and maintain that no Church of the Lord can exist with men if those principles are excluded, yet it would affectionately remind every one that the doctrines of faith have a powerful claim upon their intellectual attention. The Lord has spoken of them as a city that is set upon a hill, which cannot be hid. We, therefore, should be careful that, during our advocacy of love as the primary thing of the Church, we do not lose sight of the high position which the truth of faith should occupy in our religious profession. The Church should be as a true man: while striving to love and to do good, its members should not hesitate to proclaim the truth, according to their best perceptions of it, whensoever favourable opportunities are presented for that purpose. To be backward under such circumstances, cannot be reconciled with sincerity to our profession, and the desire which may be occasionally experienced, to conceal our convictions, comes from the common enemy to all spiritual truth, namely, the love of self and the love of the world. We are required honestly to avow what we honestly believe, and the world will be made better by the example of our honesty, even though it may not yet be disposed to accept the sentiments of our faith. That will come in due time, if we persevere, and faint not. The doctrines of our Church are eminently distinctive. The duties of love do not require that they should hold a feeble place in our intellectual life. To keep them in abeyance, in deference to the prejudices of an expiring Church, is not among the signs of a sure and earnest faith. The Lord said "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your father who is in heaven." (Matt. v. 16.) The light here spoken of is the light of truth in the understanding, and this light shines when it is accompanied with that purity of life which truth demands. Finally, brethren, it is gratifying to know that the New Dispensation is making visible progress among mankind. Its teachings are commending themselves more and more every year to the attention of intelligent and thoughtful persons. Its truths are spreading in religious society that once would have rejected them as dangerous novelties; and they are creating for themselves an interest among many of the serious and discerning. The literature of the Church is annually enlarging, and the circulation of its standard works is being increased. The public press is more open for the defence of our views and principles than at any former period during the history of their progress, and the wide dissatisfaction which is being felt with the old theology is opening a way for the more favourable consideration of those heavenly doctrines which are presented in the New Dispensation. These experiences ought to encourage us in our work of love and fidelity to the truth. As the Lord, in His merciful providence, has conferred upon us the privileges of knowing and feeling something of the excellence which belongs to the teachings of the Second Advent, He expects that we should be earnest and enlightened instruments in giving to them all the high character and publicity in our power. In conferring blessings upon individuals, the Lord desires that we should be channels of use to others, and as such individuals perform their duty, He provides that they should come into the enjoyment of greater blessings. Hence, every one should endeavour to be a true representative of His Church: he should studiously avoid every course which is calculated to tarnish the brilliancy of its holiness and wisdom. He should aim to possess a thorough acquaintance with the doctrines he professes to embrace, and always be ready to give to every one that asketh a reason for the hope that is in him. But, above all things, strive to obtain that heavenly grace to which the great Saviour of the world referred, when He said "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." On behalf of the General Conference, I am affectionately yours, REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE APPOINTED BY MINUTE 175 OF THE 60TH GENERAL CONFERENCE, TO DRAW FROM THE WRITINGS OF SWEDENBORG AS TO WHAT IS THE SOURCE OF TRUE DOCTRINE, AND THE METHOD OF OBTAINING IT, AND CONFIRMING IT WHEN OBTAINED. Your Committee beg first to prefix the Minute of their appointment:"Resolved, That, with the view to promote uniformity in the teachings of New Church preachers, a Committee of three ministers, in conjunction with Mr. Le Cras, be appointed to draw up a statement from the writings of Swedenborg as to whether the true doctrines of the Church are taught in the internal or spiritual sense of the Holy Word, or in its external or natural sense; taking care to explain any passage in Swedenborg's writings so as to show the harmony of the whole of his teachings on this subject; and that such statement be published with the signatures of the Committee in the Intellectual Repository." Your Committee, in the performance of the duty confided to them, have carefully considered the whole subject in its various bearings, and desire to lay before their readers the conclusions which they conceive are clearly taught by the illuminated writer to whose pages they have been directed. These conclusions are as follow: I. The true doctrine of the Word is that of its internal sense throughout. II. That the true doctrine of the Word appears naked in the letter of the Word occasionally, and in other portions of the Word clothed with a thin veil, but so as to be clearly transparent to those who are desirous of seeing truths from the Lord, in order that they may reduce them to life and practice. III. That in those portions of the Word where the internal sense is deeply hidden beneath the letter, true doctrine may be obtained by one illuminated by the Lord, and by means of the Science of Correspondences; but it must always be confirmed by those portions of the letter of the Word in which the true doctrine is given nakedly or transparently, and by its harmony with all other internal doctrines, so far as known. : 1. That the true doctrine of the Word is its internal sense throughout, is clearly stated in the following places, and very frequently elsewhere "Let it be noted, that it is the internal sense of the Word which contains the genuine or real doctrine of the Church." (A.C. 9424.) "The doctrine which is intended as a lamp, is that which the internal sense teaches, for indeed it is that very internal sense." (A.C. 10400.) "There is no communication with angels, if the Word is understood according to the letter, without doctrine, which is the internal of the Word." (A.C. 9410.) "The doctrine of Faith is the Word understood in its interior sense." (A.C. 2762.) 