Thy gentle flows of guiltless joy, Oh! guide us through life's darksome way!" And let the tortures of mistrust On selfish bosoms only prey! Nor shall thy favours cease to glow, LINES ON THE WORD OF GOD. THE Word of Life, to men was giv'n, But selfish pride, and worldly gain, Withhold the thanks for blessings giv'n, So when self-love does yet remain, Thus, while he does submission teach, THE NEW JERUSALEM MAGAZINE, AND Theological Inspector. APRIL, 1828. ILLUSTRATIONS OF SWEDENBORG. [Continued from page 75] Hence WHATEVER proceeds immediately from God into the will or understanding of man is intended to continue for ever. Faith the expectation of everlasting blessedness will thus continue: not indeed in the same manner as on earth, but as a feeling of the same nature. Here it is a confidence in God that through the sufferings of Christ the work of salvation is begun, and will be perfected hereafter it is an expectation of future unseen and unfelt delights, the progressive blessedness of the enlarging spirit. Hope, too, which in this world is fixed on immortality, will there look forward from glory to future glory, from brightness to greater brightness, from the fulness of the soul to an enlarged spirit, and a greater fulness, through all the ages of the everlasting kingdom. And thus also will pure and holy love proceeding from God as its source, and returning to him as its end, live and rule in the heart. Subject no longer to the uneasiness and darkness of mortality, the spirit will again look upon those in whom it once delighted-its love will be renewed with greater ardour, its friendship refined, and made more pure and heavenly; and the bond of souls, the union of the affection of one, with the thought and understanding of another, will be more and more closely drawn, until friendship shall ripen, (I had almost said into identity) and love shall make them altogether one. Will this be denied? I demand then upon what ground of No. 4.-1828. G reason, or upon what principle of religion this denial is to be founded? Reason teaches that if holy love continues after death; then the love of parents and children will continue, for it is holy -and the love of friends will continue, for it is holy-and the marriage bond will be renewed, for it is superlatively holy. Not indeed with its present imperfections, but such as it can be in spirits who are capable of every feeling in the highest possible perfection. Reason teaches further, That if we love God to all eternity, then, that love as an active principle will diffuse itself abroad among all those objects on which his image is impressed or towards whom he has placed, in the affections, an holy and heavenly inclination. The union of friendship illustrates a relation which will for ever remain betwixt God and man, and as that relation will continue, so will the union which is its image continue also. The natural (and permit me also to say spiritual) tie, which unites a child to its parent, is a miniature of the everlasting bond between God and the spirit; and as the holy original will remain, so the holy transcript will remain also. The union of souls which constitutes marriage is a dim and finite resemblance of that continual identity which subsists between God and his church, and since this union is eternal, so also is that by which it is represented. All heaven is but a resemblance of God in greater and lesser images. The whole of the saints united in affection, are an universal image of the divine love: the union of families is an image still more identified: the closeness of friendship is a picture in another and more contracted circle-the tie of conjugial relationship is a miniature approaching still nearer to the original; and the union of each spirit with God, joins the human image to the divine glory. Take away from heaven all its relationships-all its ties-all its affections; and what is there left for reason to rejoice in? nothing but a vague and indeterminate hope of pleasure without any known object or purpose. It becomes a strange country—a land of strangers; and death a dismal voyage carrying us for ever from all we love and from all we delight in. But I question whether any one can love God, without that love driving him as a necessary consequence to love his family-his friends-and the world. For the love of God moves in circles. He Himself is the centre of all the nearest relations follow next-friends are next inclosed, and the succeeding bounds include all that is good and pure, and holy. Thus it is at least on earth, and since love, and especially divine love is without change, thus to the eye of sober reason will it be in heaven. And religion teaches that by death we shall part with nothing but impurity and corruption. "This mortal" it is said "shall put on immortality-this corruptible shall put on incorruption." The natural body shall be exchanged for a spiritual body," as the dull grain of wheat thrown into the earth is succeeded by the green and beautiful plant. "There shall be no more death—sin as the sting of death being taken away-all tears shall be wiped from all faces, and there shall be no more grief neither sorrow, nor sighing." But