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THE HEAVENLY DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM.

(In continuation from page 339.)

IX.....OF CONSCIENCE.

91. Conscience is formed in every man from the principles of his particular religion, according to his internal reception thereof.

92. Conscience amongst christians is formed by the real truths of God's Word, or by the doctrines which are thence derived, according to their reception in the heart; from whence a person is acquainted with the truths of revelation, and comprehendeth them according to the measure of his capacity, and afterwards loveth them, and practiseth them; he then beginneth to acquire a conscience. To receive them in the heart is the same thing as to receive them in the will; for the will of man is what is called his heart. Hence it is that the words and actions of conscientious people flow all from the heart; for having not a double, or divided mind, they act according to the principles of goodness and truth, so far as they understand and believe them.

93. Conscience may be rendered more perfect in those who are in a particular illumination, and clear perception of divine truths, than in those who are less illuminated, and whose perception is more ob

scure.

94. The very essence of the spiritual life of man consisteth in a true and upright conscience; for therein his faith is united with charity, so that to act from, and according to conscience, is to act from and according to his spiritual life, and to act contrary to conscience, is to act contrary to his life. Hence it is, that to act according to conscience is attended with a tranquillity of peace, and an internal blessedness; but to act contrary to conscience is attended with an internal pain and uneasiness. This pain is what is called the sting of conscience.

95. Man is endowed with a conscience of what is good, and a conscience of what is right; a conscience of what is good is the con science of his internal man, and a conscience of what is right is the conscience of his external man; a conscience of what is good consisteth in acting according to the laws and precepts of faith, from an internal affection or regard thereto; but a conscience of what is right VOL. II. No. 9.

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consisteth in acting according to the laws of civil and moral establishments, from an external affection or regard. They who have a conscience of what is good, have also a conscience of what is right; but they who have only a conscience of what is right, are in a capacity of receiving a conscience of what is good, and do receive it when they are properly instructed.

96. Conscience in those who are in charity towards their neighbor, is a conscience of what is just and true, because it is formed by a belief in the truth; but conscience in those who are in love towards the Lord, is a conscience of what is good, because it is formed by the love of truth. The conscience of the latter is superior to that of the former, and is called the perception of truth by the influence of goodness. They who have a conscience of what is true, belong to the spiritual kingdom of the Lord; but they who have a superior con science, which is called perception, belong to the celestial kingdom of the Lord.

97. But the meaning and nature of conscience may be illustrated by examples; as for instance: If a man is in possession of another's property, without his knowledge, so that he could dispose of it to his own advantage, secure from the apprehensions of the law, or the loss of credit and reputation, and yet should restore it to its right owner, because he has no lawful claim to it himself, such a person is endued with conscience, inasmuch as he doeth good for the sake of good, and justice for the sake of justice. Suppose again, that a man hath it in his power to be preferred to some place of distinction, but he hath good reason to imagine that his competitor is better qualified for the place than himself, and on this conviction he giveth up his own claim for the good of his country and the public; such a person is endued with a good conscience: And so in other instances.

99. Hence we may conclude what sort of persons they are who have no conscience; they are discoverable by the rule of contrariety; as for instance: where men for the sake of self-interest would endeavor to make wrong appear right, or evil to appear good, and vice versa, they have no conscience, nor do they know what conscience is; and if they are taught, they do not believe in any such thing, and sometimes do not wish to believe. Such are they who act entirely from motives of worldly and self-interest.

99. They who have received no conscience in this world can receive none in the next, and therefore cannot be saved; the reason whereof is, because there is in them no frame or fitness of subject, to receive the influx and operation of heaven, that is, of the Lord through the heavens, whereby he may draw them to himself; for conscience is that frame or fitness of subject, which is accommodated to the, reception of heavenly influx.

