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dispensation, has respect to Himself, and to the interior spiritual things of His eternal kingdom. Lastly, I learn that every church, at its commencement, is founded on truths derived from heavenly good of love and charity, but that in the process of its decay, those truths are separated from their heavenly source, and are thus deprived of their life, being received and taught under the influence of self-love and the love of the world. I am resolved therefore, through divine assistance, to profit by the above instruction, and for this purpose to keep my eye constantly fixed on the INCARNATE GOD, whensoever I am admitted to the high honour and happiness of hearing and reading HIS HOLY WORD, that so I may discover that He is the very life and soul of all its sacred truths, and that every type and figure points to HIM and HIS KINGDOM as the great realities in which they originate. Thus may I hope to see my water turned into wine, and in that conversion to behold a new 'manifestation of my SAVIOUR's glory, which may conduct me finally to the blessed privilege of ranking among those happy ones of whom it is said, That they believed on Him. AMEN.

273

THE IMPOTENT MAN AT

THE POOL OF BETHESDA.

JOHN V. 2 to 15.

Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep (mar ket or gate) a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches in these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water, &c. &c.

Q.

WHAT do you understand by these words? A. These words have both a literal and spiritual meaning; and according to their literal meaning they are to be understood as they are literally expressed, though commentators differ about this meaning, some calling it a sheepmarket, and others a sheep-gate, whilst others conceive that the adjective sheep ought to be joined to the substantive pool. This difference, however, about the letter, doth not affect the spiritual sense and meaning of the words, according to which sense and meaning they have relation, not to a pool of natural water, but to a pool of spiritual water, even to the eternal truth of the WORD OF GOD, which is called a pool by reason

of the knowledges of good and truth which it contains. For the WORD OF GOD is sometimes called a pool, sometimes a fountain, sometimes a well, and sometimes a river, and all in relation to the several states of its reception in the human mind, being called a pool, when it is received merely in the knowledge of what is good and true; and being called a fountain, when it is received together with the life and love of knowledge; and being called a well, when it is admitted in a state of less purity; and lastly, being called a river, when it is seen in connexion with its DIVINE SOURCE, or with the fountain of living waters. That a pool denotes the knowledges of what is good and true derived from the WORD OF GOD, may be confirmed by the following passages, where those knowledges are treated of, The parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty lands springs of water, (Isaiah xxxv. 7;) again, I will open rivers on high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry lands springs of water, (chap. xli. 18.) This pool is therefore called Bethesda in the Hebrew tongue, because by Bethesda is meant the house of mercy, and is thus a name fitly applied to the WORD OF GOD, as containing in it all the fulness of the divine mercy and loving-kindness: it is also said to have five porches, because by a porch is meant what introduces to a house, and when applied to the house of mercy, as in the present case, it de notes those introductory truths, which conduct

to heavenly knowledge and life. Lastly, by the great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, lying in those, (porches,) and waiting for the moving of the water, are to be understood all those of the human race, who are made sensible of their spiritual disorders, whether arising from the want of truth or of its good, and . who apply to the WORD OF GOD as to the only medicine from which they can expect a cure.

Q. And what do you here understand by the moving of the water?

A. By moving, or, as it is expressed in the next verse, troubling, (or disturbing,) is signified to vivify, or to give divine life, which signification is grounded in correspondence, since all motion corresponds to a state of thought, whence progressions, journeyings, and the like, which are acts of motion, in the HOLY WORD signify states of life. By moving the water therefore, in the above passages, is signified vivification by acknowledgment and faith, thus also purification by truths; and by healing is represented the restoration of spiritual life. This moving or disturbing of the water is an effect of the divine presence and operation, and accordingly it is written in the next verse, that an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled (or disturbed) the water, to teach the instructive lesson, that the ALMIGHTY is always in the act of vivifying, or giving life to, His HOLY WORD in the mind of man, by filling it with His own blessed spirit of love and charity. This act of the ALMIGHTY is here called trous

bling or (disturbing) the water, because it is attended with trouble or disturbance to the natural mind of man, during the process of His purification from unclean loves, but when that process is ended, by virtue of the healing power of the water, then disturbance ceases, and is succeeded by a state of peace and rest.

Q. But it is written, that Whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in, was made whole of whatsoever disease he hadwhat do you conceive to be the force and meaning of these words?

A. By stepping into the water, according to the above spiritual interpretation of this history, is to be understood instruction in the knowledges of what is good and true from the WORD OF GOD; and by first stepping in is denoted, not precedence in point of time, but in regard to affection, implying that the first or supreme af fection is engaged in that instruction, according as it is said by JESUS CHRIST in another place, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, where by seeking first the kingdom of GOD and His righteousness is signified the seeking those eternal blessings above all other blessings, thus with the first or supreme affection of the will or love. It is not therefore to be understood, as the sense of the letter appears to suggest, that the virtue of the water extends only to the single person who first steps into it, but it is to be understood, agreeable to the dictate of the spiritual sense, that whosoever receives instruction from the WORD OF GOD, with

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