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HEAVENLY UNION,

XEW JERUSALEM, ON EAETH.

ITS PRINCIPLES, PRACTICES, AND PERSUASIVES,
AS APPLICABLE TO OUR AGE.

By WILLIAM H. PORTER.

/I
eE0*IA02 KAI *IAAAEA*02.
Lover of God and Brother of the People.

BOSTON:
PUBLISHED BY PERKINS & CO.
100 Washington Street.
1850.

Entered according to Act of CongresSj in the year 1850, by
William H. Porter,
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Maasachusetts.

V8'5

CAMBRIDGE;
METCALP AND COMPANY,
PRINTERS TO THE UNIVEHSITY,

PREFACE.

The ensuing treatise is dedicated to the uni
versal public, in behalf of Christian union, uni
versal humanity, and heavenly community on
earth. The Discourse connected with it has been
delivered to many congregations and diflferent
denominations during the year past.
The whole is designed to reconcile diverse
systems of theology, which most properly and
practically, by revision and transition, converge
in one. It may serve to conciliate prejudicial
sentiments, feelings, and interests, which must
speedily, by the providence of God, and the all-
attractive power of Gospel love and commu
nity, be resolved into unity of spirit and Chris
tian fraternity.
We proceed upon the ground of belief in a
successive development of eclectic and practical
theology, and in successive dispensations of uni-

PREFACE.

versal science. God, his perfections, govern
ment, and administration, are infinite and eter
nal, while they constitute subjects of endless
disclosure to created intelligence. Under the
successive revelations of this absolute sovereign
ty, man and his destiny present a sublime spec
tacle to the universe. The great cycle of sci
entific and religious truths, which, with perfect
distinctness, ever bespangle the heaven of heav
ens, in the omniscient vision of the Infinite
Mind, are at first but most gradually discovered
to man, or in his earliest age of creation, only
in some shadowy outlines, or here and there
single truths, one by one, just according to the
condition of human capacity and experience.
Truths now brilliant with evidence, conspicuous
in exact and known science, once spanned the
circle of mental vision only in the formless ap
pearance of misty nebulse, or were even without
any existence to human and finite apprehen
sion. Progress, never-ending progress, is no less
the order of things to man, in the world of in
vestigation and discovery, than it is the eternal
law of created mind. All God's truth, though
to him ever clothed with beauty, majesty, and
eternity, to man is gradually evolving itself in
new forms of excellence, and with ever-enlarg-

PEEFACE.

ing and enriching portions of its divine fulness,
to reward the researches of successive genera
tions. Every science is formed by the accu
mulation of simple facts and scattered material,
and, after its establishment, may be ever receiv
ing new accessions of light, and be demonstrat
ed by new and better modes of illustration.
Upon this ground, new books of science are
necessary to meet the new emergencies of each
successive age. The past, with all its worthy
contributions, will not do for the present, nor
the present, with all its furnished data and gath
ered results, answer for the future. Errors, seri
ous and gross, have been and still may be incor
porated into professed systems of truth, and into
the very bodies of divinity or theology. And
besides, old principles, however truthful, need
to appear in new dress. They are not unlike
old-fashioned structures of architecture, which
need to be remodelled, if not demolished. Un
couth and unrefined language becomes obsolete.
Equivocal terms of phraseology require alter
ation. New discoveries of science and acces
sions of knowledge demand new vocabularies.
In fine, by the change of dispensations and
times, " old things pass away, and, behold, all
things become new."
But our object is not accomplished by a mere

VI PEEFACE.
survey of different systems of theology, and of
various sciences, but by persuading Christians
and philanthropists, universally, to discharge the
practical duty of adopting the chartered consti
tution, rights, and privileges of the New Jeru
salem, which cometh down from God out of
heaven, in which but little, if any, moment is
attached to temples made with hands, or to any
set place or seasons of worship, or to organiza
tions, ordinances, and ceremonies, other than
those which have their ground in natural rela
tions and the necessity of things, as essential to
the practice of love to God and one another ; —
in which the entire mediatorial administration,
with all the assemblage of rites, symbols, and
professions, which have been but the shadow
of things to come, and only a means to an end,
will be, in due time, surrendered to the spiritual
kingdom of the Father, who will be all and
in all.
It will be made to appear, that, in the New
Jerusalem state on earth, chief and infinite im
portance will be attached to the life and charac
ter of individual and collective bodies, and to
the most practical application of all true relig
ion, science, and philosophy.
In the full assurance of love and truth, the
work is submitted to all who love the character,

PEEFACE. VU
teachings, and redemption of Christ, and who
believe in the grand ultimate of his mission on
earth, the establishment of a catholic and Gos
pel community of principles, interests, and en
joyments. Yours in the fellowship of the spirit, in the
bonds of love and union, and in the member
ship of universal humanity. W. H. PORTER.
Cambridge, January, 1850.

SYNOPSIS.

CHAPTER I.

PAGE
Invitation and Way to Union .... 1
CHAPTER II.
Common ground of Union, in the Existence of God, as
seen in his works, — in Creation, — in the signification
of Design, — and in Moral Consciousness; first, in the
Heavens above us  9
CHAPTER III.
Ground of Union, in our Contemplation upon the Be
ing and Perfections of God, as evinced in the Structure
and Provisions of t?ie Earth  14
CHAPTER IV.
Ground of Union, in our common view of the Exist
ence and Glory of God, in Animated Nature, — in the
Structure of the Human Body, its various parts, its in
terrupted analogies, and general uses, in comparative
Anatomy, and in every department of Animate Nature 21

X SYNOPSIS.
CHAPTER V.
Ground of Universal Converse with God, in the Glori
ous Make and Designs of our Mental and Moral Consti
tution, as being identified with the basis and objects of
what is called, by way of distinction. Divine Revelation 25
CHAPTER VI.
Ground of Union, in the general view of Government,
as connected with our present scene of Probation and the
Future State ........ 31
CHAPTER Vir.
General Unison of belief in the Necessity and Evidence
of what has been preeminently styled Revelation, — as
evinced from the imperfect view of God, of duty, and of
a future state, on the part of the heathen world, — in
view, also, of the inefliciency of Deism, and of the ab
horrence of Infidelity, — and in the general inadequacy
of man, without such revelation, to apprehend the ex
istence and nature of Sin, and to realize that Part of
the Fulness of the Godhead which insures a redemptive
system, and to realize the certainty and equitable retri
butions of immortality. This chapter includes principal
evidences, external and internal, of the Authority and
Truthfulness of the Bible, in which all Cliristians may
hold Communion ....... 37
CHAPTER VIII.
General agreement, as to the Unity of God, evinced
in the works of Creation, Providence, and Grace, each
being replete with an all-pervading Unity of design. In
order to account for the wondrous existence of man,

SYNOPSIS. XI
events, and things, there is no necessity nor advantage
of admitting more than one God. This chapter includes
a brief treatment of the Purposes of God, pertaining
to the creation of man, the existence of sin and evil,
and of all events  47
CHAPTER IX.
But one essential and practical view of the Divine
purposes, concerning election and perseverance of the
saints ......... 59
CHAPTER X.
Unity in the understanding of Human Depravity, how
ever diversified the language of opinions, — this deprav
ity the generally received ground of necessity for regen
eration. The fact and nature of regeneration, exclusive
of needless controversy as to the Time and Process, com
mands Simplicity and Oneness of view ... 66
•
CHAPTER XI.
Nature and character of Christ, — one essential ground
of meeting, pertaining to thoughts of Christ, of the Unity,
and Trinity. The divinity, sacrifice, and power of Christ
left unimpaired, and fully admitted, without the com
promise • of Christian principle, at the proposed ground
of meeting  72
CHAPTER XII.
Unanimity, pertaining to the Scriptural teaching of
Atonement, and its universal requirement. This chapter
opens the subject of a general equality of condition, of
the human family, and the reason for universal commu-

XU SYNOPSIS.
nity, or the establishment of the New Jerusalem on
earth, which the entire mediatorial system contemplated.
It induces the expediency of dispensing with any past
outward forms and usages, if need be, to avoid ofience,
and for the paramount object, Unity of Spirit, and one
universal organization, embracing the simplest Chris
tian principles, mutual relations, and interests of life . 78
CHAPTER XIII.
The charter of the New, and promised, Jerusalem,
prepared for the most speedy reception, is well suited to
the wonderful progress of physical and moral science.
The mind is viewed as a powerful and stupendous alembic,
through which, in this electric age, the science and glory
of the Heavenly Union and communion, with astonishing
rapidity, diffuses itself over all the earth. The unity
and common membership of the human family has a
design. The practicability of dispensing with the entire
money currency, which has been the all-deluding and
maddening charm of a spell-bound world, and the chief
occasion of monopoly, oppression, and crime, and a mur
derous expense of thought and time. Gospel communi
ty, without money, supplied by proper industry and dis
tribution of products is viewed as the only remedy . 88
CHAPTER XIV.
Example of the early disciples. All mutual society,
principles, and phalanstery movements, are but a strug
gle, however untimely or embarrassed, towards the Di
vine Economy of the Combined Order of Gospel commu
nity. Every motive and attraction to industry is present
ed in the proposed order of things, which will prevail not
withstanding the ills of human depravity. Public store-

SYNOPSIS. XlU
houses of distribution are commended after the pattern
of the Divine Bounty. Departments of government, to
be simply and beautifully arranged, to suit the wants,
not merely of one nation, but the whole world. But lit
tle danger of the abuse of public property is apprehend
ed under such benevolent arrangement. Improvement of
the human body is viewed as belonging to the new crea
tion. The science of physiology, of health, and beauty,
is contemplated as carried out to legitimate results. Like
wise the wonderful law of renewal, both organic and
spiritual ......... 96
CHAPTER XV.
Modern and earnest effort towards the mutual and com
munity principle are considered as a persuasive to throw
ofi'the entire incubus of moneyed transaction, and to adopt
the universal exchange of only those commodities of use,
art, and taste which have intrinsic and real value. In
the proper order of community, all expenditures of mil
itary schooling, and all the troubles of taxation, have an
end. A simultaneous movement needs no delay, and
will not be perplexed with doubt. The only safety is in
" making no provision for the lusts of the flesh." Rea
sons for the delay of righteousness come with ill grace
from professed lovers of Christ. The potency of thought,
faith, word, action, the press, and telegraph, is noticed.
At the instance of the Almighty the work is done, which
admits of no restriction or stopping-place within the cir
cumference of the human family. Mutual services ren
dered to each other, by all classes of men, and of indus
try, belong to the Heavenly Union .... 105
CHAPTER XVI.
Perfect freedom to postage, and every other possible

XIV SYNOPSIS.
system of government, or of labor, yet ample living, at
tire, and heritage, everywhere, are the just appropriation
to man. The most advanced state needs not that money
and price which has crazed the human mind and passions
more than all other influences combined. All the best
economies of life proceed from the Christian religion,
and through Christian ministers. No possible science
can have its proper and valuable use except at the hand
and by the application of Christian philanthropy. The
purest devotions, the most genuine courtesies, the happi
est festivities, and all the truest joys, of a world-wide
community of life, must issue preeminently from the
Christian mind and heart. The life of Church and State
is one in a Christianized humanity. The interests of
civil and religious liberty are inseparable and identified
in the blessed kingdom and government of Christ, and
they will become the common property of the whole hu
man race the moment the Christian world resolve upon
it. Faith and action, under Go#, are adequate to give
this work a consummate triumph upon this very epoch
of human progress  113
Select Passages  121

DISCOURSE.
Christian Union  135

HEAYENLY UNION.

CHAPTER I.

Christian' Friends and Philanthropists: —
As members of the body of Christ, we belong to
the household of God, of whom the whole family in
heaven and on earth is named.
In this relation we are debtors to no one sect of
Christi-ans, but to all who have this title, and to the
world. We owe nothing so much as love to each
other, and to the human family.
In love let us solve our differences, adjust our
agreements, and embrace one another in the arms of
Christian fraternity, as one in Christ, and fellow-
heirs of the incorruptible and eternal.
If in heaven there are no discordant elements,
then the New Jerusalem, descending therefrom, can
have none on earth.
The reconciliation of our differences cannot be
deferred if we would give place in our minds and
hearts to the heaven of concord and love. It lies in
1

2 HEAVENLY UNION,
a greater measure than many suppose, in the de
termining power of the good-will, intelligence, and
charity of the Church, the whole body of believers in
Christ. Come, draw near to the cross of Christ,
where we all alike receive the remission of our sins,
and where the hope of a blessed immortality rises to
bright and fiiU assurance, and there let us together
embody our highest conceptions of the heaven which
God has promised to earth, and settle down in per
fect unison upon principles of action, which alone
are worthy of our name, our vocation, and our prac
tice. Admit the faith of Abraham, the reliance of
David, the glowing description of Isaiah, the love of
Paul, and the fulness of Christ, and give them full
possession of our souls, and the concentrating power
of our union will, like the rising sun, dissipate every
dark cloud of bitter controversy, and of sectarian
strife. Here, "eye to eye," or the blessed concur
rence of spiritual vision, will give us the constitution
and life of the new heavens and the new earth, for
which the Lord is now coming to Zion, and which he
is ready to create through the present mission of
Christian charity.
General convictions of truth already invite us
much nearer to each other than our walls of partition
would seem to allow. But these walls, constructed
by the wisdom which is from beneath, are temporal,
while our principle of love and communion is eternal.
Rising above the earthly creations of mist, by reason
of which Christians have neither seen nor understood
each other, we are better able to discern the causes

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 3
of our variance, and to hold a heavenly conference
of wisdom and love. On the Mount of God and of
truth, in a clarified atmosphere, and nearer to Moses,
Elias, Peter, James, John, and Jesus, our Lord, we
realize the inspirations of heaven, and lose every
earth-born prejudice, passion, and emulation for
worldly preeminence.
We here speak of contentious sectarianism only
to abhor and dismiss it.
While we talk of a higher and better system of
action and of things, we only wonder at past scenes
of disorder and dissension. Yet it is not altogether
unaccountable. Christians have looked too much
on their own things, and not on the things or welfare
of others. There have been large remains of the
" old man," which are according to fleshly lusts, and
war against the kingdom of light and love.
By over-solicitude for earthly supports and gains,
the beautiful sentiment of " love to our neighbour "
has been forgotten. We will not be too lenient
with our own faults, but, as in the presence of each
other and of God, endeavour to hold that ascendency
of good-will and brotherly love, which throws every
possible and just mantle of charity over the faults of
others, and leaves beneath and behind us all the
common errors and evils which have adhered to an
earlier and less experienced age of progress.
Undiscovered and unlimited principles and facul
ties of action are yet before us, but we must, by
every reason and obligation, go on to perfection in
those actual realities of excellence, which are not

4 HEAVENLY UNION,
only revealed and described, but within our own posi
tive vision and embrace.
Approach Him in whom is all the fulness of the God
head bodily, — whose life, death, ascension, and glory
are a settled verification, — and in our nearness, our
very union to him and one another, we are sure to
find the long-required focus, the proper point of con
curring vision, where all the rays of prophetic light,
and all the radiating beams of divine inspiration,
meet and project their more than Daguerreotype per
fection upon the canvas of the eye, — the eye of the
whole body of Christ, which with a purpose single
to the glory of God is, through all its avenues, full
of lio-ht ; here, I say, project an unerring transcript
of the New Jerusalem of righteousness, which is not
a mere theory, but the life of the world.
In this antitype on earth, alj government will have
its authority, model, and perfection, every form of
interchange or reciprocity will have its principle
and glory, every form of industry will have its just
and governing law, and every obedient soul, in the
unity of the spirit, will have its surety and progress of
divine life. But this graphic portraiture of heaven
must first have its impress and scene of action in the
plastic life of the Church, (we mean by the Church
of the New Jerusalem, all those who adopt the life,
and accept the redemption of Christ, irrespective of
any past exclusive forms of profession,) in order that
she may, as God's organ of action, impart her all-
persuasive power to others, prepared for ingathering,
and thus extend the reign of God over all nations.

OR NEW JERUSALEM. O
But, Christian brethren of every name or sect,
let us, in contemplation, as it were, sit together in
heavenly places in Christ Jesus; and here, divested
of all uncharitableness, and filled \<nth the spirit of
understanding and of grace, remembering that we
have but one Master, who cometh from heaven to
teach and to guide us, sitting at his feet, let us, it is
repeated and entreated, with all docility and prayer,
with every safeguard and needed qualification, let us
here together briefly survey those essential and im
portant outlines of Natural and Biblical Theology, of
Christian doctrines, ordinances, offices, duties, and
practices, wherein Christians have found, or vainly
thought they have found, a basis for sects, for dis
putes, and for strife (which have ptoved themselves
to be unscriptural, unauthorized, and wrangling);
whereas, if properly or charitably construed, they
constitute, in reality, a strong basis (so designed by
the ever-blessed Author) of unity, order, concord,
and love. Such a foundation, and such excellences,
are in deed and in truth given us, and they make the
bond of union, which, notwithstanding the incidental
and evil work of ambitious leaders and partisans,
Still binds us together in the membership of one
body. Yet, and must we say it ? — yes, at the feet of
Jesus, and amid the rising light and glorious pros
pect of a new and heavenly creation, all are con
strained to say it, — those lines of demarcation and
walls of separation, reared and sustained by rivalry
of spirit, by envy, by the powerful love of gains,
which are not riches, by the deprecated " provoca-

6 HEAVENLY UNION,
tion of evil," and by all manner of "foolish disputa
tions," which together have produced, to an unpleas
ant and unwarrantable extent, forbidding barriers
against the feltow-worship and fellow-communion of
those who embrace the same Bible and the same Re
deemer, and wear, in daily life, the same badges of
Christian discipleship, and bear equal title to the
unfading and eternal inheritance of God, — we say,
these contentious lines, walls, and evils of separation
are among the " spots and wrinkles and such things,"
which have marred the beauty of the face and body
of Jesus, and have occasioned that want of comeli
ness, which has so hardly and rarely attracted, but
often repelled, the earnest expectation of the human
creation, or the creature man, being in subjection, as
he is, to vanity, but " waiting for the manifestation of
the sons of God," and groaning to be delivered from
the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of
the children of God, and waiting in hope for the
needed redemption. But now, blessed be the God of
promise, he is enabling us to " stand in our lot,"
within the threshold of the promised and "opening
heavens," which "around us," and above us, " in
endless glory shine," to efface those uncomely "spots
and wrinkles," that, in the coming and return of our
Lord to Zion, his bright and glorious appearance, in
the transformed and reorganized person and body of
the Church, shall be the " King of glory," " the Won
derful," and not only to be glorified in his saints, and to
be admired in all them that believe, but the admired
attraction of the world, whereby, as by a natural and

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 7
eternal law of gravitation, he shall draw all men
unto him.
But before the brightness of his coming, as by the
approach and power of the dazzling and burning sun,
every wicked thing, especially in Christendom, which
unduly exalteth itself, shall melt and vanish away.
Every proud wall of distinction, which has divided
the fold of Christ, and prevented free course, and
the full purchased liberty of range, amid the green
pastures and beside the still waters of salvation,
shall surely be brought low and be utterly de
molished. And, in the light of the Lord, we deprecate not
only one in particular, but all humanly organized,
and all sectarian divisions. The Roman Catholic is
not so strictly a sect, but an organized perversion,
defiled by foul corruptions and unauthorized inter
polations or additions, and marked by a most con-
demnable resttiction, giving its absurdity in its very
name Roman or Romish, which belies, prima facie, its
pretended catholicity, in thus ascribing the exclu
sive entireness, purity, preservation, and title of the
Church to Rome, and its Propaganda. But the " man
of sin " is, after all, not there alone.
The abominations of Rome must be classed with
the abhorrent envy, heresy, pride, hypocrisy, and
other evils, within the Protestant pale of the Church,
which, together with the horrors of heathenism, and
the usurpations and false religion of Mahometanism,
and all the embodied forms of iniquity, constitute
" the man of sin," — the son of perdition, which will

8

HEAVENLY UNION,

be exposed and destroyed by the reappearance and
spritual brightness of the speedy coming of Christ,
in the personage and power of the body of his saints,
whose sharp and two-edged sword will be her visible
and heavenly union, her divine word, and her con
centrating " unity of spirit."
In the light of the coming and promised ministra
tion of the spirit we have passed terms of denuncia
tion upon every corrupt organization, and form of
sectarianism. We do not, by a mutual understand
ing, deny the existence and progress of the true
Church of believers, which has given a partial
"manifestation of her sons " in them all. Lovely
instances of devotion to God, benevolence, and
charity, have been found and promoted in them all,
notwithstanding the many forms of incubus which
have weighed down heavily upon Christian progress,
and which have seemingly compelled Christians to
reverse the order of their Lord, by sacrificing with
out mercy, instead oi vice versa; — and all this, as
incidental evil, alike common to every partial denom
ination of Christendom, as having each its own share
of the evil man, the " law of sin," and the " body of
death," and, also, as mihtant in the midst of a per
verse and wilderness world, — yes, in all Christian
sects, and under every name, there are some emi
nently devoted and worthy followers of Jesus, and
many obedient "sons as plants grown up in their
youth ; and daughters as corner-stones, polished after
the similitude of a palace."
Still this does not prove that the existing divisions

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 9
are divinely instituted, but perfectly demonstrates
that no one organization or sect is exclusively the
Lord's, and his reinstated organization could not be
until an untried people had proved the inadequacy of
their own devices, and until, in the "fulness of time,"
that should be reconstructed, constituted, and sanc
tioned, which would admit all his chosen and believ
ing ones, from the extreme antipodes of the Roman
Catholic down to the modern " Communist," or from
the antiquated Jew to the modernized " Come-outer,"
whose .systems shall be transformed and blend in
one, and whose individuality and names shall be en
rolled and marshalled in one body, and under one
banner, the body and banner of a world-wide and
Heavenly Union.

CHAPTER II.

