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in Christ as Mediator, Redeemer, and Saviour; which implies that an offence is given and taken, and reconciliation is to be made, and redemption from sin, and the curse of the law broken, and compleat salvation to be effected by Christ: all which supposes men to be sinful, as it does. But then men are chosen in Christ, not as the meritorious cause of election, but as the mean or medium of bringing them to the happiness they are chosen to.--It is moreover taken notice of that the transitus in scripture is not from election to creation, but to vocation, justification, adoption, sanctification, and salvation. But, for instance, can vocation be supposed without creation? It is thought that this way of considering men as fallen in the decree of election, is more mild and gentle than the other, and best accounts for the justice of God; that since all are in the corrupt mass, it cannot be unjust in him to chuse some out of it to undeserved happiness, and to leave others in it, who perish justly in it for their sins; or that since all are deserving of the wrath of God for sin, where is the injustice of appointing some not unto the wrath they deserve, but unto salvation by Christ, when others are fore-ordained to

just condemnation and wrath for their sins? But on the other hand, what reason also can there be to charge God with injustice, that in as much as all are considered in the pure mass of creatureship, that some should be chosen in it, and others be passed by in it, and both for his own glory?

These are some of the principal arguments used on both sides. The difference is not so great as may be thought at first sight: for both agree in the main and material things in the doctrine of election; as,-(1.) That it is personal, and particular; is of persons by name, whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.-(2.) That it is absolute and unconditional, not depending on the will of men, nor on any thing to be done by the creature.-(3.) That it is wholly owing to the will and pleasure of God, and not to the faith, holiness, obedience, and good works of men ; nor to a foresight of all or any of these.-(4.) That both elect and non-elect are considered alike, and are upon an equal foot in the decree of predestination; as those that are for the corrupt mass they suppose that they were both considered in it equally alike, so that there was nothing in the one that was not in the other; which was a reason

why the one should be chosen and the other left: so those that are for the pure mass suppose both to be considered in the same, and as not yet born, and having done neither good nor evil. (5.) That it is an eternal act in God, and not temporal, or which commenced not in time, but from all eternity for it is not the opinion of the Sublapsarians that God passed the decree of election after men were actually created and fallen, only that they were considered in the divine mind from all eternity in the decree of election as if they were created and fallen. Where fore, though they differ in the consideration of the object of élection, as thus and thus diver sified, yet they agree in the thing, and agree to differ, as they should, and not charge one another with unsoundness and heterodoxy, for which there is no reason.

"Calvin was for the corrupt mass; Beza, who was co-pastor with him in the church at Geneva, and his successor, was for the pure mass; and yet they lived in great peace, love, and harmony. The Contra-remonstrants in Holland, when Arminianism first appeared among them, were not agreed in this point; some took one side of the question, and some the other; but they both united against the com

mon adversary, the Arminjans, Dr. Twiss, who was as great a Supralapsarian as perhaps ever was, and carried things as high as any man ever did, and as closely studied the point, and as well understood it, and perhaps better than any one did; and yet he confesses that it was only apex logicus, a point in logic; and that the difference only lay in the ordering and ranging the decrees of God: and, for my own part, I think both may be taken in ; that in the decree of the end, the ultimate end, the glory of God, for which he does all things, men might be considered in the divine mind as creatable, not yet created and fallen; and that in the decree of the means, which, among other things, takes in the mediation of Christ, redemption by him, and the sanctification of the Spirit, they might be considered as created, fallen, and sinful, which these things imply. Nor does this suppose separate acts and decrees in God, or any priority and posteriority in them, which in God are but one and together; but our finite minds are obliged to consider them one after another, not being able to take them in together and at once."]

SWEDENBORGIANS, so called from the late Hon. Emanuel Swedenborg, son of

Jasper Swedenborg, bishop of importance, compared with West-Gothia. He was born the distinguished privilege of

having, as he supposed, his spiritual sight opened, and conversing with spirits and angels in the spiritual world. He first began to have hist

at Stockholm in the year 1689, and died in London in 1772. He early enjoyed all the advantages of a liberal education, having studied with great attention in the academy of revelations in London. He Upsal, and in the universities asserted, that on a certain of England, Holland, France, and Germany. Endued with uncommon talents for the acquirement of learning, his progress in the sciences was rapid and extensive; and at an early period in life he distinguished himself by various publications on philosophical subjects. His philosophic studies led him to refer natural phenomena to spiritual agency, and to suppose that there is a close connexion between the two worlds of matter and spirit. Hence his system teaches us to consider all the visible universe, with every thing that it contains, as a theatre and representation of the invisible world from which it first derived its existence, and by connexion with which it continually subsists.

