NE A NO 91-80200-28 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES/NEW YORK as part of the 'Toundations of Western Civilization Preservation Project" Funded by the NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES Reproductions may not be made without permission from Columbia University Library COPYRIGHT STATENffiNT The copyright law of the United States -- Title 17, United States Code -- concerns the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material... Columbia University Library reserves the right to refuse to accept a copy order if, in its judgement, fulfillment of the order would involve violation of the copyright law. AUTHOR: DYER, OLIVER TITLE : CHANGES IN FAITH PLA CE : PHILADELPHIA DA TE : (■( !1AJM!?IA UNIVERSi IT iJBRAki}-:; i'RESHRVAriON I3E!V\RTMltN f Master Negative # BIBLIOGRAPHIC MICROFORM TARGE i Ongjna! Material as F-i!n\ed Hxisting Bibliographic Record 938.94 Z Dyer, Oliver 1- ; -U ^ ;■ C '] . ^■'"'"'■" '" ^■■^"■■- rrobM,i';r: and jud-raent Phil no dn * o c ro p ', A.-; i/ri crin n^i"? ""i-jrc; r^r.f^ "'i'"" I ', c;", *, ' on ' £ i I c C w ►„> ] ..O '■)f a vol of >-. '"'I , if , r-hlo i. ,-, Restrictions on Use; ^ TftCl INIC-AI. MICROFORM OAT A -7 RinnJCTlON RATIO; F I L M S I Z E : ^ __J ^_ _ f/l fVl IMAGE PEACEMENT: , lA /h7)^ IB 1115 DATE FIEMED: V^y/^T IN-rnAIS__ F!I.MEi:>BY: R ESEARCH PUH LICATK )NS. IMr VVOODHKinr;!' O! J.Q)? PHILADELPHIA: AMERICAN NEW CHURCH TRACT AND FUHLICATION SOCIKTY, Twenty-Second and Chestnut Streets. E. H. SWINNEY, AGENT, No. 20 COOPER UNION, NEW TOM. Printed by J. B. LiPPiNcorr & Co., Philndelpbia. TS, A.CTS PUBLISHED BY The American New Clinrcli Tract M Pnlilication Society. REVISED SERIES OF TRACTS. 5- 6. No. 1. Brief Statement of the Doctrines of the New Church, by Rev. B. F. Barrett 2. The Church of the New Jerusa- lem, by Rev. C. Giles. 3. The Resurrection and the Spirit- ual World. 4 The Doctrine of Substitution, by John Hyde. The Mini.>^try of Sorrow, by Rev. C. Giles. Is it Unreasonable? An Appeal in Behalf of the Doctrines of the New Church. The Apparent Contradictions of the Sacred Scriptures Recon- ciled, by Rev. C. Giles. Death the Gate of Life The Apocalyptic Jerusalem. The Life After Death. From Swedenborg. What is Heaven ? From Sweden- borg. The Anger of the Lord. How is such Scripture Phraseology to be Expl^^ined? The Way to Heaven. The Sacred Scripture. Its own answer to the question: Has it a Spiritual Sense? Infants in Heaven. From Swe- denborg. The Corner-Stone. Concerning'lhe Sacred Scriptures, or the Word of God. By Em- anuel Swedenborg. 8. 9 ID II 13 13 14 15- 16. 17- No. 18. Popular View of the Atonement. 19. The Great Reconciliation. 20. Washing our Spiritual Robes, by Rev. Oliver Dyer. 21. Who is our Neighbor? From Swedenborg. 22. What is it to Die? From Sweden- borg. 23. No Heaven Without Work, by Rev. C. Giles. 24. Children After Death. 25. Evolution and Natural Selection in the Light of the New Church. 26. The Resurrection. 27. The New Church and Spiritism, by Kev. C Giles. 28. Judgment and the World of Spir- its, by Rev. E. A. Beaman. 29. The Lord's Name in our Fore- heads, by Rev, Oliver Dyer. 30. Predestination, by Rev. C. Giles. 31. Regeneration. 32. What Must We Do to be Saved? by Rev. C. Giles, 33. Reasons for Embracing the Doc- trines of the New Church, by Rev. Thos A. King. 34. Prayer: the Philosophy of it, the Religion of it, and the Use of it. By Rev. Oliver Dyer. 35. Can Murderers be Saved? By Rev. E. A. Beaman. When ordered singly, the price of these tracts is 2 cents each, without re- gard to the number of pages ; 50 copies, 75 cents : 100 copies, 51.25. If ordered by mail, add 10 cents for every 50 copies. For sale at the "New Church Book- Room," corner of Chestnut and Twenty-second Streets, Philadelphia, or by E. H. Swinney, 20 Cooper Union, New York. Missionaries supplied without charge from either Philadelphia or New York. A liberal discount is made to Societies, Associations, afld individuals, who wish to obtain any of these tracts in quantities for distribution. When wanted for this purpose, send to Philadelphia Book-Room. r '- ^'A'^* ^tfV' M I ¥ CHANGES IN FAITH: PROBATION AND JUDGMENT. BY REV. OLIVER DYER. ''0/ old hast Thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of Thy hands. They shall perish, but Thou shalt endure : yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment ; as a vesture shall Thou change them, and they shall he changed: hut Thou art the same, and Thy years shall have no end'' — Ps. cii. 25-27. ''According to Thy name, God, so is Thy praise unto the ends of the earthy— Vs. xlyiii. 