Man should again appear. If the Church were not losing sight of heavenly truth there would be no occasion for a special interposition of Divine Providence for its restoration.—And yet, in a spiritual, as well as in a natural sense, darkness is opposed to light. The Church having substituted error for truth, would at first regard truth itself as error, and contend against it as such.
It will be seen, therefore, that the rejection which these doctrines have encountered from the Church at large, is not even a presumptive evidence that they are not true. If false, they might have been thus rejected, but if true, they must have been. And hence if the reader would be just towards himself, and would make a right use of those rational faculties which the Lord has given him, he ought to examine the doctrines of the New Church candidly and faithfully, unprejudiced and unaffected by the judgment which the religious world has passed upon them. Let him have one Master, Christ. Let the Lord alone, as Divine Truth, be his only authoritative teacher. And relying on his help and strength, let him go forth in search of spiritual truth, firmly resolved to receive nothing as truth, till the evidence of it has been discovered and seen in the light of his own understanding. The Lord will most assuredly defend, protect, and guide those who thus rest upon him and diligently seek for that spiritual food,—the bread of heaven and the water of life,—which is necessary to prepare them for an eternal home in those mansions where angels dwell.
It is in vain to pretend, as some have done, that our only spiritual safety is in quietly receiving and resting upon those doctrines, which have come down to us from our forefathers. Even if the doctrines thus received by tradition were every where alike and consistent with themselves, which is by no means the case, the question would still arise,—what warrant have we for supposing that the Church has not departed from the truth? Is it not undeniable that the uniform testimony of the prophetic Word has authorized us to ex-
