substituted instead of the punishment which is due to his sins, and that the obedience which He rendered to the divine law is accepted instead of that obedience which the man himself ought to have rendered; and that thus hell is closed, heaven is opened, and eternal happiness is given to him. But what is the effect of such a belief? Has it any tendency to regenerate the internal affections of the spirit? Perhaps you would answer this question in the affirmative, and appeal to the general history of society in support of your position. On the other hand, I would probably undertake to contravert your position by attempting to show, that there is no evidence that the men who believe this doctrine, are, as a general fact, any better than others. There would thus arise a discussion for which we have no time now. All I ask of the reader at present, is to look at this question in the light of rational truth. Can the belief of the doctrine referred to have any tendency to regenerate the spirit of man by leading him faithfully and continually to reject every evil as a sin against the Lord. Such a belief may no doubt have a tendency to quiet anxiety in regard to the past and the future, and to produce a self complacent state of mind in regard to one's present condition. But there is danger that the quietness which results from such a belief, may be more like the benumbed and fatal stillness that is produced by the scorpion's sting, than like that peace which flows from the internal reception of the Lord Jesus Christ, as divine goodness and truth. It is this internal reception of the Lord, our Saviour, as the true and only God, that the New Church receives as the true spiritual doctrine of salvation through the atoning blood of Christ. That blood, in a spiritual sense, does not denote the Lord's material blood which was shed upon Calvary, nor even the sufferings which were there endured; this would be a merely sensual idea, in which there is no spiritual life. But the blood by which the spirit is cleansed and made fit for heaven, is the divine truth of the Lord. This, as is fully shown in the doctrines of the
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