116. To confess his sins implieth a perception of evils, a discovery thereof in himself, and acknowledgment of them, a conviction of guiltiness proceeding from them, and self-condemnation in consequence of guilt. To do this before God, is to confess sins.

117. To do the work of repentance implieth a ceasing from sin, and the leading a new life according to the precepts of charity and faith, after confession made, and supplication out of an humble heart for the remission of sins.

118. Whoso maketh only a general acknowledgment that he is a sinner, and accounteth himself guilty of all evils, and yet doth not examine himself, that is, doth not see his sins, he maketh confession indeed, but not the confession of repentance; such an one, therefore, because he is unacquainted with his own evils, liveth after confession as he did before.

119. Whoso leadeth a life of charity and faith, he daily doeth the work of repentance; he reflecteth on the evils that are in him; he acknowledgeth them; he entreateth the Lord for power over them : for man of himself is continually falling, but by the Lord he is con tinually raised up, and led to goodness. This is the case with those who are under some influence and power of goodness; but those who are under the influence and power of evil are continually falling, and likewise are continually raised up by the Lord, with this difference, however, in the effect of the Lord's operation, that it doth not deliver them from evil, but only restraineth them from plunging into the depths of the greatest evils, whereunto of themselves they continually and forcibly incline.

120. In self-examination previous to repentance, a person ought to examine his thoughts, and the intentions of his will, and therein what he would do if he was under no restraint, that is, if the fear of the law, the loss of reputation, honor and gain, did not operate upon him. For the evils that are in man are in his thoughts and inclinations, and the sins which he committeth with his body, are all derived from thence. It is impossible therefore to do the work of repentance without an examination of the evils that are in the thoughts and the will; for in such a case men think and will after repentance as they did before, when nevertheless to will evil is the same thing as to do it. This is the nature of self-examination.

121. Repentance of the lips and not of the life is no repentance: It is by repentance of life, and not of the lips, that remission of sins is effected: The Lord is ever disposed to remit all men's sins, being in himself the purest and essential mercy; but still sins adhere to, and remain in men, however they may fancy them to be remitted, and are never removed but by a life directed and influenced by the precepts of a right faith. So far as man liveth according to such precepts, in the same degree his sins are removed; and so far as his sins are rcinoved, in the same degree they are remitted.

122. It is generally supposed that sins, when they are remitted, are wiped or washed away, as filth is by water; but this notion is not just, inasmuch as sins are not wiped away but are removed, that is, man is withheld and preserved from them, whilst he is kept under the influence of goodness from the Lord; and whilst he is kept under the influence of goodness from the Lord, it appears as if he was withont

Man also can be

sins, and therefore as if they were wiped away. kept under the influence of goodness in no further degree than according to his advancement in a state of reformation. How man is reformed will be shown in the next treatise on the doctrine of regeneration. Whoso imagineth that the remission of sins is effected after any other manner is greatly deceived.

123. The remission or removal of sin is discoverable in any person by the following signs. He perceiveth delight in the worship of God for God's sake, and in serving his neighbor for his neighbor's sake, and therefore in doing good for the sake of good, and in speaking truth for the sake of truth: He is averse to all ideas of merit arising from any consideration of his charity and faith; he avoids and abominates evils, such as enmity, hatred, revenge, adultery, and the very intentional thought of such things. But the non-remission or non-removal of sins in any person is discoverable by the following signs: He worshipped God not for the sake of God, and serveth his neighbor not for the sake of his neighbor; thus he doeth good, and speaketh truth, not for goodness and truth's sake, but from some selfish and worldly motives. In all his actions he wisheth to aggrandize his own merits; he perceiveth no disgust or dissatisfaction in evils, such as enmity, hatred, revenge, and adultery, but under the pernicious influence of such sins he indulgeth his imagination in all the licentiousness of thought about them.

124. Repentance availeth, if the penitent person be in a state of liberty, but if he repenteth in a state of compulsion it is of no avail. States of compulsion may be various, such as sickness, dejection of spirits under some great misfortune, the terrors of approaching death, and likewise all circumstances of sudden fear which deprive a man of reason. When bad men in a state of compulsion make promises of repentance, and even begin the practice of virtue and goodness, they generally return to their former evil lives, when they are restored to a state of liberty. But it is otherwise with the good.

