was a descent from the first into the last or ultimates of creation, a putting.on of all degrees and principles in the heavens and in the earths, in the works and in the Word of God. "Jehovah bowed the heavens and came down, He rode upon a cherub and did fly, yea, He did fly upon the wings of the wind" (Ps. xviii. 9), and this to the end that the heavens might be restored to order, the powers of hell subdued, the Word fulfilled, that he might lead captivity captive, and accomplish the mighty work of redemption. A new and living way was thus opened, communication restored between the infinite and the finite by the glorification of the HUMANITY. "God was manifest in the flesh."

M. M. C.

ARTICLE III.

THE DEATH PENALTY.

We are well aware that there is often something of a hazardous assumption in claiming for any particular sentiments on matters of science, doctrine, or morals, that they are strictly and emphatically the New Church views of the subject, inasmuch as other Newchurchmen may think that an entirely different view is that of the New Church as taught in its writings; yet we must still judge, each one for himself, as to what is most in accordance with the letter and spirit of the Heavenly Doctrines. In the exercise of this liberty we have, for ourselves, long since settled down firmly in the belief of the intrinsic right and justice of capital punishment for the crime of murder, and consequently as we can only conceive of the N. C. doctrines as harmonizing with the eternal principles of order and equity, we cannot but regard those doctrines as sanctioning this feature of the criminal code of most Christian countries. We know, indeed, that many Newchurchmen have been led to adopt a different opinion, which of course we have no desire they should relinquish till they see ample reason for it. But it surely is not too much to ask that they shall weigh with candor the argument proposed in the following paragraph from Rev. Mr. Noble's "Sermons on the Divine Law" (Serm. xvin.), in which the subject comes up for remark under the precept "Thou shalt not kill." After observing that a more correct translation of the words would be-"Thou shalt do no murder," inasmuch as the taking away life under all circumstanis not intended to be prohibited, neither has the Hebrew term strictly the latitude of meaning implied in our English word "to kill"—he goes on to say:

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"THAT any circumstance should ever arise which make the taking away of the life of a fellow-creature necessary, is deeply to be deplored; but that such cases may and do exist, it seems to be only pseudo-philanthropy, and a high degree of fanaticism, that can deny. Thus, the punishment of death, for great offences, is most indisputably allowable; nor does it appear that any advantage can accrue, either to society or to the criminal, by not awarding it. There are some crimes which so close the interiors of the human mind, shut out the influences of heaven, and induce, consequently, such callousness of feeling and hardness of heart, that it is next to impossible that the person who has been guilty of them should ever be reformed; but, in

general, continuance in life would only be applied by such a being further confirmation in evil, and to the opening in his soul of lower and lower depths of iniquity, thus connecting him with, and finally sinking him into, a more direful hell. Nor can the reformation of any person take place, or have its first commencement, in any state which is not one of perfect liberty: but would it be wise, or justifiable, in any government, for the sake of the very slight probability of a great criminal's reformation, to let him loose again upon the public, to see whether or not he would repeat his former crimes? Would it be right, for instance, to allow a person who had committed the crime which our law calls murder, being the same that is chiefly meant in the literal sense of this commandment,-which is, the deliberately, and with previous malice, destroying the life of another, -ever again to go at large, affording him again the opportunity of destroying the lives of unoffending members of society? No speculator, I believe, in theories of legislation, has ever carried his tenderness to criminals so far as this; but many have recommended that the greatest of criminals, even the most desperate murderers, instead of being put to death, should simply be condemned to perpetual imprisonment, which some would make solitary confinement, The incongruity is rather palpable which supposes, that a person who has committed the most irreparable of crimes, by depriving an innocent fellow-citizen of his life, and has thus rendered it impossible that he can ever again be admitted within the pale of society, should, ipso facto, and as if he were the injured party, have acquired a title to support, at the public expense, for the rest of his days; much more just and reasonable does it appear to be, that the community should undertake the maintenance of the widow and children of the innocent man, who has been exposed to be murdered through the inefficiency of the police regulations. But leaving out of the account the consideration of expense (though it may well be doubted whether there is not something radically defective in all those forms of intended punishment, which, while they entail a continued heavy expense upon the public, in too many instances only operate to the perfecting of criminals in their arts, and as a bonus upon the commission of crime; but leaving out of the account the consideration of expense), it is doubtful whether the supporting of the murderer in prison would be any real charity to the wretched culprit. Our doctrines evince most clearly, that no real repentance,-such repentance as changes the heart, can be commenced in a state of constraint; and however, in such a state, a man may profess contrition, and persuade others, and even himself, that he is an altered character, still, set him at liberty, and the state of mind, and of superficial reformation, induced during confinement, will speedily wear off, and, in a little time, the state will return in which he was prior to his apprehension, and the individual will be again just what he was before. If indeed a man, after having been guilty of a crime, begins truly to repent, and to become a reformed character, before he is brought to answer for it to the law, thus while he is in a state of freedom, his repentance and reformation may be confirmed and advanced during his confinement

