be sensual, selfish, and worldly minded. And when we examine closely the religious doctrines which are generally received and acknowledged as fundamental, we find them deeply imbued with that sensualism which has maintained its grasp upon the human mind ever since the Fall, and which forms the basis of the reigning philosophy of our times. The consequence of all this is, that religion has nearly lost its hold upon the minds of multitudes. A deep-rooted skepticism is apparent everywhere. And even among men professedly religious, there seems to be but little faith in spiritual things.

But in this "Consummation of the Age" there appeareth "the sign of the Son of Man in the clouds." Amidst the surrounding gloom, a light from heaven above the brightness of the sun " has already dawned upon the world. The Holy City, New Jerusalem, is seen "coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." As yet, not many have surveyed its length, and breadth, and hight, because not many have the "golden reed to measure the city." Not many yet have seen the glory of God that shines therein, because there are not many who desire to "walk in the light of it." "The light shineth in darkness, but the darkness comprehendeth it not." The Lord, at his second advent, is standing in our midst, but the eyes of men are "holden, that they should not know Him."

The writings of the New Church are eminently pure and spiritual, They contain the truths of the internal sense of the Word which the angels receive, and which, when received by men, are calculated to make them like the angels. They are addressed to us as rational and spiritual beings. They open to our view the spiritual world, and unfold the great laws of spiritual life. And because the truths which are contained in these writings are thus spiritual in their character, they are often called dark and mystical; for so they appear to those whose minds are imbued with the doctrines of sensualism. Spiritual truths must needs appear dark and mystical to persons who have no faith in the reality of a spiritual world, and no love for spiritual things. The charge of mysticism, which is often brought against these writings, is itself a sufficient commentary upon the spiritual state of those who make it. "Unto you (who are the Lord's true disciples) it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but unto them that are without, all things are done in parables."

Among the theological writers of the present day, there are few of any acknowledged merit, who do not perceive and lament the desolation that reigns in Zion. Still they do not generally see, and are unwilling to admit, that there exists any necessity for further revelations. Many seem to thirst for purer truth than is commonly taught, but they also thirst for the reputation of being its discoverers. It is difficult for them to receive revealed truth, because they will then fail of that worldly honor for which they pant. "How can ye believe, who receive

honor one from another, and seek not the honor that cometh from God only?" They urge the necessity of destroying all creeds and formularies of faith, and returning to the purity of primitive Christianity. And by what light would they return? By the light of selfderived intelligence-the same delusive ignis fatuus which has conducted the Church to her present "land of darkness." Vain expectation! For if it be through the lust and pride of self-intelligence, that the sunlight of heaven has been extinguished in the Church, can we rely on the same blind guide to lead us back to truth and duty? The mind of man, in itself, is opaque. The Divine Mind alone is luminous-the light of the world. Can the human mind, therefore, unaided by truth revealed from Heaven, ever disperse the clouds which its own reasonings have induced, and which now darken its sky by shutting out the beams of heaven's own sun? Never. Besides, the Divine Providence never retreats. Its course is onward. The earth rolls not back on her axis to find the morning, nor retrograde in her orbit to find the spring; but forward forever. And as well might the silverhaired man of eighty-blind, palsied, and leprous-by the simple effort of his will, return to the freshness and bloom of youth, without a dissolution of his material body, as could the Church-blind as she is from the accumulated falses of eighteen centuries-palsied in every limb-leprous and ulcerated at the heart's core of herself return to the freshness and bloom of her youth, without a medicine from the Great Physician to unseal her blind eyes, or a voice from the Lord, saying, "Rise and walk." She can never hope for a radical cure, without a New Dispensation of truth from Heaven.

The whole history of God's dealing with mankind is proof of this. When the Jewish Church was consummated through falsifying the Word, and holding fast the traditions of men, the Lord did not leave it to reason its way back to the innocence of Eden, and the true meaning of Moses and the Prophets; but He made a New Dispensation of his own truth to men. He came into the world, not to destroy or abrogate the law previously delivered, but rather to explain its meaning and show how it had been perverted. "I am not come," he says, "to destroy, but to fulfill," for "not one jot or title of the law shall fail." He told the Jews that they had misunderstood and falsified the Word. "Ye do err," said Jesus to the unbelieving Sadducees, “not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God." Even so is it now. The Lord has not left the Church, in its blind and vastated condition, to find its way back to primitive Christianity and the purity of the Gospel by human reasonings: but in infinite love and mercy to mankind, and infinite compassion for our blindness, He has condescended to make a further revelation of truth, by unfolding, in the spiritual sense of his Word, deeper treasures of wisdom than the world has ever dreamed of. In the truths of this revelation, which are Himself - His own divine proceeding beams of light-He has come again into the world

according to his promise. This revelation acquaints us with the true nature of divine inspiration, and shows wherein consists the divinity of the Word; and that, however party-colored, multiform, and apparently contradictory, are some portions of it in the literal sense, in the spiritual sense it is one and uniform-like the Lord's vesture, woven without seam from top to bottom. It is this revelation of the spiritual sense of the Word through the obscurity or cloud of the letter, which is claimed to be that predicted and glorious appearing of the Son of Man "upon the clouds of heaven.”