But now, after so lengthy and, perhaps, needed a
preliminary, we will, in this, our session of charity,
and in the spirit of that blessed union which we con
template, and of which we are already virtual mem
bers, undertake the happy work of reconciling our
ostensible differences, and magnifying the harmony
of our agreements, and of conciliating and blending
all our interests into one.
(1.) The Existence of God. Here is a doctrine of
general agreement. It is a primary and essential

10 HEAVENLY UNION,
element in the Christian system of behef, and forms
a very prominent part of the foundation of the
Heavenly Union. It is the broad and common foun
dation of all our responsibility in religion. We all
here stand together in the identical recognition of a
Being, on the throne of the universe, possessed of
power and goodness, and every other possible per
fection, to render his competency to govern and bless
infinite and eternal. We arrive at this conclusion
by a common resort to the works of creation, to the
wonderful impressions of intelligent design, written,
in legible lines of light, upon the things and crea
tures which he has made. And besides, we have
the same conclusion intuitively, in the conscious
sense of moral obligation, rising up spontaneously
from the image of God, in the constitution of every
rational and human soul. We cannot account for
the universe of orderly changes, for the sure marks
of design, with which the whole machinery of visible
works is replete, and for the universality and per
petuity of a living consciousness of our moral obli
gations, without admitting the existence of an intelli
gent designer, and a Divine Author of all, whose
eternal power and Godhead are so clearly seen, as
to give him absolute title to the name of "the only
living and true God." In Him we all believe, in a
unison as perfect as that with which " in Him we
live, move, and have our being." None but the
fool has said in his heart, " There is no God "; and
he says it, not by any decision of intellect, or con
sciousness, for he knows to the contrary, but says it

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 11
in his heart, his depraved and wayward heart, which
does not love to retain the knowledge of God, and
hence, from the " issues of the heart," in practical
life he virtually says, " There is no God."
But the threefold resource of evidence, to which
we have simply alluded, forms a triple and most
ample basis for the* highest unison of loyalty, on the
part of blessed and rightful subjects. However we
may have set at naught this ground of universal
supremacy of love and obedience to God, by the
perversion of our natures, and consequent natural
and moral blindness, still the obligation remains un
changeable, and is greatly reinforced by the aids
which revelation has given us in discovering and re
publishing to us the pure laws of nature. We now
see a divine and blessed authority in the book of
Nature and of Providence, commanding our highest
homage and best services, as due to God over all
blessed for evermore ; but this book we should not,
if we could, have duly read nor understood, nor this
service rendered to God, without the accumulated
and coupled mandate of that revealed word which
spoke to us the law of God amid the thunders of
Sinai, and communicated to us, through the Son of
God, the powerful whispers of the Spirit, together re
manding us to the primary laws of the universe, and
wakening into life again man's lost recognition of the
claims of nature, and also summoning to action the
lulled conscience, that it might readily prompt obe
dience to nature's God.
It is from universal Nature, in her vast storehouse

12 HEAVENLY UNION,
of treasured designs, and her bright and magnificent
displays of a divine architect, that man learns loho
it is that speaks with authority from revelation, in
the "law and testimony."
And after drawing large supplies from the revealed
fountain of pardoning love, it is not only with safety
but with a hundredfold profit, that we linger in study
and application, amid the instructive oracles of an
outspreading, divinely constructed, and ever-glorious
universe. Every instance of divine skill is an oracle
of truth. This rich and diversified volume is ever
open alike to all, and all Christians here adopt the
same interpretation, reach the same conclusion, per
ceive the same beauty, feel the same majesty, and
pay the same devotion to one omnipresent Deity.
There is here an unexceptionable oneness in our ex
position of the great law of creation. We cannot be
sectarian and contentious in this field of research.
The more we investigate, the more strong and the
more united is our exclamation, It is God everywhere,
one Divine Intelligence in all and filling all, and to
whom all creation's works, in one response with our,
own, send up a complete chorus of praise. That
heavenly song, learnt at the feet of Moses and the
Lamb is but a reciprocation : — " Great and marvel
lous are thy works. Lord God Almighty ; just and
true are thy ways, thou King of saints."
Redemption from sin is a necessary means of pre
paring us to feel the presence of God amid his works.
With minds at peace with God, through reconcilia
tion, we all meet in one tranquil, and at times, it may

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 13
be, one enraptured state of contemplation, amid this
universe of divine arrangements and beauties. In
dued with the light and spirit of God, there never
was, and never can be, a single hindrance to our
union in Nature's laboratory, filled with stupendous
contrivances, bearing the " image and superscrip
tion " of " God only wise."
' Hence, as a means of evincing our oneness in the
love of God, it seems not only lawful, but expedient,
that we together, in this our introductory part of the
New Jerusalem, drink awhile at the natural springs
of Deity, of omnipotent wisdom and benignity.
With what mutual and unmingled delight may we
draw down the presence of God from the celestial
universe, that endless system of laws and harmonies.
Every discovery of telescopic vision, and every con
clusion of mental reasoning, demonstrates the pres
ence of one Infinite Mind, in the creation and prov
ince of each single body, and of the whole system of
structures which adorn the ethereal regions of space.
What Infinite Power first ushered them into exist
ence ! What infinite wisdom gave each and all their
relative position, and orderly movements, their exact
form, size, and velocity, balancing worlds upon
worlds, with perfect proportion of parts, by the two
responsive and harmonic laws of centrifugal and
centripetal power !
In the solar system, who besides the God whom
we adore could have ordered the position of the axis,
and adjusted the inclination of the plane of the eclip
tic ? 'Who but He could determine the precise de-

14 HEAVENLY UNION,
gree, on the one hand, of eccentric, and, on the other,
of gravitating power to secure the continuation and
harmony of the whole sphere of orbits ?
By one single derangement, or deviation from the
principle of order and beauty, we might rationally
look for the wreck of worlds.
But for our common eternity of trust and of repose,
we see in that one law of symmetry, which pervades
the universe, a just and benevolent God on the throne
of government.

CHAPTER] III.
But, bringing down the presence of God with us,
in our descent from the scale of musical spheres, we
will continue our research for still more extended ap
prehensions of an all-pervading and Divine Presence,
in the earth. And though our globe be but a " small
dust in the balance," it has a just and indispensable
weight of importance, in sustaining the equilibrium
of the universe, and yielding to the most ordinary
eye ocular proof of the Being whom every child
should love.
Without dwelling upon the curious structure, beau
tiful form, and sublime motions of the earth, think of
the benevolent plan of Jehovah in the adaptations of
its fertility of surface, its mineral, combustible, and

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 15
vegetable productions, to meet the various exigencies
and wants of every living creature upon it.
Could the fortuitous concurrence of things produce
aught of those beautiful provisions, so wisely adapt
ed to please the senses, to satisfy the necessary
wants, and to elevate the mind of man .'
Even its inequalities of surface, its varied undula
tions, its lofty mountains clad with snows, or forests, or
verdure, its plains and valleys, intersected with rivers,
or dotted with lakes and ponds, or green and bloom
ing with pastures, all together, have a pleasure for
man, which may well rise as a sweet-smelling savor,
at once discovering find praising the Maker of earth.
But in the ample productions of its surface are
perhaps more appreciable disclosures of supreme
wisdom. Every living creature finds its divine pro
vision of climate, food, raiment, and fuel, — every an
imal finds itself with a natural covering, and, with
little care, in the possession of congenial food, suited
to the climate of its birth.
Near the surface, both above and beneath, is every
needed and abounding material for fuel, for building
and fencing, for ships, vehicles, implements of hus
bandry, for the various arts, for the cure of diseases,
and for numberless uses incidental to our creation.
All, then, that we receive from the bounties of
earth for our sustenance, comfort, and convenience,
constitute countless mementos of an invisible and
intelligent Providence, and, however inadequate may
have been the recognition and responses of man, still
the earth itself is "full of the glory of God." But

16 HEAVENLY UNION,
pass to observe the almost invisible, yet mighty and
impressive conclusions of design, in the analysis of
that subtile element of air, with which our terrestrial
sphere is beautifully enveloped, and through which it
runs its stately revolutions. Its elasticity renders it
an almost divine medium for the circumnavigation of
the heavenly orbs. Its use to our earth and its in
habitants, as a medium of evaporation, evinces the
skill of One infinitely higher thaji the highest arched
heaven above us. And no less as a receiver of fluids
than as the fit supporter of animal and vegetable life,
as a necessary conveyer of sound, reporter of light,
conductor of heat, and suppoj'ter of combustion.
To what a variety of ends is it most wisely adapted !
It sustains the lofty and congenial flight, and sustains
the life of the fowl. It wafts on its bosom every fra
grant odor, that perfumes our grateful sense. It yields
its share of aid in wafting ships and bearing burdens
over the wide and billowy expanse of ocean.
But in the decomposition of the atmosphere there
is a point of science, which has a voice, long sup
pressed, but, in fact, equally powerful in its declara
tion of Supreme Divinity, with the loud peal of thun
der. The more specific, primary, and refined ele
ments, which compose the more generic one, are
arranged in such exquisite proportions, as to answer
every end above mentioned, and others which would
be utterly defeated by any different order of com
position. Take from, add to, or alter the proportions
assigned, and just in the degree of derangement is
the certainty that the destruction of the material uni-

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 17
verse, by explosion, conflagration, or some other
catastrophe, would be sudden, appalhng, and disas
trous, resolving all things at once, it might be, into
dismal chaos.
How could an audible voice from heaven be more
explicit in its communication of God ?
Another element in the inventory of earth's prop
erty is water.
It also cooperates in fulfilling its curious and ma
jestic province of argument, and of subserviency to
the use of man, and the purposes of heaven. It is
equally essential with air, in its support of animal
and vegetable life. It forms the general basis of a
great variety of fluids. It officiates as a- most im
portant dilator of food and solids, serves to rarefy
the air, and to accomplish the various purposes of
evaporation, and, in its immense volumes of lake,
river, bays, sounds, seas, and oceans, becomes a
mighty bearer of burdens and of commerce. It is a
beautiful complement to earth, a Divine provision to
act its part in facilitating the interchange and heav
enly union of all nations, and in the blessed recovery
of lost paradise.
It is to this grand purpose, the renovation of the
earth, that science now applies this powerful element
in its modified form of vapor, raised to such a degree
of confined heat, that, in its struggles to burst its
bonds and recover its native freedom, it constitutes
a motive power, that defies all other physical energy
at our command. For the great movements of our
age, nothing in the physical world admits of com-
2

18 HEAVENLY UNION,
parison with it. Other elements evidently possess
equally inherent power, though not so fully at con
trol, such as air and electricity, the former evinced
in a high state of compression by its determination to
regain its original condition ; and the latter evinced
in its wonderful . power to discharge its mysterious
fluid. Still another element is fre. No agent is more
subtile and consuming, none more necessary, as be
ing conducive to life and comfort, in the animal and
vegetable kingdoms. It lends a powerful agency in
dissolving solid substances. In the order of Provi
dence it is the " best of servants," but the "worst of
masters." The Infinite and Eternal in power is
clearly seen, both in the provision and the control of
it, in its serviceable agencies when bounded by de
terminate laws. It is selected among all other sub
stances, to represent the keenest intensity of remorse.
When permitted to transgress its prescribed bounds,
it is the appointed consumer of dissolving worlds and
elements. It justly, but terribly, portrays the wrath of an of
fended God, as manifested against ungodliness, and
in this character it has given Him the fearful ap
pellation of "consuming fire."
In this connection it is sufliicient to observe, that
this province in the Godhead is equally essential
with that of love, in the government of an untried or
rebellious world. His attributes are summed up in
the one alike with the other, according to exigency,
in those most expressive terms, " God is a consuming

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 19
fire," and " God is love." How fully and clearly do
the things which are made declare his eternal power
and Godhead !
But in the material creation, there is one other ele
ment to which we refer, as affording us perhaps the
brightest exhibition of the Deity. It is light. So
conspicuous a part does this perform in the panorama
of the universe, that it eminently prefigures Him
who, in the moral and spirit world, is justly styled
" our light."
The material light appears to emanate chiefly from
the sun. And among the objects of idol-worship,
what, throughout the vast drama of stationary or re
volving orbs, has so absorbed the devotion, but chal
lenged the understanding, of men ?
While our intelligence, transformed by the higher
light of the moral world, forbids that heathenish de
votion, we must still yield to the blind devotee the
claims to supremacy which that dazzling " orb of
day " holds, in the high firmament of heaven, over
all that enters the eye or ken of telescopic vision.
But in withholding our supreme adoration from that
resplendent thing of creation, we will suffer the
spontaneous rise of all our devotional sentiments and
feelings towards Him, to whom every trace of in
finite intelligence, in the illuminating and warming
beams of his natural sun, leads and draws us.
Every visitation of light, from the least penetrat
ing particle that finds its way to the hidden law of
vegetable growth, to the dense volume of noonday
splendor, opens to us a pathway back to God, the

20 HEAVENLY UNION,
source of all material, as well as spiritual emana;
tions. Light bears a strong affinity to fire and electricity,
and surely it comes to us, by its myriad lines of con
ductor, with the brilliant and legible characters of
heaven's King.
The progress and intensity of light bear with it
an epistleship of Divine love, being in that exact ratio
which is adapted to the numerous purposes of life
and enjoyment.
The medium of distance and density is so con
stituted and modified, that, in the ultimate fulfilment
of its beneficent mission, it most gently strikes its
soft pencil rays upon the delicate organ of vision.
How full of Divinity is the reciprocal correspondence
and perfect adjustment of the delicate texture of the
eye, and the soft ray of light ! Behold the inde
scribable beauty of light, in its composition of all the
prismatic colors, and yet forming a colorless com
pound, — as if to make a more fitting canvas, upon
which could be more readily distinguished the mixed
hues and intermediate shades of colors, which the
eye needs to detect at the best advantage, in the
various materials and substances of common use.
The minutest circumstance, in the Divine dispo
sition of things, is a designed reference to the reveal
ed superintendence of high Heaven.

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 21

CHAPTER IV.
Our discourse here turns upon animated nature,
and, first, the human system.
As the designed tenement of the human and im
mortal soul, it ranks first among the material struc
tures of the universe, for beauty, form, proportion,
symmetry, and adaptations. What a wonderful piece
of workmanship, all replete with contrivance ! Noth
ing within the limits of omniscient wisdom could
have assigned to the eye its commanding and relative
position, or contrived so nice a protection, or given
it so beautiful a construction, — the cornea, or trans
parent front through which the rays of light pass, —
the pupil, contracting or enlarging according to need,
to power of endurance, and intensity of light, — the
optic nerve, sensitive to the nicest perception, — the
retina, a necessary complement towards perfecting
the whole system of optical principles, — the 'needed
variety of humor, aqueous, crystalline, and vitreous,
— the balls in their fitted sockets, suspended on
tendons prepared to roll them, — fluid adapted to
lubricate and cleanse it, — a suitable skin to cover,
and brush to sweep it, — and other perfections which
might be named, making it as a whole perhaps the
masterpiece of mechanism, in itself a beautiful little
model of science, which, more properly than any
other material part of all creation, looks up to see
and tell its Maker, God.

22 HEAVENLY UNION,
The structure of the ear also adds its contribution
of evidence to the curious handiwork of contrivance.
This entire instrument of sound, as an organ nicely
adjusted in all its parts, is constructed upon a most
scientific and harmonic law. It is fitted to catch
every pitch and note of musical sound, to echo its
own music, and impart the whole symmetry and
pleasure to the soul. All the tender vibrations of
sound and melody here have their play of intro
duction, a prelude to the sweeter harmonies of the
soul. A structure so divinely marked should admit no
other than the voices of nature and of truth, and
trace them up to God. Let no clank of arms, no
grating discord, and no horrid oath, ever profane this
vestibule of God's temple. May it be permitted to
listen to no other than the chorus of union and love,
the sweet whispers of the "still, small voice," and all
the praises of the animate and the inanimate world,
though it be the thunder's peal, or the ocean's roar,
or the loud acclamations of truthful beings.
The human system is a wonderful embodiment of
contrivances. The material, strength, texture, and form of the
bones are all as they should be, to sustain the move
ments of the body. A beautiful, unique chain of
design runs through the head, the neck, the spine,
ribs, sternum, arms, and legs, and is traced through
aU the joints, ball:^, sockets, and hinges, and glands,
and every accommodation for the bloodvessels. It
is also curiously linked to the muscular system, act-

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 23
ing by a necessary contraction. The disposition of
the whole is such as not to interfere, one part with
another, in the activities and motions of life. The
same hand of contrivance is visible in the admirable
system of bloodvessels, and in the process of diges
tion and assimilation.
Then look at the human structure as a mass, the
perfect balance of parts, the fair, external propor
tions, the compact interdispositions, and the cover
ing, so comely, and who can withhold unceasing
homage from Him by whom we are so "wonder
fully made " ? With what care and gratitude should
we obey its laws of health, of beauty, and of use
fulness, viewed as it is, indeed, the " temple of God,"
than which none is more sacred on earth.
Much might be said evincing peculiar proofs of de
sign, of the interrupted analogies of the human body,
as respects the teeth, nails, cover of the brain ; and
that analogy should be interrupted only where it is
needed is a very striking proof of a wisdom infinite
ly superior to human and ordinary. We will allude
briefly to the designs of comparative anatomy.
Nowhere is intelligence displayed to better ad
vantage, than in the contrast of structure of differ
ent creatures, all being adapted to the element in
which they live. The fowl of the air, the fish of
the sea, and the beast of the field have their ap
propriate coverings. The human animal is left more
unprotected, because of ability to protect himself
The heads and necks of animals are all adapted
to their modes of receiving nourishment, those re-

24 HEAVENLY UNION,
quiring it being provided with an extra provision of
muscles. Peculiarity is seen in the bones of animals. Those
of the bird, for instance, are made with large cavities
to secure two essential objects, strength and levity,
to facilitate its rise and flight. The same wisdom is
displayed in the lungs of the bird, in the orifice to
admit the air into the cavity of the body, on the
principle of an air-vessel. It is displayed in the in
struments of motion with which different animals are
gifted, — with feet, or wings, or fins.
It is displayed in the peculiarity of eyes, and of
other parts of organization, and in instances of pros
pective contrivance, all according to the circum
stances and habits of life, — and there are striking
analogies running through animated bodies, as re
lated to animated nature. It makes up a world of
affinities and united contrivances, that no intelligent
being could possibly mistake the existence of One
whom all creation should recognize, praise, and
adore. The v.ery instinct of the animal creation utters the
memory of our God. And the whole vegetable king
dom answers to the call of praise, from the law of
symmetry in the growth of the stately tree to that
which equally obtains in the beautiful development
of the petals of the flower, or the tints of the rose.
How clearly marked are the invisible perfections
of the Godhead upon every thing that constitutes the
different departments of animate and inanimate crea
tion!

OR NEVF JERUSALEM. 25
Is it presumption, then, to claim the privilege of
communion with God as revealed in nature .''
The homes and employments of mankind are chiefly
amid the glorious displays of the Infinite One, that
habitual and universal devotion to Him might spring
forth from all hearts brought into association and
unison with the Divinity of visible scenes.

CHAPTER V.

But man possesses a mental and moral nature,
more in the likeness of God than all other creations
allied to earth. Though its credentials of Divine au
thorship are not so visible as those adduced from the
corporal system, still they are no less authenticated.
We must look upon the immortal soul, which God
breathed into its fitted temple, as the finishing and
crowning stroke of His creation. It possesses ele
ments which, if carried to infinity of perfection,
would constitute the Infinite Mind, which it now
glories to adore.
Science and experience are yet to disclose their
brightest and most astonishing revelations of Deity.
This soul invisible, yet with visible indices, is fast
opening its moral grandeur and divine inspirations
to its own world of consciousness. With but a par
tial dislodgment from its earthly house, it gives us an

26 HEAVENLY UNION,
invaluable glimpse of its own wonderful laws, and
reveals glorious realizations of its own affinity to
omniscience. The doctrine of correspondence, running through
the spirit-world, according to the analogy of the
material, here proves its eternity of truth, which is
yet to be verified to all, by every process of reason
ing, whether by analysis, by synthesis, by induction,
by experience, or by any other revelation. It must
serve to unite and blend the convictions, worship,
uses, and enjoyments of disenthralled mind.
Come to the revelations of science, whether by the
realization of God's word or works in our experi
ences, and, with the simple disposition of love and
good-will, where are the bitter strifes, anathemas,
and excommunications of men and Christians ? If
we realize the intent of the Divine loord,. we must
be judged by it, — if we realize the intent of the
Divine works alone, we find there the law by which
we must be judged. In whatever degree we reach
the law and practice of wisdom and love, and by
whatever means, in the same ratio will be our ap
proximation to the desired blessedness of union and
communion with one another and with God. The
science of mind teaches us, that, the greater the per
version of natural powers, the greater need there is
of the immediate word of revelation. But the most
gifted and unperverted minds, in order to reach the
highest possible attainment in recovery and perfec
tion, need the positive declaration of eternal laws,
and of the mediate system of redemption, and then

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 27
unite revealed with the natural sciences, and we have
a perfect unitive law of progress towards the knowl
edge and felicity of the highest heaven. With this
and every successive conclusion, let us exercise the
attribute and highest activities of our common vo
lition, and its power over the bodily functions, which
is so clearly the pure gift of Design. Though unable
to explain the law of connection between the power
of volition and its action, still the great work of ad
vancement is marked out before us. Let the laws
over which we can have no control, like the pulsa
tions of the heart, have their divine operation, while
we use the given power of volition and every uni
tive law of universal improvement.
In confirmation of the existence of God, and our
consequent duties, all the works and dispensations
of Divine Providence have for us a guiding law of
truth. The grand achievement we seek is a Heav
enly Union upon earth, in preparation for the higher
destiny of a future life, and in subordination to the
glory of God.
The universality of designs now under survey,
and which give the highest satisfactory proof of the
existence and consequent authority of God, presents
a unitive law of obedience, with which the revealed,
moral, and Gospel law is identified, in all its doc
trinal and preceptive teachings, which together com
mand a union in understanding, in belief, and in
practice, which cannot justify and suffer in the future
the sectarian pretensions of the past, and a union
which these pretensions can never warrant.

28 HEAVENLY UNION,
Our present examination of the important body of
divinity, given us in the clear and legible impress of
God's works, is preparatory to our settlement of those
more imperfect bodies of divinity, which sectarian
men have devised and compiled upon the pretended
basis of the written word.
It is preparative to our needed resolution of sec
tarian differences into one understanding of this Old
and New Testament impress, which is but one and
undivided in its ultimate design, moral teaching, and
practical effect. The whole intent is, as all will ad
mit, that we may be doers, ana not mere teachers, or
students, or readers, or hearers of the truth ; doers
of the truth as it is in God, or in natural and Divine
science, to which we are only led by the truth as it
is in Jesus, this being a redemptive and mediatorial
system. Our Saviour held up to view, however, a prospect
ive state of things on earth to which both the Jewish
and his own mediatorial systems were preparative,
and this state of things is the understanding and
practice of the pure laws of God and of nature, such
as are conducive to the health and happiness of both
the soul and body of the whole human family.
But ere the New Jerusalem of love, health, and
beauty is made real and catholic, there must be a
simultaneous movement of all truth-seeking and truth-
loving souls.
Communion must be as truthful and universal as
is the love of God and of the human family. This
communion must be speedily sought by the removal
of misapprehensions, and every root of bitterness.

OR NEW JERUSALEM. ' 29
There is no method more sure than unexception
able resolve to turn the general current of thoughts
and volitions upon converse and communion with the
laws and truths of nature and of mind, and with the
plain and general principles of action and of happi
ness. Revert to the character of those Divine works
wherein we learn and commune with the benevo
lence of God, — in the preponderance of benevolent
design, in particular instances of beneficence in our
moral nature, in virtuous and vicious affections, in the
private consequences, and the tendency of virtue to
prevail. How futile the objection, advanced by the
corrupt and superficial, against the pure benevolence
of God, in the existence of natural and moral evil !
This existence of evil is no argument against the
unhed endeavours of the whole human family, in
obeying the obvious and salutary teachings of either
natural or revealed religion. This duty of endeavour
is true, though none could fully account for existing
evils, which alike burden every system of religion,
true or false.
There is no proof that the existence of evil is
irreconcilable with the Divine benevolence, while all
the world may unite in the persuasion that it is the
result of government by general laws, and the limit-
edness of our capacities. And the most unfavorable,
yet admissible, persuasion need be simply, that God
permits sin as the result of a moral system, which he
has seen fit to adopt, and as a needful lesson for our
submission and consequent confirmation in everlast
ing obedience.

