The new church_repository_and_monthly_re_vol_iii_1850

1. .:Jr~. . /le,P~// THE ,/~< {vINEW CHURCH REPOSITORY,,MONTHLY REVIEW. DEVOTED 10 THE EXPOSITION OP TB.PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGYTAUCBT IX lII1I WKITQlIIl OPEMANUEL SWEDENBORG. GEORGE BUSH, A.. 11. VOLm. NEWYOU: PUBLISHED FOR THE PROPRIETOR, 16 HOWARD-STREET. LOXOO.: I .. BODeOX AD W. X.".BUY. 1810. f::>l

2. IIrn ~rw YO".KPCDLIC LU .. :: . 3378~On! A!lT~n. Lf.:;::: ,:;0Tll.lJ.:l ,v ;:,";,(",91.48L1011III nALL, ......,..,NCl. .1,.,.oe4net, N_.T. . " 3. INDEX. ORIGINAL PAPERS, &c. P..... ATO_.JRK12 Biblical &ience, 600 Bo.real Worlhip In tile SpiritualllDd Natural Worlcl, . - 421 Charity, _ _.. - 113 Chriltian Effort, ~ Clergy and Laity, Diltinctlon of,_ - 485, 653 I Conyention General, propoeed Constitution of, 23,128,232.) Diyine ProYldence, the Ends of, Spiritual and Eternal, 2eU .~ Ecclesiastical Uniformity, _ - - 452 Equilibrinm between Good and EYil, 466~Equilibrium,_.- 508.....Forms, the, of the Animal Kingc!0JP 38lI, 437 I"reqnent Communion, 384.... Homology, the Science of, 426-- .lIomceopathy, _ - --- 645 .. have ita principles an AJIlDity with the Doctrines oC the New Church, 501 " .... luanitiea,and ita N. C. A1IlDitiea, I_ish Tabernacle, viewed in ita 8pirituaUmport, Leuer, the, and the Spirit, -- 540169, 334123, 276, 45~, 5345,134,101,149 lIi_ionl, 161,205, 2911,306 lIadame Guion, Letter from to Fenelon, - 484 New Cburch .. Book of Worship," --- 276 ..Conventions, what lire the true U_ of, 172, 4117 ..Duty, a particular a.peet oC, nu ..OlJ"nizatlon and Government, with remarks, - .254,306 New Ierusalem Mapzine and New Cburcb Ministry,- 358,407.. M.pzine on .. Pror. BUlhs View of the Sacramenta,"- 397 ObleS.ion in modern times, remarkable cue of, 115 PrivRte Judgment, the Rigbt oC,- 557 P.ychology,.- - 111 Re-Baptism, 175 8ennon on tbe Lords Nativity, by Rev. D. K. Wbitaker,62.Socrates and Swedenborg,- 18 Swadenborg. Tbeological Writiugs, Plea for the publication of, 454..SpirituIII Diary, milling Numbers o f , . 27, 70..Principia, 197,245,2112Extract from, - 268..W i1kin_s BiocraPhy of, 560 Unlty of RUDlan Races. - - 34UCORRESPONDENCE.Letter hom a Pblician in a Southern city, 32.. from our Englllb Corrt"lpOndent,.- 74,134, lRO, 235,370,423,560.. froDl varioualDdlviduala, 30, 77.78, 137, 184,185,237,241, 283, 284, 372, 373,424, 475, 5~1.. from English Conference,47.. from Rev. G.Field, 187.. frolD Rev. Mr. PrelCOtton the MlniatIy with ReDlarka, - 21e1~ from Rev. B. F. Barreu,- - 280 ... . from A. ~Uder, to General ConY81tion. 382 4. iv Inda:.Letter from Dr. Tafel. to a rrlend In Lanouter. Pa.. ......4117 .. froman old Clergyman witb Remarks, - - 471.. from an En(llilb Correspondent on Wilklnsons LiCe of S....edenboll.- ~lO.. from Prof. Lewls with Rematks. MIll MISCELLANY.American Ne Cburcb Tract and Milllloaaty 9cfoitlty. - 378..S ed..nboll Printing and Publish htg 8oclieq. 374ColportaRe In Obio. 381Eme..-ons .. Rer.llllIOntatlve Men ;" Swedenbors, 138Epitapb in tbe sle of Jersey.--- 1811GeMral Conventibn. Proceedings of. at Its thirty iecond meedlll.- 3lllLutber on Jusliflcation.. -Klaionary Narrative. Re". J. P. Btuart,. -- ~t...... Churob UnlYenil). propoeed. 4U ..Temple at St. Louis. - :Jlro 4~01110 Convention. Proceedings of.Otldlnacion. a Primitive, Uardet8tallll;ng. the. and the Heart,. - 5211Weat Indies. Provreu of the Ne.... CA1IftlIa . . aBPOETRY.nI. Oraveyard.What 1I0nslltotes a Cburch P. . Slrong.!allon, Christian Non-Resltence.Btuee on Marriage.BuMs Ethnolo(lical Jonmal. _ .. .7 .. ta IfoCb_t. Whale and bis Caplon. - 10COlemans Mrs., Innocenoe of Cbildhood.190Crusb, on tbe Second Adftin. .. tl9tHobart" Life of Swedenbot(l. 481Bowellon the Unit) of Nature. 1111frYings Mabomet and bl SUllCetiotlI, -0#,-,JobnlOns, Dr. Religions Life and Dealh.titles Journal of Sacred Lltl!tatute 14~Lamberts Popular Anatomy and Pby,lolerY. 387LoomisRecent PropeR of Astronomy. ll~Marc,s HomCllOpalbio Theory and Practic!e of IOdloine.Murpb,s Bible and Geology consistent.Newman, History of Hebrew Moftatcby,- 48i 385Paynes Discourse on Soul and Instfnctl. ~feabodys ..sthelio Papers.- 114~1Is Address on HomCllOpathy. GlIB1",IIIlI1s Notes on the Mirael... II1l1Wbllers Marriagel on Earth. In Heaven. Mo.~Wllklnsons Biography of Swedenbo1l.- 112Worc"esters Dlotionary.~Worcesters Senuoas. ~74 151. 117. 14~.I92.lI4l1.28II.334.387.4~.484.~211.154Cadelt. Mrs. "DD F -lI44kith. Mr. Thomu. - Oft 5. THENEW CHURCH REPOSITORYA!ID MONTHL Y REVIEW.fol. Ill.JANUARY, 1850.No. 1.ORIGINALP~APERS. ,ARTICI.E I.THE LETTER AND THE SPIRIT.. No. VIII.THB literal return of the Jews to the land of Palestine is the more especial topic ou which the present discussion has latterly been made to turn. We have accepted this as a test-question-an ordeal-by which to try the merits of the literal and the spiritual modes of, in~ terpretation. There is perhaps no biblical subject on which the mere man of the letter finds appearances more in his favor, or in regard to which he is able to construct a more plausible plea. While, on the other hand, there is probably no one which affords a more felicitous exhibition and illustration of the principle of the intemal sense so ,rominent in the teachings of the New Church. According to the latter, the term Israel, in the ancient prophecies, denotes the Lordstrue spiritual church, of whatever nation or nations composed, and thereturn of Israel to Caanan that internal change of state-that moral. restoration-by which the Church recovers itself from its dtfectionsand aberrations to a renewed and heavenly course of life, and a freshexperience of the blessings of the covenant love aud mercy of theLord. According to the former, the term is shorn of all symbolicalor representative import and is the denomination of the lineal descen~dants of Abraham, who are yet, even in their degradation and disper-sion, the choseu heritage of t~e Most High and destined to a lot ofhigher dignity and glory than any other people, notwithstanding thattheir entire national history proclaims. them as intrInsically less en~titled to that honorary distiliction tlian pErhaps any nation that ever ex~ TOL. 1IJ.2.;.I 6. 6 The Letter and the Spirit.[Jan. isted. The advocates, however, of that theory make short work of everyobjection ofthis nature by referring it to what they term the Divine SOL.... ereignty, a very convenient menstruum for solving all such proposi- tionll regarding the Lords proceedings with men as outrage the dictates of reason and the voice of the moral sense. But we shall venturea rejoinder to this plea as we proceed. We may remark, however, that the bold position, so confidently maintained by Mr. L., of the literalreturn or restoration of the Jews, has been seen by many distinguish-ed divines to involve such a stupendous train of incredible results--Iiluch as, for instance, the re-building of the Temple, the re-institutionof sacrifices, and the personal and visible sojourn of Jehovah amongmen on earth-that they have hesitated to give it their assent, while,at the same time their general principles of exegesis would fairly re-quire them to go the whole length of admission on this score. Theirlogic, however, has succumbed to their better instincts. Mr. L., onthe contrary, knows nothing of any such weakness as this. Hemakes no compromise with consequences. With a fatal consistencyhe pushes his positions boldly out to their extremest verge of logicalsequence; and the world has seldom witnessed an instance of morerigid fidelity to the seen and acknowledged relation between premiseand conclusion. He holds unreservedly, not only to the actual re-in-statement of Israel in the land of their fathers, but to the re-establish-ment of the ancient Levitical economy in all its distinctive featuresof tabernacled glory, smoking altars, and mitred priests. The latestnumber of his Journal contains an elaborate article on this subject inwhich, relying upon his previous proofs of the fact of the restoration,he proceeds to assign the reasons which may be supposed to haveweighed in the Divine mind for 80 remarkable a movement of hisprovidence. Among these is, (1) the import~tlt bearing which therestoration and redemption of Israel will have in promoting the ex-alted piety of the race in that day, on the principle that a dark background of revolt is requisite to set ofithe lustre of the Divine benigni-ty in recovery, and that striking exemplifications of evil are amongthe needed means of confirmation and advancement to the good. (2)The salutary influence which will be exerted on the minds of men byChrists visible manifestation of him.lelf to their eyes-one of the sig-nal accompaniments of Israels return. On this head he speaks as "follows:- "He is to descend visibly on the capture of J emsalem by the Gentiles, aftertheir (the Jews) return, and deliver them from their po~er. . . . . He istlms to give such visible manifestations of his presence then as he gave to theIsraelites in ancient times, and make a new communication of his will j andtheee revelations of himself will be a mure efficient means than any other ofimpressiug beholders with a realization of his being and majesty, and inspir-ing them with awe and submission. There will be no doubters of his exist-ence. There will be noue who will feel uncertain of his dominion over them,or question the righteousness of his sway. This is shown by the effects whichthe vision of his glory wrought in Isaiah, Daniel, and John (why not add thecase of the lsraelitea at Mount Sinai, who made a golden calf by the very light,as it were, of the splendors of the Divine presence), and the terror withwhich we are forewarned it ,is to Iitrikethe w~o~ed. Those prophets were 7. 1850.]The Letter and the Spirit. ., overwhelmed with a sense at once of his infinite greatness and sanctitude, and their nothingness and guilt. His enemies are to be stmck with dismay and oe.8pair, an~ cry to the rocks to fan on them, aud to the hills to cover them from hI!; wrath. -Theol. 4 LIt. Jour. No. VII. p. 456. Without pausing to remark on the J udaic grossness of this concep-tion, we pass on to the next consideration, which is (3), that such a.visible manifestation will require a complete system of worship. witha. consecrated temple. and an appropriate priesthood, to which is ne-cessarily to be added (4), the re-establishment of sacrifices, not, how-ever, as typical of the future, but as retrospective of the past; andfinally (5,6), the gift of new revelations, and the instruction andsanctification of the Gentiles. These reasons. pre-suppose the fact of the restoration to be beyonddispute; but as we are very far from admitting the fact as the genuine sense of the predictions cited in its support, so we have no motivefor troubling ourselves with the question of their validity. The in-terpretation given of the passages relied upon is purely Jewish, exceptthat the Jews avoid the huge inconsistency of admitting their futureMessiah to be a Divine personage, i. e. Jehovah himself, while hold-ing at the same time, that this one absolute and iufinite God is to be-come a permanent and visible sojourner on the earth, and capable ofbeing beheld by the eyes of the body. It remained for a Christianexpounder of the Scriptures to reach a point of paradox on this headthat leaves the Jew comparatively a sane and sober interpreter. But our readers vill be struck by the fact, that our strenuous as-serter of literalism adduces the following passage, as a proof in pointof his leading position: "For 10, the days come, saith the LORD, thatI will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saiththe LoRD: and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave totheir fathers, and they shall possess it. For it shall come to pass inthat day, saith the LORD of hosts, that I will break hill :roke from offthy neck, and will burst thy bonds, and strangers shall no more servethemselves of him: but they shall serve the LORD t~eir God, andDa"id their king, whom I will raise up unto them."