3 – The Lord's New Church

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DE HEMELSCHE LEER A MONTHLY MAGAZINE

DEVOTED TO THE DOCTRINE OF GENUINE TRUTH OUT OF THE LATIN WORD REVEALED FROM THE LORD

ORGAN OF THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM IN HOLLAND

EXTRACTS FROM THE ISSUES AUGUST 1930 TO FEBRUAIIY 1932 (ENGLISH TRANSLATION)

THIRD FASCICLE S-GRAVENHAGE

SWEDENBORG GENOOTSCHAP LAAN VAN MEERDERVOORT 229 1932

LEADING THESES PROPOUNDED IN "DE HEMELSCHE LEER"

The "Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg are the Third Testament of the Word of the Lord. The DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM CONCERNING THE SACRED
SCRIPTURE must be applied to the three Testaments alike.
The Latin Word without Doctrine is as a candlestick without light, and those who read the Latin Word without Doctrine, or who do not acquire for themselves a Doctrine from the Latin
Word, are in darkness as to all truth (cf. S. S. 50-61).
The genuine Doctrine of the Church is spiritual out of celestial origin, but not out of rational origin. The Lord is that Doctrine itself (cf. A. C. 2496, 2497, 2510, 2516, 2533, 2859;
1. E. 19).

DE HEMELSCHE LEER

EXTRACT FROM THE ISSUE FOR AUGUST 1930 THE NINETEENTH OF JUNE 1930

Address by H. D. G. Groeneveld.

In our present celebration of the Nineteenth of June, the day of the foundation of the New Church, we are filled with great joy, since in our Society in the past year the Doctrine of the Church has been born. Last year already it was felt that only by the Doctrine of the Church the further upbuilding of the Church can take place, and that by the Doctrine of the Church one comes into the sphere of the essential, therefore for the first time truly living things, which is the sphere of the Holy Spirit. The Doctrine which, last year, the Church was given to receive as a seed from the Divine Human of the Lord, by the influx of the Lord has come to life. After its invisible development, the Doctrine having been borne in the body of the Church, in the past year it came to birth, as a result of which the great importance of the Doctrine is now fully seen by the Church. As to its very essence the attitude which the Church will now take with regard to the Third Testament, has been changed. Similarly as centuries ago, after it had been universally assumed, according to the impression of the senses, that the earth stood still and the sun revolved around the earth, the view was accepted that this was a fallacy of the senses and that not the earth but the-sun stands still and that the earth revolves around the sun, whereby the mode of thought of man was completely changed, so too by the Doctrine of the Church the entire spiritual mode of thought will be changed. No longer will the literal sense of the Third Testament be the resting point or the point of support around which move the thought of the Church, also with regard to the Old and the New Testament, but the Doctrine of the Church,

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or the internal or spiritual sense, will be the Centre to which the understanding of the literal sense of the Third Testament will be directed. In the literal sense of the Third Testament one is in the sensual fallacies of natural thought, which fallacies disappear by the rational thought of the Doctrine of the Church. The Third Testament by its literal sense is within the reach of all, and every one who merely on the basis of the literal sense draws conclusions with regard to the essential things of life is in the sensual fallacies of that sense, as a result of which there is the danger of great falsities coming into existence. It is only by the Doctrine of the Church which is in enlightenment from the Lord, and by which the literal sense is read from within and therefore in true order, that a perception of the essential things of life is possible.

Though on the one hand we may rejoice that the Doctrine of the Church has been born in our Society, on the other hand we are anxiously waiting to see, whether, the GENERAL CHURCH too will receive the Doctrine of the Church as the only essential thing for the upbuilding of the Church. Although to a certain extent we may look forward to the future with confidence, yet we may not overlook that in the GENERAL CHURCH we find the following points of view generally represented:

That the Third Testament is destined only for a special part of the mind, namely the rational mind;

That by direct cognizance of the letter of the Third Testament one has to do with the spiritual sense

itself;

That the Third Testament is a revelation of the rational.

That the GENERAL CHURCH took these points of view certainly was according to order, similarly as now the further upbuilding of the Church can only take place by the Doctrine of the Church.

In the Preface to the CANONS it is revealed to us that the New Church is the Church to which all Churches from the first in order have aimed. We further know from the Third Testament that in the last things all previous things are contained. In the New Church therefore all preceding Churches are present.

H. D. G. GROENEVELD

Before the Coming of the Lord on Earth the conjunction of the Lord with the human race was from His Divine through Creation. All the thought of the human race was therefore founded on sensual and corporeal things. The men of the Adamic Church, as is known, lived in open in the communication with the Heavens. This Church is the New Church is the establishment of the Church through Emanuel Swedenborg. It is the state of the New Church in the beginning, and also the sate of the man who for the first time comes into touch with the New Church, and in general the state of children in the New Church. It is a state of overpowering, of right feeling, however without being able to give expression to a single thought.

It was the Noachic Church, which was the first to receive a written Word on earth. It is this Church in the of the Church when they New Church which is the state of the church when they regarded the writings as interiorly Divine, without understanding, however, what this in its essence means. It is the state of the man of the New Church who when reading the Writings realizes the rationality thereof, but who, from himself, that is without literal quotations, cannot render what he has read.

The succeeding Church, the Hebrew Church, in the New Church, is the state of the New Church when the Writings were seen as teachings for the life of man and when the upbuilding of the Church was seen to be dependent on the spreading thereof by the cultivation of the Old and the New Testament. It is the natural life of the Church especially that receives attention. It is the state of the man of the New Church, who recognizes the importance of gathering cognitions, while his life gives evidence of external or natural charity.

The then succeeding Church, the Israelitish Church, in the New Church, is the state of the New Church in which the Church feels itself bound to the letter of the Writinigs, but when the Divinity thereof and the acceptance of the Writings as the only means of conjunction of the Lord with the human race recedes into the background. And thus the Old and the New Testament are

then stamped as direct means of conjunction. The Old, the New, and the Third Testament are regarded as destined for certain parts of the human mind, and as it is thought that the Old

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and the New Testament are destined for the sensual and the natural mind and the Third Testament for the rational mind, the Old and the New Testament are in the first place regarded as direct means of conjunction with the, Lord. In that state of the Church there is the great danger that the Writings will be considered as merely human. The Church remains in existence only if the affection for the Divinity of the letter of the Writings remains alive. It is in this state that lies the origin for the separation of bodies such as CONFERENCE and CONVENTION, which separation came to fulness in the succeeding state of the Church.

This state of the Church is to be compared with the Coming of the Lord on earth. Just as the birth of the Lord was the Coming of the Father Himself on earth, so also the Church in this state will recognize the Divinity of the Writings down into the letter and accept these Writings as the Third Testament and thus as the Word of the Lord. They, however, who in the previous state came to regard the Writings as merely human, and with whom therefore the affection for the Divinity of the Writings has been extinguished, will now most strongly oppose the new truth that the Writings are the Word of the Lord. And thereby the separation of the above mentioned bodies from the Church becomes complete.

In this new state the Church again encounters two great dangers, namely on the one hand that men will take the point of view that by taking direct congnizance of the letter of the Third Testament they have to do with the spiritual sense itself, and on the other hand that the Third Testament is considered merely as a rational revelation.

The first danger is the same as that to which the Old Church succumbed, namely by not seeing the Divine of the Lord in His Human, but by placing the Divine above the Human, and therefore by the acknowledgment of a Son from eternity. By saying that by direct cognizance, that is from without, the Third Testament is the spiritual sense itself, one places the Divine of the letter above-the Human, and thus one recognizes in the Second Coming the Son of man as a Son from eternity. The Second Coming no more than the, Coming of the Lord in the flesh is an active redemption of the human race.

H. D. G. GROENEVELD

The second danger arises when the Church has attention only for the letter of the Third Testament- and therefore closes out enlightenment from the Lord by which the letter is read from within, seeing such a reading does not seem to be in agreement with a reading of the Third Testament from without. Similarly as the Lord was born from the virgin Mary and the human of Mary clung to the Lord whereby the Lord was led into temptation, so also by the birth of the Lord in the Church there clings to the Church that own human from its affection of the letter of

the Writings in the previous state, which affection carries with it a human or natural rational view of the Third Testament.

The Church fears to depart from the letter of the Third Testament. It is as if the Church wishes to keep the Lord on earth. May the Church in this state listen to the words of the Lord in the seventh verse of the sixteenth chapter of the Gospel of John: "Nevertheless I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if T depart, T will send Him unto you", and in the thirteenth verse: "Howbeit when He, the Spirit of Truth is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall bear, He shall speak: and He will show you the things to come."

Only then the Church comes into its next state, which is to be compared with the pouring out of the Holy Spirit. Then the Church enters into a spiritual state by seeing in the letter of the Third Testament the truly spiritual things, and into the understanding That the DOCTRINE CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE applies also to the Third Testament. This is the state for the development of the Doctrine of the Church.

In all the preceding states there is ever present the state of the New Church itself, namely a, revelation of the Doctrine of the Church as an internal Doctrine from the Holy Spirit itself, apart from the letter of the Third Testament. It is by the fulness of this revelation that the external Doctrine of the Church receives its power in the letter of the Third Testament, by which an ever deeper vision of that Testament is obtained, and consequently also of the Old and the New Testament, which

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vision appears to the Church as an ever increasing miracle. Then the influx from the Lord can take place from the most internal to the most external things, by which also a rational insight becomes possible into the causes of natural things and therefore into the Scientific Works of Swedenborg. Only then can the Lord give the sensual things in their fulness, whereby the human race will dwell in a paradise on earth.

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EXTRACT FROM THE ISSUE FOR DECEMBER 1930 THE REGENERATION OF THE NATURAL

ADDRESS By H. D.G. GROENEVELD, AT THE SOCIAL SUPPER OF OCTOBER 26TH, 1930.

"I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance; but He that cometh after me is mightier than 1, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear; He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit, and with fire".

MATTHEW 3:11.

As we know from the Third Testament, Baptism signifies the spiritual washing, that is, the purification from evils and falsities and thus regeneration. Baptism is in the first place the introduction into the Christian Church, and at the same time insertion among the Christians in the spiritual world. As in the spiritual world all things are according to the strictest order, Baptism therefore in the first place determines the order of man's life. As the reception of this order depends on man, Baptism determines only that one may receive faith and thus be regenerated.

John the Baptist stands for the literal sense of the Word; for the first Christian Church for the literal sense of the Now Testament; for the New Church for the literal sense of the Third Testament. Water signifies natural truth. The words "I baptize you with water" thus indicate that the order of man's life is determined by the natural truth of the literal sense of the Word, and that reception of this order and thus the regeneration of man depend on a life in accordance therewith ' The words "unto repentance" clearly- indicate that the end is the change of the mind, namely the natural mind of man. Thus they who cling to the things of this world prevent the reception of the true order in their minds and thus hold back regeneration.

To the First Christian Church admission to the Natural of the Divine Human had been given by the

H. D. G. GROENEVELD

revelation of the New Testament. By the reception of the natural truth of the literal sense of that Testament, separated from the things of this world, this Church by That natural truth, and the genuine natural rational formed therefrom, might have put itself into order for the influx of the Natural of the Divine Human of the Lord. It would always have had to be a wrestling through the natural. It is of this that the great artists gave evidence.

Instead of receiving the natural truth of the literal sense of the New Testament, apart from the things of the world, these things were mixed with it more and more, by which an ever more false natural rational came into existence. By this the natural truth of the literal sense of the New Testament was entirely falsified so that conjunction of the Lord with the human race on that basis was no longer possible.

To the New Church admission to the Rational of the Divine Human has now been given by the revelation of the Third Testament. By the reception of the natural truth of the literal sense of that Testament the Church enters into a rational which puts itself into order for the influx of the Holy Spirit. More than ever this natural truth of the literal sense must now be received apart from the things of this world. Where in the first Christian Church it was the natural that had to be received, separated from the things of this world, it now is the rational. So much so is this the case that one never enters into this rational if the natural truth of the literal sense of the Third Testament is not received and applied to life apart from the things of this world. In the first

Christian Church it was the rational which was dependent on the reception of the natural; in the New Church, however, the natural is dependent on the reception of the rational, since the natural for the New Church is formed only from the rational. A falsification of the Third Testament, which is the Divine Rational of the Lord laid down in the natural, therefore is not possible, but only a falsification of the scientific of that Testament. If one takes up the natural truth of the literal sense of the Third Testament, mixed with the things of this world, one forms for one's self a rational that more and more falsifies the scientifics of that Testament. Instead of this Testament being opened, it is closed mote and more.

THE REGENERATION OF THE NATURAL,

"But He that cometh after me is mightier than 1, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear; He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire". While John the Baptist stands for the natural truth of the literal sense, the Lord represents the genuine or internal truth of that sense. For, the first Christian Church the Lord represents the Natural of the Divine Human. It is this Natural which ought to have determined the essence of this Church and which might have been its part by the pouring out of the Holy Spirit. Then this Church could have come into the possession of a natural from the Lord; for the order of the life of that Church with regard to the natural would have been determined from within by the Divine Truth and the Divine Good, as appears from the words "He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire". This natural 'Would have been entirely different from the first natural, since this first natural is still mixed with man's proprium. The new natural is unsoiled, for it is the Lord's, as appears from the words "but He that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear". It is this natural which the great artists produced. This natural is entirely pure, which appears from their works, if one is able to see them from within.

For the New Church the Lord represents the Rational of the Divine Human. It is this Rational which is to determine the essence of the New Church, and which becomes its part by the Holy ' Spirit. The rational thus obtained is so different, from the preceding or human rational, that a comparison is not possible, since the human rational has been obtained by the natural truth of the literal sense of the Third Testament; the new rational, however, from within by the Holy Spirit. It is now this rational which is to determine the order of the life of the Church with regard to the rational. It is through this rational that the Doctrine of Genuine Truth and thus the Doctrine of the Church comes into existence.

Just as John the Baptist prepares the way for the Coming of the Lord, or the natural truth of the literal sense of the New Testament prepares the way for the Natural of the Divine Human, so the natural truth of the literal sense of the Third Testament prepares the way for the Rational of the Divine Human and thus for the Second Coming of

H. D. G. GROENEVELD

the Lord. From this it therefore appears that only by the Doctrine of Genuine, Truth and therefore by the Doctrine of the Church there can be question of the Second Coming of the Lord, so that they who do not wish to accept the Doctrine of the Church do not wish to receive the Lord in His Second Coming.

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EXTRACTS FROM THE ISSUE FOR JANUARY 1931

MATTHEW 7: 24-27

ADDRESS BY H. -D. G. GROENEVELD, AT TI-IE NEW YFAR'S BREAKFAST, JANUARY IST, 1931.

Therefore whosoever heareth these words of Mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man who built his house upon a rock;

And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock.

And every one that heareth these words of Mine, and doeth shall be likened unto a foolish man who built his them not, house upon the sand;

And 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. MATTHEW 7: 24-27.

