his hour of betrayment was at 
 hand ; and now seemed to begin the workings of 
 what he himself called " the power of darkness." 
 The cup was full in his view, the very cup of fury 
 and of trembling, and whose portion he must drink 
 up even to the dregs, and wring them out. The pros- 
 pect induced, not only sorrow, but astounding con- 
 sternation ; " Tarry ye here," said he, to his three 
 disciples, " and watch with me.'* For " he began to 
 be very heavy, sorrowful, and sore amazed ;" or rather, 
 " to be in a great dejection, amazement, and anguish 
 of mind." Nor did he disguise the fact ; but he said 
 openly to them, " My soul is exceeding sorrowful even 
 unto death !" Then advancing a little from them, he 
 kneeled down, and fell on his face to the ground, and 
 prayed aloud, " That if it were possible, the hour 
 might pass from him. And he said, Abba ! Father ! 
 aill things are possible unto thee : O my Father ! if it 
 
74 
 
 be possible, take away this cup, and let it pass from 
 me ! Nevertheless, not what I will, but what thou 
 wilt !" This the Lord repeated, a second, and a third 
 time ; and in the third conflict, as though it had ga- 
 thered treble strength, " there appeared an angel unto 
 him from heaven, strengthening him ;" not mitigating 
 his sufferings, but encouraging him to endure them. 
 " And" accordingly, " being" at last, notwithstanding 
 this support, " in an agony, he prayed still more in- 
 tensely ; and his sweat was, as it were great drops of 
 blood falling down to the ground !" This was quite 
 enough, to have induced death, if this fate had been 
 designed for Christ ; 1 mean to die a violent death. 
 We hear many accounts of such deaths ; as of Charles 
 the IXth of France, by Voltaire ; and of some, whose 
 bloody sweats were caused by powerful agitations of 
 the soul. Indeed, Dr. S. admits this. " On entering 
 the garden of Gethsemane, he declared, my soul is 
 exceeding sorrowful even unto death; and it seems 
 to be intimated by the apostle Paul, in Hebrews v. 
 4 — 9. that death would have been the speedy result 
 of the awful conflict in which he was engaged, had he 
 7iot been strengthened by supernatural aid. Thus 
 supported, he continued to endure the extremity of 
 mental anguish." Let us then carry this on to the 
 cross. There was, no doubt, a respite of his conflict, 
 immediately after the sweat of blood ; because the 
 Lord showed a most perfect possession of himself, and 
 wonderful energy of mind, and resolution of charac- 
 ter, from that moment, both in his betrayment, and 
 all through his long and tedious trial, and amid the 
 mockeries and insults and cruelties offered him in the 
 course of it and subsequently, and during all the first 
 stage of the crucifixion itself. He was fastened to 
 the cross about nine in the morning of Friday, having 
 
75 
 
 been taken into custody in the evening of Thursday ; 
 and the first action, afterwards, was his prayer, — 
 " Then said Jesus, Father ! forgive them ; for they 
 know not what they do." Then the crowd began to 
 taunt, mock, deride, and revile him ; the people, the 
 passengers, and the chief priests, rulers, scribes, and 
 elders ; the Roman soldiers also ; and even the male- 
 factors from their crosses, railed on him, and cast their 
 villainous scoffings and scornings in his teeth. Nay, 
 they blasphemed him as an impostor, and said, '* If 
 thou be the Christ," or Messiah, ** save thyself and 
 us !" Now one of these was a brand, that was to 
 be plucked from the burning ; and after a little, 
 he showed a better mind. He no longer united with 
 his comrade, in a stream of abuse ; *' but** altering his 
 tone of a sudden, '* rebuked him, saying, dost not thou 
 fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation ? 
 And we, indeed, justly ; for we receive the due reward 
 of our deeds ; but this man hath done nothing amiss. 
 And he" then turned his address, and " said unto 
 Jesus, Lord! remember me, when thou comest into 
 thy kingdom.** Now to be convinced that, up to this 
 period, Jesus still possessed his soul in peace and com- 
 posure, we have only to mark his reply to this robber 
 and murderer, in the midst of all the clamours that 
 still beset him all round ; " And Jesus said unto him, 
 verily I say unto thee, to-day shalt thou be with me in 
 paradise !** The next incident is thus stated. " Now 
 there stood, close to the cross of Jesus," while the 
 others stood afar off, " His mother, and his mother's 
 sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary of Mag- 
 dala, along with the apostle John. When Jesus there- 
 fore," being still quite himself, " saw his mother, and 
 the disciple whom he loved, standing near, he saith 
 
76 
 
 unto his mother, Woman ! behold thy Son ! Then 
 saith he to the disciple, Behold, thy mother!" 
 
 Thus far then, down, it may be, to the noon of tlie 
 day, or about twelve o'clock, the Lord Jesus displayed 
 the perfection of patient endurance, and of compassion, 
 thought, and consideration. But now, a preternatural 
 darkness hangs over the scene, sad symbol of the super- 
 natural eclipse of the Sun of Righteousness, the light 
 of the world ! ** Now, it was about the sixth hour," 
 or twelve o'clock at noon ; " and from the sixth hour, 
 there was darkness over all the land ;" either contigu- 
 ous to Jerusalem, or of the whole of Judea, " unto the 
 ninth hour.'* So then, the first three hours were com- 
 paratively a sweet calm in the soul of Jesus, although 
 externally the scene was all a disturbed atmosphere of 
 tumultuous elements ; whereas the three last, during 
 which it is likely the outward uproar ceased, put an 
 end to at least by the awful gloom of the frowning 
 heavens, if it continued till then, were hours of internal 
 blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and all but dis- 
 mal despair. Satan, now desperate, and knowing the 
 time to be short, will make his last effort; and Jesus, 
 now worn with long exposure to every variety of ex- 
 hausting circumstances, was thus pre-disposed to be 
 wrought upon with the greatest effect; and he might 
 feel within himself as though the sun refused to shine, 
 or the heavens to let it shine on him, to tell him that 
 his Father God must now avert his face from him, as 
 made sin and a curse ; he being of purer eyes than to 
 behold evil, or can only look upon iniquity in order to 
 frown upon and condemn it. But nothing is recorded 
 until the last hour, when we may suppose the conflict 
 was at its highest pitch ; " and about the ninth hour," 
 or three o'clock of the afternoon, "Jesus cried out with 
 
77 
 
 a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabacthani ! that 
 is to say, being interpreted, my God! my God! why hast 
 thou forsaken me ! And some of those that stood by 
 there," not clearly understanding what he said, " when 
 they heard him, said, behold, this man calleth for Elias!" 
 But no immediate death ensued upon this paroxysm ; 
 but rather, here the storm of vengeance was spent. 
 For, " after this, Jesus," being recovered again, as after 
 his agony in the garden, and " knowing that all things 
 were now accomplished,^'' but " that the scripture might 
 be fulfilled" in its minutest point, " saith, I thirst ! Now 
 there was set there,'* as the common drink of the Ro- 
 man soldiers, when mixed with water, " a vessel full 
 of vinegar. And straightway one of them ran, and 
 took a sponge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it 
 upon hyssop on a reed, and put it to his mouth, and 
 gave him to drink. But others of them said, Let alone; 
 let us see whether Elias will come to save him, and 
 take him down." But now, that which was written 
 having been sufficiently verified, " when J^sus, there- 
 fore, had received the vinegar, he said. It is finished!" 
 This, it is likely, was the sentence which he uttered, 
 when " he cried out again, the second time, with a loud 
 voice." And when he had thus proclaimed the Jinis 
 of the great work which the Father gave him to do, 
 he, according to the authority committed to him, and 
 in filial obedience to his Father's will, would now make 
 the voluntary oblation of his life as a propitiation for 
 sin. "And he said, Father, into thy hands I commit 
 my spirit. And after having said this, he bowed his 
 head, and dismissed his spirit, and expired. And when 
 the centurion, who" with his band of soldiers as a watch, 
 " stood over against him, saw that he so cried out aloud 
 and expired, he said, truly this was the Son of God !" 
 But secondly, if such was the voluntary death which 
 
78 
 
 Jesus died upon the cross, to which, however, he was 
 sentenced by the Jews and the Gentiles combined, 
 whose sin therefore remains the same, both in their 
 condemnation of him, and in the execution, notwith- 
 standing the secret purpose of God, that so it was to 
 be, Acts ii. 23, 24. and iv. 26 — 28. — If, I say. such 
 was the death he died, what was the death he dreaded, 
 and deprecated, and from which he was delivered'^ 
 My answer is, a violent death ; just such as Doctor 
 S. contends for ; because he would have expired in 
 despair, and under the hopeless prospect of everlasting- 
 destruction. " It is ^fearful thing," says Paul, " to 
 fall into the hands of the living God." And Jesus 
 found it so, when God his Father began to *' condemn 
 sin in his flesh." Rom. viii. 3. and Isa. liii. 5, 10. He 
 had, for a time, '* a fearful looking for of judgment 
 and fiery indignation ;" and this, made the uttermost of 
 by the temptations of the infernal spirits, might, I con- 
 ceive, swell the sufferings of Christ to such an inunda- 
 tion as threatened to overwhelm him quite. We discover 
 a somewhat of the satanic power, in the temptation in 
 the desert ; the devil was able to create visionary scenes, 
 and to make them as though immediately present to 
 the mind of Christ ; first, of the holy city Jerusalem, 
 and of the temple there, on " the pinnacle," or topmost 
 turret of the king's portico, of which he seemed to be 
 placed, so as to look down and behold the dizzy depth 
 of the valley beneath; and then, of " an exceeding high 
 mountain,'* from whose summit there was seen an en- 
 tire view, a sort of panoramic representation of " all 
 the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them.'* 
 Now if Satan could give being to such spectacles as 
 these, to tempt the Son of Man, he could as easily con- 
 jure up a sight of hell and destruction, and strive to 
 terrify his victim by some horrifying pictures of the 
 
79 
 
 demerit of sin, in the dismal doom of the ungodly, suf- 
 fering the vengeance of eternal fire in the bottomless abyss 
 of gehenna. And thus " he suffered, being tempted." 
 And the tide of his sea of temptations and sufferings, 
 having flowed on to the full, about the ninth hour, or 
 three o'clock, Jesus then uttered his cry of despair; but 
 ** hitherto shalt thou come," the decree had said, "but 
 no further ;" and at once the rapid reflux of the proud 
 waves brought relief, when the Son of Man had suf- 
 fered to the utmost of possible endurance. And thus 
 " the Captain of our salvation was made perfect through 
 sufferings,** Heb. ii. 10. He " was heard, in that he 
 feared;" and was heard by " him that was able to 
 save him from" a violent and despairing "death." And 
 " although he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by 
 the things which he suffered; and" therefore, *' being 
 made perfect" by them, he voluntarily resigned himself 
 to the death of the cross, and thus " became the Author 
 of eternal salvation to all them that render unto him 
 the obedience of faith." 
 
