tended to prevent the fall: and if this was clearly for the supralapsarian state of man, then so also for that was the exception, without which it hath no meaning whatever. Take the whole passage together, and say whether it be possible for any honest man to deny that man in his state of innocence was commanded by God to feed upon the fruit of all the trees of the garden, except that one only. "And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat : but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Gen. ii. 16, 17.) Secondly: as I have remarked above, I believe that the substance of man's good underwent deterioration after the Fall; for this is part of the curse," And thou shalt eat the herb of the field:" whereas, above the Fall, there is a distinction taken between the herbs which were to be food for man and those which were to be food for cattle: which distinction is omitted afterwards. The whole vegetable world is divided into three classes: "The earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit whose seed was in itself, after his kind." (Gen. i. 12.) Of these, the two latter were yielded for food to man but in the curse man is doomed to eat the herbs of the field without distinction. This is made more manifest if we look to the annals of Paradise, as they are more particularly recorded in the second chapter of Genesis; for then man hath the trees of Paradise for his food from which afterwards he was entirely excluded. But enough has been said to convince any but wreckless gainsayers, of whom there are too many, that man before the Fall, in his state of innocency, beauty, and blessedness, was appointed to eat, and did eat, and for this end had a beautiful and fragrant table spread for him, the fruit of all the trees of Eden. Doth not this prove that the end of eating is not to prevent death-for death then was there none-but to give the body its proper enjoyment, even as knowledge and love are the proper enjoyments of the mind? Doth it not prove, moreover, that the painful and disgusting after-consequences of eating and drinking are not

necessary to that act of the body? for surely there were no such consequences to that holy man who was meet company for the Lord God. In truth, all these are the consequences of corruption, which is the consequence of mortality. Instead of which if immortality were present, then do I believe that all the after-effects of eating would be changed in their character, from being painful and unpleasant, to be pleasant and delightful, and to bear testimony to the purity and the purifying virtue of that body which man then possesseth.-But, reserving what I have to say upon this subject until I havefinished with the probation of the points I have undertaken, I proceed to the next instance on record of immortal and glorious persons eating upon this earth.

It is that recorded of the three men who visited Abraham on the plains of Mamre-of whom we know certainly that the one was Jehovah the Word of God, who of the three Persons in the Godhead is the only one who hath ever been seen or who can be seen: and who the other two were we know not; haplytwo glorified spirits of mankind, who bare him company, as afterwards Moses and Elias did on the Mount of Transfiguration. Now these three persons, men whose feet needed to be washed and their weariness to be rested, did eat and drink of the meal which Abraham provided for them: "And Abraham rạn unto the herd, and fetched a calf tender and good, and gave it unto a young man ; and he hasted to dress it: and he took butter, and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat." (Gen. xviii. 7, 8.) Now, whatever view any one may take of these celestial visitants, there can be no doubt that they were of the immortals; the one being the eternal Son of God, clothed in flesh, and the others being either angels, who for the occasion took flesh, or spirits of men, which I rather believe: and, being so, they ate and drank, and thereby taught us that unto the being of a true man eating and drinking are as essential attributes as seeing or hearing, or any other of our bodily affections. Now these men did not take it for appearance merely, but for refreshment: they were on their way to Sodom; and when they came to Sodom, they were received by Lot, and hospitably entertained (Gen.

xix. 2): "And he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, into your servant's house, and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and ye shall rise up early and go on your ways. And they said, Nay, but we will abide in the street all night." Are not these repeated declarations of God's word sufficient to convince any one but an unbeliever, that of man's body, in whatever state of the mortal or the immortal, it is an essential property to be sustained by food as to be impressed with light or sound? and ought not this to satisfy us, that to this act of eating there is nothing disgustful in any way essentially appertaining?—The next passage of Holy Scripture to which I refer, as casting light upon this subject, is written in Exod. xxiv. 9—11: "Then went up Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet, as it were a paved work of a sapphire-stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness. And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink." This company of the nobles of Israel, being introduced to the vision of the glorified Son of God, were not molested of him in any way, but hospitably entertained with meat and drink, which he had provided for them in the solitudes of Mount Sinai. This, I think, should reconcile us to the worthiness of these acts to a state of glory, when they were made part of a vision given thus of the glory of the God of Israel.