"Words" signify truths in the literal sense of the Third Testament, namely those truths which have been opened out of the Doctrine of the Church. Words are words only when they are animated from within. So too the truths in the literal sense of the Third Testament are truths only when they are animated out of the Doctrine of the Church and have been brought to life. "These words of Mine" clearly indicates that the truths of the literal sense of the Third Testament are opened only from the Lord, and that therefore the Doctrine of the Church is the Lord's. "To hear," means to receive into the understanding, and "to do" to receive into the will. "Whosoever heareth these words of Mine, and doeth them" thus signifies every one who receives into the understanding the truths opened out of the Doctrine of the Church and is obedient to them, and receives them into the will and therefore lives according to them. "I will liken him" means that the Lord will bring such a one into the state that is represented by a wise man who has built his house upon a rock.

H. D. G. GROENEVELD

"A man" signifies truth, namely the truth of the rational. It is that truth by which the man is man and out of which the woman is woman. "To be wise" means to take into account, in the natural, the being and the existence of the Divine Human of the Lord, in order to prevent the things of the Lord from being violated and thus one's self from being injured. "A wise man" therefore means a man who, in the meditations of his understanding, and a woman who in the expressions of the affections in her will, from the rational takes into account, in the natural, the being and the existence of the Divine Human of the Lord and thus the Divine Providence in all things. "A

house" signifies the mind, in this case the natural mind of man and also of the Church. "A rock" means the natural animated from the Lord. It is those truths from the literal sense of the Third Testament which are kept conjoined by the Lord in the natural mind of man, therefore those truths of the literal sense which have been opened out of the Doctrine of the Church. "A wise man who built his house upon a rock" thus means a man who in the meditations of his understanding or a, woman who in the expressions of the affections in her will, from the rational, for the upbuilding of his or her natural mind, takes into account only the truths of the literal sense animated from the Lord. It is the state of the Church 'In which for its upbuilding, from the rational, it takes into account only the truths of the literal sense of the Third Testament opened out of the Doctrine of the Church.

"The rain descending, the floods coming, and the winds blowing" represents the consecutive temptations into which the man of the Church, as also the Church, enter with a change of state. "The rain descending" is the falsities from the evil of the will; "the floods coming" are the falsities formulated by the understanding from the natural rational and "the winds blowing" the thoughts resulting therefrom. As appears from the text the man of the Church, as also the Church, stand firm in the ensuing combat because The upbuilding has been done on truths of the literal sense of the Third Testament, for man on such as were animated from the Lord, and for the Church on such as were opened out of the Doctrine.

"And every one that heareth these words of Mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man who

Matthew 7: 24-27

built his house upon the sand. And 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". Every one who receives into the understanding the truths of the literal sense of the Third Testament opened out of the Doctrine of the Church, and does not apply them to life, brings himself into the state which- is represented by a foolish man who built his house upon the sand.

"A foolish man" signifies the evil and the falsity in the natural from the rational separated from the Lord. It is that rational by which the man loses the masculine and the woman loses the feminine. "The sand" signifies the scientifics of the literal sense of the Third Testament which are without any connection. They are those scientifics which have been taken up from without by the natural memory. "A foolish man who built his house upon the sand" thus means a man who in the meditations of his understanding, or a woman who in the expressions of the affections In her will, for the upbuilding of his or her natural mind, from a separated rational, takes into account mere scientifics taken from the literal sense of the Third Testament, and thus disconnected scientifics, whereby mere phantasies come into existence. It is the state of the Church in which for its upbuilding, from a separated rational, it takes into account such scientifics.

By the opening of the truths of the literal sense out of the Doctrine of the Church the above mentioned falsities are called forth one after the other in the mind of man and in the Church, whereby the phantasies built in the natural mind from the disconnected scientifics of the literal sense, are entirely destroyed and the man and the Church are deprived of a supposed possession of truths.

May we therefore be impressed with this that the knowledge that the Lord is the Creator of Heaven and earth does not save us. Let us continually kneel before the Lord, let us throw down the natural mind which, with regard to each affection and with regard to each thought, is soiled with the love of self and the love of the world; so that the Lord may raise us and we may live in the genuine sense of the Third Testament from within, and thus in the truths opened out of the Doctrine of the Church, and not in that Testament from without.

REVEREND THEODORE PITCAIRN THE SECOND ETDUCATION

BY THE REVEREND THEODORE PITCAIRN.

We read in the ARCANA COELESTIA, n. 8552, that unless in respect to his spiritual life a man is conceived anew, born anew, and educated anew, that is created anew, from the Lord, he is damned".

The first education is for the sake of the second education, and in so far as it prepares for this it is good and true, and in so far as it does not prepare for the second education it is evil and false.

Wherefore without a knowledge of the second education no true doctrine of education is possible, and as this knowledge is at present lacking or is very slight, we can at this time only deal in we have certain glimpses, that may be compared to a flash of lightning in contrast to the steady light of the noon-day sun.

If the church had perception in spiritual things it would have no need of elaborate theories of education, for it would clearly see the nature of the second education, and from this have the necessary knowledge as to the first or preliminary education. This is involved in the statement in the MEMORABILIA, n. 4059: "If man were in the love of true faith he would have no need to write so many books about the education of infants and children".

The first education is an education in the things of the world, and especially an education in the things of the letter of the Word including the letter of the Writings. All things that are acquired during this education must as it were die, in order that man may be educated anew, for they are such things as appertain to his natural memory, and are therefore quiescent in Heaven. They are like a fruit which must decay in order that the seed may take root and live, or like the shell of a nut which must break in order that the kernel may live and grow. The words "Unless a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die it abideth alone; but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit" have a universal application.

There is great danger that the first education may, as it were, be too effective, so that it with difficulty dies; it may become like a shell that is so hard that the kernel cannot burst its bonds and come forth.

THE SECOND EDUCATION

We have said that a man can take nothing that lie acquires by the first education into Heaven; by Heaven is meant all things which appertain to the spiritual and celestial mind, whether a man is living in this world or the next. It is of great importance to realize that the letter of the Writings belongs to the first education, which must, as it were, be left behind when one enters upon the second education; if one confuses the letter of the Writings with the spiritual and celestial things that are acquired by the second education, no genuine doctrine of education is possible.

That the letter of the Writings belongs to the first education is obvious from the fact that this can be taught to any one and learned like any other subject; while the second education is part of the new creation by the Lord, and is only possible with those who have first been conceived and born anew by the Lord.

The word education has the root meaning of leading out. The first education is a leading of the mind out of merely corporeal and sensual things into natural things. The second education is a leading out of the mind from natural things into spiritual and celestial things. The first education is apparently done by man, the second education is manifestly done by the Lord. The first education is also performed by the Lord, but of this man is unconscious. While in the case of the second education it is perceived that it is the work of the Lord.

The second education is an education in the genuine spiritual and celestial things of the internal sense of the Word, and this is performed by the Lord by means of the genuine Doctrine of the Church drawn from the Word.

In, the following we will treat of certain general aspects of education in relation to science, language and art.

Science.

Much is said in the Writings concerning science, scientifics, and scientific truth. Scientific truth is the second degree of truth, it is a discrete degree above sensual truth, and it is below the higher forms of truth.

There are two kinds of scientifics, the scientifics of the letter of the Word including the Writings, and the scientific

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of the world. Scientifics when used in the Writings, usually refer to the scientific of the Word, or as they are called the scientifics of the Church. The scientifics of the world are only useful as a scaffolding while the mind is being built up; as they are beyond the borders of the Church they have no permanent place in the human mind.

Nevertheless the scientifics of the world correspond to the scientifics of the Church, as is evident from much that is said in the Writings concerning them, especially in connection with the science of anatomy. The scientifics of the world are mentioned in the letter of the Writings only for the sake of the representation of interior things and have no part in the internal natural sense of the Writings. To illustrate: when the Writings speak of optics and mathematics as being useful sciences, the Angels of the natural 14eaven can only think of the optics of the spiritual world,

that is, the laws governing spiritual light and the spiritual eye, that is, the laws of truth, and how truth is accommodated to the understanding, by reflection and refraction. Likewise when mathematics are mentioned they can have no idea of number such as have the mathematicians of the world, but of the things that correspond thereto.

The useful spiritual scientifics of the Church are the spiritual science of astronomy, geometry, optics, chemistry, mechanics, history, anatomy, medicine, civil law, and such things also as are called philosophical (MEMORABILIA, CODEX MINOR, 4657), and above all the science of correspondences, the science of sciences.

If we consider these sciences correspondentially, it is clear that this is a description of the Writings in their letter: astronomy is the science of cognitions, geometry the science of degrees, optics the science of the influx of truth, chemistry the science of means, history, the science of progression of state, medicine the science of repentance and reformation, civil law the science of the government of truth, and philosophy the science of cause and effect.

These scientifics of the Church, like the scientifics of the world, belong to the first education, for they are subjects which can be taught to any one.

Scientifics, we are taught, are vessels which must be infilled with spiritual and celestial things if they are to

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have life. It is this infilling of scientifics that is meant by the second education. This infilling of scientifics takes place by influx both immediate and mediate. At first on] immediately from the Lord into the letter giving a general perception, afterwards both immediately from the Lord and mediately through the Heavens. During the first period man does not truly take part in the second education, for he remains in the letter. It is only with the commencement of mediate influx that an is lead by the Lord out of the letter. This twofold influx is treated of in the eighteenth and nineteenth chapters of EXODUS. Here it may be noted that exodus, going out, and education, leading out, are almost identical in meaning. In fact the book of EXODUS is nothing else than a description of the second education, by which man is led out of the letter into the spirit, and with the New Churchman. specifically, a leading out of the letter of the Writings into their spiritual and celestial senses. This leading out is done by the Lord alone as described under the representation of Moses. And it is involved in the words of the ARCANA COELESTIA, 8552; "Unless in respect to his spiritual life a man is conceived anew, born anew, and educated anew, that is created anew, from the Lord, he is damned".

The same teaching is involved in the words of Jethro to Moses: "The word that thou doest is not good", this signifies that a change must take place; "wearing thou wiIt wear away, both thou, and this people that is with Thee", this signifies that thus the truth which has been inseminated would perish (A. C. 8696).

Jethro had seen Moses judging the people alone, and saw that this could not continue. The people are the scientifics of the letter of the Writings or those who are in such scientifics; Moses represents the immediate influx from the Lord into these scientifics. At the commencement of the Church, and at the, beginning of regeneration, this is the only influx from which the scientifics of the Word have life. But this state cannot endure or all truth in time would perish. This first state is a state of good from truth, or a state of mere obedience to truth, afterwards the Church must come into a state in which it is in good, and from this sees truth. Then truths are said to be im-

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planted in good. With this change mediate influx through the Heavens commences, by which the interior degrees of the mind of the Church are built up. And it is this building up of the mind that is meant by the second education or education anew.

Previously the Lord did inflow with good into the truths of the letter, for without good, truth is but a dead shell, but this influx was immediate and not perceptible. In the second state when a man is in truth from good, there is a twofold influx, both immediate from the Lord, and mediate by means of the Heavens; this influx is perceptible, and is called revelation.

Thus we read in the ARCANA COELESTIA, n. 8694: "By revelation is meant enlightenment when the Word is read, and then perception; for they who are in good and long for truth are taught in this way from the Word; but they who are not in good cannot be taught from the Word, but can only be confirmed in such things as they have been instructed in from infancy, whether true or false. The reason why those who are in good have revelation, and those who are in evil have no revelation, is that in the internal sense each and all things in the Word treat of the Lord and of His kingdom, and the Angels that are with man perceive the Word according to its internal sense. This is communicated to the man who is in good and reads the Word, and from affection longs for truth, and consequently has enlightenment and perception. For with those who are in good and from this in the affection of truth, the intellectual part of the mind is opened into Heaven, and their soul, that is their internal man, is in fellowship with the Angels; but it is otherwise with those who are not in good. But what is the nature of the revelation of those who are in good and from this in the affection of truth cannot be described. It is not manifest, neither is it altogether hidden; but it is a certain consent and favoring from within that a thing is true, and a non-favoring if it is not true The cause of its being so is from the influx of Heaven from

the Lord; for through Heaven from the Lord there is light, that surrounds and enlightens the intellect, which is the eye of the internal sight. The things which are then seen in that light are truths, for this very light is the Divine Truth which proceeds from the Lord.

THE SECOND EDUCATION

That this Divine Truth is light in Heaven has been frequently shown".

This passage shows that the scientifics in the Writings are not the source of light to the mind, but are the objects which must be seen in light. The light itself is from the Lord by means of the internal sense of the Writings which is with the Angels and which may be communicated to a man who is in fellowship with them, when reading the Writings. The spiritual and celestial sense, as it in itself, cannot be expressed in natural language, and there ore is called ineffable, nevertheless it may descend into corresponding natural language, in which case the genuine Doctrine of the Church is born. The genuine Doctrine of the Church is therefore the result of the education anew by the Lord. The genuine Doctrine of the Church is in itself spiritual and celestial and therefore can only be seen when in a state of enlightenment. If one reads the letter

of the Doctrine of the Church when not in a state of enlightenment one acquires mere scientifics, as is the case when one reads the letter of the Three Testaments.

From what has been said it may be seen that there can be no knowledge of the second education without mediate and immediate revelation from the Lord, and where there is no knowledge of the second education there can be no genuine Doctrine as to the first education.

The second education is described in the APOCAI,YPSE EXPLAINED as follows: "By prophets here and elsewhere in the Word are meant in the nearest sense such prophets as those were in the Old Testament through whom the Lord spoke; but in the spiritual sense those prophets are not meant, but all whom the Lord leads; with these also the Lord flows in and reveals to them the secrets of the Word, whether they teach or not Prophets mean all whom the Lord teaches,

thus all who are in the spiritual affection of truth, that is who love truth because it is truth; for the Lord teaches these, and flows into their understanding and enlightens; and this is more true of these than of the prophets of the Old Testament. From this it can be seen that prophets mean in the spiritual sense all who are wise from the Lord; and this whether they teach or do not teach.

And as every truly spiritual sense is abstracted from the idea of persons, places and

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times, so the prophets also signify in the highest sense the Lord in relation to the Word, and a- to Doctrine from the Word; and likewise the Word and Doctrine. A prophet means Divine Truth, which is the Word, and which is in the Church out of the Word" (n. 624).

Hence it may be seen -that the Word, and to the New Churchman especially the Latin Word, Must be as a vessel in his mind, and that the second education consists of an immediate and mediate revelation from the Lord into this Divinely formed receptacle.

Before passing on let us consider briefly the place of what is called Swedenborg's scientific works. From what has been said it can be seen that it is only in so far as these works are seen as spiritual scientifics that they have a rightful place within the borders of the Church, that is in so far as the corresponding spiritual scientifics are seen within the apparent worldly scientifics of their letter. In Providence the scientific works were not written to give, man a literal or factual account of the physical world; but to act as an ultimate basis for the giving of the Writings. The scientific works were given because they . contain natural scientifics which correspond to spiritual scientifics. In the future no one will think of even discussing the point as to whether the scientific works agree with the facts of worldly science; for to do so brings the mind down to the sensual corporeal plane; just as now a New Church minister does not discuss whether the account of creation given in Genesis agrees with the actual mode of the creation of the World, for to do so brings him into the sphere of the perverted Christian church.

