-.» ■'I" ,' 1. a-S" MASTER NE NO 91-80200-27 MICROFILMED 1991 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES/NEW YORK as part of the ''Foundations of Western Civilization Preservation Project 3J Funded by the NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES Reproductions may not be made without permission from Columbia University Librar}' COPYRIGHT STATEMENT The copvright law of the Uniied States - Title 17, United Ctoroc r\A^ -. rnnppmt; rh.> mnlcina of nh . ■ ' o e ; ^ nieS Orothi States Code - concerns the making of ph'-rw-nies or otiier reproductions of copyrighted material... C'lliimbia University Library resenes the right to refuse to accept a copv order 'if, m its judgement, fulfillment ot the order v.ould involve violation of tlie copyright ia'A . A i T H R KING, THOMAS TITLE: REASONS FOR EMBRA CING THE DOCTRINES, PL A CE : PHILADELPHIA DA TE : COT ITMBTA UNTVERSTTY T TRRAKTFS FRiiSEKX ATION DHl'AKl MEN 1 IHBLIOGRAPHIC MiO^OmiiM TARGET Master Negative # ,**■- -'f" Original Material as lalmed ™ iixisimg Bibliograpliic Record r ^^.•^ "^^*^-^'^ . "^omar, A ' . ,., doctrine", of the .., ,,g containoa m t. ^ , i " ' '(AmoricHl "'' denborg g r>8 P ^^^'— rT^ • ^vT no dfi^s -aW rTractsi ^ - . '■ I I y '■}%>'■■>-> • "- i. --'-'-^' ^ Restrictions on Use: TECI-iNICAL MICROFORM DATA FILM SIZE:„ 3jr_^^im^L^ REDUCTION RATIO:,^ /OV IMAGE PLACEMENT. J A (RK^ IB IIB DATE FILMED:^ J^Z^J/_Z^7: INITIALS,^__ FILMED BY: RESEARCH PUBLIC ATIONS. INC WOODBRIDGE. CT B.-^-^. fS'T- Fw^?^^*ffl?ri!^^~?^f,^«?fr;f^;^ IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I 1.25 4.5 1 5.0 17.1 2.8 111— 1^ 4.0 1.4 2.5 2.2 2.0 1.8 1.6 150mm .// PHOTOGRAPHIC SCIENCES CORPORATION 770 BASKET ROAD P.O. BOX 338 WEBSTER, NEW YORK 14580 (716)265-1600 I intljfCttpoflrwIlork LIBRARY 1 e. \ \ If lYo^f Uevlsed Series, No. 33 REASOiNS FOR EMBRACING THE TIMS OF THE NEW CliyilCI I ) H AS CONTAINED IN THE WRITINGS OF EMANUEL SWEDENBORG, BY REV. THOMAS A. KJNG, PASTOR OP THE NEW CHURCH IN BALTIMORB, HARTLAiTD •^/,^/ I I H ^PHILADELPHIA: AMERICAN NEW CHURCH TRACT AND PUBLICATION SOCIETY, Twenty-Secoxd and Chestnut Stuef.ts. KEW CHDRCH BOARD OF PUBLICATION, No. 20 COOPER UNION, NEW YORK. BOSTON: MASSACHUSETTS NEW CHURCH UNION, 169 TREMONT STREET. Printed by J. B. Lippincott Cojipany, Philadelpbia. /\ >*( •■'^taS«?"^-r*^- -"''J^^'^^^*^^*'^ PUBLISHED BY The American New Cimrcn Tract auil Pnmication Society. DOCTRIIVES OK THE NEW CHITRCH: NO. I. 2. 3. 4. 5- 6. NO. I. 2. 3 4. 5 6. 7 8 NO. WHAT THEY TEACH, AND WHAT THEY DO NOT TEACH. By Rev. Chauncey Giles. T^u ^^ ^ i5pint: What he is, and what he is not. Ihe Divinity of the Sacred Scriptures: What it is what it is not 1 he Death of the Material Bodf Essential to Htl^an HapV n-s Spiritual Death: Its xNature. Origin. Delights, and Tormems 1 he Resurrection of the Soul from Spiritual Death 1 he Resurrection of Man from the Material Body ' Heavenly Happiness: Its Principles and Means ofAttainment Heaven a Society of Regenerated Men and Women By Rev. Chauncey Giles. The Origin and Nature of Truth. The Origin and Nature of Love Iruth the Light of Heaven }'u^ JJalure and Office of the Holy Spirit he Divine Humanity of Jehovah the Central Truth of Christianity 'IVust 'n "he' Lo°d '^^ Crowning Work of Redemption The Oil of Joy. Stumbling Blocks. I»IISCHl.I,AXKOUS I>I«$COrRSK!$. J- 4- 5. II 12 1. Salvation Possible to all Men, by Rev. A. F. Frost " C^ruTcey^cner' '""''"" °' Ecclesiastical Government, by Rev. Changes in Faith: Probation and Judgment, bv Rev. Oliver Dver What IS Swedenborgianism? by Rev. J. C Ager ^ Manna, by Rev. Abiel Silver ^ 6. I Loved Jacob and I Hated Esau, by Rev. Abiel Silver I {fill ^P^'V"^ r^V^f ^"^' ^y ^"^^ Abiel Silver. ^K I J"' '^^°C ^^^ ^'■'' ^''^'■<=y 3"^' Truth, bv Rev. Chaun'-ev Giles 9. The Lord a Refuge in Times of Trouble, b^ Rev. cL.uncey'G^les " "^ Chaunc^rcLr ^'^ "^"'^ ^^ ^'^ ^^^^'^ ^^-^^^ ^^^^'hy Rev. ,TS^.^.°°K^^ L'^^' ^y I^ev. Chauncey Giles. Rev" L p'"'MerTer' Phenomenon Explained and its Dangers Shown, by 13 Man's Ability the Measure of his Obligation, by Rev. Chauncey Giles. ^3 m"thI'*^''^i''"^J^' '^^ P"^^ °^.'^^'^ ^'■^^^^^ 's ^^o cents each, without re- hJill the number of pages ; 50 copies, 75 cents ; 100 copies, $1.25 If ordered R^m - l^ '° VX^""' "^^">' -1" ^°P''"'- ^^'^ ^^'^ «» t^^e " New Church Book- NerChurcTRnf^^'p"!;?'"^ Twenty-second Streets. Philadelphia; oX seuT New Ch.frrrn • ^"^''"Vo"' ^o Cooper Union. New York ; Massachu- wi^thonrTh.i f ^"'T' '^UM '■^"]°"' ^^'■"^^' ^^^t°" Missionaries supplied without charge from either Philadelphia or New York w.VhtoJb1afn'anv"nfll"'^1' '^ Societies, Associations, and individuals who wisn to obtain any of these tracts in quantities for distribution When wanted for this purpose, send to Philadelphia Book-Room. "'""°"- ^^^" wanted ( I \ i \ /v i k is ^ I J \ f / i^ I ^ UEASONS FOR EMBRACING THE DOCTRINES OF THE NEW CHURCH. " For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it ; and the covering narrower than that he can v>rap himself in it.^^ — Isaiah xxviii. 20. Every truly intelligent man feels that we are living in a new age, an age distinguished from all the ages that have preceded it. The men of this age have reached a point in their intellectual development where they stop and ask the reasons the church has to offer them for the de- mands she makes upon their faith. It is not necessary for me to say that the reasons which have so far been given by the church are vague and unsatisfactory. Every intel- ligent man knows that, if there is such a principle as re- lidon in the world, and if that principle is from the Di- vine Intelligence, it must be in harmony with mans highest reason. There are men and women everywhere who are breaking away from all religion, not because they have no religious instincts, but because they have be- come too much enli2:htened to live any longer with .0^ . 