spiritual sacrifice, the true heart-worship, which this ought to symbolise, they knew nothing; and therefore they sank constantly lower and lower in vice and degradation, their spiritual nature only manifesting itself by this painful and perverted attempt to propitiate;-terror taking the place of love, the true sign of the ascendancy of infernal influences. (To be continued.)

GENERAL CONFERENCE, OR ASSEMBLY OF THE NEW CHRISTIAN CHURCH IN GERMANY,

To be held October 1st, 1848, at Cannstatt, near Stutgard.

THE great changes now taking place in Germany have already had a mighty effect on civil and religious liberty. The minds of men have burst asunder the cords which kept them down under the yoke of civil and religious despotism. The spirit of freedom which has so long been struggling within, has now come forth with a giant energy which nothing can resist. This new and mighty movement of liberty is, in its first manifestation, attended with great indignation under a sense of its long languishing captivity, and bursts forth at the commencement of its new career of life and activity beyond the bounds of strict propriety,-like an elastic power long repressed, but when released, rebounds with the greatest force, striking every object in its way. When, however, the movement comes to its equilibrium, and settles down in its new state of civil and religious freedom, we may expect the happiest results for the good of mankind. The censorship of the press is now universally abolished in Germany, even in Austria, which is by far the darkest and most bigotted portion of the German States. It is difficult for an Englishman, who has so long enjoyed the full liberty of the press, to realize the sense of mental pain and bondage under which the German mind has so long laboured and suffered through this despotism over its energies. The German may now write, teach, and preach whatsoever he thinks useful to his fellow men. Churches and chapels may now be erected, as in this country, independently of the dominant, orthodox party of the Augsburgh Confession. The spirit of truth can now more freely breathe and operate, and the minds of men are already beginning to rejoice in its light and its power. An address which we have just received from Germany, entitled General Versamlung der Neuen Christlichen Kirche" has been extensively circulated in Germany and Switzerland, inviting all who feel interested in the cause of the New N. S. No. 105.—VOL. IX.

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Church, and the propagation of its doctrines, to assemble, as stated above, on the 1st of October next. We subjoin a translation of this address, which will no doubt be read with interest :

"It has been truly observed, that the time has now certainly come, when not only the constitution of states, but also the doctrines of a renovated Christianity, purified from the traditions of men, should be brought under solemn consideration. This, however, cannot be done in mixed ecclesiastical assemblies, where the parties are not yet agreed as to the primary and leading points; but in smaller circles in which the persons assembled have the same foundation of faith, and who thus prepared, come together in a greater assembly, in order that they may build upon the common foundation, and unite their energies, and coöperate together for the sake of the Church, and its establishment amongst men. Such circles have already long been formed in most countries of the cultivated world, and also in Germany and Switzerland, and in these meetings or conventions the parties agree in the following declaration of faith:

"God is love, wisdom, and life itself, and this Trinity has existed not only from all eternity in One Person, but also, when the fulness of time had come, it came forth into the world, by the assumption of human nature, and was manifest in the incarnate God, in whom, as the apostle observes, "all the fulness of the Godhead dwelleth bodily," (Col. ii. 9.) and who, as he himself declares, "has all power in heaven and on earth," and who is "the judge of the living and the dead." This incarnation, or this God-becoming-Man, was a necessity not only for this earth, but for all other earths in the universe upon which human beings exist, and not only for man on this side the tomb, but for angels and spirits on the other side, or in the spiritual world, who are in close connection with mankind here. For the thought of God as an impersonal being, who is the Infinite and Invisible, is, without being able to find a resting-place, dissipated and falls to nothing; and because God, who should be loved above all things, must necessarily have made himself accessible to the thought and the heart, and in his Humanity have drawn near to man, and exhibited his perfections in his acts. But this incarnation of God happened once for all, and according to the eternal laws of divine order grounded in his own nature, upon our earth in consequence of the relation which it bears to the universal system of worlds. Inasmuch as God is pure, disinterested, unselfish love, the end of his creation, (which is not a creation out of nothing, but, as the Scripture says, out of Himself,) can only contemplate free beings, to whom he can communicate himself, and thereby bless them and form them into a heavenly kingdom. For if men were mere instruments, and not free rational beings, God, contrary to his inmost nature, in communicating himself to them, would have only loved himself, nor could he have formed a heavenly kingdom of the human race. Men, therefore, must needs have been created free and with the possibility of falling, that is, constituted with a two-fold organization, with which a spiritual and unselfish tendency, and also an earthly and selfish tendency, are connected; this latter tendency, if not duly subordinate, being opposed to the former, so that man is placed in the middle, free to allow either the one tendency or the other to prevail within him. All evil arises from the prevalence of the earthly and selfish over the spiritual and unselfish tendency. The earthly and selfish tendency is, however, in itself not evil, but evil arises when this tendency prevails over the other. This fall and its natural consequences, God could not prevent, without changing his nature and the laws of his being, which we know is im

