trary, might go to prove, that the Mahomedan imposture was from him. Jones, in his History of the Christian Church, vol. 1, p. 175, speaking of the great numbers of Christians that Tertullian testified existed in his time, about a century before Constantine's conversion, says, “I cannot help thinking that this language of Tertullian is much too strong, and that the reader, who would not be misled, should receive it with some degree of qualification. There can be no doubt that the profession of Christianity had spread extensively at the commencement of the third century; but Paganism was still the religion of the empire. If any reliance can be placed upon Gibbon's calculation, as it respects this matter, 'not more than a twentieth part of the subjects of the Roman empire, had enlisted themselves under the banners of the cross, before the conversion of Constantine.'" Tertullian wrote a hundred years before that time, when, consequently, the number of Christians was much smaller. Your argument was formerly urged against the Reformers. You would not, I suppose, allow its applicability. If you were to go into Lancashire, you would be astonished at the spread of the New Church; I will give some particulars another day, when I have more recent documents than I have at present. However, these are all mere natural causes, regarded chiefly by natural men. And they have sometimes weight with persons, when spiritual causes would not be listened to.

You proceed" If these doctrines are true, then the church of Christ, during the whole period of its existence, not only in its darkest, but more especially in its brightest days, has been believing and propagating error of the most serious kind." Its brightest days may, I suppose, be included within the first three centuries. Now the groundwork of all the erroneous doctrines of the present day, the Trinity of Persons, dates its establishment from the Council of Nice, A. D. 325. Certainly, these are not the brightest days of Christianity, as you assert.

You observe, that "the Church has flourished or decayed, just in the ratio in which these very doctrines (which the New Church pronounces false) have been zealously propagated, or supinely neglected, or ignorantly obscured. Can you deny this fact? If not, how do you account for it? This I intend as a serious question, demanding a satisfactory reply." And did not God (notwithstanding the wickedness of the Jewish people, and their falsification of his Word,) bless that dispensation, to preserve his Word, and the knowledge of his Divine Unity? Has not this been the case, also, with the Christian Church, that it has been blessed, not so much for the doctrines it preached, but according to its estimation and propagation of the Word

of God? Look at the Albigenses-the Reformers-the Bible Society, &c. "By the practical tendency and effects of all doctrines (you say) you feel bound to judge of them." The only proper way of judging. (See Intellectual Repository, 3rd series, vol. 3, p. 196. And read, if you have time, the whole paper beginning p. 187. Also another at p. 136. And two more in Intellectual Repository, vol. 2, p. 470, 497. The writer, whoever "Ægiochus" may be, is one whose thoughts deserve to be read.) You feel that you "have attained through the reception of those truths most assuredly believed in the Old Church, (as we denominate it) an acquaintance with God, and the enjoyment of him." This (as you rightly say) must be the design of all doctrine, of all revelation from God. You have attained to bread and water. The New Church will give you "a feast of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined."

You say "you are desirous of learning the shortest and readiest way to God, so as to be more like him, and to enjoy more of him." I can shew you, indeed, no short way to heaven. The New Church way is like that of which Moses said to the Israelites, "Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee and to prove thee," &c. (Deut.8.2,3.) But it is a blessed way, which leads to a land of wheat and barley, and vines, and fig-trees, and pomegranates, a land of oil-olive, and honey (Deut. 8. 8.) (You will see three papers on the subject of this section, in the Intellectual Repository, 3rd series, vol. 3, p. 8, 71, 174.)

On the LAST SUBJECT, My exchange of Methodist Christianity for True Christianity, RENEWED by the Lord in these latter days,—I can say no more than this :-I bless the Lord for those providential circumstances which introduced the New Church writings to my notice. They were unsought by me, and unvalued at first. But now, this life, with its delightful, but short-lived pleasures, is as nothing, when put in comparison with the Treasury of the Divine Word, with the Key for unlocking its stores, furnished in the New Church. The history of my becoming acquainted with the existence of the New Church, is certainly a striking instance of what men called Providence. For in these days of the general denial of the Lord's government, which is Providence, the word is yet in use.

I have not been "hasty" in my reception of the great truths of the New Church, as you and some other friends suppose. As the thirsty earth receives the gentle rain from heaven, and is thereby more refreshed and fructified than it would be by the sweeping tor

rent, so has my mind received the heavenly truths of the new kingdom of heaven. Though I have received much, I have not been deluged. Though I have read the Intellectual Repository, or NewChurch Magazine, from its commencement in 1812, up to 1830, and perhaps a dozen additional octavos, I have not been persuaded into any thing I have found there. To confess one's weakness to an enemy is not the part of wisdom; but to confess to a friend may be the means, direct or indirect, of procuring help. Notwithstanding, then, that I have read, and thought, and written much about the New Doctrines, there are many of them that I understand but very imperfectly, and some, of which I know next to nothing. You must remember, here, that two years ago, I was ignorant of these things being in existence.