If viewed from within the Writings and philosophic works will indeed be seen to be in agreement with the true scientifics of the world. but not if viewed from without, or from the scientific. This may be illustrated by works of art: Those who regard the works of art of Egypt, of Greece, of the Middle Ages, and other works of art, merely from the science of anatomy, cannot see the agreement between the work of art and human anatomy. But those who view art from within, that is those who see art from the genuine love of art, see the harmony and agreement between the things of art and

THE SECOND EDUCATION

of nature; this is so because the agreement is internal, and the internal can never be seen in the light of the external, but the external always in the light of the internal.

Language.

The subject of language in a sense runs parallel to that of science; there are the languages of the world and the languages of the Word, the three sacred Ianguages. Neither the one nor the other can enter into Heaven nor have they any part in the internal sense, and therefore languages as such belong solely to the first education. The spiritual language, which one comes into without instruction when raised to the spiritual degree of the mind, is the medium of the second education; while living on earth this language descends into the natural mind and clothes itself with corresponding words of natural language for the sake of communication.

Concerning the spiritual language we read in HEAVEN AND HELL, n. 236: "All in the universal Heaven have one language This language is not learned there, but is implanted in

everyone, for it flows from their very affection and thought". A tongue or language represents Doctrine or the truth of Doctrine; the above passage therefore signifies that spiritual Doctrine cannot be learned like natural doctrine, but flows out of the very affections and thoughts, and indeed from the Lord.

This was represented by the tongues of flame descending upon the Apostles on the day of Pentecost. The tongues of flame represented Doctrine from love. These tongues caused the Apostles to speak in tongues, that is caused each one to hear the Apostles in their own language. The descent of the tongues was the descent of pure love, but those tongues of flame when received take on external doctrinal form according to the nature of the mind of the one who receives, thus each one heard according to his own tongue.

We read in GENESIS 11 : 1: "The earth was one lip", that is flier was but one Doctrine, the lip of the Angels; yet the Ancient Church differed greatly as to doctrinals. But as all these doctrinals were from the universal Doctrine they were united by charity. Charity

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was the life or internal of their doctrinals, wherefore they were- in true doctrinals, although in diverse ones. When charity no longer was the life of doctrinals the doctrinals were separated from the Doctrine, and when so separated they had no longer a uniting medium, which is represented by Jehovah confounding the lip. What is said in the ARCANA COELESTIA in this connection about charity does not mean that charity can unite false and true doctrinals, but that if the doctrinals are from genuine charity then they are in harmony, because from the universal Doctrine, and this no matter bow they may differ as to doctrinals.

When an Angel speaks to a man he speaks to him in his own language. An Angel represents the good and truth of the internal mind; to speak represents influx of the Doctrine out of Heaven; the man who hears represents the external mind; the language of the man represents the doctrinal things that a man has acquired out of the Word. When influx takes place it is according to the reception by vessels.

We read in the ARCANA COELESTIA, n. 7236: "From only twenty three letters, put together in different ways, there can arise the words of all languages, and even with a perpetual variety if there were thousands of languages". The twenty-three letters signify the letter of the Word, the languages signify the Doctrine that is drawn out of the letter of the Word. From the letters by arrangement words are formed, from these sentences and from these chapters. It is only in the chapter that the full use of the letters becomes evident, and, in fact, in the meaning of the chapter; when one has learned to read fluently one becomes unconscious of the letters. The same is true of the letter of the Word including the letter of the Writings. From these words are formed, the internal natural sense, from these sentences, the spiritual sense, and from these chapters, the celestial sense. So far the Church has been occupied largely with acquiring- the alphabet. Note that the language is finite and limited, while the alphabet is unlimited and a-, it were infinite.

But let us not forget that the spiritual language which belongs to the second education is not learned, but comes to a man from influx as he is raised into a spiritual state.

THE SECOND EDUCATION

Art.

The same universal laws that rule in science and language rule in art. All genuine art is a representation of celestial and spiritual things, it is not only a representation but also corresponds. Thus all genuine art contains within it what is spiritual and celestial, and within this what is Divine. All internal art like all genuine Doctrine is due to immediate and mediate influx from the Lord. Nevertheless art is natural, spiritual, or celestial, according to the nature of the reception.

Spiritual natural art is characterized by the fact that the artist is unaware of the influx, while with the interior degrees the influx is perceptible. This is involved in the following quotation from the ARCANA COELESTIA, n. 552: "that all the joy and happiness in Heaven are from the Lord alone has been shown me by many experiences, of which the following may be related. I saw that with the utmost diligence some angelic spirits were fashioning a lampstand with its lamps and flowers of the richest ornamentation in honor of the Lord. For an hour or two I was permitted to witness with what great pains they labored to make everything about it beautiful and representative, they supposing that they were doing it of themselves. But to me it was given to perceive that of themselves they could devise nothing at all. At last after some hours they said that they had formed a very beautiful representative candelabrum in honor of the Lord, whereat they rejoiced from their hearts. But I told them that of themselves they had devised and formed nothing at all, but the Lord alone for them. At first they would scarcely believe this, but being angelic spirits they were enlightened, and confessed that I was so. So it is with all other representative things, and with everything of affection and thought both in general and in particular, and also with heavenly joys and felicities, the very smallest bits of them is from the

Lord alone". Here we may note that the candlestick which the angelic spirits, that is the Angels of the Lowest Heaven, formed, was Doctrine, without which they could not have read the Word. The genuine Doctrine that The Church has drawn from the Writings so far is included in what is here said concerning this

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candlestick. For the Church has thought it has fashioned it in honor of the Lord, when in truth the Church has devised and fashioned no genuine Doctrine, but, the Lord alone for it.

Art is based on a perception of nature as a representation of the Divine Human; in the lowest degree of genuine art this perception, as such, is not consciously realized by the artist.

While genuine art contains within it spiritual and celestial things, as it is first seen it is merely sensual, and unless there is influx from Heaven raising the mind above what is sensual, art remains so to the beholder; just as in the case of the Doctrine of the Church, if the mind is not raised into spiritual light it is seen only as natural. As one in enlightenment draws Doctrine from the infinite source of the letter of the Word, so the genuine artist draws from the indefinite source of nature the spiritual and celestial things that lie within. But if the beholder is not

in enlightenment he cannot see the spiritual and celestial things that have been drawn out and let down again into the natural, but he only sees the sensual appearances. In other words if the beholder does not come into something of the same inspiration as the artist, he cannot see art.

This is involved in the following quotation, ARCANA COELESTIA, n. 1954: "The eye does not see from itself, but from interior sight; interior sight, does not see from itself, but from a still more interior sight, or that of man's rational. Nay, neither does this see from itself, but does so from a still more internal sight, which is that of the internal man. And even this does not see from itself, for it is the Lord who sees through the internal man, and He is the only one who sees, because He is the only one who lives, and He it is who gives man the ability to see, and this in such a manner that it appears as 'If lie saw of himself".

As this law has a universal application, it applies to art as well as to other things, whence it can be seen that there is no genuine sight of art except from the Lord, and their this sight becomes more and more interior according to the opening of the degrees of the mind. Hence it is evident why there is no real seeing of art in the world as it is today; nothing is seen, but the sensual appearance. As the genuine seeing of art belongs to the second

THE SECOND EDUCATION

education, it cannot be taught, but is due to mediate and immediate influx from the Lord. Man in art as in Doctrine can only act as midwife.

Education of Children in Heaven.

The second or new education is described in the Writings under the representation of the education of children in Heaven. Heaven is the internal mind, into which a man enters by the

second birth. After this entrance a man must be educated anew, for at first he is bit a child in the things of the spiritual world.

Here we will consider but a few of' the thin-s which are said in the Writings concerning the education of' children in Heaven, in order that we ma see bow they apply to the education anew.

In the MIEMORABILIA, n. 5660 and following numbers, we read: "How 'maidens are educated in the other life and in Heaven". "Maidens" are the affections of truth, "in Heaven" represents in the internal or spiritual mind "They are always kept at their own work which is embroidery, and the things which they make are either for themselves, or they give them to others. They

receive their garments gratis, not knowing bow, which they put on daily, and a better one, for festivals". "The garments which they receive gratis" represent the truths or things of genuine Doctrine which the internal mind receives by influx from the Lord without any effort on the part of man.

These garments are woven by the Lord from within, or as said of the work of the weaver that it is spiritual out of the celestial. "The festival days on which they receive better garments" are such states -is are represented by the Sabbath days and the days of feasts. Such days represent especially the conjunction of good and truth, in such states more interior truths are received. "The embroidery which is their work" represents the collection and arrangement of spiritual scientifics. Concerning embroidery, we read as follows in the ARCANA COELESTIA: "The work of the embroiderer signifies the things which ,ire scientific. The cause of this is from the representatives in the other life. There appear their garments embroidered in various ways, by which are signified scientific truths. Scientific

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truths differ from intellectual truths as external things from internal ones, or as the natural from the spiritual; for the intellectual is the visual of the internal man, and scientifics are its objects in the external man" (n. 9688). "The work of the embroiderer signifies the cognitions of good and truth. The work of the embroiderer signifies that which is from the scientific. The reason it is said by means of the cognitions of good and truth, is that by these are meant interior scientifics, such as are those of the Church concerning faith and love" (n. 9945).

The work of the maidens in Heaven, that is, the work of the affection of truth in the internal mind, is to collect and arrange interior scientifics, that is the cognitions of good and truth, as if of themselves. It is obvious that these scientifics which are called the cognitions of good and truth are by the New Churchman gathered especially from the Writings. Yet this embroidery work belongs to the external mind; man is given to do this work as if from himself in order that he may perform uses, although reality this also is done by the Lord. As to truths themselves here represented by the garments, these are given to the man gratis by the Lord, man "not knowing how".

"When they see spots on their garments, it is a sign that they have thought what is evil and that they have done what is wrong". In relation to the Church this signifies that when something of the love of self or the world enters in, blemishes begin to appear in the Doctrine of the Church and this is a sign for the need of repentance.

We read in the MEMORABILIA, n. 5668: "On the education of little children in Heaven:

They are with their nurses whom they call their mothers"; a nurse represents innocence, or the "spiritual celestial"; innocence guards, protects, and feeds the spiritual affection of truth, for unless this ears for it as a mother, the affection of truth perishes.
"They read the Lord's prayer, and learn prayers from nurses by influx out of Heaven". The, Lord's prayer represents the Word, especially the Word as to worship. Prayers we are told represent revelation, for in genuine prayer there is a revelation from the Lord which is an answer to the prayer; it is here clearly stated that the prayers are by means of influx out of Heaven.

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THE SECOND EDUCATION
"There are preachers for them". Preachers preach the Doctrine of good and truth, wherefore abstractly from person the preacher signifies such Doctrine. It is the Doctrine of genuine good and truth which instructs the newborn internal affection of truth.
"Intelligence flows in and also wisdom, which surpasses the intelligence of the learned in the world, although they have an infantile idea of these things". The learned of the world represent the scientifics of the Word, and those who are in such scientifics. After the second birth intelligence and wisdom flow in from the internal sense of the Word; this intelligence surpasses the intelligence that has been acquired merely from the letter, although as yet, the man, being but a spiritual infant, has only an infantile idea of these things.
"They have representations from Heaven". The representations signify doctrinals, especially doctrinals as to their letter, for it is these that represent interior things.
"They are dressed according to their diligence, especially with flowers and garlands". As has been shown above their diligence refers to the acquiring of scientifics; they who do this in humility and innocence are gifted with garments. The flowers and garlands represent the things of intelligence, with which they are endowed.
"They are led into paradises". Paradise represents the things of wisdom.
"They are tempted". During the first education man only undergoes natural temptations, that is temptations as to the good and truth of the letter of the Word. During the second education, that is, the education as to the things of the internal sense of the Word, man undergoes spiritual temptations, which are here represented by temptation of children in Heaven.
"They grow according to their state of reception". Man's internal mind like his external mind is a vessel, and the growth of this mind is according to its opening to the reception of both immediate and mediate influx from the Lord.
"They are of diverse genius". The things of the internal mind, like those of the external mind, are of diverse genius; it is the Divine of the Lord which makes
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each society of Heaven, it is the Divine of the Lord which makes the spiritual sense of the Word with every man whose mind is opened, yet the reception of the Divine of the Lord is different, with every one and is indeed according to the genius of each individual.
"Nurses are given them who in the world have loved little children". As we have already spoken of nurses we, will omit further elucidation.
"They who are educated is little children know no otherwise than that they were born in Heaven". All birth takes place in the natural, wherefore the word natural is derived from the word meaning birth. The birth of the .spiritual mind originally takes place in The things of the letter of the Word and Doctrine. Yet when it is perceived that all the things of the spiritual mind are due to influx from the Lord immediately and through the Heavens, it it' they were born in the spiritual mind instead of, as is really the case, that they were raised by the Lord out of the things of the letter of the Word in the natural mind.
"They do not know what time and space and such earthly things are". The things of time and space as related to the Church, signify the things of the letter of the Word; such things cannot enter into Heaven, nor can they enter into the things of the interior mind, so much is this the ease that if man is in interior thought the things of the letter it were disappear to such an extent that he does not know what such things are.
"They speak the angelic language within a month". When man's spiritual mind is first opened by means of the second birth, he cannot speak the spiritual language, that is he cannot talk from genuine Doctrine, but is as it were dumb. But this period is of short duration; it only applies to his first state as to faith. After a month he can speak the angelic Ianguage, and this, as was shown above, without instruction.

The above are but a few preliminary thoughts with regard to the second education; until we know more of this education, as we have said, we can have scarcely any idea of the genuine nature of the first education.

Before closing we wish to note that no man merits the second education; introduction into the things of the internal

THE SECOND EDUCATION

mind, that is introduction into the things of the spiritual sense of the Word, is du(, to the merit of the Lord and not due to any merit on man's part. No one merits Heaven; if any one imagines that he can enter the things of the spiritual sense of the Word either by study or by doing good works and not by means of the Lord, he is among those in the other life who cut grass or chop wood to keep warm, under which is, as it were, something of the Lord. Such do not enter into the sheep- fold by the door, but like robbers climb up some other way.

DE HEMELSCHE LEER

EXTRACT FROM THE ISSUE FOR FEBRUARY 1931 LIFE ACCORDTNC TO THE DOCTRINE

OF THE CHURCH

AN ADDRESS BY H. D. G. GROENEVELD, DELIVERED AT THE SOCIAL SUPPER, NOVEMBER 30TH, 1930.

And Jesus, seeing great multitudes about Him, gave commandment to depart unto the other side.

