CHAP. 54. "Ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, (saith the apostle,) that ye should be Rom. vii. married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead.—I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.-Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular." 4. 2 Cor. xi. 2. 1 Cor. ii. 27. 55. Then let it be considered, that God never accomplished any work on the earth, but what had a beginning. And that Church, which was collective-ly called the body of Christ, and as a virgin espoused to one husband, had, notwithstanding, its beginning by a single person. 56. And therefore, as it will be granted that the bridegroom was a single person, who contemplated a marriage or spiritual relation, which should be cotemporary with the setting up of his kingdom in the latter day; so it follows, beyond any reasonable dispute, that the manifestation of his glory at his second appearing, was to be in this spiritual relation with his bride; from whom, in a particular manner, the Church is spoken of as feminine. 57. And that this bride was to be a peculiar object, a single person, and as distinct from the body, the Church collectively, as Jesus himself was distinct from his body, the Church, in his first appearing, and no more so. To this the law and the prophets all point, from beginning to end, and which is also consonant to the plainest dictates of reason. CHAPTER IX. The Subject continued. HE same spiritual relation of Christ in the lat THE and the prophets, was still more clearly confirmed, IX. and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of CHAP. the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready." 2. The Spirit saith not, The Church hath made Rev. xiz herself ready, as of a body collectively; nor yet, his 6,7. wives have made themselves ready. But as the Lamb is One and is the bridegroom; so it is said of One which is the bride-his wife hath made herself ready. And after this, it is spoken of the Church, or holy city collectively. "And I John saw the holy city, chap. xxi new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heav- 2 en, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." 3. Christ Jesus, in his first appearing, spake much of his coming in his own glory, and in the glory of his Father, and all the holy angels. But what was that glory, in which he was to come? The apostle, in the Spirit of Christ, expressly says, The woman 1 Cor. xi. is the glory of the man. And the prophet Isaiah, also, speaking of the BRANCH of the latter day, says, In that day shall the BRANCH of the Lord be BEAUTY *margiai AND GLORY.* 4. Then as the man is the head of the woman, and the woman is the glory of the man, and as Christ did verily make his first appearing in the man, which was the first part of his manhood, it remained, (according to the types and shadows of the law, and the prophecies, visions, and promises of God, given from time to time,) that Christ was to make his second appearing in the woman, the second part of his manhood; and this is the glory in which he was to appear, with the glory of his Father, and all the holy angels. 5. And without this, the types are not answered, the prophecies are not fulfilled, and the order, glory and perfection of the new creation, even in its external appearance, must fall short of the old, at least one half, which cannot be. And therefore, in any thing else, Christ could not be known, in his second appearing, as the promised Saviour of the world. 7. Isaj. iv. 2. Bible. 3. 6. In him dwelt the fulness of the Divine Majesty : as said the apostle, God hath in these last days spo- col. 1. 9. ken unto us by his Son,-who being the brightness or Heb.i. 2, shining forth of his glory, and [Gr. xagaxтng THE ὑποτάσεως αὐτο,] the type or character of his lol, standing or correspondent relation. CHAP. 7. Thus, by ascending from the less to the greater, it may appear evident, that as the woman was taken out of the man, and is the glory of the man, and as the fulness of the Divine Majesty dwelt in Jesus, who filled the character of his Father's standing or correspondent relation, and by the Holy Ghost possessed the brightness of his Father's glory; so Wisdom was the glory and perfection in the order and correspondent relation of the Divine Majesty, and who was as one brought up with him from everlasting. 8. And as the brightness of the Father's glory was in Christ Jesus in his first appearing, as woman was in man when God first created him male and female, in his own image, and after his own likeness; so, in order to Christ's coming in his own glory and the glory of his Father, it was necessary that the brightness of his glory should have its abode in the first-born woman, in the new creation, as the brightness of the Father's glory had in the first-born man. But this could not be until the fulness of times. 9. The rib, as it is called, or binder, was first taken out of man, of which the Lord God formed woman, and brought her to the man, and set her in her corresponding relation to him, according to the or der of the first covenant. 