are insinuated during each period, and they consist of those spiritual affections and perceptions which flow in during the time in which those natural goods are being acquired and cultivated. This may be easily illustrated. Every one has experienced the inflow of a delight when they have been lovingly engaged in the performance of some use. This delight is a spiritual affection, which flows in by means of the use, but it is not the good of the use; for that is in some measure natural; it is an affection of a more spiritual kind, insinuated during the time in which the use is being performed, and it lives in the interiors of men after the performance of it has ceased. Thus the natural good of doing anything, and the natural good of learning anything, are media through which the affections of spiritual good flow into the mind, and they remain though the media may not. This illustration of what is meant by remains gives additional importance to the duty of learning and obeying what is good and true, because that learning and obedience are provisions for the inflow of affection and perceptions much deeper and holier than themselves. Hence it is that remains are the means by which men can have communication with heaven, and the Lord promote the salvation of the world.

Now, Swedenborg further informs us that the affections which pertain to the good of innocence are insinuated from the first to the tenth year; that the affections which pertain to the good of ignorance are insinuated from the tenth to the twentieth year; and that the affections which pertain to the good of intelligence are insinuated from the twentieth year to the end of life. These views he illustrates

by the exposition of certain passages of the Word.

Now it is the young people who are in the second of those periods, that our subject requires us to teach and cultivate, and we see the nature of the remains of which they may become the subjects. The first period is one of mere tutelage, the third is one in which moral responsibility is developed. Of course all, of every age, are subjects for the active and educating influences of the Church, but those which belong to the second period seem to require its special and peculiar consideration. This period, as before observed, begins at the age of ten years; but that is too early for the purposes we are contemplating. Special religious instruction may be most usefully undertaken at that time, but it is not required that young persons should be publicly introduced as juvenile members of the Church at the very commencement of the period when the affections which pertain to the good of ignorance are being implanted with the instructions they receive; nor would it be judicious to postpone such introduction till the time of its termination, for then, if otherwise eligible, they might claim to be adult members of the Church. On these grounds I venture to suggest fifteen years as a suitable age for this purpose, that being midway between the commencement and termination of the second period. And I do this not merely for that reason, but because Swedenborg has told us that fifteen denotes as much as is sufficient (A.C. 9760), and also that, being next to fourteen, it signifies a new state (A.C. 8400).

Hence there seems to be reasonable and spiritual data for fixing on that age as the time when young persons may be formally introduced by a religious service as juvenile members of the Church.

This course appears to me to provide sufficiently for the religious element thought of by the Conference when it passed the minute on "the question of the desirablness of introducing a rite analogous to 'Confirmation' into the institutions of the New Church." It also avoids the objections and fears which the terms of that minute have excited, and it enables us to see the purpose aimed at in a reasonable, useful, and practical way. Moreover, it takes hold of the custom of electing junior members of the Church, which is observed in some of our principal Societies, indicates the age at which it may be done, and engrafts upon that custom a suggestion that the minister should prepare the young people of his Society for enjoying the privilege of a special religious service, by which they should be introduced as juvenile members of the Church-an event which they may alway remember as gratifying epoch of their lives.

DOES THE NEW CHURCH DESCEND FROM HEAVEN OR NOT? To the Editor of the "Intellectual Repository."

SIR,-In the December issue of the Magazine, I find in the account of the Scottish Annual Meeting held at Glasgow, that Dr. Tafel is reported as having presented some startling views in regard to the difference between the "New Church" and the "New Jerusalem." He is understood to have said that "the New Church does not descend from heaven; but it is built up among men by the instrumentality of the doctrines represented by the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem, i.e. a system of doctrine, may descend from heaven in the way described by John, but not a Church; for the Church is a joint production of the Lord and man,- man receiving the doctrines of the Church in freedom in himself, and the Lord conjoining good therewith. It is wrong, therefore, to suppose that the New Church descends imperceptibly into the minds of men in general, and that by this imperceptible process the old consummated Christian Church is gradually being changed into the New Church."

