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feelings and operations,-that it must necessarily sink into a state of unconsciousness, or rather of non-existence, when the body crumbles into dust. Now, holding fast, as I do, the Scriptural sentiment, that 'to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord,' I am still disposed to concede to the naturalist, that of all that class of feelings that I have denominated sensations or external affections, the mind must be deprived by the loss of the body. It is not judicious, I imagine, to contend that the mind will continue to experience in a separate state all the feelings of which it is the subject in this world. The independence of the mind upon the body should be sought for in that class of feelings which have nothing external and material as their cause."

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This writer and teacher of the mental philosophy of the Scriptures, had not learned what is so clearly stated there, that there IS a spiritual body; and, consequently, that to be absent from the natural body, is to be present with the Lord in the spiritual body: he had forgotten that Moses and Elias were seen talking at the Lord's transfiguration; and that the Apostle John saw the spiritual bodies of the saints, in the actual exercise of their sensations and external affections, singing and playing with the hand on golden harps, or uttering articulate praise before the throne of God! But his oversight of facts is exceeded by the host of incongruities that wait upon his theory, on which alone he grounds, be it observed, the necessity for the resurrection of the material body; for he gravely remarks, that if the soul retains its external affections after death, “it would render unnecessary, if not undesirable, the redemption of the body from the grave. But (says he) the sacred writers represent this event as the very consummation of the Christian's enjoyment. (?) Their statements necessarily imply, that the soul suffers loss while the body remains a prisoner in the grave, and this loss is, I apprehend, the loss of that entire class of affections of which the senses are the inlets." Well, then, let us follow the mutilated spirit into the eternal world. It possesses only the "internal affections;" those called by the apostle " the spirit," also the "spiritual mind;" and which he places in contrariety to the "external affections of the flesh," or of the "carnal mind," affirming that they are in a continual state of contention and strife against each other. The soul of the good man goes into the presence of the Lord. He has now got rid of his external affections, which so often troubled him on earth. His "loss" is felt as a great gain, and, consequently, the restoration of the rebellious earthly affections at the resurrection of the body, will be, to him, a great "loss!" However, he is now free from them, at least for a time. But, alas! the glories of the "beatific vision" are not for him! He has no eyes to see it;

no capability of the sensation of sight. Bound in the fetters of blindness, he awaits the resurrection of his body-to reveal to him the glories of heaven. Dr. Watts told his body to be sure, when it

came back to him, not to bring back with it the lusts of the flesh; and so the blind" spirits of the just made perfect"(?) must persuade themselves, that when the body comes back, it will be so changed as to be free from all its former defects, or else, it would be better to remain for ever blind, for want of it! Its "external affections" will be no longer external. But let us follow the spirits of the wicked into eternity. They have got rid, together with their bodies, of all that part of them, "the flesh," in which, an apostle said, "dwelleth not any good thing." But they still have their "internal affections," and these, it is well for them, are holy in themselves; and they having, in the absence of their bodies, no "external affections," what is to hinder their going to the presence of the Lord along with the good,-until their risen bodies shall bring back their disordered "external affections," to sink them down from heaven to hell? Such a terrible destruction of the happiness of heaven, after tasting it for ages, would be a new element in the infliction of torment on the wicked. But perhaps Mr. Payne will confine these "internal affections" to the good, by considering them as regenerate affections; but then, what sort of souls must the souls of the wicked be on this principle? Having left their bad external affections with their bodies, and no good ones having been developed in them, the question arises, what, in such a case, is their quality after death, now that they are destitute of all kinds of affection, internal and external, good and bad?-and where are they to go? Without any affections at all, they must be altogether without quality, and also without consciousness of any kind. If it be affirmed, that the "internal affections" of the wicked are evil, it must be remembered, that Mr. Payne has defined the internal affections as "that class of feelings which have nothing external and material as their cause;" and while adhering to this definition, it would be impossible to shew, that any of the affections of the wicked, the selfish and the worldly, can, properly speaking, be internal affections, because they cannot have existence separately, from the ideas which have entered through the senses. All the selfish and worldly affections are affections to certain external sensations, and are grounded in external ideas so entirely, that the removal of the idea, (supposing it to be removed with the body) would actually produce the cessation or non-existence of the affection grounded in it. Such are the incongrui

ties attendant on Mr. Payne's very curious speculation, and such are the unforeseen consequences of his kind concession to the materialist and the deist!—And now we pass to another equally singular speculation, observing, however, that its existence is indicative of a rising desire to know things which can only be known by means of the writings of Swedenborg. Appetite must precede appropriation, and therefore we rejoice in the agitation of questions which indicate a desire to know.

Mr. H. H. Dobney, a Particular Baptist minister, has recently put forth "Notes of Lectures on Future Punishment." It may be well, in this case, to avail ourselves of the labours of one of his Trinitarian friends," the Congregational" reviewer, who remarks;

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"Mr. Dobney's theory may be thus stated in brief. I. The soul of man is naturally mortal. II. It is, however, capable of immortality. III. In regeneration it actually becomes immortal. IV. The souls of the unregenerate will exist for an indefinitely long period in a state of torment, but will ultimately become extinct. We tremble to think of the lengths to which our author's reasonings would naturally lead us. They provide the ungodly with another Saviour than Christ, from eternal doom, viz., ultimate annihilation."

