a law, which men are commanded to obey. Thus you may understand that the Lord gives to men truth, because He seeks to save them from their sins. But as an example may make this clearer, perhaps we had better consider one.

It is very sinful and wicked to hate any one. If we indulge such feelings they will make us steal from them, lie about them, covet every good thing they have, and perhaps wish to kill them, or commit murder. Now all these things make

us very miserable.

And therefore the Lord

commanded Moses, on Mount Sinai, to write upon stone tables the ten commandments, which forbid all these things, and give them to the Israelitish nation for a perpetual law. You read of this in Exodus and Deuteronomy; and in the same books, and in the next three books of the Bible, you read of many other things which the Lord commanded Moses to tell the Jews. Some of these were laws requiring them to do certain good things, or not to do certain evil things, and some of them told the consequence of obedience or disobedience; that is, told the Jews that if they obeyed these

laws, they would be very prosperous, and live in peace, and lead happy lives, while, if they did not obey these laws, they should suffer grievous things, and be miserably cut off. And all these things which Moses told them were truths, revealed to Moses by the Lord, in order that he might tell them to the Jews, so that they might be led, if possible, to escape the unhappiness of being wicked.

Now, a church is a society of men, who are in possession of truths which may lead them from evil, and who obey and practise these truths. This society may be greater or smaller; it may be the whole world, or a nation, or a few persons. And when the Lord, at some particular time, gives to men a number of new truths, arranged together in order, He gives them for the purpose of creating or establishing a church among men. And thus, when He gave to Moses the truths and laws contained in the five first books of the Bible, He created or established the Jewish or Israelitish church; which was, nevertheless, not a true church, but only the representative of a church. I suppose you hardly know what I mean, when I say it was not

a real and true church, but a representative church, or the representative of a church; and I will try to explain this to you. I said, just above, that a church is a society of men, who are in possession of truths which lead to good, and who obey or follow these truths. Now this is a true church. But the Jews only possessed these truths, but did not obey them; they were, as you read in your Bible, a rebellious, disobedient, stiff-necked or obstinate people, and did wickedly. So they were not a true church.

But at the same time they were a representative church. By this I mean, that the Lord so governed their doings, so led them from Egypt, through the wilderness, into the Holy Land, and so ordered all their rites, and ceremonies, and laws, that the whole together, and every part of it, represents and signifies exactly such things as a real church, or a man who was truly a member of a real church, would do. And therefore, as all the things which the Jews did when they obeyed the Lord, and all the things which the Jews were ordered to do, represent and signify the things a true church or a true

church-man would actually do, we may learn from what the Jews did, what members of a true church should do, though they are not the same things. Thus the Jewish church was a representative

church.

I think you know enough about correspondence now to understand some of the particulars of this. Thus, while the Jews were in Egypt, they were in bondage, and suffered grievously. And Egypt represents the state of an unregenerate man, who is bound and ruled by sinful feelings, and who therefore suffers miserably. The Jews were led out of Egypt by the Lord, and but for Him must have perished in their bondage and misery; so, too, it is with the unregenerate man. The Jews were led through a wilderness by a long and painful journey, and those who came out of Egypt died before they took possession of the Holy Land. So, too, an evil man cannot become regenerate without very many and difficult endeavors to resist his disposition to sin; nor can he come into a state of rest, and peace, and heavenly happiness, until the sinful feelings which he had while unregenerate and in bondF*

age, are dead. It is in this way that a Jewish church represents a real and true church. But I have told you only a few things, while every particular thing in the Bible about the Jews represents and signifies something about a true church, or a true church-man.

I will now try to tell you something about the way in which a true church comes to an end. This happens when those who know the truths of the church do not love them, and do not obey nor regard them, nor the Lord, who gives them; for this brings a death upon the church. Those truths no longer answer the purpose for which they were given; they were given to lead men from their sins and make them good. But they have no such effect, because men do not follow them, but neglect them, and forget them. Now, if men were left by the Lord in this state, they would perish miserably, and none could be saved. But His love for men, and His wish to save them from sin and misery, never ceases. therefore, He now provides new means by which men may be saved. That is, He gives new truths,

And