X. OF LIBERTY.

100. All Liberty hath relation to love; for what a man loveth, that he doeth freely; of consequence, all liberty hath relation to the will ; for what a man loveth, that he also desireth or willeth; and inasmuch as the love and the will constitute the life of man, therefore liberty also doeth the same. Hence the true nature of liberty may appear,

viz. That it is the offspring of the love and the will, and therefore of the life of man; and this is the reason that whensoever a man acteth with liberty, he appeareth to himself to act as from himself.

101. To do evil with liberty appeareth like liberty, but is indeed slavery; inasmuch as it is a liberty derived from self-love and the love of the world, which are both of them from hell: Such liberty is Likewise actually turned into slavery after death; for every man who hath lived under the influence of such liberty, becometh then a vile slave in hell. But to do good with liberty is true liberty, inasmuch as it proceedeth from love towards the Lord, and love towards our neighbor, which are both of them from heaven. This liberty remaineth also after death, and becometh then true liberty, for every man who hath lived under its influence becometh then in heaven, “a son abiding in the house forever." To this purpose the Lord teacheth, when he saith, "Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin; and the servant abideth not in the house for ever; but the son abideth for ever; if the son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed," John viii. ver. 34, 35, 36. Inasmuch now as all good cometh from the Lord, and all evil from hell, it follows plainly, that liberty consisteth in being led by the Lord, and slavery in being led by hell.

102. Man is free to think evil and falsehood, and likewise to practise them, so far as human laws do not restrain him, that he may be in a capacity of being reformed: For the affections of goodness and truth must be implanted in his love and his will, before they can take root in his life; and this cannot be unless he is at liberty to follow the dictates of evil and falsehood, as well as of goodness and truth. This liberty is given to every man from the Lord; and when his understanding is under the influence of goodness and truth, the Lord at such times implanteth them in his love and his will, and so in the very essence of his life, whereby he effecteth his reformation, in proportion as he refuseth his assent at such times to the dictates of evil and falsehood. Whatever is implanted in a state of freedom abideth, but whatever is implanted in a state of compulsion doth not abide; inasmuch as a state of compulsion is not according to the will of the person compelled, but according to the will of the person who compelleth, Hence it is that a free service is acceptable unto the Lord, but not a forced service; for a free service is a service proceeding from love, but a forced service is not so.

103. The liberty of doing good, and the liberty of doing evil, though in outward appearance they seem alike, yet are as different, and as distant from each other, as heaven and hell. Indeed, the liberty of doing good is from heaven, and is called celestial liberty; but the liberty of doing evil is from hell, and is called infernal liberty. In proportion also as a man is under the influence of the one, in the same proportion he is removed from the influence of the other, since no man can serve two masters ;"* which is likewise plain from this circumstance, that all who are under the influence of the infernal liberty, think it the greatest slavery and compulsion to be restrained from the lusts of evil, and the imaginations of falsehood; but all who are under

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St. Matt. vi. 24.

the influence of the celestial liberty, conceive horror at the very idea of indulging their evil lusts, and false imaginations; and would feel the greatest torment in being compelled thereto.

104. Forasmuch as in liberty of action a man appeareth to act from himself, or his own self hood, [proprium] therefore a celestial liberty may be also called a celestial self-hood, or proprium; and an infernal liberty may be called an infernal self-hood, or proprium. An infernal self-hood is what a man hath by nature, and bringeth with him into the world, and this is mere evil; but a celestial self-hood is what a man hath by reformation from the Lord, and this is pure goodness.

105. Hence may be collected the true nature and meaning of freewill, viz. That it consisteth in doing good of free choice and inclination, and belongeth to all such as are under the guidance of the Lord; and they are under the guidance of the Lord, who love goodness and truth purely for their own sakes.

106. A man may discern the kind and quality of liberty which he possesses, by the pleasure he finds in thinking, conversing, acting, hearing, and seeing; for all pleasure is the offspring of love.

(To be continued.)

GENTLEMEN,

TO THE EDITORS.