10. Nothing is what it at first seems to be. In the begin- nino; our senses mislead us as to everything in this world ; and our minds and hearts, under the lead of our unin- structed senses, are misled as to everything in the world to come. Our senses teach us that the sun moves through the heavens and that the earth stands still ; that the sun and the moon are tiny globes ; that the stars are mere twink- ling points ; that the sky is a substance which comes down to the earth all around us ; and so on, through all the phe- nomena of nature. We in our childhood believe all this ; and the human race in its historical childhood believed it all and founded its whole circle of beliefs on these mistakes ' 3 > ..-~.-'-~i« .: CHANGES IN FAITH: PROBATION AND JUDGMENT. and others analogous to them, and so got going wrong in all its beliefs with regard to God and His works, and man and his works, and the relations between God and man, and the destiny of the human soul, including its final judgment and its life after judgment. The physical universe is substantially the same to-day that it was when man first set foot upon it. But how dif- ferent are man's ideas of it now from what they were orig- inally ; yea, from what they were only a few hundred years ago ! From age to age the ideas, theories, and beliefs of men with regard to the solar and stellar systems have waxed old like garments and as vestures have been changed. So, too, God Himself has always been and is now the same without variableness or shadow of turning, but who can count up or describe the changes which have taken place in men's ideas of God's character and God's works? Ver- ily, like garments have they waxed old, and like vestures have they been changed. Well may the ever-active, omni- present Zeit Geistj or Time Spirit, sing, — " In the loud-roaring loom of time I ply, And weave the garment of God, thou knowcst Him by." The garment of God we know Him by 1 What is that garment? What is it that we know God by? In other words, how do we know Him, and what do we know of Him? If we consider the matter rationally, we shall find that we have certain ideas of God, — certain views, notions, theories, and beliefs about Him ; that we clothe Him, so to speak, with certain attributes and invest Him with cer- tain qualities ; and this investiture of Him by us through our thoughts and affections is the garment of God we know Him by. It is self-evident that our ideas of God are the , -* '■rv' . .61 ■', ji #.1 r - „ I,. * -J: • .■''•*V"- ii " -» I "V-V -ifMft r \ 'i \ only ideas we have of Him ; that our notions, views, theo- ries, and beliefs about Him are the only notions, views, theories, and beliefs that we have in regard to Him ; that our understanding of Him, and of His nature, character, and modes of operation, is the only understanding we have of Him and His attributes ; and it of course follows that this vesture of understanding and belief, wherein and where- with we invest God, is the garment, and the only garment we know Him by. And it is equally clear that this gar- ment of God by which we know Him is constantly chang- ing. " Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment ; as a vesture Thou shalt change them, and they shall be changed." Our beliefs, which are woven of our notions, and thoughts, and affections, also constitute our own mental and spiritual garments. This is one reason why spiritual qual- ities are so frequently spoken of in Scripture as garments. In Isaiah it is written that to those who mourn in Zion is given *' the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness'* (Ixi. 3) ; also, " For He hath clothed me with the garment of salvation. He hath covered me with the robe of righte- ousness." In the seventy-third Psalm it is said of the wicked that " violence covereth them as a garment;" and in the one hundred and ninth Psalm, in a description of a wicked man, it is written, " He clothed himself with curs- ing like as with a garment." In stating the spiritual con- dition of the Church in Sardis, in the third chapter of the Revelation, it is said, " Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white ; for they are worthy." Do you notice the peculiarity of this language? — " Thou hast a few names . . . which have not defiled their *33^rv^'?«v*-«.^ir--'*?