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Of thy genius; and the charms of life

Will be spread around thee.

That the Almighty may bless and guide thee is the sincere prayer of

RUSELIADES.

Manchester.

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EDITOR.

On Sex in the World to come; an Essay. By the Rev. G. D. HAUGHTON, B. A.

To meet with instances of men who will venture to think, and think deeply, on spiritual subjects, without being fettered by doctrines bearing the name of orthodoxy, and yet with a devout reverence for the Holy Scriptures, is always pleasing to those who receive the verities of the New Church. If a publication present itself, indicating that the author has taken enlarged views on theology, they are eager to examine it, and see what those views may be; and they are pleased with the author, in the degree that his sentiments are in unison with those which they know to be pure and genuine truth.

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The book now before us, On Sex in the World to come, by a divine of the Established Church, has claimed our notice, as being one in which some striking ideas are put forth. We have perused it carefully, and with no small degree of interest. The subject is an important one, not merely as regards sex in the other life, but as involving or affecting other subjects of deep interest, such as the operations of mind, the nature of the human soul, the employments and happiness of the blest, and the nature and offices of angels. If it be assumed that sexual distinction arises out of mere physical organization, the deductions to be drawn from it must lead to materialism; but if, on the contrary, it arises from the mind or spirit, and there is a sex in souls," the nature of the soul becomes at once a question. If the soul be but a ghost or phantom, can it be a subject of sexual distinction? If it be a substance and form, must it not be the effigy of thought and affection; and if so, are not affection and thought the man himself? Must not man, at this rate, take his life with him into the other world? Next come into consideration the joys and employments of the blest. It is thus that the subject of sex in the other life leads to many others. Mr. Haughton has thought in this way; and hence he has considered several other subjects, besides that which forms the title of his book. He perceives that sexual distinction has its origin in the mind or spirit, of which the body is but the outward developement. He describes the masculine and feminine minds, as being essentially different; the former as displaying the power of the intellectual, and the

latter the influence of the voluntary faculty; and with such a difference, they are adapted for distinct uses in society. He pourtrays, in a beautiful manner, the different workings of the two minds, and their admirable fitness for union with each other. He argues, that the two sexes must preserve their distinctive characters after death, and that the substantial spirit-for he has an idea of a spiritual bodywill be an effigy of its internal mind. They will have their distinct uses in heaven, together with an inclination for personal union, although not for such a marriage union as in the present world. Their intercourse will not be altogether similar, because they will not unite with a view, nor from a desire, to such uses, as are contemplated in marriages on earth: they will unite in pairs, from a pure affection, sweeter than friendship.

On other subjects he has formed some very striking and just conceptions. He considers that angels are "the spirits of just men made perfect;" they are not inactive, nor engaged in perpetual worship, but their employments are necessarily various; and they are used by the Almighty as instruments in his hands, for the promotion of his merciful designs in this lower world. He expatiates on these, and on other matters, in a manner, if not always correct, at all events very striking and pleasing. He offers his views generally with great diffidence, and wishes them to be considered as conjectures or speculations, rather than as opinions that he has formed.

We will proceed, however, to give extracts from his work, in order to shew how much his views are in unison with those of the New Church, on several subjects. He takes for his motto those well-known lines of Milton:

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"What earth

Be but the shadow of heaven, and things therein

Each to the other like, more than on earth is thought."

He then complains, in his preface, of the injury done to religion by the "uninteresting representations which are usually given of the life to come. "Our theories," saith he, " are sadly defective; and people content themselves with views of futurity so dry, barren, and unattractive, that we can scarcely wonder that they are not more influential.” He goes on to say, in his introduction:—

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If it shall appear, to use a phrase of Addison, that there is a sex in souls," and that this distinction is in its nature eternal, and that to destroy it would be to destroy our individuality, and thereby our mental and moral identity; then such a con. clusion would draw after it a host of interesting and momentous consequences, such as may regale the imagination of man, excite his fancy, and refresh his heart; and this under the assurance that that heart shall live for ever, with objects fully

commensurate with its high desires, and unutterable longings. That intelligence, moreover, we would conceive as residing in no airy or impalpable form, nor as floating, an almost bodiless thing, amid clouds or nothingness, but as incased in a frame which shall be solid, though celestial. (Page 7.)

