BX S721 *~~^ *"*"! I SKEPTICISM IB32 DIVINE REVELATION, UC-NRLF LLIS, M.D., >r of the " Avoidable Causes of Disease." "Address to the Clergy," rhe Wine Question in the Light of the New Dispensation," Etc, TOPE OF MANKIND AT THIS DAY IS NOT IN LOOKING , ROMAN CATHOLICISM, OR ANY OF THE F THE PAST BUT FORWARD AND UPWARD TO THE US.1LEM, WHICH IS NOW, IN THIS NEW AGE, DESCEND- GOD OUT OF HEAVEN,"" NEW YORK: iLISHED BY THE AUTHOR, i 8 8 GIFT OF Professor G. R. Noyes SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. BY JOHN ELLIS, M.D., Author of the " Avoidable Causes of Disease," "Address to the Clergy,'" " The Wine Question in the Light of the New Dispensation," Etc. THE TKUE HOPE OF MANKIND AT THIS DAT 10 NOT IN LOOKING BACH-TO JUDAISM, ROMAN CATHOLICISM, OR ANY OF THE FORMS o? THE PAST BUT FOI^VARD AND UPWARD TO THE NEW JERUSALEM, YvHICII 13 NOW, IN THIS NEW AGE, DESCEND- ING FROM GOD OUT OF HEAYEN. NEW YORK: PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR. 1882. 1 7 ftl IT has been our aim in writing and compiling this work to show. in the light of revelation, to human reason 1st. That there is a known personal Gcd, who has revealed Him- self to us as a Divine Man in His Word ; and also in man and in the works of creation which surround us, when the latter axe viewed in the light of revelation. 2d. That the material universe and man have been created from the spiritual world, and that all material objects and forms are but manifestations of affections and thoughts primarily from God, even if secondarily from man, either as a true or perverted image of God. As all of man's words and works spring from, or are caused by, his affections and thoughts, which are spiritual, the former neces- sarily correspond to the latter, as an effect does to its cause. So all of God's words and works must spring from, or be caused by, His affections and thoughts, and the latter must necessarily corres- pond to the former, as effects do to their causes ; therefore, as God's works are infilled .with life, and Jn^ this respect differ totally from the works of majt, oMf lje/rijisj$fr$n Jus a Word, containing spirit- ual knowledge, it*rnT*t differ ^icTra h words of man by being full of spirit and lU'eflUiQHisw4>fks ... 3d. Thqjb.\h$ :?4 c fel ISiripJufes ja^.written according to this science of correspoifds'nc&s be'tvve'eM *naufal and spiritual things ; consequently God's Word and His works can never conflict, what- ever the appearance. 4th That the Lord at this day has revealed to us the correspond- ences in accordance with which the Sacred Scriptures were written, and by which they must be interpreted, if man is to ba able to see and know the interpretation to be true, as lie knows any of the in- terpretations of the natural sciences to be true. By the aid of this newly revealed science, we find that the Sacred Scriptures have a connected spiritual sense which is never contradictory. 5ih. That this revelation of the spiritual sense of the Divine Word, and True Doctrines, is the fulfillment of the prophecies in regard to the Lord's Second Coming. Our chief object has been to call the attention of the reader to the revelations made by the Lord for the benefit of this new, this crown ing and endless age which is dawning upon us. CONTENTS. SECTION PAGB I. A Personal God 1 II. Special Revelation from a Personal God 3 III. Have we any Special Revelations from, a Personal God? 5 IV. The First Chapters of Genesis 21 V. Genesis, Chapter First, and Creation 26 VI. Brief Exposition of the Internal Sense of the First Chapter of Genesis 29 VTL The Creation of Man and Woman (as described in the First Chapter of Genesis, and as described in the Second). . . 37 VIII. Eve 45 IX. The Garden of Eden Its Trees and River 47 X. The Fall of Man The Serpent and Curse Introduced into the World , 53 XI. Cain and Abel 61 XII. The Flood General .Remarks 65 XIII. Noah 69 XIV. Shem, Ham, and Japheth 71 XV. The Flood of Waters 74 XVI. The Ark 81 XVII. The Tower of Babel 88 XVIII. Sun Worship and Idolatry Their Origin 94 XIX. Spiritualism 105 XX. Mediate Revelation by the Word, or Immediate by SpiritsWhich is Preferable ? 116 M75886 IT CONTENTS. BECTION PAGE XXI. An Appeal to Spiritualists in behalf of the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg 123 XXII. Doctrines of the New Jerusalem 12D XXIII. The Incarnation Was there any Violation of the Laws of Nature? Why the Lord came to this Earth? " What bqcarne of the Universe, during His Incarnation ? " 133 XXIV. The Divine Trinity, and the Trinity in Man 153 XXV. Sacrificial Worship Its True Significance 170 XXVI. The Cross 180 XXVII. A True and Heavenly Life 184 XXVIH. The End of the World, and the Second Coming of the Lord 191 XXIX. The Eesurrection When It Occurs 202 XXX. The State of Infants in the Other Life 218 XXXI. On the State of the Heathen and Gentiles in Another Life 221 XXXII. The New Jerusalem The Church of the Future The Crown of all Churches ." 229 XXXIII. The Divine Promise to those who receive the New Jerusalem at the Second Coming of the Lord 247 XXXTV. Emanuel Swedenborg, the Seer ^. . 257 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. I. f, / ; ,; - /{C 1 : A Personal God. THAT there is a personal God, or Creator, it would seein must be manifest to every enlightened and thoughtful individual who has ever had the idea of such a being properly and truly presented to him, and who observes and reflects upon the works of creation. In all created things, in the animal, vegetable and mineral king- doms, he sees evidences of design, of careful thought, and the most wonderful adaptation of individual parts, and their uses to whole structures. There is nothing in the works of man which will compare in this respect with the works of creation, which we behold around us on every hand, from the smallest atom, vegetable and insect, to the vast suns and their surrounding planets. If we were to find a beautiful piece of man-made machinery which we had never seen before, what would be our first thought ? Would it be thac it had either come by chance, or was the work of the general mind of men, or would it not be that it was the work of some individual or personal man or men. Do we ever find anything of human production,- manifesting thought and design, which has not been made by s&sae individual or personal man or men? How unreasonable then to think for a moment that the beauti- ful forms and structures, filled with life, around us, mani- festing in an infinite degree thought and design, are not the works of a personal being or Creator. Geology shows that they did Dot always exist. 2 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. If there is a personal Creator, it is evident that he must have had some object, design, or end in view, in creating the universe, worthy of such a being. Unaided by revela- tion from our Creator, we might hare wandered in dark- ness and never have been able to see or comprehend the reason why the universe was created, for a goodly number of.cur^cie'ntlffccWen of this day, who ignore Divine Reve- lati'ori',' have manifested to us how utterly impossible it is i'ojr; ^ t 6/c;rigJ:dssefl fti tfbientific investigations and pur- jkt$,c*&iiaided e e by? ,re^elation, to comprehend or even perceive spiritual truths, or the spiritual side of creation and of man's nature. But the sacred Scriptures intimate to us, and the reve- lations made by the Lord for the benefit of this perverted and skeptical age, through Emanuel Swedenborg, teach us that the object of the material creation and universe was that man might be created in the. image and likeness of his* Creator, capable of loving, reverencing, and serving Him and his fellow or neighbor; and that from man an angelic heaven of intelligent, rational, and happy beings might be created, who should forever reverence, recipro- cate His love, and serve, by doing good to each other, and worship Him, not for His own sake or glory, but for their own good, that they might realize that they individually are but recipients of life, all brethren God the giver of all life, all truth, and of all goodness. Can we imagine a more worthy object for the creation of the universe than this ? If, then, we are prepared to admit that this wonderful universe lias been created by an intelligent Personal Being for the sake of making man in his own image, capable of becoming by the proper use of the freedom of will with which he is endowed, intelligent, wise and happy, can we for a moment suppose that such a Creator, after endowing man with rationality, conscience, and freedom of will, capable of the most terrible perversions and suffering, could by any possibility, if he is a wise and loving Father, SPECIAL REVELATIONS FROM A PERSONAL GOD. 3 as all His works manifest, leave man without any more special manifestation of His will, than he can gather from the dim light of nature without any direct positive in- struction as to his destiny, or on whom he is dependent for his existence, or how he should conduct himself so as to reach the highest state of intelligence,, goodness and happiness? Would an earthly parent thus leave the child he loves, to grope in darkness ? And if he would not, how can we attribute such an unnatural course to our Heavenly Father ? It would seem, then, if there is a personal God, as enlightened reason plainly assures us, and he is our Creator, an intelligent and loving Father, that He should have given to his children some knowledge of Himself and some manifestation of His will, some rules of life to guide them here and to heaven hereafter. Would it seem unreasonable that a Father, who in his great love has created this vast and wonderful universe for man, that he might be the recipient of His love, should personally manifest Himself to His creatures whom he has created and endowed with rationality, freedom and conscience ? The yearning heart of every earthly parent and of every child of an earthly parent answers No. That He should not only manifest himself in a personal form to the chil- dren whom he has created, that they may have an object for reverence and worship, and not bow down to an im- personal or unknown God, but also give them, as He may see they need, line upon line and precept upon precept of useful instruction, seems evident. Has He done it ? and first as to special revelations. II. Special Revelations from a Personal God. \ Y special revelations from the Lord are meant reve- lations either to or through individual men or women. The first thought which occurs is, " why should our Creator, if He is impartial, good, and merciful, reveal truth 4 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. to one man, or apparently favor him more than others, in this respect ? " There are many reasons for His selecting individual men for such a mission, either one of which would seem satisfactory. Eevelations are not made simply for the benefit of the individual, but that the truths may be taught to others, and: handed down to posterity either by tradition or in a written form; and, to say the least; it is often doubtful whether the revelator is specially favored at all or not A man to be benefited by truth must receive it in freedom, and not only receive it into hia understanding, but he must also live according to it, and thus weave it into the very fibres of his spiritual organiza- tion, or it will do him no good. If he fails to shape his life, or walk according to the truth, he will profane it; or, in other words, by the light which he has received he will be enabled to sink himself deeper into evil and consequent suffering. If direct revelations were made to all men, irrespective of their state, it is certain that many might be compelled, as it were, to believe who have no desire to live a good and true life, and therefore would be very seriously injured by such revelations ; but when the truth is taught to them by their fellow-men, or handed down by tradition, or in a written form, it comes with less authority, and does not interfere with their freedom or compel them to believe, and they can receive or reject it, according to the state of their affections; having eyes they can see not, having ears they may hear not not receiving the truth they do not profane it, and consequently it does them comparatively little harm. The "flaming sword" of self-love is placed at the east of the garden, in the mind of the evil man, to pro- tect the truth from profanation ; fortunately, it is rarely sheathed except by repentance, faith in the Lord, and a sincere effort to lead a good life. Consequently, as a gen- eral rule, an evil man cannot see genuine spiritual truths, which is very fortunate for him. Here then would seem to be a very satisfactory reason why the Lord does not directly reveal truth to all men. Then, all men are not in HAVE WE AKY SPECIAL BEVELATIONS ? 5 a proper state, but our Creator seeing the hearts and capacity of all can select the best, or the one least likely to be injured by the truth to be revealed. If it is simply to write the words dictated by Him, it would seem possible that the man chosen need not necessarily be a good man, but one protected by the flaming sword of self-love from seeing the truth revealed in its true light, and thus from being injured by it; and the love of glory or fame might lead such a man to proclaim the truth with zeal, and others be benefited thereby, and himself not injured. III. Have we any Special Revelations from a Per- sonal God? is a practical question, and one which no sensible man will hastily decide in the negative. The cer- tainty of there being a personal Creator, and the equal certainty, if there is such a being, of whom man when regenerated is the image and likeness, that He would reveal to mankind such truths as are essential to be lived by us, that we may be happy here and hereafter, have been con- sidered already. It becomes then, every man who is skep- tically inclined, with due reverence and humility, to look for such a revelation, or such revelations ; and, as far as possible, not to look with a combative or negative spirit, for such a spirit is of necessity almost, if not quite, a bar to the truth being seen. You attempt to show a man a house yes, a beautiful house for human habitation he, unfortunately, is naturally, as most men are spiritually, a little near-sighted ; and instead of waiting until he has seen the entire house and can form a general idea of it, as you approach the gate or the outer door he begins to cavil and deny that that door is a house, or any part of a house, as it does not swing in the direction or manner the door to his house has always swung; or his house has no outer door. You call his attention to a beautiful window, 6 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. Gothic perhaps in form ; but this is not like the window in his house, it is obstructed with glass, which to you has a use, but without waiting to understand this use, he decides at once it is no part of a house, or at least of a suitable house for him to live in; and so you go on throughout your entire house, showing him all parts of it, its halls, its rooms, its furniture, etc., and he denying and combating at every step. Can you convince such a man ? Never ! In our Father's house are many beautiful man- sions, but from a negative and combative state a man can never see or reside in one of them. We must come like little children, in a teachable spirit, not to believe blindly everything which is told us, or which we read, but to use the reason with which God has endowed us, to judge after a fair survey between truth and error. If we come in such a spirit, and shape our lives according to the truth, the Lord will lead us into one of His many beautiful man- sions. As it will be our aim not to write this treatise from a negative spirit, but from an affirmative state, we will here make a general statement, and afterwards consider it more fully in detail. Not that we expect in the short space we have allotted to ourselves to set before the reader evidence enough to satisfy all, but we do hope to call the attention of many an earnest enquirer to a serious examination of the writings which have, aftpr a patient and careful ex- amination, so fully and happily satisfied us, and increasing thousands of intelligent men and women. Although born and educated in a Christian country, and accustomed to read the Bible from childhood, and to sit under the ministrations of religious teachers, not a few, owing to the apparent conflict which seems to exist be- tween the Word of God in its letter and His works, which has been so clearly developed by the scientific researches of this day, have been led to doubt, and some unfortu- nately openly to deny, that the sacred Scriptures are either revelations from God, or entitled to any more respect than HA YE WE ANY SPECIAL REVELATIONS? 7 the acknowledged writings of men. It is not to be sup- posed for a moment, by any liberal-minded man, that all such doubters are either dishonest or that they do not desire the truth ; the young, especially in the flush of scien- tific investigations, are liable to be led into such doubts, and it is but too evident that religious teachers, by the light afforded by the letter of the Bible alone, have not been able to either shield them or deliver them from such doubts. But the Lord does not leave Himself without a witness ; consequently in the Gospels and Book of Keve- lation, He promises a second coming in the clouds of Heaven not the clouds of earth, please bear in mind. When on earth, our Saviour declared that He had many things to tell men, but mankind then were not in a state to receive them. As a kind parent does to his child, so our Heavenly Father adapts His instruction, or revela- tions, to the capacity and needs of His children. At an . age when the earth seemed to men, and was believed to be the centre of the universe, and the sun, moon and stars were supposed to make a journey around it daily, the Lord was supposed to be angry, revengeful, even hating some of the creatures He had made. Such was the lan- guage of God's works and of His Word to the untutored men of those dark ages the one in strict harmony with the other. But the enlightened science of this day shows that the supposed motion of the sun, moon and stars was only an apparent truth not a real truth, the real truth being that day and night are caused by the motion of the earth when it turns from the sun it is night. So a spiritual revelation in keeping with the natural science of to-day, must show that the supposed anger, revengefulness and hatred attributed to God, are but apparent truths, adapted to the state of mankind when given ; and men were permitted to dwell in such apparent truths for the sake of being restrained by their fears, and because they were not capable of comprehending or being benefited by real truths. The real truth being, that God is never 8 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. angry, never hates and is never revengeful, but He is love and unchangeable, the same yesterday, to-day and forever. His tender mercies are around all His creatures; but when man turns from the Lord to himself, and seeks selfish ends, instead of regarding the rights of others, and perverts his God-given passions and appetites to purely sensual and selfish gratification irrespective of their legiti- mate use, making their gratification the chief object of his life, thus turning from the Lord to self, mental darkness overshadows him ; and when he begins to suffer the legiti- mate consequences, or, if you please, punishments which necessarily follow from the violation of the spiritual and physical laws of his being, which the Lord has ordained for his good, it seems to him-that God is angry with him and hates him ; and who will not say that it is well that he has been permitted to remain in this apparent truth. But the men of this day are rapidly outgrowing the state in which they can be restrained by the apparent truths of God's Word, for they are fast losing their belief in and reverence for a personal God and all revelations from such a being. Even the fears of a literal hell are being shaken off, and men no longer tremble before the ana- themas of the most venerable churches, or the denunciation of their clergymen. Look around, reader, upon the confusion in the religious world, the manifestations of sectarianism, the love of rule in spiritual things, the growing skepticism, the Lo here and Lo there, and tell us if it is not time for us to be looking for the sign of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven, and for the new order of things which he has promised us in His Word, when He declared, "Behold I make all things new/' Look at the wonderful strides being made in the mechanical arts and in the sciences, and remember the order of creation and regeneration is, first that which is natural and afterwards that which is spiritual. This is the true order with the individual man, and it is true with the race. HATE WE A2*Y SPECIAL KEVELATIOKS ? 9 Emanuel Swedenborg, the son of a Bishop of the Church of Sweden, who lived over a century ago, was thoroughly educated and trained in the sciences of his day, and de- voted his life until he was over 54 years of age to scien- tific and mechanical pursuits, when, he assures us in his writings, he was called by the Lord from his scientific labors to the important mission of revealing to the world for the benefit of all Christians and others, the truths of a New Dispensation, or of the Second Coming of the Lord. He assures us that his spiritual sight was opened, as it was with the prophets, St. Paul and John the revelator ; that he was permitted to see the inhabitants of the spiritual world, including those of heaven and hell, and to describe them and their condition, and to show the relation which the acts and deeds of this life have upon the future life; and he wrote a work entitled, "Heaven, the World of Spirits and Hell; from things seen and heard ;" full of the most useful and practical instruction. Interspersed throughout his other works are relations of what he claims to have seen and heard in the spiritual world. He shows conclusively that the spiritual world is the world of causes, the real, the living world, and the natural world the world of effects: from this it follows that there is a strict correspondence between every object in this world and its cause in the spiritual world. As is truly said by the Kev. George Field, in his work entitled " The Two Great Books of Nature and Eevela- tion," which work will richly repay both the theological and scientific student for a careful perusal, and from which we shall not unfrequently quote in the following pages : " The natural universe is therefore but an outer form of the Divine mind ; and all its multitudinous contents are but so many symbols of the varied truths and affections existing in the world of mind. Thus the creation is, as it were, the alphabet of the Creator ; and it is by its types that the Creator speaketh ! Or, as the apostle wrote, ' The 10 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. invisible things of Him [God] from the Creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made ' (Rom. i. 20). A doctrine as old as the world, and taught by Hermes Trismegistus (the Egyptian Thoth, some 2000 years before it was thus reiterated by Paul. His words in English are, 'All things that are in heaven, are in the earth in an earthly form ; and all things that are in the earth, are in heaven in a heavenly form. 9 Which sentiment is thus transferred to poetry by Milton : ' What if earth Be but the shadow of heaven : and things therein Each to other like, more than on earth is thought.' "How immense how wonderful is the idea that the ivorks of the Creator should be the signs for the words of His revelation I and that the one is to the other as the soul is to the body, and the mystic chain which binds them is correspondence, or the relation which exists by cre- ation between spiritual and natural things. " ' To the most ancient people/ says Mr. Kirby, ' the cre- ation was a Book of Symbols, a sacred language of which they possessed the key, and which it was their delight to study and decipher/ (Introduction to Entomology. ) Cor- respondence is the necessary relation subsisting between things spiritual and things natural, or between thoughts and their outward images : thus, not as might be inferred, that one natural thing corresponds to another natural thing, as this would be merely arbitrary or speculative, for though one may illustrate the other, it does not correspond to it, or have any necessary relation to it. Actions corres- pond to feelings: words correspond to thoughts: sounds or intonations correspond to the quality of the affection, because they actually produce them. So every object in nature corresponds first to its prototype in the Divine mind, and secondarily to its antitype in the human mind, by as fixed and immutable a law as that effects are pro- duced by causes."' HAVE WE ANY SPECIAL REVELATIONS? 11 In a work by the late Prof. Agassiz on Lake Superior, he says: "There will be no scientific evidence of God's working in nature, until naturalists have shown that the whole creation is the expression of a thought, and not the product of physical agents ; " and he adds, " Let the natu- ralists look at the world under such impressions, and evidence will pour in upon us, that all creatures are ex- pressions of the thoughts of Him whom we know, love, and adore unseen." That Man is not only the final end of Creation, but that God, the Creator, must have been the Infinite Divine Pat- tern the self-existent Divinely Human Fountain, is also thus forcibly presented by Agassiz: " Man (he says), is the end to which all the animal creation has tended from the first appearance of the first Palaeozoic fishes." But. says Hugh Miller, " No longer, however, the natural, but the DIVINE MAN occupying what is at once its terminal point, and its highest apex." Testimony of the Rocks, pp. 229-235. In the late Mr. Bancroft's speech before the ISTew York Historical Society he says: "The comparative anatomist has shown that all created vertebrae, without exception, are analogous, so that the induction becomes irresistible that an archetype existed previous to the creation, of the first of the kind. Shall we then hesitate to believe that the system of law likewise pervades the moral world ? We cannot shut our eyes to the established fact that an ideal, or archetype, prescribed the form of animal life ; and shall we not believe that the type of all intellectual life, likewise exists in the Divine Mind ? " According to this science of correspondences which Swedenborg has shown is the science of all sciences the sacred Scriptures were written, consequently they can only be correctly interpreted in accordance with this universal science. A correct interpretation therefore cannot be arbitrary, but it must be in accordance with rules and laws, and can never conflict with natural science, nor can 12 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. one portion of the Word of God, when correctly inter- preted, ever conflict with another portion. He has shown, consequently, that the Word of God, like His works, is filled with life, and differs as much from the writings of men as His works do from the works of men. The sacred Scriptures then have not only a literal sense, but also a connected spiritual sense running throughout, and within, as the soul is within the body. The Lord intimates in many passages that the sacred Scriptures, or His words, contain a spiritual sense, as in the following : "It is the spirit that quickeneth ; the flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life." "The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." "The Lord," says the Rev. John Hyde, "spoke in parables to the Jews; and further it is declared that, ' Without a parable spake He not to them' (Matt. xiii. 34). All that the Lord uttered was a parable; and was a para- ble because it possessed an inner meaning recognizable by the instructed, but veiled from the unbelieving. That He adopted this method, even with His disciples, is evident from many passages. ' If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out. If thy hand offend thee, cut it off/ ' Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you.' ' He that hath no sword, let him sell his coat and buy one.' There was a Divine signification in His words, because He was Divine who uttered them. The words were but the outer covering of the Divine meaning, just as His flesh was but the outer covering of the Divine man. It was this inner ' spirit and life' that profited them, and that will profit us to know. In this inner or higher sense, all the Scriptures testified of Him. ' The spirit of prophecy was the testimony of Jesus.' " Paul, in like manner, interprets the Sacred Word. To him, the ' Jews after the flesh' were but types of 'the Jews after the Spirit ;' ' circumcision after the flesh ' the symbol of ' circumcision of the heart.' He asserts that HAVE WE AKY SPECIAL REVELATIONS? 13 the rock from which the Israelites drank was the figure of the 'spiritaal rock, which is Christ;' the tabernacle and its ceremonies, the holy of holies and its yearly entrance, were but ( symbols of the true;' that Jerusalem below was the typa of "'Jerusalem that is above, the mother of us all; 9 that the earthly Zion was but the figure of ' the Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem/ to which. all the disciples of Christ had come ; that Abra- ham and his two sons were 'an allegory ;' that Melchisedec was a type of Christ, as also were the high priests. "The whole of the Hebrews is but an exposition of typical or symbolic interpretation, and it abounds in con- firmations of the statement of David, that the history of the Israelites was 'a PARABLE.' Into the sublime halls of such spiritual interpretation he conducts us, and justifies our belief in an everywhere-present spiritual sense, by many a glimpse of its presence, where else it had lain con- cealed. He teaches us us he taught his disciple Timothy, that 'all Scripture is God-breathed (given by inspiration of God), and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness ; that the man of God may be thoroughly furnished unto all good works' (2 Tim. iii. 16, 17); given by God to every man, that every man may thus become perfect ; of universal impor- tance because of universal application. Every word of it, consequently, treating of spiritual things, eternal in its interests, and to be spiritually understood." The early Christian Fathers, "Clement of Alexandria, and Origen, understood that the sacred Scriptures have a spiritual sense; and Origen, when the shrewd enemy of Christianity, Celsus, ridiculed the stories of the rib, the serpent, etc., us childish fables, reproaches him for want of candor in purposely keeping out of sight, what was so evident upon the face of the narrative, that the whole is a pure allegory. Indeed so universal was this sentiment, that De la Bigue in his Bibliotlicca Patrum, after quoting a number of testimonies to this effect, says: Tor these 1 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. reasons the interpreters whom we have mentioned, under* standing all that is said of Paradise in a spiritual manner, affirmed that divers heresies had arisen, because certain persons had understood what is said of God and Paradise after a carnal manner/ So that it is certain that, in the primitive days, the heretics were those who interpreted this part of Scripture according to the letter" Noble's Plenary Inspiration. Aside from the relation of what he saw and heard in the spiritual world, Swedenborg assures us that he received from the Lord, while reading His Word, the true inter- pretation of the sacred Scriptures, in accordance with the science of correspondences, and also the true Christian doctrines which had become during the dark ages seri- ously perverted by the evil inclinations, the conflicting opinions and doctrines of men, which had too frequently made the Word of God of none effect. He claims that without Divine aid he could never have discovered the science of correspondences, the true and rational interpre- tation of the Word in accordance therewith, and the true Christian doctrines, and he most solemnly assures us that he received nothing of all he has revealed to us upon these subjects from any spirit or angel even, but from the Lord alone while reading His Word. Swedenborg also shows us that the Lord has never left any nation or people without some knowledge of Himself and of His will enough, if they will but hearken and obey, to lead to some of the innumerable mansions in His heavenly kingdom. Swedenborg says : "That religion has existed from the most ancient times, and that the inhabitants of the globe everywhere know of God with something about the life after death, has not been from themselves and from their own acuteness, but from the ancient Word mentioned above, and afterwards from the Israeli tish Word. * * * It is well known that they had a knowledge of Paradise, of the flood, of the sacred fire, and of the four ages from HAVE WE ANY SPECIAL - KEVELATICWS ? 15 the first or golden age to the last or iron age by which the four states of the church are signified in the Word, us in Daniel ii. 35. It is also known that the Mahometan religion which succeeded and destroyed the previous re- ligions of many nations, was taken from the Word of hoth Testaments." " They who do not believe the Word from 1 the Word, can neither believe anything divine from nature ; for the Lord teaches, they have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them ; if they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if any of the dead were to rise (Luke xvi. 29-31). It is the same if any one, rejecting the Word, will believe from nature alone what certain of the ancients, who were Pagans, have written, such as Aristotle, Cicero, and others, concerning the exist- ence of God and the immortality of the soul ; this they did not first know from their own natural light, but from the religion of the ancients, among whom there had been a divine revelation, which was successively propagated to the heathens. " To the people of the most ancient or the Adamic age He gave open vision and direct revelations, and they understood the correspondence between spiritual and natural things ; and a knowledge of correspondences and essential spiritual truths, after men began to sink volun- tarily into evil, and open vision ceased, were handed down by tradition among all nations; and from this source have originated Mythology, Idolatry, Masonry and sacrifices as the latter have existed among Gentile nations. Objects and images once used t\> remind men of spiritual truths, the spiritual signification of the objects arid images being gradually lost, men came at length to worship the natural object or image, or to use the same in sacrifices. In a more or less perverted form the Ten Commandments have been handed down by tradition among many nations previous to their ever seeing the written word, and some knowledge of spiritual subjects among all nations. When our missionaries come to perceive the fact and act accord- 16 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. ingly, that heathen nations are not all heathen after all, and come to recognize 'the truth and good there is already among them, they will be more successful in converting them to Christianity. Through Moses and the Prophets, the Evangelists and St. John, were given special revelations in a written form, adapted to the times and wants of the men for whose ben- efit they were given, all written according to the corres- pondence between spiritual and natural things; every object, image, and word used representing spiritual ideas, perceptions, affections, and thoughts. Swedenborg claims to have given, or more strictly speaking, that the Lord gave through him, the key for unlocking all these various books written by different men in different ages, and to demonstrate to man's rational perceptions that God wa.3 in very deed their author, and from the vast store-houso of God's Word he brings forth things new and old for the benefit of the men of this age. Has he accomplished all this ? If he has, the Lord has indeed been mindful of and merciful to the men of this age. Swedenborg asked no man to receive the truth on his say so, in fact he expressly teaches that no one can really receive the truth into his life any further than he perceives it to be true, and if not brought into life it is of no use, and soon vanishes from his mental vision, even if ho hears it. With him there is no salvation by truth or faith alone, for all genuine re- ligion has relation to life, and the life of religion is to do good. But the Rev. J. C. Ager says truly and justly: " The real proof of the existence of anything is to see the thing itself. As soon as we begin to see tho spiritual sonse which is reflected in the letter, and to sec the bound- less vista of truth which it opens, and especially when wo begin to feel the searching and discriminating power of this higher truth, penetrating to the most hidden motives and springs of action, we need no argument to convince us that there is such a sense in the Bible, and that the Bible is Divine and Infinite by virtue of that sense. HAVE WE AXY SPECIAL REVELATIONS? 17 "Whether there be such a sense, therefore, is mainly a question of fact. You cannot tell whether it is there or not until you look for it. "The system of interpretation by which this higher sen so is unfolded is set forth in the writings of Ernanuel Swedcnborg. It is not an arbitrary system, but is based upon the relation which everywhere exists between the spiritual and the natural ; in other words, it is based upon an ontological law, or a law of being. What this law is, and how it is manifested in all nature and in all languages? cannot be explained in a brief space. The fundamental idea of it is this : that as the body not only clothes but rcvea 7 s the soul, so does the material or natural universally both clothe and reveal the spiritual. The body reveals the soul becaus3 it in every way corresponds to it is the type of it. This is true not only of its form, but of its consti- tution and the laws by which it is governed. As soon as the relation between the spiritual and the physical is clearly discerned, the study of the body becomes the most fruitful source of information respecting the soul. " And this correspondenca between the spiritual and the natural is universal. The natural is the outcome of the spiritual, and therefore reveals it, when tho language in which it speaks is understood. That is, the natural cor- responds to the spiritual, and to the extent that this cor- respondence is perceived docs the spiritual become manifest in and through the natural. "The various bearings and applications of this law or ' relation are thoroughly discussed and clearly explained by Swedenborg. He shows that this is the law of Divine revelation alike in the works of God and in the Word of God. " Every natural object is the form and embodiment of some spiritual idea or principle ; and, therefore, it is the most perfect expression or typo or picture of that idea. This higher significance of nature man has always seen dimly and partially ; and the recognition of this corres- 18 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. pondence forms the basis of all poetry. But the Lord sees this higher side of nature in all its infinite fulness ; hence in Divine language this correspondence finds full and per- fect expression. And it is in accordance with this law that the Divine Truth finds its ultimation, in human language, in the Divine Word. "When we apply this principle of interpretation to the Bible we find how completely it removes all the difficulties which have been the occasion of so much doubt and skep- ticism. " Take the first chapter of Genesis, for instance, which the theologians have tried in vain to reconcile with the conclusions of modern science. AYhen interpreted by this law, it is seen to be, not an erroneous or imperfect account of the creation of the natural world, but a typical descrip- tion of man's spiritual creation, that is, of his spiritual development from the state of spiritual or mental chaos to the paradise or heavenly state. And the instruction it contains applies equally to the regeneration or develop- ment of the race, and to the regeneration of the indi- vidual. " So the description of Eden is seen to be, not the de- scription of some place on the earth's surface, all traces of which have been lost, but a picture of the heavenly state of mind to which we may all aspire. Hence it is full of instruction for all who would reach that state. " So, again, the account of the 'fall ' is a picture of what occurs to every man who rejects Divine guidance, and accepts in place thereof sensuous knowledge, which is the 'serpent.' This sensuous or materialistic spirit is just as active to-day as it was when mankind was in the Eden state, and the world is full of the victims of its seductions. And when our eyes are opened to the spiritual lessons of the third chapter of Genesis, we find it full of warning and instruction in respect to the present state of the world. " Most Christian scholars agree that true history, in the Scriptures, begins with Abraham, and that the preceding HAVE WE ANY SPECIAL REVELATIONS? 19 chapters are compiled from ancient documents. This Swedenborg declared more than one hundred years' ago, showing this first part of Genesis to be pure parable, with- out literal historical sense, but depicting in typical lan- guage the early spiritual history of *the race, its develop- ment from the chaos or animal state, and the mental experiences which led to its spiritual decline. The num- bers mentioned in these chapters are also symbolical; hence we have no chronology of this period. " It will be seen, not only that this recognition of a spiritual sense in the Divine Word opens to our view limitless treasures of spiritual instruction therein, but also that it lifts the Bible out of the arena of scientific contro- versy. Science and Revelation have each its province, and the two need not conflict. It is the province of Science to investigate truth relating to our physical nature, and the material world which is its home. It is the province of Eevelation to teach truth respecting our spiritual nature, and the spiritual world which is its home. Or, as is often said, it is the province of Science to deal with effects, and of Eevelation to deal with causes; for the physical world is the world of effects, and the spiritual world, that of causes. "But it is also true that while the two are distinct, neither can be rightly comprehended without the other. A true conception of Christianity that is, of religion is now possible, because true science is now beginning to be discovered and accepted. The foundation is being laid upon which the superstructure can rest. A false or im- perfect science and a false or imperfect religion have always gone hand in hand. Man rises from sensuous thought to spiritual thought, and if his sensuous thought be wrong, his spiritual thought must needs be erroneous or imperfect. " On the other hand, if a man stops in the sensuous plane of thought, he sees but one side of the truth, and that the lower ; and to accept that as complete, is to falsify all his conceptions/' 20 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. Thanks be to the Lord for the revelations made through Swedenborg ; from this time forth the sacred Scriptures will be reverenced as they have never been before since the age of Noah, for in the hghfc of this newly-revealed science of correspondences they are taken out of the regions of theory and speculation, and placed in that of absolute knowledge ; their Divine origin by those who have a reasonable knowledge of correspondences will no more be questioned than the existence of the French, German or Italian language by those who have patiently acquired a knowledge of the key or grammar and dictionary of such, language. The Word then becomes holy, for it is seen to be from God, who is shown therein in very deed to be our Father who, from His great parental love for His chil- dren, has revealed to us in it the spiritual history of our race and the laws of spiritual life, in accordance with which we must live if we would have heaven within us, and consequently reach a state of happiness and heaven hereafter. "We are satisfied," says a recent writer, "that could many of the heartiest opponents of such a view of the Word of God perceive that there is such a rule and such a key, that, unlocked by this consistent key, the darkest places of Scripture are opened to the light, with results not only not trivia], but of high importance to the spiritual pro- gress of man, they would gladly receive what would so entirely vindicate the divinity of the Scriptures and at the same time thoroughly sweep away the basis of all infidel objections. It would neither impugn the correctness nor depreciate the value of the literal sense. Every fact and every principle which they now learn they could still re- vere, as we do. But, added to this, they would find the Word filled with a grander significance, and derive from it fuller instruction." THE FIKST CHAPTERS or viEXESIS. 21 IV. The First Chapters of Genesis. chapters, as is well known, have given rise to a serious controversy between scientific men and theologians. Believing that both parties have been in error, and contending against each other when there is no occasion or real ground for such controversy, we propose to consider them briefly in the light of the revelations made through Swedenborg. But before doing this, we desire to say that these chapters belong to the revealed Word of God, had Him for their author, and consequently contain divine truths adapted to the wants and under- standings of the men for whom they were written, long before the days of Moses, and copied by him. It matters uttle by what man's hand they were first penned, the sim- ple question is, Have they a connected spiritual sense? if so they have the Divine imprint, and their authorship is placed beyond question. These chapters contain the early spiritual history of the golden age and of our race, and they were copied by Moses more especially for the benefit of this and coming ages, when, in the good providence of the Lord, a knowledge of correspondences has been restored to men. We make this statement at the commencement as to the sacred character of the contents of these chapters, for we should be exceedingly sorry to lessen, by any thing we may write, any man's reverence for a single moment for the Word of God, of which we know these chapters to be a part. It would seem that, unaided by further revelation, an intelligent man, if he could divest himself of the prejudices and preconceived ideas derived from education (a very difficult thing to do), on carefully reading these chapters in Genesis, might ask both the scientist and the theologian a few practical questions, which would be worthy of their berious consideration. 22 SKEPTICISM AND DIYIXH REVELATION. To the scientist he might say: "Yon assume that there is no other earth but the material earth and no other crear tion but the material creation, and because you have found by your investigations into the works of creation, espe cially in your geological researches, that the earth was not created in six days, and the order of creation was not such as the order described in Genesis, you have come to the conclusion that this portion of the Bible, as applied to the creation of the material universe, is not true, and conse- quently your faith in the entire volume as containing divine revelations, is impaired if not destroyed ; but have you never heard of a mental earth, an earth which can hear, fear, be joyful, mourn, be corrupt, and be judged ? If you have not, you will not have to read the sacred Scriptures long before you will find that, whether they ever treat of the material earth or not, they certainly do of a mental or spiritual earth; for you will read, even in Genesis : " The earth also was corrupt before God/' Surely the material earth was not corrupt; and elsewhere you will read, " Hear, earth, the words of my mouth ;" " Let earth hear;" "Hear, earth, I will bring evil on this people ;" " The earth feared ;" " The earth mourneth and fadeth away ;" " Let the earth rejoice ;" " Sing, heavens, and be joyful, earth;" "The earth is full of the good- ness of the Lord;" " The earth rhall be full of the knowl- edge of the Lord ;" " Look unto me, and be ye saved, al] the ends of the earth;" "The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is dissolved;" "The earth and all the in- habitants thereof are dissolved;" "He uttered His voice, the earth melted;" "Arise, God, judge the earth." Surely you can but perceive that it was not the material earth which was meant in the above and a multitude of other passages you will find. You scout the idea that the days of creation in Genesis were vast indefinite periods of time and not literal days, as the language certainly im- plies if we take the narrative literally, and I do not see how any sensible man, untrammeled by preconceived ideas, THE ElKST CHAPTERS OF GEKESIS. 23 can differ from you in this respect ; but having satisfied yourself that this narrative is not a correct literal history of the creation of the material universe, and especially of our earth, do you see nothing in it worthy of your careful consideration ? Its very existence, coming down as it does from time immemorial, must be as much of a mystery to you as any you can find in the material universe, if you ignore its divine origin. Professing to be a Divine reve- lation, it certainly is written in an orderly and systematic manner, and is a beautiful history, and I think you will admit that it did not come, or was not written, by chance or by an impersonal being. The writer certainly was an intelligent being undoubtedly in the form of man, and it is evident he, or the being who wrote through him, had a design, which was to convey useful and practical infor^ mation for men. There certainly is -too great a manife^ tation of intelligence for us to suppose that the author t*i these chapters either did not know what he was writing about, or did not understand his subject. What object could he have had, if it is to be understood literally? To the theologian he would say: 4 ^Why do you assume that the first chapters of Genesis treat of the creation of the material earth and the first physical men on it r Is there not enough in the very language itself to show unmistak- ably that it was never intended by the writer as a history of the material creation in fact, could not in the very nature of things have been so intended? Look at it pa- tiently for a moment. A material earth without form and void, or empty. Could matter possibly be without form and void?" "And darkness was upon the face of the deep abyss." If the earth was without form and void, adhere could there have been a deep or abyss? Literally, as the narrative reads, there was light, day and night, on earth before the creation of the sun, moon and stars, and vegetation appeared on earth before the sun was created. The sun, moon and stars were not created until the fourth day, and then apparently simply to give light and heat to 24 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE KEVELATIGN. the earth. No wonder that the astronomer, viewing the heavens with nis telescope, the geologist carefully examin- ing the record in the strata of the earth, reading their wonderful revelations of a vast past history for the earth, and the photographer analyzing the light of the sun, showing almost beyond question that the sun is the phys- ical parent of the earth no wonder, I say, that they, in the light of recent discoveries, cannot accept the record in Genesis as a correct history of the creation of the material universe, and especially when, according to theologists, the creation was crowded into six days, and occurred only about 6000 years ago. If you abandon the literal days you give up the whole as a literal narrative ; for if the days so carefully described were not literal days, what right have you to assume that any part of the record was literally true, as to the material creation ? But taking the record as a history of the material creation, your difficulties have but fairly commenced with the first chapter ; but I shall only hastily call your attention to a few of them, such as the garden eastward in Eden. The tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil, were these literal trees ? do not their very .names show that they were not, but that they were mental or spiritual trees? Nothing would seem to be more absurd, surely, than in the very face of their significative names to assume that they were literal trees, unless it may be to sup- pose that woman was made from a literal rib taken from man. Now, is it true that the serpent is more subtle than any beast of the field, and that he can talk, or that he eats dust ? What reason have you to suppose he ever talked or could reason ? After Adam and Eve had eaten of the for- bidden fruit their eyes were opened ; what does this mean ? had they not their eyes open before this? and did they not know that they were naked before this event ? Then we read, "The Lord God made coats of skins and clothed them." Now, I ask you in all sincerity, if it is possible to regard the passages to which I have referred, and a large number THE FIRST CHAPTEES UJT GENESIS. 