 We will, in the third place, endeavour to confirm 
 what has been advanced, by a collation of apposite 
 scriptures. The severity of the last conflict had made 
 the mouth of Jesus parched ; and therefore, when it 
 was over, he said, '* I thirst !" And they gave him a 
 sponge full of vinegar ; and after he " had received 
 the vinegar, he said, it is finished." John xix. 28 — 30. 
 But Jesus could have, no doubt, borne the thirst, the 
 time being now arrived for his speedy exit out of the 
 body ; he, however, knowing that all things were 
 now accomplished, saith, I thirst; "that the scrip- 
 ture might be fulfilled !" He was now collected ; and 
 he remembered the psalm of David which had said, 
 a thousand years before, " In my thirst they gave 
 me vinegar to drink." For, it is remarkable enough. 
 
80 
 
 that at their first arrival at Golgotha or Calvary, prior 
 to the actual crucifixion taking place, according to the 
 usual custom, there was a mixture offered our Lord, 
 along with the other two victims, of vinegar, and some 
 bitter drug, here called gall ; because it was ordinary 
 with the Greeks and Romans to give such a mixture 
 to persons suffering the death of torture ; and, the 
 Jews did so to those sentenced by the law to die ; to 
 make them less sensible of their pain. We have an 
 . allusion to it, in Prov. xxxi. 6. " Give stroiig drink 
 unto him that is ready to perish." But Jesus refused 
 it. " When he had tasted," says Matthew, " he would 
 not drink." Nay, all his friends, who accompanied him 
 to the fatal spot, had been thoughtful enough to pro- 
 vide a refreshing draught for him before he ascended 
 the cross ; but this Jesus likewise refused. " They gave 
 him to drink wine mingled with myrrli ; or, what they 
 called spiced wine, " but he received it not," Mark 
 XV. 23. But when all had been endured, then he would 
 accept of a soldier's fare, and he received the vinegar, 
 and said, crying aloud, "It is finished!" And then, 
 after invocating and saying with a loud voice, ''Fa- 
 ther! into thy hands I commit my spirit/' he bowed 
 his head, delivered up the spirit, and expired. 
 
 Now, be it well observed, that in the 31st Psalm, we 
 have the original in prophecy, of the Lord's rcsignment 
 of his soul to his Father's care. " Into thy hand I 
 commit my spirit; thou hast redeemed me, O Lord 
 God of truth !" This redemption, then, was the ground 
 of Christ's ultimate composure in the last scene of the 
 crucifixion. The Spirit of God, it may be, now testi- 
 fied to him, that the vial of wrath was all emptied; and 
 thenceforth " for the joy that was set before him," by 
 that blessed Comforter, " he endured the cross, despising 
 the shame," Heb. xii, 2. And thus was he enabled to 
 
81 
 
 offer himself willingly to God. *' How much more shall 
 the blood of Christ, who, through the eternal Spirit, 
 offered himself without spot to God, purge your con- 
 sciences from dead works, to serve the living God ?" 
 Heb. ix. 14. And therefore, in the 31st Psalm, he is 
 represented as saying, " I will be glad and rejoice in 
 thy mercy ; for thou hast considered my trouble ; thou 
 hast known my soul in adversities ; and hast not shut 
 me up into the hand of the enemy ; thou hast set my 
 feet in a large room." " I had said in my haste, I am 
 cut off from before thine eyes ! Nevertheless, thou 
 heardest the voice of my supplications, when I cried 
 unto thee." In the 22nd Psalm, we seem to have 
 similar proof; " They part my garments among them, 
 and cast lots upon my vesture. But be not thou far 
 from me, O Lord ! O my strength, haste thou to help 
 me! Deliver my 50?// from the sword; my darling," 
 my united one, or assumed manhood, '* from the power 
 of the dog. Save me from the lion's mouth ; for thou 
 hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns. I will 
 declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of 
 the congregation will I praise thee. For lie hath not 
 despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted ; 
 neither hath he hid his face from him ; but when he 
 cried unto him, he heard." This is quoted by Paul, 
 and applied to Christ, in Heb. ii. 12. The 35th Psalm 
 is much in the same strain; ** Lord! how long wilt thou 
 look on ? Rescue my soul from their destructions, my 
 darling from the lions ! I will give thanks in the great 
 congregation, I will praise thee among much people.*' 
 " And my soul shafl be joyful in the Lord ; it shall 
 rejoice in his salvation! All my hones shall say. Lord! 
 who is like unto thee, who deliverest the poor from him 
 that is too strong for him ; yea, the poor and the needy 
 from him that spoileth him." And the 69th Psalm 
 
 F 
 
8S 
 
 also appears to breathe the same spirit ; but enlarging 
 more on his intense sufferings ; " But as for me, my 
 prayer is unto thee, O Lord ! in an acceptable time. 
 O God ! in the multitude of thy mercy hear me ; in 
 the truth of thy salvation ! Deliver me out of the 
 mire, and let me not sink; let me be delivered from 
 them that hate me, and out of the deep waters. Let 
 not the water-flood overflow me ; neither let the deep 
 swallow me up ; and let not the pit shut her mouth 
 upon me. Hear me, O Lord ! for thy loving-kindness 
 is good; turn thou unto me, according to the multitude 
 of thy tender mercies. And hide not thy face from thy 
 servant, for I am in trouble; hear me speedily. Draw 
 nigh unto my soul, and redeem it; deliver me, because 
 of mine enemies. Thou hast known my reproach, and 
 my shame, and my dishonour; mine adversaries are all 
 before thee. Reproach hath broken'* or sorely bruised 
 "my heart;" but not ruptured it; "and I am full of 
 heaviness. And I looked for some to take pity, but 
 there was none ; and for comforters, but I found none. 
 They gave me also gall for my meat ;" as though to 
 break his fast upon, at the beginning of the crucifixion ; 
 " and" afterwards " in my thirst, they gave me vinegar 
 to drink !" Then follow the lightnings of his indigna- 
 tion on the wantonly cruel and causelessly malicious 
 Jews, with imprecations on them as in rolling peals of 
 thunder. " Let their table become a snare before them; 
 and that which should have been for their welfare, let 
 it become a trap. Let their eyes be darkened, that 
 they see not; and make their loins continually to shake. 
 Pour out thine indignation upon them, and let thy 
 wrathful anger take hold of them. Let their habita- 
 tion be desolate, and let none dwell in their tents ; Jbr, 
 they persecute him whom thou hast smitten ; and they 
 talk to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded. 
 
83 
 
 Add iniquity unto their iniquity; and let them not come 
 into thy righteousness ! Let them be blotted out of 
 the book of the living, and not be written with the 
 righteous !" And then the plaintive note returns ; 
 " But I am poor and sorrowful ! Let thy salvation, 
 O God ! set me up on high !'* And then the prophetic 
 hymn concludes in a strain of thanksgiving, on a fore- 
 view of the effects to result from Messiah's sufferings ; 
 " I will praise the name of God with a song ; and will 
 magnify him with thanksgiving. This also shall please 
 the Lord," as evangelic offerings, "better than" the 
 legal sacrifices of *' an ox or a bullock, that hath horns 
 and hoofs. The humble shall see this, and be glad ; 
 and your heart shall live that seek God. For the Lord 
 heareth the poor, and despiseth not his prisoners. Let 
 the heaven and earth praise him, the seas, and every 
 thing that moveth therein. For God will save Zion, 
 and will build the cities of Judah ; that they may dwell 
 there, and have it in possession. The seed also of his 
 servants shall inherit it ; and they that love his name 
 shall dwell therein." 
 
 As a conclusion, it may not be without use to offer 
 a few remarks on the time of our Lord's sacrifice, as 
 " our passover sacrificed for us." That he suffered 
 at this festival, is clear from John xiii. 1. And that 
 he suffered on the Friday, is plain, from Luke xxiii. 54. 
 " And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath 
 was going to dawn forth ;" or, to shine out in all the 
 brilliancy of an oriental night, when all the stars, and 
 the milky way, glitter forth ; and the moon also, at this 
 season, being at the full, begins to walk in her bright- 
 ness. For, observe, in Leviticus xxiii. 32. the Jewish 
 sabbath began at the evening twilight of Friday, and 
 terminated the next evening twilight. " From evening 
 unto evening ye shall keep the rest of your sabbath." 
 
84 
 
 Now, the end of day-light, and commencement of twi- 
 light, is at the first appearance of the fitars^ after the 
 setting of the sun. This begins when the sun is twelve 
 degrees below the horizon ; for then stars of the first 
 magnitude begin to shine out. In the temperate zones, 
 however, this does not take place until an hour after 
 sun-set. Nor is it full night until the sun has sunk 
 eighteen degrees, when the smallest stars become visi- 
 ble ; but starlight is in all its lustre, at about twenty 
 degrees of depression, when the milky way, that field 
 of vivid light, appears. The evening twilight, then, or 
 nightfall, is the natural limit between day and night; 
 as the morning twilight, or dawn, or day break, is 
 between night and day. And on this astronomical 
 distinction was founded the above hebrew law. Thus, 
 as the one blazing torch of day was now expiring, so 
 all the brilliants of the evening twilight were beginning 
 gradually to glitter forth, to usher in the sabbath ; and 
 which, at this period, would likewise be lighted up 
 with the ruling luminary of the night, the moon, full 
 orbed. Of such a light in the east, we can have but 
 the faintest conception here in the west ; but in Job 
 xxxi. 26, 27. we see how the heart of an oriental was 
 too often liable to be powerfully enticed to idolatrous 
 adoration, through the admiration excited by the eye 
 dwelling with rapture on the fascinating beauties of the 
 glowing heavens. And hence David's exclamation in 
 the eighth Psalm j and the emphasis of Job's remark, 
 XXV. 5. Hence also the propriety of the hebrew phrase, 
 " the lookings" or " glancings forth of the evening," 
 Gen. xxiv. 63. Deut. xxiii. 11. 
 
