the affections of the mind, which manifest themselves visible in the face; and from the will, which by muscular forms flows into action, &c. Thought and will, which produce such effects, are spiritual and celestial principles, whereas the forms or substances, which receive and put them into art, are material; that these latter were formed altogether for the reception of the former is evident; hence it is plain, that the latter is derived from the former, and thus, unless they were so derived, they could not possibly exist as they are." ("A. C.," 3741.) If Swedenborg be any authority, we must admit that the body lives as well as the soul, and by its own life too; i. e., by the life which it receives, and that it does not live the life of another; for he says that the angels are recipients of Divine Life from the Lord, and also that the forms and material substances appertaining to man are of such a nature and quality as to be capable of receiving that life. If this be true, those substances must live that life in their degree, as the substances of the soul live it in their degree. Nothing can be plainer than that man is a recipient of life even to the ultimates of his body, for it is said, that the forms and material substances of man are of such a nature in their degree as are the forms and spiritual substances of angels in theirs, and that the life is manifested in the countenance, affections, and speech of the body. The body is formed by the presence and operation of life, which ever remains in it as its sustainer, and this is its life as essentially as the life of the highest angel is his life; and, therefore, the body is a real part of the man, and it is the only part that lives in this world. Hence Swedenborg says "What person, when he addresseth himself to another, directeth his address to his invisible soul? Or indeed how is such address practicable? Doth he not rather address that real visible man, whom he seeth face to face, and with whom he converseth mouth to mouth?" ("T. C. R.," 107.)

"T. R." makes some approach towards our view when he says"When the dead substance is organized by the action of life from a subject constituted of living substances, I can see that I ought to think of the thing organized, as to its use from the essence of the living substance which has formed it." After which he relapses, and states—“But then, I cannot see that, when my mind is turned to the dead substance of which I know it to be composed, I ought not still to think of this from the law by which I know it to be governed." From which it appears that our friend fixes his thoughts steadfastly upon mere matter, and thinks of it as it is in its unorganized state independently of that in which it exists, and of the properties it possesses, as if the form and its properties, and the life by which it is actuated, were proper to mere [Enl. Series.-No. 63, vol. vi.]

H

matter. Permit us to say again, that all that we know of matter, or any substance, is its properties; and if we form one idea of matter when it has only the properties of unorganized substance, ought we not to form another idea of it when it possesses additional and superior ones, as well as an additional and a superior form? Yes, it may be said, but those superior properties, together with the form, are derived from a superior substance, which has taken possession of and organized matter into its own form, and imparted to it its own properties. Granted that it is so; for if it has life only from another source, it is the same in that respect as all other finite things are. We maintain that a living thing is not composed of dead substance; take, for instance, a man or an animal, and think about either, and ask is he or it a dead thing? And will not our senses reprove us for such folly? Common sense says, how can a living thing be dead? We are aware that it may be said, I speak of the dead substance as it is when distinct and separate from the organized and living form. But it is the organized substance of the living form that is the subject in question; and it is quite useless to say that we do not mean the thing, but the substance of which the thing is composed; for there is not anything which is not a substance, and its substance is itself. When the mind is turned to the dead substance it is not thinking of the living subject.

T. R. says, in page 33, that after death the interior natural substances, which have been the subjects of affections and thoughts, "fall back to their real state, in accordance with their nature and essence, and subserve a purpose that is merely material and fixed." With a remark or two on this statement, in order to guard the novitiate and simple against error, we close this review. We cannot believe in the existence of mere matter in the spiritual world, nor, consequently, of the performance of any material purpose there; and we are well aware that our author nowhere authorizes us so to think. To us such a statement appears to present a contradiction even upon the very surface. Neither can we admit of fixedness in the spiritual world in the sense in which Swedenborg uses that term, but we believe it to be a condition peculiar to the ultimate only. There is no condition proper to spiritual substance, nor to any existence in the spiritual world; even the cutaneous covering of spirits and angels has not that property, although it is from the purer parts of nature. If fixity existed in the spiritual world, there would be no such thing as general influx into the natural world; from which the reflecting mind may see that in that case the natural, the things wasted, could not exist at all. It is because fixity is not a property of the spiritual world that external things there exist in

accordance with internal things, all external objects being perfectly obsequious to the internal states of the angels and spirits; the cutaneous covering with which they are encompassed is also subject to the same condition. We believe that the above statement is a laxity of expression which does not convey the real idea of our friend. We have now the thoughts of both before us, and while we regret that we cannot at present agree with our friend, still we hope that by mature and deliberate consideration the ideas of both may be so modified that we may be in some degree reconciled to each other, while the public will be enabled to read both, and dispassionately decide for themselves according to their own judgments.

S. S.

66

THE GOODNESS OF GOD.

