a nature that ever could

had smitten the river. Now the seventh day with God is eternity, and the meaning is, that the nature which man now possesses must be completely destroyed. So that Christ's saying, Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life, explains the mystery of the incarnation; we become partakers of a new nature, even the united nature of God and man. When Christ speaks of His flesh and of His blood, He speaks of His whole person. He does not speak of His human nature, for it was not be separated from His divine. He speaks of Himself as One, and He says, that they who partake of His flesh and of His blood live for ever become divine as well as human. Thus the old man is destroyed, and thus we are not left naked, but clothed upon with our house which is from above. "Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt: and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt. And the magicians did so with their enchantments, and brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt." (Exod. viii. 6, 7.) It is written, "I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of the great day of God Almighty." (Rev. xvi. 13, 14.) These are the spirits of disobedience-self-willed-that work in the children of disobedience. They came up out of the streams, out of the rivers, and out of the ponds of Egypt, and covered the land. They came out of the mouth of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet, and went forth unto the whole world. The two passages are

parallel, and relate to the same thing; teaching that all mankind, without exception, have been under the control of a spirit of disobedience. Now this is the mystery of iniquity; the body, that is, the nature of man, was created for the Lord. The body and the soul of all created in Adam are the Lord's. But we have made them the members of an harlot by committing fornication; that is, by having a spirit of disobedience working in our nature, we commit spiritual fornication, and defile our body which was created to be a temple in which the Lord would dwell. The first man, Adam, was made a living soul; the last Adam a quickening spirit. In the emblems of bread and wine we have a figure, not only of what the Messiah suffered in His own person; but we have also a figure of its effect upon us. The bread is the body of Christ without doubt. And we must really partake of that body, a visible nature, not however flesh and blood, but flesh and bone. His blood was spilt, it was shed, it was the ransom price of His body; but not a bone of that body was broken. The Jewish paschal lamb was a type of Christ personally, in being slain and entirely eaten up by those for whom it is slain; yet not a bone being broken. It was also a type of His people putting away the leaven of wickedness, and the eating of the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth; also the eating of the flesh of the lamb without spot and without blemish. The lamb slain was food for them. The other sacrifices which were offered by the Jews under the Mosaic economy, and of which the Levitical priesthood eat, are figures of our sacrifices of faith, which are, so to speak, the food of our great High Priest. For when He made His soul an offering for sin,

He saw His seed, He saw of the travail of His soul and was satisfied. Our fruits unto holiness, our works of righteousness, our deeds of benevolence, our patient endurance of suffering, our faith, our hope, and our charity; these are the returns He expects from us, and with which He is well-pleased, for His own name's sake. Out of the body of Adam was taken a rib, of which God made a woman; she was bone of his bones, and flesh of his flesh. This is a figure of the mystery of Messiah's body. 'Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." (John xii. 24.) "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." (John xii. 32.) The purpose of God in becoming man was not to unite one human nature with the Deity; but, as declared by Christ Himself, He was the corn of wheat which fell into the ground and died, and it hath brought forth much fruit, for it has drawn all men unto Him. He, by the grace of God, tasted death for every man. He gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. He is the Saviour of all men, specially, in a more peculiar manner, He is the Saviour of them that believe. The nature in which God appeared and suffered was the fallen nature of man, but without sin. It was not the nature given to Adam when he was created, but it was that nature in its state of curse-flesh and blood-possessing all the sympathies, feelings, and sensations of which we are now susceptible, yet without sin. God could not have suffered in the nature of the first Adam before the fall. He was not flesh and blood, but he was a living soul; and was not susceptible of pain or suffering of any kind. The fall-the spirit of disobediencemade the river of human life a river of blood; and of

that river-the seed of the sinful woman-without its pollution, Jehovah partook; and in that nature, inseparably united to it, was the fulness, not bestowed or gifted fulness, which every believer possesses, but the inexhaustible and incommunicable fulness of the Godhead bodily. Now, when Messiah expired upon the cross-when He cried, It is finished! and dismissed His Spirit-the nature in which He died became the fulness of all things. The body of Christ lay until the third morning in the tomb. With God one day is as a thousand years, and the two days which the body of Christ lay in the tomb, is figurative of the two thousand years which were to elapse from His birth until the final resurrection of His real body-all the saints. Therefore, He saith, I will destroy this temple which is made with hands, and within three days I will build another temple without hands. The body in which Christ was seen after His resurrection was but a figure of His glorious body, the church, like unto which He is to fashion our vile bodies. The burial of Moses by God teaches this great truth under a figure. It taught also that all the Mosaic laws were but figures of the body, which is the death of Christ; and the body in which Jesus was seen after His resurrection was but a type, a figure of His true body-the whole race of men. For when He appeared unto the disciples He was not recognised until He opened their eyes; then they knew it was the Lord. On the way down from the mount of transfiguration, He charged the three disciples that they should tell no man what things they had seen, till the Son of Man were risen from the dead. That this was but truth taught under a figure is beyond all doubt; for before going up to the mount He said, Verily I say unto

you, that there be some standing here which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power. This saying is applied to the transfiguration of our Lord, and that transfiguration was itself a figure of the latter-day glory of the church, which is Christ's body. It cannot be said that the kingdom of God has yet come with power; and when it does so come, those who live to see it shall not taste of death; and at the time the mystery of the transfiguration, and all other mysteries, are made plain, there will be some then standing upon the earth who shall not taste of death until they see the kingdom of God come with power. The disciples kept the saying within themselves; and except to those who have been enlightened as they were, no man has as yet discerned the Lord's body, and the world cannot see it until the appointed time come. They questioned one another what the rising from the dead should mean. And they asked Jesus, saying, Why say the scribes that Elias must first come? And he answered and told them, Elias verily cometh first, and restoreth all things; therefore it is written, Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And again, "When the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and he shall send Jesus Christ, which was before preached unto you: whom the heavens must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you." (Acts iii. 19-22.) Then shall Christ's body be truly trans