rather than springing from the voluntary offerings of a truly Christian and philanthropic spirit. Where this spirit exists, it will be fervent, and solicitous, and busy, in behalf of human happiness. It will pursue a straightforward and honest course in order to accomplish the object which it has in view, without spending a life-time in the cold calculation of abstract and conjectural systems. Whether we possess this spirit or not, should be a matter of daily and constant inquiry with every sincere lover of the truth. A. J. C.

ON THE SPIRITUAL SENSE OF THE WORD AS ADVOICATED IN THE PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.

No subject, it is admitted, can be of greater importance to true religion than the proper interpretation of the Scriptures. If it is true, which no one can well dispute, that the Church is founded upon the WORD, properly understood, and that in proportion as its divine truths are "spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. ii. 14) and cordially received and practised, the Church arises, arrayed with glory and beauty; nothing can be of greater moment than the right understanding of Scripture. But to understand the Scripture aright, is to interpret it aright, and this cannot be done without a correct system of interpretation. This is the golden key which must unlock the golden treasures of divine and spiritual knowledge. This key, it is verily believed, is at length found in the Science of Correspondences, which explains the relation between things spiritual and natural, and which, by the strict application of its principles, precludes all merely human fancy, conjecture, and ingenuity from the interpretation of Scripture. It is well known, that during the four first centuries of Christianity, the belief of a spiritual sense in Scripture was almost universal.* But as the writers of those times, called Fathers, had not the golden key presented to us in the Science of Correspondences, so amply explained in the writings of the New Church, they could not systematically unfold the spiritual sense; and, consequently, they were in much obscurity as to its true nature, and as to the means by which it could be clearly interpreted. Hence it was that the acknowledgment of a spiritual sense in the Word gradually declined in the Church, until at length it was, and is still, to a great extent denied altogether. Now, the fact that a belief in the spiritual

* See Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, third century.

sense of Scripture prevailed during several centuries in the Christian Church, is a great presumptive evidence that some great truth attaches to this subject; and this evidence becomes absolute and positive, when we consider that the Apostle Paul, yea, and an infinitely greater than Paul, the Lord himself, clearly alludes to this fact, and impresses it upon the attention of the devout disciple of Revelation. (See Luke xxiv. 45; Gal. iv. 24; 1 Cor. ii. 14.)

It is still generally admitted, that the prophetical parts of Scripture cannot be understood without acknowledging, in some way or other, that there is an ulterior and a spiritual sense involved in the prophetic language; but as to the historical parts, it is altogether denied that any such sense exists in the sacred records. In order, however, to shew, that the belief in a spiritual sense was, in the first centuries of the Christian Church, equally and as generally extended to the historical as to the prophetical and parabolical portions of Scripture, we will here adduce the substance of what Origen says, in his second Homily on Exodus, concerning the spiritual sense of the first chapter of that Book; after which, we entreat the reader to compare what Swedenborg says, in the Arcana Calestia, on the same chapter, as explained according to the Science of Correspondences, and he will, at once, see the consistency and beauty of the latter as compared with the former. He will behold the entire Word concurring to corroborate and illustrate the spiritual sense as explained according to Correspondences; and he will perceive, that every verse contains a meaning which, as the Apostle says, "is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works," (2 Tim. iii. 16, 17.) The Apostle says, that all "Scripture is given by inspiration of God" for this purpose; but viewed as to the letter only, this cannot possibly be seen to be the case. Viewed, however, as to the spiritual sense, which conveys the "spirit and life" of the Word to the mind, it is seen to be the case with every verse of Holy Scripture.