125. After a man hath examined himself, and acknowledged his sin, and done the work of repentance, he ought to remain steady in goodness to the end of his life; for if he afterwards relapseth to his former evil life, and embraceth it again, he is then guilty of profanation; for then he uniteth evil with good, whereby his last state is worse than his first, according to the words of the Lord: "When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest and finding none; then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished; then goeth he and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first," Matt. xii. 43, 44, 45.

A TREATISE ON THE NATURE OF INFLUX:

(Continued from page 409.) .

IV.

That from the Sun of the Spiritual World proceed Heat and Light; and that as the Heat proceeding from it, is in ils Essence Love, so the Light proceeding from it, is in its Essence Wisdom.

6. That divine love is expressed in scripture-language by the word fire, is well known; nor is it an unusual thing for preachers, in their prayer before the sermon, to pray that the heavenly fire may kindle holy desires and affections in the hearts of their hearers: The reason is, because fire corresponds to love as its proper emblem, and therefore is put for it:* Hence it was that God appeared to Moses in the bush under the form of fire, as likewise to the Israelites in Mount Sinai, and also commanded fire to be kept burning continually on the altar, and the lamps to be lighted every evening in the tabernacle, viz. as corresponding emblems of divine love and divine light or wisdom. That from this spiritual fire of love proceeds even sensible heat, appears from its effects in human nature, especially where the passion of love becomes exalted to any degree of fervent zeal; nay, the warmth of the blood, which is the vital heat both in man and other animals, is no other than the effect of that love, which is the proper principle of life in both: So likewise the hellish fire is no other than a contrary love of malice, discord, and violence.† Hence it is, according to the doctrine of correspondences, that divine love has its

That outward material nature does, in all its parts and productions, answer or correspond to things inward and spiritual, as the ectype to its prototype, or as face to face in a glass; many have had some glimmering sight of, and many traces of this knowledge are to be found in the wisdom of the ancients: Their mythology was founded in it, but it became lost in fable, and corrupted by the inventions of the poets. This doctrine of correspondences was originally the key to all mysteries, and the mirror of God in nature: It continued longest among the Egyptians, and was that learning in which Moses is said to have been skilled; their hieroglyphics are the last remains of it; but the knowledge of these, and of the language, which expresses spiritual things by natural, has now been long lost in the world, and only remains with our author, who is possessed of it. He asserts that the scriptures are chiefly written in this language of correspondences, and has given us large specimens of it in his interpretation of Genesis and Exodus, in his books called Arcana Coelestia, and in his numerous relations of the spiritual worlds.

The hellish kingdom has also its corresponding representatives in outward nature, as well as the heavenly, viz. in poisonous and noxious plants and animals, the distemperature of the elements, &c. So likewise in men, who render themselves the subjects of its malign influxes. This may be pictured to us in the opposite characters and dispositions of a society of christians, animated with the spirit of divine love and philanthropy, and that of an incensed outrageous mob, inflamed with the wrathful fire of revenge and cruelty Herein the properties of the two spiritual worlds manifest themselves in outward nature, in which, as in a theatre or material exhibition, spi. ritual good and evil are displayed.

visible representations to the angels in the spiritual world, under the form of a fiery sun like ours on earth, and that their sensible degree of warmth from it, is in proportion to their receptivity of that love from the God of Love. It follows by consequence, that their light from that sun has its manifestation according to the same law, for love and wisdom are inseparable companions, as essence and form; for the former manifests itself and produces its effects through the latter, according to the quality of its form: Analogous to this in our world, is the heat of the sun in spring-time, when, uniting with the light, it gives vegetation to plants, &c. and soon to fructification. But, indeed, common language testifies to this truth, as when it is said, that man's heart is warmed by love, and his understanding enlightened by wisdom.* I have often seen that spiritual light, which so far exceeds our natural light, that it may be called brightness itself, as signified to us by that comparison of our Saviour's raiment at his transfiguration, when they became "shining, exceeding white as snow, so as no fuller on earth can white them. Now, as spiritual light is wisdom, therefore our Lord calls himself, "that Light which lighteth every man ;" and also "the True Light;" he being essentially the Divine Word, the Divine Truth, or the Divine Wisdom. It is commonly supposed that the rational part in man, which is called the light of nature, is from this natural world, whereas it proceeds from the light of the spiritual sun: Nor do external objects, rendered visible by the light of the natural sun, convey sight to the soul; but the soul, by its visive faculty, discerns them through the corporeal organs of vision: Were it contrariwise, physical, not spiritual influx would be established, which is contrary to the truth of our doctrine.