It would be much more satisfactory to the readers of the Repository and to the members of the Church generally if Dr. Tafel would, through its pages, more fully present his views upon this subject, especially since he appears to hold them, according to the above report, in direct opposition to the express teaching of Swedenborg himself. In the preface of the work entitled "Apocalypse Revealed," the author's preface, read as follows: "After the last judgment... in the year 1757. . . a new heaven was formed from among Christians; from this heaven the New Church on earth, which is the New Jerusalem, descends, and will continue to descend." And again, further on, "That there will be a new heaven, and that the New Church will descend thence upon earth, is evident from the following words in the same book: 'I saw a new heaven and a new earth and I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband; and he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new; and he said unto me, Write, for these words are true and faithful' (chap. xxi. 1, 2, 5): the new heaven means a new heaven from among Christians; the New Jerusalem means a New Church upon earth, which will make one with that new heaven; the Lamb means the Lord as to the Divine Humanity."

From this passage it would seem that the "New Jerusalem" means not only doctrine, but a New Church as well; that is, it includes both ideas in itself. It is quite evident that Swedenborg here intends the expression "New Jerusalem" to mean more than a system of doctrines of Divine Truth; for he expressly says that it means a "new Church on earth," which "descends, and will continue to descend," from the new Christian Heaven.

Trusting that Dr. Tafel may see the necessity of explaining his views more fully lest he should be misunderstood, I am, yours very truly, JONATHAN ROBINSON.

REPLY OF DR. TAFEL.

To the Editor of the "Intellectual Repository."

SIR, AS Mr. Robinson objects to a statement made by me in my address to the Scottish friends of the New Church at Glasgow, of which a report appeared in the December number of the Intellectual Repository, justice would seem to require that the actual words which I used at Glasgow should be presented to your readers. They are as follows:-"In conclusion, I wish to say a few words on the relation between the New Church and the New Jerusalem which John saw descending from God out of heaven.' The New Church does not come down from heaven in the compact form of a city, in which John saw the New Jerusalem come down; the New Church does not come down thus-it is built up in the earth. The doctrines of the New Church, represented by the holy city New Jerusalem, these came down in their entirety from heaven at the Lord's Second Coming. But the doctrines of the Church are not identical with the Church; the doctrines are the means by which the Church is built up. The Church itself is a conjunction of goodness and truth; moreover, it is not a work of God alone, but it is a work at which God and men work conjointly. From the Lord, indeed, come the truth and good out of which the Church is formed; but the mode in which they come down is as follows:-The truths of the Church or its doctrines, which must be from the Word of God, are learned and studied by man as of himself; and after he has learned and studied them, he, as of himself, endeavours to do them: if then the looks up to the Lord, and acknowledges that all good and all truth come from Him, and if he seeks to shun his evils as sins before God, then the Lord makes man's natural good spiritual, and gifts him with genuine charity, and at the same time he raises the truth in his mind into spiritual light, and thereby gifts him with faith; and in these superior regions of his mind the truth which has entered into him from without is married to the good which entersinto him from within, and thus the Church is established and built up in his soul. And thus, and in no other manner, is the New Church built up among men in this world."

From this it appears that in my address I spoke of the distinction between the "New Church" and "the New Jerusalem which John saw descending from God out of heaven," or, in other words, I spoke of the distinction between the "New Church," and the "holy city New Jerusalem;" for it was "the holy city New Jerusalem," and not the "New Jerusalém" generally, which "John saw descending from God out of heaven."

Swedenborg carefully distinguishes between the "New Jerusalem" and the "holy city New Jerusalem," which distinction is, however, frequently overlooked by members of the New Church. This distinction is taught by him in A. R. 194, in these words: "By the New Jerusalem' is signified the New Church, and by the New Jerusalem, when it is called a city,' is signified the New Church as to doctrine. . . . That the 'holy city New Jerusalem' signifies the doctrine of the New Church appears plainly from its description in Apoc. xxi.; for it is described there as to its dimensions, and also as to its gates, and as to its wall and its foundations, which, when Jerusalem' signifies the Church, cannot mean anything else than the things belonging to its doctrine; neither is the Church a Church from any other source. As the city Jerusalem' signifies the Church as to doctrine, therefore it is called the city of truth,' Sach. viii. 3, 4; and in many places the 'holy city.'

66 ''Jeru

This teaching is corroborated by Swedenborg in A. R. 880, where he says, salem' signifies the Church as to worship, and hence also the Church as to doctrine; for worship is prescribed in the doctrine, and takes place according to the same. By 'Jerusalem in Isai. lii. 1, 2, 6, 9, is signified the Church, and by Jerusalem, the city of holiness,' the Church as to doctrine from the Lord, and concerning the Lord." In A. R. 896 we read, "The great city, the holy Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God,' signifies the Lord's New Church as to doctrine in the form of a city. It was seen in the form of a city because 'city' signifies doctrine (n. 194, 712), and the Church is a Church from doctrine, and a life according to the same."

