THE COMMON PERCEPTION IN HUMAN MINDS, THAT MAN RISES IMMEDIATELY AFTER DEATH IN A SPIRITUAL BODY, AND THAT HE WILL NO MORE REQUIRE HIS NATURAL BODY.

SWEDENBORG remarks (A. C. 5078):-" Every Christian is well aware that man rises again after death; for who doth not say, when a man dies, that his soul or spirit is afterwards in heaven, or in hell? * * * For who doth not know what the Lord said to the thief; (Luke xxiii. 43.)--‘To-day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise'? and what He said also concerning the rich man and Lazarus, (Luke xvi.) that the former was carried into hell, but the latter by angels into heaven? And who doth not know what the Lord taught concerning the resurrection; that God is not the God of the dead, but of the living? These things man knows, and he likewise so thinks and so speaks, when he thinks and speal:s from the spirit; but when he thinks and speaks from what is doctrinal, he professes another opinion, viz., that he shall not rise again till the last day; when yet the last day to every one is the day when he dies, and then also is his judgment."

Since reading this extract some years ago, I have noted down various passages I have met with, which contained examples of the partial and occasional perception of truth described by Swedenborg, and I now offer them for publication in the Intellectual Repository, if they should be considered a useful addition to the various testimonies already collected for the defence and illustration of the Heavenly Doctrines :—

"This good man lived respected and died regretted by all; and is now, we trust, receiving the reward of his virtues and sufferings in this world."-Life of Captain Beaver. Quarterly Review, No. 82, page 393.

"Of the former [the living] he trusts that he has said nothing that is uncandid or unjust ;-of the latter [the dead] he has spoken with freedom,-since they, having ere this appeared before a higher tribunal than that of human opinion, can no longer be affected by earthly censure or applause.”—Preface to The Living and the Dead.

"Often since yesterday have I said to myself, 'Why art thou cast down, O my soul?' Does he not still live-live in the truest sense of the word-disencumbered from all that impeded his progress in the search of truth; his faith rewarded, his benevolence gratified, his faculties enlarged ?”—Letter to Mrs. Gregory on the death of Dr. G. Memoirs of Mrs. Elizabeth Hamilton, I. 188.

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That she had no failing cannot be supposed; but she has now appeared before the Almighty Judge.”—-Sermon for the funeral of Dr. S. Johnson's wife, and ascribed to him.

"I need only allude to the prayers of the Patriarchs, of Moses, of Daniel, and of those many pious souls who by means of prayer walked with God while on earth; and

whose piety and devotion have been rewarded in heaven with everlasting happiness."– Beren's Village Sermons. On Prayer."

"But praise is useless here * * * He has passed from a state of protracted suffering into that glory to which he had long and fervently aspired.”—From a Letter in the Bristol Journal, Feb. 26, 1831, on the death of the Rev. Robert Hall.

“Mourning widow, have you a husband, who, you hope, when he passed from this life entered upon the joy of immortality? Dutiful son, have you a mother whose absence from you you mourn, but concerning whom it is the solace of your grief to believe that she is among the spirits of the just, before the throne of the Eternal? How great should be your gratitude to the Redeemer, who hath purchased by his death and resurrection, for these your friends, the immortality and joys upon which they have entered for ever and ever!"—Bishop Dehon. Sermons. II. 18. Sermon 43.

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"I have to inform you that it has pleased the Lord who gave, also to take away from us our youngest boy. After a lingering and wasting disorder, he was released from this world of sin and sorrow, and I doubt not, joined the blessed assembly above. to unite in their song of praise to Him that sitteth on the throne. * were I not also assured (which too often one cannot be concerning deceased persons) that he is now a blessed spirit in heaven."—Life of the Rev. John Scott, by his Son, pages 128, 129.

Again, in the same work, Mr. Scott, speaking of an infant granddaughter lately,—

"She is gone to join her grandmother, and her aunt, and her two uncles (that would have been). * * * I feel a peculiar comfort in thinking that I have another descendant in heaven whom I shall shortly join."-Page 446.

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"In the darkest hour, therefore, of this world's most trying vicissitudes, dwell with humble hope upon the prospects of this blessed, this glorious inheritance. Consider those who are already there, who have all passed through the same trials. * * Reflect how immediate the hour of your actual possession of this rich inheritance may be, how near it must be.”—Rev. H. Blunt. Lectures on the History of Abraham, pages 88, 89.

Southey.

Colloquies. Dedication to the Memory of Rev. H. Hill. I. p. ix.

"I doubt not that thousands now in glory have been praising, and will continue to praise God throughout eternity, that this Society has been instrumental in leading them to a knowledge of the Gospel."--From a speech at a Meeting of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. London, June, 1831.

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I replied, I feel the fullest assurance, that while her body remains here, the soul is with her Saviour in Paradise.' She loved Him here, and there she enjoys the pleasures which are at his right hand for evermore."-Dairyman's Daughter. Tract by the Rev. Legh Richmond, page 57.

"They have entered into the same joy, and are crowned with the same reward. For

there, this most holy, most devoted, and most useful man, has now opened his eyes to receive the recompense of his faith, his patience, and his labours.”— Memoirs of Oberlin, page 235. Extract from a Letter to the Authoress, by the Rev. Francis Cunningham.

"There will be no end to it [the soul]; no end to its existence; no end to the happiness or misery to which, on its departure from the body, it will be instantly assigned. Before your body shall be committed to the ground, earth to earth, &c., your immortal spirit will be unchangeably fixed in a state of bliss or of torment beyond conception great, and will there abide for ever."-Cooper. Sermons on the Leading Doctrines of the Gospel, page 364.

