had lost both his eyes, he fought pitched battles and conducted the whole operations of the war as if he were able to see. Barret and Magliabechi forgot nothing they had ever read. Colburn performed the most difficult arithmetical problems almost without an effort. And Geometers have not been wanting that had in Geometry the same power. These facts responding to the internal sense of effort and labor that ordinary men must employ in mental efforts, seem to say that mental imperfection is in weakness and inability. And that strength is that which is required, so that if strength could be given to the mental powers generally, and to each faculty individually, then would they be perfect; and that perfection would consist in action, unimpaired and complete, as regards the individual faculty, and without effort or labor. This part of our nature, then, shows manifestly the traces of the effect upon Nature that we have attributed to "Original Sin," that is, inability to fulfil the law of its being.

But it is now time to consider the second effect of Original Sin upon the "Mental Powers." The first we had stated to be "imperfection of those powers that we have;" the second, is "an actual diminution of our Mental Powers in number." I think, from the relation that we can see the Human Nature of man once bore to the external world, and the position of perfect obedience, in which all created beings in it stood towards him, and the dominion which we are told he had over the powers of nature by his very being: from this, as also from the disjointed way in which, at present, he stands towards the external world, I think that it is a very natural and easy conclusion, that originally there were in man's nature, powers and faculties of body and mind which now he does not possess.

And that these powers having been fully developed, and in full operation in the Primal Man in his state of Original Righteousness, have, by means of the changed relation of man to all things, in consequence of his sin, shrunk back, as it were, into his being, and been withered up, until hardly the vestiges and indications of them remain.

So that with regard to man, we may say, in reference to these powers and capabilities, that they lie folded up in his being, never coming to maturity of action or ripeness, as the germ of the fruit in buds that never come to flowers, or as the wings and plumage

!

of the butterfly in the chrysalis, or as the ramifications of trunk and branch, twig and foliage in the acorn of the oak.

This, I would say, seems to be the case with man's being, in reference to a multitude of powers, whose existence and nature we can hardly guess at, save in the one way of analogical conjecture, that they must have been of those that bound the external world in obedience to his commands. The being, nature, and extent of these powers, what they are, or how, in what condition they would place man if now called forth, seems to be wrapped up in utter darkness; but that such have an actual existence as possibilities, it seems to me all things around us, by their analogies, lead .us immediately to conclude.

The subject is an extensive one, and capable of a great many curious and interesting inferences and conclusions being drawn from it; but it is enough, for our present purpose, merely to indicate it as a thing very probable, and agreeing strictly with man's position as he is at present.

We shall consider, then, that upon the Body of Man, the effects of Original Sin are: first,-Concupiscence, embracing "Self-will, or Uncontrolledness," "Selfishness," and "Sensuality."

Secondly, the loss of natural immortality, and the Sacrament of it; and the varied consequences of disease and decay.

Thirdly, the utter loss and ruin of some mental powers, by their becoming shrunken and decayed in his nature, so that now they exist as germs and possibilities only, not as actual powers.

And lastly, the weakening and decay of all the remaining mental faculties.

This, I conceive, embraces all the effects of Original Sin upon the Body, so far as we are able, according to the analogy of faith, to draw them from the meditations of the Church for many ages upon Holy Scripture and her practical contemplations upon the nature and being of man.

And the conclusion practically that we may come to, is this: "it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like him.'

But one thing I think of sufficient importance to be noted is, that we should look more to changes in ourselves, and less to changes in external things, in reference to our resurrection and its

* 1 John, ii. 3.

consequences. For I do think, one of the most predominant faults of this age is, that in reference to the Future Life, men, in a way almost unknown to themselves, a sort of unconscious and unwilling self-deceit, take it for granted that all the weaknesses, feeblenesses, imperfections of their present state of being, shall still remain in them, and be transferred with them to Heaven. And then by the aid of a lively and constructive imagination, they go on to build themselves up a material Paradise, that shall contain in itself externally the supply of all these weaknesses and imperfections. And thereby fall into a Mohammedan dream of a sensual Heaven; a paradise in which the full supply of bodily wants shall be the happiness; as if the body were now perfect and Sin Original were not its imperfection, to be removed then with all its consequences.

To them, we say, if "Uncontrolledness" remain, then the power of doing absolutely whatever we will, under certain limits, shall be a part of the happiness of Heaven. But if this "Selfwill" be a consequence of "Original Sin," and with it is to be taken away, then most likely an absolute and entire obedience to God's Law, so that, like a planet around the sun, we shall eternally move round the central light of God in one undeviating course, suspended from his Being by a law ever one,—this, if "Uncontrolledness" be taken away, may be our completest happiness.

