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5524. [Rom. xii. 5. One body in Christ] exhibited so in the New Christian Heaven, by the glory of Christ striking on our distinct souls and reflected up again, directly under Him, into one united body, as a married pair become one spiritual flesh. See Matt. xix. 6.

5525. [ 10.] By analogy with the Physical World, which is supported as a whole by the principles of attraction and repulsion, we discover, that in the Moral World the principle of mutual love will constantly direct the approach of one member to another, and that the principle of reverence, which is due to every one, will keep them each at a proper distance.

KANT.

5530. [Rom. xii. 20.] In Turkey, there lies no appeal beyond the Grand Vizier, except to the person of the Grand Seignior, of which this is the manner: At certain hours of the day, when the gates of the Seraglio are set open for the admittance of citizens, such persons as would complain of any grievous injury they have suffered, and which the injustice or connivance of the Vizier has refused to redress, enter hastily the outward court, and putting pots of fire on their heads, run swiftly forward; nor dare the greatest officer presume to stop them, till they arrive at the presence of the Grand Seignior, whose justice they implore to redress their wrongs. (HILL'S Trav. p. 9.) Thus they will in troops attend the coming forth of the Emperor, and by burning straw (in pots) on their heads provoke his regard.

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5526. [- — 15.] From our aptitude to imitation arises what is generally understood by the word sympathy. Thus the appearance of a cheerful countenance gives us pleasure, and that of a melancholy one makes us sorrowful. Yawning, and sometimes vomiting, are thus propagated by sympathy; and some people of delicate fibres, at the presence of a spectacle of misery, have felt pain in the same parts of their bodies, that were diseased or mangled in the object they saw.

The effect of this powerful agent in the moral world, is the foundation of all our intellectual sympathies with the pains and pleasures of others, and is in consequence the source of all our virtues. For in what consists our sympathy with the miseries or with the joys of our fellow-creatures, but in an involuntary excitation of ideas in some measure similar or imitative of those which we believe to exist in the minds of the persons whom we commiserate or congratulate!

5527.

DARWIN'S Temple of Nature, canto iii. 1. 466.

The bad man is he who confines his reason to objects regarding himself personally, who merely looks at other men, but has no feeling for them.

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5531. [—————20, 21.] PYTHAGORAS used to say, Let men avenge themselves on their enemies only by labouring to convert them into friends and SOCRATES taught, that it was not lawful for a man who had received an injury, to revenge it by doing another injury.

To overcome evil with good, is the most glorious of all victories it is the most beneficial, because this amiable conduct alone can put an end to an eternal succession of injuries and retaliations; for every retaliation becomes a new injury, and requires another act of revenge for satisfaction. SOAME JENYNS' Works, vol. iv. p. 46.

5532. [Rom. xiii. 1.] Iu all human Society there are two powers; the one temporal, the other spiritual. You find them combined, as body with soul, in all the Governments of the World; in Europe, in Asia, in Africa, and in America. As the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; so, in the body politic, are these powers often con. trary the one to the other. When, in this case, Nations are coerced by the spiritual power, they resort for relief to the temporal; when this last oppresses in its turn, they have recourse to the other. When both concur, as by infernal combination, to render them miserable; then arise heresies in swarms, schisms, civil wars, and a multitude of secondary powers, which balance the abuses of the two first till there results at length general apathy, and a final dissolution of the Civil Body.

See St. PIERRE's Studies of Nature, vol. i. p. 323.

5533. [——— 6. For this cause pay ye tribute also] Nothing can be more reasonable than an impartial and moderate taxation, by which the necessary expenses of the state

may be defrayed; but there is no insinuation in the apostle's words in behalf of an extravagant and oppressive taxation, for the support of unprincipled and unnecessary wars; or the Rensioning of corrupt or useless men. Dr. A. CLARKE, in loco.

5534. [Rom. xiii. 10. Love is the fulfilling of the law] The tranquillity of every nation, we know, is maintained by the authority of positive laws, and the terror of penal sanctions; for in the present imperfect state of things, there is no other effectual method of preserving the public repose, but a certain measure of force and authority to overawe the unjust, the violent and audacious; human laws being a kind of props devised to support a tottering edifice. But was the power of benevolence felt universally prevailing, then might we see the world stand self-balanced and secure, without the need of either laws or punishments to hold it up. Benevolence, in that case, would do the work of government, and serve to every person as an inward law, infinitely superior to the highest positive obligation; and we find, in fact, that every society which is not founded on principles of mutual love among the members, and of affection to the welfare of the whole, when viewed in a just light, is no society at all, is a contradiction to itself, and involves its own ruin in its bosom.

See No. 1215.

DRYSDALE.

5535. [Rom. xiv. 1.] Dialogismos (Grk.), in the Septuagint and in the New Testament, generally denotes the thought of a man reasoning within himself.

STEPHANUS.

5536. [ 2.] The Jew, who is timid, eats herbs; lest eating fruits put up in skins, he should eat things devoted

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THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PAUL, THE APOSTLE,

TO THE

Corinthians.

THE Church of Christ was planted by Paul at Corinth,

about A. D. 52. — This (Paul's third) Epistle was written from Ephesus, a little before Pentecost, in the year 56.

5543. [— i. 12, 13, &c.] At the adoption by baptism a name was given; among Christians, the name of Father Son and Holy Spirit.

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5546. [i. 12.] Such are the hereditary attachments of the goat species, that so long as several generations continue in the same vicinity, the progenitors recognize their offspring, and the family distinguish each other. Every tribe herds together, whether they browse on the mountains, rest on the plains, or seek shelter in the cot.

