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and by application to him as the only Mediator between God and men- the only Intercessor and Advocate whose pleadings can avail on our behalf; it is obvious that, could his aim in this respect be secured, every thing which he sought would, in effect, be substantially secured. What, then, should hinder him from accompanying such an effort and such an aim with the disclosure of any amount of new and captivating truths? Such truths could not neutralize the deadly poison when received into the system; and of course, therefore, the more of them the better. He could safely, and in perfect consistency with his ultimate aim, not only unfold to our vision all that he knew of the glories of heaven and of the state of the blessed; and of hell, and the condition of the lost; and might describe far more fully than had been previously done to men, the condition of the human soul immediately subsequent to death; but also inculcate any amount of practical doctrine, charity, love, and what not. For what could any or all of these things avail, so long as the soul is willing to neglect, practically, the great and only Physician, "who came to seek and to save that which was lost." Let him but succeed in inducing the soul to believe that there is no Mediator between God and men; that there is no Intercessor or High Priest at the right hand of the throne of God; and that we are not to plead in prayer that mercy may be granted us for Christ's sake; and so lead us to re

*

* "The invocation of blessings for Christ's sake is utterly unknown in the New Church, because we cannot by possibility so separate the Father from the Son as to render such language appropriate to the subject." Bush's New Church Miscellanies, p. 325. The same is, in the fullest manner, asserted also by Swedenborg himself. In a letter to Dr. Menander, Archbishop of Sweden, he says "It is an error to address God the Father, and to supplicate him to have mercy for the sake of his Son, and to send his Holy Spirit; this mode of worship and of supplication is directly contrary to the truth, for the truth teaches us to address the Lord alone, in whom dwelleth the Father, and through whom only the Father can be approached and worshiped. Moreover, the common mode of supplicating the Father for the sake of the Son, involves a clear and distinct idea of three gods, and gives rise to the belief that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three separate and distinct divine beings." Documents, p. 165. The same objections, of course, apply to the other doctrines above referred to; and hence we find that the New Church “recognizes no Mediator between God and men; nor any High Priest or Intercessor at God's right hand." See A. C. 2250. The reader who would compare the foregoing views with the Word of God, can consult the following along with other passages: Eph. iv: 32, Luke xi: 13, John vii:

ject the counsel of God against ourselves, and the only name given under heaven amongst men whereby we must be saved: then, so far as the receivers of his doctrine are concerned, he has neutralized the very object of Jesus in coming to redeem and save. Admitting, therefore, that Swedenborg's philosophy, and psychology, and theology, contain many important truths—the admission meets not the requirements of the case. Manes, and "Mother Ann," and A. J, Davis, and Dr. Hare, and others, have all taught many truths, as all must admit. But what does the admission amount to? Just nothing. It bears not in either case upon the true issue.

And then further: In Swedenborg's case, it is more apparent than in either of the others, that he, by excess, and by the long indulgence of a disposition to pry into the unknown and invisible, had brought himself into that condition, which, according to the express averments of his followers (above referred to,) is best adapted to bring man into association with those malignant spirits who are ever on the. watch to deceive. He brought himself, therefore, within the sphere of their influence and power; and why then may they not have deceived him? What was to hinder their making him believe that the Lord revealed himself to him; opened to him the spiritual world, and commissioned him to teach and publish all that he has both taught and published; and even in his dying moments to endorse it all, with all its inconsistencies, errors and irreconcilable contradictions? *

37-39, Rom. viii: 34, Mark xvi: 19, Col. iii: 1, 1 Tim. ii: 5, Heb. i: 3, 13, and vii: 25, and viii: 1, and ix: 24, and x: 12, and xii: 2, 1 Pet iii: 22, 1 John ii: 1, Rev. iii: 5, and v: 13, and xiv: 1, 13.

* The Rev. B. F. Barrett, (to whom we have already several times referred,) in a letter to the New York Christian Inquirer of Feb. 21, 1857, thus adverts to this subject:

"In declarations of this sort did Swedenborg persist till the close of his natural life. The excellent Swedish clergyman who visited him just before his death, and when he knew that his course on earth was nearly finished, urged him in a most solemn manner, if he had written anything concerning the other world that was untrue, "now to publish the truth to the world, and recant either the whole or a part of what he had advanced, since he had now nothing more to expect from the world, which he was so soon about to leave forever. Upon hearing these words from me," continues the clergyman, "Swedenborg raised himself half upright in his bed, and placing his sound hand upon his breast,

Let it be further remembered, that no issue is here raised respecting the sincerity and veracity of Swedenborg; though this is frequently, by his followers, represented as the only issue. We have no doubt that Swedenborg really and truly believed that the Lord had appeared to him, and directed him to do what he did. He believed that he was divinely illuminated, BUT HE WAS DECEIVED. His wish was "father to the thought;" nor has he furnished a particle of proof in favor of his claim to any such illumination. That he was preternaturally illuminated, we do not deny. But in the absence of all proof in his support, and with a vast array of evidence against the truth of his claim, we do utterly deny that Swedenborg's teachings are from God! We utterly deny the validity of his claim to any heavenly illumination. And here, for the present, we leave the matter.

