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principle in man, in which the seeds of divine truths are insinuated by the Lord. You can, I should think, easily distingush between your will and your understanding, i. e. your intellectual principle, and what are the distinct offices of each: now when the will loves and performs the good things of truth which are received in the understanding, their principles may be considered as acting in unison, and our Lord was pleased to express his divine approbation of such states, when he said, "if ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them." Now you know we are informed that the Lord planted two trees in the aforesaid garden, one of which man was solemnly forbidden to eat of, or even to touch, on pain of death, viz. "the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." This tree was called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now you must see that wisdom and knowledge are not material commodities, they grow not upon an apple or a plumb tree. The tree of life, or as it is expressed in the original, the tree of lives, is no other than the Lord in man, this tree is said to have been in the midst of the garden, agreeable to the declaration of the prophet, cry out and shout O Jerusalem, for great is the Lord in the midst of thee;" by which I understood a pure, holy, celestial love to the Lord our God, acknowledging him as the eternal source and fountain of all good, and of all perfection, together with a faith originating in a celestial love. When this pure love and faith are in or said to be in the midst of the garden, then we have reason to believe it conveys an idea that a true celestial love and faith are implanted in the heart and life of man, in which state we shall ever acknowledge that every use we perform, all the good we do, and every desire to perform any good, is of, and from the Lord alone. Let me intreat you my dear children to pray for, and strive to cultivate the establishment of the precious and blessed principles of love and faith in your souls, that you may love the Lord with all your hearts, and your neighbour as yourselves, and thus live in obedience to the Lord your God. You will then plainly perceive that the tree of knowledge of good and evil, implies that we are all of us, free agents, fit to choose either good or evil, agreeable to divine declaration, "Behold, I have this day set before you good and evil, a life and death, therefore choose ye which you will." But, in case we should lean to our own will and understanding, and thus receding from, and rejecting, the wisdom which is from above-if we think we are wise and good of ourselves, we shall then darken our understandings by the infernal love, and exaltation of self, and thus sensual love will get the better of all spiritual and heavenly love, and of all light and truth; darkness and death will then pervade our souls, agreeable to the awful denunciation, "in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Thus you may learn, my beloved children, that the forbidden tree is still standing, and in as flourishing a state as ever, and that it behoves us as much as it did our first parents to beware of that vile reptile, the serpent, which beguiled them, lest he should endeavour to persuade us that it is a tree to be desired to make us wise, and which was declared by the serpent, would be the result of their disobedience.

Son. Do you think, my dear mother, that serpents were created with speech in those days? I think I read they were in some notes on the bible at school.

Mother. The explanation of this subject is so copious, my dear, that I must defer entering on it till our next meeting, which may commence as soon as we have dined.

Mother. I am pleased by your early attendance, my beloved children, as it bespeaks your earnest desire after instruction, which affords me great delight.

Friendly. I do not think it impossible that our dearly beloved mother can experience delight equal to that which she confers on us; without which I should feel myself an orphan indeed.

Son. I am longing, my dear mother, to learn more of the vile serpent. Mother. Will it not surprise you my child to be informed, that the very self-same serpent is to be found within yourself.

Son. You talk so mysteriously, my dear mother, that I am persuaded you do not mean what you now say.

Mother. Indeed, my child, I do mean what I say, although I have not said all that I mean to say; for this vile reptile is not only to be discovered in you, my child, but also in every unregenerated unconverted child of man. Strange as it may appear, I must inform you, that the garden of Eden, together with the tree of life, and the forbidden fruit, is all to be discovered within ourselves.

Son. Indeed if I thought that hateful reptile was in me, I should almost wish to run away from myself.

Mother. I will now inform you, my dear, that the serpent, whenever it is mentioned in scripture, represents, because it corresponds to, the sensual principle in man.

Son. Pray what do you mean by the sensual principle in man?

