sequent salvation, when he enters into his heavenly state of rest and peace which is involved in the term Sabbath. This institution, therefore, was most holy in its representative character, because it denoted the consummation of all the divine purposes of redemption and salvation.

But a merely external representative state of holiness, such as then existed among the Jews, when there was no internal vital principles of holiness in the heart and life,-when only the outside of the cup and the platter was clean, but the inside full of extortion and excess, when the "whited sepulchre appeared beautiful without, but within was full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness;" (Matt. xxiii. 27)-such a state of merely external holiness, especially when connected with the mention of winter, is here meant by the Sabbath day. Such was the state of the Scribes and Pharisees, who were extremely punctilious and sanctimonious in observing all the ritual laws of the Sabbath, but who, in the sight of Him who knoweth what is in man, were "hypocrites, and a generation of vipers." Such also is the state of all professing Christians who assume a semblance or form of godliness, but who have none of the life and power thereof," or who, like the church of Sardis, "have a name to live," but who, in the Lord's sight, are spiritually dead. This is indeed a state even more dreadful than the winter state already described, since it is connected with hypocrisy and profanation.

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Let us, then, earnestly pray that our "flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day "-that death, when it comes, may not find us taking our departure out of this world in these unregenerate and sinful states, so contrary to the holiness and happiness of heaven. SCRUTATOR.

CHAPTER XVI.

CORRESPONDENCE OF THE SERPENT, WITH ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES FROM SCRIPTURE.*

A

S all things in creation which are according to order, are so many types of the infinite things in God, and as man is created to be the direct finite image and likeness of his Maker, it follows that all created objects are in a certain relation to man, and that they directly correspond to the various faculties, powers, principles, and states of his soul and body. Hence it is that all things in the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms bear a direct relation to the innumerable things in the human system, and that if this relation were understood, which it can be by the Science of Correspondences, there would, in the language of the poet, be

"Tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, Sermons in stones, and good in everything."

The knowledge of this relation and correspondence which natural things bear to man, and to the various states, both good and evil, of his internal and external mind, or of the spiritual, rational and sensual degrees of his system, is of the utmost importance to man, if he desire to advance in genuine intelligence and wisdom. This importance becomes much greater, when we consider that this relation of correspondence between external objects or things natural and internal objects or things moral, spiritual and divine, is the very language through which the Lord addresses man, and conveys to his mind all spiritual light, and all the treasures of revealed wisdom and knowledge in his Holy Word.

Of all objects in the animal kingdom the reptile tribe is the lowest, of which serpents of various kinds and species are the most conspicuous. Of all the degrees of man's life the sensual and the corporeal are the lowest; because they are nearest to the earth, and are actuated by merely earthly appetites, influences and causes. These lowest degrees in man's nature partake the least of what is truly human in

* From the Intellectual Repository for January, 1843.

man; and the serpent, their correspondent emblem, is of all animals the most remote from the human form. As the serpent crawls upon the earth, so the sensual principle in man is the nearest akin to earth, which, if not elevated by the rational and spiritual principles of his nature, may be said to crawl upon the earth in like manner. As sensual things have a tendency to fascinate and charm the mind, because sensual delights are more vividly experienced than any others, so certain kinds of serpents, especially the more malignant, are said by naturalists to fascinate and charm their prey before they devour it. In short, the points of emblematic correspondence between the sensual principle in man and the serpent, would become more obvious, the more we become acquainted with the characteristics of the two objects compared together. But we will first describe, from Swedenborg, what the sensual principle is, and also what its nature is if man be not elevated above it by regeneration.

"The sensual principle is the last and lowest sphere of the life of the human mind, adhering to and cohering with the five bodily senses. He is called a sensual man whose judgment on all occasions is determined by the senses of the body, who believes only what he can see with his eyes and touch with his hands, allowing such things to be something real, and rejecting all others. The interiors of his mind which see by the light of heaven, are closed, so that he has no discernment of any truth relating to heaven or the church. Such a person thinks in extremes, that is, his thought is confined to the last and lowest sphere of things; for he does not think interiorly from any spiritual light, but rests in gross natural light only: hence it is that he is inwardly opposed to the things of heaven and the church, although he can outwardly speak in their favor, and that with a degree of zeal proportioned to the hope of obtaining authority and opulence by their means. Men of learning and erudition who have confirmed themselves deeply in falsities, especially those who have confirmed themselves against the truths of the Word, are more sensual than the rest of mankind. Sensual men reason with shrewdness and dexterity, because their thoughts are so near their speech as to be almost in it, being, as it were, in their lips; and because they make all intelligence to consist in speaking merely from the memory: they are also expert in confirming falsities, and after confirmation believe them to be true; and yet their reasonings and confirmations are grounded in the fallacies of the senses, by which the vulgar are ensnared and persuaded. Sensual men are cunning and malicious above all others. The covetous, the adulterous and the deceitful are particularly sensual, though they may appear men of talent in the eyes of the world. The interiors of their minds are foul and filthy in consequence of their communication with the hells; and in the