 Now the above remarks will tend to explain Matt, 
 xxviii. 1. '* In the evening of the sabbath, as it began 
 to dawn forth towards (or upon) the first day of the 
 week, Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, went 
 
85 
 
 forth, to take a survey of the sepulchre." Observe, 
 that in Matt, xxvii. 57—66. these women had been 
 anxious spectators of what had transpired on Friday, 
 when the evening was fully come, and Jesus was taken 
 from the cross, lest the now beginning sabbath should 
 be polluted, John xix. 31. Nay, the two Marys re- 
 mained for some time sitting themselves down over 
 against the sepulchre. Matt, xxvii. 61. see also Mark 
 XV. 42—47. and Luke xxiii. 50 — 55. and John xix. 
 38 — 42. " Then they returned, and prepared aroma- 
 tic spices, and odoriferous ointments ; but they rested 
 from their labours on the sabbath, according to the 
 commandment." Luke xxiii. 56. However, so soon 
 as ever the sabbath was over, even '' at the evening 
 of the sabbath, as it began to shine out (in the twi- 
 light) upon the first day of the week," the two Marys, 
 who had left it on the Friday evening twilight, to 
 keep the rest of the sabbath, or Saturday, " went forth 
 to take a survey of the sepulchre;" to see that all re- 
 mained as they had left it, Matt, xxviii. 1, compare 
 Mark i. 21 — 32. For, observe, they did not make 
 this first, and private, and as it were stolen visit, from 
 any expectation of feasting their eyes with the sight 
 of their risen Lord ; " for, as yet, they did not know," 
 that is, properly understand " the scripture, that he 
 must rise again from the dead," John xx. 9. Nor did 
 they go with their aromatics and unguents, in order to 
 embalm his body ; for they had seen the great stone 
 rolled on the mouth of the tomb, and the same sealed, 
 and they likewise knew that a Roman guard had been 
 placed over it, to watch it " until after the third day, — 
 lest," said the Jews, " his disciples come by night, and 
 steal him away, and say unto the people, he is risen 
 from the dead ; so the last error shall be worse than 
 the first," Matt, xxvii, 62 — 6Q, Tlie disciples, there- 
 
86 
 
 fore, knew that nothing could be done earlier than 
 the morning of the first day of the week ; sooner than 
 which, the guard would not be likely to quit their sta- 
 tion ; nor would the disciples attempt anything, lest 
 they should confirm the suspicion of the Jews. Accord- 
 ingly, seeing all as it was, they returned again ; and, 
 very probably, finished their preparations for the em- 
 balming next day. Then, " very early in the morning," 
 Mark xvi. 1, 2. (lian prooij, as opposed to " the even- 
 ing of the sabbath," in Matl. xxviii. 1. (opsej, they 
 went forth, " and certain others along with them,'* 
 other women, Luke xxiv. 1. They had now their 
 '* sweet spices'* with them ; " that they might come 
 and anoint him." Indeed, assured that by the time 
 they should have gone through the city, and gotten 
 to the garden, the period would be quite elapsed for 
 the suspected theft of his body, so that they would 
 be allowed to perform the last rites, and pay the last 
 honours, to his remains, they sat off'" when it was yet 
 dark j'* John xx. 1. (prooij ; when the stars and moon 
 no longer gave their grateful glimmer, and the sun 
 had not begun to shed the dawn of day ; but they 
 reach the spot just at day break ; " they came to the 
 sepulchre, at the rising of the sun,** Mark xvi. 1, 2. 
 
 Well, and as they go, being all women, the men not 
 having yet joined them, and having seen all secure on 
 Friday night, and all safe on the night of the sabbath, 
 they say among themselves, " Who shall roll away the 
 stone for us, from the door of the sepulchre ?" Mark 
 xvi. 30. Now betwixt the first visit of the two Marys, 
 on the night of the sabbath, and this second general 
 visit, early on the morning of the first day of the 
 week, important events had taken place ; which none 
 of them were to see, except in the consequences. 
 " Now, behold (after their first visit), there was a 
 
87 
 
 great earthquake ; and moreover an angel of the 
 Lord descended from heaven, and came, and rolled 
 back the stone from the door, and sat upon it ;'* to 
 see in silence his Lord and God arise, and depart. 
 ** His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment 
 white as snow ; and for fear of him, the keepers did 
 shake, and became as though dead," Matt, xxviii. 
 1 — 4. It was a tradition in the primitive churches, 
 that our Lord arose very shortly after midnight. As 
 it stands, in our translation, we must suppose the wo- 
 men present at all this ; so that, to pacify these, when 
 they saw even the warrior Roman guards swallowed 
 up in senseless amazement, the angel says, *' Fear not 
 ye.'* But all the other accounts expressly declare, 
 that when they all came, early, in the morning, at 
 the rising of the sun^ and with their spices, in order 
 to anoint him, instantly on their arrival at the spot, 
 they perceived that the stone was removed already. 
 Mark xvi. 1 — 6, and Luke xxiv. 1, 12. and John xx. 
 1—10. 
 
 One other remark will further illustrate the de- 
 claration of Paul, that " Chris f as " our passover,*"" 
 was " sacrificed for us." The Jews reckoned two 
 evenings ; the one, at the ninth hour of the day, or 
 three o'clock ; the other, at the eleventh hour of the 
 day, or five o'clock. Now the paschal lamb was to be 
 sacrificed during the space between these ; " tlie whole 
 assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it, 
 in the evening;" no; literally, it is, " between the 
 evenings," bin ha-erehim. And Josephus says, at 
 the passover, they slew the sacrifice, from the ninth 
 hour to the eleventh ; that is, from three to five ; 
 from the beginning of the sun's manifest declination 
 to its setting, Deut. xvi. 6. " Thou shalt sacrifice 
 the passover, in the evening, at the going down of the 
 
88 
 
 sun.*' Now, from the sixth hour of the day until the 
 ninth, Jesus was still alive, but suffering ; that is, 
 from twelve to three ; and a preternatural darkness 
 prevailed. But then, soon after, say between three 
 and four, he made his soul (or life) an offering for sin; 
 he poured out his soul (or life) unto death, Isa. liii. 
 And he continued on the tree of the curse, (Deut. xxi. 
 22, 23. Gal. iii. 13, 14.) until about the eleventh hour, 
 or five o'clock, that being the other extreme of the 
 paschal evening. Matt, xxvii. 57. Mark xv. 42. Luke 
 xxiii. 44 — 54. Accordingly, *' when the evening was 
 come, there came a rich man of Arimathea, named 
 Joseph, who also himself was the disciple of Jesus ; 
 he went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus." 
 " Pilate marvelled, if he were already dead ; and 
 when he knew it of the centurion, he gave the body 
 to Joseph." 
 
 And " what shall we render to the Lord, for all his 
 benefits towards us? Let us even take the cup of 
 salvation, and call on the name of the Lord," Psalm 
 cxvi. 12, 13. 
 
NOTES. 
 
 FIRST PAMPHLET. 
 
 Page \Q. — First pamphlet, the feminine of aish, the male being 
 drops the jod, and instead of aish-ah, it is always written ash-ah, as in 
 Gen. ii. 23. 
 
 Page 19.—" Sarah or Shurah" the chief or principal woman ; as a 
 prince is Shur, the chief or principal man. Hence in Isa. xxviii. 25. 
 " the principal wheat," is chatah shurah; the Hebrew language placing 
 the adjective after the substantive, instead of, as in the English, before 
 it. And as shurah, a type of the true church (Gal. 4. 21 — 31 ; 2 John 
 1 — 5, 13. 1 Peter v. 13.) ranks as a princess, so Jacob, a type of 
 Christ, ranks as a prince, — I-shur-el, — a prince of God. " Taking 
 the initial jod, in Israel, as merely formative of the proper name, as I 
 conceive it to be, the exact significance of the name is, a prince of God" 
 — I-shur-al. Horsley's Hosea, critical notes, c. 12. p. 144. And the 
 children of the queen, or king's daughter, are said to be shurim or 
 " princes," in Ps. xlv. 16 — " whom thou mayest make shur-im in all 
 the earth ;" this is to be children of the free-woman, of " Jerusalem 
 which is above and is free." Gal. iv. 26 — 31. 
 
 Page 22. — '* Seed signifies the matter, in which is contained the pro- 
 creative property, whether in reference to man, to the irrational animals, 
 or to vegetables." Respecting the vegetable kingdom, this is generally 
 true, but not universally ; generally true, as taken for granted by Paul in 
 1 Cor. XV. 36 — 38 ; and as stated in Gen. i. 11, 12, but not universally ; 
 because in some vegetables, a bud, a twig, a scion, a layer, an offset, a 
 cutting, a part or particle of root, or even a leaf will suffice for propaga- 
 tion. However, for the general rule regarding seed, see the last Note, 
 page 105, where also the difference between pollen and seed in the 
 affair of propagation, will be considered at some length. Now, because in 
 man, seed is the essence and the producing cause, this term is given to 
 the thing produced by it ; man's offspring or progeny is called his seed; 
 
90 
 
 and again, because it is sown in, nourished in, and brought forth by 
 the woman, although it does not originate with her, it is also called 
 sometimes *' the seed of the woman," Gen. iii. 15. iv. 25. 
 
