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XXI. THE CHURCH.
FROM THE PREFACE TO THE "HOLY CITY."
UPON a certain First-day, I being together with my brethren in our
prison-chamber, they expected that, according to our custom,
something should be spoken out of the word for our mutual
edification; but at that time I felt myself--it being my turn to
speak--so empty, spiritless, and barren, that I thought I should
not have been able to speak among them so much as five words of
truth, with life and evidence: but at last it so fell out that
providentially I cast my eye upon the 11th verse of the 21st chapter
of this prophecy of Revelation; upon which when I had considered
awhile, methought I perceived something of that Jasper, in whose
light you there find this holy city is said to come or descend:
wherefore, having got in my eye some dim glimmerings thereof, and
finding also in my heart a desire to see further thereinto, I, with
a few groans, did carry my meditation to the Lord Jesus for a
blessing. This he did forthwith grant, according to his grace; and
helping me to set before my brethren, we did all eat and were all
refreshed; and behold also, that while I was in the distributing of
it, it so increased in my hand that, of the fragments that we left
after we had well dined, I gathered up this basketful.
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