But all these, and some other instances of the like kind which might be gleaned from the Old Testament, though they might serve to reconcile us to entertain, would not establish the doctrine, That in our spiritual bodies, above the resurrection, there shall be eating and drinking, as there was in the state of innocency; and I do intend them merely as preparatory to two express declarations of our Lord, as distinct as language can make them. The first is, that declaration constantly recorded by all the Evangelists spoken on the occasion of the Supper, thus given over by St. Luke xxii. 16, "For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fullfiled in the kingdom of God." Now I simply ask, without offering any explanation, if this does not bear upon the face of it, that

:

he was again to eat of the passover against a future time, when it should be accomplished in his kingdom? If this is not implied in these words, "I will not any more eat thereof, until-" then have I no faculty of understanding words. But still more distinct are the two following verses (verses 17, 18): "And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, Take this, and divide it among yourselves for I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God shall come." Now to what time doth Christ refer? to what time doth he postpone this eating of the passover and drinking of the fruit of the vine? For that he will do this against some time I believe him upon his word, as surely as I believe every other word he spake. There be many interpretations as to the time signified by "the kingdom of God's coming." That it is a time future, I think the Lord's Prayer, in which we pray for it continually, is evidence enough. No doubt present to faith, and in the believer already come within him,

without observation," in righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, in patience and in suffering; and so are we also in faith risen with Christ, and seated with him in the heavenly places, entered within the veil, into the presence of the Father: but though these things be to faith present, no one asserteth that these things are really come, in the full sense in which they shall be hereafter; or that they are come in any other sense than as objects of faith, whose property it is to substantiate things not seen and to make present things future. But take their own interpretation of a subject which has some difficulties around it, and cannot here be regularly handled-namely, that it came at Pentecost, or at the destruction of Jerusalem-and it equally serveth the purpose of proving, that this action of eating and drinking Christ hath not yet performed with his disciples; for no one believeth that they are yet raised from the dead, but wait for the glorious resurrection of the saints, when they shall be raised in the likeness of his glory (Phil. iii. 21; 1 John iii. 1, 2). We conclude, therefore, that against that glorious time, and in that glorious kingdom, it will be as the Lord declareth; and that eating and drinking, in some kind or other which answereth to these acts now, will be present

there. If any man be offended with my Lord's words, I would rather he should vent the odium of his offence upon me, than upon him; but there they are, and he spake them.

The second declaration to the same purpose is still fuller, and occurreth in the same chapter of Luke (xxii. 28-30): "Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations: and I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me; that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." Now I am willing to admit that in this passage there is something of the figurative; that by sitting at his own table he intended to set forth the special place of honour and preferment which awaited his Apostles, even as among earthly princes, this is the sign of rank and dignity in the kingdom: but while I allow this, I will not suffer the express words to be explained away into nothing at all. Whether it shall be a table such as is spread by earthly monarchs, and whether it be covered with such dainties, I stand not to inquireand if men scoff on this account, I bear their scoff patiently for my faith's sake ;—but that there will be nourishment of some kind presented by the Lord to his faithful Apostles, and that they will receive joy and gladness from that which is provided for them, as well as from him by whose goodness it is provided, I verily believe, because "the Lord hath said it." Neither do I stand to inquire whether there shall be thrones to sit upon, as now monarchs have; but that there will be the dominion and power of which the throne is the symbol, I fully believe. And so believing of this, I believe the same of the other; that meat and drink, such as are proper to that spiritual body, shall be prepared for it out of the fruit-bearing earth, which shall be pure as our bodies are pure: not indeed at the beginning of the Millennium all over the earth, but there where the New Jerusalem is, where alone the tree of life is planted. In confirmation of this truth, I could bring many corroborations: as, for example, the request of the mother of Zebedee's children, who desired for her sons the chief seats at his table: this Jesus did not reject as a foolish, sensual, base notion, but simply replied, that "it was