common language of men, and not in the correspondential language in which the letter of the Word is written.

On this it must be observed, in the first place, that correspondential language is not necessarily inspired; that all the books of the Most Ancient Church were written in the language of correspondences, and hence had an internal sense, and yet they were not inspired. On this subject we read as follows:

"The Most Ancient people represented to themselves heavenly and Divine things by the visible things on the earth and in the world, and they thus filled their minds and souls with delights and felicities in beholding the objects of the universe, especially such as were beautiful by form and order. All the books of the Church in those times were therefore written in this style. The Book of Job is of such a nature, and the Song of Solomon was written in imitation of them; besides many others that have been lost" (A. C. 1756).

Besides, we learn that whatever descends from the higher to the lower heavens assumes there a representative form. On this subject we read:

"With the angels in the inmost heavens are affections of good and of truth from the Lord which constitute their life and their blessedness. These are represented with infinite variety in the ultimate heaven by external forms which are innumerable. Whatever is exhibited to the eyes in that heaven is from that All these representatives correspond to the affections of good and truth, which are from the Lord in the higher heavens" (A. C. 10,276).

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Of the same nature and origin are the correspondences and representatives in the letter of the Sacred Scriptures, as appears from a continuation of the passage above quoted:

"All things which were instituted among the Israelitish people were similar to the things in the ultimate heaven, only in less perfection, because in the nature of the world; e.g. the tabernacle with the ark, the table with the loves of faces, the candlestick and its lamps, the altar of incense, the garments of Aaron and his sons, and afterwards the temple with its holy of holies, where was the ark with the mercy-seat and the cherubs, the brazen sea, the lavers, and so forth. In the ultimate heaven, however, there are innumerably more things, and in much greater excellence and perfection. Out of that heaven there were shown by the Lord to Moses in Mount Sinai those things which were to be instituted among the Israelitish people; yet Moses did not see them with the eyes of his body, but with those of his spirit. The representative Church was instituted in the land of Canaan especially on account of the Word, in order that this might be written by representatives and significatives; and thus by such things as were with that people in their Church and in their country; for all places in the land of Canaan, all the mountains and rivers there, from the most ancient times represented such things as are in the heavens; and afterwards the inheritances, the tribes, and the remaining things. The literal sense of the Old Testament was of such things, in order that there might be some ultimate basis, in which interior things might terminate, and on which they might rest as a dwelling upon its foundations."

From these sources were gathered the scientifics and the expressions of language in the minds of the prophets with which Divine Truth clothed itself, when it descended into their minds from the Lord, and when they wrote from the Lord the letter of the Old Testament. This is further shown in the Adversaria, where we read as follows:

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"When an angel inspires or breathes words into a prophet, or into those by whom the words of inspiration are pronounced, he is only in spiritual things; but

when he acts upon the mind of him who is inspired, he excites there a thought which in the usual mode falls into human expressions. These expressions are such as are in the prophet, thus they are in accordance with the comprehension and in accordance with the form peculiar to him. This is the reason why the style of the prophets is so various, and why it is with every one who is inspired according to the analytical form of his thought, as it was acquired beforehand. Nevertheless, I am able to declare in the most solemn manner, that with him who is inspired there is not the least thing in any expression, not even an iota, which is not inspired, although it is varied a little according to the gift and endowment of him who utters the inspiration; yet so, that even then there is not an iota that is not inspired" (iii. 6965).

From what precedes it follows that it is a general law of heaven that when Divine Truth descends from the highest to the lowest parts of heaven, in these lowest parts it is expressed by representatives and correspondences such as are in the letter of the Sacred Scripture. This Divine law of order the Lord also observed when through the instrumentality of angels or good spirits in the ultimate parts of heaven He breathed or inspired Divine Truth into the mind of a prophet on earth. By the angel, therefore, of whom we read in the above passage that "he inspired or breathed words into a prophet " are here meant good spirits in the ultimate parts of heaven whom "the Lord filled with His aspect," when "He inspired the words which they dictated to the prophets" (see H. H. 254). The Lord's Divine Truth, before it reached these spirits, passed through the two higher heavens, where it became Divine Truth celestial and Divine Truth spiritual, but in the minds of these spirits it put on the form of Divine Truth natural, and this Divine Truth natural was dictated by them, or else it was “breathed" by them, into the prophets under the conditions specified above. Hence also there are various senses in the letter of the Word of God as written by the prophets, as is taught in the following:

"The Word which was dictated from the Lord passed through the heavens of His celestial and through the heavens of His spiritual kingdom, and thus came to man by whom it was written; wherefore the Word in its first origin is purely Divine. This, by passing through the heavens of the Lord's celestial kingdom, became the Divine celestial, and by passing through the heavens of the Lord's spiritual kingdom it became the Divine spiritual, and when it came to man it became the Divine natural; and hence it is that the natural sense of the Word contains within it the spiritual sense, and this the celestial sense, and both a purely Divine sense, which does not appear to any man, nor to any angel" (A. R. 959).