But whether those who examine, will be able to acknowledge the claims of the New Church, must ever depend on the state of mind in which they undertake the investigation. If one enter upon this examination under the persuasion that he is already in possession of all truth-who, therefore, regards himself as spiritually "rich and increased in goods"-to him the writings of Swedenborg will appear any thing but luminous. Regarding his present views as an infallible test of truth, whatever does not conform to these he sets down as therefore false, and of course rejects. His examination is not instituted for the purpose of seeing whether his present views be conformable to the truth, but whether the views which he pretends to examine be conformable to his own. Such an one is not in that humble, docìle, child-like frame of mind, which is favorable to the reception of truth, or to the fair investigation of any subject. And before he can be made wiser by the truths of the New Church, or before he can see that they are truths, he must be willing to become a fool in his own estimation. He must be willing to go and sell all that he hath. "Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein."

But to all earnest, humble, independent, sincere seekers after truth, I have no caution to submit. They are affectionately solicited to examine the writings of Swedenborg for themselves - seriously-patiently prayerfully-thoroughly. The New Church shrinks not from the severest investigation of her doctrines. She is willing — nay, she desires that philosophy and science, talent and learning, acute penetration and sound logic, humility and meekness, freedom and independence in a word, that all the treasures of wisdom and all the noblest faculties of the human mind, be brought to the investigation of her writings. Truth is its own witness. It fears not the most searching inquest, but ever seeketh to be seen in its own resplendent brightness.

Much misrepresentation has gone abroad in respect to the doctrines of the New Church. I may say that the popular impression in regard to these doctrines, is very remote from the truth. Many who oppose and ridicule them, would find upon careful examination, that what they had opposed and ridiculed, were not the doctrines of the New Church, but

only some grotesque caricature of them the creation of their own or of others' minds. The enemies of truth have sometimes brought forward garbled extracts from the writings of Swedenborg, which, when taken out from their proper connection, cannot be rightly understood; and which have doubtless been the occasion of prejudicing the minds of some innocent and well-disposed persons against the New Church, But honest people must see that such a course is extremely unfair. Stone, and mortar, and rough lath-boards, may be indispensable in building a royal mansion; but neither of these could be considered a very fair specimen of the king's palace. And before one allows a prejudice to enter his mind against the writings of the New Church, on account of some extracts that may have offended him, he would do well to consider what may be, and what indeed has been, done in regard to the Sacred Scripture. The sneering infidel has collected passages from the Word, which, when misunderstood, or understood in their strictly literal sense, appear trivial, obscene, irrational, and altogether unworthy the Divine Mind. And would it be fair to judge the Sacred Volume by these garbled extracts misunderstood? If so, the argument of the infidel were indeed triumphant. Yet, (strange to say!) this is precisely what some professing Christians allow themselves to do in regard to the writings of the New Church.

If the doctrines revealed through Swedenborg be true, then, certainly, they are of paramount importance. And if there be even a possibility of their being true, then they deserve a thorough examination. Multitudes of deep-thinking men - and among them some of the purest and best minds of the age-after giving them such an examination, have with one voice declared, "One thing we know, that, whereas we were blind, now we see." The strongest evidence that these doctrines are all true and from heaven, is, after all, to be found in their purifying and regenerating power; in the searching influence which they exercise over the heart; in their efficacy as experienced in the renewal of the inner life; in the sweet, gentle, heavenly peace which they diffuse through all the chambers of the soul. They explore the hidden recesses of the mind, they unveil the latent springs of action and reveal to us the evil quality of our hearts with amazing clearness; and at the same time they teach us how to get rid of our evils, as we had never been taught before. Could these doctrines do this-could they open the eyes of the spiritually blind could they unstop the ears of the spiritually deaf- could they make the lame walk, the leprous clean, and raise to newness of life the spiritually dead, if they were from hell? "Can a devil open the eyes of the blind?"

This New Revelation comes to men without the attestation of outward miracles. It addresses them as beings possessing a rational faculty, and capable, therefore, of judging between truth and falsehood, without any external signs to force belief. It comes a great

light from Heaven, manifesting the internal quality of the Church and the world. It sits in judgment upon all forms of religious error. It prostrates all idols of silver and gold, the work of men's hands. It strips off the feeble disguises of mere form, parade, and external sanctity, and lays bare the interior, ruling loves of men. Yet it cometh "not to condemn the world," but that the world through its agency may be saved-saved from the evil loves and false persuasions which enslave the human soul.

And as the field of true science enlarges as thought becomes more free-as inquiry upon all subjects becomes more bold and searchinga voice, louder and still louder, comes up from the thinking men of Christendom, calling for rationality in religion as well as in every thing else ;-calling for such principles of biblical interpretation, as shall show the Scripture to be indeed the WORD OF GOD. And no where but in the writings of the New Church, will it be found that this call is fully answered.

Nearly one hundred years have already elapsed since Swedenborg began to write. And although the world has ever since been rapidly advancing in knowledge, yet it is a remarkable fact that his writings were never so much sought after, nor so extensively circulated and read, both in our own country and in Europe, as at the present time. New editions of his works are in constant progress of publication, to satisfy the continually increasing demand for them. Not a few men of reputed piety and learning are known to read them extensively, and to take from them (generally without any acknowledgment of their source) the very truths which gain for them their chief glory. Here then is a problem not easy of solution, if the writings of Swedenborg be the offspring either of imposture or delusion.

That this volume of Lectures may be instrumental in leading some minds to a careful perusal of these writings, and that the Lord Jesus Christ may open their eyes to see, and their hearts to acknowledge, Him, in the glorious truths of the New Jerusalem, is the sincere and earnest prayer of their author.

CINCINNATI, January 28, 1852.

B. F. B.

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