But that by "the New Jerusalem descending from heaven" is meant the revelation of the doctrines of the New Church from the Lord by Emanuel Swedenborg, is taught plainly in the headings to paragraphs 779 and 781 in the "True Christian Refigion," where we read as follows: "The Lord's Second Advent takes place by a man, before whom He manifested Himself in person, and whom He filled with His spirit that he might teach the doctrines of the New Church by the Word from Himself. This is understood in the Apocalypse by the New Heaven and the New Earth, and the New Jerusalem descending thence.'

That the Church does not descend insensibly and unconsciously into the minds of

men, but that it is established and built up by the reception of good from the Lord in the truths which the men of the Church, as of themselves, learn from the Word of God, and which they, as of themselves, apply to their lives, this is taught in the writings of the Church from beginning to end. So we read in "Conjugial Love" (n. 122-124), "From the marriage of goodness and truth, which proceeds from the Lord, and flows in, man receives truth, and with this the Lord conjoins good, and thus the Church is formed by the Lord with man." And again : "From this appears the truth that man receives truth from the Lord, and that the Lord adjoins good to that truth according to the application of truth to good, thus according as man is willing to think wisely, and hence to live wisely." In A. R. 797 we read, "The conjunction of good and truth constitutes the Church for the Church is a Church from the reception of the Lord's Divine good in the divine truths that are from Him;" and again, "The heavenly marriage takes place by the reception of Divine good from the Lord in the divine truths from the Word by the men of the Church." How man's natural faith and charity is changed by the Lord into spiritual faith and charity, is taught in T. C. R. 359, 360. That what Swedenborg says of the establishment or building up of the Church in general, applies to every New Church which the Lord institutes upon earth, appears clearly from T. C. R. 86, where he says, "Only by the Divine Truth from the Word can the evils and falsities in which the whole of hell is, be met, conquered, and subjugated... and by no other means can a New Church upon earth be instituted") instaurari). From this it follows plainly that in order that the Lord, upon the downfall, of the Christian Church, might institute a New Church upon earth, it was indispensable that He should first make a new revelation of Divine Truth from the Word; which new revelation of the Divine Truth is represented by the "holy city New Jerusalem which John saw descending from God out of heaven; or in other words, in order that the "New Jerusalem," i.e. the New Church, may be established among men, it must first descend from God out of heaven in the form of a "city" or in the form of doctrine; and when the doctrine of that Church is received in the minds of its members, and applied by them to their lives, then the Lord adjoins good to that doctrine, and thereby institutes His New Church upon earth.

It is quite true, as Mr. Robinson states, that Swedenborg does not limit the term "to descend" to the doctrinal system of the New Church, or to the "New Jerusalem, as a city," but applies it also in some passages to the New Church or to the "New Jerusalem" generally; but it is equally true that by "the descent of the New Jerusalem, or of the New Church," in that case he means the institution of that Church by means of its doctrines. So we read in A. R. 879, "And 1, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, descending from God out of heaven, signifies a New Church to be instituted (instaurandam) by the Lord at the end of the former Church, which New Church shall be consociated with the New Heaven in divine truths as to doctrine and as to life. ... That by Jerusalem' is meant the Church will be seen in the following paragraph it is called a 'city,' and is described as a city' from doctrine, and a life according to the same; for city in the spiritual sense signifies doctrine (n. 194, 712); it is called 'holy' from the Lord, who alone is holy, and it is also called so from the Divine truths which are in it from the Lord out of the Word, and which are called 'holy.'. . . It is said to descend from God out of heaven,' because it descends from God by the New Christian heaven; for the Church is formed upon earth by the Lord by means of heaven, so that they may act as one and be consociated."

Here Swedenborg describes the "descent of the New Church out of heaven" by saying that it is formed by the Lord by means of heaven; such accordingly is also the meaning which he desires us to derive from the passage quoted by Mr. Robinson, where Swedenborg states that "there will be a new heaven, and that the New Church will descend thence upon earth.""

In quoting from the writings of the Church we must never forget that the doctrines taught in the same form an organic whole, and that single passages removed out of their logical context prove nothing; according to Swedenborg's own statement, "One truth does not confirm good, but several truths; for one truth without connection with others is not confirming; there must be several in connection, then one may appear from the other. One does not produce any form, thus not any quality, but several connected in a series; for as one tone does not make a melody, still less a harmony, so neither does one single truth constitute a truth" (A. C. 4197).