*?s 6 CHANGES IN FAITH: garments r What are the garments of names? How can a name wear garments ? Before we can answer these questions we must know what a name actually is. What, then, is a name, in its essence, and in its essential meaning? It is a character, — is, in fact, the character by which any one is known and distinguished. When we talk about a person's having a good name, or a bad name, in the com- munity, we of course mean that he has a good character or a bad character. And in Scripture name means character in all its fulness ; it means the very essence of character and disposition. And when we remember that our mental and spiritual garments are woven out of our thoughts and affections, we can readily understand how a name can wear garments, because we can see that one's character or dis- position is inevitably clothed with the thoughts and affec- tions which belong to it, which harmonize with it, and nat- urally flow out of it. And hence one's name or disposition may have defiled garments, — that is, impure thoughts and evil affections, — so that it cannot walk with the Lord in the white garments of salvation, or the beautiful garment of praise. And this prepares us to understand the meaning of the second clause of the text : " According to Thy name, O God, so is Thy praise unto the ends of the earth." Name, we understand, means character or disposition ; therefore the name of God means the character or disposi- tion of God, which, so far as we can conceive of it, is sim- ply our ideas, or views, or belief with regard to it. And according to our notions of God's disposition, so will be our ideas of what kind of praise will be most acceptable to Him. Praise of God means confession and worship of God ; and our worship is always determined by what M V \ \ PROBATION AND JUDGMENT. 7 we think and believe about God's character and wishes. Hence we see how actually true is the declaration, "Ac- cording to Thy name, God, so is Thy praise unto the ends of the earth," *' The ends of the earth" is naturally taken to mean all over the world, and in one sense it does mean that. But it has a much more important and a iVir higher meaning. In the Scriptures, the earth means the Church at large, and it also means the Church in us individually. The Church in us is constituted of our religious ideas* and prin- ciples,— of what we think and believe and love. That is the earth which God addresses when He cries, through the mouth of His prophet, " earth, earth, earth, hear the Word of the Lord." (Jer. xxii. 29.) Of course this globe which we call the earth cannot hear the Word of the Lord. The Word of the Lord is addressed to human in- telligence and human affection ; and when the Word of the Lord is heard aright, it forms a little Church, or re- ligious belief in the soul ; and that is the earth, unto the ends of which the praise of God is according to His name. For, as has already been shown, according to our notions of God's character and our ideas of what He wants, so will be our praise and worship of Him clear to the ends of our spiritual earth ; that is to say, all through and through our religion, and in every part of it, both as to belief and as to doctrine. " Of old hast Thou laid the foundation of the earth : and the heavens are the work of Thy hands." As we understand what the earth means in the scriptural sense, we shall have no difficulty in also understanding what the heavens mean. The heavens mean our more exalted re- licrious ideas and affections,— that interior belief and love 8 CHANGES IN FAITH: which unite us closely to spiritual and heavenly things. Of both this earth and these heavens it is declared, " All of them shall wax old like a garment ; as a vesture Thou shalt change them, and they shall be changed : but Thou art the same, and Thy years shall have no end." When we come to see the real meaning of this passage, how grand, how beautiful, how true it is ! We can see for ourselves that it is true. We know that the ideas and beliefs and fiiiths of mankind, whether founded on their spiritual earth or in their spiritual heavens, have been constantly changing and are still undergoing changes; that they wax old like garments, and like vestures are changed and shall be changed ; but that God Himself, as He is in His essence and His substance, endures forever, and is always the same. As the growth of scientific and spiritual knowledge has dispelled the fogs and darkness of super- stition from the human mind, the rays of the Sun of Righteousness have shone with increased light and warmth into the human soul, and changed its whole spiritual climate, and rendered possible the development of spiritual ideas and affections which aforetime could no more have taken root, and blossomed, and ripened into fruitage than flowers can thrive in the frozen ground under the snows of winter. And now, from this general consideration of the uni- versal changes in human beliefs, I will pass to the particu- lar consideration of changes in the faith of the Christian world as to the doctrines of probation and judgment, and their siornificauce in the liiiht of the New Church. The prevailing religious belief of the present time is the child of all past beliefs in all past times, and the offspring shows unmistakable marks of its parentage in < PROBATION AND JUDGMENT. 