Having adopted the conclusion, that the Union of the Father with the Son, was not a union of two persons, but resembled that between the soul and body, or what is parallel to it, the union of the internal man and the external, (the spirit and the flesh, or body, of the apostle Paul,) or, what is the ground of it, the union of the will and understanding in one, we shall next present a series of important truths, preparatory to offering an explanation of the first of the Lord's declarations, cited at the commencement of this paper. (1) God is, and was, from eternity, Divine Good as to his infinite will, and Divine Truth as to his infinite understanding; and these Divine attributes existed, and must ever exist, in the closest union. Such was Jehovah from eternity, viewed in his first principles, as a Divine Spirit. (2) But for the salvation of man, it became necessary that the Divine Good and Truth should descend unto last principles, such as those of a man in the world, in order to lift man up from those principles, in their utterly perverted state, in which he had entirely immersed himself. It became necessary that JehovahSpirit should, for this purpose, become Jehovah-man.

(3) Hence "The Word was made flesh." Jehovah descended in the character of Divine Truth, or the Word. As such, he assumed man's fallen nature from the virgin, in order that Divine Truth might prepare it (by a process of Glorification answering to man's regeneration) to become the habitation of the Divine good, for the Father denotes the Divine Good, and the Son the Divine Truth, and specifically the Divine Truth, as incarnate in the assumed Humanity. Thus, also, the Father signifies the Essential Divinity, or Divine Good; and the Son the Divine Humanity, or the Divine Truth as brought into lowest principles, which had been by It restored to order; and so far as order was thus restored in the lowest principles assumed, so far the Hnmanity, by Glorification, was made the Divine Truth in Ultimates, preparatory to its plenary union with the Father at the Lord's resurrection, by its being made also the Divine Good in Ultimates. When the Humanity had thus been made the Divine Good, and thus the Lord had been made, even as to his Humanity," Life in Himself," (John v. 26.) He necessarily became the sole possessor, even as to his Humanity, of "all power, in heaven and in earth.” (Matt. xxviii. 18.) (4) Thus it appears, that after the Lord's full and final glorification, the Divine Good and the Divine Truth had become in his Glorified Person a One, even down to the last principles of a man, as assumed by Him; even as they had been from eternity a one in the first principles of a man, (answering to the state of spirits or angels,) in the invisible, unmanifested Jehovah. (5) When the Lord was undergoing temptations, and, from the Divine

Truth, which was his, thought in the disordered organic forms of thought, derived from the mother, so far his perceptions became clouded by the maternal infirmity, and hence there was presented to his human consciousness the appearance of an interruption and disjunction between the Good and the True in Him, leading Him to address the Father (or Divine Good,) as distinct from Himself, because the Father's infinite Holiness was then perceived as in contrast with the clouded thoughts of truth, which oppressed his external perceptions, and which were clouded by the action of the powers of darkness upon the maternal principle of His Humanity. It was in the extremity of such a state on the cross, that the Word made flesh-the Divine Truth Incarnate,—had a perception as if It was altogether and for ever separated from the Divine Good, and hence arose that piercing exclamation, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me!"

(6) From these considerations, it appears, that so far as the Divine External, or the Humanity was brought into Oneness with the Divine Internal, or the Divinity, by victories in temptation, achieved by the former, so far the Divine Good and Truth, the Father and the Son, became a One in ultimates, (that is, in the Humanity,) as they had ever been a One in their first principles from eternity.

And now we are prepared to present a paraphrase, in order to explain the passages above, (1) as follows: "And now, O Father, (the Divine Good) glorify thou me (as the Divine Truth, BROUGHT INTO ULTIMATES, AND EVEN AS TO ITS ULTIMATES) with thine own self, with the glory which I (as the Divine Truth IN FIRST PRINCIPLES) had with thee, (the Divine Good) before the world was." (v. 5.) "Thou (the Divine Good) lovedst (wast most intimately united with) me (the Divine Truth in first principles, before the Word was made flesh, even) before the foundation of the world." (v. 24.)

When the Lord, in the passage above, (2) prays that all his disciples -in their wills and understandings-in their internal and externalmay become a One as the Father and He-the Divine Good and Truth -the Divine Internal and External-are a One, even to ultimates,-he prays for each; consequently the argument for separate personality cannot be justified, as some have thought, from the mere circumstance of his praying for all his disciples, instead of praying for each of them. It is evident that what applies to all, is applicable to each. All become One Body in Him, only in proportion as each becomes a One in Him, through the union of principles already explained.

In order that the members of the Church may each come into a state of spiritual oneness, and by virtue of it be conjoined with the Divine

