Page:The astral world, higher occult powers; (IA astralworldhighe00tiff).pdf/213

 must not indulge in feelings of hatred or unkindness toward any one; he must love his enemies; bless them in the midst of their cursings. He must be pure in heart; he must hunger and thirst after righteousness; he must, in all things, be under the dominion of a love, pure, holy, and unselfish. Such a one would be freed from the law of sin and death; such a one would cease to be a debtor to the law of the first dispensation, and would be born into liberty, not into a liberty to do wrong, but a liberty which had respects to his purified affections.

This will be understood by contrasting the principles of the two dispensations. The first governed by a force external to the subject, constraining him as a selfish being to do things not agreeable to him, thus bringing his will into subjection. The second governed by implanting the true affection within the subject, so that his delight was in the law, according to the inward man. Hence the new kingdom was to be "within." The first was over man with force and fear; the second was to be within man with charity and love.

From this it will be seen, that the first government, or covenant, as it is called, necessarily required external institutions to beget and direct its force to compel obedience to its enactments and edicts. And these institutions were necessarily authoritative; and persons belonging to their plane of administration were compelled to submit to them, as to the authority of God.

The second government or covenant which ignored force, and governed by love, had no use for such institutions,