with the doctrines communicated in a revelation from him, who is “not the author of confusion, but the God of order," than discord can claim kindred with harmony, or deformity with beauty. The superior character of the views of the New Church will be obvious to those who are willing to give them a candid and serious investigation: the more interiorly these are examined, the more their consistency and coherence are seen, and, when applied to the unfolding of the arcana of revelation, disclose new scenes of spiritual light and beauty, and exhibit their agreement with the Word, in a point of view that awakens increasing wonder and delight. It would afford us sincere satisfaction, would our limits permit (and thousands, we are convinced, would respond to our feelings), to pursue this delightful subject: to shew how the doctrines of genuine truth, like the rod of Moses at the rock of Horeb, open up the interior fountains of vital instruction concealed in the bosom of Sacred Writ, and lead the mind to repose in the green pastures of the Word; and to satisfy its thirst at the "waters of peace," that "restore the soul." We must, however, confine ourselves to the subject under immediate consideration, and trust it may furnish a theme of both profitable and pleasing meditation.

The heavenly doctrines we have the privilege of possessing, are based on the great fundamental truth advocated throughout the Scriptures the absolute unity of the godhead: our God is ONE both in Essence and in Person. This is the foundation whereon our city rests; and "the chief corner stone," that gives strength and stability to our temple is the truth, that this one God has manifested himself, is seen, and is to be approached in the glorified Person of Jesus Christ alone, who is the visible divine form of the invisible divine essence. The position that there is but one God, and that Jesus Christ is that God, is supported by the concurrent evidence of the whole of "the law," and of "the testimony," whether in Moses, in the prophets, or in the evangelists. The "testimony of Jesus" is "the spirit" that pervades the whole of revelation; and the text we are discussing equally points to this all-absorbing theme of inspiration. This is plainly indicated in the former portion of these words of the Lord: "And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine OWN SELF." This declaration cannot possibly be understood upon any other grounds, than those of the New Church. The Humanity prays to be glorified with all that constitutes the Father, with THE DIVINE SELF. To suppose that it was a second person in the trinity that assumed the human nature; and, consequently, that in addition to its own divinity, or divine self, it prayed to be further glorified with another divine

self, and thus to possess two (and upon the general tri-personal doctrines we may add three) divinities, is really too preposterous to bear the slightest glance of common sense. It is plain that the term Father is the appropriate title of the one divinity,-that the Son is the Humanity in which the Divine self, or essential Divinity, has manifested itself, and that the glorification here spoken of is, that complete and indissoluble union of the two natures into one person, affirmed by the apostle, where he declares, "In Jesus Christ (or the Humanity) dwelleth all the fulness of the godhead bodily. Now it must be obvious to every one who reflects on the harmony of divine truth, that there can be no discrepancy in a divine revelation; and we hope to shew that the latter portion of this passage is in perfect agreement with the former, and that both concur in testifying the two fundamental truths on which our doctrines stand-the absolute unity of the godhead, and the supreme and exclusive divinity of Christ.

To see the beautiful connexion between this and the subsequent part of the petition," with the glory which I had with thee before the world was"-it will be necessary to offer a very few brief remarks on the incarnation and glorification of the Humanity. In announcing the former subject, the inspired evangelist (John) declares, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God; and the Word was God, and the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us" (John i. 1, 14). It is generally admitted that the Word signifies the divine wisdom, and it would hence follow that the Lord's humanity that humanity which says, "And now, O Father," &c., was "the Word," or divine wisdom "made flesh." The first thing required to illustrate the subject, is to consider what was the state of the divine wisdom, as it existed "before the world was.' We will not stop to refute the arguments in which ignorance and error are so ready to shelter themselves, by exclaiming against being "wise above what is written ;" we will only remark that whilst we are fully sensible that we cannot attain an adequate conception of that which is infinite, we would yet, nevertheless, remind those who are indifferent to attaining the highest conceptions of the divine perfections, which finite intellects are capable of attaining through the medium of revealed truth, that they are satisfied with being wise fully below what is written and we are fully convinced that whensoever we approach divine subjects, in that spirit of humility and reverence with which Moses was admonished to draw near "the burning bush,"-" Put thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground;"-we realize the privilege of having our minds elevated

into interior things, and of beholding "the power and glory of the Lord, as he is seen in the sanctuary” (Ps. Ixiii. 2).

