That the divine attribute of omniscience is his also, is manifest from the averments of his knowing the thoughts of those about him. And more especially from the declaration in John (ii. 25): "He needed not that any should testify of man, for he knew what was in man." Also, from the apostolic testimony, by John (xvi. 30): “We are sure that thou knowest all things;" likewise by Peter (xx. 17): "Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee."

We might here very much enlarge upon the proofs of the divinity of our Lord's humanity, but these observations may suffice to shew that the members of the Lord's New Church are borne out, and justified, in the most ample manner, for making the Lord Jesus Christ, the object,―the sole object of their love, their faith, their obedience, and their worship. And they cannot but long to see the happy time, when it shall no more be said, among the professors of the Christian name, "Know ye the Lord? but when all shall know him, from the greatest to the least." When they shall also say and act, as did the Apostles, and the primitive Christians, in addressing him, "Lord, to whom shall we go, but unto thee? Thou only hast the words of eternal life."

Let us
Let us

Let us, then, henceforth, totally discard from our minds, the idea of any other besides him, as our Lord and our God. consider him only to be worthy the throne of our hearts. place him before us in his glorified and divine humanity, in whatever we do or say. Let us in all things, seek the honour and the renown of him and of his church and kingdom. Let us thus glorify him, according to our respective abilities and spheres in life, and he will most assuredly, when we are duly prepared, or, our day of probation is ended, usher us into the glory of his angelic heavens, and into his more immediate divine human presence, where is fulness of joy; and, seat us at his right hand, where are pleasures for evermore.

Now to our Lord Jesus Christ be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

SERMON IV.

THE CONSEQUENCE OF SEPARATING GOODNESS AND TRUTH.

BY MR. CULL.

Luke xvii. 32.

"Remember Lot's wife."

In the verses preceding the text, the second advent of the Lord is announced. This coming of the Lord is not a coming in person, but in the power and glory of his Holy Word, shining through the clouds of the letter, and revealing himself to the mental perception of every sincere recipient of divine love and truth. In the 30th verse, this coming is therefore called a revelation. For after the state of the church has been described by Luke up to the period of the coming of the Son of Man, he adds, "Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed." We have frequently heard the above passages of Scripture erroneously interpreted to signify the coming of the Lord in person to judge the world, when, it is imagined, a universal conflagration is immediately to succeed. Alas! their internal state is evidently that which is represented, in our context, by those in the days of Noah ; and those in the days of Lot; for such is their spiritual ignorance as to the right interpretation of Divine Truth (whether intentionally so or not, is for them to decide) "that they know not what they say, or whereof they affirm." If the destruction of this material orb by material fire, which they understand literally by the words fire and brimstone, is actually to take place at some future day; then assuredly the following verse must be literally understood also,-" In that day whosoever shall be upon the house top, and his furniture in the house, let him not come down to take it away; and he that is in the field let him likewise not return to things behind." And then follow the words of our text; "Remember Lot's wife." If these things respecting the destruction of the world are, then, literally to occur, it is in vain-it can be of no possible service, for the man who is on the "house top," either to remain there, or to come down; fly which way he will,

destruction stares him in the face; himself a victim to the destroying fiery element. Should he secure his furniture, and take it into his rightful possession, and store it up in barns, or even in caves of the earth; what would it then avail him, if houses, and bills, and mountains, are to crumble into dust? while he is conscious that to him and every one of the multitudinous spectators of such universal desolation and death, the words apply, "thou fool; even now thy soul shall be required of thee," and whose shall these things be which thou hast secured? And what spiritual good could be derived, and what advantage could possibly accrue to him at such a period, from the wise and merciful counsel contained in the words of the text, which were intended to apply to those who exist on this our globe at the very period of the coming of the Son of Man, viz., "Remember Lot's wife." For him who is in the field to be told, amid this terriffic scene of things, to "Remember Lot's wife, and to return not back," would be a violation and an insult to the common feelings of our nature, whether he were a wicked man, or a saint. Might we not expect the rebuff, in some such terms as this; Whichever way I fly is liquid fire; returning is as bad as to proceed; before, behind, and on either side, is seen, and heard, the universal uproar of elements, and like a little speck in this general wreck I shall soon form a part of the vast combustion, and be added, like a grain of sand, to the mighty mass! And it is now too late; it is a vain and fruitless attempt to ply me with entreaties, cautions, or admonitions; or to lecture me on perseverance from the slothful case of Lot's wife; since, perhaps, the next moment he who speaks, and I who hear, may be involved in the general ruin.