 Page 31. — " He took hold on the seed, that is, the children, of Abra- 
 ham;" who is " the father of all them that believe," Heb. ii. 10 — 18 : 
 Rom. iv. 1 1 — 1 8. It is a fancy of many, that except Christ was sinful 
 and mortal, as to his body, there could be no relationship between them- 
 selves and him. But except Christ's soul was sinful, as well as his body, 
 the objection would still remain. In fact ; what is sin ? Is it not 
 either a moral principle, or a moral action } A man, or an angel, is 
 morally depraved, and so far sinful ; or they transgress some law or 
 commandment, and then commit an act morally bad. But in either 
 case, can you stop at the body? or must you not, in both, go onward to 
 the soul ? " the soul that sinneth, it shall die," Hence we are dead 
 morally; " dead in sins," Eph. ii. 1, 5. — dead judicially, because of 
 sin, Rom. 7. 9 — 13. — and we are obnoxious to the punishment ; and 
 the punishment is to reach both soul and body, Matt. x. 28. And in 
 truth, Mr. Irving does involve Christ's soul as well as his body. See my 
 second pamphlet, p. 5. But the error is this ; these persons are thinking 
 of Christ, according to the flesh. And according to that, he would have 
 been a brother only to the Jews, Rom. ix. 1 — 5. And in this view, he 
 would have been only their Goel or Redeemer. So that this, by itself, 
 I mean the fleshly relationship, would cut off" all Gentiles from any part 
 or lot in the Son of Jesse. But the relationship is spiritual in its nature; 
 as it is eternal, or prior to time, and to the creation, in its origin. 
 " They, who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children 
 of God; but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.^^ 
 Rom. ix. 8 — 13. The fleshly children, whether of Adam or of Abra- 
 ham, are excluded ; the election only are included, Rom. ix. 14 — 33. 
 xi. 1 — 7. Therefore, in Heb. ii. the titles are, the children, — the many 
 sons, — the brethren, — the people, — the church ; — and the family-fea- 
 ture is, faith ; and to such characters, Christ stands related as a near 
 kinsman Redeemer, to prosecute their quarrel, and both avenge and 
 redress their wrongs. This is clearly stated in page 34. 
 
 Page 39. — " Upon all Jiesh.^' There occur in the New Testament 
 many seemingly universal expressions relative to salvation. They are 
 universal, or unrestricted, as respects theyamiZte* of mankind; and in this 
 point of view, they show the new dispensation quite opposed to the old, 
 — whose temple-sacrifices and annual atonements, and its sprinklings of 
 
91. 
 
 blood, and of purifying water, and its anointings, belonged to the one 
 family of Abraham, and to none besides ; whereas, the gospel was to pro- 
 claim " the common salvation ;" and this on the ground of his atonement, 
 of whom a jew could say, ** And he is the propitiation for our sins ; and 
 not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world ;" and of whom 
 'ndeed, God had said, in the original promise, " In thy seed shall 
 all the families of the earth be blessed." But when such expressions 
 are construed as universally personal^ as though every individual of all 
 the families of the earth was redeemed by the Lord Jesus, these expres- 
 sions are misconstrued ; because the same construction cannot in fact 
 be put upon Joel, " I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh ;" and 
 therefore the present advocates for universal redemption on the part of 
 the Son, are inculcating particular election on the part of the Father, and 
 peculiar and personal regeneration and ^anctification on the part of the 
 Holy Spirit, — thus setting the acts of these blessed personages at variance, 
 whereas their goings forth should be as the stretchings out of so many 
 parallel lines, which terminate as they commence, together ; or as radii, 
 of the same circle, which meet in the same centre. 
 
 SECOND PAMPHLET. 
 
 Page 6. — " Flesh is not necessarily a sinful substance." This is 
 noticed here, because it is a point of consequence, and it is there dis- 
 cussed, as well as in pages 7, 8, and 9. 
 
 Page 21. — " I charge you, to ask any able surgeon, or any well-in- 
 formed naturalist, and they will confirm what I am now about to say; 
 I have studied surgery, though not practising, and I have consulted an 
 eminent surgeon before writing this, — and I do assert, that the proper 
 semen always comes from the female ; and that the male only quickens 
 what already exists in the female." I confess I "met with some such 
 surgeons in the west, as those Mr. Editor fell in with in the east; but 
 this did not deter me from still investigating the subject for myself, 
 and still enquiring after some better informed professional and scientific 
 men, — and in both respects, I may truly say, I have attained to certain 
 valuable porismoi, or gains and acquisitions, (1 Timothy vi. 5, 6.) 
 during my career of investigation and enquiry, — porisms, not less valu- 
 able, in my particular province, than those porismata, or peculiar classes 
 of mathematical propositions, which were so named by the ancient geo- 
 meters, from the verb porizoo, which signifies, both to investigate, and 
 to acquire by investigation. From one friend, Mr. William Cooke, 
 
92 
 
 i obtained some useful hints; and likewise the sketch of a lecture by 
 Mr. Abernelhy, as given at p. 41 — 43. From another friend, Mr. W. 
 Cox, of Turnham Green, near London, surgeon, through Rev. Jesse 
 Hopwood, of Union Chapel, Sloane Street, Chelsea,- -1 received much 
 encouragement, from his confirmation of my views of both the origina- 
 tion of the manhood of Christ, and the nature and immediate cause of 
 Christ's death on the cross. I have noticed Mr. C. already, at p. 39. 
 40, of the third pamphlet ; and here I quote from a letter of his, of 
 April, 1832 — " I have read, the first and second part of Mr. Carne's 
 treatise (namely, of this third pamphlet,) and have no hesitation in 
 asserting, that he is right both respecting the father or cause of our 
 Saviour's being, as well as the cause of his end ; for, according to ray 
 apprehension, both scripture, and the facts: for reason to build upon' 
 plainly prove, that he has taken, in these particulars, a fundamentally 
 correct view. It appears to me, that Mr. Came is right, that our 
 Redeemer yielded up his life, after saying, " it is finished !" as contradis- 
 tinguished from expiring from exhaustion of the body, or in conse- 
 quence of the effect of hanging upon the cross, or as the malefactors 
 died, their limbs being broken, right and left of him. And it has, for 
 a long time, been a probable thing to my mind, that the blood which 
 issued from the wound that was pierced, was from the integuments this 
 side of the pericardium ; and that the water — or secretion like water — 
 that flowed after it, was from the pericardium itself; for the blood would 
 flow from a puncture, previous to the body being cold and stiff which takes 
 hours commonly to effect, but particularly in a hot climate, like that of 
 Palestine in Asia. But a puncture into the cavity of the heart, previous 
 to the body being cold, would have produced such a copious flow of 
 blood, as would have prevented the possibility of witnessing the watery 
 fluid. And even supposing the heart to have burst, yet its contents in 
 the pericardium, the crassimentum and serum, would not have separated, 
 whilst the body retained its warmth ; consequently, nothing would have 
 appeared, but red blood ; and I think I am borne out in the supposition, 
 that the body was not cold, from the recollection, that the gospel says, 
 that He was pierced soon after He had given up the ghost (spirit,) and 
 breathed his last breath, thereby rendering it impossible for the body to 
 have become so, in the intervening time." " Now, although it must be 
 admitted, that our Saviour's death was sudden, although voluntary, yet 
 the muscles could not continue contracted, after death ; this cannot be, 
 let death occur how it may; for, with the last gasp of life, all muscular 
 
action ceases ; and the muscles instantly, with the last act of vitality 
 which is contraction, drop into an unresisting relaxation or flabbiness, 
 there being no power to resist it, after the extinction of life; and this is 
 proved by every one who dies, whether suddenly or not, for that their 
 muscles are found, when dissected, to have stiffened, in a relaxed state ; 
 or, in other words, that the Jibres are relaxed, although the substance is 
 stiff with the effect of the atmosphere, or what the cold has effected upon 
 the unanimated matter." 
 
 Page 31. — " The seed of the males is vermiculous." This is denied 
 by Mr. Chevalier. But it being of no consequence at all, in the discus- 
 sion, the main point being, that the semen, or producing principle, ori- 
 ginates with the male, and not with the female, — I shall not here renew 
 the subject, but content myself with the following from Parkhurst's 
 Hebrew Lexicon, p. 687. " To illustrate" Job xxv. 6, — I observe, from 
 the learned Haller, that " the majority of anatomists have agreed in this 
 hypothesis, that the seminal verniicle is the tirst rudiments of a man, 
 almost in the same manner as a caterpillar or grub is the origin of a 
 fly." 
 
 Page 33. — " The chick grows, and gradually feeds on the egg, and 
 consumes it;" rather absorbs the egg, that is, the albumen or white, 
 leaving the yolk undiminished, and which the chick at last receives into 
 its abdomen, for its further support. 
 
 Page 35. — " A new seed;'''' this is a misprint ; it should have been, 
 — " a new thing," as in Jeremiah xxxi. 22. 
 
 Page 39. — " Reuben, thou art my Jirsl-born ;" it should have been, 
 — " my first begotten, — my might, — and the beginning of my procrea- 
 tive vigour." It is only in relation to the mother and the birth, and not 
 to the father or to the begetting, that the first child ought to be called 
 the first-6©rn. 
 
 Page 42. — Some are of opinion, that the defect in old men, is not a 
 deficiency in the secretion of semen, but in the necessary energy of 
 body to bring it into contact with the female ovum. This is the opinion 
 of Mr. Cox ; and it seems very strongly countenanced by instances of 
 very hale old men having begotten children in advanced periods of life ; 
 one of the most extraordinary upon record, is that of Thomas, generally 
 called " Old" Parr. He married at the age of eighty, and had a son 
 and a daughter. And at the age of one hundred and five, he did pe- 
 nance for an illegitimate child. He died at the age of 152 years and 
 9 months. 
 
94 
 
 Page 48. — " A mother's offspring without a father." Even animal 
 hermapfirodites, although they include within themselves the parts of 
 both sexes, cannot impregnate themselves ; not even the earth-worms, 
 although they by a double union at once impregnate another, and 
 become themselves impregnated by that other. The combination of 
 the two sexes in one human individual, has been considered a mere 
 poetic fancy. But in Tegg's London Encyclopsedia, under Physiology, 
 p. 354, a very singular case is stated of mixed sex in one person. " We 
 saw in London, a person exhibited as an hermaphrodite ; who was said 
 to possess the sexual desires, and capabilities of enjoyment, of both 
 sexes ; and certainly, as to external form, and even to genital formation, 
 there appeared a complete union of the sexes ; but we are very doubtful 
 whether the statements, in reference to propensities and pov/ers, were 
 not invented, or at least exaggerated." If however it were all true, still 
 there could have been no possible power of self-impregnation. 
 
