the affections and thoughts of men,) that were to succeed the time of the writer; it also shews what they were to be at their commencement, and how they were to be distinguished in aftertimes.

By kings are spiritually meant the supreme principles of man's thought, because these govern and rule his conduct as a king. They collect precepts for the adoption of the understanding, and they establish them therein as the laws by which to administer their government. If man violates those precepts, he is punished by the painful compunction which such acts induce; and if he obey them, he is protected and comparatively at peace. Hence it is that by kings, in the spiritual sense of the word, are denoted the supreme principles of man's thought-thought as derived from his affection. If a man love himself above his neighbour, and the world in preference to heaven, that love will originate thoughts which will govern all his conduct as a king; and if he love the Lord above all things, that love will originate truths which govern as a king, since they regulate every other principle and make them tributary to the divine service.

Now the quality of the thoughts as derived from the affections, and denoted by a king, is represented to us by the respective quarters of the earth wherein they are said to reside and govern. By the king of the south, is denoted those who are in the intelligence of love to God and man; and by the king of the north, is signified those who are in the love of knowledge separated from charity and love, and thus in faith alone. These significations are derived from analogy; for as the cardinal points of the earth are determined by their situation in respect to the sun of the universe, so the several states of the intellectual world in man, are regulated by the relative conditions in which they stand in reference to the Lord as the Sun of Righteousness.

When, then, it is seen that by the king of the south is denoted those who are in the intelligence of the love of the Lord and our neighbour, it will be easy to see the beauty and propriety of it being said of him, "that he shall be strong," and that "his dominion shall be great.' How morally and intellectually powerful are those who are so happily distinguished! By the exalted nature of their influence, they are capable of extending their amiable dominion far and wide, and of producing the most salutary effects on all who are disposed to be wise and good.

But we are informed that the king of the north becomes their adversary for a time: the reason for this fact is because the king of the north represents those who imagine that they will be saved by what they think and believe. Hence we learn that by the predicted differences which

were to take place between the kings of the north and the south, are denoted the opposition of two classes of principles in the Church, and thence of two classes of persons who profess them. First, those who are in charity with its intelligence, and who regard purity of motive and its works as conducive to salvation; and Second, those who are in mere faith, and who, without any respect to motive or to work, think that faith will save them.

Now these are characteristics which prevail in the Church at this day. The essentials of a genuine Church are an enlightened love of the Lord, and practical charity towards our neighbour; to this, popular Christianity opposes the doctrine of "Faith alone," insisting that it is sufficient to procure the divine acceptance. Thus the cold and frigid principles of an obscure faith, denoted by the king of the north, have become the adversary of the warm and enlightening principles of spiritual and vivifying charity, so aptly represented by the king of the south.

Let us bring this fact home to our own experience, for what is true of the Church collectively, will in general apply to the Church individually. The first things which man receives of the Church, are the knowledges of its doctrines, and he is known to pay more attention to acquire its truths than to practise its virtues; to be more diligent in the cultivation of the intellect than the heart, and thus a difference and separation between these two monarchs of man's intellectual kingdom is discovered. But charity, with its intelligence, must ultimately prevail with those who are saved; because "in the end of years," that is, at the termination of certain states of internal trial and purification, a conjunction will be effected between the knowledges of faith and the affections of goodness, because charity or goodness is like a flame which emits light from itself, and when it meets with any of the truths of faith, it not only illuminates them, but vivifies and adjoins itself to them; and thus the affection of an enlightened charity, denoted by the king's daughter of the south, comes to the king of the north and makes an agreement.

By this illustration from the second class of Prophecies, we are again permitted to see the practical advantages which result from a spiritual interpretation of the divine predictions. We see, whatever might have been the general outward fulfilment designed for them, that it must have been but of brief duration, and of temporary importance only; but by regarding them as treating of mental phenomena, we behold their spiritual utility, and are led to acknowledge their edifying purpose to be perpetual.

The last Prophecy from which we design to illustrate the principles of a spiritual interpretation, is from that class which is commonly regarded

to have received an outward fulfilment to the very letter. The particular prediction we are about to consider, was delivered by the Lord Jesus Christ. When the disciples came to Him to shew Him the buildings of the temple, He said unto them, "See ye not all these things? Verily, say unto you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down."

I

This prediction, referring to the overthrow and destruction of the temple of Jerusalem, is admitted upon all hands to have received its fulfilment to the very letter, when that city was beseiged and taken by Titus, which took place about seventy years after the prediction was delivered. That this outward circumstance was in the Divine Mind when this calamity was announced, there can be no doubt; nevertheless, it appears to us, that this could not have been the chief purpose for which it was declared; because the parties concerned were but few in comparison with the population of the world, for whose instruction the Prophecy must have been intended; and, also, because the time which was occupied in the transaction, was as nothing in the mind of Him, to whom "a thousand years are but as yesterday."

