they have been the natural and original parents of the whole mankind. I do not deny the possibility of it, though it seems hard to understand how the whites and the blacks could come from the same stock; but be what it may, from what I have heard I think it is probable that ere long, and when their regeneration will be completed or far advanced, it will please the Almighty in his immutable goodness to us, to send them in a condition considerably superior to ours; so that they may be able to withdraw us from the low and ignorant state in which we are; and to teach us what it would be very advantageous for us to know, and what we cannot learn from our usual preceptors. Had I to choose between their having existed already on this earth, and their being to come upon it, I would prefer the last; as then I might have a chance of being rightly instructed by them personally, or by their disciples and agents; and also of seeing with them and soon after their coming, him who is called in the Scripture the Son of Man, and of receiving from him, while in that degree of his regeneration, excellent instructions measured to my mental weakness; and afterwards, when the appointed time would come that he should be revealed from heaven as the beloved Son (Matt. 3. 17), when his spirit should be the Lord's Anointed, or the Christ (Isai. 42. 1.-61. 1; Matt. 2. 18; Luke 4. 18, 19), and would shine as the truth, the Way, and the Life, those divine, evangelical precepts that might save me from all false notions, from all sins; and that would impart to me the knowledge of the high spiritual life that would be in him, and would proceed from the Holy Spirit of the Eternal God dwelling and acting in him in the fullness of the Godhead.

I should hope also to receive from him the atonement (Rom. 5. 11), (the reconciliation, in the Latin and French versions) I mean, to learn from both his doctrine and his example, when, after having made him appear for a time and for our instruction, with purity, power and religious superiority, in the spirit of the world, as the Lamb without blemish and spot, without error, without sin, the Omnipotent in His loving-kindness for us and out of pity for our deficiency in faith, would have it that we should be taught in a new way (Heb 10. 19, 20), more approximate to our great imperfection, and seemingly more within the reach of our intellect; would sacrifice him (1 Cor. 5. 7); and would call away from him His Holy Spirit (Ps. 22. 1; Matt. 27. 46), that he would be on a kind of level with us (Heb. 2. 17); when He would make him drink the bitterest of cups (Matt. 26. 39, 42; Mark, 14. 35, 36; Luke, 22. 42); lay down his heavenly life for a mundane one (John, 10. 17), his Sacred knowledge for vain opinions; taste of the spiritual death for the better instruction of every man ; and that through sufferings he should be made more perfect than he had ever been; more able by his having gone through the experiencing of the lowest error and of its dire miseries, and practically through the way to recover from it, more able to show others how their souls could be saved and healed of all infirmities (Heb. 2. 9, 10.-5.8, 9); would have him to be tempted (2. 18;-5. 15) and to be numbered with the transgressors, with the misled unbelievers who deny His absolute power, and ascribe glory to themselves; when He would make him sin for us (2 Cor. 5. 21); would have it that we should be offended because of him (Matt. 26. 31), during the dominion over his soul of the spirit of error that is the Scriptural death

(Rom. 6.9; Jam. 5. 20); would subject him to a false pride, to sorrows and complaints (Ps. 22.-25.-31.— 35.-40.-41.-55.-57.-59.-69.-88) to which he was a stranger while, full of faith, he did, for our instruction, only show himself in the opinion of oneself, instead of being virtually, as we are, the slaves and servants of it; would tie and nail through (human) weakness (2 Cor. 13. 14; Isai. 53. 10), his soul or spiritual body (Phil. 3. 21) to the belief in oneself and in the world, to the tree of death (Gal. 3. 13; Gen 2. 17; 1 Pet. 2. 24); when He would for our sake make him descend for a while into an inferior condition, into darkness, into the grave of error, even into the lower degree of the spiritual death (Isai. 53; Eph. 4. 9; Matt. 12. 40); passing through the spirit or state of death and of hell (Acts, 2. 27), that he should acquire the means of opening and of shutting them, according to every one's deeds (Rev. 1. 18); would, on account of our iniquities and mistaken notions, load his soul with the same that ours are sullied with (Heb. 9. 28); would assimilate her to that of the dead in sin; and would, after his time of humiliation (Acts, 8. 33; Job, 34. 5), for our encouragement in the way of amendment, and for his future and everlasting happiness, would recall and raise her up from the spirit of the world, by three successive and progressive lights, spiritual and philosophical, by which he would rebuild the temple of God within himself (John, 2. 19, 21), and learn to conquer for ever (Rom. 6. 9), (as he should already have succeeded to do (John, 16. 33), before his being made sin because of our iniquities) the deceitful spirit that would have departed from him for a season, (Luke, 4. 13,) as it would be impossible to it to have

any influence and to prevail on him, while he should be protected and led of the Spirit of God; and that would return into him (John, 14. 30), after he should have been forsaken by the Divine Essence (Mark, 15. 34); and when afterwards He would make him appear the second time without sin unto salvation (Heb. 9. 28), no more to return to corruption (Acts, 13. 34); that we should have before our eyes a convincing proof, a full demonstration of the efficacy of his method for the regeneration of the soul, and of her religious system.... ...... to learn, I say, from the way that he should die unto sin, and from the virtues which he should gradually recover, and by which his soul should be completely raised up from the dead; from his resignation to the Almighty's Supreme Will; from his submission to whatever His Wisdom would decree and ordain for his resurrection from sin and its miseries, even to the greatest of all contrarieties, to the most repugnant to his heart, that of being concluded in unbelief, buried in iniquity, as we are; from his conviction that whatever should be sent to him must be just and intended for his good; from his surrender to the care and protection of Divine Providence; his confidence in the supporting, consoling, unbounded Mercy, in which delights the Father of all; his imploring Him to deliver him from his most cruel enemies, the vile human opinions and sentiments that would oppress his soul; his confessing that the Grace of God, and passive, unreserved obedience to His commandments, are the sole means of redemption and salvation from the state of degradation; his denying of himself; his valuing himself as nothing; his willing nothing else but what God wills and commands, but what

pleases Him; his ever making to the Will of God the humble and righteous sacrifice of his own; his fasting and stripping himself of the vanities of the world, of any confidence and belief in it, of whatever might foster in him its spirit, attach him to the earth, and turn him away from faith in the Divine Word, away from God his only aim; his peace, not of the world, but of heaven; his equanimity in troubles and dangers, proceeding from his hope in the Creator; his praising and blessing the Almighty, during his time of adversity, as he had done while in prosperity, while without sin; his silent patience amidst a variety of contradictions and bitter sufferings; despised and rejected by many; even forsaken by those to whom he had been divinely instructive, most generous, yet not complaining; his readiness to forgive all injuries, without exception; referring them to God, to the All-ruling Spirit; seeking in Him alone for consolation, and no where else than in His own conscience, for the cause of his misfortunes; his judging and condemning himself, and none other; his acknowledging that outward enemies are to be pitied, and soothed if possible, not to be hated; that they are, the same as diseases of both mind and body, but instruments and ways of the Deity for reproof and correction, but warnings and emblems of evil passions, of defects, existing in the soul, against which alone ought to be directed all our criticisms, hatred and wrath, till they be entirely subdued and unrooted out of her; his humbling, afflicting himself, mourning, repenting for the failings and imperfections he would search daily, perceive and feel in his heart; his meekly bearing of the chastisement of his errors, trespasses, and offences; his