Sidor som bilder
PDF
ePub

OBITUARY.

DIED, in the Island of Jersey, Mrs. JACKSON, wife of Captain Jackson, She was a sincere recipient of the heavenly doctrines for some years; her husband having taken great pains in reading and explaining to her the nature of the True Christian Religion, the consolations of which enabled her to endure the most painful sufferings for many months of that dreadful disease, cancer in the breast; when at length it pleased the Lord to hear her cries, and to terminate her unparalleled trials on the 20th October last, after a very brief interval of that peace which He promises to those who endure to the end. Because the Lord loved her, she was chastened and scourged, that she might be in a state to enter into His rest.

At Heywood, on the 26th of February, Mrs. D. MILLS, aged 29 years. The deceased had been for some time a constant attender upon the public worship of the Lord, according to the heavenly doctrines of the New Jerusalem. She had also read, with much satisfaction, several of the works of Swedenborg, and of other New Church writers. The doctrinal sentiments she cordially embraced, and had commenced the study of those views of the invisible world, which are so largely and so luminously presented in the writings of our author. Our deceased friend was a person of most aimable disposition, and most catholic spirit. She was the friend of all in whom she could discern a principle of good, and she delighted in their society, whatever might be their differences of religious doctrine. She was naturally of a cheerful disposition, and cultivated, with the greatest delight and most affectionate assiduity, the various social relations of life. With her acquaintance of the New Church she was always delighted and happy; appearing at all times to enter with marked satisfaction into conversation respecting the doctrines. Thus has been removed from a scene of use in this world, to a more exalted sphere of activity, one whose loss will be long felt by all who had the pleasure of her acquaintance. Sincerely do we sympathize with her bereaved husband and children; affectionately do we

point to her life and conduct as furnishing to them the best source of consolation in their affliction; confidently would we direct them to those enlightened views of Christian doctrine and of the future life, which cheered her mind in this world, and filled her with the most delightful prospect in the future. R. S.

On the 8th of March, in the 81st year of his age, Mr. JOHN WATERHOUSE, of Bramley, near Leeds. He was one of the oldest receivers of the Heavenly Doctrines in Yorkshire, being baptized into the faith of the New and True Christian Church, about fifty years ago, by the Rev. Jos. Wright, of Keighley, about the time of the first opening of the Chapel in that place. He was brother to the late Mr. W. Waterhouse, of Wheardley, the leader of that Society, and the only one, except the one at Keighley, at that time in Yorkshire. One or other of which places of worship our friend seldom failed to visit every alternate Sunday (though there is a distance of about 30 miles between them), to hear the glad tidings of the Lord's Second Advent proclaimed; and although he could neither read nor write, he had the Word of God so impressed upon his mind, by hearing it read and receiving it in the affections, that he could immediately detect any mis-quotation, and always "ready to give a reason for the hope that was in him." He was a man of strong mind, but of weak bodily powers: he passed indeed through much bodily suffering; a cancer in the mouth having for several years preyed upon his bodily constitution; but he endured the Lord's will with patience and resignation to the last: his end was peace. W. M. L.

Died, on Tuesday the 14th May last, in the 26th year of his age, at his residence in Oxford Terrace, Hyde Park, George Augustus Wingfield, Esq., author of "Solitude," "Spiritual Thoughts," &c., barrister-at-law, and third son of the late John Wingfield, D.D., Prebendary of Worcester Cathedral. He was a faithful member of the Lord's New Church on earth.

ERRATUM.-At page 253, 11th line from top, after the word "behind” put “[sub natibus]."