-Jer. xxx. 3, S, 9. Now, if we are to be governed by the lIense of the letter in ourconstructions of holy writ, we are wholly at a 108s to perceivewhy the resurrection of the literal David from the dead, and hisre-establishment upon the throne of Israel is not as unequivo-cally announced as any other fact in connection with the future. destiny of that people. Mr. L. interprets the general predictionhere quoted from Jeremiah as referring expressly to the asserted re-turn of the Jews, and says that it announces the renewal of "anational organization under the monarchy of David th~ir king."But David, it seems, is not David after all-:" whom interpreters,both Jewish and Christian. with scarce an exception, regard asthe Messiah." This is curious not a little. The unanimity of in-terpreters weighs usually elsewhere exceedingly light with our au-thor. He is very unceremonious in the dealing with their dicta,especially when they vary from his own. His respectful and un-questioning deference on this occasion is easily accounted for. They 8. ~Letter and the Spirit. [Jao. come to his aid at a dead lift. Under the tutelary shade of their authority, he manages to run away from the responsibility of his own theory, as applied to the present case; and if he does not heartily utter the Eastern invocation, .. may their shadow never be less," we shall be loth to stand sponsors for his gratitude. But, seriously, what right has Mr. L. to take this part of the predic.- tion out of the category of the lit(ral, and invest it with the character of the spiritual? If the literal Jews are to be literally reigned over in the literal city of Jerusalem, and from the literal throne of David, why does he deem himself empowered to set aside the plain meaning of the terms employed by the inditing Spirit in regard to the occupant of that throne 1 If we are called to contend with an ostensible op- ponent, we would fain find him on the opposing side, and not on our own. We agree fully with the above mentioned Jewish and Chris- tian commentators, but Mr. L. cannot agree with them and play fair, at the same time, with his own principles. He is bound by every law of consistency and concinnity to hold to the literal resurrection of David from the dead, and his actual re-investiture with the insignia of royalty as King of the Jews. This annunciation he is not only required to read in the passage before us, but in the following parallel predictions bearing upon the restoration, every one of which, if we mistake not, he has cited in confirmation of this theory: .. Therefore will I save my flock, and they shall no more be a prey; Bnd I will judge between cattle and cattle. And I will set up one.Shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my ,ervant David " he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. And I the LOlm will be their God, and my servant Davirl a prince among them; I theLORD have spoken it.-Ezek. xxxiv. 22-24. .. And say unto them, thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on ev(ry side, and bring them into their own land: and I will makethem one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all; and they shall be no more two na-tions, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more atall: Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols,nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions;but I will SA.ve them out of all their dwelling-places, wherein theyhal"e sinned, and will. cleanse them; so shall they be my people, andI will be their God. And David my servant shall be king over them;and they all.shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them. And they shalldwell in the land that I have given uuto Jacob my servant, whereinyour fathers have dwelt, and they shall dwell therein, even the), andtbeir children, and their childrens children for ever; and my servant David shall be their prince for ever."-E:ek. xxxvii. 21-25. .. For thechildren of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without B prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim: afterwards shall the children of Israel return, and s(ek the LORD their God, and David their kiT: ;.and shall fear the Lord and his ioodneu in the .latter days."-Ho6. iii. 4, 5. 9. 1850.] The Letter and the Spirtt.We can, of course, cherish no expectation that our author will re- cognize the least infraction of his own principles in the sense which he assigns to the language in qucstion. However obvious to others,and however marvelous that it should not be obvious to him, still it isnot the wont of a mind so profoundly immurl.d in l favorite theoryto be aware of its going counter, in particular instancel to its ownpositions. Mr. L. will undoubtedly maintain that the translation ofthe term David, in these passages, into the term Messiah is perfect-ly legitimate on the basis of his laws of figurative speech, and that toonotwithstanding he has in effect really barred himself from the ad-vantage of such a construction in his positive denial, reiterated againand again, that the Most High, whether viewed as Father or as Son,can ever be represented or symbolized by a creature, but must be inevery case his own representative. Nothing can well be clearer tothe vision of unpledged or uncommitted eyes than that if David here~ .. by interpretlLtion," Messiah, then Datid represents or adumbratesthe Messiah, that is, Jehovah incarnate; and, consequently, that theabove mentioned canon respecting the representation of the Lordamounts to nothing. The same function could easily be shown to bepredicated of Abraham, Isaac, Jacoh, Judah, Joseph, Moses, Joshua,Solomon, and others. But upon this hE-ad we forbear enlargement.Mr. L.s inconsistency with his own premises will be sufficiently ap-parent to those whose perceptions are not so far warped by their con-ceptions, or pre-conceptions, as to prevent their seeing what wouldotherwise be abundantly conspicuous.And we may here take occasion to remark, that in a discussion ofthis nature, we can indulge but a feebl~ hope that our reasoningssuch as they are, will operate the least degree of conviction with him.. that is of the contrary part." The fact is, the states of mind, res-pectively, from which emanate the defences of the literal and thespiritual 8ystems of interpretation are so utterly unlike-so toto COllaat variance with each other-that it would be about as easy for twoindividua.ls afflicted with strabismus to look each.other directly in theface, as for two representatives of these opposite vilwS so to ordertheir mental optics as to contemplate each other .. eye to eye." Theone will look aslmnse upon the other in spite of himself. Such par-ties in their logical assaults upon each will be most certain to miss themark. The argumentative encounter between them will be like thatof combatants who are fencing with their hands and foils under water,while their heads are above. To say nothing of the obstructionthrown in their way by the watery element, their refracted and dis-torted weapons would strike wide of each other, and they could hard-ly help feeling that their cut and thrust, their push and parry, was amockery at which the Tritons might laugh. We do not mean by thisthat both are equally at disadvantage in mastering each others posi-tion. The spiritualist, reads in all transparency, the literalist, but theliteralist cannot read the spiritualist. The higher planes command the lower, but not the lower the higher. The genius of the l"ew Dis-pensation, so far as anyone comes under its power, tends-to work outmore and more completely the mental posture described in the follow- 10. 10Tile Leuer and the Spirit. [Jan.ing extract, where a like process of habitually spiritualising natureand spiritualising the Word is strikingly set forth.11 He who looks at things internal from things external, when he views theheaven or sky, does not think at all of the starry heaven, but of the angelicheaven; when he beholds the sun, he does not think of the sun, but of theLord, as being the sun of heaven and so when he sees the moon, and thestars also: yea, when -he beholds the immensity of the heaven, he does notthink of its immensity, but of the immense and infinite power of the Lord: soalso in other instances, for there is nothing but what is representative. In likemanner he regards earthly objects: thus, when he beholds the first dawn ofday, he does not think of the Jawninj1;, but of the rise of all t.hings from theLord, and their progression to the full day of wisdom: in like manner, whenhe looks ou gardens, shrubberies, and beds of flowers, his eye does not abideupon any tree, its blossom, leaf, or fruit, but upon the celestial things repre-sented by them; neither upon the flowers, .their beauty and elegance, but uponthe things which they represent in the other life; for there is not a single ohjectexisting in the sky or in the earth, which is heautiful and agreeable, which isnot in some way representative of the Lords kingdom. . . . . They whoare in divine ideas never subsist in the objects of external sight, bnt continu-ally, from them aud in them, behold things internal; and internal things are,most essentially, those of the Lords kingdom: consequently, these are in thevene!t end of all. The calie is similar in regard to the Word of the tord : theywho are in divine ideas never regard the Word of the Lord from the letter, butconsider the letter, and the literal sense, as representative and lligllificative ofthe celestial and spiritual things of the church and of the Lords kingdom.With them the literal sense is only an instrumemal means of thinking concern-ing those things."