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 tively, and then imagine their views to be purely the doctrine of the Word of God, It is only when the truth has been fairly explained, and their reason tacitly assents to it, and yet they resist it, that they are culpable. So the church, signified by Noah, awoke from wine, or from the perversion and misapplication of truth. The faculties of every man's understanding represent to him the spiritual principles, or sons, that descend from him. Thus when we awake to clearness of perception in the morning of a new state, and examine the quality of our understanding and its thoughts, we know which of our sons has gone astray; we see the evil to which it would inevitably lead, and if we be truly repentant, we cast it away from us, anathematize it as evil, and suffer it no longer to pollute our understandings by its presence, or to corrupt the others' thoughts—its brethren—that dwell therein, by seducing them to sin also. Thus Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his sons had done unto him. If we extend this principle from an individual to a church, the danger is greater, inasmuch as it affects the whole body and its members. Faith, separate from charity, is then represented by Ham, and derides and exposes to shame all that appears not in the same path with itself, or follows not the same faith as itself. Hence Ham is a true picture of an external church separate from the life-imparting principles of charity, which should be the life and soul of every church. The principles which act as a soul to the true church, are those represented by Shem and Japheth. Shem, as the internal, denotes love to the Lord, and charity to the neighbour; and Japheth is the extending or outward form of that religion. Thus the God of Shem,