We say again, if "Selfishness" still remain, then most likely, in having all possible power, riches, knowledge, everything which in this world we can have, may be a part of our happiness, and it is but a fair and decent employment of the intellect, to build up such an imagined paradise of Having. But if this be not so, and Selfishness is not a part of our nature, but a consequence of the Fall, to be taken away at the resurrection, it may be that having and self-appropriation may not exist in the future life. But our supremest joy may be in perpetually receiving, that we may perpetually pour forth upon others in a less perfect state the favors of God's mercy. Our happiness may not be in possession at all, but in being the channels of benefits to others,-vessels of mercy ―urns wherein, from the crystal sea, the waters are eternally lifted, and wherefrom they are eternally poured forth.

And if Sensuality still be, in heaven, a defect and tendency of our nature, then in earthly Desires and revellings, in the enjoy

ments of the Animal Desires and Appetite we may naturally place one blessedness of a future life. As the old Chiliasts did, who, under decent shapes, as Dionysius, the Bishop of Alexandria, says, "made of heaven a place of sensuality," saying, in decent terms, that "it was a place" in which “ they were to offer sacrifices and feast upon them continually, and to be perpetually celebrating marriages. Or else men may, as Mahomet, imagine his heavenly tree of paradise, the Tooba, of which so many different dishes were the fruits, and from which sprung the Houries, damsels of Paradise, to wait upon the blest;-a sensual and licentious heaven. These follies are fair reasoning if Sensuality yet remain. But if it be as the dross mingled with the gold, an imperfection that is to vanish with this life, then these dreams are evil and absurd, and we are not to attribute to the glorified body the *Concupiscence of that which is fallen, but to content ourselves with the certainty, that "as He is so shall we be also," "when I wake up after thy image I shall be satisfied with it.”

For there is no idea that contains a wider range of mystery and of possible glory than this of a "Spiritual Body,' a body which being material, shall yet come as nearly to the nature of Spirit as being still body it can come." Nay, even the heathen philosopher Pliny had a glimmering idea of this, when he stated that man was naturally a being, "all eye, all ear, all sense, in each and every part.'

* The Concupiscence of St. Augustine, which he counts to be "the fuel of Sin," (fomes peccati) embraces then these affections, Self-will, Selfishness, Sensuality. It is properly an affection of the Body and of its representative, the Animal Mind. And through these it rises up against and into that part of the Moral Nature that we call the Heart, and debases and adulterates it, so that for obedience there is rebellion and lawlessness; for nobleness and Christian beneficence there is meanness and selfishness; for love and affection there is lust and exorbitant passion. In Scripture, this Concupiscence (evil desire) is called "lust," the "carnal mind," the "Will of the Flesh." It is that by which and in which Sin Original issues forth in actual sin. While we remain on earth it abides in our bodily constitution, and therein existing, it is the occasion to temptation,-and this it is that makes our life a constant struggle. But when we rise again we shall arise without Concupiscence. Selfishness, therefore, Sensuality, Self-Will shall have no place in heaven. And Paradises, Selfish, Self-willed, or Sensual are but the dreams of men ignorant of the nature of man on earth, and man in heaven, and untaught in the Spirit of Christ our Lord.

† See Bishop Nicholson on the Catechism.

Nor would men dream of a Paradise of learning and knowledge and physical science, if they could feel how truly in this world "Knowledge" and "Science" are only helps to imperfection, and how if the man were restored to his Original State, through his Gift of the Holy Spirit, working upon his perfect being, 66 knowledge" would be swallowed up in Intuition and faith in Sight, and from the Spirit of God the omniscience as it were of the Almighty would so dwell in the man as the water in a vessel plunged in the ocean, which being in itself limited, is yet filled unto its fullness, and communicates with the unlimited:—and so through this omniscience poured into his soul, according to his measure and his necessity, man with entire and immediate certainty, would then see and know all things necessary to him.* And thus even that which we call "Knowledge," its means, instruments, struggles shall vanish in the fuller and completer sight of the Spiritual being.

If men could at all see this, would they make a Heaven of knowledge? Would they not rather see that "holiness," and 'peace," and "joy," and the calmness of eternal bliss,-and the seeing of Him face to face, to whom all things are present, and all things known, would make their happiness? And this while it confers knowledge, yet makes it of but little avail;-as to the Blind the knowledge that he can gather, from the descriptions of others, of the visible world is most precious while he yet does not see, but when his eyes are opened, then, this otherwise a help becomes useless, and having sight, he thinks of it no more; so must it be with regard to what we call knowledge, nay more with regard to Faith, when we are brought face to face with the Almighty and enabled to look into the mirror of his omniscience, wherein all things are portrayed.

Away! with these dreamings, this wish to frame externally, imaginary modes of supplying imperfections, arising from "Original Sin," and idly supposed to be carried into our heavenly abode. “Original Sin" shall pass from us and with it its defects; and "Self-will" and "Selfishness" and "Sensuality" and "restless intellect,"-these shall perish and die, and have no heavens built for them. But "we shall be as he is ;" and the entire removal of these faults and deficiencies, which in itself would make of this

* This is the effect of the "Vision of God”—that seeing Him as He is, we shall see all things in Him.

**