9 many a lineament. Hence, if we would understand the re- ligious beliefs of the past and the present, and the changes which have taken place in them, we must consider the primitive nature of man, in which primitive beliefs had their origin and from which present beliefs have lineally descended. Whether man is of an animal origin, as scientists teach us, or whether he was created in a high state of perfection from which he fell to a state of beastly degradation, as religionists teach us, it is certain that when he emerged from the vague realms that lie beyond our ken and crossed the historical horizon his mental, moral, and spiritual state was as low as it could be and yet leave him human; low enough, in fact, to justify Swedenborg's declaration that he is "' more vile than any living creature amongst all the wild beasts and beasts." And down there, in that low state in which both scientists and religionists place man, the seed-germ of nearly all the religious doctrines in the world was sown, and that seed-germ was the idea which those primitive people had of God ; for, as has been shown, a people's ideas of God shape and govern all their religious doctrines. " According to Thy name, God, so is Thy praise unto the ends of the earth." In Exodus it is written : *' And I appeared unto Abra- ham, and unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by ray name Jehovah was I not knowu unto them" (vi. 2) ; which may be literally rendered : " I appeared unto Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, as God the Thunderer, but my name Jehovah did I not make them to know." In those far distant and wretched times, when our ances- tors were so ignorant of scienpe that nearly every phenome- a 10 CHANGES IN FAITH: PROBATION AND JUDGMENT. 11 Don of nature overwhelmed them with terror, the Lord appeared to them only as God the Thunderer, God the Terrible, God the Smiter, God the Destroyer. The earth- quake, the storm, the lightning, the thunder, in short, every manifestation of power which they could not under- stand, was to them an act of a supernatural Beiug, a terri- ble Deity, a God the Thunderer, who must be propitiated by prayer, by sacrifices, by acceptable offerings of some kind. And right here we have the seed-germ, the funda- mental idea of about all the theology there was in the world prior to Swedenborg. And that seed-germ, that fundamental idea is, that there is a Deity who has been pers^onally offended^ and must he personally appeased^ or else He will have personal vengeance. This doctrine begins in the lowest forms of fetichism, runs up through all forms of polytheism, pervades Jewish monotheism, crystallizes in Christian trinitarianism, and is to-day the predominant belief of the Christian world, and gives shape and tone and quality to every one of what are called the orthodox doc- trines of Christendom, and to a majority of all the other religious doctrines The orthodox doctrine of the atone- ment, with its correlative doctrines of probation and judg- ment, is nothing but the elaborate, consummate, perfected blossoming of that old fetich and heathen idea of person- ally appeasing a personally offended Deity, so as to escape His personal vengeance, by paying Him His price, and thus buying Him off. The universality of this primitive and ingrained notion is only equalled by its depth and tenacity. Even science does not enable us to throw it off, any more than science enables us to get rid of the desire to see the new moon over our right shoulder. We know, just as well as it is possible to know anything, that it makes no difference over which shoulder we first see the new moon, and yet we always want to see it first over our right shoulder, because we cannot get rid of that old fetichistic inheritance; nor can we get rid of the inherited instinct with regard to the fetich God, which has come down to us through the very marrow, and heart's blood, and brain convolutions of our progenitors through thousands upon thousands of ages, and is so bred in the bone that it will come out in the flesh. Hence it is that everybody, savage or scientist, religionist or atheist, Puritan or pirate, when suddenly con- fronted with terrifying danger, and so shoi!ked out of his artificial state as to be kt down into his inherited instincts, instinctively appeals to God the Thunderer for protection and mercy, and seeks to propitiate Him with all