understanding having been corrupted and lost by the moral degradation of its earlier possessors, it was still further transformed by the peculiar genius of these nations, and constituted, and among some of them still constitutes, their respective systems of mythology.

Knowledge from the revelation made subsequently to the Isrelites, though less extensively, was, in a similar manner, spread among surrounding nations, and blended with that received from a prior source. To this has been added, more or less widely, light from the christian dispensation, alike blending with the remnants of others. Probably, all nations upon the face of the globe have felt some rays, however received by them, from the revelation of heavenly light which has been made to the world at different times; like waves from a centre which have succeeded each other, till the very extent of their circumference has prevented the centre and source of all from being recognized. The light of nature is only reflected light. Exactly in proportion as the human mind has been placed in a state of freedom by light from revelation, have all improvements in civilization and the arts and sciences advanced. It was never known that a nation emerged from barbarism to any state of civilization, without such aid, received in some manner. The atheist and the deist are indebted to the very power they combat, for their weapons. The boasters of the light of nature are indebted to that of revelation, for the eyes with which they think they see.

It is the tendency of knowledge, though received in a distorted form, to exalt the natural powers of the mind; hence, its natural condition varies with its religion, its morality, and its science. As truth, of any kind, enters into the mind and that principle by which it is actuated, it becomes a part of it, a constituent member of the mental fabric, as it were, the eye by which it sees, and the arm with which it acts. Man, thus receiving increase, his powers and faculties thus strengthened and developed, assumes a nature, religious, moral or intelligent, differing from his former by the kind and degree of that development. If he is under a false persuasion of his own powers, his new possessions are felt as really his own, as those of any former state. Thus raised, he is placed on a vantage ground of observation, and casts his eyes abroad over the regions of truth, now apparently subject to his vision, and marks them as his natural dominions. But all that region, not so stamped with the seal of ownership, he considers as debatable ground, or perhaps, feels willing to recognise in it the right of another proprietor. It is in this way that false persuasion leads man to account the truths of revelation, as fast as they raise him from his former standing and appear within his grasp, his natural, rightful possessions. Hence those truths,

moulded and fashioned after his own heart, become, as it were, the "common law" of his mind; whilst the time and manner of their introduction, the mode and circumstances of their enactment are forgotten, and referred to time immemorial. But others will be judged of by the principles which make up that common law, the customs and usages already established, or rather by the principle which renders them operative in their present shape, be that what it will. If they cannot be made to accord with these, they appear to be laws for which no reason can be given; but of arbitrary appointment, unintelligible, and repugnant to those already in force. They must, in consequence of this, become a dead letter; they can have no hold on the affections, add no gem to the diadem of real knowledge, awaken no emotion, but, perchance, that of blind awe, or daring indignation. In short, if habit, education, self-interest, or indifference, restrain the audacity of investigation, they may be called truths of revelation; but such as are above reason, which reason could not discover, and with which it must not concern itself. Thus it is that self-love, with its attendant, false persuasion, forgetting that it receives all that is good and true, claims all, and would extend its dominion even to the throne of God Himself. And thus the dividing line, between the light of nature and that of revelation, is drawn by man, and not by God.

But truth cannot be treated in this way and remain uncontaminated. All genuine truth which man can have, must be planted in real humility of heart. That is the only soil in which truth can grow and remain truth. The very ascription of it to self-derived intelligence, at once destroys its nature. It must cease to be legitimate truth, before it can acknowledge such derivation. Unadulterated truth must spring from unadulterated affection, and be filled and actuated by it. It must look, in acknowledgment, to Him who is Good and Truth Itself; whose throne is heaven, and whose footstool, the earth; thus deriving life from Him who is the Life and Light of the world, or it ceases to have it, and becomes the empty shade, the unembodied spectre of vacuity, or the deformed and ill-proportioned product of false persuasion. Truth must be united with its appropriate good. As man advances in the regeneration, he learns, though it cost him many struggles, how beautifully the forms of nature can yield to the energies of divine grace, and apparent truths vanish before that which is genuine, simply by humble, hearty and unreserved obedience to Him who appeared in nature, that he might raise man to glory. He learns how the erring prudence of the worldly man can give place to the rationality and intelligence of the spiritual, and finally the latter to celestial wisdom, which is in perfect agreement with the wisdom of divine providence, when feeling that

"God is love, He dwells in love, dwelling in God, and God in him." His conversation is then "yea, yea, nay, nay," for He knows that "whatever is more than these cometh of evil." The word of God no longer "speaks to him in parables," but "shows him plainly of the Father." In this state only is he prepared to say, from the depth of his heart, "not my will but Thine be done;" for then only can he fully believe and feel that "what things soever the Father doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise;" because he then knows, by happy experience, that whatever springs from divine love, is brought into manifestation and accomplishment by divine wisdom.

