Sermons On The Word
(Part 2)
|
“They who regard the causes of things from external and earthly
things, cannot otherwise perceive than that the Truth from the Divine is only
a cogitative something of no real essence, but it is the verimost Essential,
from which are all the essences of things in each world, namely, in the
spiritual and natural worlds". A.C. 8200.
Since the Writings are a Revelation of Divine Truth, and Divine Truth
is "the verimost reality in the universe", "the
verimost Essential from which are all essences of things", it
must be evident that they must be a revelation of the Lord and thus of His
Word, for He alone could be called "the verimost Reality in
the universe, or the verimost Essential from which are all essences of things".
“And because Divine Truth proceeding from the Lord is light in heaven,
and Divine Good is heat in heaven, and because from those all things there
exist, and because through heaven or through the spiritual world the natural
world exists, it is evident that all things which are created, are created
from Divine Truth thus from 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... And by it all things were made which were made... And the Word was made flesh', 1 : 1-3, 14",
H.D. 263.
As to be created signifies to be regenerated, we see that regeneration
is always effected by means of Divine Truth, and that it is for that purpose
that Divine Truth is revealed. It is for no other purpose that Divine Truths
have been revealed to the New Church. The Lord in the Writings has come as Divine Truth to
regenerate or create those who will be of the New Church. To come as Divine Truth is to come as God and it is
thus that we must acknowledge the
Lord to be the only God, by receiving Divine Truth from no other source, and
by receiving all Divine Truth
as the Lord Himself or His Word, for we must acknowledge that the lord is
God and that, God is the Word. (42) How can we acknowledge the Lord to be the
only God, that is, to be the only Divine Truth,
if we acknowledge a Revelation of Truth which we do not regard as the Lord? By regenerating or creating man, the Lord
conjoins him to heaven. The Word does not conjoin us to heaven otherwise. The
Lord is present with us in each form of His Word, but we are not thereby
conjoined to heaven, unless we receive the contents of the Word into our
lives, and the contents thereof are the things of the spiritual sense. Hence
we are taught: "That
conjunction of the Lord with man is through the Word, by means of the internal
sense", H.D. 263. For the internal sense is relatively the
Divine Truth, while the external sense is relatively only the covering
thereof. Thus the internal sense is preeminently Divine Truth, and Divine
Truth is God, and God is the Word. "The
Lord speaks with the man of the Church no otherwise than through the
Word". A.C. 10290. Conjunction of the Lord and man being
effected, as we have seen, by means of the internal sense, therefore it must
be by the same means that the Lord speaks to the man of the Church, for the
man of the Church is one who is being regenerated. As long as man only sees
the mere external of the Word he cannot be regenerated. In pro-portion as man
progresses in regeneration the more fully does the Lord speak to him by means
of the internal sense, and the less is the merely external sense attended to. Thus we learn that it is God, thus Divine
Truth, which is the Word; that it is therefore that which is interiorly in
the forms of the Word which is really the Word and which gives all the holiness
and power to those forms. Let us look therefore to the Lord as God within the
form of the Word, for God or the Divine Truth there is the Word; and let us
try to remember something of what is involved in the doctrine that the Lord
is the only God of heaven and of earth. (43)
“The Egyptians (here represent) those who are in inverse order ... the Hebrews those who are in genuine order”, A.C. 5701.
The Lord Himself is the bread of life, which bread is offered to us in
His Word. To eat is to appropriate. To appropriate, by application to our own
lives, that which the Lord teaches, is the only means of coming into,
genuine order. Until we do that we are in inverse order. Those who study what
the Lord teaches in order that they may be led into genuine order, and those
who do not study what He teaches for that end, cannot effectively study
together, they cannot cooperate in the endeavour to appropriate what the Lord
teaches, they cannot eat bread together. For to eat with those who are seeking
to be led into genuine order is an abomination to, those who are
not so seeking. Both may indeed appear to be seeking the appropriation
of the same thing — both may diligently read what the Lord has revealed; but
while the first seeks to appropriate instruction in, the altogether new
things of the Lord's Kingdom, the others seek only to appropriate
confirmation of those things which they naturally believe to be good and
true. .Hence the latter are seeking to confirm and to hold 1'nsi, to that
which the former are seeking to be led away from. "Thus this
opposition between them, hence the aversion and at length abomination",
A.C. 5702. Thus the aversion to the Word does not appear to be aversion., until it comes to the question of carrying out what is there taught. The aversion is to being really led by the Word. This aversion is often in this wordly associated with great apparent regard for The Word. It is only in the other world that the external attitude always manifests what the internal attitude really is. (44)
There, all those who have opposed the reception of the genuine
teaching of the Word into their own lives, openly oppose the Word, contemn it
and even blaspheme it. Some-times this state
is manifested in the life of the body; but often it is not, although it is
really there, unrecognized perhaps even by themselves. Of the different
classes of these in the World of Spirits the Writings thus speak:
“There are those who in the life of the body contemned the Word; and
there are those who have abused the things which are in the Word as
ridiculous formula; there are those who have considered the Word to be
nothing, but to he able to serve for the vulgar that they may be held in a
certain bond; there are those who have blasphemed the Word; there are those
who have profaned it. The lot of these in the other life is miserable — the
lot of each is according to, the quality and degree of
their contempt, ridicule, blasphemy and profanation; for, as has been said,
the Word is so holy in the heavens, that to them the Word, is at it were,
heaven, wherefore, because there is given communion of all thoughts, they can
never be together but are separated”, A.C. 1878.
Hence in the other world we cannot be together with those who regard
the Word as holy, if we confirm ourselves in opposition to the things which
are in the Word, which are the things of the internal sense. It
is by our attitude to the substance of the Word that we will be judged. In
the professed New Church, when anything of the substance of the Word is
opposed, it is generally at the same time denied that it is in the form of
the Word which they profess to revere. But to revere the forms, while the
substance is op-posed will count for nothing in the, spiritual world, where
the realities of our states are manifested. It will be wise for us therefore
to continually bear in mind that our professed acknowledgment of the Word as
it has come to us in the New Church, will in no wise save us, if we have
1wactically rejected the reception of the substance thereof into our minds —
if the things taught in the Writings when regarded as matter for application
to life, have been regarded as of no importance in that respect. To regard
their application as of no importance, is really to contemn the Word and so
far to reject it, and thereby to make it impossible for us to be together
with the angels, impossible for us to eat bread with
them, for we thus treat the kind of eating bread which takes place with them
as an abomination. This takes place so far as we are averse to appropriating
into the practice of our own lives the new things taught in the Writings. The
root of the aversion is always because we love our present practices better
and are unwilling to give them up. (45) |
|
|
That they reject and blaspheme the
Word who refuse to receive its teaching into their will is thus shown: “It is allowed to say in a few words
how it has itself with blasphemy of Truth Divine. Truth Divine is the Word, and
it is Doctrine from the Word. They who deny these in heart, they blaspheme,
even if they praise and preach it with the mouth. Blasphemy lies hidden in
the denial (namely the denial of the heart which is rejection by the will)
which also breaks forth, when, left to themselves they think, especially in
the other life, for there, externals being removed, hearts speak. They who
blaspheme or deny the Word, they can receive nothing of the truth and good of
faith, for the Word teaches that the Lord is, that heaven and hell are, that
the life after death is, that faith and charity are, and many other things,
which would altogether be not known without the Word or Revelation. Wherefore
they who deny the Word cannot receive anything that the Lord teaches, for when
they read it, or hear it, what is negative occurs, which either extinguishes
the truth or turns it into what is false. Wherefore the first of all things
with the man of the Church is to believe the Word, and this is the primary
with him who is in the truth of faith and in the good of charity; but with
those who are in the evils of the loves of self and the world the primary
thing is not to believe the Word, for they immediately reject it when they
think concerning it and also blaspheme it. If men saw how many and of what
quality were the blasphemies against the Word with those who are in the evils
of those loves, they would be horrified. The man himself while he is in the
world does not know it, because they are hidden behind the ideas of the
active thought which goes into his speech with Inch,
but still they are revealed in the other
life and appear horrible” A.C. 9222. (46) As "the first of all things with the man of
the Church is to believe the Word", it must be of the
greatest importance to know what books constitute and contain the Word and
what books do not, for it is impossible to reject any part of the Word
without rejecting the whole. Anyone who confirms himself in the rejection of
the Writings, rejects the Word Itself, whatever may appear even to himself to
be his attitude towards other forms of the Word. As the Writings set forth
and teach the internal truths of the Word and constitute as it were, the
table at which the Lord in His New Advent invites us to sup, and there eat of
the Bread of Life which is Himself, it is evident that those who are
satisfied to cling to the inverse order in which they naturally are, cannot
eat bread there together with those who are endeavouring thereby to receive
genuine order — The Egyptians cannot eat
bread with the Hebrews, because that is an abomination to the Egyptians. “They who contemn and deride the Word in the letter, and
more the things which are there in the higher sense, consequently also the
Doctrinals which are from the Word, and at the same time are in no love
toward the neighbour, but in the love of self, they refer to the corrupt
things of the blood which pervade all the veins and arteries, and contaminate
the whole mass. Lest they should introduce any such thing into man by their
presence, they are held separated from others in their own hell, and only
communicate with those who are such, for these cast themselves into the
breath and sphere of that hell”, A.C. 5719. From this we see that those who contemn the Word,
especially the things which are in its higher sense, there-by cast themselves
into the sphere of devils who are held in their own evil separate from other
devils so that they can injure no one but those who by taking such an attitude
towards the Word descend to them. It is as necessary that they should be
separated from others, as it is that corrupt things should be separated from
the blood — for other-wise the whole mass would be contaminated. If they
re-main there they turn all the nourishments received to promoting their own
growth; and thus that part which is in an orderly condition is starved mid
weakened and thus soon overcome. So must it be with those who are seeking to
have the practice of their lives formed from the Writings; their study, in
order to be effective must be pursued separately
from those who have no interest in the application of the teaching thereof to
their own lives, otherwise it will become corrupted as everything does that
is with-drawn from its proper use. The blood that circulates in the body of the
Church must have such constituents separated from it. If the blood is in a
healthy condition such constituents do get separated. Indeed it will not
stop where there is nothing congenial to it. So neither will those who
practically reject the Word as it is given to the New Church, remain with
those who try to study them for the sake of application to their own lives,
so that their naturally inverse order may be turned into genuine order. This
proceeding is necessarily altogether regarded with aversion by those who
cling to their inverse order as the very good of life. The Egyptians
cannot cal bread with the Hebrews, because that is an abomination to the
Egyptians. (47) That there is this antipathy to eating together is of
benefit to those represented by the Egyptians as well as to those represented
by the Hebrews. For while the Hebrews are thus relieved from
infestation, the Egyptians are less liable to commit profanation, for in case
they associated with the Hebrews they would be likely to learn more truths
than they otherwise would, and use these truths to confirm their old
principles. “He who confirms false principles, he grasps
the prior principle, from which he is never
willing to recede, or to remit the least thing, but he rakes together and
accumulates confirming things wherever he can, thus also from the Word, even
until he so persuades himself' that he cannot any more see the truth”, A.C.
589. It is therefore better that they should
be allowed to neglect the study of the Word, than that they should make such
use of it. It is therefore for the best to both sides that they have such
aversion for those who study the Word for the sake of life according
to it, and even hold their principles in abomination. “As concerns this
abomination it is to be known that they who are in inverse order, that is, in
evil and thence the false, are at length so averse to the good and truth of
the Church, that when they hear it, and more when they hear the interiors of
them, they abominate them to that degree, that they feel with themselves as
it were nausea and vomiting. This has been said and shown to me, when I
wondered that the Christian world does not receive these interiors of the
Word. There appeared spirits from the Christian world, and they were compelled
to hear the interiors of the Word, they were seized with such nausea that
they said they felt as it were an itching and vomiting in themselves. And it
was said that such is the Christian world at this day almost everywhere",
A.C. 5702. (48) |
|
|
“That it is such, the cause is
that they are in no affection of truth for the sake of truth, still less in
the affection of good from good. That they think and speak any-thing from the
Word or from their doctrinal is from habit from infancy and from instituted
usage, thus it is the external without the internal”, A.C. 5702. It is no wonder that the plain presentation of the interior teachings of the Word invariably leads to opposition and division. The Egyptians cannot eat bread with the Hebrews. The Lord has to keep the Hebrews separate from the Egyptians in order that. He may ultimately lead them out of Egypt to the land of Canaan. “That all things which were of the Hebrew
Church which was afterwards instituted with the posterity of Jacob were
abomination to the Egyptians, is evident not only from this, that
they were not willing even to eat with them, but also that the sacrifices in
which the Hebrew Church placed their principal worship were abomination to
them, as is evident in Moses: ‘Pharaoh said, Go, sacrifice in. the land, but Moses
said, It is not well considered to do so, because we will sacrifice
the abomination of the Egyptians to Jehovah our God; behold if we sacrifice
the abomination of the Egyptians in their eyes, will they not stone us?’, Ex.
