CONTENTS. As to the Way in which Order is to be induced As to the Particular Order of a Trine in the Ministry; or an Historical Sketch of the Rise, Progress and Present State of the Question of the Trinal Order in the or Internal Representatives are not done away in the Christian Church Authorities for the Trinal Order in the New Church and her Ministry Report of the Manchester Committee on the question "Whether it is in accord- ance with the laws of divine order to admit persons, by some solemn service, to administer the Sacrament of Baptism only, and not that of the Holy Supper?" viii Report of the London Committee on the Same Question Supplement to the Rev. S. Noble's Inquiry respecting the Office of Ministers in The Rev. William Mason's Letter, to the Central Convention, in his capacity of An Address to George Washington, Esq., President of the United States, from The Rev. Holland Weeks's Report on the Trine The Hon. John Young's Letter to the Rev. Mr. Hargrove on the Same Subject Correspondence between the Rev. C. J. Doughty and the Rev. T. Worcester Documents respecting the Rev. S. Worcester's Difficulties with the Bridgewater NOTICE TO THE READER. As some of the numerous errors that will be found in the following pages materially affect the sense, the reader, before he begins the perusal of this report, is requested to mark with a pencil the following ERRATA. In the eighteenth line from the top of page 2, the word "opinion" should be italicised. For it is quoted to show that the order, when adopted, would seem to rest on the opinion of the ordained ministers; and henc e it was underscored in the manuscript. Page 6, line 26 from the top, for External read internal. "1 16, note, line 15 from the bottom, for Dunkards' read Dunkers'. 8 +6 for John read Thomas. "21, 66 66 74, 11 from the bottom, for one year read three years. "81,"25 " 90, " "for Signers read fingers. top for twenty-two read thirty-four. "the words "In April, 1818," should begin a paragraph. "for man'sread men's. "after churchinsert a comma. for a year read two years. 4 66 after performance insert or non-performance. "for teacher read teachers. "instead of the semicolon after members put a comma. "for condemnible read condemnable. "before know insert to. "for our read one. "bottom, for os read it. "top for principles read principle. for are read were. "bottom for inductive read vindictive. "for putrifying read putrefying. "for indiscretely read indiscreetly. top, after "It will be found that," insert "with some few exceptions," σε bottom, for τον read του. instead of the comma after writing put an s. "top, for a crown read an appendix. "for effect read affect. "for Fifth Lemma read Sect. V. of Lemma I. "for truths read truth. "for judiac read judaic. "bottom, for these read there. "top, for derived read derive. "between same and order insert relative. "bottom, after the same insert by. "top, between pulse of and heart insert the. DOCUMENTS FOR NEW-CHURCH HISTORY. NO. XLIV. REPORT ON THE TRINE TO THE CENTRAL CONVENTION. The undersigned deem it their duty to present to the members of the Central Convention this REPORT ON THE SUBJECT OF A TRINE IN THE MINISTRY. By the constitution of the Central Convention, the principle of a trine in the ministry is acknowledged; and it is made the duty of its ecclesiastical council to determine this trine from the doctrine of the Word, as set forth in the writings of Swedenborg. In the original draft of the constitution, there was an article defining the ministerial trine. But this article was expunged, because it was known that such a definition, without any reasons for it drawn from the teachings of the Word and the writings of the church, would be regarded and resisted, by many worthy members of the convention, as the arbitrary prescription of mere ecclesiastical authority. It was not that the ministers then present in the convention had any doubts about the principle of a trine in the ministry, or any serious objections to the ministerial trine as so defined; but it was their wish to harmonize all the members of the convention in a clear understanding of the principle, and a rational adoption of the mode of applying it in their body, by such a display of the church's authorities on the subject as it was confidently believed could not fail to satisfy every sincere seeker of truth. In the proceedings ofanother convention, a different course was pursued. There the duty of devising rules of ecclesiastical order was assigned to the committee of ordaining ministers. That committee was especially requested "to take into consideration the subject of degrees in the ministry, to endeavor to define and settle with greater distinctness, the limits of each degree, and the appropriate duties of each, the name by which each degree shall be designated, the qualifications requisite for entering upon it, together with the circumstances and the mode of initiation into each degree," and to report on these matters to the next convention. (Journal of Eighteenth Gen. Con. p. 368, §39.) Here the principle seemed to be involved, that the deter mining and settling of the ecclesiastical order were vested in the ordaining ministers alone, whose opinions were to guide and govern the The convention. For at the next convention (the nineteenth) this committee of ordaining ministers, in making their report, say-" We propose that the three degrees in the priesthood or ministry should be designated" so and so: "We esteem it to be the office and duty of those who are in the first or lowest degree" to do so and so; "We conceive that the bishop should also have authority and power" to do so and so. And throughout the report it is "We think" this, or "We propose" that-without reference to a single passage of the Word of God, or the quotation of a single line from the writings of our church, to show that the order proposed was drawn from those sources. same view was strengthened by