they signified." The doctrine of a primeval chaos, the metempsychosis, or the transmigration of souls, together with the poetic legends and fables of antiquity, all had a like origin.

But though the mythological fables of ancient times present a confused admixture of allegorical symbols and arbitrary figures, introduced by the license of poetic imagination, mysteriously and ingeniously combining a crude system of natural and moral philosophy; yet, heterogeneous, uncertain, extravagant, and obscure as they appear, from the vestiges and traces of correspondence which they still retain, the meaning of many of the less corrupted becomes obvious and interesting to those acquainted with this science. [The same deplorable corruptions and perversions of spiritual ideas originated magic, divination, demonology, necromancy, witchcraft, alchemy,

corrupt transmission of original pure religion.”—O'Brien's Round Towers of Ireland, 2d ed., p. 192.

All fabulous animals have a like origin. "We Christians deride the Egyptians without cause, they having many mysteries in their religion, for as much as they profess, that perishing brute animals are not worshipped by them, but the eternal ideas."Orig. Cont. Cels., lib. iii., p. 120. Cited by Cudworth, Intel. Syst., vol. ii., p. 277.

"It is more than probable," as the learned Mr. Pemble observed, "that Zoroaster, Hermes, Orpheus, Plato, and others, drew their knowledge, which they had in part of many high mysteries, out of a deeper and clearer fountain than the muddy, shallow springs of their own natural reason, though in the passage this water was much soiled by them with the filth of many idle fables and silly conceits."-Vindicia Gratiæ, p. 48.

truth, as to the source of all idolatry. Take the following:

"There never was, there never could be, any religion invented by man. Religion must be a subject purely of revelation from God, and as in the first ages [after the fall] we find it spiritual, and conveyed to the mind through the medium of natural things, which were necessarily employed as the instruments and media by which alone a knowledge of spiritual things could by possibility be communicated to the understandings of men. The first corruption that was introduced into religion was a stopping short, a not looking through the thing to that which was signified by it, and paying divine honors to springs and rivers, and trees and rocks [the elements and animals, men and demons], and all the host of heaven, which the Apostle calls the worshipping of the creature rather than the Creator. This may be called philosophical religion, against which the Apostle warns us. 'Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit.' (Col. ii. 8.) To that succeeded the gross and carnal state, when, because they did not like to retain God in their thoughts, 'He gave them up [by his permissive Providence] to a reprobate mind, to work all manner of uncleanness with greediness.' (Rom. i. 28.) But yet in reality there are not so many different religions, but only a corruption of the one religion, and he who carefully and impartially investigates the heathen mythology, will discover in its doctrines a mystery and a sublimity of theolog. ical sentiment which can only be explained 31 Knowing, as we presume, nothing of by a comparison of the same truths, but unsothe science of correspondence, we yet find a phisticated, as they are found in the Bible." multitude of writers more or less impressed-Orange's History and Antiquities of Nottingwith views closely approximating to the ham. Col. i., p. 42.

"The arcane and recondite theology of the Egyptians was concealed from the vulgar, two manner of ways, by fables of allegories, and by symbols or hieroglyphics. Eusebius informs us that Porphyrius wrote a book concerning the allegorical theology both of the Greeks and Egyptians. Neither can we doubt but that all the devout Pagans acknowledged some living and understanding deities or other; nor easily believe that they ever worshipped any inanimate or senseless bodies, otherwise than as some way referring to the same, or as images and symbols of them."- Cudworth's Intel. Syst., vol. i., pp. 536, 539.

astrology, and charms, with numberless other superstitions which for ages bound, as in adamantine fetters, the free-born mind.]

"The translation of the Word," says a sensible and pious writer, "into a language of such extensive use as the Greek, was fraught with important results. And from this source at least, if not from an earlier acquaintance with the Hebrew original, many of the sages, poets, and philosophers of the heathen world drew some sparks of the light of the heavenly fire which glowed within it. Which of your sophists,' says Tertullian, addressing his Pagan contemporaries, 'have not drunk from the fountain of the prophets? It is from these sacred springs that your philosophers have refreshed their thirsty spirits; and if they have found anything in the Holy Scriptures which hit their fancy, or which served their hypothesis, they took and turned it to a compliance with their curiosity, not considering those writings to be sacred and unalterable, nor understanding their true sense.""-D. H. H. in Amer. N. J. Mag., vol. xxii., p. 431.

To this same effect wrote the apostle Paul to the Romans: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves: who changed the truth of God into a lie, and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever, Amen" (i. 21-25). But in the Lord's good time, and in the multitude of his mercies, the period has happily arrived when this long-lost science, purged and defecated from the corrupting dregs of profanation, and without danger to human welfare, can be restored as a blessing to his Church, a holy medium of communion between himself and angels and men, a ground and pillar of the truth; nor will it ever again be withdrawn. Thus He has fulfilled his gracious promise: "He hath turned to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve Him with one consent" (Zeph. ix. 9); so that men need no longer "walk in darkness," but may "have the light of life."

5*

CHAPTER V.

THAT THE SACRED WRITERS BEAR THE MOST AMPLE AND COGENT TESTIMONY TO THE EXISTENCE OF A SPIRITUAL SENSE IN THE WORD Of God.