25 more, as a part of a literal history of the natural creation, or to suppose for a moment, on a careful and unbiased reading, that they were ever intended as such by their author?" In the revelations made by the Lord through Emanuel Fwedenborg, we are clearly shown that the Word of the Lord was not given to teach man natural sciences, or a history of the material creation, for such knowledge, by patient research, is already within man's reach, and he will be benefited by his investigation; but Divine Eevelation has a higher and nobler use to perform; in other words, by it the Lord our Creator reveals to man a knowledge of Himself and of spiritual truths, which man, unaided, by searching could never find out, for they are entirely above the reach of the natural man. Man cannot build a tower, by his self-derived intelligence, which will reach to heaven, and thus scale its walls and obtain heavenly wisdom and goodness. If he would reach heaven or heavenly knowl- edge, he must ascend by the ladder let down from heaven, or by living a life according to the truths revealed by the Lord through or from heaven in the sacred Scriptures, to guide him. All genuine knowledge of the Lord and of spiritual truths possessed by man has been revealed to man by the Lord, and handed down either in a written form or by tradition ; but in the latter case, often more or less per- verted. The first chapters of Genesis, according to Swedenborg, are a pure Allegory, written according to the correspond- ence between natural and spiritual things. They contain a spiritual history of the most ancient church, denom- inated Adam, and of the ancient church d^nojninated Noah, which was established after the fall of mankind, and after our race became overwhelmed by a flood of falses and evils. It is not of the physical creation that they treat, but of the spiritual creation or regeneration of men, and even of the regeneration of the men of our day, for the Word of the Lord is applicable to all men uf all times. 2 26 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. The most beautiful and important lessons of spiritual truth are contained in these chapters for our use; com- pared with which, natural sciences and the physical history of our earth sink into insignificance. In what follows, we propose to give the reader simply a glimpse of the contents, or spiritual sense of these chap- ters. To do justice to them, or to fully illustrate tiie meaning and show its correctness by quotations from other portions of the sacred Scriptures for all parts of the Word must be interpreted or explained in harmony with every other part, the Word being practically its own interpreter would require a volume. Such a volume has already been written by a man specially prepared and illuminated by the Lord for the purpose. In the first volume of Swe- dcnborg's Arcana Ccelestia, containing 568 pages, the reader will find an explanation of the first eleven chapters of Genesis which will satisfy his highest reason. We are authorized to say that this volume will be sent, postage paid, to any one who may desire it, on the receipt of seventy- eight cents by the American Swedenborg Printing and Publishing Society, 20 Cooper Union, New York City. The regular price, until recently, has been one doUar and fifty cents, or nearly double the present price. V. Genesis, Chapter First, and Creation. IN his preface or introduction to this chapter Sweden* borg says : "1. That the Word of the Old Testament includes arcana of heaven, and that all its contents, to every par- ticular, regard the Lord, his heaven, the church, faith, and the things relating to faith, no man can conceive who only views it from the letter. For the letter, or literal sense, suggest only such things as respect the externals of the Jewish church ; when, nevertheless, it everywhere contains internal things, which do not in the least appear in those FIRST CHAPTER OF GENESIS. 27 externals, except in a very few cases, where the Lord revealed and unfolded them to the apostles as that sacri- fices are significative of the Lord and that the land of Canaan and Jerusalem are significative of heaven, on which account they are called the heavenly Canaan and Jerusalem and that Paradise has a like signification. " 2. But that all and every part of its contents, even to the most minute, not excepting the smallest jot and tittle, signify and involve spiritual and celestial things, is a truth to this day deeply hidden from the Christian world; in consequence of which little attention is paid to the Old Testament, This truth, however, might appear plainly from this single circumstance : that the Word being of the Lord, and from the Lord, could not possibly be given without containing interiorly such things as relate to heaven, to the church, and to faith. For if this be denied, how can it be called the Word of the Lord, or be said to have any life in it ? For whence is its life, but from those things which possess life ? that is, except from hence, that all things in it, both generally and particularly, have rela- tion to the Lord, who is the very Life Itself. Wherefore whatsoever does not interiorly regard Him, does not live ; nay, whatsoever expression in the Word does not involve Him, or in its measure relate to Him, is not divine. "3. Without such a living principle, the Word, as to the letter, is dead. For it is with the Word as it is with man, who, as all Christians are taught to believe, consists of two parts, an external and an internal. The external man, separate from the internal, is the body, which, in such a state of separation, is dead ; but the internal is that which lives and causes the external to live. The internal man is the soul ; and thus the Word as to the letter alone, is like a body without a soul. "4. It is impossible, whilst the mind abides in the literal sense only, to see that it is full of such spiritual contents. Thus, in these first chapters of Genesis, nothing is dis- coverable from the literal sense, but that they treat of the 28 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. creation of the world, and of the garden of Eden which is called Paradise, and also of Adam as the first created man ; and scarcely a single person supposes them to relate to anything besides. But that they contain arcana which were never heretofore revealed, will sufficiently appear from the following pages; wh^re it will be seen that the first chapter of Genesis, in its internal sense, treats of the NEW CREATION of man, or of his Kegeneration in general, and specifically of the most ancient church ; and this in such a manner, that ther^ is not a single syllable which does not represent, signify, and involve something spiritual. " 5. That this is really the case, in respect to the Word, it is impossible for any mortal to know, however, except from the Lord. Wherefore it is expedient here to premise, that, of the Lord's divine mercy, it has been granted, now for several years, to be constantly and uninterruptedly in company with spirits and angels, hearing them converse with each other, and conversing with them. Hence it has been permitted me to hear and see things in another life which are astonishing, and which have never before come to the knowledge of any man, nor entered into his imagi- nation. I have there been instructed concerning different kinds of spirits, and the state of souls after death con- cerning hell, or the lamentable state of the unfaithful concerning heaven, or the most happy state of the faith- ful particularly concerning the doctrine of faith which is acknowledged throughout all heaven: on which subjects, by the divine mercy of the Lord, more will be said in the following pages." EXPOSITION OF THE INTERNAL SENSE. 37 The greatest part, at this day, only attain the first state ; some only to the second; others only to the third, fourth, and fifth; few to the sixth; and scarcely any to the seventh." VII. The Creation of Man and "Woman. (AS DESCRIBED IN THE FIRST CHAPTER OF GENESIS, AND AS DESCRIBED IN THE SECOND.) "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life ; and man became a liv- ing soul." GEN. ii. 7. " ~TN considering the Divine wisdom contained in the JL first two chapters of Genesis," says the Rev. Dr. Bay- ley, "there are two particulars which are somewhat striking in themselves, and have served to confirm theories entirely incompatible with the authority of this portion of the Divine Word as a revelation from Infinite Wisdom. The first is, that notwithstanding in the preceding chapter it is said, that ' God made man, male and female, on the sixth day, yet in the present chapter (ver. 5) it is said, after the seventh day, 'there was not a man to till the ground.' No ingenuity can make it probable that all the proceed- ings related to have taken place, from the creation of Adam to the formation of Eve from his rib during his sleep, could be the work of one day only. He is said to have named all the animals in the time, and to have discovered that it was not good for man to be alone. Can it be sup- posed that all which is implied in these operations could be the work of twelve, or even twenty-four hours ? Im- possible. We must seek for a higher reason; and happily this is afforded. In the first chapter of Genesis, the regen- eration of man is the theme, up to that state in which truth becomes his only law and guide. He is then a true man, and a free man, in the image of his God. His religion is not constrained now, as it is in all the states 38 SHEPIICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION*. meant by the days preceding the sixth. Hence, at the conclusion of that day, all things are pronounced by the Divine Being to be very good. Man is in that state a truly spiritual man ; he conquers in every trial to which he is subjected. But there is a state better still: it is that in which LOVE is the supreme law in which man is more than conqueror: he is no longer the subject of temptation. There is no labor in this state; all is rest, not the rest of inactivity, but a rest from struggle a state of interior peace a sabbath of the soul. This is truly a celestial state! The former chapter traced man's mental creation, his spiritual progress, up to the stage of his becoming fully spiritual ; but this chapter is taking the description for- ward until he becomes celestial. Up to the period de- scribed in this verse there was no man to till THIS ground, to cultivate the celestial state. " We shall, perhaps, be able to see the interesting sub- jects of thought to which the spiritual sense here invites us more clearly, if we notice three remarkable features of distinction between the first chapter and the second, both of them apparently treating of the origin of things, and of man. In the first chapter water occupies the leading place; in the second chapter ground is the most important. God broods over the face of the water on the first day ; he divides between the waters on the second ; he distinguishes between land and water on the third ; He made fishes and fowls from the water on the fifth day. This will readily be understood and its bearing be seen by the spiritually- minded student, who knows that water, in its varied forms, is the symbol of fcruth that living, purifying power which is called the water of life (Eev. xxi. 1 ; John iv. 10, 14). Water in the sea is representative of truth in the memory; general, external, undiscriminated, capable of being tossed about by every wind of doctrine. Water, as gentle rain, is representative of truth as it descends from the intelligent mind of a loving teacher, or from the Lord the Divine Teacher; hence Moses said, 'My doctrine shall THE CREATION OF MAN AND WOMAN. 39 drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the rain upoii the tender herb, as the showers upon the grass ' (Deut. xxxii. 2). Water, as a river, is representative of truth when it has become elevated to the inmost affections of the soul, and thence flows down again into the whole mind and life, purifying, directing, fructifying, and bless- ing the whole man. This is the river of God, which is full of waters (Ps. Ixv. 9 ; xlvi. 4). In the second chapter, the only water mentioned is the river which flowed out of Eden, and which was divided into four heads: a river which has never been found on earth. It is a symbol of truth flowing from the heart, when man is in a celestial state. " In the second chapter, ground has the leading position. Mist comes upon the whole face of the ground ; man is made of the dust of the ground ; out of the ground grow all trees pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of lives and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; out of the ground fowls are formed (ver. 19), though in the first chapter they are said to be formed from the water (ver. 20). Ground is the symbol of goodness; for this is the ground into which the seeds of truth should be re- ceived. The good ground is an honest and good heart, said the Lord Jesus (Luke viii. 15). Those States are properly spiritual, in which the spirit of truth is the prin- ciple from which man acts as the guiding rule of his life. Those states are properly celestial, in which love or good- ness is the leading characteristic. When a man is in spiritual states, he is rigidly right, aims at constant cor- rectness in the path of duty, is perhaps brilliant, and de- lights in pursuing the truth, but is comparatively cold. When a man is in the celestial state, he is gentle, loving, kind, merciful, easily entreated, long-suffering, ever re- gards goodness as the chief object of his care, and is in all his religious duties, warm. The spiritual man regards the water of heaven, or truth mainly; the celestial man, the ground of heaven, or goodness mainly Hence the first 40 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. feature of distinction which the discriminating mind will notice between the two chapters. "The next distinctive feature between them is in the different name employed to express the Deity. In the first chapter everything is done by God, Elohim ; in the second, by the Lord God, Jehovah Elohim. This circumstance has led some to conjecture that the two are merely separate traditions of the creation collated by Moses, and giving only the speculations of the writers respecting the origin of men and of all things. But this idea, in order to ex- plain the difficulty of finding the Creator designated by different names, leads us to the unspeakably greater dif- ficulty of a denial of revelation. For, if we deny this por- tion of the Divine Word to be anything more than un- authorized traditions of unknown writers, we by implica- tion deny the whole Bible to be a Divine revelation, for the whole proceeds upon the basis of this early part being divinely true. And what a result is this ! To think that our heavenly Father has left His immortal children with- out a guide ! that He who provides bounteously its food for the humblest insect has left man's spiritual demands unsatisfied ! Oh, no ! we cannot admit so terrible a result. Man, already an angel in embryo, asks for angels' food, and He who has provided for all his other wants must have provided for this. ' Man lives not by hread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God/ ' Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteous- ness, for they shall be filled/ That which seems an imper- fection in the divine revelation only appears so, because the spiritual character of that revelation is not seen. ' The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul' (Ps. xix.) ; and when its application to the soul is seen, its divine beauty and excellence at once are made manifest. " But when we ascertain the spiritual sense of the names God and Lord, we shall find that their diversity is an ex- ample of the divine excellence and perfection of the Holy Word, as well as an illustration of the truth of our prin- THE CKEATION OF MAN AND WOMAN. 41 ciple of unfolding it. The appellation God (Elohim, or powers) is expressive of the divine truths, which manifest the powers of God, and which, under the name of the divine laws, really effect all which God does in the entire universe. The appellation Jehovah (he who is) designates the inmost existence of Deity, the Divine Love. God is love. The two grand essentials of Deity, Infinite Love, the source of all the goodness of the Lord, and Infinite Wis- dom, the source of all the truth from the Lord, are con- stantly referred to in the Old Testament, and discriminated from each other by these two names Jehovah, or Lord, and God. ' I will call upon God, and the Lord shall save me/ means that we appeal to the Divine Truth, but Divine Love really saves us. ' Yet I will rejoice in Jehovah, I will joy in the God of my salvation/ directs our attention to both divine principles as sources of interior joy. By noticing the usa of these two appellations, and bearing the signification in mi^d, a beauty and force will be found in the Holy Word which was before unsuspected, but which is eminently interesting and important. " While man is in the spiritual states of bis regenera- tion, truth is the spring of his conduct his guiding star, his impelling power. He follows it, he bows to it ; it rules him, fights for him, recreates and renews him. Hence God does all for him in these states. Although Divine Love is really within tLe Divine Truth at all times, man is not consciously aware of this. "When, however, man has entered into a celestial state, and, in all he does, goodness has the lead, a great change is gradually effected in i\is mode of thinking. He does not value truth less, but he esteems Christian love and goodness more. He is no longer prone to dispute about truth, but is only careful to practise it. The law is writ- ten upon his heart; it is nt> longer the object of reasoning. He sees it by light from \miiin ; he says, Yea, yea, to what he inwardly perceives to bb right, or Nay, nay, to the re- verse He is now at peaeb, and has but to cultivate and 42 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. preserve the virtues Divine Love and Wisdom have un- folded within him. He is in Eden, and has only to dress and to keep it. In all the divine dealings with him now he sees the Divine Love as manifest as the Divine Wisdom. He discerns not only the right of Providence in all things, but its mercy. It is no longer God only, but Jehovah God, who leads him. It is the Deity as his Father that he rejoices to hear. He feels his LOVE around him, and within him, and he is happy. He lives in his Father's house; his Father's commands are no hard laws to him, but delightful directions. He loves the law, and has great peace (Ps. cxix. 165). This, therefore, is the sufficient reason for the name of the Lord being Jehovah God in the second chapter, and simply God in the first. "The third distinctive peculiarity is, that man is de- scribed in the first chapter as being created male and female, on the sixth day. In the second, after the seventh day is described, he is created as Adam, alone, and not until many proceedings are narrated which cannot be sup- posed as having taken place in twelve or twenty-four hours, is it found not to be good for man to dwell alone, and during Adam's sleep Eve is formed. We do not mean it to be inferred that we think man's physical creation is related in either the first or the second chapter. An in- quiry into that is the proper subject of natural science, not of divine revelation. God's Word has to do with souls, churches, and man's spiritual career, not with earthly questions, which scientific lore is quite adequate to solve. There are sufficient indications of the existence of other inhabitants of the world in the time of Adam and Eve, to show that their history is not the account of the single solitary family of human beings then inhabiting the globe. Cain went into the land of Nod, and there he took a wife (chap. iv. 17). Whence came his wife, if there were no other people yet existing than his own father and mother? When he slew his brother Abel, and was con- victed by Jehovah, he complained that when he was cast THE CREATION OF MAN AND WOMAN. 43 out from his presence, every one that met him would kill him, and Jehovah set a mark upon him for his protection. Of whom could he be afraid, if there were no one on earth but his father and mother? He built a city, It is said, and called it after the name of his son Enoch (ver. 17). Whence did they get the building materials ? Surely a city implies more than one family. " In thinking, therefore, of Adam, we must dismiss from our minds the idea of the natural creation of man as the subject of our divine narrative at all. Doubtless God created the physical universe, and man upon it; but that is not the subject now, nor of that revelation whose grand purpose everywhere i> not natural history, nor external events, except us the medium of conveying heavenly and divine instruction (Tsa. Iv. 8). "Adam is the generic name for all human beings; in Hebrew it is equivalent to MAN. Hence it is said in the fifth chapter of the book before us (ver. 2), 'God created them male and female, and called THEIR name Adam in the day,' etc. This single appellation, Man, was expressive, among the wise ones of old, of human beings in a regen- erated state ; and as these, when presented together in the divine sight, compose one body (1 Cor. xii. 12), the Church, however numerous the members may be, are called by this one name, MAN or Adam. "This is expressed very strikingly in the Hebrew of Ezek. xxxiv. 31 : ' And ye my flock, the flock of my pas- ture, are Adam, and I am your God, saith the Lord Jehovah.' "Let us resume, then, the inquiry for the spiritual reason why man is spoken of in the first chapter as having been created male and female, and in the second as Adam alone. " In the spiritual states of man, which we have seen to be described in the first chapter, and in which truth in the intellect is the sovereign ruler, the two grand facul- ties of the mind are distinctly presented as male and 44 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. female. The intellect is male, for intellect predominates in the properly developed manly character; uie will, the seat of the affections, is female, for the heart is the pre- dominating characteristic of the true womanly character. Both these grand faculties are, however, found in each mind, so that, in a certain sense, each mind is male and female, and when both the heart and the understanding are combined in the reception of true religion, in that mind there is a marriage, an interior union of the truth which is understood, with the goodness which is loved: their land is married (Isa. Ixii. 4), they know the truth, and they are happy because they do it. "Now, while man is in spiritual states, and has first to learn the truth by slow investigation and reasoning, and afterwards to bring his heart by further effort, to adopt the truth, and do it, he perceives these two faculties of his soul very distinctly, as though they were separate. He feels that he is male and female. But when he has en- tered int3 the celestial state, so that love from the heart rules every lower faculty and power, this divided con- sciousness disappears. He feels as one embodiment of love, from first to last. Heavenly love in him adores, love be- lieves, love bears, love speaks, love acts. He becomes a form of holy love. That principle glistens in his eye, pervades his language, and if the spirit could be visibly presented to the sight, it would be a beautiful form of celestial affections embodied. Because this state, the celestial one, is the subject of the second chapter, Adam is presented up to the time when something not good is dis- covered, as dwelling in Eden, alone. "We have a parallel presented in Deut. xxxiii. 28: * Israel then shall dwell in safety, ALOISTE: the fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine ; also his heavens shall drop down dew.' Here, Israel is treated as one person, and dwelling alone, when there was nothing foreign, or adverse there. The loneliness is not that of solitariness, but of unity. So is it in the celestial state of THE CKEATIOX OF MAN AND WOMAN. 45 inan, or of the Church. The ruling love, being heavenly, glows like a celestial fire in the highest region of the soul ; wisdom, like a flame from that fire, illuminates the whole mind with a calm and holy light. All things below have been moulded to delightful and ready obedience, and happy order rules in every principle of tne character- and life. Then, man dwells in Eden, in safety, alone. " Such, then, are some of the lessons which are presented for our consideration in the divine account of man in Eden, spiritually understood, or when this portion of the Divine Word is unfolded according to the law of corre- spondences between spiritual and natural things, revealed by the Lord through Emanuel Swedenborg. VIII. Eve. rTIHE men of the most ancient Church were led by the -L Lord, and had a perception of that which was good and true, and they acknowledged the Lord as the giver and themselves as bat recipients. They were said to dwell alone, because they were under the Lord's guidance as celestial men, and were not infested by evils or evil spirits. But their posterity began gradually to decline from this exalted state, and were not content to be led by the Lord, but desired also to be guided by themselves and the world. By the woman which was formed and given to the man is signified selfhood, or what is properly one's own, or rather what appears to be one's own. The state of man 5 when he supposes his life to be self-derived, is compared to deep sleep, and by the ancients it was called deep sleep, and in the Word it is said of such that they have poured out upon them the spirit of deep sleep, and that they sleep the sleep. By a rib, which is a bone of the chest, is meant man's selfhood, or proprium, referred to above, in whicK there jsbuLt. little .vitality, as hones possess little 46 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. vitality or life. By to build is spiritually signified to raise up what was fallen; by the rib, the comparatively dead selfhood or love of self and the world; by a woman is signified a selfhood vivified or made alive by the Lord ; by he brought her to the man is signified that a selfhood or proprium was "granted him. Their being naked and not ashamed, signifies that they were innocent; for the Lord had insinuated innocence into their selfhood or pro- prium, to prevent its being offensive to him. "The posterity of this Church," says Swedenborg, "did not wish, like their parents, to be a celestial man, but to be under their own self-guidance, and thus inclining to selfhood; it was granted to them, but still one vivified or made alive by the Lord, and therefore called a woman, and afterwards a wife." Instead of perceiving and feeling as their an- cestors constantly did, that all life, all truth and goodness, were from the Lord, and that they were living from Him, they were still permitted to perceive that they lived from the Lord, although when not reflecting on the subject they knew no other but that they lived from themselves. "It is not," says Swedenborg, "however, easy to perceive how these things are, unless the state of the celestial man is understood. In the celestial man the internal man is distinct from the external; indeed, so distinct that he per- ceives what belongs to the internal, and what to the ex- ternal, and how the external is governed by the internal from the Lord. But the state of the posterity of this celestial man, in consequence of inclining to proprium or the affections which belong to the external man, was so changed, that they no longer perceived the internal man to be distinct from the external, but imagined the internal to be one with the external ; for such a perception takes place when man inclines to proprium, or to the love of self and the world." The posterity of the Most Ancient Church, or of Adam when he dwelt alone, was not evil but still good ; and be- cause they desired to live in the external man, or in pro- EVE. 47 prium, this was permitted by the Lord, but charity and innocence were insinuated; and men still made the ex- ternal things subordinate to spiritual, and ijsed the things of this world without placing their chief delight therein ; the fall was not yet, but was to come. It is impossible to give in a few words, touching here and there only, a very good or even clear idea of the wonderful practical treasures of spiritual knowledge con- tained in these divine chapters when spiritually unfolded according to the science of correspondences. If the reader would understand this part of the sacred Scriptures, he must read the first volume of Swedenborg's " Arcana Coeles- tia," and he will there find every verse, sentence and word carefully unfolded, and will be able to see that the Word of the Lord is indeed infinite, and contains treasures for him vastly surpassing in value all earthly treasures. IX. The Garden of Eden Its Trees and River. " And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden ; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground' made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food ; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And a river went out of Ed on to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads." GEN. ii. 8-10. " rpHAT this garden," says the Eev. Dr. Bay ley, "its -L trees, and fountain with four streams, were never intended to be otherwise than allegorically understood, the very names, as already intimated, themselves undoubtedly imply. What is a Tree of Life ? The Book of Proverbs answers, Wisdom is a Tree of Life. And may we not ask the firmest adherent to the letter of the Scriptures only, Did you ever find life growing on any earthly tree ? Has life more than one source, and do we not regard this to be Him who is the Life ? Do we not find this same tree 4# SKEPTICISM ASD DIVINE REVELATION. declared in the Book of Eevelation to be in the midst of heaven ? ' To him that overcometh/ it is said, ' I will give to eat of the Tree of Lii'e that is in the midst of the paradise of God 9 (Eev. ii. 7). But can any rational mind suppose that an earthly tree has been transplanted to a spiritual and heavenly world ? The idea is obviously un- worthy of being rationally entertained. Again, we find the Tree of Life in the midst of the New Jerusalem, and on both sides of the river. ' In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the Tree of Life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations' (Rev. xxii. 2). Is this at all com- patible with the idea of a literal tree? Assuredly not. But when on the other hand we reflect that from the one source of life, the Lord, there descend two grand influ- ences Love and Wisdom in the most intimate union; and these form the inmost powers of light and blessing to the regenerated soul the soul in the state of paradise, then we recognize the tree of two lives in the ancient garden of Eden. We say the tree of two lives, for the word rendered life, hacliayitn, is in the dual, not in the singular, nor in the general plural, in the account of this tree in our text. The holy influence of the Lord, in its twofold character of love and light within, is the tree of lives. This is in the midst of the garden of the soul. This is the source of the joys of the angels. This is the centre, and pervades all the principles of the New Church called the New Jerusalem. The virtues it inspires in all the varying states of man's regeneration as his faith waxes and wanes, and thus his spiritual months go on are the twelve manner of fruits it bears. On its holy branches grow acts of patience for seasons of affliction, of gratitude for those of prosperity, of trust and fortitude in the storms of life, of benevolence, charity, and justice in our daily walk, and of hope, ever speaking of better things, like an inward gem glittering in all the golden fruit of this divine THE GARDEN OF EDEJ^. 49 tree. Its leaves are the truths, which are for the healing of the nations. " The tree of knowledge of good and evil is equally in- dicative of a spiritual existence, not of a natural plant. For on what tree does knowledge grow, save on the human mind? The idle fancy that this tree was an apple-tree cannot be called a thought, it is a fancy having no rational ground. Can knowledge be cut from an apple, or squeezed from a fig ? We find knowledge grows only as we exercise the desire to know. " The knowledge of external things may well be called the knowledge of good and evil, for it is the knowledge of the results of order and disorder, of fitness and unfitness, of truths and appearances. It is an acquaintance with the outsides of things. This knowledge is useful for earthly purposes, but is not the real truth. It is a tree that has its uses in the garden, but its fruit is not to be eaten. Our own sensations give us a knowledge of ourselves, but that knowledge is full of fallacy, and needs the constant correction of a higher wisdom. We feel as if our life were our own. We are conscious of no origin of life out of ourselves. We feel that we exist, but we do not feel the stream of life from which our existence is momentarily maintained. Judging from our own sensations, we are self-existent. This, however, is an appearance, which we must beware of confirming. Let the tree grow for its own purposes, but do not eat the fruit. Our own knowledge is good to know and to use, but not to eat, or to confirm, and make part of ourselves. The perceptions of heavenly wisdom are the other trees of the garden ; and of these we may freely eat they are in accordance with eternal truth. But, of the tree of our own self-perceived knowledge we may not eat, for in the day, or state, in which we eat of it, we enter upon the path of error, of self-will, of carnal- mindedness, of spiritual death; 'For to be carnally minded is death ; to be spiritually minded is life and peace/ 3 50 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. " Both trees can be rightly admitted into our garden, but each must have its proper place, and each its proper value assigned : the Tree of Lives must be in the midst of the garden ; the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, at the circumference. That a garden, and especially the garden of Eden, is regarded in the sacred Scripture a? symbolic of a regenerated, cultivated state of the soul, is manifest in the declarations of the prophets. The prophet Isaiah said: 'The Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones : and thou shall -be like a watered garden, and like, a spring of water, whose waters fail not' (Iviii. 11). Jeremiah adopts the same language of correspondence : " Therefore they shall come and sing in the heights of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the Lord, for wheat and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all ' (xxxi. 12). "This circumstance gives us the reason why the site of Eden has never been found. Persons who have had no higher idea of the Divine Word than the literal one, have sought everywhere to discover a land watered by four rivers flowing from one fountain : one of the rivers being the Euphrates. No satisfactory discovery has ever been made. " But all have admitted that the exact site could not be found. And yet, according to the prophet, the king of Tyre had found it, and been in it many hundreds of years after the flood, if it also were a natural event. ' Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God ; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, etc., * * * * thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire ' (Ezek. xxviii. 12-14). "If the garden of Eden means a cultivated, enlightened, THE GABDEK OF EDE]tf. 51 and happy state of mind, this language is not difficult to be understood. The precious stones represent precious truths; the stones of fire, truths glowing with love, for love is spiritual heat. "Another mention of the trees of Eden is made by the same prophet in chapter thirty-one, where the language of the whole chapter is unquestionably allegorical. * Behold/ it is said, 'the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon, with fair branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and of a high stature; and his top was among the thick boughs' (ver. 3). Of the Assyrian thus represented by a majestic cedar, the prophet proceeds to say : ' The cedars in the garden of God could not hide him : the fir trees were not like his boughs, and the chestnut trees were not like his branches; nor any tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty. I have made him fair by the multitude of his branches: so that all the trees of Eden that were in the garden of God envied him' (ver. 8, 9). Again: 'I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to hell with them that descend into the pit : and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, shall be comforted in the nether parts of the earth ' (ver. 16). Here, it is manifest, no natural trees can be meant. These could not envy the Assyrian, or strive to hide him. These could not be comforted when they went down to the pit, with them that are slain. From every consideration, therefore, it is clear, that in the Divine Word, Eden and its trees are the types of a mental and a spiritual paradise, not of a- natural garden. "The river which watered the garden, with its four heads of subordinate streams, though nowhere found in nature, is easily found in spirit. It is that Divine Truth, which is called the 'river of the water of life ' (Eev. xxii. 1), which is meant by the River of God, which is full of waters; and that holy stream which the prophet saw, and which 'made everything live where it went' (Ezek. xlvii. 9). Divine Truth as it descends from the Lord comes as 52 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. one river, but as it is received by man it is parted into four great divisions, faith, knowledge, reason, and science ; and these illustrate the different departments of the mind, which are like so many countries into which they flow. " Happy is it with man when all these streams are re- ceived and harmonize together. His state is then an Eden indeed; a paradise of light, and love, and joy. " We must return to the Eden state, or we can never attain the joys of Paradise. The Lord will sow the good seed of the Word in our souls, if we will permit Him. He will give us power to cultivate our minds, and make our souls like a watered garden. We must have His love and wisdom like a tree of lives in the centre of our garden, and of its fruits we may eat and live. This is the only way of securing Paradise. The kingdom of God must be formed within (Luke xvii. 21). It is indeed not meat and drink, bat righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost (Eom xiv. 17). . How vain is the dream of those who fancy thai to find happiness they must seek it in distant lands somo in Jerusalem, some in Mecca, some in Home. Heaven and happiness are as near in our beloved land as on any spot of God's earth, and by them who seek faithfully, by help from our blessed Saviour, the Lord Jesus, to subdue the sources of misery in themselves, in their vices, their passions, and their follies, whether they dwell in a palace or in a cottage, in an island, or in distant lands, the divine promise will to them be realized : ' The Lord shall comfort Zion : he will comfort all her waste places ; and he will make her wilder- ness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord ; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody" (Isa li. 3). If the reader would understand this wonderful allegory of the Garden of Eden, as fully unfolded by the science of correspondences between spiritual and natural things, he must read the first volume of Swedenborg's "Arcana Ccelestia." THE FALL 0? MA^. 53 X. The Fall of Man The .Serpent And the Curse Introduced into the World. (WRITTEN BY THE REV. DR. BAYLEY/OF LONDON.) " And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done ? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat." GEN. iii. 13. " rriHAT man is not now in the condition in which i he must have been created seems evident if we reflect upon the perfections of his Divine Creator, or the manifest capabilities of the human constitution, and then notice the individual and social state of the race at present. When man came from the hands of his Maker, without the intervention of other human beings, he must have been complete and unperverted in his degree of life, and' in his powers, though that degree and those powers were finite; since his Divine Creator must have been too good not to desire to make him complete for happiness, too wise not to know how to accomplish His purpose, and too powerful not to be able to carry it into effect. Man must, therefore, have been created, at first, in a state of order, and with every power to arrive at the possession of the highest, fullest bliss. But now, alas, how changed is the whole scene of mankind ! Swarms of police and immense standing armies are required to prevent private and public ruffians from preying upon mankind. Wild passions are with difficulty restrained; now and then they burst all bounds, and like volcanoes which have been long pent up, but whose burning surges can no longer be held in, they pour forth their rivers of scorching death on all around. Universal imperfection is admitted, and testifies to an universal fall, seen from the outside of society. But when we regard man as he is within, he who watches his own heart and mind knows how much there is to subdue. 54 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE EEVELATION. reform, and to regenerate, before lie can be happy. Others see, sometimes, what is done, but they see not what is resisted. 'The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it ?' (Jer. xvii. 9.) The human mind is like a magnificent building whose splendid arches and glorious proportions may be traced, but which lies in ruins. It is a volume of incalculable worth, on which the laws of eternal righteousness are to be traced iu golden letters, but, alas ! it is all torn and blotted, and can only, by a divine hand, be restored. The world within is like the world without. By the diligent hand of cultiva- tion fair spots are formed of verdure and of beauty, lovely enough to show what is the intention of its Maker, and what are its capabilities, but at the same time it is actually deformed with jungle and desert, with marsh and quag- mire, with thorn and briar. Wild beasts of every hideous and terrible form hide, and howl, and roar, and fight, and destroy there. Such is the human soul now. How came it thus ? That is our present inquiry. " The history of nations has no answer to our present question. Human philosophy is equally dumb. Divine revelation imports to give an answer, and the question upon which we are now engaged is, What does the answer mean? "Those who take the early chapters of Genesis as a literal history inform us that a natural serpent seduced our first parents, and persuaded them to eat of a fruit which God had forbidden to be touched, and for this offence God cursed them and their posterity, the serpent, and the earth. But this is so strange an account, that if it had not first been childishly received in the dark ages, and continued to be taught us generally in childhood, it would not have been received at all. What a strange idea does it give of God, when it represents Him as placing a tree needlessly in paradise ; for, according to this idea, its fruit was never to be tasted, it could only tantalize the inhabi- tants of the garden. What a character does it attribute to THE FALL OF MAN. 55 infinite love, the best of Beings, when it describes Him as so jealous of the fruit of this one tree, and so unfeeling to His immortal children, as to curse them and their unborn posterity, because this fruit was taken! What an im- probable circumstance is narrated, when we are told that our first parents in their perfect state could be seduced by an animal, and be led away from God by a beast of the field. This has been felt to be so improbable that many have said the devil was in the serpent, but Moses says not a word about any devil entering the serpent. His words are simply, 'Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made ' (Gen. iii. 1). And if a devil was the real delinquent, how comes it to pass that he escapes without a word, while the poor serpent, his innocent tool, is punished ? By this mode of understanding the narrative the real culprit is never men- tioned, the beast is condemned to go on its belly and to eat dust all the days of its life. And what is still more wonderful, not only does the devil escape unnoticed, but the serpent takes no notice of the sort of food he is con- demned to live upon, and declines to eat dust any more than other carnivorous animals. " This serpent, too, according to a mere literal interpre- tation, should have its head bruised by the Messiah, and it should bruise His heel (chap. iii. 15). But who ever heard of its continuing to live four thousand years, until the Saviour came, or then fulfilling this prediction ? "But it is said, God gave a law respecting the tree of knowledge of good and evil : ' Thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die 9 (Gen. ii. 17). And he was bound by His undeviating truth to put this law into execution. But here the literal interpretation meets with another difficulty, or rather with several difficulties. For, taking the word death in the natural sense, its advocates are compelled to admit Adam did not die on the day he ate of the tree, and not until nine hundred and thirty years after. If this death were a 56 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. curse, these advocates say, Christ took upon Himself the curse inflicted upon man, and so saved the human race. Of course then man ought not to die. Besides, in that case, the law which it was said God was, by His unde- viating truth, bound to enforce, was not enforced after all; for the law was fluences bruised His heel or lowest part, His outward human nature; while He became completely triumphant by then glorifying His human nature, and subduing hell and death. " He gave His disciples, at first, and He still gives them, power to tread upon serpents of sensuality in themselves, as He says, 'I beheld Satan like lightning fall from heaven. Behold I give unto you power to tread on serpents and 58 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and noth- ing shall by any means hurt you/ (Luke x. 18, 19.) " We have now the chief elements for understanding the divine account of man's fall. The tree of knowledge represents the knowledge we acquire by our senses; the serpent, the love of sensuous knowledge and experience, which may be good or bad, according as it is kept in its proper place, or raised to rule where it ought to serve. When the serpent is the servant of higher principles, it inspires its possessor with circumspection ; when suffered to rule, it leads to sensuality. "In the woman's reply a remarkable fact is to be noticed ; she regards the tree of knowledge as in the midst of the garden, although as the Lord God arranged the garden, the tree of lives was in the midst (chap. ii. 9). She says, ' We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die' (chap. iii. 3). In this declaration of the woman we have another change of state implied; she regarded the tree of knowledge, not the tree of lives, as the centre of all wisdom. When we have adopted our conclusions from the short-sighted ap- pearances of sense, as being central truth, we are ripe for ruin, and such was the condition of the people represented by the divine record before us. There is an experience illustrative of this in the case of every one who falls. If divine wisdom were firmly held to, if the tempted fled for refuge from their own clouded fancies, to the Rock of ages, all would be well ; but when they place the tree of their own knowledge in the centre of the mind, they find their fancied strength becomes the veriest weakness, and the issue is misery and death. "The serpent next becomes bolder. The sensual prin- ciple strengthens itself, and suggests, ' Ye shall not surely die : for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, THE FALL OF MAN. 59 knowing good and evil/ When we determine to act upon our own conceits, we deem ourselves singularly clever. We conclude we shall take no harm ; we shall know how to elude all the dangers Divine Wisdom has predicted, and all the world shall see how successful shall be our projects. We shall no longer be hoodwinked ; our eyes shall be opened, and we shall be as gods, showing that we know how to secure, in our own way, and by our own strength, selfish indulgences and the goods of selfish and worldly success, and avoid the evils of suffering, adversity and want. We take then the fruit of the tree ; it seems good, it seems pleasant. It is a tree to be desired to make one wise. We take it, but soon experience shows that this wisdom of the serpent is the curse of the soul. Alas for such opening of the eyes as then takes place ! A sense of weakness is soon unfolded ; a sense of restlessness and loss ; a sense of blame, and necessity for covering. We desire to excuse, and apologize. We cover ourselves with the fig-leaves of idle pretences that we had no power to do otherwise, al- though we forsook the guidance and the strength which were extended to save us. We have lost the bright day of former light and