30 HEAVENLY UNION,
With all the proof we have, from general benef
icence, evinced in the Divine works, that our char
acters of virtue, of obedience, and Christian charity
are more strongly developed by the very existence
of evils, or by our very faith and struggles against
them, we have still abundance of reason to unite in
praising God for our being. Had we ever been in
dulged, like the merest infant, or been drawn to obe
dience without any strong voluntary agency and co
operation of our own, how could we ever realize the
joy of the saint's confirmation, in unending obe
dience and bliss.
Though God had promised heaven to us, where
could be the strength and beauty of redemption's
song, irrespective of this scene of discipline which
so wisely and beautifully secures the highest moral
virtue of our voluntary cooperation in obeying and
praising God. We only need a faithful examination
of things, a catholic faith, and a determined disposi
tion of love and obedience to well-known truths, in
order to secure the yet unexperienced felicity of
Heavenly Union on earth. Before this power of
Christian principle, all ignorance, envy, and selfish
rivalry, as it were one body of personification, will
hide itself in the dens and caverns of everlasting
oblivion.

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 31

CHAPTER VI,

Another source of Heavenly Union, instead of
unsanctioned disunion, may be found in our general
view and adoption of government. All will admit that
government consists in the administration of rewards
and punishments according to conduct, and implies
the presentation of law, and the enforcement of it,
by just retribution. In the Divine government, there
is omniscient wisdom and love, to regulate the power
and justice of administration. In our adoption of
needful government, we are authorized to draw a
just pattern of the Divine. We have presented to us
the general principles which ought to govern Chris
tians, and to be exemplified to the whole world.
These principles are so plain, that a simple spirit
of obedience and charity will insure their general
prevalence. Knowledge is essential, but the law of
love, put in practice, will both imply and promote the
best of all knowledge. Hence love, by our highest
ability, to God and universal man, is the fulfilling of
the whole law. This must obtain, full of wisdom and
truth, in the descending Jerusalem from God out of
heaven. And the whole Christian world are called
upon, by well-known considerations, by the present
juncture of affairs, and by this written demonstration
of fellowship, and without longer objecting that men
and things are hot prepared for it, to adopt this gov
ernment of love, not a government of reckless and

32 heavenly UNION,
abandoned indulgence, but one of eternal principle.
In the constitution and adoption of all true principles,
there can be but one understanding, the very moment
that professed theologians, ministers, and Christians
resolve to dismiss a whiffling, catching, and uncharita
ble spirit of construction. This embodiment of self
ishness has been both the cause and the effect of igno
rance and moral blindness. God has been teaching
this very fact by all the developments and proceedings
of his providential government. It is but our true
glory to acknowledge that we have learned the lesson.
And be it now our accession of glory to resolve upon
the positive adoption of the better law of truthful love,
the appointed and worthy harmonizer of the world.
It will reverse, in a great measure, the order of prac
tice pursued for ages past in human affairs, not ex
cepting Christendom.
Persuasions to union in the required law of love
are found almost everywhere. Familiarity with them
will work wonders in vanquishing those evils which
have made our world a broad field of strife, and the
" aceldama " of blood.
Among the unnumbered persuasions to unity of
belief and love, a prevailing one is found in the be
nevolent character of the Divine sovereignty and ad
ministration. In the tendency of distributive justice,
according to the conduct of men, the character of
benevolence shines conspicuously. All see that hap
piness and misery ought to depend upon human con
duct, that these consequences are attributable to no
blind fate or ungoverned course of nature, but to

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 33
benevolent sovereignty; that the evils of human life
partake of the nature of rewards and punishments,
that every violation of the law of nature, and of Gos
pel love, will, in due time, have its full evil of pun
ishment, which (not for us to measure its intensity or
length) will be sufficiently severe to convince every
rebellious subject that obedience, by whatever sacri
fice or self-denial, would have been altogether better,
both for personal and universal interest and happi
ness ; that no dictate of prudence can reasonably
prompt us to immediate pleasure, which, in the least
degree, prevents or suppresses the hope of an eter
nity of legitimate happiness.
How often, even in this life, does the misery of sin
outlast its pleasure. It illustrates a principle, gf in
finite moment, in the Divine economy.
The delay of punishment is no warrant against due
infliction. Sometimes, after a long period of delay,
the retribution breaks forth very suddenly. The ten
dency of this principle is supremely benevolent in its
power to discourage the commission of sin. The op
portunity of knowing or anticipating it is too com
mon to leave any class unprivileged or inexcusable.
The time and manner of retribution need not be so
readily perceived, but the certainty of ii, in its full
measure, must follow, and just as really follow acts of
indiscretion as those of deliberation. One misstep
sometimes brings inevitable mischief; and equally
true must it appear to all men, that some particular
benefits, if not obtained at a particular season, can
never be obtained. 3

34 HEAVENLY UNION,
Reformation will, at times, deliver us from our er
rors, if entered upon timely, but if not, it will be of
no avail. There are evident analogies and corre
spondences running through all just governments,
whether called political, natural, or moral.
All true government may be called moral, for it is
resolved into, and issues from, the will of God, ad
ministered on the eternal principles of right and
wrong. His nature is a law of righteousness.
However deranged may be human governments and
administrations, suffice it to admit that all men are
under the perfect moral government of God, as prov
ed by the health, satisfaction, and pleasure of virtue,
and the pains and evils of vice. That obedience is
attended with happiness, and disobedience with mis
ery, is all-important evidence of the rightful authority
of the absolute government under which we live.
It contemplates the good of both individuals and of
society. It speaks volumes in favor of the supreme
government over us, that we cannot make a virtuous
or obedient subject so miserable as a vicious or diso
bedient one. Inflict upon him all the penalties which
imperfect and conventional governments may order,
and he may, if possessed of conscious love or sense
of obedience to Divine truth, still enjoy the highest
kind of pleasure, a pleasure of mind which no cre
ated principalities and powers can touch. Like the
heavenly song of Paul and Silas, it may reverberate,
in transports, within the darkest conventional prison-
house of earth; or, like the martyred Stephen, in the
very sundering of body and spirit, lift up to Heaven

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 35
a prayer of love for his enemies. Every government
which is not broad and benevolent, like the Divine,
must be disorganized, that in naked majesty we may
feel the responsibilities linked with the divinely con
stituted and necessary relations of life, and that we
may feel the unencumbered and universal joy of
obedience to an omnipresent government.
Our habits and principles of life, under God, take
fast hold of the future state. There are unequalled
motive powers, constraining us to obedience, under
that government which determines for eternity the
principle we form and cherish, in this probationary
state. No earthly magistracy can possibly enforce a
motive power like that we feel in the strong proba
ble evidence of the immortality of the soul, and in
the assurance, that we are now forming characters of
life, which will be the same, in more full develop
ment, as long as "immortality endures." The gov
ernment of God is but extended to another state.
It now assigns us this probationary state, and what
immense responsibility and retributions of reward
and punishment does it present to us as free, moral,
and accountable subjects !
Probation is a state of trial, fraught with tempta
tions to deviate from the path of integrity and heav
enly life, and also with inducements to walk therein.
This state of discipline and partial retribution con
ducts us to an unending moral destiny, where the
great ends of God's present government will be car
ried out. Present apparent inequalities of retribu
tion are yet to be settled and made right in the eye
of the universe.

36 HEAVENLY UNION,
But we all have a common and important convic
tion, that the tendency of probation, under the pres
ent Divine administration, is to confirm its subjects in
one character or another for the future life.
It is the immortality of the soul that gives infinite
moment to the life we now live. We have but to
give realization to the doctrine of a future state, in
order to enhance the magnitude of interest attached
to probationary life. Even were there but one ray
of probability that our life and character will be im
mortal, it would be more rational and wise to live, at
the present, the highest life of self-denial and char
ity, to insure if possible a blessed eternity, than to
revel amid the pleasures of luxury and sin, though it
be threescore years and ten, and then die without
God and without hope.
But, instead of a ray, there is a strong balance in
favor of the doctrine of immortality, and this evi
dence, from the light of nature and reason, is re
affirmed by all the authority of the Divine Word, in
the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
tie, then, who does not form a life and character
for hereafter is among the most unwise and the most
miserable of earth, though fleshly appetites and pas
sions have their acme of gratification.
It is well for such to consider a few facts arrayed
against such a position. In the fact that we live, there
is presumptive, if not positive, evidence that we
shah live hereafter. We know nothing of death
that should lead us to conclude that it destroys the
soul with the body. The second childhood of man

OR NEW JERUSALEM. ,S7
results from the decay of the body, which cripples
the soul, or obstructs the manifestations of it, and
death comes in for dissolution, which does not occa
sion death. The vitality of the soul need not depend
upon connection with matter, and positive science
teaches that it does not depend upon a permanent
connection with the same portion of matter.
There is no evidence that spirit, like sensation, de
pends upon organs of sense.
But it is sufficient, for the highest fellowship and
unction of union, to know, in favor of immortality,
that it has obtained the general belief, if not presen
timent, of mankind, that our faculties attain no limit,
that we live in a state of trial, that analogous changes
offer their proof, that in the vegetable kingdom there
is a periodical decay, that we cannot solve the mys
tery or end of our being, without admitting the doc
trine ; and, to carry the subject within the precincts
of Divine revelation, all that substantiates that in
spired Record, and its positive declaration, brings to
light immortality of life.

CHAPTER VII.
And this brings us, in common with all Chris
tians, to a unison of belief in the necessity of what
has been preeminently styled Revelation. We be-

38 HEAVENLY UNION,
lieve with " one heart and one mind," that we are
not deceived, as to the fact, or the manner, of God's
communication of his mind and will to man. In at
testation of His revealed truth. He displayed those
wonderful works, called miracles. And he commu
nicated himself, in the most natural, yet Divine way,
to a few individuals, who wore taught to communicate
the same to others. The evident necessity of reve
lation lies in the obvious fact, that the darkness
occasioned by sin obscures man's perception of the
truths which lie about us, necessary to salvation.
Though, by exertion and reflection, he might have
discovered the way of duty and of life eternal, and
his obligations to Him, whose " power and godhead
might be clearly seen," still he did not do it; and
though some of the best of men have been able to
devise an excellent code of morals, still it could nev
er fulfil the promise of revelation, in convincing us
of the extent of our deviation from the law of nature
and of God, and of the only way of recovery from
our sin, to the light, hberty, and life of heaven.
Besides, most or all heathen or profane authors,
to whom has been ascribed such excellent moral pre
cepts, have felt more or less the influence of that in
spired volume, whose truths would naturally be dis
seminated by the very commerce of nations, or by
various other modes.
We know of no part of the world which has not re
ceived more or less benefit from revelation.
Still, wkhout the luminous enforcement of it, the
great mass are not brought to a correct knowledge

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 39
of sin, and to the obedience of God. Without it,
there is no just idea of the moral perfections and re
quirements of God. Without it, neither the abso
lute nor the providential government of God is duly
recognized. They know but little or nothing of the
true worship of God.
The general view of the heathen world respecting
virtue, or any good system of morals, has been de
fective. Their philosophy has not been impressive, nor
their science effective. They have failed to learn
in what the supreme happiness of man consists. We
must fail to realize from the light of nature, without
the instructive beams of revealed light, whether God
is willing to pardon sin or not.
There can be but one view of the general state of
the heathen and idolatrous world. It is a standing
monument of wretchedness and spiritual death, that
all may see the necessity of Christian institutions
and influences. Though modern heathenism, in some
of its features, may be less odious, being modified
by the mingling influences of Christianity, and
through commercial intercourse, not here to dwell
upon the wonderful changes, for the better, wrought
by more recent Christian missions, still, where the
light of revelation does not directly shine, idol-wor
ship is essentially the same as in the ancient system
of idolatry.
Look at the three hundred millions of heathen dei
ties, in the single country of Hindostan, and then
survey the moral condition of China, and what do

40 HEAVENLY UNION,
we learn but the aggravated necessity of Divine rev
elation and a heavenly renovation ? If we are a
Christianized people, we are called upon by the most
accumulated powers of emergency, not only to send
the missionary and the Bible to "our neighbour,"
the heathen, but to press upon them immediately,
through, not only commercial, but all possible chan
nels of intercourse and influence, the almost omnip
otent example of a heavenly union of all Christians,
in the happy form of one compact community of uni
versal love and interest.
But before the prolonged history of heathenism,
and the demonstrative evidence of the necessity of
that very revelation which has been given, deism
must stand aghast, and feel constrained to unite with
Christianity in ascribing both the work of nature
and of revelation to one and the same God. Deism,
which acknowledges the existence of God, but de
nies special revelation, and which had its formal
rise in France and Italy about the middle of the
sixteenth century, will now find its troublesome gap
and chasm gloriously filled, by admitting the long
needed complement of the Divine word. Nothing but
the inspired communication of our revealed system
of redemption can qualify the deist to understand
and enjoy his God, who is more intelligently and
spiritually the Christian's God.
Those classed among deists, but who are more
properly infidels, one class of whom denies the exist
ence of a providential government, and another de
nies that it is of a moral nature, and still a third de-

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 41
nies a future state, all will find their " plague-spot "
removed by a common resort to the God of the Bible.
Let all the pernicious effects of deism or infidelity
return to their own place, in the graves and among
the mouldering ruins of Herbert and Hobbes, of
Collins andBolingbroke, of Hume and Voltaire, and
of others like them.
We deprecate no worthy characters or traits, but
the device of any system, which pretends to super
sede the purpose of Divine revelation. And it is,
after all, a practical atheism which forms the root
and branch of every system of effort, which labors
to bring the given Scriptures into disrepute.
The worst of deists and atheists, however desti
tute of good moral sentiment and conduct, know too
well the authority of revelation, to ascribe their infi
delity to consciousness, instead of depraved life.
The Word of God has been tried by its enemies
as well as by its friends.
No moral quake of hostility, or pent-up fires of in
dignation against the truth, though they may have
sent forth burning lava, have consumed or covered
this living. Divine testimony, which has found its
way to the homes and hearts of millions, and contin
ues to prove "the wisdom of God and the power of
God unto salvation."
But to substantiate its claims, we have a degree of
evidefice which nearly amounts to the highest dem
onstration, and which has been sufficient to gain
the acquiescence and love of a multitude that no man
can number, from all nations and classes, from the

42 HEAVENLY UNION,
chief, though needy, magistrate and scholar, to the
sin-convicted and dependent child.
Though the evidence of its Divinity has been to
some unsatisfactory, still it has brought some de
gree of probability, even to the skeptical and super
ficial, which it is ever their highest jeopardy to disre
gard, since it is the only known ground of hope that
they can build upon for eternity. Even a moderate
degree of belief would be reason to unite the whole
world in grounding upon it all the plans, pursuits,
and interests of life.
That both the Old and New Testaments have one
and the same Divine origin admits of no controversy.
The same life-giving spirit pervades the entire sys
tem. One part proves another.
And though most of the parts should be lost, still
the remnant, or a very small fraction, would give us
the substance of the Law and Gospel.
But we are blessed with an ample fulness of meas
ure, and "running over " with all needed estabhsh-
ment, from within and without, of its genuineness, its
truth, its incorruptedness, and inspiration.
No grounds of suspicion can now confuse the
evidences, neither as to the time in general in which
the different parts were written, nor as to the events
themselves, nor the style of the age, nor the idioms
in use. It gives much satisfaction, that the books of
Scripture now exist, having so long held the con
fidence of intelligent men, without the use of force,
which has been employed to spread the Koran and
other systems.

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 43
The antiquity of the Old Testament Scriptures is
undisputed. The oldest histories in the world cor
roborate them.
The New Testament writings, also, are proved to
bear the date they claim, with all needed precision.
They describe the same events with contemporary
histories. And other books speak of the same facts,
persons, and religion.
All will agree upon the point of authenticity. The
tradition of the world confirms it.
The names which the different books bear and
claim are all quoted by other authors, as well as by
each other. The Old Testament authors are quoted,
among others, by Christ and the Apostles.
The internal evidence is not without great weight.
The writings are artless, and eminently devotional,
such as to exclude imposition. The same is true of
the New Testament writers. They are conspicuous
men, whose works are simple and spiritual, which
are quoted, together with their names, by both Jews
and Pagans. The early catalogues, in almost every
instance, mention the books and names.
The facts and truths of the Bible are too well at
tested to require additional proofs. There is even
no plausibility, that impostors and liars should fabri
cate so good a book, and the enemies of Christianity
would have long since exposed any fallacies or dis
crepancies. No contemporary nor subsequent apostate ever de
nied the facts.
Ordinances and institutions have done their work
to commemorate Scriptural facts.

44 HEAVENLY UNION,
But perhaps in the eye of the world the historical
evidence is most invincible. And they are well fur
nished with it. Josephus and Philemon enumerate
the same books which the Septuagint contained 270
years before Christ. Important parts of the Pen
tateuch come through separate channels, but all es
sentially the same.
Like important evidence is given in favor of the
New and the Old Testaments. The Apostolic Fathers,
whose well-known names need not be mentioned,
add their historical evidence to the truth of the New
Testament. And not contemporaries alone, but, in
each successive century, the Christian Fathers abound
with catalogues recognizing their authority and gos
pel truths. The most open enemies, even Judas and
Julian, never pretended that they were deceived.
There was every opportunity, at the onset, from the
character of the age, of assailing and exposing any
impositions palmed upon the world. Tacitus, Pilate,
and others, as well as Josephus, who felt no prejudi
cial interests, bear strong testimony.
But, after all, nothing can have more substantial
evidence and practical influence, than the perfect
adaptedness of the Bible to meet exactly the condition
of humanity. While the writers are unimpeachable,
the doctrines excellent, and the effects glorious, it is
enough that the Bible presents the most reasonable
system of religion, and answers the strongest and
most rational inquiries and desires of the needy. hu
man soul. We need not now, except for happy re
membrances, to resort for evidence to ancient coins.

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 45
or the Apamean medal, with its representation of the
square chest, the man and woman coming out, and
two others within, and the dove hovering over it with
an olive-branch, and a raven on the roof, and the
panel inscribed with the name of Noe in Greek.
And we need not scan the detail of evidence, now
the victory is won, of authenticity and truth, at
tached to each separate book and epistle, nor ex
amine more minutely the general agreement of an
cient manuscripts, and of the different Samaritan,
Septuagint, and other versions, nor enumerate the
various excellent modes of preserving (especially
the ancient), uncorrupted, the true version of the
Bible. And we will not go far back into history,
to trace the exact fulfilment of prophecies, and to
find full proof of inspiration, which has all been
well done ; nor need we spend much controversy in
defining a miracle, when it is simply necessary to
know that it is a wonderful event or performance, in
apparent deviation from the ordinary course of nature,
but which may, above the common apprehension, be
conducted upon perfectly scientific -principles, or the
eternally established laws of Heaven, still in attesta
tion of Divine authority.
Though every wonderful work ever performed
should have been transacted upon the principle of
science, it is no less Divine, nor is it necessarily less
evidence of a Divine commission. It is enough to
arouse the slumbering attention and lethargic condi
tion of an ignorant and wicked world.
But what may constitute a miracle to the unin-

46 HEAVENLY UNION,
structed may be, to an instructed age, surely to om
niscience, the operation of a perfect law of Nature,
and to such it is not a miracle. A mystery is no
longer a mystery when developed. Inspiration, also,
may be and is in perfect accordance with the laws
of mind. The highest degree of it is the pure com
munication and dictate of the Spirit of God. Such
was necessary, to preclude all possibility of error, in
establishing the great truths of Divine Revelation, as
being both authoritative and adapted to the known
condition of the world.
The perfection of it consisted in its adaptation to
the understanding, to the usages, and the wants of
mankind, contemplating an ultimate redemption from
every false view of true science, and of its Divine
Author, and from every species of departure from
God's way of salvation, through Jesus Christ, and
through the recognition of all the natural and moral
relations of humanity, and through obedience to all
the established laws of the universe.
Inspiration could have no other consummation than
the highest conceivable glory of God, in the highest
possible virtue and happiness of the whole creation.
But we have dwelt thus far chiefly upon general
(yet embracing specific) principles of agreement,
and for this reason, that all Christians, of every sect,
might realize how strong a tie of union binds them
together, serving to demonstrate the folly of pre
vailing pretensions, on the part of disunionists, which
have rendered distant and forbidding the fellowship,
appointed worship, and communion of devoted Chris
tians.

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 47
It is now a common duty to avail ourselves of every
possible resource for Bible union, which is the prom
ised strength of Christ.
We now speak of the character of God. His at
tributes proclaim his character.
It is unnecessary to make any formal or especially
perplexing distinction between natural and moral at
tributes pertaining to Deity. All that God is and
does is natural. And, again, his will is law, and
every act of his nature is in accordance with that
will and that law, and is hence of a moral nature.
His eternity and omnipresence are infinite modes
of his existence, which we are not obliged to com
prehend nor explain. A simple definition is all that
any can need, in order to open the widest scope for
contemplation, wonder, and praise. We can only
define the word eternity, but can never limit this,
nor the mode of his omnipresence.

CHAPTER VIII.
That there is but one God is the declaration of
Nature, of the Bible, and of all their well-instructed
disciples. Unity of design proves it, as it pervades
all the works of creation, of Providence, and of
grace. The unanimous conclusions of just reasoning as-

48 HEAVENLY UNION,
sert, that only one Supreme Being is necessary, in
order to account for the creation and preservation of
the universe of wonders, of order, of beneficence,
and of beauty.
The highest inspiration has established this po
sition, by that express declaration, " There is none
other God but one." All events are referable to
Him as his, either by judicial preference, or by per
mission, and all by virtue of purpose.
His appropriate attributes are omniscience, om
nipotence, justice, and benevolence. With these
constitutional e.xcellences, we have only to infer the
other distinctions, which in most systems enter into
the class of Divine attributes. All other specified
qualities are involved in these. He cannot exhibit
justice without being truthful, nor benevolence with
out being merciful, nor omniscience, in connection
with benevolence, without being wise.
The purposes of God have been treated with no
little, and sometimes angry, dispute. So far as they
are revealed, or bfelong necessarily to his known
character or government, they should serve only to
unite our souls in profound reverence, obedience,
and love.
If all sects agree in the evidences of God's being,
and his perfect system of perfect attributes, this is
sufficient reason why all should agree that his pur
poses concerning creation, concerning the minutest
event, and concerning election to final salvation, are
all right and merciful.
His own creative power, together with his known

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 49
character, give Him a constitutional and most inde
pendent right to choose and govern according to his
own will and pleasure, and every rational mind will
conclude that it is God's nature and will to form:
and execute no other than benevolent, as well as just
purposes. That his purposes or decrees extend to
all events, including the permission of sin and evil,
must be the harmonious belief of all Christian stu
dents. It still does not contradict the truth, that God pur
poses only that which is the highest possible good of
the universe.
It is important here to remember, that some thinirs
are impossible, in the nature of things, for God to
purpose or do.
It is impossible for Him to create a being greater
than himself, or equal to himself.
No being created can be equal to one uncreated,
and who in all respects is supreme.
If, then, a being is created, by his very inferi
ority he must be subject to the government of the
Highest. He must, by coming in any degree short
of absolute perfection, be a subject of discipline,
under government, and, by the same inferiority, must
necessarily be characterized by a liability to err.
The highest excellence of seraphim, or of the first
order of created intelligence, is but imperfection in
the sight of God's infinite perfection. It is impos
sible, then, for God to create a being infinite in per
fection like himself ^
The question, then, comes in, did God purpose
4

50 HEAVENLY UNION,
imperfection ? He could not do otherwise. He could
no more create one in all respects infinite and ab
solute in perfection, than he could create an absurdi
ty. This brings us to consider the purposes of God
respecting the creaturei, man.
From all that is known of the Supreme Being,
there can be but one persuasion that the creation of
man was an act of the highest wisdom and mercy,
although an imperfection enters necessarily into that
creation. When we speak of man, as being origi
nally made perfect, it is only a relative perfection, as
being entirely free from all guilt. The design is
perfect. In respect to power, intelligence, and love, there is
only a perfect infancy. God purposed a finite ca
pacity. A part of this capacity is a voluntary
agency. This, also, is finite, and is responsible
just in proportion to the degree of intelligence and
general ability connected with it. God purposed
alike the creation, the capacity, the freedom, and the
responsibility, and it is all very good.
He also purposed the continuance of the race.
But how come the evils incident to so wise and
good a creation and preservation. Did God purpose
them ? The only answer that can be and need be
given is, that they are strictly necessary and una
voidable under that creation and system of govern
ment which God purposed, as adapted to secure the
highest possible good and happiness.
Evils must be, by most unavoidable necessity, in
proportion to the imperfection, capacity, and destiny
of any order of beings.