"Pharaoh, king of Egypt," says Origen, "represents the devil,—the male and female children of the Hebrews, represent the animal and rational faculties of the soul. Pharaoh, the devil, wishes to destroy all the males, i. e. the seeds of rationality and spiritual science, through which the soul tends to and seeks heavenly things; but he wishes to preserve the females alive, i. e. all those animal propensities of man, through which he becomes carnal and devilish. Hence, says he, when you see a man living in luxury, banquetings, pleasures, and sensual gratifications, know that there the king of Egypt has slain all the males, and preserved all the females alive. The midwives represent the Old and New Testaments: the one is called Sephora, which signifies a sparrow, and means that sort

of instruction by which the soul is led to soar aloft, and contemplate heavenly things. The other is called Phua, which signifies ruddy or bashful, and points out the gospel, which is ruddy with the blood of Christ, spreading the doctrine of his passion over the earth. By these, as midwives, the souls that are born into the church are healed; for the reading of the Scriptures corrects and heals what is amiss in the mind. Pharaoh, the devil, wishes to corrupt those midwives, that all the males, the spiritual propensities, may be destroyed; and this he endeavours to do by bringing in heresies and corrupt opinions. But the foundation of God standeth sure. The midwives feared God, therefore he builded them houses. If this be taken literally, it has little or no meaning, and is of no importance; but it points out that the midwives, the law and the gospel, by teaching the fear of God, build the houses of the church, and fill the whole earth with houses of prayer. Therefore these midwives, because they feared God, and taught the fear of God, did not fulfil the command of the king of Egypt-they did not kill the males; and I dare confidently affirm, that they did not preserve the females alive: for they do not teach vicious doctrines in the church, nor preach up luxury, nor foster sin, which are what Pharaoh wishes, in keeping the females alive; for by these, virtue alone is cultivated and nourished. By Pharaoh's daughter I suppose the church to be intended, which is gathered from among the Gentiles; and although she has an impious and iniquitous father, yet the prophet says unto her, Hearken, O daughter, and consider, incline thine ear: forget also thine own people, and thy father's house, so shall the king greatly desire thy beauty. (Psal. xlv. 10, 11.) This, therefore, is she who comes to the waters to bathe, i. e. to the baptismal font, that she may be washed from the sins which she has contracted in her father's house. Immediately she receives bowels of commiseration, and pities the infant;-that is, the church, coming from among the Gentiles, finds Moses, the law, lying in the pool, cast out and exposed by his own people, in an ark of bulrushes, daubed over with pitch, deformed and obscured by the carnal and absurd glosses of the Jews, who are ignorant of its spiritual sense; and while it continues with them, is as a helpless and destitute infant; but as soon as it enters the doors of the Christian Church, it becomes strong and vigorous; and thus Moses, the law, grows up, and becomes, through means of the Christian Church, more respectable even in the eyes of the Jews themselves, according to his own prophecy :-I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. (Deut. xxxii. 21.) Thus taught by the Christian Church, the Synagogue forsakes idolatry; for when it sees the Gentiles worshipping the true God, it is ashamed of its idols, and worships them no more. In like manner, though we have had Pharaoh for our father, though the prince of this world has begotten us by wicked works, yet when we come unto the waters of baptism, we take unto us Moses, the law of God, in its true and spiritual meaning; what is low or weak in it, we leave; what is strong and perfect, we take and place in the royal palace of our heart. Then we have Moses grown up; we no longer consider the law as little or mean--all is magnificent, excellent, elegant-for all is spiritually understood. Let us beseech the Lord Jesus Christ, that he may reveal himself to us more and more, and shew us how great and sublime Moses is; for he, by his Holy Spirit, reveals these things to whomsoever he will. To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever! Amen."

"Neither the praise of piety," says Dr. Adam Clarke, who adduces this extract in his Commentary on Exodus," nor the merit of ingenuity, can be denied to this eminent man, in such interpretations as these. But who, at the same time, does not see, that if such a mode

of exposition were to be allowed, the trumpet could no longer give a certain sound. Every passage and fact might then be obliged to say some thing, anything, every thing, or nothing, according to the fancy, peculiar creed, or caprice of the interpreter."

