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as secondary to the one grand one, that of making his calling and election sure, by the willing reception of those heavenly affections, which, by uniting and conjoining him with the Lord, prepare and qualify him for the delightful society of "the spirits of just men made perfect." Yes, then, and then only, can God be " 'satisfied,"-not when innocence gives, but when guilt receives-not when good suffers in the room of evil, but when evil is exchanged for good. How affectingly does the Lord, in condescension to our apprehensions of things, express this his earnest longing that his people would suffer him to bless them! 66 "Oh! that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear Me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them and with their children for ever!" "Oh! that my people had hearkened unto me!-for, if Israel had walked in my ways"-"How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee, Israel? My heart is turned within me; my repentings are kindled together!" Is this the language of a Being desiring his anger, or his love to be satisfied?

Purposing, gentlemen, to continue this subject, if it meets with your approbation, my space admonishes me to conclude, for the present, with subscribing myself, with every sentiment of affection and respect,

Your faithful servant,

CLERICUS.

Vicarage,

March 23, 1840.

SWEDENBORG NOT A SEMI-MATERIALIST.

PERHAPS among the whole range of authors, no one who has written so extensively, will be found more consistent with himself than the enlightened Swedenborg. Yet his writings, in common with all others, possess this characteristic, that passages may be so detached from their connexion, or incidental illustrations may be put so prominently forward, as general and absolute truths, as to countenance opinions which are undoubtedly at variance with their author's true meaning. This appears to be exemplified in a paper in your last number, entitled, "On the mind, as an organized form, constituted of spiritual, natural, and material substances ;" the writer of which has culled a few scraps, principally from various parts of the True Christian Religion, and so arranged them as to make them appear to favor, what he calls, Semimaterialism :" and so convinced does he appear to be of the truth of

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such an opinion, and of the necessity of maintaining it, that he says, "I am not to be scared from the fair, and, I may say, dutiful and reverential interpretation of E. S., by any fear of consequences whatever;" and he tacitly censures the "religious world," for stigmatizing avowed materialists as infidels. However, he says, that "if any friend can defend E. S. from this supposed charge of semi-materialism, by shewing that I have misinterpreted his words, by mistakingly putting a sense upon them, which it can be proved he never intended, I assure you, that I am open to conviction." To defend E. S. from what I consider a mis-interpretation of his views, by exhibiting his unequivocally expressed sentiments, is the object of this communi

cation.

Your correspondent says, that for members of the New Church to speak of the mind as "in" or "within" man, exhibits an indefiniteness of idea; but to use the term "body," meaning the material body, to signify the mind, or a part of the mind, manifests the possession of a comprehensive and definite idea! To me, it really appears that it would be equally comprehensive and definite to say that a nut-shell is a nut. But let E. S. speak for himself, and decide whether his followers misconstrue his statements, by such assertions.

"That the spirit of a man is his mind, and whatsoever proceeds from it.

By the spirit of a man, in the concrete, (mark this!) is meant his mind alone; inasmuch as it is this only which lives after death, and is then called a spirit; if good, an angelic spirit, which afterwards becomes an angel, but if evil, a satanic spirit, which afterwards becomes a satan. The mind of every one is his internal man, which is actually a man, and dwells within the external man that makes its body; wherefore, on the rejection of the body by death, it is in a complete human form. The spirit of a man is alone possessed of the power of thought by virtue of the understanding, and of action by virtue of the will; and since the body possesses no such power of itself, but only by derivation from the spirit, it follows, that by the spirit of a man is (also) signified his intelligence and love affection, and whatsoever proceeds as an operation from them." (This is illustrated by)" Bezaleel was filled with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and understanding, and knowledge." Exod. xxxi. 3. "Joshua was full of the spirit of wisdom." Deut. xxxiv. 9, &c. &c." (T. C. R. n. 156) "The difference between a man in the natural world, and a man in the spiritual world, is, that the latter man is clothed with a substantial body, but the former with a material body, within which is his sub

stantial body; and a substantial man sees a substantial man as clearly and distinctly as a material man sees a material man; a substantial man, however, cannot see a material man, nor can a material man see a substantial man, by reason of the difference between what is material and what is substantial; the nature of which difference may be described, but not in a few words." (n. 793)

(Here it must be observed, that E. S. uses the term substantial, not in its common acceptation, but to signify what is spiritual, as distinguished from what is material).

"The mind of man is his spirit, which lives after death; and his spirit is continually in consort with its like in the spiritual world; whilst, by means of the natural body, with which it is clothed, it is in consort with men in the natural world. Spirits in the spiritual world, think and converse spiritually, whereas the spirit of man, during its residence in the material body, thinks and converses naturally." (n. 475)