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 51
Take the merest infant in knowledge, power, and
benevolence, yet capable of reaching, and destined to
reach, in due time, a higher attainment than the
highest archangel has now reached.
Now the whole progress is necessarily one of dis
cipline and subjection, which are, in themselves,
evils, but which, by an overruling Providence, are
made a blessing.
All the incidental suffering which accompanies the
purpose and effort to reach the highest possible at
tainment in perfection and happiness, is but a proof
of progress, and a motive to it, and is not worthy to
be compared with the happiness and glory which are
ever in the ascendant.
The best of men expect the evils of imperfection
and discipline, in the rise and progress of the soul,
in perfecting all its powers. All know that the prog
ress of finite minds towards infinity must be by
trial and endurance ; and are not these unavoidable
evils ? and could God purpose our creation and im
provement, without foreknowing, and admitting, and,
only in this way, purposing the evils ?
The idea here will be fully understood and appre
ciated, and all that we need is propriety of language
to express it. It is enough to say, that God purposed
the creation of man and his race and their highest
possible improvement, foreknowing the evils which
must necessarily be involved and manifest. Do any
ask whether God could have possibly prevented the
evils .' He could only by omitting the creation of
man and the best possible system for his improve-

52 HEAVENLY UNION,
ment. With this obvious and unsectarian reason
ing, and with all the possibility that God can pur
pose what he cannot avoid in our system of creation,
he did purpose all the evils and events which tran
spire in the world. Have controversialists contended
with acrimony about distinction between sin and evil?
Now a proper definition and understanding of the
nature of sin and evil will insure a perfect recon
ciliation and a happy union on the part of all well
disposed. As all sin is evil, God purposed it only in
the manner above described. But all evils are not
sins, according to ordinary acceptation. The neces
sity of temptation, and of discipline, under the pres
ent administration of government, is an evil, but it is
no sin. Evil is, then, more generic than sin. All
sins, calamities, imperfections, trials, and suffer
ings are evils. But what is sin ? Inspiration has
defined it, — " It is a transgression of the law of
God." This may be committed through ignorance,
or through prevalence of passion, in a state of doubt,
or through the persuasion of a supposed apology, or
through most obstinate wilfulness, and in each case it
may be voluntary, committed because the individual
willed it. The degree of guilt, and consequent re
morse, must be in proportion to the knowledge, and
ability to resist temptation.
But it will be generally admitted, that the most
wicked of men " know not what they do " when they
sin against God.
Did they know how much it was against their own
individual, as well as the public, interest and happi-

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 53
ness, they could not consent to it, could not love it,
could not commit it. This is not to mitigate the ob
stinate nature of sin, but to show that it is committed
through blindness of mind and hardness of heart,
and renders a man pitiable, according to his igno
rance and perversity of heart. But there is hope for
man, if he but learns his ignorance and perversity,
and also knows and embraces the proper method of
recovery. But the question may return to some, as being un
settled, Does God purpose the sins which man volun
tarily commits ?
Did he purpose the first voluntary sin of Adam ?
It is certain that the Creator purposed the nature of
the creature, which was susceptible to temptation.
He foreknew the liability of Adam to sin, and that
he would sin, from his untried condition, through ig
norance, and the power of temptation.
Adam, not realizing at the moment the awful na
ture of sin, and thinking it best to sin, committed it,
but he awoke to such a consciousness of it, that he
felt an inclination, common to all sinners, to hide
himself, if possible, from the eye of God. He sinned
voluntarily, but ignorantly, ignorant of the length and
breadth, the height and depth, both of the law of God,
and of the nature and consequences of sin. Though
the authority and the penalty were announced, he did
not, from his inexperience, have any adequate views
of the thing which he did.
God saw that, if his creature was compelled, by a
certain enforcement of motive, to do that which was

54 HEAVENLY UNION,
right, it would and must defeat the grand object of
man's creation, which was the cultivation and the
highest improvement of man's free agency and re
sponsibility, even unto confirmed, intelligent, perfect,
and everlasting obedience to Himself, which would
result in the highest possible realization of human
happiness and of Divine glory.
If our first parents could not realize the excellency
of perfect and confirmed obedience, without tasting of
sin and death, it was only wise that God should pur
pose that they should sin ; but there was with it a Di
vine purpose to establish a system of redemption, by
which the sinner might eventually be restored to a
state more confirmed and happier than that occupied
before the fall. There is ground to believe that the
song of the redeemed will be higher and sweeter than
that of angels.
It is right for us to thank God that we were the
servants of sin, but that we have accepted the system
of redemption given us in infinite compassion and
love. Had not God interposed, by the presentation
of his mediatorial system, he would not have ex
hibited the fulness of the Godhead, and man must
suffer the consequences of unmerciful indignation.
Not to say he was obliged to show mercy; it was his
nature and glory to do it; and yet we have no reason
nor motive to sin in the light and love of God,
that grace may abound. However God may over
rule our sin to his own glory and our better obedi
ence and higher happiness, let us, by prayer, by
faith, by every enlightened effort of our souls, and

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 55
by the promised and indispensable grace given, de
part from all sin, hate it in our advancing light, and
discourage it in the world.
By accepting the mediatorial system, there is no
event of loss, or suffering, on earth, to which all the
family of man would not be reconciled. The very
purposes of God, that we should suffer bereavements
and death, we can but glorify.
It is through suffering that we learn obedience,
and appreciate the hope of immortality, and the vari
ous doctrines of salvation. No one would naturally
court suffering, but if it is incidental to the best sys
tem of our redemption, and comes upon us because
of our ignorance and need of trial, we may well kiss
the hand and the rod that occasioned it, and adore
the Divine purpose that ordered it. But some may
inquire. What of the suffering of the innocent for the
guilty ?
The innocent cannot suffer in immortal conscious
ness; and the suffering he endures of body, and tem
porarily for the good of the world, he glories in.
The man who wrongfully inflicts suffering upon the
innocent, surely will, with all the certainty that he
will in due time be convicted of his wrong, have
occasion to relent and submit to the truth, which oc
casion might be more availing with that individual
toward his reformation than any other possible
event. And if so, in the merciful arrangement of
Heaven, both the afflicted and the inflictor will to
gether praise God that he purposed it. None sO in
nocent ever endured so much for ignorant transgres-

56 HEAVENLY UNION,
sors as Jesus Christ. It affords the grandest occa
sion, upon the world's conviction of the innocence of
Jesus, and its own blind perversity, for repentence,
acknowledgment, and obedience to God, that the
world ever witnessed.
Still God purposed the suffering and mission of
Jesus, and the entire course of the wicked world.
Jesus was the victor, and had the world known
they never would have crucified the Lord of glory.
Upon submission to truth, the penitent and recover
ed sinner will thank God that the day is past, when,
through ignorance and corruption, they crucified the
Son of God, and for ever magnify the grace that de
vised so fitting a way for the recovery of that which
was lost, but is found.
The efficacy of the death of Christ lies in the in
nocence and greatness of Him who gave his body to
the sacrifice, — in the power which the death of such
a personage is suited to produce, in subduing to obe
dience and love the hardened but convicted sinner.
Others have sacrificed, or suffered, in some meas
ure, as did this preeminent Lord of all. None could,
and none have, so exhibited the infinite wisdom and
love of God. None are required to make the sacri
fice which the man Christ Jesus made. His alone
could answer the law. All others are but shadows.
But in Christ mercy and love were infinitely greater
than the suffering sacrifice.
Preach and prove the cross of Christ, and we
have then but to have mercy, and not sacrifice. In
the assurance of the believer, the day of sacrifice is

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 57
past. But a word more of the purposes of God. It
is difficult for many to admit the truth, that God pur
poses every act of man's free and responsible agency,
which is just as true as the position, that the Divine
purposes extend to all the minutest events of life. If
this difficulty is not already solved, take p. simple il
lustration. A man makes depredation upon the gar
den of an entire stranger. It is evident the intruder
would not have done it had it not been for his blind
perversion of heart, or the necessary evils of life.
Now, how does it appear most wise, that God should
so arrange things, in his Providence, as to lead the
wicked man to think that he ought and must make
the depredation, and in fact, to do it. It will be ad
mitted, if we can state any common circumstances in
which God saw it was for the best that he should
purpose and influence the man to do it, we have
solved the problem, and answered our object.
It is possible the man would never learn his own ig
norance and wicked nature, or evil condition, in any
other way, than by reflecting upon what he had ac
tually committed himself to do, and positively did do.
It may have been with him as with one of old, who
said, trusting to himself, " Is thy servant a dog that he
should do this thing ? " Now it would be evidently
wise in the Ruler of all things, so to order things
that man, relying upon self should do that very thing
which would best convince himself of his own weak
ness and corruption. God then purposed the wicked
deed through the free will of man, that man might
learn to what extent of daring wickedness he would

58 HEAVENLY UNION,
go, for want of knowledge and Christian principle.
But if any should be inclined to push difficulties still
farther, and ask how could God purpose that man
should rely upon himself, when he ought to trust to
the teachings and strength of a higher power, we
give the same solution.
Reliance upon self will often teach a man his own
ignorance and helplessness better than any other
circumstance. And God's gracious design is, to
teach man his own condition of want, in order that
he may the better go on to perfection in the knowl
edge and happiness of heaven. Is there, then, a
single act, however wicked, or any event, however
appalling, in this universe, which God could not pur
pose in infinite wisdom and goodness ? All must see
and agree that there is not.
The most simple-hearted Christian may have this
understanding, by honest and careful inquiry, and
become, in truth, king and priest to the glory of God.
But why have sectarian theologians and sectarian
Christians engaged so long in angry contention
about this and other points .'' God purposed it, that
men, trusting to themselves, and their own systems,
might learn their own folly, and need of Divine light,
and of a more Christian principle than that relied
upon in the present experience of self But we ask,
not without trusting in the truth of God, if the time is
not at hand, when it becomes the disciples of God to
evince a union in which they " see eye to eye," and
together, on earth, see the salvation of God, and
" with a voice together" sing.

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 59
" Let party names no more
The Christian world o'erspread,"
and to evince a harmonious victory over the accom
plished work of unholy dissensions.
Dissensions involve a pitiable state ; vet we can
honor God in purposing them, because nothing could
better teach the imperfection of the Church, in a
necessary state of discipline, and especially, as being
preparatory to a higher enjoyment of the blessedness
of union.
It is evident, that God may purpose a means which
he could not justify as a permanent state.

CHAPTER IX.
But how shall we treat the doctrine of election,
which is given us in Scripture ? He elects those to
the enjoyment of faith and salvation, who are prepar
ed to use them, by his course of discipline. A man
that cannot succeed in accomplishing any undertak
ing, by his best attempts, is not prepared for suc
cess in that undertaking. The man who succeeds
in an enterprise is prepared for it, and God elected
him to it. But is this an occasion of despair on
the part of him not elected to such an enterprise ?
Assuredly not. He may be elected to another or
higher work, and God is adapting his purposes, by

60 HEAVENLY UNION,
trial needed for the individual, to the accomplish
ment of that very thing.
The ancient nation of Jews was elected to a
special end. But who are the non-elected, that many
have contended about. It would be better for such
to inquire first, Are there any that are not, in some
sense, elected ? In general terms, we must say,
there can be no created intelligence but is elected to
some useful purpose in God's universe. God has
some object to be accomplished by every existence.
But does God purpose or elect any to irremedial and
eternal woe or misery ? This must be true, if there
be any who will never yield obedience to God, or
never learn, by suffering or any other means, to ac
knowledge and love the Most High.
But we know of none who have been admitted to
the knowledge of God and his love, to the knowl
edge of their own interest and that of the universe,
who could consent to withhold required obedience
from God. And if any are left in ignorance of God,
and of the way of salvation, we know not how it is
possible for them to suffer remorse, which is the pun
ishment of those who know but do not obey the
truth. If the crucifiers of Jesus, and unconverted
Paul, thought they were doing God service, like
them, all sinners need to be taught and disciplined,
that they may "know the Lord of glory," and the
true service of God. If they are not capable of be
ing taught, and have no susceptibility of feeling the
love of God, then it is contrary to all observation
and trial among the nations of the earth, or in any
tribe that has been known.

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 61
Do any inquire whether few, or many, or all, will
be taught, subdued, and saved at last .?
This is not so much the province of belief, nor of
man to teach. The duty of the Christian is, to be
lieve that he himself will be saved by grace, and that
as many of the world as can be persuaded to love
and serve the Lord shall be saved, and if not, they
will be condemned.
God never specified any individuals who would
never be persuaded to acknowledge their sin and ac
cept of a known Saviour.
But his continual word is, if man does not believe,
he cannot be saved ; if he should fall from the
truth, after once knowing it, it is impossible to renew
again to repentance. The test of Christian charac
ter cannot be in our belief, whether five, a thousand,
or all the human family will, eventually, be saved,
but whether we believe in Christ, ourselves, and love
obedience to him, as he teaches and leads us to the
Father. If a man loves and believes in God as
manifested to the world, while He tells us, if we do
not love and believe Him, we shall be condemned or
lost, then he is a Christian indeed. We have noth
ing good to despair of, if we do our personal duty,
according to our knowledge; and there is encourage
ment for the world no further than they love God and
keep his commandments. The sufferings of the
world are not to be compared with the glory which
will follow, if it but learns the lesson of its sufferings,
by submission to faith and obedience.
God has wisely purposed every pain and every

62 HEAVENLY UNION,
evil which man endures. Our province is, not to
murmur at suffering, but to learn and yield obedi
ence, which will, in due time, by the grace of God,
free us from all sin and suffering, and thanks be unto
God who giveth us the victory, through our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ.
But how much responsibility rests upon man for
not doing what he might do. This belongs to the
judgment of God and the conscience of man. Man
possesses the capacity of knowing and doing better
than he does. Yet he is not guilty of failing to ac
complish that in one day, which he has the capacity
of doing, in the ordinary course of Providence, only
by the privilege of many days. This is no encour
agement to idleness in a man, who sees his duty and
ability to perform any work. If a man is idle, be
cause he knows not his duty, or sees no work pro
vided for him, then his own idleness is designed to
teach him his necessity of striving to learn the way
of duty, and to enter therein. If a man is found
striving to learn and to do the will of God, and ex
ercises faith and hope in the redeeming love of
Christ, he is free from condemnation.
The world may judge him, but he stands or falls
only at the bar of God's judgment and his own con
science. If we have ever murmured at our necessities, or
distresses, let us think again, and learn how merciful
ly they are designed to lead us to exercise faith in God,
and to hope for something higher and better than we
have ever obtained and enjoyed. This state of hope-

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 63
ful trust, and earnest endeavour, is the promised and
rational way of deliverance. There is nothing to
fear but want of trust, and lest we dishonor the God
of truth; and this very fear, coupled with earnestness
after a sense of duty, will pass into the realization of
hope and joy. And if one has experienced the joy
of faith and activity of life towards God, how can he
return again to the beggarly elements of the world,
or to its unchristian policies and follies ?
Some days of darkness and trial may yet return,
but God will temper the storm to the strength and
trust of his own children, and persuade them to re
alize that his own sustaining purposes extend to
every event and condition of life. Is much said
about conditional and unconditional election ? It is
sufficient to say, that we know of no salvation with
out some condition. God cannot save without some
reason and the use of means.
Then let it be universally understood, that God
purposes salvation conditionally.
There must be a rational soul, and it must be in
fluenced by motive and means of compliance with
the way of salvation, through the strength offered to
unceasing diligence.
Here are most important conditions, and they are
as much subject to the decrees of God as was the
creation of the world and of man. But is it possible
for a Christian to believe that God will certainly se
cure his eternity of salvation, irrespective of condi
tions to be used, — for instance, effort and persever
ance ? It is not.

64 HEAVENLY UNION,
If one has experienced the truth and love of a new
creature in Christ Jesus, he has no joyful assurance
of this his new birth, nor of his heirship to the heav
enly inheritance, any further than his purpose and
exertion to reach the glorious state of confirmation
in heaven. Hence both those that believe in the
perseverance of the saints, and those who do not,
must look together to the conditions which God has
established, through the fulfilment of which they
both alike look for the assurance of their salvation.
They are practically one in giving prominence to the
necessary means, and each finds a motive to fulfil the
required condition. The one must struggle on lest
he fall away, the other lest he be without evidence
that he is " born of the spirit." Each motive has a
practical efficiency. They may keep pace with
each other in their progress, by equal faithfulness to
their motive. Now should they love each other the
less, because the one fears he is not a Christian, and
the other fears he shall fall from his state of grace ?
Assuredly not. They need their respective grounds
of fear.
The one who is confident that, if ever "born again,"
he will be saved, needs special evidence that he is
" born again," and this evidence God gives only in
the act of diligence in duty. The other, trusting en
thusiastically that he is a " new creature," needs a
motive of fear, lest he lose his title to heaven.
Now the important conclusion is, that they both
have a good Christian character, and a Christian
spirit, and ought to embrace each other in worship

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 65
and communion, and hold their experiences in happy
conference, for mutual aid and progress. They will
then soon be joined in theory as well as practice.
It may be, they will very speedily see that God's
purpose to regenerate a soul is inseparable from his
purpose to save it, and, together with Paul, feel a
strong assurance that the work God has begun in
them he will carry on unto perfection ; and, notwith
standing any natural possibility, which Paul seems
to suggest to the Hebrews, of faUing from grace, still
they may together, upon the ground of God's prom
ise, hope for better things, and feel a blessed assur
ance, by their love one to another, that God has
"predestinated them to be conformed to the image
of his Son." With a like Christian purpose, then,
come together in union, to do the will of God, and
ye shall know, of whatever Christian denomination,
the true doctrines of God.
Union by love to each other, from a common char
acter, is the surest means of bringing all together in
one understanding of those minor points of differ
ence, which have so much vexed professing Chris
tians.

66 HEAVENLY UNION,

CHAPTER X.

Respecting the depravity of man, all will assuredly
agree with the doctrine, that, without the gifts and
blessings of Heaven, all are "totally depraved." If
utterly left of God, man must do only wrong con
tinually. This is the simple Bible doctrine which
every denomination that takes the Bible for instruc
tion will admit, and which experience goes only to
confirm. No onejcan understand "total depravity "
to mean utter destitution of mental faculties to per
ceive any truths. It can mean nothing more nor less
than a governing inclination to disobey the perfect
law of God, under the power of temptation. The
entire human race have felt this. All, who are con
scious of a power to will, know that, without light and
aid from the Source of all blessing, they do violate
the law of God.
All will see, by proper reflection, that they have
violated just and good laws, and that, in their blind
and imperfect state, they cannot keep the command
ments of God, and that their power to keep them is
in complete dependence upon the gifts of God, both
internal and external.
In the use of reason, and of the Divine Word,
there is no depravity, but without this use, it is total.
This is the only and universal creed for all who can
maintain the least pretence to Bible authority. Proof
of the most awful human depravity we all see, wher-

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 67
ever men live without respect to the government of
God. Depravity is just in proportion as reason, and
benevolence, and the authority of the Bible, are de
throned. There can be but one doctrine throughout
Christendom on this point.
And we hesitate not to say, there is but one view
entertained by all rational beings. The pretension
that one believes in "total depravity," and original
sin, and another does not, is but a confession that
men whiffle about words. All know about equally
well what has been and what is^ the condition of
mankind without obedience to laws which nature
teaches, and the Bible reaffirms.
All have essentially the same catalogue of crimes
and abominations, which history and observation
have afforded, so that none will, in the proper accep
tation, deny the doctrine of human depravity ; that
there are different degrees of its aggravation, that
where mere passion and malice bear sway it is total,
and without the gifts and grace of God every living
soul would evince it. This is the whole doctrine of
depravity and of total depravity. That any rational
man has nothing about him except total depravity, in
the widest sense, no degree of intelligence will dare
to assert.
But all will, nevertheless, believe in the capacity
and duty of improvement, in the necessity of a
change for the better, in respect to all the powers of
man. It is a change implying the better recognition
of the Supreme Being and the true relations of life.

