Swedenborg's Maximus Homo/The New Church/Chapter 1
THE NEW CHURCH
SIGNIFIED BY
THE NEW JERUSALEM.
I.
A POPULAR BUT MISTAKEN IDEA OF THIS CHURCH.
Most of the people in Christendom who have heard of the organization known as the New Church, or the New Jerusalem, regard this church as only another Christian sect. And no wonder; for the students of Swedenborg, who have organized themselves into a separate religious body, speak of this body as "the Church of the New Jerusalem," or "the New Church," precisely as if such visible organization were this church. The first sentence in an article on the "New Jerusalem" Church in the American Cyclopædia, written by a distinguished member of the New-Church organization, defines this church as "a religious body which holds the doctrines set forth in the theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg"—as if this church, like the various sects in Christendom, were a visible body distinguished solely by its doctrines. And when a person accepts these doctrines and connects himself with some New Church society he is spoken of as a new acquisition to the New Jerusalem, or as having come into the New Church.
A similar idea of the New Church is found in a well written paper by Rev. Frank Sewall, read at the conference of New-Church ministers in Wilmington, Del. (May 19th, 1891), subsequently published in the Boston New Jerusalem Magazine Mr. Sewall says:—
And after referring to the apostles of our Lord and their "commission and illumination by the Holy Spirit entirely regardless of any contact with or derivation from the priesthood of the Jewish Church," he proceeds:—
From which it may be fairly inferred that Mr. Sewall considers the Apocalyptic New Jerusalem not only as a new visible body distinguished by its doctrines, but as separate and distinct from the former Christian Church as that was from the Jewish. This idea of the New Church—though held by many receivers of the new doctrines is, we submit, an altogether mistaken idea. For consider:—
The Jewish Church was not properly a church, but only the representative of a church. (A. C. 4281, '89.) But the Christian church was a church—a true church—at its commencement. And the New Jerusalem is still the Christian Church, but renewed or re-established. Some of the "more things" which Swedenborg told some inquiring angels were then (1768) revealed, were those "concerting a New Church to be re-established (instauranda—revived, renewed) by the Lord, and concerning the doctrine of that church." (C. L. 532.) And the reason assigned for the revealing of the grand Key (Correspondence) to the spiritual sense of the Word, was, "that the Christian Church which is founded upon the Word . . . may again revive and draw breath through heaven from the Lord." (Ibid.) Now, no New Churchman believes—for it is nowhere said or intimated in the Writings—that the Old or former Christian Church was a revival or re-establishment of the Jewish Church. Therefore the distinction between the New Church and the Old is by no means similar to that between this latter and the Jewish.
Then, again, the best of the Jews, like the best of the Mohammedans and Pagans, have a heaven of their own entirely distinct from the Christian heaven. But no such distinction exists between the New Christian heaven and the Old. There is no Old Christian or Old Church heaven now, as many seem to suppose; but a large portion (perhaps by far the largest) of the New Heaven with which the New Church on earth is associated consists of Old-Church people—that is, of those who were once members of the old Christian Church. This is distinctly and repeatedly taught in the Writings. To cite here one or two passages:—
"After the last Judgment (in 1757) a new heaven was formed from among Christians, only from those, however, who acknowledged the Lord to be the God of heaven and earth, and also repented in the world of their evil works. From this heaven the New Church on earth, which is the New Jerusalem, descends, and will continue to descend. . . . And this New Church on earth makes one with the New Heaven." (Preface to A. R.)
"In this new Christian heaven are all those who, from the first formation of the Christian church, worshiped the Lord, and lived according to his commandments in the Word, and were therefore in charity and faith from the Lord through the Word." (A. R. 876.)
And if such multitudes of those belonging to the first Christian Dispensation, who lived before the second advent and in a comparatively dark age, are now in the New Heaven of angels, is it reasonable to suppose that none save the very small company of the readers and receivers of Swedenborg's teachings, are now in association with that New Heaven?—especially as we are told that "the slavery and captivity in which the man of the church was formerly," was removed by the Last Judgment, so that "he can now, from restored liberty, more easily perceive interior truths if he has a desire for them" (L. J. 74); that "the reception of divine truth and good became more universal, more interior and more easy in consequence of that Judgment" (A. E. 1217); that "the communication between the Lord and the church was restored" by the dispersion of those dark clouds [congregations of spirits immersed in falsities] "from the world of spirits" (Contin. L. J. 11); that, however the old creeds might remain for some time unchanged, the people of Christendom "would be in a more free state of thinking on matters of faith, that is, on spiritual things which relate to heaven, because spiritual liberty has been restored to them" (L. J. 73); and that, consequently, "the state of the world and of the church before the Last Judgment," compared with what it was, or was to be after, "was as evening and night compared with morning and day." (Contin. L. J. 12.)