What an idea!—The wicked are to be eventually annihilated; but when?-Why, after the Father of mercies has sufficiently tormented them, in retaliation for their rebellion against his authority and laws on earth. What sort of an idea must Mr. Dobney entertain of the character of God! Surely his God is not our God; for his God cannot be the God of the Scriptures!-The wilfully tormenting a sinner previous to his intended annihilation, can be compared to nothing but the cruel torture, by a malicious tyrant, of a criminal, by plucking out his eyes, tearing out his nails, &c., preparatory to cutting off his head! How greatly must the orthodox idea of God require to be renovated, while the idea entertained of his essential quality admits of such cruel conduct being attributed to Him, without its being seen to be inconsistent with his essential attributes! The truth is, that the idea of God as a Being of infinite love, mercy, and goodness, is almost extinguished in the Christian Church; so that the words Divine, love, mercy, and goodness, have come to be commonly used by those who call themselves "Gospel Preachers," in a sense, or rather no-sense, that renders it no inconsistency in the user of them (Mr. Dobney, for instance) to attribute conduct to God such as it is impossible even for finite love, mercy, and goodness to be guilty of! It is not necessary here to shew the consistency of the doctrine of the eternal misery of the wicked, with the

doctrine of the infinity of Divine mercy.

All that is necessary to

be done here, is, to protest, that if God can consistently with his own nature annihilate the wicked at all, he cannot, consistently with any just idea of Him, as Love Itself, torment them "for an indefinitely long period," before he annihilates them!-But Mr. Dobney is a Calvinist a believer in predestination ;-this, in a degree, accounts for his malignant idea of the Divine nature and character. The Congregational reviewer is also a Calvinist, and this accounts for his not seeing the wilful and wanton punishment of a sinner hereafter, to be derogatory to the character of the God of the Scriptures.

New Churchmen! be thankful for your privileges! Shew your gratitude by devoting all you are and have to the service of the Only Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ, whose mercies, YOU CERTAINLY KNOW, are over ALL his works!

"We wander now no more

Where darkening errors lead;
In its own light we truth explore,
And wonder while we read! "

COLLECTOR.

THE FLOOD AND THE DESTRUCTION OF THE EARTH NOT TO BE UNDERSTOOD LITERALLY.

Ar a meeting for improvement lately, a friend present suggested, that the following declaration of our Lord goes to establish, on his own express authority, that the flood and the destruction of the earth, as mentioned in the Scriptures, are not to be understood literally :— "Then shall be great tribulation, such as was not from the beginning of the world unto this time, no, nor ever shall be."—(Matt. xxiv. 21.)

This passage is uniformly interpreted, by the learned and orthodox, as referring to the "tribulation" attendant on the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, as narrated by Josephus. Now, how can the first clause be true, that that "tribulation" would exceed any which had occurred from the foundation of the world, if there really had happened, literally, the inconceivably greater tribulation of a general flood? And how can the last clause be true, which affirms that there never will occur a greater "tribulation" than that which befel the Jews, if the whole world is literally to be destroyed by fire, at some future period?

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REVIEW.

Anastasis; or the Doctrine of the Resurrection of the Body, Rationally and Scripturally Considered. By GEORGE BUSH, Professor of Hebrew, New York University. London: HODSON, Fleet-street.

(Second Notice.)

WE have recently introduced this able work to our readers,* who, we doubt not, will be pleased to see a further analysis of its contents. From the learning and eminence of its author, it is calculated to attract great attention in America, and in this country we hope it will serve to awaken the minds of many to an enlightened Scriptural view of the true nature of the Resurrection. In our former notice we inserted an extract from the Introduction, on the " Knowledge of Revelation Progressive; -a most instructive article, from which it might be evinced, that the very means by which our knowledge of Revelation can advance, and which Professor Bush anticipates will ere long be vouchsafed to mankind,—these very means are discovered in the writings of the New Church, especially in the system of Correspondences between things natural and spiritual, which they so abundantly unfold. We now proceed to present an analysis of some of the principal portions of the work. The doctrine which has so long prevailed on this subject, he says, "is contrary both to Scripture and to reason," and he maintains from both these sources, that when man dies, he enters the spiritual world in a spiritual body, and, that his material body will never be resumed.

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'So far,' says the Professor, as we are able to apprehend the prevalent sentiments of the Christian world in regard to this subject, they suppose that the same body which is consigned to its native dust, is, at some distant day, and in some unknown manner, to be raised again and re-constructed, and the disembodied spirit, after a long exile, to be restored to its primitive habitation, newly fashioned and furnished by the hand of Omnipotence.'

The principal arguments in the work are directed to the overthrow of this position:

'The grand point,' says he, which we combat throughout, is that which affirms that no true resurrection can take place but by means of the re-union of those principles, soul and body, which constitute our being in the present life. We maintain, on the other hand, that neither reason nor revelation countenances the idea of any such re-union. All the purposes of a future existence and a state of retribution, we contend, may be answered without it; and as this view completely disembarrasses the subject of difficulties which are insuperable on any other, we must hold its claims on our credenee to be imperative.' P. 78.

* See the Number for January.

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