From the fact, however, that the celestial and spiritual senses of the Word, on passing through the ultimate or natural heaven, were clothed there with a natural sense consisting of representatives and correspondences, it follows that these representatives and correspondences were added in that heaven; that therefore the celestial and spiritual senses, considered in themselves, do not again consist of correspondences and representatives such as are exhibited in the letter of the Word. This is proved by the following passages :

"The spiritual and celestial senses of the Word are evolved out of the natural sense of the Word, when man who considers the Word holy, reads it. This evolution is instantaneous " (T. C. R. 234).

"The spiritual or internal sense of the Word is nothing else than the sense of the letter evolved according to correspondences; for the spiritual sense teaches what is perceived by the angels in heaven, while man in the world thinks of what he reads in the Word in a natural manner (De Verbo, posthumous, No. 7).

"When man reads the Word, the spiritual sense, and not the sense of the letter, is communicated therefore the angels do not know that this comes from man; it appears to them as if they thought of themselves such things as are interiorly in the Word" (Ibid. No. 18).

"The angels have no other than a spiritual idea, and into this the historical sense with them is changed. Angelic thoughts thus correspond to human thoughts. Such perpetual correspondences cause the Word to be holy and Divine; for the literal sense by ascent thus becomes spiritual, and this ascent takes place even to the Lord, where it becomes Divine" (A. C. 4373).

Again we read, that "the quality of the Word in the heavens is known only from the internal sense; for the internal sense is the Lord's Word in heaven (A. C. 1887).

From all this it follows that when the Word of God ascends from man to the angels of the higher heavens the correspondences and representatives of the natural sense are left behind in the lower parts of heaven, and the pure spiritual sense is seen by the angels. The pure spiritual sense, however, is doctrine; even as we read in A. C. 9410, The true doctrine of the Word is the internal of the Word;" and again in A. C. 10,276, "The very doctrine from the Word is taught by the internal sense, and he who knows that doctrine has the internal sense." But if the internal sense teaches the doctrine contained in the representatives and correspondences of the letter, that sense cannot again be expressed in similar representatives and correspondences.

This is an important point to be considered; for if the mission of Swedenborg consisted in revealing to mankind from the Lord the doctrines of the spiritual sense, and hence the spiritual sense of the Word itself (see T. C. R. 780); and if the spiritual sense, after it has been evolved out of the representatives and correspondences of the letter, is not again expressed in heaven by similar representatives and correspondences, it cannot be expected that Swedenborg on communicating the doctrines of the internal sense to mankind should have done so in representative and correspondential language, that therefore his language should have again contained a natural, a spiritual and a celestial sense.

That doctrinal language, however, cannot again consist of representatives and correspondences, Swedenborg distinctly stated in a letter to Dr. Beyer, where he says: "The style of the Word consists altogether of correspondences, wherefore it is effective of immediate communication with heaven; but in doctrinal writings there is a different style, which has indeed communication with heaven, but mediately" (see Documents concerning Swedenborg, vol. ii. p. 240).

This statement Swedenborg makes in connection with the doctrinal writings of the apostles, whence might be inferred that he himself places his writings in the same category with those of the apostles. They are in the same category as far as their external form is concerned; but with respect to their internal character they are as differ

ent from them, as what is Divine is different from what is human. For Swedenborg distinctly declares that the Lord effected His Second Coming in and through his doctrinal writings; wherefore he claims a Divine and not a merely human authority for them'; but he claims no such authority for the writings of the apostles. In order to sustain such a claim it would have to be proved that, as the Lord effected His Second Coming through the instrumentality of Swedenborg, He effected His First Coming through the instrumentality of the doctrinal writings of the apostles. Yet no such claim is advanced either by Swedenborg or the apostles.