Word they are said to be dead. All who inhabit the hells are sensual, and the more so as they are more deeply immersed. The sphere of infernal spirits conjoins itself with the sensual principle of man in the back; and in the light of heaven the hinder part of their heads appears hollow. They who reasoned merely from sensual things, were by the ancients called serpents of the tree of knowledge. Sensual things ought to possess the last place and not the first, and with every wise and intelligent man it is so, and they are kept in subjection to interior things; whereas with an unwise man they have the first place, and bear rule. Where sensual things are in the lowest place, a passage is opened by them to the understanding, and truths are eliminated by the mode of extraction. Such sensual things border most closely on the world; they admit whatsoever flows from the world, and as it were sift it. Man by means of sensual things communicates with the world, and by means of rational things with heaven. Sensual things form a basis which is subservient to the interiors of the mind, some sensual things being subservient to the intellectual part and some to the voluntary part. Where the thought is not elevated above sensual things, man attains but to small degrees of wisdom; but where it is, he enters into a clearer light (lumen.), and at length into heavenly light (lux.), and then he has perception of those things which flow from heaven. Natural science is the ultimate of the understanding, and sensual delight the ultimate of the will.”— T. C. R. 565.

Serpents are of many kinds and species, but they may be divided into two general classes,-venomous, and non-venomous; the former are for the most part viviparous, and the latter oviparous. Those which are not venomous correspond to the sensual principle when in order,-when all its states are subordinate to the higher rational and spiritual principles of the mind. But the venomous kinds of serpents correspond to the sensual principle when in disorder, and consequently rebellious against the higher rational and spiritual powers of our being.

The serpent in the garden of Eden plays a most active part, since the fall of man is attributed to its subtlety and seductive power. This shows us how important it is that we should correctly understand what the serpent means, in order that we may see the nature of that temptation which caused the fall of man, and which still causes the children of men to cherish evil and to commit sin. For the same cause which originated evil, still carries on the dreadful work in all the children of Adam, who do not resist the voice and subtleties of the serpent. No person at the present time can possibly be so childish in his sentiments and ideas as to suppose that this is a literal history

The science of correspondences by which the spiritual sense of the Word is opened, and the light thence arising, can alone explain to us the nature of the fall, and show us the mystery connected with the origin of evil. The serpent in Eden, and also in every other portion of the Word, signifies the sensual principle of our nature, which, in the perfect constitution of our being, is as necessary as a foundation is to a house. Hence the serpent is necessary to the perfection of Eden, and consequently the divine approbation of good was pronounced upon every creeping thing, as well as upon every other thing which the Lord God had made. (Gen. i. 15.) This shows us that the serpent was not, as is commonly supposed, an evil spirit that had intruded into the happy abode; but that man, being placed by his Creator in perfect equilibrium between heaven and the world, or between the heavenly things of his spiritual mind and the worldly things of his natural mind, was in the enjoyment of the most perfect spiritual and natural liberty, so that he could turn himself either to the Lord as 66 the tree of life," and thus live under the guidance and influence of his spiritual mind, or, as the apostle says, "have his conversation in heaven;" or, he could turn himself to his natural mind, and thus live in the exercise of merely natural and selfish affections, which is "to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil," or to live a merely natural and sensual life, and consequently to be banished from the garden of heavenly intelligence and wisdom.

Now, the sensual principle, as being the nearest to the world and to all external things, has in itself a tendency downwards, or outwards, and is strongly disposed to judge of things according to their outward appearances, and to prefer worldly appearances to heavenly realities, and to lead man to prefer earthly good to heavenly good; that is, to prefer the good of his body and of his merely natural mind and state, to the good of his soul and of his spiritual mind and state. And as this is the case with the sensual principle in every man, the serpent, its direct corresponding emblem in the world of nature, is represented in the Word of God as tempting man to disobey his Maker. This temptation is directed to the delights of the natural mind and the body, all of which relate to the world and to man's life in the world; and when these delights are preferred to the delights of the spiritual mind, self-love arises as a governing principle, and banishes the love of God above all things as the ruling end and motive in the constitution of man; and the love of the world and of worldly things,