i. e. in the same length of time from the present, as the time that has elapsed since Peter preached his first sermon. (A.D. 33. Acts, chap. 2nd.) But it is not a subject which is to be estimated by numerical strength. It is not a question of physical force. "We wrestle not against flesh and blood." Let hostile armies calculate their numbers, in which consists their power. There, we should probably find in the maximum of numbers, the minimum of intellect. So, in the religious world, with its numerous sects, its multifarious divisions and subdivisions; its pecuniary and other adventitious aids which it has at command, to swell its numbers, and present a formidable exterior; yet, "one thing is needful:" one thing is lacking:-and they have yet "to learn what that meaneth." "One man of you shall chase a thousand; and a thousand shall put ten thousand to flight." Their numbers by no means prove that the truth, and nothing but the truth untarnished, exists among them, but rather the reverse (for under what dispensation has it been otherwise at its end?). Divine truth is, intrinsically, one and the same, in all ages:-its outer garments men may divide among them, but its vesture ever remains whole. That which has been said of the Church of England, will, with greater propriety apply to the New Church, viz. "It is holy in doctrine, and true by descent." "I saw (says the apostle John) the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven." Thus the doctrines of the New Jerusalem must be holy, true, and heavenly in their origin, or "descent." Its doctrines are not therefore less true, because the church is new. For we read not only of a New Church, but of a 66 new heaven; and "heavens;" and a new song ;" and, "Behold, I make all things new." 66 New indeed is the song, relatively so, in which those of the new heaven composed of christians, join; for it could not be sung by such of the former Christian Church as were confirmed in the false notions of a solifidian and tri-personal faith, and who had so completely closed the rational and spiritual faculties of the mind, that they could not see, and would not "learn." Nevertheless, this is a faith which is embraced and adopted, with servile acquiescence, by the multitude. Nor is there any thing very startling in the idea of a plurality of heavens. Solomon, in dedicating the temple, speaks of "heaven, and the heaven of heavens." Paul informs us that he was 66 caught up into the third heaven." And our enlightened author treats of the celestial, the spiritual, and the spiritual-natural heaven, distinct from each other * Dr. Hook on the Athanasian Creed. + Rev. chap. 5, ver. 9; chap. 14, ver. 3; chap. 15, ver. 3. N. S. No. 34.-VOL. 3 3 D by discrete degrees, yet conjoined and forming one, by immediate influx from the Lord, and mediate influx from one heaven into another. Yea, and two christian heavens are treated of, as distinct from each other in their nature, as are the doctrines of the New Church from the Old. Nor did these exist at one and the same time, yet both were formed after the ancient heavens, or heavens of the ancient and most ancient churches.* The former christian heavens, by the abuse of correspondences and mere phantasies, were (like their doctrines) self-fabricated, and hence called "imaginary heavens," formed in the world of spirits by those of the first Christian Church, who are called Dragonists, or dragonistic spirits. But those heavens were totally dispersed; and afterwards, the New christian heaven, or heaven of Christians, was formed by the Lord, composed principally of infants who had died since the Lord's first advent, out of every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people; also, of such Christians and Gentiles, as had in this world repented of their sins, and who lived a life of faith and charity, which is spiritual love. They were "redeemed from among men." Incalculable numbers from the first Christian church,-a church which retained its name after its glory had departed, and charity, or spiritual love, which should be an essential principle, and doctrine of the church, had expired. As to externals, they were identified with the general mass;-as to internals, they had" come out from among them, and were separate." The scrutinizing eye of Omniscience saw the precise state, the intrinsic quality of their minds. They were such as are in a state to realize here, and in more complete fruition hereafter, the divine declaration, "I will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord God Almighty." They acknowledge the Lord as the Redeemer and only God, and that his humanity is divine. And this acknowledgment, issuing from the supreme affection of love to him above all things, is consequently accompanied with heavenly delight from him, and holy joy of heart. This unfeigned, this heartfelt acknowledgment of the Lord, must henceforth be made by all, whether of the New Church, or of the Old, who, after death, enter the "new christian heaven," or supernal Jerusalem, "which is free, and is the mother of us all." And here we are met with the charge of bigotry; as if we meant to arrogate to ourselves something like infallibility, and set up the untenable position, that it is "These are the superior, or highest expanses; the new heaven forms the expanse below." E. S. [Whenever passages are adduced from Swedenborg, we beg that our correspondents will always state the work and the number where they may be found.-EDITOR.] and absolutely necessary to enter the list of some New Church society, become at least a nominal member of the church, in order that our salvation may be secured. Not so. We have seen its fallacy. For, as the good of every country and clime, of every complexion, of every grade in life, and of every religion, will, after death, be willingly divested of errors and false notions, because not grounded in evil, but in ignorance; and thus, after receiving instruction in heavenly truths, and these united with their kindred good, be prepared for the abodes of the blessed, in the new Christian heaven: so, on the other hand, those who profess to be New Church Christians, merely because they know its doctrines, and who do belong to it externally; who, from a zeal excited by the mere natural principles of the mind, extol to the skies the doctrine of charity, yet seek every clandestine means to injure their neighbour; who acknowledge the Lord as the only God of heaven and earth, yet," in works deny him;" these, being in the faith of the church only, faith alone, and departing this life in an unrepentant state, we have the authority of scripture to say, "It were better for them if they had not known the way of righteousness;" for verily, the untaught gentile who is in simple good, "will go into the kingdom of God before them." Doctrine alone, however true, without love to the Lord, and love to the neighbour, can avail them nothing in the end. In the words of " An Old Member," it is evident "There can be no true church, nor any real heaven, except in those in whom these loves are predominant." This is also in perfect accordance with the words of our author: "The church, as well as heaven, exists in man; and thus the church in general consists of men in whom it exists.”