68 HEAVENLY UNION,
This alone is regeneration. It is effected by educa
tion and the Spirit of God. In some instances it is
more sudden and manifest, as when a course of
great wickedness is at once exchanged for a course
of reason and love. In other cases it is more grad
ual, and less perceptible, as when one has been more
properly educated in true religion from his youth up.
Paul gives an example of the one, and Timothy of
the other. The conversion of the one is as true and
as necessary as the other. In either case, as with all
the human race, there is a necessity for regeneration.
The state of infancy is one of ignorance and help
lessness, and possesses appetites, and passions, and
propensities, which, uncontrolled by either the natural
or the imparted light of wisdom and truth, would
make one but a beast and a fiend, a fool, or a mad
man. Now all the help of whatever reason, intellect, be
nevolence, and conscience a human being possesses,
together with the external light and love which God
imparts, through his teachers, his works, and his word,
are necessary to the conversion of man from the con
dition of infancy and waywardness, to a state of en
lightened obedience and happiness.
The same sentiment may be expressed in a great
variety of ways, and to contend for any one mode or
style of expressing it only evinces a part of that de
pravity which, of itself, teaches a good lesson, and
from which those that thus strive about words, to no
profit, should themselves be converted. If one is
capable of expressing, in improved and unitive

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 69
terms, the sentiment generally understood and be
lieved, let him do it, but without arrogance and strife,
for the general progress in improvement ; ever hold
ing the balance of importance which doctrine itself
maintains over the style of leording it. The styles of
Peter, James, John, and Paul are all different, but
they teach one and the same grand truth.
But what more is necessary to induce the most en
larged union of minds on the controverted subjects
of depravity and regeneration ? Can any suppose
that some immediate spirit from God, without the use
of law, or personal consideration, regenerates a man ?
All know that this would be contrary to the whole
economy of the Divine administration.
All change for the better is obviously secured
through the agency of thought, word, and deed.
If a man is ever turned from the tendency of de
pravity, it must be and is the work of both internal
and external agencies, all which are Divine, as every
gift and influence of God may be called Divine.
The whole arrangement is His. Though man is said
to think and turn, the power to think and turn is
purely the gift of God.
The will to turn, and the motives which influence
it, are all a Divine provision. There is a coopera
tion of agencies in regeneration ; and for men to
contend, one, that it is all a human agency, and
another, that it is all the work of the Spirit of God,
and a third, that so much is human and so much
Divine, is the very essence of human folly.
If a man sees a reason to obey God, whether that

70 HEAVENLY UNION,
reason comes from within or without, it comes equally
from God. The more unfavorable a man's nature is,
the more need he has of looking into the word of
God, which is a transcript of perfect reason, wisdom,
and love. If man's reason had never been enthralled,
or rather, if it were possible for God to make a ra
tional being who would do every thing instinctively
and spontaneously right, he could not need a model
of truth like that which the Bible affords us. For he
could never err. But such a being must be equal to
God himself, which is impossible for him to make.
But taking man as he is, imperfect from the begin
ning of creation, he needs, universally, and greatly,
the perfect transcript of God's mind, word, and
works, and by this aid he may, in process of time
and means, more than recover the earthly condition
of Adam, being advanced to a state confirmed by all
the experience and history of the human race, and to
the everlasting praise of God's redeeming love. All
need regeneration by the word, works, and grace of
God. And is not the time at hand, when theological
combatants ought to reach the same goal, having
beat long and hard against the air, in attempting to
specify the author of regeneration, — whether man re
generates himself, or whether it is wholly God that
does it ?
When each resolves his contest into the same re
sult, what signifies the unpleasant rivalry of process ?
At one time the Apostle Paul may say, I live, and
again, It is Christ that liveth in me. Who will com-

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 71
mend a controversy, that purports to decide whether
it was Paul that lived, or whether it was Christ that
lived in him ?
Both were true, and any one of ordinary discern
ment could understand all that is necessary.
Just so, one may say with propriety, / will and
/ work to bless my neighbour, or God worketh in me
to will and to do good to my neighbour.
Both expressions are right, the former according to
the common usage, the latter according to the sci
ence or philosophy of religion.
All our best efforts are resolved into the mind and
will of God.
It is sufficient to conclude, that God, in effecting
the regeneration of a soul, makes use of the free
will, intelligence, and affection of that soul, as well
as his own spirit, truth, and other agencies. And for
Christians to divide into schools and sects, because
one gives prominence to one true agency, and another
to another true agency, when both individuals profess
to refer the whole glory to God, is exhibiting a con
tentious division which binders the progress of re
ligion within the Church, and the conversion of the
world without.

72 HEAVENLY UNION,

CHAPTER XI.

Another grand subject, but made one of too
much contention in the field of strife, is the nature
and character of Christ.
No being subordinate to the Father is exalted like
the Son, Jesus Christ. He is the beginning and end
of the whole mediatorial and Christian system. He
was the first-born of creation, and by him all things
were made.
His Divinity, in due time, became clothed with the
flesh of humanity, so that with all propriety he is
called the man Christ Jesus, that he might be touch
ed with the feeling of our infirmities, and adapt him
self the better to our love and appreciation, as our
required sacrifice, our attractive model, and our ap
pointed Lord and Master. All the typical sacrifices
pointed to him. The whole Mosaic system was but
one glorious prefiguration of the higher and better
system of which Christ, more appropriately than Mo
ses was of the first dispensation, may be well called
the Divine Author, the glorious Centre, and the
mighty Finisher. No other delegation could admit of
more than a shadow of his. Preeminently a son, he
was in the bosom of the Father before the world was.
He had delegated, or committed, to him all power
in heaven and on earth, — an office far above angels
and every order of created beings, — a mission of re
demption to man on earth, — an authority entitled, by

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 73
the Father's appointment, to the homage of men and
the worship of angels.
Admitted to so much nearer communion with the
Father than all the intelligences, and partaking so
perfectly of his essence, attributes, and glory, with
propriety he may be said to be one and equal with
the Father. No other hke him has manifested the
Father, and no other could' in his relation to our
mediatorial government, be so fitly styled our Lord
or our God. Possessing and exhibiting such a ful
ness of the Godhead bodily, and being the first-begot
ten of the Father, before worlds, angels, or men, he
is, when spoken of in relation to man, for whom he
perfects his redemptive system, our redeeming God.
Still, when we adore him, we adore the only living and
true God. It is but the Father in Christ that has
any claim to our supreme homage.
This doctrine maintains all the dignity, love, and
excellence, which give value to the propitiation and
sacrifice of Christ. It refers all our knowledge and
enjoyment of redeeming love to the merits of Christ
in God. It makes the atonement our only ground of
hope in a glorious immortality. It detracts nothing
from the truths and glory of Divine revelation. It
meets the objections and wants of all Christian de
nominations. It proclaims the unity of the Godhead,
and yet gives distinction and exaltation to Christ,
who is no other than the " first-begotten of the Fa
ther," and his dearly beloved Son. Who shall not
reverence him whom the Father sent into the world,
bearing the highest delegation of his own excellency,

74 HEAVENLY UNiON,
and upon whom the Spirit was poured, without meas
ure, and uncomprehended by us .'' He was begotten,
as to his higher nature, ages before he assumed a
flesh like our own, consciously enjoying the glory of
the Father before the world was. To him, in his
exalted and glorified humanity, are committed the
kingdoms of this our world. And though, in the na
ture which he had before the world was, he will ever
share in the glory of the Father, still his mission, as
a mediator, and his power, as a mediatorial kingdom,
will be finished and surrendered to the one living
and absolute God, and Father of our Lord and Sav
iour Jesus Christ, to Him who is all and in all.
Yet, to the glory of God the Father, the song of
Moses his servant, and of the Lamb, will be sung for
ever. He who was rightfully called David's Lord,
and who is the delegated author and finisher of our
faith and salvation, will ever receive that Divine as
cription, " worthy is the Lamb," in that everlasting
and glorious Jerusalem, where God is said to be the
Light, and the Lamb the glory thereof.
That Christ derived all that he possessed, in his
entire nature, from the Father, is the obvious tenor
of the Scriptures. It is a doctrine that solves a
great difficulty, which has long been a mystery to
many. It need not diminish our respect and honor
paid to Christ, because he is derived from and repre
sents the Father. To honor a delegated minister is
to honor the magistrate that sent him. That which
we adore is uncreated, but, so far as communicable,
transmitted and exhibited in Christ. In this charac-

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 75
ter he is to the world all that we need. We find in
him our God, our mediator, and our comforter.
In him is the Father, the Word, and the Spirit, —
the Unity in Trinity, and the Trinity in Unity, — the
fulness of the Godhead bodily. This doctrine an
swers every demand for unity and for trinity. One
person embodies all.
The nature which Christ sustained before the cre
ation of the world was the first in the order of the
Trinity, and whieh he manifested preeminently under
the first era of Divine dispensations to man, even un
til his manifestation in the flesh, as born of woman,
and uniting our humanity with his Divinity. This
union constituted the second order in the Trinity,
even God our mediator. This is Immanuel, God
with us, an infinite condescension to our need.
The third order of the Trinity is the Divine Spirit.
The ministration of this order belongs to a succeed
ing dispensation. It is preeminently exhibited to the
world from the ascension of the Divine humanity of
Christ. It is hence called the ascension gift. It is
the Divine effusion of the Divine humanity. Ours is
peculiarly a spiritual age. The new Jerusalem, that
cometh down from God out of heaven, is the reign
of the Spirit.
Forms have no significancy without it. The dis
pensation of the Spirit is now in its course of accom
plishment. It belongs to that kingdom which shall
never end.
It is the complement of the Trinity, in respect to
manifestation. All together constitute one Divine

76

HEAVENLY UNION,

person, having their analogy in the person of man,
in sou], body, and spirit. The soul of man answers
to the nature of Christ before his incarnation, the
body of man answers to the humanity of Christ,
which he took upon himself on earth, and the spirit
of man, or the resulting influence of the connection
of soul and body, which is the manifestation of spirit
ual life, answers to the third order of dispensation
in the Divine Trinity, which gives us the Spirit's
ministration. Thus we have one glerious Person, by
which the Almighty Jehovah comes down, in the
most satisfactory manner, to our apprehension and
enjoyment. The connection which forms the Trinity is no more
a mystery than the connection of man's soul, body,
and spirit.
It is a mystical, yet glorious, one in three, and
three in one. This system of revealed truth, per
taining to the character of Christ, in his fulness of
the Godhead, is adopted, because it is the most Scrip
tural, unitive, and satisfactory ground of reconcilia
tion among the different denominations, who have
been so strenuous to establish separate parts of the
system here connected, having too little regard and
love to the perfect whole.
They have each performed a good mission, which,
by the overruling Providence, is worthy of God rath
er than of men.
The advocates of unity in the Godhead, under a
just fear that those strenuous for the Trinity would
adopt language, and absurd, doctrine, implying three

OR NEW JERUSALEM, 77
equal Gods, which would tend to produce mere con
fusion to both simple and intelligent minds, have
formed a distinct sectarian body, and have about done
their work, mingled with good and evil.
They have done good in maintaining the doctrine
of unity, clear of difficulty. They have done this by
divesting the Trinity of that unintelligible and need
less incumbrance of three persons in the Godhead,
which has no analogy, nor ground of usage nor pro
priety, in all the, word or works of God, or the lan
guage of men.
Though the advocates of Trinity have intended no
absurdity, they have run into a most unfortunate pre
dicament of language, while the three orders of the
exhibition of Deity remain an unchangeable truth.
Now let the one sect throw aside the blind, un
scriptural, and obsolete phraseology of three equal per
sons in the Deity, and the other sect give up the
strife against the doctrine of Trinity, which ter will
be understood, by mutual consent, to include nothing
more nor less than the embodied connection of all
that the Scripture language contains and expresses
in that baptismal formula, Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost; then those long at variance and barred against
fellow-communion will meet in one consistent and
everlasting brotherhood in Christ, our common Lord
and Master.
Minor and incidental distinctions between them
will be readily reconciled.
The doctrine of regeneration they both hold to be
Scriptural, differing only as to the time and length of

78 HEAVENLY UNION,
process. But the Bible does not require us to spe
cify the moment, but the duty, of regeneration. All
will agree that regeneration or conversion (used as
synonymous for the most part in Scripture) consists
in transferring, by the teaching and Spirit of God,
coupled with our concurrence, a supreme purpose
of love for the world, to God and his service.
It has its simple analogy and illustration in the ac
count of the blind man. We need but to say in a
spiritual sense what he did in the natural, " This I
know, that whereas I was blind, noiv I see." This*
is regeneration, to say nothing of the point of time
and mode of operation.

CHAPTER XII.
The doctrine of atonement is perfectly simple to
those that love Christ and each other. Separatists
may here be made one.
Both parties, by a little proper reflection, after
their protracted work of controversy, will surely
hold that there is a Divine efficacy in the death of
Christ as a ground of forgiveness and acceptance
with the Father. It had been a prevailing point
in God's government, and even a constitutional
sentiment of mankind, from the first transgression,
that sin required some sacrifice proportionate to the
aggravation of the committal. Some adequate pro-

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 79
pitiatory sacrifice could alone meet this demand of
our nature, which even the idolatrous heathen feel,
and to which, in the Divine administration, the whole
economy of the Jewish ritual answered.
When God promised the one great sacrifice of
Christ, it perfectly met this duplicate demand of his
law and man's conscience. To evade it is an impos
sibility of things in the earlier ages of men. A man
miuht feel sorry for sin, but there could be no alter
native but expiation. We have it now alone in the
death of Christ, without whose shedding of blood
there could be, in the mediatorial system, no remis
sion of sin.
That innocence should have endured the sacrifice
is no impossibility, nor inconsistency. It was the
infinite and benignant purpose of Him, who is from
everlasting to everlasting, and the free-will offering
of the begotten and well-beloved Son of God. And
who can object, and not rather rejoice, yea, praise
and magnify the unspeakable love of God for ever
and ever ?
To reject or slight this Divine reality of expiation
for sin is the strongest proof of ignorance and per
versity. The condescension and suffering of that wonderful
and glorious embodiment of innocence implies, by the
very necessity, our appalling depth of spiritual want.
Are any reluctant to acknowledge this want ? If it
be for need of selPknowledge, let the study of God's
holy law inform them. If it be for pride, let the com
bined humility and glory of Christ soften, yet strength-

80 HEAVENLY UNION,
en, them in their acceptation of the cross and the
crown. The necessity of the instruction and power of the
cross of Christ is universal, and generally equal with
all. The Pharisee and the Publican alike need it.
Comparing "ourselves among ourselves" is un
wise, and leads surely to abuse, unless we first look
to God and his law, and compare ourselves and life
with their just standard. It is in the discharge of this
higher duty that we learn how general is the equality
of all the human family in respect to sin and condi
tion of dependence.
It is only when we approach the earth that we dis
cover and magnify its disparities. It is from the
higher and more commanding position of science
that we give the proper name of globe or ball to our
earth. It is the correct view of it amid the system of
heavenly orbits. So, in the light of Divine science,
the human race stand together on a broad and level
platform. The differences of state, considered in all
respects, are hardly perceptible, as we take our po
sition together, upon the ground of God's Law and
Gospel. Hence, if we begin to compare ourselves among
ourselves, without first taking our position together on
Zion's hill of science, with the law in our understand
ings and hearts, and then also together in the Garden
of Gethsemane, with the Gospel of salvation to redeem
us from the condemning power of the law, we are
left only to discern, enlarge, and aggravate our dif
ferences, to envy, bite, and devour each other, to build

OR NEW JERUSALEM. §1
partitions, and perpetrate wars of controversy, which
unhappy state only teaches the sad necessity of a
higher ground of union. O, let us, then, by the pres
ent leading providence of God, desert the work of
sectarianism, and make provision to live in union
on the mountain of the Lord's house, where the com
mon character of sin, which so equally marks the
whole human family, shall be wholly effaced by the
atoning blood of the Lamb, and by the love which
covereth all sin, to be remembered no more, except
to heighten our song of redemption.
There is evidently a difference among different de
nominations, and different branches of the human
family, in respect to talent and morality.
To reach any given state of progress in general
science and goodness, some have greater obliquities,
obtusities, and general hindrances to overcome than
others. This fact renders it necessary, in the order
of things, to employ a longer period of schoohng and
improvement for some than others. It may require
modifications and improvements of the race, pertain
ing to the science of physiology, and also the sci
ence of educational acquirements.
But, after all, there is a far greater equality through
out the human family, in the just estimate of well
balanced and informed minds, than is generally sup
posed from the first appearance of things. Enlarged
comprehension, science-like, sees equality and the
law of arrangement amid the apparently confused
elements of distinction which pervade Christendom
and all human society. One denomination, or one
6

82 heavenly union,
individual, has a certain combination of excellences
and a corresponding mission to fulfil, which no other
can claim. The delinquencies and excellences of
each are about equal. One may have a better per
ception of a certain truth, another a better devotion
to it. A certain individual may better perceive and
obey one truth, a second may better perceive and
obey another truth, and so of a third, giving many
distinctions, and endless variety of combinations, and
interchanges of excellence.
Still, all this is no reason for unhallowed and un-
hallowing strife. This is especially reprehensible in
the Christian Church, and cannot exist in the spiritual
coming of Christ and the heavenly Jerusalem. The
heavenly union will overcome it. Harmony of order
is the beauty and glory of the everlasting kingdom.
It must first have its spring and exemplification in
the Church of believers. Our faith is leading us to
the grandest scene of realization and Divine econo
my which earth has ever witnessed. True science,
of theory, and of execution, by the blessing of Heav
en, will do the work. Let every man solve the mys
tery of his own vocation, and bring his contribution
of acquirement to the common fund of supply. The
human family has too much unity of origin, of rela
tion, and of destiny, long to permit that reigning self
ishness of exclusion, which has its type only in the
deep and dismal darkness which precedes the glori
ous light of day. The whole circle of developing
sciences, and the facilities of dissemination and equal
distribution, are full of promise to the world. But in

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 83
the "new heavens and the new earth," which will
consist in newness of discovery and application of the
science of the universe, and especially of the consti
tution of man or society, there must be speedy disor
ganizations, and modifications, and reorganizations,
to bring us back to the simplicity, majesty, and glory
of divinely constituted relations.
Family reciprocity, giving its example, in minia
ture, in the small domestic circle, will be circum
scribed by no boundary within the limits of our in
habitable globe. The superfluity of expensive offi
ces and ceremonies, from the exclusive succession
of stereotyped order and ritual ceremony in the
Church organization, down through all the obsolete
constitutions, ill adapted stations, and party cus
toms of civil society, must be reduced to the Divine
economy, of a simple law of love and exchange.
The government of harmony will correspond with
that beautiful law of symmetry, which obtains in the
family of vegetable growth in the kingdom of na
ture, and in the various departments of the outward
and unperverted universe.
How magnificent, glorious, and beautiful is the
law of loving-kindness to our neighbour! It is Heav
en's law. It is the Spirit's operation. Its scope is
the whole compass of humanity, the entire body of
respective membership. Christian believers, of the
Church of God, prosecute the work, adopt and exem
plify the principle, and propagate the seed of truth
and life to all the world.
Let none but a heavenly hierarchy run through all

84 HEAVENLY UNION,
the orders and branches of Christendom and of so
ciety. There is but one tree of life which grows up
from the centre of the Garden, — New Jerusalem
from above, — bearing all manner of fruits, filling the
whole city of our God with its spreading branches of
perennial growth, whose leaves of healing fragrance
perfume our happy home, and whose blossoms fruc
tify for the ample sustenance of the whole family of
man. It has but one root, which spreads deeply down
and wide, gathering its circulation of life from Heav
en's soil and the river of God. It is Chiyst and his
body, now in the restitution of all things, to be whol
ly and fitly represented in the world-wide community
of believers and participants, a community of princi
ples, of interest, and of heavenly life. In this glori
ous community on earth, old and absurd forms can
have no place ; secret and exclusive signs and sacra
ments, have no useful significancy. The broken
body and spilt blood are restored to their proper
membership and life-giving circulation. The godly
life of mutual responses and benefits, interspersed
with common chants, choruses, and anthems of praise
to God, is here, at once, the living symbol, the ac
tual vitality of the Church.
There is here.no rivalry of strife for office, for ex
clusive gains, or monopolized pleasures. All are
kings and priests unto our God, going to and fro the
green pastures and living waters of salvation ; all
fulfil their province of industry, and enjoy their needed
respites of repast, response, and repose. The wisdom

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 85
and the good of both, conservatism and reform, here
have their grand meeting and embrace of fellowship.
Let the transition to this practical realization be
speedy, and without a rupture or a murmur. It may
be a simultaneous and happy movement. Make the
present a year of jubilee. Churches, renounce the
hidden works of darkness, throw off the galling
yoke of oppressive sectarianism, and bear only the
burden of love to one another. If particular forms
of outward baptism have become an offence, and
wait only for the baptism of the Holy Ghost, then,
for the honor of God, dispense with every ceremonial
rite of baptism, and fellowship each other with love
and good works. Whatever has in itself no intrin
sic value, in contributing to the great fund of actual
benefits and comforts of man, may be, upon the
highest ground of Christian principle, dispensed
with, especially if it becomes an occasion of offence
and contention. The outward form of baptism was
designed, no less than circumcision, to be a mere
temporary rite, and so also the sacrament of the
Lord's Supper, until he come. That is, until he come,
not in person, but in the power and glory of his spir
itual kingdom, and that here on earth, in which we
may look for test of character in a holy and godly life,
in the fruits of the Spirit. No ordinance, and no sac
rament, is mentioned among the fruits of the Spirit.
Let us ponder well the following: — " For all the law
is fulfilled in one word, even in this. Thou shalt love
thy neighbour as thyself. But if ye bite and devour
one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one

86 HEAVENLY UNION,
of another. This I say, then. Walk in the Spirit, and
ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. But if ye be
led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law. The fruit
of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gen
tleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance :
against such there is no law. And they that are
Christ's have crucified the flesh, with the affections
and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us walk in the
Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vainglory, provok
ing one another, envying one another."
This passage is but one among many to the same
intent. And we can have no hope of that blessed
state of union, promised to earth, till all stand on the
ground of the Spirit, exhibiting together its happy
fruits. There is no prospect of one denomination's
swallowing up into its own peculiarities all the rest.
It is not possible for sectarian peculiarities to be sub
ject to the Gospel law. They have only been our
schoolmaster, and belong not to the realizations of
faith. They may now be classed among the ordi
nances to which we ought not to be subject, "which
things have indeed a show of wisdom, in will-wor
ship and humility, and neglecting of the body ; not
in any honor to the satisfying of the flesh."
As to the baptismal formality, the more the Apos
tle Paul was absorbed in the substance of the Gos
pel, the less he regarded that ceremony, having bap
tized but two or three, and one or two households.
It is only the first stage of Christian progress that
requires instituted ceremonies of sense. It is better
to break our daily bread and eat our daily meat with

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 87
gladness and singleness of heart. The sacredness
of religion must and will be reduced to that " wor
ship in spirit and in truth," which recognizes no
one prescribed and exclusive form, and no one par
ticular place, for the honor of God. The spot and
structure that God has made, all replete with bright
designs of intelligence, which man can only imitate,
are far more sacred than any temple made by human
hands. We love the Bible no less for this truth.
Its mediatorial arrangement of sacrifices, rites, and
ordinances, and solemn temples, has its inspired
adaptedness to certain ages and conditions, but the
time is come when the subhme principles of science,
including the whole intent and spirit of religion, will
not allow those expensive offices and tedious ceremo
nies, which belong to the childhood and school of the
past. All the principalities and powers in heaven,
earth, and hell, are inadequate to defeat this deter
mined purpose and administration of the Most High
Sovereign. The gathering might of nations cannot
admit of orders, and sacraments, and ceremonies, in
which the whole Church and all the world have been
divided. Government there must be, but every ves
tige of preparatory shadows will have their final rest
ing-place in the past.
God and the necessities of the world are this mo
ment demanding the restitution of all things. The
scientific application of earth, air, and water to prac
tical and wonderful uses is no more sure of coming
into the hands and dominion of men, than the New
Jerusalem, with its new charter of rights and privi-

88 HEAVENLY UNION,
leges, is pledged to come from God into the full pos
session of the Church and of man. God will hold
him in derision, who pronounces this his own Divine
order to be the work of fanaticism and madness.
You might as well charge God, in Noah, with big
otry. In fact, none can behold and deny.