343557 3 i ^ 4 REASONS FOR EMBRACING their understandings held in subjection to a blind and irrational faith. They feel that human reason was given to be exercised, and not to be laid to sleep. Men, every- where, are beginning to feel this, and they find that as they exercise their reasoning faculties with regard to matters of fiiith, it brings them into a state of conflict with all they have been taught to regard as sacred and true. I have the most profound sympathy for such persons, and to such I offer, this morning, a system of spiritual truth that presents to the soul and reason the Divine Being in His essential character of love ; a system of spiritual truth that harmonizes the statements made in Genesis with the history of the rocks. That shows the eternal and essential harmony between Divine Revelation and all true Science; a system of spiritual truth that solves all the mysteries of the Divine Government, and that floods the soul with a licrht that increases in bri"rhtness as man moves on towards the source of all light. This system of spiritual truth is to be found in the writings of the seer of the New Dispensation, Emanuel Swedenborg. I am confident that if any man with ordinary intelligence will read the writ- ings of Swedenbor^:, he will find a confirmation of all I claim for them. I have studied his writings carefully and prayerfully, and I believe they contain the Lord's truth, revealed for the sake of the New Church which He is at this day establishing, and which in the order of the Di- vine Providence is designed to be the crown of all the churches that have preceded it. I therefore ask your attention, while I lay before you some of the principal reasons that have led me to renounce the old systems of religious belief and embrace the doctrines unfolded in the theological writings of Swedenborg. THE DOCTRINES OF THE NEW CHURCH. 5 The first, the central, and fundamental idea of all re- licrion is the acknowledgment of a Divine Being. With- out this there can be no religion. It being the foundation truth of all religion, it follows of necessity that the char- acter of the reli-ion will depend upon the conceptions men have of the Divine Being, and of His relation to them, and their relation to Him. Every science has its leading foun- dation truth, and until clear ideas are formed of that lead- in- truth, and the relation that all the other truths in the scrence sustains to it, no correct idea can be formed of the science. Until astronomers learned that the sun was the centre of our solar system, and the relation that all the other worlds sustained to it, we did not, and could not, have a correct system of astronomy. It is equally neces- sary to a correct system of theology that it rest, not upon appearances, but upon a true understanding of the Di- vine nature, and the laws by which that nature operates. We are told by Swedenborg,-and it is so reasonable that an intelligent man must see its truthfulness,—" that the idea of God enters into everything belonging to the church, religion, and worship," and that "theological matters have their residence above all otters in the human mind, and among these, the idea of God is the principle or supreme, wherefore if this be false, all beneath it, in consequence of the principle from whence they flow, must be false or falsified; for that which is supreme, being also the inmost, constitutes the essence of all that is derived from it ; and this essence, like a soul, forms them mto a body after its own image, and when in its descents it lights upon truths, it even infects them with its own blemish and error." The doctrine which is taught in the old tlieology on this 'O. 6 REASONS FOR EMBRACING central and foundation truth of religion is, 1. " There is one God, without body, parts, or passions, everlastmg, of infi- nite power, wisdom, and goodness, the maker and pre- server of all things visible and invisible. And in unity of this Godhead there are three persons of one substance, power, and eternity,— the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost." 2. " The Son, who is the word of the Father, very and eternal God, of one substance with the Father, took man's nature, so that two whole and perfect natures, that is to say, the Godhead and the manhood, were joined together never to be divided, whereof is one Christ, very God and very man." 3. *'The Holy Ghost, proceeding from the Father through the Son, is of one substance, majesty, and glory with the Father and Son, very and eternal God." Such is the doctrine in what are called the " orthodox" churches with regard to the Divine Being. It is needless for me to say that this doctrine of the Divine Trinity has never given satisfaction to the thinking portion of the Christian Church. It has been a subject of mystery, of doubt, and denial ever since its formulation. Thinkint' men and women see that, if each of these alleged persons is "very and eternal God," tritheism follows, and there is no means of escape from it. The bare mention of this tripersonal trinity is subversive of all rational conceptions of the Divine unity. No matter how much it may be qualified by discriminating divines, it, nevertheless, stands as the virtual acknowledgment of three Gods. Men may say with their lips that there is one God ; but if they hold to the tripersonal trinity, they necessarily have in their minds the idea of three Gods. I reject the doctrine of the 'PS ...'