manner of promises extorted from his not penitent, but affrighted, soul. This fetich idea of a God who is supposed to be ferocious and vindictive has pervaded all the affairs of this world as well as those of the next. From the very beginning, if any disaster happened to man or to his possessions it was believed to be the vengeful work of some god. If a per- son dropped dead, it was believed that a god killed him. If a man was struck by lightning, it was believed that a god hurled the thunder- bolt at him, and so on through all the casualties of nature. Do we not know that these fetich notions now form the substratum of the religious belief of Christendom? The only difference is that Christians, instead of believing that a fetich god, or a heathen god, does all these things, believe that the Christian's God does them. " According to Thy name, God, so is Thy praise unto the ends of the earth." "J£ vT >' 12 CHANGES IN FAITH: PROBATION AND JUDGMENT. 13 It is true that among intelligent people these fetich no- tions are passing away so far as natural or scientific affairs are concerned, but they still clutch religious beliefs right by the throat with an almost throttling grasp. Every- thing in this world is seen to be under the rule of law ; but the affairs of the next world are by many otherwise rational people still supposed to be at the mercy of a ca- pricious God who can do as He pleases, without regard to law. It is believed that if God chooses to give human souls a probation of myriads of ages. He can do it ; that if He chooses to cut them off from all probation, He can do it ; that if He chooses to send the whole human race to hell. He can do it ; that if He chooses to send the whole human race to heaven, He can do it; that if He chooses to send certain souls to hell and certain other souls to heaven, He can do it ; and it is believed that He can do all this at His own whim, His own caprice, His own preju- dice, His own resentment, or, as it is theologically put, ^' at His own good will and pleasure." So long as people believe that God can do all these things without regard to law, they will also believe that God tvill do such of them as they would prefer to have Him do ; and so, as a matter of course, it was impossible for Christendom not to have just such conflicting, irrational, ferocious, horrible doctrines of probation and judgment as have prevailed in the world from the organization of the Christian Church until now. A belief in the everlasting physical punishment of the re-embodied damned, and that probation ends with this life, became general at an early stage of Christian history. But after a time some theologians began to think that human beings ought to have a chance for probation in the world to come ; and it being seen that this idea, if for- iL 16 CHANGES IN FAITH: PROBATION AND JUDGMENT. 17 that politics makes strange bedfellows; but can politics show anything in its dormitories to equal this? Verily, when Calvinists are found snuggling up to Darwinians in the same trundle-bed, with their innocent faces peeping out from under the same blanket, the spectacle is one to pro- voke the strenuous curiosity of gods and men as to how the doctrine of the survival of the fittest will work in their case. These changes of faith in the Christian world as to the doctrines of probation and judgment come from the fact that the predominant idea of Christians as to the character of God is the old fetich and heathen idea, which is a rad- ically wrong idea ; and there is no possible way of getting their doctrines of probation and judgment right, except by first setting their ideas of God right, so that they shall have a correct doctrine of the Lord. And where are they to get such a doctrine? So far as I know, they must look for it in the Writings of the New Church. We are there taught rationally, what the Scriptures teach inspirationalfy, that God is a Being of infinite divine order and law, the same yesterday, to-day, and forever, without variableness or shadow of turning, and not a fetich or heathen God of caprice, who can do as He pleases without regard to law. Some theologians seem to think, and the logical outcome of their doctrines is, that if God should choose to do so He could issue a new Decalogue, saying thou shalt steal ; thou shalt commit adultery ; thou shalt murder ; thou shalt bear false witness against thy neighbor; thou shalt covet all that is thy neiglibor's ; and so on, and make such com- mandments the laws of life. Such theologians have no conception of the great truth that the commandments as they now stand are the indestructible laws of life, which cannot change nor be