2. That the true doctrine of the Word appears naked in the letter of the Word occasionally; and in other portions of the Word true doctrine clothed as with a thin veil, but so as to be clearly transparent to those who are desirous of seeing truths from the Lord, in order that they may reduce them to life and practice. "The Word, in its literal sense, is like a person clothed, where the face and hands are naked. All things which are necessary to the life of man, and consequently his salvation, are naked, and the rest are clothed. In many places where they are clothed, they shine through the clothing, as a face through a thin silk." (S.S. 55.) "In every particular, there is a spiritual sense in which the angels are, and from which their wisdom is derived, and the Word is transparent, from the light of that sense to those who are in genuine truths from the Lord." (A.R. 897.) "It is highly necessary that man should study the Word in its literal sense, as through it alone doctrine is obtained." (S.S. 56.) "Illumination cometh from the Lord alone, and abideth with those who love truths for truth's sake, and apply them to the purposes of a good life none else can receive illumination from the Word." The reason why illumination cometh from the Lord alone is, because the Word is from Him, and consequently He is in the Word: and the reason of its abiding only with those who love truths for truth's sake, and apply them to the purposes of a good life is, because they are in the Lord, and the Lord in them, for the Lord is truth itself, as was shewn in the chapter concerning Him: and the Lord is then loved, when men live according to His divine truths, consequently, when by virtue thereof they bring forth the fruits of good and useful services, according to these words in John, 'At that day ye shall know that ye are in Me, and I in you: he that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him, and will come to him and make my abode with him.' (Chap. xiv. 20-23.) These are they who are in illumination when they read the Word, and to whom the Word appears in its brightness and transparence. The reason why the Word appears to such in its brightness and transparence, is, because there is both a spiritual and celestial sense in every part of the Word, and these senses are in the light of heaven; wherefore the Lord, by the influx of these senses, and their light, entereth into the natural sense of the Word, and the light thereof abiding in man: hence man acknowledgeth the truth from an interior perception, and afterwards seeth it in his own thought, and that as often as he is in the affection of truth for truth's sake; for perception cometh from affection, and thought from perception, and thence ariseth acknowledgment which is called faith.” (T.C.R. 231.) 3. That in those portions of the Word where the internal sense is deeply hidden beneath the letter, true doctrine may be obtained by one illuminated from the Lord by means of the Science of Correspondences; but it must always be confirmed by those portions of the letter of the Word in which true doctrine is given nakedly, or transparently, and by its harmony with all other internal doctrine so far as known. "No one can know the spiritual sense of the Word, except by means of the Science of Correspondences." (S.S. 9.) The real internal man thinks no otherwise than according to the Science of Correspondences, or according to the internal sense of the Word. (A.C. 4280.) In the internal sense of the Word the essential truth is exhibited in its purity, and things are expressed such as they really are in themselves. (A.C. 2026, 8717.) Three things must be rejected in order to elicit the internal sense from the letter of the Word, namely, the idea of time, the idea of space, and the idea of person. (A.C. 5253, 10133. See also S.S. No. 50 to 59; A.C. 9424, 10400; A.E. 356; T.C.R. 229, 230.) Having carefully considered and maturely digested the evidence afforded by the writings of Swedenborg, we come to the conclusion that the true doctrines of the church are taught in the internal or spiritual sense of the Holy Word; but inasmuch as the internal or spiritual sense of the Word is for the most part secreted within the external or natural sense, it follows that the true doctrines of the church must be drawn out of the literal sense of the Word, and confirmed therefrom by one who is illustrated, and that by interpreting its natural truths into spiritual, according to the Science of Correspondences, and collecting their aggregate sense into a doctrinal form. The truth of the doctrines so drawn out should be tested by the spiritual sense of the Word elsewhere, but under three different aspects;-first, by such spiritual truths as are naked; secondly, by those that are clothed with a thin veil, and are therefore transparent; and thirdly, by such as are secreted within the letter, and cannot be discovered or understood excepting by a knowledge of correspondences. If the doctrines are corroborated in this, and contain nothing that favours evil, we may rest assured that they are the true doctrines of the church.* ABRAHAM JONES LE CRAS. Salford, Manchester, August 12th, 1868. TRANSITION. III.-FOURTH AGE OF THE WORLD. DISPENSATIONS ASSUMED TO BE PERMANENT. CRITERION OF DEVELOPMENT. (Continued from August No.) In regard to the principles involved in the transition of the Jewish into the Christian Dispensation, the subject becomes of the highest importance if the present age be itself in a state of transition; for, as already observed, the transition involves the doctrine of development, The Committee only are responsible for the above paper. |