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world he enters some angelic society which is in a similar state of love with himself. But if his ruling love be of self and the world, and whenever he has performed any uses he has done it not from any love of use but from the love of self, then the quality of his life is evil; and when he passes into the other world, he enters some infernal society, whose quality of life is in general similar to his own."

Milton seems not to have differed much from Swedenborg on this subject, when he said:

"The mind is its own place, and, in itself,

Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven."

In his treatise concerning Heaven and Hell, and the wonderful things therein, as heard and seen by him, Swedenborg says:-" As often as I conversed with angels face to face, it was in their habitations, which are like to our houses on earth, but far more beautiful and magnificent, having rooms, chambers, and apartments in great variety, as also spacious courts belonging to them, together with the gardens, parterres of flowers, fields, &c. where the angels are formed into societies. They dwell in contiguous habitations, disposed after the manner of our cities, in streets, walks, and squares. I have had the privilege to walk through them, to examine all around about me, and to enter their houses, and this when I was fully awake, having my inward eyes opened."

The number of Swedenborgians in the United States is estimated at six or eight thousand. There are prosperous societies in Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Ohio, Illinois, South Carolina and Missouri; and there are periodical publications advocating their doctrines, published at Boston, New York, and Cincinnati.

The writings of Swedenborg seem to be daily attracting more and more attention in this country. The most important of them, ably translated from the original Latin, have been published in Boston; and an interesting "Life of Swedenborg, with some account of his Writings,"

compiled by B. F. Barrett, minister of the New Jerusalem Church, has recently appeared in New York. This work has been made the text for an able article in the Southern Quarterly Review for October, 1843, in which the writer places in their proper light, the claims of the great Swede. "There has been," he says," a singular timidity evinced, even by bold thinkers, in respect to the very perusal of his works. They have been read by stealth, away from company-free from the curiosity of the prying eye. Persons have been afraid, as if they were engaged in some necromantic orgies, to breathe a word to their friends of their peculiar and forbidden occupation. They have come to their teacher, as Nicodemus came to the Saviour, in the night time, and have listened to his instructions with equal incredulity and equal wonder.

"The ridicule levelled at the celebrated Swede by Dr. Southey, more than a quarter of a century ago, in his 'Espriella's Letters,' has led many to turn with indifference and contempt from his works-works full of light and consolation-lest they, too, if detected in their perusal, should come in for a share of the sarcasm of some lively and witty satirist. The style in which these compositions are clothed-in some degree eccentric and unique-but deriving its singularity rather from the elevated character of the subjects treated of, than from any want of tact and skill in the writer, has deterred others who have commenced the examination of them, from proceeding much beyond the threshold.-Prescriptive authority-educational biases-pride of opinion-of opinion imbibed in other schools-long entertained, and mistaken for truththese have stood in the way of others.

"Then the pretensions of Swedenborg, scarcely less lofty than those of a prophet, though preferred with a modesty and even a humility, which, taken in connection with the solemn and startling developments he has made, and the unblemished purity of his life and manners, forbid the slightest suspicion of imposture-these pretensions, we say, have led others to affirm, that his mind may have been shattered and warped from its healthful tone-a

charge, we know, once preferred against a greater than Swedenborg.

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"But to those who are inspired with a larger share of courage-who can recognize intellectual superiority, in some cases, where there is more than a slight divergence from old and beaten paths-who have been willing to say to worldly considerations, ' Get ye behind me,' and to authority, Thou art not my master in matters of this nature;-to those who have been animated more by a love of truth, than alarmed by fears of reproach and contumely; to those, who, like the wisest of sages, could send up, from the inmost depths of their being, the earnest entreaty, 'Give me understanding'-to such-and there are not a few of them-the works of the author under consideration have proved a rare treasure."

The doctrines of the sect which bears his name, are founded on the Bible and the following books, written by Swedenborg, in Latin, between the years 1747 and 1771: Arcana Coelestia; De Coelo et Inferno; De Telluribus; De Ultimo Judicio; De Equo Albo; De Nova Hierosolyma et ejus Doctrina Coelesti; De Domino; De Scriptura Sacra; De Vita; De Fide; De Divino Amore et Divina Providentia; De Amore Conjugiali; De Commercio Animæ et Corporis; Summaria Expositio Sensus Prophetici; Apocalypsis Explicata; Apocalypsis Revelata; De Vera Theologia Christiana. Of the Bible, they consider canonical only the Pentateuch, the book of Joshua, the book of Judges, the books of Samuel and of Kings, the Psalms the Prophets, the Gospels, and the Apocalypse.

197

CHAPTER XIII.

BEREANS-CHRISTIAN CONNECTION-SANDEMANIANS-DALEITES

-COME-OUTERS.

DISCIPLES OF CHRIST, OR CAMPBELLITES.

THIS Society is of comparatively recent origin. About the commencement of the present century, the Bible alone, without any human addition in the form of creeds or confessions of faith, began to be preached by many distinguished ministers of different denominations, both in Euand America. With various success, and with many rope of the opinions of the various sects imperceptibly carried with them from the denominations to which they once belonged, did they plead for the union of Christians of every name, on the broad basis of the apostle's teaching. But it was not until the year 1823, that a restoration of the original gospel and order of things, began to be advocated in a periodical, edited by Alexander Campbell, of Bethany, Virginia, entitled "The Christian Baptist."

He and his father, Thomas Campbell, renounced the Presbyterian system, and were immersed, in the year 1812. They, and the Congregations which they had formed, united with the Redstone Baptist Association, protesting against all human creeds as bonds of union, and professing subjection to the Bible alone. This union took place in the year 1813. But in pressing upon the attention of that society and the public the all-sufficiency of the sacred Scriptures for every thing necessary to the perfection of Christian character,-whether in the private or social relations of life, in the church or in the world,-they began to be opposed by a strong creed party in that association. After some ten years' debating and contending for the Bible alone, and the Apostle's doctrine, Alexander Campbell, and the church to which he belonged, united with the Mahoning association, in the Western Reserve of

Ohio; that association being more favorable to his views of reform.

In his debates on the subject and action of baptism with Mr. Walker, a seceding minister, in the year 1820, and with Mr. M'Calla, a Presbyterian minister, in the year 1823, his views of reformation began to be developed, and were very generally received by the Baptist society, as far as these works were read..

But in his "Christian Baptist," which began July 4, 1823, his views of the need of reformation were more fully exposed; and as these gained ground by the pleading of various ministers of the Baptist denomination, a party in opposition began to exert itself, and to oppose the spread of what they regarded as heterodox opinions. But not till after great numbers began to act upon these principles, was there any attempt towards separation. Not until after the Mahoning association appointed Mr. Walter Scott, an evangelist, in the year 1827, and when great numbers began to be immersed into Christ, under his labours, and new churches began to be erected by him and other labourers in the field, did the Baptist associations begin to declare non-fellowship with the brethren of the reformation. Thus by constraint, not of choice, were the Campbellites obliged to form societies out of those communities that split, upon the ground of adherence to the apostles' doctrine. The distinguishing characteristics of their views and practices are the following:

They regard all the sects and parties of the Christian world as having, in greater or less degrees, departed from the simplicity of faith and manners of the first Christians, and as forming what the apostle Paul calls " the apostacy." This defection they attribute to the great varieties of speculation and metaphysical dogmatism of the countless creeds, formularies, liturgies, and books of discipline, adopted and inculcated as bonds of union and platforms of communion in all the parties which have sprung from the Lutheran reformation. The effect of these synodical covenants, conventional articles of belief, and rules of ecclesiastical polity, has been the introduction of a new no

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