Month. Mag. for Jan. 1815, p. 514.

5547. [20.] When the first General Council was convened at Nice, on the appearing of the Christian Bishops there, several of the Heathen Philosophers offered themselves among the sons of God, intending to signalize themselves on so great an occasion, by attacking the Faith in its most eminent professors, and by endeavouring to overthrow it by Philosophy and Reason. To this end, several conferences were held on the principles of Reason, by the most noted men of their party; in which one of their Philosophers more forward than the rest, began to grow insolent, on a supposed advantage; and must needs triumph before victory. An aged Bishop took fire at this; one, who had been a Confessor in the late Persecution, and was more noted for his faith than learning. Philosophy he had none, but encounters his adversary in a new manner; in the name of Jesus, and by the Word of God. Adducing thence a few plain weapons, he humbles the pride of this arrogant Philosopher, and leads him unreluctant to the Font. All the reply our Philosopher bad left him, was, That while he was encountered by philosophy and human learning, he could defend himself in the same way;

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5551. [1 Cor. ii. 4.] When people hear any one speak and teach wisely, they believe him to be wise. In company however, the man of knowledge, whatever be his diposition, thinks and speaks from his memory, and if he be merely natural, from the surface of his love, which is the affection of honor, glory, or lucre; but when he is alone, he thinks from the interior love of his spirit, and then not wisely, but sometimes insanely. Hence it may appear, that no one is to be judged of from wisdom of speech, but from his life; that is, not from a wisdom of speech separate from his life, but from the wisdom of speech joined to his life.

SWEDENBORG, on Divine Love, n. 418.

5552. [ 7. We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery] "Orpheus and others instituted mysteries, which the initiated swear by execrable oaths never to reveal; and of these mysteries the principal is the worship of one only God. This great truth spreads over half the earth: the number of the initiated swells immensely the antient religion indeed still subsists; but not being contrary to the tenet of God's unity, it is connived at. The Romans had their Deus Optimus Maximus; the Greeks their Zeus, their supreme God. All the

5555. [1 Cor. ii. 13. Comparing spiritual things with spiritual] "To form our ideas of things on their actual relations only, betokens a solid understanding: whereas, to be contented with their apparent relations, betrays a superficial one. To conceive these relations as they really exist, displays a right judgment; to conceive mistaken notions of them, denotes a wrong one. Those who see imaginary relations, that have neither reality nor appearance, are madmen; while those who make no comparison between them, are idiots. The less or greater aptitude to compare these ideas and discover such relations, is what constitutes a greater or less degree of genius or understanding."

ROUSSEAU.

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ye we judge them so a skilfully chosen, and well-applied, comparison much helps the imagination, by illustrating things scarcely discernible, so as to represent them by things much more familiar and easy to be apprehended.

BOYLE'S Preface to the Christian
Virtuoso, part i.

5557. [1 Cor. iii. 15.] The virtue of a load-stone may be quite destroyed by fire.

5558.

SMITH'S Wonders of Nature and Art, vol. iii. p. 34.

In the fire ordeal, the supposed culprit was either to receive in his hand a piece of red-hot iron, of one or three pounds weight according to the nature of the crime, and to carry it to the distance of three full paces, or nine feet; or else he was to walk barefoot over nine red-hot ploughshares, placed at equal distances, that he might take nine paces upon them, placing his foot at each step firmly with the whole weight of his body on one of the irons. English history affords but one instance of a person undergoing this sort of trial.

Archæologia, vol. xv. pp. 193, 194.

5559. [— 16, 17.] "God has created me, God is within me; I carry him about every where. Shall I defile him with obscene thoughts, unjust actions, or infamous desires? My duty is to thank God for every thing, to praise him for every thing; and to thank, praise, and serve him continually, whilst I have life."

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EPICTETUS.

5560. [ 18.] To free ourselves from prejudices and errors, we must endeavour to forget all that we have learned, to trace back our ideas to their source, to follow the train in which they rise, and, as Lord Bacon says, to frame the human understanding anew. This remedy becomes the more difficult, in proportion as we think ourselves the more learned. Might it not be thought, that works which treat of the sciences with the utmost perspicuity, and with the greatest order and precision, must be understood by every body? The fact is, those who have never studied auy thing will understand them better than those who have studied a great deal, and especially than those who have written a great deal.

The ABBE de CONDILLAR.

5561. [ 18, 19.] 18, 19.] "The Chinese theologian, who proves the nine incarnations of Wisthnou; and the Mussel

man, who, after the Koran, maintains, that the earth is carried on the horns of a bull; certainly found their opinions on ridiculous principles and prejudices: yet each of them, in bis own country, is esteemed a person of sense. What can be the reason of this? It is because they maintain opinions generally received. · If a sage descended from heaven, and in his conduct consulted only the light of reason, he would universally pass for a fool. All are so scrupulously attached to the interest of their own vanity, that the title of wise is only given to the fools of the common folly. The more foolish au opinion is, the more dangerous it is to prove its folly. Fontenelle was accustomed to say, that if he held every truth in his hand, he would take great care not to open it to shew them to men.

In destroying prejudices, we ought to treat them with respect like the doves from the ark, we ought to send some truths on the discovery, to see if the deluge of prejudices does not yet cover the face of the earth; if error begin to subside; and if there can be perceived here and there some isles, where virtue and truth may find rest for their feet, and communicate themselves to mankind.

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