CONTENTS

Introduction - 1

The Doctrinals of the Roman Catholics concerning Justification: from the Council of Trent. - 2-8

The Doctrinals of the Protestants Concerning Justification: From the Formula Concordiae. - 9-15

A Sketch of the Doctrinals of the New Church - 16

I. The Churches which separated themselves at the Reformation from the Roman Catholic Church dissent in various points, but they all agree on the Articles concerning a Trinity of Persons in the Godhead, Original Sin from Adam, the Imputation of Christ's Merit, and Justification by Faith Alone. - 17-18

II. The Roman Catholics held exactly the same beliefs before the Reformation as the Reformed Church did after it concerning the four Articles mentioned above, namely, a Trinity of Persons in the Godhead, Original Sin, the Imputation of Christ's Merit, and Justification by Faith therein: with the sole difference that they united that Faith with Charity or Good Works. - 19-20

III. The leading Reformers, Luther, Melanchthon and Calvin, retained all the dogmas concerning a Trinity of Persons in the Godhead, Original Sin, the Imputation of Christ's Merit, and Justification by Faith, just as they were and had been with the Roman Catholics, but they separated Charity or Good Works from that Faith, and declared that they were not conjointly saving, in order that they might be completely severed from the Roman Catholics as to the very essentials of the Church, which are Faith and Charity. - 21-23

IV. Nevertheless, the leading Reformers adjoined Good Works, and even conjoined them, to their Faith, but in man as a passive subject; whereas the Roman Catholics did so in man as an active subject; and yet there is actually a conformity between the latter and the former as to Faith, Works and Merit. - 24-29

V. The whole theology of the Christian World at this day is founded on the idea of three Gods, arising from the doctrine of a Trinity of Persons. - 30-38

VI. The dogmas of the aforesaid theology are seen to be erroneous after the idea of a Trinity of Persons, hence of three Gods, has been rejected, and the idea of one God, in Whom is the Divine Trinity, received instead. - 39-40

VII. Then truly saving Faith, which is Faith in one God united with Good Works, is acknowledged and received. - 41-42

VIII. This Faith is Faith in God the Saviour Jesus Christ, which in its simplest form is as follows:

(1) There is One God in whom is the Divine Trinity, and He is the Lord Jesus Christ.

(2) A Saving Faith is to Believe On Him.

(3) Evil actions ought to be shunned because they are of the devil and from the devil.

(4) Good actions ought to be done because they are of God and from God.

(5) And these should be done by man as of himself, yet it ought to be believed that they are from the Lord, with Him and through Him. - 43-44

IX. The Faith of the present day has separated religion from the Church: for religion consists in the acknowledgment of One God, and in the worship of Him from the Faith of Charity. - 45-46

X. The Faith of the present Church cannot be united with Charity, or produce any fruits which are Good Works. - 47-50

XI. From the Faith of the present Church there flows forth a worship of the mouth and not of the life; when yet the worship of the mouth is accepted by the Lord only so far as it accords with worship which is of the life. - 51-52

XII. The doctrine of the present Church is bound together by many paradoxes which are to be embraced by faith; therefore its dogmas enter the memory only, and not into any part of the understanding above the memory, but merely into confirmations below it. - 53-57

XIII. The dogmas of the present Church cannot be learned without great difficulty, nor retained, since they slip from the memory, neither can they be preached nor taught without using great care and caution lest their nakedness appear, because sound reason neither perceives nor receives them. - 58-59

XIV. The doctrine of the Faith of the present Church ascribes to God human properties, as that He viewed man from anger, that He required to be reconciled, that He is reconciled through His love to the Son and by intercession, that He required to be appeased by the sight of His Son's misery, and thus to be brought back to mercy, that He imputes the righteousness of His Son to the unrighteous man who supplicates it from faith alone; and that thus from being an enemy He makes him into a friend, and from a son of wrath into a son of grace. - 60-63

