ples, of good from the Lord an intermediate state for deand his holy angels, of evil parted souls, which is called from hell or evil spirits. the world of spirits; and that While we live in this world very few pass directly to heaour spirits have their abode ven or hell. This is a state of in the spiritual world, where purification to the good; but we are kept in a kind of spiri- to bad spirits it is a state of tual equilibrium by the con- separation of all the extranetinual action of those contrary ous good from the radical evil powers; in consequence of which constitutes the essence which we are at perfect liberty of their natures.-(9.) That to turn to which we please; throughout heaven, such as that without this free-will in are of like dispositions and spiritual things regeneration qualities are consociated into cannot be effected.* If we particular fellowships, and submit to God we receive real such as differ in these respects life from him; if not, we re- are separated; so that every ceive that life from hell which society in heaven consists of is called in scripture spiritual similar members.—(10.) That death (7.) That heaven and man immediately on his dehell are not arbitrary appoint cease rises again in a spiritual ments of God. Heaven is a body, which was inclosed in state arising from the good his material body; and that affections of the heart, and a in this spiritual body he lives correspondence of the words as a man to eternity, either in and actions grounded on sin- heaven or in hell, according cere love to God and man: to the quality of his past life. and hell is the necessary conse- (11.) That those passages quence of an evil and thought- in the sacred scripture, geneless life, enslaved by the vile rally supposed to signify the affections of self-love, and the destruction of the world by love of the world, without fire, &c., commonly called being brought under the re- the last judgment, must be ungulations of heavenly love, by derstood, according to the a right submission of the will, abovementioned science of corthe understanding, and actions, respondences, which teaches, to the truth and spirit of that by the end of the world, heaven.--(8.) That there is or consummation of the age, Baron Swedenborg maintains that the free agency of man consists not in a liberty independent of HIM in whom he lives, moves, and has his being; but it is a continual gift from the Fountain of all life and liberty; so that he cannot be said to act of himself, but as of himself. It is a leading doctrine of Baron Swedenborg, in his explanation of the other books of scripture, that one of the principal uses for which the word is given is, that it might be a medium of communication between the Lord and man; also that earth might be thereby conjoined with heaven, or human minds with angelic minds; which is effect is not signified the destruction descending from God out of of the world, but the end, or heaven. consummation, of the present christian church, both among Roman Catholics and Protestants of every description* and denomination that this consummation, which consists in the total falsification of the divine truth, and adulteration of the divine good of the word, has actually taken place, and, together with the establishment of a new church in place of the former, is described by correspondences, and ed in the Revelations, in the internal sense of that book, in which the new church is meant, as to its internals, by the new heavens, and as to its externals, by the new earth; also by the New Jerusalem natural things with spiritual, according to which the word is written; and that in order to its being divine, [divinum verum in ultimio] it could not be written otherwise that hence, in many parts of the * An ingenious author, who has embraced the doctrines of the New Jerusalem church, thus explains this subject: "It may be expedient to observe that there is a last judgment, both particular and general, as it relates to an individual of the church, or to the church itself collectively considered. The last judgment, as it relates to an individual, takes place with every one when he dies; for then he passeth into another state of existence, in which, when he cometh into the full exercise of the life which he had procured to himself in the body, he is judged either to death or to life; i. e. to hell or to heaven. The last judgment, as it relates to the church collectively considered, takes place when there is no longer any genuine love and faith in it, whereby it ceaseth to be a church. Thus it was the last judgment of the representative church, which existed with the jews when the Lord came into the world; wherefore the Lord said, Now is the judgment of this world, now is the prince of this world cast out. And the apostle Peter, preaching on the day of Pentecost, applies the prophecy of Joel to those times, and to the circumstances then existing, in which similar things are declared to take place as at the end of the christian church; viz, Wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour, and smoke; the san turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, &c. The last judgment of the christian church established by the Lord, is the accomplishment of what was foretold by the Lord in the evangelists, and by John in the revelations, which accomplishment has now taken place. This accomplishment, however, is not so manifest in the church on earth, where appearances are for a longer time kept up, as it is in the world of spirits, the intermediate state between heaven and hell," See Notes on Swedenborg's Doctrine concerning the Ford, by Mr. Hill. letter, the word is clothed with the appearances of truths accommodated to the apprehension of the simple and unlearned; as, when evil passions are attributed to the Lord, and where it is said that he withholdeth his mercy from man, forsakes him, casts into hell, doeth