 Page 55. — " The root of the plant supplies it with nutriment from 
 the earthJ'* This is the general rule in the vegetable kingdom ; but as 
 in the animal, all flesh is not precisely the same sort of flesh, nor sus- 
 tained by the same sort of food, some living almost wholly on, as well 
 as in, the air — some on, as well as in the water, — and others on the 
 productions of the earth, — so in the vegetable kingdom certain excep- 
 tions to the above general rule exist. Some tribes of the Fuci are said, 
 without any root, without any special organ of any kind, to derive their 
 nourishment from air and moisture alone. Another example of extreme 
 simplicity of structure and function we have, in the Aerial Epidendrum, 
 a beautiful plant, a native of the East Indies beyond the Ganges, and of 
 the neighbouring Island of Java. In the former region, it is not uncom- 
 mon for it to be plucked, for the elegance of its leaves, the beauty of its 
 flower, and the exquisite odour it diffuses abroad, and to be suspended 
 by a cord of silk from the ceilings of the rooms, where, from year to 
 year, it will continue to put forth new leaves, and new blossoms, and to 
 yield fresh fragrance, excited to continually renovated life and action 
 only by the stimulus of the surrounding atmosphere. Then again, there 
 are the succulent plants of the hot climates of Asia and Africa ; some of 
 these, although they have a root, yet only to stay themselves firm in the 
 sand, and not as an instrument of nutrition ; for they grow in soils or 
 sands so extremely arid, that no moisture can possibly be extracted from 
 them, so that they live on the air, and on the moisture suspended in it. 
 
95 
 
 If exposed to wet, or a rainy season, they quickly perish. (Animal Phy- 
 siology, in Useful Knowledge, p. 24. — 25.) 
 
 Page 60, 61, 62. — In Hebrews ii. 14 — it is said that our Lord "took 
 part of the same" nature, human nature, which belonged to the children 
 of God, even to the corporeal frame, in order that he might be capable 
 of undergoing death ; for that, not only was it not an angelic nature, nor 
 only an immaterial, rational, and moral principle, as the human soul or 
 spirit, but he likewise assumed a body of very " flesh and blood." 
 Suppose two men ; in one, the flesh and blood pure, and without disease, 
 and in the other impure and all corrupted. Essentially, in both, the 
 flesh and blood are not those of fish, or of fowl, or of the brute beast, 
 but of man; and therefore, only suppose a proper remedy applied to the 
 diseased individual, and you have him restored to the condition of his 
 healthy fellow. But before the cure, let the diseased man beget offspring, 
 and in such a case, the disease being in the whole mass of blood, he 
 transmits it along with his own peculiar nature. Adam the first was 
 created with flesh and blood pure ; he then became polluted in his blood 
 through the fall in Eden, Ezek. xvi. 6. Now, the blood was still human 
 blood, and perfectly the same in its constituents, but it was judicially 
 tainted in consequence of a capital offence, and as a punishment given 
 up, along with the soul, to salanic influence. Such are all Adam's chil- 
 dren ; — " begotten in sin, and shapen in iniquity," Ps. li. — and " dead 
 in sins," Eph. ii. 1 — 5. And such must Christ have been, however 
 regenerated and sanctified after, had Joseph been his father ; but the 
 Holy Spirit was the begetter ; and thus the thing' begotten was a holy 
 thing, and a fit "somewhat" for the second man and the last Adam, 
 " to off'er," as an atonement for sin, in his priestly character, Heb. vii. 
 24 — 28. viii. 1 — 3. ix. 11 — 14. Now to this amount is Mr. Chevalier's 
 own illustration. " Those energies are human life ; the life of a man 
 and of such a man (in real original nature and properties,) as ourselves. 
 In what then did the holy child Jesus differ from the rest of men ? 
 The sentence upon Adam affected the life of man ; that fatal doom con- 
 cerned that, which every natural off"spring receives y"ro»i its male parent. 
 Adam forfeited his life. And as all that our progenitor could give, 
 towards the production of his children, is life, so all that we receive from 
 him, is, a forfeited life. Herein behold our participation in the conse- 
 quences of Adam's transgression ; we, as the seed of evil doers, possess 
 only a forfeited life : while Jesus Christ, in all truth participating our 
 nature, possessed a life in all points the same as ours, except in its not 
 having been kindled from the forfeited flame, but with the concentrated 
 
96 
 
 efFuIgency of Gpd ! So then, as Emanuel's life was not of ihe forfeited 
 life of Adam, he came not under tlie penalty of Adam's transgression ;" 
 that is, naturally, but was naturally free from morlalily, because free 
 from sill ; as follows, — " and was, in our nature, pure from sin, even as 
 God is pure." In a word ; if Christ could be tempted in all points, like 
 as we are, and yet without sin ; he could equally be made in all points 
 like as we are, with only the same single exception, he knew no sin, 
 2Cor. V. 21. Heb. iv. 15. 
 
 THIRD PAMPHLET. 
 
 Page 16, 17. — " A typical holy seed, or family of children. The 
 real extent of importance of some revealed truths, is not always disco- 
 verable, until certain errors arise, and call it forth to view. By many, 
 it has long been held indifferent, as to whether we esteem Christ a 
 brother, in relation to the whole family of mankind, or to " the whole 
 family" of God, of which Christ is the head, Eph. iii. 14, 15. But now 
 that sinfulness of nature is ascribed to Christ, and an universality of 
 redemption, — it is obviously necessaiy, to show, that he does not stand 
 as a Goel or near kinsman Redeemer, in relation to Adam''s family, but to 
 Abraham' s ; Abraham having been constituted a sort of pattern of the 
 whole seed ; " who is the father of all them that believe.^'' " They who 
 are of faith are the children of Abraham." " If ye be Christ's, then are 
 ye Abraham's seed." Accordingly, if Christ gave himself for the church, 
 it is " the general assembly and church of the first-born who are regis- 
 tered in heaven," Eph. v. 25. Heb. xii. 23. And therefore, he says 
 to his Father, " I will declare thy name unto my brethren, — in the 
 midst of the church, will I sing praise unto thee." Now, as Christ was 
 constituted the Goel of his kindred from of old, yea, from the days of 
 eternity, I Peter i. 19, 20: Micah v. 1 — 3, — so were his brethren 
 " elected" or chosen out of mankind at large, " according to the fore- 
 knowledge of God the Father, through the sanctification of the Spirit 
 unto the obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ;" 
 and therefore, says Paul, " both he who sanctifieih, and they who are 
 sanctified" in and through him, " are all of one," of one family ; *' for 
 which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren," Heb. ii. 10 — 18. 
 By this relationship, then, we rise to Christ's height; " holy brethren," 
 and " partakers of the heavenly calling," Heb. iii. 1 — 6. True, Christ 
 came externally in the likeness of sinful flesh ; and because men looked 
 at his exterior, instead of pondering his moral excellencies, although 
 these were shining forth in every action, word, look, and motion, *' he 
 
97 
 
 had no form of beauty or of comeliness" in their estimation ; but when 
 Uavid espied him in vision, he exclaimed, enraptured, " thou art fairer 
 than the children of men !" Isa. liii. Ps. xlv. Now all those '* whom 
 God did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the 
 image of his Son ; thatjie might be i\\e first-born in the midst of many 
 brethren,'" Rom. viii. 29.— and these David calls his "fellows," in 
 Ps. xlv. 7, as quoted in Heb. i. 9. The word signifies, to be joined 
 together, or associated, as those in one house and of one family ; from 
 the root heber. It occurs in this sense, in Prov. xxi. 9. *' !t is better 
 for to dwell" by oneself, "on a corner of the house-top" or roof, "than 
 with a wife of contentions and a house /it// of company,'"' — heber. 
 
 Page 22. — " Living beings derive their origin from pre-existing living 
 beings, by a process termed generation. The mode may vary ten thou- 
 sand times ten thousand-fold;" but the fact is the same, whether in the 
 elephant, or the whale, or the minutest animalcule existing. A glass 
 of water taken from the Canal at Batavia, the capital of Java, and of the 
 other Dutch settlements in the East Indies, becomes in a few hours a col- 
 lection of animated matter; the minute portions of which, multiplying 
 by division and subdivision, move about with astonishing rapidity ; and 
 the bay itself, swarming with myriads of living creatures exhibits in the 
 night a mass of phosphorescent light. We do not wonder at finding 
 animal life so teeming and prolific in warm climates, both in the air, 
 and in the water, as well as on the surface of the earth ; but it is sur- 
 prising to find it equally abounding, although not in the air, nor on the 
 earth, yet in the waters, in the frigid regions of the North Pole. Even 
 the air is often darkened by innumerable flocks of sea-fov/1, and the land 
 and rivers have their peculiar animals; but the sea though a sea of ice, 
 with its naked rocks and shores, is filled with a boundless profusion of 
 life, such as the most genial glow of tropical suns scarcely develops. 
 The whale, the mightiest of animated things, and of by far the most 
 enormous size, is here a native, and at home ; the largest now ever seen, 
 do not much exceed seventy feet in length, — that is to say, of the species 
 called mysticetus, the only species, with one exception, the spermaceti 
 whale, which becomes fhe grand object of the regular whale-fishery 
 operations. But those of the balcena physalis species, called by the sailors 
 razor-back, are considerably longer, and are, on the whole, still larger 
 animals, more powerful, and amazingly swift swimmers, going at the 
 rate of twelve miles an hour. An individual of this species, found dead 
 in Davis's Strait, measured o?ie hundred nnd five feet in length. The 
 
98 
 
 shores of the Arctic Zone are crowded with huge amphibious races, links 
 between the various species of whales and of the quadrupeds, those 
 mammalia of the sea and of the land. The Morse or Walrus, called also 
 the Sea-cow, is sometimes fifteen feet long, and ten feet in circumference ; 
 it has two tusks, whose substance is almost equal to ivory, that valuable 
 product of the great Hippopotamus or River-horse of Africa, and of the 
 elephants of both Africa and Asia. But to revert to the whales of the 
 frozen regions of the north ; their numbers are immense ; of some 
 species, as the Cachalot or Spermaceti whale, large herds are met with 
 notwithstanding the vast size of each, to the number of two hundred 
 together ; these are mostly females, under the guidance of a male of very 
 large dimensions. But to afford a more correct notion of their numbers, 
 we will just give a sketch of their slaughter. So early as the year, 1697, 
 soon after the Dutch had embarked largely in this fishery, 188 vessels 
 were seen in the Bay of Smeerenberg, with the produce of 1959 whales 
 on board ! Killed in such excess, the surviving monsters forsook this 
 Bay for North Bay ; and taken with equal facility there, they receded 
 thence also into the open sea, between Spiizbergen and Greenland, 
 called the Greenland Sea. And now, Davis's Strait and Baffins's Bay 
 are much frequented. In the year 1814, a Captain Souter brought 
 home in his single vessel the produce of 44 whales. Mr. Scoresby, father 
 of the clergyman of that name, and who is now the Minister of the Epis- 
 copal Chapel in Bedford Circus, Exeter, killed, in 28 voyages, 498 
 whales. The Dutch in 107 years, from 1669 to 1778 inclusive, cap- 
 tured 57,590 whales ! The British fishery has lately yielded a produce 
 much exceeding that of the Dutch even in its greatest prosperity ; in 
 1814, were imported from Greenland only, 1437 whales; and from 
 1827 to 1830, inclusive, the British captures amounted to 3,391 whales. 
 This slaughter is immense, considering that the whale goes nine or ten 
 months, with young, and bears one suckling only at a time, and never 
 above twins at most. 
 
