Page:Illustrations of the Holy Word.pdf/33

Rh 72. The altar of testimony, built by Reuben and Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh, on the other side Jordan, was not an altar for burnt-offerings, nor for sacrifices, but for a witness. (See Joshua xxii. [[Bible (King James)/Joshua#22:28|28[[.) The same is true of the thing represented by that altar, viz. external worship, which is not properly worship, but a witness; for all true worship is internal, or of the internal man; and external worship, which is of the external man, only testifieth or witnesseth.

73. When man is admitted to the feast of fat things, the feast of wines on the lees; of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined, (Isaiah xxv. 6,) he then experiences also a removal of the face of the covering cast over all people, and of the veil that is spread over all nations, as described in verse 7 of the same chapter, for then his understanding is opened to see through the surfaces of all things, and contemplate their infinite contents within, which before were hid from his eyes, at the same time that his will is opened to a communication and conjunction with every order and degree of good, whether in earth or in heaven, from the lowest to the highest, which before also had been unperceived and unenjoyed.

74. The oil must be beaten, [or bruised,] (Exodus xxvii. 20,) in like manner as corn must be ground, before either can be fit for use; to instruct us, that the good, figured by each, must be clearly and distinctly seen, and thus particularized, by examination in the understanding, before it also can be serviceable for the support of spiritual life.