The temple at Jerusalem, so long as the inhabitants continued in their representative integrity, denoted the genuine worship of the Lord, and the stones of which the edifice was built, signified the divine truths by which that worship was regulated and defended. Hence man, as a worshiper, is called by the apostle, "The temple of the living God.” He is also contemplated as "lively stones, built up a spiritual house." (1 Pet. ii. 5.) But when the Word of God was rendered of none effect by the traditions of men, as it was when the Lord delivered the prediction before us, then the temple denoted impure worship, and the stones by which it was erected, signified the falses of doctrine connected with that impurity. Now, as the Lord was engaged in establishing a Church in which spiritual worship was to be restored, and to be built up and performed with the genuine truths of the Word, it is evident that the spurious worship, together with the false doctrines which then preAnd this is what is

There shall not be

vailed, were to be overthrown and destroyed. spiritually meant by the Divine announcement, left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down." Nor are these all the spiritual truths derivable from the literal Prophecy; for it also applies to every individual who is regenerated from the Lord. Before this important process begins to exercise its salutary influence upon the heart of man, his chief delight will consist in the love of himself and of the world: he bows down to the ends proposed by those loves; he worships them, and vindicates the pursuits by some

corresponding falses. But these, together with the impure worship which they favour, are to be thrown down and so dispersed by regeneration, that not one falsity will be connected with another, for all will be removed; because, by regeneration, man becomes successively principled in the love of what is good and true, and he is thus prepared to perform the uses and enjoy the delights of the heavenly kingdom.

They who thus view and apply the Prophecies of the Holy Word, will procure the most incontestible evidence of the truth of the principles laid down for understanding their fulfilment; for, in the moral, intellectual, and spiritual operations of their own minds, they will discover the practical and personal realization of the divine predictions.

R***.

ON THE USE OF MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS IN PUBLIC

SIR,

WORSHIP.

To the Editor of the Intellectual Repository.

I notice the article of your correspondent "Edinensis," for the purpose of correcting the principal reason why he considers musical instruments ought not to be used in the service of the Church; this reason is not confined to him, but is too much spread amongst many who mistake intellectual delight for that delight which can only be procured by temptations and victories over the evils of the will.

Your correspondent states,

"Among persons in a merely natural state, I have little doubt that the music of the organ, harp, and such instruments, is of use, particularly as tending to elevate or soothe the natural feelings; but how it comes to be relished in the celestial and spiritual worship of the New Church is an enigma.”

At the First Advent of the Lord, man had fallen to the lowest state into which it was possible for him to fall; the mediums through which truth reached him had become so corrupt, that the "Word of God was made of none effect by the traditions of men," and thus even the representative of a Church, as the Jewish, had cheerfully rested under the dominion of a heathen emperor: "We have no king but Cæsar," was the cry of the priests and people when they led forth the Lord to crucify Him; the Lord cleared the avenues of truth to man, abrogated the merely representative of a Church, and brought truth to the reach of all. How has this truth been used? What is the history of the Christian Church? Is it not the history of men calling themselves followers of the Lord, and yet living in open violation of His precepts,-men,

glorying in the light of the Gospel, and not allowing themselves to be warmed by its heat? And what was the state of the Church when the Second Advent took place? Is it not distinctly stated by the messenger of the New Dispensation, "that few at this day are permitted to enter into interior temptations?" and are we so much improved since those days, as to be able to say, that we are spiritual or celestial men? What evidence can be produced that, as a body, we are either the one or the other? We should consider the low state from which we have to be raised; we should consider, that being the first from a fallen Church, bound hand and foot in the grave-clothes of its lifeless doctrines, the difficulty we experience to get rid even of them, that few, very few of us can be in states to permit the Sun of Heaven to shine on our affections, either in the spiritual or the celestial degree: the Lord can only bless us as we will permit Him. And if we only think on the position I have just stated all mankind were in at the commencement of the Second Advent, we shall see the truth of its conclusion: the evil of rating New Church members higher than they really are in the scale of regeneration, must engender pride of heart; for if we really were either spiritual or celestial, having fought the hard battle of subduing our evil and false desires, and having felt and constantly feeling (for as long as we live in this world we must feel the power of the tempter,) our own destitute condition, we should be the last to say or feel that our labours were over, and that we had entered into our rest; to be free from the superstitions and unscriptural doctrines by which we are surrounded; to see clearly who the God of Heaven is, and to glory in the contemplation of the infinity of His love and mercy towards us; to feel ourselves enlightened by the opening to our view of the Spiritual Sense of His Sacred Word; to see every day the manifestation of the effects of the New Dispensation in all classes of society among ourselves, and in every clime on which the sun rises and sets, these are delights which are peculiar to the New Churchman. But while we delight ourselves in these contemplations do not let us permit them to lose their effect by imagining, because these things give us pleasure, that therefore we are fitted to enter into high states of spiritual, celestial life, or that we are in such states,—a fallacy which was one of the great causes of the fall of the first Christian Church, and is calculated to do much harm to the New Church, by forming an idea in the minds of its members, that because they are within the pale of the Church, that therefore they are living members of it; and I think I am borne out in my idea by our author, when I say that, from the debasement of human nature from which we have just emerged, it will take many ages before the Church, in man, will in this