lighted soul. This wine must not be put into old bottles; for if so, the wine will be lost, and the bottles perish. The bottles here named were, literally, not such as are in use with us, made of glass, but were the skins of animals. The phrase, new bottles, is, in the Greek scriptures, expressed by recent skins, new or fresh skins. New wine was to be put into new or fresh skins; for if put into those which had already been used, the former wine which had imbued the skin with its quality would cause the new wine to ferment; this fermentation would burst the skin, and the wine would be lost.
Now reader! turn thy thoughts within, that the Lord may bless thy studies. The new skin or bottle, as a vessel to contain the wine, is put to denote that faculty in man which contains the truth—the spiritual truth of heaven—the new wine of the kingdom; and that faculty is the understanding. Before we can have a perception of heavenly truth, or taste of this living wine, our understandings must be entirely renewed, must be purified from all falsehood or error, cleansed from impure thoughts, and thus made new. Without such purification, the truth, although received, could not be permanently retained: for in this case the new wine would not mingle with our old corruptions. The Truth would press on to purity of life, while the remnants of our own impure errors would draw us down to the sensualities of the world: there would be a mixture of truth and error, of purity and impurity—there would be a direful fermentation, ending in a distraction of mind!—the bottles would burst, and the wine be lost. If Truth is to be retained, and the understanding kept
