of losing reputation, incurring punishment or injury, or in the hope of securing any selfish object; all justice, in short, that originates not with religious, but with worldly considerations, inasmuch as its origin is from the world, in the world only can its reward be received. It has no respect to God, and his will, and, consequently, is wholly unconnected with heaven and eternal life. But although it is a regard to God's will which gives a saving quality to the practice of righteousness; it is the regard which is had to the promised recompense of reward which distinguishes the end in view, and fixes the quality of the ruling motive, as being religious in an external, or else, in an internal degree. The nature of the end which an Israelite was permitted to have in view, in rendering his obedience to Jehovah, is pointed out in our text, inasmuch as his regard to that end is appealed to, in order to induce his compliance with the command at the same time conveyed: "That which is altogether just thou shalt follow, that thou mayest live, and inherit the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." Jehovah knew the character of the people whom he had selected as the depository of his Word. He knew that they were natural and sensual men, whose affections were wholly fixed upon the present life, and the enjoyments which spring from worldly wealth and power. As to die, was to them the annihilation of hope, so to live a long life, was necessarily regarded as a special mark of divine favour. Immortality, though pointed to in a shadowy way in the Old Testament, remained to be brought to light by the Gospel. In proof of this, it is only necessary to contrast the mourning and weeping of good King Hezekiah, in the view of his dissolution, with the delightful anticipation of the Apostle when he exclaims, "to die is gain," "to be absent from the body, is to be present with the Lord!" Such being the strong love of life existing with the Israelites, it pleased Jehovah to appeal to their self-love, by threatening them with death if they disobeyed his laws, and promising them a long life in the good land of Canaan, in the event of their obedience. It is plain, then, that the end which the Israelites had in view, in rendering obedience, was an external and natural one, because it had regard only to what is outward and worldly; the object alone desired, as the result of obedience, being a long and pleasant life in the natural world. This low motive, although connected with God by a religious reference to his will, had nothing in it of a truly spiritual quality; for spiritual affection is a love of goodness and truth for their own sake, and not for the sake of external reward. Now if

it be possible to follow that which is "altogether just”; that is, to act agreeably to the divine laws, at all times, and under all circumstances; if it be possible to do this from the low motive presented under the law, is it not at least as possible to do so under the stronger inducements, and nobler sanctions, of the Gospel? In laying upon his disciples that precept which pre-eminently distinguishes the Gospel above the Law, the Lord himself held forth, as the proper inducement to its observance, the reward of becoming the children of their Father in heaven. "Love your enemies, (said he), bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you,—that ye may be the children of your Father which is heaven" (Matt. v. 45). This, then, ought to be the actuating motive of the Christian disciple ;-a desire to be the child of God by regeneration, and thus to bear the image and likeness of his heavenly Father!

And this motive will be found exactly to coincide with the inducement to obedience presented in our text, when interpreted according to its spiritual sense, and in reference to those who "serve in the newness of the spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter" (Rom. vii. 6). The Israelite obeyed in order that he might live a natural life in the good land of Canaan, flowing with milk and honey; but the Christian is to obey in order that he may live a truly spiritual life, in that spiritual land within him, which has been purified from the idolatries of self-love and the love of the world, and devoted to the worship of his God and Saviour, by faith and love. It is not in the world without him that he seeks his happiness, but he seeks it by communion and conjunction with the Lord, in his own purified will and understanding. The "milk and honey" which have an attraction for him, are the sweet and pure delights of truth grounded in goodness, and of faith made alive by charity. It is from "the milk of the Word" that he delights to draw spiritual nourishment; it is from the divine precepts and judgments, incorporated into his spiritual constitution by a life according to them, that he is enabled to derive such a pure pleasure and satisfying peace as to lead him to exclaim with David, “How sweet are thy words to my taste; yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth."

From the preceding observations then, it clearly appears, that the Israelite had only an external motive to the practice of what is just, while the Christian has, or should have, an internal motive; inasmuch as the former motive had regard

only to the perfection of bodily life and its satisfactions; while the latter has regard to the perfection of spiritual life and its satisfactions; thus it also appears, that the Israelite obtained his reward of outward gratification as the consequence of his regulating his outward practice by the divine commandments, but that a Christian cannot enter into his proper delights until the selfish propensities are not only regulated in practice, but interiorly removed from being ruling, or actuating motives, so that the heavenly affections of charity may be established in their place. It should be the ground of a Christian's rejoicing, that he may be justified by his Almighty Saviour, through the operation of his Holy Spirit, from all things from which the Israelite could not be justified by the law of Moses (Acts xiii. 39). The glad tidings which resound in the delighted ears of the sincere Christian are these, that "the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” that the spiritual kingdom of God, which is "righteousness, peaceableness, and joy in the Holy Spirit," may now be set up, and firmly established within him, and all his inferior appetites and gratifications be brought into subjection, and cheerful obedience, to the "grace and truth" which "came by Jesus Christ." The salvation which he desires and pursues, is not one from natural enemies, or from natural death, but from his sins, his spiritual enemies, which, if not overcome, are able to inflict spiritual death! To live to self, to be ruled by self-love, in his view, is death; but to live to the Lord, to be ruled by charity,—this he knows by experience is life indeed, for it is his blessed privilege to live under the delightful influence of Divine Love Itself, the Very Essential Life, and the only Spring of all heavenly good and blessedness! His motive to obey, then, is no other than this, that he may spiritually live in the light of the divine countenance; that all his thoughts and actions may be made alive by the life of heavenly love and charity; that he may live this life for a time in the church below, the "good land flowing with milk and honey,"-until he is fully meetened by his Saviour to live a corresponding but more pure and perfect life of love in heaven, and to be for ever engaged in ineffable activities, accompanied with delight and blessedness everlasting!

