tradition: the head of the woman is man, the head of man is Chrift, and the head of Chrift is God. 1 Cor. xi. 3. Pfal. cx. 1. Pfal. xlv. 6, 7. Heb. i. 1-7. The judgment of God must be according to the righteousness of his own laws under Moses: he will avenge the widow, and be to her a husband, and furnish her with clothing, food, and nuptial enjoyment. Now, all thefe bleffings returned, when the holy fpirit was poured out to clothe man's nakedness; and the widowed flesh deprived of the glory was again covered with the everlafting light or garment of vapor white as fnow in Salmon: when they had the true meat and drink, anfwering to that on the altar of perpetual fire: when their bowels and reins taught them the fpiritual union of two being made one fpirit with their Lord: when they drank of the new wine of the kingdom at their marriage feaft. It has pleased God that his wifdom fhould appear foolishness unto

poor brethren. Vitringa, More, Ruddeus and Allix prove this writer's affertion. Erafmus preferred one page of Origen to ten of Austin: yet Origen drew from the fountain of the prophetical tra ditions, and not from Pythagoras and Plato; but they lighted up their torches from the fire of the altar of Mofes, which fhone fo bright amidst the thick darkness of heathenifm, compared with other fchools of philofophy. If Origen carried the mystic fenfe too far, as doubtlefs he and others have done in many points: The error on the other hand, is worse, by rejecting the mysteries, or inner fenfe of the new teftament.

men;

men; and he has rebuked the vanity and pride of vain fcience and false wisdom through all ages, by that one reproof of Chrift in Mat. xi. 25. Luke x. 21. For as Bacon, much fuperior to most philofophers in spiritual conception of facred writ, obferves, "Christ spoke not to thofe alone who

were then present, but to us alfo now living, " and to men of every age and place, where the "gospel should be preached." The joy of these firft brides with their long abfent head and coverer, appeared drunkenness to the natural man; thus it ever will appear, till he know his weakness and ignorance. Origen, (who has no red letter in the Romish calendar, though Huet thought him wor thy his notice) fays on the divine fong of Solomon. "I call God to witnefs:" I have known the bridegroom in vifiting me; when foon he has withdrawn himself, and I could not find him again. Malbranch (whofe mathematical and metaphysical studies had not extinguished and entombed the tender and fweet affections of the heart,) fpeaks from his own feeling and experience; (and what is all life but self-knowledge and felf-perception?) The motions of grace are not only motions of light, but of pleasure. And the apoftle tells believers, that the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, as the figures of the law on the altars of the temple were for a time, but juftification, peace and joy in the holy Spirit, dwelling in their spirits,

as

1

"A

as his house and tabernacle. Rom. xiv. 17. reproach, says an excellent writer, in her tract on devotional taste, has been caft upon devotional writers, that they are apt to run into the language of love. Perhaps the charge had been full as juft, had they faid that love borrowed the language of devotion; for the votaries of that paffion are fond of ufing thofe exaggerated expreffions, which can fuit nothing below divinity." Boyle, and the late Dr. Gregory in his tract of the faculties of man and animals compared, justly recommend books of devotion. What are the greatest part of the prophets, but fongs for God found; or tender complaints for his temporary absence or hiding? It is well known, how much Socinians in particular, and infidels deride the fong of Solomon.* God hides himself from these men wife in their own conceit, and rebukes these boasted rationalifts, as if he could not give joys by his prefence, by the lightenings and arrows of his love-light, as much fuperior to what we can tafte in our bodies of

*Voltaire could ridicule the Canticles; the elegant, refined and elevated spirit of which he could never taste, or feel in his heart toward the first good and first beauty. But he could write La pucelle d'Orleans, and leave it as a monument of a mind more. polluted, than if he had ftudied under the famous cafuift, Suarez, and exhausted all his vafte magazine of confeffional filthiness.

death,

'death, as the most valued pleasure (which finds foon its own grave) is above the taste of water. The word widow is derived from Alam, to be filent, and fecondarily fad. When her heart fings for joy in the emphatic fenfe of the prophets, is, when the cœleftial bridegroom becomes one with the fhame and nakednefs of the divided image, and hides his bride under the garment of living light, as the mystery was unveiled at Pentecofte. When the children of that baptifm, or washing by fire became embaffadreffes, Hamebaferoth, women evangelizers, which has perplexed the commentators to explain. It is the doctrine of the ancient Hebrews, that all inferior spirits and their veffels or bodies are brides to the fuperior fpirit, being neceffarily penetrated and clothed with the more spiritual agent in all his powers. For this reason, fathers in the Hebrew tongue have a fœminine termination, Aboth, because with refpect to the fupreme cause, both in his ternary, and in his decad, they are only veffels to receive his most internal, and moft fubtile prefence and operation. They, at the feast of seven weeks, or Pentecofte, make a part of the virgins who were not defiled with women, as John fees this company in Rev. xiv. 4. but not in the ftupid sense of Jerome and Austin, the founders of monkery and affected cœlibacy, which have done fo much mifchief to the christian church, and have occafioned fuch abo

minable

minable fcenes of private lewdness in the holy, apoftolical, catholic church: of which, Abraham and Jacob would be but mean characters, compared to a Monk, or his father, the Pope. The first feducing fpirits and doctrine of devils, speaking lies in hypocrify, forbidding to marry, and abftaining from meats. 1 Tim. iv. 1.-4. were to go forth with these two chief pillars of Popifh fanctity. The apostle, though preferring a fingle life, as any one (who is called to be a Nazarite, and able to bear it) may do with free will as long or fhort a time as those under the law did; yet he bids the Bishop, or permits him to be the hufband of one wife, and to rule well his own houfe, having his children in fub→ jection under him. 1 Tim. iii. 2.-4. The fame is enjoined to the deacons; and thefe are the two principal officers of the primitive church; for the name of priests was never appropriated to any pretended lot, Kleros, till this beautiful fimplicity in the christian faith and family was destroyed by the grandeur, pomp, and worldly appendages introduced by Conftantine: of which three fubfequent centuries fhewed the effects fatal to knowledge, faith and brotherly love. To return: the office of a judge is threefold, to condemn the guilty, abfolve the innocent, and avenge the injured. These three parts were fulfilled in their tranfcendent intention by Jefus Chrift; who condemned fin in the flesh, and fhewed righteous judgment against

himfelf