Page:The Doctrines of the New Church Briefly Explained.djvu/206

200 the breeze it sails upon; but it never resumes the exuviæ that clothed it while a worm; for, useful as that covering was while it crawled upon the earth, it needs it no longer now that it is able to fly in the air.

And the doctrine is fully as unscriptural as it is unreasonable. Not one of the texts cited in proof of it, when carefully examined and rightly understood, lends this doctrine the least shadow of support. This has been repeatedly and conclusively shown in works where this subject has been treated at greater length than it accords with the design of the present work to treat it.

We turn now to the new doctrine of the resurrection.—According to the teachings of the New Church, man never dies. The material body dies, but this is not the man; this does not think, will, reason, or love. These and other human capabilities belong to the soul or spirit. And when the spirit is withdrawn from the body, all the bodily functions cease, and there supervenes what we call death. But the spirit which is the real man, still continues to live, but in the spiritual world