blessing of the Lord, the blessing that enriches its possessor with all the requisite qualities for the enjoyment of life everlasting.

Now, surely this is attainable without the misapplication of a single portion of the Sacred Word. But how often do we hear it sought after at the expense of both Scripture and reason! Thus, for instance, it is no uncommon case to hear the preacher, in addressing God in supplication, asking for himself and his hearers that at the conclusion of the service they may have reason to say,-"Surely this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." From such an application of such a passage of Scripture, one would suppose that the speaker expected a repetition of the sublime vision of Jacob's ladder. Such request, too, is frequently preceded by the application to themselves of the words of the Psalmist, expressive of the joy of the Lord over his Church, in which he alone reigns :-"We were glad when it was said unto us, let us go into the house of the Lord." And now that they consider their feet actually standing within the gates of Jerusalem (perhaps unwittingly meaning the New), they seem to expect also a sight of some of the glories of the holy city; hence their united prayer," May we be in the spirit on the Lord's day!" To be in the spirit, in the sense in which the expression is used in this passage, is to have the sight of the spirit opened, so that the realities of the spiritual world may be as distinctly perceived, as the objects of the natural world are by the natural eyes. If it be replied,—“ Such is not the meaning intended by those who use this expression in prayer," we would ask, why then use it? If nothing more is meant than that influence of the Spirit of God which is common to Christians at all times, why not use language strictly expressive of the same, since it most copiously abounds in Scripture? But that something more than this is really looked for, or at least asked for, is plain from the use of other passages of Scripture which are generally applied to the sermon about to be delivered. We are far from depreciating the utility of sermons; they are, or at least ought to be, expositions or EXPLANATIONS of the Word of God, the opening of the life-giving oracles, the unfolding of the truly wondrous things contained in that Law, the POWER of which is compared to the heat of the fire and the force of the hammer, before which the hardest rock gives way; their power is thus just in proportion to the DIVINE TRUTH which they may contain. Such sermons we deem invaluable; they may not, they do not suit the popular taste; they cannot, however, as being in accordance with, and illustrative of, the Divine Truth, be delivered in vain, for truth cannot be lost. But to how few sermons are those remarks applicable! A portion of Scripture

is chosen as a kind of motto to an hour's vague declamation with which it has nothing at all to do; sometimes a few detached words are preferred, and, indeed, in such cases the fewer the better:-but then, in reference to the harangue itself, we have the solemn invocation of the blessing of Almighty God that "the word spoken may be accompanied with power from on high," that "the power of the Lord may be present to heal,"and that "signs and wonders may be done in the name of the Lord Jesus."

Again we inquire, do they who use this language in prayer know what they ask? We think not; our opinion is, that an answer to their prayer would overwhelm them with terror and dismay.

III. Praying for the sick and the afflicted.-Sympathy forms a prominent feature in the Christian character. He who cannot "rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep," has small claim, indeed, to membership with that body in which Paul informs us there should be no schism, but that the members of it should have such care one for another, that when one member suffers, all the members should suffer with it; and that when one member is honoured, all the members should rejoice with it. Gratifying and soothing must it be to the mind of the Christian who is laid on the sick bed, to know that his brethren feel with him, and that both in their individual and associated capacity they intreat the Lord on his behalf as to his eternal interests. There is a spiritual luxury in such "communion of saints," which none but Christians can know and duly appreciate. What a pity it is that this sacred feeling should in any way be infringed on by the injudicious uṣe, or rather the misapplication, of that Word which the sick, or, it may be, the dying person, has chosen as his eternal heritage! The Scriptures are replete with perfectly appropriate language to furnish matter for prayer in the case to which we allude; but some how or other it is overlooked, and in its stead are substituted words which, when closely examined, seem to have no reference whatever to bodily sickness, some of them indeed to the very reverse.

In proof of this, we shall here offer three examples which happen to be very great favourites with dissenters of various denominations. For those who are by reason of sickness prevented from being present in the respective places of worship with which they are connected, the following petition is almost constantly used:-" Send a portion from our midst to those for whom nothing is prepared." The words here quoted are evidently from the exhortation of Nehemiah, wherein he instructed the Jews after what manner they should keep the feast of Tabernacles. (chap. viii. 10.) Mourning and weeping were forbidden on that occasion ;

all was to be joy, festivity, and rejoicing; but let the reader remark the ground of this joy and rejoicing,—the people wept for joy: joy for what? Was it for that which "drowns in tears" our modern congregations? It was because they heard the words of the LAW,-because they understood the words declared unto them;—thus the joy of the Lord became their strength. The bare reading of this passage shews us how unthinkingly it is turned, by way of accommodation, into a prayer for the sick. Something, too, might be here said on the expression,-"from our midst," but it would swell our remarks to too great an extent to shew that the blessings of the omnipresent God are not sent from certain chapels in certain streets, in any city or town under heaven, but from a far Higher source.