.1 u THE DOCTRINES OF THE NEW CHURCH. 7 tripersonality of the Divine Being, because it is unrea- sonable and anti-scriptural. The human soul intuitively reaches out after one God, and the Bible, in harmony witli that longing, presents one God to the soul. '' Hear, Is- rael, the Lord your God is one Lord." The Word of the Lord most emphatically teaches the personal oneness of God, and when I compared the statements made in the creeds of the " old church" on this subject with the plain and conclusive statements made in the Word upon the same subject, I found that there was an evident con- flict between the two, I saw that the Word taught a three- fold distinction in the Godhead, but the thought of that distinction being personal destroyed all idea of the abso- lute oneness of God which I saw to be taught all through the sacred Scriptures. From the time my mind began to be exercised upon this subject until I met with the writings of Swedenborg, I was in a state of theological confusion. I felt that the Lord Jesus Christ was in some mysterious way a Divine Being ; but how to reconcile His Divinity, the Divinity of the Father, and the Divinity of the Holy Ghost, which Divinities I was taught to regard as personally distinct, " each by Himself Lord and God," with the great truth taught in the Word that God was one, I knew not. But when in the order of the Lord's providence I met with Swedenborg s " True Christian Religion," a book which contains wisdom well worthy the origin he claims for it, T found that every doubt was removed, every question an- swered, and a new direction given to my thought. I found in this book the fulfilment of the Lord's promise, <* The time cometh when I will speak to you plainly of the Father." I found a doctrine of the Divine Trinity that is E»?« 8 REASONS FOR EMBRACING rational, clear, and, above all, thoroughly scriptural. Let me give you the doctrine of the Divine Trinity which I found unfolded and logically taught in this book. " There is one God, in whom is a Divine Trinity called the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. These three are distinct, yet united in Him as soul, body, and opera- tion are in man, and the Lord Jesus Christ is this God," Here I found, in harmony with the Scriptures, a three- fold distinction in the Godhead recognized and taught; but not a personal distinction. And just here, namely, in claiming personal distinctions in the Godhead, is where the old theology has made the error that has falsified its whole system. A trinity of equally Divine persons is simply a trinity of Gods. But when, as is taught in Swe- denborg, we see that there are three Divine principles which constitute the Divine Being, — namely, love, wisdom, and power, — we can see how such a Divine Trinity can exist in God, and we can also see how it would be im- possible for it not to exist. Somewhat of a consistent idea of this central doctrine of Divine Revelation may be formed from a consideration of the trinity in man. We are told in the Word that man was made in the image and after the likeness of God. It is only through man that we are en- abled to form ideas of the Divine. To arrive at correct conceptions of the Divine Being we must find a perfect human being, a man perfectly developed in all the ele- ments of his mental and spiritual constitution, a man who has been raised to the sublime heights of celestial good- ness, and then intensify that character, lift it up until it ceases to become finite, and is lost amid the altitudes of the Infinite Man. Thus can we, through man, ascend to an understanding of God, who is the archetypal man. t • '\ 'i r ii THE DOCTRINES OF THE NE]V CHURCH. 9 We must remember, also, that man is not life, but sim- ply an organ formed to receive life from God who is life. As an organized form receptive of the Divine life, we find that the three essentials of the Divine life are finited in him. Thus he becomes the adumbration of the Divine. Human love is but a finite form of the Divine love ; human wisdom is but the finite form of the Divine wisdom, and hu- man power is but a finite form of the Divine power. This trinity of love, wisdom, and power in man is perfectly consistent with his absolute oneness. Now transfer this trinity of love, wisdom, and powt?, or soul, body, and operation in man, to the Divine Being, allowing of course for the diflference between the infinite and the finite, and we shall be enabled to see how this trinity exists in God in strict harmony with that personal oneness which is taught all through the Divine Word. Love is the primary ground of the Divine existence, and is what is meant in the Word by the term '' Father." Divine truth, or wisdom, being the form of the Divine love, is what is meant in the Word by the term '' Son." The proceeding life of Divine love and wisdom is what is meant in the Word by the term " Holy Spirit." If we think of the Trinity in this manner, we at once lift the veil of mystery which has huntr over it so lony;, and see it in its own rational light. There is nothing transcendental or mystical about this doctrine. It is consistent with itself, and it appeals di- rectly to our reason as a true doctrine. If you will allow yourselves to think on this subject, you will find that love is the underlying ground of all ex- istence. Thought is the form in which love clothes itself, and the means by which it comes forth into the world and exists. Aff"ection cannot exist without thought, nor can I ^.i 10 REASONS FOR EMBRACING