tions of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, and every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew

And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; [that is, made merely his outward form or body out of the dust, while his life was a creation breathed into him out of himself;] and man became a living soul.

In the way of brief recapitulation, the following table may now be presented. The extreme particulars may be, and doubtless often are, imperfect, inaccurate, trifling, or even erroneous. Making all allowances, however, for these defects which may occasion a smile or a sneer, the method of analization here pursued, which may be styled the organic, will exhibit enough of truth for its own vindication in the eyes of the candid and thoughtful.

[For this table, see the following page.]

After what has been said, a triunal constitution throughout can hardly be denied to the material world; and the correspondence to this of facts in the human, here and there pointed out along the way, seem of necessity to call for a like constitution in man. The PRESUMPTION in this direction is exceedingly strong. -Moreover, if the creature be triune, then surely must the Creator be so likewise; so that what has thus far been said, turns out to be the clear testimony of matter in favor of the Divine Trinity. Thus the very stones cry out against modern Rationalism.

Unexpectedly this part of the subject has consumed nearly all our space, and we close with a few hints to trinitarians.-Those who hold the mysterious trinity in the God-head, ought not to deny the same fact to man: for what Sacred Scripture gives on one point directly, bears indirectly but surely on the other also. The trinity as such, works the salvation of man; it springs in the love of the Father, is possible by the mediation of the Son, is executed by the quickening Spirit.-Believers are baptized into the name of the Trinity as such; but how could this be, unless their nature also were essentially triune?-The Apostolic benediction commits its subjects to the love, grace and fellowship of the Trinity; but what sense is there in this triple guard for an absolute unit?-The first and great command demands a triple love froin the heart, soul and mind, Matt. xxii, 37; the xapdía, as the seat of the affections, is the objective, spiritual

side; the 4 is the subjective, "natural;" the diavola, the discriminating intellect that mediates the other two. Luke adds iozis after the first two, to denote their united strength; for the extremes here as always, are the factors of moral ability. The middle term, mind, is required, since it alone is the proper principle of light and action, and no true deed can be done in darkness, that is, by mere passion without mind. Thus the Trinity creates and saves a trinity, and the latter offers a triune worship in return.

and

Again: Scripture declares that man was formed in the image of his Creator; but some suppose this image to be spiritual only, and not rational and psychic also. But no trinitarian can object say that man's Creator was the Father alone, and not the Trinity as such; for it is the pn that says: Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. This may be resolved into the magisterial We, but the preblem in this form is still the same, and can be solved only by the supposition of a human trinity; for no absolute unit can say We. Authority thus speaks, as denoting the deliberated purpose of a man and his triunal powers in council met. The king says: We thus and so ordain, and no one gainsays the inward necessity and lawfulness of such form of speech. Moreover, the trinitarian finds himself bound both by Scripture and reason to connect the entire Godhead in the entire work of creation, as otherwise he is unable to vindicate the character of the Logos and Spirit as being divine. This "image," then must cover man's entire nature; for if his spirit alone bear that image, whence comes the type of his rational and psychic being? Human creations bear the image of man complete. On this fact is based the modern mode of history. Men, Senates, Synods, reveal themselves through their own words and works. We come not at their souls, minds and spirits immediately, but only through what they say and do. So it is with the Diety. If any one say: Show us the Father, the Son, the Spirit, and it sufficeth us, he asks for a merely abstract exhibition, which is absurd. He that hath seen the Son or his works, hath seen the Father and Spirit also; for the invisible things of him from the foundation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead. God then is known, not immediately and abstractly, but through his Word and works. These then, man inclusive, must in their nature be triune, in order to reveal a triune God.

Still the objector may say: This image touches, not the constitution of man's being, but only his character and qualities.

But what dualism is this between a subject and his character? His nature remaining incorrupt, can he make and unmake his character and put it on and off at pleasure? Very convenint this, for some folks, as it dispenses with Christ, the mediating Logos, and makes of him a mere man, who only taught his disciples the art of manufacturing characters as articles of commerce for mankind; very convenient, for if a man happens to get his character burnt off, he can soon buy another, or manufacture one for himself. To this result comes a great deal of ancient and modern error.

But from the nature of the case, man at first had no character. He was placed in the Garden in a state of indifference, bent in no particular direction, but endowed with power to bend himself either right or wrong, and so of acquiring character by his own spontaneous and free action. Analagous to this, as we have seen, was probably the first condition of matter. Being wholly surrendered to its objective essence, caloric, the two were so intimately united, that the one was entirely latent, and the other wholly imponderable, and the two thus in perfect equili brio, or indifference, both destitute of character, the one of weight, the other of quality. Not a little absurdly then do they talk, who confine the image and the fall from it, to character alone, when as yet there was no character to fall from. The fall, then, was in the very nature and being of man, not from character, but into character, and that a very bad one.

If we had room, we could press even this sort of argument much more closely.-Should circumstances permit, (which is very doubtful,) this subject may be followed further at a future day.

Mercersburg, Pa.

A. J. M. H.

THE

MERCERSBURG REVIEW.

SEPTEMBER, 1850.

VOL. II.---NO. V.

DOCTRINE OF THE REFORMED CHURCH ON THE LORD'S SUPPER.

The object of the following discussion is primarily altogether historical. It proposes simply to answer the question: What was the proper faith of the Reformed or Calvinistic branch of the Protestant Church in the beginning, as distinguished from Romanism and Lutheranism on the one side as well as from all Rationalism and false Spiritualism on the other? This in itself, it will be perceived, is no question of theology strictly taken, but a question purely and wholly of history. The answer to it carries with it no necessary authority for our own faith. To ascertain the fact of a system, is not to establish its truth. Still all must allow, that the historical inquiry here is of vast consequence for the proper settlement also of our theology. We profess to stand, as Protestants, on the theological and ecclesiastical platform of the Reformation. The question of the holy sacraments, their true nature and power, holds in this a central place; and is found, on close inspection, to be intimately interwoven. with the whole scheme in its other parts. In this view of course, it challenges our solemn regard. Even to be indifferent to it only, to take no interest in it, is at once to betray an inward habit materially at variance with the faith we profess to venerate and follow; and if it should appear, on examination, that the sacra

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