fact that, in consequence of Adam's sin being imputed to his posterity, we are totally depraved, and must be lost or eternally damned, if God does not interpose and bring us supernatural deliverance, thus restoring us to our original normal state. This being the case, what need is there, therefore, farther to inquire, whether faith saves us with or without good works? For I have already shown that the man, called Adam, who has been generally heretofore considered as the first man, and the progenitor of the human race, never existed; that a sin that has never been committed, cannot be imputed to any one; and that man, thus existing in his original integrity, can accomplish the ends of his being without extraneous means or miraculous interposition. Moreover, being in the state in which it is natural for him to be, in the ordinary course of his development, and, therefore, uncorrupted through an arbitrarily imposed hereditary taint, man stands before us as a moral being, a free-agent, capable of performing good works without supernatural help, being now virtually-the Fall being proved a myth, just what he is declared, in orthodox creeds, to have been in his unfallen, original state, bearing still unimpaired and in its primordial purity, the image of God!

CHAPTER II.

The Mosaic Ritual or the Levitical Law.

PARAGRAPH I.

St. James and St. Paul.

THE Apostles, St. James and St. Paul, have been considered by many, to hold directly opposite views in respect to the requirements of the Gospel to the attainment of salvation. The former insisting on the necessity of works -erga, for this object, the latter repudiating the works or deeds of the law-erga nómou, as not only superfluous but even positively inimical to the pursuit of the Christian. after happiness or the observance of a rational and useful life. Both sacred writers teach essentially the same doctrine, varying only in the phraseology which they employ, and the peculiar manner of expressing their ideas. A little explanation will serve to illustrate and verify the statement, the truth of which impartial candor will not fail to perceive or hesitate to approve. In the discussion of this important subject, St. James says nothing about the law, but only about works, and he evidently means the works or deeds which consist in the practice of good principles, or, in other words, such works as proceed from the inculcation of our duties by the moral law. A person who is really good or cherishes praiseworthy sentiments, whose intentions, in short, are upright, must lead a good life, based upon correct motives, and, hence, a good life in a moral aspect of the question, is emphatically composed of good

works. Faith, to be of any worth to us, must be in the judgment of the Apostle, absolutely practical, or of such a decidedly objective nature as to produce good fruits. Such is, in brief, the substance of St. James's teaching in behalf of good works, as a dominant element in Christian life, as we find it in the second chapter of his Epistle to the "Twelve Tribes." It will hence be seen that he is not one of those shallow, indolent, or pretending Christians, who are idly and unwisely content with saying "Lord, Lord," in the vain effort or silly hope to "enter into the kingdom of heaven," but that-like his Divine teacher, Jesus, he requires of us-to be Christians, that we should do, not merely know the will of our heavenly Father. Hence, to disclaim the need of works, such as the moral law invariably and rigidly demands of us in the discharge of the various and ardent duties of life, is basely to give the reins to vice and virtually declare man irresponsible : which must be the death-stroke to all virtue, all order, and all happiness! In such case, the Christian profession would be mere pretense-" a body without the soul," and, according to the Apostle, all amelioration of mankind, would be at an end!

The law, of which St. Paul speaks with so marked a disparagement of its worth, is clearly not the moral law, everywhere pervading and animating the voluminous pages of the Old Testament, and indelibly stamped upon the matured intellect, or the natural fruit of that law-good works, but it is simply the Levitical law or Jewish ritualism to which he alludes. The observance of this ritualistic code, which is no less ample and diversified than it is generally burdensome and tedious, and which is merely

called the law by St. Paul, is boldly and repeatedly declared by this indefatigable Apostle, to be utterly useless or not of the least account in the realization of the life and the blessings of the Christian; that we are saved without complying with its requirements-denominated in his Epistles, works or deeds of the law, by strictly and conscientiously carrying out the principles of the Gospelcomprehended in the Acts of the Apostles, xxiv. 24, and in the Letter to the Galatians, i. 23, etc., under the term faith, and faithfully following in the consecrated footsteps. of Jesus Christ, who solemnly warns us not to lose sight of the fact which must be deemed paramount in this investigation, that he has "not come to destroy the law ". the moral law, "or the prophets, but to fulfill them." It is not possible that the Apostle, who earnestly urges the Philippians "to work out their salvation with fear and trembling," should assume a position in this question, diametrically opposite to that of the Savior, or to that of St. James, one of his chief Apostles, and in endeavoring to disseminate the Gospel, not only presumptuously and wickedly, but in spite of the express declaration to the contrary, of his adored Master, thus inconsiderately and foolishly attempt to banish all virtue and peace from human society; undermine the sacred claims of the moral law, and by doubting its virtue or denying its sanctity, secure to vice an easy triumph and an undisputed reign! No. The man that teaches distinctly and emphatically that "whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap," cannot so far stultify or contradict himself as rashly to discard the observance of the moral law, the only normal source and adequate means of good works, or be oblivious

of the Savior's motto, that "every man is known"-not by his faith, or theory, or profession, "but by his fruit:" works! I shall soon have occasion to investigate somewhat more thoroughly the attitude which St. Paul assumes towards the moral law, and to demonstrate that he does not repudiate but inculcate its observance to a complete evangelical life, and perfect happiness hereafter.

PARAGRAPH II.

Examples of Jewish Ritualism or the Ceremonial Laws of the Levitical Code.

Among that part of the Old Testament, which passes under the name of the Law of Moses, the books called Numbers and Leviticus, especially teem with ritualistic prescriptions, or regulations defining and illustrating the ceremonial observances of the Jews. On every side, the devoted Jew was met by ritualistic trammels which every other people might have deemed absolutely insupportable. If he stirred beyond the threshold of his door, he was in imminent danger of coming in contact with some unclean person or thing. His religious scruples were almost boundless, and his worship was clogged by the most servile rites or disturbed by ominous apprehensions and superstitious fears. His food and social intercourse; his domestic institutions; his funerals; his devotions, etc., were rigidly controlled by an elaborate and scrupulous system of ritualism, which demanded a sleepless vigilance in its observance and punished its infraction without mercy. A few examples will serve to convey a proper idea on the curious and fertile subject of ritualism.

The "water of separation," or the ashes of the red-heifer and their use as a means of purification, will first claim and