love ; it has become evening, and we are cold and sad. " It is the cool of the day. The hour of reflection has come on. The merciful voice of the Almighty is perceived moving in the garden of the soul, and asking the impor- tant question, ' Adam, where art thou ? ? "Can any one conceive that the All-knowing needed to inquire after man in an earthly garden ? Surely not. But He comes from His mercy into the conscience of every i one after sin. The question implies the divine impulse, leading the sinner to ask himself, 'Man, where art thou?' Eemember where thou wast. Thou hast been innocent, peaceful, and happy; how art thou now? Thou hadst once the sweet lessons of heavenly wisdom shining brightly within thee ; these are all obscured and fled. ' Man, where art thou ? ' 60 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. " The origin of evil was not the introduction of a new principle into human nature ; it was only displacing the principles which were already there, and were all good, in their proper order. Natural evil is not anything original ; it is but the perversion, or displacement, of what is other- wise good. Fire is a good thing as a servant, but bad as a master : water is excellent as rain, or in a river, but bad as a flood: every power of the human mind and body is good in its place and proportion, but each one becomes an evil, when unduly exalted. When the senses and the passions of the lowest degree of the soul were raised to undue im- portance, and the higher and holier principles of the soul were first neglected, and then despised and disbelieved, this constituted the fall, and it was a real and fearful fall the higher principles of love to God and man were thrown down, and made to serve. The life's business of man now is to reverse this, and thus rise again by power from the great serpent-bruiser the Lord Jesus Christ. Our serpents our sensual principles, are now too fearfully impure, and too strong for us. He will give us power, however, to tread upon them. It is hard for us, at first, to resist our proneness to place the pleasures of time be- fore the purities of eternity, the desires of the flesh above the principles of the spirit ; but if we look to Him, the Divine and Perfect Man, virtue will go out from Him, and we shall be saved, * Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.' He will enable us to deny ourselves and all our faculties, and follow Him. By His power we shall not only subdue the sensual things of our nature, but they will be regenerated, filled with new heavenly life. We shall first tread upon the serpent, and then take it up, and join it to what is heavenly. ' These signs/ our blessed Lord says, ' shall follow them that believe; they shall take up serpants' (Mark xvi. 18). "When we have thus struggled, and by the aid of the Captain of our salvation conquered, in the conflicts of the regeneration, the fall will be reversed in us; the love of CALST AKD ABEL. 61 God and man, wisdom and faith, peace and happiness, be restored to us. We shall realize those gracious words of the divine promise, and have paradise and the tree of life once more. ' To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God' (Rev. ii. 7). " Feeling the loss of mankind, by separation from the source of all happiness, wisdom, and peace; feeling our own personal want of the divine Deliverer from sin and sorrow ; let us lift our eyes and hearts to our only Saviour, and in the language of Milton say ' Queller of Satan, on Thy glorious work Now enter; and begin to save mankind."' How different the above ideas of the fall of man, drawn from the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, from those generally entertained; whether more rational or not the reader can judge for himself. XI. Cain and Abel. IN" his introduction to the internal sense of the fourth chapter of Genesis, Swedenborg says: "Since this chapter treats of the degeneracy of the Most Ancient Church, or the falsification of its doctrine, and conse- quently of heresies and sects, under the names of Cain and his descendants, it is to be observed, that there is no possibility of understanding how doctrine was falsified, or what was the nature of the heresies and sects of that church, unless the nature of the true church be rightly understood. Enough has been said above concerning the Most Ancient Church, showing that it was a Celestial Man, and. acknowledged no other faith than such as was connected with love towards the Lord, and the neighbor. By means of that love from the Lord, they obtained faith, 62 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE KSVELATIGN. or a perception of all its truths, and were therefore un- willing to speak of faith, lest it should be separated from Love. * * * Such was the nature of the Most Ancient Church and of its doctrine ; but the case is far different at the present day, for now faith precedes charity, and by means of faith, charity is given by the Lord, and then charity takes the precedence. It hence follows, that doc- trine became falsified in ancient times when men made confession of faith, and thus separated it from love. Those who falsified doctrine in this way, or separated faith from love, or acknowledged faith alone, were denominated Cain; and this thing was regarded by them as an enormous (heresy). " By the man and his wife the Most Ancient Church is signified, as has heretofore been shown: its offspring, or first-born, is faith, which is here called Cain ; the saying, I have gotten a man from the Lord, signifies that faith with such as are called Cain, is known and acknowledged in a distinct form." * * * They had been, as it were, previously, ignorant of faith as a separate object of thought, because they had a perception of what related to it ; but, when they began to make a distinct doctrine of faith, they then collected together the truths which they had heretofore perceived, and reduced them into doctrine, calling it I have gotten a man, Jehovah, as if they had found out something new ; and thus, what was before in- scribed on the heart became a mere matter of science. In ancient times they gave every new thing a name, and ex- plained what the name implied by particular sayings. Thus the signification of the name Ishmael is explained by the saying, * Jehovah hath heard his affliction' (Gen. xvi. 11) ; that of Keuben, by the expression, ' Jehovah hath looked upon thy affliction ' (Gen. xxix. 32) ; the name Simeon, by the saying, ' Jehovah hath heard that I. was hated' (Gen. xxix. 33); and that of Judah, by 'Now will I praise Jehovah ' (ver. 35). The altar built by Moses was called ' Jehovah my banner ' (Exod. xvii. 15) ; and CAIK A^TD ABEL. 63 in like manner the doctrine of faith is here denominated ciate spirits, or those like himself, in a similar faith and life ; consequently, when a man is believing false doctrines, and actuated by evil loves or perverted affections, if he has intercourse with spirits, he necessarily comes in contact with evil spirits. Therefore, says Swedenborg, "to speak with spirits is at this day rarely granted, because it is dangerous ; for the spirits then know that they are present with man, which otherwise they do not know, and evil 110 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. spirits are of such a nature that they regard man with deadly hatred, and desire nothing more than to destroy him." Especially do they strive to destroy all heavenly truths and affections in his soul. Such destruction is spiritual death not annihilation, but the death which was pronounced in Eden. Again, Swedenborg says: "It is believed by many that man may be taught of the Lord by spirits speaking with him ; but they who believe and desire this do not know that it is connected with danger to their souls. ' So long as man lives in the world, he is as to his spirit in the midst of spirits, and yet the spirits do not know that they are with man, nor does a man know that he is with spirits. The reason is that they are conjoined imme- diately as to affections of the will, and mediately as to the thoughts of the understanding. For man thinks natu- rally, and spirits think spiritually; and natural and spiritual thought do not make one otherwise than by cor- respondences and unity by correspondences causes that one knows nothing of the other. But as soon as spirits begin to speak with a man they come out of their spiritual state into the natural state of the man; and then they know that they are with the man, and conjoin themselves with the thoughts of his affections, and from these speak with him. They cannot enter into anything else ; for a similar affection and consequent thought conjoins all, and a dissimilar separates. It is owing to this that the spirit speaking is in the same principles as the man, be they truths or be they falsities; and also that he excites them, and by his affection conjoined to the man's affection strongly confirms them. * * * From these considerations it is evident to what danger a man is exposed who speaks with spirits, or manifestly feels their operation. Man is ignorant of the quality of his own affection, whether it be good or evil, and with what other beings he is conjoined; and if he has a conceit of his own intelligence the spirits favor every thought that comes from it. So it is if any SPIRITUALISM. Ill one, inflamed with a sort of fire, has a leaning to certain principles ; which is the case with those who are not in truths from a genuine affection. When a spirit favors a man's thoughts or principles, from a similar affection, the one leads the other as the blind leads the blind, until both fall into the pit. Such were the Pythonie (diviners) of old ; and also the magicians in Egypt and in Babylon, who on account of their converse with spirits, and on account of the operation of them upon themselves, manifestly felt, were called wise. But the worship of God was thereby converted into the worship of demons, and the church perished. For this reason such communications were forbidden to the children of Israel under penalty of death." Not only the church but those mighty nations perished also ; where are Egypt and Babylon to-day ? The first sentence of the following quotation from Swedenborg's u Heaven and Hell" throws a flood of light on the subject of modern Spiritualism, the want of reli- ability and identity of spirits, etc., etc. " It is not lawful for any angel or spirit to converse with man from his own memory, but only from that of the man. For angels and spirits have memory as well as men ; and if a spirit were to speak with a man from his own memory, the man would not know but that the things which then became the subject of his thoughts belonged ttf himself, although they belonged to the spirit. This is like remembering a thing which, nevertheless, the man had never heard of or seen. That such is the fact has been given me to know by experience. This is the origin of the opinion held by some of the ancients, that after some thousands of years they should return into their former life, and into all its transactions, and that they actually had so returned. They drew this conclusion from the circumstance, that there sometimes occurred to them what seemed to be a remembrance of things which, never- theless, they had never seen or heard. This appearance 112 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE KEVELATION. was produced by an influx of spirits, from their own memory, into their ideas of thought/' If we bear the above statement cf Swedenborg in mind, we shall be the better able to appreciate and comprehend the following quotations from his writings ; and the reader will please remember that Swedenborg wrote about a cen- tury before "Modern Spiritualism" commenced; and we here acknowledge that we are either directly or indirectly indebted to his writings, or to the Lord through his in- strumentality, not only for the quotations, but also for all the ideas contained in this section on Spiritualism, which have not been drawn from the sacred Scriptures. One of Swedenborg's immediate friends and followers suggested to him, or inquired of him, if it would not be well to omit his "memorable relations" of things seen and heard in the spiritual world, which are interspersed throughout his writings, as they tended to prejudice people against the doctrines of the New Jerusalem. His reply was, simply, that he was commanded to write them. We think it is not difficult to-day to understand why the Lord required him to write them, and the notes of in* struction and warning which they contain to us. Nor is it difficult to understand why he was permitted to expe- rience and detail many things for our enlightenment and warning which, to his acquaintances, must have seemed very strange and incomprehensible ; among which may be named: spirits writing through his hand, without his being conscious of what they wrote while they were writing; but he informs us that he was commanded to destroy all such writings, and not a line remains only the suggestion which his statement conveys, which is a caution to us, if we are wise. Swedenborg informs us that spirits which have inter- course with man " know all the thoughts which the man himself knows, and also the smallest minutice of the thoughts and affections, ivhich the man doth not know ; yea, such things as it is impossible for him to know in the SPIRITUALISM. 113 life of the body.' 9 And again, "They enter into all his memory, and into all the sciences of memory which man possesses ; thus they put on all things which are man's, insomuch that they know no other than that those things are theirs; spirits have this prerogative above men; hence it is that all things which man thinks, they think, and that all things which man wills, they will ; and vice versa, all things which those spirits think, man thinks, and all things which those spirits will, man wills ; for they act in unity by conjunction. Yet it is supposed by both parties that such things are in themselves, so spirits suppose, and so men ; but this is a fallacy." (A. C. 5853.) Again he says: " When similar things are called up in the memory of man, and are thus represented to them [spirits], they think they are the same person ; then all the things are called forth from the memory which repre- sent those persons, both the words, the speech, the tone, the gesture, and other things." "It has many times been shown to me that the spirits speaking with me did not know otherwise than that they were the men who were the subject of thought; and neither did other spirits know otherwise ; as yesterday and to-day, some one known to me in life (was represented by one), who was so like him in all things which belong to him, so far as they were known to me, that nothing was more like. Wherefore, let those who speak with spirits beware lest they be deceived, when they say that they are those whom they know, and that they are dead." "For there are genera and species of spirits of a like faculty; and when similar things are called up in the memory of man, and are thus represented to them, they think that they are the same person : then all things are called forth from the memory which represent those per- sons, the words, the speech, the tone, the gesture, and other things; besides that, they are induced to think thus when other spirits inspire them, for then they are in the phantasy of those, and think they are the same." 114 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE KEVELATION. Again Swedenborg says: "Sometimes it was shown to me by experience, that spirits were induced to believe that they were those persons about whose life and manners I was able to have some knowledge, and from this knowl- edge in my mind they induced other spirits to believe that they were these persons; they spoke in the same manner, had the same disposition, and many other like things. They were endeavoring even to make me believe that they were these persons ; but because I had learned that other persons may be personified thus perfectly by spirits, they could not impose upon me. " Wherefore let those be careful to whom it is granted to speak with spirits lest they believe that the spirits are those whom they pretend to be ; for they are able to assume the likeness of any man which they find in the memory of the man with whom they are. That this is so may also appear from this circumstance, because such spirits are associated with men as are like them; and when they are with men they do not know otherwise but that they are they." (Spirit. Diary, 2686, 2687.) " The spirits attendant on those who are in Heresies, in Fallacies, and Illusions, as to the truths of faith, and in falses, are in the like, without the slightest difference. The reason of this is, that man may be in his freedom, and may not be disturbed ~by any propriety of a spirit." (A. C. 5 8 60.) The above statements are worthy of our most serious consideration; for, in their light, it is not difficult to understand why we should not seek open intercourse with spirits, if we would preserve our mental freedom, and retain our rational faculties unimpaired, and avoid being misled by presumptuous spirits. It will be seen that, according to the above statements, any spirit, if he can get access to our memory, either directly, or through a medium, can not only give us the names of our friends in the spirit world, but also personate them in every respect, even as to looks, handwriting, etc., etc. Again Swedenborg says: "That the things which I SPIKITUALISM. 115 learned in representations and visions, and from discourses with spirits and angels, are from the Lord alone. When- ever there was any representation, vision, and discourse, I was kept interiorly and most interiorly in reflection upon it, as to what thence was useful and good, thus what I might learn therefrom; which reflection was not thus attended to by those who presented the representations and visions, and who were speaking ; yea, sometimes they were indignant when they perceived that I was reflecting. Thus have I been instructed ; consequently by no spirit, nor by any angel, but by the Lord alone, from whom is all truth and good ; yea, when they wished to instruct me concern- ing various things, there was scarcely anything but what was false; wherefore I was prohibited from believing any- thing that they spake ; nor was I permitted to infer any such thing as was proper to them. Besides, when they wished to persuade me, I perceived an interior or most interior persuasion that the thing was such, and not as they wished ; which also they wondered at ; the perception was manifest, but cannot be easily described to the appre- hension." (Sp. Diary, 1647.) He says, " That spirits relate things exceedingly ficti- tious, and lie. When spirits begin to speak with man, he must beware lest he believe them in anything ; for they say almost anything; things are fabricated by them, and they lie ; for if they were permitted to relate what heaven is, and how things are in the heavens, they would tell so -many lies, and indeed with solemn affirmation, that man would be astonished ; wherefore, when spirits were speak- ing, I was not permitted to have faith in the things which they related. For they are extremely fond of fabricating. 5 * In regard to the desirability of speaking with spirits and its influence on men, Swedenborg says : " Speaking with the dead would produce a like effect, as miracles, concern- ing which just above ; namely, that man would be per- suaded and driven to worship for a little time ; but because this deprives man of rationality, and at the same 116 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION". time shuts in evils as was said above, this enchantment 01 internal bond is loosed, and the evils shut in burst forth, with blasphemy and profanation ; but this takes place only when the spirits induce some dogma of religion, which is never done by any good spirit, still less by any angel of heaven." (D. P., 134.) Swedenborg makes one statemen fc which every man ancf woman will do well to heed, in order to keep out oj danger, which is: If a man hears a spirit speaking to him it is not lawful for him to reply; for if he does then the spirit knows that he is with man in this world, which otherwise he would not know, and could not injure the man. How important then that we never give the consent of our will by voluntarily attending " circles," " seances," the lectures of " trance speakers," etc., etc. Or if we have already done this, that we shun doing it again, lest we be led by evil spirits to doubt arid deny the Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holiness of the sacred Scrip- tures ; and the necessity of regeneration, if we would enter the kingdom of heaven. XX. In What Degree a Mediate Revelation, which is Effected by Means of the Word, is Preferable to an Immediate Revelation, which is Effected by Means of Spirits. QWEDENBORG says: "It is generally believed that fO man might be more enlightened and become more wise if an immediate revelation was granted him by means of converse with spirits and angels ; but the reverse is the case. Illustration by means of the Word is effected by an interior way, whereas illustration by means of an immediate reve- lation is effected by an exterior way. The interior way is by the will into the understanding, the exterior way is by the hearing into the understanding. Man, by means of the Word, is illustrated by the Lord in proportion as his WHAT KEVELATIOtf IS PKEFERABLE ? 117 will is in good ; but man by hearing may be instructed, and as it were illustrated, although his will is in evil, and what enters into the understanding in a man whose will is in evil, is not within the man bat without him, and is only in his memory and not in his life ; and what is with- out man and not in his life is gradually separated, if not before, nevertheless after death ; for the will which is in evil either casts it out or suffocates it, or falsifies and profanes it ; for the will constitutes the life of man, and continually acts upon the understanding, and regards as extraneous what is derived into the understanding from the memory. On the contrary, the understanding does not act on the will,, but it only teaches in what manner the will should act ; wherefore if a man knew from heaven whatever is known to the angels, or if he knew whatever is con- tained in the Word, and moreover all that is contained in the doctrines of the church, which the fathers have written and councils declared, and his will remains in evil, never- theless after death such a man would be regarded as one who knows nothing, because he do.es not will what he knows ; and whereas evil hates truth in this case, the man himself casts out truths, and in the room thereof adopts such falses as are in agreement with the evil of his will. Moreover, permission is not granted to any spirit nor to any angel to teach any man on this earth in divine truths, but the Lord himself teaches every one by means of the Word, and man is taught in proportion as he receives good from the Lord in his will, and he receives good in the same proportion as he flees evils as sins ; every man also is in a society of spirits as to his affections and as to his thoughts thence derived, in which society his mind is as it were present with them; wherefore spirits speaking with man, speak from his affections and according to them. "A man cannot converse with other spirits unless the societies in which he is be first removed, which cannot le done except ~by a reformation of his will; because every man is in society with spirits who are in the same religion 118 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. with himself; wherefore when the spirits converse with him, they confirm whatever a man has made a part of his religion ; consequently enthusiastic spirits confirm what- ever is of enthusiasm with man; Quaker spirits confirm whatever is of Quakerism; Moravian spirits whatever is of Moravianism, and so forth. Hence proceed confirma- tions of the false which can never be extirpated. From this it appears that mediate revelation, which is effected by means of the Word, is preferable to immediate revela- tion, which is effected by means of spirits. As to what regards myself, it was not allowed to take anything from the dictate of any spirit, or from the dictate of any angel, but from the dictate of the Lord alone. " Spiritualists generally recognize and acknowledge most distinctly and clearly, in their conversation and writings, the great law of spiritual association or affinity ; -that like dwell with like, and that like attract like, which Sweden- borg so fully illustrates in all his writings : consequently, that man, while here, attracts to himself spirits like him- self, both as to principles and life ; therefore, in open in- tercourse he only comes in contact with his like. JSTow, if they will stop and use the reason ~to which they appeal in the case of the Bible, they can but see the impropriety and danger of seeking intercourse with spirits. Let us look at this subject for a moment from- their own stand- point, or the law of affinity, the truth of which they admit, in the light of reason ; for we fully agree with them that the sacred Scriptures even, in order that they may retain their hold upon an enlightened age as special revelations from God to man, must stand the severest tests of reason ; and we know that, when interpreted in accordance with the grand science of correspondences be- tween natural and spiritual things revealed through Swe- denborg, they will stand the test, and shine brighter and brighter as the ages roll on ; for the thoughts and affec- tions of the Creator are manifested alike in His Word and works, and can never conflict when correctly interpreted. WHAT REVELATION IS PREFERABLE. 119 Can modern Spiritualism stand the tests of enlightened reason ? Let us see. If this life is but the beginning of an endless life, it is manifest that doctrines, thoughts, words, and acts, which tend to subdue our evil inclinations, and to lead us to love the Lord and our neighbor supremely are of first im- portance, for they tend to unity and peace, happiness and heaven. But with multitudes to-day, selfishness and sen- sualism rule, and they must be born again, or put away their supreme selfishness, and come to act from higher motives, or it is manifest that they can never enter the kingdom of heaven ; for heaven is not a pen or place into which a man can be let as a matter of favor. Heavenly principles must rule us before we can enter the gates of the celestial city. Now, let the man who is ruled by either the selfish love of power or money, or who is vain, licentious, or given to drunkenness, jealousy, or envy, seek communications from spirits, and what is the inevitable resu.lt? Please remember, like attracts like. Being swayed by evil motives, his associate spirits are necessarily evil, and evil spirits are in false doctrines, therefore they deny the divinity of the .Lord Jesus Christ, for they hate him; they deny the necessity for regeneration, in fact deny that man can live from any higher motive than selfishness; and, if the man hearkens to them, they will use every effort and art to hold him in his present state of life, and to destroy all reverence for the Lord, and the sacred Scriptures as special revelations from Him ; for, if the man changes for the better, fhey are repelled and will have to leave him. Thus by seeking and hearkening to spirit- ual communications, the evil or unregenerate man con- firms himself in his evil loves ; his spirits justifying him by every seductive argument . imaginable, and thus even the prospect of his future regeneration is materially les- sened, if not actually destroyed. Could a greater misfor- tune befall an evil man here below, than this ? Again, supposing a man has commenced living a new life, the 120 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE LEVEL ATION. work of regeneration is not accomplished in a day; but regeneration results from the warfare of a lifetime. Little by little are his evil inclinations and thoughts put away; evil inclinations and thoughts are prompted by evil spirits, and supposing while temporarily harboring such, the man seeks and heeds communications from spirits, these evil spirits will necessarily use every art to destroy the new resolutions for a better life by, as rapidly as he will bear it, denying all heavenly doctrines, and confirming him, if possible, in his evil states. Could a greater misfortune befall him ? Once more, there are three heavens, seen and carefully described by Swedenborg, witbin the reach of men, and whether a good man shall reach the lowest, middle or highest, depends upon the progress made here in the regenerate life. Supposing a good man, in a good state, seeks communications from spirits. His associate spirits are no better than he is, and open vision with them or communicating with them will tend to fix him in his present state of life, and prevent his progress towards a higher life ; thus checking the great work of regeneration. How serious the injury to the man! But there is another view in the case of good men, or of those who reverence the Lord and His Word and who are striving to lead a good life in accordance with the Divine commands, seeking such communications. They have the Divine warnings sounding in their ears, and are consequently reasonably sure to have conscien- tious scruples when they seek such communications; and if so, they are, it would seen*, almost necessarily brought in contact with evil spirits. The Christian, therefore, who, from the stand-point of a distinct recognition of the Lord and of Divine revelation, goes away into Spirit- ualism, and seeks communications from spirits, must run a fearful risk ; and have we not good reason to fear, that he will fall to rise no more forever ? Whilst for those who have little or no reverence for the Lord Jesus Christ, and for the sacred Scriptures, there may be far less danger and WHAT REVELATION IS PREFERABLE. 121 comparatively little barm from their seeking such inter- course, as they do not profane holy things. In fact, thou- sands of skeptics and naturalists have been convinced that they are to live after death, by the phenomena of Spiritual- ism; and finding the communications entirely unreliable and unsatisfactory, have turned to Divine revelation, and to tho Lord, and thus have been led into the Lord's church. Here then is a use which Spiritualism is performing for many earnest seekers after truth ; and perhaps this may be one of the reasons why it is permitted by the Lord. . But, oh, how unwise is the man who rests satisfied with the phenomena and revelations of Spiritualism, when they should lead him up to the feast of fat things, and wine on the lees, or to the spiritual good and truths revealed by our Heavenly Father in the Divine Word, and in the writings for the New Jerusalem ! The following statements by Swedenborg appeal to our highest reason: "Good spirits and angels," he says, never induce any dogmatic principle of religion, " for the Lord alone teaches a man, though mediately, through the Word in v illumination." " Nor do they say anything which takes away the freedom of reason," such as dictating or attempt- ing to control his actions, for this would impair his man- hood if he were to obey such dictations; only evil spirits attempt such interferences with man's freedom and reason. In conclusion, we will ask the reader if enlightened reason, and even the common sense with which God has endowed man, do not condemn in the most earnest and positive manner the seeking of open intercourse with spirits, or the obtaining communications from them? The sacred Scriptures, as interpreted in the writings of Swedenborg, reveal to us a knowledge of a higher and nobler life than it is possible for our associate spirits to comprehend or unfold to us ; and if any one is anxious or curious for a knowledge of the spiritual world, or of spirits, or even of modern Spiritualism, according to the 122 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. best of our judgment, after a careful examination of the whole subject, he can only obtain reliable information by reading the writings of the Swedish seer. For him the Lord had a special mission ; he sought it not, but he was called to it by the Lord Himself, and he cheerfully forsook his scientific and worldly pursuits, and, guided by the Lord and His angels, he devoted his life and means to writing and circulating his works. How important was his mission, if a reverence for the Lord Jesus Christ, or even for a personal God and His Word, is to remain with men, Spiritualism is now making manifest in one direc- tion, and Naturalism or Scientism in another. In a small work on " Intercourse between the Soul and Body/' Swedenborg says: "That there is a spiritual world in which are spirits and angels, distinct from the natural world in which men are, has hitherto been deeply hidden, even in the Christian world. The reason is, because no angel has descended and declared it, and no man has ascended and seen it. Lest, therefore, from ignorance concerning that world, and the uncertain faith concerning Heaven and Hell that results from such ignorance, man should be infatuated to such a degree as to become an atheistic naturalist, it has pleased the Lord to open the sight of my spirit, and to elevate it into Heaven, and also to let it down into Hell, and to exhibit to its view the quality of each. It is thence manifest to me that there are two worlds which are distinct from each other ; one in which all things are spiritual, which is thence called the spiritual world, and another in which all things are natural, which is thence called the natural world; and spirits and angels live in their own world, and men in theirs ; and also that every man passes by death from his own world into the other, and lives therein to eternity." Writing within a few years after the opening of his spiritual sight, he said : " For several years I have now almost continuously conversed with spirits and angels, APPEAL TO SPIRITUALISTS. 123 and they with me. In this manner I have been instructed respecting the state of souls after death ; respecting the divers sorts of spirits who seduce man ; respecting Hell, and its various and cruel afflictions and punishments ; respecting the heavens and the felicity of the souls which are there ; respecting true faith and the interior senses/' The Lord punishes no one, but evil carries with it its own punishment in that world as it does in this. From the doing of evil suffering inevitably results evil the cause, suffering the effect. Hell-fire is self-love perverted. XXI. An Appeal to Spiritualists in behalf of the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg. (A LARGE PORTION OF THIS SECTION WAS FIRST WRITTEN FOR AND PUBLISHED IN " THE BANNER OF LIGHT/') ~YT"7~E ask of you, fellow-citizens, children of the same V V Heavenly Father, journeying toward the mansions of the spiritual world, to lay aside for a few moments if you are troubled with any such infirmities prejudice, preconceived opinions, and the spirit of sect or party a very difficult thing, we know, for most men to do and to consider for a short time the claims of the Swedish seer to your attention, and compare them with those of modern seers and mediums, and then judge for yourselves. For the truth we should all seek, for the truth alone can make us free from the mistakes of ignorance, the snares of bigotry and sectarianism, and the dominion of evil. It is of no moment to us that we should be able to confirm ourselves in our present views; for, although it should gratify our vanity, it might do us great harm ; but it is of vast moment that we should seek and find the truth, and be able to see truth in the light of truth, and to live in accordance with it. Those truths and that system of truth are the most important to us which will lead us to 124 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. the best and highest life. It is a glorious maxim which Swedenborg proclaimed when he declared that "All re- ligion has relation to life, and the life of religion is to do good." It is not to arouse the spirit of controversy, which is latent in every man, that we write these pages, for such a spirit judges and condemns opposite views before it understands them ; no seeker after truth should do this, and no truly wise man will do it, Emanuel Swedenborg, the seer, a native of Sweden, lived and wrote the wonderful revelations contained in his writings about a century ago. He was one of the most celebrated philosophers of his day; well and thoroughly educated in his youth, he devoted his life and best energies to philosophical pursuits, and the application of scientific principles to the mining and business affairs of his native land. He wrote extensively on the economy of the animal kingdom, and the animal and mineral kingdoms, and a goodly number of his philosophical works have within a few years been translated into English, and are found to contain the germs of many of the discoveries of a latei date. His writings show that he was accustomed to ob- serve closely and watch patiently and carefully, and to draw rational conclusions from the operations of Nature, With a mind thus trained and disciplined by study, and an active life of usefulness, at the age of fifty-seven years he commenced his spiritual writings ; and for over twenty- seven years he claimed to have open intercourse with the spiritual world; to see and converse with spirits and angels face to face, as man converses with his fellow-man here, and that daily, not in a state of sleep, but of most perfect wakefulness; claims which, when we consider their length, breadth and duration, no other man does or ever has made, or can make with any show of justice. Although written a century ago, long before the appear- ance of modern Spiritualism, there is scarcely a phase of the latter which is not noticed and described in his writ- ings, and of much of it, the underlying philosophy is APPEAL TO SPIRITUALISTS. 125 given ; yes, far more than this, the most wonderful events, even revolutionary changes, are carefully described as they occurred in the spiritual world, and were witnessed by him at the time he wrote ; and whole kingdoms in the spiritual world are described, of which modern mediums as a general rule evidently know little and have appar- ently seen less. He declares that he witnessed the Last Judgment in the world of spirits in the year 1757, and he has given us a careful description of the same. What has astonished us more than anything else, is the apathy and neglect with which the writings of this grand old seer have been regarded by the great mass of Spiritualists; and affectionately and earnestly to call their attention to them, is our sole object in writing this section. Even the sectarian enemies of Swedenborg have never questioned his intelligence, his honesty or truthfulness, for his life was blameless; with them he was insane, or a visionary, who was himself deceived by his imagination. No intelligent Spiritualist should or can for a moment justly harbor such objections without first reading his writings, for to do so would be to condemn his own faith, and justify the blind opponents of that faith in their oppo- sition to it. A man should not oppose without being able to give a reason. In one respect to which we desire especially to call the attention of the reader at this point Swedenborg stands out boldly as the prince of seers. The son of a clergyman, reared and educated in an orthodox church, busy with literary and scientific pursuits up to the very hour of the opening of his spiritual vision, we would reasonably have expected that the faith of his fathers, and preconceived ideas, would have colored his writings and revelations ; but in many respects his doctrines are not in harmony with those in which he was educated, or with those which prevailed at the time he wrote in the religious world around him. The doctrines inculcated in his writings do not agree with those in very many particulars, and Swe- 128 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. denborg expressly teaches that the First Christian Church had come to its end through evi]s of life and a falsification of doctrines. How wonderful that a man should be able to so perfectly lay aside his preconceived ideas, and to sink himself, as it were ! And although he spent his time and money freely in writing, printing, and circulating his works, he did it anonymously until near the close of his life, when, at the earnest solicitation of his friends, his name was published on the title-page of the " True Chris- tian Religion/' simply : " By Emanuel Swedenborg, servant of the Lord Jesus Christ." He did not desire men to receive the revelations made through and by him on his authority, but they were to be received because they are perceived to be true. Such were his views. No man who has ever read Swedenborg's writings can, for a moment, question but that, if there is any truth in Spiritualism, or if any man has ever had intercourse with spirits and the spiritual world, either recently or in the Bible days, Swedenborg surely had; and it would seem that his writings are entitled to a respectful consideration from every one, especially from Spiritualists. A philoso- pher by nature and long practice in the natural sciences, even his spiritual writings are philosophical and beauti- ful beyond comparison ; order and system reign supreme. The laws of the spiritual world ; the resurrection from the dead ; the state of man after death ; the association of spirits with men; spiritual vision and conversing with spirits; the relation which the deeds of this life have to the state of man after the death of the body; spiritual in- flux, and the correspondence between natural and spiritual things are all explained, illustrated, and demonstrated with a power and force which, it is safe to say, have never been surpassed or even equalled in any particular; and which have in the past carried, and are to-day carrying, conviction to the minds of thousands who have never wit- nessed any of the spiritual manifestations. No attentive reader of his writings doubts the possibility of spiritual in- APPEAL TO SPIRITUALISTS. 127 tercourse, or that many of the present manifestations are from spirits, for they most wonderfully confirm his state- ments of rthe laws of the spiritual world, and of spiritual intercourse. Many of you, at first sight, may be disappointed at the ideas which he proclaimed; but you will find many of them new, and all of them worthy of the most serious consideration. With Swedenborg a personal God is the centre, and special revelations from Him, or the sacred Scriptures, are the ladder let down from Heaven to earth, on which the angels ascend and descend to man. Modern Spiritualists too frequently ignore a personal God, and all special revelations from God. In the science of correspondences, revealed through Swedenborg, we have the key for the rational interpre- tation of the sacred Scriptures, so that we can know that they are revelations from God, for we can intellectually see that the interpretation is true. In the light of this newly revealed science the skeptic is disarmed, and revela- tion and reason, the Bible and science, are reunited ; and God is shown or clearly manifested in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father in the Son. As we have already intimated, in a previous section, the day is not far distant when the Bible will be reverenced as it never has been before, as men begin more and more clearly to see that the letter, which to-day killeth,'is but the covering or clouds for the spirit which giveth life, and that God's Word differs as much from the words of man, as God's works do from the works of men. Even Nature can never be fully understood, so long as this "science of all sciences" is not recognized. Our scientific men are too many of them wandering on in the dark, ignoring the world of causes, or the spiritual side of nature ; but it will not always be so. In the writings of Swedenborg we are taught that love to the Lord and neighbor constitute heaven, and love of self and the world constitute hell ; therefore, man being 128 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. born into selfish natural affections, must be born again before he can enter Heaven ; in other words, by shunning evils as sins against God, and living a life according to His commandments, the old ruling selfish loves must be subdued, and heavenly affections take their place. Spirit- ualism generally teaches progression instead of spiritual regeneration ; and too many of its advocates deny the necessity for regeneration. With Swedenborg the Lord Jesus Christ is the chief corner-stone of the New Jerusa- lem, and a special providence is clearly and beautifully taught, whereas Spiritualists, with but few exceptions, deny the divinity of the Lord, and all special provi- dence. If Spiritualists would either understand the signs of the times, or obtain reliable knowledge of the spiritual world, let them read Swedenborg's writings; and there is no reason why all men should not read them, as increasing thousands are doing. God's truth, like the light of the natural sun, is free to all. The idea of a new revelation from the Lord sounds strangely to the man steeped in naturalism, and to the bigot, although the Lord promised a second coming in the clouds of heaven not of earth ; but it should not to Spiritualists. Was there ever a greater need of a revelation of genuine spiritual truth than at this day, when the simple precepts of the Gospels have been made of non-effect by the doctrines and traditions of men, Until multitudes are expecting to escape the consequences of an evil life by a simple act of faith or belief, instead of expecting to reap what they have sown ? Has the Lord forgotten His children ? Lo ! He comes to the Christian world in an unexpected hour and manner, as he came at the end of the Jewish dispensation. Does He find faith on earth? Let those who are watching for the morning, judge. In concluding this appeal we will say, that if you will carefully read the writings of Swedenborg, we can but feel that you will be satisfied that he was selected by the Lord, NEW JERUSALEM DOCTRIXE3. GOD. 129 as a man through whom he could reveal to men the science of correspondences, the spiritual sense of His Word in accordance with this science, true doctrines; or the truths of His Second Coming in the clouds of heaven ; together with the actual state of man in the spiritual world. And you will be further satisfied that Sweden- borg was permitted by the Lord to enjoy privileges such as no other man has ever enjoyed, and such as we have good reason to expect that no other man will enjoy for many centuries to come, at least. You can hardly fail to be satisfied that the revelations made through Swedenborg are immeasurably better calcu- lated to benefit man, and elevate our race, than are the revelations and phenomena of modern Spiritualism. XXII. Doctrines of the New Jerusalem. God. r I ^HAT there is but one God, in one Divine person, _1- is clearly taught in the first commandment, and throughout the sacred Scriptures, when they are correctly understood. When the Divine declaration was made: "Hear, Israel, Jehovah our God is one Jehovah," it was not a truth then for the first time revealed ; for it was well known by the Most Ancient or Adamic Church, and also by the Ancient or Noachian Church, that there is but one God ; and, as all the inhabitants of the world have descended from the members of those ancient churches, some knowledge of this grand central truth, more or less obscured by the doctrines of men, is to be found in the earliest religious or sacred writings and traditions of all nations. This one God is thus described in the Vedahs : " ' Per- fect truth ; perfect happiness ; without equal ; immortal ; absolute unity; whom neither speech can describe, nor mind comprehend; all-pervading; all-transcending; * * * understanding all. Without cause, the first of all 130 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE LEVELATION. causes ; all-ruling ; all-powerful ; the Creator, Preserver. Transformer of all things; such is the Great One, BRAHM.' This is in reality no other than a paraphrase of the ( I AM;' but, says Mr. Squier, 'The supreme God of Gods of the Hindus was less frequently expressed by the name BRAHM than by the mystical syllable O'M, which corres- ponds to the Hebrew JEHOVAH ' (or AM). The same Divine Being, as to His infinite and eternal essence, is described on Egyptian monuments, and in the Hermetic books, as KKEPH, 'the first [or inmost quality of] God, immovable in the solitude of His Unity, the fountain of all things, the root of all primary, intelligible, existing forms, the God of Gods.' The same idea prevailed among all the Scandinavian nations ; and in the ancient Icelandic mythology He is called 'the author of everything that existeth ; the Eternal, the Ancient, the Living, the Awful Being, the Searcher into concealed things, the Being that never changeth.' By the ancient Mexicans He is called the 'Creator of Light,' the 'Giver of Life/ the God of battles or ' God of Hosts,' the ' Almighty,' etc. Also as the 'Supreme Lord of the Universe; the Disposer, and Ordainer of all things ; the Confounder of His enemies, the Bestower of Wisdom, the Father of mankind,' " etc. The Ancient Druids taught that " There is but One Supreme Being, the Creator and Governor of the Universe, of an eternal, mysterious, and immaterial nature, which pervades all space. In Him consists the plenitude of life, knowledge, power, and love, which are sources of all His actions and dispensations. These being in themselves most beneficial and harmonious, necessarily tend to anni- hilate the power of evil, and bring man to everlasting happiness." With the North American Indian are found the remains of this doctrine, for he worships the Great Spirit, the Cre- ator of all things on earth, and the " beautiful hunting- grounds " to which his fathers have gone. We have already alluded to the fact, that all this knowl- NEW JERUSALEM DOCTRINES. GOD. 131 1 edge of God has come from revelations from God, made in the early ages of the world, and is not of human invention or discovery. " Revelation/' says Rev. John Hyde, " must reveal God and explain man. Nature does not teach the existence of God. That is, the origin of the idea is not attributable to the nature of the universe, or the nature of man. Nature is the plane of effects, not of causes. The jconsideration of effects can carry us no higher than effects, the first effect and the final natural cause. The idea of God's existence being known, nature can abundantly fur- nish man with illustrations of Divine operation, and proofs of the Divine continuance. Atheists assert them- selves careful students of nature, and in spite of the exist- ence and predominance of the idea among men, they testify that nature does not teach or communicate it. Yet it is. The idea exists. If nature taught it, they say nature taught a lie. If nature did not teach it, and could not teach it, it must have been taught of revelation. Admit their testimony, and we must deny their conclu- sion. But all will admit that if God communicates a revelation, he must reveal HIMSELF. Nature does not teach the object or the destiny of man's existence. The cradle and the grave are its limitations, the twin bounda- ries that circumscribe our being. If a revelation be given, it must transcend external and visible nature, and teach us wisdom on ^;?0r-natural subjects. These must be the themes which it will treat, and subordinate to these themes must every statement, every precept, every narra- tive be. If God has given a revelation of Himself, of man's nature, and of man's destiny, this Revelation must l as evidently be the Word of God. as external nature is the Work of God." If now we return to the sacred Scriptures, we shall find the unity of God most clearly and beautifully taught; and also that He is our Saviour, and the Being whom we are to love supremely ; for the following command is given by this one God: "Thou shalt have none other gods before 132 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. me;" and again in the sixth chapter and fifth verse of Deuteronomy: "And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might." That this one God is our Saviour, is abun- dantly taught in almost innumerable passages in the Old; Testament, as in the following, in the forty-third chapter of Isaiah: ".Thus saith the Lord that created thee, Jacob, and He that formed thee, Israel, fear not; for I have redeemed thee." "For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour." " Before me there was- no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no Saviour.". In the forty-ninth chapter of Isaiah we read, " That all flesh; may know that I Jehovah am thy Saviour, and thy Re-j deemer, the Holy One of Jacob." Also in the forty-fifth] chapter: "There is no God else beside me, a just God and! a Saviour, there is none beside me. Look unto me, andj be ye saved, all the ends of the earth : for I am God, ana there is none else." In the third chapter of Second Sam- uel, we read : " The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, ancS my deliverer; the God of my rock; in Him will I trust; He is my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high] tower, and my refuge, my Saviour." In the nineteenth Psalm will be found the following : " Let the words of m jj mouth, and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, Lord, my strength and my Eedeemer;" and in the one hundred and thirtieth Psalm we read: " Letj Israel hope in the Lord ; for with the Lord there is mercyj and with Him is plenteous redemption, and he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities;" and in the thiiN teenth chapter of Hosea : " Yet am I the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no God buii me, for there is no Saviour beside me." We have quoted comparatively few of the numerous! passages which clearly teach us that there is but one God] and that He is our Saviour, and that there is no othei Saviour. And in the eighth verse of the forty-second THE IKCAKNATION". 