8 : 21, 22, [26]. Also that feeding cattle and a shepherd, were abomination
to them, as also is evident in Moses: ‘An abomination of the Egyptians is
every shepherd of a flock’, Gen. 46 : 34. Thus whatsoever things were of
that Church the Egyptians abominated. The cause was that at first the
Egyptians were also among those who constituted the Representative Ancient
Church; but afterwards they rejected the God of the Ancient Church, that is
Jehovah or the Lord, and served idols, especially ca1ves; also the very
representatives and significatives of celestial and spiritual things, which
they derived when they were of that Church, they turned into magical things.
Hence they had inverse order, and abomination for all the things which are of
the Church", A.C. 5702. (49) Here we see that
both the Egyptians and the Hebrews were descended from the Ancient Church,
which was then the prior or Old Church, but the Egyptians represented those
who were led by their own intelligence; the Hebrews those who were led by the
Lord. In this world there are always two classes, and there can never be
anything but opposition between them. Those who are led by themselves cannot
eat bread with those who are really trying in a practical way to be led by
the Lord, for that is an abomination to them. Swedenborg as the
instrument by means of which the interiors of the Word have been revealed was
allowed to experience the hostility of such spirits to the interiors of the
Word, with which his mind was stored, and his experience has been recorded
fur cur instruction thus: “When I was in bed,
it was said to me, that evil spirits conspired against me, with the mind of
suffocating me, but because I was safe and secure from the Lord I diffused
those threats and went to sleep, but in the middle of the night I awoke, I
felt that I did not respire from myself but, from heaven, for there was
nothing of my respiration, which I manifestly perceived. It was then said
that the conspiracy was present, and it was said that they were those who
have the interiors of the Word in hatred, that is, the very truths of faith,
for these are the interiors of the Word, and this because they are against
their fallacies, persuasions, and cupidities, with which they could defend
the sense of the letter. Afterwards the leaders when their endeavor was
vainly made, tried to enter into the viscera of my body, and to penetrate
even to the heart, to which also they were admitted which was always
perceived with manifest sense, for he to whom the interiors which are of the
spirit are opened, also receives at the same time a sensitive perception of
such things. But then I was admitted into a certain heavenly state, which
was, that I endeavored nothing to repel those strangers, still
less to revenge the injury; they said then that it was pacific; but
immediately they were as if deprived of the rationality, breathing revenge,
and endeavoring to perfect their endeavors, but in vain. Afterwards they were
dissipated by themselves", A.C. 1879. Such is the end of
all attacks upon the interiors of the Word. Such is the result that can
always be looked for by those who confidently stand by the interior truths of
the Word, their opponents will attack, will, at their non-success, become
deprived of even that rationality which they have, and finally will dissipate
themselves. In the meantime all we have to do is to stand firm in our trust
in the Lord as He is manifested in the interior truths given to the New
Church — those who are averse to those principles, those who are unable to
eat bread with us, and even hold it in abomination, will always dissipate
them-selves as soon as it is best they should do so. If we would be of those
who suffer themselves to be led into genuine order by the Lord, we must
accept such division as a necessity of that order, just as we have to accept
the eternal division between heaven and hell. The Egyptians cannot eat bread with the Hebrews, because that is an
abomination to the Egyptians. (50) |
|
|
“ ‘Word’ in a general sense signifies an enunciation of the mouth or
speech; and because speech is the thought of the mind enunciated by sounds,
therefore, `Word' signifies the thing which is thought;
hence everything which really exists and is anything, in the original
language is called a word; but in an eminent sense the Word is Divine Truth, from the
cause that everyth and by the breath of
His mouth all their hosts", Ps. 33 : 6, where the
Word of Jehovah is the Divine Truth proceeding from the Lord; the breath of the mouth of Jehovah is life thence; the heavens thence made, and all their hosts are the angels so far as they are receptions
of the Divine Truth. That the heavens are angels is because they constitute
heaven; and because angels are receptions of Divine Truth, therefore by
angels in an abstract sense are signified the Divine Truths which are from
the Lord; and the hosts of the heavens in the same sense are Divine Truths.
Hence it can appear what is signified by the Word in John: `In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word; all
things were made by Him, and without Hint nothing was made that was made:
and the Word was made flesh and dwelt in
us, and we saw His glory',
1 : 1, 3, 14. That the Lord is here understood by the Word is evident, for it is said
that the Word was made flesh. That
the Lord is the Word is because the Lord when He was in the world, was the
Divine Truth Itself, and when He went from the world Divine Truth proceeded
from Himself. That the Word in the supreme sense is the Lord as to Divine
Truth, or what is the same, that the Word is the Divine Truth proceeding from
the Lord, appears from many places, as in David: `They
cried to Jehovah, and He sent his Word and healed them', Ps. 107 : 20. In John: `The
Word of the Father ye have not remaining in you, because ye believe not in
Him whom He sent, neither will ye come to Me that ye may have life', 5 : 38, 40. In
the same: `I have given them Thy Word, therefore the world hath them
in hatred: sanctify them in Thy Truth, Thy Word is Truth', 17 : 14, 17. And in the Apocalypse: `He sitting upon the White Horse was clothed with
a vesture tinged with blood, and His Name is called the Word of God, and He
had upon His vestment and upon His thigh a Name written King of Icings and
Lord of lords', 19 :
13, 16. From these and other
places it appears that Divine Truth proceeding from the Lord is the Word, and in the
supreme sense the Lord as to Divine Truth, for it is said that the name of
the One sitting upon the white horse is the Word of God, and that He is the
King of kings and the Lord of lords; and because the Word is the Divine Truth
therefore it is said that He was clothed with a vesture tinged with blood,
for by `vesture' is signified truth, and by `blood' truth from good.... Hence it is that every Truth
which is from the Divine is called the Word", A.C. 9987. (51) In this passage there is brought
before us what the expression "the Word" means in three senses, in a general sense, in an eminent sense,
and in the supreme sense. In a
general sense it signifies “Everything which really exists”, especially a "thing which is thought" and enunciated by the
mouth or speech. In an
eminent sense it signifies Divine Truth,
namely, “every Truth which is from the Divine”. In
the supreme sense it signifies “the Lord as to Divine Truths”. In confirmation of what is taught
concerning the signification of the expression “the Word” in a general sense
that it is everything which really exists it may he noted that the Hebrew
expression “That ‘words’ in the original language
also signify things, is because ‘words’ in the internal sense signify truths
of doctrine, wherefore every Divine Truth in general is called the
Word", A.C. 5075. “And the Lord Himself, from whom is
every Divine Truth, is, in the supreme sense, the Word; and because nothing
that exists in the universe, is anything, that is, is a
fling, unless it is from the Divine Good by the Divine Truth, therefore `words' in the Hebrew language are also things”, A.C.
5075. Some make a wide
distinction between the Word and Doctrine from the Word; but the expression
translated "Word" also signifies doctrine or what is the same,
teaching, as is shown in the following passage: (52) “That ‘the Word’ signifies all doctrine concerning charity
and faith thence, and that `words' signify those things which are
of doctrine appears in David: `I will
confess to Thee in rectitude of heart in my learning the judgments of Thy
justice: I will keep Thy statutes: in what shall a young man render his path,
pure, in guarding according to Thy Word: iii my whole heart I have sought
Thee, make me not to wander from Thy precepts: in my heart I have hidden Thy Word,
that I may not sin to Thee: Blessed art Thou Jehovah, teach me Thy
statutes, with my lips I have declared all the judgments of Thy mouth: in the way of Thy testimonies I hare
rejoiced: in thy commandments I meditate; and I will regard Thy ways; in Thy
statutes I am delighted, I do not forget Thy Word', Ps. 119 : 6—17. The Word
for doctrine, in general; that there are distinguished
these, precepts, judgments, testimonies, commandments, statutes,
way, lips, is evident, all which things are of the Word or of
Doctrine, also elsewhere in the Word those things everywhere signify distinct
things”, A.C. 1288. From this it is evident that every Doctrine from the Divine
is called the Word, just as every Truth from the Divine is. Again the Ten Commandments are called
the ten words, because those commandments are the Word in complex — a summary
presentation of the whole. “ ‘Ten words’ that it signifies all the
Divine Truths therein, appears from the signification of ten, that they are
all, and from the signification of ‘words’, that they are Divine Truths,
hence it is that the precepts on those tables were ten in number”, A.C. 10688. All the truths therein,
are all the truths of the spiritual sense, these are the particulars of the
Word, which particulars taken together are necessarily the Word. The signification of words as things
and of the Word as Revelation is strikingly shown in the explanation of the
statement concerning Abraham, that after these words the Word of Jehovah
was made to Abraham in a vision, which, we are taught, “signifies that
after combats in childhood there was revelation, appears from the signification
of words, also of the Word of Jehovah to Abraham, as also from the
signification of a vision. By `words' in the Hebrew language
are signified things, here things accomplished which are combats of the Lord's
temptations. The Word of Jehovah to Abraham, is no other than the Word of the
Lord with him; but in childhood, and in the combats of temptations, when the
Essences were not yet united as one, it could not otherwise appear than as a
revelation”, A.C. 1785. (53) |
|
|
Here the Word made to Abraham is Revelation made to Him or rather to
the Lord's Human as it was being glorified. It therefore also
applies in a similar way to man's regeneration, the Word made to
the regenerating man, is the Revelation from the Lord by means of which man
is regenerated. That this revelation with us is the Writings is evident from
this, that unless the Lord had come in the Divine Truths there revealed no
one of us could have been saved. If we are saved therefore it must be by
means of them. But no one can be saved, that is regenerated, that is created,
except by the Word, for without the Word, nothing was
ever made that was made, nor ever can be.
“As concerns the Word, in the original language thing is expressed by
Word; hence also Divine Revelation is called the Word and also the Lord in a
supreme sense”, A.C. 5272. “And by the Word when it is predicated concerning the Lord,
and also concerning Revelation from Him, in the proximate sense is signified
Divine Truth, from which all things which are things exist. That all things
which are things, have existed and exist by the Divine Truth which is from
the Lord, thus by the Word, is an arcanum which has not yet been disclosed. It is believed that by that is understood
that all things were created by that God said and commanded like a king in
his kingdom; but this is not understood by that all things were made and
created by the Word, but it is the Divine Truth which proceeds from the
Divine Good, that is, which proceeds from the Lord from whom all things have
existed and exist. Divine Truth proceeding from the Lord is the verimost
reality and the verimost essential that is in the universe, this makes and
creates. Concerning the Divine Truth scarcely anyone has outer idea than as
concerning a word which flows from the mouth of one speaking and is
dissipated in the air. This idea concerning Divine Truth produces that,
opinion that by the Word is understood only a mandate, and then all things
were made only From what was commanded, thus not from anything real which
has proceeded from the Divine of Lord. But, as said: Divine Truth proceeding
from the Lord is the verimost reality and essential from which all things are
forms of good and truth are from (54)
The Divine Truth is not some vague and mysterious thing supposed In he
floating in the atmosphere; but it is revealed to its in visible and definite forms, from
which we can, if we will, let n in recognize it as the
verimost reality in the universe. It is in a revelation of Divine Truth that
the lord has come to save all who will receive Him. That Revelation, because the Lord
has come in it, is a most real manifestation of Divine Truth. It is not
merely some-thing about the Word, but is the very fuluess of the Word,
whereby the previous forms of the Word may be infilled in our minds. Only by
means of that Revelation can any real or permanent Church be formed, thus no otherwise can
the New Church be formed, for no other Church has been permanent.
