Aged Minister's Last Legacy TO THE NEW CHURCH, SIGNIFIED BY THE NEW JERUSALEM IN THE APOCALYPSE. BY THE REV. JOSEPH PROUD. "Knowing that shortly I must put off my tabernacle, I will endeavour that you may be able SECOND EDITION, (ABRIDGED AND ADAPTED TO THE PRESENT TIME), TO WHICH IS PREFIXED A MEMOIR OF THE AUTHORED BY THE REV. E. MADELEY, OF BIRMINGHAM. LONDON: JAMES S. HODSON, 22, PORTUGAL STREET, LINCOLN'S INN. 1854. 110. d. 274. ADVERTISEMENT TO THE PRESENT EDITION. THIS work was originally published in the year 1818, and having for a long time been out of print, it has been deemed advisable to prepare the present edition. In doing so, the opportunity has been taken to abridge the original work, by the removal of many passages of a temporary and personal nature; thus rendering it more truly what the author intended it to be, as expressed in his Preface,-" of particular and lasting use to the members of the New Church." In furtherance of this object, the Editor has occasionally introduced an additional passage of Scripture, or a few words which seemed necessary to the fuller and clearer understanding of a subject, or the more complete carrying out of the author's views and ideas; repetitions and redundancies have been withdrawn; and some verbal improvements have been made; all which seemed to come within the scope of a proposed abridged edition. A MEMOIR OF THE REV. JOSEPH PROUD. BY THE REV. E. MADELEY. THE memoirs of men who have been distinguished for their virtue and piety, and whose lives have been devoted to disinterested and extensive usefulness, have, in all ages of the world, not only proved interesting and profitable to readers in general, but valuable sources of study and reflection. They often serve the important purpose of directing and stimulating the exertions of others, to promote the temporal and spiritual welfare of the human race, and of strengthening their resolutions "to follow them who, through faith and patience, are inheriting the promises." The Reverend JOSEPH PROUD, (the Author of the following work,) whose eminent qualifications for the ministry, and whose piety and zeal, shed a lustre over the station in which he so long moved, and whose biography is so intimately blended with the early history and progress of the New Church, 'was a son of the Rev. John Proud, of Beaconsfield, in Buckinghamshire. He was born on the 22nd of March, 1745. When he was about eleven years of age his father removed, to take charge of the General Baptist congregation at Wisbech, in Cambridgeshire. Though of limited education, yet, under the fostering care of worthy parents, his mind was early imbued with religious principles. In the year 1767, before he had reached his twenty-second year, he was invited, by the pressing solicitations of the Church, to assist his aged father in the sacred functions of the ministry. He was soon after removed to take charge of a society at Knipton, in Leicestershire, where he remained a |