afterwards; it will also, whether he continues here or not, greatly affect his state in the other life; but if amendment had not begun before, it cannot efficiently be afterwards produced. A state of constraint quite closes the interiors of the mind; so that any change which may be commenced in such a state affects the exteriors of the mind only; and it is all abolished again, whenever the interiors resume their action. As then the safety of the public will not allow of the turning of a great criminal again loose upon society, by which alone he could have an opportunity of beginning an effectual repentance; as, in the great majority of cases, instead of then truly repenting, he would return to the commission of his former crimes; and as the keeping of him in prison till released by death, however long that consummation might be protracted, would not enable him to make any better preparation for his final change than if sent to meet it at his first apprehension;-there seems to be no reason, either of expepediency or charity, for departing, in the punishment of great criminals, from the course pointed out by the common instinct (so to speak) of mankind, sanctioned, as it is, by the declarations of Scripture; all which unite in deciding, that 'Whoso sheddeth man's blood (in the way of murder), by man shall his blood be shed' (Gen. ix. 6). And there are some other crimes to which the same law justly and reasonably applies."

ARTICLE IV.

THE MAN OF THE EARTH.

WHEN We realize the oneness of the human race, its individuality, its human form, and its one divine soul and life, how the heart warms to our brother man; what an active energy of love we feel in the perception that our existence is of use in the universal man of the earth, that like some delicate fibril of a nerve, we are receptacles and conductors of the essence of life. What an incitement to us is this, to seek to purge from ourselves every obstruction of the false and evil, that the will and understanding of our divine soul, may flow through us with a bounding joy of life, and with the fulness of all its infinite, eternal purposes.

At present, the man of the earth is undergoing a process of regeneration. The physical-sensual man has become a perverted form of life. But in the natural good, preserved by the external influx of the divine soul, has been born a perception of an inner life. The world sated in wickedness, like a weary man, dreams of that good and beautiful time, when in the innocent lovingness of a young child it rested in its mother's bosom, unstained with crimes, and doing in simple obedience the will of its divine Father. Thus from the remains of its infancy, in an hour of natural good, is born a disgust for its present vile condition, and the yearning for the beautiful innocency of wis

dom, and that freedom of virtue which will break the slavish bonds that bind the strong man to vice.

Who can doubt but that the Lord, as the divine soul, will aid the human spirit to triumph over its material organization; that the form may become the means and not the end of life. It is just as certain, that the Lord will aid the universal regeneration of the man of the earth, as that He does that of the individual man who is an atomical form of the universal man. That this process is correspondingly slow and grievous to be borne; that it consists of six weary days of combat with the false and evil before the celestial rest of the Sabbath is attained, we all know, but like the tired laborer, we may solace ourselves in our labors with the vision of the peaceful and beautiful Sabbath, when we may rest in the bosom of love. This vision grows in our hearts, it is a perception born of our love, it looks not for its coming joys in the outer world, but within to the serene heaven that unrolls itself in the knowledge and thought of man. Yes, it is to heaven that we look for a picture of the world's future. Through Swedenborg, the Lord has revealed to us the inner life that is seeking to ultimate itself upon the earth. It is not what man will do, but what the angels of God will do through man as a voluntary, free agent, and co-worker with the angels, that will make the Edens of heaven to bloom upon the earth. The Lord has revealed to us the art, the grace, the purity of the spirit-life that must descend from spirit into matter, that must be born through men upon the earth, that there may be harmony and accord between the internal and external man of the universe; that the joy of the Lord may be perfect in the infinite fulness of His divine being, from firsts to lasts.

