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delight to the long-anticipated period of her removal into the spiritual world. Thither she is now gone; and we may hope and believe she will add to the number of those who have the Father's name written in their foreheads, and stand on Mount Zion with the Lamb. H. L.

On the 24th April last, Mr. John Newbery, a worthy member of the Argylesquare Society, London, was removed into the spiritual world. About thirty years ago, he was introduced to a knowledge of the New Church doctrines, by his friend, the Rev. W. Mason; and having once become satisfied of their heavenly origin and influence, he adhered to them through good and evil report, and took a part in the measures adopted for their promulgation, with that steadiness and fidelity which were characteristic of him. His value as a man of business was soon discovered by the society which he joined; and he was consequently appointed, and continued to serve on, the committees of the various institutions belonging to the Church. For many years, till within a few weeks of his death, when illness induced him to resign it, he held the office of treasurer to the London New Church School Society, and discharged its duties with a zeal and regularity which discouraging circumstances could not abate. In all such offices, his talent for business, his remarkably even temper and firmness of mind, united with friendly manners and an obvious willingness to oblige, rendered him a really useful man. The same qualities naturally pointed him out as a suitable representative to Conference, which, consequently, he attended very often. By this he became known to the Church at large, and, as far as known, greatly respected. A painful disease put a stop to his active usefulness some months before it terminated his earthly existence; but it was, doubtless, the means of preparing him for a more extended sphere of usefulness above. He endured his bodily sufferings with much patience and resignation, gratefully acknowledging the satisfaction and support that he experienced from the principles which he had derived from the New Church; and was much comforted by partaking of the Lord's Supper, for the last time, a few hours before his departure. May the Lord in his good Providence raise up many more such men as John Newbery, for the service and advancement of his Church and kingdom!

With this notice of Mr. Newbery may be mentioned the recent removal into the spiritual world of several other sincere members of the society now meeting in Argyle-square. On the 31st of March last, at the advanced age of 77, departed the widow of the late Mr. Gerardin, who was well known among the early receivers of the heavenly doctrines in London, and was one of those to whom we are indebted for the establishment of the London Printing Society. Mrs. Gerardin, as well as her husband, was warmly attached to the New Church, and continued so to the end of her natural life,—taking great interest in all its concerns, and regularly attending public worship, until the infirmities of age rendered it only occasional.

Early in the preceding month, (February,) Mrs. Pownell was taken from a world in which she had experienced much bodily suffering-leaving her worthy hus. band for some time longer a member of the Church on earth And about the same period, Mrs. Lloyd exchanged the earthly for the heavenly existence. Having some months before, for the benefit of country air, resided with her brother, Mr. Charles Hodson, at Bishop's Stortford, she could not have the pleasure of meeting with the society as formerly; but she gave ample testimony of her regard for the New Church doctrines, of the support she derived from them,--and of the heavenly influence, through their medium, operating on her mind and affections. In the midst of great suffering, during a long and painful illness, she evinced a grateful sense of the attention and kindness of her friends; and was not only resigned to the will of Providence, but showed that she occasionally enjoyed such spiritual states as seemed an earnest of heaven. About five years ago, by the same disease which liberated her own spirit, (namely, consumption,) she was bereaved of her husband, much to the loss, humanly speaking, of the then Burtonstreet Society, and, indeed, of the Church at large; for having, after much inquiry and consideration, become satisfied of the superiority of the doctrines of the New Church, he was beginning to take an active part in those measures and institutions which are designed for the promulgation of them. As a member of the committee of the London Printing Society, his character and judgment gave promise of much future usefulness to the Church; but it pleased the Lord that his capability of serving it should be transferred to a higher sphere. T. C. S.

Cave and Sever, Printers, 18, St. Ann's-street, Manchester.

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On the state of spirits in respect to the state of men; and on their mode of reflection respectively.

4716. The state of spirits in respect to the state of men appears, at first sight, similar, it is, however, very different; they indeed think and will in a similar manner, but they are different as to their mode of reflection. A man in the world reflects from his corporeal memory, but a spirit from the interior memory. A man, when he sees another, reflects upon all things which he had heard and experienced concerning him personally, and he acknowledges as a friend and companion him with whom he had conversed, and from various causes had contracted friendship. But it is not so with spirits; they acknowledge as a friend him who is like them, and as an acquaintance every one who receives their ideas, and this with much variety, whether they were known or not. A man reflects upon various things with which he intends to clothe himself, and with which he does clothe himself, and this variously, But spirits do not reflect in this manner; they have garments given to them according to their state, and they do not know whence they are, and when [they were given], nor do they care, or are concerned about it. A man knows what sort of a house, what kind of rooms, courts, &c. he has, and also what kind of furniture; and spirits know this in like manner; but when the houses are changed, or new ones, together with furniture and utensils, are given, they rarely reflect whence they are, and when [they were given], but this is not the same with one as with another. In like manner, when they come to another place, they do not know where they had been before, thus they do not reflect from one place to another as a man does. In a word, reflections occur according to the states in which they are respectively, whether in the other life or in the world. In respect to reflections, there occur so many things that they cannot be described; they have, however, a wakefulness and N. S. No. 69.-VOL. VI.

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a life, but on account of the difference of reflections, that state differs greatly from the wakefulness and life of man. With evil spirits the life of reflections is entirely obscure, for they know nothing but to act from their evil nature; but it is otherwise with the good, because these think and act from an intellectual principle; and the angels do this much more excellently than men, although they do not so know the state of man, that they can institute a comparison [between his state and their own]. The principal reason of this difference is, because angels have not a memory of the past as to those things which are external, but as to those things which are internal, thus which belong to faith and eternal life; nor do they remember whence and how they learned those things. In this respect they are like infants, who learn without knowing how.