And a certain scribe came and said unto Him: Master, I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest.

And Jesus said unto Him: The foxes have holes, and the birds of heaven have nests, but the Son of Man has not where to lay His head.

And another of His disciples said unto Him: Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. But Jesus said unto him: Follow Me; and let the dead bury their dead.

MATTHEW 8 :18-22.

Every man has interior things and exterior things. The interior things are opened more and more if the exterior things cooperate. When by the life of man the interior things and the exterior things operate as one whole, man from the Lord receives an internal and an external. The external derives itsexistence from the internal, while the internal is the being of the external. The mind of man then is simple, one side being the internal or the rational and the other side the external or the natural. From the internal all things can then be seen in the external.

"Jesus", with regard to the Lord, signifies the Good of the Divine Human, and with regard to an the good from the Divine Human of the Lord or the good of love to the Lord. It is the love which dwells only in the internal or the rational of man.

"Seeing great multitudes about Him" signifies the understanding of the different truths in the natural or

H. D. G. GROENEVELD

In the external. "And Jesus, seeing great multitudes about Him" therefore signifies the understanding from the Doctrine of the Church of different truths of the literal sense of the Word, now especially those of the literal sense of the Third Testament, in their proper order. For the Doctrine of the Church -s the dwelling-place for the good of love to the Lord, while the

literal sense of the Word and also of the Doctrine of the Church, only gives truths laid down in the natural. "The departing into the other side" signifies a change of state, namely the going from the truths as they are in the internal or rational to the truths as they are in the external or natural. This change of state is necessary because the truths of the Doctrine of the Church are from the internal or rational. and they who are in the natural cannot see these truths. They see only the truths of The literal sense of the Word and of the literal sense of the Doctrine of the Church.

"And a certain scribe came and said unto Him: Master. T will follow Thee withersoever Thou goest". A scribe signifies one who is in truth from good. It is the truth from the internal or rational. In an unfavorable sense I scribe is one who is in truth alone, that is, in truth from the natural, therefore in the truth of the literal sense of the Word or of the literal sense of the Doctrine of the Church. He is therefore one who is in the natural rational as also appears from this, that he calls the Lord "Master". Such a one will be in entire agreement with the rational of the literal sense of the Word and of the literal sense of the Doctrine of the Church, as appears from his Words: "Master, T will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest".

"And Jesus saith unto Him: The foxes have holes and the birds of heaven have nests, but the Son of Van has not where to lay His bead." The foxes stand for the things of the will, the birds of heaven for the things of the understanding. The foxes signify the rational thing of the natural with regard to evil or with regard to apparent good, the birds of heaven the rational things of the natural with regard to falsity or with regard to apparent truth. "The foxes have holes, the birds of heaven nests" signifies that the rational things with regard to evil and also apparent good and the rational things with regard to falsity and also apparent truth find

LIFE ACCORDING TO DOCTRINE

a resting place with the human race in general and in the Church in particular. For these things there is love, with these things there is conjunction as by marriage.

"But the Son of Man has not where to lay His head". The Son of Man stands for the Doctrine of the Church, as appears from the third verse of the fifth chapter of the second part of the CANONS: "This Human is called the Son of God and the Son of Man: the Son of God from the Divine Truth and the Divine Good in Him, which is the Word; and the Son of Man from the Divine Truth and Good out of Him, which thence is of the Doctrine of the Church out of the Word." The "head" signifies the highest or inmost, therefore the good of love to the Lord. The head of the Son of ),fan is therefore The good of love to the Lord, which is the inmost of the Doctrine of the Church. It is the good of love from which the Doctrine of the Church comes into existence, for the Doctrine is spiritual out of celestial origin. There is then in The Church, in case of change of state, no love for the essential of the Doctrine of the Church. There is no love for conjunction; the true conjugal love is lacking. The external of the, Doctrine of the Church or its literal sense is touched with coarse bands, without feeling the tenderness of what is bidden within. Who is not painfully affected when he sees that a small child, and especially a new born child, is, coarsely handled? Does not one experience a certain fear to touch a newborn child with the hands or even with the mouth? Ts one not especially sensitive on such an occasion of one's own coarseness and impurity? Do not all movements express a tenderness so as not to hurt the child? Let us then approach also the Doctrine of the Church as having been born from the Lord with humility and with a feeling of our own coarseness and impurity.

"And another of His disciples said unto Him: Lord, suffer me to o and bur my father." A "disciple" signifies one who is in truth, more especially natural truth which leads to good. "Father" signifies good, in the, unfavorable sense evil, and also apparent good. Burying signifies resurrection, therefore a life in the good of truth or in the unfavorable sense a life in the evil of falsity, and also in the apparent good of apparent truth. In general

H. D. G. GROENEVELD

these words of the disciple signify that man desires to continue to I've in the things of the world and not in the things of Heaven. In particular they signify that the man of the Church loves the things of the natural and therefore desires to be in those, things and not in the things of The rational. which is to say that he primarily loves the thin-s of the literal sense of the Third Testament and thus desires to live in those things and not in the things of the, internal sense or the truths of the Doctrine of the Church. For, when the Doctrine is offered to the men of the- Church many will be of the opinion that the interior things are not vet necessary, as there are very many truths in the literal sense that are not vet known, and have therefore not, vet been applied to life, and that, consequently, very many evils have not vet been removed. It is man's proprium that thus expresses itself, fearing to lose its rest and its dominion. This appears from the Lord's answer.

"But Jesus said unto him: Follow Me, and let the dead bury their dead". They who are in love to the Lord will perceive from the influx of the Lord that one must live, according to the interior things, therefore according to the truths of the Word opened by the Doctrine of the Church, and that it may be left to the evil spirits to raise up the evils and the falsities that are in man's mind. The man of the Church therefore should not occupy himself with the things of the world, but must leave them to those who are in those things. But also more and more must the man of the Church leave the truths of the literal sense of the Word, and -now especially those of the Third Testament, and turn to the interior things. Ever more and more must the man of the Church direct himself to the interior things and consequently withdraw more and more from the natural, so that finally each fibber of his spiritual body is turned to the Lord alone. Then there is no longer any gleam from the proprium in us and we are in the shadow of God. Then for the first time the Lord is our Father and we are His children.

DE HEMELSCHE LEER

EXTRACTS FROM THE ISSUE FOR AUG.- SEPT. 1931

THE NINETEENTH OF JUNE 1931

Address by the Reverend Ernst Pfeiffer.

This is the tenth time that the FIRST DUTCH SOCIETY celebrates the Nineteenth of June; it was on Sunday, 19th June 1921, that the Society was established. There were then twelve members of the GENERAL CHURCH present, who signed the declaration of principle of the Society to be established. During these ten years a deep-going change of state has Gradually developed, and there are not more than two or three of those who originally signed, who have been able or willing to follow us on the way which, as we believe, the Lord has shown to us. But nevertheless we are convinced that the inmost principle which has led us, is the same as that

which then brought us together, namely the inmost of the PRINCIPLES OF THE ACADEMY, the real heart of those Principles, which the Church inherited from its great leader Bishop Benade and his spiritual predecessors, namely that the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg are the Word of God. The truth that the Writings are the Word is the only light in which the Divine essence of the Doctrine of the Church can be seen. It is a fact we may rejoice over that practically all new members of our society who after its establishment as a result of our evangelisation have Joined us, have gone with us in our development in an affirmative spirit.

Although we believe that the inmost principle which ten years ago gave life to our Society, is the same, our thought at the present day has been entirely renewed. We believe it has been deepened from the Lord, and we have the clear light and from that light the, interior certainty that it is the Lord Himself who has led the Society, and that from the beginning He has had a spiritual end in view with it, which we could then not yet see, but which as we now

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understand, has been attained in a remarkable way. In a certain sense we may say it has been attained, for we have the confidence that the spiritual things which have been born in our Society will prove imperishable; but at the same time we are all deeply impressed with the great difficulties in which we find ourselves now placed. The state of the Society in many respects hovers in uncertainty. For this reason I feel urged to restrict myself to-night as much as possible to a consideration of the abstract spiritual things which fill our thought and not to enter into particular as regards the concrete state of the Society. We may leave the further development with the fullest confidence to the Lord's Providence.

By The birth of the Doctrine of the Church the essential life of the Church has been removed entirely from the natural or external things to the spiritual or internal things. We have learnt to see the letter of the Latin Word as something natural, as the Divine Truth laid down in the Natural, and we have found that this truth has also been seen by leading men of the past, although they have never before realized the consequences, with the exception of the Rev. E. S. Hyatt who had a general perception of the difference between the Latin Word and the Doctrine of the Church.

We have learnt to understand that all that is said in the DOCTRINE CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE concerning the natural and the natural or literal sense applies essentially to the Third Testament. As long as man regards the letter of the Old and of the New Testament as the natural and the letter of the Third Testament as the spiritual, he remains in a purely natural state; only when we, begin to distinguish in ourselves what has been revealed concerning the difference between the natural and the spiritual, and not in anything outside of us, then we begin for the first time to see where we stand, and then for the first time the possibility opens itself for man to pass on from the interior-natural state to the spiritual state.

We read in THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, n. 508, the description of a Temple in the spiritual world, and in connection with this of a veil that has been lifted; and it is said that it is now allowed to enter intellectually into the mysteries of faith. We have formerly always believed that

REVEREND ERNST PFEIFFER

the lifting of this veil was nothing else than the revelation of the Third Testament, and that therefore, when those Books were in the world, the veil was lifted. But upon deeper insight it clearly appears in that description that by the old state which preceded the lifting of the veil and the new state that is meant by the lifting of the veil, not simply the Old and the New Testament on the one side and the Third Testament on the other side are meant, but the state of the old church at its end, after it had falsified all truths of the Old and the New Testament, and the state of the New Church, which had become possible on the basis of the Third Testament. This appears clearly from the fact that in that description the doctrinal things of the New Church are contrasted with the dogmas of the old church. Of the dogmas of the old church it is said that they "are not out of the Word, but patched together out of self-intelligence and thence out of falsities, and also confirmed by some things oat of the Word"; and of the doctrinal things of

the New Church it is said that they "are truths continuous from the Lord revealed through the Word". That by the Word here the Third Testament is meant, is clear; for the New Church is

not out of the Old Testament and not out of the New, but out of the Third Testament; and that by, doctrinal things the particulars of a literal sense of a universal revelation are never meant, but the doctrinal thoughts which the Church on the basis of that letter has developed, is clearly taught in many places of the Third Testament (A.C. 3052, 3057, 3309, 3726, 7233, 9380).

In the measure in which the Church will understand the words "that the doctrinal things of the New Church are truths continuous from- the Lord", its understanding will be enlightened and be more and more lifted up to the Lord. Then will it be understood what is meant by this that by the Doctrine of the Church the essential life of the Church has been removed from the natural or external things to the spiritual of internal things, therefore from what is without to what is within. It will be seen that the -genuine spiritual truths of the Church, all in the measure of its regeneration, are, born from the Lord within in the human minds; that these genuine spiritual truths differ from the truths which one has taken up by direct cognizance out of the letter of the Third Testament, and that there is no

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relation between them except that of correspondence, such as exists between the spiritual and the natural.

It is my intention this evening to say a few words once more, as simply as possible, concerning one of the most interior and therefore most hidden arguments in connection with the Doctrine of the Church, as brought forth by Mr. Groeneveld in his address on The Coming of the Lord in the Doctrine of the Church (DE HEMELSCHE LEER, First Fasc., pp. 38-43), namely concerning the difference between the rational And the natural, both in the Divine Human of the Lord and in the individual man. It is the proper task of the priest in the spiritual Church to clothe the interior arcana of the Word in such words that they become conceivable to some extent to all members of the Church, therefore even to the most simple. If one is able to understand this difference between the rational and the natural and their mutual relation, one his understood the proper core of the Doctrine of the Church, and this in such a way, in the light of spiritual truth, that as a constants verity it will never again be lost sight of.

It is said that the Human of the Lord and the human of each man consists of the rational and the natural. The natural are the affections and thought, relative to the outside world, with which we come into contact by the senses. In that respect a man is similar to a beast, a natural being. But above and within that natural, man has a rational, which is directed inwardly to the eternal things, to Heaven and the Lord. This rational together with that natural makes the human, and the rational is the inmost of the human.

Now it is said that the Lord, when He came into the world, for the first time assumed a Rational of His own and a Natural of His own, since He then assumed a Human of His own. Before, when He manifested Himself as a Man, this was not done in a Human of His own, but He made use of His Human Divine* in the Heavens, that is, He made use of the Angels. But by His Incarnation He assumed a

In the expression "the Human Divine" the word "Divine" is the noun and the word "Human" is the adjective, in contradistinction to the expression "the Divine Human", where the word "Human" is the noun and the word "Divine" the adjective.

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Human of His own, consisting of a Rational and a Natural.

The coming into existence of this Human of the Lord's own should be seen as follows: It is the most of the human that makes Heaven with man; it is therefore the rational that makes Heaven. Now the rational which 'before the Incarnation of the Lord made the Heavens, was the Rational Divine, come into existence, by the reception by the Angels of the influx of the Divine of the Lord. Here the difference clearly appears between the Rational Divine which before the Incarnation made the Heavens, and the Divine Rational of the Lord which now makes the Heavens. The Rational Divine was dependent on the reception by the Angels, the Divine Rational is the Lord's alone, seeing He has assumed a Human of His own. When the time for the Coming of the Lord was at hand, He clothed all that Rational which made the then existing Heavens, with a very finest Natural, and so made a purely Divine Seed, which the Virgin Mary conceived. This purely Divine Seed by the conception was clothed in the Virgin Mary with the interior and exterior natural, to which clung the hereditary evil of Mary. But the Lord's own 'Natural, filled with all the Rational Divine, which since creation had come into existence, was the soul of the Child that had been conceived, and this soul was purely Divine. The Lord, first in the time from the conception to the birth, and then from the birth to the resurrection, by the Glorification entirely renewed the natural which He bad assumed from Mary and made it Divine. The Lord by His temptations and victories brought the natural with Him into order and thereby raised Himself from the natural or from the external man to the rational or the internal man with Him. The Rational Divine, now became His own Divine Rational.

The regeneration of man is an image of the Glorification of the Lord. Each man out of conception has, as the inmost of his human, a germ of the rational, which in the mother's body is clothed with an interior and exterior natural. Man's life, before regeneration is in the natural. The rational or the internal man with him, which is the Lord's, before and during regeneration makes itself felt only by an unconscious influx. For that rational in itself is the proper celestial with man, since that rational in itself or the

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interior rational makes the third Heaven (cf. A. C. 5145). It is therefore clear that man, before he has become celestial, does riot live in the rational but only receives an influx from the rational.