-A. C. 1807. We are not conscious of indecorous assumption in claiming for our-selves a state of mind which is the legitimate result of our principles.We do not do it in a boasting spirit. Our !lole object in adverting toit is to show the grounds of the extreme difficulty which such a mindas that of Mr. L. must have in apprec1ating our stand-point and theforce of our arguments. But as we have the fullest assurans:e of theirintrinsic truth and impregnability, irrespective of t.he state of mind towhich they are addressed, we do not hesitate to declare ourselve!l, inall freedom, on the various topics of debate, confident that if our rea-sonings do not convince opponents, they may confirm adherents, andthat at any rate they cannot be solidly refuted. The groundll of thisconfidence are to be traced backwards and downwards to the funda-mental teaching of the New Church in regard to the relation betweenthe natural and spiritual spheres of existence, and of the function ofthe one in shadowing forth or representing the other, not on the basis of either vague or vivid anlllo~v. but of causative correspondence.This principle a man may fay he does not see to be true, but he cannevel say that he !lees it not to be true, or thathi!l neighbor is infalsity when he affirms that It I truth is clear to his perception. Letus take, for instance, the following paragraph from the" Arcana" of Swedenborg :-" The reason why aJland single things in the heavens or sky, and on the earth, are representativt, is, because they txisted and do continually exist, that is, subsist, from an influx of the Lord through heaven. The case in this respect is like that of the human body, which exists and subsists by its soul; wherefore all and single 11. 1850.]The Letter and tlls. Spirit. 11things in the body are representative of its soul." Now the New- churchman has a clear rational perception that this statement is true; it comes to his intelligence with as ample evidence of its truth as any of the ordinary results of scientific induction. Mr. L. on the other ha.nd, expressly declares that be does not see the propollition to be true. "In respect to his (SwdeQborgs) hypothesis (Swedenborg does not deal in hypoth"eses), that all the agents and organisms of nature have a formative soul, of which the organism itself or body is the outgrowth or effect, which is the basis of his theory, both of symboli- zation and of a spiritual sense, we remark, first, that it is wbolly gratuitous. He offers no proof of it, beyond his own asseveration. It is (moreover) inconsistent with the account given in tbe Scrip- tures of the creation of man. God formed his body out of the dust, not out of his soul, and anterior to the creation of his soul, not subse- quently." Here then is the issue, and what shall we say? We may app(,al to the rationale of the subject, as does the Geologist or the As- tronomer when the letter of Genesis is arrayed against him, but we are estopped at once by the paramount authority of the literal reoord. "God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nos- trils the breath of life." To question the literal truth of this statement is to put ones selfin an attitude in which he is not to be argued with as a philosopher, but rebuked as a blasphemer. What can be more obvious than that the opposite poles of the globe are not mDTe opposite than the mental positions of two minds occupying respec- tively the grounds now stated. But we cannot annul the contrariety. We can do nothing to help our brother to intellectual eye-sight. We have no collyrium for a visual organ thus failing in the dischar~e of its functions. We can. only commend it to the healing hand of Him who made the moistened clay a sight-restoring unguent.We have the more readily given way to the above vein of remark from the fact of being about to enter upon a view of the general sub-ject to which we foresee that Mr. L. will experience not only a de- cided dissent, but a violent repugnance. Neither he nor the school to which he belongs-or which belongs to him-will presume for a moment to question, that the whole course of the Divine administration in regard to the nation of Israel has been and will be, from first to last, one of such pure and unmixed sovereignty, that nothing in the previous character, genius, or conduct ofthat people shall he allowed to stand in the way of the splendid consummation of favor and dignity which is predicted for them. This would imply an order of dispensation governed by principles so completely irrespective of the moral character pf its subjects as in our view to cast an ineffaceable stain upon the Divine perfection!!, and we, therefore, reject it entirely. We hold that the Jews always haye been and always will be treated according to their true deserts, and consequently that if they are ever hereafter restored to the favor of Heaven it will be on precisely the same conditions on which every individual sinner is made t.o experience a like blessing. Nor do we know of any error greater in itselfor more pernicious in its consequences than to regard the continued C:J;-istence of the Jews as a nation as the result of a divine decroo, hav- 12. 12 The AtORelllent. [Jan.ing some specific end in view, instead of regarding it as the naturaland neceaaary fruit of their unbelief, their natural prejudices, and theirreligious ideas. No other causes, we are persuaded, than these, haveoperated to preserve them as a distinct natien, no! was any thing elserequisite to this effect. The idea of their being retained in an iso!at~dcondition by miracle is not only, we believe, wholly groundless m it-self, but fraught with most mischievous effects both upon Jews andChristians. The sequel of the discussion we reserve to future numbers. G. B.(10 he continued.) ARTiCLE 11.THE ATONEMENT. (Concluded.) BUT I shall still be reminded that I have not )et distinctly pro-pounded the precise grounds on which the incarnation of Jehovahbecame necessary, or the exact mode in which it becomes availableto our salvation. The true response flows legitimately from what Ihave hitherto advanced on the general subject. Man had broken thebond of connection which allied him to the beatific source of hisbeing. He had done this in the perverted exercise of his freedom asman, and in so doing had thrown himself within the disastroussphere of infernal influences from which, unless he were liberated,he must inevitably perish. But in this liberating process, the free-dom of man and the freedom of evil spirits must be sacredly preserv-ed, for this is that peculium of the rational nature which Jehovahguards as the apple of his eye. Neither in time nor in eternity-neither in heaven nor in hell-does he ever suffer this gem of thesoul to be touched with the finger of violence or constraint, as sucha thing would be to extinguish the very principle of humanity inman. The first step, then, in the recovering work of Heavens mercywas the breaking of the bondage of evil into which man had faUen-the disanulling of that covenant with death and that agreement withhell into which he had so rashly entered. ThiR could only be ef-fected by subjugating the powers of hell, and the agency by whichthis was to be brought about must necessarily be such as to be con-sistent with the essential freedom of the enemies to be subdued, forthe All-Wise never deals with his creatures as a potter would withvessels that so displeased him in the making as to prompt him to dashthem in pieces. He never treats men as machines. He pays respectto the high moral nature he has given them, even when that natureis gt:ievously abused. The end, therefore, at which his boundlessbenevolence aimed could not be attained if the) were to be dealt with 13. 1850.]The .Atonement.13 by the direct putting forth .of the Divine power towards them. Before the naked arm of Omnipotence they could not stand for a moment. It was not, therefore, in the way Qf Omnipotence that infinite Wisdom deemed it meet to engage with the infernal hosts, since this could not be done but in total disregard of their moral nature.. They were to be met upon their own plane. Jehovah must in some way come down to their level, and yet it would be impossible that he should do this without instantaneously consuming them, unless he approached them through a medium, and that medium, we learn, was the assumfd Hu- manity. Veiling the consuming ardors of his infinite love under this investment, he could come in contact with mans spiritual foes. Devoid of th~ Humanity thus put on, it would have been impossible for him to have admitted into himself the temptations, the fierce and direful assaults, of the infernal legions, as the pore Divine is infinitely removed beyond the reach of their infestations, Yet, unless he had been assailed in every possible way by the utmost malignity of the hells.. he could not have subdued them, and thus could not have glorified his Humanity, or have" atoned, or reconcilP-d the world to himself," that is, could not have accomplished the work of redemption. This, however, he 1uu accomplished, and it is in virtue of his glorious vic- tories in this behalf that he has removed the grand obstacles that stood in the way of mans recovering hi11llJelj by repentance and a new life of love and faith. There now perpetually flows forth from the glorified and Divine Humanity of the Lord, a sphere of quicken- ing spiritual life which is capahle of resuscitating those who were previously dead in trespasses and sins. Operating through his Di- vine Word, which is but another name for his Divine Truth, he draws the souls of men to himself, as the central sun might be supposed to draw back to itself, by an augmented power of attraction, a planet that had wandered out of its orbit. This is atonement in its true interiorsense, which is that of recunciliation or renewed conjunction; in a word, it is at-one-ment. And it is ever to be borne in mind that allthis is the work of the one, absolute Jehovah, existing, loving, and acting in one person made Immanuel, God witl, us, by the wondrous fact of incarnation. The whole theme is totally misconceived the moment we fix our thoughts upon what is termed the second person ofthe Trinity as going through this process in obedience to the will, invindication of the justice, and in the display of the glory, of the first.Unquestionably to human view a great mystery must, on ~ny solu-tion, hang round an event so stupendous as the incarnation of a God.It is a mystery ineffably profound how the Divine could pass .. fromfirst principles to last," embodying his pure essence in the ultimatesof our gross and fallen humanity. But however mysterious, the facthas to be admitted. No one can fairly reject it who believes, as yOIlundoubtedly do, that .. the Word which was with God and was God,became flesh and dwelt among us." This transcendant fact standsIrevealed ~ the very threshold, as it were, of the Christian oracles, Iand in this fact, in its interior import, we read the genuine doctrine ~both of Atonement and Redemption, the former the issue of the lat-ter. tit is here that we find an adequate clew to that wonder of won. 14. 14 The Atonement.