133 chapter of Isaiah, He distinctly declares : " I am the Lord : that is my name : and my glory will I not give to an- other." But we have predictions in the Old Testament of the coming of a Saviour, and all Christians acknowledge, that in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ those predictions were fulfilled. Let us inquire then, whether the Jehovah, or Lord and Saviour, of the Old Testament is the Saviour of the New Testament, or whether He has given His glory to another, contrary to His express declaration. In order to settle satisfactorily this point we shall need to examine the prophecies in regard to the coming of the Saviour into the world. XXIII. The Incarnation. ' ' I) TIT," say some, " it is contrary to the laws of Nature IJ for a child to be born without a natural father," and thus, without further consideration, they decide the question. *If it were certain that they understood all the laws of nature, their conclusion would be reasonable, and undoubtedly correct; for we do not for a moment suppose that the Lord violates His own laws. But, in the light of known and acknowledged facts, let us examine this ques- tion. Science shows conclusively that the time has been when no man or animal lived on this earth, and now it is peopled with men of various races, and there are also a great variety of animals. It follows that not only man, but a pair a male and a female (and perhaps several of them) were actually created without either a natural father or mother: now, if the above objection to the idea of the Incarnation holds good, what a tremendous viola- tion of the laws of nature there was in the creation of the first pair four times as great at least as the incarnation of the Lord by a natural mother. It matters not whether man was originally created in the human form, or was 134 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. gradually developed from the lower forms of animal life, the creation of the first pair of animals, however low in the scale, without natural parents, was as much a violation of the laws of nature, as the creation of the human body in the present form. But, for ourselves, we can see no good reason why man was not created in the human form ; for it is not in accordance with what we know of "the Laws of Nature " to suppose that either men or animals were created full grown; and man commences from a point or cell as small as many of the animals. But the origin of man, or how he was created, is a question foreign to our present inquiry; and as the Lord has not revealed to us the ultimate truths of Natural Science, we shall (Jt eave this question to scientists to investigate and specu- _ate over to their hearts' content, and if they ever deter- mine it to the satisfaction of our reason, we shall accept their conclusions without any hesitation, for we shall ever strive not to let preconceived ideas stand between us and the truth. That a son should have been born of Jewish parents and illegitimate at that, and thus inheriting * specially a tendency to the violation of the most sacred relation of life who, at the age of about thirty years, should be able to proclaim such precepts of life as the Lord Jesus Christ did, and set such an example of meekness, for- bearance, and good- will, would certainly have been a far greater violation of the laws of nature, or of hereditary transmission of inclinations, than was the Incarnation of the Lord. We think, then, we may safely and absolutely dismiss the objection, that the Incarnation was a violation of the laws of nature, as not worthy of further consideration ; but in doing this we cheerfully, admit that there certainly are some laws of nature which we do not fully understand, and others of which we know very little. THE I^CAKtfATKW. 135 WHY THE LORD CAME TO THIS EARTH. The second objection which we hear against the doc- trine of the Incarnation, is : "When we behold the bound- less extent of creation, the innumerable worlds which exist, many of which at least we have every reason to think are peopled by human beings, is jt reasonable to suppose that the Lord selected and came down to this little insignifi- cant world of ours to be Incarnated, to the neglect of all others ?" This at first sight would seem to be a serious objection, but it is very satisfactorily answered in the revelations made by the Lord through Emanuel Sweden- borg, as follows : " There are-many reasons why it pleased the Lord to be born and to assume the Human on our earth and not on another, concerning which I have been informed from heaven. The principal reason was for the sake of the Word, that this might be written in our earth, and being written might be published throughout the whole earth, and once published might be preserved to all posterity ; and that thus it might be made manifest, even to all in the other life, that God was made Man. That the prin- cipal reason was for the sake of the Word, was because the Word is the very Divine truth, which teaches man that there is a God, that there is a heaven, that there is a hell, and that there is a life after death ; and teaches, moreover, how he ought to live and believe that he may come into heaven and thus be happy to eternity. All these things without revelation thus on this earth without the Word would have been entirely unknown; and yet man is so created that as to his internal man he cannot die. The Word could be written on our earth, because from a very ancient time the art of writing has existed here, first on tablets of wood, then on parchments, afterwards on paper, and finally (writing came) to be published by types. This was provided of the Lord for the sake of the Word. * * * The Word once written could be preserved to 136 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. all posterity, even for thousands and thousands of years ; and it is known that it has been so preserved. It could thus be made known that God became Man ; for this is the first and most essential thing for which the Word was given. For no one can believe in a God, and love a God, whom he cannot have a conception of under some form; wherefore they who acknowledge what is incomprehensible glide in thought into nature, and so believe in no God. For this reason it pleased the Lord to be born here, and to make this evident by the Word; in order not only that it might be made known on this globe, but also that thereby it might be made manifest to all in the universe ( who from any other earth whatsoever come into heaven ; for in heaven there is a communication of all things. It should be known that the Word on our earth, given through heaven by the Lord, is the union of heaven and the world for which end there is a correspondence of all things in the letter of the Word with Divine things in heaven; and that the Word in its highest and inmost sense treats of the Lord, of His kingdom in the heavens and on the earths, and of love and faith from Him and in Him, therefore of life from Him and in Him. Such things are presented to the angels in heaven, from what- soever earth they are, when the Word of our earth is read and preached. * * * It should be known that the Lord acknowledges and receives all, from whatsoever earth they , are, who acknowledge and worship God under the human form; since God under the human form is the Lord. And as the Lord appears to the inhabitants of the earths in an angelic form, which is the human form, therefore when spirits and angels from those earths hear from the spirits and angels of our earth that God is actually man, j they receive the Word, acknowledge it, and rejoice that it i is so. To the reasons which have been already adduced it | may be added, that the inhabitants, the spirits, and the angels of our earth relate to the external and corporeal sense in the Greatest Man ; and the external and corporeal THE INCARNATION. 137 sense is the ultimate, in which the interiors of life end, and in which they rest as in their (receptacle). So is truth Divine (in its ultimates) in the letter which is called the Word ; and on this account too it was given on this earth and not on another. And because the Lord is the Word, and its first and last, that all things might exist according to order He was willing to be born on this earth, and to become the Word according to these words in John: 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word. The same was in the beginning with God: all things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. . . . And the W^ord was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father. . . . No man hath seen God at any time ; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath brought Him forth to view/ The Word here is Divine truth." (A. C. 9250-9360.) It was, then, not because the inhabitants of our earth were better than those of other earths, or more spiritual, but because they had descended lower into naturalism and sensualism ; and by the Lord's coming to this earth, the First became Last, and He ^could thus redeem the in- habitants, and benefit the spirits and angels of all earths, by bringing or accommodating the Divine truth to their wants, and presenting Himself as a Divine Man for them to reverence, love and worship. We think the reader will join with us in hoping that the inhabitants of no other earth have sunken lower than those of our earth have, spiritually; or into selfishness, love of rule, and perverted sensualism. It is difficult to see how they could sink much lower without being annihilated by their evils. The third objection which is often made to the doctrine of the Incarnation, and one which is quite apt to trouble the novitiate student, is: "What became of the universe when the Lord was dwelling on earth who took care of that?" - 138 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. If we bear in mind that man is but a recipient of life, that he has no life of himself, but constantly receives it from the Lord, and that the beginning of man's life is but the beginning of a receptacle for life to flow into, and that even the physical body can only exist by constantly receiving physical substances into it, it will help us the better to understand this subject. The conception with- out a natural father in the case of the virgin, was simply the formation of a receptacle for receiving the Divine life, as well as human life ; whereas, in the case of ordinary men, they having a natural father as well as mother, receive only created life. While evil is not transmitted, and no child is to blame or responsible for the deeds of his parents, still an inclination to the evils which not only his parents but also his ancestors have voluntarily made their own, by indulging in them, is transmitted from both father and mother. The child born, then, in the manger, inherited from the mother the inclinations to evil of the Jewish race, one of the most selfish and sensual of the races of men on earth, and also the frailties and peculiari- ties of the race of men before them, or their ancestors. It wus, then, by assuming these inclinations, that the Lord came down to the level of fallen humanity, and be- came subject to temptations, like other men. The Divine could never be tempted, but the human could be ; and it was from the maternal side that He was subject to temp- tations, but from the Divine within, that He was able to overcome in temptations, and therefore was without sin. Of course, the whole of the Divine love and wisdom were not manifested in the child, nor was it possible for it to be, until the inclinations inherited from the mother were overcome ; and while this manifestation of the Lord on earth was taking place, he was none the less present in heaven, arid controlling the universe than previously; in fact, we should remember that heaven is not far distant, only from the evil. The Lord says it is actually within the good man; and of little children He says, "their THE INCARNATION. 139 angels do always behold the face of our Father in heaven." O if Little children are innocent, and are consequently near to, and under the protection of the Lord and His angels; and the Divine Father manifesting Himself in the Son born of Mary, was in the midst of heaven, the very life thereof. The child born, possessed a dual nature, inheriting in- clinations and capacities from both father and mother like all other children, and it was only after many years of conflict with the inherited tendencies, which were derived, from the mother, and victories achieved, that the Father was so far manifested in the Son, that our Saviour was able to say: "I and my Father are one; whoso hath seen me, hath seen the Father; " and it was only after the last temptation of the cross that he was able to exclaim, " It is finished/' and that He ascended to His Father and our Father, His God and our God, having made God manifest to man. The idea that our heavenly Father, who has created the world and the boundless universe for the sake of creating man, and all for his use, should so love us as to bow the heavens and come down to us in our low estate, for the sake of redeeming and saving mankind from falsehood and evil, is one of the most sublime, beautiful, and reasonable ideas of all the ages; and it is beautiful because it is true: and this glorious truth, so human, so like what God has implanted in the heart of His earthly children to strive to do for their children, has made the anniversary of the birth of our Saviour a season of joy and gladness, and it will remain so forever. The first prophetical intimation or announcement of the coming of the Lord w T as made in the Garden of Eden, when it was declared that the seed of the woman should -bruise the serpent's head. The woman signified man's proprium or selfhood ; the serpent, man's sensual nature ; the seed of the serpent, infidelity which has resulted from evil of every kind. "The serpent's head," says Swedenborg, "is self-love; the seed of the woman is the liO SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE HEVELATION. Lord ; the enmity which is put, is between the love of man's proprium and the Lord, thus between man's own prudence and the Divine Providence of the Lord." This Divine allegory was understood by the descendants of the Most Ancient or Adamic Church, and also of the Noachian or Ancient Church, from which have sprung all the inhabitants of the world. For in those early days, as we have already shown, they understood the science of corres- pondences. It will be readily seen that such an important idea as the Incarnation of the Lord, existing among all men at anyone period, could hardly be lost; but would be transmitted either by tradition, or by writing, among all nations ; or/to say the least, low and degraded must be that nation or race where some traces of this cheerful and hopeful belief is not to be found. "And such revelations," says Eev. G. Field in his work entitled 'The Two Great Books of Nature and Kevelation,' "have never been wanting, and have always been adapted to the state of human reception. Thus we find that in the earlier days of the world, in the time of the gold and silver ages (when natural images were used to represent spiritual ideas), the coming of the Lord had been variously foretold and symbolized, and was by tra- dition preserved among all nations, and couched under various personifications, on the earth, and in the heavens; thus we find the same or similar predictions among the heathen, as are in the Sacred Books, and these originally obtained from earlier Divine revelations, all relating to the coming of Jehovah. HERCULES, 4 The lay records the la- bors and the praise, And all the immortal acts of Hercules. First, how the mighty babe when swathed in bands, The serpents strangled with his infant hands; ESCULAPIDS, 'Once as the sacred in- fant she surveyed, The God was kindled in the raving maid; And thus she uttered her prophetic tale : 1ESUS CHRIST, 'Ye nymphs of Solyma begin the song ! O thou, my voice in- spire, That touched Isaiah's hallowed lips with fire ; Rapt into future times, the bard began; THE 141 Then as in years and matchless force he grew, The (Echalian walls, and Trojan, overthrew. Besides a thousand haz- ards they relate, Procured by Juno 1 s and Euristheus' hate. Thy hands, unconquer'd hero, could subdue . The cloud-born Centaurs and the monster crew ; Nor thy resistless arm the Bull withstood ; Nor he, the roaring ter- ror of the wood. Ths triple porter of the Stygian seat, With lolling tongue lay fawning at thy feet t And, seized with fear, forgot the mangled meat. The infernal waters trem- bled at thy sight ; Thee, God, no face of danger could affright,, Nor "huge Typhous, nor the unnumbered snake, Increased with hissing heads in Lerna's lake.' Virgins JSneid, Bk. 8. Hail, great physician* of the world, all hail! Hail, mighty infant, who in years to come Shall heal the nations, and defraud the tomb! Swift be thy growth, thy triumphs unconfined ; Make kingdoms thicker, and increase mankind. Thy daring art shall an- imate the dead, And draw the thunder on thy guilty head ; Then shalt thou die, but from thy dark abode Shalt rise victorious, and be twice a God.' Ovid's Meta-morp. BTc. 2. * Esculapius, as well as Hercules, was but a personification, prefigur- ing the advent of Jeho- vah (when the full time should be come), either as the 'mighty Hero,' or the great Therapeuta, or the healer of the soul, and thus as the ' great physician of the world,' or God incarnate. A virgin shall conceive, a virgin bear a son. Swift fly the years, and rise the expected morn, O spring to light! aus- picious babe, be born. He from thick films shall purge the visual ray, And on the sightless eyeball pour the day ; 'Tis he the obstructed paths of sound shall clear, And bid new music charm the unfolding ear. The dumb shall sing, the lame his crutch forego, And leap exulting like the bounding roe.' Pope. "The avatars, incarnations, and transmigrations of the ancients, do not mean, as now generally understood, actual physical descents, or embodiments, but typical ones, having reference to this great final act, in the com- ing of the Great Redeemer into the world, when the state of humanity should call for its accomplishment. Long before that grand prophecy was fulfilled in outward na- ture, festivals were held throughout the eastern world, by the Pagans, in honor of the Virgin Paritura. And the Apocalyptic Divine, even after this event had been literally fulfilled, speaks of it as future, or rather as independent of all time ; because it is a principle which always spirit- ually takes place, w"hen the mind of man is in a proper, receptive state. Thus on the theatre of the spiritual SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE KEVELATION. world, a woman representatively brings forth a man child, and they are pursued by the Dragon, etc. The Kevelator describes the same mental phenomena in allegorical or symbolical language, as is described in the Gospels, in the sense of the letter, by the Virgin bringing forth a Son, and being pursued by Herod, fleeing into Egypt, etc., only that in the Gospel this state was actually ultimated in the plane of the natural world, that thus there might also be a base upon which all things above might repose or rest." " Brahma is prophetically described, in a period of remote antiquity, long before the days of Abraham, as becoming incarnate, and bringing down the Divine Law to man, for his restoration and salvation. Prometheus in like manner is a personification of a similar Theophany, or a revelation of the love of God through the spiritual perceptions of a chosen instrument It was thus also, says Milman, that the' Divine Truth was successively brought down to the apprehensions of man, as the Memra, or Divine Word; and the ( appellation is found in the Indian, the Persian, the Platonic, and the Alexandrian systems.' Which term is also applied to the Messiah by the Targumists, or ear- liest Jewish commentators on the Scriptures. History of Christianity. "And not only is that prophetic descent of the great Deliverer, and Saviour, thus written upon the tablets of all nations, in His passage through the spiritual heavens, by the assumption of an angel's body, by Shekinahs, The- ophanies, and Avatars, but even the then far-off event of His own actual advent down to the earthly senses, and tabernacling in the flesh was also predicted and typified in the most definite manner. In some of the ancient Chinese books which have been brought into Europe, (The Books Yking, Lileiylci, etc.) it is foretold that a time would come 'when everything is to be restored to its first splendor, by the coming of a Hero called Eiunts*, which signifies Shepherd and Prince, to whom they give likewise the names of The Most Hoty, the Universal Teacher, and THE IKCABNAT1OK. 143 the Supreme Truth. He answers exactly to the Mythras of the Persians, the Orus of the Egyptians, the Mercury of the Greeks, and the Brahma of the Indians. The Chi- nese Books speak likewise of the sufferings and conflicts of Kiuntse just as the Syrians do of the death of Adonis, who was to rise again to make men happy; and as the Greeks do of the labors and painful exploits of the son of Jupiter who was to come down upon earth. It looks as if the source of all these allegories was only an ancient tra- dition common to all nations." Theology and Mythology of the Ancients. " The Persian sphere, cited by Abeii Ezra, ( represents a beautiful Virgin, with flowing hair, sitting in a chair, with two ears of corn in her hand, and suckling an infant, called Jesus by some nations, and Christ in Greek/ The Arabian astronomer, Alboazar (or Abulmazar), has this passage quoted by Kirker Selden, and E. Bacon, and Dupuis: 'In the first decan of the sign of the Virgin, Allowing the most ancient tradition of the Persians, the Chaldeans, the Egyptians, Hermes, and Esculapius, a young woman, called in the Persic language Seclenidos de Darzama; in the Arabic, Adrenedefa, that is to say, a chaste, pure and immaculate Virgin, suckling an infant, which some nations call Jesus, but which we in Greek ;all Christ: "And 'To this day Egypt has consecrated the preg- nancy of a Virgin, and the nativity of her son, whom they annually present in a cradle to the adoration of the people, and when King Ptolemy, 350 years before the Christian era, demanded of the priests the signification of this re- igious ceremony, they told him that it was a mystery that had been taught to their forefathers by a respectable prophet.' "Thus in the ancient Books of China they have a record of the coming or ' incarnation of the. great Hero, lis birth by a Virgin, his low estate, his teaching for three fears, his suffering for the sins of the whole world, resur- 144 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. rection, ascent into heaven, and coming to judgment, the eternal happiness of the good, and the eternal misery of the wicked." N. J. Magazine,, 1848. " The Jesuits in China were appalled at finding in the Mythology of that country, the counterpart of the f Virgo Deipara.'" For further information on this subject, see Milmau's "History of Christianity," also Yolney, Taylor, Field, and others. We turn now to the predictions of the Incarnation of the Lord contained in the sacred Scriptures. In the seventh chapter of Isaiah we read : " Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign : Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel, or God with us;" and in the ninth chapter we read: "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulders; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. " And in the twenty-fifth chapter: "It shall be said in that day, Lo,.this is our God, we have waited for Him, and He will save us*; this is the Lord, we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation." In the fortieth chap- ter of Isaiah we read : " The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God." "And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." " Behold, the Lord God will come with a strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him : behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him." "He shall feed his flock like a shepherd." In the twenty- third chapter of Jeremiah, is the follow- ing: "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I willj raise unto David a righteous branch, and a king shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. * * * And this is the name whereby he shall be called, the Lord our Kighteousness." In Zecha- THE INCAK^ATIOtf. 145 riah, second chapter, we read: "Sing and rejoice, daughter of Zion : for, lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord. And many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people: and I will dwell in the midst of thee, and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto thee." In the fifth chapter of Micah, we read, "But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall come forth unto me that is to be Euler of Israel ; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting, He shall stand and feed in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God." And in the third and fourth chapters of Malachi, we read : " Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me ; and the Lord whom ye seek, shall suddenly come into his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in ; behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. But who may abide the day of his coming? or who shall stand when he appeareth ? for he is like a refiner's fire." " Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord." The Prophet Daniel declares that he " Saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him ; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. * * * And all dominions shall serve and obey him/' Seventh chapter. We have cited but a few of the passages to be found in the Prophets which teach more or less clearly that the Lord, or Jehovah Himself, was to assume humanity, or manifest Himself in the flesh for the salvation of our race. Let every one who reverences the sacred Scriptures, as the 7 146 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE EEVELATION. Word of God, search the Old Testament from beginning to end, and see if they do not testify to this great truth that the Jehovah and Saviour of the Old Testament and the God manifest and Saviour of the New Testament are the same. We have shown how wonderfully the predic- tions of the Prophets in the Holy Word, are sustained by the traditions and "sacred writings" which are to be found among Gentile nations, and which have come down from the earliest churches established by the Lord on earth even from the Adamic and Noachian churches. We know full well that many sincere Christians in every church, in whom the Word of the Lord has not been made of none effect by the traditions and doctrines of men, and who have not confirmed themselves in false doctrines, know of the Lord because they strive to keep His commandments and eayings, and think of and worship no other God than the Lord Jesus Christ. But to those who have either framed for themselves, or embraced false doctrines, which permit them to hope for heaven, short of a constant living effort to keep the Divine commandments,, or those who have pinned their faith upon the sleeves of blind leaders, instead of searching the Scriptures for the truth, and have confirmed themselves in errors, the First or Second coming of the Lord is a day of darkness and not of light. Truly to such does the Prophet Amos predict by inquiring: "Shall not the day of the Lord be darknass and not light ? even thick darkness and no brightness." Fifth chapter. "Wo unto you that desire the day of the Lord ! to what end is it for you ? The day of the Lord is darkness and not light," is the prophetical language addressed by the Lord through the prophet Amos to the makers of false doctrines, and worshippers of false gods of all ages ; to the man who is in the pride of his own intel- ligence, bigoted, intolerant, lover of ruling in spiritual things the blind leader. It is addressed to the worship- pers of mammon and of self in every form ; to the lovers of rule, or of approbation, for the sake of self; the worship- THE IKCAE^TATIO]^. 147 pers of nature, and of the spirits of the dead. For all such in this world there is little hope of their seeing the dawn- ing light of this new day, unless in the kind providence of the Lord, their selfish and worldly expectations and hopes are restrained by afflictions, losses, or disappoint- ments, which shall lead them from their selfish schemes, to seek the only true and living God as He is revealed in His Divine Word. But sincere seekers after truth, who reverence the Word of the Lord, and are striving to lead a good life according to its precepts, of all religious denominations, and those of no sect, who are without prejudice, will be able to see this grand central doctrine, in the light of the descend- ing New Jerusalem, in all its beauty and splendor. That God is one, and that the Lord Jesus Christ is that one God, is the corner-stone of the New Jerusalem, and upon this rock the church of the future is being founded and is to be built. This doctrine, as we shall see when we come to examine the New Testament, is clearly taught in the letter of the Scriptures, but it is most beautifully illumi- nated and illustrated by the science of correspondences, revealed by the Lord through Emanuel Swedenborg for the benefit of the men of this new age. In the spiritual sense all the sacred Scriptures treat of the Lord, the assumption of the humanity on earth, the glorification of that humanity, and of the regeneration of man. The long-predicted day when there shall be but one God and His name one in all the earth, is at hand. The Christian church is yet to be reunited and built up in the bonds of charity on this rock ; and with a correct knowledge of the Lord, a host of conflicting and false doctrines will dis- appear from view, as do the birds of night at the rising of the natural sun. Rev. Abiel Silver, in his excellent work on the " Sym- bolic Character of the Sacred Scriptures," says truly : " It is therefore from false, and not from true views of the Word, that men are divided. Truths are eternal verities. 148 SKEPTICISM AND DIY1NE REVELATION. They are ever and unchangeably the same; and all truths are in harmony, and sustain each other. About them, when seen, men cannot differ It is about falsities, alto- gether ? that the Christian world is contending. Falsities are all dark, unstable, deceptive, and mysterious; fit grounds for contention and strife, and for the proud dis- play of self- wisdom; and constant changes of opinion are and must be taking place among those who build upon such grounds; while those who build on the 'Bock of ages/ the spiritual truth of the Word, rationally seen in the light of analogy? never can change their views, nor disagree in their doctrines, unless by sin they lose their language. When this light is seen in the study of the Holy Word, it will as inevitably lead all sincere students of divinity to the same conclusions in every jot and tittle of the Word, so far as it is seen, as the light leads to the sun from which it flows. The reason is, the investigation is carried on by a scientific law, and that law is divine. The reason, therefore, why men who read the Word in the science of correspondences, differ not in its doctrines, is the very reason why men differ not in mathematics; it is because, in both instances, the truths are indisputable. If, as we believe, there are no two persons who, without the light of this science, agree as to the doctrines of the Word, and no two, who have it, that disagree, the ques- tion, as to its truth, becomes a startling one. "Now we wish it distinctly understood, that this lan- guage or science was once universal ; that it has been lost, and is now revealed; that the revelation has been made by the Lord himself in fulfilment of prophecy, and not by any man; that 'The Lion of the tribe of Judah . . hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof/ and has evolved this science from nature and the Holy Word, and not from the mind of any man ; and has caused its general elements and rules to be recorded in the works entitled the 'Arcana Coelestia/ the 'Apocalypse Revealed/ and the 'Apocalypse Explained/ written by THE INCARNATION. 149 Emanuel Swedenborg ; and that when we read these works, and learn this science, and behold its light, we ob- tain both the science and the light from the Holy Word and from nature, and not from those works except as the light shines in them from the Word. "As we read .those wonderful books with an humble and teachable disposition the Holy Word comes up constantly before us with newly shining pages, which grow brighter and brighter as we progress, until the heavenly harmony and beauty of the Word become so absorbing to the mind that we lose all sight of the writings we are reading, and the Word itself becomes its own interpreter its own revealer of the divine law in which it is written. One passage throws its light upon another, and receives back the other's lustre in blending beauty, and their united blaze is responded to by a third, and all these are embraced by a fourth, and so on, till every sacred text we see be- comes an evidence of the truth of all the rest, and the whole blessed Word, BO far as we behold it, stands before us.in symmetrical glory and beauty, a perfect whole, in an infinitude of parts, all in harmony. And though we are lost in the depth and immensity of its wisdom, yet, we are lost in light and not in darkness. And every advance we make in the regenerate life enables us to drink still deeper at this inexhaustible fountain of the water of life," We will turn now to the testimony concerning the Lord to be found in the New Testament. In the first chapter of Matthew we are told that the angel of the Lord appeared unto the husband of Mary in a dream, saying, "Joseph, thou gon of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife : for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost, And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus ; for he shall save his people from their sins, Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold a virgin shall be with child, and 150 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE KEVELATION. shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Im- manuel; which being interpreted is, God with us." In the first chapter of John we read, " In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All tilings were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life ; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in dark- ness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not." In the second chapter of Luke we read that " there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keep- ing watch over their flocks by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord Bhone round about them; and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be for all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." The first chapter of Mark commences thus: "The be- ginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God ; as it is written in the prophets, behold I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight," Thus we see that both the Angel of the Lord and the Evangelists declare, that in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ was fulfilled the prophetical annunciation of the prophets of the Old Testament in regard to the Messiah, and that they all declare that He was God with us, Let us turn now to the testimony of the Lord Himself, as recorded in the gospels, as to His true character, In the fourteenth chapter of John he gays, "Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in me, * * * Thomas said unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? Jesus said unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life : no man cometh unto the rather, but by me. II ye had THE IKCARNATIOH. 151 known me, ye should have known my Father -also : and from henceforth ye know Him and have seen Him. Philip said unto him. Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus said unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father, and how sayest thou then, show us the Father? Belfevest thou not that 1 am in the Father and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself; but the Father that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works. Believe me, that I am in the Father, and the Father in me." In the twelfth chapter of John we read, " Jesus cried and said, He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me. And he that seeth me, seeth him that sent- me." In the first chapter we are told, "No man hath seen God at any time ; the only begotten son, which is in the bosom qf the Father, he hath declared him." And in the tenth chapter of John we read, " My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to j>luck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one. 1 ' Such then is the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Could language be plainer? Is it possible that any being should proclaim such -beautiful, useful, and heavenly doctrines the very doctrines of spiritual life- and set such an example to men as did the Lord Jesus Christ, and yet represent Himself as being one with the Father, and that he that had seen Him had seen the Father, when it was not true ? We will now glance at the testimony of the Apostles in the Epistles. In the second chapter of Colossians, St. Paul declares that in Christ "dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." In the first chapter we are told that Jesus Christ "is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature ; for by Him were all things created that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, 152 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers. All things were created by Him and for Him ; and He is before all things, and by Him all things con- sist." James calls him the Lord of Glory ; and Jude closes his Epistle with these words: "To the only wise God our Saviour be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and fcrever. Amen." Let us now turn to the book of Revelation, the last book of the Divine Word, and see if the testimony therein contained is in harmony with the Old Testament, the Gospels, and the Epistles, in regard to the Lord. In the first chapter of Revelation, John the revelator declares that he was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind him a great voice as of a trumpet saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last. And, turn- ing to see from whom the voice came, he " saw one like unto the Son of Man," and when John had fallen at his feet as dead, this same person lays his right hand upon him, and says: "Fear not, I am the first and the last. I am he that liveth, and was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore." Thus leaving no doubt that the Lord Jesus Christ, or the Son of Man, was the being whose voice the revelator heard behind him. Again, in the last chapter of Revelation, where the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus is spoken of, He says; "And behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me to give every man according as his work shall be 5 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last." " In the Old Testament, Jehovah," says Rev. B. F.Barrett, (from whose excellent work on " The New Dispensation," and other works, we intend taking several extracts for this section and the one on the Trinity,) "repeatedly declares Himself to be the First and the Last; and since there evidently cannot be two firsts and lasts, in the sense in which these words are here used, therefore the Lord Jesus Christ must be tho same, as to person, as Jehovah, But THE INCARNATJOX. 153 there are other passages in the book of Kevelatiou, which render the identity of Jesus and Jehovah, as to person, evident beyond doubt ; " for in the seventeenth chapter we read: "These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them; for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings." That the Lamb denotes the Lord Jesus Christ is manifest from many passages ; as in the follow- ing in the fifth chapter, where we are told that John heard the voice of ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands of angels round about tho throne : " Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and honor, and glory, and blessing." In the same chapter we are told that " the four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb," and they sung a new song, saying, "Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof; for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us, etc." We have now taken a hasty glance at the abundant testimony which the Divine Word from beginning to end bears to the truth of this doctrine that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Supreme and only God of heaven and earth. We find that the same titles are applied to Him as to Jehovah God, the same attributes of eternity and self- existence predicated of Him by myriads of angels, that is proper to be given to the Lord alone. XXIV, I The Divine Trinity, rriHAT the Lord is a Triune being is not a new doc- JL trine, nor is a knowledge of the Trinity which existed previous to the Incarnation, confined to the sacred Scrip- tures, but it is also to be found among the traditions and " sacred writings " of many Gentile nations, having been transmitted to them from the Noachian or Ancient Church, 154 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. Says the Rev. G. Field, in his work on "The Two Great Books ": "Not only was there given to man from the most ancient time the truths of this universal religion, in relation to One God, One Glorious and Infinite Divine Man, as the Creator, Preserver, Saviour, and Redeemer ; as the ' Eternally Ancient One/ the essential substance of aH being in whom, according to the testimony of the Druids and the unperverted teaching of all the oldest traditions of the eastern nations (and from remnants found in the western world), there was a triad of essential perfections, ' infinite Love, infinite wisdom, and infinite power;' but He is also constantly presented as our Saviour, Redeemer, and Deliverer. Thus, says Milman, the infinite and eternal Father was the Bythos (or the Divine LOVE), together with 'His own first concep- tion,' or its existing form, 'His Ennoia' (or the Divine WISDOM). This is the divine substance and form of the first degree, the JEHOTAH ELOHIM of the Old Testament, which in its 'development, or self-manifestation, was mind (Nous) 9 whose appropriate consort was Aletlieia, or TRUTH ;' or the JESUS CHRIST of the New Testament, from whom proceeded the third degree, 'the LOGOS and ZOE/ the WORD OF TRUTH, and the HOLY SPIRIT; or God, as He is in Himself, above the heavens, as He became (or was to become) manifest in the flesh on earth, and as His Holy Spirit, or proceeding life which was to be stamped upon the 'Anthropos and Ecclesia/ or upon man and the church/' The Druid Triads declare that : " Three things evince what God has done, and will do? Infinite Power, Infinite Wisdom, and Infinite Love ; for there is nothing that these attributes want, of power, of knowledge, or of will to perform/ 1 "The three regulations of God towards giving existence to everything: to annihilate the power of evil, to assist all that is good, and to make discrimination manifest that it might bo known what should and what should not be. 11 THE DIVINE TRINITY. 155 " Three things will infallibly be done : all that is possi- ble for the potuer, for the wisdom, and for the love of God to perform." " Three things it is impossible that God should not per- form : what is most beneficial, what all most need, and what is the most beautiful of all things." " Three things proceed from the primeval Unities : all of life, all that is good, and all power/' " God consists necessarily of three things : the greatest of life, the greatest of knowledge, and the greatest of power, and of what is the greatest there can be no more than one of anything." " Is not the Christian doctrine of the Trinity in the Godhead foreshadowed, in the foregoing, in a light which is consistent with rationality? It would appear to be." Rev, C. A. Dunham s Letters from Wales. The New Testament treats of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; and doubtless some of our readers will inquire: " If these names do not signify three persons, what do they mean ? " In both Matthew and Luke we are distinctly taught, .that our Lord Jesus Christ had no human father. In the Gospel of Luke we read that the Angel Gabriel was sent unto a virgin named Mary: "and said unto her, the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God," The skeptic, and the denier of Divine revelation, make light of the idea that our Saviour had no human father, ' and declare such a birth a violation of the laws of nature and therefore impossible, We have already fully eonsid* ered this objection ; but aa it is often heard, at the risk of repeating in substance a few lines, wo will inquire: If it could hav0 been more difficult, or more of a violation of the laws of nature for our Heavenly Father to create a human form by tha aid of a Batumi mother, than it was 156 SKEPTICISM AJyD DIVINE HEVELATIuN. for Him to create the first man and woman who existed on earth without either natural father or mother ? Geology teaches that man has not always existed upon the earth ; and his creation, whether he was created a man, as most Christians believe, or from development from the lower orders of the animal kingdom, as some believe, was unmis- takably a special effort of creative energy. And it would seem almost self-evident, that few things are more un- reasonable, and contrary to acknowledged, even manifest facts, than such objections against the Divinity of our Saviour. With him whose reverence for the Divine Word has not been impaired, and who delights in the Law of the Lord, such objections do not weigh, but he decides this question by its merits. The power of the Highest shall overshadow thee, was the prophetic annunciation of the angel. There can be but one Highest, and that is Jehovah. Jehovah, then, is the Father of the Humanity born of the Virgin Mary, according to the testimony of the angel Gabriel. The Son, then, was that humanity born in time. The words which are sometimes translated " Holy Ghost/' properly signify a holy breathing, or exhalation, and is a going forth of the Divine through the humanity. Therefore we read that our Lord, after His resurrection, breathed on His disciples, and said unto them, " Receive ye the Holy Ghost" (John xx. 22). We are taught by the herald of the New Dispensation,, Emanuel Swedenborg, that in our Lord Jesus Christ there is a Divine Trinity, consisting of the all-begetting Divinity which is called the Father, the Humanity which is called the Son, and the proceeding Divine, which is called the Holy Spirit. (A. R. 962.) Thus the stone which sectarian builders have too fre- quently rejected, has indeed become the head of the corner; even the corner-stone of the New Jerusalem, which is now descending from God out of heaven. And the man of this new age, in paying supreme homage to the THE DIVINE TRIKITY. 