—A. C. 3884. Thus, as the New Church is not a sect, it is unsectarian in its doctrine. Its doctrines are impartial in their character and tendency. The expansive principle of charity is inculcated as an essential doctrine, which is to be united with a true faith, even the faith of God. Its doctrines resemble their divine source; for "God is no respecter of persons; but in every nation, he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted of him." That God is the Lord; and the Lord Jesus Christ is the only God. "Happy is that people whose God is the Lord." Dalton, near Huddersfield, July 15, 1842. J. C. * See the excellent article, Int. Rep. p. 256, in which the writer has been more explicit on many points than in his former communication. PREVALENT RELIGIOUS OPINIONS MARKED BY In our controversy with members of the Christian sects, we have had it objected frequently, that there cannot possibly be any hidden sense in the Scriptures, because they clearly testify themselves to their own extreme plainness; and then, commonly, certain passages are quoted (being as quoted in one case, a perversion, and in the other an admitted mistranslation) as follows;-"He that runs may read:" and, "The way-faring man, though a fool, shall not err therein." But in the Methodist Magazine for last July, the Rev. R. Treffry gives a very different account of the matter; showing, unfortunately, that Methodists are ready to assert either the perfect plainness, or the deep mysteriousness of the Scriptures, according as it may happen to suit a controversial purpose. Mr. Treffry says; As the objects of this world can be discerned only by those senses which are adapted to their nature, so also the invisible realities of the spiritual world, and the mysteries of the kingdom of God, can be discovered only by spiritual persons, who have their senses exercised to discern good and evil. Hence, to a natural man, the Bible is a profoundly mysterious book. It is an ocean that he cannot sound, a deep that he cannot fathom, a temple, into the courts of which he cannot enter. Very well. There is some truth in this statement. The great principle is admitted, that he that doeth truth cometh to the light; while the love of darkness rather than light necessarily follows from the love of evil, and is a necessary contingent quality in those whose deeds are evil. "He that followeth me, said the 'True Light,' shall have the light of life." "If our Gospel be hid, it is hid from those who are lost, whose eyes the god of this world hath blinded." The sermon from which the above quotation is made is concerning "The Nature and Agency of Evil Spirits," and from a quotation next to be made, it will be seen how completely Mr. Treffry reverses his principle when describing the character of evil spirits, thus imputing by implication, to the Unchangable and the All-just, fickleness and partiality in his dealings with his creatures. Evil spirits possess great malevolence, or malignity of disposition. They are so completely lost to virtue, that benevolence or good will to men, is a principle totally alien to their nature. The dispositions of infernal spirits are thoroughly impregnated with malice; they are devoid of all that is good, and filled with all that is evil. But although in man, "faults in the life breed errors in the brain;" although the connection of the heart with the head is such with intellectual man, that moral evil always generates darkness in spiritual things, it is not so with intellectual spirits, it appears, but just the reverse, for Mr. Treffry tells us, that The knowledge possessed by evil spirits of the power, and justice, and majesty of God must be vastly superior to any thing of which we ["we"-that is the whole human race including, of course, the excellent of "the excellent of the earth" amongst the methodists-which we] can form any adequate conception; and their acquaintance with the immensity and variety of God's works must infinitely exceed the narrow and contracted conceptions which WE are accustomed to form. They cannot fail to know with the most exact precision, good from evil, vice from virtue, and sin from holiness [and which includes, in fact, all spiritual knowledge]. Thus it appears from this great authority with the hundreds of thousands of Wesleyans, that 1st, Natural men BECAUSE they are not holy are ignorant of spiritual things, and therefore they cannot discern between good and evil, but "call evil good, and good evil;" for "only spiritual persons have their senses exercised to discern good and evil:" and, 2ndly, Evil spirits, although vastly more wicked than natural men, and therefore more emphatically merely natural in their quality, have not their understanding so darkened thereby, but are still "spiritual (that is spiritually-minded) persons, who have their senses exercised to discern between good and evil," and "cannot fail to know them with the most exact precision!" Possibly some one might say, "devils must have a right understanding of divine truth, because the apostle says, 'the devils also believe, and tremble.'" But the apostle does not say that all they believe is pure truth! Nothing, indeed, is so calculated to make such selfish beings "tremble" as their false views of the Divine Being, generated naturally by their own sad experience. They feel the torment of their own confirmed evils, and in their darkness of mind they impute it to God, as if he were its active cause as their punisher; and having already concluded that God is "altogether such a one as themselves," and knowing that they would eagerly torment any one who should oppose them, they further conclude, that because they have opposed the divine laws, God is wreaking his vengeance upon them, although he might have mercy upon them, if he would. Well may they tremble" while they "believe" such things of the God who is LOVE! And possibly, if Wesleyans believed concerning God doctrines more genuinely true, they would not "tremble" so much before Him at their prayer-meetings. Possibly all this trembling may be owing to their having in their false estimate of the divine character, "called evil good, and good evil," by withholding the good attributes from the divine character which truly belong to it, and attributing evil ones which do not! A LOOKER-ON. 66 |