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3d Circle.-Those opposed to the Lord and goodness, the love of whom is called love to our enemies.

N.B. With those in the spiritualnatural degree of good, circle 2 are not loved much, and circle 3 are regarded coldly. With those in the spiritual degree of good, circle 2 are regarded warmly, but circle 3, less so. With those in the celestial degree of good, love penetrates fully to circle 3, with the tenderest mercy and compassion.

Those opposed to the interests and opinions of self.

N.B. The unregenerate being void of charity, whether they are outwardly orderly professors of religion or otherwise, with them, love terminates in circle 2. All beyond are regarded with hatred. With such persons, alms-giving is no evidence of love to the neighbour; it either arises from ostentation, or is defiled by self-merit.

CIX.

"Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth." Let not the left-hand principle, self-merit (denoted by the goats on the left hand) mingle with and defile the right-hand principle, charity (denoted by the sheep on the right hand).

CX.

Who is the gainer in an argument? Certainly he who is conquered, not he who conquers, supposing the former to feel convinced of his error; he is a gainer because he is richer in the treasures of truth than he was before, while the victor is just where he was. This consideration presents a strong inducement to keep the mind always open to conviction, and to guard against the proud repugnance to be overcome, even by the force of truth.

CXI.

How awfully great is the contrast between the two characters, one of which has continually presented to his thoughts-"I ought;"—and the other," you ought!" Humility resides with the former, but pride, with the latter.

CXII.

Nothing can ensure steadiness and accuracy to the judgment, but the predominance of good in the will. Then only is the voice of unerring wisdom heard, saying, "This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right and when ye turn to the left,"—that is, when ye are engaged in the activities of the will, and when ye are engaged in the activities of the understanding. This voice is heard only from "behind us;" or, in other words, guidance is given effectually only through the will principle, seated in the hinder part of the head. (See Isa. xxx. 21.)

СХІІІ.

The whole tendency of regeneration, is to make the internal and external man A ONE, according to the Lord's words, "The glory thou hast given me, I have given them, that they may be one, even as we are one." In order to secure this blessed result, the ready suggestions, forward reasons, subtle excuses, and pressing importunities of the external man must be put to silence, and exchanged for meek and coöperative responses to the dictates of the internal.

CXIV.

"To see ourselves as others see us," is well; but to see ourselves as God sees us, is better; our fellow-creatures may mistake us; but God

cannot.

CXV.

Religion is every thing, or it is nothing. He who professes to regard it, but does not make it his every thing, cannot be considered as perfectly sane in his judgment.

CXVI.

How innumerable must be the falses,—the foolish ideas,-existing in every one's memory, and constantly liable to be called into activity by evil affections and evil spirits! What a magnificent display of mercy it is, that the theatre of thought is ever kept free from their presence. Nothing less than Divine Mercy can secure to us the privilege at any time of thinking wisely.

CXVII.

While mercy prompts us to make all due allowance for the ignorance or weakness of others; and while we are bound to distinguish between the voluntary fault of him who sins, and the involuntary fault of him who merely mistakes, attributing no blame personally to the latter, but only to the former,—an enlightened view of the interests of mankind requires, that, in the abstract, we should as severely reprobate falses as evils, because falses lead to evils, and repel goods. Thus it appears that a zealous and just reprobation of falses, abstractedly from persons, is in perfect consistency with the purest charity.

CXVIII.

Infinite Goodness and Wisdom, armed with Omnipotence, cannot keep free-agents in a satisfactory state; and yet men, whose goodness is small, whose wisdom is feeble, and whose power is very limited, are surprised that their fellow-free-agents are not in every respect in exact accordance with their wishes!

CXIX.

Genius, when it loses sight of a moral end, condescends to a kind of dignified buffoonery; in occupying itself with decking out trifles for the idle amusement of educated triflers.

(To be continued.)

A GENERAL IDEA OF HEAVEN AS BEING IN THE FORM OF A MAN.

(An Extract from a Letter.)

