the Divine of the Father constitutes the Lord's Soul; that the Divine of the Son constitutes the Lord's Body; and the Divine of the Holy Spirit, or the Divine proceeding, constitutes the Lord's Operation."

I apprehend, then, that this is THE Trinity which New Church teachers should exclusively set forth as that alone advocated in the Writings of Swedenborg, under Divine authority, and deduced, like every other "doctrine of the church," from the literal sense of the Word. I apprehend that to teach that the Divine Trinity understood by the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is a Trinity of Eternal Divine Principles, namely, Love, Wisdom, and Operation, answering to the human principles of will, understanding, and operation in man, is to set forth an eternal Trinity, and not THE Trinity provided in time; and therefore is not to set forth the Trinity as taught by Swedenborg; in fact, the former is the Jewish Trinity, as handed down from the ancient church, and deduced from a knowledge of the spiritual sense of the Ancient Word, and not the Christian Trinity, consequent on the incarnation of Jehovah, and taught in the literal sense of the New Testament.

I admit that there eternally existed in God three Divine Principles, namely, Love, Wisdom, and Operative Energy. I admit that man's mind was created to be the image thereof in his will, understanding, and operative energy. I admit that it is not unlawful to argue that when God said, "Let us make man in our image," by "us" he meant, probably, the three Divine Principles just named, which, certainly, all united to create and make man an image of themselves, and thus of the Divine Mind which they together constituted. But I cannot admit that this spiritual explanation can be substituted for, and properly be presented concurrently with, the explanation referred to above, which compares THE Trinity in God our Saviour to the human trinity of soul, body, and operation. When teachers have to prove the New Church doctrine of the Trinity from the literal sense of the Word, it is obviously inconvenient to fly off into an explanation of the spiritual sense of the

terms.

Still I admit that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, do mean the Divine Love, Wisdom, and Operation, but then the Wisdom denoted by the Son is not the Wisdom of God before his incarnation, but "the Word made flesh;" it is not the Divine Wisdom in first, but in last principles; and the Holy Spirit is not the Divine Operation called "the Spirit of God," or the operative energy of Jehovah before his incarnation—and therefore when Jehovah was invisible-but the operation of God incarnate,—of God made visible;-the Divine Proceeding from the Lord's Glorified Humanity. Thus, the Divine Love is the Divine

of the Father, and is the Lord's Soul; the Divine Wisdom is the Divine of the Son, and is the Lord's Body (the Word or Divine Wisdom in ultimates, not in first principles only, as before the incarnation); and the Divine Operation of Love and Wisdom in Ultimates, and not merely in first principles, is the Divine of the Holy Spirit; it is, as already observed, the Lord's Operation from his glorified Humanity or Body.

From what has been said, it will be seen, that I mean to argue, that to set forth THE Divine Trinity as consisting of the Divine Love, the Divine Wisdom, and the Divine Operation, and not of the Divine Essence, Divine Humanity, and Holy Proceeding, or, without distinctly explaining that the "Wisdom" meant is the Divine Wisdom in Ultimates, the Word made flesh,-the Lord's Body or Humanity,and thus without confining THE Trinity to that provided in time, but suffering the thoughts, on the contrary, to confound it with the eternal principles of the Divine Nature as they existed before the incarnation; is not to set forth the doctrine of the Trinity accurately, or according to the doctrine of Swedenborg. The Christian Doctrine of the Trinity originated from the Trinity in Jesus Christ. It could not exist before Jesus Christ was born of Mary, for it is the doctrine which shews how the Divine Trinity existed in Him after He was born. The three essentials in the Divine Nature from eternity, called Love, Wisdom, and Operative Energy or Power, may be called A Trinity, but it is not THE Trinity denoted by Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

I have said that I will not refer specifically to any one particularly whom I have thought inaccurate in.his mode of illustrating the doctrine of the Trinity, in the way above described. I will, however, remark, that the incitement to write this paper originated immediately from reading a production of an esteemed American teacher and writer, in explanation of the words on which the ordinance of Baptism was instituted, and commanded to be administered in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The explainer, according to my apprehension, proceeds to establish his views from the spiritual sense rather than the literal; but without doubt these words have a genuine literal sense— -that is, teach genuine truth in that sense,—as well as a spiritual sense. It would be too much to concede to our theological opponents, that in the literal sense of these words three Divine Persons are spoken of, and therefore we of the New Church are driven to the spiritual sense for another meaning. The words are obscure in the literal sense, I admit, and hence the plausibility of the tripersonal interpretation, without explanation, until corrected by sound doctrine, namely, that the terms

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit do not mean three Divine Persons, but signify Jehovah from eternity (who is called the Father), the Humanity which he assumed and glorified (which was born a son, and therefore is called the Son of God), and the new, regenerating, Divine influence proceeding from his glorified Humanity (which is called the Holy Spirit). This explanation can be understood by any simple-minded person, and even by a child, neither of whom, however, can grasp such abstract and interior ideas as those involved in the terms Divine Love, Wisdom, and Energy; they may, indeed, be able to think of these terms as signifying the moral qualities of love and wisdom, but this is not the idea of them as essential Divine Principles, for it is as such that they are presented to us in the spiritual sense of the Word. As moral qualities, we say that both Love and Wisdom constitute the Divine Essence; and also the Divine Humanity; and also the Divine Proceeding; but as essential Divine Principles, standing in that relation to each other which is perceived in heaven, the Divine Essence is Divine Love, the Divine Form is Divine Wisdom, and the Divine Proceeding is the Divine Truth proceeding from the Divine Good. * If this statement be accurate, it is certainly much more difficult to make the spiritual sense of Matt. xxviii. 19. apprehensible to strangers to our doctrine, than the literal sense, as above pointed out. Nothing can be more easily understood than the Trinity as consisting of God's Nature before his incarnation; our nature assumed and glorified; and the Divine proceeding life brought down and adapted to human reception by means of the Divine Humanity.

