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all things, and unfold the same web of generation in the world, according to Zoroaster; who is of opinion, that the same causes, on a time returning, the same effects will, in a similar manner, return.-Ficin. de Immortal. Anim. p. 123.

ORACLES BY THE THEURGISTS.

Our voluntary sorrows germinate in us as the growth of the particular life we lead.

On beholding yourself, fear.

Believe yourself to be above body, and you are.

Those robust souls perceive truth through themselves, and are of a more inventive nature; such a soul being saved through its own strength.

We should fly from the multitude of men going along in a herd.

The powers build up the body of a holy man.

Not knowing that every god is good, ye are fruitlessly vigilant.

Fiery hope should nourish you in the angelic region.
Ascending souls sing pæan.

To the persevering mortal the blessed immortals are

swift.

All things are governed and subsist in faith, truth, and love.

The oracle says, Divinity is never so much turned away from man, and never so much sends him in novel paths, as when we make an ascent to the most divine of speculations or works, in a confused and disordered manner, and, as it adds, with unhallowed lips or unbathed feet. For, of those who are thus negligent, the progressions are imperfect, the impulses are vain, and the paths are blind.

The orders prior to Heaven possess mystic silence.
Every intellect apprehends deity.

The intelligible is food to that which understands. You will not apprehend it by an intellectual energy as when understanding some particular thing.

It is not proper to understand that intelligible with vehemence, but with the extended flame of an extended intellect; a flame which measures all things, except that intelligible. But it is requisite to understand this. For if you incline your mind, you will understand it, though not vehe

mently. It becomes you therefore, bringing with you the pure convertible eye of your soul, to extend the void intellect to the intelligible, that you may learn its nature, because it has a subsistence above intellect.

SAYINGS OF PYTHAGORAS AND OF THE PYTHAGOREANS.

Follow God.

All things are possible to the Gods.

Choose the most excellent life, and custom will make it pleasant.

This is the law of God, that virtue is the only thing that is strong.

Abstain from such things as are an impediment to prophecy, or to the purity and chastity of the soul, or to the habit of temperance or of virtue.

It is necessary to beget children, for it is necessary to leave those that may worship the Gods after us.

Other compacts are engraved in tables and pillars, but those with wives are inserted in children.

It is holy for a woman, after having been connected with her husband, to perform sacred rites on the same day, but this is never holy after she has been connected with any other man.

It is requisite to be silent, or to say something better than silence.

The possessions of friends are common.

The animal which is not naturally noxious to the human race should neither be injured nor slain.

Intoxication is the meditation of insanity.

The beginning is the half of the whole.

An oath should be taken religiously, since that which is behind is long.

Be sober, and remember to be disposed to believe, for these are the nerves of wisdom.

All the parts of human life, in the same manner as those of a statue, ought to be beautiful.

When the wise man opens his mouth, the beauties of his soul present themselves to the view, like the statues in a temple.

MILLENNIAL CHURCH.*

If we had space we should quote from the "ROLL and Book," the largest part of the sixteenth chapter, to which we especially refer the candid and curious. Each reader

will, of course, interpret the sentences after his own light. The biblical student will probably pronounce them rank heresies, the scientific arrant nonsense, the poetic dull theology; but upon the disciples of Association we might urge them as a development of that law of union, under which the "Church," from which the book proceeds, has flourished for so many years, while numerous efforts on other principles have struggled for a season and failed.

It is interesting to observe, that while Fourier in France was speculating on the attainment of many advantages by union, these people have, at home, actually attained them. Fourier has the merit of beautiful words and theories; and their importation from a foreign land is made subject for exultation by a large and excellent portion of our public; but the Shakers have the superior merit of excellent actions and practices; unappreciated, perhaps, because they are not exotic. "Attractive Industry and Moral Harmony," on which Fourier dwells so promisingly, have long characterized the Shakers, whose plans have always in view the passing of each individual into his or her right position, and of providing suitable, pleasant, and profitable employment for every one. A pretty close parallel could be drawn between these two parties, were this the occasion to adduce it.