XV. From the Faith of the present Church monstrous births have been produced, and may still be produced, such as, Instantaneous Salvation from Direct Mercy, Predestination, the notion that God does not attend to man's actions, but only to Faith, that there is no bond between Charity and Faith, that in conversion man is as a stock, with many other such enormities likewise concerning the Sacraments of Baptism and the Holy Supper, as to the principles of reason drawn from the doctrine of Justification by Faith Alone respecting the benefits they confer also as regards the Person of Christ. The heresies from the first period to the present day have flowed from no other source than the doctrine founded upon the idea of three Gods. - 64-69

XVI. The last state of the present Church, when it is at an end, is meant by the Consummation of the Age and the Advent of the Lord at that time. (Matthew 24:3). - 70-73

XVII. Infestation by falsities, thence the consummation of all truth, or desolation, in the Christian Churches at this day, is what is meant by the Great Affliction, such as was not from the beginning of the world, nor shall be. (Matthew 24:21). - 74-76

XVIII. That neither Love, nor Faith, nor the Cognitions of Good and Truth, exist in the last period of the Christian Church when it draws to its end, is meant by these words in the aforesaid chapter of Matthew:

After the tribulation of those days, shall the sun be darkened and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. (Matthew 24:29). - 77-81

XIX. Those who hold to the present belief in Justification by Faith Alone are meant by the he-goats in Daniel and Matthew. - 82-86

XX. Those who have confirmed themselves in the present belief in Justification by Faith Alone are meant in the Revelation by the Dragon, his two Beasts, and the Locusts: and this Faith, when confirmed, is meant there by the Great City, which is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, where the Two Witnesses were slain also by the Pit of the Abyss from which the Locusts came forth. - 87-90

XXI. Unless a New Church is established ¹ by the Lord, no one can be saved: this is meant by these words:

Except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved. (Matthew 24:22). - 91-94

XXII. The exposure and rejection of the dogmas of the Faith of the present Church, and the revelation and reception of the dogmas of the Faith of the New Church, is meant by these words in the Revelation:

He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And He said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. (Revelation 21:5). - 95-98

XXIII. The New Church about to be established by the Lord is the New Jerusalem treated of in the Revelation, chapters 21 and 22, which is there called the Bride and Wife of the Lamb. - 99-101

XXIV. The Faith of the New Church cannot possibly be together with the Faith of the former Church for, if they were together, such a collision and conflict would ensue that everything of the Church with man would perish. - 102-104

XXV. Roman Catholics at this day know nothing of the Imputation of Christ's Merit, or of Justification by Faith therein, into which Faith their Church has been initiated, because this lies entirely concealed under their external forms of worship, which are numerous. Wherefore, if they recede even in part from the externals of their worship, and approach God the Saviour Jesus Christ direct, and also receive the Holy Eucharist in both elements, they may be brought into the New Jerusalem, that, is into the Lord's New Church, before the Reformed. - 105-108

About Imputation. - 109-113

Memorable experiences taken from The Apocalypse Revealed. - 114-115

APPENDIX.

The Faith of the New Heaven and the New Church in its universal form. - 116

The Faith of the New Heaven and the New Church in its particular form. - 117

Three memorable experiences taken from The Apocalypse Revealed. - 118-120

15. Concerning Free-will: from the Formula Concordiae.

(a) Man is altogether impotent in spiritual things. Pages 15, 18, 219, 318, 579, 656, etc. Appendix, page 141.

(b) By the fall of his first parents, man has become so totally corrupt as to be by nature blind with respect to spiritual things which relate to conversion and salvation, and so accounts the Word of God as a foolish thing. He is, and continues to be, an enemy to God until by the power of the Holy Spirit, through the preaching and hearing of the Word, he is converted, gifted with faith, regenerated and renewed by pure grace without any co-operation on his part. Pages 656, 657.

(c) Man is altogether corrupt and dead to what is good, so that in the nature of man since the fall and before regeneration there is not so much as a spark of spiritual vigour subsisting or remaining whereby he can prepare himself for the grace of God, or lay hold of it when offered, or of and by himself be capable of receiving it, or understand, believe, embrace, think, will, begin, perfect, act, operate or co-operate in spiritual things, or apply or accommodate himself to grace, or contribute anything towards his conversion, either in the whole, the half, or the least part. Pages 656, 658.