thought exist without affection. They bear the same rela- tion to each other as the sun's heat and light. From the marriage of affection and thought in man there proceeds a sphere which encompasses man, and is the embodiment of both his affection and thought. In harmony with this obvious trinity in man, we can think of Divine love as the Father, of the Divine wisdom as the Son, and of the Holy Spirit as the proceeding life of the two combined, existing, however, in one person. It would be just as reasonable to predicate three persons of man, because of the trichotomy seen in his organization, as to predicate it of God on the same ground. But Swedenborg not only gives us this reasonable doctrine of the Divine Trinity, he goes still farther, and shows us that Divine love, wisdom, and power are not mental abstractions ; but that they inhere in one who loves, is wise, and powerful. When we speak -of benevolence, wisdom, and power, we must associate them in our thought with personality. The old theology pretends to teach the personality of God ; but it immediately destroys all idea of God's personality by declaring, at the same time, that God is without form or bodily parts. If God is, He must be substance, and it is a necessity of thought to associate form with substance. The old theology f\iils to recognize the truth that there is a substance above and distinct from matter, and thus it presents a God who is diffused through the universe, which is simply another form of pantheism. Our old-school theologians tell us, if God is substance and form, then He must be localized. Oh, into what midnight darkness does the human mind plunge when it is guided by mere appearances ! Creation is an outbirth of the Divine love and wisdom, I t > < THE DOCTRINES OF THE NEW CHURCH. H and there is a constant influx from the Lord into every grade and plane of His creation ; but He stands out per- fectly distinct as to personality from His creation, just as distinct from it as the sun is from the flower that receives its heat and light. Thus God is substance itself, form itself, and personality itself, living at all times in all the planes of His creation, and yet as distinct from creation as cause is from effect. Thus by the aid of Swedenborg's writings, and the light they throw upon the pages of the Divine Word, we are enabled to think of the Divine Being, not as an infinite abstraction, not as an omnipotent force, but as having substance, form, and personality, the infinite man from whom we derive the principles which constitute our humanity. In the great economy of human redemption the whole Godhead comes into incarnation. This is recognized in the second article of religion in the book of discipline for the Methodist Church. But, strange to say, it is contradicted in the first article of religion in the same book. The first states that in unity of the Godhead there are three persons of one substance, power, and eternity. The second article, which begins by styling Christ the second person in the Trinity, concludes by saying that in Him the Godhead and manhood were joined together. If, as the first article as- serts, the Godhead and manhood were joined together in one person never to be divided, whereof is one Christ, very God and very man, then, to be consistent, they must admit that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were united in Christ, since, as their first article states, the Godhead comprises three persons. But while the first article is false, the second is true, though they do not comprehend its mean- ing. The three essential principles in the Godhead are \ Ii '*^»?^'vr iT* r ?!T •*^*^ I- '^'- 12 REASONS FOR EMBRACING inseparable, and in the economy of redemption the great Jehovah of the Old Testament descends and becomes the Jesus Christ of the New. The human nature which Jehovah God assumed as a means of bringing Himself down to the plane of fallen humanity, was begotten by Jehovah Himself. All life is from God. Life is not a creation, but an emanation from God who alone hath immortality in Him- self. The natural father is simply an instrument in the Divine hand by means of which the Divine life passes down from God and is clothed by the mother. Tiic life- principle comes through the father. This life principle passing from God through a finite channel makes us finite. Now in the incarnation of God in our humanity the natural father was removed, and the Divino life came down immediately from God, and was clothed by the mother with such things as were proper to her life, so that Christ was Divine from conception, and in His inner and essential nature was Jehovah God Himself. As the Divine gradually descended into this humanity, it removed all that was finite and imperfect from the mother until the human and Divine were perfectly united, so that Christ could say, " The Father and I are one," " He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father." The great Jehovah dwells in this glorified humanity as the human soul dwells in the body. The Lord Jesus Christ is thus God in a glorified humanity. This being true, then it follows that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only true object of Christian worship, for in Him is the trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, according to St. Paul, who says, " In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." All that we can know or see of God is in Christ. Jesus Christ is t -;*fr s i / THE DOCTRINES OF THE NEW CHURCH. 