“The Glory of Jehovah will be revealed and they will see.... A
voice saith: cry; and he said: what shall I cry? All flesh is grass and all
its holiness as the flower of the field, the grass hath withered and the
flower fallen, because the wind of Jehovah bloweth upon it: truly the people
is grass. The grass hath withered, the flower hath fallen; but the Word of
our God will stand into eternity. These words are concerning
the Advent of the Lord, and then concerning revelation of Divine Truth from
Him which is understood by the
glory of Jehovah will be revealed and
they will see. That then there will not
be with men any scientific truth nor any spiritual truth, is signified by
that all flesh is grass, all holiness as the flower of the field. Grass is
scientific truth, the flower of the field is spiritual truth. That
man is such is understood by all flesh is grass, and by truly the
people is grass,
the grass hath withered; all
flesh is every man, people are they who
were in truths, now in falses”, A.E. 507. Such was the state
of the world at the Lord's Advent; such is the state of the world, except so far as the
Word has been acknowledged and received as it has now come scientific
truth as well as spiritual truth has been falsified — as have all the truths
of previous Revelations, and therefore the Churches formed from them have
each in turn perished. The grass hath withered: the flower hath fallen. Now
first is there being established a Church which will last for ever, because
now the Word has been revealed in the fulness of its glory. Never again will
there cease to be a Church receiving it in its integrity. The Word of our
God will stand for ever. “By ‘green grass’ in the Word is signified that good and
truth of the Church or of faith is first Dorn in the natural man”, A.R. 401. (55) |
|
|
In regeneration certain preparatory and transient states precede the permanent states resulting from regeneration, just as various transient Churches had to precede the New Church, just as the natural Christian Church suck as was Christian in name only, had In precede the establishment of the spiritual or true Christian Church; and just as in the New Church itself, it to is comparatively natural in its beginning, and appears in a form which is transient and has to be succeeded by that which is genuine. The good and truth of the Church first implanted the natural man is as the green grass which has withered. Green grass is indeed scientific truth; but is truth from a spiritual origin; even as was the truth of the previous Christian Church; even as has been the truth in the early states of the New church. But because it ceased to be conjoined to life according to it, it has withered. When there is faith without charity there is no grass, but only sand, and foolish is the man who builds thereon. But grass prepares the ground for higher forms of vegetation. If the knowledges of truth which we have received, comparatively meagre as they may be, are conjoined to life according to them, we will have receptacles in our mind for the truth and good which cone from heaven. But from that purpose the scientifics in our mind must have a spiritual origin, and they must be conjoined to life. Nothing of the Church can be built upon a merely natural foundation — such as alone exists in the Old Church, except with the remnant there. If we would receive into ourselves the Church which will last for ever, we must from first to last rely only upon truths from a spiritual origin — only upon truths of revelation, and life according to them. We are taught that at the Lord's Advent: all flesh is grass — the grass hath withered. The truths of the previous revelations of the Word, though spiritual in their origin are lifeless, they have become as to the falsified understanding of them truth of merely natural origin. If these dead scientifics are to become living again in us, if the truths of the previous revelations are to become genuine with us, and if we are to receive the glory of Divine Truth. which will form the Church which is to last for ever, we must look for the means in the Evangel of the Lord's New Advent for this completes the revelation of the Word with us, and thereby alone can the Word stand for ever in a Church that will never fall. Let us therefore put no trust in the previous forms of the Word separated from this their Spirit, still less in truths of merely human origin, and in any truths except for the sake of life according to them. If we would receive the Word at all we must receive it in the fulness in which the Lord has given it to us. The grass hath withered, the flower hath faded; but the Word of our God will stand for ever. (56)
“It is to be known that in
the Word, especially in the Prophets, one thing is doubly described, as in
Isaiah: ‘He has passed in peace the way He did not go with His feet: who
hath operated and done?’, 41 : 3, 4, where nevertheless the one regards
good, but the other truth, or one the things which are of the understanding;
thus to pass in peace involves the things which are of the will, not
to go the way with the feet, the things which are of the
understanding, similarly operate and to do: thus are conjoined in the Word
those things which are of the will and of the understanding, or which are of
love and of faith, or, what is the same, celestial and spiritual things, in order that in the single things there may be the
resemblance of marriage, and they may refer themselves to the heavenly
marriage", A.C. 683. (57) |
|
|
“He who does not know the internal sense of
the Word, can never otherwise think than that there is only repetition of the
same thing. Similar things occur elsewhere in the Word, especially with the Prophets,
where the same thing is expressed with different words; and sometimes also it
is taken up again, and again described; but the cause is, as has been said
before, that there are two faculties with man most distinct from each other,
the understanding and the will, and that it is treated in the Word distinctly
concerning each — this is the cause of the repetitions”, A.C. 707. Thus is it in the text with regard to
Zion and Jerusalem, for we read that: “When Zion
and Jerusalem are named together, then the celestial Church is signified by
them, by Zion its internal, and by Jerusalem its external; . . . but when
Jerusalem is named without Zion, then for the most part the spiritual Church
is signified”, A.C. 6545. Doctrine is said to go forth from Zion because it is spiritual from a celestial origin, thus: “In order that it may be further known how it
has itself with the Doctrine of Faith, that it is spiritual from a celestial
origin, it is to be known that it is Truth Divine from Good Divine thus
wholly Divine. What is Divine is incomprehensible because above all
understanding, even the angelic; but still this Divine which in itself is
incomprehensible can inflow through the Divine Human of the ford into man's
rational, and when it inflows into his rational, it is received there
according to the truths which are there, thus diversely and otherwise with
one than with another. So far therefore as the truths which are with man are
more genuine, so far also the Divine which inflows is more perfectly
received, and so far man's intellectual is enlightened. In the
Word of the Lord are the truths themselves; but in its literal sense are
truths which are accommodated to the grasp of those who are in external
worship; but in its internal sense are truths accommodated to those who are
internal men, who, namely, as to doctrine and at the same time life are
angelic; their rational is thence enlightened so far, that the enlightenment
is compared to the splendor of the stars and the sun, Dan. 12 : 3. Matt. 13 :
43; hence it is evident how important it is that interior truth should be
known and received”, A.C. 2431. (58) “These truths can indeed be known but
never received except by those who are in love or in faith into the
Lord. For the Lord as He is Divine
Good, so He is Divine Truth, therefore He is Doctrine itself”, A.C. 2531. “For whatever is in the doctrine of
the truth of faith, regards the Lord, it also regards the heavenly kingdom
and the Church, and the things which are of the heavenly kingdom and the
Church; but those things are all His, and are intermediate ends though which
the ultimate is regarded, that is, the Lord. That the Lord is Doctrine itself
as to truth and good, thus who alone is regarded in Doctrine, He Himself teaches
in John : Jesus said, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, 14 : 6, 7, where
Way is Doctrine, Truth all that which is of Doctrine, Life good itself which
is the Life of Truth”, A.C. 2531. From this we see that Doctrine is the
Lord Himself. As Doctrine means teaching, it
means the Lord as our Teacher. No teaching
can benefit the Church but the teaching which the
Lord gives from
Himself. Hence Doctrine is interior to truth.
Doctrine is intermediate between
truth and good, it is the way from truth to
good. Hence, it is that in the text Doctrine is
said to go forth
from Zion, the internal of the Church, and the Divine
Truth, or the Word of the Lord, from Jerusalem, the external of the Church. As long as any Truth which we see in written
forms, whether in the Old and New Testaments, or in the Writings, is not
allowed to teach us the way to attain something of spiritual good, it is mere
truth to us, the truth which condemns all to hell. Again, as
long as any of the Doctrines which we have in written forms in the Writings,
are not regarded with the end and purpose of carrying them into the life,
they are then to us the mere Doctrine which cannot make the Church. The trine
Truth, Doctrine, and Life cannot be separated in the true Church; for the
Church cannot live without receiving the Lord as Doctrine, the Lord as Truth
and the Lord as the only source of life, thus the Lord as the Way, the Truth, and the Life. In order to receive spiritual life there must be
Doctrine out of Zion and the Word out of Jerusalem. (59) Thus we see
something of the force of the expression "Doctrine from the
Word" when we remember that Doctrine is Teaching. To draw
Doctrine from the Word is to allow the Word or Divine Truth to,
teach us. In the Writings the Word, that is, the Lord, manifests Himself for
the express purpose of teaching those who will be' of His New Church,
therefore the Writings may be called the doctrinal form of the Word. Not Intl
that the Word as given in the Old and New Testaments also teaches. They
convey the teaching that is absolutely necessary
for the foundation planes of the mind; but the Writings are
emphatically for teaching as they are addressed to the rational plane of the
mind where alone teaching can be continued in fullness. Only from the Word as ultimated in the Writings can the
rational mind draw the teaching it needs. Each of the three planes of the
mind can draw the teaching or doctrine which it needs from one of three forms
of the Word which we possess. And
from each form of the Word doctrine or teaching is drawn in the same way, by
viewing one part in the light of the others and then by viewing that
derived from the more external forms of the Word in the light of that derived from the internal forms
thereof. Thus if we wish the Writings to teach us we must
study each the teachings there given in the light of the rest of what is
there taught. The Writings are the Word which goes forth out of Jerusalem, but unless we so receive them as to be taught by them, that
is, unless we receive their teaching or doctrine into our lives, the Doctrine
does not go forth out
of Zion to us. The Doctrine from Zion being the
teaching conveyed by each form of the Word, but especially that conveyed in
the Writings, whereby we are led from Truth to Good, whereby we penetrate to
the mount of Zion within Jerusalem. “That most things also have an
opposite sense, is because before the land of Canaan was made the heritage of
the sons of Jacob, it was possessed by the nations, by whom were signified
falses and evils; and also afterwards when the sons of Jacob
went into what was contrary; for the lands put on the representation of the
nations and peoples who are there, according to their quality",
A.C. 4816. (60) |
|
|
Thus,
therefore, Lion and Jerusalem have also an opposite sense, when they signify
the internal and external of what is opposed to the Church. The doctrine
which goes forth from Zion in the opposite sense is therefore teaching from
evil. Each form of the Word is so written that we can draw therefrom
whatever teaching we choose. We
can take the letter thereof to confirm any notion whatever. The Writings are
no exception to this rule. Diametrically opposite teaching can be derived
from them to all appearance. We can collect statements therefrom in such a
way as to make them confirm any idea we may have. In order to avoid doing this we have to take care to study them in
their own light.
We must not be satisfied to understand the words therein with just the meanings which the
world attaches to them; but if we would advance at all in the study of what
they really contain, we must learn from them to attach a new meaning to
the words and still ever new meaning as we advance. For instance the
words “Charity”, “Christian”, “Priest”, “Freedom”, "Rule",
each convey to us quite different ideas in proportion as we learn their New
Church signification from what they convey as understood in the world. It is because there is unlimited
possibility for us to advance if we will in the understanding of the
expression of truth of which the Writings consist, that there is no
limitation to what they can convey to us. All the causes of limitation are in
ourselves, but the Writings are so written that they are the infinite source
of the teaching of Divine Truth for the Church which is to last for ever. Our
reception therefrom must ever be limited, of course, even that of the highest
angel is limited; but our reception like that of the angels can for ever
become less and less limited. Only let us avoid that attitude which does not
merely limit but shuts out genuine teaching from our mind, and opens us only
to the teaching which confirms our old ideas. Let us ever endeavor to put
what is old in our understanding of the Word aside, so that we may be able to
be taught more of what is new from the Word. As the doctrine from Zion in the opposite sense is evil teaching, that is, teaching which is merely natural, so the
Word from Jerusalem in the opposite sense is everything which proceeds
from self-intelligence. (61)
We are taught that "the internal sense follows its own
subject as predicated", H.D. 265. The subject of Hits chapter from which
the test is taken is concerning the New Church to be established by the Lord at
His Coming. Therefore all the particulars of the text are prophetical of what
the state of the genuine New Church will be. It is in the New Church that Doctrine must go
forth out of
Zion and the Word of the
Lord from Jerusalem. The Church consists
of those who delight in learning and doing what the Word teaches. The New
Church consists of those who delight in learning and doing according to the
teaching which the Lord has provided for their rational minds in the Evangel of
His Now Advent.
“Spirits who in the life of the
body were delighted with the Word of the
Lord, they in
the other life have a certain delightful
heavenly heat, which also it has
been given me to feel. They who were somewhat delighted,
their heat, communicated to me, was like
vernal heat beginning from the region of the lips, and diffuse itself round
the cheeks, and thence even to the ears, and ascending also to the eyes,
descending also toward the middle region of the breast. They who were still more
affected with the delight of the Word
of the Lord and with its interiors, which the Lord
Himself had taught, their heat communicated with me, was interior, beginning
from the breast and ascending toward the chin, and descending toward the
loins. They who were still more delighted and affected, their heat was still
more interiorly delightful, and was more vernal, and indeed from the loins
upwards toward the breast and thence through the left arm to the hand. I was
instructed by the angels that the matter has itself thus, and that the approach
of those presents such heats although they do not feel them, because they are
in them; as infants, boys, and youths are wont not to feel their heat which
they have above adults and old people, because they are in it. The heat also
was felt of those who indeed were delighted with the Word, but were not
solicitous concerning the understanding of it, it was only in the right arm.
