is good, and is called spiritual good, is not any more given; the good which is then believed to be good, is only the natural good, which moral life produces. The causes that truth, and together with it good, are consummated, are principally the two natural loves, which are called the love of self and the love of the world, which are diametrically opposite to the two spiritual loves. The love of self, when it is predominant, is opposed to love to God; and the love of the world, when it is predominant, is opposed to love towards the neighbor. The love of self is, to wish well to one's self alone, and to no other except for the sake of self; likewise the love of the world; and these two loves, when they are indulged, spread themselves like a mortification through the body, and successively consume the whole of it. That such love has invaded churches, is manifestly evident from Babylon and the description of it. Gen. xi. 1 to 9; Isaiah xiii., xiv., xlvii; Jer. i., and in Daniel ii. 31 to 47; iii. 1 to 7 and the following verses: v., vi. 8, to the end; vii. 1 to 14; and in Rev. xvii. and xviii, from the beginning to the end of each." Again, in the same work Swedenborg says: 757. "THAT AT THIS DAY IS THE LAST TIME OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, WHICH IS FORETOLD AND DESCRIBED BY THE LORD IN THE EVANGELISTS, AND IN THE REVELATION. "That the consummation of the age signifies the last time of the church, was shown in the preceding article; thence it is manifest what is meant by the consummation of the age, concerning which the Lord spoke in the Evangelists, Matt. xxiv.; Mark xiii.; Luke xxi.; for it is read, 'As Jesus sat upon the mount of Olives the disciples came to Him privately, saying, what is the sign of thy coming, and of the consummation of the age?' (Matt. xxiv. 3.) And then the Lord began to foretell and describe the consummation, such as it would be successively, even to his coming. 758. "That all those things which the Lord spoke with the disciples, were said concerning the last time of the Christian Church, is very manifest from the Revelation, where the like things are foretold concerning the consummation of the age, and concerning his coming; which all are particularly explained in the APOCALYPSE REVEALED, published in the year 1776. Now, because those things which the Lord said concerning the consummation of the age, and concerning his coming, before the disciples, coincide with those which He afterwards revealed in the Revelation by John, concerning the same things, it is clearly manifest, that He meant no other consummation than that of the present Christian Church. Besides, it is also prophesied in Daniel concerning the end of this church; wherefore the Lord says, 'When ye see the abomination of desolation foretold by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place; whoso readeth let him observe it well." (Matt. xxiv. 15; Dan. ix. 27.) In like manner also in the other prophets. That there is at this day such abomination of desolation in the Christian church, will be still more manifest from the Appendix; in which it will be seen, that there is not one genuine truth left in the church, and also that unless a New Church be raised up in the place of the present, no flesh could be saved, according to the words of the Lord in Matt. xxiv. 22. That the Christian church, such as it is at this day, is consummated and vastated to such a degree, cannot be seen by those on earth, who have confirmed themselves in its falses the reason is, because a confirmation of the false is a denial of the true; wherefore, it as it were, veils the understanding, and thereby prevents the entrance of any thing else, which might pull up the cords and stakes, with which it has built and formed its system, as a strong tent. Add to this, that the natural rational can confirm whatsoever it pleases, thus the false as well as the true, and both, when they are confirmed, appear in similar light; and it is not known whether the light be fatuous, such as is given in a dream, or whether it be true light, such as is given in the day; but it is quite otherwise with the spiritual rational, in which those are who look to the Lord, and from Him are in the love of truth." It will be borne in mind that these things were said by Swedenborg concerning the church as it was more than seventy years ago. Doubtless, as one effect of the New Dispensation, the minds of men generally-even of those who have known nothing of the New Church through the writings of Swedenborg-have been much enlightened upon religious as upon all other subjects; so that the doctrines, and consequently the state of the Old Church, have undergone a very considerable modification since the time that Swendenborg wrote. Yet, with all the change for the better which has taken place in the Church within the last half century, there are many pious and honest men who even now mourn over the desolation of Zion;-men who see clearly that her pristine glory has departed from the Church, and who, in anxious expectation of some new and saving power -with eyes longing to see her salvation-are, like Simeon of old, "waiting for the consolation of Israel." Indeed, there is a pretty general perception and acknowledgment among Christians and anti-Christians of the present day, that the Church is in a