possible. What God, in such case, according to the established order of his unchangeable nature and operations, could do in order to help and restore his fallen creature, was to preserve the possibility of being restored, and to provide the necessary means and institutions for that purpose. No guilt was inherited by the posterity of the fallen race,—that is, no evils for which they were responsible,-they did, however, inherit an hereditary tendency to evil, which when unrestrained and indulged, must necessarily unfit them for happiness in that spiritual world which is inseparably connected with their spiritual organization; because every man after he lays down his material body, takes himself, that is, his very being and nature, which he, in freedom, has contracted and made his own, into that world; and it is only the unselfish tendency of the love of God operating in the soul, which makes a man capable of true and lasting happiness. That hereditary tendency to evil must, by the actual sins of succeeding generations, have been increased, and at length have become so strong, that regeneration or preparation for heaven would have been impossible, had not God in his infinite love and pity, by the assumption of our nature, have become our Redeemer, and accomplished universal redemption by subjugating the hells, and by glorifying his Humanity. This divine work He accomplished according to the laws of his own divine order. So infinitely important was this work, that had it not been performed, both the natural and the spiritual worlds must have perished; for evil spirits would, by the departure of wicked men from the world, have so much increased in the world of spirits, as to have rendered the operation of God through heaven of none effect upon the minds of men; hence no flesh could have been saved if "God had not been manifest in the flesh," to work out redemption by destroying these works of the devil, and delivering mankind from their infernal bondage. The Humanity which he assumed could on the one side reach into the deepest depths of human degradation, and hence "save to the uttermost," by drawing them to himself;-thus his Humanity, on the one side, partook of our nature and its hereditary tendencies to evil; and on the other, that is, in its inmost ground, was united with the Father himself, and thus he had the power of overcoming the hereditary tendency to every thing evil and false, and of subjugating the powers of darkness connected therewith. In this manner he gradually put off everything inherited from the mother, and thus glorified his Humanity and made it divine. By this means he also restored and established the spiritual equilibrium between heaven and hell, and secured freedom to the human mind, that it might freely love and choose what is good and true, and thus be saved. In this way he also established order in both worlds, which, by the Spirit proceeding from his glorified Humanity, he can constantly and eternally uphold and preserve. He thus really took upon himself and bore the sins of the world, not by imputation, but by inheritance from a mother, whose nature was sunk in the common depravity; and by means of this human nature he made himself accessible to temptations, which he in all cases overcame by the Father, or essential Divinity dwelling within him. Hence he became, as the apostle says, "perfect through sufferings," or temptations, the last of which was the passion of the cross, by which he completed the work of redemption and of glorification, and finally ascended above the heavens, that he might enter into his glory, and exercise all power in heaven and on earth.

"Now if the spiritual freedom and power by which mankind could thus be saved, were again restored, it is evident that the divine justice, that is, the divine order, was satisfied, and a universal forgiveness of sins could be proclaimed. But it was not God who was reconciled,--and by no means through the shedding of the blood,

and the death of an innocent victim,—for God had never ceased to love mankind, and his justice is not injustice,-not Asiatic despotism,-but mankind who were his enemies were reconciled, that is, by redemption they were placed in a friendly relation to God. Hence the apostle nowhere says, that "God was reconciled to the world," but the contrary, that "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself." But individual reconciliation with God, and consequent salvation, can only be realized in man in proportion as he avails himself of the divine power procured by redemption, and performs actual repentance by turning away from evil because it is a sin against God, and by allowing the Lord's Spirit to prevail within him, and in this manner to feed on his Flesh and Blood, (of which bread and wine in the Holy Supper are the corresponding symbols,) and to appropriate them in faith and love by keeping the divine commandments. Men, therefore, are by no means saved (as is sometimes stated by objectors against the New Church) by their own merit; it is, however, most true, that we are saved by the reception and appropriation of the Lord's gifts of love and faith, and of the fruits which proceed from the heavenly marriage or union of those two divine principles; so that faith can by no means be placed in opposition to love or charity and good works, for as the Apostle says, the only thing that availeth is 'the faith which worketh by love;' and again, ‘If I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and huve not love or charity, I am nothing.' Again says the apostle, 'Every one will be judged according to his works, according to what he hath done in the body.' He therefore who hath the faith working by love,' is, as the Lord says, not condemned; but he who has not this faith is already condemned, for he thereby manifests his perverse state and disposition, which is incapable of salvation, and is consequently of his own accord separated from heaven, he shuns the light because his deeds are evil.'