[JaILdelll, the Glorification-an internal process constituting the very heartand core of the Saviours Dlf!diatorial life, and which is yet as com-pletely ignored in the prevailing sehernes of atonement, as though ithad never taken place. These theories take no note of any such bid-den process or. pro~ress in our Lords interior state during bis sojournon earth. The evangelic record that hfl was born an infant, that headvanced to childhood, that he increased in stature and wisdom, thathe became a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and that hefinally died a painful and humiliating death on the cross, is of courseadmitted, and this is substantially the history of his mere externalman. But prior to the revelations of the New Church, who of theadvocates of the modfrn theories of atonement had erer obtained aglimpse of that inner world of mysterious experiflnce, in which laythe germ of earths redemption 1 It is evermore this view of our Lordwhich is most prominent in the mind of a New Churchman. Helooks incomparably mure at what he way in his inner life than atwhat he did in his outer works. He knows of no other atonementthan that which consists in the actual reconciliation of the human ofmHn to the Divine of Jehovah, for it was in this that the glorificationof Jesus consisted, and in this he sees the prototype of his own regen-eration. Such then is the view which we are taught by Swedenborg to en-tertain of the subject before us. The end of the incarnation was notto satisfy law or glorify justicf, in the outward or forensic relationsof either. Divine law can never fail to satisfy itsfllf, either in thecordial obedience rendered it, or by the punishment inseparably an-nexed to violation. The end for which the Lord 8.!!sumed the Hu-man, was to provide a medium through which the saving Divine in-flux might reach us. This influx may be compared to that of thelight. If a dense cloud intervene, the luminous ether cannot rfachand penetrate thfl dark places that need iltumination. Let the cloudbe removed and the light finds its way to the regions and recesseswhich it could not visit before. Thus the mediatorial agency of theSon of God, which is the Divine Human, is to remove the obstructingcloud, and give access to the rays of light, while at the same timeit affOlds a medium by which tht rays of the Divine heat shall be sotempered as not to consume its objects. The great error in theologywe conceive to have bten in losing sight of t.he atonement as an ac-tual re-uniting, or putting at one, opposing parties, and interpreting. the term as expres~ive solely of the propitiatory or paciftcating workon which the actual union or reconciliation is supposed to rest. Thispropitiation, moreoyer, is supposed, by a large portion of the Christianworld, to involve a designation of the particular objects to whom itshall be applied, and who are determined by a Bo-called decree ofelectio.n. From this designation it is usually understood that theheathen are excluded, being shut up under the ban of reprobation.Everyone feels indeed the pressure of the problem on this score,but as it is the inevitable logical result of the theory advocated,its upholders sit down silent, if not quiet, under the oppressive burdenof doubt which it imposes. While they .llhudder at the thought of such 15. 1850., The Atonement.15tremendously preponderating masses of the race sinking into the yawn-ing abyss of an eternal hell, the authority of the dogma still schoolsthe impulses of their hearts into acquiescence with the dread resultOn the principles of the New Church this difficulty disappears. Weare taught by them that as the divine influence is not confined to theunderstanding, but flows into the affections, so those among the hea-then who live a good life according to the dictates of their religion,are saved to the measure of their capacity, and in the other life r~ceive such instructions from the angels as shall bring them to the ac-knowledgment of the troths that are in accordance with their good.The nature of the influx now descending from the Lord in his glori-fied state, is such as to dispense with the absolute necessity of thewritten Word as the medium of salvation. The Word is indeed ofpre-eminent value to those who possess it, as being the grand vehicleof the Divine Truth, and the instrumental means of conjunction withheaven; but the virtue of the Lordll incarnation and redemptionreaches the wills of men where the light of revelation does not reachtheir understandings, and spiritual life has its seat in the will ratherthan in the intellect. This position, however, no more enforces theinference that all the heathen are saved, than we are to infer thatsuch influences in Christian lands are available to the salvation ofall who enjoy them. Man is universally left to the freedom of hiSown will. Heaven is notforced upon anyone, whether Christian orPagan, Jew or Gentile, Barbarian or Scythian, bond or free. But the bearing of this and of every Christian doctrine upon life isafter all the grand test. Tried by this standard we do not see howthe inference can be avoided, that the system which we have aboveset forth, as held by the mass of the Protestant Church, is to be pro-nounced wanting. It is clear beyond dispute that its requisitions aremade mainly on faith and not on love or life; but faith pertains pri-marily to the understanding, while love is referable to the heart orwill. Now the life is invariably the expression of the love, and notof the intellect. Whatever a man loves supremely, that he will actout and ultimate in his life. But what is the scope of love on thescheme presented 1 It is at best but the love of gratitude. Its lan-guage is :-" The Lord has been 80 unspeakably kind and mercifulas to touch my hard heart with the finger of his love, and to writeme, against all my deserts, an heir of heaven; and shall I not, there-fore, henceforth direct towards him the full ardor of my reno,-atedaffections 1" I would not, be it observed, speak disparagingly of loveon this score, in itself considered, but who would not say thatthere is a higher form of love than gratitude 1 A man who h~generously risked his life to save another from drowning or from thehands of pirates, may be held in grateful and affectionate remembrancefor so noble and benevolent an act; but he surely would not prize thisform of love as he would that which fixed itself upon him for his ownsake-for the various moral qualities calculated to cngage affection.So in regard to the Divine Being. He is in himself, without relationto us, infinitely lovely, and it is upon this character mainly that allgenuine love fixes. 16. 16The Atonement.[JaD- Now this we affirm to be the distinguishing principle of the NeWChurch. Its very essence is love to the Lord. and love to the neigh-bor, and it is the restoration of this love that was the object and aim.of the incarnation and atonement. And as love is the fulfilling ofthe law, we take the precepts of the Decalogue as the great rule oflife, and without, in some good degree, keeping these commandmentswe know there is no such thing as entering into life. We repudiatealtogether a species of faith which is a supersederu to good works,and the legitimate operation of which is described in the followingextract e Let every one therefore beware of this heresy, that man is justified byfaith without the works of the law, for he who is in it, and does not fully re-cp.de from it before his lifes end, after death associates with infernal genii;for they are the goats, of whom the Lord says, Depart from Me, ye cursed, iutoeverlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt. xxv. 41) j for ofthe goats the Lord does not say that they did evil, but that they did not dogood j the reason why they did not do good is, because they say to them-selves, I I cannot do good from myself, the law does not condemn me, theblood of Christ cleanses me and delivers mp., the passion of the cross hastaken away the sentence of sin, the merit of Christ is imputed to me throughfaith, I am reconciled to the Father, am under grace, am regarded as a son,aud our sins H~ reputes as infirmities, which He iustantly forgives for thesake of His Son, thus does He justify by faith alone, al1d unless this was the80le medium of salvatioll, no mortal could be saved j for what other end didthe SOli of God suffer on the cross, and fulfil the law, but to remove the sen-tence of condemnation for our transgressiolls l Thus do they reason withthemselves, and in cousequence thereof do not do any good which is good initself, for out of their faith alone, which is nothing but a faith of knowledges,in itself historical faith, consequently nothing but science, no good worksproceed; for it is a dead faith, into which no life and soul enters, unless aman immediately approaches the Lord, and shnns evils as sins as of himself,in which case the good which he does as of himself, is from the Loru, andconsequently is good in itself; on which subject it is thus written, in Il.aiah: Wo unto the sinful nation, laden with iniquity, a seed of evil doers, childrenthat are corrupted j when ye spread forth yonr hands, I hide mine eyes fromyou, even though ye multiply prayers I hear not: wash you, make youclean, remove the evil of your works from before min.e eyes, cease to do evil,learn to do good: then, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as whiteas snow; though they be red like purple, they shall be as wool (i. 4, 15, 16,17, 18)"-A. E. 1250.But how, on the other hand, must the Decalogue be regarded bythose who rely solely on faith as th,e ground of their salvation? Inthe nature of the case they must look upon it as a very ancient andvenerable document, given, as to the letter and form, some three orfour thousand years ago, in very solemn circumstances, though ithad existed in fact from the beginning, and which was as reallybroken in its spirit by our father Adam, as it was in its tables ofstone by Moses, and which we can no more I{eep than we can nowjourney to Mount _ Sinai and gather up the sacred fragments intowhich it was shivered by the pious zel1l of the leader of Israel. Con-sequently the works of obedience to that law have virtually no moredemand upon us as believers in Christ. We have come out fromunder it, and as we are not to be judged by it, its demands are essen 17. 1850.] The Atonement.17tially vacated and abrogated in regard to us. It will be seen accord-ingly t~t by the advocates of the solifidian theory, all those pas-sages which are found in the Gospels insisting upon works, arestrangely oerlooked. They do not see them. However palpable toothers, they do not come within the field of their vision. As Cowpersa~s;-,.. The text that suits not to his darling whim, Though clear to others, is obscure to him."