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jastify himself in any degree. IIe | what they must do to secure it. In proportion as they discovered this danger, in the same proportion they were anxious to obtain deliverance. When they learnt that by becoming religious they might be happy forever, they began to seek with all diligence how they might become so. As God is the most powerful being in the universe, they saw that it would be necessary to secure his favour. As they were sensible that they had sinned against him, they were afraid he would be provoked to

sees that the divine requirements are all reasonable and right. His judgment and conscience are on the side of God: His cavils and objections are silenced; his mouth is stopped. But his heart it still unreconciled: And the more clear and lively his sense of these things is, the more does his heart rise and swell and rage, with the very temper of the damned. This is conviction: And though it is not always followed by conversion, nor is always found in the same degree, yet for substance, it ap-destroy their idol. Influenced by pears to be an essential pre-requisite to a genuine work of grace.

these considerations, they reformed their lives, confessed their sins, and cried for mercy. And having, as they supposed, prevailed with God by these means, to bestow mercy; and having obtained, as they imagine, some assurance that their sins are forgiven; having been delivered from the horrible pit which was yawning to devour them; they are filled with gratitude to their deliverer, and manifest it by the liveliest expressions of thankfulness and praise. They appear to feel that they can never speak enough of the goodness of God to them; and they call upon others to join with them to love and praise the Lord.

Such is the result of a false ex

2. In a genuine revival; God is loved, by the subjects of it, chiefly for his own sake; in a spurious one, he is loved by the subjects of it, chiefly for his great kindness to them.-Men are by nature selfish; and when they have become the subjects of a false experience, they are selfish still. No change has taken place in the real temper of their hearts; it is only expressed in a different form, and flows in a different channel.-Before they became serious, their selfishness was acted out in the pursuit of the pleasures of this life; now, it is expressed in the pursuit of happiness in the life to come. The ultimate object is the same, but the means of attaining it are different. -Their own happiness is the supreme object in both cases. Self is regarded as the most important object in the universe, and is, in reality, the only god they worship. While they saw no danger in their course, they pursued their favourite object, without feeling the necessity of any religion; but when they discovered the dangers that beset their path, they became alarmed. And some have When they saw that, by pursuing gone so far as to avow, that this their present course, their own hap-was the sole reason they loved him; piness would be lost, they began and that if they did not believe he te enquire, with much earnestness, loved them, and intended to save

perience. The love to God which is thus produced, is often ardent and strong, and passes with many for true holiness of heart. And not only does it pass for true holiness of heart, but oftentimes for a very eminent degree of it. But its spuriousness is easily detected. Ask one who feels it, what it is in God that he admires. If he speaks the feelings of his heart, he will reply, I love God for his great goodness to me.

them, they should feel justified in hating him forever.

It is not so with the subjects of a genuine revival. They do not feel that their own happiness is the most important object in the universe. They do not feel that they should be justified in hating God, if he should treat them as they deserve. They do not feel that it is impossible for them to love God, unless they have the assurance that he loves them. They see that his character is lovely, in itself considered. And they see that his justice is as lovely as his mercy. They also feel a strong and ardent love to God; and express it by lively ascriptions of praise. But, ask them what it is in God that they admire, and they will reply, it is the intrinsic excellence of his character. And they will tell you, that he appears as glorious to them, in treating sinners as they deserve, as he does in exercising his mercy. And they will tell you this, while they themselves entertain no hope of his favour, and even expect to be forever the monuments of his vindictive justice.

these hopes and these prospects, and you deprive him of all his joys, and fill him with distress and gloom.

It is not so with the subject of a genuine work. His own happiness is no longer his supreme object. The consideration of its security is not that which gives him his chief joy, nor does the fear of losing it deprive him of his present comfort. His joy is in God. His chief delight springs from the contemplation of the divine character. He sees there every thing excellent and glorious. And while he fixes his thoughts upon it, and employs all the powers of his mind in the contempla tion, and traces out one perfection after another, and discovers more and more of the beauty and harmony of the whole, his heart is warmed with holy love, and his soul is filled with joy unspeakable. In this rapture of the mind, his own personal interests are forgotten. The suggestion that they are safe, makes no sensible addition to his joy; nor does the thought that they are otherwise, make any sensible diminution. The subjects of a genuine revival also experience great pleasure in the thought that the Lord reigns, and directs all events according to his own pleasure. For, in his hands they feel that all is safe. In his perfections, they find ample security that all events will take place according to the dictates of infinite wisdom, and that as much good will be ultimately brought into existence, as the most enlarged benevolence can desire.