changed. I Our Writings also teach that the government of God, being an outcome of Himself, partakes of His own unchangeable nature, and is therefore a government of infinite divine order and immutable law, in the world to come as well as in this world. The character of the Lord and the nature of His government being settled, the nature and method of proba- tion and judgment are also settled. With such a God and such a government the final judgment which we are every one to meet, of course comes to pass under the operation of eternal laws of divine order and harmony ; and is not a dramatic spectacle enacted before an assembled universe, but a process, an evolution, the completion of a cycle of being in the individual soul, which comes to its final issue through a probation which is simply an orderly period or stage in the evolution itself. The laws of divine order and harmony, the indefeasible laws of life, by virtue of which this judgment thus comes to pass, are the command- ments of God. Whoever lives in accordance with them comes at least into a preparation for a heavenly state of heart and mind in this world, and reaches heaven in the world to come. Hence it is written, " Blessed are they that do His*commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." (Bev. xxii. 14.) Do you take in the significance of that language? — " That they may have right to the tree of life." Whoever lives in accordance with the commandments of God hath right to the tree of life ; and of that right, which is guar- anteed by the laws of eternal life, no power in the uni- verse can defraud him. " He enters in through the gates into the city" by virtue of the operation of the divine laws which carry him there. sM .1 18 CHANGES IN FAITH: PROBATION AND JUDGMENT. 19 On the other hand, whosoever lives in habitual violation of the commandments has no right to the tree of life, sim- ply because he has not lived in accordance with the laws of life and has, therefore, become spiritually dead ; and the same divine laws that take the one to heaven because he belongs there, carry the other to hell because he belongs there ; and one's spiritual state being such when he comes to his final iudijrment that he belonirs in hell, there is no power in the universe which can save him from hell. And he goes to hell not as a puni.shment inflicted by a person- ally offended God, but as the merciful provision of an all- loving Father (A. C. 587), who knows that hell is the best place for his poor, erring child, because he will be less mis- erable there, where he belongs, than he would be anywhere else where he did not belong. It is an old adaiie that as a man makes his bed so he must lie. It is equally true that where a man makes his bed there he must lie. So when a poor, sin-sick soul "makes his bed in hell" (Ps. cxxxix. 8), he must lie in it there ; but he finds the Great Physician by that woful bed- side, ready to do all that can be done in accordance with the unchangeable laws of life, to assuage the sufferer's an- guish. Yea, " the Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of lan<]:uishin2: ; Thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness." (Ps. xli. 3.) It must be plain to the apprehension of us all that the old beliefs are undergoing changes because they are founded on appearances of truth, instead of on truth itself A re- ligious doctrine, in order to stand forever unchanged, must be founded on absolute truth, — truth that will harmonize with science as well as with Scripture ; and if it does not harmonize with both science and Scripture it ia foredoomed ■ v V- to destruction, and must go the way in which the once pop- ular doctrines of the resurrection of the body, and the everlasting physical punishment of the re-embodied damned have gone. Science is the unrelenting and irresistible foe of every false doctrine, and will eventually hunt out and expose its untenableness ; and as the doctrines of the New Church are the only religious doctrines that are based on scientific and rational principles, they are the only ones which will survive the developments of science. Whoever is familiar with the doctrines of the New Church, and observes the changes in the faith of the Christian world, cannot very well help seeing that these changes are slowly drifting the Christian world in our direction ; and here is where the significance of these chances in the lidit of the New Church becomes most clearly visible. You will remember that when Dr. Kane attempted to travel towards the north pole over an ice- field, he found, after struggling along for several days, that the whole ice-field had drifted farther south by east