V.

That both this Heat and this Light communicate with man, the Heal with his Will, therein producing the Good of Love, and the Light with his understanding, therein producing the Truth of Wisdom.

7. It must be allowed by all who rightly consider this subject in its due extent, that every thing created by God has relation to some species of goodness or truth; therefore it is, that in man are two receptacles, called the will and the understanding, the former for the reception of good, the latter for the reception of truth, seeing that these two principles constitute his proper life: And as all good is from love, and all truth from wisdom, so they may be also styled the repositories of love and wisdom. Now, that good is the offspring of love, appears

* These forms of expression perhaps run through all languages, and with a thousand like instances, afford a proof of the doctrine of correspondences, or the analogy between spiritual and natural things, being, as it were, con. genial to the human mind, or rather, by influx from the spiritual world, adapting the signs to the things signified by them: And as this appears by the consent of all languages, so especially among the eastern nations, whose parables, allegories, symbols, and emblematical forms of speech, bear testimony to this truth; and where human art and invention have the farthest departed from this original natural language, in any nation, we there find the greatest ambiguity and uncertainty introduced, and most occasion given for sophistry and equivocation.

from hence, that whatever any one loves, he consequently wills or desires it; and when that which he so desires takes effect, he ranks it under the denomination of good. In the like manner truth may be called the child of wisdom, as she is the essence and source of every species of truth. Truth, reduced to practice, has also in it the nature of good, and so is called the good of truth. Without a distinct and clear conception of these two receptacles of life in man, viz. the will and the understanding, we in vain seek to know the true nature of spiritual influx, since they are the proper recipients of it: The will receives the good issuing from the love-principle, and the understanding receives the truths which flow into it from the fountain of wisdom, and both originally from Jehovah God, who communicates them through the spiritual sun, in the midst of which he is more eminently present, and mediately by the angelical heavens: (or ministry of angels) Let it here be repeated, as touching these two receptacles of life, viz. the will and the understanding, that they are no otherwise distinct, than as the heat and light of the sun; and that as the will receives into itself the heavenly heat, which in its essence is love; so the understanding receives into itself the heavenly light, which in its essence is wisdom; and as the human mind receives its influx from the spiritual world, so does it in turn communicate the same to our words and actions; for speech derives its influx from the will through the understanding, as our actions do receive their influx from the understanding through the will, and therefore all they who allow of influx as operating on the understanding, but not also on the will, and build their reasonings on this supposition, know and treat their subject but by halves, and may be compared to persons who, having but one eye, can only see objects on one side of them; or to such as, having lost the use of one hand, awkwardly bungle with the other; or to cripples, who can only set one foot to the ground. Let what has thus briefly been offered, suffice on this proposition, viz. that spiritual heat influences the will of man, and therein produces the good of love, and that spiritual light influences his understanding, and therein produces the truth of wisdom.

VI.

That these two principles of Heat and Light, or Love and Wisdom, are emanations from God in one conjunctive Influx into the soul of man, and through it [the soul] into his mind, affections, and thoughts; and are thence derived into his corporeal senses, speech, and actions.

8. Spiritual influx has been considered and treated of till now, even by authors of sagacity and penetration, as beginning in the soul, and so passing into the body, and not as first proceeding from a higher source; and yet we believe, or pretend to believe, that every good and perfect gift, whether of goodness or true faith, issues from God as its fountain, and in no wise from the nature of man. Now whatever spiritual good is communicated from god to us, first enters the human soul, and through it passes to the rational mind, and so on to the corporeal system; and to go about to trace spiritual influx from any other original, would be to act like one who should first stop up the spring, and then seek for water at the stream; it is as though one should derive