157 Lord Jesus Christ, worships all the adorable Trinity, for he worships the Father in the Son ; and the Holy Spirit is the Divine proceeding sphere of the Son from the Father operating upon man. That we may understand more clearly the Divine Trinity, let us examine the trinity in man ; for we read that man was created in the image of God. If this be true, and in God exists a trinity, in man must exist a finite image of that trinity. In man exists a will, or a receptacle for love or affections ; an understanding, or a receptacle for wisdom or truth ; and through the latter the affections flow forth into thoughts, words, and acts; clothed as it were in the understanding a manifestation of our affections to others, and by which they are affected for good or evil. So in the Lord, the giver of all that man receives, we have the Divine Love or the Father, the Divine Wisdom or the truth as the Son, and the goings forth of the Divine Love or affections through the Divine wisdom or truth, clothed by the latter as Divine thoughts and words, and Providential rulings descending as the Holy Ghost to influence and bless men. How beautiful and sublimely true then are the first few verses of St. John's Gospel^ "In the beginning was the Word, (or Divine Truth) and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men/' It is manifest that the Divine Truth is light to man's spirit. But let us examine this great doctrine of the Trinity in a still lower, or more external plane ; for we read that "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth." That we may the more readily comprehend the subject, let us turn again to the trinity in man. Man has a soul and body, and through his body goes forth his spirit into words and acts. Jeho- 158 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE KEVELATION. vah or the Father, as we have seen, was the indwelling soul of our Lord Jesus Christ, for the latter had no human father ; the body or Son was from Mary, and through this body the Divine flowed down in words of wisdom and acts of goodness and mercy to man t Truth is the form of love, and it alone can manifest a good affection. Therefore the Lord was manifested to men by the truth, or the Father in the Son, or " God in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself." How mystery disappears, or vanishes, from the Divine Trinity when, without preconceived opinions or prejudice, it is viewed in the light of the Holy Word in its literal sense, we hope to be able to show to the satisfaction of many ; but if the reader would be able to see this doctrine in all of its fullness and beauty, he must read the writings of Sweden borg, and study the spiritual sense as unfolded by the science of correspondences ; for it is the spirit that giveth life to the letter, and God in His great mercy to us has at this day revealed to us the true meaning of the Holy Word, and the law in accordance with which it was written, so that he who runneth may read. Man not only inherits a material body from the mother, but he also inherits an inclination to pervert his passions, appetites, and desires ; for we see in the hereditary inclina- tions and capacity of the child, both as to the affections and intellect, the mother as well as the father represented. So our Saviour not only possessed a Divine nature from the Father, but He also inherited, as has already been inti- mated, from the mother, Mary, human affections, and even inclinations to those evils in which the Jewish race were sunken; therefore we read that He was subject to like passions with other men. Had He not inherited an in- clination to evils from the mother, He could not have been tempted, for it is evident the Divine could not be e tempted to do evil ; nor can there be any temptations where neither active nor passive inclinations to evil exist. No one is to blame for his hereditary inclinations- THE DIVINE TRINITY. 159 original sin is a myth therefore the Lord was without sin, for He overcame His hereditary inclinations to evil. Man receives from the Lord conscience, and the capa- city to elevate his thoughts into, or so as to see, the truths of the Divine Word, which teach him the life of regenera- tion : and when man wills to lead such a life, the Lord enables him to overcome both his hereditary and acquired inclinations ; not in a day, for it is the work of a lifetime. The Lord's glorification was typical of man's regeneration; and as the former was only perfected when the humanity had passed through the various temptations of which we read in the Gospels, even to the last great temptation on .the cross, when in agony the humanity cried to the Divine within : " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ?" "It is finished," He cried, and gave up the ghost. As the final hour approached before His crucifixion, in the gar- den, we read that "He fell on his face, and prayed, saying. my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me;" bat He is given the strength to respond : "Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt ; " and in His next prayer He prayed, saying, " my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done." So with man ; the Lord tempers the winds to the shorn lamb, and it is only as the Christian gains strength to overcome, that he is permitted to encounter the most fearful temptations, and the last hours of a long life may arrive before he is able to bear the last great temptation; if in fact he is ever able to withstand it in this world. Almost constantly, from the very beginning of regenera- tion, is there a warfare between the new will, which the Lord has given the Christian, and the unlawful selfish desires and sensual appetites of the natural man. "There are in man," says Swedenborg, "two minds, the one superior or interior, which is called the spiritual mind, and the other inferior or exterior, which is called the natural mind. The natural mind in man is first opened and cultivated, because this is proximately extant to the 160 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. world (or in contact with it). The spiritual mind is opened and cultivated afterward, but only in proportion as man in life receives the knowledges of truth from the Word, or from doctrine derived from the Word; where- fore it is not opened with those who do not apply those knowledges to life." We here see the reason why evil men are not troubled like other men. But the man in whom the life of regeneration has com- menced, has, as it were, two wills or two minds, one will- ing to do good and the other evil. The Apostle manifestly alludes to this double nature when he says: "I find then a law, that when 1 would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man ; but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into cap. tivity to the law of sin" (Rom. vii. 21 to 23). In anothev place, Paul says: " For the flesh lusteth against the spirit; and the spirit against the flesh ; and these are contrary the one to the other " (Gal. v. 17). Rev. Mr. Barrett says truly: "Now that the Apostle does not here mean by the flesh man's material body, but the external or natural mind, in contradistinction to what he calls ' the inward man/ is manifest from some of the things which he afterwards mentions as 6 the works of the flesh ; ' such as hatreds, emulations, wrath, strife, envy- ings, etc., all of which proceed not from the material body, but evidently from the natural unregenerate mind." Every man who is earnestly trying to lead a good and true life feels that he has a higher and lower nature, and that he must look to the higher to guide and not to the lower, as the human of the Lord looked to the Divine within, before that human was fully united, or made one with the Divine; but because of these two conflicting states or minds, of which a man is conscious within him- self, he is not two persons, nor has he two separate souls, or consciousnesses; nor had the Psalmist when he ad- dressed his soul in the following sublime language : " Why THE DIVINE TRINITY. 161 art thou cast down, my soul ? and why art thou dis- quieted within me ? hope thou in God ; for I shall yet praise Him who is the health of my countenance, and my God " (Psalms xlii. 11). Nor are such appeals to the soul, as though it were a distinct person, uncommon in the Holy Word. The Psalmist exclaims : " Bless the Lord, my soul." " Praise ye the Lord. Praise the Lord, my soul." We are taught in the writings of Swedenborg that: " Because the Lord had from the beginning a human from the mother, and successively put off this, therefore, while he was in the world, He had two states, which are called the state of humiliation and the state of glorification or union with the Divine, which is called the Father. The state, of humiliation was in the time and in the degree that He was in the human from the mother; and the state of glorification, at ~the time and in the degree that He was in the human from the Father. In the state of humiliation He prayed to the Father, as to one different from himself; but in the state of glorification He spoke with the Father as with himself. In this state He said that the Father was in Him and He in the Father, and that the Father and He were one ; but in the state of humiliation He underwent temptations and suffered the cross, and prayed that the Father might not forsake Him; for the Divine could not be tempted, and still less suffer the cross. From these things now it is manifest, that by temptations, .and continued victories over them, and by the passion of the cross, which was the last of the tempta- tions, He fully conquered the hells and fully glorified the human." (D. L. 35. ) After His resurrection the Lord appeared unto His dis- ciples and spake unto them saying : " All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth " (Matt, xxviii. 18). How clearly is this great doctrine taught in this passage, that the Father is in the Son, and that it is through the glori- fied Divine humanity that thenceforth all power is to be 162 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. exercised both in heaven and in earth. So that being " baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" does not signify in the name of three Gods, or of three Divine persons, but in the name of the three essentials of the one God the Divine Love or Father, the Divine Humanity or Son, and the Divine pro- ceeding from the Lord, or the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit. It is impossible for us to worship a being of whom we can form no image, and to attempt it is to worship an unknown God. How then can we worship the Father except as He has manifested Himself in the Son? "Ye have not heard the voice of the Father at any time, nor seen His shape"' (John v. 37). "No man hath seen God at any time : the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." " Jesus said unto him (Thomas), I am the way and the truth and the life : no man cometh to the Father, but by me" (John xiv. f>). And again in the tenth chapter of John we read : " Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber." * * * But when "they understood not what things they were which He spake unto them" (6th verse), Jesus said " unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep " (7). " I am the door ; by me if any man shall enter in, he shall be saved" (9). " Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matt. xi. 28). " Jesus Christ, then, is plainly the only true object of religious worship, for He is the God of Revelation the only God revealed to men. He is, as we have seen, the manifested Jehovah Immanuel, or God with us. He is God come down to us in our low estate, in order that He might raise us up towards heaven and Himself: in order that He might in His own assumed Human, clearly reveal to us how the principles of infinite truth and love operate in the redemption and salvation of men, and that He THE DIVINE TRINITY. 163 might give to these principles their fullest power and effect. This is the greatest, most important, and most comprehensive of all truths." Barrett. The Scriptures declare, as we have seen, that He is Im- manuel, or God with us, and that He is our Saviour. In the Old Testament, as we have already shown, we are repeatedly told that Jehovah is our Saviour, and that be- side Him there is no Saviour; and Jehovah assures us that He will not give His glory to another. Jesus Christ says : " I am the good shepherd : the good shepherd givetb his life for the sheep my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give unto them eternal life" (John x.). The Psalmist says: "Jehovah is my shepherd; I shall not therefore want: He maketh me to lie down in green pastures, He leadeth me beside the still waters." In the fortieth chapter of Isaiah we read : " Say unto the cities of Judah, behold your God. Behold, the Lord God will come with a strong hand, and His arm shall rule for Him ; behold. His reward is with Him, and His work before Him. He shall feed His flock like a shep- herd: He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young." Could language be plainer than this? the Saviour of the Old Testament the same person as the predicted and risen Saviour of the New Testament God manifest. In the fifty-fourth chapter of Isaiah, we read : " Thy Maker is thy husband ; Jehovah of Hosts is His name." In the New Testament, Jesus Christ is called the Hus- band and Bridegroom, and the Church His Wife and Bride. In the Old Testament we read that " Jehovah is a God of Truth ; He is a living God, and an everlasting King" (Jer. x. 10). In the prophetical annunciations of the Lord's coming, and in the New Testament, Christ is called King, Zion's King, the King of Israel, and also 164 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. Again, God is called a Rock, as in the eighteenth Psalm, "For who is God, save Jehovah, or who is a Rock, save our God ? " St. Paul declares that Christ was a rock, and that He is a stone laid for a foundation in Zion, " a tried stone, a precious corner-stone, a sure foundation." Again, Jehovah calls Himself I Am, as in Exodus iii. 14 "God said unto Moses, I Am that I Am ; and He said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I Am hath sent me unto you/' Jesus calls Himself by the same name in the eighth chapter of John, for He declares : " Before Abra- ham was, I Am." And again lie says, " If ye believe not that I am, ye shall die in your sins." " Then said Jesus unto them, when ye have lifted up the Son of Man, then /shall ye know that I Am." Again, Jehovah God calls himself the First and Last. " Thus saith Jehovah, king of Israel, and His Redeemer Jehovah of Hosts; I am the First, and I am the Last; and beside me there is no God" (Isaiah xliv. 6). Jesus Christ applies the same language to himself in Revelation: "I am Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last. I am He that liveth, and was dead ; and behold I am alive for evermore ; Amen : and have the keys of hell and of death" (first chapter). In the Old Testament God is called the Light. The Prophet Isaiah, addressing the church, says: "Jehovah shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory" (Ix. 19). John says that "God is Light, and in Him is no darkness at all ; " and he also says that the Word which was made flesh, and dwelt among men, " was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." Jesus declares that " He is .the Light of the world ; he that followeth Me," he says, "shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." When Paul was journeying toward Damascus, he says: "I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the bright- ness of the sun> shining round about me ;) and them that THE DIVIHE TKI2STITY. 1 /J journeyed with me." And ifc is important to observe that, when in reply to the voice which he heard, he inquired, "Who art thou, Lord?" the answer was, "I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest." The Psalmist says : "Forever, Jehovah, thy Word is established in heaven " (cxix. 89) ; and in the fortieth chapter of Isaiah we are told that this " Word of our God shall stand forever." Jesus said, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my Word shall not pass away" (Matt, xxiv. 35). In Deuteronomy viii. 3, we read that "man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that pro- ceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live." Jesus said, "I am the living bread that came down from heaven, if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." -Again, "It is the spirit that quickeneth ; the flesh profiteth nothing ; the words that I speak unto you are spirit and are life" (John vi.). In Second Chronicles we read : " Judah, and ye inhab- itants of Jerusalem, believe in Jehovah your God, so shall ye be established." Jesus Christ says : " I am the resur- rection and the life ; he that belie veth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live, and whosoever liveth and belie veth in me shall never die " (John xi. 25 and 26). In Isaiah xlv. 22, we read : " Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth ; for I am God, and there is none else"; "a just God and Saviour, there is none beside me." Jesus saith : " Come unto me, all ye who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matt. xi. 28). We find, then, that the same attributes are predicated of Jesus Chrst as of Jehovah. He is therefore, in the lan- guage of Peter, our "God and Saviour Jesus Christ." "To Him be glory both now and forever" (1 Peter xi. and last chapter). Truly, in the language of Simon Peter, we may exclaim: "Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life " (John vi. 68). 166 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. A knowledge of the Lord was possessed in the Christian church at its commencement. In the Apocryphal New Testament (a work which, says a distinguished writer, is valuable on account of its reflecting to us the opinions of some of the early Christians), Nicodemus says : " And I know now that He is Almighty God, and mighty in His human nature, who is the Saviour of mankind " (xv. 19). Again he says: "And so it appears that Jesus, whom we crucified, is Jesus Christ the Son of God, and the true and Almighty God " (xxii. 20). Clement says : " Brethren, we ought so to think of Jesus Christ, as of God, as of the Judge of the living and the dead " (2 Cor. i. 1 ). Ignatius repeatedly speaks of our Lord Jesus Christ, and says that "God Himself appeared in the form of a man, for the renewal of eternal life" (Eph. iv. 13). But, alas ! until the dawning light of the descending New Jerusalem began to dispel the darkness, the Sun has been darkened for many centuries throughout the Chris- tian world; or, in other words, the Supreme, sole and exclusive Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, has been denied by too many creed builders, and thus they have rejected the chief corner-stone. No wonder then that all has been confusion in the Christian world, and that the cry is Lo here, and Lo there, among hundreds of conflict- ing sects all claiming to be right. The prophetic annun- ciation has been fulfilled : " Verily I say unto you, there shall not be left he 7 'e one stone (truth) upon another, that shall not be thrown down" (Matt. xxiv. 2). When the chief corner-stone 1 or the doctrine that the Lord Jesus Christ is God alone, or God manifest in the flesh, is rejected in the church, the doctrines built on other foun- dations are built upon sandy foundations, "for," says the Apostle, " other foundations can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." The Unitarian, in the past more frequently than at this day, denied the Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, and sustained his views by quoting some of the passages which THE DIVINE TRINITY. 167 refer to the Lord before His glorification, or before His Humanity was made Divine. The Trinitarian has also, in the past more frequently than to-day, divided God into three persons, and upon this foundation has built a system of doctrines entirely inconsistent with the strict personal unity of God. If the various churches were all to acknowledge that there is but one God, and that the Lord Jesus Christ is that one God, many of the prevailing doctrines would all vanish speedily, for they would have no foundation not even a sandy one for all men would see that faith separate from charity is dead, and that all genuine religion has relation to life must be lived. "With one known God there can be unity in the church, for there is a centre ; and as this grand central doctrine is gradually dawning in the world, a spirit of charity and brotherly love toward other denomi- nations is slowly but surely taking the place, among religious teachers and laymen, of the old, cold, harsh, sec- tarian spirit. If Jesus Christ is God, and in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Divinity, it is plain that He is our Father in heaven, and that we ought to go directly to Him, and to acknowledge no other, and to try to think of no other, and to pray to no other God besides Him. But, alas ! how is it in the Christian world, even to-day? are prayers always or even generally addressed to the manifested Jeho- vah, or to Jesus Christ? Let every man answer this ques- tion for himself; we would barely suggest that it would always be well to remember the Lord's words : " No one cometh to the Father but by me." How many are there in the Christian world that fully realize that the Father dwells in the Son, and that they are one the one known God ? Was there no need then of the Lord's Second Coming, when He Avas so generally denied, as He was over a cen- tury ago, at the time Swedenborg wrote the things revealed to him by the Lord ? In the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg we have re- 168 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. vealed to us the glorious truths of the Lord's Second Coming in the clouds of heaven, not of earth a coming in power and great glory; coming down to man's intel- lectual perceptions, and satisfying all the highest demands of his reason. The sacred Scriptures are opened by the revealed science of correspondences the correspondence of all natural things to spiritual things. " That there is a relation of some sort" says a recent writer, " existing between the visible creation and the invisible, between the objects of the natural universe and the subjects of the spiritual uni- verse, the things seen by man and the thoughts and affec- tions of man, is evident. Of this, the least reflecting mus^ be convinced. The language of the people proves this per- ception. Poetry confirms this perception more abundantly- That there must be such a relation is evident from the fact that all things were created with a distinct reference to man, and that man was created W7th a definite relation to God His image. There must be an orderly law of sequence from the lowest things up to man, and from man up to the Divine Humanity of God- All created things bear some relation and possess some resemblance to the Creator. Outbirths from God, they must be to a certain extent mirrors in which God is made visible. St. Paul expresses it: 'For the invisible things oi Him [God] from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things which are made, even His eternal power and Godhead' (Rom. i. 20). In the visible we behold the symbols or representatives or correspondences of the in- visible things of God. " Man's relation to God may be clearly seen. He was formed to be 'an image and likeness' of his august Crea- tor. In him were, therefore, made receptacles, as we have already intimated, into which the essentials of the Divine Nature might finitely flow. A marred image, yet a finite miniature of God! The Divine Love might flow into his capacity to love, or his will: the Divine Wisdom might THE DIVINE TRINITY. 169 flow into his capacity to be wise, or his understanding. The Infinite Power of God is finitely imaged in his power. In man, then, is therefore a beautiful finite image of the Divine Trinity. The things of God may be received by and finitely seen in man. All the dispensations of God's Providence have this one great end that man may be- come an agent under the Lord, inspired by His Love, directed by His Wisdom. Not that man's will and under- standing should become absorbed into, but infilled by, the Divine Love and Wisdom. That thus man might to all eternity become more and more fully the child of his Divine Father; a free being, yet freely choosing to be led and taught by his august Creator." Now is being fulfilled the prophecies in regard to the descent of the New Jerusalem, "Behold I make all things new." Under the figure of the New Jerusalem a New Dispensation not a new sect is being established, in which there shall be no mental night or darkness, "for the Lord God giveth them light." St. John declares that he saw no temple therein, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. "By the Lord God Almighty," says Swedenborg, "is meant the Lord from eternity, who is Jehovah Himself; and by the Lamb is signified His Divine Humanity." Two beings are no more signified in this and similar passages in the New Testament than there are in the following from Isaiah xliv. 6 : " Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel, and His Eedeemer the Lord of Hosts, I am the First and I am the Last, and besides Me there is no God." Is it of little or no moment whether we acknowledge or reject the Lord Jesus Christ at His Second Coming, or that we say, that we have Moses and the Prophets, the Gospels and the Epistles, what need we of Him ? Were the Jews guiltless who rejected the Lord at His First Coming? Shall it be said of any of us, having eyes ye will see not, ears have ye but you hear not? Or shall we prove all things and hold fast that which is good ? that 170 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. it be not said that it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah than for us, in the day of Judgment. We have dwelt thus at length on the doctrine of the Lord and the Trinity, for they arenas has already been stated, fundamental. No man can reasonably be expected to rise in life superior to the idea which he cherishes of the God whom he worships. If his God in his estimation is cruel, harsh, unforgiving, actuated by hatred, envy, jeal- ousy, requiring to be appeased before He can forgive, and punishes his enemies, the man is reasonably sure to in- dulge in such passions and actions to a greater or less extent. How important to all such is the law of corres- pondences, which shows conclusively that all such lan- guage, when applied to the Lord in the sacred Scriptures, is but the language of appearances, the real truth being that God is love, and unchangeably so, and that He never hates and never punishes ; but sin carries with it its own consequences, or punishment, if you please, as causes always produce their effects in the spiritual as well as in the natural plane. XXV. Sacrificial "Worship. rTlHAT sacrifices have been offered in worship by men -X. of widely different nations and races, even long before the Jewish or Israelitish Church was established, is well known. The science of correspondences, once under- stood by all men on earth, which has long been lost, but has now been restored by the Lord through Swedenborg, alone can furnish us with a key which will unlock the mysteries which attend this subject and show us their origin, and their original and true design. " But, it is asked, ' What is the strongest and most conclusive evidence which you have to offer in proof of the truth and certainty of this new science ? ' We answer, No evidence can be sufficiently clear and full to satisfy a SACRIFICIAL WORSHIP. 171 mind that will not look at it, or that has no taste nor desire for things beyond the gift of this world. But if even such a person were entirely unacquainted with the Chinese language, and should remove to China, and there learn to speak and write that language, so as to read their books and understand them, and should find that they contained a rational and consecutive chain of ideas and history of events, he certainly would be convinced that they had a language, and that he had learned it. It is precisely so with the language of analogy. It must be examined and learned, and tested by the reading of analogical lan- guage, before it can be understood. " Now man, in true order, is in the general image and likeness of God. Any other created thing in true order is only an image of some principle or principles in God or in man. " The order of the outward creation of the world was, from lower things to higher, first minerals, then vege- tables, then animals, and finally man; thus orderly and gradually approximating by higher and purer organiza- tions the real divine image, until God finally crowned the creation with man, as the sum total and embodiment of all things below him. When all but man was created, and everything was in readiness to produce man, the vast variety of things scattered all over and throughout the universe, were but humanity in fragments ; every single thing was an image of some principle which was to be in man; and it took them all, combined, to make up the full man. Man could not exist until these things were cre- ated ; for upon them his body must subsist ; and through them his mind is to be educated. "But when in the process of the creation all things were in readiness for the production of man; when the vast variety of human principles lay scattered throughout the mineral, the vegetable and the animal kingdoms, in. living, speaking forms ; when all nature was a beautiful page of mental symbols in physical robes, without an 172 SKEPTICISM' AND DIVINE REVELATION. admirer on earth ; with no created rational being to read the expressive characters of that wonderful book, and to love and worship the Author; then it is that we behold Man, making his appearance Man, the sum total of the creation, the connecting link between God above him and nature below him, and thus, the crowning act of the crea- tion. And when all these materials were brought harmo- niously together, in man, and all was pronounced good, the vast universe corresponded to man, and man to his Maker." Rev. A. Silver. "The animals of the earth," says Swedenborg, "in general, correspond to affections; the tame and useful animals correspond to good affections, and the fierce and useless kinds to evil affections. In particular, oxen and bullocks correspond to the affections of the natural mind ; sheep and lambs to the affections of the spiritual mind ; and birds or other winged creatures, according to their species, correspond to the intellectual faculties and exer- cises of both minds. Hence it is that various animals, as oxen, bullocks, rams, sheep, she-goats, he-goats, and male and female lambs, also pigeons and doves, were employed in the Israelitish Church, which was a represen- tative one, for holy uses, it being of them that the sacri- fices and burnt offerings consisted; for when so employed, they correspond to certain spiritual things and were understood in heaven according to their correspondences. Animals, also, according to their genera and species, ac- tually are affections ; the reason of which is because they live ; and nothing can have life except from affection, and according to it. Hence, likewise, it is that every animal possesses an innate knowledge according to the affection of its life. Man, too, as to his natural man, is like the animals; wherefore, also, it is usual to compare him to them in common discourse. Thus a man of a mild dispo- sition is called a sheep or lamb; a man of rough or fierce temper is called a bear or wolf; a crafty person is termed a fox or a serpent, and so in other instances." SACRIFICIAL WORSHIP. 173 The Rev. Samuel Noble, from whose "Appeal" to the Christian world in behalf of the writings and disclo- sures of Emanuel Swedenborg, we have selected most of what follows in this section, says : " The sacrifices of the Mosaic law are generally allowed to have been of a typical nature; and the doctrines of the New Jerusalem bring the antitypes of these types to view in the most clear and satisfactory manner. "First, then, it shall be shown that the sacrifices of the Mosaic law were not meant to represent the punishment of sin, but the hallowing of every affection and principle of the mind, and thus of the whole man, to the Lord. Secondly, that the sacrifice of Jesus Christ did not consist in His suffering the punishment due to sin, but in His hallowing every principle of His Human Nature to the Godhead, till at length His Human Nature became a living sacrifice, cr fully consecrated, sanctified, and hallowed, by perfect union with His Divinity. Thirdly, that the Lord 'is called a Mediator in respect to His Humanity, because in this He has opened to us a new and living way of access, or medium of approach to His Divinity. " The prevailing opinion in regard to the Levitical sacri- fices is, that the slaying of an animal, and the burning of it, or of part of it, on the altar, represented the punish- ment due to the offerer, and that, in sacrificing the animal, the offerer was considered as entreating that the suffering inflicted upon it might be accepted in lieu of the punish- ment deserved by himself. This is the notion which the Jewish Eabbins have of the subject ; who say also, that a confession of sins was made over the victim, wheh the offerer laid his hand upon its head, and thus that the sins were considered as transferred to the animal, and punished in it instead of the offerer. It is, however, certain, that this is merely one of the traditions of the Jews, by which, as in so many other instances, they have perverted the divine law; for although the offerer was commanded to lay his hand upon the head of the victim, not one word is 174 SKEPTICISM AND DIVIXE REVELATION. said in the Scriptures of any confession of sins to be then made. The only instance in which a confession "of sins accompanied the laying on of the hand, is that of the scape-goat; respecting which Moses commanded that 6 Aaron should lay both his hands upon the head of the live-goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat ' (Lev. xvi. 21). But this goat being thus representatively loaded with sins, was considered as unclean, and instead of being sacrificed, was ssnt away into the wilderness: even the man that was employed to send it away was considered as contaminated by the operation, and rendered unclean also,' so that he was required to wash his clothes and bathe his flesh in water, before he was allowed to return into the camp (verse 26). Seeing then, when it was intended that a confession of sins should be made over a victim, the command for it is so expressly given, can it be supposed that a similar confession was intended to be made over all the victims, when it is never commanded at all? And when the representative effect of this confession of sins over an animal was to render it unclean, so that to have offered it up in sacrifice would have been an abomination, and the only orderly way of disposing of it was to send it away into the wilderness, to denote the rejection of man's sins, separated from himself, to hell from whence they came ; can it be supposed that the animals actually sacri- ficed were in like manner rendered unclean, by a similar confession of sins being made over them, and thus a, sim- ilar 'representative transfer of sins to them? The idea is monstrous in the extreme. "The reason then why, in all sacrifices, he that offered the sacrifice was directed to put his hand upon the head of the victim, was, not by that act representatively to trans- fer his sins for to do this the sins were also to be con- fessed over it, and that by positive command, as in the case of the scape-goat but to express communication be- SACRIFICIAL WORSHIP. 175 tween the offerer and his sacrifice, which was necessary to give the animal its representative efficacy. The animals offered in sacrifice represented the good affections of various kinds from which the Lord is to be worshipped ; but without this symbol of communication between the offerer arid the animal, the latter would not represent any good affection presented by him; to imply that the offerer himself wished to worship the Lord by and from the good affection which the animal represented, it was necessary that he should perform the representative rite of putting his hand upon its head; after which the animal represented a good affection cherished by him and pre- sented by him to the Lord, from a sincere acknowledg- ment that everything good is from the Lord alone. " Now, that this is the true idea of sacrificial worship, is evident from many parts of Scripture; we will just select one which is completely conclusive. That the put- ting of the animal to death and burning of it upon the altar, does not represent the punishment due to the offerer, is clear from this circumstance, that the altar, on which the sacrifices were offered, is called, in various places, ' the table of the Lord/ Thus the Lord says by the prophet to the priests, 'Ye have profaned it (that is, the name of the Lord) in that ye say, The table of the Lord is polluted, and the fruit thereof, even His meat (the meaty observe, of the Lord) is contemptible.' Again : 'Ye offer polluted brehd upon Mine altar : and ye say, Where- in have we polluted Thee?' The answer is, 'In that ye say, The table of the Lord is contemptible.' Nothing can be more clear, from these and numerous other instances, than that the things offered in sacrifice, and burnt upon the altar, were considered as constituting a feast were presented as upon a table for the Lord to eat ; which He was considered to do when they were consumed by fire. This is the reason why it is so often said in Leviticus, that they were to be burnt 'for a sweet-smelling savour to the Lord.' They are expressly called the Lord's bread, and 176 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. His meat. Can that, then, which He is considered to accept as food, be the punishment and torment of sin- ners? " What then are the viands of which the Lord can par- take in reality ? When any allusion is made- in Scripture to His hunger, it means, His intense desire that His good- ness and love should be received by mankind. On the occasion of His temptation in the wilderness it is said, that ' when He had fasted forty days He was afterwards a hungered; 9 where His fasting refers to the depraved state of mankind, and of the church in its entire desola- tion, and His hungering, to His intense desire for man's salvation. The hunger of the Lord then is satisfied, when His love and goodness are received by mankind; and this is done, when man receives affections of goodness and truth, or spiritual graces, from Him, and returns them to Him in sincere adoration, with the heartfelt acknowledg- ment that they are from Him alone. " Here fchen we have a clear idea of the purport of the sacrifices in use in the representative or Israelitish Church, and also amoLg the Gentile nations an idea which ex- plains the whole system, and banishes obscurity from every part ; whereas, on the supposition that they repre- sent the punishment due to sinners, and transferred from them to the Lord Jesus Christ, we find ourselves stumbling amid difficulties and inconsistencies at every step. " But it may perhaps be thought that this view of the subject excludes all reference of the sacrifices to the Lord Jesus Christ. The direct contrary, however, is the fact. All the Mosaic law of sacrifices was fulfilled in, and by, the Lord Jesus Christ, in a super-eminent manner, and thus in its highest sense, it has reference to Him ; it is only in a subordinate sense, and as we are followers of Him, that it has a spiritual fulfillment in us. We, in our subordinate, degree, as walking after Him, are to be sacri- fices too; but He is the great sacrifice of all. SACRIFICIAL WORSHIP. 177 "When man continually receives from the Lord the graces of which He is the author, and ascribes all to Him, in the manner represented by the sacrificial worship of the Mosaic law; when every affection and perception of his heart and mind, of which the various kinds of sacri- fices were representative, or himself in regard to such affections and perceptions, is thus continually hallowed to the Lord ; it follows, that his entire sanctification will at length be completed, when the whole man will thus be devoutly consecrated to his God. This is the state which the Apostle exhorts us to attain, when he says, ' I beseech you, brethren, that ye present your bodies a living sacri- fice, holy, acceptable unto God ; which is your reasonable service' (Eom. xii. 1). The Apostle calls this our reason- able service in allusion to the carnal service of the Leviti- cal law; meaning, that he who thus presents himself a living sacrifice truly performs that of which the animal sacrifices were types. Such a living sacrifice is a man wholly devoted to the Lord, who is wholly renewed by the reception of new principles of love, thought, and action, from Him ; whose selfish life is extinct, whilst he lives by a new life, which is life indeed." We are now enabled to see the truth of our second prop- osition : that the sacrifice of Jesus Christ did not consist in His suffering the punishment due to sin for if, as we have seen, nothing relating to punishment is included in the Scripture idea of sacrifices, nothing of this could be included in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The Lord came into the world to save men from sin, and not from the pen- alty of sin, for the evil-doer shall not go unpunished only as he ceases from sin sin is the cause ; suffering, the effect. "All things," says a great authority, "are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath committed unto us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Him- self, not imputing their trespasses unto them " (2 Cor. v. 18, 19.) 178 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE EEVELATION. " The Apostle here delivers, in one single sentence, the whole doctrine of the Atonement; and to call attention to it he propounds it in the most express and formal man- ner. * God hath reconciled us to Himself ~by Jesus Christ :' and the ministry of this reconciliation, committed to the Apostles, was, to declare this truth : 'to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.' The word here translated reconciliation, is the same as is elsewhere rendered atone- ment : it cannot then be denied, that the Atonement of Scripture is nothing else but our reconciliation with God, effected by the dwelling of God in the person of Jesus Christ. " That the Lord is called a Mediator in respect to His Humanity, because in this He has opened a new and living way of access to His Divinity, must now, one would appre- hend, be so evident, that it is needless to employ many words in its proof. "The Apostle says of Jesus, that 'He ever liveth to make intercession for us' (Heb. vii. 25). But by inter- ceding he does not here mean soliciting or entreating, as a supplicant to a sovereign ; nor is there anything in the context to sanction such a gross, external idea ; but acting as a medium, or as that ivhich goes between, which is the strict literal meaning of the word to intercede. Such in- tercession is the proper office of the Divine Humanity, for this receives into Itself the unmitigated fulness of the Di- vine Essence, and dispenses it to man in a form adapted to his capacities of receiving it; just as a man's body receives into itself the whole of the powers of his soul, and dis- penses its energies, in the manner adapted to make them efficient, on persons and things around it. How exactly does the Lord Himself describe His action in this inter- ceding or mediatorial character, when He says, respecting the Comforter or Holy Spirit, 'whom / will send unto you from the Father' (John xv. 26); teaching, that the Divine Essence is the origin of the Divine Influencing Power, but that the Divine Humanity in which it abides SACRIFICIAL WORSHIP. 179 in all its infinite fulness, is the Medium of dispensing its agency on mankind. " Now, how precisely is the true doctrine on this subject expressed by the Apostle Paul ! ' There is one God,' says he, 'and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus/ He expressly affirms, that it is the Man Christ Jesus who is the Mediator. But Jesus is generally allowed to be God as well as man; yet the Apostle takes care to guard us from supposing that His Divinity medi- ates between us and some other Divinity, by thus expressly restricting the office of mediation to His Humanity; hence, also, he never uses the title, ' the Man Christ Jesus/ on any other occasion whatsoever. How plainly does this in- struct us, that the Human Nature of the Lord Jesus Christ is the only Medium by which we can have access to His Divine Essence ; and that His Divine Essence is not dis- tinct from that of the Father, but is the Father Himself! His essential Divine Nature is what the Apostle calls God, and which he declares to be One; His glorified Human Nature is what he calls the Man Christ Jesus, and which he also declares to be one, to intimate that the Human Nature in Him is essentially different from what it is in all other beings, and is as His Divine, being the adequate organ of conveying to man the divine communications. "The Lord when on earth said, 'I say not unto you, that I ivill pray the Father for you : for the Father Him- self loveth you, because ye have loved Me, and have be- lieved that I came out from God.' Thus, instead of en- gaging to make prayer and supplication to the Father in behalf of those who believe in Him, He expressly assures them that He will not do so. Rightly to believe in Him, also, is, He declares, to believe that He came out from God; which means, to believe that His Humanity is an imme- diate evolution from His Divine Essence. "Hence again we see that the Lord's Humanity is the Medium by which we gain access to His Divinity, and are brought into communication with it, just as by the medium 180 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. of a man's body we gain access to, and have communica- tion with his soul. The Lord teaches the same truth in the most direct form when He says, ' I am the door : by Me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture' (John x. 9). What is the door but the medium of access? And that, to obtain such access, we are not to address the naked Divinity imme- diately, but the Lord Jesus Christ as the Divine Person of the Father, He again teaches when He says, ' Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber 9 (ver. 1). "Altogether it seems abundantly evident, that the Me- diatorship of Jesus Christ does not consist in His intro- ducing us, by entreaty or any other means, to the favor of a God out of and separate from Himself; but in His having assumed and glorified a Humanity to afford a Medium of! access to the Divinity which dwells in fulness in it. Let us then, instead of thinking to climb up some other wa} T , enter in 'by a new and living way which He hath conse- crated for us through the veil, that is to say, IL\s flesh' (Heb. x. 20) that Humanity, which He has deified and! united to Deity to be for men the Medium of approach to God!" XXVI. The Cross. ""VTOR does the doctrine of the Cross owe its origin to JL. i the Christian era, but is as ancient, perhaps, as tho knowledge of immortality of which it is the symbol. The Crux ansata is indeed one of the most ancient relics of a true religion, and is found among the sculptures of the Egyp-j tians of the most remote antiquity, with whom it denoted j eternal life. Mr. Gliddon, in one of his lectures, says he 'had seen in a remote quarry in middle Egypt, a figure ) designed to represent the Saviour, drawn as if appended, \ not to a Gross, but to this symbol of immortality. The THE CROSS. 181 Cross had therefore the same meaning with them as with us ; it was the type of the life everlasting beyond the tomb.' In the destruction of the temple of Serapis (at Alexandria) by the Christians, the Cross was found in, many parts of the building; and Sozomenes, in writing the history of the Church, speaking of the temple of Serapis, says: 'It is reported that when this temple was destroyed, there appeared some of those characters called hieroglyphics, surrounding the sign of the Cross, in engraven stones ; and that by the skillful in these matters, these hieroglyphics were held to have signified this inscription : ' THE LIFE TO COME/ Socrates (the historian) makes the statement, and says, the words were found to indicate, ' SALYATIOJST AKD LIFE TO COME/ The two principal Pagodas of India (Benares and Mathura), are also built in the form of Crosses. In China, the Cross is one of the most ancient relics of their worship, and in one of the sacred books of that country, has lately been deciphered from their enig- matical writings, the following sentence : ' La croix devant les yeux regie le coeur des bommes;' or Tlie Cross before the eyes governs the heart of man. This Cross, says Mr. Squier, which is similar to the sacred Tau, and not unlike the Mexican Tree of Life (which undoubtedly is its origin), is not only discovered in the hands of Egyptian and Assy- rian Divinities as the sign of life, but is sometimes depend- ant from the necks of their deified Serpents. ' Pontiffs and prelates (says Volney), that crucifix of which you boast the mystery, without comprehending it, is the Cross of Serapis, traced by the hands of Egyptian priests on the plan of the figurative world, which, passing through the equinoxes and the tropics, became the emblem of future life and resurrection, because it touched the gates of ivory and horn, through which the soul was to pass on its way to heaven.' The Two Great Bootes. 66 But the Cross did not then, as now, mean & penal cru- cifixion, nor were any painful ideas ever associated with this emblem ; on the contrary, all its associations were 182 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. joyful and pleasant. Milman, in his ( History of Chris- tianity/ says the Cross was the symbol of Christianity, or of a true faith, 'many centuries before the Crucifix. It was rather a cheerful and consolatory, than a depressing and melancholy sign; it was adorned with flowers, with crowns and precious stones, a pledge of the resurrection, rather than a memorial of the passion. The catacombs of Eome, faithful to their general character, offer no instance of a crucifixion, nor does any allusion to such a subject of art occur in any early writers. Cardinal Bona gives the following as the progress of the gradual change : 1st, The simple Cross ; 2d, The Cross, with the Lamb at the foot of it; 3d, Christ clothed on the Cross, with hands uplifted in prayer, but not nailed to it; 4th, Christ fastened to the Cross, with four nails, still living, and with open eyes. He was not represented as dead, till the tenth or eleventh century. There is some reason to believe that the bust of the Saviour first appeared on the Cross, and afterwards the whole person. The head was at first erect, with some expression of Divinity; by degrees it drooped with the agony of pain, the face was wan and furrowed, and death, with all its anguish, was imitated by the utmost power of coarse art ; mere corporeal suffering without sublimity, all that was painful in truth, with nothing that was tender and affecting. This change took place among monkish artists of the lower empire. Those of the order of St. Basil introduced it into the West, and from that time these painful images, with those of martyrdom, and every scene of suffering which could be imagined by the gloomy fancy of anchorites, who could not be moved by less violent excitement, spread throughout Christendom/ Thus it is only in these latter days that the true meaning of the Cross is lost ; its pure and genuine symbolism was coeval! with the revelation to man of the joys of the world beyond J the grave." Rev. G. Field. That a meaning is attached to the cross in the sacred j Scriptures very different from the literal idea at present ; THE CROSS. 