in what part of scripture is it said "there shall be no more friendship! there shall be no more affection! there shall be no more love? No where-in not one passage! Nay, those very persons, who seem so eager to exclude all the domestic loves from the abodes of bliss, are at times obliged to confess that the friendship or fellowship of saints will be then perpetuated ;* and if the fellowship of saints, why not the fellowship of individuals, and the fellowship of families? Surely the same principle of religion which leads us to desire the one, drives us also to long for the others. And if the fellowship of saints is permanent because it is a holy institution proceeding from divine love, and enlarging and purifying the soul, then for the same reasons, the other relations must be permanent likewise; for is not the union of friends a holy institution? And is not the tie of relationship an effect of the divine love? and is not the bond of conjugial affection, a heavenly and holy union? And do they not all when sanctified tend to elevate and purify the mind? Why then are they not to exist hereafter as well as the fellowship of saints in general. Without going further into this argument, or proving that wherever there is a general affection, that affection must descend to particulars; I will here anticipate an objection which I have no doubt will be made by many: viz, That the ties of nature (as they are called) are suited to our imperfect state of being, and that they are only designed for a temporary purpose, consequently when that purpose is accomplished they must at once and for In this objection there are at least two points taken for granted without the slightest proof, and yet upon these unproved foundations depends the whole force of the argument. For first: it is not proved (nor ever can be) that these relation ́ships were designed to answer merely a temporary purpose. And again: the assertion that when the temporary end is answered, ever cease. Hence it has with a certain class of persons become an axiom that the "ties of grace are eloser than those of nature." If by this be meant that grace draws the bonds of nature more closely, and exalts and refines the domestic affections, while it extends love to all; the sentiment is correct though expressed in equivocal language. But if it be intented to insinuate that grace supersedes the domestic relations by other loves of a stronger nature, the sentiment is both false and unscriptural. they are destroyed, is at once contradicted by religion and common experience. The domestic affections are not ties which serve only to bind civil society together; they answer to higher and far nobler ends. They have not a mere relation to the body and to time; they are fixed in the spirit: and whatsoever is fixed in the spirit, is like the spirit-immortal. The affection with which a pious father regards his rising family, is not a feeling of the body, nor does it answer only a temporary purpose. The love with which an affectionate husband thinks on the partner of his bosom, is not a mère desire of the flesh. Both these ties are conjunctions of spirit with spirit, of immortal essence with immortal essence; and unless the spirit itself undergoes a total change at dissolution, they must remain when the body in which they are manifested has crumbled into ashes. And we have already observed that no such change will pass upon the soul. The ancient pátriarchs rejoiced in the hope of being gathered to their fathers. David in the extremity of parental anguish, looked onward to an union with his departed child; and one principal subordinate joy of the pious of all ages, heathen as well as christian, has arisen from the hope of being again united with those to whom their spirits were bound and united on earth. If the social tie of domestic love answers only a purpose of time, then there is no difference betwixt the affection of a pious Father, and that of an irreligious one. If the latter be but industrious, and his love lead him to provide for his family, the end, the only temporary end is answered and if the end of parental love can be fully answered by an irreligious character; what need is there of religion in the family circle? Again, if the end of marriage be merely to preserve seed alive upon the face of the earth," and if it have no higher nor more noble purpose; then the adulterer, who without a legal tie gratifies his passion, fulfils the end of nature, as well as the pious and affectionate husband; and what need of piety (or even of affection) to fulfil such a purpose as this? Or if to avoid the consequence of such a doctrine, it be admitted that piety is necessary to the regulating, and in some sense to the very existence of proper domestic affection; then, that tie by which such affection exists, must have a higher destination than the wants and desires of time and if it has such a purpose, that purpose must exist beyond time; and whatsoever exists beyond time is eternal. Besides If the relative ties are dissolved when the temporary purpose is answered, then, when children are educated and provided with the means of passing through life, and when they can ac |