CHAPTER XIII.
The charter of the new heavens and new earth,
which Isaiah and Daniel, Paul and John, and others,
saw in prophetic vision, is still in the Divine mind,
prepared and waiting only for that plastic hand of
time and wisdom, to adapt and mould it upon our
present transition state of the world's progress.
Though gradations of progress have been moderate,
still there are wonderful epochs in the roll of time,
and amid the cycle of ages, upon which more and
more rapid eras will follow, accumulating weight
of interest in the ratio of geometrical calculus or
progression, or, to suit the apprehension of the sim
ple school-boy, in the ratio of increase upon the roll
ing ball of snow; and who could measure the aggre
gate of momentum, upon the condition of its roll along
the ceaseless course of ages.^
The science of mind is equal to this wonderful mo
ment. The chartered exemption from past evils, and

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 89
thle to new immunities, proceed from the Infinite
Mind. The mind of man is a mighty alembic, through
which Heaven has been distilhng, and will speedily
pour, its copious rain of righteousness, mercy, and
peace, upon earth. The action of the Infinite upon
the finite mind has the power to cut short the work in
righteousness. The highest order of modern move
ment is electric. And the progressing science of
mind and moral truth can never be outrun by that of
matter. The globe may be encircled by telegraphic
lightning in less time than five hundredths of a se
cond; but, after all, that will hardly admit of corre
spondence with the flash of thought, which may reach
the very throne of the Eternal in less time than the
twinkling of an eye or a star. There may be a sort
of affinity between the power of electricity and of
thought. But thought is already trained, not merely
to compass our little sphere of earth, but to bound
over million times that distance, towards some imag
ined centre of an infinite universe, with a velocity un
measured by any divisible moment of time. O, how
stupendous is the supremacy of the workings of mind
over all the operations of material perfection! God
will soon provide a new house from heaven for this
our mind's eye, with a transparency of medium
which knows no refractive power. In its obedient
communication with the Deity there must be an in
stant, with which the most subtile and winged ele
ment cannot compare or compete, in point of mo
ment. The transparency, distance, and instanta-
neousness of telescopic vision must all be insignifi-

90 HEAVENLY UNION,
cant, in every attempt to give them a parallel with
the indestructible and infinite vision-house, or lumi
nary, of the soul. The once unutterable word of the
third heavens will, in due time, open its arcana of
wonders to every obedient spirit. Our best concep
tions and form of words are only approximations to
wards the amazing operation of the. law of mind.
Still our faith, rising into assurance of its mighty rev
elations, brings heaven down to earth, and transforms
its old sluggish wheels of progress into the elas
ticity and motion of winged and divine elements.
The world is rapidly coming into that position of
correspondence, in which it may be rationally ex
pected that " a nation will be born in a day." Ev
ery department of daily labor and of Christian effort
is receiving a hundredfold reward in those applica
tions of science, which, in the aggregate, exceed any
estimate yet deciphered. Knowledge is running to
and fro so universally, and from every quarter, that
no one individual mind, in comprehension, can en
dure the race.
Let all the departments of science, industry, and
of religion bring their best results to the common
fmid of interest, and from this focus radiating
streams of light and mercy will gladden all the pur
suits of man. Discoveries are not now to be the
patent right and private appropriation of privileged
persons and aristocracies. The whole race has too
much family unity to leave a single member unprivi
leged with the highest known resources of improve
ment. The great system of humanity has, as it were.

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 91
but one body, and one heart, from which the same
blood flows to all the extremities. If one member
suffers, all suffer with it, and if one is in health, 'all
rejoice with it. This is the grand secret of coming
world-wide union of love and interest. The problem
is already solved, that no single tribe of earth can be
in a state of wretchedness, groaning for deliverance,
without uttering its lamentations of woe in the deep
est sensibilities of the most highly favored nation.
It is even our personal interest to meet the crying
exigency of want, by pouring our noontide light of
science and glorious hope of consolation into the
bosom of aggrieved membership. Oceans, rivers,
and lakes can never destroy the unity of the human
family. They are but joints, ligaments, and veins, be
longing to one identical system. We might as well
bestow every exclusive care upon one of our mem
bers, a hand, or an eye, and leave all the rest to any
exposure, wound, or suffering, as to confine our lib
erality and labor to our own family, state, or nation.
Wherever there is intercommunication of men,
knowledge, or things, there is but a continuation of
one intelligent and nervous system. Men may at
tempt to evade this divinely established community,
but the inevitable truth will still be felt. By the
eternity of this law, the world is now called upon to
protect and bless no one exclusive part, but the un
exceptionable ivhole. Notwithstanding the amicable
relations said to exist between different countries
and quarters of the globe, still there remain heavy
burdens of opposition to each other.

92 HEAVENLY UNION,
The whole tariff and tax system is inconsistent
with "love to our neighbour," and the government
of communion. It protects but the man of selfish
ness and sin. Let the governments of' the world
establish the law of reciprocity, or rather adopt that
already established by the very constitution and re
lations of the human race, and all conventional and
royal imposts and duties, and the whole company of
custom-house officers, and attendant expenditures,
with the entire system of taxation, would be seen
only among the elements of bondage, from which
human society is delivered. It is deepening and
perpetuating human bondage to talk of sustaining
that royalty, and that enfranchisement which look
only for national revenues to keep up, in turn, ag
gravated distinctions and local interests. There may
be every necessary division of labor, and every pos
sible variety, clustering around the world's unity,
with no one element of partisan competition, but all
in harmonious cooperation.
Let the whole creation of man strive to glorify
that infinite intelligence, which designs to make earth
a heaven of concord and beauty, and there will be no
room left to strive against each other.
If men but understand this principle of honesty,
its adoption has all the simplicity about it which ap
plies to the child's alphabet. All past systems of gov
ernment, which have been so necessary to blindness
of mind and hardness of heart, must have no lot nor
part in the philanthropy of the future. There is
here no charge cast upon obsolete constitutions and

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 93
enactments, nor upon their authors. They have all
had their day of honest or seeming adaptedness.
The present upheavings of human creation will have
a better strata.
Partisan officers of government know too well
already the game which self-lovers of distinction
and pecuniary interest are wont to play in the very
halls of legislation. They know the necessity, and
will, as a matter of Divine course, yield to the de
mands of an opening era. We need not hesitate to
say at once, that the whole system of coined and
paper exchange and currency is the curse due to hu
man ignorance and discord. Not a particle of it be
longs to the development of Christian principle,
which comes forth with lustre from the crucible ope
ration of time and experiment.
No moneyed system can have a share in the future
and best gifts of bounteous Heaven. Money-ex
changers have no business in God's true and universal
temple. They will become the happy distributers of
a diviner bounty. The productions of earth, and of
proper industry, may be easily distributed to the re
motest bounds of the human family " without money
and without price." They must go to answer the
wants of man as free as the winged elements of earth,
air, and water. The most enlightened policy of God's
government established on earth will be, to equalize
the dispensation, according as "every one hath
need." A representative government will be ad
equate to the required equalization.
Is it still reiterated, that the world are not prepared

94 HEAVENLY UNION,
for SO enlarged benevolence and humanity.' We
reply, that no other policy wiU answer the true end
of government, nor the best interest of man, whether
taken individually or collectively. The reciprocation
of love and good-will on earth can have no right
eous policy, which does not run through all the rami
fications of society, and embrace, in its circulation,
every single member, relation, and interest of the
human family.
The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof.
Agriculture and manufactures, with the aid of dis
covered machinery, already afford sufficient products
for every individual of mankind, if but distributed ;
and even giving a due allowance to the vagabond,
the sick, and the decrepit, there will be still enough
and to spare, by a wise distribution of Heaven's
bounty. Let the truly wise, great, and rich unite
mind, heart, voice, and hand to the abolition of ag
grandized vanity, which is but vexation of spirit, and
squalid poverty and pitiable crime would find the
divine cure and provision. This abolition cannot
create anarchy, nor favor " no-government schemes,"
containing, as it does, the rising order of righteous
ness and truth. There is no government more stable
and attractive than that which imparts all that man
can need. If a man has sunk to a state of human
destitution and misery, he is there either because of
oppression, or of ignorance and incapacity. No man
can act willingly and knowingly against his true in
terest. It is not in his nature to choose what he
knows or thinks will, on the whole, increase his un-
happiness.

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 95
If to work with success be insufferably hard, or
impossible, he is persuaded that even a great degree
of poverty is preferable. It is always a case of pity.
And if those, not only competent, but luxurious, will
not pity and provide for every character and degree
of destitution, it is because the light of science and
love divine is not in them. But we are persuaded
better things of those who have been taught by the
world's history of admonition and of truth. The cry
of the oppressed and needy will yet disturb the ear
and soul of princes and bishops of every grade, who
do not contribute of their might and substance for
the relief of the members of the same body, of which
they are leading parts. Is it stiU a mystery with
any, that all righteous government, interchange, and
supply may be promoted without a single pass of
note, bill, check, or coin, as a medium of exchange?
Just take, for illustration, a single household. There
is government, there is labor, there is supply, yet
they all subsist without the burden of promissory
notes, or any expense of time and contention to learn
the value of things.
Universal industry and economy may, in like man
ner, be conducted without an item of that expensive
and superfluous paraphernalia with which the earth
now groans. The assurance of faith will give de
liverance. There is no possible difficulty which may
not be solved and removed by the introduction of a
new order and simple Christian principle.

96 HEAVENLY UNION,

CHAPTER XIV.
Our Saviour, and his immediate disciples, gave
us, by miracle and example, what we may do by
science and economy. He fed the three and the five
thousand, and had enough and to spare.
The disciples and Christians of old had all things
in common, and gave of their abundance, according
as each one had need. No other state than this can
satisfy enlightened piety. Let all who profess, in
whatever form, the Christian name and principle,
at once consent to adopt this community of labor
and subsistence, and the movement of the rest of the
world would be almost simultaneous. The whole
world is nearer ripe for this change and ingathering
than they realize. The various grades of the rich
are dissatisfied with the present or the past condition
of things. And the poor likewise have learned the
necessity of industry, almost without exception.
The experiment of community and cooperation
cannot be otherwise than safe, if leading minds will
make no other arrangement than for the whole world,
the greatest good of the greatest number. If but few
adopt it, they must sacrifice almost every thing. If
many, it will be mercy and glory. Those that are
already called communities, or phalansteries, are but
struggles to imitate that Divine order which will ob
tain in all the earth. Are any so uncharitable as to
call them but foul mimicry of the Gospel community?

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 97
Even with this harsh construction, there is proof of
the wisdom and duty of the Christian plan of fellow
ship and common interest. The hypocrite does his
best to put on what he knows is worthy of all com
mendation. And the children of this world are often
wiser than the children of light. Sometimes, by
faith, and the lesson of sad experience, the adulterer
and vilest sinner enter the kingdom of grace before
the set pretender to morality and religion. We trust
that denunciation upon either the modern Commun
ists, or their opponents, is out of date and unneces
sary. But it is matter of gratitude, that, throughout
all the intermediate stages between the strictest sect
for "Divine orders" and ceremonies, and the most
ardent lovers of community system, there is a strong,
though to some extent unacknowledged, tendency
towards the principles of the first disciples, who
" had all things in common," who sold all their
possessions for the common good.
Let the economy of the modern Socialist and the
tried wisdom of the old order be adjusted and har
monized, and then be supplied by intermediate orders
with all that is necessary to constitute the commu
nity, of which inspiration, in the Acts of the Apos
tles, gave us an intentional example, and the result
will be the divine economy of divine order, — the es
tablishment of a heavenly union, or the New Jerusa
lem, on earth, which will go on to perfection, fulfil
ling the destiny of a brighter and better era. To this
end, the existing elements and relations must be
wisely fused, and arranged, culminating around the
7

98 HEAVENLY UNION,
discovered unity, in glorious variety. A common
conviction must pervade the whole mass of nations,
that to seek the highest good of all is the highest
good of each one, and the highest good of each is
the highest good of all. If there is the least national,
sectional, private, and selfish interest entering into
general government, or its administration, it disturbs
the combined order of wisdom and love, and robs of
its beauty the system of universal humanity.
The motive to amass wealth on the part of individ
uals, corporations, and nations, irrespective of oth
ers, or of universal charity, has been soul-destroying
to the world. It has, however, unconsciously, but
providentially, reared beacon-lights almost every
where, that every incentive to selfish emolument
might be destroyed. Take away moneyed interests,
and we help to meet the great desideratum of the
age. Our banking institutions and stockholding
corporations have in themselves the elements of
destruction, and they are now crumbling for want of
consistency. Almost every species of traffic is con
ducted with success only by some dishonest policy.
It is called the only way to livelihood and wealth.
And this is true of present institutions and maxims.
They are all incongruous with the true and com
ing spirit of the age. If all that agriculturists and
manufacturers produce is understood as being the
property of the world, designed to be deposited in
vast public storehouses, from which they are to be
distributed to all the people, according to need, there
is a motive power which well comports with the most

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 99
benevolent mission of natural science and of reveal
ed economy. We look upon the proper arrange
ment of human industry, and the proper distribution
of the proceeds, as a province well worthy the de
scription and patronage of Christian science.
The excellency of the kingdom of God will natu
rally diffuse itself into every department of human af
fairs. This law of love to enemies, to the ignorant
and lawless, carries its commendation and conquer
ing power wherever it enters into practical opera
tion. The inhabitants of the frigid and the torrid
zones feel it alike. No nation of pride and exclu-
siveness can rear its walls so high as not to feel it.
None are so debased but may yield to it their obedi
ence. Show to the most vile and abandoned, that you
love their welfare, and would rejoice in their recov
ery, while you distribute of your abundance to them,
and they cannot resist the motive to industry, nor re
fuse to bestow, in turn, its fruits to swell the world's
bounty. If we pretend to love, but still do not make
this arrangement, crimes and evils will only increase.
The arrangement might be in substance as follows.
1. Let there be an annual, or a triennial, and
grand rendezvous of nations, through elected repre
sentatives, at some prominent place, and in different
countries, in rotation, where the condition of the
whole world could be described in simple narrative,
and the best possible plan be adopted for carrying on
the works of industry, improvement, and distribution
throughout the whole world. This would be law and
government on the broadest scale.

100 HEAVENLY UNION,
2. Let there be conventions annually in dis
tricted portions of every quarter of the globe, ac
cording to the size and population of the country,
where the law of nations shall be primary, and sub
ordinate arrangements be made, more in detail than
those of the world's convention, for the encourage
ment of the different pursuits of life, and especially
to give prominent patronage to those classes of in
dustry, whose products are most needed for the com
mon comforts of life.
3. Let there be other annual meetings, in still
more limited districts, corresponding to the States of
America, where the simple wants and capabilities of
these subordinate communities shall be represented
and provided for.
4. Let each city and town, or small communities
answering to them, have their annual gatherings to
regulate still more private affairs.
This above order, in obedience to God and the
congress of nations, may obtain equally throughout
each hemisphere and quarter of the globe.
For accommodation in distributing earth's pro
ductions of food and fuel, and also all manner of
necessary furniture, including all the varied products
of manufacturing establishments, of machinery, and
art, let there be houses and places of public de
posit, under the supervision of duly appointed al
moners and distributers, who shall dispose of the gen
eral contributions, according to the need of all the
people. These houses and market-places may be es
tablished throughout all the countries, and states, and

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 101
cities, and villages, or, as they might be termed, sub
ordinate districts of the world's grand community.
The glory and blessedness of such a world-wide
community consist in a combined order, which is ca
pable of being sustained and conducted toward per
fection, without salary, money, or price, but whose
reward would be ample abundance of the good things
of life to every creature, and unbounded satisfaction,
peace, and joy. Commerce and every public ben
efit would be free, and receive a generous support
from the public funds, or deposits, supplied with pro
visions and goods of every description. Different
parts and opposite shores of the globe would ex
change, through the medium of railroads, ships of
burden, and other modes of conveyance, every spe
cies of raw material, or prepared goods, according
to the demand of each.
If any should evade .the voluntary law of order,
industry, and obedience, under this benevolent sys
tem of things, they can only need the public frown
upon their sense of idleness, and their own convic
tions of disregard to the highest scheme of benevo
lence and mercy. But idleness would be its own
penalty, losing health and happiness. Or, if unem
ployed because of utter disability, from any species
of derangement, disease, or extreme ignorance, let
the most agreeable of all accommodations which
they are possibly capable of appreciating or enjoy
ing be prepared for them. Let the incorrigibly
abandoned, if such there could be, be simply kept
from public detriment. But he who could have the

102 HEAVENLY UNION,
will to destroy, or injure, or waste, public property,
devoted, as it would be, to the common need, and the
most benevolent purposes possible, must be insane,
and only require the highest pity and the best of care.
Yet, generally speaking, the prison-doors of all lands
might be thrown open, in perfect justice, mercy, and
safety, and the acceptable year of the Lord be uni
versally proclaimed. There is sufficient benevolence
and loving-kindness in the world, if only in a right
manner directed, to quell every thought and feeling
of malice, and to soften every asperity of man's na
ture. Do any fear the influence of the vagabond
and the wicked, lest they abuse the public good?
Just look at even our present public improvements,
exposed as they are. How rarely is it that any
have audacity or revenge against an indiscriminate
public, to do aught that will occasion disaster upon
our railroads and telegraphic lines, and other bene
fits equally exposed. But temptations would be less
than they are now, by all the influence of universal
charities. Besides, one great province of the age would be
to make provision for free public discourses, lec
tures, and instructions, of every useful and attractive
character. This would have its moral tendency to
suppress the thought of evil. Lovers of science
would throw the might of their concentrated results
upon the popular mind, and ask for no remuneration
but the high satisfaction of fulfilling their province,
coupled with all the best comforts of heritage, food,
raiment, and friendship.

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 103
Let the Sabbath be devoted to the highest neces
sity of man as a respite from ordinary business, and
for the needful recreations of praise to God, in songs,
and every variety of divine employ.
Let all places of public resort be free as the air of
heaven, that discourses upon all science, which is es
sential to man's progress, in obedience to the laws of
nature and happiness, which are the laws of God,
shall be enjoyed without money and without price.
Those preferring the study of science to manual la
bor, or to any species of superintendence, as many
as are needed, and qualified, would contribute their
acquisitions to the public, in a manner best adapted
to the improvement of all the people. Ministers of
religious science would present to the people what
ever has a known tendency to prepare for a better and
happier futurity, whether for beyond, or within the
limits of the grave. Christ exemplified the duty of
attending to both the bodies and the souls of men.
The science of physiology has a sure and wonderful
work to accomplish, in the order of the race and law
of production, towards restoring health and beauty
to the organic system, which is the sacred instrument
of the mind, and must be attuned to the work and
praise of God. Also an understanding and appli
cation of the law of temperance in all things will
hasten the period when " there shall be no more an
infant of days," when to die at the age of a hundred
years will be death in infancy, and be accursed, be
cause evidence of the violation of the laws of nature.
Carry out this principle, and in the process of

104 HEAVENLY UNION,
time, death at the age of a thousand years may be
untimely, because in infancy. And still further, if it
can be proved that Adam would have lived for ever
in Paradise, had he not transgressed the laws of na
ture or of God, there is equal evidence that, in the
perfect recovery, the human body may so renew it
self as to be confirmed in immortality. There is no
impossibility of this, but rather much probability, and
the tendency of such a doctrine is every way salu
tary, in its strong encouragement to men to investi
gate and apply the laws of health. The millions of
spirits that shall have left their mortal tenements
will, by the word and law of inspiration, assume in
corruptible bodies. These bodies, which unknown
science will form and God will provide, may be iden
tified with, or like unto, those recovered by the grad
ual process of improvement on earth. And thus,
those that are "alive and remain," having by one
process regained immortality of body, will meet those
who have died, but received their incorruptible body
by another process, and such as God is pleased to give,
— will meet, as it were, in the air with equal strength
and elasticity, and so be for ever together with the
Lord in the immortality of resurrection life. This
Scriptural and rational probability of a scientific im
provement of the human body is mentioned, that it
might add its weight of importance to every discov
ery and application of organic laws. The new heav
ens and the new earth will be brought about by a
process of renewal, so that the old will have passed
away in the order of decay and consummation, not

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 105
necessarily by conflagration, but according to the
principle, that " with the Lord a thousand years are
as one day," so that in due time it may be said, that
the old world of sin, suffering, and deformity shall
no more come up in remembrance. "For, behold, I
create all things new." It will be, popularly speak
ing, the same earth, but scientifically another, being
renewed in all its forms by natural changes and the
improvements of discovery. This is equally true
with the renewal of the human body, being divested,
in a certain period of time, of every former particle,
yet identified.

CHAPTER XV.
Under the auspices of the new era, the principle
of universal association and cooperation will accel
erate, beyond all previous rate, the knowledge and
practice of scientific truth. It is the grand mutual
principle, which is destined to disclose and expound
the miracles of science, and fill the world with peace
and joy. The modern systems of mutual insurance,
and of all benevolent associations, not excepting va
rious secret societies, are all but the shadows cast
before, which will suddenly, in the order of present
movements, give way to the glorious reality and uni
versality of mutual love, common interest, and good

106 HEAVENLY UNION,
will. The secrets of benevolence, and of the mu
tual insurance of life, health, and property, will
speedily be open to all the world; universal commu
nity will take their place. There is nothing hid
which shall not be revealed. It will prove itself to
be the perfection of all good policy to give every
class of people access to all the privileges of learn
ing, science, and enjoyment.
Let the mark of humanity, and of one blood, be
the sign and password of the recognition of mu
tual obligations. This sublime community of love
and interest will supersede the necessity of the ten
thousand sectarian and limited societies, which drag
their slow pace along for want of money and means.
The whole world is called upon to throw off the
pressure for money, and to renounce the love of it,
by utterly throwing it aside, and disowning it as a
necessary medium of regenerating the human fam
ily, and beautifying the earth, or accomplishing any
practical purpose. There is no errand of mercy,
nor work of perfection, that may not be performed
without a farthing of money currency. The mutual
system, by its supremacy, will demonstrate the impol
itic nature of that circulating medium, which every
where proves to be the great bone of contention.
When men have no other than the laudable and
exahed motive to labor for the world's improvement,
for its necessary subsistence and comfort, for immor
tality, and Divine glory, with no possible encourage
ment to amass money and property for its own sake,
then they are on the grand career of universal and

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 107
immortal success. Till then the past and present
state of affairs must be viewed as one of embarrass
ment and war. The entire system of military school
ing, in preparation for cannonading and bomb-shell
ing, and horrid blood-shedding, is but an overt, stu
pendous, and shocking " provision for the lusts of the
flesh." We have but to feed the reckless lusts of
the flesh to make certain the outbreak of wars and
fightings. The only safety is in obedience to Gospel
order, — " Make no provision for the flesh to fulfil
the lusts thereof" A Gospel community cannot
once admit the thought of victory by arms. It con
quers its enemies by love, and does not vauntingly
rejoice over the victory when the enemy falleth or
is justly won. There is already an increase of mu
tuality, of understanding, and effort, among the lead
ing minds of the leading nations of the earth, to the
intent of amicable adjustment of difficulties, and
the universal promotion of peace. This also is but an
earnest struggle for that general deliverance, which
a universal union of interest would at once present.
The very face of such a world of community would
be able to drive every intent of evil, as it were,
into the caverns and dens of the earth. The con
centrated powers of sin and darkness fall impotent
before the bright approach of the Christian panoply,
— the all-subduing power of love. Carry presents
of kindness and peace to the most hostile array, and
it will most obediently bend to their reception. There
is no hazard in establishing this heaven of reciprocal
interest all over the world. There is immense haz
ard, if it be left undone.