~Why is it, otherwise, that such perpetual reference is made totexts that speak of believing in Christ 1 We are indeed to believe inhim, not however, as a ground of exemption from the fulfilmfnt ofthe law, but as a medium of ability for fulfilling the law. If wehave recourse to his own words in cases where he answered inquiriesas to the terms of salvation, we shall by no means find that hisanswer was uniformly to believe in him as the very first and para-mount duty. In some instances he commands the selling of onesgoods, of parting with all to the poor, and coming and followinghim. In others he directs immediately to the keeping of the com-mandments. In others to the doing good to the neighbor, like thegood Samaritan. In othenl, the first duty is love to the brethren.And in the epistles we learn that "pure religion and undefiled beforeGod and the Father is to visit the fatherless and widows in theirafD.iction and to keep himself unspotted from the world." Waat thencan be more evident than that life is the grand requisition, thecrowning command, of the Gospel1 And yet is any thing morepalpable than that a view of Atonement which suspends salvationupon a naked act of faith is most adverse to the claims of a life ofcharity and use 1 I have thus endeavored, according to my ability, to disclose theessential distinguishIng characteristics of two very diverse systemsof religious doctrines--the one a doctrine of faith, the other a doctrineof life. You will not fail to perceive that if the one is true, the othermust inevitably be false. If the one be light, the other is darkness,and if darkness, how great is that darkness! In looking abroad uponthe actual state of the Christian world, is there not too much reasonfor resting in the justice of Swedenborgs declaration, that the Churchthat has been has actually come to an end-that it is morally de-funct before God. Not but that there may be good men and goodwomen existing in the membership of such churches; but they arethe exception and not the rule. There is, doubtless, both goodnessand truth in the creeds and in the conduct of those churches; but thisgoodness and truth is BO vitiated, adulterated, and falsified by per-nicious mixtures of evil and error, that a new Church, founded uponcharity and life, is indispensable to the moral welfare of the world.That such a church has been founded and entered upon its incipiencywe are happy to believe. It is a Church which fully retains everycardinal and essential truth involved in the prevailing systems, and,at the same time, repudiates all their errors. It utterly disclaims all 18. 18&crate. and 8wedenborg.[Jan.merit on the part of the creature, and makes the most sincere and un-reserved ascription of all power and ability for good to the Lord him-self, and thus meets the demand of thc most self renouncing and man-abasing Calvinist. On the other hand, it insists, in the most strenuousterms, upon the highest active agency in working out our salvationand bringing forth the fruits of righteousness, and thus satisfies themost rigid Arminian. Again, it holds for the Trinitarian a real andthreefold distinction in the Di vine nature, answering to Father, Son.and Holy Ghost, and, at the same time, meets the Unitarian by deny-ing that these three distinctions are three person8, and thus maintainswith him the most absolute unity of the Godhead. It does, indeed,hold that this unity is concentrated in the Lord Jesus Christ, thanwhom we know no other God in the universe, and this. the Unitarianmust receive if he can. But whether he does or not, it does not affectthe stability of our assurance, that if there is such a book as the Bible,and it teaches a single truth to be believed by the human mind, itteaches as plainly as ., words can wield the matter," the supreme,sole, and exclusive Deity of Jesus Christ. For that Jesus is J ehovah istaught in so many words, and no one can maintain that there aretwo Jehovahs. . We ask ourselves, then,-we ask our fellow.men-whether the viewnow presented has not all the evidence that can be rationally desiredof being in very deed the truth of God. Can that be the true inter-pretatioI of Christianity which exalts faith above charity and life, orwhich indicates any other mode of salvation than keeping the Com-mandments?G. B.ARTICLE Ill. SOCRATES AND SWEDENBORG. TraDIlated from .. Le No.....II. J.......,..."TO THE EDITOR,SIB,-When, in n former number of your magazine, you instanced theexcellent Pastor Oberlin as having been a disciple of the New Je-rusalem, you occasioned much surprise to those of bis admirers whoare not aware how broad a fi-s only an emblematical signification wherever they are mentioned. That Socrates should have had only vague ideas on this subject, is not lmrprising; he derived his extraordinary informa-tion from the priests and mystics of his time, who themselves, probably, retained no clear perceptions. But when Christian theology,which ought to know something more of the spiritual sense of theWord of God, which abides forever, has adopted the same fallaciouserrors, and would make of the terrestrial paradise, of the tree of life,of the tree Of the knowledge of good and evil, and of the four riversdescribed, a simple question of I(eography, it becomes inexcusable. The case is similar in respect to the four rivers of mythology, andthe four rivers of the Sacre~ Scripture, as it is with regard to thefour cardinal points, and the four winds which blow from the fourquarters of the earth, so often mentioned in the prophetical books.In both instances they are only four principal shades of all moral per-fection or degradation. The air or the wind always represents amore elevated, and water a less elevated degree, for it is necessaryhere to distinguish the various degrees known under the names ofnatural, spiritual, and celestial. It is hardly necessary to recall thesignification of fire, mud, or turbid waters. We know that it was al-ways in thR midst of his afflictions and tribulations that the prophet king cried to God, .. All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. I sink in deep mire where there is no standing."-Ps. xlii. 7; lxix. 2. If Socrates nowhere expressly says that he attaches a figurative sense to all these images, we must infer that he judged it superfluous, and knew that his disciples understood him. He even l;lays elsewhere, to these same disciples, that, urged by the oracle, and by monitions which he had himself received, to study music, he applied himself to philosophy; and he does not pause to explain to them how physical harmony may represent the harmony of the soul; they were therefore familiar with these species of relations.Thus we have already a remarkable analogy between Socrates and Swedenborg; but the passages which precede this one in the Phredon (principally in Nos. 58, 59 and 60) are still more striking. A glance at these passages is sufficient to convince us that in materialitlingthem the result would be a tissue of absurdities which it is utterlyimpossible to attribute to such a man as Socrates, whose chief cha-racteristic was good sense; whilst in giving them a. spiritual import,as a disciple of the New Church would do, we arrive immediately atresults which reason may admit. Let those then who, in their Rllmi-ra.tion of the father of moral philosophy, and of his worthy interpre-ter, have regretted sometimes to meet with similar incomprehensiblepassages, whieh clasn with the general tenor of his teachings, letthem, I say, deiin to examine the analogous views which Swedenborg 21. 1850.]80cratell and Swedenborg.21presents concerning the spiritual world, and these same passages,which appeared incomprehensible, will become clear and easy to beunderstood.- The earth which Socrates describes in these passages, and whichseems so extraordinary, when understood as a material earth, thenbecomes spiritual, and all that was absurd disappears. We may ap-ply the same reasoning to all the other objects included in the de-scription. Forexample, as to the gold and lIiller which are found inparticular places; we know what gold and silver signify in the Ra-cred Scriptures; "They are in general," says Swedenborg, "thespiritual riches of goodness and truth." The dullest of the theologianshave not always ventured to stop at the grossly material sense.Even in the historical hooks of the Word, these things have alwaysa moral signification; it is sufficient to instance the twelve. precious stones in the ~reast-plate of Aaran. And in the Apocalypse, are notthe walls of the New Jerusalem founded on twelve kinds of preciousstones 1 From a similar source, and from none other, are the preciousstones and the twelve colors of the earth in the Phredon derived.Then follow those numerous cavities (,",ou.-i ZOII), spaces or recesseswith which the earth must be surrounded. Understand these to bematerial excavations. and you have the most extravagant pretentions ;make of them spiritual abodes or dwelling-places, and you have anintelligible meaning which enlightened reason may in all ages admit. At the period when Socrates lived, a clear explanation of the dif-ference or the relation between the material and the spiritual worlds had not been obtained; but that did not prevent a rational mind from discour~ing with some clearness upon that future state which phil9- sophy demanded. The proofs of immortality which Socrates givesare indeed none of the best; life which is born of death, and deathwhich springs from life, are not very luminous ideas; but, neverthe-less, the great philosopher goes to the very root of the matter; "With-out immortality," he concludes by saying, "the fate of the justwould be the same as that of the wicked;" which evidently could notbe,-and thus immortality is not an illusion, although Socrates can-not clearly explain to Crito what will happen to the immortal manwhen divested of his material covering. We thus find Socrates and Plato speaking in a manner worthy ofthemselves when we rightly understand them; that is to say, speak-ing of a future state which is not natural life, although the new lifeis the same in appearance. We thus easily conceive how they couldboth assert, that in these cavities, or" spaces, void of what is proper- Not tbat tbe Greeks obtained from tbe ~acred books of the Hebrews sucb oftbeir my- thological ideas as bear om" resemblance to the theology of the Israelites i they derivedthem by tradition from a Word prior to the Mosaic Word. This ancient Vord, fromwhich the first chapters of Genesis were taken, was at first spread throughout the wholeof Asia, but during succeeding ages it was lost, and its religious truths, suffering llradualperversion, gave rise to the various cosmogonies of the oriental nations. This fact ex-plains sufficiently, why all these cosmogonies ab)ee in so many points with that of M05CS.But when our theologians haw wished to explain this fact, hy seeking to prove that theOrientals and ancient Greeks derived tbcir dogmas from the books of Moses, they haveonly excited the laughter of the learned, and consequently done more harm than good,for ridicule is pernicious, especially in France.-Note of the Ed._JOL. Ill. 3 22. 22 &crates mad Swedenborg.