183 so generally entertained, must be manifest to every atten- tive reader. Our Saviour says not unfrequently, that he who would be His disciple, must take up his cross and follow Him. " I am crucified with Christ : nevertheless, I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me," says the Apostle. "The cross," says Swedenborg, "signifies temptations;" and " to take up the cross is to fight against our inclina- tions to evil, and to follow the Lord is to acknowledge Him to be God." To acknowledge the Lord and to resist and overcome in temptations is the way which leads to eternal life, of which the cross has ever been emblematical. The Lord, by the passion of the cross, did not take away sins, but He bore them. " The Lord Jesus," says Eev. John Hyde, "speaking of the law upon which David is so eloquent, declares that, ' I am not come to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfil' (Matt. v. 17). Not to fulfil in the sense of abolishing, but in the sense of filling- full, as Johnson defines the word, ' to fill till there is room for no more.' The Lord's meaning is illustrated in the context. The law against murder iaJilled-fuU so as to in- clude hatred and enmity. The law against adultery is filled-full so as to embrace all sinful desire and lust. The law is not only applied to external acts, but also to in- ternal wishes and thoughts ; thus showing that the law has a spiritual pertinence, and therefore a spiritual signi- fication." Eternal life is a life of genuine love to the Lord and the neighbor, and it is only by taking up our cross, suffering, resisting, and overcoming in temptations, and following the Lord in the regeneration, that this heavenly state can be reached. To fall in temptations, and yield to our hereditary or acquired inclinations to evil, is to die spirit- ually: and when we come to a state in which we are ruled exclusively by that which is false and evil, as we shall, if we do not repent and follow the Lord, then all heavenly life will have perished in our souls ; for we will 184 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. have no love for that which is really good and true only selfishness. But the reader, to understand fully this grand doctrine of the cross and its spiritual signification, must read the writings of Swedenborg, for it is impossible in a few words to even begin to do justice to it. If we shall be successful in seriously calling the attention of the reader to the vast treasures of spiritual knowledge revealed by the Lord through him for the special benefit of the men of this age, we shall have accomplished all that we could reasonably expect. We do not expect in this short treatise to answer satisfactorily all the questions of the honest inquirer after truth, nor to silence the skeptical scoffer; but the earnest inquirer will be abundantly, and more than satisfied, if he will read diligently the writings of the Swedish seer. XXVII. A Tme and Heavenly Life. THAT a man should lead a good and true life, repent, shun evils as sins against God, and do good to his fellow-man, in order to reach happiness and heaven, was not unknown to the ancients long before the days of Moses; nor is this knowledge confined at this day to Christian nations, but is to be found, more or less per- verted, among all nations on earth ; having descended either by tradition or in a written form from the ancient or Church of Noah. The following precepts were among the accepted teach- ings of the ancient Druids : " Believe nothing without examination ; but when reason and evidence will warrant the conclusion, believe everything; and let prejudice be unknown. Search for truth on all occasions, and espouse it in opposition to the world." "Light is the emblem of purity, holiness and truth the emblem of the source of all good, and of all mental (or A TRUE AND HEAVENLY LIFE. 185 spiritual) illumination. Every act of the Bard (or the inspired instructor or teacher of the people) must be done in the eye of the light! 9 " Pride is that passion by which a person assumes more than the laws of nature (the laws of nature are the laws of God) allow him ; for all persons are equal, though differently stationed in the state of humanity, for the common good. Whoever assumes such a superiority is an usurper, and he attaches himself thereby to evil to such a degree that his soul falls at death into the lowest point of existence/' "One infallible rule of duty is, not to do anything, or desire to do it, but what can eternally be done, and ob- tained in the celestial state where no evil can exist. The good and happiness of one being must not arise from the evil or misery of another." In Johnson's ^Eambler" is given the following trans- lation of a prayer of the pagan Simplicius, which is full of fervent arid genuine piety : " O Thou, whose pow'r o'er moving worlds presides, Whose voice created, and whose wisdom guides ! On darkling man in pure effulgence shine, And cheer the clouded mind with light Divine. 'Tis Thine alone to calm the pious breast, With silent confidence and holy rest ; From Thee, great Jove, we spring, to Thee we tend, Path, motive, guide, Original, and end." Plato, Pythagoras, and other "ancient heathens," breathe the same spirit, and look to the same Infinite and eternal One, who is thus addressed on behalf of the sinner: " Great Jove ! Father of man ! free them from those evils, or discover to them the demon they employ !" And, addressing man : " Consider all things well, governing thyself by reason, and setting it in the uppermost place. And when thou art divested of thy mortal body, and arrived in the most pure ether, thou shalt be exalted among the immortal gods (angels), be incorruptible and 186 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. never more know death." The Prayer of Pythagoras, as thus versified by Mr. Adams, is also full of vital and practical religion : " Let not soft slumber close thine eyes, Before thou recollectest thrice The train of actions through the day : Where have my feet found out their way ? What have I learned where'er I've been, From all I've heard, from all I've seen ? What know I more that's worth the knowing ? What have I done that's worth the doing ? What have I sought that I should shun ? What duty have I left undone ? Or, into what new follies run ? These self enquiries are the road That leads to virtue, and to God." " Indeed," says the Rev. George Field, " it is abundantly evident that, both as to faith and life, there never has been but one religion, however much it may have been per- verted, lost, or prostituted to improper purposes, for that 4 which is now called the Christian religion (says St. Augustine) really was known to the ancients, nor was wanting at any time from the beginning of the human race, until the time when Christ came into the flesh; from whence the true religion, which had previously existed, began to be called Christian ; and this in our days is the Christian religion, not as having been wanting in former times, but as having in latter times received this name." '* In the revelations made by the Lord through Emanuel Swedenborg, on the " Doctrine of Life for the New Jeru- salem," we read : " That all religion has relation to life, and that the life of religion is to do good. Every one, who has any religion, knows and acknowledges, that who- soever lives well will be saved, and that whosoever lives wickedly will be condemned ; for he knows and acknowl- edges, that whosoever lives well, thinks well, not only concerning God, but also concerning his neighbor, whereas A TRUE AND HEAVENLY LIFE. 187 it is otherwise with him who lives wickedly. The life of man is his love, and what a man loves, he not only does willingly, but also thinks willingly." This accords strictly with the Lord's teaching when on earth. " If any man will do his will he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God/' The Psalmist declares that "a good understanding have all they that do His commandments." The more earnestly, then, we strive to ultimate in external life the truth we already have, the more clearly shall we be able to see the truth. Man is not saved by faith or truth alone for it becomes no part of him it does not enter his life until he strives to live in accordance with it, and thus unites it with goodness. The Lord's commandments are simply Laws of Spiritual Life, which we must earnestly strive to keep, if we would enter into eternal life or a life of love to the Lord and neighbor, which alone is genuine life, or heavenly life. How clearly and beautifully the Lord teaches this great doctrine of Life. "If ye love me, keep my commandments." "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments." The Lord when on earth declared that He came "not to destroy the Law but to fulfil ;" and we must strive to follow His blessed example, not only as to external acts, but also as to the thoughts of the understanding and aifections of the will. St. Paul declares truly that "by ; the works of the law shall no flesh be justified." While it is quite evident that he referred more especially to the cere- i monial laws of the Jewish Church, and not to the Ten , Commandments, still there is a sense in which it is true, i that by the works of the law man is not justified ; for good external acts done from purely selfish motives, such j a& love of money, power, or glory, have not heavenly life within them ; and when the evils we are commanded by the Lord not to do, are shunned simply through worldly fear, or from selfish motives, and not shunned because they are sins against God, or a violation of His laws, and 188 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. will affect our spiritual well-being in this world and the next, our motives or hearts are not changed. Faith in the Lord is essential, but faith without works, says St. James, is dead, being alone. " But wilt thou know, vain man, that faith without works is dead?" "Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?" "Ye see then how that by works a man is justitied, and not by faith only?" "For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without w r orks is dead also." In the New Jerusalem now descending out of Heaven, faith and charity will be reunited; for, in its teachings, the Lord's dealings with His children have again been clearly revealed, not for the first or second time, but as distinctly as they were to Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel and the Jewish people of old, and the disciples of our Lord when He was on earth. Whenever faith, or Cain, destroys charity, or Abel, in the Lord's church on earth, the church has reached its end, for the Word of the Lord is rendered of none effect by the doctrines and traditions of men, and nothing but a new revelation of Divine truth can rescue our race from destruction or preserve heavenly life on earth. The Lord provides that a remnant shall be left in the expiring church who are ready to hearken anew to the word of the Lord in its integrity. When, at the command of the Lord, Jeremiah went down to the potter's house, how clear was the message : "0 house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, house of Israel. At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; if that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak con- cerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it ; if it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my A TKUB A2*D HEAVEKLY LIFE. 189 voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them" (Jer. xviii.). And so in Ezekiel, " The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son ; the righteous- ness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wicked- ness of the wicked shall be upon him. But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. All his trans- gressions that he hath committed, they shall not be men- tioned unto him : in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live. Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die ? saith the Lord God : and not that he should return from his ways and live? But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth in- iquity, and doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live ? All his righteous- ness that he hath done shall not be mentioned: in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die" (Ezek. xviii.). But in the same chapter, after declaring that He will judge every one according to his ways, the Lord calls most affectionately and earnestly upon all sinners to repent and turn from all their transgressions; so that iniquity shall not be their ruin. In great mercy He exclaims: "Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed ; and make you a new heart and a new spirit; for why will ye die, house of Israel ? For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God : wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye ; " and this call is to every sinner to even the worst it is the call of Divine love. How plain, how simple is the Bible scheme of salvation ! No unwillingness on our Heavenly Father's part to forgive and receive the returning sinner. He even beholds him when afar off; yes, and stands at tke door of his heart, aud 190 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. knocks, and cries unto him, "Seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." There is no intimation of either any vicarious punishment or a substi- tute being required. Our heavenly Father, the Lord Jesus Christ or God in Christ is to-day reconciling the world unto Himself, and does not require being recon- ciled unto the sinner, for He is more ready to forgive the repentant sinner than any earthly parent is to forgive his erring but repentant child; so He has assured us. The way of Life, as unveiled by Divine Revelation, although straight and narrow, is so plain that the wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err therein. The sinner has but to turn his course and stop sinning, or violating the Divine commands, in the acts of his every-day life ; and by thus seeking the Lord he opens his understanding and heart to the Divine Truth and love; and he will find strength gradually to banish evil thoughts and inclina- tions, and thus to become a new creature " a man " "an angel." Man has simply to open the v door of his spirit, and co-operate with the Lord by striving to do as He requires, and the Lord will create in him a new heart, and renew in him a right spirit. Regeneration is not the work of a day, and of course is not instantaneous ; in fact, as we have seen in considering the first chapters of Genesis, it is the work of a Lifetime, and at this day is rarely completed in this world. The Lord likens it to a birth, and says we must be born again. When we repent and acknowledge the Lord, and, looking to Him, sincerely resolve to stop sinning, and set about it, then is the beginning of a new life in us a bare begin- ning, and day by day, as we strive to shun evils and do right, is the new resolve or will strengthened ; but many a day of conflict is before us yes, many a year before the old man is put off, and the new man put on, and we reach the stature of a renewed man. All heavenly life is from the Lord, and if we live according to the laws of such life the Commandments spiritual health and heavenly life, A TRUE AND HEAVENLY LIFE. 191 which is real life, will as surely flow in, as natural life and health will, when we live according to natural laws. Cause and effect are as operative in the one case as in the other ; God is the bountiful giver in both cases, man is simply a recipient, he has no life of himself; without Divine aid he can do nothing, but he has only to ask aright to receive the aid he needs. When the young man declared that " all these have I observed from my youth, then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest : go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven ; and come, take up the cross, and follow me." By this, in the spiritual sense, is understood that he should reject the falses which were the doctrine of the Jewish nation, and receive the doctrine of truth from the Lord ; and that he was to undergo conflicts and temptations from falses, signified by taking up the cross and following the Lord, without which there could be no salvation. It is not enough to keep the command- ments from selfish motives, but we must acknowledge the Lord in all things. Turn we now to the last and closing chapter of the Divine Word, and we find the following sublime language : " Behold I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give every man according .as his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Blessed are they that do his command- ments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." Amen. Even so come Lord Jesus, into every understanding and every heart. XXVIII. The End of the World and the Second Coming of the Lord. "A "^^ -LJL c as ^ e sa ^ u P on t ne Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto Him privately, saying, Tell us, when 192 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. shall these things be ? and what shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world?" (Matt. xxiv. 3.) "The 'End of the World/" says the Eev. Wm. B. Hayden, from whose excellent work for new readers, "Light on Last Things," we have selected a large portion of the contents of this section, "is a subject which has attracted considerable attention. That such an event is to take place has long been a doctrine in the Christian world. It has been supposed that this habitable globe will be destroyed, the ground or earth be consumed by fire, the stars fall from the visible heavens overhead, the heavens themselves being rolled together like a scroll, be swept from existence, the history of nations cease, and the birth or propagation of mankind come to an end. " These views have been drawn from the sacred Scrip- ture. Two classes of passages in the Bible have been supposed to teach or imply them, viz. : first, those in which, as in the above, the end of the world is distinctly spoken of, and secondly, those others in which the sun, moon, and stars are spoken of as falling from their places or being darkened, the sea being no more, and the earth as being destroyed, or purified, or burned up by fire. "We believe, according to the repeated declarations made by the Lord in the volume of His Word, that He hath created the earth and established it that it may abide forever; that He hath given it fixed foundations that it cannot be moved; that He made it to be inhabited, and that He hath given it as a permanent possession to the children of men. * One generation passeth away and an- other cometh, but the earth abideth for ever.' " We are told by Swedenborg that the object which our heavenly Father has in view is the formation of a heaven out of the human race, which may go on increasing in purity, in happiness, and in numbers to eternity. The earth, therefore, is required as a seminary for heaven as a place for the birth and education of the human race as a place from which the population of heaven may be THE LORD'S SECOND COMIKG. 193 continually increased by the emigration of good people from this world to the other through the process of natural death. " Hence we believe that the earth will endure ; that men will not cease to be born and grow up on this planet. No outward change will corne to break up the onward flow of human history. The nations will go on and develop as heretofore. The stars will move on in their courses, and all the visible heavens remain as they are. The solid framework of the globe will abide. Its surface will remain undisturbed, save as it may be gradually altered "by the operation of certain geological forces which are con- stantly at work. The population of the globe will increase, and one who should revisit this earth a thousand years from now a hundred thousand years from now will find it much as it is at present in its essential features; only more populous, civilization more advanced, and more widely extended, the Gospel more diffused, more unity of sentiment on the great themes of religion, and men on the whole, at the end of each great cycle, possessed of more wisdom and endowed with greater degrees of good- ness, morality, and social order. "It will naturally be asked, then, How do we dispose of the two classes of passages in Scripture commonly under- stood to predict the destruction of the world ? And to this question we will endeavor briefly to reply. " 1. When we lay aside our common translation of the Bible and turn to the Greek Testament, we do not find the 'end of the world' foretold at all. There is no such expression there. N or is there any phrase or expression that answers to it. " There is in the Greek a common and familiar word to express our idea of the visible world. And that word is Kosmos. It is peculiarly and distinctively fitted to trans- late it, standing in the Greek mind for just the idea that our common word world does in the English mind ; mean- ing sometimes visible nature, and sometimes also the men 9 4 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. inhabiting visible nature. Now this word was familiar to the writers of the New Testament in just this sense, and they constantly employed it in this sense. Whenever they desired to speak of the world of nature, or of the world of men inhabiting nature, they used the term Kosmos. It occurs no less than a hundred and ninety -one times in this sense in the New Testament, and is always so translated in our common version. We see, therefore, what they said when they wanted to say world ; they said Kosmos. - " Now this phrase which we are here considering, ' end of the world/ occurs seven times in our copies of the New Testament ; five times in Matthew, and twice in the Epis- tles of Paul. But in these seven cases the word Kosmos is not used. It is never said that the Kosmos is going to come to an end, but another term is employed. The word Alon is introduced to denote that which closes up or comes to an end. It is always the end of the Alon that is fore- told, and of the Alon only. Now this is a term which relates to time, expressing the idea of duration or length. It answers very nearly to our word age; and means the period or cycle through which anything lasts. This will be found by consulting the common lexicons of New Testament Greek. Different things have their aion or age, the period through which they endure. Thus the age of man is said to be seventy years ; a tree has its age ; an empire has its aion or period of endurance. And so there are great aions or ages, or periods in the Church, under successive Divine dispensations, and the aion or age is the time during which a dispensation lasts. Thus the period from Adam to Noah constituted one of these ages or Divine dispensations, which was brought to an end by the flood. The Jewish aion, age, or dispensation, commencing from the call of Abraham, or from Moses, was finished or came to an end when our Lord appeared in the world. "In two of these seven instances where this phrase is used in the New Testament it is applied to the Jewish dis- pensation, viz. : 1 Cor. x. 11, and Heb. ix. 26. The Apos- THE LORD'S SECOND COMIKG. 195 tie refers to the termination of the Jewish age, the Jewish order of things in the Church, saying in one place, 'Now all these things happened unto them for examples : and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.' Here we see that the Apostle declares himself and brethren to be living at the time of the end of the world, if we accept the common translation. But he did not mean to say that. He says that they are living at the end of an alon or a series of aldns, meaning thereby the end of the Jewish age or dispensation, and of those which had preceded; and hence Conybeare and Howson (clergymen of the Church of England, who have given us the best translation of the Epistles) render this passage, ' Now all these things befell them as shadows of things to come ; and they are written for our warning, on whom tfie ends of the ages are come.' This is the proper translation. " So, in ttye other passage, Heb. ix. 26, speaking of our Lord, the Apostle says : * But now once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.' " Now, if we accept the common translation, the end of the world was to be then, at the first coming of our Lord. But it did not happen then. Nor did the Apostle mean to say that it would. Conybeare and Howson render this passage, ' But now once in the end of the ages hath He appeared, to do away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.' This is the correct translation, for the word here occurs in the plural, as in the other passage just cited. Dr. Robinson, in his lexicon of the New Testament, says that the Apostle in these two instances undoubtedly refers to the end of the Jewish dispensation ; and such is the com- mon consent of scholars. In Matthew, in the five instances named, the word occurs each time in the singular, the end of the age, and is used by our Lord to designate the time when the last judgment should occur in the world of the departed, the first Chris- 196 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. tian age or apostolical dispensation cease, and the age and dispensation of the latter-day church, i. e. the New Jeru- salem, should commence. In the writings of the New Jerusalem this phrase is translated the consummation of the age, which is equivalent to the closing or winding up of the dispensation ; a rendering which is now everywhere concurred in hy the best scholarship of the time. "Thus, it will be perceived, that, in accordance with our Lord's words, we are not looking for the destruction of the world, nor for violent commotions in visible, material nature, but for important changes, and the commencement of a new order of things with respect to the church, both in the spiritual world and in the natural world ; or in thq world of spirits and in the world of men ; a new age already commenced, and now progressing." The material universe and all things in it having been created by the Lord, every natural thing and object cor. responds, as we. have seen, to spiritual things. We read in the holy Word that "the Lord God is a Sun/' and Swe< denborg assures us tha,t He is the sun of the spiritual world, to which the natural sun corresponds. Thus^ according to the science of correspondences, the material sun corresponds to the spiritual sun, or the Lord; th light from the sun corresponds to the divine truth, for truth is spiritual light; the heat of the sun corresponds to the divine love, for love is spiritual heat. The light and heat of the material sun illuminate and warm the body and material earth, as truth and love from the Lord do the spirit of man and the mental earth. "Now, in the church, the first thing is charity, or more properly perhaps, love, heavenly lovelove to God and love to man. This is the central principle. And when this love is vigorous and active and alive in the church, then the sun shines, for the Lord, who is the real sun of the spiritual universe, sheds down the light of His counte- nance upon us. We see Him as He is; while we are warmed and vivified by the rays of His Spirit," THE LORD'S SECOND COMING. 197 The eyes correspond to the understanding, for they receive natural light as the latter does spiritual light, or truth. The heart corresponds to the will, or affections; for it is easy to perceive that it serves the same purpose in the material body that the will does in the spiritual body. Paul assures us that " there is a spiritual body, and there is a natural body." The material, being but the clothing of the spiritual, must correspond to the latter in every particular, for the material has been fashioned and moulded into form by the spiritual. The natural clouds and atmosphere modify and adapt the light and heat of the natural sun to man's natural eyes; they therefore correspond to the clouds of heaven, or the literal sense of the sacred Scriptures, which modifies and adapts the divine truth and love, or spiritual light and heat, to man's spiritual vision. The clouds in which the Lord was to come, then, were the clouds of the letter of His Holy Word. "Now the Lord makes His appearance in these clouds, the types and symbols of the letter of His Word, as soon as the heavenly meaning of the symbols are made clear, and they all are seen to relate to Him. In the revelation of the spiritual sense of the Word, which is everywhere veiled in its letter, every type, every figure, and every circum- stance, in history or psalm or prophecy, is seen to relate to the Lord, and to represent His work for and within human siuls. And it is in the accomplishment of this purely divine work of opening the Holy Scriptures, and revealing for the church the existence, nature, and particular truths of their spiritual sense that the Lord comes in the clouds of heaven. He comes, for the whole Word reveals Him, and His work ; He comes in the clouds because they are the images of the letter of the Word, which, being inter- preted, reveal Him. This is known because it is an accomplished fact; and the event has explained arid proved the Apocalypse," Rev. L, P. Mercer. The sun which was to b darkened at His coming wai 198 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE EEV2LATION. not the material sun, but the heavenly sun, or the Loid. When darkness prevails in the world, it is not because the sun does not shine, but because either the earth turns from the sun, or some opaque object intervenes between the sun and the earth. It is precisely so in regard to the spiritual sun ; for the Lord's truth and love, or spiritual light and heat, ever flow down through the Holy Scrip- tures to man ; but spiritual darkness is caused by man's turning from the Lord and His Word to the traditions of men, and his own self-derived intelligence, and coming to love himself, power, money, and sensual gratifications more than he loves the Lord and his neighbor. " Thus, when charity wanes or dies out, or, as our Lord expresses it, when true Christian 'love waxes cold/ then it is said in the prophets that the sun goes down or be- comes darkened; because, as we at such times withdraw from the Lord, hiding, as it were, our faces from Him, the light of His countenance fails to reach us, ceasing thus to shine upon and influence us." The moon, giving but a reflected light with compara- tively little heat, corresponds to faith ; and its becoming as blood, denotes that true faith in the Lord would be destroyed. " That is, when there is an eclipse of faith in the church, when there is doubt and obscurity, and only a half-way be- lief in the higher spiritual truths taught in the Scriptures, men knowing hardly what to believe, then the moon is said to withdraw her shining, or to be turned to blood, the appearance presented in a literal eclipse." The stars of heaven, which were to fall to the earth, were not the material stars, but the knowledges of good- ness and truth, or spiritual stars, seen and revealed in the sacred Scriptures to guide our footsteps in states of mental darkness and doubt, and to which our Saviour appealed in hours of temptation. These glorious truths, or stars, do indeed fall to the earth when man drags them down to the justification of a perverted, sensual, earthly and evil life, THE LORD'S SECOND COMING. 199 expecting to escape the legitimate consequences of his acts, and to reach heaven in the end by an easier way than by striving daily and earnestly to live a life according to the commandments and the Lord's sayings. " When the knowledges of Divine and heavenly things, the teaching of Holy Scripture, fade from the memories of men, and they forget them, no longer recurring to them in thought, but grope on without them, immersed in the thought and feeling of selfish and worldly things, then the stars are said to fall from their places, or to cease from shining, and so disappear. For at such times the whole heaven becomes dark; men no longer look up. There is no longer any illumination as to spiritual things. And He who came to be the light of the world is no longer able to shine at such times, or in such a class of minds, by any of the lamps of His truth. " Such being the meaning of this symbolism, therefore, at one place in the Prophet Isaiah, where the New Jeru- salem is spoken of, after it shall have arrived at its full, and so, a happy and prosperous state of the church is depicted as coming in the latter times, there a contrary form of speaking is employed ; and to the church there addressed it is said, ' Thy sun shall no more go down, neither shall thy moon withdraw itself ; for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended;' whereby is signified and meant the last or full state of the true Christian Church in the latter times ; described also in the last chapter of Eevelation, in which charity or love shall no more decay, nor genuine, rational, and living faith become extinct." It will be seen, as has already been intimated, that the coming of the Son of Man in the clouds of heaven was not to be in the material clouds of earth, but in the Word in its literal sense which constitutes the clouds of heaven revealing its spirit and life ; for it is through the letter of the Word that man receives spiritual light and hettt, OP truth and love, as lie receives natural light and heak through the natural clouds and atmosphere. 200 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. The Holy City, New Jerusalem, which was to descend from the Lord out of heaven, at the time of His second coming, was not to be a literal city of twelve thousand furlongs, of equal length, breadth and height, but a new church or dispensation to be established by the Lord at the end of the first Christian Church or dispensation. A city corresponds to a church as to doctrine, for men dwell in a city naturally as they do in a church spiritually. The gates of a city correspond to the introductory truths which lead to the church ; the streets of a city correspond to all things of truth which lead to good, or all things of faith which lead to love and charity, in which men should abide, and whereas truths become of good, and thus trans- parent from good, the street of the New Jerusalem is said to be pure gold as transparent glass. The foundations of a wall signify the knowledges of truth, whereupon doc- trinals are founded, and the walls of a city correspond to the truths and doctrines in the letter of the sacred Scrip- tures by which the church is defended and preserved. That Jerusalem signifies the church in the language of the sacred Scriptures has been recognized among Christians, and it is manifest that the New Jerusalem must signify a new church. There are not wanting commentators, who, within the last few years, simply by studying the Scriptures, without a knowledge of the revelations contained in the writings of Swedenborg, have come to the conclusion that the lan- guage predicting the end of the world, and the Second Coming, is figurative or symbolical, " Thus/*' says Rev. Wm. B. Hayden, "writers increase who give up all belief in a physical catastrophe. An opening of the Divine prophecies according to the laws of correspondence ren- ders clear all the subjects to which they relate ; it removes the obscurities and brings us face to face with those great realities of which the Bible treats. It enlightens our minds by disclosing the actual meaning of the Scriptures and placing before our thought tho enduring truths of heaven and the church. THE LORD'S SECOKD COMING, 201 "We have already seen they are the interpretations which the Scriptures themselves, when rightly examined, induce us to put upon them. They are the Lord's own commentary on His own book. They express exactly what the Bible says and means when it is allowed to bring out its whole thought. " It is the mode of interpretation that our Lord and His apostles applied to the Old Testament Scriptures when they came and told the Jews that they were no longer to look for the establishment of a great earthly kingdom, but only for a new spiritual kingdom ; that the Messiah, instead of being a great earthly Monarch, of vast power arid influence, sitting upon the literal throne of David, was a spiritual Monarch, ruling by the convincing power of His truth, and through the influences of His Spirit upon the hearts of men. It seems to us that Christianity is a broader, more interesting, more real, more important fact than a universal Jewish empire would have been though it had covered the whole earth ; while the spiritual fact is far more useful to mankind than the literal fact would have been. "And so now, we get clear, definite, rational, consistent views of the higher, nobler, and more enduring realities by opening our eyes to the spiritual sense an.i meaning of Divine prophecy and Holy Scripture, than by confining our thoughts to the mere letter or outward symbol of the Bible; the shell or husk in which the pure wheat of heavenly truth lies enclosed, and to some concealed. " An event which affects the mental and spiritual states of mankind, operating to mould their character and their destiny through a succession of ages, is far greater, and holds a better place in the memories of men, than one which affects merely physical bodies, like convulsions of the earth, How little do we remember or care to recall the great eruption of Vesuvius which overwhelmed the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum ! The simple preach- ing of Paul in the city of Home was a more significant 202 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. fact, and one which lives more vividly in the hearts of men/' If the reader would understand fully the prophecies in regard to the end of the world and the Second Coming of the Lord, and especially if he would understand the signs of the present times, and the wonderful age in which we live, he must read the writings of Emanuel Sweden- borg, especially the "Apocalypse Revealed;" and a new world of affection, thought and beauty, will be opened to his astonished vision. XXIX. The Resurrection. "There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body." In order that we may understand clearly the great doctrine of the Resurrection, it is all-important that we bear in mind this enunciation of the Apostle. He does not say there is now a natural body, and there shall hereafter be a spiritual body; but he says, there is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. If we remember this great truth, the scriptural doctrine of the Resurrection will be found to be very clear and beautiful. We should also bear in mind, that the Scriptures treat of two kinds of life, two kinds of death, two kinds of resurrection,. and two kinds of graves. First, Of natural life, and of spiritual life or the life of regeneration life of love to the Lord and the neighbor, the result of the new birth, or of being born again. Second, Death of the material body, and being dead in trespasses and sins the state of man previous to regeneration ; and finally, if man does not allow himself to be regenerated, the death of all heavenly affections or of love to the Lord and his neigh- bor in his soul, when he comes to be completely ruled by selfishness the second death. Third, The resurrection of the spiritual body from the natural body when the latter dies, and the resurrection from the unregenerate state to THE RESURRECTION. 203 the heavenly state, which results from the new birth. Fourth, The grave of the natural body, from which the spirit is raised when the body dies, and the grave denoted by the lifeless and dead state of those who are dead in trespasses and sins. Man, while he lives here, is a spirit clothed with matter. The material body is constantly changing; particles are being worn out and cast off; and new ones are received, which take their place. The body increases during child- hood and youth, remains comparatively stationary during adult life, and gradually withers as old age approaches. Why all these changes ? Do the particles of matter, or the articles of food we eat, possess the power and capacity of changing themselves into living structures? and do they possess the intelligence to see when their services are no longer needed ? Every one can but see, that the power and intelligence to organize themselves into living structures are not con- tained in the materials from which our bodies are formed ; but that there is a living force within the body, which moulds and organizes these natural substances into mus- cles, bones, nerves, and various other tissues. If this is so, it follows that this living principle must occupy every part of the body, or the part could never have been organized, and would not now be alive. The matter, then, of which our bodies are composed, is made alive by the indwelling spirit, and our material bodies are but the clothing of our spirits. It follows as a necessary consequence that the spirit is in the form of the body that it is, in the language of St. Paul, "a spiritual body." We see daily manifesta- tions of the quality or character of man's spirit in his external words and acts; for the body only speaks and acts as it is acted upon by the spirit ; and the affections and thoughts which are manifested in acts and speech are spiritual and not material. Who does not see that a man is a man from the spirit and not from the material body ? With this view of man, it is not difficult to understand 204 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE BEVELATTON. what is meant by the resurrection from the dead, a^d when it occurs. It is not difficult to understand the apostolic doctrine upon this subject, and the Apostle's beautiful illus- trations. " It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body;" or perhaps, more correctly translated, " A natural body is sown; a spiritual body is raised; for there is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body," says the Apostle. But previous to this positive assertion, the Apostle had been giving some familiar illustrations in regard to the resurrection, and the resurrection body. He says, "But some will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come ? Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die. And that which thoul sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain." How clearly and unequivocally does the Apostle affirm, in the above passage, that the body which is cast off at death is not the body that is to be raised up; "but," says tho Apostle, " God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body." And, as if afraid some might mistake his meaning, and suppose that the natural body is to be raised, he continues : " All flesh is not the same flesh ; but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of] beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. ; There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the] moon, and another glory of the stars ; for one star differeth from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of j the dead. It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incor- ruption ; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is eown in weakness, it is raised in power" (1 Corinthians, 15th chapter). All this is evidently intended to show that our material, natural bodies are not to be raised, but that they return to dust, nevermore to be required or desired by us, If this THE RESURRECTION. 205 were not true, there would be no sense in his illustrations. The Apostle compares the death of the natural body, and the resurrection, to the sowing of grain ; and a very beau- tiful illustration it is. We cast the kernel of wheat into the earth, and there is within it a living force, or spirit if you please; and there springs forth from the seed anew plant, capable of bearing seed in its turn. So long as the seed is not cast into the earth, its living force remains inactive; but when duly moistened and warmed, as the little seed is decomposed and disappears, there springs forth the new blade and leaf. Thus the Apostle would have us understand it is with man, when this natural body dies and returns to its mother dust; there then comes forth from it a spiritual body, as the new plant comes forth from the dying seed. The resurrection, then, takes place at death. Then the spiritual body or soul is raised from the dead body, and the latter is decomposed. But let the kernel of grain be decomposed, and return to dust without a new plant arising as it dies, and we all know that there can be no resurrection; no new plant can ever come forth from the dust of which the seed or old plant was composed. Now, if the Apostle's illustration is correct, or a good one, so it must be with man ; if his body dies and returns to dust, without there springing forth, or being raised from it, at the very time it dies, the spiritual body, there can be no resurrection. It will be seen that the Apostle speaks of the resurrec- tion in the present tense, as occurring at the time when the body is sown, and he does not speak of it as a future event. We are nowhere in the Bible taught that the material body, when it is once put off at death, is ever to be raised again. In the revelations made by the Lord, through Emanuel Swedenborg, to all who are willing to receive Him at His Second Coming, we are told that " man rises immediately after death, and then appears to himself in the body alto- 206 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. gether as in the world, with such a face, with such mem- bers, arms, hands, feet, belly, loins; yea, also, when he sees himself and touches himself, he saith that he is a man as in the world." (A. C. 5078.) Again we are told : " The spirit of man, after the death of the body, appears in the spiritual world in the human form, altogether as in the natural world ; he enjoys also the faculty of seeing, of hearing, of speaking, of feeling, as in the world; and he is endowed with every faculty of thinking, of willing, and of acting, as in the world. In a word, he is -a man as to all things and every particular, except that he is not encompassed with that gross body which he had in the world ; he leaves that when he dies, nor does he ever resume it. This continuation of life is what is understood by the resurrection. The reason why men believe that they are not to rise again before the last judgment, when also every visible object of the world is (expected) to perish, is because they have not understood the Word ; and because sensual men place their life in the body, and believe that unless this were to live again, it would be all over with the man. The life of man after death is the life of his love and the life of his faith ; hence, such as his love and such as his faith had been, when he lived in the world, such his life remains to eternity. It is the life of hell with those who have loved themselves and the world above all things ; and the life of heaven with those who have loved God above all things, and their neighbor as themselves. The latter are they that have faith, but the former are they that have not faith. The life of heaven is what is called eternal life ; the life of hell is what is called spiritual death." N. J. D. 223-7. The Lord while on earth declared, " I am the resurrec- tion and the Life; he that believeth in me, though h0 were dead, yet shall he live ; and he that liveth and be- lieveth in me, shall never die " (John xi. 26). When a man is dead in trespasses and in sins, the Lord alone can raise him, when he sincerely believes on Him; THE BESURKECTKW. 207 and when he does thus raise him, he shall never die: by this we cannot understand that he is not to suffer natural death, for we know that all men die naturally; but we are to understand that he is not to suffer spiritual death, or to become again dead in trespasses and sins. He will there- fore live right on, for it is not in regard to natural death that the Lord is speaking. Again, the Lord says: "Every one that seeth the Son and believeth on him, shall have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day." That is, he will transplant him into eternal life, when the last day of natural life comes, and he shall live to eter- nity. If we would understand the plain teachings of the sacred Scriptures upon the subject we are considering, we must ever remember, as we read, that when they speak of death and the resurrection, they do not always refer to natural death, and the resurrection of the material body is not even noticed once, nor do they always refer to the resurrection of the spirit of man from his worn-out body at death ; but they often refer to the regeneration of man, or to his being raised out of the low, ignorant, sensual, and selfish state into which our race has sunken at this day, up into a state of heavenly light and life by the Lord, when man looks to Him, and hears and tries to keep His sayings. Therefore the Apostle says : " Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light" (Eph. v. 14). No one will for a moment suppose that the Apostle was addressing dead bodies, or the souls of dead men. In reading the writings of St. Paul, it is all-important that we notice that the Apostle does not always clearly separate, so that we readily perceive it, in his manner of speaking, the idea of resurrection from that of regen- eration ; and it is often impossible to apply what he says of the resurrection to any but the regenerate. The Apostle distinctly teaches us, in this chapter, that 208 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. even if the material body should be raised, it could not enter heaven, for he says : " Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God ; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption " (1 Cor. xv. 50). If we turn to the fifth chapter of 2 Corinthians, after having declared that our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, the Apostle goes on to show that this is to be entered upon as soon as our earthly body dies. He says: "For we know that if our earthly tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." Consequently, by this house in the heavens, as opposed to the tabernacle of the natural body, he means the spiritual body, which, in his first epistle, he declares man already possesses, and in which the soul of the faithful will dwell after death to eternity. "For this," he adds, "we groan, earnestly de- siring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: if so be that, being clothed, we shall not be found naked." How plain is the Apostle's teaching, that the true Chris- tian, while working out his salvation with fear and trem- bling, as the work of regeneration progresses, is daily being clothed upon by his house which is from heaven. The beautiful garments of truth which he is receiving into his understanding from God's Word, and which convey to his heart the Divine love, and thus nourish his spirit, in accordance with the Lord's words when he declares that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word which proceeds out of the mouth of God shall he live, are \ building up the house not made with hands; so that, when he is stripped of the natural body, his spiritual body shall not appear destitute of heavenly truths and graces, and present the form and image of all our natural corrup- tions, of which nakedness and shame are constantly predi- cated in the language of inspiration. THE EESUBRECTIOtf. The Apostle continues : " For we that are in this taber- nacle do groan, being burdened : not for that we would be unclothed;" that is, not anxious to escape from the cares and troubles of this world by death, until clothed upon by being invested by a truly heavenly as well as a spiritual form. And the reason which he gives for pre- ferring to be clothed upon, to dying, is "that mortality might be swallowed up of life;'* or that he might bring his natural appetites and passions under subjection to the spiritual or new man, and thus be prepared for such glorious investments as the faithful have a right to expect immediately after death. Accordingly he pre- sently adds: " Therefore we are always confident, know- ing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord ; we are confident, I say, willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord." How clear it is that the Apostle expected when death should dissolve his earthly tabernacle or body, that he would immediately stand forth in the presence of the Lord, not naked, but clothed with a beautiful angelic form ; a house not made with hands, but formed from the eternal and heavenly principles of goodness and truth from the Lord. What a sublime and practical doctrine is this, dear reader! That we are daily, by every thought we harbor, by every word we speak, and every act we do, perfecting and building up an angelic form within us, and obscuring our spiritual nakedness, by being clothed by beautiful garments, or sublime truths from G-od's holy Word : or we are, on the other hand, becoming more and more naked, by neglecting and rejecting the truths of revelation, and more and more deformed by harboring evil thoughts, speaking false and harmful words, and doing evil acts. The Apostle then teaches a practical doctrine in regard to the resurrection that death in this world is resurrec- tion into the next, or spiritual world and if we examine we shall find that all Scripture, as well as reason, are in, harmonv with this doctrine. SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE EEVELATION. The Lord, from the cross, declared to the penitent thief: "Verily I say unto thee, to-day shalt thou be with me in paradise " (Luke xxiii. 