108 HEAVENLY UNION,
Are any faithless to inquire, What shall we first do
to bring about this arrangement? And is the igno
rant apology, which has been offered, but in vain,
to ten thousand other enterprises, here blindly ad
vanced, that " it is all a beautiful theory, but not a
word of practicability in it " ? Such inquiries and
excuses come with ill grace from lovers of Bible
promise and prophecy. Is not the world full of fa
cilities for the communication of all our longings and
aspirations? If but two or three feel the glowing
inspirations of universal love, how can they look,
speak, or act, without imparting to the world, as it
were, their own souls? Men constitute, in themselves,
both the galvanic battery and a perfect circulating
medium for conducting the electric fire of Divine
love. Let the mind and will be made up, and if truth
be the mover, no worldly device can thwart it. The
movement is all-powerful, however dependent the in
strument, if God be in it.
Say not, that the Lord will delay his coming, in
righteousness, and in the great power and glory of
universal union and communion. The only delay is
for the simultaneous action of all nations and all gov
ernments. It devolves upon the most enlightened.
Christianized, and competent nations first to touch
the required battery, and take into communication
the rest of the world, and then let the secret energy
of Omnipotence be gloriously revealed. Let the
highest energy of thought, word, action, and the
press, sound the trumpet of jubilee, and the year of
the right hand of God is come. Speculate no more

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 109
upon the causes of war, theological, political, or mil
itary. All know they lie in the cursed love of
money, and grasping power, yea, in thP unbridled
lusts of the flesh. At once, then, fellow-brother, de
termine, by every honest policy^ that earth, iron,
brass, copper, silver, gold, and all manner of precious
material, shall be converted into the actual uses of
life, and after the absolute necessities are met, into
beautiful structures and ornaments of taste, well fit
ting the glory of the New Jerusalem. Say ye, that
a sudden and miraculous change must come over
the world, — that the entire order of things must be
reversed? We admit it. Say, one and all, Il shall be,
and by this very agency, which God has determined
upon, it will be done. No sooner can electric man
understand the work, than he will feel and communi
cate the undying impulse. Say ye, that the work is
all sacrifice ? It partakes more of mercy. The bur
dened rich will distribute and equalize their care.
The oppressed poor will have their wants supplied.
All together will work the better. The wan face of
book-study, overcharged by weariness of the flesh,
will renew its health of countenance by some proper
degree of physical labor and equal discharge of all
duties. The over-ruddiness of countenance will be
restored to the beauty of the golden mean, by the
modifying power of intellectual culture. The oppo-
sites will modify each other. Every element of be
ing, properly arranged, will have its value in the
system of humanity. One well-balanced mind and
human system will illustrate a well-ordered, universal

110 HEAVENLY UNION,
society. Every part is regularly and beautifully de
veloped. All the propensities which belong to man
are obedient to the dictate of full reason, benevo
lence, and conscience, and other moral powers. And
all these, in turn, are obedient to the well developed
and governed propensities. They modify and keep
each other under a common and perfect law of re
ciprocity. There is every needed suggestion, ac
tion, and execution. The whole man is healthy, ac
tive, useful, and happy. It may be objected, that
this is theory without an example. Still we may
conceive of conditions upon which example might be
given. Our first parents might have afforded it.
Jesus Christ, had he not suffered the contradiction
of sinners, might have been, not only without a blot
upon his character, but also upon his person, and
hence enjoyed all the felicity of one perfect human
system. Such would give us a perfect model. But
such is yet to be given, in the person of individuals
and the embodiment of communities on earth.
The earth is a perfect system, other bodies revolv
ing about the sun are perfect systems, all in perfect
balance. So, all together, with the sun which they
encircle, constitute one perfect system. And they,
as a whole, may revolve around some other centre,
so distant from us, that our sun appears no more to
move about it than our earth once appeared to re
volve about the sun.
The centre of the entire universe may never be
found by created intelligence, still none can doubt,
from what is seen and known, for a moment, that the

OR NEW JERUSALEM. Ill
entire universe is a perfect system. The size of it
is beyond any limit of conception. But the point
illustrated, and so plain to a child, is, that well-
arranged parts make up a perfect whole, and give the
most perfect balance. And there is to us but this one
world to redeem. Our efforts, at present, are requir
ed but to ameliorate the condition of the human fam
ily. We cannot confine our plan of intelligence and
mercy within its bounds, nor can we go beyond it,
till the Sovereign of all worlds brings us into re
sponsible communication with creatures of another
sphere. We have, then, to do with the human fam
ily, made up, indeed, of numberless but confederate
parts of one body. Let none stop their plan and op
eration of benevolence within this circumference.
Let the nations commingle, arrange, and form the
complete and well-balanced community.
Let no part say to another, " I have no need of
thee." Heaven's chartered community may be at
once established, and, without delay, be in the full
tide of successful operation.
The human soil is now tried and pliable, and there
is a plastic hand to gently lay within and upon it the
tree of life. To this none will be debarred access.
Will one country, now more favored than another,
suffer by the introduction of universal community, or
the free Jerusalem ? No more than a sound healthy
right hand would suffer in administering help and
relief to a wounded or diseased left hand. No more
than a strong healthy member of a family would suf
fer in showing kindness to a less favored member of

112 HEAVENLY UNION,
it. No sooner is the whole system of membership
restored, than the cry of distress ceases to utter its
troublesome woes, and all is well. Sensitive and suf
fering humanity, related as it is in all its parts, can
not do otherwise than experience sympathetic affec
tion, whether agreeable or disagreeable. The longer
one more happy family, or national member, of the
human race, neglects another, the more woful will be
the eventual condition of the whole. We need only
to state the inspired and unchangeable truth, and
yield to it implicit confidence. Missionary operations
approximate nearest to the grand requirement, yet
they are fettered by partisanship, and that withhold
ing of means which tendeth to universal poverty of
spirit. Every avenue to heathen lands and idolatrous
homes should be at once opened by the presentation
of science and heavenly love. Teach the ignorant
the best forms of industry, and the inspiring love of
obedience to universal oneness of interest, and they
will make the most essential cooperator in filling
the free mart of nations with the products of earth.
There is no individual, nor nation, under this chari
table arrangement, but would constitute a foot, or a
hand, or an eye, or some other useful faculty, in the
vast body of collective humanity. If some are born
to rule, and bless with a guiding eye, others are
born, no less, to bless with a helping hand. One no
more than another is servant of the Most High God.
The highest created intelligence has as much of the
feeling of a servant, before his Creator, as the very
lowest order of human creation.

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 113
It is only when the different classes of men turn
away from the heavenly policy, " by love to serve
one another," that they, on the one hand, boast of
superiority, and, on the other, complain of menial ser
vitude. Let those who understand the principle and
glory of the New Jerusalem enjoy the satisfaction
of obedience, in its reception, without waiting for the
blind and reluctant to unite. The latter will soon,
if not instantaneously, fall in with this noblest order
of Christianity, when it is once rooted and exem
plified in the ground of evangelized humanity.

CHAPTER XVI.
The economy and harmony of division of labor
will only be perfected by the coming order of things.
For illustration, the farmer generally will remain
a farmer, and strive, by the offered aids of science,
to draw the highest possible quantity, and the best
possible quality, from the richest possible culture of
the earth. Others would join in agriculture accord
ing to general demand and interest, and together
throw the whole proceeds into public storehouses,
which would be distributed by approved carriers to
families, according to their number or demand, in
each district or village. The trained mechanic
would serve his turn, by devotion to every species of
8

114 HEAVENLY UNION,
architecture, building and repairs, according to in
crease of population and represented wants. The
men of science would still, from love and success in
it, in all the different branches, continue in their
sphere, and, like the mechanic, give their results, free
and without reserve or charge, on proper occasions,
to the waiting community. Any valuable discovery
would have its application to the appropriate branch
of industry, as quick as communication, by voice, or
post, or telegraph, or any other facility, could forward
it. All would be conducted on the common plan of
gratuity. The postage system would frank every
letter, periodical, and publication to its utmost desti
nation. All libraries, books, publications, and pa
pers would have their place, in more or less ample
buildings, from the hand of authors and publishers,
to be stationary, or taken and returned by rule and
record, according to demand. The generous system
would be sufficient guarantee against malicious abuse.
Do any fear that the common day-laborer would
loiter over and lounge with books and papers ? If
he has taste and endurance for it, he will more
greatly bless the community by it. If he has no
such faculty for it, he ought to be encouraged in it
as far as made willing, because he needs it. In gen
eral, health and glow of spirits being the sole property
of action, man can need no punishment but idleness.
Suppose the ignorant create some abuse of privi-
lecres. The good obtained is paramount. The evil is
incidental, but governed for good.
But the principle is settled for ever in heaven, that

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 115
community of interest is the uUimate and highest
condition and destiny of the human race on earth.
It only remains to plant it in every nation and every
soil. The revolutions of our transition state have
been ripening the condition of the world for this very
plant destined to universal growth.
The greatest mountain obstacle to be destroyed is
the currency of specie and paper as a medium of ex
change. The notion, that money is necessary to the
happiest and most advanced state of man, is so deeply
rooted in the minds of ages, that some may think
that a world could hardly exist without it; but this no
tion is all a fallacy, and for want of more compre
hensive, discriminating, and benevolent vision. It is
exactly the reverse. The use of it was providentially
ordered because of the blindness and wickedness of
man. It has crazed the human passions more tl.Kn
all other influences combined. Who can measure
the time wasted in barter, bargains, disputes, and
battles, or number the crimes commhted, for the
cursed love of money? There is no perfection of
business, mechanism, art, or science, but may be
reached, with the highest prosperity and peace, with
out the semblance of money.
This need not be repeated, to convince a single in
telligent and Christian mind of our age. And if the
unbelieving world still cling to it, as their god, it de
volves upon Christendom, for example's sake, to aban
don the whole system of moneyed affairs. Gold and
silver have no intrinsic value, except for useful pur
poses. They are precious for ware, and for orna-

116 HEAVENLY UNION,
ments of taste and art. The golden age implies no
currency of golden coin. It is an age of light and
love, and of surpassing beauty, adorning the outward
world in all its phases, answering to the union, com
munion, and outshining glory of spiritual and heav
enly hfe. The highest excellency of the internal
will have its corresponding glory of the external.
The lustre and beauty of " Holiness unto the Lord,"
will not only be written upon the tablet of the soul,
but upon all the pursuits and intercommunications
of men. The deepest principles of religion have
their goings-forth in every-day life. They extend to
all the minutest affairs, necessities, comforts, and
conveniences of life. The value of religion may be
felt in all the branches and details of political sci
ence and domestic economy.
All the best modes of human pursuit, down to the
little courtesies of civil life, are but the legitimate off
spring of our holy and social religion. It is among
the happiest ultimates of religion that we find the
best economies of human life. It sanctions a subject
of the heavenly kingdom in proposing and prescrib
ing the simplest, wisest, and best modes of conduct
ing human affairs. The most select modes of ex
pounding and appropriating the science of political
economy have been presented to the world, by those
most conversant with the principles of God's moral
government and the administration of his Divine
economy. The kingdom of God and his righteousness are
first sought. The application to human affairs, in all

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 117
their details, is but a legitimate and happy se
quence. Who have done more for the formation and execu
tion of educational systems, or for the amicable ad
justment and settlement of human affairs, than the
ministers of religion?
The welfare of the soul's immortality depends es
sentially upon the justice and mercy shown by man
to man, in all the communications, customs, and busi
ness of ordinary life. What are the wisdom and love
of God to effect on earth, if they are not to have
their practical ultimates of good in mutual loving-
kindness, andjn the provisional bounties of "daily
bread," of needful raiment, of a goodly heritage, of
social friendship, and of every laudable convenience
and pleasure to the taste? In all these respects we
may do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our
God, living with a supreme reference to his glory,
in our eternal obedience and felicity. It is but ful
filling his declared, prophetic, and spiritual intent,
when we take the kingdom of heaven and give it a
place on earth, when we exclude neither Jew nor Gen
tile, bond nor free, subject of ordinances or not, from
the world-wide community of religious and political
interest. Christendom has only to unite, and go
forth, prescribing, in the name of Christ and of God,
the gracious plan of the world's operations, and who
among the sons and daughters of Adam will consent
to live as aliens from the commonwealth of the true
Israel? The covenant given to Abraham can require but

118 HEAVENLY UNION,
the faith and the life he lived, characterized ulti
mately by no other mark nor seal than obedience and
love to God.
How gloriously the first bud of promise to the hu
man family opens, ever expanding as man is pre
pared to receive it, down through the whole course
of inspiration, until all nations shall flow together to
the Lord's house, and live amid the bright glories of
Divine unity in one blessed community. No exter
nal rite bears a tithe, nay, jot or tittle of relation to
Abrahamic covenant, compared with true love
and obedience to God.
Deem it not the part of arrogance, dear reader,
and fellow-citizen of the human family, that a hum
ble servant of universal humanity undertakes to
commend propositions so high, and so large, yet so
simple, to the world. Let their adaptedness and im
portance commend themselves.
Let our vision of Christian benevolence and love
extend over all the race, and all opportunity of mo
nopolizing wealth and power be banished, and the
work of union and community is beautifully adorned
with simplicity and majestic grace.
It is worthy of the immediate attention and best
energies of nominal kings and magistrates and all
officers of government as well as Christian ministers.
They will none deny, that, after all is said of union
of church and state, the best system of civil polity
must spring from the revealed government of God,
as primarily and preeminently adopted by his
Church.

OR NEW JERUSALEM, 119
Religious and civil freedom are inseparably con
nected, and they are the ultimate guarantee of the
whole race of man. Monarchal governments have
generally obtained where the people are least able
to govern themselves, whether in church or state.
They have been more necessary than republics are
apt to suppose. Still, the evils of them have been ag
gravated, and made aggravating. Nations rightfully
groan to be delivered from them. There may be re
action, and monarchies may be resumed, but for a
short season.
All the purposes and interests of church and state
can have their best accomplishment only in the lov
ing-kindness of universal community, adopted and
led on by the delegated omnipotence (with allowance
for the word) of universal Christian union, which
gives the highest order, symmetry, and harmony of
the New Jerusalem promised to our earth.
The writer of this work has but presented the out
lines of that general community, which will be readily
carried out, in detail, as soon as the well-disposed
and enlightened of the nations will perceive and
accept the practicability, fitness, and glory of the
general system.
The lovers of community are not idle encroachers
upon public munificence ; neither are they all driven
to such a grand scheme by the sting of poverty.
Some of them may have been, from their very gener
osity and integrity of life, oppressed by worldly and
monopolizing policies for money. Others, indeed,
from want of faculty to obtain wealth, have been

120 HEAVENLY UNION,
forced to impoverishment. But not a few of the most
wealthy are now convinced of the benevolence, pro
priety, and necessity of complete community, with
no half-way or semi-approximations to the system.
Community must be laid broad and entire, or it
cannot exhibit the best excellence and results of ex
periment. The writer does not hesitate in saying
that he is, in respect to the goods of this world, a
representative of full average, or mediocrity, amid
the human race, and has as much interest in favor
of one extreme as the other, and from this medium
position would entreat, most earnestly and fraternally,
all the higher grades of the wealthy, and call upon
all the lower grades of the poor, to give at once
their united and triumphant minds and hearts, voices
and hands, to the establishment and consummation
of a union in community, bounded by no limits within
the sphere of the human family. Nothing less can
answer to the Divine benevolence and mission of our
Lord and Saviour. Be not, in fine, faithless, but be
lieving. It is not only heroic to conceive and enter
tain the proposition, but it will be divinely heroic to
execute the design.
It can be a movement only equal to and worthy of
this wonderful epoch, and a coming era, amid the
solemn and interesting vista of ages.

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 121

SELECT PASSAGES.
"And the disciples were called Christians first in
Antioch." — Acts xi. 26.
"Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for
brethren to dwell together in unity! " — Ps. cxxxiii. 1.
" With all lowliness and meekness, with long-suf-
fering, forbearing one another in love ; endeavour
ing to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of
peace. "There is one body and one spirit, even as ye are
called in one hope of your calling." — Eph. iv. 2-4.
"For ye are all the children of God by faith ia
Christ Jesus."— Gal. iii. 26.
" There is neither Jew nor Greek," &c. — Gal. iii.
28. "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the
law of Christ." — Gal. vi. 2.
"Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also
received us, to the glory of God." — Rom. xv. 7.
" Charity envieth not ; charity vaunteth not itself,
— is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil. — And
now abideth faiih, hope, and charity; but the greatest
of these is charity." — 1 Cor. xiii.
"So we, being many, are one body in Christ." —
Rom. xii. 5.
" If there be therefore any consolation in Christ,
if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit,

122 HEAVENLY UNION,
if any bowels and mercies, fulfil ye my joy, that ye
be like-minded, having the same love, being of one ac
cord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through
strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each
esteem other better than themselves. Look not
every man on his own things, but every man also on
the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus." — Phil. ii. 1-5.
" That ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind,
striving together for the faith of the Gospel." — Phil.
i. 27. " If ye love them which love you, what thank
have ye?" — Luke vi. 32.
"But I say unto you. Love your enemies." —
Luke vi. 27.
" Owe no man any thing but to love one another."
— Rom. xiii. 8.
"I am the vine, ye are the branches." — John
XV. 5.
"Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and
clamor, and evil-speaking, be put away from you,
with all malice.
" And be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted,
forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake
hath forgiven you." — Eph. iv. 31, 32.
"That he might present it to himself a glorious
Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such
thing; but that it should be holy and without blem
ish."— Eph. V. 27.
"Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same
Spirit.

OR NEW JERUSALEM. 123
"And there are differences of administrations, but
the same Lord.
"And there are diversities of operations; but it is
the same God which worketh all in all." — 1 Cor. xii.
4-6. "We are members one of another." — Eph. iv. 25.
" Love one another, as I have loved you." — John
XV. 12.
" By this shall all men know that ye are my disci
ples, if ye have love one to another." — John xiii. 35.
" There shall be no more thence an infant of days,
nor an old man that hath not filled his days : for the
child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner,
being an hundred years old, shall be accursed." —
Is. Ixv. 20.
"-And I will write upon him the name of my God,
which is New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of
heaven from my God." — Rev. iii. 12.
" And all that believed were together, and had all
things common; and sold their possessions and goods,
and parted them to all men, as every man had need."
— Acts. ii. 44, 45.

DISCOURSE

CHRISTIAN UNION

" JYeither pray I for these alone, but for them also
which shall believe on me through their word ; that
they all may be one ; as thou. Father, art in me, and I
in thee, that they also may be one in us : that the world
may believe that thou hast sent me." — John xvii. 20,
21. This last and affecting prayer of our Divine Lord
and Master, before his crucifixion, embraced the ulti
mately perfected union, and the highest felicity of the
whole Christian world.
Although anterior to this grand realization different
branches of the Christian Church should rise up, in
a measure, against each other, as incidental to pre
vailing ignorance and imperfection, and to the appli
cation and touchstone of the Law and Gospel, never
theless the work and consummate blessedness of a
universal Christian union had their plan in the pre-
determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God; and

126 CHRISTIAN UNION.
will assuredly have their oiiward march of progress
unto the day of their completion.
The highest wisdom and perfection of our Saviour's
life of prayer seemed to be summed up and to termi
nate in this most exemplary prayer, that not only his
immediate disciples, but those in after ages, who
should believe on him through their word, might all
be one; in his language, " as thou. Father, art in me,
and I in thee, that they also may be one in us."
Between the Father and the Son there ever is
identity of understanding and love, — a perfect one
ness in conceptions, in works, and in Divine blessed
ness. So Christian believers, in their more advanced
state, were to be closely joined together in Christ,
their living Head, in all the essential unity of pur
pose and feeling, — were to receive that impress of
Divine inspiration which giveth one and the same
understanding, also one and the same spirit. It is an
established interchange and reciprocation of the same
essential knowledge, wisdom, and goodness.
To the Church there must be one Lord, one faith,
and one baptism, — the baptism of the Holy Ghost.
They are to walk together by the same rule and to
mind the same things. Leaving all matter and man
ner of contention to their own place. Christians are
to fellowship more visibly as well as spiritually in re
lation to their common Head, in his character of
Prophet, Priest, King, and Saviour.
They must be one in a common deference to the
Bible, the preeminently inspired and acknowledged

CHRISTIAN UNION. 127
rule of life; — and so also one in saving faith, looking
to Jesus as its author and finisher, that they may be
saved ; — one, too, in the substantial and practical
doctrines of salvation, such as in all catholicity of
spirit they would wish to commend and "not to
blot " upon a dying bed, and which, after death, will
unite them, not as sectarians or bigots, but as mem
bers of the "general assembly and Church of the
first-born, in heaven."
The highest and strongest of all bonds which can
hold together the members of its body must be form
ed by the constitution, as it were, of " one mind and
one heart," — knit together by that habit of inter
view, exchange, and communion, in that identity of
knowledge and experience, that oneness of Christian
views and sympathy, which is essential to the per
fected enjoyment of a triumphant Church. All the
converging essentials of religion, with Christ as the
radiating centre, must be intertwined within and
about the minds and hearts of Christians, and con
stitute the nucleus of their union.
They must be one, still further, in baptism, not in
any external mode, or form, but in that towards which
the symbolical character has, in times past, directed
the eye of the whole Church militant, even the
higher baptism of the Holy Ghost.
And under this reign of the spirit, they must act
more visibly as one in prayer, — an entreating ear
nestness of life, before the power of which they have
only to look for the crumbling and wreck of division
walls, and join in a common chorus of thanksgiving.