[Jan.]y termed matter," substances do not deteriorate, "because there arenot the same germs of corruption i" that men live longer there, " be-cause the air which they breathe is purer even than ether ;" thatneither stones, nor plants, nor metals, nor bodies degenerate there," because their nature is different." Swedenborg, whose inner or im-mortal man explored these abodes during nearly thirty years, does notdiffer from these statements, except that the light of Christianity en-abled him to add, that this new state is final, and that no one returnsfrom it to re-commence the natural life, as Socrates himself believed;that at the most, spirits thus divested of their material covering, aresometimes permitted to associate themselves with those who are still inthe body, and to have, by that meaas, ll. certain degree of life in com-mon with them i thus assigning a cause for so many singular phe-nomena, which otherwise would remain inexplicable. There are, as we know, many mansions in the house of our Father.According to Swedenborg, they appear to be arranged one above an-other i those of the most perfect spirits appear elevated according totheir degrees of perfection, while it is necessary to descend in orderto arrive at those of more or less degraded spirits; and there is no-thing to prevent Socrates or his disciples from saying that theseabodes are one within another, and, as it were, in vacant space. In ac-cordance with metaphysical expression as well as aceording to the NewDoctrine, they with their inhabitants are detached from what we herebelow call time and space. All these spiritual creations, as Sweden-borg instructs us, proceed from spiritual or divine light i and themen, the plants, the metals, and the edifices there, appear muchm,ore substantial to the inhabitants, than material objects, which theycall only shadows in comparison, appear to us; these are evidentlythe creations which Socrates asserts to be composed of colors, andwhich Plato terms elsewhere substantial forms. The pious Oberlin also admitted these things i and it is this whichhas given him so striking an air of relationship with the disciples ofthe New Jerusalem. The curious may stjl1 see in his church pic-tures of various colors resembling rainbows, by which he depicted tothe good inhabitants of the Ban de la Roche the various degrees ofcelestial glory which await the good. All these ideas are more or less true, according as they are repre-sented in a more or less suitable manner, whether they are found inSocrates, in Plato, in Swedenborg, or elsewhere. I conclude then bysaying :-Make of Socrates a disciple of the New Jerusalem, in hisidea of an approachable Deity, of a God-man, at once Creator andRedeemer, which he could not have derived from his contemporaries,and you will find sentiments worthy of him in all the passages hither-to incomprehensible; attribute to him, on the contrary, in all thesepassages, material ideas, and you have the dreams of a weak mindsimilar to those amongst us who still materialize the Holy Scriptures;illusions which ought to be banished fi:om every part of the works ofPlato, as many learned men have long desired. c. w. 23. 1850.] PTO]JOBed Comtitution of the General Convention.ARTICLE IV. PROPOSED CONSTITUTION OF THE GENERAL CONVENTION.No.n.THE priority of societies to ministers in the orderly developments and arrangements of the New Church, is a point which we deem very important in relation to the ends and uses of aGeneral Convention. If the principle be sound, it clearly follows that thc clerical order is not constituted by any Convention, but is in fact, 80 far as human agency is concerned, the creature of societies, voluntarily formed, and in the effort to produce appropriate uses. As every man who is in good is a church in the least form, so whatever is essential to the being or the well-being of a church is in every such man. If a ministry is an essential element ofa church, a ministry is a constituent function of every man of the church, which is but another form of saying that every member of the Lords church is a king and a priest in the spiritual sense of those terms. The mere aggregation of individuals in a church society does not create any new orders or prerogatives in that society, although it may be the occasion of the drawing out and bringing into exercise, in a new form, of the several gifts and endow- ments of the members. The forms of ministry are as various as the phases of the regenerating process in the souls of men ; and in the true order of the church these torms will ev"lve themselves in sym- metry and harmony for the common good. In the present order of things, this functiQn of ministry, pertaining, originally, to every individual, is made over by delegation to some one person who acts in the name of the whole body. The consequence i~, that there is concentrated upon a single individual the sum total of the duties Rnd re-sponsibilities which would otherwise have devolved on the society asa whole. How far this is consistent with the true genius of the NewChurch, which knows nothing of substitution in the process by whichits spiritual life is to be built up, is doubtless a matter well worthyof the deepest consideration. There can be, we think, but littlequestion that the entire institution of the ministry has been introducedinto the New Church from the Old, without any special inquiry intoits fundameJ:ltal grounds or their accordance with the principles of theNew Dispensation. But upon this point we do not design to enlarge at present. Ourobject is to treat of the ends to be answered by a General Conventionof the Church of the New Jerusalem; and we are free to say that ifthe above positions in regard to the relation between societies and min-isters rest upon an adequate basis of truth, then a very large portioRof what is deemed the appropriate action of such a Convention is vir-tually superseded at once. Every society is to be left in the fullestenjoyment of its freedom in the management of its own concerns. Itis responsible to no power or tribunal save that of the Lord, exceptjWlt so far as every organ and member of the human body is respon- 24. 24 Proposed Constitution of the General Convention.[Jan.Bible to the whole, as being a component part of the whole, and re-quired to conspire, in its place and office, to the production of thegeneral unity of effect in the whole. So far as one life. in its orderlyinflux, pervades and governs the entire body of the Church, so farthere will necessarily be a sympathetic and reciprocal co-working ofits multiform constituents, all tending to one paramount result, andthat whether th(re be any such thing as conventions -or councils,or not. If the Divine influx be rightly and adequately received byany organism, whether physical or spiritual, there will of necessitybe a. consentaneous action of the several component parts, tending toone ruling end, just as real and as effective as if it had proceededfrom the tolllntary and conscious purpose of those parts. An asso-ciated religious body existing in true order may be considered asbaving a cerebellum which presides over all its involuntary motionsas well as a cerebrum that controls the voluntary, and the functionsof the former are no less conducive to the weal of the whole than ifthey were governed by the direct conscious volition of the cerebralintelligence.The object of these remarks is to evince that the mere external re-gime of the Church needs not to bl regarded as a subject ofparnmountclaim upon the action of a Convention. It is the internal interests ofthe Lords kingdom which ever especially demand attention in allsuch stated assemblings of his people. The perpetual enacting andre-enacting of" rules of order," having reference for the most part topoints of minor moment and of local bearing, leads inevitably to theconsumption of much precious time in unfruitful dp.bate, to say no-thing of the great expense incurred by the long jourmys of delegatesfrom distant parts of the country to the place of meeting, and nothing of the unlovel) feelings frequently excited by the collision of partisaninterests, which ought, in fact, never to beknown in the councils ofthe New Church, It mn), perhaps, be fairly questioned whether, onthe whole, the disadvantages and evils connected hitherto with Con- ventional proceedings in the Church of the New Jerusalem have not more than counterbalanced the good that has resulted from them. The benefits arising from the social converse of brethren convened from a distance, the blending of spheres, the interchange of thought and affection, and the opportunity of mutual counsel and co-opera-tion, are doubtless of signal value, and cannot be countervailed but by opposite evils of great magnitude. But there has been withal, we conceive, a failure to apprehend and realize the greatest good of such periodical gatherings. The study of the most important uses towards the upbuilding of the Church, as a spiritual power in the souls of men, has been comparatively overlooked. Time and toil have been fritter- ed away on points of trifling moment, and having relation mainly to outward forms and processes of action, instead of being expended on the incomparably more important measures pertaining to the propagation and confirmation of the saving truths of the New Jerusalem. Every such meeting ought to be considered as failing of its true object unless it tends to stir up and invigorate with new vitality the goods and truths which constitute the graces of the Church, and to create a 25. 1850., Propose.d Constitution of the General Convention.25sphEre of intenser life which shall go to vivify the collective body ofreceivers to its extlemest parts. The operation of that life will con-tinually tend to work out the highest good of the neighbor, and thiswill be seen to require a ministration of all those means which are es-sential to the edification of the man of the Church, as well as thosewhich are requisite to awaken the interest of those that are without,to its sublime doctrines and disclosures. These means are chiefly theWord and the Writings of the Church, especially of the illuminatedherald of the Church. The former, by reason of the benevolent agen.cyof Bible Societies, comes ea.~ily within the reach of all. Not ~o theinvaluable works of Swedenborg. They are still, from their volu-minousness and price, inp.ccessible, hut at great sacrifices, to multi-tudes of receivers who would rejoice in the possession of them as atreasure of priceless value. The circumstancp.s of our nece~sitousbrethren constitute a strong claim on the charity (we do not say thealms) of the Church. There ought to be systematic and organizedefforts made by the Church at large in behalf of those who would fainpossess themselves of these writings, but, at their present cost, cannotdo it. The number ofthese appreciating readers is constantly on the in-crease, and, as is well known, they are not for the most part among therich, the-noble, the mighty, the honored of the world. They are fromamongthe classes of the respectable, the sound, the judicious, the men ofplain but substantial intelligence.. placed providentially in those walksof life, where, if they escape the evils of affluence they at the sametime experience more or less the inconveniences of its opposite. Thesebrethren, we say, prefer a valid claim to the expansive neighborlylove of the New Church. Though their lips may be silent, theirwants plead. An appeal comes up with moving eloquence from theirinability, urging the initiation of such measures, on a hl.rge and liberalscale, as shall put within their reach, at a moderate cost, these illu-minated works, which their sober estimate accounts of more valuethan all the mines of California, Here then is a field for the action ofthe united wisdom and charity of a General Convention, aiming, asevery Convention is bound to do, at. the performance of the highestpracticable use. We"would by no means imply that their labors oflove in this department are to be circumscribed within the limits ofthe Church. "T~e field is the world." The New Jerusalem is tothecollective humanity of the race what the heart is to the body, .andwithout being untrue to its mission, it cannot but be in the endeavorto co-operate with the Divine Providence in holding forth, to theanxious minds of thousands, the truths which are to speak them out ofbondage into glorious liberty. While we are no pleadels for the indiscriminate scattering of thepearls of the New Dispensation before the world-wedded and sense-enslaved multitudes, we are still satisfied that there is a debt due tothose who are yet walking uncheered by the light of the celestial city-that there is being widely awakened in the Christian world a spiritof inquiry to which the New Church ought to respond-that many atrembling hand is stretched out ready to receive the clew which aloneCan conduct their bewildered footsteps out of the labyrinth of error 26. 