We have already observed that "the Word" is generally admitted to be the divine wisdom to this definition we would merely add that it is the divine wisdom, within which is the divine love. That the divine wisdom is infinite, needs only to be stated, in order to be seen. "Before the world was," wisdom existed in its infinite form alone; because then there were no finite intelligences into which it could flow in a finite form. But after finite existences were created, wisdom, although infinite in its source, became finited in the recipient subjects created for its reception. No finite intellect can embrace that which has no limits; all that the highest angelic intelligences can attain to, are conceptions of the divine wisdom, which, howsoever high, fall immeasurably below the reality. Wisdom as adapted to, and perceived by, finite minds, or as an object of finite thought, is truth; and as wisdom is capable of being infinitely varied and adapted to every possible variety of the reception of created beings, truth may be said to be infinite, in which sense it is called "divine truth." Still, although all that is truly human, whether in man or in its highest states of perfection in angels, is divine in its origin—is God in a finite state of reception in man, as it is written, "he called them gods, to whom the Word of God came:" wisdom, or more properly speaking, truth, although capable of being infinitely varied, is, notwithstanding, in its derived form, finite. Even the aggregate intelligence of the whole of angelic existences, immense and inconceivable as it may be, has nevertheless, its limits; and how widely soever the bounds of finiteness may be enlarged, there yet remains an immeasurable distance between that and infinity. This truth is most beautifully expressed by Solomon, at the dedication of the Jewish Temple (1 Kings viii. 27). "Behold," he says, "the heaven, the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee." Truth in this its finited form, is termed "truth divine." The Lord is said to be "the Word made flesh." The Humanity assumed, consisted of all the principles of humanity, from their highest state of perfection among angels to their most imperfect condition in man. Thus the infinite wisdom or "Word" was "made flesh," by investing itself in the Lord's person with "truth divine," or truth in its finited form. But inasmuch as truth divine is, as to its origin, infinite, therefore, in the person of Him in whom the inmost seat of the life even of his Humanity, was from his own essential divine nature, or the Father, truth divine could become divine truth, or truth in its

infinite perfection, and all that was required for this was, the separation of those imperfections adhering to the derivative principles of love and truth, as they exist in merely finite minds. The passage we have been considering, describes the state of the Humanity in the prospect of its glorification, or elevation from truth divine to divine truth, and from divine truth to divine good. In the contemplation of this union, the Lord, after describing the preparatory process of separation his Humanity had experienced (verse 4)-"I have finished the work thou hast given me to do"-adds, " And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self," indicating the approaching union of his Humanity with divinity, so that as to the principles he assumed he would become the divine truth itself; that is, truth in the infinite variety which it ever possessed in potency (or of which it was capable) brought into actuality-within which is the divine good itself; and thus "truth divine" embodied, and glorified in his humanity by absolute union with its divine source, might become infinite, and enter into the glory of the divine wisdom as it existed "before the world was."

DALETH.

ON THE MIND AS AN ORGANIZED FORM, CONSTITUTED OF SPIRITUAL, NATURAL AND MATERIAL SUBSTANCES. (In a Letter to a Friend.)

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You ask for some explanatory observations on the following passage in n. 38 of the True Christian Religion (and to which, for convenience in referring to it, I shall affix the No. 1).

1. "The human mind is an organized form, consisting of spiritual substances within, and of natural substances without; and, lastly, of material substances." (To this passage, allow me to add the following passages, which I shall also number for reference, as suitable for consideration at the same time).

2. "The human mind, which consists of the understanding and the will, is nothing else but a form of divine truth and divine good, spiritually and naturally organized, which form is the human brain” (T. C. R. 224).

3. "That similar formations obtain in the human mind and the human body, is evident by reason of the invariable correspondence which all the parts of the mind have with all the parts of the body" (T. C. R. 38).

4. "The life of man is in its first principles, by which are meant

the will and understanding, in the brains, and in its principiates, or things produced and formed from their first principles, in the body. That the first things of life are in the brains, is manifest from this, that when a man applies his mind to any thing, and thinks, he perceives that he thinks in the brain; he draws inwardly as it were his eye-sight, and keeps his forehead intent, and perceives that there is inwardly a speculation, chiefly within the forehead, and something above" (D. L. W. 365).

5. "The soul is composed of such substances as belong to the spiritual world; and the body of such as belong to the natural world; the soul is from the father, and the body is from the mother; the body is not man in itself, but by derivation from the soul." "The body may be either after the father's or mother's image, the true image of the father still remaining within, and continually endeavouring to unfold itself" (T. C. R. 103).

6. "Every man after death casteth off the natural body which he had from his mother, and retaineth the spiritual body which he had from his father, together with a certain circum-ambient accretion (limbus) derived from the purest parts of nature, and which is beneath the spiritual body with those who go to heaven, but is uppermost, and the spiritual beneath, with those who go to hell" (T. C. R. 103). 7. "All the spiritual part of man is from the father, and all the material part from the mother. With respect to the Lord, what was divine appertaining to Him, was from the Father [answering to what is spiritual with man, but so from the Father as not to be individually divisible from him, A. C. 1999], and what was human from the mother; and these two united are the Son of God." "During his abode in the world, the Lord put off by acts of redemption [or by overcoming the hells in temptation] the whole humanity which he had from his mother, and put on a Humanity from the Father, which is the Divine Humanity, so that in him man is God, and God is man” (T. C. R. 103). 8. "All evils reside in the natural mind, which derives its form partly from substances of the natural world" (D. L. W. 270). "In me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing" (Rom. vii.) The Word was made flesh" (John i.) "The body is the seat of all irregular lusts and impure desires." ("The Oriental philosophy about the time of our Saviour," according to Mosheim.) Compare also A. C. 2018, with Gal. v. 17.

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*In remarking on passage No. 1, I am led, in the first place, to ask, * In some of the above passages I have somewhat altered the arrangement of the words of E. S., but that alteration has not at all affected the sense.