Baron Swedenborg's extraordinary genius and learning, accompanied with the purity of his life and uprightness of his character, attracted the public notice. Hence he received various literary and political honours. These, howeyer, he considered of small

night a man appeared to him in the midst of a strong shining light, and said, "I am God, the Lord, the Creator, and Redeemer: I have chosen thee to explain to men the interior and spiritual sense of the sacred writings. I will dictate to thee what thout oughtest to write." He affirmed that after this period his spiritual sight was opened so far, that he could see in the most clear and distinct man ner what passed in the spiri tual world, and converse with angels and spirits in the same. manner as with men... Accordingly, in his treatise concerning heaven and hell, he relates the wonders which he saw in the invisible worlds; and gives an account of various, and heretofore unknown particuculars, relating to the peace,' the happiness, the light, the order of heaven; together with the forms, the functions, the habitations, and even the gar-, ments of the heavenly inhabi tants. He relates his conver sation with angels, and describes the condition of jews,

mahometans, christians, clergymen of every denomination, laity, &c., in the other world. Baron Swedenborg called the doctrines which he delivered, "The Heavenly Doctrines of the New Jerusalem." It is thus styled; for, according to his system, the New Jerusalem signifies the new church upon earth, which is now about to be established by the Lord, and which is particularly described, as to its glory and excellency, in Rev. xxi., and many other parts of the sacred word. The holy city, or New Jerusalem, he interpreted as descriptive of a new dispensation of heavenly truth, breaking through, and dissipating the darkness which at this day prevails on the earth. The laws of divine order,

and the economy of God's kingdom, providence, and operation, will be more clearly and fully understood; and the hearts of men will be thus opened to a nearer intercourse with heaven, and rendered admissive of the purer influences of gospel love and charity in their lives and conversation.

The following extract contains the general outlines of Baron Swedenborg's theological system.-(1.) That the sacred scripture contains three distinct senses, called celestial, spiritual, and natural; and that in each sense it is divine truth, accommodated respectively to the angels of the three heavens, and also to men on earth." -(2.) That there is a correspondence between all things in heaven and all things

* Baron Swedenborg observes in his " Arcana Cœlestia,” that there are in general four different styles in which the word is written. The first is what was in use in the most ancient church, who, when they mentioned earthly and worldly things, thought of the spiritual and celestial things represented thereby; so that they not only expressed themselves by representatives, but also reduced their thoughts into a kind of historical series or arrangement. From the posterity of the most ancient church Moses received what he wrote concerning the creation, the garden of Eden, &c., till the time of Abraham. The second style is historical, occurring in the books of Moses from the time of Abraham till the times of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and the Kings; in which books the historical relations are such as they appear to be in the letter, but yet every part of them contain things altogether different in the internal sense. The third style is prophetical, which took its rise from the style of the most ancient church. This style, however, is not connected like the historical and that of the most ancient church; but is broken and interrupted, being scarcely ever intelligible but in its internal sense, wherein are contained the greatest arcana, which succeed each other in a beautiful and orderly connexion, having relation to the internal and external man, to various states of the church, to heaven itself, and in their inmost sense to the Lord. The fourth style is that of the Psalms of David, which is between the prophetical and the ordinary style of speaking; in which, under the person of David as king, the Lord is treated of in an internal sense

in man; and that this science of correspondences is a key to the spiritual or internal sense of the sacred scriptures, every page of which is written by correspondences; that is, by such things in the natural world as correspond unto, and signify things in the spiritual world.* (3.) That there is a divine trinity of Father, Son, and holy Ghost, or in other words, of the all-begetting Divinity, [Divinum a quo] the divine human, and the divine proceeding, or operation; and that this trinity consisteth not of three distinct persons, but is united as body, soul, and operation in man, in the one person of the Lord Jesus Christ, who therefore is the God of heaven, and alone to be worshipped; being Creator from eternity, Redeemer in time, and Regenerator to eternity. (4.) That redemption consisteth not in the vicarious sacrifice of the Redeemer, and an atonement to appease the divine wrath; but in a real subjugation of the powers of darkness; in a restoration of

order and good government in the spiritual world; in checking the overgrown influences of wicked spirits on the souls of men, and opening a nearer and clearer communication with the heavenly and angelic powers; in making salvation, which is regeneration, possible for all who believe on the incarnate God and keep his commandments.-(5.) That there is an universal influx from God into the souls of men. The soul, upon receiving this. influx from God, transmits it through the perceptive faculties of the mind to the body. The Lord with all his divine wisdom, consequently with all the essence of faith and charity, entereth by influx into. every man, but is received by every man according to his state and form. Hence it is that good influxes from God are changed by the evil nature of their recipients into their opposites; good into evil, and truth into falsehood.—(6.) That we are placed in this world, subject to the influences of two most opposite princi

Correspondence, in a philosophic sense, is a kind of analogy that one thing bears to another, or the relation subsisting between the essence of a thing and its form, or between the cause and its effect. Thus the whole natural world corresponds to the spiritual world; the body of a man, with all its parts, corresponds to his soul; and the literal sense of the word corresponds to the spíritual.

The natural, or material world, in which we live, as to the body, proceeds derivatively (in a sense consistent with the Mosaic account of the creation) from the spiritual world, and subsists by continual influx from it. As a spiritual thing, it is formed into a palpable and material thing, as an essence clothing itself with a form, or as a soul making to itself a body.

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