10. So that brightness of the Father's glory, which was in the man Christ Jesus, and which was to constitute his future glory, was given to his followers, after his departure, at the day of pentecost, as the Spirit of Promise, which was to abide with them for. ever; and by which the Church as his body, had power on earth to remit and retain sins; and whatever they bound on earth was to be bound in heaven. 11. It is evident from the testimony of Jesus, that John xiv. he was in the Father, and the Father in him-that 70-26. the Father spake by and through him, and did the works which he wrought; so that through him was the manifestation of the Father. 12. And Jesus promised saying, I will pray the Fasher, and he will send you another Comforter-even the Spirit of truth: which implied that one Comforter had already come; and that this other Comforter, the Spirit of truth, even the Holy Ghost, should fin IX. ish the work of Christ, and take up her abode and be CHAP. manifested in and through the woman, as the Father had been manifested in and through the man. 13. Therefore, as Christ Jesus in the first part of his manhood, was the type, character, or representative, and filled the lot or correspondent relation of the Father, in regard to man's redemption; so that the order of heaven might be displayed in the second part of his manhood, the woman must be the representative, and fill the lot or correspondent relation of Wisdom, which is the last revelation of the Holy Ghost. And without this manifestation, the true order and perfection of the Deity could never be known. 14. And therefore the followers of Christ, as his true body, received the Holy Ghost, which was to them a Spirit of Promise, which led them into all Rom. truth, by which they were sealed unto the day of re- 23. Bph demption, and in which they groaned in travail, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of the whole body, female as well as male. i. 13, 14. 15. And as this redemption could be effected only in the display of Wisdom by the Holy Ghost, in the fulness of times, yet future; therefore she appeared in a vision to St. John, under the similitude of a wo- Rev.xip man clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. 16. Which signified that She possessed the glory and righteousness which was in the Son of God that her abode was above the corruptions of an earthly nature; and that she possessed the light and pow er given unto the twelve apostles of the Lamb. 17. And although she brought forth the man-child, the first-born of every creature, who was to rule the nations with a rod of iron, and he was caught up to God, and sat down with him in his throne, out of the reach of the dragon, above all principality and pow er; yet certain it is, that nothing more was, nor could be brought to the same degree of perfection, with the first-born Son, in that dispensation. 18. After the ascension of the Son, the Holy Ghost was in the Church; and after the decline of the Church, in the night of apostacy, and wilderness state of the truth, the Holy Spirit moved upon the IX. CHAP. confused chaos, called christian, as upon the face of the waters, or great deep of human nature; but instead of multiplying and increasing the true spiritual seed, the woman is represented as fleeing into the wilderness, which was in the persecuted witnesses, who fed her there for the space of twelve hundred: and sixty days, or years, the time of the beast's dominion. 19. At the close of which time, there was war in heaven: Michael [i. e. Perfect, who is like God.] and his angels fought against the dragon and his angels; that is, the perfect and united spirit of the Two Witnesses, having received power, began to contend for that perfect and full redemption which God had promised in the latter day. And they overcame the nature of the serpent, so that he was cast out of the temple; that is, out of every part of human nature, which is the habitation of God, the place of his throne, or heaven upon earth. 20. And therefore, in the issue of this war, when the fulness of time was come, and the Holy Ghost had taken up her abode in the woman, purified and⚫ redeemed her, and united her to the first spiritual man in the work of final redemption, and the dragon Rev.xii was cast out, then it was said, Now is come salvation and strength, and the kingdom. or the dwelling place of our God, and the power of his Christ: which never could properly and truly be said before. 30. 1 Cor.vä. 4. 21. For as the man hath not power over his own body, but the woman; and the woman is properly the power of the man, as the man is the power of the woman; so Christ in man alone, could have no power over his body, the Church, for full redemption, but by the woman. 22. And therefore the woman, in the work of redemption, is strictly the power of Christ Jesus in the fulness and perfection of his order; by whom the accuser of the brethren was cast down, and both male and female overcame him, and all his false and foul accusations, by jointly living the life of the lamb, and by the Word of their testimony. 23. Then as the same Spirit and Word of life, that brought forth the first man in the new creation," |