bridegroom moft, their Lord and head; and have denied felf in the hardest instances, and have facrificed for his fake their dearest interests, and have fuffered in their flesh the most injuries and afflictions from the fpirit of Ishmael and Efau in this world. Great is their reward in heaven: they will be raised as Jofeph, to thrones and crowns, to do good unto their evil brethren who muft fall at their feet, with felf-abhorrence and condemnation for having in ignorance of their excellent worth, perfecuted and tormented their loving elders. Mat. v. 12. Heb. xi. 36-40. Gen. 1. 7—17.

She fits at home, and goeth not abroad, in fearch of any other lover: an image in the prophets applied to our will and heart gone from God in Adam, which is become the harlot, feeking happiness in a falfe path, and in the corrupt defires of the old Adam which always deceive and leave us hungry and thirfty, lean and empty of folid joys. Here is a description of a chafte fpouse of Chrift, whose voice is not heard in the streets, but within in her heart and spirit. Isa. xlii. 2. Mat. xii. 19. He leadeth her by the ftill waters, and in green pastures, and as the great shepherd feedeth her with his own treasures. Pfal. xxiii. 2. For the Lord has promifed to hide fuch in the Jecret of his prefence, and to conceal them in a tabernacle from the ftrife of tongues; that is, from

the turbulent waters, and noisy tongues of falfe divinity, which have captivated the world, held it fo long in darkness, strife, hatred and enmity. Pfal. xxxi. 20. God demands the heart alone, fays Pfeffer, dub. vex. cent. iii. 651. and yet this author has perfecuted the myftical writers, whofe doctrines point to the death of felf, and all its bitter branches, to bring man to love the Lord his God with all his heart, mind, ftrength and understanding; which is the first and great commandment, calling for the denial of felf, and felf-will, which is the antichrift, and the man of fin and perdition in every one, till the fword of the fpirit, the fire from heaven has killed and mortified it. Michaelis fays, the highest praise is due to women in their fecluded apartments. What a meagre sense is here affigned, representing virgins triumphing in a kind of vindictive fpirit, to which men and women are at all times, too prone? Glaffius rightly obferves, that the prophets use the phraseology of their times as to the worship and rites of the new teftament; and with the best reafon too, for one is the letter, and figure in temporary bleffings and victories of the great conqueror of fin, and death, and Satan, the cause of both, by an everlasting deftruction and extinction of all evil from the creation.

All creations from the head to the feet, that is, from the first principle to the last of the whole, are brides with refpect to the firft caufe: because they

muft

muft receive the internal penetration, prefence, On this ground, the

and energy of their creator.

Mofes

cherub in Ezek. xxviii. 15. bears the feminine affix, according to Glaffius and Leufden. ufes it towards God. Numb. xi. 15. Deut. v. 27. The reafon given for this by Hifcuni and Salomo cited by Leufden, is most contemptible, that Mofes was in fuch a terror, that he could not pronounce Atta, but stopped fhort in the word. Nor is the cherub feminine, because the king of Tyre was immersed in pleasure, softness and luxury; but becaufe Lucifer was then the bride of God, poffeffed by his fuperior spirit, and incubation of the light of the eternal one, This doctrine is phyfically neceffary and true. Hence Jefus Chrift is the image, face, and character of the most high God, in the three first names, Abraham, Ifaac and Jacob; in the twelve fons, and in the feventy fouls. Compare this with the high priest from the golden plate on his forehead, and the twelve precious ftones on his breaft-plate, to the feventy bells and pomegranates at the bottom of his garment. And this appears the fulness of the Godhead; and answers to the celebrated name Shem Hamphorafh, the nature of God evolved to the plenitude, conftituting one perfon, or heavenly man, as the temple made one houfe, and the high priest was one with all his garments. In the Hebrew theology the writers call three, seven, and ten, one; meaning thereby the most perfect

man, but the woman for man. Nevertheless, neither is the man without the woman, nor the wo man without the man in the Lord, Yes, and the making of twain one new man, maketh peace, Shalom, and perfections, thummim, the true duplicity in the firft form. Gen. i. 26. Great things might here be fpoken of Bathfheba, married in the figure to Urijah, the fiery effence of Jah; whom David was to espouse to bring forth Solomon, called alfo Jedidiah, the beloved fon, who brings peace to all nations fubdued to his power, as an illuftrious figure and prelude to him, the fon of another bride: and as our earthly form daily perifheth, according to the divifion, breach and rupture in the earthly man the fpiritual form is after the power of an endless life, as the everlasting light at Pentecofte fhewed the peace with God in the lamb's baptism of the holy fpirit, and judgment by fire.

Verse 13. Though ye fhall lie among the pots, (ye fhall have) the wings of a dove covered with filver, and her feathers with yellow gold.

Ainfworth tranflates greenness of gold. It does indeed refer to the green, the centre or middle pillar of the rainbow, where matter is become a cloud, and light can fhew refractions, fomething fimilar to infinite combinations in the fea of glass mingled with fire. David fpeaks of the restitution of all fallen matter, figured by the land of Egypt, mifrajim, fignifying ftraitneffes and compreffions of the ma

terial world in bondage. He tells the fecret Ifrael' the fpiritual firft-born, (for he knew as the apoftle did, all are not Ifrael that are called Ifrael,) that they lay in mifery and depreffion, like flaves in Sodom and Egypt, making pots in Afia, the world of hard matter fore-ordained for fervitude in the fweat of the brow: the time would come, when the few faithful fons of Abraham under the law and the few gathered out of all nations under the gofpel, clothed with the coat of skins, the filthy garments of present bondage by the first fin; who fhould be patient under the crofs, and in the furnace of the true refiner; who fhould be subject to afflictions, poverty, contempt and violent deaths, as the apostle fhews us in Heb. xi. 35-38. these excellent ones of God, (of whom the world was not worthy) wandering in fheep-fkins and goat-fkins, poor rayment for the noblest and best friends and brothers of mankind, the anointed of the Lord: the time was haftening, when they should put on change of rayment, and have crowns of pure gold on their heads, as part of the kings promised to Sarah in Gen. xvii. 635. 11. were thus clothed and crowned at Pentecofte, to which, and to the paffover this royal prophet caft his view. And this myftery of God's council will be more fhewn, in the feast of trumpets, the month of Ethanim, the elders, and perfect ftrong males of God, when the Lord will make up his jewels, and when the moon shall be confounded