"Mrs. Orsmond had survived but a few hours the birth of an infant daughter, by whom, in the space of five short days, she was followed to the eternal world, and we believe, to the abodes of holy and unending rest.”—Ellis. Polynesian Researches. I. 476.

“In the full fruition of eternal joys, she is so far from looking back with lingering regret on what she has quitted."-Robert Hall. Funeral Sermon for the Princess Charlotte. Works, I. 342.

"They felt interested in their destiny, and asked whether, after the fall and expulsion from Paradise, they had repented and obtained pardon; and it had been stated that there was reason to believe that they had obtained forgiveness, and were now in heaven."— Ellis. Polynesian Researches. II. 158.

"These persons [Martha and Mary] lived at Bethany, a little village about two miles from Jerusalem; and I should think and believe they are all now living in heaven, in the New Jerusalem which is above."-Sermons by the Rev. Theophilus Biddulph, page 36.

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"The Lord supported me with this, that the Lord took him into the happiness we all pant and live for. He is a glorious saint in heaven; wherein you ought exceedingly to rejoice."—From a Letter of Cromwell to Colonel Walton. Cromwell's Letters, &c., by Carlyle. I. 196.

"But whilst I believe, and am persuaded that his incorruptible is received into bliss eternal, what concerns it me where his corruptible is laid ?"-Memoirs of Richard Cumberland. I. 377.

"Good men, they [early Saxon Homilists] teach, are transferred immediately from earth to Paradise." Another homily paints the pious soul, on escaping from the body,

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as rendered seven times brighter than the sun, and as led by angels to the destined abode of happiness."-Soames. Bampton Lectures. Inquiry into the Doctrines of the Anglo-Saxon Church, page 325.

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Many are now in hell that never suspected any falsehood in their hearts; that lived in the clear light of the Gospel."- Baxter's Saints' Rest, page 222.

"Jesus and his disciples had simply declared that the souls of good men were, at their departure from their bodies, to be received into heaven, while those of the wicked were to be sent to hell."-Mosheim. Ecclesiastical History. I. 184.

From these extracts, taken from so great a variety of authors, we plainly see the truth of Swedenborg's assertion quoted above, from

A. C. 5078. When such thoughts are expressed, the writers are left to their spontaneous perceptions, and they never think in agreement with the common doctrine of the resurrection of the material body, which, as the celebrated Locke proved to the Bishop of Worcester in his day, is nowhere declared in Scripture. It involves a host of difficulties, absurdities, and physical impossibilities; and it must be remembered, that these physical impossibilities are the result of the order which God has stamped upon creation, and from which order, although omnipotent, he cannot deviate. The sceptic and scoffer of every age have, by the common doctrine of the resurrection of the natural body, taken occasion to ridicule Christianity itself; and it weakens with many the belief in the immortality of the soul. On the other hand, the New Church doctrine of the resurrection, which asserts the continued existence of man in his spiritual body, is in agreement with common perception,-is directly sanctioned by Scripture,-is in perfect harmony with reason and science, and is full of consolation to the departing spirit; and, above all, it presents every powerful inducement to lead a truly Christian life. Ελεύθερος.

THE CAUSES WHY MEN, IN THE CHRISTIAN WORLD, HAVE NOT BELIEVED IN THE RESURRECTION IMMEDIATELY AFTER DEATH.

(From Swedenborg's Diary.)

5752. The causes [of this unbelief] are, 1.) Because they have thought sensually concerning the life of man, and have believed that the body alone lives. 2.) Because they have thought of the soul of man as being something ethereal, or as a vapoury spiritual thing (pneumate), or as the thought abstracted from an organic subject. 3.) Because they have had a similar idea of a spirit, and also of angels, having believed from doctrines taken from the literal sense of the Word [not understood] that they should rise again at the last judg ment, when all things would perish. 4.) Because they do not understand what the internal man is, and consequently what the spirit of man is, and because they remove from their ideas every thing that appears substantial concerning the spirit of man. 5.) Because many, when any thing of the kind occurs to them, begin to think whether it is so or not, and then their sensual [principle] judges and concludes about it. 6.) Because such things, when they are proposed, are placed directly under

the mental view.* 7.) Those who do not do this, believe [the truth] as do all the simple-minded, and all before death, when they do not think of the soul, from such ideas as are mentioned above.

ON THE LIFE OF CHARITY IN ΜΑΝ.
(From Swedenborg's Diary.)

5881. It was perceived, that men in the Christian world can by no means be in the life of charity, or of the love of the neighbour, unless, whilst they think of the Lord, they, at the same time, think of His Divinity. To think of His Divinity only, when they think from doctrine, and not when they are out of doctrine, is not to think of the Divinity of the Lord; nor do they think of the Divinity of the Lord when they pray to the Father for the sake of the Son, in which case they have not the Lord in their idea of Divinity. It was also perceived, that every one who thinks concerning the Lord's Divinity, when he is thinking of the Lord, is in the life of charity, for the Lord leads him.

[58811. It was also observed, that many declared charity to be the essential of the church, and not faith, considering that by this belief they are saved in preference to others; but those who said this from principle [or from doctrine] only, and not from life, differ in no wise from those who are in faith alone. A certain one said, that he had heard, that he who believes charity [to be the essential] has the life of charity, as he who believes faith [to be the essential] has the life of faith; hence it was evident, that he had believed life to be in something without life.

REPLY TO "REMARKS ON THE SCIENCE OF CORRESPONDENCES AS APPLIED TO MUSIC."

(Concluded from page 109.)

To the Editor of the INTELLECTUAL REPOSITORY.
DEAR SIR,

THE subject of your correspondent's next objection is a comprehensive one.
The arguments which H— urges in favour of his view,-that "the air

When things are placed directly under the mental view, they are judged of differently to what they are when presented obliquely. In the former case they are often denied, but not in the latter.