 I must subjoin, here, a reference to another notable scene of whale 
 butchery. This lies off the coast of Scotland ; hither large shoals of 
 whales flock, every year, perhaps pursuing smaller fish, and here they 
 meet their doom. In a description of the Shetland Islands, lately pub- 
 lished by Dr. Hibbert, a lively account is given, of the pursuit and cap- 
 ture of a drove of whales, that had entered Yell Sound. On the news of 
 their arrival, a large fleet of yawls soon collected, whose main object was 
 to drive them upon the sandy shore of Hamna Voe; when this was 
 effected, the air resounded with the shouts of the Shetlanders, and then 
 
99 
 
 the work of death commenced with sharp iron spits for harpoons. At 
 length the sun set upon a bay that seemed one sheet of blood ; not a 
 whale had escaped the slaughter; the strand was strewed over with carcases 
 of all sizes, from six feet long to twenty feet, and amounting to not fewer 
 than eighty in number. And the Inverness Courier of this year, 1832, 
 gives an account of a shoal in Branahibay ; these were driven to the 
 mouth of Stornoway harbour, and at last cooped up in the inner harbour 
 within the quay, when the grand struggle ensued, and which terminated 
 in the capture of ninety-two whales, of the bottle-nosed species, and of 
 an extraordinary size. 
 
 But on what do these monsters live, only one of whom, of but 
 sixty feet long, weighs seventy tons, just equal to the weight of 
 300 fat oxen ? Their food is fish of the smaller sort ; of these, there 
 is a gradation, rising one above another, the higher preying upon the 
 lower, until at last a supply is found for those of larger bulk and most 
 enormous appetite. 1. There is the Genus Medusa, or Sea-blubber ; spe- 
 cimens are seen on our shores, but beyond the Arctic Circle they increase 
 to a most extraordinary size, and are devoured by the finny tribes of all 
 shapes and sizes. 2. But the most numerous of the Medusan races are 
 microscopic, too small to be seen with the naked eye singly, but in a 
 mass they tinge with an olive green one fourth of the whole extent of 
 the Greenland Sea, or above 20,000 square miles ; and Mr. Scoresby 
 estimates that but two of these square miles contain millions so beyond 
 the range of human thoughts and expressions, that he illustrates the 
 numberless numbers by saying, that 80,000 persons would have been 
 employed, from the creation, in counting them. This green sea of life 
 is the whale's polar pasture-ground ; not that his tremendous jaws feed 
 directly on these invisible particles of vitality, although he disdains not 
 worms and even zoophytes; but other creatures feed on them and 
 fatten, to be themselves food for others, and those again for the whale- 
 3. The various species of the crab, and above all, of the shrimp classes, 
 are vastly numerous. 4. Then comes the herring, with the pilchard, a 
 rich, soft, and delicate fish, of which there exists so boundless a super- 
 abundance in the northern icy seas, as not only to support all their whales, 
 but supply all the oceans of the temperate climates. They issue from 
 their icy beds, not for food, but to deposit their spawn in warm situations 
 which quickly mature it, and then they return again to recruit themselves, 
 their own seas swarming with insect food in a far greater degree than those 
 of our warmer latitudes. Their shoals are immense on the coasts of 
 America ; and in Chesapeake Bay there is an annual inundation of them 
 
100 
 
 covering the shore in such quantities as to become a nuisance. In one 
 year, 1603, the Dutch, over and above liieir own consumption, sold to 
 different nations, herrings, to tiie strange amount for so cheap a fish, of 
 one million, seven hundred and fifty-nine thousand pounds sterling. In 
 1618 they sent out 3,000 ships with 50,000 men, to calch, and, 9,000 
 more ships to carry the fish for sale, employing in all, in this fishery, 
 150,000 persons, besides those first mentioned. The British have of late 
 been very successful; in 1819, they caught 340,660 barrels; each bar- 
 rel containing, from 5 to 800 fish. Having been so exuberant before 
 the late extended slaughter of the whales, what may not their shoals 
 be expected to be in future times.'' These will yield abundant supplies 
 to all the nations of the worlds when tiie fisheries shall be properly 
 attended to, and extended; so that with a lesser quantity of oil and bone, 
 the only valuable products of the whale, we shall reap a great increase 
 of food for man, — a very necessary thing, in the prospect of a rapidly 
 increasing population in Europe, North America, the Canadas, and Aus- 
 tral Asia; and in the probability of similar increase, with the downfall 
 of superstitions, despotisms, anarchies, and monopolies, throughout South 
 America, and many parts of Asia and Africa. Another war might be 
 waged with those deadly foes of that most superior fish, the salmon, — 
 the seals and the grampusses. Of the latter, it is asserted, that they 
 devour many more salmon in the seas of the United Kingdom than are 
 consumed by all its inhabitants. There are five species of the dolphin, 
 and all of them feed on fish : but the delphinus orca, or grampus, is very 
 large and extremely voracious ; it is from fifteen to twenty-five feet long, 
 and remarkably thick in proportion, and it abounds in all the sea-coasts 
 about Scotland and Ireland. There is another species, the delphinus 
 phocsena or porpoise, in vast multitudes in all parts of the British seas : 
 but in greatest nun»bers where fish of passage appear, such as mackarel, 
 herrings, and salmon, which they pursue up the Bays. The common 
 seals, are about five or six feet long ; and are valuable for their skins, 
 and for the oil their fat yields. But on the north coast of Scotland the 
 great seal is upwards of twelve feet long. One of this species, larger 
 than an ux, was found in the Kamtschatkan seas; these would weigh 
 800 lbs. each, and were eaten by Behring's crew. But the two very asto- 
 nishing species of the seal are the following, but not known in Europe. 
 1. The maned or konine seal; the males are at times 25 feet long, 
 weigh 15 or 1600 lbs. and have long flowing manes on their necks. 
 Their voice is like that of a bull. 2. The sea-lion of Anson ; its hair, 
 on head, neck, and shoulders, is as long as a goat's, and gives this 
 
101 
 
 amphibious animal the air of the lion; but its size is vast, — 25 feet long, 
 and from 19 lo 20 feet in circumference. The fema'es bring forth and 
 suckle their young among the corn-flags; they live on fish and water- 
 fowl. Their oil is preferred to that of the whale. 
 
 We may remark, here, that in Gen. i. 21, the words translated "great 
 whales," — ha-taninim ha-gedoUm, signify " the mighty monsters;" and 
 these, whether of the seas, the rivers, the land, or such as are of both, 
 namely amphibious. Of these the whale is the largest ; and of which 
 there are several species. The crocodile perhaps ranks next, abounding 
 in the rivers of Asia and Africa; this creature seizes from the banks 
 dogs, men, wild beasts, and even oxen, and draws them into the water. 
 The alligator is a species found also in abundance in some parts of 
 America. The species called cayman, infests all the large rivers of 
 South America; is of immense strength ; and is the scourge and terror 
 of man and beast. It is sometimes called the Antilles' crocodile. Then 
 comes the squalus or shark; there are upwards-of 30 species. The 
 white shark is often 30 feet long, and weighs 4,000 lbs. It is the most 
 voracious of all animals; and is the dread of sailors in all the hot 
 climates, as it constantly attends the ships, and seizes whatever falls 
 overboard. The swalJow of the ivhnlc being extremely small, in spite 
 of its monstrous size, the fish of Jonah is conjectured to have been of the 
 shark kind. There is another species, called squalus maximus, which 
 has sometimes measured twelve yards and more. It is called the basking 
 shark, from its lying, as if to sun itself, on the surface of the water ; and 
 is a migratory fish. The singularity of this great animal is, that it has 
 nothing of the fierce and voracious nature of the shark kind ; and is so 
 tame as to suffer itself to be approached, and even stroked. And what 
 is more, its food consists almost entirely, if not quite, of sea plants; 
 Linnaeus says it feeds also on medusse; but no remains offish, or of any 
 devoured creatures, have been ever discovered in the stomachs of the 
 numbers that have been cut up; but only green stuff, the half digested 
 parts of algee, and the like. Now this clearly is the likeliest fish ever 
 discovered for the reception of a human being, through a divine impulse 
 and as the disposition of the Sea- monster h so tractable, so the interior ; 
 of such would agree with the prophet's description, when he says, " the 
 iveeds were wrapped about my head." Al all events, it is confessed 
 that the jaws of sharks are so large, their throats so wide, and their bellie^ 
 so capacious, " that," as Kolben says, *' it may easily be believed they 
 can swallow/" not merely a man whole and entire, but " a full dressed 
 man." 
 
