and phantasy adorns both his own slaves and others on whom he would practise his illusions. But it is well to be marked, that these two kinds of love may possibly have more sway over the little than over the great, over the poor than over the rich, over subjects than over kings, the latter being born to dominion and wealth, which they come at last to regard just as a private indi vidual, as for instance a governor, or a person in office, or the captain of a ship, or even as a poor husbandman, regards each his own household and possessions: the case however is different with such kings as pant after dominion over the kingdoms of other sovereigns. The reason why the intentions of the will ought to be searched out is, because the love resides in the will, which is its receptacle, as has been shown above: it is from hence that every kind of love exhales its delights, and infuses them int the perceptions and thoughts of the understanding, which do nothing of themselves, but are wholly influenced by the will, for they favor its impulses, consenting to and confirming what ever is agreeable to its love; so that the will is the house itself in which the man dwells, and the understanding is a court to it, through which he goes in and out. This then is the reason why it was said, that the intentions of the will ought to be searched out; for when this is done, the man is elevated out of the natural will, which is possessed by hereditary and actual evils, into a spiritual will, by which the Lord reforms and regenerates the natural, and thereby the sensual and voluntary principles of the body, and thus the whole man. 534. Those who never examine themselves may be compared to sick people, whose blood is become corrupt, in consequence of some obstruction in the very minute vessels, whence arise atrophy, sluggishness of the limbs, and acute chronic disorders, occasioned by the thickness, tenacity, acrimony, and acidity of the humors and consequently of the blood; but those who examine themselves even as to the intentions of the will, are like those who are cured of such diseases, and restored to the life which they enjoyed in their youth. Those who rightly examine themselves are like ships laden with gold, silver, and precious merchandise from Ophir; but before they examine themselves they are like ships laden with all kinds of dirt and filth from the streets. Those who interiorly examine themselves are like mines whose sides glitter with the ores of precious metals; but before they examine themselves they are like stinking bogs, full of snakes and poisonous serpents with shining scales, and noxious insects with glittering wings. Those who do not examine themselves, are like the dry bones in the valley; but when they have examined themselves they are like the same bones upon the Lord Jehovah laid sinews, and brought flesh, and which he covered with skin, and put breath into, and they lived (Ezek xxxvii. 1-14). which VIII. THAT THOSE ALSO DO THE WORK OF REPENTANCE, WHO, THOUGH THEY DO NOT EXAMINE THEMSELVES, ABSTAIN FROM EVILS BECAUSE THEY ARE SINS; AND THIS KIND OF REPENTANCE IS DONE BY THOSE WHO PERFORM WORKS OF CHARITY FROM A RELIGIOUS MOTIVE. 535. Since actual repentance, which consists in self-examination, in the knowledge and acknowledgment of sins, in supplication to the Lord, and in beginning a new life, is exceedingly difficult in the Reformed parts of Christendom, for reasons which shall be given hereafter, we will here mention an easier kind of repentance; which is, that when a man is meditating and intending any evil, he should say to himself, "I meditate and intend this; but as it is a sin I will not do it." By this means the temptation injected from hell is repelled, and its further entrance prevented. It is wonderful that every one can chide another who intends evil, and say to him, "Do not give way to it, because it is a sin ;" and yet it is with difficulty he can say the same to himself; because in the latter case the will is affected, but in the former only the thought which borders next on the organs of hearing. Inquiry was made in the spiritual world as to who could do what is here described; and so few were found capable of doing it, that they might be compared with doves in a wide wilderness. Some said they could do it, but they could not examine themselves, and confess their sins before God. Still, however, all those who do good from a religious motive avoid actual evils; and yet how rarely do they reflect on the interiors that regard the will, imagining that they are not in evils because. they are in good; yea, that the good conceals the evil! But, my friend, the first constituent of charity is the shunning of evils, as the Word, the decalogue, baptism, the holy supper, and reason too, all teach; for how can any one flee from evils and put them away, unless he look into himself? And how can good become good, unless it be inwardly purified? I am well aware that all men of piety, and likewise all men of sound reason, will assent to this doctrine, and discern it to be genuine truth, and yet that few will practise it. 536. Still, however, all those who do good from a religious motive, whether they be Christians or pagans, are accepted by the Lord, and a lopted after death; for the Lord said, "I was hungry, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me in; I was naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Come, ye blessed, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (Matt. xxv. 34 to the end). To what has been said I shall add this new information, that all those who do good from a religious motive, reject after death the doc trine of the present church concerning three divine persons existing from eternity, and likewise the faith of that church as applied to those three persons separately, and turn themselves to the Lord God the Saviour, and imbibe with pleasure the doctrines of the New Church. But others, who have not lived in the practice of charity from a religious motive, have hearts of adamant thus hardened against divine impressions. These first approach three gods, afterwards the Father alone, and lastly no God. They regard the Lord God the Saviour merely as the Son of Mary by her marriage with Joseph, and not as the Son of God; and then they shake off all the goods and truths of the New Church, and presently join themselves with the spirits of the dragon, and are driven along with them into deserts or caverns, which lie in the furthest limits of what is called the Christian orb; and after a time, being separated from the new heaven, they rush into the commission of heinous crimes, and are there fore cast down into hell. Such is the lot that awaits those who do not practise works of charity from a religious motive, under a persuasion that no one can do good of himself but what is meritorious, and so omit doing good, associating themselves with the goats, who are condemned and cast into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels, because they never practised what the sheep did (Matt. xxv. 41, &c.). It is not there said that they did what is evil, but they did not do what is good; and those who do not do good from a religious motive do evil; since 66 no man can serve two masters; but either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other" (Matt. vi. 24). And Jehovah saith by Isaiah, "Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes: cease to do evil; learn to do good; and then, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like purple, they shall be as wool” (i.16—18): and by Jeremiah, "Stand in the gate of the house of Jehovah, and proclaim there this word: Thus saith Jehovah of Hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings. Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of Jehovah, The temple of Jehovah is here (that is, the church). Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all those abominations? Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers? Behold, even I have seen it, saith Jehovah" (vii. 2-4, 9—11). 537. It is to be remarked, that such as do good from the impulse of mere natural goodness, and not at the same time from a religious motive, are not accepted after death, because there is nothing but natural good, unaccompanied by spiritual, in their charity, and it is spiritual good alone which conjoins the Lord to man, and not natural without it. Natural goodness is of the flesh alone, received by birth from a man's parents; but spiritual goodness is of the spirit, being received by a new birth from the Lord. Those who do good works of charity from a religious motive, and consequently do not commit evil, before they have received the doctrine of the New Church concerning the Lord, may be compared to trees that bear good fruits, although but few; likewise to trees that bear excellent fruits, though of small size, which nevertheless are preserved with care in our gardens. They may also be compared to olive-trees and fig trees growing in forests, and likewise to fragrant herbs and balsamic plants growing on hills: they are besides like small chapels or houses of God, where pious worship is performed; for they are the sheep on the right hand, and the rams which the goats assault, according to Daniel, viii. 2 to 14. In heaven they are clothed in red garments, and after they are initiated into the goods of the New Church, they are clothed in purple garments, which, in proportion as they receive truths also, contract a tinge of beautiful yellow. IX. THAT CONFESSION OUGHT TO BE MADE BEFORE THE LORD GOD THE SAVIOUR, AND AT THE SAME TIME SUPPLICATION FOR HELP AND POWER TO RESIST EVILS. 538. The Lord God the Saviour ought to be approached, because he is God of heaven and earth, the Redeemer and Saviour, to whom belong omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, mercy itself, and at the same time righteousness; also because man is his creature, and the church his sheepfold, and he has over and over in the new covenant enjoined that men should approach, worship, and adore him. That he alone ought to be approached, is insisted on in these words in John: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, be that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber; but he that entereth in by the door, is the shepherd of the sheep. I am the door; by me if any man enter in he shall be saved, and shall find pasture. The thief cometh not but to steal, to kill, and to destroy; I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd" (x. 1, 2, 9—11). Man is forbid to climb up some other way, to prevent his iminediate approach to God the Father, who is invisible, and consequently inaccessible, and incapable of conjunction; on which account he himself came into the world and made himself visible, accessible, and capable of conjunction, solely for this end, that man might be saved; for unless God be approached in thought as a man, all idea of God is lost, and becomes like bodily vision when directed towards the wide universe; so that it either fixes itself on an empty nothing, or on nature, or on something within nature. That God himself, who from eternity is one, came into the world, is abundantly evident from the birth of the Lord the Saviour, who was con ceived of the power of the Most High by the Holy Spirit, and his humanity was born of the Virgin Mary in consequence of such conception; whence it follows, since God is indivisible, that his soul was the divinity itself, which is called the Father, and the humanity thence born was the humanity of God the Father, which is called the Son of God (Luke i. 32, 34, 35). Hence it further follows, that while the Lord God the Saviour is approached, God the Father is also approached at the same time; therefore the Lord gave this answer to Philip, who desired He would show him the Father: "He that seeth me seeth the Father how sayest thou then, Show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me" (John xiv. 9-11). But more may be seen on this subject in the chapters concerning God, the Lord, the Holy Spirit, and the Divine Trinity. 539. There are two duties incumbent on man after examination, supplication and confession. SUPPLICATION should consist in prayers for the Lord's mercy, that he would give power to resist the evils repented of, and would supply inclination and affection to do good, since without him a man can do nothing (John xv. 5). CONFESSION should be to this effect,-that the penitent sees, knows, and acknowledges his evils, and discovers himself to be a miserable sinner. There is not any need of a particular enumeration of sins before the Lord, or of supplication for their remission or forgiveness; for as to the enumeration of sins, it must be supposed that the penitent has already searched them out, and seen them in himself,-consequently they are present before the Lord, because they are present with himself: the Lord also was his guide in the work of examination, and discovered his sins to him, inspired him with sorrow for them, and at the same time with the endeavor to desist from them, and to begin a new life. There are two reasons why supplication for the remission or forgiveness of sins need not be made before the Lord the first is because sins are not annulled, but removed, and they are removed in proportion as a man afterwards desists from them and enters on a new life; for there are innumerable lusts folded up, as it were, in every evil, which cannot be removed in a moment, but by degrees, in proportion as a man suffers himself to be reformed and regenerated. The second reason is, because the Lord, as he is mercy himself, remits every one's sins, and does not impute a single one to any man, for he says, "Forgive them; for they know not what they do:" and on Peter's asking how often he should forgive his brother his trespasses, the Lord replied, "I say not unto thee, till seven times, but until seventy times seven" (Matt. xviii. 21, 22). Where then can be the limits of the Lord's forgiveness? It is however to be observed, that sins are rot taken away merely because they are remitted and forgiven. But still it cannot be considered as a |