26 !ropo,ed Comtitution of the General Convention. [Jan.into the broad sunlig-ht and the spacious highways of truth. In bothspheres there is in fact, a world of good work to be done, and we shallhave joyous hopes of the bright days of the Church being at handwhen we can see her addressing herself in earnest to this pre-eminentuse. We would raise our feeble voice in notes of urgent entreaty toall those who are pondering with interest the designs and ends of aGeneral Com"ention, to bestow upon this subject their prefoundest re-gard. We would fain have this considered as in fact the prime andparamount aim of such a congregated body. Let it rise to the veryfirst place in the ends to be accomplished by such assemblages, in-stead of being docketed among minor and incidental items of atten-tion and resolve. What is to be compared to it in intrinsic importance TFor what end is a Convention to be conve7lld but to devisf!, enter upon,and consummale such schemes of practical good as will most essen-tially advance the highest weal of the Church and the world. Nodoubt the members of a Convfntion baving this work for its grandobject, after having been inured to a different course of proceedings,would feel at first as if they could not" find their hands," or havingfound them were at a loss how to apply them; but this sensation ofawkwardness and strangeness would soon pass off, as the conviction:fixed itself more and more deeply in their minds, that a General Con-vention was not properly a centre of unity, or a court of appeal, or aboard of control, or a fountain of ministerial authority to the Church,but simply a medium ofuse-ofuse of the highest order-and such aUlle we hold to lie in the propagation of the doctrines of the Churchby means of its writings. We rfgard the living voice of the preacheras altogether inferior to this as an instrumentality for the building upof that kingdom of heaven which is rfpresented in the church. Thegenius of the New Dispensation, in this respect, is peculiar. As itstruths cannot be made available to a mans salvation except 80 far asthey are appropriated, and as they cannot be appropriated except 80far as they are rationally apprehended and wrought into the firmesttexture of ones belief, so it is rather by reading than by hearing thatthis effect is to be produced. And this, by the way, constitutes an-other reason why a ministry, or distinct order of elergy, cannot be ex-pected to hold so prominent a place, or to be deemed so indispensa.-ble an element, in the New Church as in the Old. They are not somuch needed. They have not so much to do. But it is not upon thisground that we, at present, urge the waving of ministerial prerogativein the Convention. It is becaU!!e it has a higher function to fulfil. Wewould have the Convention hanish from its sphere everything pertain-ing to the institution, ordination, and supervision of the ministry. Letthat be done, ifneeds be, by societies or local associations. The Con-vention should feel itself charged with more sacred duties. Let it beleft to such councils as those of Trent and Westminster to claim forthemselves the forming ofChurch constitutions and the ordering of themanifold economy of the Lords house. The New Church has nolaws to ena~t, no,new orders to create, no nfW creeds to promulgate.Consequently she has no need of a body of delegates to act in hername in either of these capacities. She can have no legitimate ob- 27. 1850.] The Mining Nunaber6 of Swedenborgs Spiritual Diary. 27ject in establishing a Convention but to create a more effective agencyfor carrying into execution the dictates of her charity. It is due toherself and to the Divine principles by which she professes to be go-verned that she should disclaim every other. It is due to that jealousIlentiment which exists to a greater or less extent throughout herbounds-a sentiment grounded upon the whole history of the past,and which incessantly dreads the grafting of the lust of dominion onthe exercise of any form of priestly power. So uniform has beenhitherto the progress from decency to dictation, from fitness to force,from expediency to authority, from an eldership to a hierarchy, thatit is not to be wondered at that men impressed by the lessons oC thepast, and deeply alive to the imperfections of our nature, even in itsworthiest specimens, should watch with an anxious eye the leastopening by which the spirit of clerical rule should make its way intothe bosom of the Lords sheepfold. Even should it be admitted, asprobably it may, that there is in some quarters an over-sensitivesolicitude, a gratuitous apprehension, on this subject, together with atendency to magnify slight symptoms into fearful demonstrations, stillwe think it better and wiser to cut off all occasion for such imputa-tions, as well as all dang(lr froni contact with temptation, by express-ly dismissing from the sphere of its action every thing relative to thecreation, ordination, induction, &c., of a New Church ministry. Thestep, we are persuaded, will be a wise one in itself and one that willtend powerfully to conciliate sympathy and co-operation of the wholeChurch in its various measures. .EU5EBlUS. (10 be contimud.)A.RTlCLE V.THE MISSING NUMBERS OF SWEDENBORGS SPIRITUAL DIARY. IT may not be known to many of the readers of Swedenborg that the first part of theSpiritual Diary, as we have the work in tho original Latin, published by Dr. Tafel, iswanting; that is to say, the portion extending from 1 to 14!J. It was at first doubted,from what preceded in Ihe authors manuscript, whether this were not in fact the realcommencement of the Diary; but the subi!Cquent publication of the" Index Diarii,"written by Swedenborg himself, evinces beyond question that the mis.ing numbers werecontained in a separate manuscript, which has not yet been di~covered, and which thereis reaaon to fear is irrecoverably lost. These numbers constituted, it is true, but an in-considerable fragment of the entire work, yet no one who appreciates at its true value thewondrous record that remains, yields without a sigh to the conviction that these treasuresofreyelation, few as they are in number, are beyond recovery. But while we cannotpreclude this regret, we Bre happily enabled in some good measure to relieve iu poig- 28. ~~ Missing Numbersof Swedenhorg, Spiritual Diary. [Jan.nancy. By means of the Index above-mentioned, which refers to these as well as to theother numbers, the head. or .wbjtet. of "eal"ly aU of tMm may be r"tared. This is ac-complished in part in the Appendix to the Rev. Mr. Smilhsons translation of the firstvol. of the Diary, upon the reprint of which we have entered in tbe present No. of theRepository. But his undertaking was left incomplete, because tho latter sheets of theIndex had not been received in England at tho time that his volume was issued from thepress. This deficiency we now propose to supply, availingourselves of his translation asfar as it goes, and arranging the numbers in regular order. For the sake of brevity, wehave sometimes combined two or three references under one number, but the number iDthis case is always the same in the original. Occasionally the reader will find the samenumber repeated. (1.) That spirits are merely organs or instruments of life, subserv-jng uses. (2.) That spirits are servitudes, the more insane in proportion asthey are interiorly more evil. (3.) That spirits applied to man appropriate to themselves hissciences and memory, from which they consider themselves to be thesame man, but each spirit lives in his own cupidity or nature, and isnot able to appropriate mans cupidities to himself. (4.) That spirits put on the person of him whom a man adores, andsay that they are the same, because they wish to be adored underthat person; and they especially wish to be called the holy spirit. (5.) Concerning the representation among spirits of various thingson the earth arising from the objects which they saw while living inthe body. (6.) That spirits put on the knowledges and memory of man, andsuppose them to be their own; but they do not flow into the ideas ofman except through his affections, from which affections flow theideas of thought. (7.) That spirits induce dreams, and when man sleeps that theysleep also. . (7!.) The things seen and represented in a dream are [clearly] per-ceived in a dreaming state, but are inexpressible in the waking state;what they are and whence. . (8.) That dreams induced by angels are altogether different, towit, beautiful, delightful, instructive, predictive. (9.) Concerning the character of Solomon and his wisdom. (10.) Various things on speech and conversation with spirits.That truth flows in from the Lord. (11.) That there is no permission except for a good end. (12, 15.) That a species of permission appears lto have place]among spirits, even the evil. (13.) That a certain allowance, as of permission, was in variousparticulars accorded to me. (15, 16.) That permission takes place by several mediations; butthat truths flow in from the Lord, although by angels. (11.) Communication with spirits by interior thought. ( " ) That a spirit who is in the temptation of evil suffers pertur..bation in consequence of a direct looking upon him. 29. 1850.] The Missing Numbers of Swedenborgs Spiritual Diary. 29 (18.) That spirits speak freely with man, provided he does not reflect upon their nature. They are indignant if spirits coming from elsewhere converse with man. That one [spirit] is not aware of the presence of another. When they are not lopenlyl conversed with lby lllen I they know no other than that they are men..(19.) That those things which are [deeply] hidden are expressed by representations; and that the proximate spirits do not now, nor did formerly, understand the interior sense of the Lords Vord; consequently neither did the prophets. (20.) I could not think the least thing that did not flow in from the Lord. That in praying the Lords prayer a threefold sense was perceived, as a threefold life.(21.) Natural spirits [or those of the grosser class] suppose them- selv(s to be men invested with a [material] body, thus they wish to be understood to be men; whereas the body does not make the man, but the mind, or the understanding and the will; wherefore goodspirits and angels are men. .(2a.) That there is [properly] no human mind at birth, but that itis formed of worldly things, wherefore it is necessary that it shouldbe re-formed in order to its becoming spiritual.