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the flesh and the outward world, I was not able to keep my ground against them, but was subjected to their bondage, taken captive on every hand, bound down and disgraced by a thousand ignominious desires of the flesh, and of the world, and of the devil; so that I might no more doubt that if I attained to a freeman's place, it was not by any power of mine own, seeing the law of the flesh held me in hopeless thraldom. This is a good lesson for a future viceroy to learn. If he is not to govern for himself but for another, it is expedient that he should know. that the very capacity for government he holdeth from that other. This we, the future kings and priests under Christ, do learn, by knowing that in ourselves we cannot rule a member of our body, nor any outward thing, according to the law of God. Good lesson of our own insignificance is this, and sufficient to take away all boasting, all confidence, all glory in myself. But this is not all. I a regenerate person, do by regeneration of the Holy Ghost, learn furthermore, that there is one who can redeem my liberty, and hold up my goings according to the law of God, who can put within me a strength to resist and overcome the flesh, the world, and the devil, and to reduce these antagonists of God into unwilling service. from whom have I such liberty, from whom have I such holiness, from whom have I such honour? From Christ: he manumitted me, he made me his freed-man, he changed my filthy vesture of flesh, to be a comely apparel for ministering unto God. He hath made me what I am; and the life which I now live, I live by the power of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. This now, methinks, is good training for one who is to serve him as a viceroy. But this is not all. I, a regenerate man, shall yet be renewed in his very likeness; one with him, as he is one with the Father; son of his substance, as he is Son of the Father's substance; image of his person, as he is Image of the Father's; to him devoted, as he is devoted unto God: my own nothingness no longer to deny, as Adam did; my own origination from Christ no longer to deny, as Adam did; my own second and subsidiary place no longer to deny, as Adam did. And being so, that I am now in my very being a vicegerent of Christ, I may well be so in mine

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office also. And so believe I, that regenerate men shall be constituted very kings and very priests unto God, shadowing forth in their own persons that fulness of Christ's office, which in him shadows forth the fulness of Godhead. He, the only intervener between God and the creation; we, the interveners between him and creation's several spheres. And then, when the race of kings and priests has been completed, I believe they shall be the Adams of their several spheres; containers of a race; peoplers each of a world, whereof they are prophet, priest, and king, for Christ, and through him for God, who keeps his Royal court here, where he made his lowly bed. Here, where he fought the fiery conflict; here, where he won the eternal conquest; here shall he erect the trophy, here rear his palace, here set up his throne, and hence give laws to the multitudinous worlds, which, as they are bound together by one law of matter, shall also be bound together by one law of morals, which is the eternal, immutable truth of God. And thus, I think, shall the two great mysteries be laid open by human nature, which are the chief mysteries of God-to wit; the origin of the Son from the Father by eternal generation, and the completeness of the Godhead as creation can contain it, all included in the Christ.

N. B. It hath rejoiced my heart greatly, feeling as I do the liveliest interest in the well-being of the Church of England, to find, since the publication of Lecture I., that there are three or four of her Lessons taken from the Apocalypse: and I do therefore hasten to correct the erroneous impression which may have been made upon any of my readers, by what is written at the top of p. 85.

In the writing of these Lectures I have felt my soul, at times, so stirred with the sublimity of the subject, as to long for other forms of expression than those which are proper to exact and rigid exposition: and though I find it to have been customary with the best of our divines to intersperse their prose with poetical utterances, I rather prefer to keep those emotions of my soul, and present them, apart; lest I should lose at any time that perfect controul of the mind which is proper to an interpreter of Prophecy. I am no poet, and have never studied the laws of poetry; but I do desire devoutly to express those harmonious moods of my spirit, with which God doth visit me, in harmonious numbers.

SONNET I.

The Benediction, or Salutation.—(Rev. i. 4, 5).

From Him, which is, and was, and is to come,
God Absolute, whose throne is fix'd in heaven;
And from the Holy Ghost, the Spirits seven,
Who of all power and knowledge fills the sum ;
From Jesus Christ, great Head of martyrdom,

The faithful Witness, who with death hath striven
And from the prince of death his sceptre riven;
Who of our flesh did purge away the scum,

And rise immortal; crowned Lord of all,
And Head of kingdoms: From those Sacred Three
Be grace and peace unto all saints who call
Upon God's name, and love His mercy free.

Ye members of Christ's church, rise from your fall,
And in Him dwell; in Him God's fulness see.

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SONNET II.

The Doxology.-(Rev. i. 5, 6).

To Him, who, being in the form of God,

Nor robbery thought with Godhead to compare, Yet stooped low in love our flesh to wear, And for our sins pour'd out his precious bloodSoul-cleansing fountain, in whose living flood

He, great High Priest, doth wash us, and prepare Us for himself, a spotless bride, to share His throne and power, God's love and fatherhood:Unto our Brother, Son of God, we give

The glory and dominion of our state :

To Him be praise, in whose prerogative

We reign as kings and priests, who were of late Satan's bare thralls. But now free men we live,

In faith and hope; and for His coming wait.

LECTURE III.

CHRIST THE UNIVERSAL BISHOP AND HEAD OF THE CHURCH.

REV. i. 9-20.

I John, who am also your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea. And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned I saw seven golden candlesticks; and_in_the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; and his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not: I am the first and the last : 1 am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen: and have the keys of hell and.of death. Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter; the mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest

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