L.

said with zeal and emphasis,As true as you see me before you, so true is every thing that I have written, and I could have said more had I been permitted. When you come into eternity, you will see all things as I have stated and described them, and we shall have much to discourse about them with each other.''

"Now, these solemn and oft-repeated asseverations of our Seer were either true or false. Either he did see and converse with angels and spirits, as he declares, or he did not. If what he asserts be untrue, then must he have been either insane or a most villanous impostor, or self-deceived. No other alternative seems left us."

ART. II. The Nature and Import of a Christian Profession.

error.

The human mind tends to oscillate between extremes; when unsettled, inclines to swing off to the point furthest possible from that it leaves, which is not unfrequently one of equal or greater The discovery of unsoundness in the foundations of any belief, which removes one danger, is succeeded by another; that, all else but the necessity of escape lost sight of, the tenability of intermediate grounds will not be considered, and there will be no pause in the retreat until the remotest, and perhaps a more fatal, point is reached. In the weak or ill-balanced mind this tendency is strongest. It is this tendency developed beyond its ordinary strength, more than anything else, that makes the distinctive character of minds which we are accustomed to regard as constitutionally erratic. They stand only in extremes. They are like a shuttle, which under one impulse given it does not stop until it strikes the opposite end of the batton, and by a similar impulse shoots back to the place from which it started. Hence, great revolutions or reformations require strong and well-balanced minds to conduct them successfully, and always involve some danger of a sacrifice of truth in the opposite direction.

What we have remarked, is illustrated in almost every department of human thought or speculation in which it is possible for men to differin metaphysical science, and in whatever is theoretic in politics, medicine and the physical sciences; but is most observable in that department in which its effects are most to be deplored that is, in theological investigation and religious faith. This is owing, perhaps, to the very importance of truth here, and the correspondingly great dread of error, which gives more than the ordinary energy to the natural impulse to fly precipitately from discovered danger-an energy which too frequently carries far beyond the point of safety. It may seem paradoxical, yet it must be admitted to be a truth, that nearly every great and gross error that prevails in any religious society of much extent, had its beginning in a germ of truth, or is but a violent and intemperate protest against an opposite error. May we not find a proof and illustration of this statement, in the different extreme

views among professed Christians concerning the nature of the Sacraments? In the strong dissent entered against the Papal superstitions of Transubstantiation and Sacramental Regeneration, many Protestant Christians—not so much in their standards, as in their preaching and in the popular faith-have reached an extreme which very nearly divests the sacraments of all their peculiar character, and robs themselves of the comfort and real benefits they were evidently designed to give; by reducing them down, the one to a mere form for a profession of Christianity, the other to a mere expression of grateful remembrance of the sufferings of our Lord, or a form for the renewed confession of him. Now, whilst without faith and the accompanying dispositions which these ordinances demand, they are utterly empty; and, therefore, the Papal doctrine of their saving efficacy is false and deadly; yet is it not true that with faith, they are seals in a covenant transaction, which confirm and make infallibly sure to us all the benefits they represent; and that they are channels through which grace is actually conveyed to the souls of God's believing people? But this is not the extent of the illustration. The tendency we are noting appears further, in the reäction from this Protestant extreme, of emptying the sacraments of almost all their real benefits, in the return of a portion of nominally Protestant Christians to the nearly identical Papal error of Baptismal Regeneration. Baptism, with a determinative emphasis upon the external of it, and regeneration are so connected under the teachings of this backward reformation, as to make it next to impossible for the popular mind to apprehend them otherwise than as cause and effect, if indeed it be not designed to have them so regarded. Here we have traced the oscillation forth and back between two extremes.

These observations have been made under the apprehension that some of the views we shall present, might not be quite approved by all our readers, and in the belief that the suggestion of this important source of error in religious opinion, might discover to such as have not been at pains to settle definitely their own views in relation to the subject, the existence and origin of error in themselves. There may be some, who, in their extreme care to discountenance dangerous heresies which it has been necessary

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