Humanity, and thereby with the Divine Itself which dwells therein, the Lord gives them "the glory which the Father had given Him." How the glory of God, as revealed before his personal manfestation, was that of his own essentially glorious nature, the glory of the Divine Good and Divine Truth, or the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom. This was the name of the Lord revealed to Moses, when Jehovah shewed him his glory. (Exod. xxxiii. 18, 19, xxxiv. 6.) This name, or Divine quality, was given to the Lord's Humanity by the Father. It constituted the "all things" of the Father, which were delivered unto his hand, and which he declared were his, and whereby He became God even as to his Humanity, as well as his Eternal Deity. This was the Glory given by the Father to the Son; and when the Humanity had been made perfect through sufferings, and fully glorified, this glory went forth from It, as the Holy Spirit proceeding from It, accommodated to human reception, in order that mankind might, by its omnipotent operation, again be made "partakers of the Divine Nature." (2 Peter i. 4.) And obviously this glory, this Divine image and likeness, becomes the possession of man just in proportion as his mind becomes a one by the union of his internal and external, through the rule of the former and the submission of the latter; and in proportion to the completeness of the union of his will and understanding in goodness and truth, charity and faith, through the practice of repentance and obedience. To this end, are all the Lord's operations directed, by his Holy Spirit proceeding from his Humanity or Body. Thus does He find a habitation in us, even as the Father dwelleth in Him; and thus are we “made perfect in one" in the Father and the Son,-in the Divine Good and the Divine True,-even as the Lord's Humanity, by being “made perfect through sufferings," because one with his Divinity, and which he calls his Father, became his Divine Humanity proceeded wholly from his Divinity, and is to be regarded as its Divine offspring,—first, through a Divine primordial sanctification by the Father, before birth, (John x. 36) and afterwards by actual glorification, or a full divine sanctification, when for our sakes, the Lord sanctified Himself in the world. (John xvii. 19.)

But as some doubt may probably remain on some minds, as to the Lord's Glorification having been completed at his resurrection, owing to his words to Mary, “Touch me not, [or do not continue to hold me, —see Matt. xxviii. 9,] for I am not yet ascended to my Father; but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father; and to my God and your God," (John xx. 17.) it is expedient to add a few words to obviate such doubt. To ascend to the Father denotes, spiritually, to be united with the Divine Good in ful

ness; when, then, the Lord says, after his resurrection, that this ascent had yet to be accomplished, it may seem to imply, that his full Glorification (frequently said by E.S. to have been accomplished on the Cross-that is potentially, and at his resurrection actually and manifestly,) would not take place until his ascension. This apparent

difficulty becomes removed by an advertance to the doctrine of discrete and continuous degrees, as delivered by our author, for according to this doctrine, man's regeneration during his life in the world, ascends by discrete degrees; but after his resurrection into the spiritual world, it only proceeds according to continuous degrees. Immediately after death, in the world of spirits, the ruling love of good, expanding itself as from a centre according to continuous degrees, penetrates through every principle of the spirit, and so brings all things into agreement with itself, thus expelling, and causing the removal of, all remains of infirmity. The ruling heavenly love having thus penetrated into and sanctified all man's developed principles, man's spirit becomes thereby prepared to ascend to his place in the heavens. In like manner we may consider, inasmuch as man's regeneration runs parallel with the Lord's Glorification, that the latter having, according to discrete degrees, been completed on the cross, and manifested at his resurrection, it was still necessary that some operation on his Humanity, unknown to us, should take place in the world of spirits, according to continuous degrees, during the forty days between his resurrection and ascension, in order to his Humanity being fully prepared to take its place visibly above the heavens, in the centre of the Heavenly Sun," the Sun of righteousness. Until the Lord's ascension had taken place, the Holy Spirit, although it had been interiorly imparted to the disciples, (John xx. 22.) could not become externally operative, (as at the day of Pentecost,) until the Lord's ascension had taken place, a full preparation for man's conjunction with the Divine Humanity had not been made. This is signified by the injunction "Touch me not ;" for contact with the Lord's Person was an external conjunction with Him, and this spiritually signifies an internal conjunction with Him by love, through the reception of the Divine Love from Him. Father means the Divine Good, and God, the Divine Truth. God is spiritually and really OUR Father and God, only in proportion as we interiorly receive from Him the Divine Good and Truth, for by virtue of such reception only are we begotten anew into his own divine image, and this, of course, at the utmost, is according to a finite measure of reception. But the Lord, the Humanity named Jesus Christ, in using the words in relation to Himself," MY Father and мY God," intimated, that the Divine Good and

Truth were his without measure, and in infinite fulness. "It pleased the Father [the Divine Good] that in Him [in the Word incarnate] should all fulness dwell." That which God and the Father are to the Lord infinitely, through his unbounded reception, the Lord is to us finitely, through our finite reception of his fulness.

Such is the true doctrine of atonement, (properly at-one-ment) or reconciliation between God and man, or the Divine and Human Natures, in the Person of the Lord.* Through this Oneness attained by the Lord, and the consequent communication of his "glory,"—his Spirit of life and light,-provision has been made for our individual reconciliation. His spirit continually pleads with our spirits," Be ye reconciled to God." And so far as we bend our external man to the Divine Laws, our individual reconciliation will be effected; for thus our external man will become one with our internal, even as the Lord's Humanity or external became one with His Divine Internal, by his continually devoting Himself, as a man, to do the will of the Father. Thus, also, shall we become "rooted and grounded in love," and "he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God."

W. M.

SIR,

in

MESMERISM.

To the Editor of the Intellectual Repository.

The well-intentioned article entitled "Remarks on Mesmerism," your last number, appears to me to require some caution in receiving its statements, and still more, in adopting its method and tone of thought, as applicable not only to Mesmerism, but also to several other subjects which are at present claiming a share of public attention.

I entirely coincide with the writer in thinking that Mesmerism is out of place in a New Church pulpit, and that its results should have no connexion with our religious exercises. A mild warning to this effect, placed under the head of your "Miscellaneous Information,” might have been useful to the parties who have called forth your correspondent's animadversions. Such a warning would have roused no hostility, and displayed no prejudices.

But J. S. has not confined himself to these limits, but denounced Mesmerism itself as disorderly, delusive, fallacious, a quackery, a pernicious evil, an ill-shapen offspring of folly, a foolishness, a matter of imagination, a thing which has power with those only who are morbidly

*The same Greek word is translated reconciliation and atonement.