43). In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus we read : " The beggar died, and was carried by angels into Abra- ham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried, and in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue ; for I am tormented in this flame." In this passage the Lord not only teaches that men arise immediately after death, and begin to receive their reward, according to the deeds done in the body, but he also teaches that a man's spiritual body has a bosom, tongue, finger, and consequently all the other organs which the natural body has here. At the Lord's transfiguration we read: "And behold there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias, who appeared in glory, and spoke of His decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem." Moses and Elias, although their natural bodies were long dead, were here seen as men, of course possessing spiritual bodies, by Peter and those who were with him (Luke ix. 30, 31). The Lord Jesus, in His reply to the Sadducees, teaches most explicitly that the time-honored Prophets are not dead, but are living; of course in the spiritual world, raised up from their dead earthly bodies. He says: "But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living " (Matt. xxii. 31, 32). Now if it is true that God is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, as He declares He is, and if He is not the God of the dead, it follows necessarily that they are living. THE RESUKRECTION. 211 How exactly does this accord with the teachings of Solomon, when he says : " If the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern, then shall the dust return to the earth as it was ; and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it" (Eccl. xii. 6, 7). We have not the slightest intimation that they are ever to be reunited, but we are assured that the dead body is to be returned to the dust as it was, and we see that it does steadily crumble ^back to its native elements. The Apostle John, when caught up to heaven, " Beheld a great multitude which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes," uniting with the angels in their everlast-r ing song of praise. The Apostle asked who these persons were ? The angel informed him, that they were u those who came up out of great tribulation, and had washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." " Therefore," the angel adds, " they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in the temple " (Eev. iv. 1, 6). No one questions but that those were men, and in the human form, having bodies which could be seen by spiritual eyes. Can any one suppose that this vast multi- tude, enjoying angelic bliss as exquisite as can be con- ceived, are again to resume their bodies of clay ? how absurd and opposed to Scripture is such an idea ! It may be well to notice a few of the passages which are supposed to teach a resurrection of the material body. And first the celebrated one from the nineteenth chapter of Job, 25, 26, 27. "I know that my Eedeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth ; and though after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though ray reins be consumed within me." Job had been sorely afflicted, 212 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. with boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown ; he was wasted away to mere skin and bone as it were. He says of his condition : " My bone cleaveth to my skin as to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth." And yet, notwithstanding all this, in his confidence in the Lord, he expresses his conviction, in the passage we have read, that he shall not die, but shall see God interposing in his behalf, while he is still living in the flesh. By looking at the passage which has been read from Job, which is supposed by some to teach the resurrection of the body^ we will find that the words, worms and body, are in italics; which denote that they were not in the original, but were added by the translator. If we turn 10 the last chapter of Job we read: "Then Job answered the Lord and said : I know that thou canst do everything, and that no thought can be withholden from thee. * * * I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth thee." And we read still further that the " Lord turned the captivity ol Job, when he prayed for his friends; also, the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before." " After this lived Job a hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his sou's sons, even four generations. So Job died, being old and full of days." What a remarkable accomplishment of all that he expected of the Lord, as expressed when he exclaimed, "I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another." In the fifth chapter of John the Lord says, " Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and be- lie veth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life." In this verse the Lord is evidently speaking to and of living men ; therefore He cannot mean that they have passed from natural death unto a resurrec- tion of the body, or even of the spirit. He manifestly is speaking of the spiritual regeneration of man, or of his passing from a low and dead state, spiritually, to a living THE RESURRECTION. 213 state, by hearing and believing on the Lord and keeping his sayings. If we would correctly understand what follows, in the next few verses, it will be well to bear in mind that we have in the verse just read positive evidence that the Lord is not speaking of natural death and life. In the next verse we read : "Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live." Now if we understand that he refers to those who are dead in trespasses and sins, it is all very plain; for wickSd men, while they live in this world, may hear the voice of v the Son of God and live, for they are yet enjoying a state of probation. But if he referred fco those who are dead physically, and to the resurrection of their dead bodies, we may certainly inquire what has become of their resurrected bodies; did they again die ? and, if so, is there any hope of their again being raised ? How manifest it is that the Lord is not speaking of those who died naturally, or of the resurrec- tion of the natural body ; but he is speaking of the dead who are yet living in this world, and the life to which he refers is not physical life. Let us read on : " For as the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself." Surely he does not here refer to physical life. "And hath given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of man. Marvel not at this ; for the hour is coming in the which all that are in their graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth ; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." We have found that the Lord in these verses is not speaking of natural death and life ; and we shall find that it is equally clear that he does not refer to natural graves, and the resurrection of the natural body, in the passage 214 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE KEVELATION. just read. He evidently refers to a judgment about to be performed, for He declares that authority is given Him to execute judgment, and He does not say that the hour will come at the end of hundreds or thousands of years, but that the hour is coming that is, it is near at hand when this judgment is to be executed. If we turn over to the 12th chapter of John, 31st verse, tie assures us that that judgment was then being performed, for he declares: "JSTow is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out." Here then, beyond the possibility of a doubt, the hour of which he spoke as coming, had arrived, when all that were in the graves should hear his voice and come forth ; they that had done good, unto the resurrection of life, and they that had done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. For judgment came He into the world. All that were in the graves heard his voice ; the good came forth to the resurrection of life, the evil unto the resurrection of damnation. Then was the prince of this world cast out. Were the natural bodies of those who were dead raised at that judgment ? or were their natural graves disturbed at all? We know that they were not; for most of us have doubtless seen, as Egyptian mummies, the dead bodies of those who died long before that judgment, still invested in their winding sheets. And another cir- cumstance worthy of our most serious attention attended that judgment and resurrection. The time of that judg- ment was unknown to and unnoticed by the great mass of mankind ; in fact, by all except the few to whom the Lord was speaking. Men, we read, are to be judged according to the deeds done here in the body. It follows, of course, that this can only be done after the completion of man's natural life, and therefore the judgment must take place in the spiritual world; so that it was not strange that mankind generally knew nothing about that judgment. The case of Elijah is supposed to form some proof of the possibility of the resurrection of the material body, THE KESUKKECTIOK. 215 and also that it will be raised. In reply we cannot do better than to make a quotation from that excellent work. "An Appeal to the Reflecting of all Denominations," by Eev. Samuel Noble. He says: "Quite evident, then, it is, that whatever became of Elijah's material body, it was not carried up into heaven ; for quite evident it is, though the circumstance is generally overlooked, that the translation of Elijah was not seen by Elisha with the eyes of his body, but with those of his spirit. * * * Elisha had asked that a double portion of his master's spirit might be upon him ; to which Elijah answered : ' Thou hast asked a hard thing ; nevertheless if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so' (2 Kings ii. 10). Elijah knew that the miraculous event about to take place would be imperceptible to any man in his natural state, and could not be beheld by Elisha, unless by special divine favor the sight of his spirit were opened to behold it ; the granting then to Elisha of the favor of the opening of his spiritual sight was to be to him the earnest of the granting to htm likewise of the other favor which he had requested. This therefore was done and distinctly recorded. 'And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that behold there appeared a chariot of fire and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven/ Certain it is that this chariot and horses of fire did not belong to the natural world, but that they were a spiritual appearance, and consequently not visible to the sight of man, unless he were put into a spiritual state proper for beholding it. That Elisha, then, was put into such a state is intimated by its being immediately added: ( And Elisha saw it,' that is, saw the whole transaction, both the fiery chariot and horses and the transit of Elijah; 'and hi cried, my father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horseman thereof.' " Now if Elijah's natural body was to have been trans- lated, there would have been no difficulty in Elisha's see- 216 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. ing it with his natural eyes. While in spiritual vision Elisha would know little of the things of the natural world, and Elijah's dead body might have been carried off by a natural whirlwind, or Elisha may have wandered from ic, and therefore have seen it no more ; or again, seeing its real occupant depart, he may have regarded it as worthy of no further consideration or remark. If the reader would like to see every passage in the sacred Scriptures which is supposed to teach the doctrine of the resurrection of the natural body carefully examined, both as to translation and its true meaning, he will do well to obtain and read " Noble's Appeal." The resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ occurred on the third day. "The crucifixion occurred on Friday afternoon, and early on the following Sunday morning a company of angels was seen around the tomb, and they gave the information that He had already risen, and was with them in their world. He soon appeared, too, to the women and to the other disciples. He became visible to them in His glorified body by an opening of their spiritual eyes, as we plainly read in Luke xxiv. 31, where it is said that, as He brake bread in their company, 'their eyes were opened, and they knew Him.' " Now, if our Lord's resurrection is a type of ours (and from the Scripture we know that it is), then our resurrec- tion occurs on or about the third day after the decease of the mortal part, as soon as the spirit has had time to be entirely withdrawn from its former body, and the mind has recovered its wonted action. " So the Prophet Hosea, in the sixth chapter, speaking of this subject in a passage that has been generally over- looked, says distinctly first referring to the dissolution which the Lord works upon our mortal frames through disease, causing death ' He hath torn, [but] He will heal us ; He hath smitten, [but] He will bind us up ; THE KESUKRECTIOtf. 217 After two days will He revive us ; In the third day He will raise us up ; And 'ice shall live in His sight.' " What can be plainer than this ? Though our mortal frames are dissolved, and we are dead in the sight of men, yet ' after two days He will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight/ and in the sight of angels, agreeably to our Lord's words already quoted, that 'to HIM all are living. 9 ^ Light on Last Things. Death, we see, is not an instantaneous process, accord- ing to the Divine Word. So Swedenborg informs us that the separation between the soul and body is generally completed, and the resurrection occurs, about the third day after apparent death ; but with more or less variety as to time in different cases, owing to the character of the disease, or the cause of death. The Lord provides that the highest, or celestial angels, shall be present with every one, be he good or bad, when he dies, so that his first reception in the next life is most kind. And, says Swedenborg, " The celestial angels who thus minister to the resuscitated person, do not leave him, because they love every one ; but if the spirit is such in quality that he cannot longer continue in the company of celestial angels, he feels a desire to depart from them. When he does, angels from the Lord's spiritual kingdom come to him." So that the Lord and His angels never forsake the spirit; but if he is not satisfied with any angelic society, where love to the Lord and neighbor, and of obedience to the Divine commandments prevails, he voluntarily seeks his like in hell, or among those where selfishness, in its various forms, is predominant. But the Lord does not forsake him even there; for he permits suffering and pun- ishments, restrained by angelic influences within reason- able bounds, to follow his thinking and doing evil, in his 10 18 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. new abode, to prevent him from sinking to lower depths of evil, and consequent suffering. The reader will find Swedenborg's "Heaven and Hell" an exceedingly interesting and profitable book to read, if he has any care for his eternal welfare; 1 * and to that work we must refer him. " There is no death ! what seems so is transition, This life of mortal breath, Is but a suburb of the life elysian, Whose portal we call death." Longfellow. XXX. State of Infants in the Other Life. WHAT parent is there who has lost a little child by death that has felt no interest in the fate of their darling after it had left the tender care of its earthly parents? The writer well remembers, although about thirty years have passed since the sad event, watching carefully with his wife the sick and, as the event proved, dying couch of our then only child, a little boy about onfc year old a beautiful and promising child as we thought. With what feelings of sadness and sorrow we closed his eyes in death! and then, then! the uncertainty, the veil that was between us and the object of our affection! Into whose keeping had he gone ? how was he cared for? why should the Lord place us in such darkness ? were but questions which had arisen with thousands thus circum- stanced before us. With many tears we laid the mortal remains of our dear one in an earthly grave dust to dust. One night my wife awoke from sleep in the greatest excitement, sprang up in bed, and declared that she saw our little boy ; that he was sitting upon her lap, when a beautiful lady appeared, one whom she recognized and called by name, a playmate and companion of her younger days, but who had died several years before this event. She, with the most pleasant and kind expression, beckoned STATE OF lOTAOTS IK THE OTHER LIFE. 219 our darling boy to come to her; he raised his little arms and with expressions of joy passed to her, and was clasped in her loving arms. At this instant the excitement was too great, the curtain dropped, and my wife awoke as above. It was all so real, so life-like, that we felt that it was more than a dream and were comforted. How much this event had to do in preparing us for the full reception of the disclosures in regard to the spiritual world, and the doctrines of the New Jerusalem revealed by the Lord in the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, the reader will perhaps be able to judge after reading the few extracts which we propose to make from the above writings. "As soon as infants are raised from the dead," says Swedenborg, "which takes place immediately after their decease, they are carried up into heaven, and delivered to the care of angels of the female sex, who in the life of the body loved infants tenderly, and at the same time loved God. Since those angels when in the world loved all infants from a sort of maternal tenderness, they receive them as their own ; and the infants also, from an affection implanted in them, love them as their own mothers." Heaven and Hell. tip into heaven, means not up in material space, but in spiritual state. The angels attendant on little children, we read, do always behold the face of our Father in the heavens. " Some believe," says Swedenborg, "that only the infants who are born within the church are admitted into heaven, but not those who are born out of the church ; and they assign as a reason that children born in the church are baptized, and are initiated by baptism into the faith of the church". But such persons are not aware that heaven is not imparted to any one by baptism, nor by faith either ; for baptism is only instituted as a sign and memorial that man is to be regenerated, and that it is possible for those to be regenerated who are born in the church, since the church possesses the Word, in which are contained the SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE KEVELATION. divine truths by means of which regeneration is effected,, and in the church the Lord is known, by whom it is accomplished. Be it known, therefore, that every infant or little child, let him be born where he may, whether in the church or out of it, whether of pious or wicked parents, is received when be dies by the Lord, and is educated in heaven, where he is instructed according to Divine Order, and is imbued with affections of good, and, through them, with knowledges of truth ; and that afterwards, as he is perfected in intelligence and wisdom, he is introduced into heaven and becomes an angel. Every person who thinks from reason may be aware, that no one is born for hell, but all for heaven, and that if man goes to hell the blame is his own, but no blame can attach to infants or little children. "When infants &1Q 9 they are still infants in the other life. They possess tile same infantile mind, the same in- nocence in ignorance, and the same tenderness in all things. They are only in rudimental states introductory to the angelic; for infants are not angels, but become angels. Every one, on his decease, is in a similar state of life to that in which he was in the world ; an infant in the state of infancy, a boy, in the state of boyhood, and a youth, a man, or an old man, in the state of youth, man- hood, or old age. But the state of every one is afterwards changed." Heaven and Hell. "Many persons may imagine that infants are for ever infants among the angels in heaven. They who do not know what constitutes an angel, may be confirmed in this opinion from the images which are sometimes seen in churches, where angels are exhibited as infants. But the case is altogether otherwise. Intelligence and wisdom constitute an angel; and so long as infants are without intelligence and wisdom, although they are associated with angels, they are not yet angels. When they become intel- ligent and wise, then they first become angels. I have, indeed, been surprised to see that they then no longer HEATHEN AKD GENTILES IN ANOTHER LIFE. 221 appear as infants, but as adults, for they are then no longer of an infantile disposition, but of a more mature angelic character. Intelligence and wisdom produce this maturity. Infants appear more adult in proportion* as they are perfected in intelligence and wisdom, and thus as youths and young men, because intelligence and wisdom constitute essential spiritual nourishment. That which nourishes their minds nourishes also their bodies, from correspondence, because the form of the body is nothing but an external form of the interiors. It is to be observed, that infants who grow up in heaven do not advance beyond early youth, but remain in that state to eternity. That I might be assured of this, it has been granted me to converse with some who were educated as infants in heaven, and who had grown up there. I have also spoken with some when they were infants, and afterwards with the same when they had become young men, and heard from them the progression of their life from the one age to the other." (IMd.) . As the child, we are told, grows up to, but does not advance beyond early youth, so, Swedenborg informs us, that those who die in old age, return gradually in appear- ance to the state of early youth, and remain thus forever. XXXI. On the State and Condition of the Heathen and Gentiles in another Life. ~T~TT~E cannot do better than to make a few short ex- VV tracts from a communication recently published from a Hindoo convert to Christianity, Dadoba Pandu- rung, of Bombay, entitled "A Hindoo Gentleman's Ee- flections respecting the works of Swedenborg, and the Doctrines of the New Jerusalem." He says : "What parents, whether Christians or Heathen, I ask, would not feel a most heartfelt consolation in the fate after death, as it is described by Swedenborg, of the little SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. children, and of the millions of heathens who are dailj and hourly ushering into the next world, but who, from their helpless and unavoidable condition, are precluded from the benefits accessible to grown-up Christians of mature age and consideration ? "Christianity, as is now taught and preached to the world, appears to me to be almost silent on the important question touching the fate and future destiny of that vast and incalculable number of human beings who have died, and who at this day are daily dying in total ignorance of its voice ; not to speak of that inconceivable number of human beings who had occupied and left this our earth during a period of thousands of years previous to the advent of the Lord Jesus Christ. " But I am here thinking, and thinking quite naturally, of those millions of millions of heathens who have died and are daily dying for want of the requisite good in their case, viz. : the blessings of Christianity. I am not refer- ring to those who have led wicked and sinful lives to the avaricious and worldly men who have never turned to their God with a penitent heart, for the fate of such per- sons is the same, whether they be in Christendom or in heathendom ; but I refer particularly to such Gentiles as have led a virtuous life, of which it may be predicated that it cannot be otherwise than pleasing in the sight of the Lord, nor can it ever be affirmed that heathendom is alto- gether devoid of pious, good, and virtuous men and women, for such an assertion, in my opinion, amounts to a gross blasphemy. In reference to such queries as these, in order to remove our over anxiety on the subject, we are no doubt sometimes shown such small passages in the Old and New Testament as Deut. x. 17; 2 Chron. xix. 1; Prov. xxiv. 12; Matt, xvi. 27; Eom. x. 6 to 14; Gal. vi. 7, 8; 1 Peter i. 17, in the assurance that they will satisfy our curiosity. But these are shown with such trembling hands and flat- tering words, as to leave the general impression on the minds of the heathens, that eternal damnation is their in- HEATHEN AND GENTILES IX ANOTHER LIFE. 223 evitable lot. In this state of universal diffidence and despondency, which affect the mind if not the heart of many a Christian minister in a greater or less degree, according to his natural temperament, when expressing his opinion on this point, the Church of the New Jerusa- lem comes forward with a degree of boldness and assurance which the Gentiles will surely hail with welcome, to pro- mulgate its true doctrine on this most momentous ques- tion. This church explicitly teaches us that the heathens and Gentiles who have led a virtuous life will receive the truth in the world of spirits, have as much right to enter into the gates of heaven as the Christians themselves. In the case of the heathens there is a course of Christian knowledge and instructions which they have to go through, and which they had not had an opportunity to obtain while on the earth : but which the universal benevolence of the Heavenly Father of all mankind has provided for them in the intermediate state, under the loving care of ministering angels. These appear to me to be not only noble but correct sentiments, which must surely be con- fessed by those Christians who have not allowed their minds to be contracted by the preaching of bigoted and narrow-minded ministers. "Then Swedenborg goes on reasoning very cogently, showing in the relation of his vision of heaven that good and pious heathens have as easy an entrance into heaven as the good and pious Christians themselves ; of course, after their being perfected in the knowledge of the Lord, and of His unalterable mercy in having so far condescended as to have assumed the form of a man on our earth, to show to the whole human race the way of salvation a fact on which most of the Christians have but a vague and imperfect notion. In one place in the same chapter, Swedenborg says, and says not without sufficient reason, that the Gentiles of the present day enter heaven more easily than Christians themselves in accordance with these words of the Lord in Luke : ' Then shall they come from 224 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. the east and from the west, and from the north and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God. And, hehold, there are last who shall be first, and there are first who shall be last' (chapter xiii. 29-30). In these words, and in fact in the whole description of his ' Heaven and Hell/ Swedenborg appears to me to have actually taken away the very sting out of the dread of eternal punish- ment, which the preaching and writing of a great body of the Christian clergy appears to inflict on the whole of heathendom, and on by far the greatest portion of Christen- dom; for according to their teaching no one shall be saved except those few who conform themselves to the dogmas of their respective churches. Strictly speaking, according to the spirit of Protestantism, the whole of the Roman Catholic world, and, according to the Church of Rome, the whole of the Protestant world, as heretics, and to both, the whole of the still wider world abroad, as infidels and heathens, are indiscriminately destined to everlasting per- dition ; with this exception, that the Romish Church offers a kind of respite in the shape of their purgatory, in which their opponents might take breath, and repent of their folly, while Protestantism peremptorily demands of you an unconditional surrender. In this dilemma the Church of the New Jerusalem appears to me as coming forward for our rescue, showing us the true state of things ; by offering for our consideration both sides of the question, very fairly and reasonably, that we may with alacrity enter on the long but narrow path upwards, which ultimately leads us to heaven, there to enjoy all the degrees of a blessed and happy life, and also to shun the short but broad path downwards, which leads us if our nature be so incorrigi- bly perverse as not to be reclaimable even in the spiritual world to hell." "In his ' Arcana Coelestia' the illustrious author has devoted full seventeen numbers (from No. 2589 to No. 2605) to this important question ' Concerning the state and condition in another life of the nations and people HEATHEK A^D GENTILES II* ANOTHER LIFE. 225 who are born out of the pale of the church/ I cannot here make full extracts of these ; but the following short ones, in addition to what I have already given, will amply show the true position which the heathens occupy under the teaching of the New Jerusalem. Swedenborg says : "'I have had abundant information that the Gentiles who have led a moral life, and have been obedient, and have lived in mutual charity, and have received somewhat like conscience agreeable to their religion, are accepted in another life, and are there instructed by the angels with the utmost care in the goodness and truth of t faith. Arcana Ccelestia, No. 2590. * * * * * * For with respect to Christians and Gentiles in another life, the case is this : Christians, who have acknowledged the truths of faith, and at the same time have led a life of good,- are accepted in preference to the Gentiles" (quite true), " but such Christians at this day are few in number " (very true indeed) ; " whereas the Gentiles who have lived in obedience and mutual charity are accepted in preference to the Christians who have not led a good life 9 (undoubt- edly}. " Thus Swedenborg goes on to say many things concern- ing the heathens and Gentiles whom he conversed with in the spiritual world, as is amply shown in his grand work, ' The Arcana Coelestia/ in his 'True Christian Eeligion/ and in his ' Heaven and Hell.' They claim the perusal and consideration of the Christians and heathens alike. It is not to be understood from my above and other observations in this address, which, I comprehend, may be considered as expressive of my excessive and undue sym- pathy for the fate of the heathens, that I entertain any lurking wish to exonerate my brethren, the heathens, from the great and awful responsibility which attaches to their position as sinners and answerable beings before the tribu- nal of God, or rather liability to suffer the consequences of their sins and delinquency, and to make light of the bur- den under which they labor in common with Christians. 226 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. It is far from my avowed purpose to endeavor to screen them, under the cloak of their ignorance of Christianity, from the punishment which they duly deserve in the other world ; or, on the other hand, in any way to encourage them to seek for refuge under the comfortable asylum of that ignorance, in defiance of the loud calls which Chris- tianity makes to them from outside for a thorough investi- gation of its claim, as it is said to be the only religion revealed by God to man for his salvation, and if satisfied with the validity of its claim, to seek eagerly for that sal- vation which it holds out to sinners. But my chief object in thus evincing sympathy, if it be so called, in the cause of the heathens in the present address, is to seek to excul- pate such of them, and them only, whose ears its call has not reached, nor eyes its light seen, from the hard and awful denunciation with whicli they are menaced by a large and inconsiderate portion of the Christian preachers. But it is to be clearly understood that to those who have no such excuse to urge in their defence it is not in my contemplation to extend any sympathy at all. They shall have their own cause to answer and plead before the tribu- nal of God, if they stand convicted of this most culpable negligence in a case which concerns the vital interest of their own souls in the world to come/' We will close this section with a few extracts from Swedenborg's own writings: " The church of the Lord exists with all in the universe who live in good according to their religious principles, and acknowledge the Divine Being; and they are accepted of the Lord and go to heaven." "It is a common opinion, that those persons who are born out of the limits of the church, and are called Gen- tiles or heathens, cannot be saved, because they do not possess the Word, and thus are ignorant of the Lord ; and it is certain Jbhat, without the Lord, there can be no salva- tion. Nevertheless, that salvation is open to these also, is a truth which might be inferred from these considerations HEATHEN" AND GENTILES IN ANOTHER LIFE. 227 alone : That the Lord's mercy is universal, or extends to every individual; that they are born men, as really as those who are born within the church, who are but few in comparison ; and that their being ignorant of the Lord is no fault of their own. Every person who thinks from a rational faculty, in any degree enlightened, may see clearly that no man can be born designedly for hell ; since the Lord is Love itself, and His Love consists in desiring the salvation of all. On this account He provides that all should be attached to some religion, and should possess, by means of it, the acknowledgment of a Divine Being and interior life, since to live according to a religious belief is to live interiorly ; for a man then has respect to a Divine Being, and so far as he does this he does not look to the world, but removes himself from the world, conse- quently from the life of the world, which is exterior life." " That Gentiles are saved as well as Christians, may be known to those who are aware what it is that constitutes heaven with man ; for heaven is in man, and those who have heaven in themselves go to heaven after death. It is heaven in man to acknowledge a Divine Being, and to be led by him. The first and chief essential of all religion consists in acknowledging a Divine Being ; and a religion which does not include this acknowledgment, is no re- ligion at all. * * * It is known that the Gentiles live a moral life as well as Christians, and many of them better. Men live a moral life, either from regard to the Divine Being, or from a regard to the opinion of the people in the world; and when a moral life is practiced out of regard to the Divine Being, it is a spiritual life. Both appear alike in their outward form, but in their inward they are completely different ; the one saves a man, but the other does not ; for he that lives a moral life out of regard to the Divine Being, is led by Him ; but he who does so from regard to the opinion of people in the world is led by himself." "The Gentiles cannot profane the holy things of the 22S SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE KEVELATION. church like Christians, because they are not acquainted with them." " They are afraid of Christians on account of their lives." " Those who have lived well, according to their religious principles, are instructed by the angels, and easily receive the truths of faith, and acknowledge the Lord," "for they have not formed for themselves any principles of falsity opposed to the truths of faith, which would need to be first removed." "Although Gentiles are not in genuine truths during their life in the world, they receive them in the other life from a principle of love. The Africans are most beloved- in heaven of all the Gentiles, for they receive the goods and truths of heaven more easily than others. They particularly desire to be called obedient, but not faithful; Christians, they say, may be called faithful, because they possess the doctrine of faith ; but they themselves not so, unless they receive that doctrine, or, as they express themselves, are able to receive it." Heaven and Hell. "Many in the other world, who come from parts of the globe outside of Christendom, and who have been wor- shippers of idols, have the utmost horror of hatred and adultery, and are afraid of Christians who indulge in these vices, and make no scruple of torturing their fellow creatures. * * * Gentiles who have lived morally, being in mutual charity and innocence, are regenerated in the other life. During their abode in the world, the Lord had been present with them in charity and innocence, both of which proceed wholly from Him. He had also endowed them with conscience of what is right and good according to their religious principles, and into that had insinuated innocence and charity; and when these are present in the conscience, persons easily become principled in the truth and faith grounded in good." Arcana Ccelestia. THE CHURCH OF THE FUTURE. 229 XXXII. The New Jerusalem. The Church of the Future. The Crown of all Churches. is but one Saviour our Lord Jesus Christ JL and there is but one road to heaven, and that is a spiritual road which every man must perseveringly and faithfully travel for himself, or he will never reach the Heavenly City. We enter that road when we, in acknowl- edgment of a Divine Being, sincerely repent of our evil deeds, and we walk in it when we earnestly strive to live a life according to the commandments, shunning evils as sins against God, and act honestly and justly towards our fellow-men, and endeavor to do good to all as opportunity offers. The Lord Jesus Christ, or God manifest in the flesh, the one God in one Divine Person, is the corner- stone of the New Jerusalem. This is a central doctrine around which all true doctrines revolve like the planets around the sun. Let us cease following men and look to the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation and to the sacred Scriptures for light to guide "us, and especially to the latter as unfolded by the Lord in the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg for this incoming new age, and the truth will make us free from the shackles of sectarianism, and from sect and man worship. The exaltation of faith and the doctrines which a man believes, and the sect to which he belongs, above the life which he lives, together with the ' claiming and usurpation of spiritual dominion in matters of faith by man over his fellow-man, and denying to men religious freedom, has brought the first Christian Church to its end and split it into its innumerable fragments. In the beautiful allegory of creation in the first chapters of Genesis, where, in the spiritual sense, the regeneration and fall of man are described, Cain denotes faith and Abel charity ; and when Cain destroyed Abel he became a fugitive and a vagabond, and thus faith ever becomes ..30 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. when it destroys charity ; it separates, puffs up, alienates and arrays man against his fellow-man, and sect against sect. The seer for the New Jerusalem informs us that if charity had retained its proper place in the Christian Church differences of belief would not have separated and divided the church, but men would have been allowed in freedom to hold their own views so long as they lived good Jives. Every man should look to the Lord, and read and judge for himself; for it is only that which he in freedom intelligently perceives to be true, and carries out in his daily life, which tends to build up a heavenly life within him. A blind assent to doctrines and creeds, or a blind following of teachers, amounts to little. In this new dispensation men are to receive truth because they perceive it to be true, and not on the authority of a man, or men, or of a church even. Teachers must prove their doctrines true and good, or prepare to see them rejected. The Christian should recognize but one leader the Lord; but he should not fail to recognize a brother in every man who believes in a Supreme Being and is striv- ing to lead a good life ; for the Lord is no respecter of persons, and the Christian's charity should manifestly extend to all of his Father's children. The prevalence of a spirit of genuine charity a charity which thinketh no evil, but strives to excuse rather than accuse, and can tolerate in a fellow-man an honest differ- ence of opinion, without offence, is to be one of the characteristics of the church of the future, or of the New Jerusalem, and another is Freedom; for spiritual liberty, Swedenborg has shown us, has been restored to man. " How has such liberty been restored to man ? " the reader may inquire. If we read carefully the fifth and twelfth chapters of John, we shall find that the Lord, when on earth, ex- ecuted a general judgment, for He declared: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is, when th o dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and THE CHURCH OF THE FUTURE. 231 they that hear shall live." "Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out." This judgment of course took place in the spiritual world, where all last judgments are executed, for man is to be judged for the deeds done in the body. It is a recognized doctrine that the New Testament predicts another general judgment. This, like the judgment which occurred when the Lord was on earth, was to take place in the spiritual world ; but something must be said in regard to that world, that one not versed in the new revelation may un- derstand the subject. Sweden borg found the inhabitants of the spiritual world divided into three grand divisions, which he de- nominates the world of spirits, heaven and hell. The ruling love of every individual here governs his destiny hereafter; and as most individuals when they leave this world are neither angels nor devils, but are in preparation for one or the other of these states of life (as all angels and devils are from the human race), it follows that they cannot at once enter either heaven or hell. Therefore they tarry in the world of spirits, which is an intermediate state, until the good are cleansed from all false doctrines, ideas, and thoughts, and purified from all evil inclinations, when they are received into heaven. The evil confirm themselves more and more fully in their false views and evils, until they have put away even the semblance of genuine truths and heavenly desires, when they go volun- tarily or from choice among their like in hell, for they cannot be happy in heaven. All the inhabitants of heaven, he found, acknowledge and worship our Lord Jesus Christ as the one only God and Saviour, and are actuated by love to the Lord and neighbor in all their acts, words, and thoughts, each striving to do good to all; consequently no penal laws or punishments are required, fo.r every one is striving to keep the Divine command- ments, love to the Lord and neighbor constituting heaven. All in hell deny the Lord and His Word; deny that a 232 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. man can act from any higher motive than selfishness, and are actuated in all they do, say, and think, by some selfish love. The supreme love of self, or of ruling over others, or of wealth, display, or of sensual gratification, in hell, as in this world, arrays man against his fellow-man, and can never be fully gratified ; but it must be restrained there, as here, by laws and punishments, or life in hell would be unendurable, in fact, worse than no existence. Self-love and supreme selfishness constitute hell, as love of the Lord and neighbor do heaven. Heaven is not a place into which a man can be let as a matter of favor; but heaven must be in us, and heavenly affections must rule us, before we can enter heaven, and the way to heaven is a life according to the Commandments. It will be seen that the knowledge of the spiritual world and the life of men there, contained in the revelations made through Sweden borg, has a practical relation to the life of men here, and shows us as in a glass that our every-day acts, words, and thoughts are developing our very souls into the image ol heaven or hell, and we are now journeying towards the uno or the other state of life slowly but surely. The evil-doer shall not go unpunished, nor the honest and good man fail of his reward, but every one will receive a just reward and recompense for all the deeds done here. God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, and His tender mercies are around all His creatures, as well in hell as in this world and heaven ; but He compels no x)ne here to love Him and his neighbor supremely; and He cannot do it hereafter, without destroying the manhood of man, and this He never does. Previous to the Lord's first coming, and between that and His second coming, Swedenborg informs us, those who left this world unprepared for either heaven or hell, remained in the world of spirits, or the intermediate state, and formed vast societies there, or imaginary heaveng; and, as the world of spirits is immediately associated with man, in the course of time influx from them into the THE CHURCH OF THE FUTURE. 233 minds of men began seriously to endanger man's spiritual freedom. It was in this intermediate world that Babylon the Great was gradually developed. Those whose externals appeared holy, whilst their internals were profane, who transferred the merit and righteousness of the Lord, and attributed Divine things to themselves, dwelt there. There, in that great city, self-love, and love of rule and dominion from self-love, were predominant, and held dominion over and imprisoned the simple good, in that world, as well as their votaries have done in this world; destroying their freedom and rationality, until their cry went up : " How long, Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?" Then, in the fullness of time, the Lord came for judg- ment, and now Babylon the Great has fallen fallen to rise no more forever. The freedom of man in spiritual things was endangered in this world by the selfish love of rule in his fellow-man, and the Lord has interposed for his rescue. "Emanuel Swedenborg, servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, happened to be the man endowed and commis- sioned to observe and report it ; not by his own seeking, but by Providential allotment; not on account of any superior innate merit existing in him, but simply for the sake of the truth, and the consequent well-being of all Christian men. To a single seer was given the wonderful vision which, 'by signs' sent from Jesus Christ, prefigured and described all these extraordinary things 1600 years in advance ; and so to another single seer was it given to be- hold their fulfilment: looking through the 'veil' while they were going on, that he might note them, record them, and publish them, as an epistle 'to the churches/ He was in a state of the spirit, and, like John, enjoyed an open or sensible communion with the beings of the other world." Light on Last Tilings* 234 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. Swedenborg assures us that he witnessed this judgment in the spiritual world. That it was commenced and fully ended during the year 1757; and that hereafter, all men are judged as they leave this world. He wrote a small work entitled, "The Last Judgment/" in which he care- fully described that judgment as it was executed on the various Christian societies and heathen nations in the world of spirits. Those who were interiorly good, were separated from those who were interiorly evil; the former class were removed to heaven, the latter to hell. And thus was the world of spirits renovated, and the dense clouds of evil spirits, which threatened the freedom and very exist- ence of mankind by interrupting the inflowing of truth and love from the Lord and the angels, were removed. The reader may inquire, how were these two classes of spirits separated, and why were they not. permitted to dwell together as good and evil men do in this world, and as they had been previously doing in the world of spirits ? The truth judges. When the Lord came for judgment and there was a new inflowing of truth into the minds of the inhabitants of the world of spirits, unveiling the hypocrisies, the pretenses, and the shams, so that the real intentions and motives were apparent to every qne, we can very readily see how and why they separated. The hidden things, the lust for dominion over his fellow, for selfish gratification, the envying, jealousies, and real hatreds were proclaimed upon the housetop. In such an unveiling of man's interior life, it is evident that like will turn to the society of like, for they can find no other congenial associates. We know that even in this world similarity of tastes, habits, pursuits, and character draw people together. The Rev. Chauncey Giles, in his very interesting work, entitled "The Nature of Spirit and Man as a Spiritual Being," says: "The doctrines of the New Jerusalem simply carry out this universal principle to its legitimate conclusions. They THE CHUECH OF THE FUTUItE, 235 have the logic of the Divine order, as it is embodied in the creation and in the hearts and minds of men. It is a con- clusion also which every good and every wicked man must desire, if he understands his own nature. A wicked man i cannot be happy in the presence of the good. * Heaven' would be a perfect hell to him. What delight could a 1 supremely worldly and selfish man find in loving the Lord and the neighbor? in doing good to others? What pleasure could the impure find in purity? the proud in humility? the ambitious and tyrannical in serving others? Their whole nature must be reversed before they could find any delight in these heavenly virtues. What we inmostly and really love is what we call good. It is and ever must be the measure of our good, and must determine its quality. We can no more escape from it than we can escape from the laws of gravitation. Men desire to escape hell because it is a place of torment; and to go to heaven because they think it is a place of happiness. Bat they forget that what is happiness to one is torment to another. They forget that freedom from punishment is not happiness. If every law was abolished in the land, and every peniten- tiary leveled with the ground, it would have no effect in making wicked men delight in what is good. They would rejoice, no doubt, that they could freely indulge in their wicked desires. But these would soon react upon them in some form of punishment, and in the end they would gain no happiness by it. No. If those heavenly principles, which constitute the kingdom of God, are not formed within us if we have not made them our own, by actual life we can never taste a heavenly joy. We pronounce judgment upon ourselves, in the spiritual world, in the same way we do in this world. The wicked man seeks hell there as he does here, because he is drawn to it by his infernal delights the only delights he is capable of enjoy- ing ; and he is drawn to it by the current of his desires, as a vessel is drawn to the ocean by the current of a stream/ 3 But the reader, unacquainted with the revelations made 236 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. by Swedenborg, may reasonably inquire: "If such a won- derful event as the long-expected Last Judgment took place in the world of departed spirits more than a century ago, what signs have we of it, for it would certainly seem time that some results or effects of such a great change should be seen in this world ? " In reply to the above we will first call the attention of the reader to the changes in the state of mankind on earth, which Swedenborg and the angels anticipated at the time, or soon after the Judgment, would and must follow; then the reader will be able to judge whether those anticipations are being realized or not. Swedenborg says: "The great change which has been effected in the spiritual world, does not induce any change in the natural world as regards the outward form ; so that the affairs of states -peace, treaties and wars, with all other things be- longing to civil communities, in general and in particular- will exist in the future as they have existed in the past. * * * But with respect to the state of the church, this will be dissimilar hereafter. It will be similar, indeed, in the out- ward form, but dissimilar in the inward. To outward appearance divided churches will exist, and their doctrines will be taught, as heretofore ; and the same religions will exist among the Gentiles as at present. But henceforth the man of the church (that is, the men of Christendom generally) will be in a more free state of thinking on mat- ters of faith, that is, on spiritual things which relate to heaven, because spiritual liberty has been restored to him. * * * " I have often conversed with the angels respecting the state of the church hereafter. They said they did not know the things that were to come, since such knowledge belongs to the Lord alone ; but that they did know that the slavery and captivity in which the man of the church was formerly, is removed ; and that now, from restored liberty, he can better perceive interior truths if he wishes THE CHURCH OF THE FUTURE. 