The "trumpet," indeed, could no longer give a certain sound. The interpretation of Scripture would be like a vessel in a stormy sea, without a compass and without a pilot, tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, by every fancy and opinion, and by every vain tradition of man. This must certainly be the case where there is not a system to guide us in the interpretation of the Word;-a system, not constructed by the ingenuity of man, but founded on the eternal and immutable laws which govern the relation between things spiritual and natural. Such a system is presented to us in the Science of Correspondences, by which the spiritual sense may be systematically developed and explained. The trumpet, on this system, would always give a certain sound, and that sound would be the voice of truth. Let two clergymen, the one in the north, the other in the south, personally unknown to each other, preach from the same text, which, let it be supposed, is from Mark ix. 49, 50:-" For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt," &c.;-these two clergymen would, if interpreting their text according to the Science of Correspondences, deduce the same divine truths; and although their sermons would be various, according to the respective variety of their genius, learning, and intelligence, they would nevertheless harmonize as to their essential principles, and no contradiction would be discovered between them. Here the trumpet would give no uncertain sound. But consider the uncertain sounds,-the various discordant interpretations, which have been given on this and on numerous other texts, by commentators and preachers in general, * and the conviction will dart upon the mind, that nothing is so much wanted in the Christian Church as a fixed system of interpreting the Holy Word.

We will adduce one more passage from Origen, shewing that a spiritual meaning is involved in the historical facts concerning the Lord's death and burial, as recorded by the Evangelists, although he had not the key by which the spiritual sense could be unlocked and explained. Origen says

"But the burial and tomb of Jesus Christ, and the person who buried him, all are points of much importance, on which I mean to prepare a distinct treatise. At pre

* See these various and contradictory interpretations alluded to by Doddridge, in his "Family Expositor," on the interpretation of the above text.

sent, I shall only mention the linen cloths in which it was wisely ordained by Providence that the spotless Jesus should be enveloped; and also the new sepulchre, hewn out of the rock, wherein, as John records, never man lay. It may be well to inquire whether the account of the sepulchre, as given by three Evangelists, does not present some convincing evidence in regard to divine truth, and whether such as apply themselves to the obscure and hidden sense of Scripture, should not search for some concealed doctrine in the fact that Jesus was laid in a new sepulchre, a sepulchre, as two of the Evangelists affirm, in which no man had lain. For it behoved that one whose end appeared so fatal and extraordinary, that he gave forth signs of life after death, by the effusion of water and blood from his wounded side, should partake of an unusual burial. Inasmuch as his birth was not in the ordinary course of nature, but by a virgin mother, it was on this account fitting that his interment should be accompanied by circumstances bespeaking an untainted purity, which circumstances we see in his being laid in a new sepulchre, and in one not composed of many stones placed together by art, but hewn in an entire rock. But concerning the literal narrative in these places, and that higher signification that should be attached to the things thus said to have happened, and of which they are the figures, it would be easy for those who have applied themselves to such studies to discourse more sublimely and divinely.”*

"Scripture history is represented by the same writer," says Dr. Vaughan, "as always containing both a moral and a mystical sense. Thus the coming of the Syro-Phoenician woman to the Redeemer, imploring the recovery of her daughter, is explained by saying, that every one who is subject to sin dwells, like that woman, on the borders of Tyre and Sidon; and that to turn from a vicious to a virtuous life, is to migrate, as she did, from the country of Tyre and Sidon into regions nearer to God. The fact also that the Saviour met the woman when coming on this errand, is described as showing his willingness to meet every returning sinner. Again : Moses relates that after the death of Joseph, the children of Israel were much increased; and this circumstance is regarded as teaching, that the mortification and death of sin in the believer, shall be followed by a large increase of his moral and spiritual graces."

Dr. Vaughan, like Dr. A. Clarke, does not approve of Origen's mode of interpreting the Scriptures, thinking, as is certainly true, that as the fathers had no fixed system to interpret the spiritual meaning of the Word, every thing is left to ingenuity, conjecture, and fancy. But had these theologians-who, there is every reason to suppose, were actuated by pure motives in their search after truthknown of a system founded upon fixed and immutable principles, there is every reason to conclude, that it would have been well considered by them. But such a system, founded on fixed and immutable principles, is discovered, demonstrated, and amply illustrated in the wri* Op. I. 438, 439.

+ In his work on the Causes of the Corruption of Christianity, p. 248.