S. In a genuine and a spurious revival, the joys of the new convert arise from very different considerations. The subject of a false experience being wholly selfish, his joys are all of a selfish nature. As the cause of his late distress was the selfish fear of losing the great object upon which he had set his heart, and an apprehension of suffering the wrath of God forever; his joy arises from viewing this danger as past, and his great object as secured. He looks into the pit of destruction, Such appear to be some of the from which he fancies himself de-marks of distinction between a genlivered, and rejoices in his own uine and a spurious revival. Others safety. He looks forward to the will be mentioned in my next happiness he expects to enjoy hereafter, and is filled with exultation at the prospect. Deprive him of

A Friend to Revivals.
Utica Christ. Repos:

ON THE PREVALENCE OF SOCINIANISM.

No. IV.

(Concluded from our last.] The following remarks relate to e distinction which Mr. Chaning and his friends attempt to ake between orthodoxy and pracal religion:

they may be?-Do they not, on the contrary, constantly insist on be lief in the truth, as the very foundation of Christian character and of Christian fellowship? and as solemnly warn the churches to keep clear of error, as of other sin?

How, indeed, is the fellowship "You manifestly assume, that for which you plead, to be maine points of doctrine, upon which tained? Upon this point you and bu and your liberal brethren differ your liberal brethren have taken fon your opponents, are com- care that we should be pretty fully aratively small and trivial; not informed. The orthodox churches practical," but speculative mere- must give up their creeds and covand such as do not materially enants, their Psalms and Hymns ect Christian character. This and Doxologies; must cease to inght not to be assumed.-Thesist on, as important, the great od whom you worship is different doctrines which they now hold to From ours; the Saviour whom you be fundamental and essential to cknowledge is infinitely inferior the Christian faith; must exclude bours; the salvation which you from their pulpits all mysterious preach is immensely diverse from and all controverted doctrines--all that which we preach. Are the that are not included in what is octrines, then, about which we fashionably called liberal or rafer merely speculative? Are they tional Christianity; must consent bet practical, most vitally and es- in a word, to have their preaching entially practical? Do they not go and worship conducted on such Home to the heart directly, and principles, and in such a manner, din an empire over all the affec- as will not disturb the minds of fos and powers of the soul? Is liberal Christians, or Unitarians of t a doctrine which essentially any class!-I's not this, Sir, preconcerns the object of our worship, cisely the way most distinctly practical?-when, if we are wrong marked out and most strenuously discourses regard to the object of our wor- insisted on, in all ship, we can hardly be right in any and conversations on this subject? part of our religion. Are not the-If the orthodox ministers and doctrines, which affect directly the churches will only consent to all Very foundations of our faith, prac- this, the thing is done; all will be firal-when a true faith is the love, and peace, and fellowship. grand requisition of the gospel, and That is, if they will cease to be the vital principle of all holy prac-orthodox, or in any respect matetice, of all the works which are good and acceptable in the sight of

God."

The following remarks are in re-ply to something Mr. Channing had said on the subject of union, fellowship and charity:

"Do the scriptures enjoin upon the churches to hold in their fellowship all who profess to be Christans, however corrupt in sentiment

your

rially different from those called liberal Christians, all the difficulty.

will be removed.

"There is no word more abused than charity. Its scriptural meaning, as you very well know, is love; holy love to God and men;' that love which is "the end of the commandment" and "the fulfilling of the law." In this sense it is indeed the essence, the sum of re

ligion. Is it, then, a violation of the great law of love, for the friends of truth to decline communion with its rejecters? for the believers in the true gospel of Jesus Christ, to separate from believers in another and an opposite gospel?

"You will certainly agree with me, that whatever tends directly to the maintenance and promotion of truth, cannot be incompatible with love to God, or love to men. Jesus Christ came into the world to bear witness to the truth. His apostles were appointed to be witnesses to the truth; which they were to propagate at every hazard, and which they, like their Divine Master, finally sealed with their blood. His church was established to be the pillar and ground of the truth. The great design of the Christian ministry, in all ages, is, to maintain and promote the truth. It is by means of the truth, that the glory of God is advanced in the world; and that mankind are guided into the way of peace and sanctified for the kingdom of immortal glory. Love to God and men [that is, true charity] requires, then, as a duty of primary obligation, that the churches of Christ, the ministers of the gospel, and all Christians, should do what they can for the promotion of truth.