In the letter of the Third Testament the Rational has been laid down in the Natural, which means that the particulars of that letter, such as man first receives them as scientifics, are as it were types in the natural, formed in correspondence with the rational; for the natural-rational of the letter corresponds with the rational proper which is in the celestial Heaven, and with the Divine Rational itself of the Lord. The man who is to be regenerated now first takes up into his memory those types or effigies of the rational laid down in the natural, and it is the order of regeneration that in the light of these effigies he begins to fight against his proprium and in this light gradually wrestles through the natural. The rationality which leads him in this state, is therefore by no means as yet the rational itself, but only an influx of the rational into The natural; as to his essence he still is a purely natural man; riot an infernal-natural man such as before the commencement of regeneration, but a interior-natural man. In this light is to be understood what has been said in DE HEMELSCHE LEER, namely that the Church before the birth of the Doctrine of the Church was in a purely natural state.

Also in the second state of the Church, when for the first time from an interior-natural Church it has become a genuine spiritual Church, the proper characteristic of its order of regeneration is a wrestling through the natural. Only in the place of the purely natural types of the rational laid down in the letter of the Third Testament, there have gradually come genuine spiritual truths, as this letter can now be opened, and the internal sense which has reference to purely spiritual realities, good a-ad truth, and its opposites, evil and falsity, is seen, that is, the spiritual Doctrine of the Church. The proper combat of the Church, the interior combat against the hells, now really only be ins. Man also in this state, with regard to his will, has by no means been elevated from the natural to the rational, bat this gradually becomes so with regard to his understanding. For this reason it is said that the exterior-rational makes the spiritual man or the second Heaven; and it is also said that

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the essence of the second Heaven is truth; for the internal essence of charity is truth.

Only when the combat has been entirely fought and the wrestlings of temptation can cease, man rises entirely above the natural, and enters with his entire being into the rational proper. Man has now become a celestial man, for only the celestial man is an essentially rational man; only celestial men have genuine rational truths (A.C. 6240). Now for the first time the proprium has completely receded (although regeneration continues throughout eternity), and man is now no longer anything but a pure vessel, a pure receiver, of the influx of the Lord. He has freed himself from his impure external man, the natural soiled with hereditary evil and the evil of his proprium, and from the Lord he has been raised to his internal man, the proper rational or the celestial. The natural with him has been entirely renewed; it has become the external of his

rational, which no longer has any life of its own which is in opposition to the rational, but which serves the rational, so that as it were the rational is everything and the natural as it were nothing. And still man has now for the first time become an actual and complete man, with a rational which is consciously his and with a natural which clothes his, rational; Heaven and earth with him have become one complete whole.

But this celestial state of the Church, where the essential Second Coming of the Lord has become a reality also with regard to the human race, and the New Church will be the Bride of the Lamb, still lies in a far distant future. We believe that with the birth of the Doctrine of the Church the spiritual state of the Church has now for the first time dawned. If one sees the difference between the natural and the rational as I have tried to explain it in a few words, then it is no longer possible to doubt that the truths of the letter of the Latin Word, which one takes up by direct cognizance, are, with man, not rational but only natural truths, and that rational truths can never come from anywhere but by regeneration from within from the Lord.

We have this evening a special occasion for joy and gratitude on account of the appearance in this month of the CANONS and of the NINE QUESTIONS CONCERNING THE TRINITY. The CANONS at present make upon us the impression

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of being one of the most important books of the Third Testament, if it were possible here to speak of more or less important. But we have this impression because in this book in many passages it is openly spoken in the letter of the Divinity of the Doctrine of the Church; especially where it treats of the Son of Man and it is declared that by this is meant the Doctrine of the church or the Truth of the Church out or the Word.

Address by H. D. G. Groeneveld.

This day is a festival for the New Church. It is the commemoration of the Second coming of the Lord and of the establishment of the New Church. The Word given to the Christian Church, the New Testament, gradually was more and more falsified by the love of self and the love of the world of the human race, until it last there was no longer any truth present in the church. When the obscuration and affliction had come to fulness and therefore the conjunction of the Lord with the human race threatened to be broken, the Lord came again by the giving of a new Word, the Third Testament, and by the establishment of a new Church. Although the Christian church has the Old Testament, and the New, it nevertheless is not in the possession of a single truth. This proves that the Word by itself does not give to the Church the possession of truths. It is the presence of the Lord in the church by which the Church is in the possession of genuine truths.

The conjunction of the Lord with the human race is therefore present externally by the Word given from the Lord, and internally by the presence, of the Lord in the Church. The presence of the Lord in the Church externally by the Word without the internal presence is then as a body without soul and spirit, that is, as a dead body, of which it is said in the 28th verse of the 24th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew: "For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together".

It is therefore not the Third Testament by itself, that distinguishes the New Church from the old church, but especially the presence of the Lord in the Church, by which the New Church sees and acknowledges the truths of the

H. D. G. GROENEVELD

Third Testament, while this Testament has remained closed for the old church.

It is therefore not through the Writings of Emanuel ,Swedenborg alone that we have joined the New Church. It is especially by the love of truth that our eyes have been opened for these Writings. It is this love of truth which brought the internal presence of the Lord. It is from this love that the, Church has been established-, it is from this love that the Church will grow more and more. It is from this love alone that we put aside the love of self and of the world and were absorbed in love for the Church. It is from this love that we shunned evil and falsity as sin against the Lord.

It is this love that is the soul of the Church and takes the internal conjunction with the Lord. This soul descending into the natural clothes itself in the rational with a tender body, from which the Holy Spirit proceeds in the Church, while in the affection for the Writings the body of the Church has been made, to which body clings the evil and falsity of the love of self and of the world.

That, good makes the soul and the spirit makes the body appears from the sixth article of the fourth chapter of the CANONS, Concerning the Lord Saviour: "Therefore these two things, 'the Holy Spirit coming upon her', and 'the power of the Most High overshadowing her', signify both, namely, Divine Truth and Divine Good, this forming the soul, and that the body, – and communication."

It is from the presence of the Holy Spirit in the Church that the Church has acknowledged the Writings is the Third Testaments and as the Word of God. In his state the Church is withdrawn from the things of the world. All its love is directed to its body and to the Word. Its spirit, although in germ, belongs to the Lord, and its body is one with its soul and living from the Lord, while the things of the Word are seen in its body. It is the soul which in this state principally l(@,,ids the body, on account of which the Church, because the soul is of the body and the body of the soul, at direct cognizance of the Third Testament sees the internal sense. Since the Church at direct cognizance of the Word sees the internal sense, it acknowledges the Writings themselves as the Doctrine of the Church. This finds its cause in this that the spirit of the Church,

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which is the Lord's, is so far only present in germ, so that it is not possible that the Church in this state sees that the acknowledgment of the internal sense and of the Writings as the Doctrine of the Church is the effect in the natural of the spirit of the Church, which is the internal presence of the Lord. All attention therefore is directed to the letter of the Third Testament and the taking

cognizance from the soul out of the spirit of the Church, still in germ, and the combat and victory over the then active evils and falsities, results in development and as it were glorification of the body of the Church.

However if the Church enters into the provinces of the body which have not yet been regenerated by the Holy Spirit in the Church and are therefore not yet in order and in connection, then the Church, on account of the spirit of the Church not being present, in the internal is separated from its soul. The internal conjunction with the Lord still takes place through the soul, whereas the external presence of the Lord is there through the Word. All attention is then directed to the external presence of the Word. From it salvation is expected, because previously the taking cognizance of the Word out of the spirit of the Church brought enlightenment. However, internally the taking cognizance is not in connection because the spirit of the Church is not present, as a result of which the danger of faith alone arises. It is then not realized that the Church must be regenerated and that its body must be pure out of the spirit of the Church which is the Lord's. From the affections of good and truth for the letter of the Word the man who is thus imprisoned in the literal sense of the Word exclaims in despair: "Art Thou the Christ or do we await another?" It is these things that are treated of in the second and third verses of the eleventh chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, where we read: "Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples, and said unto Him, Art thou He that should come, or do we look for another?"

As is known, John stands for the literal sense of the Word. Indeed The Third Testament is the Second Coming of the Lord and brings salvation if the Lord is also internally present in the Church as the spirit of the Church, on account of which the things of the Word are connected

H. D. G. GROENEVELD

in the body of the Church, as appears from the fifth verse: "The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them".

In the state in which the presence of the Lord takes place only externally through the Word the Church sees the literal sense in absolute obscurity and explains it arbitrarily. In the seventh verse this has been described as follows: "And as they departed, Jesus began to say unto the multitudes concerning John, What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A- reed shaken with the wind?"

It is by the development of the spirit of the Church that these new provinces of the body may be brought into order and into connection. The entire body of the Church is now dependent on its becoming conscious of this spirit of the Church. The Lord during His life on earth was in the things of the Father and after that in the things of His Human, and thus increased in wisdom and stature, as is described in the 49th verse of the second chapter of the Gospel of Luke: "And He said unto them, How is it that ye sought Me? Wist ye not that I must be in the things of My Father?" And in the 52nd verse: "And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man". So the Church in its new state will be in the things of its spirit and after that in the things of its body. Just as the Lord in the Spirit became conscious that He was the Father Himself, so too the Church will become conscious that the spirit of the Church is the presence of the Holy Spirit in the Church. And just as the Rational of the Lord had first to be Divine before conjunction of the Divine with His Human could take place, so too the Church will have first to

receive the influx of the Holy Spirit in the rational, before conjunction of its body with its soul, therefore with the Lord, can take place.

It is this development of the spirit of the Church which the, Doctrine of the Church now brings. It is therefore not a. mere coincidence that now Those things have again been brought to the fore which have previously been uttered by the spirit of the Church. -It is these things which now are more opened and are seen in clearer light.

Only from the love of truth can this spirit of the Church be conceived in the affection in the natural for the Word.

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May therefore on the day of the commemoration of the Second Coming of the Lord and especially on the day on which our Society has existed for ten years, the love of truth in us be kindled, through which we Joined the New Church, so that this spirit of the Church may become body.

DE HEMELSCHE LEER

EXTRACT FROM THE ISSUE FOR OCTOBER1931

DOCTRINE DRAWN FROM THE WORD

AN ADDRESS BY THE REVEREND THEODORE PITCAIRN BEFORE THE YOUNGFR GENERATION CLUB, BRYN ATHYN, JUNE 25TH, 1931.

'he foundation upon which the ACADEMY and afterwards the GENERAL, CHURCH was founded is the Doctrine that the Writings are the Word of the Lord to the New Church, and that the Writings are the Lord Himself in His Second Coming. As this is the foundation of our Church it is of the utmost importance to understand the nature of the Writings, for if we misunderstand the nature of the Writings the foundation of the Church will be insecure. What serious results a misunderstanding of the nature of the Writings has for the Church is illustrated by CONFERENCE and CONVENTION. The Writings themselves testify to their own nature more fully than the New Testament bore testimony to itself; yet these testifications are of a general nature; such as the following: "This book is the Coming of the Lord". The Writings call themselves the most excellent of Revelations, and an immediate Revelation from the Lord, besides other similar statements that are well known. They call themselves the spiritual and the internal sense of the Word, and elsewhere the natural sense from the spiritual sense. Apart 4'roni These general statements we are given few particulars as to their nature; on the other hand there

are general principles which can lead us to a much fuller understanding as to the nature of the Writings.

The Lord when on earth spoke of the Law and the Prophets, and told His Apostles that all things therein were to be fulfilled; also He opened The Law and the Prophets to His disciples on His way to Emmaus and showed them by means of instances from His life how He had fulfilled the prophecies; and elsewhere the Gospels

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,,peak of a thing being done in fulfillment of a prophecy; concerning the Law and the Prophets He said that one jot or one tittle could not pass away until all was fulfilled.

When the Christian Church came to acknowledge the New Testament as canonical and as the Word of God, if they had remained in spiritual illustration they could have come to see that these words of the Lord had a broader application, namely, that they applied also to the New Testament. That each word of the New Testament could not pass away until all was fulfilled, yea that each word was to be fulfilled by the Lord in His Second Coming.

The New Church in like manner is to enter into the mysteries of faith concerning the nature of the Third Testament, in particular by applying what is said concerning the Word or Sacred Scripture to the Writings themselves. This is the only door provided by the Lord. If the men of the Church judge from their own reason as to the nature of the Writings, like thieves they climb up some other way. Mr. Hyatt some forty years ago first saw this principle and applied it in a series of sermons, in which he showed that what was said about the Sacred Scriptures applied equally to the Writings. In recent times DE HEMELSCHE LEER, adopting the same principle, unfolded the Doctrine concerning the Word as it applies to the Writings. We will here give certain illustrations of this application.

We read in the DOCTRINE CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE: "The spiritual sense of the Word is not that sense which shines forth from the sense of the letter while one is studying and unfolding the meaning of the Word with intent to confirm some dogma of the Church. This is the literal sense of the Word. The spiritual sense does not appear in the sense of the letter, being within it as the soul in the body, as thought in the eyes, and as affections in the face, which act as a one, like cause and effect. It is this sense chiefly which renders the Word spiritual, not for men only, but for Angels also; and therefore by means of this sense the Word communicates with the Heavens" (n. 5).

In application to the Writings this passage teaches that by unfolding the meaning of the Writings to confirm some dogma of the Church, one does not necessarily enter into the spiritual sense of the Writings, for the spiritual sense

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of the Writings is not that sense which shines forth from the sense of the letter, while one is malting such a study. The spiritual sense of the Writings does not appear in the sense of the letter, being within it as a soul in a body. The New Church is in danger of making the same mistake as was made by the Christian church, namely, that by studying the Writings to confirm certain tenets from the sense of the Writings which shines forth from the letter, it may think that it is in the spiritual sense of the Word and that it is in its spirit and in its life. Yet we are told that the spiritual sense does not appear in the sense of the letter, being within it.

We read further in the same work: "Henceforth the spiritual sense of the Word will be imparted solely to him who from the Lord is in genuine truths. The reason of this is that no one can see the spiritual sense except from the Lord alone, nor unless from Him he is in genuine truths. For the spiritual sense of the Word treats solely of the Lord and His Kingdom; and this is the sense in which are His Angels in Heaven, for it is the Divine Truth there. To this sense a man can do violence if lie is in the science of correspondences, and wishes by means of it, from self intelligence, to investigate the spiritual sense of the Word. For through some correspondences with which be is acquainted he may pervert the meaning of it, and may even force it to confirm what is false, and this would be doing violence to Divine Truth, and also to Heaven. And therefore if any one purposes to open that sense from himself and not from the Lord, Heaven is closed; and then the man either sees nothing, or else becomes spiritually insane. Another reason is that the Lord teaches one through the Word, and teaches out of those truths which are with the man, and not immediately does He pour new truths in, so that unless he is in Divine truths, or if he is only in a few truths and at the same time in falsities, he may from these falsify the truths, as is done by every heretic in regard to the Word's sense of the letter, as is well known. Therefore in order to prevent anybody from entering into the spiritual sense of the Word, or from perverting the genuine truth that belongs to that sense, guards have been set by the Lord, which in the Word are meant by Cherubim" (n. 26).

