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 Father and the Son, as a man’s operative act proceeds from his soul and body conjointly. This is the Holy Spirit, thus forming a trine which is at the same time a one. That this is the genuine doctrine of the Word is evident from our Lord’s own language when he says, “I am in the Father, and the Father in me.” “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” So if Philip were now to make the same request in heaven, he would receive the same answer, for heaven neither knows nor shows any Father out of the Divine Humanity of the Son. The Father is in the Son as the soul is in the body, and in neither case is the one to be sought apart from the other. This doctrine, which is peculiar to the New Church, and fundamental in the system, derives its importance from the fact, that it pervades the whole as a vital element, and gives character to the entire fabric of a man’s faith. “The idea of God,” says Swedenborg, “enters into every thing belonging to the church, religion, and worship; and theological matters have their residence above all others in the human mind, and among these the idea of God is the principal or the supreme; wherefore if this be false, all beneath it, in consequence of the principle from whence they flow, must likewise be false or falsified; for that which is supreme, being also the inmost, constitutes the very essence of all that is derived from it; and the essence, like a soul, forms them into a body after its own image; and when in its descent it lights upon truths, it even infects them with its own blemish and error.”—Brief Expos., No. 40.

“But,” says the inquirer, “in what consists the peculiar claim of the New Dispensation on the score of life and conversation?”

We reply, that the cordial reception of the above great doctrine of the Lord will naturally lead to a closer conjunction of life with Him who has said, “Abide in me, and I in you,” because it will lead men to approach the Lord immediately in his Divine Humanity, as the only God of heaven and earth, and to approach him, too, as a God of boundless and unfathomable love, as a God who has loved the race of men with a love so intense, that instead of desiring an atonement or mediatorial sacrifice to render him placable or accessible, he himself assumed our nature, and came down to the lowest depths of our necessities, in order to raise us to his own paternal bosom. Is it not obvious that here is a powerful attraction to a pure and holy life, which does not exist under any other form of doctrine? Do we not learn a new lesson of love here? Is it not cause of everlasting gratitude to be freed from the perplexity which is felt in addressing worship to three persons instead of one, and then making use of one of the three as a medium, mediator, or intercessor, through whom to approach another? Is it not ineffably more simple and more delightful to recognize Creator, Redeemer, Regenerator, and Sanctifier, all in one Being, and one Person? Will not the amazing love which he has manifested kindle ours? Shall we not enter upon a community of spirit with the Lord himself? Shall we not live in his life, love in his love, and thus walk in his name? Can it be otherwise than that a higher form of spiritual life shall developedevelop [sic] itself under these circumstances?

But again, the claim of the New Dispensation to a greater purity of life as well as of doctrine, is substantiated by the prominence given to charity as compared with faith in the circle of Christian virtues. Its profound philosophy discloses the love-element as the very esse of our being, and the prompter of our acts, and wherever this principle has received a right set, it will not fail to go forth in the