102 
 
 Then will follow, the elephant, rhinoceros, unicorn, camel, came- 
 leopard, buffalo, river-horse, and the like]; but it must be well consi- 
 dered, that, to a certainty, some of the originally created taninim gedolim 
 are now quite extinct; and therefore, in striving to ascertain, what those 
 two were, which are described in Job, the behemoth, and the leviathan, 
 we ought not to confine our attention to merely existing species of either 
 land or water-monsters ; for although Job lived posterior to the deluge, 
 yet it is likely so early after it as the time of Jacob, or above 1 700 years 
 before Christ. A huge animal, for instance, has been detected, in dif- 
 ferent parts of Siberia, Russia, Germany, and North America, not alive, 
 but by its tusks, grinders, bones, and skeleton, of vast magnitude. 
 Eminent naturalists have concluded these to belong to elephants of a 
 gigantic size, in days gone by ; these remains are found in Immense 
 numbers, and their unparalleled magnitude admits of no comparison with 
 any animal now known. But others think it quite a different creature 
 from the elephant. It is now called the mammoth ; and its skeleton 
 bespeaks a beast at least Jive or six times the cubic volume of the 
 elephant; its grinders are five times as large; and, says Mr. Jefferson, 
 " to whatever animal we ascribe these remains, it is certain that such an 
 one has existed in America, and that it was the largest of all the terres- 
 trial beings of which any traces have ever appeared." When we con- 
 sider that the Indian elephant sometimes stands ten feet and half in 
 height at the shoulder, is in weight more than five tons, and will carry 
 a load of a ton weight, what an idea we may form of the mammoth, as 
 having been five or six times as big and as strong ! Muller describes the 
 mammoth as being four or five yards high, and above thirty feet long ! 
 His colour greyish ; his head very long, and his front very broad ; two 
 horns under the eyes ; and in walking he has the power of extending 
 and contracting his body to a great degree. 
 
 In the Morning Herald, Thursday, Dec. 15, 1831, it was stated, that 
 " Miss Gurney, North-repps Cottage, has lately presented to the secretary 
 of the Geological Society various bones of the fossil elephant, found on 
 the coast of Norfolk, between Cromer and Happisburgh, some of which 
 were of gigantic size." Indeed, M. Cuvier remarks that, <' none of the 
 larger species of quadrupeds, whose remains are now found imbedded 
 in regular rocky strata, are at all similar to any of the known living 
 species." He mentions a bear the full size of a horse, and differing 
 from every known species. The megalonix is a creature that seems to 
 have been of the size of an ox. The megatherium differs little from it 
 but in size, being much larger. Remains exist, of the elk, deer, buf- 
 
103 
 
 falo, rhinoceros, river-horse, tapir, and others, either diftering in 
 structure, or in size, from any known species. In 1799, in the north of 
 Siberia, an entire mammoth was found by a fisherman, of an enormous 
 size ; it was a male, and had a long tnaiie on its neck. Of the bos or 
 ox species of cattle, some very remarkable sorts still exist. The bos 
 arnee inhabits India, north of Bengal, is of vast size, about fourteen feet 
 high, is very bold and daring, and partakes of the form of the horse, the 
 bull, and the deer. The Cape buffalo is greatly larger than the largest 
 English ox ; is very fierce and so strong as to trample horse or bullock 
 with their rider under foot in a moment. About 250 years ago, there 
 was found in Scotland a wild race of cattle, of a pure white, and had 
 manes like lions. Mr. Pennant says, he cannot but give credit to the 
 relation. In South America, near the Cape, is found the gnoo, an ele- 
 gant mixture of the buffalo, which it resembles in its vast head with two 
 horns ; of the horse, which it resembles in the body, shoulders, tail, and 
 mane, except that the mane is rather under, than upon, the neck, run- 
 ning from the breast between the fore-legs ; and the antelope, which it 
 resembles in the exquisite finish of its legs. It is exceedingly fierce, 
 and bellows like an ox, and is about the size of a galloway. With respect 
 to the unicorn in scripture, some have supposed it to be the one-horned 
 rhinoceros ; and the horn of this animal has been called " the most 
 singular thing about it ;" and " differs from that of every other animal ;" 
 it is often three feet long, and more than six inches in diameter at the 
 base ; and is so situated as to posses a jnaximum of strength ; to the 
 strongest animal the gore of it would be certain death ; and such is the 
 ponderous mass of this creature's body, which is at least twelve feet long, 
 and twelve feet in circuit that if it makes a rush, no beast can endure the 
 crush, for he will dash even the elephant himself to the ground, (Picture 
 of India ; London; 1830.) It is well observed, that such great land 
 animals seem to have been intended to keep down the too exuberant 
 vegetation, until a country is fully peopled ; and hence, in the early 
 stages of the world, still larger species existed, for this, and other pur- 
 poses. Martial has an epigram on a rhinoceros, which was exibited at 
 Rome, and which in the presence of Caesar Domitian tossed a bull into 
 the air with his horn as though it had been but a tennis-ball. However, 
 in the Hebrew of Job xxxix. 9 — 12, the word translated unicorn, is, rim ; 
 but in Numb, xxiii, 22, and xxiv. 8, the word is ram. The radical 
 meaning determines nothing about horns; but the descriptions, every 
 where, as Deut. xxxiii. 17, — Ps. xxii. 21. xcii. 10. — and Isa. xxxiv. 
 7, — prove it to be, at once a horned animal, whether with one or two 
 
104 
 
 and very powerful, fierce, and unfractable. Sparmann informs us, that 
 I lie figure of the unicorn, described by the ancients, has been found 
 delineated, by the Snese Hottentots, on the plain surface of a rock in 
 C'affraria ; and therefore conjectures, that such an animal either does 
 exist at present in the internal parts of Africa, or at least once did so. 
 Father Lebo affirms that he has seen it. Strabo and Aristotle's account 
 IS, that in India, there are horses, that have harts' heads, with one horn, 
 and cloven-footed ; and Pliny says, the Arcean Indians hunt a wild 
 beast, whicli is very curst or malignant, untameable, having one horn 
 two cubits long, resembling the hart in the head, the elephant in the 
 feet, the boar in the tail, and in the rest of the body a horse ; it has the 
 voice of an ox, but rather shrill ; and they deny that this beast is ever 
 taken alive. Now in llie face of this, it is remarkable, that a Major Latter, 
 commanding in the Sikkira teiritories, on the borders of the great Him- 
 alaya range, lately procured a curious Tibetan manuscript, containing the 
 names of different animals ; and in the class of those, whose hoofs are 
 divided, there was an animal called the one-horned tso'po; "upon 
 enquiring," says the major, " what kind of animal it was, to our astonish- 
 ment, the person who brought me the manuscript, described exactly the 
 unicorn of the ancients ; saying that it was a native of the interior of 
 Tibet, about the size of a Tatoo — a horse from twelve to thirteen hands high 
 — fierce, and extremely wild, seldom if ever caught alive, but frequently 
 shot ; and that the flesh was used for food. The person who gave me 
 the information, has repeatedly seen these animals, and eaten the flesh of 
 them. They go together in large herds, like our wild buffaloes, and are 
 very frequently to be met with on the borders of the great desert, about a 
 month's journey from Lassa, in that part of the country inhabited by the 
 wandering Tartars." — Eraser's Tour. 
 
 But to end this note, the salamander was for a long time thought to 
 be but of one sex ; but like the common British viper, the female brings 
 forth her young viviparous indeed, but from eggs, which, instead of 
 being layed, are hatched in her belly. Salamanders have been kept 
 in water carefully changed for six months without food ; and the viper 
 has been even kept in a box for six months without food, and yet without 
 its abating even of its vivacity, and much less endangering its vitality. 
 So much then for the endlessly diversified principle of generation, or 
 propagation, and likewise of vitality ; in both which we see displayed 
 the manifold wisdom and unlimited power of the Creator ! 
 
 N.B. Pilchards are distinct as a species from herrings, but equally 
 belong to the polar regions ; vast shoals of the former frequent the 
 
105 
 
 coasts of Cornwall, from Fowey Harbour to the Scilly Islands, from 
 about the middle of July until the approach of winter ; great quantities 
 are likewise caught, during the summer months, on the coast of Devon- 
 shire. To prove their value, as food, I need only quote from the 
 Morning Herald, of March 18, 1833, the following — "During the 
 past winter, numerous shoals of pilchards suddenly appeared in Mount's 
 Bay. The people said it was the mercy of heaven, for thev had just 
 been wasted by the cholera, and were in poverty and despair. Six or 
 eight thousands of hogsheads were caught. These were succeeded by 
 a large quantity of mackarel ; so that, from the Lizard to the Land's End, 
 every hovel was provided with a stock of choice food for the winter ; 
 for such is the love of the Cornish for this kind of diet, that in a season 
 of distress when soup was provided for them, they turned from it ; had 
 it been pilchards or mackarel, said they, we should have been content!" 
 And then, as a manure, the blood, oil, and pickle obtained in curing 
 pilchards, are very valuable; the product of one fish will richly dress 
 one square foot of ground. 
 
 Page 25. — " The male bird laying an egg." This by naturalists has 
 been called centininum ovum, the hundredth egg ; by the vulgar, cock's 
 egg, fabulously supposed to produce a serpent, which therefore obtained 
 the absurd name of cockatrice, and which, with other absurdities, has 
 been introduced by our translators into the scriptures, Isa. xi. 8. and 
 elsewhere. It was supposed by naturalists to be the last egg of a hen ; 
 it is much smaller than ordinary eggs, has no yolk, but in place of it 
 is found a little body like a serpent coiled up, which gave rise to the 
 fabled cock-atrice, or cock-serpent. 
 
