indeed, may avert himself from the Lord, by immersing himself in evils and falses: but goodness and truth, or mercy and justice are inviolable. The Lord being goodness and truth in person, hath descended into the ultimate or lowest principles of human nature, and by temptations and sufferings in those principles, hath purified and exalted them into conjunction with his own divinity. But, surely, there is nothing done to satisfy violated justice in all this, nothing but the exercise of that "love and pity which redeemed mankind."

In regard to man, all that divine justice requires of him is, to believe on the Lord, to do the work of repentance, and to avoid all evils as sins against God: and behold herein the divine justice, which has enlightened every man that cometh into the world, and has given every man a full power and ability to acknowledge and act according to that light. Nothing that God could do for man in a vicarious way, can reform him, or prevent the consequences of his transgressions. The abuse of his rational and voluntary principles is the true and only source of evil, and consequently of punishment, which is inseparable from evil: Herein again is divine justice displayed: "His blood shall be upon his own,

head."

10. It teaches most clearly the necessity and use of all the ordinary means of grace, and of man's co-operation with his God in the business of salvation. For as all natural effects are the results of natural action and re-action, or the energies of an active power on a passive subject, so all spiritual effects are the results of spiritual action and re-action. God acteth by illuminating the understanding and inclining the will; man re-acteth by acknowledging, repenting of, and turning from the evils of his life, and the effect is conjunction with his God, and everlasting blessedness. The Lord is called in the Word, "a sun and a shield," and we may reasonably infer, that Love and Wisdom from the Sun of Heaven, will do in the spiritual world all that which heat and light from the natural sun do in this our world of nature. Surely every rational mind must perceive that, as a general and particular co-operation exist between the spiritual and natural worlds, and that each is necessary to the existence and perfection of the other; so the co-operation of man with his God is agreeable to Divine Order, and absolutely necessary to man's salvation and eternal life. And this co-operation will be seen to be in no wise

derogatory to the honor of the Great Saviour, when it is understood, that the ability to co-operate is of the Lord alone, and is continually given to man on the condition that he acknowledge the gift, and apply it to the purpose for which it was bestowed.

11. It maintains that to love all, to know all, and to do all are, in reference to the Lord a one; like end, cause, and effect. Divine love desires to bless all out of and from itself; divine wisdom furnishes the means of blessing; and divine power produces the corresponding effect. But let it be well observed, that this is predicable only of the Lord in his Divine Human Form, in which all the blessed energies of his mercy and grace are exhibited, and from which proceed illumination of the understanding, regeneration of the will, and all the blessings of salvation. Behold the nature and extent of Divine Love! it becomes the affection of goodness in the will of man; of Divine Wisdom! it becomes the light of truth in his understanding;-of Divine Operation! it effects by all his bodily energies and powers, a life of uses in the world, which prepare him for all the glories and felicities of hea

ven.

We see further that the more these blessed principles are elevated, and the more closely they are united in man, the more complete is his regeneration and consequent salvation. Away then with the thought, for we know it to be absurd; salvation does not at all depend upon times and circumstances, over which he can exercise no control, but solely upon the admission, elevation, and union of these divine principles within himself. Hence the Lord says, "I am the Vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit."

12. The New Church acknowledges the Lord Jesus Christ as the only God of heaven and earth, and the sole object of its worship and adoration. The quality of her God is love and wisdom essentially considered; and love and wisdom in him are infinite and eternal: the operation of these two principles in conjunction is one and the same all illuminating, purifying, and saving energy. All other churches worship a God out of Christ, a Father out of the Son, and consequently, an unknowable, invisible, and unapproachable God and Father; but it is the exclusive privilege and glory of the New Church to worship a God in Christ, a Father in the Son, and consequently, a knowable, visible, and approachable God and Father. With this God and Father her members have entered into a "covenant ordered in

all things and sure:"-A covenant inviolable on the part of the giver, but yet violable on the part of the receiver, when he no longer believes on the Lord, and lives according to his commandments. Behold then the origin and excellency of this covenant! It is first, the eternal union subsisting between divine love and wisdom : Secondly, the descent of that love and wisdom into the human will and understanding, where it becomes goodness and truth in every regenerate recipient: Thirdly, the immutability of such a covenant is the natural result of such a conjunction of the Lord with man, and of man with the Lord.