237 to perceive them, and thus be made more internal if he desires it." (L. J. n. 73, 74.) "The state of the world and the church before the last judgment was as evening and night ; but after it, as morn- ing and day." "For since communication with 'heaven has been restored by the last judgment, man is able to be enlightened and reformed; that is, to understand the divine truth of the Word, to receive it when understood, and to retain it when received ; for the interposing obsta- cles are removed." (Contiti. L. J. n. 12.) Again he says: " After the last judgment was accomplished there was light in the world of spirits, because the infernal societies which were removed [by that judgment], had been inter- posed like clouds which darken the earth. A similar light also then arose in men in the world, giving them new enlightenment." (Ibid., n. 30.) How wonderfully the above expectations have been and are being realized in the recent history of the world! Physical slavery has been largely abolished, and ere long, it is manifest, it will only be known in history. Ecclesias- tical despotism is rapidly passing from the face of the earth. We have seen the most formidable manifestation of this power which the world has ever witnessed, stripped of its civil power in our day, and its ability to persecute and oppress in a great measure destroyed. Take courage, ye lovers of freedom, for God wills the overthrow of both civil and religious despotism and slavery. He has over- thrown their central power in the spiritual world, and they cannot long retain an existence in this world. What can the puny arm of man do to prevent this great and wonderful change, which is so rapidly progressing in our day. Fear not; God is mightier than either civil or ecclesiastical despots, and physical and mental slavery are never to be re-established, but men are to be free, in the church of the future the New Jerusalem and are to claim their freedom, especially in matters of religion ; for 23S SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE EEVELATION. without religious freedom there can be no progress. Every man should insist on the right of private judgment in religious matters, as a right too sacred to be surrendered. Swedenborg says : " The dogma that the understanding is to be held in subjection to faith, is rejected in the New Church ; and in its place this is to be received as a maxim, that the truth of the church should be seen in order that it may be understood; and truth cannot be seen otherwise than rationally. How can any man be led by the Lord and conjoined to heaven, who shuts his understanding against such things as relate to salvation and eternal life ? Is it not the understanding that is to be illumed and instructed ? And what is the understanding closed by religion but thick darkness, and such darkness, too, as rejects the light that would illumine? " (A. R. 564.) "The understanding truly human, when ifc is separate from what is material, sees truths as clearly as the eye sees objects. It sees truths as it loves them ; for as it loves them it is enlightened. The angels have wisdom in con- sequence of seeing truths ; therefore when it is said to any angel that this or that is to be believed although it is not understood, the angel replies, Do you think that I am in- sane, or that you yourself are a god whom I am bound to believe?" (Ap. Ex. 1100.) " Since the Lord desires that everything which comes from Himself to man should be appropriated as man's own (for otherwise there would be no conjunction of man with the Lord), therefore it is a law of the Divine Provi- dence that a man's understanding and will should not be at all compelled by another." (Ap. Ex. 1150.) Thus the New Jerusalem is as free, as we shall presently see, as it is catholic. It encourages the largest liberty of thought, the utmost freedom of religious inquiry. It would have us acknowledge no master but the Lord Jesus Christ as He reveals Himself to our individual conscious- ness, as we search the Scriptures in the light of this new THE CHURCH OF THE PUTUKE. 239 day. Its language is, " Every one should be led in freedom according to reason." In his work on the " Divine Providence/' " Swedenborg declares more emphatically than any other writer has ever done, that freedom and rationality are the distinguishing feature between man and beast, and that in these two faculties, the very human principle consists." Rev. R. L. Tafel It is not simply in the restoration of human freedom that the consequences of the Last Judgment, and of the Lord's Second Coming, are alone to be seen; for as a recent writer truly says : " Eesults such as no human fore- sight could have ventured to predict are around us on every side in a profusion which baffles every effort of array or description. Science, art, thought, in every direction, bas been stimulated by the new impulses thence commu- nicated., Society wears a new aspect ; we live in a new world. Never has there been so full and so ample a con- firmation of any man's saying as that which has followed Swedenborg's declaration that in his time a new age and new dispensation were commencing, which would prove to be the culminating, crowning day and dispensation of the world's history. Were we to maintain that the one hundred and twenty years since has done more for the cause of human improvement than the whole five thousand years that went before, it would be a difficult matter to gainsay the assertion. That this short period has done more in this direction than any previous one thousand years that have gone before, no one will be inclined to doubt. In other words, the very first century of the Lord's second advent has done more to elevate and redeem mankind than any ten centuries of His first advent were able to accomplish." Light on Last Things. Swedenborg says: "In the spiritual world to which every man goes after death, it is not the character of your faith into which inquiry is made, nor of your doctrine, but 9.f your life, whether it has been of this character or that; 40 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. for it is known that such as a man's life is, such is his faith nay, more, such is his doctrine ; for life forms its doctrine and faith for itself." (D. P. 101.) " For the good 01 life according to one's religion contains within it the affection of knowing truths, which such persons also learn and receive when they come into the other life." (A. C. 455.) " Evils which belong to the will, are what condemn a man and sink him down to hell ; and falsities only so far as they become conjoined with evils; then one follows the other. This is proved by numerous instances of persons who are in falsities, and yet are saved." (Ibid. 845.) "There are two things to be remembered. First, that a person may love God and his neighbor, and yet believe some things that are false. Under such circumstances, untruth does not hurt him. False doctrine is, indeed, a deadly thing; but all deadly things do not hurt; for our Saviour says of his true disciples, If they drink any deadly tiling , it shall not hurt them. Secondly, a person may have no love of God, and yet maintain true doctrine. In this case he is, nevertheless, not a true disciple of Christ. The first has within him the essence of a true church, but not the perfect doctrinal form ; the second has the doctrinal form, but not the real essence. A church composed of individuals such as the latter, would nevertheless not be a church ; there might be an outward appearance of life and health, but inwardly there would be nothing but death and corruption." " When love to the Lord and charity toward the neigh- bor, that is, the good of life, are regarded as the essentials, then, however many churches there be, they make one. This also is the case in heaven, where there are innumer- able societies, all distinct from each other, but still consti- tuting one heaven because all are principled in love to the Lord and charity toward the neighbor. But the case is otherwise with churches that make faith (or belief) the essential thing imagining that if people know or think THE CHUKCH OF THE FUTURE. 241 such and such things they will be saved, be their life what it may. Then several churches do not make one, nor indeed are they churches." Again Swedenborg says: "There are two things which conjoin the men of the church, viz : Life and doctrine. When life conjoins, doctrine does not separate them ; but if only doctrine conjoins them, as at* this day is the case within the church, then they mutually separate, and make as many churches as there are doctrines: when yet doc- trine is for the sake of life, and life is from doctrine. If only doctrine conjoins, they separate themselves, as is evident from this, that he who is of one doctrine, con- demns another person, sometimes to hell ; but if life con- joins, doctrine does not separate, as is evident from this, that he who is in goodness of life, does not condemn another who is of another opinion, but leaves it to his faith and conscience, and extends this rule even to those who are out of the church; for he says in his heart, that ignorance cannot condemn any if they live in innocence and mutual love, as infants who also are in ignorance when they die." (A. C. 4468.) Yet Swedenborg does not leave us to infer that the belief in false doctrines is harmless, especially if we strongly confirm ourselves in such views ; for it is exceed- ingly difficult and painful for a man, even a good man, to get rid of such falses either in this world or in the next. It is of great importance that truth should be united to good in this world. Swedenborg says : " Those who are in falses, and especially those who are in evils, are said to be bound and in prison; not that they are in any bonds, bufc because they are not in freedom ; those who are not in freedom being interiorly bound; for those who have con- firmed themselves in what is false, are no longer in any freedom of choosing and accepting the truth, and those who have much confirmed themselves therein, are not even in freedom to see it, still less to acknowledge and believe it, for they are in the persuasion that what is : 11 242 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. is true and what is true is false ; so powerful is this per- suasion, that it takes away all freedom of thinking any- thing else, consequently it holds the thought itself in bonds, and as it were in prison. This I have had much opportunity of being convinced of experimentally from those in the other life who have been in a persuasion of the false by confirmations in themselves; they do not at all admit truths, but reflect or strike them back again, and this with an obstinacy proportioned to the degree of persuasion ; especially when the false is grounded in evil, or when evil has persuaded them." (A. C. 5096.) We have endeavored to give the reader a hasty glimpse of some of the prominent doctrines and teachings of the New Jerusalem; enough, we hope, to seriously call his attention to the writings of the Illuminated Scribe of the Church of the Future, Emannel Swedenborg. Eev. B. R Barrett, one of the oldest and most diligent of the readers of Swedenborg's writings, says : " Now, if I were called upon to indicate any single idea which was to distinguish pre-eminently that dispensation or church of which Swedenborg was the divinely ap- pointed herald any single idea that towers conspicu- ously above all others in his writings, I should say it is tho idea of religion as a personal and practical thing ; of religion embodying itself in good and useful deeds; of religion carried into all our human acts and relations, purifying them all, sanctifying them all, ennobling them all. And this idea of religion in our common every-day life, so eminently characteristic of the New Theology, is the very idea which has been steadily growing into favor for the last hundred years in nearly all the churches. However similar, then, in their creeds and in outward appearance the churches of to-day may be to those of a hundred years ago, it is clear that they are very different internally. They have different ideas and purposes, and are animated by a different spirit. And every year this THE CHUECH OF THE FUTURE. 2*43 difference is increasing, and becoming more and more apparent. " And thus it is that the New Jerusalem may be seen * descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God.' Thus may the Lord Himself be seen coming anew to the churches in the spirit and power of His now un- sealed Word. Thus do we behold Him breaking through and dispersing the mists of naturalism, and gladdening the hearts of his sincere followers with a new manifesta- tion of Himself; 'coming,' agreeably to his own predic- tion, 'in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory/ Thus may a New Church be seen slowly forming, not as a new visible institution not as a separate and distinct organization, but rather as a new spirit and life entering into the great heart of humanity and moulding it anew; comparatively as the earth, on the return of each new spring-time, receives a fresh influx of the solar rays, and so becomes a new earth clad afresh with verdure and beauty. A church not antagonistic to existing organiza- tions, but cordially sympathizing with and reanimating them all." 17/0 Golden City, The late Eev. John Clowes, Rector of St. John's Church, Manchester, England, who for many years, without ever being required to sever his connection with the Church of England, openly and boldly taught the doctrines revealed through Swedenborg, and translated many of his works into English, says : " JSTothi ng, therefore, can be plainer, than that the New Jerusalem Dispensation is to be universal, and to extend in ito all people, nations, and languages on the face of the e^fth, to be a blessing unto such as are meet to receive a blessing. Sects and sectarians, as such, can find no place in this General Assembly of the ransomed of the Lord. All the little distinctions of modes, forms, and particular expressions of devotion and worship, will be swallowed up and lost in the unlimited effusions of heavenly love, charity and benevolence with which the hearts of everv member of 244 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. this glorious New Church and Body of Jesus Christ will overflow one toward another. Men will no longer judge one another as to the mere externals of church com- munion, be they perfect or be they imperfect; for they will be taught that, whosoever acknowledges the incarnate Jehovah in heart and life, departing from all evil, and doing what is right and good according to the command- ments, he is a member of the New Jerusalem, a living stone in the Lord's new Temple, and a part of that great family in heaven and earth, whose common Father and Head is Jesus Christ. Every one, therefore, will call his neighbor Brother, in whom he observes this spirit of charity; and he will ask no questions concerning the of words which compose his creed, but will be satisfied with observing in him the purity and power of a heavenly life/' What a glorious prospect does this New Dispensation open to our race ! " The last great campaign of the kingdom of heaven upon earth is opening before us, and the inmost heart of Christianized humanity is beating in unison with the movement ; while the utterances of the ancient prophets become the sacred watchwords of the hour, the inspired directions for the march, and the songs of holy joy that are set to the music of the camps." * * * "All nations whom Thou hast made shall come and worship before Thee, Jehovah, and shall glorify Thy Name." * * * " The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. * * * "In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom that shall never he destroyed ; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever." " And there shall be given him dominion and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve Him ; His dominion is the dominion of an age which THE CHURCH OF THE FUTURE. "245 shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed." * * * " The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." * * * "After those days, saith the Lord, I will put My law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts ; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people; they shall all know Me from the least unto the greatest, saith Jehovah, for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." "Thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down ; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken." " Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men." "I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven." " f Let us be glad, and rejoice, and give the glory unto Him/ that our lot is cast in these latter times ; that we are permitted to live at the day in which all these things are beginning the march of their fulfillment, and that, in His merciful provision for human want, the Lord has caused to break forth from the bosom of His Word a system of theology and philosophy, not man-made but heaven- descended, which leads by a thousand years the high- est aspirations of human thought, fitted to the age to serve as a lamp to the movement; 'the glory of God to lighten* us, and to instruct us aright -in these great themes." "And let us, one and all, lend our hearts and our hands to this movement; working where we stand in aid of its fulfillment, and helping, as far as in as lies, to bring about in our time some of its blessed results." Light on Last Things. The senders of this pamphlet desire again affectionately and earnestly to call your attention to the writings con- taining these new revelations, from our ever-blessed Lord 246 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. and Saviour Jesus Christ. Three large volumes, from among the most important of Emanuel Swedenborg's writings, you will perceive by the attached circular on the second page of the cover, are furnished to Protestant cler- gymen and theological students studying for the ministry without money and without price, they having only to call and get them, or pay the postage or express charges on them, and request them to be sent, to receive them. That every clergyman and theological student studying for the ministry who has not already done so, will immediately order the above works, is the desire of those who are giving them, and that the Lord may open their understandings and hearts for the reception of the heavenly doctrines of the Holy City, New Jerusalem, now descending from God out of Heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her hus- band, is the earnest prayer of -every disciple of the New Dispensation. It was apparently the opinion of Swedenborg that his writings would be read by the clergy, who would teach the doctrines therein contained to their congregations, and thus the glorious truths for this new era or crowning church, would be spread among the people ; for, in speak- ing of the descent of the New Church or New Jerusalem, from God out of Heaven, he says it can only take place "in proportion as the falses of the former church are removed, for what is new cannot gain admission where falses have before been implanted, unless those falses are first rooted out; and this must first take place among the clergy, and by their means among the laity." We thank the Lord for the abundance of evidence that this process is rapidly going on around us in all the churches, and to do what we can to hasten on this great and noble work, or to be humble instruments in the Lord's hands for aiding in its accomplishment, is our sole aim in sending these few words a brotherly message to you. Not as sectarians do we send them, for the New Jerusa- lem; as we have abundantly shown in the preceding pages, THE CHURCH OE THE FUTURE, 24? is not a sect, but a New Dispensation of divine truth for the benefit of all sects and all men. XXXIII. The Divine Promise to those who Receive the New Jerusalem at the Second Coming of the Lord. (BY REV. WM. B. HAYDEN.) " Eemember therefore, how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent.'' * * * " I know th j works : behold I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name." * * * " Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the tem- ple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God : and I will write upon him my new name " (Rev. iii. 3, 8, 12). The Lord Jesus Christ is at this day doing a remarkable work; in some respects one of the most remarkable He has ever performed. He is effecting His Second Advent, and is beginning to establish in the world His new and final church, which in His Word He calls the New Jerusalem. He has caused the volume of His Word to be opened more fully to human apprehension, the prophetic por- tions of the Bible being explained as to their spiritual and heavenly meaning; while that pure and perfect system of True Christian Doctrine, which the angels of heaven derive from the Divine Word, has been revealed for cm- use and instruction, and written out in the language of men by Emanuel Swedenborg, a man specially illuminated by the Lord for this purpose. This wonderful system of heavenly truths He has caused to be printed and circulated in books, not only in Latin, 248 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. but in nearly all the Christian tongues, so that they may be freely promulgated in every part of Christendom, that whoever will may partake of this pure river of water of life freely. And these heavenly truths are slowly gather- ing together the New Church, for they are freely offered to all, and all who will may receive them in obedience with affection, and confess them openly before and among men. Included in this opening and explanation, is this Book of Eevelation, given through John, the last great Book of the sacred canon ; the enigma of Christian scholars ; now, with its seals taken off, and all its dark sayings made plain, in clear, rational, heavenly light; the meaning of every chapter, verse, and single symbol plainly given, so that he who runs may read ; a feast of fat things, full of marrow, to the spiritually-minded seeking for heavenly instruction and longing to know more of the Master's will. The Apocalypse or Book of Eevelation is the especial book of this New Church, for it is the book devoted to the Second Coming of the Lord, predicting the particularity of this Advent, with all the attending circumstances, and in it the New Jerusalem is foretold and described. In its pages, therefore, now illuminated by the glory of their own heav- enly meaning, we have a divine commentary on the events by which we are surrounded, on the wonderful fulfillments of prophecy now taking place, and the New Age or Dispen- sation of Christian light now progressing in our midst. In these epistles which John was commanded to write to the seven churches then located in Asia Minor, in their spiritual or prophetic import, we behold all the different classes of believers in Christendom in our day addressed. Addressed, too, in earnest tones and decided terms, by our Lord Himself, speaking to us out of heaven. All capable of exercising religious affection and religious thought are here appealed to, being enjoined to lift up their eyes, and to come. One thing particularly is noticeable in these missives to the churches; in each there is a call to repentance* THE DIYIKE PROMISE. 249 Many other things likewise are spoken of. Each church has a special and pointed teaching addressed to its peculiar wants, but this one feature is common to them all they all command repentance. This reveals a leading charac- teristic of the New Dispensation; which is that now there is to be required a closer conformity to the divine com- mandments than ever before. All men are called upon to put on more fully the spirit of true religion. Not only emotional piety, but also practical obedience in daily life is required. Entrance into the New Jerusalem therefore im- plies a step forward for every one who comes, a new degree of religion, and advance in real holiness of life and character. No matter where these new heavenly truths find us, whether in much good or little good, whether we are professed Christians already, or indifferent, or unbelievers, the call is to all alike, to leave our present state whatever it is, and put on something more of pure and true religion, leaving the fallacies of the senses and the cupidity of the natural man still further behind us. New and greater spiritual attainment is forcibly insisted upon, and the way given to attain it. Then, after having risen up and entered this New Jeru- salem through interior amendment of life, each class of religious men finds in these seven epistles some instruc- tion fitted to its own state. Their own peculiar short- comings are pointed out, and they are clearly told how they may grow in grace and spiritually progress towards the angelic state of life. " Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast" These words are addressed to those who are already in the external worship of the church, to nominal or professed believers in the truth. They are remarkable words, and of very impressive import. They are meant particularly for us, receivers of these heavenly doctrines, professed believers in this New Age and Dis- pensation; and they are calculated to arouse the con- science and stimulate a holy zeal in the heart of every 250 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE KEVELATION. true and earnest believer. We who have heard and listened to the Truth, who have heard the words of * the New Jerusalem, who know that the Lord has come a Second time, gathering His flock and setting up His final kingdom, are enjoined to remember how we have received and heard, and hold fast. The Lord would impress upon us the importance of holding fast to these new truths, proclaiming and obeying them. As we go away from the Sanctuary, or the Word and the Writings, back into our worldly employments, and often into our natural selfish and worldly states of thought and feeling, our minds become cloudy. W r e are apt to think remotely of our religious privileges. We think lightly of holy truth ; comparatively lightly of the heav- enly truths now revealed, to regard slightingly our obliga- tions to them, our obligation to heed them, to value them, to uphold them, to promulgate them, to obey them, and to openly confess them before men. But from all we read in His Word, and all we know, the Lord Himself does not so lightly regard them. We hear no such indifferent or easy-going language on His part. Not any Laodicean neither cold nor hot state finds favor in His eyes. On the contrary, all His words on the subject come forth with emphasis. Search the Bible through, and nowhere else will you find such strong and impressive language, or appealing more forcibly to the heart and the conscience, than this employed in the Book of Revelation with respect to the truths of the New Jeru- salem. The whole heaven is powerfully moved and affected by the utterances. The Lord Himself is deeply in earnest when He proclaims them to the angels, deeply in earnest when he sends them into the world to reclaim men and overturn the kingdom of darkness, and deeply in earnest, too, when He calls upon us to receive and obey them. And again, closely following these deeply freighted calls of admonition and injunction, what blessed words of en- couragement and promise fall from the same lips, to the THE DIVINE PKOMISE. 251 steadfast and obedient I Such as have been held out to no church be-fore, such as are found nowhere else in the Bible. Hear them : " Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it." An " open door ! " Do we realize what this means ? In view of all it implies, how comprehensive the sense! An opening such as has never been vouchsafed to mankind before, such as the previous ages have never seen, and yet an opening promised in the Word, and the hope of good men in the Christian centu- ries of the past. 1. "A door into heaven opened/' The heavenly world laid open to view, and described for our use and instruction. Not to satisfy vain curiosity, or make an empty show ; but to make immortality real, and encourage purity of life by showing that only the really pure and good can enter there. Life among the angels considered and described, in its most general forms, as comprehensible by men, as involved in the teachings of the Holy Word, and rendered clear by a more exhaustive study of its pages. The blessedness of heaven brought near; the mutual love reigning among its inhabitants, their conjunction of heart and mind with the Lord our Kedeemer, the glorious light in which they dwell, their practical wisdom, their ineffable innocence and peace of mind, their elevating employments, doing the Lord's will in innumerable offices of love and good use to members of the heavenly kingdom, as well as to mankind on earth all unfolded in clear rational light, for our quickening and encouragement. Then, the constitution of the human soul, its connec- ' tion with the body, its close association with the unseen world, the grounds and principles of future judgment* with the miserable results which persistent sin inflicts, all made known for our admonition and warning, to separate us more and more from disobedience, and attach us more firmly to the kingdom of the Lord ; the whole involving such an opening of the unseen world and the future state 252 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. of existence, as could scarcely be conceived of before it had come, though desired and waited for by spiritual men in all ages of the church. And this door never again to be shut : this elevating knowledge of the heavenly world and its order, recorded in printed books, never again to disappear from the thought and memory of man. 2, The Great Book opened. The seven seals taken off from the Bible, its heavenly interpretation written out; wherein all its divine prophecies find their true and final exposition ; its obscure passages cleared up, its dark say- ings brought forth in light, the clouds of its letter every- where illuminated with the heavenly glory of their spirit- ual meaning, and all its pages shown to testify concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. The real nature of the Divine Word explained, showing that as to its deeper, inner ground, it is the very Divine Truth itself. The difference between Letter and Spirit made clear, and how the spirit- ual sense, like a soul, dwells everywhere within the Letter, which is the body ; and thus the real nature of Divine in- spiration exposed, from its inmost ground. As the Lord, with His constant presence, dwells in the Word, in its in- terior meaning and essence, and the angels are also present in its spiritual sense, bringing with them a heavenly sphere of mental light and heat, the Divine Word becomes the medium among men of the Presence of the Lord and His Holy Spirit, and a medium of communication with heaven through which animating floods of illustration and warmth may flow into the heart and mind of the believer and reverent, faithful student. And this Holy Word, thus opened, never again to be closed up, but to remain forever as an open door to heavenly and eternal things. 3. Then, again, our Lord and Saviour declares Himself to be the Door; a door in the Supreme sense; the living door ; the great avenue or medium of access to Supreme, unapproachable Divinity. And how this Door is opened to us in these new heavenly or angelic Doctrines! In THE DIVIDE PROMISE. 253 which the one eternal Saviour and Kedeemer, our Lord Jesus Christ, reveals Himself to us at length in all the fullness of His ineffable glory, as the One supreme and only object of our love and worship. Declaring to us from the very letter of His Word that He is indeed Jehovah Himself, not three persons, not the second among three, but the Only One ; dwelling by Himself from all eternity, and then in the fullness of time condescending and coming down to seek and to save that which was lost, assuming humanity for our sakes and appearing in the world as Immanuel, God with us. Thus walking our earth, not as a consecrated and holy man merely, but the Lord Himself, clad in the outward garments of a man. Glorifying, by His indwelling Divinity, all the originally frail elements derived from the virgin mother, putting them off, perfect- ing their nature by filling all their forms with pure divine substances, thus making even His human part perfectly divine in essence, organizing all its substance anew, so that at length the fullness of the whole Godhead dwelt bodily in that Human Form, without confining or con- tracting its infinity. In this Glorified Form He arose, and ascended into .heaven, where He forever abides, seated on the Throne of the Universe, including in His own single Person all that is meant by Father, all that is meant by Son, and all that is meant by Holy Spirit: the three in One Person. His own supreme, eternal, unapproachable Divinity being called Father; the Humanity which He assumed in order to appear in the world, and which while in the world He glorified and made Divine, being called the Son ; and that new powerful and personal presence and influence which since the Incarnation He vouchsafes to faithful, obedient believers, being called the Comforter, Paraclete, Advocate, or Holy Spirit. Summing for us in this last book of the Sacred Canon the final doctrine con- cerning Himself in these memorable words: "I am the Alpha and the Omega; the Beginning and the End; the First and the last ; the one who is and who was and who 254 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. is to come, the Almighty." And again in these, at the very close of the volume : " I, Jesus, have sent Mine angel unto you to testify these things in the churches." Declaring also that He is both the Eoot and the Offspring of David. Thus showing that the great object of the Biblical Bevelatioh, in its progressive development from end to end, is to bring out by degrees as they have been able to bear it, and at length make clear to the spiritual appre- hension of the church, the great vital Supreme Truth that God is One Person, one single Person, and that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is this One God. Thus fulfilling at last, and in our day, that glorious prediction and promise of the Apostle that the time would come when the Saviour would vacate that subordinate, mediatorial position, which to the partially-instructed intelligence of that day He seemed to hold, and that God would be seen to be One, the "all in all." And this Door; this heavenly, angelic Doctrine con- cerning our Saviour as the One Only Lord and God never to be closed up or lost sight of. Now that it is revealed, and clearly made known to the thought and rational intelligence of men, it is henceforth the property of the church universal forevermore. No human power can prevail against it. It solves the great problem of the Godhead ; and no human power can ever drive it back or push it out of the world. It is the corner-stone, the stone of power, which the prophet Daniel in holy vision saw cut out of the Eock without hands, which became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. 4. The Way of Life opened. In these heavenly Doc- trines the way and means of salvation are most distinctly set forth. The true ideas of justification and imputation are unfolded. And a life according to the Divine Com- mandment s of the Holy Word, clearly shown to be the only true ground of hope and the only means of salvation. Faith is commanded, Charity or Love is commanded, Good Works are commanded. All are required; and THE DIYIKE PROMISE. , 255 neither one is to be emphasized to the disparagement of the others. Without the acknowledgment of the Lord and Saviour there is no salvation, for no man of himself can attain the holy life, and regeneration and the gift of the Holy Spirit are from the Lord alone. Those .who, from the acknowledgment of a Divine Being, are in the good of life, who through ignorance do not acknowledge the Lord in His Divine Humanity in this world, will in the next, before they can enter the king- dom of heaven. The ground of forgiveness is the Divine Goodness, Clemency, or Mercy, while the simple condition on man's part is Repentance and actual departure from evil. Salvation is a thing of degrees ; the further we are lifted out of Sin the more are we saved, while the merit or righteousness of Christ is imputed to the believer just as fast, and to the degree, that he actually appropriates that righteousness in his own character, putting on the image and exemplifying the spirit of Christ in his own life. The way of salvation therefore is growth in holiness, which is measured exactly by our ceasing from sinful acts and affections, and our practical conformity to gospel pre- cept. " He that hath my commandments and doeth them, he it is that loveth me." And hence the great blessing pro- nounced in the New Jerusalem is, " Blessed are they that DO His commandments, that they may have right to the Tree of Life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." And in these doctrines all questions are answered which Christians desire to ask, most lucid and extended expo- sitions being given of all the vital doctrines of grace and life; Eepentance, Regeneration, Charity, Faith, Good Works and the Holy Spirit; so that no one is any longer left in the dark, or in obscurity, or doubt with respect to any vital or practical point of religious experience. And this door, opening thus into the onward and up- ward way to heaven, never again to be obscured by day, nor shadowed by the night. These heavenly disclosures concerning the secrets of the regenerate or holy life never 256 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. again to be taken away from the knowledge of men, but through the divinely provided instrumentalities of the printing-press and the pulpit, to be widely circulated and diffused for the free use of all. 5. And then, the Two Holy Sacraments which the Lord has given for the safety and nurture of His- Church, opened and explained. Their ineffable, heavenly uses made clear: their inner meaning brought out: the divine symbolism of their forms and elements declared, and in what manner they connect with the unseen world, and, when worthily celebrated, bring down invisible blessings thence to the hearts and minds of the recipients and par- takers. What way they are helps, and why they are calculated to ward off evil and feed and strengthen man's spiritual part, clearly and rationally shown. Wherein it is seen by the Christian reason that they are indeed truly Divine ordinances, channels of grace and blessing, having a permanent and living connection with the Lord and the heavenly world. And lastly, what a reward to obedience is held out! Enough to beget and inspire effort and diligence to learn and know these heavenly truths, and then with God'? help to insure our steadfast faithfulness and perseverance unto the end. No church before has had such promises, no church before has had such helps placed within its reach, no church before has had given it such lofty assurance of hope. These words alone are worthy of more space than can be spared for this whole section, and yet their own divine simplicity far outweigh anything that could be added by human language. " Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the tem- ple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God : and I will write him my new name." " He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches." EMANUEL SWEDENBORG, THE SEEB. 257 XXXIV. Emanuel Swedenborg, the Seer. u r I ^HIS eminent servant of the Lord Jesus Christ was -L born at Stockholm, on the 29th of January, 1688, and departed this life on the 29th of March, 1772, in the 85th year of his age. "He was the son of Jasper Swedborg, Bishop of Skarra, in Sweden, and was educated in the most pious and affection- ate manner. He says of himself, that he was delighted, when a child, to hear his father and friends speak of God, faith, and salvation ; and his father says of him, that such were the pious and remarkable sayings of his son Emanuel, that they often thought angels spoke by his mouth. He was educated, and highly distinguished himself, at the University of Upsal, and was so much remarked for his extraordinary mathematical attainments that, in 1716, at the age of 28, he was offered the choice of a professorship, or the office of assessor, or superintendent extraordinary, of the Board of Mines, by the King of Sweden, Charles the Twelfth. He chose the latter, and, during the thirty- one years which he spent in that office, combined with his travels in every country of Europe, he acquired such a fund of learning as astonished and delighted all who admired and promoted philosophic study; and he was made a member of almost all the learned societies in Europe. During this -period he produced seven works on various scientific subjects, and, at length, his great work in three volumes, folio, entitled ' Opera Philosophica,' all written in Latin. He subsequently composed four other works, ( The Prodromus,' ' The Economy of the Anima] Kingdom,' ' The Animal Kingdom,' and ' On the Worship and Love of God.' In these works he forestalled many of the sublimest and grandest discoveries which have since immortalized the names of several of our greatest men. Ho anticipated Dalton in the atomic theory, Wollastou 258 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. in crystallography, Monro in the anatomy of the brain, Wilson in the character and vitality of the globules of the blood, and Gauss, Hansteen, Sabine, Humboldt, and others in the magnetic theory of the universe. He was the dis- coverer of the following sublime facts and doctrines : " 1. The precise situation of our sun, with its planetary system, in the starry universe to which it belongs. 2. The progressive advancement along the Milky Way, from west to east, of our sun with his spheres, and all the starry host of the visible heavens. "After having exhibited this wonderful excellence in natural knowledge, and holding a very high position in the very first ranks of philosophy, in 1743, when he was in his fifty-fifth year, his mind became gradually opened to perceive the objects of the spiritual world ; and during two years this state of development was going on, until it was completed in 1745, when the Lord himself appeared to him, and commissioned him to make known the science of correspondences, which explains the spiritual sense of His Word, and which he could fully perceive verified in heaven. He learned, also, the laws of the eternal world, and the true doctrines of the Word for the New Jerusa- lem. That such a state is possible, all the cases of those whose visions are recorded in the Bible prove. This state, which was that of a Seer, was continued during the rest of his life, that is, nearly thirty years. He had the constant privilege of seeing the inner, or spiritual world, as well as the outer, or natural world. He wrote, during this period, works in explanation of the spiritual sense of the Word of God, equal to twenty volumes; unfolding, sentence by sentence, the whole of Genesis, Exodus, and the book of Kevelation, and introducing and explaining so many passages from the rest of the Bible, as to open to the devout and spiritually-minded reader the interior sense of the whole Divine Word. "He wrote also his 'Treatise on Heaven, Hell, and the World of Spirits ; ' and in several of his other works he EMANUEL SWEDENBORG, THE SEER. 259 describes Ms experience derived from his acquaintance with the spirit life, giving a rational and harmonious account of it, and of the constitution and life of the human soul. Besides these, he composed works on Chris- tian Doctrine, from the Four leading Doctrines of the Lord, the Sacred Scripture, Faith, and Life for the New Jerusalem, to his last work, 'The True Christian Be- ligion/ These relieve the doctrines of Christianity from those oppositions to reason, which, hatched in the dark ages, have rendered religion, which should be the light and the hope of the soul, perplexing to all, and impossible to be embraced by millions of well-disposed thinking men. "Few, who know anything of his pure, truthful, pious life of his system, which is entirely an embodiment of truth and love and of his calm declaration on his death- bed, will imagine he was an impostor. His life, through his long career, is declared by a host of witnesses by all, in fact, who have testified to their knowledge of him to have been what Sandel, the nobleman who made the oration in his praise after his death in the Swedish House of Nobles, Oct. 7, 1772, said: ' Never did he allow himself to have recourse to dissimulation. He was the sincere friend of mankind; and in his examination of the char- acter of others, he was desirous to discover in them this virtue, which he regarded as an infallible proof of the presence of many more. He was cheerful and agreeable in society. He enjoyed the most excellent health, having scarcely ever experienced the slightest indisposition. Con- tent within himself and with his situation, his life was, in all respects, one of the happiest that ever fell to the lot of man, till the very moment of its close.' " The clergyman who attended Swedenborg during his last illness, the Rev. Mr. Ferelius, after having asked whether he thought he should die, and been answered by Swedenborg that he should, made a very solemn appeal to him to say if his writings were entirely true. Swedenborg raised himself in his bed, arid placing his hand on his 260 SKEPTICISM AND DIVINE REVELATION. breast, said, with great zeal and emphasis, ' As true as you see me before you, so true is everything I have written ; and I could have said more had I been permitted. When you come into eternity, you will see all things as I have stated and described them, and we shall have much to discourse about them, with each other.' He then took the Holy Supper, and presented the clergyman with a -copy of his 'Arcana Ccelestia.' This is not the life and death of a deceiver. His works, though so numerous, are con- sistent and harmonious throughout. His system is a grand whole every principle having its place, and the whole being complete, magnificent, and beautiful, beyond anything the world can elsewhere show. It is, at the same time, fully scriptural, and always in harmony with science; and, above all, the universe is seen to have been created, and to be sustained, by the infinite love, wisdom, and power of the Divine Man, the Lord Jesus Christ, who from eternity was the Father, in time for man's redemp- tion became the Son, and whose spirit is the Holy Spirit. This system gives a complete and rational account of the laws, life, and scenery of heaven the land of the blessed ; answering all our inquiries respecting our children, our departed friends, and the merciful arrangements of Divine Providence for their resurrection. It affords a plain and rational account also of hell, and shows it to be the result of unjust and unholy principles wrought out to their extremes of sin, folly, and misery. It informs us also of the intermediate state not purgatory, but the world of spirits, the land of judgment; the world, too, where the mistakes of ignorance and of false doctrines in religion are corrected ; so that our blessed Lord may, out of tha good of all religions, form one fold, with one Shepherd-^ a grand spiritual house with many mansions." 14 DAY USE RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED LOAN DEPT. This book is due on the last date stamped below, or on the date to which renewed. Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. RECTO -^ -oenr ;C-D LD NQV 5 LD 21A-50m-4,'GO (A9562slO)476B General Library University of California Berkeley YC134792 M75886 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY The List of Books on this page and the . allowing pagv cover, will be sent on receipt of price, postage prepaid, \.j E. J! : - SWINXEY, No. 20 Cooper Union, New York City. For new readers, it is suggested to select -front among SWEDE: BORG'S own works one or more of the following, viz. : Heaven and Its Wonders; The World of Spirits an! Hell. Frbm things seen and heard therein $1 2 The Divine Providence ....... 12* The True Christian Religion 25 The Apocalypse Revealed, 2 vols 3 CM Conjugal Love 1 2| Divine Love and Wisdom. 1 O f After the reading of the above, the student of these writings wil . be measura'J;* prepared for The Arcana Cycles! * a, 10 vol* A i per volume...*!' 5'j (The entire work may be pr^ ;i 1 at one time for..$l. .) ': is an expcblllc.: of the spirit ua^ sense of Gei sis ai, ; Exodus, and incidentally o: portions of the Prophets and -?saln^ I as well as other portions of th fe Word. The urst volume is an exposition of the first .eleven chapters' oi Genesis. The Four I ending Doctrine? -gl OC Tliis v/ork embraces the / Doctrine of the L