Mother. I mean all that appertains to the bodily senses of man, which you know are five, and its deadly influence and poisonous quality diffuses itself into every secret avenue of the mental and voluntary principle in man, and this with such serpentine subtility, as is scarcely to be heard, seen or felt. Thus our first parents, instead of looking to the Lord for guidance and protection, gradually withdrew themselves from him, diverging from their divine centre of Life, Love, Wisdom and Innocence, they began to indulge themselves in the sinful gratification of their bodily senses, and earthly affections, suffering their evil and sinful lusts and affections to predominate over their rational principle: thus sinking themselves lower and lower, until they became earthly, sensual and devilish. I must now inform you that our kind and bountiful Creator originally designed this now degraded principle, as the receptacle of all heavenly, celestial and innocent delight, both of body and of mind. Man was created in a state of perfect liberty, with strength sufficient to have stood, "though free to fall," provided he had not diverged from his divine centre, i. e. the Lord. He was created in the knowledge and the delight of good, with every object around calculated to improve the former, and to qualify the latter; nor did he enter into the knowledge of evil, before he became desirous of exalting his own self-derived wisdom above that which he received from God; and to fancy that the good he possessed was of and from himself alone, by which he attained to the knowledge of evil: thus he partook of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, by which that principle in him, which was graciously and originally designed as the receptacle of celestial good and truth, became dead to the knowledge and to the love of all good, both celestial and spiritual, agreeable to the Word of the Lord, "in the day thou eatest thereof, dying thou shalt die!" I must once more inform you, my dear children, that this and all other parts of scripture contain lessons of infinite love and wisdom, but which lessons are generally conveyed to us under figures, corresponding to, or representative of, the spiritual subject of instruction intended to be opened to our minds, and in no instance more so than in the present one. Now you know that when we eat any thing, we thereby make it our own, one with ourselves; it is incor'porated into, and becomes one with our system-we receive it into our natural life, which it supports and sustains, provided it be salutary in its nature: if the contrary, you know its effect will be opposite; just so is it with our spiritual food; therefore it is that as man was lost by spiritually partaking of deadly poison, so he is restored to spiritual life by eating also; for except we eat the flesh and drink the blood of the son of man, i. e. the Lord Jesus Christ, we have no life in us.

Friendly. I am glad you have mentioned this passage, my dear mother, as I have very often wished to know the meaning of it.

Mother. It is not to be wondered at, my dear child, that this sentence should appear difficult to be comprehended by you, when it appeared to be so even to some of the Lord's own disciples; but whereas man is declared to have forfeited his spiritual life by the single act of eating, we find that a two-fold remedy is here held forth for the restoration of the

same life; and the remedy being of a spiritual nature, fully demonstrates that the disease and the cause of the disease, must have been alike spiritual. But the reason of its being of a two-fold nature, when applied for the restoration of life, is to show, that a true and living faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is to be united in us, with the divine good which he is waiting to bestow upon all who believe in him, as where be declares to the same effect, when he says, "These signs shall follow them that believe, in my name, they shall cast out devils, they shall speak with new tongues, they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them, they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." All which in a spiritual sense, my dear children, will be experienced by every one who is born of the spirit of God, i. e. all who are regenerated and born again; for you may rely on it for a certainty, that throughout the Word of God, whenever eating is specified, some spiritual good is held forth under that figure, and some spiritual or natural truth is contained under the figure of drinking, water signifying natural, and wine spiritual truth, in the Scriptures; and thus it is said, "Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled;" thus we eat the flesh and drink the blood of the son of man.

Son. I have often wondered what this could mean, as it appeared to me a thing quite impossible to be done, and which I now think is of itself sufficient to prove the reality of a spiritual sense being contained within the letter of Scripture.