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We are here given the teaching that no one can see the spiritual sense except from the Lord nor unless from Him he is in genuine truths. All spiritual truth comes from spiritual influx; physical influx, that is influx through the senses is an appearance, thus, no one can come into spiritual truth from without. that is by means of the senses, thus not by reading or hearing, not even by reading or hearing the Word of God: nevertheless a man must read and bear the Word of God, for this is the only ultimate by which the Lord can operate; the spiritual things flow in both immediately from God by means of the soul, and mediately from God through the angelic Heavens. If man is in this order of influx then he sees from the Lord, and is in genuine truth, and he is said to be in the spiritual sense, in which are the Angels of Heaven. A man in such a state if he reads the Writings sees Divine truth appearing and accommodated to the state in which

h( is. If a man is not in this order of' influx, and by means of correspondences with which he is acquainted, and from self-intelligence, wishes to investigate the internal sense of the Writings, be perverts the meaning of them. And therefore we are told that if any one purposes to open that sense from himself and not from the Lord, Heaven is closed, and he, sees nothing or becomes spiritually insane. Wherefore guards or cherubim have been set so that no one can enter into the spiritual sense from himself.

In the above passage the spiritual sense is defined as that sense which is seen from the Lord alone, if a man is in genuine truths, and that it is not that sense which appears in the sense of the

letter, but that which is within it. There are many passages in the Writings to the same effect. On the other hand the Writings frequently call themselves the spiritual and also the internal sense.

The reconciliation of this apparent contradiction is to be found in the APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED, n. 1061, where it is said: "This is the natural sense out of the spiritual sense and is called the internal sense, and further the spiritual natural sense". As the Writings are the natural sense out of the spiritual it is obvious that it is the natural sense which must be first seen and that the spiritual sense lies hidden within as a soul in its body.

When the Lord was on earth He fulfilled the Law and

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The Prophets. He did this by opening up or unfolding the things of the Old Testament and infilling them with Divine Spiritual and Celestial things; hence He spake of "His Doctrine" (John 7: 16-17); but when He taught his disciples He spake the Divine Truth accommodated to the state of the world at the time and this teaching was given to the world as the Gospels or the New Testament. The Christian Church might have come to see in a finite degree the Lord's Doctrine by unfolding the words of the New Testament but instead of seeing the Lord's Doctrine in the New Testament they perverted it, hence the doctrine of the Christian church was a false doctrine. Note that although the Lord spoke of His Doctrine, the Word of the New Testament given to the Christian Church is not called the Doctrine of the Christian Church. The Lord at the time of the Second Coming again fulfilled the Word, in this case of both Testaments, and He did this in like manner by unfolding and infilling the things of the Old and New Testaments 'the Celestial and Spiritual things. Hence the Lord in the Writings again speaks of His Doctrine, that is the Writings call themselves the Heavenly Doctrine, but as in the case of the First Coming so in like manner in the Second Coming the Doctrine in its descent again becomes folded and is given to the Church as the Third and final Testament in accommodation to the state of the world. The New Church must gradually come into the Divine Doctrine, by an unfolding and fulfilling of' its Word, for the regeneration of the Church like the regeneration of a man is an image, and likeness of the glorification of the Lord: and the laws of regeneration, which are the same as the laws of unfolding, and fulfilling or infilling, are the same, only on finite plane, as are the laws of glorification, unfolding and infilling, that the Lord performed at the time of His First and Second coming. Hence the Laws by which the Word was revealed or reveiled at the time of the Second Coming are the same as those which the Church will use to enter into interior things. That the laws of exposition by which the Writings were given are to be used by the ministers of the church, Bishop W. F. Pendleton showed in his work on The Science of Exposition, although he did not apply these laws in particular to the unfolding of the Writings. With the Church this will be an eternal process, for the Word in

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its three Testaments can never be completely unfolded to eternity, yea what is unfolded, compared to what is not unfolded, will always be as it were but a cup of water compared to the ocean.

The belief that a man can come directly into spiritual and celestial truths by studying the Writings, is internally the same as the old Christian belief of the imputation of the merit of Christ by means of faith, for it implies that the merit of the Lord in His Second Coming can be imputed

to man, apart from the process of unfolding and infilling, that is apart from the process of regeneration.

We read further in the same work: "The sense of the letter of The Word is the basis, the containant, and the support of its spiritual and celestial senses" (n. 27). That the literal sense of the Writings is the basis, the containant, and the support of the spiritual and celestial things which the Church comes to see is obvious, for upon what else could the New Church base its Doctrine; what else contains the Divine thin 's into which the New Church is to enter; what else gives support to the truths that are drawn out?

We read further: "Every Divine work is complete and perfect in its ultimate; and in the ultimate is the whole" (n. 28). As the Writings are the most excellent of Revelations, and are a purely Divine Work, they are indeed complete and perfect in their ultimate, that is, in their letter. The Writings, as to every word, were dictated from God, and this in spite of the fact that Swedenborg received the Doctrines in his understanding and wrote them as if from himself. If viewed from within there is not one word in the Writings that is not the Word of God; if there was anything that was from Swedenborg, then The Writings would not be perfect in the ultimate and could not be said to be the Word of God. That the Writings are complete and perfect in their ultimate is evident from this consideration, namely, that Swedenborg was not perfect and his ideas were finite and limited, wherefore it could only be by a Divine miracle in ultimates that the letter of the Writings could contain the Infinite Divine Love and Wisdom Itself.

We read further: "Divine truth in the sense of the letter of the Word is in its fulness, in its holiness, and its power"

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(n.37). As the Writings are the Lord Himself in His Second Coming they are the Lord in fulness, in holiness, and in power. Where are Divine truths in greater fulness, and holiness than in the Writings; or where do they manifest themselves with greater power? Have not the Writings all power in the New Church?

We read further: "From all this it is evident that the Word is the very Word itself in its sense of the letter, for within this sense there are spirit and life, the spiritual sense being its spirit, and the celestial sense its life. This is what the Lord says: The words that I speak unto you are spirit and are life(John 6 : 63). The Lord spoke His words before the world. and in the natural sense. The spiritual and the celestial sense without the natural sense which is the sense of the letter, are not the Word; for without it they are like spirit and life without a body" (n. 39). Again in the Second Coming the Lord says: "The words that I speak unto you are spirit and are life", and again the Lord spoke His words before the world, and in the natural sense: "This is the natural sense out of the spiritual sense" (A.E. 1061).

To deny that the Writings in their literal sense are the Word in its fulness, in its holiness, and in its power, that is, to deny that everything of the literal sense of the Writings is purely Divine, and maintain that the Words were from Swedenborg, would be to separate the Human nature from the Divine nature of the Lord in His Second Coming.

We read further: "Doctrine must be drawn from the sense of the letter of the Word, and be confirmed thereby. That through Doctrine the Word not only becomes intelligible, but also as it – were shines with light, is because without Doctrine it is not understood, and is like a lampstand without a lamp, as has been shown above. Through Doctrine therefore the Word is understood, and is like a lampstand with a lighted lamp. The man then sees more things than he had seen before, and also understands things which before he had not understood" (n. 53, 54). That this teaching concerning the Word applies to the Writings, to a certain extent has been seen by many in the GENERAL CHURCH, for it is obvious that the Church draws Doctrine from the Writings and confirms the Doctrine by the Writings. Nevertheless the Church has not clearly seen

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that the Writings without Doctrine are like a candlestick without light, and that "The genuine truth which must be of Doctrine appears in the sense of the letter to none others but those who are in enlightenment from the Lord" (n. 57). In the Writings the literal sense has been mistaken for the light itself. Yet it is obvious that all who accept the Writings are in the light of their literal sense and this whether they are in enlightenment from the Lord or not, and they see certain things even though they do not draw forth Doctrine, but what they see is not the spiritual sense, for as we read: "The spiritual sense does not appear in the sense of the letter", and: "It is not that sense which shines forth from the sense of the letter of the Word while one is studying and unfolding the meaning of the Word with intent to confirm some dogma of the church" (n. 5).

The more intelligent in the Christian church would deny that they were literalists. They also believe that the Word contains many correspondences, as frequently mentioned in the Writings, namely, they speak of the heavenly Joseph, Canaan, Zion, Israel, and many like things, yet this does not save them from literalism, because they think the spirit was that which shines forth from the literal sense when studying and confirming a dogma, and they deny that "the spiritual sense is in all things of the Word, and in every single particular".

We read that the Christian church does not inquire what is meant by the particular correspondences of the Word, because "it places the celestial and spiritual things of the Word in its literal sense, and calls its interior ones my treat things that it does not care for" (A. C. 9688). The New Church can easily fall into the same error, namely, it may call the things which shine forth from the literal sense of the Writings its spiritual and celestial internal; it may deny that there are Divine arcana in every word in the Writings which lie deeply hidden, and may call any opening of the interior truths "mystical things for which it does not care".

We read further: "they who read the Word without doctrine, or who do not acquire for themselves Doctrine from the Word, are in obscurity as to every truth, and they are wavering and uncertain, prone to errors, and pliant to heresies, which also they embrace wherever inclination

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or authority favors, and their reputation is not endangered. For the Word is to them like a lampstand without a lamp, and in their shallow they seem to see many things, and yet see scarcely anything, for Doctrine alone is a lamp"(n. 52).

The Word in its literal sense is adapted to the early states of the Church, and in these early states the Lord gives the Church a general light, in which it gathers thin things of the literal sense in an orderly manner. In the infancy of the Church, the Church, like an infant, is kept in the sphere of the celestial Angels who protect it. But this state cannot be a permanent one. The Church must come into its own life and enter into interior things as if from itself. The Church finds many things in the Word which it cannot understand, and a Doctrine is born in the light of which it reads its Word. This Doctrine is either genuine, truth from the Lord or it is false doctrine originating in the proprium of man, in which case it is a graven or a molten image. If men read the Writings in the light of false doctrine, or if they have no Doctrine, they "are in obscurity as to every truth, and their minds are wavering land uncertain, prone to errors, and pliant to heresies, which they also embrace wherever inclination or authority favors". For to them the Word in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, is like "a lampstand without a lamp, and in their shadow they seem to see many things, and yet see scarcely anything, for Doctrine alone is a lamp". That this is true in application to the New Church is obvious from CONFERENCE and CONVENTION.

Up to the present the only Doctrine drawn forth from the Writings which does not shine forth from its letter, that has been clearly seen in spiritual light as a genuine and eternal truth, is the Doctrine that the Writings are the Word of the Lord, that they are the Divine Human of the Lord in His Second coming. The other principles if the ACADEMY are more on the plane of the literal sense of the Writings, that is, they are such things that immediately shine forth from the letter, where there is no prejudice which blurs the vision.

So far the Doctrine that the Writings are the Word has been the lamp which has enlightened the Church in the reading of the Writings, and the light of this lamp ha

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been reflected from many things in the literal sense of the Writings. This light as a general perception has existed in the Church from the beginning, but in time it tended to fade, until it broke forth anew and was openly proclaimed and was rationally seen as a fundamental principle ' in the early days of the ACADEMY. This light caused the Church to see many things which it had not seen before.

To be in enlightenment is to see a thing clearly in spiritual light from the Lord. What is seen in such light is necessarily seen as an eternal and genuine truth. What in the Church so far has been seen as an eternal and genuine internal truth by the Church, except the fact that the Writings are the Word? Apart from this the Church has only seen as an undoubted truth from the Lord such things as "shine forth from the literal sense of the Writings"; but such things do not belong to the internal sense, for we read: "The spiritual sense of the Word is not that sense which shines forth from the sense of the letter while one is studying and unfolding the meaning of the Word with the intent to confirm some dogma of the Church. This is the literal sense of the Word. The spiritual sense does not appear in the sense of the letter, being within it as the soul in the body" (n. 5).

Concerning spiritual light we read: "In a word, that light surpasses a thousand times the noonday light on earth" (1p.L.W. 182). Any spiritual truth that is seen in enlightenment is seen in spiritual light that comes from the Lord as a sun; anything seen in such light is necessarily seen a thousand times more clearly than anything seen in natural light. To illustrate: If anyone sees that the Writings are the Word, he sees this truth a thousand times more clearly than be can see any scientific knowledge, for the former truth is an interior genuine appearance seen in the light that proceeds from the Lord, while the latter is a gross appearance seen in the relatively obscure light of the natural mind. We are also given @be teaching that what is seen in spiritual light can be seen much clearer as to the particulars than what is seen in natural light, and this on account of the essence of that light. Unless the interior things which lie hidden within the Writings, and do not shine forth from the sense of their letter, but can only be seen by those who are in enlightenment from the Lord,

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are seen clearly as genuine truths from the Lord, then it is a sign that the Church is not in the clear light of the spiritual sun, but is in the general light, represented by the light that was given on the first day of creation.

It has been said that the Doctrine that the Writings are the Word has been seen by some in spiritual light, yet for the most part, this has not been fully seen. If it had been fully seen then it would have been seen that everything said concerning the Sacred Scripture applies also to the Writings; yet this full vision of the Writings as the Word of the Lord can be seen 'just as clearly and fully in spiritual light as the partial seeing of the Writings as the Word that has been prevalent in the ACADEMY, and in the GENERAL CHURCH.

All failure to see the genuine Doctrine of faith is due to consulting the rational. Concerning Doctrine we read-. "That it may be further known how the case is with the Doctrine of faith, as being spiritual from a celestial origin, be it known it is Divine Truth out of Divine Good, and thus wholly Divine. What is Divine is incomprehensible, because above all understanding even angelic; but still this Divine, which in itself is incomprehensible, can flow in through the Lord's Divine Human into man's rational, and when it inflows into his rational, it is there received according to the truths which are therein; thus variously, and not with one as with another" (A. C. 2531). It is here taught that the Doctrine of faith with each man flows into his rational from the Divine Human of the Lord, and that the Doctrine is the Divine Truth out of Divine Good. If man consults his rational the rational acts from itself, and thereby closes the way of influx by which the Divine Doctrine flows in, wherefore we read: "The Doctrine of faith would become null and void, if the rational were consulted as to its contents" (A. C. 2512). The rational is in appearances of truth. These appearances if opened to the Lord, receive the Divine Doctrine, but if man consults these appearances then be closes the way to influx and thinks from the appearances. It is the nature of the human rational when not open to the Lord, to think from appearances and to deny the miraculous. It is a consulting of the rational that has led the modern so-called Christian church to deny the Divinity of the Lord and the Word, for the

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rational method, which judges from appearances and tries to explain things by natural causes, closes mind to influx. Although the Writings are the Divine Rational yet it is the consulting of the rational which led to their rejection by the Christian world for judging by appearances they could not be seen to be a revelation, and their acceptance required a belief in the miraculous.

