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THE Lord's kingdom is a kingdom of uses. Every thing there regards use, and there are uses in all variety and diversity.

One great use is that of disseminating truth. All may be more or less useful in this way, but it is well to have a ministry specially devoted to the use of preaching. The fact that a use can thus be performed, is a sufficient sanction for a ministry.

We desire to offer some remarks with a view to shew more especially the proper position, uses, and duties of ministers, and accompany the remarks with some reference to other matters arising out of this subject. They are suggested by the perusal of two papers in the last March and May numbers of the Repository, respecting pastoral duties in the New Church.

We will first refer to the way in which man is taught and led, and to the nature of spiritual rule, honour, and greatness.

Observe, then, that man is to be " taught and led immediately from the Lord alone." The Lord saith, "They shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know ye the Lord; for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest." (Jer. xxxi. 34.) Again, "Be not ye called Rabbi;" "neither be ye called teachers; for one is your Teacher, even Christ, and all ye are brethren." (Matt. xxiii. 8, 10.) And in the D. P. we read, of

man:

N. S. NO. 164.-VOL. XIV.

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"In truth, he is led and taught from the Lord only." (154.) "The reason is because he lives from the Lord only, for the will of his life is led, and the understanding of his life is taught." (156.) "He is led of the Lord by influx, and taught by illustration." (165.) "Man is led and taught from the Lord alone, by the angelic heaven and out of it. It is said that man is led and taught from the Lord by the angelic heaven and out of it; but that it is by the angelic heaven, is from appearance, whereas, that it is out of it is from the truth. The reason why there is an appearance that it is by the angelic heaven is, because the Lord appears above that heaven as the sun; the reason why it is the truth that it is out of that heaven is, because the Lord is in that heaven as the soul in a man, for he is omnipresent." "He is in like manner in every society of heaven, and in like manner in every angel there." "From such appearance, also, the angels of the inferior heavens think; but the angels of the superior heavens do indeed speak from appearance, but they think from the truth, which is, that the Lord ruleth the universe out of the angelic heaven, which is out of himself." (162.) "Man is taught from the Lord by the Word, by doctrine and preachings from it, and thus immediately from him alone. It is said and shewn above, that man is led and taught of the Lord alone, and this out of heaven, and not by heaven, or by any angel there; and because he is led of the Lord alone, it follows that he is led immediately, not mediately." (171.) "To be taught out of the Word is to be taught from the Lord himself, because it is to be taught out of good itself and out of truth itself, or out of love itself and out of wisdom itself, which are the Word." “This being effected mediately by preachings, does not take away the immediate teaching. The Word cannot otherwise be taught than mediately by parents, masters, preachers, books, and especially by reading it, but still it is not taught from them, but by them of the Lord." (172.)

Man is thus to be led and taught from the Lord as of himself. He is to act from his will and his understanding; from liberty, according to reason. He is not in spiritual things to act from others. 66 Every one should first acquire truth to himself from the doctrine of the church, and afterwards from the Word of the Lord, and this truth must be the object of his faith." (A. C. 6822.) "Nothing is appropriated but what man sees from himself, not from another, to be so." (4. C. 5376.) That it is disorderly for any one to think of himself presiding over and leading others, may be seen from what is said of a certain angelic choir. Although they were many, still they all thought and spake as one, and this because none was desirous to act at all from himself, still less to preside over the rest, and lead the choir, for whoever does this is of himself dissociated instantly; but they suffered themselves to be led mutually by each other, thus all in singular, and in general, by the Lord." (A. C. 3350.) Of infants, preparing for heaven, the same author saith, after describing a mode of trying them," I have been instructed that such is the temptation of infants,

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in order to accustom and inaugurate them, not only in resisting what is false and evil, but also to teach them that they should not think, speak, and act from another, consequently that they should not suffer themselves to be led from any other than the Lord alone." (H. and H. 343.)

There is a passage in John which shews us by a pleasing image how man is to be taught, as of himself, out of the Word, from the Lord alone. It is in the parable of the good Shepherd. The Lord saith,"When he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but will flee from him, for they know not the voice of strangers." (x. 4, 5.) In that eastern country, sheep were trained to know and obey only the voice of their own shepherd, or the sound of his pipe, that he might call them when out of view. Not one would attend to a stranger's voice. How strikingly does this instruct us, that in all preaching and teaching men are to use discrimination, and discern the Lord's own voice, or truth from his Word, and be led by that alone!

With respect to spiritual rule, honor, and greatness, it is not in the Lord's kingdom and church as it is with the men of this world. The Lord saith," Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant." (Matt. xx. 25-27.) Swedenborg says,— "In the heavens there is no other government than the government of mutual love, and the government of mutual love is heavenly government." (H. and H. 213.) To govern and to serve may, in the spiritual idea, be regarded as convertible terms. "The governors in heaven are principled in love and wisdom more than others." They do not domineer and rule, but minister and serve, for to do good to others, from the love of good, is to serve, and to provide so that it may have effect is to minister: neither do they make themselves greater than others, but less." (H. and H. 218.)