Swedenborg himself says on this subject,

"They (i.e. the apostolic writings) were written by the apostles, that the New Christian Church might be commenced through them; wherefore matters of doctrine could not be written in the style of the Word, but they had to be expressed in such a manner as to be understood more clearly and intimately. The writings of the apostles are nevertheless good books of the Church, insisting upon the doctrine of charity and its faith as strongly as the Lord Himself has done in the Gospels and the Book of Revelation; as may be seen and found evident by every one who in reading them directs his attention to these points." (Ibid. p. 241.)

There is, however, a great difference between "good books of the Church" and those writings on which Swedenborg was commanded to write by the Lord: "This book is the Lord's Advent, written by command."

I do not hesitate at all to admit that the apostles, while writing their epistles, were led to some extent by the Lord. Swedenborg even distinctly admits this in the Adversaria, iii. 3811, where he says, "Man's understanding was led by God Messiah Himself, as in the case of the Apostle Paul and several others who tried by a true philosophy to convince the rest;" yet there cannot be any doubt at all that in Paul's epistles what he received from the Lord was alloyed and mixed up with his own ideas. This he himself distinctly admits in his First Epistle to the Corinthians (vii. 6, 10, 12.) Yet no aeknowledgment like this ever proceeded from Swedenborg. On the contrary he asserts over and over again that what he wrote came from the Lord alone, and from no finite being, whether angel or man (see T. C. R. 779; D. P. 135, 290; A. R. Preface; A. E. 1183; S. D. 1647). Such are some of the arguments which arise when we take into consideration the doctrinal character of Swedenborg's writings, and the difference between his language and that of the letter of the Word of God. Yet there are other reasons also why Swedenborg should have expressed the doctrines of the internal sense, and hence the internal sense of Scripture itself, in the common language of men, and not in the correspondential language of the letter of the Word. in order to communicate to men the teachings of the internal sense of the Word, the Lord, so to say, introduced Swedenborg bodily into the spiritual and celestial heavens; for Swedenborg while in these heavens was there as a man, and not as a spirit, and hence he used there his own vernacular tongue, and not the spiritual language of

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the angels (see C. L. 326; T. C. R. 280; compare also S. D. 2137, 2309; and H. H. 246). Whatever instruction therefore he received from the Lord in the spiritual world was impressed upon his natural consciousness, and was clothed there with the natural images and the natural expressions used by men; so that when he awoke in the natural world, he was able to write down for their benefit both what he had heard and seen in the spiritual world. In this same state Swedenborg continued when the Lord revealed to his internal consciousness the doctrines of the spiritual and celestial senses of the Divine Word, and when he prepared them for the press. Wherefore in the theological writings of Emanuel Swedenborg we have the doctrines of the celestial and spiritual senses of the Word, and hence the wisdom of the angels of heaven so far as it could be expressed by the Lord Himself, through the instrumentality of Swedenborg, in the natural language of men.

The difference between the external inspiration of the prophets and that of Swedenborg is therefore this, that the former received the fulness of the Divine Truth, after this. had passed through the celestial and spiritual heavens, and had in the ultimate parts of heaven been clothed with a representative and correspondential garb; wherefore in the letter of the Word, as written by the prophets, there is first the Divine, then the celestial and the spiritual, and finally the natural or literal sense; while Swedenborg received from the Lord Divine Truth, and thus the celestial and spiritual senses of the Word of God, before these had passed through the ultimate parts of heaven, and thus before they had been clothed there with correspondences; wherefore the doctrine of the internal sense as contained in Swedenborg's theological writings is expressed there not in correspondential, but in the common language of men.

SWEDENBORG'S FINITENESS AND PROGRESSION.

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In the second part of his paper the writer states (p. 248), that “ Swedenborg acquired a knowledge of the literal sense of the Word gradually, so did he acquire a perception of its spiritual sense gradually;" and he intimates that Swedenborg's illumination "had no limit but that which was set to it by the number and capacity of the scientific vessels in the natural mind into which it flowed."

I fully agree with the writer in this course of reasoning; that is, I fully admit that Swedenborg "acquired a perception of the spiritual sense of the Word very gradually ;" and further, that his perception of the internal sense depended upon the state of knowledges or of "scientific vessels " in his natural mind. In fact, a considerable portion of my work entitled Authority in the New Church (pp. 121-131) is devoted to the establishment of this very principle. Yet from the fact that the extent of Swedenborg's perception depended upon the state of knowledges in his natural mind, it does not follow by any means that the state of his knowledges prevented the Lord from making His Second Advent in and by means of those works which,