witnessing, in the following convention, the twentieth, in which the Rules of Order were adopted, the "Report of the Ordaining Ministers on Baptism into the New Church." (Journal for 1838, p. 382.) For in that report the whole matter is settled in three lines, thus-"Upon this question [namely, "whether those who are said to have been baptized in the old church, should be baptized when they are received into the new church,"] the committee [of ordaining ministers] would express their opinion, that all such persons should be baptized by a regularly authorized minister of the new church." A question about the mode of administering the holy supper was settled in the same summary way. It is true that a more elaborate report on the subject of baptism was made to the convention in 1839; but this was called for by a revision of the Rules of Order, with a view to their alteration in the very next year after their adoption, and was manifestly owing to some dissatisfaction at the prescriptive and authoritative way in which the ecclesiastical order of the visible church had been determined. Now it was in consequence of the ministers of the Central Convention having discerned the reaction, opposition and resistance produced among the lay members of the church by this mode of proceeding in the Eastern Convention, that they, in adopting a fundamental law for their body, only acknowledged the general principle of a trine in the ministry, and assigned to its ecclesiastical council the duty of determining that trine "as taught in the Word, and from thence in the writings of Swedenborg." The principle here involved is, that the ecclesiastical order of the church is to be drawn, like all her doctrine, from the Word-that is from the Lord, who is the Word; and in the New Jerusalem from the Lord by Swedenborg as his expressly commissioned servant. And the ordaining and other ministers of the visible church are not deemed or expected to draw this order as doctrine from the Word, in the light of their own immediate illumination from the Lord, but to determine it as the preachers in heaven are said to preach," according to doctrines" already taught by the Lord himself through Swedenborg. For as "all the preachers are appointed by the Lord, and derive the gift of preaching from their divine appointment," so it is conceived that Swedenborg was appointed by the Lord to be the instrument of his second advent in the spiritual sense of his Word,-" which is doctrine itself," or "the genuine doctrine of the church," (A. C. 9086, 9380, 9430, 10.400,)-thus that Swedenborg is the especial agent of the Lord to teach "the true doctrine of the church, which is also the internal of the Word," (A. C. 9410,) that he derived the gift of teaching it "from his divine appointment," and that no other should be allowed to teach it as from the Lord immediately, but that all other ministers of the church on earth should teach and determine the church's external order "according to doctrines" taught through him. Hence the article in the original draft of our constitution, which determined the trine in our ministry, was expunged, simply because its order seemed to be prescribed as the devisings of our ecclesiastical functionaries; and it was made the duty of those functionaries to determine that trine as the teaching of the Lord in his Word and by the doctrines of his church. Thus our order was to rest on the Lord's authority, and not on the authority of the ordaining ministers. And it was designed that the members of the convention, in adopting the order, when thus determined, should do so in regard to the truths and reasons which their ministers might present from the Word and the writings, and not in any regard to them, or their authority, as the head ministers of the church. It was to be adopted by the members of the convention because they saw it, in the light of their own minds, to be true; and their ecclesiastical council were to be regarded as their ministers only so far as they helped them to see it in that way. For so only could they make it their own, and act efficiently under it, as a law of their will; because "nothing can be appropriated to any one which is not acknowledged from his own proper intuition, that is, which he does not know from himself, not from another, to be so." (A. C. 5376.) Thus it was hoped and expected that the ecclesiastical order of our convention, when adopted by its lay members on the Lord's authorityon the authority of its truth and rationality, would harmonize them in efficient co-operation for the advancement of our heavenly cause on earth, instead of dividing them, and distracting their efforts, by reactions upon what they might deem the assumptions of arbitrary ecclesiastical authority. But the undersigned have been convinced by subsequent events, that the postponing of the determination of the ecclesiastical order of our convention was an error. Such determination should have been made as a part of its fundamental law. For the fundamental or organic law, should involve all the principles of our body's future development as a seed involves all the principles of a plant, or the human soul, of the human body. Hence the convention ought not to have been constituted until that matter was settled by all the authorities which could be brought to bear upon it from the Word and the doctrines of the church at first. That, with every other matter which was likely to involve doubt or disputation, ought to have been settled before the convention was constituted, because the discussion of such matters afterwards, would divide its members in contentions for principles, when they ought to be united in action from principles previously agreed upon and clearly understood. And, therefore, the putting the settlement of this matter off "to a more convenient season," was but "sowing the wind" to "reap the whirlwind." However, the error was discovered only when it was too late for cor |