He was made flesh. He assumed a natural body; and when they looked upon him it was this body which they saw, and not the Word that was made flesh. When he spake, the spirit and the life were clothed with natural language, and uttered by means of natural sound-the sound was heard-all that was natural was comprehended; but the spirit and the life within was not perceived. When he performed works, the works were seen, but the Father who dwelt within him and did the works, was invisible. In this sense it was said, and in this sense it was true, that seeing they saw not, and hearing they heard not. But unto those who are within-unto those who have spiritual discernment, it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God. When they see spiritually, it is given unto them always to see the Lord, as he appeared upon the mount of transfiguration to Peter, James and John; that is, whenever their eyes are opened to see spiritually, it is given them to see him as he is in his own light and glory. They perceive the Divine in the Human. They see his new name. And upon those, who by following him are enabled continually to see him in his glory, he writes his new name-which writing is the power thus to see and to receive him. Such are in his blessing and keeping. He causes his face to shine upon them, and is gracious unto them. He lifts up his countenance upon them, and gives them peace. He that hath ears to hear let him hear, signifies that the things which are revealed in the book of revelation, must be obeyed by those who would be of the New Jerusalem. For the New Jerusalem Magazine. REMARKS UPON DR. CHANNING'S SERMON, AND MR. BEECHER'S ADDRESS. By the New Jerusalem we understand, a new dispensation of regenerating truth. Being new, it opposes, as it descends into the world, fixed habits of belief, old prejudices, and errors which have the sanction of universal acceptance. As it is regenerating truth, its progress is a perpetual conflict with that nature upon which its very light brings darkness and confusion. Hence, it advances gradually. If it were scientific truth it might be seen and reverently acknowledged at once; but as it is truth addressed to the understanding through the affections, as it is truth which comes to be a law of life as well as of thought, it can only be received where the disposition is prepared to receive it, and as the disposition is thus prepared; it can only enter and abide where a home is made ready in the heart. This is true of individuals, of societies, of the world. But if its progress be gradual, it is more rapid than to a casual or careless eye it might seem. Tokens of its presence and power are not wanting; and though the sun be yet below the horizon, the breath of morning is around us, and cloud after cloud has caught the light. The truths proper to this system are met with denial and ridicule, because they do not appear, to a distorted mind, in their true forms. The general and elementary doctrines of the New Church are blinding to those who have confirmed themselves in the errors of that which has passed away. "Dark with excessive light its skirts appear." But after a while scattered rays penetrate in various directions; truths which the New Church teaches are learnt by one and by another, though the instructer is not acknowledged and perhaps is not known. Then we find persons proposing as their own, doctrines proper to the New Church, doctrines which were untaught and unknown upon earth before the descent of the New Jerusalem, and which, but for that descent, never could have been known. And we perhaps see these doctrines finding a home where they would be rejected if they came with the mark of their origin upon them, and whence they would now be driven, if they could be held only on condition of acknowledging their true source. We have been led to these remarks by two recent publications, which are now lying before us. One of them is the sermon preached by Dr. Channing at the installation of Mr. M. I. Motte; the other is the address of the Rev. Edward Beecher before the Young Men's Education Society. These gentlemen belong respectively to the two great theological parties of these times. We do not say that either is the champion or guide of any party, for that is what no man can now be. The church that has come to judgment, is broken into too small fragments for any great number to be collected between whom there is much real agreement as to what they believe; though their agreement as to what they deny, may serve to combine their efforts and to keep them under one name. Hence no one can be said now to represent or speak for a party. But both these gentlemen are members of their respective parties; and though one has been known longer and more widely than the other, we may call them both prominent members; and we should expect their public addresses to differ widely; nevertheless these two publications are in very exact accord upon one most important topic-to wit, the doctrine of future rewards. and punishments. This circumstance is not uninteresting, and it may deserve some consideration. The doctrine of a future life has been possessed in some form by every people; therefore the difference between churches or systems of faith with respect to this doctrine, must be found in the different modes of believing it, in the different views entertained of the nature, purposes and circumstances of a future life. Beginning with those ages of which some historical record remains, we may say that all known doctrines respecting futurity, all of which any trace can now be discovered, perfectly agree in the general circumstance, of regarding the life after death as a life of reward or punishment, however they may differ as to the way in which this recompense is administered. But the doctrines of the New Jerusalem present a different view of this subject. According to them, there neither is nor can be in a future life such a thing as inflicted punishment. The scriptural expressions which threaten punishment, are true as those other expressions are which declare that perfect love hateth, that mercy taketh vengeance, and that the Unchangeable repenteth and turneth aside from his purpose. We hold that sin is its own punishment, and truly and distinctly so; and that this is not a truth which may be loose and indefinite in the mind, hardly existing but in words, and made to coalesce with all sorts of opinions, but a most important doctrine; and further, we hold, that sin is not only its own punishment, but that in itself consists all its punishment. We suppose that men are born into this world with natural tendencies to all evil; as they grow up, these tendencies begin to operate; but every person is so assisted as to be placed constantly in a state of freedom, and may in every instance resist these evil tendencies, so that they are weakened and finally subdued, or indulge and confirm them until they bear almost undisputed rule. After death comes the judgment; that is, the true, internal character and ruling affection of every one is made known after death, to himself and to others. Every one is then permitted to adjoin