Swedenborg says that the Lord is present in the Holy Supper both as to his Divinity and his Divine Humanity. In explaining John xiv. 21-23 (as well as similar passages), it should be said, therefore, in consistency with this teaching, that the literal sense speaks of the presence of the Lord God our Saviour Jesus Christ with his true disciples, both as to his Divinity and Divine Humanity; while the spiritual sense speaks of the presence of the Lord with his regenerate children, both as to his Divine Good and Divine Truth. Of course, the same distinction between the literal and spiritual sense should be observed wherever the Father and Son are mentioned in other parts of the New Testament. A SWEDENBORGIAN.

* This subject admits of illustration from the relations of the three heavens, as taking their respective leading character from love, wisdom, and action; while love and wisdom, in three distinct degrees, constitute the individual character of each angel there.

A FEW REMARKS UPON THE LIMBUS, OR CUTANEOUS COVERING WHICH MAN TAKES WITH HIM INTO THE SPIRITUAL WORLD.

[IN REPLY TO AN IPSWICH READER."]

MAN's spirit and natural body are held by the members of the New Church, and by Christians in general, to be perfectly distinct in their nature; and doubtless they are so. Yet the spirit can act upon the body, and cause it, by various motions, to fulfil its wishes and desires. The intention, on the part of a man, to move his arm or any other limb, puts instantly into action those muscles requisite to produce the motion required, which instantly follows.

Different, then, as the body and spirit may be in their natures, there must be some point of contact or communication between them, whereby the forces of life and action can be transmitted from the one to the other. For all life and power is of the spirit, and from the spirit, the body being respectively dead and inert. This point of union, then (of union, be it observed, not by continuity but by juxta-position), is doubtless where matter and spirit, though different, most resemble each other; that is to say, where matter is most perfect, subtle, or highest, and where spirit is lowest.

Heat and electricity are forms of matter most powerful and subtle in their quality, and doubtless, in those regions of the material world which border on the confines of spirit, nature has other fluids and forms of matter to which these are respectively coarse and dull. In this region, then, where matter is least material, so to speak, I conceive that spirit holds and annexes itself thereto, and by it communicates its force and power to all which is below.

If this be the case in the human body, it appears (to me at least) no way improbable that a substance so exquisitely fine in its own nature, so held by and imbued with the life of the spirit, should escape that dissolution by which all below it in the body falls away and dies, when the life of the latter comes to an end. Nor is this probability all; for it must be recollected that the entire spiritual world, composed of human spirits, acts on the natural world, and produces, as Swedenborg informs us, the various effects therein, and must therefore, as in the case of the natural body, have a point of contact or union with it; and I conceive that this lowest of the spiritual body, taken from the natural world, answers such purpose also.

I have thought it well to premise these few remarks, on the general

probability of the doctrine of a natural base or external to the spiritual body, before adverting to the precise point under question; namely, how any thing material can enter the spiritual world? with regard to which I have only to observe, that the assertion of this doctrine of the Limbus, or cutaneous covering of the spirit, in no way (as I understand it) violates the general law laid down by Swedenborg, “that matter cannot flow into spirit." For, to state that these pure forms of matter constitute, as it were, the skin of the spirit, is to state, in other words, that they always remain outside of the spirit; in which case there can be no entrance or flowing in. All the difficulty, I conceive, consists in one of those fallacies which infest us here in the life of the body, in all our endeavours to think of the spiritual world; namely, our notion of that world as a place to be in, like any part of the natural world, which notion is derived from space. The spiritual world consists of the spirits themselves, without any addition of those dead surrounding substances which appear about us in this life, and which may be said to constitute our world of nature.

It is true, that spirits appear to themselves to be surrounded with such objects in every degree of variety and beauty, but they know that this is only an appearance granted by the Lord for their happiness and instruction. They know that the real ground of existence of the things which appear around and about them is within, either in their own states of life, or in those of others near to them, for all spirit is alive-and nothing alive can exist out of a living being.

This conception of the spiritual world I admit is difficult (perhaps impossible) for us wholly to attain to while we live here; but Swedenborg again and again asserts that it is the true one. And according to this view there is no contradiction in his doctrine of the "Limbus," for that which is most external in the spiritual body, is most external in the spiritual world; and as these pure forms of matter in question constitute the extreme skin of that body, so by their position, they cannot be said to enter or flow into it.

F.

66

THE DUTIES, USES, AND BLESSINGS OF PUBLIC

WORSHIP.

MAN, during his abode in the world, ought not to omit the practice of external worship; for by external worship things internal are excited, and by external worship things external are kept in a state of sanctity, so that internal things can flow in;