As concerns heat, evil spirits can also produce heat by their artifices,
which feigns delight, and they can communicate it to others, but it is only
external heat without origin from the
internals. Such heat it is which putrifies, and goes into excrement, like the
heat of adulterers and of
those who are immersed in foul pleasures", A.C. 1773. (62) Thus is described in the
correspondential appearances of the other world, the various degrees of love
for the Word and also the spurious love which the evil may have for it.
According to our love of the Word will be the doctrine or teaching which we will be able to
receive from it. Indeed love for the Word and still more for the interiors of it, enables us to
recognize genuine teaching and to reject the spurious teaching of those whose
ideas are merely natural. If
ye will to do the will of God, ye shall know of the Doctrine whether it be of
God or whether I speak of myself. At the end of the chapter on the Word
in THE HEAVENLY DOCTRINE, we are taught: “That the books of the Word are all
those which have the internal sense but those which do not have it are not
the Word”, H.D. 266. That is, all books that have the
internal sense of the Word, are books of the Word, and no others. In every
Divine Revelation from the Lord there is of necessity the infinite internal
sense including the supreme sense, for what is from the Lord cannot be other,
internally regarded, but infinite; however, it may be clothed externally in
limited forms for the sake of accommodation to finite beings. Let us not be
deceived by the fact that every form of the Word is to all external
appearance limited — it would be useless to
finite beings if it were otherwise. It is in regard to the
internal that we must recognize that it has infinite extension. In the light
of this doctrine therefore, we may ask: do the Writings have the internal
sense of the Word? If they have then they are books of the Word. If they do not present to us the
internal sense of the Word in a form Divinely accommodated to
teach our rational minds, then the New Church has nothing but the shifting
sands of human interpretation for its foundation, like that upon which the
rain descended and the floods came, and the winds blew,
and beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it,
Matt. 7 : 27. But the Lord has
come, as the Word ultimated in
a form perfectly because Divinely adapted to form the New Church in us if
only we will really consent to be taught thereby, and thus found the New
Church upon the rock of faith in Him as He has manifested Himself in His New
Advent. (63)
Lastly we are told which books in the Old and New Testaments are books
of the Word. For our knowledge as to which of those books are the Word and a
which are not, even for our rational knowledge that any of them are the Word
we are indebted solely to the Writings. There are no indications whereby we
could have distinguished them. Some of them like the book of Job are written
in correspondences, and therefore have
an internal sense, but it is
not the internal sense of the Word. Correspondences do not cause a book to be
a book of the Word, for all the books of the times of the
Ancient Church were so written and they are not entirely absent from some
modern books. The fact of having a sense internal to that of the surface does
not make a book to be a book of the Word, for most books have
that; more or less. The one thing that determines it is have they the
internal sense of the Word? If they have they are books of the Word, if
they have not they are not. Each of the three forms of the Word which is with
us, has the internal sense, the difference being in its being more or less
openly manifested in the one than in the other, and differently accommodated.
The Word of the Old Testament has
the internal sense of the Word; but in forms adapting it to the lowest plane of the mind. The Word of the New Testament has the internal
sense of the Word; but in forms accommodated to a comparatively interior
plane of the mind. The Writings have the internal sense of the Word, for in
them it is most openly revealed; but it is in forms accommodated to the
rational plane of the mind. Only the Word as presented in the Writings can
leach the Word to our rational minds. Each form is absolutely necessary, and
the three forms together make but one Word, one full accommodation of the
Word to each and every plane of the mind that can be active in this world. It
is because in the New Church the Word thus exists in accommodation to all the planes of our mind, therefore
in a fulness of accommodation such
as never before, that it is prophesied that the Word will go forth from Jerusalem. For only in the Church of
the New Jerusalem has the Word really a full abiding place. Only there is the
Word received as it is accommodated for each plane of the mind. The New
Church cannot possibly exist when those books of the Word which have been
given to teach the rational plane of our minds are rejected or their Divine
authorship denied. They are the Word because they are of and from
and the Lord Himself, and in them He Himself, teaches us how to rationally
receive Him, how to rationally understand the special end and purpose of each
form of
the Word that has been given. Only by truly receiving this rational form of
the Word can we
be saved from a perverted reception of every form of the Word. The Word has
never been with any Church in such fulness of accommodation as now with the
New Church, in the three forms which make the accommodation complete for all
planes, nor could it have been until the Lord had glorified His Human and
effected His New Advent therein. Therefore for ever in the genuine New Church
from Zion shall go forth doctrine and
the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem. (64) |
|
|
The presentation of the Doctrine of the
Word is, with some modifications and additions, the same as that given in the
FOUR PRIMARY DOCTRINES, but is arranged in quite a different series from that
given in THE NEW JERUSALEM AND ITS HEAVENLY DOCTRINE, the
consideration of which was brought before you in a series of Sermons some
four years ago. It can be expected therefore that the subject will appear in
clearer light now and that from a new consideration of it as here presented,
further particulars of knowledge will be received and the general doctrine be
more fully confirmed and impressed. It is a subject which cannot be too well
known by members of the Church, for it concerns the very means by which the
Lord is present with tie to teach and lead us, and shows us where alone we
can practically look to the Lord for guidance. “Sacred Scripture or the Word is
Divine Truth Itself”, T.C.R. 189. (65) There is no difference between the words Scripture and Writing
except that one is Latin and the other English ---they are respectively the
Latin and English expressions for the same thing. Therefore that some books
of the Word are referred to as the Scriptures
and some as the Writings, may
serve a purpose as to convenience of reference; but it obscures the thought,
if those terms are regarded as implying any essential difference. Sacred Scripture is simply Sacred Writing. But Sacred
Scripture is here used as synonymous with the Lord's Word, which is Divine
Truth Itself. The expressions used by the Lord in accommodating His teaching
to His finite creatures, are always the simplest possible. Human ingenuity
has sometimes been misapplied to obscure such expressions and leave them only
a most vague and mysterious meaning. This has been especially the case
in regard to the Greek expression for the Word, the Logos, which has thus
been reduced to a vagueness which has taken away its practical application to
man. This is but one of the innumerable ways in which the Word has been
rejected and made of none effect by the Old Church. But, allowing for the
distinction between the Infinite and the finite, the Word
when used in regard to the Lord means just the same as when it is used in
regard to a man. A man's word is what he himself says or writes; and there is nothing
more mysterious about the expression the Lord's Word — it means simply what
the Lord Himself says or writes. Again the Word of the Lord is Divine
Truth Itself. Strictly speaking there is no Truth, certainly nothing can
properly be called Divine Truth, but what the Lord Himself has said. Whatever
else we call truth or true is so-called only in a merely natural sense of the
expressions. There is but one final test of Truth — has the Lord so said?
Hence whether anything he called Sacred Scripture or Sacred Writing, or the
Word, or Divine Truth Itself, it comes to the same — they are interchangeable
terms. To that to which one of those terms can be rightly applied, the others
can be rightly applied too. The same teaching is implied in the text God was the Word. God,
means the Lord as to Divine Truth, the Word means the Divine Truth which the
Lord has revealed. Whatever is really Divine Truth is the Word, holds equally
with the converse that the Word is Divine Truth Itself. The
Word is God: God is the Word. (66) In order to receive a clear idea of this subject, the first
ignorance which insist be dispersed is ignorance as to where in the Word the Divine is. In this
matter, as in all others, thought should be from the internal concerning the
external - not as all natural thought is, from the external concerning the
internal. When this latter kind of thought is applied to the Word so that it
is regarded as to its external only, there is apt to be contempt for it. For
the external, merely as such, does not recommend itself to the natural man,
nearly as much as do the writings of many of the standard authors of the
world. Nevertheless the external of the Word is to some extent extolled and
magnified by the Old Church. But this is because it has been used so largely
to confirm the inventions of man's own intelligence and because
with some it gives those inventions more authority. Man is ready to extol
anything that will serve his own purposes in this way. But whether they thus
extol the external of the Word or openly reject it, it remains true that
those who regard it from its external only, easily fall into contempt for it,
and do so whenever it is not reverenced because it is
from the Lord, and indeed is the Lord speaking to man. When this is known and
acknowledged on the one hand, — when it is recognized on the other hand that
the external is what is necessary to accommodate Infinite Truth to man's
finite reception, then it can be seen that the Divine in the Word is in its
internal, and only in the external from that. Then it can be seen that the
internal is the very Word which the Lord has spoken, and the external the
clothing which is of necessity assumed for its manifestation in this world.
The externals may be varied as they are in the different forms of the Word,
still because they are from the Lord, they are internally the same Divine
Truth. This is comparatively as a sensible man clothes himself suitably to
what ever occupation he may be about to engage in, so the Lord clothes
Himself in one way to operate in the externals of man's mind and
in another way to operate in the rational plane of man's mind, each way
perfectly adapted to the work undertaken. Crude as the style of the Word
appears when regarded merely as to its external, when it is thus learned how perfectly the external
is adapted
to the work of accommodating the Infinite to finite reception, the truth can
be seen that even: “The style of the Word is the very
Divine Style, with which no other style however sublime and excellent it May
appear can be compared”, T.C.R. 191. (67) |
|
|
This can be still more clearly recognized when it is learned how the
Lord has varied the style in a which He has presented Himself as the Word,
and how those variations each contribute to the perfection of their
accommodation. It cannot be said of the various forms of the Word that the
style of any one is more or less perfect than that of the others. Not only is
each internally the same Divine Truth, but also each is externally a perfect
accommodation thereof to Man. In the New Church this teaching has been
readily seen and accepted as applying to the older forms of the Word, but
there has been, and with many there still is, hesitation, and even refusal, to
recognize it as applying to the form
of the Word which the Lord has given in His New Advent. It has
been received more as agreeing with the Word, than as being the Word -- as
containing Divine Truth rather than as being Divine Truth. Yet when the Lord
gives a Revelation of Truth to man, He cannot do otherwise than do it
perfectly — if it were less than perfect it could not le His. And it would
be less than perfect, were it not perfect externally as well as internally.
But the perfection of the internal is of one kind and that of the external is
another. The perfection of the internal is its Truth — the perfection of the
external is the wisdom of its accommodation.
In the Writings the Lord has accommodated His Divine Truth for man's
rational reception just as perfectly as He has accommodated the same Divine
Truth in the Old and New Testaments for reception in the other planes of
man's mind. Hence the very external style of the 'Writings is the very Divine
Style, for it is the Lord's own means, mid therefore a perfect
means of accommodating Divine Truth to man's rational reception.