From all of which plain teaching the inference is legitimate and inevitable, that the influx of the new light and life from out the new angelic heaven, must be at this day into a far greater number of persons than the little band of professed Newchurchmen. We may reasonably conclude that there are hundreds of thousands in the various Christian organizations, and doubtless many outside of all organizations, whose souls are open to the influx of the new light and life, and who are therefore in interior and blissful conjunction with the Lord, and in association with the New Heaven of angels. And if this conclusion is well founded, then the New Church of which Swedenborg speaks cannot be a visible body distinguished by its doctrines, but is wider and more comprehensive than any existing organization—as wide, indeed, as the Lord's kingdom on earth.
Furthermore, the rites and ceremonies of the Jewish church were altogether different from those of the Christian. Its worship was of the most external and sensuous kind—purely representative. Its priesthood and all its belongings represented the Lord and the things pertaining to his kingdom. And none of those representative Jewish rites were continued in the Christian church—or only the two ordinances, Baptism and the Holy Supper. All but these were abolished at the Savior's advent. (T. C. R. 660; A. C 4904.) It is said in the Heavenly Arcana, that "representatives of the Lord and his kingdom ceased when the Lord came into the world." (9372.) All of which goes to show that the religion established at the Advent was a new and totally different religion from that of the Jews; and that the Christian church was by no means a continuation, revival, or re-establishment of the Jewish.
But can the same be said of the New in its relation to the Old or first Christian Church? Certainly not. On the contrary the New Church is still the Christian Church—and more truly Christian than the Old or former one. Its ritual is substantially the same as that of the Old; its ordinances are precisely the same; its form of worship is the same; three-fourths of its sermons (possibly seven-eighths) would be generally acceptable to almost any (so-called) Old Church congregation, if no mention were made of Swedenborg or the New Church; and about all of its hymns of thanksgiving, homage, love and praise are the productions of persons belonging to what is commonly understood and called by Swedenborgians the Old Church. The collection in the New Church liturgy now before me contains hymns by Wesley, Doddridge, Addison, Montgomery, Cowper, Keble, Heber, Bowring, Watts, and a few other Old Church hymnologists—36 being from the pen of Dr. Watts. And throughout the entire collection (of 116), I find not a single one from the pen of a known or professed Newchurchman.
Then in the New Church, or in its authorized teachings, about all the doctrines of the Old or former Christian Church are reaffirmed—but differently understood and explained. The Divine unity, omniscience, omnipotence and omnipresence, the divinity and inspiration of the Scriptures, the Messiah's advent, redemption, repentance, reformation, regeneration, resurrection, a general judgment, a life after death, a heaven and a hell, and a second coming of Christ—all these doctrines were believed and taught by the Old Church, or prior to the New Dispensation. Swedenborg says:—
Now, every one of these old doctrines believed and taught by the former Christian church, are reaffirmed in the New Church. But so differently are they here understood and explained that they are considered, and not unjustly called, new doctrines;—as an individual by regeneration becomes a new man, though still retaining his personal identity; or as the same old Bible becomes, as it were, a new Bible when its divine nature and its fullness of divine and heavenly wisdom are clearly disclosed to the reader's understanding.
From what has now been said it may be clearly seen that the relation of the New to the Old Christian church is very different from that of the latter to the Jewish church. Judaism was a totally different religion from Christianity. But the New Christianity is not a new and different religion from the Old. It is still the Christian religion—more thoroughly and genuinely Christian, indeed, than the Old. It is the Old Christianity divested of the cumbrous pile of errors which sundry councils of unenlightened men had from time to time heaped upon it;—the Old transfigured, as it were, and exhibited in its native but hitherto undiscovered and unknown grandeur and glory;一the old interpreted in a manner to meet the demands of enlightened reason and the deep needs of the human soul; its doctrines explained by a divinely authorized and divinely illumined expositor, and in conformity with the unfolding reason and increasing spiritual wants of our race. It is, in short, such an advance on the Old, or rather such an unfolding of its real character so long overlaid and concealed by the falsities which ecclesiastical councils had superinduced upon it, as justly to merit the designation of a New Christianity.
But only very imperfectly has this New Christianity as yet been embodied in any considerable number of people. Only very feebly and faintly have its surpassing beauty and rationality and catholicity been illustrated, even by those most familiar with its doctrines. But its ultimate triumph over all that is false and evil in human souls and human society is sure; for its source and centre and abiding inspiration is Infinite Wisdom and Love.