discomposure, under the assaults of it's enemies, are it's greatest hindrances to obtaining the victory which it desireth, and are in fact but so many attacks of fresh enemies arising up in it's centre. The Psalmist, therefore, out of the fulness, and under the influence of the most divine wisdom, writeth, "Fret not thyself because of the ungodly," and in another verse of the same psalm, "Put thou thy trust in the Lord, and be doing good," for the calm, tranquil, and patient spirit, that is not disturbed with a sight of it's own sins and imperfections, but resolved notwithstanding, to go on stedfastly in it's course, putting it's trust in the Lord, and doing good, is in the best and most secure state against the powers of ungodliness, and will soonest gain a victory over them. It was in this state of mind that the Psalmist was presently enabled to cry out, “I myself have seen the ungodly in great prosperity, &c. I went by, and lo he was gone, I sought him, but his place was no where to be found,”—and this would soon be the case with every soul that would follow the Psalmist's advice, and in it's spiritual warfare not fret and discompose itself, but trust in the Lord, and be doing good.

It is an eternal truth, that The Lord JESUS CHRIST is the only TRUE EVERLASTING FATHER, and hath all power and dominion both in heaven and earth; and also, that no one hath life in himself except the Lord;

of

of consequence, that all life is derived into living agents by influx; the good of life from the Lord, and the evil of life from hell: this is the faith which prevaileth in the heavens, and when man is in this faith, as he may be whensoever he abideth in goodness, then evil cannot be affixed or appropriated to him, because he knoweth that it cometh not from himself, but from the influence of the spirits of darkness in hell. In this state he may enter into the enjoyment of true peace, because then he will trust to and rely upon the Lord alone: nor can true peace be given to any but such as are under the influence of such a faith, out of pure charity and holiness of life; for other persons are continually casting themselves into a variety of anxieties and passions, which make them restless and miserable. Such spirits as love to be under the government of their own self-will, fancy that by this faith they should lose their will-principle, and thereby their liberty, and of consequence all the satisfactions and enjoyments of life; but this imagination ariseth from their ignorance of the real truth and nature of the case, for whosoever is under the conduct and guidance of the Lord, he is in a state of truest liberty, and thereby in the purest enjoyment of the truest happiness and bliss; all the various kinds of goodness and truth are appropriated to him, as his inheritance; he is gifted with the affection and desire to do good, and nothing is so great a pleasure to him, as to perform all useful and profitable services;

he

he is endowed also with a perception and sensation of "what is good, and with the graces of wisdom and understanding, and all these things are his own proper possessions and belongings, inasmuch as he is then a receiver of life from the Lord.

I have read somewhere an Epitaph to this purport, "Here lies the body of N. N. because he would have his own will." How far it is true that self-will may destroy the body is not perhaps so easy to be known, but that it destroys the soul or spirit, and leaveth it like a mere carcase, without any true life, is very manifest from daily experience, for it is self-will alone which preventeth the soul from entering into resignation to the divine will, in which resignation, humiliation, and obedience, the soul's true life, consisting in the perception and enjoyment of the divine peace and love, can only be found; on every such soul we may write this epitaph, "Here lies the soul of N N. who died unto the peace and love of God, because he would have his own will." Agreeable hereto, St. Bernard saith, "Let selfwill cease, and there will be no death or hell; the kingdom of the devil, and all condemnation beginneth with the love of self."

The Jews had a custom at their wedding feasts, for the married couple to drink in the same glass together, and then to break it in pieces, teaching them by this em

blem,

blem, that whatever felicity they expected together, their lives, upon which it all depended, were frail and brittle as glass.

N. B. An useful hint with respect to all satisfactions and connections that are merely human, and not centred in God and the eternal world.

The Holy Scripture, or the Word of God, being in it's internal sense an union of divine love and divine wisdom, may be considered as corresponding in general with the universal heavens; according to this idea, we may consider every particular book thereof as corresponding with a collection of particular societies in each heaven, and every particular chapter of each book as corresponding with a lesser collection of such societies, and every particular verse of each chapter as corresponding with some particular society, according to the different kinds and degrees of love and wisdom which prevail in the angelic societies: hence we may conclude that good men on earth who are in the affection and exercise of the love and wisdom which is contained in any single verse of the Holy Scripture or Word of God, are in communion with that society of angels to which that verse in it's spiritual or internal sense correspondeth.

FOR

FOR THE AURORA.

I tell you, in that night there shall be two (men) in one bed, the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.-Luke xvii. 34.

THESE words contain a description of the quality of the church state, which will then take place, when the Old Church is rejected and the New established; the rejection of the Old Church and the establishment of the New, is what is meant by the consummation of the age, and by the coming of the Son of Man; and in general by the last judgment, which comes to pass when charity and faith are separated, and faith alone instituted as the only means of salvation.

"I tell you, in that night there shall be two (men) in one bed."-Night denotes the last time of the Old Church, and the first of the New, as in Matt. xxvi. 31, 34. "Jesus said to his disciples, all ye shall be offended because of me, this night." And to Peter, " In this night, before the cock crow, thou shalt thrice deny me." The Lord's being pleased to be taken in the night, signified that divine truth at that time was in the obscurity of night, and that the false grounded in evil was in it's place; and Peter's denying the Lord thrice in that night, represented also the last time of the church when the truth of faith is indeed taught, but is not believed; which time is night, because the Lord is then absolutely denied in the hearts of men; for the twelve VOL. II.

I i

apostles,