128 CHRISTIAN UNION.
Also as one in hope, in the hope of eternal life. As
one in /ear, the /ear of offending God, — a fear which
prefers to die rather than incur the displeasure of
" our Father who art in heaven."
As one in love, a love kindred to that which glow
ed in the heart of Fenelon the Catholic, Leighton
the Bishop, Fletcher the Methodist, Baxter the Dis
senter, Robert HaU the Baptist, Edwards the Con-
gregationalist, or Channing the Unitarian, — a love, I
say, like theirs, differing only in degree and in this
one respect, higher and purer, because not encum
bered by sectarianism, and because fallen to the lot
of " better times."
Thus also as one in sufferings, by a similar hatred
to ungodliness, a common endurance of similar
trials, conflicts, and crosses, wherein each will read
in the other the story of his own tears and godly sor
rows. But under the same ministration of the Spirit they
are equally one in joy, — joy in the same virtue,
knowledge, temperance, godliness, brotherly kind
ness, and charity. In these, and in all the fruits of
the Spirit, they must necessarily be one from the very
nature of their common object and efforts, and from
the nature of that relation which lifts them far above
every other relation, whether it be civil or domestic,
and even as our Saviour taught, above the conjugal,
paternal, filial, or fraternal, — a relation, as sons and
daughters of one Father, who is all and in all, the
Lord Almighty.
But, being one in their character, fruits, and rela-

CHRISTIAN UNION. 129
tion, they must be one in respect to their eternal home.
Enoch, Abraham, Moses, Samuel, David, Isaiah,
Peter, Paul, and John; Hall, Griswold, Payson, and
Fisk, and the " innumerable company," will meet in
the same Paradise above, in that goodly fellowship
which knows no night of bitter controversy and of
sin, where reciprocating vision and " eye to eye "
will be cloudless and moteless, where each in one
another and in Christ will be altogether lovely.
But with this "respect to the recompense of re
ward," God's true Israel, on earth, as heirs together
with Christ to the same inheritance of glory, have
yet a mission to fulfil. They are to think, pray, and
act more in concert, are to love and live more in
the fellowship of the spirit, not as partisans and
worldly competitors, but as fellow-citizens of the
"household of faith " and of God, more as one visible
body, distinguished from the body of the world by a
common seal of discipleship, symbolizing a distinc
tion, at so great a remove from the character of com
mon infidelity, that, in comparison with it, the differ
ence between Christians, in denominational peculiar
ities, is not a drop in the ocean.
Then let the general recognition of a common
faith, a common love, a common mission, and a com
mon home, insure a more catholic unison in spirit
and in visible worship and action.
Dear brethren and friends, the sublime subject of
Christian union is altogether a Scriptural one, and in
spite of all the aspersions and reflections cast upon
it, still it can never lose its Divine authority. It is
9

130 CHRISTIAN UNION.
but the response of Heaven to the earnest and be
lieving prayer of Jesus, that his followers might be
one in each other, in himself, and in the Father. It
commends itself to our best consideration.
I. Look at the objects of Christian Union.
1. It is to unite the Christian world in Christ, in
answer to his prayer.
The friends of Christ have not only followed too
far off from Him, but they have followed too far off
from one another. The forces of Christ's embattled
host have been too much scattered. They have not
known each other's resolves nor each other's love;
neither have they properly nerved each other's spir
its to higher resolve and to higher love. Coals of
fire must be drawn together and all glowing with fer
vent heat to do the most effective execution. To be
come one in Christ is a primary object, — and they
cannot come nearer to Christ, as a common centre,
without coming nearer to each other. If the cause
we plead had no other object, it would be enno
bling and endearing. It possesses an attractive pow
er. The Christian world has its attraction of cohe
sion, no less than the material or mineral world.
And Christians must be drawn together before they
can draw others in the greatest number and to the
best advantage. While it is near to Christ they can
best hear and understand his word of command, it is
also while nearest each other they can best hear
and understand one another, and feel the glowing
ardor of holy communication and of mutual impulse.
No other fellowship, formed for the promotion of

CHRISTIAN UNION. 131
worldly or mere moral schemes, should be embodied
upon so enlarged and generous a platform as this;
and none is so worthy of being replete with both zeal
and knowledge as this; and none can be so full of
peace and joy, and of the Holy Ghost. Such fellow
ship, such union of Christian interest, isa leading
object of an organized Christian alliance, in answer
to the prayer of Christ. It is to gather together all
in one, in Christ, where dissensions will find no
place for action, no sustenance, no life, — an object
beautiful in design, grand in scope, glorious in
achievement, — that the Church may thus go forth
"clear as the sun, fair as the moon, and powerful as
an army with banners," to meet the enemy. This
last word suggests a second object,
2. To form a more solid and efficient phalanx
against infidelity.
As, in the Providence of God, all the ranks of the
enemy are now tending to embodiment, are in the
formation of a more solid and threatening front, it
can be, at the same time, no other than the wisdom
of God and the sanctioned policy of the Christian
Church, of every name, to unite in holy union, in
order to meet the present exigency of the age, and
that fearful front of the combined powers of sin.
True, each distinct branch of God's Church, and
each individual member of it, have in themselves
their foes to meet, but in proportion to their advance
of victory at home is their preparation to encounter
the embodied forms of iniquity abroad, and he alone
who has mastered his own spirit, and conquered his

132 CHRISTIAN UNION.
foes at home, is prepared to push his conquests over
the world of enmity. Sin has her thousand and ten
thousand treacherous arts and organized forms of
rebellion. But the time has arrived when God has
summoned the Church universal to more united ac
tion on the more enlarged and common ground of
Christian warfare. Modern modes and facilities of
communication throughout the world have given
rise to new emergencies. It has emboldened the
scattered powers of rebellion against God to form a
common enemy, and this enemy, in whatever form or
garb, must be met, and, we are bold to say, will be
met, by the gathering of God's elect around the
standard of Bible union, and by an uncompromising
determination to take, to adopt, to carry out, the
spirit of our Saviour's prayer, that all might be one
in Him, as he is in the Father.
There is, it must be understood, and fell, an organ
ized system of wickedness in the world, which no
other than the strong alliance, the unconquerable
unity, of all God's people can encounter and destroy.
We ought not to refrain from asserting, that, in order
to this proper assemblage of Christian churches and
Gospel forces, all those particular issues of the press,
and those pulpit instructions, and not omitting the
various forms of public effort which contemplate and
plead for Christian union, should be patronized and
sustained above any others, that partake of more
limited spheres, and may be tinged with sectarian
policies. We invoke the spirit of our Lord's prayer, and ask

CHRISTIAN UNION. 133
why it was the last prayer before his being summon
ed to crucifixion, if it did not embrace the last and
most important achievement of his Church ? And
never has there been a period since that prayer was
offered, when the union of all Christians was in re
quisition so emphatically and upon so enlarged a
platform, as at the present; and this requisition will
increase its demands, by every coming movement of
Divine Providence and by every more luminous ex
position and opening discovery of God's jevealed
mind and will. O, let this rational presentiment of
the "good time coming " furnish its just argument
for the necessity of uniting together, in the bonds of
a common understanding and a common love, all
those who cherish attachments to a common Redeem
er, — and this in order to facilitate and insure that
conquest before which all others will lose their lustre
and their crown.
A third object is, —
3. To furnish for the unbelieving world a more
consistent persuasive to embrace the religion of
Christ. The most legitimfite influence of Christian union,
by the force of example, attended necessarily by the
power of God, must be to carry conviction of truth
to unbelievers, to rally their energies on the side
of Christ, around the standard of union, and beneath
the unfurled banner of Gospel liberty, inscribed with
that proverbial motto, " Behold, how these Chris
tians love one another."
The past dissecting and unhappy severance of

134 CHRISTIAN UNION.
Christian churches and allies has given occasion of
reproach, and has proved a more prevailing dissua
sive, with a certain portion of the community, than
any other circumstance, against their enlistment in
the cause of Christ. Now some liberal but truthful
basis, upon which all who in sincerity love the Lord
Jesus Christ stand together, in some more tangible
and happy connection, with their united testimony in
favor of obvious and positive truth, will furnish a
Scriptural ground, and a preeminent inducement, to
a large class of minds to believe in Christ. It will
produce a result which no other fact, reasoning, or
argument will furnish. Need we say that the influ
ence of this position, taken by Christians as such, in
their one character, by proper means and intercourse,
would be almost unbounded. There is reason to be
lieve that the generality of unbelievers, who would
yield their susceptibilities to any impression or con
viction, would yield themselves up to this moral im
petus of persuasive power, and under the ministra
tion of the Divine Spirit.
We are more confident of this thing, because it is
the effect which the Saviour's prayer contemplated
and expressed. " That they also may be one in us,
that the world might believe that thou hast sent me."
Our Saviour foreknew the tendency of this union,
while it was the express end of his prayer. The
uhimate end of each is one, that the world might be
induced to accept the Christian religion.
II. Consider its chief obstacles.
1. Strong adherence to denominational distinc
tions.

CHRISTIAN UNION. 135
Once this would have appeared a most formidable
barrier. But walls of partition are now being fast
broken down Their heights have been scaled by
the loftier spirits of Christian love and piety. Moun
tains of difficulty, in our times, are wont, by the
blessing of Providence, to dwindle into a small mat
ter in the balance, nay, to be levelled into a per
fect plane. Still, the faith of some is not sufficient
to remove such mountains. These lofty barriers
of denominational distinction cost too much, in
their estimation, to be sacrificed on the burning
altars of Christian love and union, or even to be sub
ordinated to any higher plan of proceedure. The
sacrifice of long-cherished differences is almost a
wanton thrust at most-endeared immunities and birth
right privileges. Alas ! What a sad picture of
Christ's own Church ! Rent in twain ! Nay, into
many parts ! Intersected by unhallowed lines and
walls of distinction ! — which the Gospel severely re
bukes, when it soberly inquires, " Is Christ divided! "
We doubt not, considering the imperfections and
fiery trials through which the Church was to pass,
but these divisions have been necessarily incidental
to the system which God has adopted. But has not
the time come when such deviation from the standard
of perfect fellowship with one another, and with the
great Head of the Church, is become a great re
proach, a stumbling-block in the way of the world's
conversion, if not a very gross sin upon the Christian
Church? The least inquiry is. Does not God now demand

136 CHRISTIAN UNION.
that denominational distinctions shaU yield, in some
measure, to the higher order of universal Christian
union ?
It is for Christian charity and a comprehensive
Christianity to say.
Under the most benign auspices of enlarged Chris
tian vision, many have already answered the above
inquiries in the affirmative.
It is in highest deference to the authority and insti
tutions of the Bible, that we deprecate every secta
rian influence or interest which denies the right and
expediency of higher ground of Christian union than
has yet generally been attained. In the spirit of
God's providence, it is believed, none will dissent
from this. If party names in the Christian world
have had some important mission to fulfil, we believe
that mission is, in a good degree, answered.
While a comprehensive Christianity may look
charitably upon all sects and sections of the Chris
tian Church, Christian union looks ultimately for noth
ing less than the merging of all party names into the
name of " Christ, and him crucified." Approach
Christ and his cross, and the wonderful attractions of
this sun of righteousness, which gather and concen
tre there, will overpower and eclipse all other lesser
lights and pretensions. There, all natural antipa
thies and predilections, as related to man, will give
way and lose their power in the higher attachments
to Christ and his cause, and in the more perfect ha
tred to sin alone. The holy fragrance of love to
Christ and to one another will overpower, or rather

CHRISTIAN UNION. 137
destroy, all the savor of disaffection and of spiritual
death. Now we are prepared to conclude this subordinate
topic, by attributing the chief obstacles to union,
which denominational distinctions create, to four pri
mary causes: — 1. Ignorance. 2. Misunderstanding.
3. Prejudice. 4. Estrangement from Christ.
Where there is mere ignorance, without obstinacy
or any other cause, instruction alone will bring its
subjects into the light and liberty of Gospel union.
Misunderstanding differs somewhat from mere ig
norance, and generally requires the reconciliation of
different states of mind, which want greater resem
blance to the mind of Christ, and hence greater re
semblance to each other.
Next, prejudice is a very common and no trivial
cause of hindrance. To define it, it is an immature
committal of self in favor of private and narrow-
minded predilections. Personal gratifications here
often usurp the place of high-souled charity and be
nevolence. Much time is spent in magnifying, instead
of lessening, unessential differences. But gratitude
to God is due from his people, that this obstacle is
gradually yielding to the more spiritual, charitable,
and mellowing tendencies of an improved age.
But estrangement from Christ is, after all, the
deepest and bitterest cause of denominational dis
tinctions. If both professed teachers and disciples would
cultivate and secure " a closer walk with God," and
the ever imitable "gentleness of Christ," instead of

138 CHRISTIAN UNION.
" striving about words to no profit," instead of inter
esting themselves in " foolish and unlearned ques
tions " which "do gender strife," those high walls
of partition could have no existence. The grand
excellency of the Gospel, though it be a mystery, does
not lie in any profound difficulty of meaning, but in
the wonder, majesty, and glory of that combined wis
dom and love which devised a way of redemption
just as simple, to him who will obey, as the alphabet
of letters, as simple as the mercy which throws open
the prison-doors to the penitent in bonds, having paid
the required debt, or just as simple as the mercy
of that father which embraced the returning prodigal
son, who would have proved himself almost mad by
sin and depravity in stopping to inquire the meaning
or intent of his father's love; but well might he be
amazed at the depth and willingness of that compas
sionate love, which ran to embrace and welcome him
home again. Yes ! dear friends, the beauty of Gos
pel revelation lies not in any perplexity of thought,
but in the simple fact itself Take home to your
heart the obvious Record which God has given of
his Son, as worthy of all acceptation and practice,
and you will not assuredly ascribe the merit to any
mystic theory, or science, falsely so called, nor to
your own mere apprehension and appreciation of that
record, but to "God only wise," through Jesus
Christ, whom he has sent, being without sin, yet a
propitiation for sin, the sin of the world. The es
sential doctrines of Christ are too obvious to belong
to any scientific and exclusive discovery of any one

CHRISTIAN UNION. 139
man, of any set masters of sect or theology. No in
volved system can help the plainness of those doc
trines, nor help the common and needful sense of sin
and of spiritual want. It is more effectual simply to
set forth and declare the Gospel, and it requires high
er qualifications and more grace, than to so systema
tize and philosophize it as to require the nome of
creature man to give it a name. The more we hu
manize the doctrines of salvation, the more we de
part from the simplicity of the Gospel. He that hath
a heart to obey the will of God most readily appre
hends the doctrines of God.
Let the high perfections of Jehovah, and the plain
requirements of his Law and Gospel, and especially
that central glory of the mediatorial government,
the cross of Christ, constitute the principal theme of
our study, and we all, of whatever earth-born de
nomination, shall, like Paul the Apostle, glory in
nothing so much as this simple and common ground
of our redemption. We shall glory more in the
simple appellation of Christians, than it is possible in
the name of Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or Cal
vin, or Luther, or Wesley, or Channing, or any other
that is substituted, in any measure, for the name of
Christ, as exponent of his own doctrines. Let unbe
lief in Christ, and distance from him, be annihilated,
and the most towering obstacle to Christian union
is removed, — unhappy sectarian divisions of the
Church are numbered among the evils that were.
It is said, better worship separately than together
in discord. This, indeed, may be the least of two

140 CHRISTIAN UNION.
A
evils. But the providence of God is now leading us
on to the day when we shall see fit to choose neither
evil. Like many other evils, God has permitted the evil
of denominational distinctions, but never prefers,
never enjoins it.
Stand on the Gospel ground of union, by living
near to Christ, and though it may be, to some, a
temporary sacrifice, it is no matter of reproach to be
cast upon the professing Church. Stand here, with
out giving up a single important or Christian princi
ple, and we are all one in Christ, and in his name,
as Christ is one in God, and God is one in "Christ.
Another obstacle is, ¦ —
2. A vast combination of wealth and worldly pow
er arrayed against it.
To the unbelief or wisdom of this world, such an
obstacle is terrific and insurmountable. And we
grant, it is next to impossibility to go over this array
of idolatrous wealth into the kingdom of union and
of God ; and this is not our call, but rather to go
in notwithstanding it, by making our way through it
and conquering it. The faith of God's Church and
his power can cooperate against it. It is not by the
might of worldly wealth, nor of worldly strength, but
by the Spirit of the Lord. No system of weahh nor
of domination can sustain the prince on his throne,
nor the Pope sitting as God in his temple [this was
written but a few weeks before the news of his flight],
when the Almighty, in his providence, turneth them
as the rivers of water are turned.

CHRISTIAN UNION. 141
There are wealth and worldliness at home and
abroad, which array themselves against the progress
of Christian principle. But if every true soldier of
Christ will throw aside the works of darkness,
every encumbrance of sectarian character, every
weight of sin, and all appearance of evil, and stand
with his fellow Christian soldier in solid alliance, as
one in Christ, by the grace of God, there is no array
of worldly riches and power that can withstand it.
The prayer and promise of our Lord is warrant of
success. There shall be one Shepherd and one fold.
III. Its prospects.
We hesitate not to affirm, that, notwithstanding
many among the great, the rich, and the wise, so
called, are slow to acquiesce in it, still the prospects
are encouraging. A I ighway for our God is open
through the desert, and the enemy's territory is
being possessed. Although there remaineth much
land to be possessed, it is heart-cheering that the
onset is made. Providence, no less than the explicit
injunction of union, is saying, as if by an audible
voice from Heaven, " Go in and possess the land
which the Lord thy God giveth thee." This is en
couragement. Every promise given, every heroic
effort made, every attainment reached, every pledge
given, every issue of the press, and every society
established, in support of this object, are each a val
uable encouragement.
Posterity will bless the movement. Noble-hearted
Christiana of generations to come will glory in the

142 CHRISTIAN UNION.
issues, for Christ's sake. God himself will put his
own signet upon it, and honor it, and those who
honor God he will honor.
Not a few generous spirits and witnesses for Christ,
in almost every land, have already enlisted in this
enterprise. The World's Convention at London, not
many years since, told how far and wide the interest
was felt. That interest, notwithstanding some ex
pected embarrassment, is still extending and will
extend, and upon a broader basis.
Publications recently issued from the press in that
metropolis of the world, and others from important
places on the Continent (of the Old World), are co
operating with ours, of the same character, upon this
side of the great waters. This fact, among others, in
dicates the prospect of "better times coming." It is
not presumption to predict that, ere long, a greater
convocation than was ever held will be the moral
exponent and mover-on of this magnificent enter
prise. God moves in the Christian spirit of the age. And
there is a fact, in this connection, and perhaps not
irrelevant, and not to be unnoticed, — it is, a corre
sponding movement in the secular world. The dissect
ing work of parties is becoming merged into a com
mon cause. Truth is one and unique, and is gain
ing the ascendant everywhere, by every revolution.
We regard the present indications of union as no un
important harbingers of the new creation, wherein
dwelleth righteousness. It is the leading spirit of a
brightening era. The old becometh new. The old

CHRISTIAN UNION. 143
must decrease, but the new increase. The transition
state, or rather the positive exigency of the times,
demands that the reforming conservative and the
conservative reformer meet in unison of purpose and
of life, constituting a corresponding complement, and
projecting one identical reality, — a perfect map, on
earth, of the heavenly Paradise, a spiritual and glo
rious representation of the heavenly order and pro
gress, a divine union of intelligence and love, of
mercy and truth, of righteousness and peace. More
over, the practicability of it comes in to help the pros
pect. It is the province of faith and love, under God, to
cast all the powers of sectarian prejudice, envy, and
animosity, into utter oblivion. Like or identical
characteristics of all penitent and regenerate souls
are a sacred guarantee of victory. All the convic
tions and feelings necessary to salvation are common
to every enlightened and new-born spirit. Upon this
consideration, it is manifest that all, of every denomi
nation of Christians, may reach the most practical
fulfilment of that prophetic word, which contemplates
the consummate union of all believers in Christ, with
"one mind and one heart." The one shepherd and
the one fold will be Christ and Christians, not Presby
ter and Presbyterians, not Episcopal and Episcopa
lians, not Pope and the Catholics, not Congregational
and Congregationalists; but, I repeat it, Christ and
Christians. One who is Head over all things to the
Church, and all who have his mind and spirit.

144 CHRISTIAN UNION.
Finally, what are the immediate claims of this sub
ject upon our attention ?
1. It claims, without controversy, the decisive tes
timony and effort in its favor of all its true friends.
It is not sufficient to say, let the enterprise work out
its own problem. Its intelligent and responsible
friends must work it out, though with fear and trem
bling, while God worketh in them to will and to do of
his own pleasure.
Not even the temperance, nor any moral reform
movement, has been left of God to work out its own
design. No ! not all the religious societies and
churches have achieved the victories gained with
out the constitution of other new and distinct organs
and organizations. So here, and preeminently, its
friends must enlist their names and best talents, im
bued with the richest and highest unction of the Holy
One, upon new vantage ground; and let all other
subordinate or sectarian organizations, which have,
in so great a measure, accomplished their mission,
(by self-convictions of human folly and insufficiency,)
be of little comparative significance, in order to fight
the last great battle of the Lord God of Hosts.
2. It claims, also, a reconsideration, on the part of
those who have rashly made up their minds not to act
as friends of union, but still to adhere to denomina
tional sects alone. It will be wise to examine timely
the reason and motives which prompt to withhold
that influence which God and his providence, which
the present condition of the whole Church and the
whole world, demand. There is no time for the

CHRISTIAN UNION. 145
Church, being now invested with a higher commis
sion, to rest satisfied with that old peace phrase, " Let
us agree to disagree " ; for that is only the first
round of ascension, or but one degree of excellence
in the ascending scale of graduation. If the Church
wih pervert the design of her militant state, and act,
as divided, against herself, instead of concentring
her appropriate power of progress and attraction upon
the recovery of waiting millions, who have no princi
ple, passport, or even element, of qualification for
heaven, — I say, with this perversion of her diviner
mission, she can never herself reach the mountain of
the Lord's house, or Mount Zion, and much less
gather home to those heights above a world for
whom the Saviour died, but whom she denied. But
better things are hoped for her.
And do any inquire, if the present practical claim
extends to the utter renunciation of all denominational
distinctions ? We reply, that this is not uncour-
teously urged, so much as the requisite and speedy
preparation for it, by giving them that subordinate
place, which the true spirit of prayer that God's
kingdom may come, and intimate communion with
Christ, may assign them. Who that gets near to
the dying Redeemer can pray very devoutly and
earnestly, that this or that denomination may every
where come and prevail? Just compare it with the
prayer of Him, who, in the full prospect of crucifix
ion and immortal glory, prayed "that they all may
be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee,
that they aU may be one in us."
10

146 CHRISTIAN UNION.
O, my dear brethren and friends, in our nearest
access to "God manifest in the flesh," all these petty
differences will be settled and reconciled, which have
so much divided and wrangled and weakened the
Church of Christ. Christ is not divided; his Church,
also, must not be, unless she can pray that the very
weakness of her divisions shall be her shipwreck,
over which the arch enemy may vauntingly triumph.
A third claim of our subject is, —
3. A higher order of Christian benevolence and
piety than can thrive and prosper under the shackles
of sectarian parties, names, and systems.
We advance at once to our fourth and last claim, —
4. An uncompromising determination to adopt the
excellency of the knowledge of Christ, — a universal
adherence to the standard of Christ and him cruci
fied, — which at once secures all the sanguine hopes
and all the bright realizations of the Christian union.
There is here a near relation. Christ went from
his prayer, "that all might be one in Him," to his
cross. Let us imitate his example. Our prayer,
united with his, and coupled by taking up the cross
together with Him, will, in unison, insure the an
swer. And Christ went from the crucifixion, very soon,
into glory. Let the true Church universal take up
her cross, not of merit, but of duty, and she, also,
will soon enter upon all the rewards and glories of
the Christian, and a heavenly union.
Here will be the consummation.
And what wiU it be but the long prayed for bless-

CHRISTIAN UNION. 147
edness of the golden era ? What, but the comple
tion and realization of all that can constitute a tri
umphant and glorious Church universal? The reign
of theological and denominational strifes will be over
and gone. The voice of rejoicing and thanksgiving
will be heard among all the nations, tribes, and fam
ilies of the earth ; and the chorus, in perfect har
mony, will be one.
The song will be sung, and reecho the earth
around, — " Ten thousand are their tongues,
But all their joys are one."
May God speed on the day, and " gladness wing
the favored hour," when thus all the blessed follow
ers of the "Lion of Judah " and the "Lamb of
God " shall be one in Him, as He is in the Father, —
one in understanding, one in design, one in works,
and one in everlasting praise.

CHRISTIAN LOVE.
Gal. iii. 28.
Let party names no more
The Christian world o'erspread;
Gentile and Jew, and bond and free,
Are one in Christ, their head.
Among the saints on earth
Let mutual love be found ;
Heirs of the same inheritance.
With mutual blessings crowned.
Thus will the Church below
Resemble that above.
Where streams of pleasure ever flow,
And every heart is Love.

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