I beg leave to send you a few remarks, made in a moment of leisure. If you think them worth insertion, I shall, perhaps, continue them. It will readily be observed they are of the New Jerusalem school, though I have not introduced the name of its temporal founder; for which name some of our brethren appear to be as anxious as good Catholics have been for that of the mother Mary formerly. This is the more remarkable, as Baron Swedenborg, in the first instance, published the divinity of the New Jerusalem anonymously, without affixing his own name, though afterwards inserted on the recommendation of Mr. Hartley. From which it appears, that Baron Swedenborg was no way solicitous, by interposing his proper name, to usurp any portion of the adoration resulting from the perusal of the New Doctrines by those whose minds are suitably prepared. Indeed it appears to me not only absurd, but horrible, to give it any other name than that of the "True Christian Religion."

Among the literary phenomena of the present times, it is none of the least, that the celebrated professor Stewart, of Edinburgh, should offer, in his celebrated "Philosophical Essays," the same precise means for expressing spiritual properties, and for bringing them under sensual cognizance, (see pages 155 6) as was laid down by the prophet of the New Church fifty years ago, and for the last twenty years pubficly preached in the British metropolis, under the term CorrespondMr. Stewart, in rejecting the theories of Priestley, Hartley, Darwin, and Tooke, on this point, offers this as his own, and as such, the London reviewers pass it by.

ence.

Such are the pitiful results of selfish blindness and bigotry, the sure symptoms of man's fallen and degraded state. We sincerely hope, however, that the name of the Scottish philosopher may be of more efficacy than that of the real author, in spreading the truth. When &

man is condemned, by common consent, as a fit subject under a statute of lunacy, his heirs, those next of kin, are supposed to have legal claim on his property. It is on this principle we suppose that Mr. Stewart, as well as many of the revolutionary philosophers of France before him, have played the jackdaw. Would to God they had also taken the spirit and life, THE GOODS of that theology; so many of them would never have come under the axe of the guillotine.

A man is distinguished into Internal and External.

The internal man is an immortal spirit, conjoined with the spiritual world, and subsisting therefrom.

The external man is the animal nature, or materiality conjoined therewith.

The external man is alive by virtue of its union with the internal or spiritual man, for on separation, the former ceases to exist; it is dead.

The spiritual body exists also by its connexion with a greater spiritual body, of which it forms a part: But not by virtue of its connexion with the external part of man. We read, "I am the vine, ye are the branches.”

The Grand Man, or Deity, after whose image and likeness man was made, as we read in Genesis, having life eternal and immutable, essentially in himself, is consequently the source of all life, which is imparted to man, as a recipient, and also to all other created things.

Hereby we may perceive the threefold nature of man; having celestial life by internal union with his Creator and Lord; spiritual life by virtue of the intermediate state of his spirit, between the celestial of his Creator, and the natural or animal life without, and by this latter subsisting from the former.

The essential principle, or seed of the human race, must then emanate from the Deity, for he made man a living soul, and breathed into him the breath of lives, as we read in Genesis.

The soul then, or internal man, being in its nature eternal, must have been prior to the body, or external man, which was subsequently conjoined thereto.

The matter thus adjoined to spirit, by the process of nourishment, derived from dead animal and vegetable substances, being totally dead in itself, cannot be, nor is it spiritually animated by its being incorporated with the body, but it is corporeally so, that is to say, apparently so.

The arrangement and formation then of the human system, must be according to the model pre-existing in the spiritual system, in order that the internal man may be fitted for the exercise of external functions.

And as there can be no life without or beyond the sphere of the internal man, so, wherever we find life, we rationally presume there is spirit.

Life being in all and every part of a human body, excepting in what is ejected, and no where else beyond it, the spirit, or life, then, must exist in bodily form, and reciprocally; the bodily form must be the same form as the spirit of man, that is, the internal man.

This order is perceived in the human system, the skin being dis posed in conformity to the lineaments of the flesh, and the flesh ac

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