And yet, my hearers, the words were written for the instruction and admonition of those who exist at and after the period of the coming of the Son of Man. It cannot, therefore, signify the end of all things. Whether the text, together with the context, are therefore to be literally understood, judge ye. I speak unto all, whether of the New Church, or not, as unto rational beings; I speak as unto those whom the Almighty has gifted with faculties, for the use or abuse of which you are, and will be, each one accountable; and as responsible beings I say to you in the words of the Apostle, "Judge ye what I say, and may the Lord give you understanding in all things." We will, therefore, for our present edification and instruction in righteousness, proceed to the consideration of that part of the history of Lot and his wife which has a more immediate reference to our text, and the passage

therewith connected. The history to which I refer is, as you are aware, recorded in the 19th chapter of Genesis, where, according to the internal sense, which alone is truly profitable to our souls, it will be remembered that Lot signifies the good of love or charity; and "Lot's wife" the truth of faith. These terms, however, may not be sufficiently intelligible to all. I will, therefore, explain them, that so we may each of us derive benefit and instruc-tion from this history. The two terms goodness and truth com-prehended every thing which exists in the universe, i. e. if it exist according to divine order. They are two universal principles. These two principles, goodness and truth, proceed in unity from the godhead, and should be united in the church and in every individual member, so as to form a one. This is the celestial marriage, or union, which two being united together, or which God hath designed should be joined together, no man should put asunder. The evil consequence of a separation between these two, or the one receding from the other, may be seen spiritually represented in the case of Lot and his wife. We have said that Lot signifies and represents the good of love, or charity. You will, therefore, bear in mind the following definition. The good of love, or charity, signifies those acts of goodness performed by man, when he begins to rise above the principles of truth or faith in his intellectual mind, and to act from the higher principle of love to God and man, operative in the will; in a word when he is no longer led by the light of truth alone, but governed, because warmed by the genial heat of that heaven-born principle, "love to God in the highest and good-will towards men." This heavenly principle is signified and represented by Lot.

In Lot's wife we see represented the truth of faith in the understanding, separated from love in the will and life; whereas these and the former principles, signified by Lot, should be united in man so as to form a oneness, and constitute a heavenly union. So long as these are not united in man, he is a living monument of "a house divided against itself," which though it may endure for a time, cannot stand in the final day of account. And whereever a church exists, having separated these two essential principles and constituents of a true church, she, like Lot's wife turned into a statue of salt, exhibits to the world its own folly, and a fulfilment of the words, "it is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill;" and at the same time proclaims to mankind the necessity of the establishment of a true and living church upon the earth; which (unlike that salt which has lost its savour)

is like that spoken of by our Lord when he said, "salt is good;" "ye are the salt of the earth;" and though it be but thinly scattered here and there, it is a proof amounting to a demonstration, how small a portion thereof can preserve the world and the church from moral and spiritual putrefaction.

With these preliminary remarks we proceed to notice the history before us.

In the state of the church as it existed in the days of Lot, and as referred to by our Lord in the context, we see the state of the members of that church also; since every whole is necessarily composed of parts, and all generals are composed of particulars. Their spiritual blindness is recorded in the 11th verse of the 19th of Genesis, where we read, "that the men were smote with blindness, both small and great," "and they laboured to find the door." They were blind to the truth; they were immersed in falsehood; so that, in reference to their state, the words of the prophet apply: "we wait for light, and behold darkness; for brightness but we walk in thick darkness; we grope like the blind for the wall;"for, "his watchmen are blind, they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs which cannot bark, sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber." Such, indeed, was the state of the church at the time of the Lord's second advent; and such is the state of the present Christian, or Old Jerusalem Church; and, therefore, in reference to the second coming of the Lord, and the formation of a New Christian Church, or New Jerusalem, it is written, "in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of darkness and out of thick darkness."

We read, further, that "the men said unto Lot, hast thou here any besides? Son-in-law, and thy sons, and thy daughters, and whatsoever thou hast in the city, bring them out of this place; for we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the Lord, and the Lord hath sent us to destroy it." Such is the message delivered by the men. What men are these, and what do they signify? In the first verse we read that they were two angels. "There came two angels to Sodom in the evening." These two angels were designed to signify and represent the divine humanity of the Lord and the divine proceeding or the Holy Spirit, since these are spoken of in the Word in reference to judgment. Of the divine humanity or the Son, which is the truth, we read, that "all judgment is given to the Son." Of the divine proceeding or Holy Spirit, which is the Comforter, we read, that "he will reprove the world of sin, of justice