himself to those who are like him, and the sinner is a hell on a smaller scale, and he with others like him form a hell on a larger scale. But in all this there is no compulsion, nor infliction. Every sinner who leaves the earth is, we believe, first received into the society of the highest angels, nor do they afterwards expel him; but as he finds himself disturbed and distressed by the opposition between his character and theirs', he leaves them, and gradually sinks from society to society until he finds his own; and that is the society which above all others he desires, and in which alone he can feel himself at home. Thus it is obvious that we make the punishment of hell to consist in the opposition between the character, the purposes, desires and affections of the sinner, and those of the regenerate; in his refusal to receive the divine love, and in his wilful denial or falsification of the divine truth; in one word, in sinfulness. And now let us observe what Dr. Channing and Mr. Beecher say on this topic. Dr. Channing says * * "Men's ignorance of the great truth stated in this discourse, is seen in the low ideas attached by multitudes to the word, salvation. Ask multitudes, what is the chief evil from which Christ came to save them, and they will tell you, 'From hell, from penal fires, from future punishment. Accordingly they think, that salvation is something which another may achieve for them, very much as a neighbour may quench a conflagration that menaces their dwellings and lives. * * It (hell) has possessed and diseased men's imaginations with outward tortures, shrieks, and flames; given them the idea of an ontward ruin as what they have chiefly to dread; turned their thoughts to Jesus, as an outward deliverer; and thus blinded them to his true glory, which consists in his setting free and exalting the soul. Men are flying from an outward hell, when in truth they carry within them the hell which they should chiefly dread. The salvation which man chiefly needs, and that which brings with it all other deliverance, is salvation from the evil of his own mind. There is something far worse than outward punishment. It is sin; it is the state of a soul, which has revolted from God, and cast off its allegiance to conscience and the divine Word; which renounces its Father, and hardens itself against Infinite Love." pp. 19, 20, 21. Mr. Beecher says "Experience teaches us that to the pure, perfect purity is lovely, to the sinful it is terrific-not because it is in itself unlovely, but because it produces in a sinful mind a conviction of unworthiness and guilt, and calls for confession and humility and repentance. * * * * * * * Of course a sinful mind in the presence of God, would be deeply pained by the purity and loveliness of his character. And until pride is overcome, an increasing sense of the purity and loveliness of God, will but fill the soul with increasing pain and shame Anger also will immediately arise from these painful sensations, and as the exciting cause increases in power, will more and more inflame the mind. During this process, depravity will increase, and of course the mind will become more and more sensitive, more and more irritable, and more easily kindled into a flame of anger. * What then must be the influence of the full energy of the truth and holiness of God, upon a sinful mind? Will not God seem to him like a consuming fire? And the same manifestation of the character of God that satiates the desires and increases the purity of the righteous, will be regarded by a selfish mind with increasing pain and fear and anger. But if a mind is such as to be angry at the sight of truth, and love, and diffusive benevolence, the criminal cause of misery lies in the sinfulness of its own character, and not in the character of God. * * * Apply these principles to the moral world, and the whole mystery of endless punishment ceases. It is a voluntary burning during all its endless duration. * * * *This is the import of these inspired words'thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger, the Lord shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them. For they intended evil against thee, they imagined a mis chievous device which they are not able to perform. Be thou exalted, Lord, in thine own strength, so will we sing and praise thy power.' Selfishness, then, which is forbidden by the law of God, is the cause of all the miseries of a sinful mind, engaged in a hopeless and endless controversy with God. No wonder then that a proud and selfish mind should dislike a being so pure, and gentle, and lovely, because he is yet so energetic in the exercise of moral influence, as entirely to frustrate all selfish designs. "Were the mind of any man who is now entirely selfish, to be exposed to the purity and loveliness of God, he would find himself so pained by the disclosure which it would make of his own deformity and ill desert, that he would be irritated and enraged at once, and kindle into a flame of anger. Experience throws light on this subject. Should the Lord Jesus Christ be revealed from heaven to such in all his glory, he would seem to them to appear in flaming fire, with his mighty angels, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. The character of Christ is the same; but in benevolent minds it would excite admiration and love, in selfish minds it would awake fear, kindle voluntary and guilty anger, and pain them forever like flaming fire. But it is evident here, as before, that the misery of the mind arises from voluntary and perverse desires." pp. 13, 14, 15, 16. * We know that both of these gentlemen have been charged by their respective opponents, and, as we understand, by their friends also, with preaching Swedenborgianism in these addresses. Letting the phrase alone, we heartily wish they were more justly exposed to the spirit of the accusation; for from the manner in which this truth is expressed in the above passages, and in others connected with them, we cannot think that either of these gentlemen fully understood it, or was willing fully to receive and acknowledge it. Nevertheless it may be discerned through the doubts and fears and qualifications which attend it. We hope its partial manifestation here, may open some minds to its full influence, and lead them whence it comes and into the sphere of the great truths connected with it. It is impossible to hold this truth in simplicity and sincerity, without renouncing those views of the doctrine of the atonement which are called orthodox. We know that orthodox preachers and authors differ greatly in this matter; but there is one real, thorough, and strongly-marked difference between the doctrine of future punishment which is above expressed, and all the orthodox constructions and schemes of the atonement, which we know of. That difference consists in this-all who believe that sin is the punishment of sin, must also believe that the salvation worked by the atonement of Christ must be salvation from sin, and this only. They who thus believe, cannot look upon sin as one thing and punishment as another, but as strictly the same; of course, |