NINETEENTH OF JUNE SERMON

Government By Conscience

by Rev. N. Dandridge Pendleton
1893

I was seeing in visions of the night, and behold He was coming with the clouds of heaven as the Son of Man, and He came even to the Ancient of days, and they made Him approach before Him. And in Him was given Dominion and Glory and a Kingdom, and all peoples, nations and tongues shall worship Him. His Dominion is a Dominion of an age which shall not pass away, and His Kingdom which shall not perish. - Daniel 8:13, 14

THESE words from Daniel are a prediction concerning the Second Advent of the LORD, at which time He was to come not in Person, but in the "clouds of heaven"- That is, in the literal sense of the Word which is signified by the "clouds of heaven" - And also that He would then establish a New Church, which would endure forever; for concerning this Church it is said, "His Dominion is a Dominion of an age which shalt not pass away, and His Kingdom which shall not perish," by which is signified the establishment of the New Church, the crown of all Churches; which Church was not to be established, as said above, by a personal coming of the LORD, but by His coming in the literal sense of the Word - That is, by His appearing as the internal sense in this literal sense. Thus the Second Coming of the LORD and the establishment of the New Church is effected by a revelation of the Internal Sense of the Word, in which the LORD is, and appears, as the Son of Man in His Glorified Human.

Thus and in no other way has the LORD effected His Second Coming, as may appear from this statement from the Doctrines:

The LORD does not reveal Himself elsewhere than in the Word, nor then otherwise than in the Internal Sense" (A. E. 36)

for as elsewhere stated,

It is to be known that after the Word was given, the LORD manifests Himself by it alone, for the Word which is Divine Truth, is the LORD HIMSELF in heaven and the Church: from this it may first be known that the manifestation there predicted (that is, in Daniel) signifies His manifestation in the Word, and His manifestation in the Word was effected by this, that He opened and revealed the internal or spiritual sense of the Word, for in this sense is the Divine Truth, such as it is in heaven, and the Divine Truth in heaven is the LORD there" (A. E. 694 [b.]).

Such is the Divine teaching given us concerning the manner in which the LORD was to make His Second Coming, viz., as the opened and revealed Internal Sense of the Word, which is none other than that contained in the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, the servant of the LORD JESUS CHRIST, to whom it was given to explore rationally the mysteries of heaven and earth in order that he might be prepared to receive and give faith to a fallen world the most precious truth from the LORD out of heaven, in order that the world might thereby be saved from evil, and thus that the New Church might be established, and endure for ages of ages.

The LORD'S chosen servant, Emanuel Swedenborg, was then the means or instrument by which He effected His Second Coming, or what is the same, through whom He revealed the internal sense; for the internal sense is the real means by which He effected His Second Coming, and in that sense He is seen and received by those who are of His New Church and not out of it. In and through that sense alone He reigns and governs the Church; for from that sense alone the conscience of the New Churchman is formed, and by this conscience the LORD governs, and not otherwise, for the government of the New Church is an internal government and not external, except from the internal; which means that the New Church as the New Churchman is to be governed by an internal conscience formed from the internal sense of the Word, for in this and this alone the LORD can reign and govern His Church, for conscience is nothing but Divine Truths received and acknowledged in the mind of man, and when man is governed by these truths he is said to be governed by conscience, but what is really meant is that he is governed by the LORD, for these truths are from the LORD and are the LORD in man, so that when we speak of a government by conscience, we mean the government of the LORD, and there is no other government of the LORD than a government by conscience. Let us then realize this, that there are two things which contend for dominion over us; the one is called conscience. This is from the LORD, and with the New Churchman is formed from the internal sense of the Word; the other is called will, and is from self. These two contend for dominion, and in so far as the one gains dominion the other is subordinated, if the will gains power over us, then conscience departs, and the LORD cannot govern us internally. He can only restrain us by external means. But on the other hand, if we are ruled by conscience - That is, by the LORD - Then He governs us internally, and the external restraints with which we were at first bound, are one, by one removed, just in the degree as self will is subdued, until at length we are under no restraints, except those of conscience, which indeed are the most powerful of all because internal, but which are of that quality that they give freedom instead of taking it away.

External restraints are of a very different kind, for they invariably take away freedom upon the plane on which they exist; these external restraints are necessary because of the evil who cannot sustain true freedom, which in their hands would become license, hence external restraints or bonds are necessary for them in order to keep them within certain bounds, for they cannot be trusted. With those who are governed by conscience, however, the case is altogether otherwise, with them external restraints are but hindrances, and are to be removed just in proportion as men are able to sustain in integrity the consequent freedom; or, in other words, external restraints are removed from the Spiritual man just in the degree that he is governed and controlled by an internal conscience formed from Divine Truths, this goes on step by step until finally the material body with all its external restraints is removed and the man comes into the other world where he will know no restraint except his conscience formed in the world, then will appear to him the quality of his conscience, whether it was real or spurious, whether the things which he had done were done from an internal conscience or from certain external restraints. If he has acted from conscience he will be saved, if from external restraint only he will be lost. This spiritual conscience then is that by which the LORD governs the man of the Church and is therefore the Church in man - That is, the LORD'S dominion; this it is which He came to establish and until it be established in man the LORD'S Dominion is not yet in bins, and he is not yet prepared to receive his freedom but is amongst the bound.

It was to give this spiritual freedom that the LORD came a second time and established a New Church, which should be a Church under His Dominion - That is, governed by Him through the consciences of men; and this is the burden of His message to us, and it is also the burden of the message which He sent out one hundred and twenty-two years ago* through the universal spiritual world by means of His twelve disciples whom He called together for that purpose on the nineteenth day of June, 1770. He sent them forth to preach this evangel, that the LORD GOD JESUS CHRIST reigns, whose Kingdom shall be into ages of ages according to the prediction in Daniel.

I was seeing in visions of the night, and behold He was coming with the clouds of heaven as the Son of Man, and He came even to the Ancient of days, and they made Him approach before Him. And in Him was given Dominion and Glory and a Kingdom, and all peoples, nations and tongues shall worship Him. His Dominion is a Dominion of an age which shall not pass away, and His Kingdom which shall not perish.  - Daniel 8:13, 14