tlum he had travelled north by west, so that he was in a lower latitude than when he started. That is typical of what is going on in spiritual affairs. The theologians are strug- dint»- along over theological ice-fields to reach a higher doctrinal latitude, but the great, silent, spiritual drift is taking them south by east. Oh, how much that means to a New Churchman ! In scriptural symbolism and corre- spondence the south represents a state of most refulgent spiritual light, and the east a state of purest love to God and the neighbor ; and it is towards these spiritual states that the great spiritual under-currents are carrying all, except the few who are consciously steering in that direc- tion. And they are all drifting thither because the hearts ik-fl'-KS 20 CHANGES IN FAITH. and minds of men — the currents of human thought and human affection, operated upon by the silent, unnoticed, but constant descent of the New Jerusalem from God out of heaven, are moved in that direction ; and also because the intelligence of spiritual men is more and more perceiving that it is only by the application of New-Church doctrines to religious affairs that the destructive criticisms of hostile but conscientious scientists and atheists can be successfully resisted ; and also because these doctrines practically help human beings to overcome their evils and grow pure in heart so as to see God as He really is, not as God the Thunderer, but as the Lord Jehovah, as He is revealed in Jesus Christ; and, finally, because these doctrines shed a steady, serene, and satisfying light upon the once dark and forbidding regions beyond the grave, and throw a bridge of faith and love over the river of death, and set it thick with angel guards, and render the passage of the freed, regenerating soul a triumphal march along the divine high- way cast up for the redeemed of the Lord to walk upon. \ >- THE FAITH OF THE NEW CHURCH. 1 Concerning the Lord. There is one, and only one, self- existing Being who is love and wisdom, and from whom con- stantly proceed all substance, power, and life. 2 The Unity of the Lord. The Lord is one Being in one Divine Person, as man is one being in one human person, and that Divine Person is the Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ. 3. The Trinity of the Lord. There is a Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Father, or Jehovah, is the Divine in itself; the Son is the Divine Human in which Jehovah was incarnated ; the Holy Spirit is the Divine power proceeding into creative act. The Father is in the Son as man's soul is in his body ; the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father by the Son, as man's power proceeds into act, from his soul by means of his body. The Divine Trinity in the Lord is of the same nature as the finite trinity in man. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one Lord in one Person, as the soul, the body, and the life are one man. 4 Concerning Man. Man is a spiritual being in the human form, clothed >vith a material body. He has no life in himself, bein.' only a form organized to receive life from the Lord. He vvas made in the image of God that the Divine attributes mi.-ht be ftnitod in him, and that he might be conjoined to the L .rd by a constant reception and reciprocation of His love and wisdom. 5 The Death of Man. As man is a spiritual being he was made to dwell in a spiritual world. The death of the material body is, therefore, a necessary and orderly step in life, The '*< deatli of the soul is caused bv sin which is a violation of the Divine laws organized in man's spiritual faculties. It con- sists in such a perversion of their form and order that man's power of receiving love and wisdom from the Lord is de- stroyed. He dies hy the excUision of life. 6. The Resurrection of Man. The resurrection of man from natural death is his withdrawal from the material body. His resurrection from spiritual death is his restoration tc spiritual life. It consists in his regeneration, which is effected by the Lord ah)no, while man co-operates by living according to the commandments, 7. The Salvation of Man. Salvation consists in redeeming man from the power, and saving him from the deatli, of sin. To effect this work Jehovah became incarnate and revealed himself in a form which man, though dead in sin, could recognize. The human nature which Jehovah assumed be- came the medium t>f conjunction and communication between Him and man. By means of it His Divine power can operate upon man to redeem and save him from sin. 8. The Sacred Scriptures. The Sacred Scriptures are Divine Truth clothed in human language. They are the Word of the Lord, who gave them to man to reveal Himself to him; to teach him the laws of his own spiritual nature; the effects of breaking them, and the blessings of keeping them. They are written according to the correspondence between natural and spiritual things. Every word contains a spiritual sense, the key to which was given to Swedenborg by the Lord By means of this key the spiritual and Divine truths contained in the letter are revealed ; and by these truths the Lord effects His Second Coming. 