13 liow the form in which God dwells. He is Emmanuel, God with us. '' He is the true God and eternal life." He said to Philip, " He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; how sayest thou then, Show us the Father." He said, ''The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself; but the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works." In these statements our Lord taught, in the clearest manner, that the Divine Trinity is iu Him ; consequently, that He is absolutely and supremely Divine. In no system of theology outside of Swedenborg s is it taught that the very soul of Christ was God Himself, and consequently nowhere but in his writings do we find a rational explanation of His Divinity, and of the Divine Trinity in Him. Language is inadequate to express the feeling of delight, the deep thankfulness of soul I felt, when by means of Swedenborg's writings I was enabled to sweep away the fogs of theological error, and behold the shining of a sun that was far more efi'ulgent than the noon- day brightness of the natural sun, and by means of its ever- increasing brightness to behold in mental vision the Lord Jesus Christ as " The Alpha, the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last : who was, who is, and who is to come, the Almighty," the God whose heart throbbed with infinite. Divine love ; the God who had infinite, Di- vine wisdom to direct His love ; the God who had all power in heaven and earth. I am resting now upon this rock, the supreme Divinity of Jesus, and I feel that the gates of hell can never prevail against it. But seeing this doctrine in its transcendent beauty was but the stepping-stone to something else. I saw that if a trinity of Divine persons from eternity was false, then 49 «l« \ 14 REASONS FOR EMBRACING the doctrine of the atonement ds held in the " old church" was also false ; because I saw that it was based upon the doctrine of the tripersonality of God. In order to show you my reasons for renouncing the vicarious atonement as it is held and taught in the old theologies, it will be neces- sary for me to state that doctrine as it is held to-day. The atonement according to the old doctrine consisted in the vicarious sacrifice of the Son of God on the cross, by means of which sacrifice or death in the stead of the sin- ning race the Father was appeased, His justice fully satis- fied° and the possibility of salvation established, the favor of God being purchased by the blood of His only begotten Son. , J • f Such is really a correct statement of the doctrine ot Christ's atonement as it is taught in the old theology to- day. Can any man conceive how a more God-disgracing doctrine could have been invented ? I reject this doctrine because it is a monstrosity, utterly unworthy the Divine Being, and an insult to common sense. How can such a doctdne be true ? Let us give it a little examination, and sec how it stands the test of Scripture and reason. " To the law and to the testimony : if they speak not according to this Word, it is because there is no light in them." 1. If the three alleged persons in the Godhead are of " one substance, power, and eternity," as the creed states, then why should the Father demand satisfaction, and nothing be said about the satisfaction of the Son and Holy Spirit f Why should the Father have wrath to appease, and nothing be said about the wrath of the Son and Holy Spirit ? Why should the Father demand propitiation, and nothing be said about propitiating the Son and Holy Spirit? Any rrtional man can see that if the three alleged per- t:' / < THE DOCTRINES OF THE NEW CHURCH. 15 sons in the Divine Trinity are of " one substance, power, and eternity," each " very and eternal God," that one can- not make demands exclusive of the other two. 2. This view of the atonement argues a reconciliation on the part of God to man. Thus, in the latter part of the second article in the book of discipline for the Meth- odist Church, we read that " Jesus Christ sufi'ered and died to reconcile His Father to us." This statement is in direct contradiction to Saint Paul, who emphatically de- clares that " God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself." If God is unchangeable, how could the fall of man affect Him or His attitude towards the race ? Sin did not work any change in the Divine mind. He says, •' I am the Lord. I change not." • 3. How can the suifering of the innocent atone for the sins of the guilty ? If a man through the violation of some physical law breaks his arm, to punish some innocent one, or break the arm of another man, will not set the arm that is already broken. It is not possible to transfer the o'uilt of one person to the person of another. The old doctrine of atonement takes it for granted that the penalty of sin can be dissociated from the sinning party and trans- ferred to another. Thus the old doctrine teaches that Jesus Christ bore the penalty due man's sin. But can such a doctrine be true ? Can I cut my finger, and have the pain, the penalty of that physical sin, transferred to the finger of some one else? We see that such a thing is plainly impossible. I stand and look this doctrine in the face, and from the very inmost of my being I reject it, be- cause it is a libel upon God, because it sets aside the plain declarations of the Holy Word, because it is an insult to my reason, and contradicts every intuition of my humanity. < > ^e7^^ 16 REASONS FOR EMBRACING ft But while I reject the old doctrine of redemption and atonement, do not imagine that I do not believe in any redemption and atonement. I believe with all my heart in the redemption and atonement of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, understood, however, in a