We shall arrange our further extracts in the following order:— 1st. On sex and its distinctions. 2nd. On the nature and offices of

angels. 3rd. On the Christian life. laneous remarks.

1. On sex and its distinctions.

4th. On symbols. 5th. Miscel

In this world there is a male spirit and there is a female spirit; and these two, though they agree with each other, and harmonize most admirably, yet can they never be confounded, even in thought (p. 12). The difference in the sexes exists in the spirit, and only consequentially in physical organization (272). When it is said, in Genesis, that God created man in his own image, male and female, it seems to imply that the two sexes reflect the one image of God, and that either sex alone would have formed a most mutilated and defective representation of the divine qualities. Judgment should not be divorced from mercy, reason from the affections, valour from pity, authority from tenderness. To woman has been vouchsafed one of the brightest manifestations of the Creator's moral nature. That intense love and pity which yearned over a lost world have no adequate counterpart in the nature of man (40). Her existence was not an after-thought of the Infinite Mind, to supply a felt necessity: she fulfils the high purpose of being the co-equal representative with man of God's image (45). The Almighty has formed the human race in two contrasts; and all happiness, as well as perfection, is a middle term resulting from the combined action of both (269). It was a glorious thought, to form a race of two contrasted divisions, yet whose differences should only provoke love and inspire interest. Had the reason of woman been stronger, or her attraction less, all would have been marred. If man had been milder or sterner, and his heart more or less accessible, the fortunes of our race would have suffered. Two spirits behoved to be adjusted to each other, and it has been done to perfection (287). The ideal of one sex is sublimity, of the other beauty. The one requires to be sweetened and tranquillized, the other to be strengthened and raised (289). This difference in soul will have its outward and visible sign in a corresponding difference in body. In our theory, mind was first, and matter followed as its symbol: the spirit was enshrined in snch a bodily temple, as could best shadow forth the nature of the indwelling thought. Hence, the peculiarities of the two divisions of our race are quite in. destructible; and as they did not arise from the formation of the body, so neither will they be affected by its dissolution (279).

2. On the nature and offices of angels.

On the subject of angels, the popular imagination of all nations seems agreed in this, that they have the human form divine, with the addition of wings. No artist has ever represented them otherwise, and no poet has otherwise conceived them. We consider it in the highest degree probable, that the die in which our bodies are cast, is the one universal die used throughout the creation of God for all spiritual beings. The Eternal Word, when made flesh, appeared amongst us enshrined in such a tabernacle. If such a form were worthy to enshrine the Deity, what living intelli

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gence may not be proud to wear it (70, 73). We may congratulate ourselves that there is one universal type of corporeity (74). It is the fancy of the multitude that angels are sky-born. This is a mere fancy, and it is competent to any one to refuse to entertain it. Whence the angels sprang is a point not once alluded to in the inspired Word. If they have always existed in their present state of sublimation, whence can arise that perfect acquaintance with the affairs of earth, and that sympathy with the sorrows of man which we ascribe to them, and which can alone qualify them to be our protectors and comforters? In the work On the Physical Theory of another Life, the idea is started, that the "spiritual beings, good and evil, that are spoken of in Scripture, are all, or most of them, of mundane origin;— that they have all sprung from this soil." This conjecture has many arguments in its favour. It accords with the revealed futurity of our race; for we believe that after passing the term of our exisience here, we shall be translated to ethereal regions where mansions have been long in preparation. It accords with that law of progression which obtains through the universe. It agrees with that principle enunciated by St. Paul, that in all things the natural precedes the spiritual. It satisfactorily accounts for that interest they feel in our affairs, and for the disclosure which Scripture makes, that they controul our destinies, national and individual (228). Angels are conceived as acting by a pure and unerring impulse; to whom what duty requires is never subject to uncertainty. Their happiness is conceived as always at the full. It is conceived that their course of action is always clear, that their resolves are immediate and unhesitating, and never preceded by doubt. If the case were so, on what could their exalted reason be employed where every thing is plain, and nothing waits for a resolution (104-106). If the bliss of angels is maintained at one even flow, ever full and unvarying, the feeling of satiety could not fail to steal in, and to cloy the guests even of the celestial banquet. A state of insipid monotony is ascribed to them; they are conceived as sharing the same undisputed views, animated with but one train of interests, and enjoying a happiness constantly maintained at the same level, tranquil and unexcited. And when reminded that a state so passionless can have little attraction, that the eternal lull would at last become torture, and that