Thus the Writings are Divine in form as well as in essence, and contempt for
their form should be shunned as evidence of the thought being
from the proprium rather than from the Lord. Only in the degree in which this
is fully recognized can a translation he made to approximate that perfection
of form, or the fact of the Lord's New Advent be actually seen. The Lord has
come as God, the one only God, as Divine Truth; and Divine Truth is form
itself — the very form of the Divine Good — the form in which Divine Good is
present with man. All sacred Writing by which the Lord has revealed Himself
is His Word and is Divine Truth. Divine Truth is Divine Truth because the
Lord has spoken it. His Word is God with us. It was doubtless of Divine
Providence and significative of much, that the human instrument by which the
Lord has revealed Himself more fully than ever before, should have been named
Emanuel, for now that the Lord has come as Divine Truth accommodated to the
rational as well as the other planes of the human mind, it can be said with a
fuller meaning than ever before that God is with us — Emanuel. (68) The Lord has come as the Word to give
life to man. In His New Advent He has provided for the life of the rational
mind, in order that through the rational He may rule the whole man. “But it is to be well known that they
alone have life from the Word who read it for the sake of the end that they
may derive Divine Truths from it as from their fountain, and at the same
time for the sake of the end that they may apply the Divine Truths thence
derived to life; and that the contrary takes place with those who read the
Word only for the sake of the end that they may acquire honours and gain the
world”, T.C.R. 191. The only acknowledgment of the Lord as
God that is real is the acknowledgment of obedience. The Lord has effected
His New Advent for the sake of man's salvation, and without it no one could
have been saved, but the salvation is received from Him only by such as read
what He has now revealed for the sake of application to their own life — it
is thus only that they really make Him their God, and realize that the Word
which reveals Him is God with us. Unwillingness to render such obedience is
the real ca use why men cannot be convinced of this Truth. Hence this
morning's lesson concludes with this declaration: (69)
“Lest man should be in doubt that the
Word is Divine and most Holy, there has been revealed to me by the Lord its
internal sense which in its essence is spiritual, which is in the external
sense which is natural, as the soul is in the body; that sense is the spirit
which vivifies the letter; wherefore that sense can testify concerning the
Divinity and Sanctity of the Word, and convince even the natural man if he be
willing to be convinced”, T.C.R. 192 That so few
are convinced therefore is not any wise because the Writings need to be
better accommodated to men's reception as some seem to think, but
because so few are willing to be convince, That the Lord in His first Advent
claimed be God was blasphemy to the Jews, similarly in
His New Advent the c1aim that the Revelation in
which He has come is His own Word, is the God to which the New Church must
render implicit obedience, is regarded as blasphemy and as derogatory to the
forms of the Word before acknowledge. Instead of being derogatory to them this new
Revelation testifies concerning their Divinity and Sanctity with a rational
clearness before unknown and makes it
evident how absolutely necessary each of them is in its place. The Revelation
between the internal and external of the Word, is similar to that between the
Lord and His Human, and both are similar to that between the soul and body
of each man. Even the finite soul of man is above the plane of His consciousness, much more is God, as He
is in Himself, above and beyond human comprehension. But as we know man's
soul through its manifestation in the body, so can we know God as He is
revealed to us in the forms of the Word, especially now that God is with us
even as to the revealing of the rational life of His Human, by which all who
are willing may enter intellectually into the mysteries of faith, and render
rational service to the God whose every word is Divine Truth Itself. (70) |
|
|
Whatever the Lord speaks is spirit and
is life. As was pointed out last week — there is no final test of Truth but: Has
the Lord so said? What He says is Truth and strictly speaking nothing else
is. The section to be considered this morning shows moreover that all truth
from the Lord has in it His own Spirit and Life. Not only is whatever the
Lord says of necessity Truth — but it is also of necessity infinite — the
spirit thereof is infinite however it may be presented in limited forms — and
also is equally infinite however the ultimate forms be varied. Hitherto,
until revealed by the Lord in His New Advent it has been unknown that there
is a spiritual sense in the Word — there has been no knowledge either as to
what the spiritual sense is or where in. the Word
it is. “That the Word in its bosom is spiritual
is because it has descended from Jehovah the Lord, and passed through the
Angelic Heavens; and the Divine Itself which in itself is ineffable and
imperceptible, in its descent was made adequate to the perception of angels
and at last to the perception of men, hence is the spiritual sense which is
within in the natural sense, just as the soul in man, the thought of the
understanding in the speech and the affection of the will in action; also if
it be allowed compared with such things as appear before the eyes in the
natural world the spiritual sense is in the natural sense as the universal
brain is in its meninges and maters, or like the branches of a tree within
its barks, yea as all things of the generation of a chick are within the
shell of an egg, and so forth”, T.C.R. 193. (71) The Divine Itself is ineffable and
imperceptible — it is high above the heavens, where the sphere first
proceeding from it appears as a. Sun distant from the angels comparatively
as the sun of the world is from us. It seems as if the light and heat of the sun are perceptible
by us; but in reality we only perceive them as they are received iii the gross atmospheres immediately around
ourselves. Hence when we ascend into a less dense atmosphere it feels
colder not because the heat is really less, but because it is less
perceptible by us from not being sufficiently accommodated. From this it can
be seen how it is with the Divine Truth proceeding from the Lord. If it be
not sufficiently tempered it would not he perceptible — indeed it needs many
successive temperings and lastly to be ultimated in natural receptacles
before it can be perceptible by man. Just as neither the heat nor the light of the
sun are perceptible by man before they are ultimated in the natural atmospheres
of this earth. It is the Divine Itself of the Word which is thus
imperceptible not only to man but also to the angels. The spiritual sense is
the Divine Truth as it is tempered for the Heavens — and is what is meant by
Our Father ill the Heavens in the Lord's Prayer, which thus teaches that it
is that sense which we are to look to and strive to attain, for it is in that
sense that we can find the Lord as He is known by angels and as we must learn
to know Him as we become prepared to be angels. This sense is in the natural
sense as a. soul in its body. Nothing can appear in this world to the natural
eyesight unless it be clothed in a natural body, therefore of necessity all
Divine Revelation is presented to men here in a natural Body, which is called
its letter. The letter in itself is dead, just as cinch as is a human body
without a soul. The spirit
is the life, as the Lord declared in the
text The Words which I speak unto you are Spirit and are Life, and
it is only as we receive that spirit that we receive spiritual life. “The Spiritual Sense is not that which
shines forth from the sense of the letter of' the 'Word when anyone
scrutinizes and explains the Word to confirm some dogma of the Church, this
sense can he called the literal and ecclesiastical sense”, T.C.R. 194. (72) Now it can be
readily seen that any Divine Revelation can be used in this way, that
therefore each has a literal and ecclesiastical sense. Have not the Writings
frequently been scrutinized and explained in order to confirm some dogma of
the Church? The expression “some dogma of the Church” like most, expressions
in the Word, is used both in a bad sense and a good sense, here evidently in
a bad sense. A dogma of the Church ought to be her belief as formed by the
Lord’s teaching. But a corrupt and a dead Church forms her dogmas from self
intelligence, and only goes to the Word to find confirmation thereof. When
this is the end in view it is only literal and ecclesiastical sense that can be
reached. Even if the Writings be the form of the Word thus used, or rather
abused, it is only the literal and ecclesiastical sense thereof that is seen.
What is
really the spiritual sense — the life of the
Word — could not confirm such dogmas or do other than expose their falsity.
Hence all should bear in mind that they cannot see what is really the
spiritual sense, unless they go to Divine Revelation to be taught the evils
and falses which they should shun, only so can anyone become receptive of the
spirit and life of what the Lord reveals. “But the
spiritual sense does not appear in the sense of the letter, it is within in
it, as a soul in its body, as the thought
of understanding in the eyes, and as the affection of love in the
face”, T.C.R. 194. This evidently means that it does not appear in the mere sense
of the letter, for it does appear there as the soul in the body, or as
affection appears in the face. The Word is as it were the Lord’s face and
expresses both His Love and His Wisdom. But even as devils can only see Him
as an angry and revengeful God, so are all whose attitude causes them to be connected with hell unable to
see the Lord's face except as appearing opposite to
what He really is. When the Lord says that His words are spirit and are life.
He teaches men that they should look to the spirit and life of His Word
rather than to the mere letter. Now men look to the spirit of His Word
when they are really and sincerely seeking to learn what the Lord intends to
convey to them. The spirit of any law is that which the maker of the law
really intends to effect by it. So the Spirit of the Lord's Word
is simply the teaching which He intends to give to men and which desires them
to receive, but which no one can receive except they seek it. It is impossible
for those who are perfectly satisfied with their own notions as to what is
good or what is evil, and who only desire to confirm those notions to even
see the spirit of the Lord's teaching, even when it is expressed
rationally as in the Writings. Such either reject the Writings as being the
Lord's Word or, worse still, they scrutinize and explain them to confirm
their own notions, in a more internal and more plausible manner than they
otherwise could. Remember then that the Spiritual Sense of the Lord's
Word is seen only in the degree in which you learn to see what the Lord
Himself really means to convey, and that to do so the Writings or Scripture
in which it is ultimated must be searched with that object — otherwise only a
merely literal sense is perceived. The Spirit of the Lord's
teaching, that is, what He really intends to convey to those who would be of
His Church as distinguished from what He appears to others to say, is the
Spiritual Sense. (73) “That
sense principally causes that the Word is spiritual not only for men, but
also for angels; wherefore the Word by that sense communicates with the
heavens”, T.C.R. 194. The letter in itself does
not communicate with the heavens, but only because and when it is receptive
of the spiritual sense. Hence when it is filled instead in men's
minds with their own false notions, that communication is cut off, and in
place thereof communication is opened through those falses with the hells.
The spiritual sense cannot indeed be received except on the literal basis,
and hence there cannot be communication with heaven without the letter,
nevertheless that communication is effected through the spiritual sense,
through what is really the spirit of what the Lord says, and never without
that. The Word is presented to the angels in literal forms as well as to men,
hence the spiritual sense principally causes the Word to be spiritual not
only for men but also for angels. Angels too must look to the spirit of what is written. If even
they were only to seek to confirm their present ideas of truth, advance would
be impossible to them, therefore the angelic state itself would be impossible
to them for that state is essentially one of perpetual advance. Thus even the
angels have to suffer their understandings to be elevated above their present
state so that they may see more of the spirit of the Lord's teaching than
they have before, and thus they too are continually looking more to the
spiritual sense, which is the spirit and intention of the Lord's
teaching and therefore is inexhaustible to eternity. (74) |
|
|
“Since the Word interiorly is spiritual,
therefore it is written by pure correspondences, and what is written by
correspondences, this in the ultimate sense is written in such a style as in
the Prophets, Evangelists and in the .Apocalypse, which although it appears
common still it hides in itself Divine Wisdom and all angelic wisdom”, T.C.R.
194. All correspondence is
produced by the changes of form which the Divine Truth of itself assumes as it flows down from one plane of life to a. lower.
Therefore to write by pure correspondences is to write exactly according to
the Divine law of influx. Hence it is the only perfect way of writing, and
because it is the only perfect way it is the only way in which the Lord could
speak to man. Only the Infinite Divine Wisdom Itself could cause Truth to be
written by pure correspondence. Pure correspondences perfectly
express the Truth on every plane of life, from the lowest to the highest. The
Word in the celestial heaven as well as that on earth is written by pure
correspondences, for that means according to the law of influx on that plane,
exactly according to the forms which the Divine Truth Itself takes on as it
inflows into that heaven. No revelation could be the Lord's Word
unless it were written by pure correspondences, for otherwise it would not be
a perfect expression of the Truth. The Writings are written by pure
correspondence, that is, exactly according to the law of influx into man's
rational mind, thus exactly according to the forms which the Divine Truth
Itself takes on when it inflows into man's rational mind, as it
has taken on when it 11,117owed into the rational mind of the Lord's assumed Human.
Thus the Word being written by pure correspondence involves that its
appearances on any given plane are the appearances common to that plane, and
therefore the Word to all who judge it from its external only, appears to be
in a common style; only when the spirit of its teaching is perceived can it
be realized that it hides within it the Divine Wisdom and all angelic wisdom. (75) Divine Truth as it proceeds from the
Lord takes on discretely different appearances, as it passes through the
various planes of finite life, not only as to the written Word Nut also as to
all the created things of each plane. In the highest heaven it appears as the
Divine Celestial, and in the middle as the
Divine Spiritual, and in the lowest heaven as the Divine Natural. In
the world it appears as Nature in created things, in expressions taken from
Nature in the written Word. Nothing appears in the world except in natural
forms. Hence each form of the Word given in the world, is externally a
natural form, though on the natural plane they represent the three forms in
which the Word respectively appears in the three heavens. "Of such
quality as heaven is such also is the Word of the Lord — in its ultimate
sense it is natural, in its interior it is spiritual, and in its inmost
celestial, and in each it is Divine; where it is accommodated to the angels
of the three heavens and also to men", T.C.R. 195. Thus the question
what is the spiritual sense of the Word? may be answered as meaning
universally the real spirit and intention of what the Lord has revealed. This
is given as the universal meaning, because it applies to every written form
of the Word both in the heavens and on earth; in this respect each and every
one of them has a spiritual sense, interior to the letter in which it is
ultimated. The Writings given to the New Church are no exception to this
rule, and therefore if you would really receive the Spiritual Sense of the
Word therefrom, you must sincerely search therein for the very Spirit and
intention of the Lord's teaching, expecting to find it different
from and even contrary to all your preconceived ideas, and remembering that
it is by so doing that advance is possible to the angels, much more therefore
is it necessary to make man's reformation and regeneration possible. The Lord
calls upon you to search for the very spirit of the teaching which He gives
in His New Advent, for His declaration is true of all that is revealed from
Him. In His New Advent as well as in His First, He declares: the
Words which I speak to you are
spirit and are life. (76)
The word parable is
generally used only in a restricted sense as referring to certain portions of
the letter of the Word which take the form of short stories. But it also has
an extended meaning by which the text is literally true. The Lord never
speaks to His finite creatures except under the veil of appearances. If He
were to do otherwise His words would be altogether above the comprehension of
even the highest angel; for no finite being can receive the absolute Truth
itself. Absolute Truth is in the Lord alone; and all finite beings are more
or less as children who need to have the Truth accommodated to their apprehension.