[blocks in formation]

LORD Bacon, in the first book of his Novum Organum, has sketched an admirable illustration of the peculiar states of organization in each individual mind, giving a form to those prejudices under which it is influenced, by the significant name of the idols of the understanding, dividing them into four classes; from which classifications of thought, as in a mirror, may be seen those symbols which sectarian bias or the habits of party have effected by the process of association, interwoven with all the elements of character, and by means of which schools and creeds have held a despotic sway over each successive generation, and which, like so many false divinities, have withdrawn men from the worship of Truth. These idolatries are thus enumerated: the most common to the human species are denominated idols of the tribe; those peculiar to the individual character, the idols of the den; such as arise from an intercourse with society in the use of words, the idols of the forum; and such as indulge in the airy region of the fancy and imagination by which fallacies are induced, the idols of the theatre.* Not much unlike are the illustrations of Swedenborg, by a somewhat different classification, as to the influences of external worship in the formation of spiritual idolatry to which the natural mind is so easily disposed; tracing the origin of this state to the ultimate sensual principle in man, or of the natural mind, symbolized in the language of correspondence by the locust and the caterpillar in their destructive influences, operations, and effects, multiplying, increasing, and thus destroying every thing good and

* Vide Bacon's Works, Vol. II., p. 190; also Martin's Life of Bacon, p. 153. "There are three universal kinds of idolatry:—the first, grounded in self-love; the second, in the love of the world; and the third, in the love of pleasures. Idolatrous worship centres in one or other of these objects as its end. The worship of idolators can therefore have no other end, since they have no knowledge or concern about eternal life,-nay, they even deny the existence of such life.A.C. 1357.

[blocks in formation]

heavenly in the human mind.* By the ultimate sensual, is not here meant the sensual principle of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch, for these things are proper to the body; but the ultimate or lowest principle of thought and affection, first opened with infants, and which is of such a nature that they do not think in any other than a sensual manner, nor are affected with any other than sensual objects; for the first internal principle opened in the mind of the infant is the ultimate in man, and is corporeal and sensual,† which is afterwards more fully developed, corrected, and changed by experience. To this lowest state of the natural mind, in their minutest forms, are we to trace the first buddings and germinations of idolatry, so conspicuous in the Jewish nation, as derived from the influences of self-love and the love of the world.

That the Jewish nation was most prone to idolatry, is evident from the literal sense both of the historical and prophetical parts of the holy writings. And that this idolatry was continuous, is evident also from the internal sense, because idolatry consists not only in worshiping idols and graven images, or of other gods, but in the worship of external things, without the internal.§ It was in this sense that the Jewish nation is said to be continually idolatrous, because they adored external things alone, and altogether closed their minds against the internal things which were thus represented, not being willing to possess even the knowledge of internal things; and therefore the mind, in such a state, could not be elevated beyond the outward form and external effect. The awful results of idolatry are accurately pictured to the mind

*

-the locust, from the root to multiply and increase, because there is scarcely any animal more fruitful and prolific. Large and numerous armies are compared to swarms of locusts.-Vide Judges vi. 5; Jer. xlvi. 23; Bockhardt, lib. 4, p. 442.

+ Vide Apoc. Exp. 543; which number should be studied and well digested, in order to understand with accuracy the admirable illustrations of our author.

"Those who make worship to consist merely in things external, and are altogether unwilling to be instructed in things internal, and reject them when they are instructed, are most prone to every species of idolatry, which appears plainly from the case of the Jews. In internal worship alone, there is a bond that withholds man from idolatry; but if that bond is removed, there remains no other restraining power. There are, however, idolatries of an external kind, and such as are of a more interior nature. External idolatries are easily embraced by those who are principled in external worship without internal. The more interior kinds of idolatry are embraced by those principled in external worship whose interiors are defiled."-4.0.1205.

