This threefold distinction in the constitution of man, appears in the threefold nature of satanic temptation. It appears in the character of the prohibited fruit in the paradisiacal temptation,— in that of the triform temptation of our blessed Lord, and in that also to which every rational human being, whether connected with the first or the second Adam, is subjected during his period of probation here on earth. Every temptation is a lure held out to the Spirit, soul, or body. Thus the forbidden fruit was exhibited by the Tempter as good for FOOD, and so was a lure to bodily appetite: as pleasant to the SIGHT, and so was attractive to the chief of the animal senses and as much to be desired to make one WISE, whereby it furnished a motive to the indulgence of spiritual ambition. Thus also our Lord was assailed, in the wilderness, by a temptation suited to the threefold constitution of his human nature. He was tempted to gratify carnal inclination in opposition to the word of God, by converting stones into bread. The exhibition of the kingdoms of this world, and of the glory of them, was an appeal to the sight of the eyes, as the beauty of the fruit was in the former case. And thus also the proposal of exciting the admiration of the assembled multitude below, by casting himself down among them from the pinnacle of the Temple, was a temptation to pride of heart, similar to that whereby the first Adam

had been ruined. The threefold character of the process by which the first and second Adam were proved, in which the first had fallen, and the second conquered,-answers to the manner in which all the children, both of the first and second Adam, are also tried,—the former to their destruction, the latter to their eternal benefit. For all that is in the world, every allurement it presents, may be classed under the lust of the FLESH, the lust of the EYES, or the PRIDE of life, which are not of the Father, but of the world. If then man, thus tripartite and triune in the constitution of his nature, as consisting of a material body, an animal soul, and an immaterial spirit, was formed in the image of the ALEIM, we may be permitted further to inquire, in what this likeness consisted, or how he resembles the Triune Jehovah as the record of his creation informs us that he does.

We have already observed, that it cannot be in any one part of his nature, separately considered, that the resemblance lies; the similitude must be referred to his whole constitution as man; * for in order to constitute this likeness, and in execution of the plan before stated in

* This is no novelty; for Purchas, in his Pilgrimage, Book i. chap. 1. refers to authors though he has not named them, who maintained that the compound nature of man as consisting in " vegetation, sensation, and reason," is the image of the Holy Trinity in which man was created.

chap. i. 26, God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (or lives), and man became a living soul." chap. ii. 7. May we then say, that in his body he bears a resemblance of him,* who was afterwards to become incarnate; who, before his incarnation, before the fall, and even before the creation of man, was, if we may so speak, the image, the personator, the revealer of the invisible Godhead. It seems to have been in the appearance of man that He walked in the Garden of Eden, when he came to inquire into the conduct of Adam after the fall; and there exists no reason for denying that it was as man that he communicated with Adam before the fall, when he brought the inferior creatures to him to receive their names, and when, after the formation of the woman, He brought her to the man as his companion. All the manifestations of Jehovah have been made by Him, who is on this account called the LOGOs, the revealer and manifester of Him, whom no one hath seen, or can see, because he is invisible.

It is needless to enlarge on the resemblance, imperfect indeed because it subsists in a finite being, but real because Divinely ordained, which

* The to yevroμevov aysor of the Evangelist. Luke i. 35. the virgin born Son of God.

See the first section of Bp. Bull's Defensio fidei Nicæna.

subsists between the invisible, intellectual, immaterial, and therefore immortal branch of human nature, and that person in the Godhead, of whom the LOGOS is the visible representative. This resemblance is so evident, that the image of the ALEIM in which man was created, has been generally confined to the moral character of God, and the immaterial spirit of man in its creation state. But, as I have before said, something in the whole constitution of human nature seems necessary to be assumed as the foundation of that resemblance, in order to meet the declaration of the Divine Record concerning it.

But the great difficulty remains: in what respect can the other branch of the human constitution bear a resemblance to the remaining personality in the Divine Trinity? What likeness can be supposed to exist between the animal soul of man, and the Spirit of God? If the economy of redemption, by which chiefly the ALEIM become known to us, be admitted into the inquiry by anticipation, the answer is easy.* What the animal soul of man is to the body of man, that the Spirit of God is to the immaterial soul," the author and giver of life." And it is

* Indeed; without this admission; for the influence of the Holy Spirit was necessary to the existence and continuance of Divine life in the soul of man before its fall, and in the human soul of the Divine Mediator. See the first discourse in the author's work on Divine Influence.

by analogy with that, of which animal life is constituted, viz. the material vital air, that the Third Person in Jehovah is made known to us in his own word.* In no other way than by means of this analogy, can we form any conception of his Personality and operations.

But this, perhaps, is not all that may be said on this resemblance, though it is with the deepest reverence that we should speak at all on such a subject. Have not the Scriptures represented the personality of the Spirit as the connecting link in the Divine Trinity? And are not all the operations of Jehovah the Son described as performed under the influence of the Holy Ghost? Certainly, the animal soul in man is the connecting link between his body and spirit, essential to his integrity in his present state of existence, and the means whereby the rational mind reveals itself, whether by the speech or any other corporeal organ.

It should also be recollected, that the consti

*See Letter IV.

† See Bp. Bull, as quoted in a note to Letter III. p. 46. St. Augustine speaks of the Holy Spirit as "the inseparable and undivided communion of the invisible DEITY and THE WORD."

σωμα

Comp. John xvii. 20, 23. I suppose that the neuter numeral adjective (e) in this passage agrees with wua understood; and that therefore the symbol is the same which the Scriptures often employ in illustrating the union which subsists between Christ and his church, and between the several members of his mystical body. The oneness that prevails, both in the symbol and that