common; if you should be delighted with it, and should perceive the possibility that it do not speak of this earth and other visible things, but only of inward things and actions referring to the soul, to the inner man rather than to the outward; if you should be convinced that not a word of it ought to be taken in the usual, external sense; and that it cannot be what it is generally represented, an account of events that have occurred on this earth, and have been related by men who have witnessed them; but that, instead of being partly a tradition concerning this world, as mostly supposed, it is a Sacred History, the whole of which has been granted us by the inspiration of God, for the reproof and correction of our soul: not a mere allegory or fable, as many would perhaps imagine, but an authentic, a positive, revealed History of certain circumstances that shall take place within man, during and for his renovation (Job, 33. 29, 30); and at the same time a code of regeneration in the knowledge of oneself, in religion and felicity; the whole tending to the formation of Christ in us (Gal. 4. 19); a code of resurrection from sin, showing progressively the way and process by which it can and shall be operated in the soul; if you would admire the order that the Divine Wisdom has put in it, and the beautiful connexion that exists between all its parts; if, from an intimate persuasion that every where you may find in it some important instruction for your soul, you would resolve to apply henceforth to her every passage of it; if you would value it as an inestimable present from God, as an emanation from His will and goodness, as a Book holy, far above any you ever heard of; as the very Word of the Creator who is infallibly itself; if,

conscious of your inability to comprehend it by yourself, and with the help of human explanations, and feeling the importance of understanding it, that you might follow it the better, you would pray God to grant you the intelligence of its Sacred language; if you would believe that it would make you more pious before Him, more obedient to the laws of the Sovereign whom He has given you, more kind and instructive to your fellow creatures, more able to do them essential good; and that it would improve you in hope, faith, and charity, (in which consists the true and holy Christian religion, which I understand to be the eternal life (John, 10. 28); the eternal wisdom that is inhabited by the high and lofty Spirit, Isai. 57. 15.-1 Cor. 1. 24); the words that shall never pass away (John, 6. 63, 68.-Matt. 24. 35); the combining together of the two first great commandments (Matt. 22. 37, 38, 39, 40); the united theory and practice of all virtues; the reconciliation of the two natures, minds, beliefs, wills (Rom. 7. 22, 23); the union of the spiritual and of the human part within man ; the end or destruction of the pride of the world in the heart; the resurrection of the spirits dead in sin; the passover from mortality to immortality, from humanity to spirituality and eternity; the spiritual Rock; the Light of the world; the true Vine; the door through which the real sheep enter in to be saved; the gate of heaven; the ladder to it; the throne of God, and His rest for ever (Ps. 132. 14); the temple and bread that are the body of Christ; the glorious body or knowledge that is united for ever with his spirit; the flesh that must be eaten, and the blood that must be drunk (John, 6. 50, &c.); the better country that is desired by the souls

of Patriarchs and Prophets; the Canaan that is promised to the faithful souls for their everlasting residence; the Mount Sion on which stands the spirit of the Lamb (Heb. 12. 22.-Rev. 14. 1), the Holy hill of the Lord; the Jerusalem that is the city of the great King; the religion in which there is no death, no worldly philosophy, no error, no night or obscurity, nothing inconsistent, nothing incomprehensible; in which all is simple, clear, satisfactory, all is perfection, joy, and peace, all pains and difficulties being removed by faith in God; the everlasting Gospel that will be preached to every nation (Rev. 14. 6); the Lamb's bride, the only wife and help meet for him, the tabernacle of God, the dwelling of His Spirit with men, the New Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven (unto the soul) (Rev. 21. 2, 3); the woman in heaven who is clothed with the sun, and moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars, whose seed keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ (12. 1, 17), the mother or bearer of truth and innocence (5); the Book of life, the sealed Book which the Lamb alone is worthy to open, unveil, expound, and the seven mysteries of which he will make known only to those to whom it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom, those whose souls acknowledge Him for their only Lord, obey and follow His Divine precepts, and whose faith and works are in full conformity with his, and according to the things that are written in that highly religious Book; if with humility and simplicity you would acknowledge the Almighty for your Creator and benefactor, from whom you hold your existence, your soul, your minds, your thoughts, qualities, talents, faculties, ad

vantages of any kind; if you would be thankful to Him for them, and likewise for whatever has happened and happens to you, whether good, whether apparently bad; if you would have no other pride than that of being a creature of the Great God, and glory in nothing else; if you would bear constantly in mind that your fellowcreatures have been in old times as much favoured as you, like you His images; if always remembering that they belong to Him, though they would at times forget that you do, you would show a righteous reverence for Him, by treating them with the regard, the respect that are due to whatever came from Him, and is His; from charity and from a consciousness of your own frailty covering their faults (Gen. 9. 23), trembling to judge and to condemn what may have been done by God, and meant unto good (45. 8.-50. 20); if you would admit the possibility that you have existed formerly, that you have sinned and done evil in His sight; if you would repent for it, and pray Him to have mercy upon you, according to His loving kindness, to purge your soul and to wash her, to create in you a clean heart, to renew a right spirit within you, and to restore unto you the joy of His salvation (Ps. 51); if you would have no objection to concede that your transgressions in a previous life may be the cause of the contradictions you meet with in this, and that God sends them to you for the purification and amendment of your soul, of the inward man, who, having lost his primitive innocence, is now in each of us in a corrupt and degenerate state; if confessing that they must be just, you would submit to them without murmur, living in hopes of better times; if you should think that, were you to

obey His commandments (Job, 36. 9, 10, 11), it is likely that the bitterness of those crosses would be alleviated, and that perhaps you would be altogether relieved from them, as being no longer necessary to you; if it should appear to you of the greatest importance to atone yourself for your sins, by dying unto sin, in imitation of Christ's way; working, as it were, your own salvation and redemption with the Word and help of God (Philip. 2. 12, 13), making of yourself, by the atonement that is the practice of the Lamb's doctrine, an acceptable offering; if thoroughly convinced that there is in the Will of God all that is wise, all that is just, merciful, and good for you, you would be perfectly resigned to it, and trusting to the Benevolent Providence, you would say from the bottom of your heart, Thy Will be done, and not mine!.....if, from being certain that it cannot be proved by any authentic historical documents that the wonderful circumstances mentioned in the Bible have happened on this globe, and from the impossibility of reconciling with it the pretended traditions of dark and superstitious ages, you should believe that it is possible that it be, as I have said above, a prophecy; (which seems to be fully borne out by the certainty that it has been inspired, likewise by Christ's words that it is written of him in Moses, in the Psalms, and in the Prophets; and also by Matt. 24, Mark, 13, and Luke, 21, on which chapters it might be, I repeat it again, proper to meditate without prejudice); if you would admit, from some peculiarities of the times we live in, that we may be near the fulfilment of the beginning of it, near the witnessing of the coming among us of the Man after God's own heart, and of His Spiritual Mate; if you would take for granted that,