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Every man, after the death of his material body, continues to live in a spiritual body, with all his senses and mental powers far more acute, and his "works do follow him." Those departed souls, however, who had left the world in a mixed state of good and evil, and who, in consequence, were not decided in their character, remained in the world of spirits, or the intermediate world between heaven and hell, until the time of the harvest, when a general judgment would be performed, by which the wicked would be removed into hell, and the good raised from the intermediate world into heaven. The Scriptures no where say that this judgment is to take place at the end of the world, or that the human race will perish; but the Scriptures declare that such a judgment is to take place at the consummation of the age,' that is, at the period when the church should come to its end; for the aion, in Scripture, does not mean the world, but a period of time, or an age, especially that period or age through which a dispensation, or a church, such as the Jewish, and also the first Christian church lasted. (See Hebrews ix. 26.) Thus, at the end of this age, a judgment is executed upon spirits in the world of spirits. This judgment, and the consequent removal of the wicked, and the resurrection or the elevation of the good, are, as the Scripture says, acts of redemption, and have also correspondent effects in the natural world, at which time a new age, or aion, or a new church, commences, for the Lord Himself says, in reference to this new age or period,- Behold, I make all things new.' "If these doctrines of the New Church were generally received and practised; if the unity and true worship of God were not destroyed; and if His divine commandments were not rendered of non effect, and even set at nought, by prevailing false doctrines, which destroy, even in the tender minds of children, the very germs of vital religion and of genuine morality,-if all this were not actually the case, we should

certainly have better times, and should be more established in order, harmony, and peace. The best civil constitution is of no use to us whatever, if the states of our people are not so improved and elevated as properly to enjoy the superior privileges and liberties it confers. But the doctrines of the New Church, which, like a compact and beautiful city, cohere together, are eminently calculated to improve and elevate the minds of men, and to promote and accomplish the regeneration of the church, and to make it so universal as that one flock and one Shepherd shall be acknowledged."

After this follows an enumeration of the various works in which the

doctrines of the New Church can be read and known. Amongst these works the following tracts, translated from the English, are especially mentioned, viz. :-"The True Object of Christian Worship," &c.; "The Apostolic Doctrine of the Atonement," &c.; Is it true that we cannot keep the Commandments?" &c.; and also the "Catechism" prepared by the General Conference.

We have translated and inserted this Address, not because it contains anything new for our readers, but in order that our brethren in England may see that efforts are now made in Germany to collect the scattered receivers of the doctrines of the New Church in that country and in Switzerland, that they may organize themselves into an association for extensive usefulness in promoting the Lord's New Kingdom upon earth.

EDITOR.

SWEDENBORG'S THEOLOGY AND THE MASSACHUSETTS REVIEW.

(EDITED BY R. W. EMERSON.)

SWEDENBORG has become a mighty man of influence; not only is he claimed as the scribe of the New Church, others, also, have laid claim to him, not exactly as their leader, but rather as their most distinguished supporter. Some preach his doctrines, who are ashamed of his name; some believe them in private, but disavow them in public; some believe, but for the sake of a worldly fashion prefer to worship with disbelievers." Swedenborg has, however, an "unquestionable fascination," as Mr. Emerson expresses it, over all these classes. Idealists, attracted by his great name, and wonderful powers of mind, have also taken a remarkable fancy to our venerated Swede. They will have it, that "of all moderns, he is the strictest and faithfullest idealist!" How curious are the cross views of the world! Some say that Swedenborg has carnalized heaven; "No such thing," say others, "he has rather spiritualized earth!" Which way, gentlemen of the opposition, is it? Perhaps we who believe neither, are much nearer the truth than either. Idealists,