His heart, filled with love to God, expands correspondently towards his fellow men. His love to them is not false and boasting charity, but the silent, deep and constant love of being useful to them. It is gentle, unassuming, yet ardent and incessant love for their real good. It is not consistent with indifference as to what is truth, or whether they be in it or not, for good and truth united are its all. Nor does it falsely gloss over their characters, and call them good in the lump. With heaven-taught discrimination, it searches out their least tendency to good, cherishes it, and wishes to give more. It leads them, with a kind, yet unwavering hand, from what is manifestly false and evil in them, to greater good and truth, and so covers a multitude of sins.” "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,—how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings."

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Man, then, is no other than the good and truth within him which are no longer separate, but united; not slightly connected with the surface, but flowing from the centre; not the occasional effervescence of a moment, but the steady, equable stream of his life. His truth must be vivified and actuated, not from without, but from within; the soul must give its power to the body, and the body must acknowledge the supremacy of the soul. Such should be the order of nature, because such is the order of God. "All power is given to me in heaven and earth ;"" all that the Father hath are mine;"" the Father is greater than I." Revelation is given to instruct man in divine order; and the divine Spirit operates to give that order life in man. Its energy is not out of, but in it; it manifests that order that itself may be manifest in it. "He that seeth me, seeth Him that sent me." a man love me, he will keep my words; and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” The Lord gives divine truth to enlighten the mind, and quickens that truth to purify the feelings. "I am the way, the truth, and the life." "As the Father hath life in Himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in Himself." "As the Father raiseth up

"If

the dead, and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom he will." He assumed the humanity, and was seen by the eye; and glorified it, to make Himself felt in the heart. "I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world; again I leave the world and go to the Father." "It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you." "I will not leave you comfortless, I will come unto you." That thus the intellect, which acts as one with the eye, its eminent bodily organ of intelligence, might be made one with the will or ruling love, which governs the conduct; and man thus have a unity of faith, or belief, the glory within him. "That they all may be one; as thou, Father, in me, and I in thee; that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one; I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me." Thus the world, seeing the good which flows into the church from the Lord, may be led to come also and glorify the "Father who is in heaven;" as well as all subordinate principles in each individual of the church, purified and reduced to order, thus bow, in meek subserviency, to that love of the Lord which then rules in the soul.

The letter of revelation, as well as the book of nature, is, in a measure, addressed to the eye; but it is only the voice of Him who fills both the one and the other, that speaks to the heart; that develops, reconciles and unites their language, and gives it power to regenerate a man. It is only in obeying the truths of revelation, at once, from the thoughts to the speech, and from the heart to the hand, that the language of nature becomes the language of God. Revelation is then in what is natural or rational, and what is natural or rational in revelation. Their lights cease to be divellent forces, and become conjoining powers, resulting in unity. They no longer teach different things, but one and the same; and man, experiencing in his own heart and life the union of truth and goodness, can see and feel that love is the essence, and wisdom its form; that the Son is in the Father and the Father in the Son; and no longer have his eye fixed on "strange gods," but worship Him alone to whom all power is given" in heaven and earth," " one Lord, and his name one."

A.

Extract from Rev. Mr. Noble's Appeal in behalf of the New Church. Concerning the Trinity.

"All acknowledge, at least in words, that God is and can be but one yet when it is affirmed, as is done by the majority, that this One God exists in Three Persons, each of whom, " by himself" (as the Athanasian Creed expresses it,) is God and Lord; a perplexity and confusion are introduced into our conceptions, which many find to be distressing in the extreme. To escape from the embarrassment, numbers have rejected the idea of a Trinity in the Divine Nature altogether; and not seeing how to connect this rejection with an acknowledgment of the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, have refused the honours of divine worship to the Saviour of the world. In the midst of these contending opinions it is, that the New Church, which they who have embraced it believe to be prefigured by the New Jerusalem of the Revelation, addresses itself to the candid and reflecting. We see in scripture too decisive evidence of the Divinity of Jesus Christ, to suffer us, with the unitarian, to call it in question: on the other hand, we find too strong declarations of the indivisible unity in the Divine Nature, to allow us, with the trinitarian, to portion it out between three separate persons. We take all that is true in the system of each, separated from all that is false. The doctrine of the tripersonality was first invented, because those who framed it saw no other means of preserving some acknowledgment of the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ and we agree with them, that this acknowledgment is indispensable, in order that any true church may exist. The doctrine of unitarianism has been introduced, because they who framed it saw no other way to preserve inviolate the perfect unity of the Godhead: and we agree again with them, that where this is in any degree departed from, no true church can exist. Both these mischiefs are completely avoided in the doctrines of the New Church, as drawn from the scriptures in the writings of Swedenborg. May I not then appeal to the candid and reflecting, of all denominations, and ask, whether such a system of doctrine ought not to be looked at by all with respect; whether it might not be reasonably concluded, that it would excite violent hostility in none, but would be accepted by multitudes of sincere christians with thankfulness and eagerness? That it is entitled to such acceptance, because it not only proposes what is obviously desirable, but establishes what is certainly true; we will endeavour in some degree to evince.

"I shall take it for granted that all parties will admit, that the urity of God is a doctrine most perpetually insisted upon by scripture, and constantly held forth as the fundamental idea on