the Editor of this Periodical to that effect, stating that so soon as the English translation arrived in America, it would be reprinted for American readers. A correspondence ensued, from which the learned Professor, instead of reprinting the translation from England, has been induced to commence translating the Diary, beginning with the third volume in the original, and thus to supply the demand for an English translation of that work, which seems to be more urgent and extensive in America than in England. We are consequently authorised to state, that the first numbers of the Swedenborg Library, containing translations of the Diary by Professor Bush, may be soon expected in this country. Mr. Newbery, 6, King-street, Holborn, will undertake the agency for this work. PROGRESS OF THE CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES.-Extract from a Letter dated Boston, United States, 31st December, 1845, from Mr. R. B. Carter.“ It will be a source of gratification to you to know that the progress of the New Church in the reception of the heavenly doctrines is constant, not only in our city, but in various sections of our country, and though not so rapid as we naturally desire, we feel how much we have to be thankful for; good minds and hearts that are come into the church, are full of encouragement. "In June last our new house for public worship was dedicated. It is a neat gothic building, capable of seating nearly one thousand persons. From its style of architecture being new in our city, we had anticipated, at the first opening, an increased audience, apart from other reasons; but, to our surprise, it has been well filled to the present time, and sometimes much crowded, manifesting an increasing interest in the doctrines. "Professor Bush, a thorough biblical scholar, has lately come out of the Presbyterian Church, and proclaimed himself a receiver of the doctrines. He has just finished, in our city, a course of six lectures, on the character of Swedenborg and his doctrines. They have been free lectures, and intended for the public generally, rather than for receivers. Three were held in the vestry under our church, to an audience of six to seven hundred persons, and the other three in a large public hall, to a much larger number. That much good seed has been sown, we feel will be manifest by and by." Obituary. Died at Heywood, on the 28th of November last, in the 60th year of his age, Mr. Edward Lowe, formerly leader of the New Church Society at Wigan, and for upwards of twenty years one of the missionary labourers of the Manchester Missionary Institution. In the course of this long period Mr. Lowe officiated, at various times, to most, if not all, the country societies of the New Church in Lancashire. His style of address was simple and earnest. The subjects which he appeared to prefer, were usually such as led to the most immediate enforce Cave and Sever, Printers, 18, St. Ann's-street, Manchester. How are we to seek this kingdom? Where is it to be found by us? What is meant by seeking it first, or in the first place? In what does the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness particularly consist? These are deeply interesting inquiries. We should seek this kingdom in the same manner that we would seek anything else which we earnestly wanted to attain; viz., with the desires, affections, and labourings of our souls. For, how does the worldly man seek after worldly wealth? How does the vain man seek worldly reputation? How does the sensual man seek carnal gratifications? Do not they all desire, and labour after such things? Are not those objects which they seek ever uppermost in their minds? Is it not their continual thought, and study, and contrivance, how they may attain them? Are not they happy in proportion to the success of their seeking? and are not they miserable in proportion to their disappointment? Let us, then, go and learn of the worldly-minded, the vain, and the sensual, how we are to seek the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness, and let it no longer be urged against us as a reproach, that "the children of this world are, in their generation, wiser than the children of light." And here let us beware of a dangerous error into which some persons fall, who fancy they are seeking the Kingdom of God and His Righte ousness, when their hearts, and affections, and chief desires, are turned quite another way. These are they whom the Lord thus describes in his awful charge against the church of the Ephesians, where He saith, "I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love." Oh, terrible declaration against such deluded Christians as make a N. S. NO. 77.-VOL. VII. N shew of seeking God and His kingdom, when their first love, their hearts, and desires, and best affections, are far from Him! How is it possible, in such a case, to find God? Can words, can gestures, can opinions, can external acts of worship only, penetrate into the heavenly world, and gain admittance to the throne of God, and draw down His divine graces and blessings into the soul? No such thing; it is the fervent desire—it is the penitent affection-it is the earnest longing of the heart after God and heavenly things, which alone seeketh and findeth them :- -“Like as the hart," saith the Psalmist, "panteth after the water-brooks, so longeth my soul after Thee, O God. My soul is athirst for God, yea, even for the living God: when shall I come to appear before the presence of God?" Would we know, then, how we are to seek the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness? Let us keep alive in our souls the heavenly flame of a holy desire towards things that are eternal. Let us take heed, for this purpose, lest temporal things, the cares and pleasures of this world, or the sensualities of the flesh, extinguish that holy flame; our affections will burn bright with the love of heaven, if we do not quench that love by the love of lower things. We must, therefore, give the Lord and His kingdom, the first, the uppermost, the ruling place in our souls-assign to Him the inmost chamber in our hearts, where He may ever dwell undisturbed, and where we may ever approach Him with the delightful sacrifice of unfeigned love and affection. But in vain shall we think of seeking, so as to find, the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness, until we are thoroughly convinced that they are better worth our seeking than any thing else besides. It is a fact which daily experience evidences, that men