"Whoever rightly considers the subject, may be aware, that the body does not think, by reason that it is material; but the soul does think, by reason that it is spiritual. The soul of man, respecting the immortality of which so much has been written, is his spirit; for this is immortal as to every thing that belongs to it; and this it is that thinks in the body. For the spirit is a spiritual existence; and that which is spiritual receives that which is spiritual, and lives in a spiritual manner; and to live in a spiritual manner, is to exercise thought and will. All the rational life, therefore, which appears in the body, belongs to the spirit, and nothing whatever of it to the body. For the body, as just observed, is material; and materiality, which is what is proper to the body, is a thing added, and almost as it were, adjoined, to the spirit, in order that the spirit of man may live, and perform uses, in the natural world; all the objects of which are material, and, in themselves, devoid of life. Now, since what is material does not live, but only what is spiritual, it may appear with certainty, that whatever lives in man, is his spirit, and that the body only serves it mechanically, just as an instrument serves a living motive force. It is usual, indeed, to say, respecting an instrument, that it acts, moves, or strikes; but to suppose that these powers belong to the instrument, "and not to that through which it acts, moves, or strikes, is a fallacy." (H. H. n. 432) "The spirit is the real man,-which exists in a form similar to that of the body.—I have heard from heaven, that some who die, while they lie upon the bier, before they are recuscitated, actually think in their cold body," (there can be no cerebral action here,) "and are not concious but that they are alive still, except with this difference, that

they cannot move a single material particle, all these belonging to the body alone." (n. 433)

"These truths are mentioned, in order that the rational man may be convinced, that man, viewed in himself, is a spirit, and that the corporeal frame which is added to him for the sake of the functions he has to perform in the natural and material world, is not the man, but only an instrument that is wielded by his spirit." (n. 435)

Many passages, similar to the foregoing, might be quoted from E. S. and from those parts of his writings where he is professedly treating of the subject now under consideration; and not from those parts, where they are merely incidentally introduced for the sake of illustrating other propositions; but, to avoid lengthened quotation, the above may be sufficient to prove, that semi-materialism formed no part of his creed. Nothing is more distinctly taught in his writings, or more repeatedly declared, than that the spirit is the real man, and that the spirit is a perfect organism, composed of spiritual substances, which are organically arranged. in exact correspondence with the material organism. Thus, that all the affections and perceptions of the mind, are the activities of a spiritually organized structure. To illustrate and confirm this fundamental principle of New-Church Psychology, E. S., makes frequent use of his extensive anatomical knowledge; and from the wonderful and delicate organization of the human brain, the numerous and complicated parts of which it is composed, and its resulting exact adaptation to be the especial organ by which the affections and thoughts of the soul can be manifested in outward nature, he argues, that as we behold in the natural material substances of the body such a refined arrangement to fit them for the use they are intended to perform, so likewise we may conclude that the spiritual substances of which the mind is composed, possess a similar organization and arrangement: and he further states, that these two distinct organizations so exactly correspond, that, while the life of the body continues, they constitute a one, like a cause principal and a cause instrumental, acting simultaneously. But to assert from these premises, that the material human brain is the soul or mind, or any part of the soul or mind, would be a complete solecism, and diametrically opposed, not only to the line of argument which Swedenborg has adopted, but to those descriptions of the actual nature and quality of the soul or mind, which he gives as the result of his intercourse with the spiritual world.

In proceeding to notice those passages to which your correspondent refers, it will be necessary to observe, that E. S. occasionally makes

use of terms in a different sense from his general and more precise use of such terms; and that, if the occasional sense in which such terms are used, should be taken for their more general or precise sense, our author may be made to inculcate ideas quite opposed to the general tenor of his writings. This is a fact worthy of being particularly borne in mind; because it would seem, that an inattention to this point, or a giving of undue importance to the exception, at the expense of the rule, has frequently been the cause, why persons, alike interested in the truth, have differed in their interpretation of Swedenborg. Thus, to illustrate and confirm this observation: we have just seen, that when writing expressly on the subject, E. S. says, that "all the rational life which appears in the body, belongs to the spirit, and nothing whatever of it to the body;" and yet in T. C. R., n. 443, he says, "The body may act morally, and talk rationally, and yet the spirit it contains may entertain desires and thoughts which are directly opposite to morality and rationality." Now these seemingly contradictory passages are easily reconciled; for, in the first, E. S. uses the term body, in its general acceptation, as distinguished from the mind or spirit; whereas, in the second quotation he uses it in an occasional sense, and as synonymous with what he elsewhere more exactly denominates "the external man;" and this is evident from his saying lower down, "Hence may be seen, what is properly meant by the external and internal man, and that there is no possibility of deciding on the morality of the internal man, from the apparent morality of the external." Respecting this internal and external man, E. S. further says, "The internal and external man which have been treated of, are the internal and external of the spirit of man; his body is only an additional external, within which they exist; for the body does nothing from itself, but from its spirit which is in it. It is to be observed, that the spirit of man after its separation from the body, thinks and wills, speaks and acts, the same as before; to think and to will, is its internal, and to speak and to act, is its external." (H. D. 46) The internal and external of Swedenborg, therefore, are terms analagous to the spiritual and natural of the Apostle Paul, who makes use of two terms (Pneumatikon and Psychikon), both of which signify the soul. A similar interchange of terms occurs in the first quotation from E. S. in the present paper, where the phrase "external man,” is used to signify the material body. Hence we may perceive the absolute necessity of noticing the sense in which E. S. uses the terms he employs. For to persist, in the last mentioned instance, in understanding the phrase,

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