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We read in H. D. 314, that "Prefects (præfecti, commonly translated "governors") over those things with men which are of heaven, or over things ecclesiastic, are called priests." But he would not here say that priests are to be "Lords over God's heritage," nor be as "princes of the Gentiles, exercising dominion and authority;" nor would he contravene at all the sense of the command, "Whosoever would be chief among you, let him be your servant." He shews what it is to rule in heaven and the church, namely, that it is the same as to

serve; for what is all rule in itself but acting with men in such wise as shall induce them to do what we wish or require that they should do? Those in good and truth will do it in one way, and those in self-love in another. The former, acting not from self, will operate on man through his own will and understanding, considering that he of right possesses freedom and rationality, and is to be led and taught, as of himself, from the Lord alone. He will speak softly and gently, and will be as the angels attending on man, who exercise no constraint, but are as servants ministering to him. His efforts will influence him, and so he will in a manner rule him. But the Gentile man will act without regard to man's choice or liberty, and his operation will be like that of infernal spirits with man, who use "forceful domination." The former will operate for a man's own good, or for what is good and true, and so will serve and benefit man, while thus influencing or governing him. His influence will be from higher principles into lower, or upon opposite ones, for Swedenborg says again, "The subordination of angels to one another, viz., the first heaven to the second, and this to the third, is not as of rule or authority, but as it is in man, an influx of things internal into external things." (A. C. 1802.) He also says that to rule, is spiritually to feed, and to feed is to teach, because teaching is feeding with truth. He says that priests are to teach and to lead, in which case he defines their duties, and thus shews how they are to rule in the church.

The word in the original Greek, which is translated by the term "to rule," means also "to feed," and probably it had this latter meaning in the earlier ages of mankind.

We are also told that "dignity and honor should be given to priests because of the sanctity of their office, but they who are wise give the honor to the Lord, from whom all sanctity is derived, and not to themselves." (H. D. 317.) This honor to priests is from the love which is cherished to ministers, who are truly such by meekness and other graces, and the performance of good uses. Honor is not to be given to those who are not in this way examples, for they, in themselves, are rather priests of Baal than of Jesus Christ. And the honor thus due to good priests, is to be given, not asked for: to require it betrays a vain spirit. The Lord reproves such a love of honor in the words, How can ye believe, who receive honor one of another?" We also read that,—

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"In heaven no one is esteemed except according to good and truth, and to the mercy of the Lord in which he is principled, by virtue of his life in the world." (H. and H. 407.) "Honor, in the spiritual sense, is love, by reason that in

heaven one loves another, and when he loves he also honors, for in honor there is love; honor without love is refused in heaven, yea, it is rejected, because it is without life from good." (A. C. 8897.) "Spiritual love, esteem and honor, are nothing else but the love, esteem and honor of use in the person, and the honor of the person is from the use, and not of the use from the person." (H. and H. 390.) "We do not mean that the priesthood is to be loved in a superior degree, and the church in subordination thereto, but that the good and truth of the church ought to be loved, and the priesthood on their account: this only serves, and as it serves, is to be honored." (T. C. R. 415.) "All personal honour is the honour of wisdom, and the fear of the Lord." (H. D. 317.)

Preachers, in the Lord's kingdom, are from the spiritual class of angelic minds. They are not appointed for their internal superiority, but for their fitness to perform that particular use. Celestial angels are superior to them; and even among the spiritual there may be others in higher states, though not so suited as they for that use. Among men in the church there are deep thinkers, whose minds incline to philosophy and science, and others deeply read and well versed in theology, who still are better fitted to be authors than preachers, or who, from lack of something, are not so qualified as some of inferior minds for pulpit ministrations. It follows that ministers are not to be considered superior to all others in the church.

What true greatness is we have partly seen already. It is greatness in state-in mental excellency. We read in H. and H. 408, "In heaven he is greatest who is least, for he is called least who has no power and wisdom, and wills to have no power and wisdom from himself, but from the Lord."

The Lord saith,—

There is to be a feeling of equality in the church. "All ye are brethren." Swedenborg says,-" He who regards men from spiritual truth, sees one man like to another, whether in great dignity or in little, but that they differ only in wisdom." (H. and H. 390.) "In the heavens, no one in his heart acknowledges any above himself, but the Lord alone." (A. E. 735.)

The foregoing quotations present us with some essential principles or truths for the establishment of order. They shew some important points of difference between angelic and human affairs; and we see from them how just it was in the Lord to say, "My kingdom is not of this world." But this his kingdom is to come, and his will to be done on earth as it is done in heaven. His kingdom on earth is the church, and its members are to copy out in life the angelic character. In the church there is truly to be no teacher but the Lord, and no shepherd but He, and the members are, as brethren, to be all equal, all free, all servants one to another.

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