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with him in body also! but gross matter forbids; we are ill, or feeble, or have heavy earthly cares to attend to the necessity, perhaps, of supplying food and clothing for our own and others' material bodies, constrains us to remain at home and labor. Matter, too, grows old, and is subject to decay. With age, the joints become stiff and the bones brittle, the hair loses its gloss and turns grey, the skin wrinkles, and the eyes become bleared and purblind, and the whole frame totters. These imperfections are inherent in the very nature of matter: they are not, as is mistakenly supposed, the mere result of the fall, and the punishment of sin. Sin, no doubt, by disordering the material frame, greatly hastens the decay, and induces painful disease; but, with or without sin, man would have grown old, and his material frame must have decayed, and come, at length, to its dissolution. It is a necessary consequence of the comparatively gross and inferior qualities of matter, that it is comparatively but a defective instrument, and becomes, at length, an unfit tenement for the spirit.

This, then, is the reason why man was not intended to live in this natural world for ever, but has a higher and far more perfect place and state assigned him for his eternal abode, namely, the spiritual world, heaven. There, none of these defects exist; there, none of these disturbing conditions are found. Spirit does not grow old; spirit is not limited by laws of time and space. There, those who love each other can be always together; and there, from the superior nature and constitution of a spiritual state of being, enjoyments and delights can be given, indefinitely beyond what are possible in this life.

The truth of this view will be seen by contemplating some of the laws, appearances, and scenes of that world, as made known by the doctrines of the New Church. It is a blessed thing that we are now no longer left to conjecture on this great subject, but have the certainty afforded by revelation. Innumerable books have been written on the probable nature of the spiritual world, and of the state of existence after death; but what are they worth? Anything less than certainty on a subject so dear to the longing spirit, is valueless: all man's speculations on such a subject go for nothing. We want revelation: we want certain knowledge. And now it has come; the want is answered. In the goodness of the Lord,-and as soon, no doubt, as the world was able to receive such a revelation,-it has been made. A human instrument has been raised up to be the medium for conveying this knowledge: a messenger has been sent with the glad tidings. For ages, good men have longed and prayed for such a revelation. But now that it has come, how has it been received by the great mass of the Christian

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world? With cries of "a visionary," "a madman," directed against the revealer,―with unbelief and ridicule in regard to the truths revealed. But what did they want? what did they expect? Did they expect that the scenes of the spiritual world could be beheld without a vision—that is, without a supernatural opening of the spiritual sight? Or did they expect to see an angel fly down from the sky with a book in his hand, which should contain a description of that world?

The revelation has been made in the way, and in the only way, in which it was possible for a revelation to be made of the state and nature of the spiritual world, so as to be satisfactory to the reason and judgment of mankind. A book written in angelic language, which no one could understand how would that have been satisfactory? Nor would a solemn and enunciatory series of declarations, in the style of the Prophets or the Apocalypse, be the thing desired. What was wanted, was a full and minute account and description of the laws and scenes of the spiritual world, given in familiar, human language, accompanied with rational statements and detailed explanations. Now such a work could be produced by no other than a man like ourselves; one who, while still living in the body, and writing in an intelligible earthly tongue, was yet superior to us, or to most of us, in the intellect and grasp, and the power to describe, the laws and appearances of that higher state, and, still more, in the spirituality of character which should fit him for being thus made a medium of a revelation from God to man, a medium of communication between heaven and the world.

Such a man-such a medium-was EMANUEL SWEDENBORG. If we are asked how we know that Swedenborg was really chosen by the Divine Being to be such a messenger of new truths to men, we answer— We believe it not from his own statements alone, but from the testimony of our own reason and Scripture combined. What he has revealed and declared, carries its own proof with it: truth is its own witness, as light is seen by its own brightness. Moreover, the Divine Word itself gives ample corroboration and confirmation of the truths he has made known, as his writings again furnish clear and lucid expositions of that Word. The description Swedenborg gives of the scenes of the spiritual world, are always combined with statements of the laws and principles in which those appearances have their origin; thus vision and reason, appearance and principle, everywhere support and corroborate each other. The Lord, while in the world, said to His disciples-"I have many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now;"* plainly intimating that the time would come when men would be able to bear those things, * John xvi. 12.

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and that then they would be revealed. That time, we believe, has now arrived: the Second Coming of the Lord is now taking place in the opening of the Spiritual Sense of His Word; and with it have been revealed the laws and scenes of the spiritual state of existence, in a manner to satisfy and delight the intelligent and spiritual mind. "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear."

In a brief Essay like the present, we can of course give but a slight sketch of the laws and appearances of the spiritual world, but it will serve as an introduction to the full and satisfactory explanations contained in Swedenborg's own writings.

The first question that will be asked is-Where is the spiritual world? and this we shall answer in our author's own language:

"Many," says he, "have fixed the babitations of angels and spirits in the ether, and some in the stars, consequently within the bounds of nature, and not above or out of it: when yet, angels and spirits are altogether above or out of nature, and in their own world, which is under another sun; and as in that world spaces are only appearances, therefore it cannot be said that angels and spirits are in the ether, or in the stars, but they are with man, conjoined to the affection and thought of his spirit. For man is in essence a spirit, and it is by that he thinks and wills; thus the spiritual world is where man is, and not at all removed from him."*

It is a difficult thing, certainly, to understand how the spiritual world can be a real, substantial world, full of people and things, and yet not be in space; nor is it surprising that this should be difficult, since all our ideas, while we are in this world, partake of what is natural, and nature is bounded by space and time. Still, a just statement of the case, combined with a little reflection, will enable us to have some comprehension of this seeming mystery.