Friendly reviewers commonly conclude with a strong recommendation to read the book criticised. On this occasion we urge no such course; but rather that a perusal of the work should be delayed until the reader is in a state to appreciate it with fairness and candor. A condition

A Holy, Sacred, and Divine ROLL and BOOK; from the Lord God of Heaven, to the Inhabitants of the Earth: revealed in the United Society at New Lebanon, county of Columbia, State of New York, United States of America. In two Parts. Part I. Received by the church of this communion, and published in union with the same. Printed in the United Society, Canterbury, N. H. 1843. 8vo. pp. 222. NO. IV.

VOL. IV.

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which, looking at the book and its pretensions from exoteric ground, demands much suavity, even from the friendly mind.

Considerable prejudice is occasionally harbored against the Millennial Church, on the ground of the unnatural doctrine and practice it is said to maintain on the important subject of marriage. In the ordinary course of the natural feelings, the idea of a celibate or virgin life, must present itself as so cold, cheerless, and even ungodlike a state of existence, that the man or woman living under the influence of natural instincts is, by the law of nature, bound to condemn any one who whispers a doubt of the propriety of continually abiding subject to that law. Now, upon this point, the doctrine of the Church is made plain in the work before us. If not for the first time avowed, it is at least brought out in bolder relief than in their previous publications. It is simply this; that those who live, and design to remain, in the order of nature, shall comply with the law of nature; while those who are called to the order of grace shall be permitted inoffensively to comply with its law.

"I do require, saith the Lord, (who is descended to the earth in mercy, and in heavy judgment,) that all such as desire to live in nature, propagating their own species, keep the law of nature unviolated, as I have commanded from the beginning.

"And all such as desire to come into the gospel of grace, must keep the law of grace, as I did command in the first appearing of my blessed Son, your Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who stands as the first true Anointed One."-p. 30.

Here we think the discussion may be very pacifically allowed to remain. As to the impurities perpetrated by many in the natural order of marriage, we are not disposed to stain our page therewith, whether they be confessed or unconfessed by the world. But we can join in the appeal here made to such as determine to live in the natural order, to conform to the natural law in respect to time, state, season and sensual indulgence. The argument might indeed be respectfully carried a little further. A disputant has no right to urge upon another any practice in conformity with his (the disputant's) doctrine: but he has a right to insist that his opponent shall exemplify his own theories. When we find a multitude of people year after year, day after

day, repeating the wish with apparent sincerity that God our Father's "kingdom may come, and his will be done, on earth as it is in heaven;" while such fervent minds are instructed, by the very same authority which teaches them thus to pray, that "in heaven they are neither married nor given in marriage, but are as the angels are," we have a claim upon them to help to realize their own expressed desires. This they ought to do, or cease their prayers. If they comply with the former requisition, they are Shakers: if with the latter, they are not Christians. Each party may, at all events, in charity, let the other proceed in peace. The Millennial Church declares its determination to do so. It neither attempts to proselyte the world, nor to condemn it. But, when invited to intercourse, it has the right to urge upon the world a faithful adherence to its own purest acknowledged principles; as the world has in like manner the right to demand a strict compliance with the higher law it professes to obey.

One point of considerable interest is clearly if not agreeably stated in this volume. The children of nature are anxious to learn whether they cannot continue in the enjoyment of sensual delights, and yet be admitted into the heavenly kingdom. In opposition to Christ's express dictate, the modern Christian endeavors to persuade himself that he can continue to indulge in all the human gratifications in the outer world, while he is wholly and fully subject to divine influence in the inner world. Such persons imagine, or pretend to imagine, that all natural actions, when performed strictly according to God's natural laws, can consist with God's law of grace ruling in the soul. Every one who thus imagines, can easily add the supplemental delusion, that his (or her) natural action is quite pure, and thus is the empire of licentiousness maintained.

But, granting the utmost purity in natural actions, this thought is directly at variance with Christ's instructions and life. It is not possible to "forsake all," and yet retain some things of the lower world, as the lower nature would fondly persuade itself. The very supposition is evidence that the querist is not yet a re-born being. Accordingly we find this idea met in a note at page 209, in which it is observed that "where the dominion of Christ is estab

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