(a3.) That spirits speak and act according to thp.ir nature. That they are, with much variety, held in bonds, and when these are relax- ed they think they act from their own power, nor do they know in what manner they are hfld, or that they are held at all. That they were led by me to speak, and yet knew no otherwise than that it was from themselves.(24.) That spirits rave while thfy think, speak, and act from their own phantasy, and that they place intelligence and wisdom in in-sanity.(25.) That it is of wisdom to regard and aim at ends which belong to the Lords kin~dom, thus the Lord alone is wisdom.(26.) That the soul of a man is his end, which, if it looks into na-ture, and inclines thither, is a natural soul.(27.) That evil spirits are 80 much more insane than beasts, inas-much as by means of their reason they act contrary to order.(28.) Concerning interior spirits possessing only intellectual faith,-that they do not suffer themselves to be called organs of life; un-derstood by Gad.(29.) That evil spirits, who do not livl! in order, may be tbe meansof producing delights, thus that theirs are the delights of the king, orof Asher. (30.) That varieties of speech [or of modes of uttetance] manifestwhat kind of persons certain spirits have been, and what they noware.(31.) I conversed with the apostles, stating that by them, as by thetribes, were signified the essential things of the faith, or of the Church,and that they are not literally to sit upon thrones judging the universe.That they form a synedrium.(32, 33, 34, 35.) An effigy of the last judgment, according to whatis contained 10 the Apocalypse, that there was to be a casting down to~ 30. 30 The MiBsing Number. of Swedenborg. Spiritual Diary. [Jan.the earth; how it was effected, and who were the subjects of it, to wit,the deceitful. (37, 38.) That the process of regeneration is essentially the samein each particular case and in the general, namely in the Church, inthe world of spirits, in heaven; it is a continual warfare of internalswith externals, thus of angels with the spirits who govern externals;and this, too, [a struggle carried on] with all variety according to thenature of every man in his various states. (39, 40.) That man [hy nature] is viler than a beast, since fromhimself he does not know the laws of order and of society, but mustlearn them from others; he also seizes upon falsities in the place oftruths, otherwise than beasts; wherefore he must be regenerated. (42.) That knowledges from the Word prepare the way of faith ; -what in other respects knowledges effect. (44, 45, 46.) That the interiors of the Word are most beautiful, butthe exteriors in many instances deformed, which may be evinced,comparatively, from the internal and external effigy, structure, andform of man; it may be illustrated also from optical projections. (47, 48, 50.) That it is given to man to command evil spirits, andnot to be commanded by them. That spirits and genii govern thereason of man by affections. (51.) A conversation respecting the bodies of angels, of what formthey are. (53.) What the kingdom of the devil is ;-that it is the determina-tion of ones regard into oneself, and if out of oneself still it is reflect-ed back to self;-hence is [spiritual] death. (54.) A proposition was made to spirits, whether pure love can willany thing else than the salvation of all; when it was stated in reply,that it is pure love which willB and which is the salvation of all. ( " ) It was proposed to spirits whether the [evil] genii could effectanything contrary to what they desire; for they say they will whatthey desire; it was replied that they cannot. (56.) That in two instances I walked in the highvay, being in thespirit, in the same manner as is related of Stephen. (58.) Evil spirits do not wish that the good should be well spokenof; neither do thfY desire the presence of the good; nor are theyaware of the presence of another spirit. ( " ) Spirits bear it indignantly that they should be governed bymen.. ( .. ) Evil spirits are unwilling that any thing should be divulgedrespecting them. ( .. ) Spirits curiously desire to know all things, wherefore they al-ways curiously excite all things, even to the minutest particular, whichare in mans memory, which excitation cannot be resisted. (59.) Spirits freely call forth whatever is congruous to theirgenius. ( " ) Spirits wi~h .to be separated whenever they are offended bythings contrary to their nature.(60.) That truth is wh"tever regards and leads to the kingdom ofthe Lord; thus all means which tend to that point. As to means ormedia, circumstances vary [the character of] a thing. 31. 1850.] The Missing Number. of Swedenborgs Spirirual Diary. 31 (61.) Ora certain spirit, who from [the force of] a remaining ideasuddenly denied the resurrection. (62.) That all things and all beings in the world and in heaven areinstrumental causes, with indefinite variety, to the first and ultimateend, that is to the Lords kingdom, and, consequently, for the Lordssake. (64.) How variously spirits How by affections and thoughts intoman,-from the affection into the thought and contrariwise. (65.) It is otherwise in speech with men. (66.) My lamentation concerning temptations. (68.). The spirits who were with me, who knew not that I couldconverse with spirits, were pleased at the idea of spirits governingman, and that they were l virtually] the man; but they were dis-pleased that man should respond, that he should explore their geniull,and that he in his turn should govern them. ( ) It is pleasing- to spirits when they can govern man, and whenthey are [as it were] man; but it displeases them when man repliesto them, and when he explores their naturf1 and governs them. (69.) That in the least particulars of the love of self and of the worldthere lies concealed the ambition of possessing the universe, and con-sequently hatred against the Lord. (71.) It was shown by living and repeated experience how the Lordgoverns thoughts, and that a man cannot think otherwise, however hemay suppose he can. (72.) When my t.houghts were determined into the world, they werelike weights, and my interior thoughts were, as it were, obliterated,and I then seemed to govern myself: it was shown, however. that thiswas not so.. (73.) That thoughts How into the mind in an imperceptible man-ner i-actions are directed by spirits i-spirits are affected when thethought is directed to them. ( .. ) That spirits are mutually recognized by their speech. (74.) That spirits were excited by me to speak by means of an in-terior intuition. (77.) That there are simple spirits who scarcely think and speakany thIng from themselves, but from others, such being their nature. ( .. ) That the cunning and malice of certain spirits cannot be de-scribed, when they are permitted to infuse their cupidities and persua-sions: from the end only can it be known of what quality they are. ( .. ) That cunning and malignant spirits can more easily seduce thelearned, and the [so-called] acute philosophers than others, becausewith them they meet with a greater complication of falses. (78.) That spirits and angels have not a memory proximate to andfrom the senses of the body, but one that is interior, which is rather anature or character; their sensual memory they have from the manwith whom they are. (79.) The representations of evil spirits have relation to the king-dom of the devil. (80.) The spirits that were with me could know that they werenot men by a reciprocal speech, and a separation, of which I havesometimes bad an exquisite perception. 32. 82 Correpondence. [Jan. (81.) That in praying the Lords prayer, my hands were claspp.d andloosened by a manifest power [not my own]; the words also wereraised to a higher meaning, and intuitions of the things involvedpoured in. (82.) That I was in the company [of spirits], not as a spirit, but asamsn. ( " ) That man cannot live without the government of spirits;wherefore the Lord, who governs spirits, governs also the entirehuman race. ( ., ) If the Lords government were remitted for a moment, menwould instantly be precipitated into insanities, and into a mostatt:ocious death. ( " ) That man is a spirit clothed with a body. (83.) That the affections both of the father and the mother are con-nate, and also innate in the oBspring; but the affections of the fatherare interior, wherefore they unfold or develope themsel ves later, where-as the affections of the mother are more easily developed. (84.) That light proceeds from concord, and shade from discord. (85.) How spirits excite ideas from the memory of man which fallinto the utterances of speech. ( " ) That spirits suddenly seize upon, and hide the things towhich they have an aversion. ( " ) That they speak quickly, sometimes more rapidly than men,and indeed in a measured cadence or rytbm to which they are accus-tomed.(To be concluded in OUT next.)CORRESPONDENCE. We insert the following, from a physician in one of tbe Southern cities, as containingan interesting sketch ortbe strugglcs of an earnest mind in tbe pursuit of truth amidst tbeadverse inflntnces of education, association, and lack of the requisite means of investiga-tion. The Ittter discloses also some rather remarkable gleams of anticipation of some oCthe leading truths of the New Dispensation.- - Dec. 31. 1849.REVEREND AND DEAR SIR, Having for some time known something of your devotion to, and progressin, the investigation and dissemination of the great truths relative to mans re-demption and highest development, and believing that all lovers of pure truth(which is to the mind light, life and liberty) should embrace every proper op-portnnity to make themselves known to each other, that by union and cooperation they may nlore successfully contend against error and corruption,(which involve us in dar~ness, slavery, and death), I have for some-time desired to communicate with you, but absence from home and my pro-fessional engagements have hitherto prevented my doing so, As I desire yourcounsel and aid, it seems to me proper that you should know something of my 33. 1850.]Correspondence. 33present position and the circumstances under which I have attained it, thatyou may be the better prepared to advise me in the course to pursue infurtherance of the great ends in view. I shall therefore lay aside all fastidious-ness that would deter me from speaking of myself, and frankly give yOll a briefhistory of my experience in search for truth. I was born and raised in the Stateof Maryland, and grew up mainly under the influence of Presbyterian and Bap-tist teaching, with some acquaintance with the other so-called orthodox church-es, with no acquaintance with heterodox theology except as represented by or-thodox teachers. About 16 years ago my mind became seriously exercised onthe subject of religion, and with the light I then possessed was led to join theB~{ltist ~hurch. Soon after I com~en~ed the. study of my profession l and mymmd bemg absorbed With the studIes Immediately connected therewith, I didnot attempt any critical investigation of Christian doctrines, but rather content-ed myself with the teachings of the church to which I had united. But after b

The new church_repository_and_monthly_re_vol_iii_1850

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