broken, distracted, forlorn, and pitiable condition. The power of the pulpit of religion-of the Church—of the Bible, is acknowledged to be sadly deficient almost gone; and deficient—almost most significant allusions are frequently made to this fact, in the current literature of the day. But we will hear the opinion on this subject of some who are still in external connexion with the Old Church. One writer says: "Certainly there have been periods when, from the inactivity of the intellect on certain truths, a greater faith was possible in names and persons. The Puritans in England and America, found in the Christ of the Catholic Church, and in the dogmas inherited from Rome, scope for their austere piety, and their longings for civil freedom. But their creed is passing away, and none arises in its room. I think no man can go with his thoughts about him, into one of our churches, without feeling that what hold the public worship had on men is gone, or going. It has lost its grasp on the affection of the good, and the fear of the bad. In the country, neighborhoods, half parishes are signing off-to use the local term. It is already beginning to indicate character and religion to withdraw from the religious meet ings. I have heard a devout person, who prized the Sabbath, say in bitterness of heart, On Sundays it seems wicked to go to church.' And the motive that holds the best there, is now only a hope and a waiting. "My friends, in these two errors I think, I find the causes of that calamity of a decaying church, and a wasting unbelief, which are casting malignant influ- ences around us, and making the hearts of good men sad. And what greater calamity can fall upon a nation, than the loss of worship? Then all things go to decay. Genius leaves the temple, to haunt the senate, or the market. Literature becomes frivolous. Science is cold. The eye of youth is not lighted by the hope of other worlds, and age is without honor. Society lives to trifles, and when men die we do not mention them." (Address delivered before the Senior Class in the Divinity School, Cambridge, Mass. July, 1838-By Rev. Ralph Waldo Emerson, p. 23, 24.) Another writer says: "Let then the Transient pass, fleet as it will, and may God send us some new manifestation of the Christian faith, that shall stir men's hearts as they were never stirred; some new Word which shall teach us what we are, and renew us all in the image of God; some better life, that shall fulfil the Hebrew prophecy, and pour out the spirit of God on young men and maidens, and old men and children; which shall realize the word of Christ, and give us the Comforter, who shall reveal all needed things. There are Simeons enough in the cottages and churches of New-England, plain men and pious women, who wait for the consolation, and would die in gladness, if their expiring breath could stir quicker the wings that bear him on. There are men enough, sick and 'bowed down, and in no wise able to lift up themselves,' who would be healed could they kiss the hand of their Savior, or touch but the hem of his garment; men who look up and are not fed, because they ask bread from heaven, and water from the rock, not traditions or fancies, Jewish or heathen, or new or old; men enough who, with throbbing hearts, pray for the spirit of healing to come upon the waters, which other than angels have long kept in trouble; men enough who have lain long time sick of theology, nothing bettered by many physicians, and are now dead, too dead to bury their dead, who would come out of their graves at the glad tidings."—(A Discourse on the Transient and Permanent in Christianity, by the Reverend Theodore Parker, of Roxbury; Preached at Boston, May, 19. 1841, p. 27.) Another says: "All I can say in this place is, that I am most firmly persuaded that we are living in that awful period designated in Scripture as the last time, and the last days. Every succeeding year serves to increase the evidence on this head, and to give clearness and precision, and intensity to those signs which already have been noticed by commentators. Even worldly men are so affected by the signs of our times, as to feel seriously persuaded that some tremendous crisis is at hand. It therefore more especially behooves the professing people of God to be upon the watch-tower, and to observe what is passing around them, and be prepared for the future, that the day may not overtake them as a thief in the night."-[Elements of Prophetical Interpretation, by the Rev. J. W. Brooks, Vicar of Clareboro', England. p. 480.] Another says: "When Christianity came, faith was purified and enlarged, and information was enlarged with it. The proportion between the two was preserved. It is only within the last half century that this proportion seems to be entirely overthrown. * * "As to Christianity, doubtless its action is not expended, yet must every one have observed that the Christian religion at present affords neither base nor circumspection to modern aspirations after moral verity. * Mind seems as it were to be getting loose upon space. It reposes on no religious ultimates. Those even who have the deepest, the most immoveable conviction that in revelation is to be found the only true moral substratum of humanity throughout all its modifications, perceive, at the same time, the incommensurateness of |