The appearances are indeed of different kinds and vary from each other exceedingly, even to opposition; yet
even those which are most removed from being mere appearances are still
infinitely removed from being absolute Truth. Thus: “It is to be known
that never are any truths with man, nor even with an angel, pure, that is,
without appearances: they are all and single appearances of truth, but still
they are received by the Lord for truths if there be good in them; the Lord
alone has pure truths because Divine, for as the Lord is Good Itself, so He
is Truth itself.... But what
appearances are can manifestly appear from those things in the Word where it
is spoken according to appearances; but there are degrees of the appearances
of truth — natural appearances of truth are full of fallacics, but when they
are with those who are in good, then they are not to he called
fallacies but appearances, also in some respect they are true, for the good
which is in them, in which is the Divine,
causes them to have another essence; but rational appearances of truth
are more sod more interior; in them are the heavens, namely the angels who
are in the heavens”, A.C. 3207. (77) Thus there are rational appearances of
Truth as well as sensual appearances, although relatively to sensual appearances,
rational appearances are spoken of as genuine truths. Therefore although the
Lord has now revealed the internal sense of the Word, He still in His New
Ad-vent speaks to men only in parables, inasmuch as the Revelation now given
is clothed in appearances. Indeed the Internal Sense means Divine Truth
clothed in rational appearances — for rational appearances are internal to
the sensual and corporeal appearances in which the Word of the Old and New Testaments is clothed. Rational
appearances of truth prevail throughout the heavens, for in A.C. 2576
it is revealed that in the third heaven are inmost appearances of the good
and truth of the rational, in the second heaven middle appearances of the
good and truth of the rational, and in the ultimate heavens the lowest ones
of the rational. Thus rational appearances are the heavenly clothing of
truth. Yet in them the Lord is still in a degree speaking in parables, in all
and single things of which there is a spiritual sense. “No one can see the spiritual sense
except from the science of correspondences”, T.C.R. 196. (78) |
|
|
From the science of correspondences
we learn the relation between things which exist on different planes of
life. There is nothing on any given plane but what corresponds to something
on an interior plane. This applies not only to the relation of all things in
this world to their respective causes in the other world, but also to a
similar relation between the discrete planes of the other world. There is
nothing in the ultimate heaven but what corresponds to some cause in the
second heaven. There is nothing in the second heaven but what corresponds to
some cause in the highest heaven. And even in the highest heaven all things
there too are correspondences to some cause on the Divine plane. Now in order
to accommodate Divine Truth to any given plane it must be written according
to the appearances of that plane, but such appearances always correspond to
appearances on a yet more interior plane and ultimately to the Divine.
Therefore that which is written according to appearances must correspond to
what is interior to them, and have an
internal meaning distinct from its external meaning. This is so in a
degree in reference to all language. Hence no man's writing or speech can be
justly interpreted if it be taken entirely according to the letter. Man
in a blind and imperfect way endeavors to make his speech correspond to the thoughts of his mind — he uses words taken
from the appearances about him to express thoughts which are on the spiritual
plane. The more successful he is in finding correspondential terms with which
to express himself, the more expressive his language is. This will the more
readily be seen if it be kept in mind that there are correspondences on the
rational plane as well as on the sensual plane. Unconsciously man seeks
correspondences wherewith to express himself — hence it is that he uses
analogies and makes comparisons; but the only perfect analogies or comparisons
are those which are also correspondences. Therefore the Lord in His Word
never makes any comparison but what is correspondential, whereas what mile
makes are largely mere comparisons.
When it is thus recognized that our own mere human language must not always
be taken exactly according to the letter — that the spirit of it sometimes
differs considerably therefrom — that it is to some small extent the language
of correspondences, and emulates that language to a large extent, it removes
the idea that the language of correspondence is altogether foreign to us, and
that it is an arbitrarily artificial kind of writing, as the first impression
about it is apt to be. Man can and does to a small extent speak correspondentially,
but even if he could speak by pure correspondence, his writing would still
be altogether differentiated from that of the Word by the fact that the
thoughts which he expresses, so far as they are his own are all fallacies.
The Word is Divine Truth perfectly expressed, or what is the same, expressed
in pure correspondences — the correspondence of each plane on which it
appears perfectly accommodating it to reception on that plane. Man's
own word is nothing but fallacy in its conception; and even that in its
presentation of it is but imperfectly expressed. Still there is in all human
speech and writing, something distinct from the mere letter, in a finite
measure, emulative of an internal sense, which must be sought if we would
interpret any human speech justly. What is thus finitely the case with man's
speech is infinitely the case with the Lord's Word, in all and
single things of which there is a spiritual sense, not only in the Word as
given on Sinai, but also in His Word as revealed in His New Advent, yea also
in His Word as it, is accommodated to the angels of the highest heaven.
Without a parable He speaks not even to them. (79) This morning's lesson gives
several full examples of the internal sense and after explaining the parable
of the ten virgins according to that sense concludes: “From these things it is evident that
the Lord spoke by pure correspondences and this because He spoke from the Divine which
was in Him and was His.... It is similar in the rest of the parables and in all the words which
the Lord has spoken”, T.C.R. 199. Note — the Lord spoke from correspondence because He
spoke from the Divine, which implies that speech from the Divine cannot be
otherwise than purely according to correspondence, therefore it is similar
in all the Words which the Lord has spoken. This must therefore be accepted
as applying to the Writings by all who believe they are a Revelation from
the Divine. It is a universal law of order that all influx of life from the
Divine both in Revelation and in creation,
is into pure correspondences, correspondences being nothing but the
appearances which that life causes on each plane that it presents itself, and
which it puts on as the perfect means of presenting itself there. The
Writings externally are composed of the appearances, or what is the same, the
correspondences, which the Divine Truth itself causes when it presents itself
on the rational plane of the human mind, and which it has put on as the only
means of presenting itself in a way perfectly accommodated to reception by
the rational mind. But in all and single things of what is spoken
from the Divine there is a spiritual sense. Everything which the Lord has
spoken is as a parable, adapting Infinite Truth to reception on some finite
plane of life. The human mind is formed in the first
case by mere appearances of facts, such as are received by the external
through the senses. As man reflects upon those appearances, and to some
extent corrects their fallacies by comparison of the various appearances with
each other, he becomes rational in his own estimation, or according to the
worldly standard. Such is the natural rational; which may thus be said to be
composed of appearances of facts which in the Writings are called scientifics
enlightened by man's own intelligence. But not until those
appearances become enlightened by Divine Revelation do they become really
appearances of truth or really rational. Thus: (80) “The angelic and human rational is
called rational from appearances of truth enlightened by the Divine — without
them it is not rational; thus the rational things are those appearances”,
A.C. 3368. Namely, appearances of truth
enlightened by the Divine. “All appearances of truth in which the
Divine is are of the rational, even to that degree that rational truths and
appearances of truth are the same; . . . rational truths or appearances of
truth can never be and exist except from influx of the Divine into the
rational”, A.C. 3368. From which it is evident, that so far is it from being the case
that when men come to the Writings, they meet what is no longer appearances
of truth, no longer what is correspondential that the real fact is that it is
then that they are first fully introduced to genuine appearances of truth, and
even then only if they permit the appearances there to be enlightened by the
Divine. Before that they are more or less in the fallacies of the senses —
the mere appearances of facts, which men indeed call truths but which even
when they have corrected them to the best of their natural ability, express
only the effects which appear and not even the appearance of the spiritual
truth which causes those effects. Appearances of Truth enlightened by the
Divine, are what make the rational of an angel, thus the truly human
rational. Such appearances of Truth are the highest to which finite beings
can attain, although they may receive more and more enlightenment in them to
all eternity; and by means of such enlightenment may see more of the Infinite
Divine Truth of the Spiritual Sense which is in all and single things of
whatever the Lord has spoken. Because man can be raised only to the
appearances of truth, therefore it is a necessity of accommodation, that the
Lord never speaks to angels or men except in appearances, which all and
singly correspond to the Divine Truth — Himself, even as on earth He spoke
unto the multitude in parables, and without a parable spoke He not unto them. (81) |
|
|
“In that day
Israel shall be a trine with Egypt and Ashur, a blessing in the midst of the
earth, signifies influx into both from spiritual light; Israel
is the spiritual man who has light from heaven, Egypt is the natural man who
has light from the world, and Ashur is the rational man who is mediate and
receives light from the spiritual and transmits it into the natural and
enlightens it”, A.E. 65410 "Hence it can appear what is signified
by that Israel shall be a third with Egypt and Ashur, a blessing in the midst
of the earth, that namely all there must be spiritual, as well the rational
as the cognitive and scientific, for a hen the inmost is spiritual, which is
truth from good, hen also the rational which is thence, is also spiritual, as
also the cognitive and scientific, for each is formed front the inmost which
is truth from good or the spiritual", A.E. 31310 "The spiritual is what regenerates,
that is the Lord by spiritual influx: in a word, the rational is the medium
between the spiritual and the natural, and the latter is thus regenerated",
A.E. 58513. (82) The terms
used in the Writings vary in their meaning according to the series in which
they occur. In the Writings the Lord addresses the rational faculty, and the
understanding of them therefore necessitates the use of that faculty. Human
language is far too limited to provide a separate term to express every
variation of meaning. Nor would it add to the perfection of the Word if it
did. For even as human capacity for growth follows from the state of ignorance
into which man is born, and as the incapacity of an animal for such growth is
connected with the perfection of instinct into which they are born, so is the human and apparent
imperfection of the externals of the Word just what fits it for conveying to
man an ever increasing degree of the knowledge of the Lord, which it could
not do if each term could be fully defined apart from its rational connection
with the Word as a whole. Hence it is that most terms have both a restricted
and an extended meaning and may also be used with various intermediate
meanings. Take away the rational connection, and detached passages may be
selected such as would confirm any notion a man chooses to take up; and all
wise students of the Word must therefore be ever on their guard against their
innate tendency thus to find therein confirmations of their own ideas. Thus
the term "soul" is sometimes used in a restricted sense
as meaning only the inmost receptacle of man's life which is
entirely above the plane of all human consciousness; and again it is
sometimes used as applying to the whole man; and also with meanings
intermediate between those two. It is there-fore necessary to look not merely to what is said in the Word;
but for what is really the spirit of what is there taught; only so can it he
realized that the Word is an inexhaustible fountain of living waters, from
which we can for ever draw more and more deeply. This infinite spirit and
life has been breathed into the expressions of His Word by the Lord. That is the Divine
inspiration which gives holiness to the Word and which alone can enlighten
the appearances of its external and cause them to be really appearances of
truth. As shown last Sunday, unless man is open to the reception of something
of the spirit of truth, those appearances are not appearances of truth, but
falsified appearances thereof. In this morning's
lesson it is taught: “That it is from
the Spiritual Sense that the Word is Divinely inspired and is holy in every
expression”, T.C.R. 200. (83) And towards the conclusion it distinguishes
between the spiritual and the rational, a distinction which is not always
definitely expressed, for in their more extended sense the meanings of both
expressions overlap each other. Here however the distinction is necessary to
the under-standing of the subject presented. The rational as well as the
scientific or natural must be made subservient to the spiritual. Or
conversely it is the spiritual that gives life both to the rational and
the natural. Or as it is again stated, the rational is the medium which
receives life from the spiritual and transmits it into the natural and
enlightens it. All expressing the same truth that in man the spiritual must
regenerate both the rational and the natural; and in the Word the spiritual
sense is what alone can give true light to either the rational or the more
natural forms in which the Word is externally expressed. That the Word will
be thus presented and thus regarded by the Church established by the Lord in
His New Advent is what is prophesied in the text — then both the rational and
the natural will be subservient to the spiritual. In that day Israel shall be a trine with Egypt and Ashur, a blessing
in the midst of the earth. The Word is in the
Human Form, the Divine Human form. Hence all that is revealed concerning the
form of man's mind applies also to the form of the Word. Of man's
natural mind the rational is the inmost. Hence the inmost form of the Word as
revealed in the natural world is the rational form thereof presented in the
Writings. The use of the Writings as a distinct form of the Word, is the same
as the use of the rational faculty in man. This use is thus taught: “The rational is
the means for the uniting of the internal man with the external, and thus for
apperceiving from the Lord what is accomplished in the external, and for
reducing the external to obsequiousness and obedience, yea for elevating it
from the corporeal and earthly things in which it immerses itself and
effecting that man may he man, that he may look to heaven, of which he is a
native, and not, as brute animals do, only to the earth, in which he only
sojourns, still less to hell; these are the offices of the rational;
wherefore unless a man is such that he can think this, it cannot be said that
he has a rational”, A.C. 1944. (84) Such then is the use of the Writings
as a distinct form of the Word, for uniting the externals of the Word to
their Internal in men's minds, to enable the internal man to
understand those externals and what is accomplished by them, and to
reduce those externals to subservience to the internal, that is to the spirit of the Lord's
Word, its spiritual sense, and thus fulfil the prophecy of
the text. But in order to do this it is necessary that the rational itself
should be subordinated to the spiritual, that the rational form of the Word
presented in the Writings be studied with the end of learning there the very
spirit of truth by means of which the Lord has come to invert the natural
form of mind for all who are really willing thus to be reformed and
regenerated. This inverted form obtains in the really spiritual mind, for
there the rational is no longer the inmost, but is the external altogether
subordinated to the spiritual. If
the rational faculty and the rational form of the Word are not used for this
end, they are abused and then they separate man from the internal. This is
the abuse to which the Writings are especially liable, and which takes place
when men use them as a means of confirming the supremacy of the rational, and
when they therefore refuse to receive spiritual truth except on the authority
of their own rational recognition and approval of it. All forms of the Word,
the rational as well as the natural, are given for the purpose of leading men
to the source from which they are inspired, to the spirit and life which the
Lord has breathed into them, and which is altogether contrary to the spirit
and life which man himself puts into those forms when he subordinates them to
his own natural and makes that the supreme authority for all reception of
truth. The Old Church is in this state; but still none there are able to
commit this abuse so fully and interiorly as those do who externally receive
the -Writings, but use them only to confirm the worship of their own
rational. The rational faculty is indeed given to man by the Lord and is
therefore good in itself, but if it is not used for the purpose for which the
Lord has given it, it becomes as great an evil as it was intended to be a
good. The true rational is able to see that to be led by the Lord is the only
wise course; and that to think finite creatures can be a law of good and evil
to themselves is simply insanity. The Writings plainly teach this throughout,
and yet so perverse is the natural man that many seem to use the Writings as
a means of justifying themselves in acknowledging their rationality as their
only guide and their only authority for the reception of Truth. (85) |
|
|
How differently the Writings
themselves teach to all who are really teachable. As declared in the lesson
read therefrom : “The Word is Holy. .. because Jehovah the Lord has spoken it”, T.C.R. 200.