only seek that which they have been taught to value; and that their eagerness and earnestness in seeking is always in proportion to the estimation in which they hold what they are seeking, agreeably to the divine maxim- 66 Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." This is remarkably the case in regard to the high prize which the Gospel proposes to us to seek after. If we are not aware of the value of this prize, we shall never seek for it at all. If we conceive other things to be of superior, or even of equal value, our search will be proportionably cool and languid. We can never become zealous and real seekers, till we are convinced that the worth of this prize is infinitely superior to every other; till we learn to say, with that seeker of old," Whom have I in heaven but Thee, and there is none upon earth that I desire in comparison with Thee." Here, then, let us begin our work, if we would become successful seekers of the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness. Let us labour to convince ourselves (as we may very easily do whensoever we are so disposed), that there is nothing which so well deserves our seeking as these immortal treasures. Let us ask the world what it contains that can be compared with the riches of the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness. The question itself, if seriously proposed, would instantly determine the point, and make us all diligent in seeking what belongs to a better world. For alas! the true reason why the things of this world are in general more sought after than the things of God is, not because they are in themselves more really estimable; not because they make the possessor more really happy; but because we are, in general, deceived by their specious appearances, and for want of seriously examining their intrinsic worth, we suppose them to have a value which they really have not. For let us bring the things of this world to a true test, and we shall soon find they cannot bear the light of truth to shine upon them, and that to compare them with the things of God, is to weigh them in a balance in which they will be found wanting. For what is worldly glory, what is worldly wealth, what is worldly pleasure, that they should make men cold and blind to the pursuit of things so infinitely more excellent? Can these perishable goods be the proper goods of an immortal spirit? Is not man born for eternity, and must he not, in a few short years, leave the present world to be translated into another? And what then will his worldly wealth and fame, and his earthly comforts profit him, when he is to appear in the presence of God? Nay, what can they truly profit him even in the present life, when they can neither cure an aching head nor an aching heart ? "And if a man should gain the whole world and lose his own soul, by what is he thereby profited?" Nothing, then, is wanting but a moment's serious thought, to convince any reasonable person, that the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness are things of infinitely higher value than any which this world has to offer us, and that if they are not seen to be so, it is because they are not examined into; it is because man is willing to be deluded, and to substitute vanities for realities. Let him but once open his eyes, and the delusion is at an end. He sees with a light, bright as the noon-day sun, that in seeking the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness, he can alone hope to find a real good, compared with which every thing else is but like the Psalmist's green bay tree, of which it is written," I went by, and lo! it was gone; I sought it, but its place was nowhere to be found." Now if by seeking any thing is to be understood to make it the object of our love and affections, and to be greatly delighted with the acquirement of it; then to seek any thing first, or in the first place, must of necessity mean, to make it the first or principal object of our love and affections, and to be, above all things, delighted with the acquirement of that first object. It needs but little acquaintance with the human heart to see that there are in it several kinds and degrees of love, all in regular subjection and subordination to each other. As, for instance,-There is a love of ourselves; there is a love of the world; there is a love of the body; there is a love of bodily pleasures; there is also a love of God, and a love of our neighbour, and of all the spiritual graces, virtues, and excellencies connected therewith;-the three first of these loves may be called natural or temporal loves, and the two last spiritual and eternal. These several kinds of love, I say, are in regular subjection and subordination to each other, insomuch that some one of them is ever the uppermost, the first, or governing love, and whichsoever it be, it keepeth the rest in submission and obedience under it, so that itself hath the supreme rule and dominion in the heart. If this first love be heavenly, it maketh man an angel,-if it be worldly, or selfish, or bodily, it maketh him a devil. Here, however, let it be observed, that these several kinds of love have a different order, and are in different subordination in different persons; as for instance, in the natural, unconverted, or unregenerate man, the love of himself, the love of the world, or the love of divers sensual pleasures, have the ascendancy, and are the first and governing loves, so that they may be called kings over the rest,—and, in this case, the love of God and the love of our neighbour are but secondary or inferior loves, and are thereby in slavery and subjection. Thus God telleth the children of Israel by the prophet,-"Ye have made me to serve through your sins," intimating by these words, that in consequence of their sins, that is, of their worldly, carnal, and selfish love, they had put down the love of God in their hearts, and made it a servant and a slave. But in the spiritual, the converted, or the regenerate man, the case is altogether changed;-in him the love of God, and the love of his neighbour, with all the virtues, graces, and excellencies connected therewith, have the ascendency, and are the first and governing loves, and, in this case, the love of self, the love of the world, and the love of sensual pleasures, are secondary and inferior loves, and are kept thereby in subjection and subordination. Here then, we shall be enabled clearly to understand what is meant by seeking the kingdom of God first, or in the first place. It is to |