On one God and Nature. That states make distance, negation absence, confirmation presence. That faith conjoins.

4711. I was in a state like that of spirits, and was entirely like them, in a human body, and with human sensations. We were in a room, and in another room there were several others, and there also appeared books; I looked into one book, which was written as it were in the ancient Hebrew letters, but I soon closed it, and looked into another. I then spoke with one of those at the table, the others sat by the wall. I told him I was in the world, and at the same time in the other life. I touched him, and he felt the touch, and I said, that in man there is a man which lives after death; and because he believed what I said, he appeared to be entirely present; but the others who sat at the wall vanished as to their heads, so that at length there appeared nothing but, as it were, a shadow in their place. I afterwards heard that they did not believe what I said, and that therefore they appeared as vanishing, or as absent; for the idea of one man enters fully into another's mind, when it is affirmatively received, and thus they appear present according to consent and affirmation; but ideas of thought which are not received cause absence, that is, negation.

4712. From these things it is evident how it is with faith in the Lord; thus the Lord is present with those who believe in Him according to the truths of faith, that is, He makes his abode with them; but the Lord is absent from those who do not believe in Him, because by such He cannot be seen in thought, nor acknowledged in affection, and concerning such the Lord says, "He does not know them;" [see Matt. xxv. 12.] the reason is, because they do not know Him.

4713. I then also conversed with some in the city (to which they came over a long bridge); they had been priests or leaders, and I con

versed with them concerning the Lord, stating, that the Trinity in Him is perfect, which was also shewn from the Word, and that thus there is one God, not several, as those who distinguish the Deity into persons . think. Upon this the priests said, that they acknowledge one God, but only the Father, and that they name the Son and the Holy Spirit, but that they do not think of them as Gods. But they were asked whether they have any idea of the Father; when it was perceived that they had no other idea than of the infinite universe without a boundary; but it was said, that in that case their thought could not be determined and fixed, still less their affection. The simple-minded said that they desired to have a God of whom they could think, and who could receive their thoughts, and towards whom they could be affected with love, which could by no means be the case if God were such in their idea as is the universe without a boundary. It was also shewn that this idea must needs fall into nature, and thus the acknowledgment of God would perish it was then shewn that when they think of nature in general, the idea falls into what is similar with God, concerning which mention has been made above, so that to them nature is God.

That those who wish in any way to merit heaven, remove themselves from heaven.

2652. I was in conversation with spirits concerning those who wish to merit heavenly joy, or heaven, by piety,—namely, by prayers, by gifts to the poor, and by humiliation from themselves, and also by renouncing the world from themselves, and by similar things, by which a man thinks, sometimes in simplicity, that he thus merits heaven, and also by this, that he has contributed something in the life of the body to the increase of the Lord's Church; and this he attributes to himself as merit. Of such modes of attributing merit there are manifold genera and species. Now, when I was in conversation with spirits I perceived, in a spiritual idea, that the more any one thinks he merits heaven by such things, and thus approaches to heaven, the more he removes himself from heaven, because he attributes merit to himself and derogates it from the Lord.

2653. And he also attributes to himself faith, charity, and the goodness of the works [he performs], and consequently he denies them to the Lord, and therefore he removes himself, the more he does this, from heaven. This is a truth confirmed, and capable of confirmation from many considerations in respect to those who are in the other life. Such persons place between themselves [and heaven] as it were, a gulf between two mountains, so that they cannot pass over to the other mountain without falling headlong into the gulf; or like an intermediate

sea, into which the shipwrecked cast themselves if they thus desire to enter into heaven; wherefore they must recede [from merit] and be led by the Lord another way [to heaven].-1748, July 19.

2654. But they ought not, on this account, to pass over to the opposite damnable principle, that faith alone, without the works of charity, can exist, and thus think that this faith can save them, when, at the same time, they live worse than heathen, for in such case there is no faith; concerning which, however, of the Lord's mercy, I shall speak elsewhere.

Concerning broken bread.

2626. In a vision there was offered to me a small dish full of bread cut into square pieces, like cubes, which I thought signified the communication of bread, namely, of celestial things, and I was rejoiced. The dish was placed to my mouth that I might eat, and there it was held some time, but it was not eaten whilst I was in that opinion that that bread signified celestial things. I was told that broken bread, not cut, signifies celestial things; for as bread is broken by the lips and the teeth before it is eaten, so it is first broken by the hand [before it is put into the mouth]; and since this is according to nature, therefore celestial things are signified by bread broken by the hand,* by the lips and the teeth, and it is moreover broken into the smallest pieces by the muscles and fibres, as it were by the minutest hands, lips, and mouths, of the recipient vessels.

2627. But bread cut with a knife is that which counterfeits what is celestial, and which is, nevertheless, not celestial, like all that which is effected by art, or which is artificial; wherefore the bread which was offered to me, because it was cut with a knife into cubic pieces, signified filthy delights, concerning which I have spoken above, which delights are thought by those who are in them to be heavenly, whereas they are infernal.-1748, July 16.

Natural and corporeal things, when separate from spiritual and celestial things, become putrescent.

2841. I was permitted to converse with spirits, saying, that worldly pleasures, and worldly and corporeal things, when separate from spiritual and celestial things, are entirely like extravasations of blood, as is the case with wounds, pustules, and similar things, in which the extra

* Hence we see the reason why bread is uniformly said to be broken in the Word, as-"Break thy bread to the hungry," &c. (Isaiah lviii. 7.) and the Lord, when He fed the multitudes and instituted his Holy Supper, broke the bread; and he was known of his disciples after his resurrection in the breaking of bread. (Luke xxiv. 35.)

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