Not because it is approved by man's rational or any suchlike reason at
all; but simply because the Lord Himself has spoken it, and the holiness is
entirely from the spirit which He intends to convey thereby.
“But because its holiness does not appear in the mere sense of the
letter, therefore they who oil that account once doubt concerning its
holiness, he afterwards, when he reads the Word, confirms himself by many
things there, for lie says with himself — Whether can this be holy? Whether
can this be Divine?” T.C.R. 200.
Evidence that this is done abounds on all hands — many things in the
Word are not only regarded as not Divine and Holy, but as being vile. Not a
few appear to have received the Writings as a means of explaining away
what-over in the Word is repugnant to their own rationality. Having been
taught in childhood to attach holiness to the Word, they welcome a means
which enables them to avoid doing violence either to their own rationality or
to the impressions which were implanted in childhood. But if they slop there
and only confirm the supremacy of their rationality, the Writings cannot be
the means of their regeneration. That they may be such a means it is
necessary to see that their holiness is not from what appears rational to man
there, but altogether from the spirit of Him whose thoughts are not as man's
thoughts. Man must learn to submit his own rational to the Divine Truth that
it may he formed anew thereby and become the external of spiritual truth;
altogether subordinate thereto, humbly receiving all light therefrom to
transmit to the external, so that Egypt with Ashur may both serve Israel. (86)
Learn therefore to distinguish between the spiritual and the rational
of the Word, and that it is from the Spiritual Sense that the Word is
Divinely inspired and is holy in vary expression. The Writings are a rational
presentation of the spiritual sense of the Word, But if man in reading thinks
most of what appears to him to be rational therein, and receives teaching
therefrom only on the ground of that appearance, he will not receive the
spirit and life of the Lord therefrom.
Instead of approaching them in this way, you should always bear in mind that
the Lord has come therein as the Spirit of Truth to teach an order of life which
is the very inversion of any order which man can construct from his own
intelligence or rationality, that you can only open yourselves to the
reception of that Spirit of Truth, so far as you are willing to have your
natural rationality contradicted by the Lord, and a new and different
rationality implanted in you, such as will be subordinate to the Spirit of
Truth, and be content humbly to transmit its light to the external. If a man
begins from the idea, dolt the Writings are Divine from and because of their
rationality, he will necessarily mean from and because of their appearing
rational to him, and yet in spiritual things what appears rational to the
merely natural man is never truly rational, but is the opposite thereto.
Beware therefore of remaining in any such idea. Instead search the Writings
for that Spirit of Truth which will open your eyes to your own spiritual
evils, which will lead you away from the pride of self-intelligence, which
will expose the worthlessness of mere natural rationality in spiritual
things, until it has been reformed and
subordinated to the spirit of Divine Revelation, which in all things will
humble self and magnify the Lord's Providence, which will lead you
not to thank God that you are not as other men are, but to recognize that if
you are saved it will be entirely of the Lord's mercy in
withholding you from going your own way. Thus must both the rational and the
natural be subordinated to the spiritual, in order to be a blessing in the
midst of the Church. Such is the fruit by which the teaching of the Spiritual
Sun of the Lord's Word may be known, that Spiritual Sun from which
the -Word is Divinely inspired and is holy in every expression, such is the
fruit which will more or less distinguish all who really become of the Church
of the Lord's New Advent concerning which the prophecy was made: "In
that day Israel shall be a trine with Egypt and Ash,ur, a blessing in the midst of the
earth". (87)
“There were at that time
those who made Doctrine from the perceptives of the Most Ancient
and following Churches, that it might serve for a rule, and that it might be
known thence what good and truth are; those who were such were called
Chanoch; which is signified by these words And Chanoch
walked with God; so also they called
that doctrine; which is also signified by the name Chanoch, which is to
instruct: it can also appear from the signification of the word to walk, and
from this that he is said to have walked with God, not with Jehovah; to walk
with God is to teach and live according to the doctrine of faith, and to walk
with Jehovah is to live the life of Jehovah; to walk is a customary formula
signifying to live, as to walk in the law, to walk in the statutes, to walk
in truth: to walk properly regards the way which is of truth, therefore which
is of faith or of
the doctrine of faith”, A.C. 519. “That he was not any more, because God
took him, signifies that that doctrine was preserved for the use of
posterity”, A.C. 521. In the brief account of Enoch or
Chanoch is the record of how the Lord's Word was first reduced to
written form — to that form known as the Ancient Word. Those meant by Chanoch
who were instrumental in doing this work lived during the decline of the Most
Ancient Church. The celestial genius of that Church was entirely different
from that of any Church which the Lord has established since then. For it,
such a form of the Word was of no use, but it was necessary for posterity,
and was therefore provided by the Lord beforehand and preserved for the use
of the Church which was established after the consummation of the Most Ancient
Church. (88) “The men of the Most Ancient Church
were of such a celestial genius that they spoke
with the angels of heaven and that they could speak with them by correspondences; hence the state
of their wisdom was made such that whatever they saw on earth they not only
thought concerning it naturally, hut: also at, the same time spiritually,
thus also conjointly with the angels of heaven”, T.C.R. 202. Thus they both
thought and spoke according to correspondences, and by means thereof had
open communication with the angels. Mt this state was such that once it was
abused, it led to the most direful evils, and indeed to such that men could
not be saved from them except by a miraculous change being made in them,
whereby the understanding was made capable of acting to some extent independently
of the will, which before was not possible. It
was for this new state that the Ancient Word was prepared and the knowledge
of correspondences transmitted by means of those called Chanoch, concerning
which this morning's lesson declares: “Moreover I have
been instructed that Chanoch concerning whom it is mentioned in Genesis 5 :
21-24, with his companions, collected correspondence from their mouth and
propagated the knowledge of them to posterity; from which it was effected
that the knowledge of correspondence was not only known in many kingdoms of
Asia but was also cultivated especially in the land of Canaan, Egypt,
Assyria, Chaldea, Syria, Arabia, in Tyre, Sidon, Nineveh, and that it was
transferred thence into Greece, but then it was turned into fabulous stories,
as can appear from the writings of the oldest authors there”, T.C.R. 202. Now although man
cannot merely by a knowledge of correspondences, discover the spiritual sense
of the Word; yet
a knowledge of correspondences is inseparably connected with all revelation
of the internal sense, since that alone explains the relation of the
expressions used to the life which the Lord would convey by them. Thus as now
to the New Church so also to the Ancient Church the knowledge of
correspondences was revealed together with doctrine of the internal sense of
the Word. But this internal sense (always a relative term) was not the
distinctively spiritual sense concerning which it is declared: “That the spiritual
sense of the Word has hitherto been unknown”, T.C.R. 201. (89) |
|
|
A little reflection
in the light of the following passage will make this evident: “The doctrinals
which the man of the Ancient Church had were preserved from the revelations
and perceptions of the Most Ancient Church, in which they had faith, as we at
this day in the Word; those doctrinals were their Word”, A.C. 1068. For the revelations and perceptions of the Most Ancient Church were celestial in their character, and those preserved from them for the Ancient Church must necessarily have been of the same character. The only difference being that in the latter Church they were addressed to understandings capable of being elevated above the will. Thus the sense of the Word revealed to them would be celestial relatively to the spiritual sense revealed to the New Church, which had hitherto been unknown. As already seen,
the men of the Most Ancient Church had open communication with heaven, and
that by means of their intimate knowledge of correspondences. It was
thus that Chanoch walked with God. But the Word is given that we may come, though not
openly at once yet really, into communion with the angels as well as into
conjunction with the Lord, and the means are the same: it must be by a
revival of the knowledge of correspondences, — not a mere knowledge of what
particular things correspond to, learned in dictionary fashion, but: a
rational understanding of what correspondence means and what it involves,
such as will aid in the reception of an increasingly interior understanding
of what is revealed. “In most ancient
times it was well known, for with those who
lived then the science of correspondence was the science of sciences,
and so universal that all their manuscripts and hooks were written by correspondences: the book of Job
which is a book of the Ancient Church is full with correspondences. The
hieroglyphics of the Egyptians and also I he fabulous stories of the oldest
authors were no other”, T.C.R. 201. (90) Being written in
correspondences involves having an infernal sense. It is evident therefore
that having a corresponding internal sense does not cause books or writings
to be Divine, thus of the Word. For the book of Job is not front the Word,
neither are the fabulous stories alluded
to. This is the more evident when it is remembered that everything which
exists has a correspondence; to exist is indeed to present a correspondence.
