where the words "natural body" and "spiritual body"* occur, have been greatly warped. Probably by these words, as given in the common translation, the misapprehension of his meaning has arisen, and the scope of the subject has been misunderstood. But, at present, without departing from the authorized version, which some may prefer to a textual criticism, we shall discover that the words now referred to, in their strict grammatical sense, do not sanction the notion of a body of a new and sublimated contexture. Indeed the notion appears to me to be incongruous and contradictory. Not so the true import of the words thus rendered in our translation. Let us briefly examine and compare the word spiritual with other words of similar formation, in order to ascertain and determine its exact meaning and import. But let it be remarked that its meaning has not changed. The terminals of other words, such as national, devotional, monarchical, carnal, have an uniform and fixed signification, denoting relation, or belonging to, or pertaining to. Exempli gratia. National greatness, is greatness pertaining to, or belonging to, or relating to, a nation, say, "righteousness" which "exalteth a nation,"+

* Verse 44.

Prov. xiv. 34.

not the nation itself, or any part of it. A devotional attitude, is an attitude pertaining, belonging, or relating to devotion, say, kneeling, but it is not devotion itself, or any part of it. Monarchical power, is power pertaining, belonging, or relating to a monarch, say the power vested in a single ruler, but not the ruler himself, or any part of his person. The marginal reading of the words "carnal mind" (Romans viii. 6) is given thus,"the minding of the flesh;" not a mind partly formed of flesh and partly of spirit; which is quite as reasonable a thing as a body formed partly of spirit and partly of flesh. So the word spiritual, divested of any preconceived acceptation, signifies relating to, or belonging to, or pertaining to, Spirit. The 44th verse might, therefore, have been rendered better thus:-It is sown a body pertaining to nature; it is raised a body pertaining to Spirit. There is a body pertaining to nature; and there is a body pertaining to Spirit. In explanation and confirmation of what he had just said in this place, the Apostle shortly afterwards "The first man Adam was made a livsays, ing soul; the last Adam was made a quickening Spirit." He here most certainly refers to the creation of Adam, and to the coming of Christ in

the flesh. These are the two representatives of mankind; the former having a body pertaining to a soul, the latter having a body pertaining to a Spirit. The notion, therefore, of a newly etherealized body is entirely excluded, not having been alluded to even by implication, or otherwise. This is, I trust, the literal and grammatical sense of the words "natural body" and "spiritual body," which, I submit, should be sufficient to determine the matter. But,

3. Particular attention is solicited to the following criticism in reference to the original text. The meaning and force of the words have not been represented by the translation "natural body” and “spiritual body," nor by the different rendering "animal body" and "spiritual body." Does not this difference demand investigation, and warrant enquiry whether there is not a discrepancy between these and the original Greek? There is evidently a discordance with the subsequent part of the context, which speaks of "a living soul," while these renderings are silent about it, contrary to the Apostle's words, "so it is written." Adam was certainly created "a living soul," or he could not by his act have caused all to die in him, rendering it necessary that in Christ

all should be made alive. According, therefore, to the Apostle's own explanation and intention, the word rendered "natural" or "animal" possesses the meaning of soul, with an allusion to the soul of Adam. The word animal has been used as pointing out the sort of body which is sown. Instead of which, if the word had been employed as derived from the Latin word anima, which is soul, it might have indicated the meaning of the Apostle, that is, if it had been adjectively applied, not as denoting quality, but as indicating soul, and as signifying soul-related, as applied to the body of man, which is the sense now desired to be established. There has not only been a failure of translation in the first and third clauses of the 44th verse, but also in the second and fourth clauses thereof, as previously cited, in not rendering an equivalent to the sacred text. Beside the agreement subsisting between the 44th and 45th verses, regarding soul, there is also a correspondence regarding Spirit. How lamentably insufficient is the translation "spiritual body," when placed in comparison with the sufficiently, and perhaps quite accurate and noble expression, Spirit-pertaining, or Spirit-related, body. The former translation merely denotes a particular

(erroneous) notion, as it is used, and as it has been taken to signify, as to the sort of body, while the latter brings the body of man into contact with the "quickening Spirit.” In considering the body, both in its first case and also in its second, we must take into our minds cause and fact unitedly. The genuine meaning of the Apostle, including his own explanation, may be stated thus: It is sown a body pertaining to a soul; it is raised a body pertaining to a Spirit. There is a body pertaining to a soul; and there is a body pertaining to a Spirit. "And so it is written," in the Book of Genesis, chap. ii. verse 7, referred to by the Apostle in the 45th verse substantially thus,-"The first man Adam was made 'a living soul." The assertion of the inspired Apostle is sufficient authority that the last Adam was made a "life-making Spirit." "The first man is of the earth earthy," though possessed of a soul, and has nothing that is not human,-nothing by which he can extricate himself from the grave; but the second man possesses, beside all that is human, "all the fulness of the Godhead bodily;"* and is every way qualified to conquer death and hades, and to give us the kingdom, which flesh and

* Col. ii. 9.