"Quiet to quick bosoms is a hell;"

the reply is, that we shall then, by a mysterious change, be able to relish that which, to our present views, would be cloying and insipid. But how a physical change,—for death is no more, can produce a violent and total alteration of all our moral ideas, and even of our conceptions of happiness, is more than we can understand (111). We conceive that among the main topics of interest in the next world will be controversies, ethical and political, and the solution of moral complications (218). We conceive that moral questions will arise in that other world much as they do in this, and that the mysteries of the divine government will not altogether disappear (217). We conceive that every sentiment of every kind which we can experience here, is but the germ of a fuller fruition of the same hereafter (262). Angels are pictured as engaged in acts of unceasing adoration; but this is a shallow notion-a pure gratuitous fancy. If their faculties resemble ours, such a condition of immortality we may pronounce to be impossible. To entertain it we must unlearn all our ideas; we must say that the excellence of the other world and of this, present reversed ideas. We must say that the love and charity of the celestial are quite different qualities N S. NO. 28.-VOL. 3.

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from those of this sublunary sphere (236). Is the fervent soul of Paul, who confronted such perils below, to be employed above in naught but hymns and exstacies, and remembrances of past victories? Would not the spirit of Howard, who had quenched every desire of ignoble ease, and lived but to prosecute his glorious labours, turn away with disdain from such an eternity? (239). The maxim of the generality is, that to form a heaven you must reverse every idea of earth. Hence sex disappears; hence the denizens are clothed in intellectual and moral perfection. A most baseless imagination, unfounded in reason, unproved by experience, and totally opposed by Scripture; for that plainly testifies that there is none good, save one, that is God;" "he charges his angels with folly, and the stars are not pure in his sight." We shall then be in a growing state, morally and intellectually. Our understandings will be finite; and finiteness implies imperfection. Our sources of interest and enjoyment will be as distinct and manifold as they are now. Diversity of views and policy will exist (250). It would be unwise to deem that a field will ever be wanting in futurity for the display of those high qualities, to gain which we are here involved in so much trouble, and undergo so arduous a discipline (239). It is a poor conception of Davy, that the acquiring of knowledge is the ultimate delight of eternity. It is as unnatural as to say that reason is man's highest power. The truth is, that that faculty is merely instrumental, and is no more than a servant of the soul (261). It is distinctly asserted in Scripture, that the Almighty has committed to angelic ministers the administration of the affairs of this lower world; that they are the "eyes" of his providence, and bear his commission. asserts that provinces are assigned to them. Even the law, as Stephen reminded his hearers, was received by the "disposition of angels." And the apostle would have us take heed how we behave ourselves in the house of God, for we are in their sacred presence. It is a glorious illustration, too, of that high doctrine of the "communion of saints," so prized by every sympathetic heart, and connects us, in glowing thought, with "angels and archangels, and all the host of heaven." (255). We have seen that the occupations pursued above are as diversified as those pursued below. Offices of care and tenderness, of comfort and soothing, have the best source of their discharge in that unfailing pity which dwells in womanhood (263). Our Saviour says, speaking of children, "their angels do always behold the face of your Father which is in heaven." Here is a duty which they are said to discharge, of the very sweetest and most engaging description, namely, to guard the slumbers of infancy (152).

(To be continued.)

Moreover, it

LONDON MISSIONARY AND TRACT SOCIETY.

OXFORD.-In our last (p. 111), we stated in respect to the interesting mission to Oxford, that the committee of the London Missionary Society had engaged the Rev. J. H. Smithson to give a course of six lectures on the leading doctrines of the New Christian Church in this celebrated city. As the minds of

many are now so much unsettled, even in the very centre of orthodoxy itself, respecting many important points of doctrine, especially the doctrine of faith, and its relation to good works, or to a truly Christian life, it has been thought by many, that this may be the proper opportunity for introducing the doctrines

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