My dear friend-one prayer do I earnestly breathe in your behalf, as the best conclusion I can make to my long, and I fear, tedious letter: may our good Lord bless you, and make his face to shine upon you, and give you peace. Ever yours,

EXAMINER.*

AN ADDRESS

Delivered at the Anniversary Dinner of the London Printing Society, at the Free Masons' Tavern, on July 19, 1838, by Dr. SPURgin, the President.

LOOKING at human existence by the light of the New Church, we are satisfied that its author and preserver has established it in full correspondence with his goodness and wisdom, and that the seeming anomaly of happiness and misery being predicable of man, who was formed in the image and likeness of his good and wise Creator, is well accounted for. The writings which contain that light, and which are singularly adapted to convey it to the human understanding, testify, at the same time, to their own importance, in relation to the spiritual affairs of man throughout his future career.

That I do not assign too much to the New Church writings, or ascribe a light to them that is not especially and peculiarly their own, is demonstrable by the fact, that nothing is advanced in them, but what is strictly subordinate and subservient to the truths and ends of Di

The original signature being erased, we have subjoined that appended to the note which accompanied it, and by which the writer is known to our readers.EDTS.

vine Revelation; and also quite conformable with all truly rational perception, and sensible experience. Beside, truth is an unalterable thing; and though there are infinite truths constituting the great body of truth, they are so eminently a one, that all are comprehended in one and one in all. When, therefore, I adduce the remarkable circumstance, that the writings of the New Church exhibit this great and fundamental characteristic of truth, and this by their consistency, by their immutability, and wonderful harmony; I do not say too much, in my declaring that they contain, and thence can communicate to the understanding of men, a light which most clearly discovers that human existence, whether happy or unhappy, does most fully correspond to the goodness and wisdom of its author. In vain may we look for the same universality of knowledge, or for the like clearness and comprehensiveness of truth among the stores of human wisdom and learning extant in the world; in vain shall we search the records of antiquity, or the subtle metaphysics of modern schoolmen, or the accumulated results of the researches of the numberless votaries of science, to find the light, which every reader of the New Church writings possesses, and which he, in obedience to the dictates of conscience, could not "put under a bushel."

The disciple of the truth is told to "possess his soul in patience," and truly, the injunction is most applicable to him; for stimulated as he is by various motives, and enticed by various opportunities, or acting in conformity with the Divine command to make known the truth to every creature, yet so small the result of his endeavours appears, that impatience and disappointment alternate with each other, and even bring into doubt the reality of the good things which the truth he espoused, had brought before his view as objects for his blissful attainment.

Doubtless, my dear friends, you have experienced, like myself, more or less of this trying state, and likewise required the salutary admonition to "possess your souls in patience," or in other words, to rely on the Divine Providence, for the bringing about those beneficial results, which in your individual and combined exertions you have contemplated, for the spiritual and everlasting good of your neighbour. Multitudes of our fellow-creatures are labouring for the same end, but with far inferior spiritual means for their attainment, whilst their superior natural and worldly means reduce ours to comparative insignificance; for pomp, wealth, and many other worldly attractions, are made subservient to the maintaining and spreading abroad of doctrines and principles that fall short-very short-of the truth. Still, as disciples of the pure truth of God's Word and kingdom, we must

possess our souls in patience and assuredly we are encouraged to cherish this state of mind by the knowledge, that ends and motives are the things chiefly regarded by our heavenly Father in every human operation, and that the goodness of their quality is most justly appreciated by Him; for in and by such a state of mind, we manifest that charity which our doctrines inculcate as a first principle of action, and we experience its powerful influence, soothing our angry zeal, warming our frigid thoughts, and elevating our conversation into benevolent expressions of universal good-will.

Would that this peaceful state maintained a sovereign sway through. out the Christian Church! Differences of opinion and doctrine would then be no ground for presumptuous pride or invidious comparison, and man, under a happy sense of intellectual freedom, would distinguish more readily between false appearances and true realities.

Would that such a state could reign unresisted in the breast of every individual! for then the understanding would be exercised in ministrations of love, rather than in displays of knowledge, and vain dissertations on abstruse points of doctrine.

As New-Churchmen, this should be the inward state and frame of mind of us all: I verily believe it to be so, and that we shall find to our exceeding joy, that our temporary association here, for purposes such as we have met this day to promote, is but the result of a state of our affections, which is binding us together indissolubly and eternally, and so preparing us for the performance of more exalted uses in our heavenly Father's kingdom. I feel it to be my duty to insist on the necessity of our holding together, on this sacred ground of charity and brotherly love —of our cherishing the like'state of the affections towards all mankind, and of our believing that the Divine Providence, in all its operations, and under all circumstances, and by the wisest means, is intent on establishing this state in the heart of every man. And what a state for human existence to enjoy, and even to be susceptible of! What a state of mind is that which can be identified with the love of another, even as we love ourselves—a state under which we can feel happy, because others are so, and because we are contributing to make them so, a state which has the innocence of wisdom to commend it to the world, and the peace of heaven to introduce it there finally and for ever!

The contemplation of this essentially Christian characteristic is so pleasing and delightful, that the contrast perceptible, on looking at the present outward frame and fashion of society, produces a sensation doubly distressing and painful. Nevertheless,