"We advance, then, to another question. Would it conduce more to the promotion of truth [the great object of real charity] for the believers in the true gospel to hold fellowship with the believers in another gospel, than to separate from them? We have seen in what way only this fellowship can be maintained. If it is to be maintained, the principal doctrines of the gospel, must cease to be clearly preached; divine worship must cease to be conducted on principles distinguishingly Christian; ev

ΤΟΥ.

ery principle, or truth which controverted, must be yielded up as no longer to be urged or di fended; and the friends of tru must conform to the abettors of e All this must take place to degree proportionate to the exter sion and the closeness of the f lowship. But is this, Sir, the w to maintain and promote the tru in the church and in the world? it not rather the way to extingui at once the light of the ministr the light of the church, the light the gospel? to throw back the chi dren of light into darkness and t shadow of death, and to leave t prince of darkness to triumph an unlimited and undisturbed en pire? Would not the first and mo certain effect be the general pre alence of the opinion and the fee ing-already, alas! too prevalentthat truth is not worth contendin for, that the great doctrines of ti gospel are of very little importanc What then would be the cons quence? Show me a ma who cherishes this opinion, thi feeling, and I will show you one who, far from going to the cros or to the stake, like the apostle and the host of holy martyrs, wil make no sacrifice, no exertion, fo the spread or the support of the truth: nay, one, who is already himself bound hand and foot with the silken cords of error, and whose deceived" heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, is there not a lie ir my right hand?" And let this opinion and feeling generally prevail, and where shall we find those who will be valiant for the truth upon the earth?"

Such are the words of the excellent and lamented Worcester. Oh that every reader would listen to them, as to a voice from the grave!

A Son of the Pilgrims.

Utica Christ. Repos.

SWEDENBORGIANISM. [Continued from page 92.] The doctrine of correspondencies s one which makes a conspicuous gure in the writings of Swedenorg and his disciples. If we, who re not initiated into all his myseries, can understand it by dili-ed, they would have found no use

sense of the word, was not discovered to later ages, [ages since the time of Job] was because the Christians of the primitive church, were men of such great simplicity, that it was of no purpose to discover it to them for had it been discover

in it, nor would they have understood it." Let us now look at an example or two, which are explained by the doctrine of correspondencies. The book of Genesis is not a historical account of the creation, for we have nothing to do with the creation." Every verse and word contains a divine allegory full of spiritual meaning, which relates to subjects altogether different from those embraced in the letter. The 1st chapter of Genesis, in its internal sense, describes the process of regeneration in seven successive states;-by Adam and Eve ase signified the most ancient

Matt. xxiv. 29-31.

"Imme

diately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers shall be shaken.

rently reading his ponderous vol-
mes, it amounts to this; every
thing on earth, even beasts, birds,
shes, rocks, herbs, and in short,
every thing in the animal, vegeta-
ble and mineral kingdom, has an
Exact correspondent or resem-
Mance in the spiritual worlds.
Hence the form of a deity is that
of a man. He informs us that this
doctrine was well understood by
the ancients; that it is the foun-
dation on which all the Egyptian
hieroglyphics are built; that it has
been lost since the time of Job,
who last used it, till it was again
revealed to this same Emmanuel
Swedenborg. Lest there be a pos-church, &c.
sibility of mistake, I quote his own
definition of correspondencies.
Omnia quæ in cœlis, sunt in ter-
ris terrestri modo: omnia quæ in
terris, sunt in cœlis cœlesti modo."
But the principal use of this im-
portant doctrine is to explain the
scriptures. The bible, according
to Swedenborg, has three senses,
the celestial, the spiritual and the
natural. He finds a world of
meaning in every word, and even
every letter of the Old and New
Testament; and by the aid of this
science he cuts every knot, solves
every difficulty, and makes "any
thing mean any thing." Without
this science we are wholly in the
dark, and understand the bible no
better than infants. If the reader
be surprised that the Christian
church has been so many centuries
in the dark, Swedenborg informs us
that it is owing to their great sim-
plicity. The reason why the
science of correspondencies, which
is the true key to the spiritual

And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with great power and glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet and they shall gather" &c. Now to apply this wonderful key of the New Jerusalem Church.' "The sun here signifies the Lord, in reference to love: the moon signifies the Lord in reference to faith: the stars signify knowledge of good things and true; the tribes signify all truths and things in their complex; the coming of the Lord, signifies his presence in the word, and revelation of it" to "the clouds signify Swedenborg;

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