evil, &c.: whereas such things do not at all belong to the Lord, but are so said in the same manner as we speak of the sun's rising and setting, and other natural phenomena, according to the appearance of things, or as they appear to the outward senses. To the taking up such appearances of truth from the letter of scripture, and making this or that point of faith derived from them the essential of the church, instead of explaining them by doctrine drawn from the genuine truths, which in other parts of the word are left naked, Baron Swedenborg ascribes the various dissensions and heresies that have arisen in the church, and which, he says, could not be prevented consistently with the preservation of man's free agency, both with respect to the exertion of his will and of his understanding. But yet, he says, every one, in whatever heresy he may be with respect to the understanding, may still be reform ed and saved, provided he shuns evils as sins, and does not confirm heretical falses in himself; for by shunning evils as sins the will is reformed, and by the will the understanding, which then first emerges out of darkness into light; that the word, in its lowest sense, is thus made the medium of salvation to those who are obedient to its precepts, whilst this sense serves to guard its internal sanctities from being violated by the wicked and profane, and is represented by the cherubim placed at the gates of Eden, and the flaming sword turning every way to guard the tree of life. His doctrine respecting differences of opinion in the church is summed up in these words: "There are three essentials of the church; an acknowledgment of the Lord's divinity, an acknowledgment of the holiness of the word, and the life which is charity. Conformable to his life, i. e. to his charity, is every man's real faith. From the word he hath the knowledge of what his life ought to be, and from the Lord he hath reformation and salvation. If these three had been held as essentials of the church, intellectual dissensions would not have divided it, but would only have varied it as the light varieth colours in beau-* tiful objects, and as various jewels constitute the beauty of a kingly crown.” The moral doctrines of the New Jerusalem church are comprised under general heads, collected from Swedenborg's writings, and prefixed to some proposals published in England for the organization and establishment of a society. Under those general heads it is proposed to promote marriages on the principles of the new church; which are, that true conjugal love consists in the most perfect and intimate union of minds, which constitutes one life, as the will and understanding are united in one; that this love exists only with those who are in states of regeneration; that after the decease of conjugal partners of this description they meet, and all the mere natural loves being separated, the mental" union is perfected, and they are exalted into the wisdom and happiness of the angelic life. Baron Swedenborg founded his doctrines on the spiritual sense of the word of God, which he declared was revealed to him immediately from the Lord out of heaven. As his language is peculiar, T his reasoning cannot be abridged so as to be rendered intelligible to the generality of readers. Those who are de sirous of farther information are referred to his numerous and singular productions.. Those who embrace the tenets of Baron Swedenborg are numerous in England, Germany, Sweden, &c. Societies are also formed in different parts of Europe for spreading his doctrines; and where societies have not been formed, there are individuals, who admire his writings and embrace his sentiments, particularly in England, France, Germany, Holland, Sweden, Russia, Poland, Turkey, and even in the East and West Indies, and America.* SYNCRETISTS, a name given to the followers of Calixtus. See Calixtins. SYNERGISTS, so called, from the greek oppyELα, which signifies co-operation. Hence this name was given to those in the sixteenth century who denied that God was the sole agent in the conversion of sinful man, and affirmed that man co-operated with divine grace in the accomplishment of this salutary purpose.† Summary View of Swedenborg's Doctrines, pp. 12-90. Swedenborg on the New Jerusalem, pp. 28-34. On the Lord, p. 88. On Influx, pp. 28, 29. On Heaven and Hell, pp. 2-5. On the Doctrine of Life, p. 116, Ou Divine Providence, Note 259. On Arcana Cœlestia, pp. 47, 48, On Apocalypse Revealed, vol. i. p. 37. On Aphorisms of Wisdom, pp. 52–54. Hindmarsh's Defence of the New Church, pp. 281-362. Dialogues on Swedenborg's Theological Writings, pp. 11-37, † Mosheim, vol, iv, p. 40. TAL ABORITES, a denomination in the fifteenth century; so called from a mountain well known in sacred History. They not only insisted on reducing the religion of Jesús to its primitive simplicity, but required also that the system of ecclesiastical government should be reformed in the same manner; the au thority of the pope destroyed, the form of divine worship changed. They demanded, in a word, the erection of a new church, a new hierarchy, in which Christ alone should reign; and all things should be carried on by a divine direction and impulse. The famous John Zisca, a Bohemian knight, was the leader of tris denomination. They maintained that it was lawful to persecute and extirpate with fire and sword the enemies of true religion. And some of the principal doctors among the Taborites, such as Martin Loquis and his followers, flattered themselves that Christ would descend in person upon earth, armed with fire and sword, to extirpate false opinions in religion, and purify the church from its multiplied corrup tions. Soon after, however, this denomination abandoned the doctrines which, upon se * Mosheim, vol. iii. pp. 260, 264. Mosheim, vol. ii. pp, 448, 419. Gilpin's Life of Zisca, p. 296, Ibid, vol. i. p. 180, |