If there should come a time when divine love and wisdom shall cease to be one in the Lord; when goodness and truth shall no longer find an abode in the human breast; when the Lord's true worshippers shall be called upon to believe in and serve more gods than one; then, but not till then, shall the covenant be made void; then, but not till then, shall the atonement, wrought by the Incarnate God, become of none effect. But, blessed be the Lord, we know, at this day, that goodness and truth, when received into prepared minds, participate in that perpetuity which belongs to their origin, and that they are principles capable of a continual increase of influence and energy, till the happy recipient is grown up to a perfect man in Christ Jesus, and, as such, is admissible into the holy society of those who have passed from the Lord's church on earth to his kingdom in the heavens. Hence, we conclude, that the Atonement is nothing else than a state of At-onement, or agreement, with the Lord's mercy, to introduce his creatures to all that is wise, and good, and blessed, and thus to eternal life.

Upon the whole then, it is evident, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that God ever was and ever will be reconciled to man, and that man must reconcile himself to God by a voluntary application of the means afforded him for that end: hence the apostolical declaration, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself."

G. O.

THE EVANGELISTS EXAMINED, to ascertain what their Testimony is respecting THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, and the ENDS TO BE ANSWERED BY HIS INCARNATION.

[Continued from p. 189.]

LETTER VI.

To the Editors of the Intellectual Repository. GENTLEMEN,

In the conclusion of our last letter, we were led to take a most serious view of the unpardonable sin against the Holy Spirit: the very mention of which, we think, is sufficient to arouse the attention of the most negligent reader of the Holy Word. Are we not come fairly to this, of all other, the most, alarming doctrine of the New Testament? Have we deviated from the course laid down for us by the Saviour of the World? Has not he shewn us, that he that speaks and acts against demonstrated evidence adduced from the Word, after having once seen and acknowledged it, blasphemes against the Holy Spirit? (Luke xii. 10; Matt. xii. 22 to 32.) And as by such conduct he resists the very means of salvation, how can such a one possibly be saved? Have the Sole Supremacy, Divine Personality, and Eternal Godhead, been found to centre in our only Lord and Savious Jesus Christ? Surely the sacred passages quoted in our five previous letters have incontestably answered this question. If we deny the Lord that bought us, and sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. If the means made use of by divine love, are insufficient to fix us upon the only rock of salvation, what can all other means do for us?

After these observations, we shall only trouble your readers with one more quotation from the Evangelists, viz. (Matt. xxviii. 18, 19, 20.) "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth: Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen." This passage bears indubitable proofs of our Lord's sole divinity. "All power is given unto me in heaven

and in earth.” Perhaps, some may say, "Who gave Jesus all power but his Father; God, who cannot be the same person with God the Son?" May we not ask in reply, "If God the Father transferred all power in heaven and in earth to the Son, has he not divested himself of all power? What sort of a person or god is he then, thus divested of all authority, both in heaven and in earth? How can he have any government in either, except in the sole Person of the Son, who in his One Person or Divine Humanity, possesses "all the fulness of the Godhead bodily?" Hence our Lord immediately shews his supreme authority, and, as Lord of all, says to his disciples, "Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations." Here our only Lord and God, as sole head of his own Church, gives his last and most divine command, originating in infinite love: "Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them," (as a sign of the necessity and nature of regeneration) "in the name," (or in the quality,)" of the Father," (viz. divine love,) "and of the Son," (viz. divine truth,) " and of the Holy Spirit," (viz. the divine proceeding.) Thus they are to be regenerated by the joint operation of divine love and divine wisdom in act, in the divine providence and blessing, accompanying the evangelical annunciation of Jesus," who came to save his people from their sins." Let the Acts of the Apostles bear witness whom they preached, viz, Jesus; by whose name only they performed miracles, and in whose only name they baptized therefore the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are comprehended in Jesus Christ, whom the Apostles preached, and whose converts were therefore consistently called Christians, from the God they worshipped. For this grand end, examine the Acts of the Apostles throughout.

The next verse, viz. 20th, still more, if possible, confirms us in the above doctrine, "Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you." Here our Lord finally, and for ever, assumes the sole authority of commanding, directing, and governing all, and every individual member of his church; and he directs them to look to him alone as omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent, (the incommunicable perfections of Deity,) in the following most important declaration, " And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen." The meaning of the four last verses of Matthew may be imperfectly comprehended in the following words: "True Christians worship