very different manner from the above. When I began the study of Swe- denborg's writings, I found that man did not sustain a mere legal relation to the Lord. I found that the Lord was life itself, and that man derived his life from the Lord by a constant inflowing ; that he was related to the Lord as effect is to cause, or as the branch is to the vine, or the flower to the sun. T found logically taught in his writino^s the great truth that God's laws are not the arbitrary en- actments of an arbitrary monarch, but that they essentially inhere in the constitution of man, and that the penalty due their violation is not an arbitrary infliction, but that it follows as a necessary consequence. When this truth was firmly fixed in my mind, and com- prehended in all its bearings, I saw that the fall of man consisted in a gradual decline from his Eden-state of love to God and the neighbor, into states of self-love, by means of which he destroyed the original order in his creation, and brought upon himself misery and spiritual death. I saw also that as evil men entered the world of spirits that men in the natural world were subject to their infernal influxes, which swept them away from the Lord. I saw how Jehovah, by means of the angels, kept Himself in communication with the declining race until man reached a plane where he could no longer be reached through an angelic nature. I saw that when this crisis was reached, that if some channel of Divine communication was not es- tablished the whole race must perish. When this truth 1 V ■. * i THE DOCTRINES OF THE NEW CHURCH. 17 dawned upon my mind, I saw for the first time the real necessity for the Divine incarnation. I saw that hell had approached so near the human race, that unless some power should remove it from man his humanity would be de- stroyed. How could this work be accomplished ? Only through the descent of the Divine to man's plane. The essential Divine could approach hell and subdue it only through the medium of an infirm humanity. Had the naked'^Divinity approached hell it would have occasioned the absolute annihilation of evil spirits. But through the medium of a humanity assumed on the plane of fallen man, the Lord could approach hell, and by receiving its tempta- tions into His own humanity, overcome them, and thus put hell forever under His feet. We are told that the Lord was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin. The humanity which He assumed being taken on man's plane, necessarily contained all the hereditary infirmities that characterize humanity in gen- eral. As evil spirits through the avenues of His assumed humanity fought against the Lord, He subdued them, and removed them from man. In this way He put man in a state of spiritual equilibrium, where he would be free to turn to the Lord and be saved. This was the redemption which God wrought through Jesus Christ, a redemption not from God's wrath, not from God's justice, not from the penalty of sin while the sin remained, but a redemption from the power of hell. " For this purpose," says the apostle, " was the Son of God manifest, that he might destroy the works of the Devil." But redemption was attended by the work of at-one- ment. By at-onement we mean that the human essence in Christ was united to the Divine essence. This was 18 REASONS FOR EMBRACING effected through His temptations. As evil spirits flowed in with their temptations, the Lord removed them by put- ting away from His humanity the hereditary infirmities which constituted the ground of His temptations. As this was done, the Divinity from within descended still lower in the human, until it was fully glorified. St. Paul tells us that " the Captain of our salvation was made perfect through suffering." Through His redemption and at-onc- ment a new and eternal medium of communication was established between God and man. God in a Divine hu- manity can now reach man on the very lowest plane and communicate His saving life to him. He is God on our plane. No matter how evil a man is, he need not wait to make himself better. All that he need do is to look to the Divine Christ for strength to overcome his evils, and the help will come, for Christ is God on every plane of human life. He is the Jacob's ladder, reaching from the highest heaven to the lowest condition of mankind. God in a glorified humanity comes down to man, and man through the same glorified human goes to God. Thus Christ said, " No man cometh unto the Father but by Me." What a beautiful doctrine this is ! Christ, or the glorified human, becomes the mediator between the Father and man, in the same sense that our bodies mediate between our souls and the world around us. Such was the doc- trine I found taught in Swedenborg on the redemption and at-onement of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was so rational, clear, and beautifiil that as a rational man search- ing for the truth, and willing to follow it regardless of con- sequences, I could not do otherwise than accept it, " But if that doctrine is true," says one, " what becomes of the death of Christ?" We remark, in the first place, ♦ 1M\ V f THE DOCTRINES OF THE NEW CHURCH 19 that the death of Christ has not been really understood for centuries in the Christian Church. It is true that the Word does speak of the death of Christ. But the Christian Church has attached a meaning to His death altogether foreign to the one that the Word of God seeks to convey. There were two deaths through which our Lord passed. The first was a death to the infirmities which in His humanity He derived from His human mother. Some idea