"SINCE my leaving most of my leisure time has been occupied in reading Swedenborg. His views on creation I have read earnestly, and am fully convinced, that the whole universe is an outbirth from the spiritual world. That nothing material could have created it, and that it could not have created itself, is evident from the wonderful design it everywhere exhibits; more especially from it being inhabited by beings of intelligence and affection, which qualities never can be predicated of matter, however modified or rarified it may be. The being who formed it must be wise, or he never could have arranged and adapted one thing for the production of another, and that again for the production of a third, and every created thing mediately or immediately administering to the use of man. He who formed it must also be good, or he never would have willed all this beautiful arrangement. Nothing lower subsists but for the sake of something higher, and as there cannot be any thing higher than wisdom and love, every thing exists from, or for the sake of, wisdom and love, and also must, subsist from them. But that from which all things subsist, must be a substance, and possess a form; consequently, love and wisdom are a substance and a form, and what form can that be but the human? And if Infinite Wisdom and Love, or God, or life, be a substance and form, then will man's soul, the image and likeness of his Maker, be a substance and form likewise; and if it be granted that the soul of man is an organized substance, it may readily be presumed to possess the human form, not only because that form gives life to every part of the outward human frame, but because all the powers that may be predicated of God as Infinite Wisdom and Love in a human form, may, in a corresponding subordinate degree, be predicated of man as God's image. Hence you see, with this kind of reasoning, I have but little difficulty in supposing the All of Heaven to be in a human form; for since even the minutest particles of man's body have their appointed functions to perform in the economy of his outward

nature, and as these functions are innumerable, so must there be an infinite variety of recipient agents to perform the infinite number of functions in the "Grand Man," (as Swedenborg calls heaven in the complex,) the soul of which is the Lord Himself."

T. N.

AN APPARENT INCONSISTENCY EXPLAINED
BETWEEN JOHN XIV. 16 AND XVI. 26.

THE passages which seem to clash are as follows:

"I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter." (John xiv. 16.)

"At that day ye shall ask in my name, and I say not unto you that I will pray the Father for you." (John xvi. 26.)

The former passage refers to a period before the Lord's final glorification, but the latter refers to the period after its accomplishment. Before the Lord was fully glorified, he had some consciousness, arising from remaining maternal infirmity, as of separateness from the Father within Him. In this state of consciousness, he prayed to the Father as to one distinct from Himself, his merely human condition from the mother not having ceased, such prayer became Him as a man “made in all points like as we are.”

The latter passage above cited, it was observed, refers to the period when the Lord had been fully glorified, and when all from the mother having been extirpated, so that all that remained in and constituent of his Humanity was from the Father, he had no consciousness but that of perfect Oneness with the Father. Hence he declared after his resurrection, that all power was given to him, (that is, of course, to his Humanity, even as to its lowest principles, called flesh,) both in heaven and in earth. At that time, he said his disciples would ask of God in his name, that is, no longer address God out of Him as the Invisible God, but address Him, by his name Jesus Christ, as the Father seen, according to his own words, testifying that his person was the Father's Person,-" He that seeth me seeth the Father," and that "all should honour the Son even as they honoured the Father," that is, that all should honour God from the period of his incarnation, as God manifest in the flesh, and thus as God made visible, even as they had previously honoured God with religious worship as the Invisible God. To honour the Son, named Jesus Christ, as the Father "brought forth to view," is clearly to ask the Father in the name of Jesus Christ, for this was the Father's new name, descriptive of his new relation to man, in conse

quence of his assumption and glorification of Humanity. But it may be objected to this explanation of asking in the Lord's name, as meaning asking God in his new name, the name of his Humanity, that only three verses previous, the Lord expressly says, that at the time alluded to— "In THAT day, ye shall ask ME nothing." But the context, and the facts of the whole case, shew, that he means to say, that they should then no longer view him, and address him, as a being in some way separate from the Father, as while, judging from appearances, they must needs think Him to be, in their only partially enlightened state, when they could not avoid judging the Son of God before their eyes, to be ONE existence, and the Father, at a supposed distance from Him and them in heaven, as ANOTHER. That they did regard the Father and the Son as thus separated, is clear from John xiv. 8. But the Lord intimates, that after his resurrection, they should no longer ask any thing of Him as a Being separate from the Father, and who was to pray to the Father for them, as they had been accustomed to do, but should ask the Father in his name, that is, ask Him as the Father Himself in Person, or, in other words, ask the Father by addressing His own Humanity, named Jesus Christ.

That the latter passage, cited above, refers to the period subsequent to the resurrection cannot be questioned.

That the former passage refers to a period before the crucifixion appears from the nature and object of the prayer alluded to. At a former period we are told that "The Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet Glorified." (John vii. 39.) The object of the prayer was, that the Comforter might be sent; this prayer, consequently, must be offered before his Glorification, that is, before the Comforter was sent, for immediately after his resurrection, he gave his disciples the gift of the Holy Spirit, (John xx. 22.) although this gift did not become miraculously operative until the day of Pentecost.-It must have been while the Holy Spirit dwelt with them in his person, (John xiv. 17.) that he prayed it might, after his Glorification, proceed from Him, and then be in them, so verifying his words to the Father, "I in them, and thou in me."

W. M.

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