It was again a consulting of the rational which led CONVENTION and CONFERENCE to reject the teaching that the Writings are the Word, for again from appearances and from all Initiate tendency to deny Divine miracles, the rational if consulted tends to reject the Divinity of the Lord in His Second Coming. If the rational is consulted it will deny that the Writings are fully the Word and that everything said concerning the Word applies to them, and that the Doctrine drawn from The Writings is of purely Divine origin and essence; and this for the same reason, namely, because the rational if consulted judges from appearances and tends to deny the miraculous for what it calls the natural method. That the internal sense of Writings cannot be arrived at by a natural method, but only by a miracle of God, is evident from the fact that the spiritual sense is not that sense, which shines forth from the letter while one is studying and unfolding the meaning of the Word. The passing from the literal sense to the spiritual sense is the miracle o turning water into wine; man can no more enter into the spiritual sense of the writings without a Divine miracle than he can turn water into wine, wherefore to attempt to enter into the spiritual and celestial things of the Writings by study without the acknowledgment that this can only be done by a Divine miracle is vanity; for if the rational is consulted the Doctrine becomes null and void.

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The Doctrine is of purely Divine origin and essence. It is the Lord Himself. It is spiritual out of celestial origin, and as such it is ineffable and inexpressible in natural language. It can only be seen in a spiritual state. It is the spiritual sense of the Word itself. As soon as it is expressed in natural language it is no longer the Doctrine unless seen from within. The literal text of the Doctrine of the Church is not Divine, although it administers Divine things. Its junction is to communicate the HOLY SPIRIT from man to man. The natural of the literal sense of the Doctrine of the Church is involved in what is said concerning priests in the work ON' THE NEW JERUSALEM AND ITS HEAVENLY DOCTRINE, n. 317. In this connection we must, note that to think spiritually is to think from use and not from person. The, use of a priest is to teach and thereby lead to the good of life. Wherefore in the spiritual sense a priest represents that which he teaches and administers. The person of the priest thought of spiritually, that is thought of apart from person, is the literal sense of what he teaches. This is also involved in the root meaning of the word person, namely, to sound through, for the spiritual sense may sound through the natural words of the Doctrine. The number reads: "Dignity and honor ought to be paid to priests on account of the holy things, which they administer; but they who are wise give the honor to the Lord, from whom the holy things are, and not to themselves; but they who are not wise attribute honor to themselves; these take it away from the Lord. The honor of any employment is not in the person, but is adjoined to him according to the dignity of the thing which he administers; and what is adjoined does not belong to the person himself, and also is separated from him with the employment". When formulations of Doctrine do not administer to the holy things of the Church, they lose their honor with their proper employment or administration.

Let us illustrate: In the early days of' the ACADEMY they came to see the Lord Himself in the Writings; this vision was expressed in the statement that the Writings are the Word; as this statement administered to this vision and was a means of communicating, it from man to man it had dignity and honor. If the Lord is not seen

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in the Writings, and thus this statement no longer has any living employment, it has no honor or dignity in itself. In this it is unlike the letter of the Word, which is the Divine Person, the body of the Lord Himself, as He manifests Himself on earth. It must be noted that a man cannot come into spiritual and celestial things by means of the literal sense of the Doctrine of the Church any more than by means of the literal sense of the Word, apart from a Divine miracle of the Lord, and yet with those who are prepared the Lord employs the literal sense of the Doctrine of the Church as a means of communicating the Holy Spirit from man to man. As quoted above: "They who read the Word without Doctrine, or who do not acquire for themselves ]Doctrine from the Word, are in obscurity as to every truth, and their minds are wavering and uncertain, prone to errors, and pliant to heresies". That this statement applies to the Latin Word as well as to the previous Testaments is obvious, for from the Writings many opposite views as to interior Doctrines have been derived, as the history of the Church testifies. The Doctrine here specified is the Doctrine which man acquires for himself out of the Word. Concerning such Doctrine we read: "All Doctrine is from the Divine Good and the Divine Truth, and has in itself the heavenly marriage. Doctrine that has not this in it is not the genuine Doctrine of faith" (A.C. 2516).

Further we read: "That it may further be known how the case is with the Doctrine of faith, as being spiritual from a celestial origin, be it known that it is Divine Truth out of Divine Good, and 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 flow in through the Lord's Divine Human into man's rational, and when it inflows into his rational, it is there received according to the truths that are therein; thus variously, and not with one as with another. In so far therefore as the truths with a man are more genuine so far the Divine which flows in is received more perfectly, and so far the man's intellectual is enlightened" (A.C. 253.1).

Concerning this opening of the mind we read further: "It has been so provided and ordained by the Lord that in so far as a man thinks and wills from Heaven, that is through Heaven

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from the Lord, so far his ii-internal man is opened. The opening is unto Heaven even unto the Lord Himself" (A.C. 9707). "It treats here about the Lord, that all the doctrinal things of faith are from His Divine; for there does not exist any doctrinal thing, not the least of it, which is not from the Lord, for the Lord is Doctrine itself. Hence the Lord is called the Word, because the Word is Doctrine. But as everything that is in the Lord is Divine, and what is Divine cannot be apprehended by any created thing, the doctrinal things which are from the Lord, in so far as they appear before created things, are not truths purely Divine, but are appearances of truths; yet still in the appearances there are truths Divine" (A.C. 3364). From the above passages it can be seen that the genuine Doctrine which the Church or the man of the Church draws from the Word, as to

its origin and essence is purely Divine, but that in man's rational, that is in his conscious mind, it is in appearances which are more or less perfect, but that these appearances have within them Divine truths. ']'he genuine Doctrine or internal sense of the Writings does not shine forth from their letter, but it flows from the Lord's Divine Human into man's rational while man is reading the Writings. This Doctrine viewed internally is the internal sense of the Writings as they are in Heaven. For we read: "Nay, if you will believe it, with man the internal man is of itself in the internal sense of the Word, because it is Heaven in the least form, and consequently when it is opened it is with the Angels in Heaven, and is therefore in like perception with them. From

this it is evident that the man whose internal is open, is in the internal sense of the Word, although he is not aware of it" (A. C. 10400).

That the sense which shines forth from the literal sense of the Writings is not the internal sense as it is in Heaven, is evident from the following quotation: "The genuine truth which must be of Doctrine appears to none but those who are in enlightenment from the Lord" (S. S. 57). Yet it is obvious that the sense which shines forth from the letter of the Writings can be seen by all, whether they are in enlightenment from the Lord or not. To continue the quotation: "Enlightenment is from the Lord alone, and exists with those who love truths because they are truths

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and make them uses of life. With others there is no enlightenment in the Word. The reason why enlightenment is 1'roin the Lord alone is that the Lord is in all things of the, Word. The reason why enlightenment exists with those who love truths because they are truths and make them of use for life, is that such are in the Lord and the Lord in them. For the Lord is His own Divine Truth, and when this is loved because it is the Divine Truth, and it is loved when it is made of use, the Lord is in it with the man. This the Lord teaches in John: "In that day ye shall know that ye are in Me and I in you. He that hath My commandments, and doeth them, he loveth Me, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him; and I will come unto him, and make My abode with him" (14 : 20, 21, 23). And in Matthew: "BIessed are the pure, in heart. for they shall see God" (5 : 8). These are they who are in enlightenment when they are reading the Word, and to whom the Word shines and is translucent" (S. S. 57). To continue: "The reason why the Word shines and is translucent with such, is that there is a spiritual and celestial sense in every particular of the Word, and these senses are in the light of Heaven, so that through these senses and through their light the Lord flows into the natural sense. and into the light of it with man.

This causes the man to acknowledge the truth from an interior perception, and afterwards to see it in his own thought, and as often as he is in the affection of truth for the sake of truth" (S.S. 58).

It is of the utmost importance to believe that there is a spiritual and celestial sense in each particular of the Writings, thus in each word, which does not shine forth from the sense of the, letter unless a man is in enlightenment from the Lord. For if this is denied then there would be man-N' things in the Writings which would be unworthy of the Divine Word, yea a denial of this truth involves a denial of the Divine Body of the Lord in His Second Coming. To deny that each single word in the Writings contains Divine arcana that are bidden as the soul is hidden by the body, would be to deny that the Writings are perfect in their ultimate, and what is not perfect in its ultimate is not the Word of God. It has been maintained that the sentence or general rational idea is the ultimate of the Writings, yet it is obvious that in the Writings as in all

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speech each word conveys an idea, and in the Writings the words frequently convey merely natural or even sensual ideas, if viewed as to their literal sense. Yet we are told that there is not a single word in the Word of God which does not contain spiritual and celestial things, and that there is no relation between the celestial, the spiritual, and the natural than that of correspondence. Let us illustrate: We are told that the twelve Apostles were sent out into the spiritual world on the nineteenth of June, 1770. Each of these words expresses a natural idea that could not be understood as such by the Angels. For the Angels cannot understand the

words twelve, apostles, sent, nineteen. June, nor 1770, except as to their spiritual signification. If each of these words does not have a correspondence, then it would be a misuse of language to call the Writings the, Word of God. For there would be words and natural ideas in the Writings which bad no communication with the Heavens, nor with the Lord.

How the genuine Doctrine comes into existence in the Church when men's minds are open even, unto the Lord is thus described: "When a man is being purified, then first of all are learned such truths as can be apprehended by the sensual man, such as are the truths in the sense of the letter of the Word; afterwards are learned interior truths, Such as are collected from the Word by those who are III enlightenment; for these collect its interior sense from various passages where the sense of the letter is unfolded. From these when known, truths still more interior art, afterwards drawn forth by those who are enlightened, which truths, together with the former, are of service to the Church for Doctrine, the more interior truths for Doctrine to those who are men of the internal Church, the less interior for Doctrine to those who are men of the external Church. Both the former and the latter men, provided they have lived according to these truths, are taken up into Heaven among the Angels, anti are there imbued with angelic wisdom, which is from truths still more interior, and finally is from inmost truths in the third Heaven. These truths, together with the former in their order, close in the ultimate ones" (A. C. 10028). From this passage and from what precedes, it is evident that the Writings as to their literal sense, if seen from without, are not rational truths,

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as its been frequently supposed, but are merely natural truths; this is evident from the fact that they cant be seen by anyone, thus even by those who are natural. As seen by such they are not genuine natural rational truths, for the genuine natural rational represented by Ishmael is born from the Lord, Abraham as a father and the affection of the scientifics of the Writings, represented by Hagar, as a mother; and this is a degree within the literal sense of the Writings. Wherefore before the spiritual birth represented by Ishmael takes place, it is only the external appearances of the Writings that can be seen.

The manifestation of the genuine Doctrine of the Church is further described as follows: "By prophets here and elsewhere in The Word are meant in the nearest sense such prophets as those were in the Old Testament through whom the Lord spake; but in the spiritual sense those prophets are Dot meant, but all whom the Lord leads; with these also the Lord flows in and

reveals to them the secrets of the Word, whether they teach or not. Prophets mean all whom

the Lord teaches, thus all who are iii the spiritual affection of truth, that is who love truth because it is truth; for the Lord teaches these, and flows into their understanding and enlightens; and this is more true of these than of the prophets of the Old Testament. From this it can be seen that prophets mean in the spiritual sense all who are wise from the Lord; and this whether they teach or do not teach. And as every truly spiritual idea ;s abstracted from the idea of persons, places, and times, so The prophets also signify in the highest sense the Lord in relation to The Word, and as to Doctrine from the Word: and likewise the Word and Doctrine. A prophet

mean.-, Divine Truth which is the Word, a-ad which is in the Church out of the Word" (A. E. 624).

That the genuine Doctrine of the Church is from revelation from the Lord, is manifest from the ARCANA COELESTIA, n. 8694, where we read: "By revelation is meant enlightenment when the Word is read, and their perception; for they who are in good and long for truth are taught in this way out of the Word; but they who are not in good cannot be taught out of the Word, but can only be confirmed in such things as they have been instructed in from infancy, whether true or false. The reason that

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those who are in good have revelation, and those who are in evil have no revelation, is that in the internal sense each and all things of the Word treat of the Lord and of His kingdom, and the Angels that are with man perceive the Word according to the internal sense. This is communicated to the man who is in good and reads the Word, and from affection longs for truths and consequently has enlightenment and perception. For with those who are in good and from this in the affection of truth, the intellectual of the mind is opened into Heaven, and their soul, that is their internal man, is in fellowship with the Angels; but it is otherwise with those who are not in good and from this in the affection of truth. But what is the nature of the revelation of

those who are in good and from this in the affection of truth cannot be described. It is not manifest, neither is it altogether hidden; but it is a certain consent and favoring out of the interior that a thing is true and a, non-favoring if it is not true. The cause of its being so is from the influx of Heaven from the Lord; for through Heaven from the Lord there is light that surrounds and enlightens the intellect, which is the eye of the internal sight. The things which appear in that light are truths, for this very light is the Divine, truth which proceeds from the Lord". Further we read: "They who are in The spiritual affection of truth are elevated into the light of Heaven so completely that they perceive the enlightenment" (A. E. 1183). Further: "The true spiritual sense of the Word is from the Lord alone; this is the reason y no one either iii the natural or the spiritual world is allowed to investigate the spiritual sense of the Word from the sense of its letter, unless he is entirely in the Doctrine of Divine Truth, and in enlightenment from the Lord." (DE 'VERBO, 21). That the Lord is the Doctrine of faith which is from the Word, and in the case of the New Church that is from the Writings, is taught in the A.RCANA COFLESTIA: "The Lord is the faith with man, and if the faith, He is also every truth that is contained in the Doctrine of faith, which is from the Word" (n. 8864). The opening of the mind for the reception of Doctrine must be even unto the Lord, as we read: "It has been so provided and ordained from the Lord that in so far as man thinks and wills from Heaven, that is

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Through Heaven from the Lord, so far his internal man is open; the opening is unto Heaven even unto the Lord Himself" (A. 9707). When a man's Mind is so opened then the goods and truths with the man are the Lord Himself. For we read: "The Lord does these things through the Heaven of man, that is through his internal; for all good and truth are from the Lord, in so much that good and truth with man are the Lord Himself" (A. C. 9776).