 Page 32. — " The original life of vegetables is concentrated in no- 
 thing else but the seed.'" Much confusion has been created by natural- 
 ists drawing a parallel between eggs of birds, the ova of the human 
 female, and seeds of vegetables — and between the male animal semen, 
 and the vegetable pollen. The vegetable pollen only goes to perfect 
 seeds, flowers, and fruits;, " the pollen on the anther giveth life to the 
 seed contained in the germen ;" page 42 of second pamphlet, and at 
 page 56, " the acorns of the oak are made to be perfect seed by the 
 pollen." But Mr. Chevalier avers, that " before the calkin has yet 
 opened its buds, and long before the pollen can have escaped from them, 
 the little acorns have appeared ; even then we see the germ of our 
 British pride developed in all the beauty of its distinctive form, before 
 the consort twig hath attained maturity to aid or influence its produc- 
 tion ! This is a fact of which any one may be easily assured, by 
 
106 
 
 examining the oak, the cucumber, the gourd, or any other monsecious 
 plant, when it is beginning to flower. We are further provided with 
 a whole class of vegetables, the disecious plants ; upon a female of this 
 class, the germs of future plants, in their characteristic form, are annu- 
 ally produced. And in a monsecious plant, like the oak, \he feminine seed 
 or germs would be produced, although all the males should have been 
 previously blighted and destroyed. And let any one tear open the 
 unripe bud of a flower, which is not even monaecious, that of the lily 
 or the eglantine, and he shall find, or ever the anthers have yet burst, 
 and when the pollen is still a moist and unformed pulp, the rudiments 
 of those herbs already extant within the germen or ovary in their 
 proper forms ! 1 have seen them in almost every kind of flower-bud ; 
 moreover, their distinguishing number and specific form is introduced, 
 as an essential part of the description of almost every genus, in all the 
 best systematic works on botany." Then, he adds, " Sir James E. 
 Smith gives an account of the fruit of the gycas revolula fully ripened 
 at Farnham Castle, on the female plant, when there was probably no 
 male in England. The fruit is an eatable nut, as big as an apricot. 
 However, Sir James observes, that no traces of the embryo were found 
 in it, for want of the impregnation by the male pollen, which is pro- 
 duced on a separate tree. Sir James cannot assert, that any embryo 
 exists in an unimpregnated fruit; the note on page 14, affords satisfac- 
 tory evidence, that unimpregnated female seeds do sometimes exhibit 
 the embryo ; and I could have added abundant testimony to the same 
 fact." 
 
 Now, giving Mr. Chevalier the advantage of all this, what does it 
 amount to, but to this — that the male vegetable pollen is necessary to 
 the perfection of seeds, as well as of certain fruits and flowers } But 
 then he carries the circumstance on to the eggs of birds, and the male 
 semen ; as though the eggs, before impregnation, contained the embryo- 
 chick, as perfectly as the acorn, without the pollen, possesses the germ 
 of the future oak ; and as the bud of the flower does the future lily ; and 
 as the female guicas plant produces its fruit fully ripened. " Among 
 birds, it is notorious that the virgin will lay an egg; and it has been 
 demonstrated by Haller and Bonnet, that such an egg contains the 
 embryo.'''' This, of course, determines the point also in relation to the 
 human subject ; " Nay truly, from the days of Aristotle until now, there 
 never was any doubt, that the germ of every living creature, that is, the 
 rudiment of its future body, together with all the nutriment which the 
 foitus, and afterwards the suckling, receives, are produced from and of 
 
107 
 
 the substance of the mother." Now as respects the eggs of female 
 birds, I have demonstrated them to contain nothing at all but a fit recep- 
 tacle, soil, and nutriment for the seed or semen of the male, and for 
 the offspring of that seed or semen, the chick, or young bird. The 
 same is also the fact in respect of the human female; the ovum in the 
 uterus with its accompaniments, is just that to the seed of the man, 
 which the egg of the hen is to the seed of the male fowl. And again, 
 the ground or earth is also similarly that, to the perfected vegetable seed, 
 whether of grain, or corn, or of trees, both fruit-bearers and not, or of 
 plants, herbs, flowers, and grasses. And therefore, the fundamental 
 error appears to me to be this, the making the vegetable pollen equiva- 
 lent to the animal semen in birds, and beasts and men — and the ova 
 in the females of these, equivalent to the germs of seeds, and flowers, 
 and fruits. For from this error, that other of Mr. Chevalier springs ; 
 *' the female produces the pre-existent germ, the future nutriment of 
 that germ, and in short the whole material ; the male parent endows it 
 with a life /" page 22. But as he adds, " that some fruits will attain," 
 in vegetables, *' their full magnitude, although not impregnated ; and as 
 he tells us, that " among birds it is notorious, that the virgin will lay an 
 egg containing the embryo,^' we might reasonably have expected 
 some such parallel productions from unimpregnated females of the 
 human species. But now, Mr. Knight, observing fruit-trees propagated 
 by grafting or budding, always tending to degenerate, tried seeds with 
 much success; and hence he says, " the only renewal of an individual, 
 the only true reproduction, is by seed. Mr. Knight's doctrine in this 
 respect seems now to be established." But it must be proper and 
 perfect seed ; and so no insect can propagate its species until it arrive 
 at its last or perfect state, nor can man until he arrive at the age of 
 puberty. It has been said indeed, that *' if the seeds or kernels of the 
 cultivated fruits be sown, under the most favourable circumstances of 
 soil and of temperature, the seedlings do not produce friiit equal to 
 that from which they sprang. But let it be observed, that Mr. Knight 
 paid especial care to the production of superior /n«V, from which to cull 
 the very best seed, by which to raise superior seedlings, and not to soil 
 and temperature alone ; for *• all the good fruits have been originally 
 obtained from seeds." And when ground is newly dug up to a good 
 depth, often it is soon after covered with several plants never seen there 
 in the memory of man ; were this often repeated it might recover certain 
 species of plants, either lost or not yet known to botanists. But, of 
 course, as every bud contains, in embryo, a plant in every respect simi- 
 
108 
 
 lar lo the parent, plants are perpetuated by means of these, as well as 
 of the seeds ; but as the seed must have a womb in some fit soil, so 
 must the bud be inserted into a something analagous to it ; and as for 
 bulbs, these are buds for the earth, as buds are for the branches of 
 trees. But buds, and grafts also, form a communication with the earth, 
 through the medium of the tree, as efficiently as seeds, bulbs, roots, 
 shoots, cuttings, offsets, or layers, that have direct communication with 
 it. fcJome seeds show their energy by germinating, growing, and coming 
 to maturity, only by water and a certain warmth ; as mustard seed and 
 cress sown in wet flannel or baize; also some bulbs, as the hyacinth, 
 narcissus, and others, being planted only in water. But this element, 
 in its ordinary state, consists not merely of oxygen and hydrogen, but 
 of various earths, and mineral vegetables, and animal matters; and 
 thus, again, are water melons sustained on water, in Asia and Africa 
 gotten from the atmosphere alone. Now as it is with, all these germs 
 of vegetable existence, they possess their own several peculiarities, and 
 only require a medium for growth, so it is with the male human semen. 
 Thus in Lev. xviii. 20. " Thou shall not give thy lying down to the 
 wife of thy neighbour, to sow seed, to pollute thyself with her." And 
 in Num. v. 28. for "she shall conceive seed;" it should have been, 
 that as she is innocent, her husband shall do his duty, " and she shall 
 receive seed,''' or " be sown," or " be seeded with seed." Compare 
 Lev. xix. 19. and Deut. xxii. 9. and Exod. xxi. 10. 
 
 Upon grounds like these, then, my original position was, that semen 
 was created by the Holy Spirit, by which Mary became pregnant ; she 
 became seeded with this divinely created seed. The matrix of the 
 mother is called " the lowest parts oHhe earth,'" in Ps. cxxxix. 13 - 1 6. ; 
 and Eph. iv. 9. ; literally the lower parts, tahetioih; the feminine of that 
 in Gen. vi, 16., tuhelim, the lower stories or rooms of the ark, which 
 were to receive the living creatures of all kinds. " But," — says a friend, 
 " the seed of vegetables, and the semen of animals, are by no means 
 synonymous substances; but the seed of vegetables is exactly synony- 
 mous with the eggs of oviparous animals. Pollen is equivalent to 
 semen, and seed to eggs." And this, alas, is the sentiment of our sci- 
 entific men. " Pollen, — this dust corresponds to the seminal fluid in 
 animals." London Encyclopaedia by Tegg. And the article on botany 
 says, "if almost all animals have eggs, so have almo.st all plants seeds." 
 But first; that the pollen perfects seeds, and other germs, I have 
 shown ; and thus they become really productive matter ; as is the nature 
 of the matured semen uf pubescent men. The oak's perfected acorn is 
 
109 
 
 its seed, which when sown in a proper soil, piodirces another oak ; but 
 pollen is not seed, because it cannot be sown in the earth ; the soil can- 
 not be seeded with it; nor will it supply the place of a bud or of a 
 scion in a branch ; nor of an offset, shoot, split, or cutting, in the earth. 
 The date-tree y'\e\6s fruit, and pollen for its being perfected ; and then 
 in the ripe fruit there is seed, that is, a kernel; and from this 
 seed, this kernel, you raise another date tree ; which you may likewise 
 do by planting shoots from the parent-tree. The herb yields seed, 
 which produces an exactly similar herb ; but the fruit-tree yields fruit, 
 say the apple; and the seed, that is, the pip of \\\dX fruit, is sown in the 
 earth, and produces another apple-tree, Gen. i. 11, 12. Nay more, 
 Tegg's botany, in another place, confesses the very fact, thus ; " the seed 
 is that part of the fr%iit, which contain the rudiments of the future 
 plant /" page 409. And thus too, Adam begat fruit out of Eve by seed ; 
 and such fruit as had seed in it for reproduction, namely, sons; and 
 the daughters were as the fit soils for this seed. And hence the cultiva- 
 tor of the earth, supplying it with seeds and plants, is called " a lius- 
 Aanc/-man ;" an aish, or man, or husband, to the adamah or soil ; for so 
 Noah is called in Gen. ix. 20. Orignally, the earth was "void" or 
 empty ; and the Creator supplied it with the essences of all the vegetable 
 kingdom; and then he causes this pregnant mother to bring forth, 
 Gen. i. 11, 12. But the seed, in this case, was divinely sown without 
 man's aid, and without breaking up the surface of the soil ; so that it was in 
 a virginal or maiden state ; and its surface was ruptured only at the birth, 
 when " the earth brought forth'' her fruit. And thus this original pro- 
 cess yields a figure of Isaiah's sign; " a virc/in shall be pregnant, and 
 shall bring forth a son." See page 19 of third Pamphlet. In both these 
 instances, the seed was not cast into the respective soils ; but it was cre- 
 ated within them ; and therefore in neither was there any rupture, in 
 order to obtain an entrance for the seed into its proper receptacle ; but by 
 its being created there, each womb being before " void" or empty, now 
 became full, or filled with living seed for the production of oflfspring ; 
 precisely as it is expressed in the case of a seeded and pregnant woman, 
 in Eccl. xi. 5. — *' the womb of ^er that is full,'" or filled. 
 
 FINIS.