1 r t > / THEOLOGICAL WORKS OP EMANUEL SWEDENBORG. -*••- Arcana Celestia. 10 Vols. Apocalypse Bevealed. 2 Vols. True Christian Religion .... Divine Love and Wisdom Divine Providence • • . • Conjugial Love Heaven and Hell Four Leading Doctrines • Miscellaneous Theological Works . $15.00 3.00 2.60 1.00 1.25 1.25 1.25 1.00 1.50 (These are the cheaper editions. There are finer and more costly editions, English and American, catalogues and prices of which will be fumislied. Address as below.) < •> Doctrine of Charity . . • • • •• of Faith . . • •• • •• of Life •• of the Lord •• of the Sacred Scripture Intercourse between the Soul and Body liast Judgment White Horse . . . • Heavenly Doctrines . Earths in the Universe . A.thanasian Creed Summary Exposition of the Internal Sense of the Prophets and Psalms . Paper, 10 Cents. Vi •« 10 •( ■i •t 10 it H •• 20 •• "^ ^^Si t4 15 10 •• tt 30 (( m • < 10 •« m f« 10 c« ■*« •• 35 •• "i • < 80 M i'.;i •• 40 ■^•^ Any of the« book, will be ..at by nuJl on receipt of price. Addre- AMER.CAN NEW CHURCHTRACT AND PUBUCATION SOCIETY Twenty.second and Chestnut Streets. E. H. SWINNET, Agent, Ho. 20 Cooper Union, New York. TI^ A.OTS PUBLISHED BY Tie American New CMr cli Trac t aiiil PnWication Society. SERMONS AND DOCTRINAL LECTURES. By Rev. Chauncey Giles. The following Sermons and Doctrinal Lectures bv Rev. Chauncey Giles have been issued in tract form by the American New Church Tract and Pub- lication Society. 'J'hey are neatly printed on fine paper, and are alike in style and appearance, the number of pages varying from 16 to 24. DOCTRINAL No. I 1. Who Was Jesus Christ? 2. How Does the Lord Save Men? 3. The Sufferings and Death of Jesus Christ. 4. The Saving Efficacy of the Lord's Blood. 5. The Punishment of Sin. 6. The Forgiveness of Sin. 7. Purification from Sin Illustrated by the Refining of Gold and Sdrer 8. The New and Old Atonement. 9. Union with the Lord: Its Nature, Means, and Blessedness. The Spiritual Wa^ts of the Age. The True Idea of God. The True Idea of Man. 10. II. 12. LECTURES. No. 1^. The Spiritual World. The World of Spirits, or Interme- diate State. The World of Spirits the Place of Man's Final Judgment. The World of Spirits as a Place (or State) of Instruction and Preparation for'Heaven. Hell: Its Origin and Nature. 18. The Sufferings of the Wicked. 19. The Sufferings of the Wicked. Are they Et«»rnal? Heaven : What it is. Where and How Formed. The Happiness of Heaven. Heavenly Happiness : Endless and Ever Increasing. 14 16 17 20. 21, 22. No. X. 2. SERMONS. 4- 5- 6. 7- 8. 9- 10. rt. 12. 13- The Light of the World. The Elements of a Heavenly Character. Love : The Light and Joy of Life. Onyx Stones ; or, The Book of Life. The Widow's Pot of Oil. The Coming of the New Age. Rest for the Weary and Heavy Laden The Ministry of Fear. What is Evangelical Religion? The Conquest over Evil by Little and Little. Modern Unbelief: Its Cause, Na- ture, and Remedy. The Resurrection of the Lord. The Laws of Ascent from a Nat- ural 10 a Heavenly Life. No. 14. Unity Among Brethren: Its Ori- gin, Means, and Effects. 15. The Doctrines of the New Church, the Measure of a Man. 16. The Death of the Body a Ministry of Life to the Soul. 17. The Divine Providence in Na- tional Affairs. 18. Efficacious Prayer: The Condi- tions on which it is Answered. 19. The Nature and Use of Prayer. 20. Love to the Lord. What it is and how manifested. 21. The Church of the Future. 22. The Law of Heavenly Reward. 23. Man's Immeasurable Capacity to Love, to Know, and to Enjoy. 24. The Incarnation: Its Necessity, Nature, and Effects. When ordered singly, the price of these tracts is 2 cents each ; 50 copies, 75 cents; 100 copies, $1.25. If ordered by mail, add 10 cents for every 50 copies. For sale at the "New Church Book-Room," corner Chestnut and Twenty-second Streets, Philadelphia, or by E. H. Swinney. 20 Cooper Union, New York. Missionaries supplied without charge from either Philadelphia or New York. A liberal discount is made to Societies, Associations, and individuals, who wish to obtain any of these tracts in quantities for distribution. When wanted for this purpose, send to Philadelphia Book-Room.