And such, we believe, are the "things hoped for," through a promised Messiah, from Adam (inclusive), by all the Saints, holy men (and holy women too), to Christ.

CHAPTER V.

BUT we have yet to speak of the crowning glory of that "Lamb of God" and head of every man, viz., the resurrectional life in a spiritual body, "which the Father having in himself, gave also to the Son to have in himself." We now submit a few remarks on the analogy of the headship existence of the many, or of the whole species in one, and shall endeavor to show that that mode of existence is declared by the books, both of Revelation and of Nature, to be the law of all organized life, both of beings and things.

We have seen that all things and beings in the universe are of and through and in God, and that he gave them by his will, spoken by his Son, their present mode of existence, and we infer from his omnipresence or infinitely extended presence that the universe is extended from infinitesimal smallness, and it is a scriptural and natural truth that only one mode and form of existence can proceed from one source or head of a species. The scriptural account of the formation of all things shows that every kind of organized life multiplies and procreates only and solely after their own kind. We

have, therefore, the united testimony of revelation and nature in proof of the positive existence of the whole of every species, both in the animal and vegetable kingdoms, in their respective heads; and the process of generation in both cases shows that the many in one must exist in the mass and inert state. The analogy therefore of all creation is in harmony with the Scripture doctrine of the headship existence of the spirits of the heavenly humanity, that is, the spirits of all mankind in "Christ, before the world began."

CHAPTER VI.

We now offer some remarks on the legal church or dispensation, in its transition from that state to the dispensation of the Gospel or Gospel Church, which great change Christ called "the regeneration; "saying to his apostles, "You that have been with me in the regeneration," &c.

That work of regeneration was inaugurated by the "preaching of John the Baptist," whose birth, qualification, endowments, and commission were together a miraculous fulfilment of prophecy; being "filled with the Holy Ghost from the womb, and gifted with the spirit and power of Elias," he was the most powerful and successful preacher that had ever appeared, having remained in the wilderness from his birth and receiving his education not of men, but from God. About the twentieth year of his age, he had only to show himself to Israel, and to say "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and all Judea and Jerusalem, and the coasts round about Jordan went out to him, and confessed their sins and were baptized."

His raiment and his food were of the coarsest kind, but the thousands of his converts believed his

message; he claimed to be nothing more than the voice of one crying in the wilderness, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord," and yet he was a burning and a shining light; and the people were willing for a season to rejoice in his light.

But the joy and crown and the highest honor he sought to attain was to administer the baptism, or the washing of the Messiah, whose appearing he had proclaimed. Which washing was a requirement under the law preparatory to the anointing of the high priest, for he (John) had been told by him that sent him to baptize, that he should see the spirit descend from heaven upon him, and thus his joy was fulfilled. That spirit he saw descend in emblem as a dove and remain upon Jesus, which spirit was his anointing, as the great high priest, not of the Jewish nation, but of the whole world; thus he saw and knew that Jesus was the Messiah he had proclaimed and in whom his disciples had believed, and he heard, moreover, and his disciples also, the voice that came from heaven, "saying, This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased." John saw that his ministry was crowned and glorified, he knew as he said that Jesus must increase, and that he must decrease; his soul was satisfied, he was ready and willing to lay his honors at Jesus' feet and to resign his office, and his life also-when. he that sent him to baptize should require it. He continued to preach a short time and prepare a few more wise virgins to receive the bridegroom, then suffered martyrdom at the hand of the wicked Herod.