WE

E are now permitted to know and make trial of this great exegetical law. Since the first systematic promulgation of the heavenly doctrines of the New Church, in the middle of the last century, which include this rule of interpretation, and as if to confirm their truth and importance, science, in every branch of knowledge, has been permitted to be investigated with an ardor and success heretofore unknown. Ancient treasures of learning and remains of antiquity have by unwearied researches been brought to light, and labors, both mental and physical, have been expended upon them, unexampled in any former age. To open the prison-house of ignorance and superstition, the world has been explored, as it never was before, in search of all kinds of knowledge. A wide field of delightful investigation, perpetually expanding itself, is rendered accessible on every side, in which the prepared mind may disport and expatiate, and, by the sacred and sublime science of correspondence, every ascertained truth, every scientific fact, and every degree of intelligence, may be made subservient to revealed wisdom and goodness, and to the indefinite advancement of mankind in virtue and in truth.

Natural and external objects can only exist as effects from prior causes, which are internal and spiritual, belonging to the spiritual world, though latent or concealed here. These objects receive their appropriate forms from the interior principles of angels, demons, and spirits, and of which they are the constant exponents; and nothing exists within their minds but what, by an eternal and unchangeable law of the spiritual world, finds its constant and appropriate corresponding form without. This nature and constitution of the spiritworld is one source of the felicity of heaven, where all is beautiful and delightful because what is without exactly corresponds to what is within, and undergoes changes analogous to the changes of state; and the same law also determines the phenomena of hell, where all without, like all within, is doleful and monstrous.

These principles and ideas in regard to the spirit-world lie at the very root of the sciences of correspondences. They illustrate and explain it. For the fixed objects of the natural world receive all their indefinite forms by a like correspondence with the spiritual world; and according to the respective uses to which they are designed respectively to contribute.

Even the representations of the Jewish dispensation were all, originally, "types and patterns" of heavenly realities. When the spiritual sight of Moses was opened, he received direct instruction from the Lord out of heaven concerning the tabernacle, the ark of the testimony, and all their contents and furniture; and the Lord said unto him, "According to all that I show thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it" (Ex. xxv. 9). Then follows a particular description, and it is added, "And look that thou make them after the pattern which was shown thee in the mount" (ver. 40). The word translated pattern means also likeness or similitude (Deut. iv. 16-18).

"Not only all beasts, but also all things which are in the world, correspond, and according to correspondences represent and signify spiritual and celestial things, and in the supreme sense the divine things which are of the Lord. And hence it may be seen of what quality the ancient churches were, which were called representative churches, namely, that in singular their sacred rites were represented the things which are of the Lord and of his kingdom, thus which are of love and faith in Him. And that on such occasions heaven was conjoined with the man of the Church by such things; for internal things were presented to view in heaven. The Word of the Lord was also given for that end, for in it all and singular things, even to the smallest iota, correspond and signify; hence by the Word alone. there is connection of heaven with man. That this is the case, is known to no one at this day; wherefore the natural man, when he reads the Word, and inquires where the divine [essence or principle] lies concealed therein, and when he does not find it in the letter, by reason of the vulgar style, begins first to hold it in low estimation, and next to deny that it was dictated by the Divine [Being] Himself, and let down through heaven to man; for he is ignorant that the Word is divine from the spiritual sense, which does not appear in the letter, but still is in the letter; and that that sense is presented to view in heaven, when man reads it reverently, and that the subject treated of in that sense is concerning the Lord and concerning his kingdom.

These divine things are what render the Word divine, and by [or through] which sanctity flows in through heaven from the Lord, even into the literal sense, and into the very letter itself. But so long as man does not know what a spiritual principle is, neither can he know what the spiritual sense is, thus neither what correspondence is. And so long as man loves the world in preference to heaven, and himself in preference to the Lord, he is not willing to know those things, nor to apprehend them; when yet all ancient intelligence was hence derived, and hence also is angelic wisdom. The mystic arcana in the Word, which several divines have vainly busied themselves in exploring, only lie concealed therein."-A. C. 9280.

"Correspondence is the appearance of the internal in the external, and its representative therein."-A. C. 5423.

"The spiritual [thus] acts in the natural, and forms it to a likeness of itself, that it may appear before the eyes, or before the world; that [according to true order] the end may become the cause, and the cause become the effect, and thus that the end, by the cause, in the effect may exhibit itself visible and sensible; this trine is given from creation; the ultimate products which are in our world are various,-as many as are the subjects in the three kingdoms of nature,-the animal, the vegetable, and the mineral; therefore, all products [both in heaven and upon earth] are correspondences. [Thus] correspondence is the manifestation of causes in their effects" (A. E. 1081 et seq.). It connects the infinitely varied and perfect works of creative skill and energy in the spiritual world with those of the natural world; the inward mind with outward nature; the innumerable faculties of the soul with the complicated yet harmonious forms of the body; spiritual ideas with natural; revelation with reason; religion with philosophy; God with man; and links the life which now is to the ages of eternity. It is to the Word of God what the laws of physical science are to the phenomena of the universe. Without any acquaintance whatever with scientific researches and deductions, a man may indeed live, and enjoy a considerable share of worldly pleasure; but, destitute of a knowledge of these laws, what can he learn? Will the pebble or the fossil disclose to him its origin? Will light by its coruscations explain to him the mysteries of optical phenomena? Will the planets without the demonstrations of astronomy reveal to him how they obey the electro-magnectic forces, and how their constant equilibrium is preserved? Or will the thunder-cloud and lightning-flash familiarize him with the nature of the imponderable agents-light, heat, and