(d) In spiritual and Divine things which regard the soul's salvation, man is like the pillar of salt into which Lot's wife was turned, and like a stock or a stone without life and having neither the use of eyes, mouth, nor any of the senses. Pages 661, 662.

(e) Still, man has the power of movement and can govern his external members, attend public worship and hear the Word of God and the Gospel but in his private thoughts he despises all this as something foolish, and in this respect he is worse than a stock unless the Holy Spirit becomes effective in him. Pages 662, 671, 672, 673.

(f) Still, man's conversion is not just like the formation of a statue from stone, or the stamping of an impression on wax, which have neither knowledge, sense nor will. Pages 662, 681.

(g) In his conversion, man is a merely passive subject, not an active one. Pages 662, 681.

(h) In his conversion, man does not at all cooperate with the Holy Spirit. Pages 219, 579, 583, 672, 676. Appendix, pages 143-144.

(i) Since the fall, man retains and possesses the faculty of knowing natural things, also free-will in some measure to choose natural and civil good. Pages 14, 218, 641, 664. Appendix, page 142.

(k) The assertions of certain of the Fathers and modern Doctors that God draws man, though with his consent, are not in agreement with Holy Scripture. Pages 582, 583.

(l) When man is born again by the power of the Holy Spirit, he co-operates, though very feebly, by means of the new powers and gifts which the Holy Spirit began to operate in him at his conversion, not indeed forcibly, but freely. Pages 582, etc., 673-5. Appendix, page 144.

(m) Not only the gifts of God, but also Christ Himself, dwell by faith in the reborn, as in His temples. Pages 695, 697, 698. Appendix, page 130.

(n) There is a vast difference between baptized persons and those not baptized; for it is according to the doctrine of Paul that all who have been baptized have put on Christ and are truly regenerate, these having thereby acquired freedom of will, that is, made free again, as Christ testifies. Wherefore, they not only hear the Word of God but are in truth also enabled, though very feebly, to assent to and embrace it by faith. Page 675.

It should be observed that the foregoing extracts are taken from a book called Formula Concordiae, which was written by men of the Augsburg Confession. Nevertheless, the same doctrines concerning Justification by Faith Alone are maintained and taught by the members of the Reformed Church in England and Holland; wherefore the following treatise is intended for all. See also below, paragraphs 17 and 18.

Moreover, all those passages treat of the Lord's Advent, particularly of His Second Advent, when Jerusalem shall be such as is there described. For before this she was not married, that is, made the bride and wife of the Lamb, as the New Jerusalem is said to be in the Revelation.

The former, or present-day Church, is meant by Jerusalem in Daniel, and its commencement is described there in these words:

Know, therefore, and understand that from the going forth of the Word unto the restoring and building of Jerusalem, even unto Messiah the Prince, shall be seven weeks; afterwards in sixty and two weeks it shall be restored, and the street and the ditch shall be built but in distress of times. Daniel 9:25.

But its end is described by these words:

At length upon the bird of abominations shall be desolation, and even to the consummation and decision it shall drop upon the devastation. Daniel 9:27.

This last passage is alluded to in the following words spoken by the Lord in Matthew:

When ye shall see the abomination of desolation foretold by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, let him that readeth note it well. Matthew 24:15.

That by Jerusalem in the above passages is not meant the Jerusalem inhabited by the Jews, appears from those places in the Word where it is said of that city that it entirely perished, and that it was to be destroyed; as in Jeremiah 5:1; 6:6-7; 7:17-18, etc.; Jeremiah 8:6-8, etc.; Jeremiah 9:10-11, 13, etc.; Jeremiah 13:9-10, 14; 14:16; Lamentations 1:8-9, 17; Ezekiel 4:1-end; Ezekiel 5:9-end; Ezekiel 12:18-19; 15:6-8; 16:1-63; 23:1-40; Matthew 23:37-38; Luke 19:41-44; 21:20-22; 23:28-30 besides many other such passages; also where it is called Sodom, as in Isaiah 3:9; Jeremiah 23:14; Ezekiel 16:46, 48; and in other places.