The order of heaven is the type of the order that will reign upon earth, and what is this order? Heaven is composed of innumerable societies in the form of man, looking to the Lord as their soul and life, as their will and understanding. In heaven there can be but one government, one sovereign will and Lord, in whom omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence, are essentials. Heaven is ruled as the finite human body is by its soul, with the same universal power, presence and knowledge, with which the soul dwells in the human body, and carefully guards it from evil, and feels its slightest sensation of pain and pleasure, and knows the uses and capacities of its various organs. Does the Lord live in heaven? Then as every sensation of the body must refer itself back to the soul, so every sensation of heaven must refer itself to its divine soul, and every society in heaven. must recognize itself as an organ of that infinite soul, and must acknowledge the divine will in it as its only ruling principle. This, too, must be the ultimate order of earth. The unregenerate man is ruled by appearances of truths; he lives in a world of representative forms, and he bows to the semblance as to a reality. But the spirit is being revealed to man, and representatives and appearances will then be in great measure done away with. Kings, and thrones, and principalities and powers, have been representatives of the divine power; but when the Lord reveals Himself in the fullness of His humanity, then He alone will be worshiped; nations, like organs of use, will refer themselves to His will, and He will be the highest

in each nation who is most absolutely divested of self-will and the love of dominion. The earth then will be full of the glory of the Lord, law will lose its terrors, and become simply the order of life. It will not be fear but love, that shall govern each individual. "Is it good?" will be the guiding question in every act of life.

This process of regeneration is beginning to work itself out upon the earth. The embryo life of love is felt in the New Church. Those who are in truths have consociated themselves together to do good, to communicate each one his truths to the whole, thereby increasing the medium of circulation for goods. As a celestial church, we hold the most important relations to man, however individually insignificant we may be. As the heart and lungs of the new man of the earth, we are the centre and medium of life to the world. Let us look upon our high and holy mission, and realize its vast use, that we may truly glorify the Lord our God, and perform our use with rejoicing hearts, and in an utter self-abnegation. To us there is no more real ground of self-glorification than there can be to some tiny blood vessel that bears the rejoicing life-blood to the heart, or some invisible nerve, that, like a magnetic cord, receives its impulse from the brain and writes its will upon the external world. We are but mediums. We have not chosen ourselves, but the Lord has fashioned and fitted us for our work.

The New Church, as the bride of the Lord, is to be the mother of all coming generations. From the dust of the nations He has lifted her up, and by an external act He has co-joined Himself to her. When Robert Hindmarsh and the few simple believers in the New truths, banded themselves together in the single and unselfish desire to communicate these goods and truths to others, and asked of the Lord a token of His willingness that they might sign the New believers with the holy sign of baptism into the New heavens, and seal them with the holy seal of the Lord's Supper, in conjoining them to the personal sphere of the divine good and the divine truth; then did the church take form upon the earth in the celestial-natural deThen did the divine love flow into her as an organ receptive of life, and virtue go forth from the office of one appointed by an external act, the result of an internal impulse of the divine love and wisdom, that illustration from the divine intelligence might be communicated to those who approach the Lord in faith.

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The New Church was formed as unobtrusively as our Lord was born upon the earth. He descended to the earth, not to awaken in man a love of worldly pomp and earthly grandeur, but to show the nothingness of these when compared with the glories of the inner life. It was that He might draw the thoughts and affections of man upward and within that He lived so humble and quiet an external life; and thus it has been with the New Church. Beginning like an embryo life, it has attracted for nearly a century no outward obser vation. Men are drawn to it by interior perceptions of truth, and not by any glare of worldly hope. With the forms of worn-out hierar chies it has nothing to do; it is a banded brotherhood of the love of truth, because it is truth.