If therefore Swedenborg in one place says that "the New Church descends from the new heaven upon earth," and in another that "the New Church is instituted (instauratur) upon earth by the Divine Truth from the Word," and if in a third passage he states that by the New Jerusalem descending from God out of heaven is signifie a New Church to be instituted (instauranda) by the Lord, and to be formed (formanda) upon earth by means of heaven"-everything that he says in the second and third

F

passages applies also to the first; the second and third passages furnishing the particulars, in the light of which the first general passage is to be regarded.

That by the "descent of the New Church out of heaven" is meant its institution or formation, or its building up among men, appears also from the following passages: "The new angelic heaven must first be arranged (conformandum est) before the New Church can be instituted (institui potest) upon earth" (T. C. R. 115); and again, “The Lord effects a redemption at the present day by building up (condendo) a new heaven and establishing (instaurando) a New Church" (T. C. R. 182). "No new church is instituted (instauratur) before the former is vastated" (A. C. 4516). See also A. C. 4060 and 4229, where the beginning of the establishment (instauratio) of the New Church is discussed; and A. C. 4747, where Swedenborg states that "the New Church is not instituted or established (instauratur) by the Lord among those who are in the Church, but among those who are outside of the Church." In A. R. 700, Swedenborg speaks of "the establishment (instauratio) or the beginning (principium) of the New Church;" in A. R. 816, he says "the New Church is to be instituted (instauranda) by the Lord upon earth, as it was instituted (instaurata) in the heavens; for the Church is first instituted (instauratur) by the Lord in the heavens, and afterwards by means of the heavens in the earth." In D. P. 264 we read, "After the Last Judgment had been finished, genuine truths were to be revealed, a new church to be instituted (instauranda), and the spiritual sense to be manifested;" and in the "Brief Exposition there is a whole chapter with the title, "The New Church which is to be instituted (instauranda) by the Lord is the New Jerusalem, which is treated of in chapters xxi. and xxii. in the Book of Revelation" (99-101).

That by the New Jerusalem descending from God out of heaven" is meant the doctrinal system of the New Church, by which the New Church is to be instituted upon earth, appears further from the Heavenly Doctrine," no. 6, 7, D. o. Lord, 62-65, where we read, "In the New Church which is to be instituted (instauranda) by the Lord, there is to be a new doctrine which was not in the former Church; see also H. and H. 307; A. E. 223; A. R. 898; T. C. R. 217.

With this reference to the writings of the Church, by which the truth of what I stated in my address at Glasgow is fully borne out, I close my answer to Mr. Robinson, and remain yours very truly, R. L. TAFEL.

Reviews.

THE TRIAL OF SIR JASPER; A Temperance Tale in Verse. By S. C. HALL, F.S.A., Barrister-at-Law, and Editor of The Fine Art Journal. London Virtue and Co.

ALTHOUGH we do not believe in total abstinence, we have great faith in temperance, both as a principle and an example. We have no hope that total abstinence will ever become general, but have no doubt that temperance will become universal. Yet it may be expedient that the vice of drunkenness should be opposed by the virtue of total abstinence; and certainly he who cannot be temperate ought entirely to abstain. We therefore highly respect those who strive to prevent intemperance and reclaim the ntemperate by themselves abstaining from all intoxicating drinks. In their efforts to advance the cause they should, however, be careful to use only legitimate means. The argument of the present poem is fallacious, and is likely to defeat its object.

Sir Jasper is a distiller. He is cited before the judge to be tried on the charge of being the author of all the drunkenness that has resulted from the use of his alcoholic drink, and all the guilty and innocent sufferers appear as witnesses against him. Might we not as justly charge the makers of great guns and the manufacturers of gunpowder with being the cause of war? and might not Sir William Armstrong, on the same principle, be called to the bar of public opinion to answer for the havoc and slaughter which his instruments of destruction have committed, and all the widows and orphans which war has made be brought to give evidence against him? The Government itself is held responsible for much of the ruin caused by drink, on the ground that they make profit out of the liquor traffic, and legalize its sale by granting licenses. Might we not, on the same principle, accuse Moses of encouraging the Israelites to put away their wives, because he granted what may be considered a license for divorce? Yet the object and the effect of the Mosaic law were to restrain the evil