appointed, took place as designed on the "Evening;" and whose resurrection, with like precision of accomplishment, ensued early on the Morning" before it was light," which events the only wise and true God could alone accomplish; for this is he, of whom the Evangelist thus speaks at the outset of his gospel. "In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God."

"The same was in the beginning with God." "And the word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”

One of the most eminent* Prelates and Writers of the established church, calls this method of predictively anticipitating events openly to be acted, "prophesying by action;" and such is the order of prediction contained in the words, "Evening and Morning." The Right Reverend Divine then gives us the following examples and explanation of the divine purpose, by adapting such a form of communicating his intentions to mankind. "Jeremiah broke the

* See Gray on the Prophets, page 333, 334.

Potter's vessel, and Ezekiel publicly removed his household goods from the City; more forcibly to represent by these actions some correspondent calamities ready to fall on nations obnoxious to God's wrath; this mode of expressing important circumstances by action, being customary and familiar among all Eastern nations.

"The conduct of the Prophets on these occasions must be considered with reflection on the importance of their ministry; and with great allowance for difference of manners in their time; and then will this mode of prophesying by actions appear to have been not only very striking and impressive, but strictly agreeable to the design and decorum of the prophetic character." When, therefore, Christ is foreshadowed at the time of his death and resurrection, being then possessed of the properties of God and man, the Deity prophecies by those amazing actions which in due time were openly to take place, and the reader by examining the sacred writings from the beginning to the end, will find, that the words "Evening and Morning" can have no relation to any other transac tions that have ever taken place in the sacred

records, than the death and resurrection of the Redeemer, and which we know occurred in the "Evening and Morning," according to divine appointment. It was by the completion of these occurrences, that St. Paul told the Corinthian Church, "If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins,” but a knowledge of the truth of these facts, enabled him to conclude in the triumphant assurance of faith, "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive."

If the reader is anxious to be more particularly informed of the antiquity and prevalence of computing the natural day by the "Evening and the Morning," he is referred to a work written by the Abbé Fleury, and translated from the French by the late Adam Clarke, L. L. D.

I will now enter upon the purpose of Christ's Incarnation declared before the creation of the first Adam, which will be done according to the 26th and 27th verses of the first chapter of Genesis, containing the history of the creation

of man.

"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the

fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him: male and female created he them."

Such is the account which we have of the creation of man, after which the Deity conferred his blessing on our first parents in this form of words:

"And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth."

Having made these requisite insertions from the Bible, I will forthwith enter upon my work by some remarks on the 26th verse, where we are told, "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." Biblical writers have justly observed, that the plural pronoun "us" is the first demonstration of a Trinity of Persons in the Godhead of Jehovah ; and the selection of that word is judicious and appropriate in the highest degree, if we are

but sufficiently attentive to bear in mind that the words, "Let us make man," &c. were spoken preparatory to the formation of the origin of our race. It is equally necessary to remember, that this Divine revelation, which is the first that connects itself with the Creator and his creature man personally, could not, from the amazing mystery in which its extensive import was infolded, be with perfect propriety regarded as a positive declaration of a Trinity of persons; yet that which was but indicative of a most certain truth, must not be by us received in a loose or vague light; because, in possession of the entire written word of God, we shall, by a little attention on our own part, be satisfied that the language," Let us make man in our image, after our likeness," becomes to us a positive declaration, and our authority to receive the language in question in that and no other light, is founded on the authority of God himself. "Go forth, (said the Redeemer to his disciples,) and baptize every creature, beginning at Jerusalem, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."

Had Jehovah permitted the inspired He