Nor is the following forced accommodation of the language of Scripture less liable to objection:- "Make all their bed in their sickness." These words are evidently intended as a quotation from Psalm xli. 3., but, as we have just hinted, they are a forced accommodation; for even supposing that they refer to bodily indisposition, which they do not, they contain, as they stand in their connection in the psalm, a positive promise of aid, and not a prayer for it. The whole of this psalm, with the two psalms immediately following, contain a most vivid description of the grievous temptations which the Lord endured in the glorification of his Humanity; and the language of these psalms can be applicable to Christians in general only in as far as they are the subjects of regeneration. They who are acquainted with the copious, the luminous, the unprecedented expositions of this subject, to be found in the writings of Swedenborg, can alone appreciate the precious, the consoling assurance, conveyed in the words referred to, of the divine support in every state of temptation; and perhaps we could not do better than refer the reader to the declaration of the apostle Paul, when speaking of the Lord Jesus as the Great, the High Priest of the Christian profession, a Priest who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; who was in all points tempted like as we are; and who is, in consequence thereof, able to succour them that are tempted. The same apostle told the Corinthians that God would not suffer them to be tempted above that which they were able to bear; but would, with the temptation, also make a way to escape, that they might be able to bear it. We might dilate on this interesting subject to the extent of a goodly volume, but we decidedly prefer a reference to Swedenborg's Summary Exposition of the Internal Sense of the Prophecies, and the Psalms, in which we are informed, in few words, that verses 1 to 4, of Psalm xli. teach, that "he who is in temptations, and thence in affliction, is always supported, and thereby vivified."

The only other misapplication of Scripture on this part of the subject that we shall here notice, is one of very common occurrence, viz., May they glorify God in the fires." Here there is an evident allusion to Isaiah xxiv. 15-"Wherefore glorify ye Jehovah in the fires, the name of Jehovah the God of Israel in the isles of the sea." But any person who is in the habit of consulting the Scriptures in the original, ought to know that the word here rendered "fires" is Urim, a term which, in connection with the term Thummim, was applied to the effect produced on the breast-plate of judgment worn by the high priest, by which he was enabled to understand the divine responses. Writers in general inform us that these two words signify lights and perfections; their full import, however, is, we think, much better expressed by Swedenborg, who says, in his explanation of Exod. xxviii. 30-"That hereby is signified the shining forth of Divine Truth from the Lord in ultimates, appears from the signification of the breast-plate of judgment, as denoting Divine Truth shining forth from the Divine Good of the Lord; and from the signification of Urim and Thummim, as denoting light and the shining forth [explendescentia] thence. The reason why the Urim and Thummim denote light and explendescence is, because by the stones in the breastplate the light of heaven shone forth with variety according to the responses which were given by them; therefore also they were of different colours; for the Divine Truth proceeding from the Divine Good of the Lord, appears before the angels as light, hence is all the light of heaven," &c. A. C. n. 9905. In quoting the passage in question in his two works on the Apocalypse, Swedenborg has left the word Urim untranslated; but from the connection in which he quotes the passage, from the explanation he gives of the word isle, and especially from the very luminous remarks which run throughout the n. just quoted from the A. C., there can be no doubt that "he considered it as referring to the promulgation of Divine Truth among the inhabitants of the remote coasts of the sea." (Apoc. Ex. n. 50.) The passage itself, indeed, to the mere English reader, may at once be seen to be perfectly parallel to Isaiah xlii. 4, 10, 12, and therefore to have no reference whatever to the use commonly made of it.

ΙΑΚΩΒΟΣ.

ON HUMAN FREEDOM.

THE following remarks are intended as an attempt to remove a certain difficulty concerning Free Will as it exists, rather than to prove its existence, for proof upon such a subject must indeed be a difficult, if

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all was to be joy, festivity, and rejoicing; but let the reader remark the ground of this joy and rejoicing,—the people wept for joy: joy for what? Was it for that which drowns in tears' our modern congregations? It was because they heard the words of the LAW,-because they understood the words declared unto them;-thus the joy of the Lord became their strength. The bare reading of this passage shews us how unthinkingly it is turned, by way of accommodation, into a prayer for the sick. Something, too, might be here said on the expression,—“ from our midst," but it would swell our remarks to too great an extent to shew that the blessings of the omnipresent God are not sent from certain chapels in certain streets, in any city or town under heaven, but from a far Higher source.

Nor is the following forced accommodation of the language of Scripture less liable to objection:— -"Make all their bed in their sickness." These words are evidently intended as a quotation from Psalm xli. 3., but, as we have just hinted, they are a forced accommodation; for even supposing that they refer to bodily indisposition, which they do not, they contain, as they stand in their connection in the psalm, a positive promise of aid, and not a prayer for it. The whole of this psalm, with the two psalms immediately following, contain a most vivid description of the grievous temptations which the Lord endured in the glorification of his Humanity; and the language of these psalms can be applicable to Christians in general only in as far as they are the subjects of regeneration. They who are acquainted with the copious, the luminous, the unprecedented expositions of this subject, to be found in the writings of Swedenborg, can alone appreciate the precious, the consoling assurance, conveyed in the words referred to, of the divine support in every state of temptation; and perhaps we could not do better than refer the reader to the declaration of the apostle Paul, when speaking of the Lord Jesus as the Great, the High Priest of the Christian profession, a Priest who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; who was in all points tempted like as we are; and who is, in consequence thereof, able to succour them that are tempted. The same apostle told the Corinthians that God would not suffer them to be tempted above that which they were able to bear; but would, with the temptation, also make a way to escape, that they might be able to bear it. We might dilate on this interesting subject to the extent of a goodly volume, but we decidedly prefer a reference to Swedenborg's Summary Exposition of the Internal Sense of the Prophecies, and the Psalms, in which we are informed, in few words, that verses 1 to 4, of Psalm xli. teach, that "he who is in temptations, and thence in affliction, is always supported, and thereby vivified."