It will be noticed by our readers that the view taken by the Nexv Jerusalem Church of the person and work of Christ, as God, is fundamentally at variance with the opinions of all other Christian churches, whether Eo- manist or Protestant. Tlie language of Scripture con- cerning justification and redemption is invested with a meaning altogether different from that which is usual- ly assigned to it. It is denied, according to the Swe- clenborgian system, that the Son descended from the Father, and, further on, that the Father in his wrath condemned the human race, and in his mercy sent his Son to bear their curse. It is denied, and declared to be a fundamental error to believe, that the sufferings of Christ on the cross were the redemption of his people. The doctrine of imputed righteousness is distinctly de- nied, and declared to be a subversion of the divine or- der. Mediation, intercession, atonement, propitiation, are alleged to be forms of speeeb " expressive of the ap- proach which is opened to God, and of the grace com- municated from God, bj' means of his humanity." Swe- denborg taught that in the fulness of time Jehovah assumed human nature to redeem and save mankind, by subjugating the hells and restoring to order the heavens. Every victor\' gained by Christ over the temptations to which lie was exposed weakened the powers of evil everywhere. The victory of the Saviour is our victory, in virtue of which we are able, believing in him, to resist and vanquish evil. Redemption Swe- denborg believed to be wrought yor ns only in so far as it is wrought in us: and that our sins are forgiven just in proportion as we are reclaimed from them.
In regard to the future state, and the condition of the soul after death, it mu^t have occurred to our readers that the doctrines of Swedenborgians differ greatly from those of all other churches. Thus the Swedenborgians maintain that there is a last judgment, both particular and general ; the former relating to an individual of the Church, and the latter to the Church considered collec- tively. The last judgment, as it relates to an individ- ual, takes place at death ; the last judgment, as it re- lates to the Church collectively considered, takes )ilace when there is no longer ain* genuine faith and love in it, whereb}' it ceases to be a Church. Thus the last judgment of the Jewish Church took place at the com- ing of Christ, and accordingly he said, "Now is the judgment of this world, now is the prince of this world cast out." The last judgment of the Christian Church foretold iiy the Lord in the Gospels, and by John in the Revelation, took place, according to Swcdcnborg, in A.D. 1757; the former heaven and earth are now there- fore passed away; the '"New Jerusalem" mentioned in the Apocalypse has come down from heaven in the form
NEW-LIGHT ANTIBURGHERS 19
NEWMAN
of the " New Church ;'' and consequently the second ad- vent of the Lord lias even now been realized in a spir- itual sense by the exhibition of his power and glory in the New Church thus established.
Another imjiortant divergence in Swedenborgian be- lief from other Christians is that respecting holy Script- ure, which is so stated by Mr. Hayden as hardly to convey clearly the belief of his Church. A reference to the third article of the Articles of Faith will make it clearer, and yet even it does not fairly cover it, for it omits the statement of the twelfth proposition taken from Swedenborg's A raina Calestia and other " revela- tions." This statement is " that the books of the Word are all those which have the internal sense, which are as follows, viz., in the O. T., the five books of Moses, called Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deu- teronomy; the book of Joshua, the book of Judges, the two books of Samuel, the two books of Kings, the Psalms of David, the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lam- entations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Ilosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, jVIalachi ; and in the N. T., the four evan- gelists— Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John — and the Rev- elation. And that the other books, not having the ii> ternal sense, are not the Word" (.1 rcana Ccslestia, n. 10,325; New Jerusalem, p. 2G6 ; White Horse, n. 16). Thus ten books of the O. T., the Acts of the Apostles, and all the epistles of Paul and the other apostles, are set aside as no part of " the Word of the Lord."
The remaining articles of the Swedenborgian Con- fession may be passed over without comment, since they deal more with theosophical views of love, wisdom, re- pentance, charity, faith, good works, etc., than with important articles of faith. It maj^ be added here that when, in 1788, it was determined to effect a permanent religious organization of all Swedenborgians, it was thought expedient to establish a settled ministry, and it was arranged, by drawing of lots, that Robert Hind- marsh, the printer, should ordain his father, James Hindmarsh, and Samuel Smith, both of them being Methodist preachers who had seceded from Wesley's society. In the j'ear 1818 the eleventh General Con- ference of the sect settled some doubts which had been raised as to the competency of Robert Hindmarsh to ordain others, seeing he had not himself been ordained, by determining unanimously " that Mr. Robert Hind- marsh was virtually ordained by the divine auspices of heaven" (see Hindmarsh, ^we and Progress of the Neto Church, p. 72, 310). In 1815 "a trine, or threefold or- der" of the ministry was established. It consists of the ordinary ministers, ordaining ministers, and a minister superintendent over and in behalf of the New Church at large.