feeling of their nature, to delight in executing it; theirs is, indeed, a state of glory, and of power, and of holiness, of which we, in our present condition, cannot form any notion. Contrast, for a moment, these beings with our incarnate selves. Utterly unable, not only, to behold the presence of God, but, even, to form any conception of His essence or mode of being, or of His attributes; knowing, indeed, as regards our own acts, what the will of God is; but, in every instance, doing it imperfectly, or reluctantly, or neglecting to do it; or having the inclination, and lacking the ability, to do it; or, doing, with ready zeal, the very things which He wills us not to do;-how entirely do we, in nature, and ability, and character, and feeling, differ from those mighty angels! How, then, and why is this? Was not man made in the image of God, and after his likeness? His Spirit, indeed, bears that image and that likeness, but it is incarcerated in an earthen vessel, in a owμa uxikov, in a tenement of flesh; and these two parts of man, the "outward man" and the "inward man,” the flesh and the spirit, are, in their very natures, diametrically opposite, and contrary, the one to the other; for, the སྙ flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, in a state of continual warfare. The spirit is burdened, and degraded, by its alliance with its earthly tenement. Its faculties are restricted, its capacities are straitened, its actions are fettered, its longings are unsatisfied, its will is impotent. It is conscious of its own permanency, of its body's mutability and corruptibility; it knows, that its abode in the body will be but short; it feels, that it has powers which the body opposes, curbs, overpowers; it knows, that a different state of being awaits it when it shall have cast off its garment of flesh; and, yet, it is so occupied by the impulses and influences which it receives from its bodily frame; it is so engrossed by perceptions due to that body; that it identifies itself with its earthy tenement, and shrinks from the contemplation of the approaching dissolution of its prisonhouse, as though the destruction of its own existence were involved in that of its tem porary dwelling. And, thus, though, frequently, exhausted, as it were, by its wearying, fruitless, contests with the body; and groaning under the burden of the flesh; it, yet, clings to it with infatuated fondness, and loves the very thing that it loathes. How D entirely different is such a state, from that of the spiritual beings which inhabit the courts. of heaven! How utterly impossible is it to conceive two conditions more opposite, than that of incarnate man, and that of an angel of light! How unfitted is man, in his present state, for a residence in the mansions of holiness; for communion with beings purely spiritual; for the office of a ministering angel! And, yet, he is destined for those mansions; he is destined to mingle with the heavenly host; he has, awaiting him, an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for him; he has, awaiting him, a owμa пvevμatikov, a spiritual body, glorious, incorruptible, immortal, in which all the native faculties of "the image of God" will have their full scope, and will be invested with energies and powers suitable to the character of the High. offspring of the Most It is, then, the owμa vikov, the animal body, in which the spirit of man is imprisoned, which thus blinds, and fetters, and overpowers man, and renders him unable, during the period of his incarnation, to discern, or comprehend, spiritual things. We perceive in our animal body, sundry actions and functions going on in regular order and harmony; and various changes taking place throughout our bodily economy; independently of any volition, or impulse, or controul, on the part of our sentient, thinking self. We perceive similar actions, and functions, and changes, in other animal bodies. We perceive a totally new and different set of actions taking place in an animal body after it has died; which lead to the entire dissolution and decomposition of that body, and to the resolution of its matter into new and different forms and assemblages of the elementary parts. We observe sundry actions and functions in a living vegetable structure; and, when a vegetable structure loses its life, we see a new, and a different set of actions taking place, which lead to the entire decomposition of that structure, and to the resolution of its elementary matter into new and various forms and combinations. We see animals producing animals, and vegetables producing vegetables, each, according to its kind. We perceive, throughout the whole range of what we term inanimate matter, changes of condition taking place; some more slowly, others more rapidly and more frequently. We see various kinds of matter, or rather various forms and modes of combination of elementary parts of matter, endowed with various properties, and with certain tendencies and influences as regards other combinations of elementary matter. We observe, that what we term the elementary parts of matter, so far as we are acquainted with these, are endowed with certain fixed qualities, and characters, and tendencies; and, that similar combinations of these parts, under similar circumstances, always exhibit similar properties. We see all this complicated variety of actions and changes throughout the whole range of animate and inanimate matter, so carried on, as to establish a system of general harmony and order. From observation and experience we learn, that all these varieties of condition, all these varied actions and changes, all the phenomena of nature, as they are termed, are obedient to, and dependant upon, certain determinate rules, or fixed laws. We extend our contemplation to the heavens which encompass our globe; we see motions going on in orbs suspended there; and we observe, that several of these orbs exert a reciprocal influence upon each other, and upon our own planet; and observation and experience teach us, that these orbs, as |