Mother. This is most certainly true, my child, although the internal sense of the Word has been little known for many ages; yet it has pleased the Lord at this day, in his abundant love and infinite wisdom, to open and reveal this sense to some thousands, who in the path of true righteousness have sought after the pearls of Divine Truth, by the light of which we are enabled to discover, that, by eating his flesh we are to understand the bread of life, and our receiving the divine good of his divine love, and by drinking his blood is signified, the receiving a portion of the Divine Truth of his Divine Wisdom; which by his all gracious and divine assistance, we are to make our own, by laying it up in our hearts; that the fruits thereof may grow, and appear in our lives; teaching us at the same time, to acknowledge that the good and the truth which we perform, is no more from or of ourselves, than the nourishment which our bodies receive, proceeds from ourselves, independent of our natural food which we daily receive and eat; in which thrice happy state, we shall with humble thankfulness have to acknowledge that instead of the Serpent, we shall experience and know that the Tree of Life is implanted in the midst of our garden, which diffuses its holy and blessed influence throughout each and every principle of our lives; and its fruit will conjoin us to the Lord, and associate our spirits with those in the invisible world.

Son. Then I suppose that something of a spiritual nature is involved in Adam being driven out of the garden of Eden?

Mother. You are right, my dear, something of a very important nature is contained in this circumstance, by which we learn, that in consequence of sin, he was deprived of all true wisdom and understanding, and became at a distance from the Lord his God, who now appeared as a God of wrath and as a consuming fire.

Son. And was not God very angry with him, for his disobedience? Mother. It was not in the nature of the Lord our God to be angry, my dear; "Fury is not in me saith the Lord"-but it was the Holiness, the Purity and the Love of God, which now appeared so contrary and so dreadful to fallen man, and which still appears so to every sinful mind whilst it remaineth in the love of evil; because whilst in a state of impurity, we are consequently in a state of enmity towards God, who ever remaineth unchangable, and as we read in the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ is the same God yesterday to day and for ever, the eternal Fountain and Source of love, mercy, and tender compassion towards all his creatures, and therefore this Mighty God, this Everlasting Father, this Gracious Counsellar

of man determined to work a work, at which the heavens should wonder and the earth be astonished: but we must now quit this most of all interesting and heart cheering subject, and take dinner, I see your pappa is returned and will be displeased if we do not attend him. Endeavour, my beloved children, to treasure up in your minds what you have already heard and pray your heavenly Father to prepare and give you wisdom to receive and understand what remains to be unfolded.—I hope to see you again after dinner,

Mr. K. has been faulty, like myself, in his over anxiety for the welfare of the place. In one instance, he has, in my opinion, been guilty of rather unhandsome proceedings, which indeed were calculated to operate, and in fact, in some degree, did operate against me. At the sixteenth Conference something, I forgot what, led Mr. K. to ask me respecting Mr. C's. intention of leaving the £200, he had lent to the place, at his decease. I stated as my opinion, that if Mrs. C. did not survive him, as he had no children (judging from that great liberality which he had so far shown, in lending the money, and allowing me the interest of it) he might leave the money to the church at his decease, but that if Mrs. C. survived him, I was sure he could not leave it, as she would require for her support all that he could leave her and I further stated, distinctly, that I had never had any conversation with him upon the subject, and therefore could speak to nothing but my opinion formed upon the grounds above stated.

When the draft deed came hither to be examined, it was found that Mr. C. was not sufficiently secured in it, and consequently one of the requisitions of the society was, that he should be secured. Now allowing what I have above stated to be a fact, how could Mr. K. be so lost to all due consideration of the facts of the case, to all delicacy to Mr. C's. feelings, and to my interest in that gentleman's estimation, as to send in the shape of legal observations the following. "If this Resolution (that is the one requiring Mr. C. to be secured) be carried into effect, M. C. cannot, by Will, give the £200 to the church at his decease, pursuant to his intention stated at the Conference, a gift of money secured on land being void by Act of Parliament. Mr. C. is the person interested in this resolution, and as I do not understand that he makes any objection entirely to rest on the voluntary donations to the society for repayment, no one else ought, particularly when adopting the Resolution will prevent Mr. C. securing the church at his death. Although the declaration of Trust signed by Mr. Bradley provided that the money should be secured on the land, yet as this was a clause introduced for Mr. C's. benefit, he is competent to receive the intended advantage." Here Mr. K. evidently forgot the real facts of the case, and assumed my opinion of what Mr. C. might do, as his real intention, although I had declared I had never conversed with him upon the subject, nor had any intimation from him of any such thing? I do not like to say too much upon this matter, as it betrays a weakness in Mr. K. which it is very difficult to account for to his honour, in any other way than I have supposed, his over anxiety to serve the church. The committee of trustees south of Trent were so far implicated in this blunder, as to send the following as one of their Resolutions upon the same subject. "Concerning Resolution 25; the committee of trustees think, that it is more for the consideration of Mr. C. than the trustees of Conference, and only deem it necessary to refer the society to the supplement to the Minutes of Conference for 1821, to shew, that if the money is secured on the building as required by the society, that Mr. C's. intention to give the money to the society at his death will be frustrated." Who would not conclude from these documents that Mr. C. had declared his own intention? Who could for a moment think that all this could be built upon my opinion, as above expressed, not, indeed, of Mr. C's. intention, but of what he might possibly do, provided he sur