It is next to be observed, that as, with the Israelite, the motive to practise justice was of an external kind, so was also his idea of its demands or requirements; and as the motive to justice, with a Christian, is of an internal kind, so also will be his idea of its nature,

135 and of its claims. The former idea is from the letter of the Old Testament, but the latter idea is from the New Testament, which, when rightly interpreted, gives a new spirit to the interpretation of the Old; and this is pre-eminently the case with those who, through the doctrines of the New Church, have become acquainted with the spiritual sense of the Word as the angels of heaven perceive it; and which is now made known in order that angels may be united with men in the perception of what is true, and in the affection of what is good.

The idea of external justice allows a man to regard his inward and outward possessions,-the talents and acquisitions of his mind, together with his worldly wealth and influence, as his own, and as being entirely at his own disposal. It only lays upon him the restriction, that he shall abstain from every act which involves a trespass upon the rights, the possessions, and the well-being of others. Such was the full extent of the Israelitish idea of justice; and such is the idea which is entertained by that class of Christians who as yet obey from the fear of future woe, and the hope of future bliss, rather than from the movement of any love which they bear to what is good purely for its own sake. These are the external members of the church; and happy would it be for the Christian world if it contained a larger number. It is of such characters that it might be said, as was said by the Lord of Nathanael, that they are "Israelites indeed, and in whom is no guile!" And let no one imagine, that it is possible for him to act upon that purer idea of internal justice, which we have yet to develope, while, in any particular, he falls short of the character of being "altogether just," according to the proper idea of external justice. No one can enter into the higher class of internal men, until he has become a proficient in the discharge of the duties which distinguish the sincere, but, as yet, external members of the church. The obligations which a man owes to others in their several relations to him, must be scrupulously regarded, and punctually discharged. The duties of domestic life, the obligations of parents to their children, and of children to each other; the duties of civil life, according to a person's worldly calling; the duties of a good subject and citizen; the duties of a member of the church in relation to his fellow-members individually and collectively; in short, all the external religious, moral, and civil duties, must be habitually regarded in practice, before it is possible for a man to be even a good member of the church in an external degree. Whoever knowingly infringes the laws of justice, by doing unto

others as he would not desire others to do unto him; whoever habitually suffers his children to do what he knows to be wrong without endeavouring to correct them; whoever deliberately deprives his neighbour of his good name without just cause or necessity; whoever knowingly lives beyond his income, or is careless about discharging his just debts; whoever irreverently neglects those religious duties to which, as a member of the church, he has pledged himself to attend; in short, whoever neglects any known duties, so that by such neglect he wilfully infringes the rights of others and inflicts injury upon them, has no title to number himself with any class of sincere Christian worshipers, or to regard himself as being, even in an external degree, a member of the Lord's true and invisible church. For what title can such a person possibly have to this distinction, seeing that he does not follow "that which is altogether just," even according to the low Israelitish standard?

The internal idea of justice is distinguished from the external in this respect, that while the external idea looks outward to the relation between man and man, the internal idea looks inward to the relation between the Lord and man. When the internal motive is predominant, the external idea is exalted and purified by means of the internal, in consequence of such a further removal of man's selfhood having been effected as prepares for that conviction and acknowledgment which forms the basis of internal justice,-a conviction and acknowledgment that nothing of inward ability or outward wealth, that nothing of either mental or bodily power, is a man's own, but is the Lord's with man; or is intrusted to him as a steward, to be applied agreeably to the instructions for its administration which he has received from his Lord. It will thus be seen, that the acquisition of a motive and idea of internal justice in no way invalidates the previously existing external idea and obligation, but only sanctifies and exalts it, by the removal of the fallacious persuasion, grounded in mere appearances, and which originates in the blindness of yet unremoved self-love ;-a persuasion that what a man possesses is really, absolutely, and unreservedly, his own. In consequence, also of this further removal of the selfhood, the conscience acquires an increased delicacy of perception, and tenderness in practice, in regard to all the common concerns which are to be regulated by a sense of justice, between man and man.

Not only does the internal idea of justice, or, what is the same, the idea of internal justice, confess that all things, of every kind,