Any man having a knowledge of correspondence could use correspondence in his
writing; but even if his knowledge thereof were perfect, what he expressed by
correspondence could after all only be the ideas which he entertained, and
which would be at least imperfect if they were not false. Nevertheless, given
Divine Truth, then correspondence is the only means which can perfectly
express it. If Divine Truth is expressed other-wise than in correspondence it
ceases to be perfectly expressed, and therefore so far the expression of it
ceases to be Divine. For: “Because Divine
things present themselves in the world in correspondences, therefore the Word
is written by pure correspondences; wherefore the Lord because He spoke from the Divine, He spoke by correspondences, for
what is from the Divine, that in nature falls into such things as correspond
to Divine things, and which then store up in their bosom the Divine things
which are called Celestial and Spiritual”. T.C.R. 201. From this it is
clear that we cannot in thought get too far away from the idea' that
correspondences are only illustrations by analogies; although they are
sometimes presented as illustrations, and are indeed the only perfect
illustrations. If any of the illustrations given in the Writings were not
pure correspondences, they would be imperfect illustrations, and therefore
could not be immediate revelation from the Lord as they claim to be. All know-ledge
of correspondence has come from Divine Revelation, it is not a knowledge
which man could acquire for himself apart from Revelation. The Ancients could
have known nothing of it, had it not been for the work of Enoch, who as the
Lord's instrument preserved in written form the knowledge of that
subject which was revealed to the Most Ancient Church. Not only is it a
knowledge which man cannot acquire for himself, but also having it he cannot
by means of it penetrate from external things to internal, although
correspondence is the connection which links external things to internal, and
all ultimately to their one source and cause, the Lord. The knowledge is
revealed in order that men may be able to receive understanding of internal
things in the external things which present them, and this more and more. (91) In the concluding number of this morning's lesson an
illustration is given from the book of Samuel, which shows that the
Philistines not only possessed knowledge of correspondences, but were able to
make practical application of the knowledge in getting rid of the plague
which had smitten them. The Lord through Chanoch preserved the knowledge of
correspondences not merely that they might be known by posterity, but that
they might be applied to use. So now the Lord has again revealed that
knowledge not merely that we may know it but that we may apply it in the work
of shunning evils as sins. We are apt to look only at the external effects of
evil, and to be satisfied with attempting to remove them. Thus men do with
regard to external drunkenness, giving no heed to the internal evil which
corresponds to it, and therefore causes it. Real evils are not those which
appear, but are what correspond thereto in the internal. It is that we may
know and shun these that correspondences have been revealed, that thus the
root of evil may be combated and not merely the effects. All evils correspond
to some form of the love of leading one's self, to trust in one's own prudence and intelligence, and such
like, and so far as these internal evils really are combated and removed, the external effect will pass away. The
know-ledge of correspondences like all things of Divine Revelation, is given
for the one purpose, to be so applied that evils may be shunned as sins and
the way be thus opened for the reception of heavenly life. Derivatively the
knowledge of correspondence will also apply to the true way of removing
bodily diseases also, for the laws by which these are dared must correspond
to the laws by which spiritual diseases are cured. (92) “Because disease and sickness signify the
infirmity of the internal man; his infirmity is when he sickens as to his
life which is spiritual life, thus when he turns aside from truth to what is
false, and from good to evil; when this is done that life sickens and when he
altogether averts himself from truth and good then that life dies, but its
death is called spiritual death which is damnation. Because it has itself
thus with the life of the internal man, therefore such things as are of
diseases and death in the natural world are said in the Word concerning the
diseases of spiritual life and concerning its death”, A.C. 90313. “Therefore by the diseases which the Lord healed, is
signified deliverance from the various kinds of evil and false which infested
the Church and the human race, and which would have induced spiritual death:
for Divine miracles are distinguished from other miracles by this that they
involve and regard states of the Church and the heavenly kingdom: wherefore
the Lord's miracles were especially healing of diseases”, A.C.
83646. The knowledge of correspondence is to
help men to cooperate with the Lord in such healings of their own spiritual
diseases. It is for such as are
willing to use it thus that it has been preserved and revealed. From such as
are Unwilling so to do the Lord takes away the ability of seeing what it
internally involves, lest its use for others should be destroyed. Such is the
teaching involved in the text And Chanoch walked with God, and he was not any more because God took him. (93) |
|
|
“This is concerning the
establishment of the Church; and by the idols of silver and the idols of gold
which they shall reject in that day are signified the falses and evils of
religion and worship which they call truths and goods; and because the falses
and evils of religion and worship are from their own intelligence, therefore
it is said, which your hands have made for you”, A.E. 5859. The idols which the man of the New
Church is thus called upon to reject are the falses and evils of religion and
worship which men call truths and goods. Such constitute the objects
of internal idolatry, idolatry which is a much more serious evil than that of
external idolatry, from which it is thus distinguished: (94) “Idolatrous worships are internal and external; internal
idolatries are those which condemn man, but external idolatries not so. In
the degree in which idolatrous worship is more interior in that degree it
condemns the more, but in the degree in which it is more exterior, in that
degree it condemns the less. Internal idolators do not acknowledge God, but
adore themselves and the world, and for idols have all cupidities: but
external idolators can acknowledge God although they are ignorant who the God
of the universe is. Internal idolators are known from the life which they
have acquired to themselves, which life recedes from the life of charity so
far as they are interior idolators. External idolators are known solely from
their worship, who although they are idolators are still able to have the
life of charity. Internal idolators can profane holy things, but external
idolators cannot. Wherefore lest holy things should be profaned external
idolatry is tolerated”, A.C. 1363. Man cannot receive genuine goods and
truths so long as he regards the cupidities of his own love as goods and the
notions of his own intelligence as truths. He must first reject the idols of
his silver and the idols of his gold. He must shun internal idolatry before
he can offer any sincere worship to the Lord. It is this internal idolatry
which is meant in the Word whenever external idolatry is spoken of. (95) Idolatry began from a perversion of
the rites of the Most Ancient Church. These rites were all representative and
correspondential, as were also their thought and speech, but in course of
time they were turned into idolatry — that is the external of such worship
was continued after the internal was rejected and at length forgotten. With
the Israelitish and Jewish nation indeed the knowledge of the correspondence
of external things with internal was altogether obliterated. For although the
worship instituted with that nation by the instrumentality of Moses
consisted purely of correspondences they were entirely ignorant thereof, and
did not know the correspondence of a single particular therein, but regarded
those externals as themselves constituting Divine Worship. Thus
that worship on their part was idolatrous, although in itself it altogether
represented heavenly worship. They being altogether natural did not wish to
know anything spiritual and therefore were not able. They had regard to
natural things only and knew nothing of the spiritual things which they
represented. Thus they were opposite in character to the men of the Most
Ancient Church; but for that very reason they were fitted to have a merely representative Church established with them, to, which they could be made to con form by punishments. Being
idolaters it was only thus that they could be kept from rushing
into the indiscriminate idolatries such as prevailed with the surrounding
milieus, and which were largely without any heavenly representations, it was
only thus that they were brought to cast away idols of silver and idols of
gold — thus only externally and not internally. Idols were originally only images placed by the Ancients both in their Temples and in their houses for the sake of
recalling to their minds the heavenly things to which they corresponded. When
the knowledge of correspondences was obliterated they began to worship them
as holy in themselves and at length as deities, because they were placed in
or near Temples. Still some knowledge of correspondence remained with many
Orientals even until the Advent of the Lord and it was from their knowledge
of correspondence that the wise men from the east offered to the infant Lord
gold, frankincense, and myrrh to represent their ascription to Him of all
worship, celestial, spiritual, and natural.
All who are idolators in heart reject the Lord if not openly still
practically; and really no others do reject Him. Like the Jews they reject
Him because He does not offer the kind of salvation that they want.
The Jews “rejected Him solely on account of the cause that He taught
them concerning a heavenly kingdom and not concerning an earthly kingdom, for
they wished for a Messiah who would exalt them over all nations in the universal
world and not for any Messiah who would consult their eternal salvation”,
T.C.R. 206. In like manner it is because the Old Church is internally idolatrous, worshipping idols of silver and idols of gold, and is unwilling to give up that worship, that it rejects the Lord in His New Advent. (96)
It is only Trion a knowledge of correspondence that it can lie known what
idolatry really is, and yet such knowledge, was not revealed lo the primitive
Christian Church because the members of that Church were so simple that it
would not have been of any use to them, nor could they have understood it.
Neither can it be of any use to such as retain the faith of the Old Church.
All things of the Word are used for confirming that faith, and correspondences
would he used for the same purpose if they were known, and thus the internal
as well as the external of the Word would be profaned. Hence unless men are
willing to reject the false faith of the Old Church it is better for them to
be ignorant of the correspondences of the Word. It is a mistake to think that
a knowledge of correspondences will deliver them from their essential errors.
It would only enable them to hold them more plausibly, and to confirm them
more interiorly, and thus to enter more deeply into the worship of idols
of si1ver and gold. There have been
many examples of those ostensibly in the New Church using the knowledge of
correspondences to confirm such false notions of the Old Church as agree with
their own love and intelligence.
But in that day, that is, in the state of
the New Church, that is, with those who are really open to the
reception of the Lord in His New Advent, there will be rejection by each man of the
Idols of his silver, and of the idols of his gold. By the idols of his silver
which each man must reject, are meant the ideas of his own intelligence by
which he suffers himself to be guided, and which he thus practically
worships. By the idols of his gold which each man
must reject the desires of his own will by which
he suffers his mind to be ruled. It is the spiritual sense of the Word which
exposes the nature of these idols, and calls upon men to reject them. And
that sense is revealed it this day solely for the sake of those who are
willing to reject them, as also is the knowledge of correspondences, which
knowledge is of use only when genuine spiritual truths have been received by
revelation, for it is necessary to the understanding of them and furnishes
abundant means of confirming them. (97) |
|
|
“That the knowledge of correspondences,
by which the spiritual sense is given, is at this day revealed, the cause is,
that now Divine Truths of the Church go forth into light and these are those
of which the spiritual sense of the Word consists: and when these are in man
the sense of the letter of the Word cannot be perverted; for the sense of the
letter of the Word can be bent hither and thither, but if it be bent to what
is false, then its internal sanctity perishes and with it the external
sanctity, but if it be bent to the Truth it remains”, T.C.R. 207. All men have a natural tendency to
confirm whatever they like to believe by whatever comes in their way,
especially by experience and by the letter of the Word. By confirmation they
make their beliefs more fully their own and more inseparable from their life.
Hence the danger of confirming false beliefs and the necessity of seeing that
a thing is true before confirming it. Now a knowledge of correspondences
furnishes a means of confirmation more full and interior than can be
otherwise effected. Hence while its use is exceedingly great, its abuse is
exceedingly hurtful. Woe therefore to
those who receive it without at the same
time receiving the genuine truths which have been revealed together with it
and which alone can prevent a man from abusing it to confirm the falses and
evils of religion and worship which he calls truths and goods, but
which are really and internally opposite thereto. When genuine truths are
really received the letter of the Word cannot be perverted, for it is lawful
to confirm genuine truth by all means.
But when genuine truths are not received as the guide of life, then
the false principles which self-love favors, form the center which everything else is made to surround and confirm. Hence the doctrines of the
New Church come to men they judge themselves according as they confirm or
reject, each man, the idols of his silver and the idols of his gold. How common it is to hear of those who
receive the Writings declaring that it is because they teach what they have
always thought. In the present state of men’s heredity something of such an
idea is almost inevitable at first; but if a receiver remains in that idea he
only the more deeply confirms his worship of the idols of his silver and the
idols of his gold. Before he can be really of the New Church, he must come
into an opposite state and recognize that until he has suffered the Writings
to lead him to reject them, he has altogether been in the worship of those
internals, idols which dwell in his own intelligence and in his own will. (98) All internal idols are formed in man's
own intelligence, as prompted by his own love, therefore it is said which your own hands bare made for you. It
is not to be thought that a man on entering the New Church can have rejected
his idols once for all. He must indeed have begun to do so before he can
really be of the New Church at all. But until he has become fully regenerated,
his will will continue to prompt his own intelligence to form and set up
idols of silver and gold. Hence there is continuous necessity to tidily
Divine Truth to the exposing and rejecting of these idols. It is said further
which your hands have made a sin. Evil
is not sin until it is known or believed to be contrary Its the Divine
command. But even in man's own intelligence there is stored some
idea of what is forbidden by the Divine, and in forming ideas contrary
thereto from the prompting of the will, it is not only making idols, but
making them a sin. All have some idea, however dim or however erroneous, of
what they believe to be Divinely commanded or forbidden, and according to
their attitude to that idea they determine the beginning of their own condemnation
or their own justification. In the New Church such idea of the Divine
commands is neither dim nor erroneous, but in all essentials is full and
clear to all who walk in its light. But this privilege carries with it the
danger of the greater condemnation if evils be not shunned as sins. In the
light of the New Church there can be little evil which man by his
intellectual reception of the doctrines has not caused to be sin for him to
commit. He cannot worship the idols of his own will and understanding without
sinning against the light revealed to him and thus against the Lord from whom
that light is. Be diligent therefore in rejecting the conceits of your own
prudence and intelligence, and also the
promptings of your own will, which will otherwise become the idols of your
worship. Only thus can you have your part with those concerning whom it is
prophecied: In, that day
they shall cast away each man the idols of his silver and the
idols of his gold, which your hands have made for you a sin. (99) |
|
Part 1
Back to Swedenborg Page:
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy/instructor/swedenborg.html