still, unless they had also digested it, it would have passed through them without affording due nourishment. Now the salt of analogy is necessary to digest the food of the soul, that is, to understand it, particularly when it is hid under the form of parable. What then is the object of food? Is it not digestion in the first place, and strength in the second? Strength to walk, to act, to perform the duties of life. Digestion, therefore, is equally necessary with food, being equally a means towards the same end; and understanding is equally necessary with faith; for St. Paul says to the Ephesians, "Till we all come in the unity of the FAITH, and of the KNOWLEDGE of the Son of God, unto a PERFECT MAN, unto the MEASURE of the STATURE of the FULNESS of CHRIST; that we henceforth be no more CHILDREN."

The disciples heard the parables of the Lord as well as the other Jews, and they heard them with faith in their truth and importance, which is evinced by their desire to have them explained. But they understood not, and therefore, in spite of their faith, the food which they had received, would not have strengthened them, had not our Lord afterwards explained the meaning. Here then we have an example of the use of analogy. In attending to His explanations, they perceived that natural things are emblems of spiritual things, and that by means of the

analogies or proportions of the former, we comprehend the latter, which are otherwise inscrutable to fleshly eyes and ears *.

Natural salt is not immediately necessary to life; but it is necessary to digestion, to relish, and to discrimination. Yet who but a savage would reject the use of salt, because he can live uncomfortably and unhealthily without it? or because it will not support life by itself, without bread and meat, which it was intended to season and improve, but not to supersede?

What does St. Paul say upon this subject? I beg my reader to consider it well. He says to the Hebrews, chap. v. "We have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing. For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one "teach you again which be the first principles

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of the oracles of God; and are become such as "have need of MILK, and not of STRONG MEAT. "For every one that useth MILK is unskilful in "the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. "But STRONG MEAT belongeth to them that are of “FULL AGE, even those who by reason of use "have their senses exercised, to discern both good and evil" (that is, to digest).

* It may be said, that the Holy Spirit of Truth alone can enable us to understand these parables, even when they are opened. This I allow, and hope that some of my readers may ask for it.

From this Scripture it is evident, that those who oppose the use of analogy in religion, do resolve to be babes in it all their lives, and as far as possible to keep all other Christians in the same childish state. It may be said to them in point of fact, though not as to intention, "Ye have taken away THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE; ye entered not in yourselves, and them that "were entering in hindered."

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But many will probably say, that the analogies displayed by me are not real analogies, but mere fanciful reveries of a disordered imagination. They will, perhaps, load them with the charge of folly, presumption, and impiety; and lastly, they will probably declare their opinion, that they would be destructive of religion, by inducing weak minds to believe that all religion is a creature of the imagination! I have heard such objections.

But I may, I believe, truly observe, that the Bible itself has had this very consequence, which they deprecate, upon weak minds. For instance, all those multitudes of deists and atheists, with which the world always swarms, would probably, nay I believe certainly, have remained satisfied with any of the various kinds of poly-theism, which formerly covered the almost whole earth. To the absurdities of those superstitions they would have had no objection, but would have remained very re

ligious men in their way, had not the Gospel appeared. But the sun of revelation has extinguished all those rushlights; and, unfortunately for weak minds, it is as much too luminous for their feeble sight, as the others are now too dark; and the consequence is, that they will have none at all; because too much light is as bad as too little. They are ashamed now of the one, and afraid of the other. The analogy of faith, or the analogy of the word and the works of God, may have this effect upon such weak minds as are mentioned above; and tbe more luminous, abundant, and admirable it is, the greater will such effect be, as in the case of the Scriptures themselves.

Those who object to any particular and proposed analogies, on the ground that they are false, or inapplicable, ought to make themselves tangible; ought to show that they are false in a regular and satisfactory manner. If they will not or cannot do this, they will perhaps do well to follow the example of Gamaliel. Acts, v.

POSTSCRIPT II.

Written in 1823.

NEARLY fourteen years have elapsed, since I wrote the foregoing P. S. in A. D. 1809; and now taking the fourth, and probably the last copy of the same Narrative in 1822-3, at the particular request of Christian friends, I still think it necessary to state my present sentiments respecting a universal analogy between the visible and invisible works of God.

Every day's experience confirms me in the conviction, that it (a universal analogy) is a matter of fact, and that it is the work of the God of truth, ordained for the most important purposes; which will appear more clearly, illustriously, and triumphantly, in proportion to the lapse of time.

If any one shall ask, what are these important purposes? I would answer, that I believe they are, not only generally, the increase of faith and knowledge, in the study of both physical and metaphysical subjects, which I feel