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LOVE, FAITH, AND OBEDIENCE, UNITED, THE ONLY

TRUE SACRIFICE.

MATT. ii. 11.

And when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts, gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.

THERE is no part of the holy word but what is full of instruction; every line of it is written for our advantage; the wisdom contained in it is inexhaustible; and eternity itself is too short for finite minds to fathom all its truths. We have been too much accustomed to confine ourselves to the mere letter of the word, and have not confidered its internal and spiritual meaning, in consequence of which, fome have entertained but very low ideas of that word, and others have established every kind of false doctrine upon it. Whereas, if it were understood in its true internal sense, it would then appear as it is; that is, as the word of the living God,

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God, full of wisdom and truth divine; and that every verse and line contains useful and heavenly instruction.

The Science of correspondence, by which it is written, has long been unknown and hid from the minds of men, in consequence of that falsehood and evil which has so long prevailed, and so much abounded; but is in these last days opened again from the Lord, for the benefit and instruction of mankind. By that science we are led to understand that every word has a spiritual meaning; what that meaning is; and that where natural things are mentioned, spiritual things are signified. According to this science I intend to open the text before us.

We are told in the beginning of the chapter, that wife men came from the East to Jerufalem : the occafion of their journey was to find out that personage who was born King of the Jews. For they had seen his star in the East, and they came to worship him; and by this star they were directed to the very fpot where Jesus was. That there actually were wife men who took that journey, and were so directed, we need not doubt; nor can we doubt their offering gold, frankincenfe, and myrrh; but then what is spiritually understood by all these circumstances, is the matter under confideration.

And, first, By wife men. Some have imagined that they were astronomers, well acquainted with the heavenly bodies, or the planetary system; and also with aftrology, or the influence of those planets.

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