vived Mrs. C. One of the trustees stated as being present at the passing of the resolutions, was in Conference when I gave the above opinion, and took an actual part in the proceedings on that occasion.

Let any one conceive the unpleasant situation in which I was placed with regard to Mr. C. in laying these Documents before him. His immediate inquiry was, what they had to do with his intention of willing his property. He had never said any thing upon the subject, and he naturally suspected that I had been exercising an unwarrantable freedom with the final disposition of his property. I explained as above, but I have reason to think that such explanation was never satisfactory: indeed he could not see why such a thing should be agitated at the Conference, nor could I, but so it was.

When Mr. Goyder was here last September, I asked him as to his recollection of the matters as above stated, which passed at the 16th Conference, and he stated that he recollected the particulars as well as if they were tsansacted yesterday. I should have been happy, if he could have seen Mr. C. to satisfy his mind upon the subject relative to what I had advanced, but Mr. C. was unfortunately from home at the time.

I have two motives in relating this unpleasant part of the business. The first is, that Mr. C. may have the utmost satisfaction, as to how far I took liberty with his affairs, and the second is, to shew that in all probability I am not the only one to whom blame may attach in this business, and that more or less of indiscretion may have marked the proceedings of all parties concerned in it.

To be continued.

MISSIONARY AND GENERAL CHURCH INTELLIGENCE.

LONDON.

We are informed that the Society of the New Church now worshipping in the Chapel in Hanover Street, Long Acre, under the Ministry of the Rev. S. Noble has purchased the Freehold Chapel in Cross Street, Hatton Garden, for the Sum of £3,800, and that the Society will remove from their present place in the course of 6 or 8 weeks. The Chapel in Cross Street, Hatton Garden, was built originally for the New Church, but has been occupied for some time past by the Rev. E. Irving. We rejoice much at this place again coming into the possession of the New Church.

BRISTOL.

We are very sorry to inform our readers that the members of the Society of the New Church in this city, for want of a Minister, or some competent person to preach the doctrines, no longer assemble for public worship. The chapel doors have been closed ever since the 18th. of February last, and, from the present appearance of things, there is not much prospect of their being re-opened. We regret very much that so large and populous a city as Bristol should not enjoy the blessing of the public ministry of the Word according to the heavenly doctrines of the New Jerusalem.

LEEDS.

The New Jerusalem Temple now building in this town, is nearly completed, and we have the satisfaction to state that it will be opened for the public Worship of the Lord, on Friday the 4th of May, 1827. We are informed that the following Ministers, in addition to the Rev J Gilbert, are expected to be present at the opening of this Temple, viz.

Goyder, Rev. Thomas, London.

Howarth, Rev. David, Salford.

Madeley, Rev. Edward, Birmingham.

Noble, Rev. Samuel, London.

Senior, Mr. George, Dalton.

We do not know that any particular arrangements have been made for the following Sunday, May the 6th. but we suppose that some of the above named gentlemen will preach there on that day.

MELBOURNE.

The prospect of an increase of members to the New Church in this village