§ See A.C. 4825.

in Paul's Epistle to the Romans, as tending to the lowest degradation of man's corrupt and fallen nature, “changing the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things;" (Rom. i. 23.) and similar are the characteristics of idolatry existing at the present day. The tendency to idolatrous representations, springing from the ultimate of the sensual mind, is thus extremely captivating in its operations and influences upon the exercises either of private or public worship; by which means the adoration which is given to the finite, interrupts, if it does not utterly destroy, that which belongs to the Infinite, and it is entirely subversive of the second commandment. It ascribes to things and persons those properties and attributes which belong to God alone. It requires neither moral nor spiritual affections, but the mere gratification of the lowest operations of that which is sensual in the natural mind; its religious ritual combines with splendid ceremonies, terminating "in revelling, dancing, nocturnal assemblies, impure and scandalous mysteries, debauched priests, and gods, the slaves and patrons of all sorts of vices."+ A gaudy and attractive place of worship is therefore more adapted to the idolatrous taste of the natural man, than to an intellectual or spiritual mind. It is in fact better suited to the half-civilized and barbarous states of society, with which it so easily associates; being in harmony with all the rites and ceremonies of the Roman Catholic religion, in whose temples divine honours are paid to the virgin Mary, to the bread in the Sacrament, to saints and dead men's bones, to the cross, and to the other relics of ancient superstitions, originally derived and transplanted from the Pagans, their priesthood, their rituals, costumes, and ceremonies, which were gradually introduced into the simple forms of primitive Christianity. The evidence of these facts in the pages of ecclesiastical history is written in letters of blood. Who can read over the history of the early persecutions of the primitive Christians, without feelings of amazement and horror at the vindictive cruelties employed upon these innocent and suffering victims by men sunk in the lowest abysses of idolatrous superstitions? And who does not feel equally astonished at the sudden transition of these early converts from primitive Christianity to wealth, influence, and power, changing the scene, and exercising the like spectacles of barbarity upon each other? All that was pious and good among the early Christians thus suddenly disappears,

* See extract of a letter from Chusan, dated July 1840, copied from the Times of November 21, 1843.

+ See Dr. Jortin's Sermons, Vol. VI., 18th, on Idolatry,

of which no memorials exist; and new scenes and disorders are presented to our view by the erection of Babylon in the Christian Church, amply demonstrating its corruptions to every unprejudiced mind who will carefully peruse the history of councils, from which flowed torrents of blood. In fact, the contentions in the Christian Church which followed were nothing more than political factions, each struggling for power and influence; one party rebelling against the state and murdering their antagonists; and as these factions changed sides, they committed all kinds of violence and disorder, so that Julian was led to observe, "that the generality of Christians were greater enemies to each other than the wild beasts were to human kind." The proximate causes of these sad effects may be traced without doubt to the hereditary evils still lurking in the habits and feelings, prejudices and associations of these early but superficial converts to the principles of Christianity. A key is thus offered to the human mind, by which it may unlock the mysteries not only of the first three centuries, but of those changes in society which followed,-of polemic discussions, and half-civilized warfare, which prepared the states of Europe for those transactions during the middle ages, and for that night of thick darkness which preceded the dawn of the Reformation, when a series of events occurred to give efficacy to that important revolution.*

It is of the utmost importance that idolatries, both internal and external, should be frequently and profoundly considered. Every disorderly affection is an idolatrous affection, since every deviation from the true order of heaven is a wandering into the mazes of error, idolatry, and sin. Most are ready to admit the abominable nature of external idolatries, but few, comparatively, are ready to search out and to acknowledge the interior idolatries of the heart. Every man has an inmost or governing affection, which is the moving power of all his feelings, thoughts, and actions. The object which this governing affection supremely regards is the object of the man's worship. If Mammon be that object, all the powers of the mind and of the body are prostrate to his service; and avarice, covetousness, deceit, fraud, robbery, &c. follow in his train. If Baal be that object, self-love in every hideous form, manifesting itself in the eager pursuit of power, fame, pleasure, and dominion, in cherishing pride, and contempt of others, and above all, in making an image of self-worship,—this is the idolatry to which the man is devoted. This species of interior idolatries, which, at the present day, it is to be feared are most rife and prevalent, are infinitely worse than the external idolatries of heathen nations, which, to a great See Robertson's Charles V., Vol. I., and Middleton's Letter from Rome.

[ocr errors]
« FöregåendeFortsätt »