of this death may be gained from a study of Paul's declaration, " I die daily, yet I live." St. Paul died daily as to the natural man, but constantly lived more and more as to the spiritual man. Now if we can get fixed in our minds the fact that Christ had our nature; that while He had a Divine Father, yet He had a human mother, and from her derived a nature in com- mon with our own ; for the apostle says, " It behooved Christ to be made in all things like unto His brethren,"— I say, if we can hold on to this one great central fact in the philosophy of the Divine incarnation, we can see how Christ must die to the imperfections and infirmities of the earth-life from the mother, and in their stead bring down the Divine life from the Father within Him. It is this truth alone that explains St. Paul's statement with regard to Christ's death, " In that He died, He died once unto sin ; but in that He now liveth, He liveth unto God." As Jesus Christ through the infinite regeneration of His humanity removed the merely finite and imperfect quali- ties from His humanity, they were replaced by Divine substances and qualities from the Godhead within Him, so that His humanity lived unto God, and became the per- fect exponent of the Divine Heart. His physical death, or what is termed the passion of < S®?^*T^r' 20 REASONS FOR EMBRACING the cross, which in the current theology is made to be the whole of redemption, was simply the last act in the Divine plan of redemption, being also the last temptation He en- dured as the Saviour of the world. Without this suffer- ing and death the world could not have been saved. '' Without the shedding of blood there can be no remis- sion of sin." Not because that blood wrou^irht a chancre in the Divine mind towards man, but because it was one of the cruelties the Lord was willins: to bear in order that He might save His children. But we must bear in mind the fact that the physical crucifixion of Christ was not redemption. If you have a friend overboard, and you plunge into the water to rescue him, you must get wet ; but the simple act of getting wet is not the thing that saves your friend, it is the help you bring him. So while the salvation of man involved the physical death of Christ, it was no more the whole of redemption than the mere act of getting wet is the deliverance of your drowning friend. This view of the Lord's death does not cast any reflection upon the Divine character, but shows it to be a natural consequence of the work the Lord came to perform. Suf- fering and death stood between Him and the salvation of man, and He bore it for man, not in the stead of man as a satisfaction to Divine justice. But the perception of this truth put me in a position to see that the commonly received doctrine of justification b}' faith alone was false. I could see that it was the natural outgrowth of the doctrine of the tripersonality of God, and the vicarious atonement, as held in the old theology. Let me state this doctrine so that you may know what I have rejected. The old doctrine is as follows : Man was placed under the moral law of God with power either to obey or lifj^y. > ^ ( i '* THE DOCTRINES OF THE NEW CHURCH. 21 disobey it. By an exercise of that power vouchsafed to him he violated this moral law, and in so doing incurred the righteous indignation of God, and subjected himself and his posterity to eternal death and damnation. The moral law demanded satisfaction. Some one must die. It made no difference to the law who died so it was satis- fied. When this crisis came, the Son of God, born from eternity, stepped between the offended Father and the sin- ning race as man's substitute. This Son, or second per- 8on°in the Godhead, was punished in man's stead, or in other words, was accounted guilty in man's stead. Not being a creature such as man. He by this act of vicarious substitution and death brought to Himself infinite merit and righteousness. Having satisfied all the claims of Di- vine justice, the law now has no further claim upon those who by faith alone look to Him. By this act of faith alone in Him, the Father imputes His merit and righteous- ness to man and accounts him righteous ; not because he is righteous, but because of his faith in His Son. Such is the prevalent doctrine of justification by faith as taught in the old theology. When I began the study of Swedenborg's writings, I found that salvation was a very different thing from what I had been taught. Salvation, according to Swedenborg, is made to be the soul's absolute deliverance from the power and dominion of sin. Man has nothing good in or of himself He is born into the loves of self and the world. He can only be raised into the spiritual love of God and the neighbor by having the sal- vation of God wrought wtthiii him, not outside of htm. He has no power to do this work of himself; he therefore needs a Divine Saviour. The Lord Jesus Christ is that Saviour. To come into a state of justification, man must < ^' 22 REASONS FOR EMBRACING not only have faith, but he must keep the commandments. We are justified in the sight of God only so far as we are just By disobedience to the commandments man has made himself a sinner, and he can be saved only through his obedience to the very laws he has violated. Thus the Lord said to the young ruler, " If thou wouldst enter into life keep the commandments." I found in Swedenborg's writings in harmony with the Scriptures, that a good life was not only the primary ground of salvation, but salvation itself I found that sal- vation did not consist in being admitted into heaven by an act of immediate