Extracted from God Manifest: a Treatise on the Goodness, Wisdom, and Power of God," &c., by the Rev. O. Prescott Hiller, recently noticed in this Periodical.

Now we are brought to the consideration of the Goodness of God, as affirmed in the pages of Divine Revelation. And is it in the power of language to speak with more directness and positiveness, or in terms stronger, or with illustrations more apposite and touching, than are presented in the Holy Scriptures, in reference to the goodness and love of our Heavenly Father? Hear this! listen to God Himself describing His own love and tenderness toward men, His creatures! "But Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will not I forget thee."* What a charming illustration is that here selected! It is not a father's affection with which the Lord compares His love; one would have thought such a declaration sufficiently earnest. No! it is a mother's love, that is taken for the illustration,-a mother's love, in its fulness of tenderness-her love for her helpless, new-born babe. Such, and no less, is the tender affection of our Lord toward us, His creatures. Nay, He is not content with even this illustration: He affirms that His love goes beyond this. For it might be a possible thing, it is said, even for a mother's love to fail,-for everything human is weak and changeful, though, least of all affections, the love of a mother. But God is absolutely unchangeable, and His love is infinite. Greater than a mother's love? yes, infinitely! For it is to be remembered, that a mother's love

*Isaiah xlix. 14, 15.

itself, and a father's too, and all the parental affection of all beings in the universe, are but streams out of the exhaustless fountain of the Divine love. Again :- Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty glory in his might, nor the rich glory in his riches but let him that glorieth, glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me,-that I am the Lord, who exercise loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth; for in these things I delight, saith the Lord."* What an earnest and straightforward declaration is this! Note, then, the following -"Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand, and His arm shall rule for Him; behold His reward is with him, and His work before Him. He shall feed His flock like a shepherd; He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and shall gently lead those that are with young." Here is another tender simile,—that of a shepherd, leading and feeding his flock, and carrying the little lambs on his arm and in his bosom. Can anything be conceived more tender than this? Can any language be used, more strongly expressive of the affectionate loving character and nature of our Heavenly Parent— who made us, who redeemed us, who watches over us night and day, to keep us and to bless us, and to lead us as His flock to the pastures of everlasting green in the realms above? Read, too, that charming twenty-third Psalm (which every child should learn by heart), where the same idea of the Lord as the good Shepherd is continued :—“ The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul; He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Surely, goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever." How sweet are the pictures here presented to the mind, of the Lord's tender care and keeping and guidance of us, through life, and through death, and for ever!

And shall we give all this up? Will any one, who has once read these passages and numberless similar ones scattered throughout the precious Volume, be willing to resign the comfort afforded by these delightful assurances, coming, as they do, directly from God Himself,and fall back upon the cold and uncertain speculations of human reasoning, unsustained by Divine Revelation? What would the great ancients, Cicero, or Socrates, or Plato, have given for the treasures of such a * Jeremiah ix. 23, 24. + Isaiah xl. 10, 11.

Revelation as that we now possess! Behold them—the best and wisest of those ancient philosophers-painfully groping their way to a belief in God and the immortality of the soul. In that twilight of the intellectual day, what mists and gloom hung everywhere over the mental landscape, and not only bounded and narrowed the view of earthly things, but quite covered over the heavens above as with a thick cloud. Hear Cato,-as Addison has represented him to us,-when about to put an end to himself, with a Roman's barbarous idea of courage, and in ignorance of that sentiment of true bravery,

"The coward sneaks to death: the brave lives on"

soliloquizing, with his sword lying before him, on the possibility of there being another state of existence, after the close of this :

"It must be so: Plato, thou reasonest well!

Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire,
This longing after immortality?

Or whence this secret dread and inward horror
Of falling into nought? Why shrinks the soul
Back on herself, and startles at destruction?
'Tis the Divinity that stirs within us;
'Tis Heaven itself that points out a hereafter,
And intimates eternity to man.

Eternity! thou pleasing, dreadful thought!
Through what variety of untried being,

Through what new scenes and changes must we pass?
The wide, th' unbounded prospect lies before me,
But shadows, clouds, and darkness rest upon it.
Here will I hold. If there's a Power above us,

(And that there is, all nature cries aloud

Through all her works) He must delight in virtue;

And that which he delights in must be happy.

But when? or where?-This world was made for Cæsar!

I'm weary of conjectures :-this* must end them."

Here we behold depicted the state of mind of even the purest and loftiest spirits of the ancient world. From the want of Revelation, the future was all doubt and uncertainty; and for want of the light of a glorious future shining on the path of life, the present also was wrapped in clouds and gloom; and all the ways and courses of things seemed to them to be "out of joint," and without any guiding principle, and rushing on haphazard to confusion and destruction. Though all the works of nature seemed plainly to proclaim to the reason the existence of a great Creator and "Power above," still there was not that satisfying certainty, that delightful and peaceful assurance of the fact, which

* His sword.