It is to be observed that Swedenborg distinctly states that, though not in actual space, yet the spiritual world has all the appearance of space, precisely like that of this world; otherwise, says he, the angels would not be distinguished one from another, neither could they have habitations, nor could there be any scenery around them.

"The common opinion,” he says, “concerning the state of souls after death, and thence also of angels and spirits, is, that they are not in any extense, and thence not in space and time; according to which idea, it is said of souls after death, that they are in an undetermined somewhere, and that spirits and angels are airy beings, of which no other idea is entertained than as of ether, air, vapor, or wind; when, yet, they are substantial men, and live together like men of the natural world, upon spaces and in times, which, however, are determined according to the states of their minds. If it were not so, that is, if there were no spaces

Divine Love and Wisdom, n. 92.

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and times, then that whole world, where souls are gathered after death, might be drawn through the eye of a needle, or collected upon the point of a single hair. This would be possible, if there were no substantial extense there; but since there is such, therefore angels dwell as separately and distinctly from each other, yea, more distinctly, than men who are on a material expanse. But (he adds) in the spiritual world there are not material spaces and times, yet there is an appearance of them, which appearance varies according to the states in which the minds of spirits and angels are. In the natural world there are times and spaces, but in the spiritual world there are not such actually, but still there are such apparently. Times in the natural world are produced by the rotation of the earth upon its axis, and by its revolution round the sun. Thence are the times of the day, which are morning, noon, evening, and night; and also the times of the year, which are spring, summer, autumn, and winter. But, in the spiritual world, times are not distinguished into days, weeks, months, and years, because there the sun does not rise and set, nor is there any revolving of that world around the sun. So, again, spaces were produced in the natural world by the earth's being formed into a globe, and filled with various kinds of matter, the parts of which are distinguished from each other and at the same time extended. But in the spiritual world, though there is all the appearance of space and extent, precisely as in the natural world, yet spaces there are not fixed and permanent, but vary and change with the states of the inhabitants."*

Thus, then, the spiritual world is a real and substantial world, in all appearance like this, though far more beautiful. If it be asked, then, Where is it? I answer-It is to be thought of rather as within this world, than as far away in space above it; it is within this world somewhat as the soul is within the body; and its presence gives life to everything in the natural world, as the presence of the soul gives life to the body. From that source is all the life, not only in the animal, but in the vegetable kingdom. You behold a tree, shooting forth buds in the time of Spring: think rather of the spiritual tree within, which is pushing forth those buds--for nature itself is dead, and has no power to produce buds or anything else; it is the spiritual world within that does it. The spiritual world is to be thought of as a present interior sphere, full of life and activity, and pressing powerfully upon the outward material sphere, as the soul moves and actuates the body. Could your spiritual sight be opened,-as Swedenborg's was opened-and Paul's-and John the Revelator's,-you would at once behold, without moving from where you stand, vast scenes spread out before you; an extended and inhabited country, with cities, and hills, and plains—a world within a world. You would no longer ask where the spiritual world is, nor think any more of its being beyond the stars; you would see and feel it to be a present world, and a living power all around and within you, and influencing your every thought and act. This is ever and everywhere the teaching

* Universal Theology, n. 29.

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of Scripture, and Swedenborg's explanations only make it more intelligible. "Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, Lo there! for the kingdom of God is within you." * John says merely that he was "in the spirit on the Lord's day,"-in the isle of Patmos,-and suddenly he beheld the wonderful sights and scenes which he proceeds to describe. He had not to go up or down, or move from where his body was, to see them. As soon as he was in the spirit, he beheld them. It is true, indeed, that Paul speaks of himself as having been "caught up" to the third heaven, and to Paradise; † but up here has no reference to ascension in space, or among the stars, but to elevation of spirit, by which he was enabled to hear the "unutterable things" of heaven. In the spiritual world, as Swedenborg shows, heaven does indeed appear as above, and hell as beneath; but space, there, being only an appearance caused by difference of state, the heavens appear above, because they are elevated in goodness and truth, and the hells appear beneath, because they are sunk in evil and falsity.

London.

O. P. H.

(To be continued.)

DR. COLENSO AND THE NEGATIVE RATIONALISTS. An Address by the Rev. J. H. SMITHSON, President of the Manchester Printing Society of the New Church, delivered at its Annual Meeting, July 3rd, 1863.

BELOVED BRETHREN,

The state of things, since our last annual Address, in respect to the Theological world, has become more and more confused, and must be extremely distressing to all who have any faith in the Divine Word. The publications of Dr. Colenso in respect to the five books of Moses, in which he casts a dark cloud of unbelief over many of the divine statements in those books, ever held as most sacred by the Jewish and Christian churches, have caused many thoughtful minds to examine the grounds of their belief in the divinity of the Word. These objections to many of the literal statements of the Word, in which it is endeavoured to disprove the Truth and Authenticity of the Pentateuch, have caused, and are still causing, much agitation in the Church at large. But instead of allowing these commotions to cause the members of the New Church any dismay, or to weaken their faith in God's Word, we have had every reason to conclude that, sooner or later, this kind of "offences must needs come" to awaken up the rational energies and

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