CHAPTER HI.

IN WHICH IS EXPLAINED BY A COMPARISON THAT "WHICH CONCERNS PERFECT UNION OR DEIFORMITY — SECRETS OF GOD REVEALED TO HIS HIDDEN ONES, AND BY THEM TO OTHERS — PERMANENCE AND PROGRESS OF THIS CONDI-TION, THOUGH VARIABLE — NATURAL CAPACITY MUST BE LOST — THE PARTICIPATED CAPACITY OF GOD BY TRANS-FORMATION GLOWS INFINITELY.

A SIMILITUDE occurs to my mind which appears very appropriate to this subject : it is that of grain. First it is separated from the husk, which sets forth conversion and separation from sin : when the grain is separate and pure, it must be ground (by affliction, crosses, sickness, &c.) ; when it is - thus bruised and reduced to flour, there must still be taken from it, not that which is impure, for this is gone, but all that is coarse, that is, the bran ; and when there is nothing left but the fine fliour, then it is made into bread for food. It appears as though the flour were soiled, blackened, and blighted ;