mercy, but in a heavenly state created in the soul itself I found that man must actually possess the righteousness by which he is justified and saved. Ac- cording to Swedenborg this process is wrought in the person of the sinner himself According to the old the- ology it is wrought outside of him, in and through the second person in the Godhead, and the benefit of it be- comes his by the Father imputing it to him in considera- tion of his faith. It is impossible for man to retain any moral quality in the spiritual world which he has not incorporated into his character here. The righteousness of Christ can, there- fore, only become ours when by doing righteously we make it our own. " He that doeth righteousness is right- eous," says the apostle. This he can only do by humble and sincere obedience to the law of God. According to Swedenborg, Christ did not come to keep the command- ments in our stead, but to make it possible for us to keep them. Man cannot keep the commandments of himself. He needs a Divine helper to sustain him in his efforts to keep them. Thus the Lord Jesus is ever present by the ^ ^ i THE DOCTRINES OF THE NEW CHURCH 23 operation of His Holy Spirit to give man power to obey the commandments, and thus put away his evils and be fitted for a " mansion not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." As man by faith and obedience co-oper- ates with the Lord, he is more and more regenerated and justified, and finally brought into perfect harmony with the Divine will, not, however, by the imputed benefits of a redemption wrought outside of him, but by a redemption and at-onement wrought within Him, in virtue of which he is united to the Lord, and becomes the embodiment of those principles and qualities which alone make heaven. This, to me, was a far more rational doctrine than the old one. It showed me that faith alone had no place in the Divine economy of salvation. I saw that heaven was not given to man as a reward, but that it was a state created in the soul by living a life of faith and charity. Thus I rejected the old and embraced the new doctrine, and I feel that it is as sound as the eternal throne. But again. As to the doctrines of death, resurrection, and the spiritual world, I found in Swedenborg that they were treated of so beautifully, rationally, and scripturally that my heart naturally opened to them. In Swedenborg s writings I found the grand truth that the soul was an or- ganized, spiritual substance, and thus possessed the humau form ; that the material body was only the instrument of the soul, the man within it ; and that death was simply the taking down of man's earthly tabernacle, and a birth into the spiritual world where he found himself in a spiritual body, and surrounded with beings who were real and substantial, and not formless phantoms lingering in some limbo, awaiting the arrival of their material bodies. I found that this doctrine was taught all through the v.^- 24 REASONS FOR EMBRACING Scriptures. I had found the true doctrine, and the Word was in harmony with it. When the Lord was questioned on this doctrine what did He teach ? He said, " Concerning the resurrection ye have erred ; for that the dead are raised up." Mark His language, " are raised up," not, shall be raised up. " Even Moses tauGrht at the bush when he called the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob ; for God is not the God of the dead but of the living." If this answer of the Lord teaches anything, it certainly teaches that all who have died are raised up. Why should He mention the names of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as evidence that the dead are raised if those men had not already been resurrected? Then St. Paul tells us that *' there is a natural body and there is a spiritual body ;" and that *' flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God." He also says, " If this earthly house of my tabernacle were dissolved, I have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." He also tells us that in the spiritual world he '* Shall not be found naked, but clothed upon with his house which is from heaven." St. Paul nowhere teaches the resurrection of the material body. Death, in the writings of Swedenborg, is made to be simply a step in the life of man. The spiritual world is made to be real, a world of substance and forms, and not a refined material world located somewhere within the bounds of the materia*^ universe. When man enters this spiritual world, he is then and there judged according to the deeds done in the body, and if he is good he is taken into heaven ; but if evil, he finds his way to hell, where he remains to all eternity. All judgment takes place in the '' world of spirits," or that •«; . •v \ I 4 y THE DOCTRIKES OF THE NEW CHURCH. 25 State which is intermediate between heaven and hell ; and that iud-ment does not consist in finding out how many sins mcn°have committed, but what their real character is. God does not keep a large book in which He writes down all our sins ; but we are keeping a book, and on its pages every affection, thought, and act are written. That book is our internal memory, and it will be opened in the " worid of spirits," and we shall be judged according to the things that we have written in our book of life. We are our own book-keepers, and we shall carry our account with us into the spiritual world. I embraced what Swedenborg taught on these subjects because it was in harmony with reason, revelation, and the intuitions of my own soul. I have no hesitancy m saying that if any man, with sound reason, will in the calm li