come. I have found, now that a new dispensation has commenced, attended with so many extraordinary events, such wonderful discoveries, such astonishing displays of spiritual arcana and heavenly intelligence, that many minds are too ready to be carried away by the novelty of them, and to be lifted up and excited with a kind of natural delight and pleasure in making a profession of them, in conversing about them, with a warm zeal to make them known to others. All this is very well in its place; but we must not forget or neglect the grand design and end of these extraordinary favours, in respect to our own particular application of them in heart and life. For the grand-the divine end of them all, is to renew the heart; reform the life; and regulate the conduct according to the Divine laws and precepts of eternal truth. They are to regenerate the man, bring every principle and power, affection and thought, word and work, into the Divine order of a heavenly life; and thus to make us both internally and externally Christians,—true disciples and followers of Jesus Christ in body, soul, and spirit while here,—and pure and happy angels hereafter in the eternal kingdom of our God. When we seriously consider these great and glorious purposes, and that they cannot be effected but as, through the Divine aid, we co-operate with the LORD in opposing every evil, dying to self, with all its impure loves and concupiscences, resisting the hells, and faithfully, constantly, obeying the Divine laws of Jesus Christ, we shall see the necessity, the essential importance of that external conduct and life I have affectionately and earnestly recommended to the attention and practice of my brethren. If this "LAST LEGACY" be calculated to excite in them a stronger aversion to every thing that is evil, a greater anxiety to depart out of it, and avoid that road, and every step of it, which tends to death; and to induce a sincere and ardent desire for that purity of heart and life, strict righteousness, and full conformity to the Divine will and laws of Jesus Christ which constitute the true character of a New Church Christian, then my earnest but humble endeavours will not be without their reward. That the Divine blessing may accompany the following pages,-that they may be received in as much good will and pure love, as the writer feels in presenting them, and that they may be truly and spiritually useful to all who read them, is the devout and ardent prayer of, Dear Brethren, Your aged Friend, Brother, and Minister In the faith and life of The LORD'S New Church, J. PROUD. CONTENTS. SECTION. I. General Address II. To Ministers and Leaders of Societies III. The General Conference, Association, or Assembly IV. Union of Sentiment PAGE. 5 10 12 V. The Doctrines, Truths, and Principles of the Lord's New Church 14 19 VII. The State of Mind, Manner, and Effect of Public Religious Worship 22 VIII. Church Discipline 30 IX. The Obligations, Duties, and Uses of Members of the New Church 33 X. Members who are Opulent; or who occupy Superior Situations in Life XI. Married Members of the New Church XII. The Conjugial or Married State 37 42 48 XIII. To Parents on their Parental Duties 49 XIV. To Masters and Mistresses in the New Church 55 XV. To Young Persons of the New Church, Male and Female, who 59 XVI. Recreations, Pleasures, and Amusements 68 XVII. The Conduct of New Church Christians in the World, and their various Concerns with Mankind XIX. The "Proprium" of Man, sometimes designated the "Selfhood" 84 89 95 XXII. Time and Talents,—their Improvement and Application XXV. The nominal and the real Member of the New Church 122 127 XXVII. The Holy Word 135 XXVIII. A Caution against an Evil Life of Sin, and an Exhortation to XXXI. The Principles from which the Things of this Life are pursued, and the too great anxiety to obtain them XXXII. The Separate Worship of the New Church XXXIII. Distinguishing the New Church at its Commencement from all other Religious or Christian Denominations XXXIV. The True and Genuine Religion of New Church Christians XXXVI. The State of the New Church Christian in the World of Spirits; THE AGED MINISTER'S LAST LEGACY. SECTION I. GENERAL ADDRESS, WHEN a person is advanced in life to an age between seventy and eighty, it is high time for him to make his last Will and Testament; and while of sound mind and memory, to dispose of his property in the best manner his judgment will admit of, so that neither himself, nor his relatives, may have cause to regret that he postponed the business until he became incapable of doing it properly. Being, therefore, advanced to the abovementioned age, and feeling it my duty to dispose of the little spritual property with which Divine Providence has blessed me, among my spiritual kindred, I now take up my pen, to make my "LAST WILL." First, then, my brethren, I have the happiness of congratulating you as the subjects of a dispensation, Church, and Kingdom, superior to every other which has existed since the most ancient days, a dispensation replete with glory, excellence, grandeur, spiritual wealth, and true felicity, not only beyond my imperfect language to describe, but also beyond the most sublime eloquence of the brightest and wisest angel in the heavens. The blessed day is arrived in which divine prophecy and prediction relative to the last Church and Kingdom of our God on earth is fulfilled and fulfilling ; the precursor and messenger of the LORD'S Second Advent has received his message and faithfully delivered it to The writings of this highly illuminated author carry upon the very face of them, the stamp of their divine commission. The opposition they meet with, is, indeed, a presumptive proof of their truth, and an evidence that they came from that infinitely wise and merciful Jehovah, to whom a thousand years are as one day, and one day as a thousand years; who has long since proclaimed to the human race, that “An angel should fly men. in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to them that dwell upon the earth."* We are no longer at a loss to understand our blessed Redeemer's words in Matt. xxiv. throughout the whole of that chapter, and particularly the 29, 30, 31 verses. We are enabled to see in the clear light of heaven's eternal Sun, that the former Dispensation and Church is come to its consummation and end. The Revelations of John, which wholly relate to the decline, consummation, and judgment of the Church, with the formation of a new heaven and a new Church, as particularly described in the 21st chapter, are subjects now plainly revealed and made known. The events which have taken place in the Christian world, are confirming proofs that John's Revelations are fulfilled, and that the New Jerusalem is descending from heaven as a bride adorned for her husband. The last Dispensation is commenced. A New Church actually exists; and the New Jerusalem appears in the world. To our unspeakable felicity, we are permitted not only to behold these wonders of Infinite Wisdom and Love, but are permitted to enter into the New Kingdom, enjoy its superlative blessings, and exult in the assurance, that it shall spread far and wide, shine forth in meridian glory, renovate the world, and stand for ever! The causes from which preceding churches and dispensations have come to their end, we are well acquainted with, and equally well assured that those causes shall never exist in the Church now established. And why they shall not, I cannot mention without experiencing those feelings of thanksgiving, gratitude, and joy, which I am unable to express in words. Never shall that fundamental, that awful error exist in THIS Church, which has devastated and destroyed the former, by laying the foundation of, and introducing a long list of false doctrines and human inventions, which have spread over the Christian horizon, and veiled every ray of genuine truth from the intellectual eye of man-I mean the doctrine of a Trinity of Divine persons, introduced and established at the Council of Nice in the fourth century. Only believe in and establish the doctrine of three Gods or what is the same-three divine persons or beings, each of whom is distinctly and separately God and Lord-and then the door is opened to every falsehood and perverted sentiment the mind of man can invent and propagate, because it is congenial with, and calculated to indulge, the love of self, of the world, *Rev. xiv. 6. |