We are told that it is not the Word which makes the Church but the understanding of the Word. Thus in the New Church it is not the Writings which make the New Church, but the understanding of the Writings are not understood then they are not the Word with the man. To quote: "The Word is the Word according, to the understanding, of it with man, that is, as it is understood. If it is not understood, the Word is indeed called the Word, but it is not the Word with the man. The Word is the truth according to the understanding of it, for the Word may not be the truth, because it may be falsified. 'he Word is spirit and life according to the understanding of it, for the letter not understood is dead. And as a man has truth and life according,, to the understanding of the Word, so has he faith and love according thereto. Now as the Church exists by means of faith and love, and according to them, it follows that the Church is the Church through the understanding of the Word and according thereto a noble Church if in genuine truths, an ignoble if not in genuine truths, and a destroyed church 'If in falsified truths" (S. S. 77). As it is the genuineness of the truths drawn from the, Writings which alone causes it to be a noble Church, it is of The utmost importance to see from the Lord as to whether the Doctrine drawn from the Writings is genuine Doctrine or not. This is a responsibility placed on everyone. For we read: "With such men, as are in enlightenment, the first thing is to get for themselves Doctrine from the literal sense of the Word, and thus lighted, they see the Word by its means. Those however who do not procure Doctrine for themselves, first make investigation as to whether the Doctrine delivered by others and received by the Doctrine delivered by others and received by the general body accords with the Word, and they assent to what

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Accords, and from what does not accord they dissent. In this way it becomes to them their own Doctrine, and through Doctrine their faith. But this takes place with those who not being taken up with worldly affairs are ablt to exercise discernment. If these persons love truths because they are truths, and make them of use for life, they are in enlightenment from the Lord. All others who are in some life according to truths can learn from them" (S. S. 59)

There is only one Heavenly Doctrine, namely, the Doctrine which is in Heaven from the Lord, which Doctrine also makes the internal of the genuine Church. Swedenborg was not unique in having this Doctrine revealed to him by the Lord when reading the Word, for as is evident from the quotations given above and from many similar passages in the Writings, enlightenment may be given to others. The uniqueness of Swedenborg's mission was that the Lord not only revealed to him the Heavenly Doctrine, but also by means of him, wrote the Third Testament or Latin Word, a work which is perfect in ultimates, and which like the previous testaments, is the literal sense of the Word, in its fulness, in its holiness, and in its Power.

THE NINETEENTH OF JUNE.

An Exposition.

"After this work was finished the Lord called together His twelve disciples who followed Him in the world; and the next day He sent them all forth throughout the whole spiritual world to preach the Gospel that the Lord God Jesus Christ reigns. This took place in the month of June on the day 19, in the year 1770" (T. C. R. 791)

When reading in the Word of the Old or the New testament of years, the mind of the New Churchman naturally turns to its spiritual signification, but when a date is mentioned in the Writings the mind tends to remain in the natural idea. To illustrate The fact mentioned in the Gospels, that the Lord was about thirty years of age when He commenced His ministry, was an important historical occurrence, yet the new Churchman naturally thinks of its spiritual signification, and the idea of three times ten, signifying a fulness of remains, naturally comes to his mind. But when one reads in THE TRUE CHRISTIAN

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RELIGION of the nineteenth day of June 1770, the mind tends to remain in the natural idea involved, although such ideas could not exist in THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION such as it is written in Heaven.

In the spiritual sense "after this work was finished" signifies when the men of the New Church have acquired a knowledge of the, literal sense of the Writings, and have acquired ,t life in conformity with this sense. In a still more interior sense these words have a similar signification to the words: "and on the seventh day God finished His work which He had made," which is explained. is follows: "The celestial man is the seventh day, which, as the Lord has worked during the six days, is called His Work; and as combat then ceases the Lord is said to rest from His work" (A. C. 84).

"The Lord called together His twelve disciples who had followed Him in the world' . "To call" signifies "Presence from foresight and provision" (A. C. 3495). Also "a state, of perception as to quality" (A. 3659), and "the arrangement in order of the truth.-, of faith and the goods of love in the natural" (A. 6335). The twelve disciples represent all the goods and truths of the Word and of the Church (E. 695); and more specifically "the good of Doctrine from the Lord" (E. 624); and therefore those who are In such goods and truths.

"Who had followed Him in the world", signifies obedience to such goods and truths on the plain of the natural mind; in relation to the New Church it signifies obedience to the goods and truths of the literal sense of the Writings.

"And the next day" signifies a new state. "He sent them all forth" signifies that the goods and truths proceed from the Lord. "Throughout the whole spiritual world" signifies that they occupied the spiritual mind of the Church, and were seen as to their spiritual sense. "To preach the Gospel that the Lord God Jesus Christ reigns" signifies that all the goods and truths of the Word, both the goods and truths of the literal sense of the Writings and the goods and truths of

the internal sense of the Writings, are from the Lord who alone reigns over all things of the Church.

The "nineteenth" has a variety of significations, but its primary signification seems to be from the addition of 12

DOCTRINE DRAWN FROM THE WORD

and 7; "twelve" signifying, the goods and truths of the Church in general which were represented by the apostles, and the number seven signifying that such goods and truths are holy. The numeral "nineteen" referring to a day of the month signifies that this has relation to faith. June involves a signification which we cannot enter upon at the present time. It is sufficient to note that it is the month. in which the sun reaches its highest point in the South and thus signifies a state of enlightenment.

As "a month" signifies a state as to faith, "a year" signifies a state as to love. "One thousand" signifies what is much; in relation to the subject it signifies the abundance of goods and truths that will exist in the Church. ",Seven hundred" as also "seventy" signifies what is holy. It also signifies the seventh or celestial state of the Church. We are told that when a larger and a smaller number are brought together in the Word, the larger number refers to truth and the smaller number to good, hence in this case,, seven hundred" refers to truth and "seventy" to (see A. R.

287).

The Doctrine involved in this number is that after the Church has come to know and obey the literal sense of the Writings as to its goods and truths in general, the Lord will elevate these goods and truths into the spiritual mind of the Church which makes one with the Heavens. he will re-arrange them there, and they will then proceed from Him as the interior truths of the Church.

While there are states of preparation in the Church by means of Doctrine, this prophecy will not be fulfilled in its fulness until the Church comes into a celestial state, for until the Church comes into such a state the Lord does not fully reign in Heaven and on earth.

DE HEMELSCHE LEER

EXTRACTS FROM THE ISSUE FOR NOVEMBER 1931 MARK 11 : 27-33

ADDRESS BY H. D. G. GROENEVELD AT THE SOCIAL SUPPER OF MARCH 29TH, 1931.

And they come again to Jerusalem: and as He was walking in the temple, there come to Him the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders.

And say unto Him: By what authority doest Thou these things? And who gave Thee this authority to do these things?

And Jesus answered and said unto them: I will also ask of you one word, and answer Me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things.

The baptism of John, was it from Heaven or from men? Answer Me.

And they reasoned with themselves, saying: If we shall say, from Heaven, He will say, why then did you not believe him?

But if we shall say, from men, they feared the people; for they all counted John, that he was a prophet indeed.

And they answered and said unto Jesus: We do not know. And Jesus answering saith unto them: Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things. MARK 11 : 27-33.

"Jerusalem" signifies the Church with regard to its Doctrine. "To come to Jerusalem" therefore signifies to occupy oneself with the things that regard the Doctrine of the Church. "Again" indicates not only that attention has already formerly been paid to the principles of the Doctrine of the Church, but also the progress in the upbuilding of the Church by its Doctrine. In general, therefore without entering, into particulars with regard to the upbuilding of the Church by its Doctrine in every degree, The progress takes place by going from the principles of the Doctrine of the Church of a lower degree to those of a higher degree, therefore by going from the natural Doctrine of the Church to the spiritual Doctrine and from the spiritual Doctrine to the celestial Doctrine of the Church.

H. D. G. GROENEVELD

"And as He was walking in the temple". The temple signifies the Divine Human in itself, and also the Divine Human that makes the Heavens, and furthermore the Heavens and the Church as the Bride of the Lamb, built from the Divine Human of the Lord, whereby they are a receptacle of Life, and conjoined with the Lord by His presence in the Heavens and in the Church. With regard to the Church the temple therefore signifies the opened truths of the literal sense of the Third Testament, such as these manifest themselves to others. "To walk" signifies life. "And as He was walking in the temple" therefore signifies the Life and thus the presence of the Lord in the opened truths of the literal sense of the Third Testament. In these opened truths therefore is the Life of the Lord, from which it follows that the Doctrine of the Church which opens the truths of the literal sense is the Lord Himself.

"There come to Him the chief priests, and the scribes., and the elders". The chief priests signify the apparent goods in the natural, obtained by the life of the proprium according to the scientifics of the Third Testament, in which goods therefore there dwells not the Lord but the proprium of man; the scribes stand for the apparent rational truths in the natural, obtained by the influx of the proprium into the scientifics of the Third Testament, and the elders for the scientifics obtained by direct cognizance of the literal sense of the Third Testament. "There come to Him the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders", therefore means that these apparent goods, these

apparent rational truths, and these scientifics, or they who are in these things, direct themselves to the Lord as the Doctrine of the Church.

"And say unto Him: By what, authority doest Thou these things? And who gave Thee this authority to do these things?" In general this signifies that they who are in apparent goods, and they who are in apparent rational truths, and also they who have only cognizance of the scientifics, do not see that the power of the Lord is present in His Human and that He Himself is the Creator of Heaven and earth. As we know from the Latin Testament the human begins in the inmost of the rational. Power therefore begins only when there is possession of the things

MARK 11 : 27-33

in the rational. With regard to the Doctrine of the Church therefore this question indicates that one does not see that the things of the Doctrine of the Church are present in the rational and that the Lord Himself is the Doctrine of the Church.

"And Jesus answered and said unto them: I will also ask of you one word, and answer Me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things" signifies that the things contained in the verse following should first, be considered and rationally seen, before an influx can be received and one can thus perceive with regard to the Lord, that He is the Creator of Heaven and earth, and with regard to the .Doctrine of the Church, that it is the Lord Himself and therefore Divine.

"The baptism of John, was it from Heaven or from men? Answer Me". John represents the literal sense of the Third Testament. Baptism signifies introduction into the Christian Church, and at the same time admission among the Christians in the spiritual world. This introduction and this admission take place by the setting up of an order for life by the acknowledgement of the Lord as the Creator of Heaven and earth and by shunning evil and falsity as sin against Him. The baptism of John therefore indicates that the order of life is determined by the literal sense of the Third Testament and that the acceptance of that order and therefore regeneration is dependent on life in accordance therewith. ]By the words "The baptism of John, was it from Heaven or from men" the question is therefore asked whether the order of life which is determined by the literal sense of the Third Testament, is from Heaven or from men. 1'rom Heaven means from the Divine Human of the Lord, for the Divine Human makes The Heavens; from men means from Emanuel Swedenborg. If the order for life which is determined by the literal sense of the Third Testament is from the Divine Human of the Lord, The Divine Human in the literal sense is in its fulness, holiness, and power, and all discrete degrees are simultaneously present therein. Then all natural, spiritual, celestial. and Divine truths are present in the literal sense of the Third Testament. The question therefore is whether the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg as to their literal sense are or are not the Word.

The Coming of the Lord on earth is the Coming of the

H. D. G. GROENEVELD

Lord in the objective world by the assumption of a natural Human from the virgin Mary. The Second coming of the Lord is the coming of the Lord in the clouds of Heaven with great power and glory by the opening of the Word. In the new Church the Coming of the Lord on earth is the state of the church in which the Writings of Emmanuel Swedenborg are gradually seen as the Divine Human of the Lord.

Similarly as the churches before the coming of the Lord were external and had their basis in the sensual things, therefore in the things outside of man, so too the states of the New Church before the state of the coming of the Lord on earth have their basis exclusively in the sensual or direct cognizance of the Writings. These states too of the church similarly to the churches before the coming of the Lord Become more and more exterior, until the State is of Such a Nature that the cognizance of the Writings is merely external and the internal is as it were lacking, as a consequence of which the state of the Church is such that the church seems a representation of a church. As a Transition to the Following State, in which the Writings of Emmanuel Swedenborg are seen as the Divine Human of the Lord, and the basis is removed from without to within , or from the sensual things, there fore from the things outside of man and the church, to the things within man and the Church, John the Baptist, or the vision of the literal sense of the Writings as the order for life, prepares the way. The church, in the natural, sees that it must conform with the literal sense of the Writings by a life in accordance there with, and must depart from the things of the world. Then the church understands the words of the 28th and 29th verses of the chapter of the Gospel of Matthew: "And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these words, the people were astonished at His doctrine: for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes". In the affection of the Church for these things the Lord is born and the church enters into the state in which it sees the Writings as the divine Human of the Lord. But similarly as the human from Mary clung to the Lord, so too in this state there clings to the Church the proprium on account of which it still sees the Writings also as the work of Emanuel Swendenborg. Similarly

MARK 11 : 27- 33 77

As the Lord after heavy combats glorified His human and made it Divine, so too, in this state the Church after victory in temptations will gradually see the Writings as the Divine Human of the Lord. Similarly as the Human of the Lord is not only Divine but the Divine is actually present in the Human, so the church will regard the Writings not only as the Divine Human but see the Divine Human present in the literal sense of the Writings as in its fulness, holiness, and power, whereby these Writings are accepted as the Word of God in the third or Latin Testament. Then the Church acknowledges that in the literal sense of the Latin testament all discrete degrees, thus all natural, spiritual, celestial, and Divine truths are simultaneously present.

Subsequently the Church enters into the state which corresponds to the Christian Church in which it sees that by direct Cognizance of the sense of the Third Testament no genuine truths can be acquired, but that the truths of the literal sense must be struggled through from the natural to the spiritual, which will only be able to do by a Doctrine out, of that testament and from the influx of the Holy Spirit. After the fulness of this state the New Church enters into its proper state. The Lord is present in the Church in His Second Coming by the presence of His Holy Spirit in the rational of the Doctrine of the Church. Then the Church sees the things of the Doctrine of the Church simply in the literal sense of the Latin Word.

When the Church enters into this state then the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders, that is to say those who are in apparent goods, in apparent rational truths, and in scientific, will ask the Doctrine of the Church, which Is the Lord Himself: "By what authority doest Thou these things? And who gave Thee this authority to do these things? And Jesus answered and said unto them: I will also ask of you one word, and answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of john, was it from heaven or from men? Answer me." To those who do not see that the Doctrine of the Church is present in the rational and that it is the presence of the Lord by his Holy Spirit, the question is therefore asked whether the order for life which is determined by the

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literal sense of the Writings is from the Divine Human of the Lord or from Emanuel Swedenborg.

"And the – reasoned with themselves, saying: If we shall say., from Heaven, He will say, why then did you not believe him?" signifies that if they consider these things, and accept that the order for life which is determined by the literal sense of the Writings is from the Divine Human of the Lord, they will have to acknowledge that the Divine Human is then present in the literal sense in its fulness, holiness, and power, and that thus the Writings are the Word of God.

"But if we shall say, from men, they feared the people; for they all counted John, that be was a prophet indeed", signifies that if they acknowledge that the order for life which is determined by the literal sense of the Writings is from Emanuel Swedenborg, then all truths of that sense that had been written and spoken, would be no truths, while it was precisely the truths of the literal sense which they loved and which they regarded as the Doctrine of the Church.

"And they answered and said unto Jesus: We do not know. And Jesus answering saith unto them: Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things" signifies that if it is not rationally seen that the Writings are the Word of God in the Third or Latin Testament, neither can one perceive that the Doctrine of the Church is the Second Coming of the Lord by His presence by the Holy Spirit.

THE RELATIVE INFALLIBILITY OF GENUINE DOCTRINE DRAWN FROM THE WRITINGS

AN ADDRESS BY THE REVEREND THEODORE PITCAIRN BEFORE TIIE PHILOSOIHY CLUB, BRYN ATHYN

MAY 7th, 1931.

The title DE HEMELSCHE LEER, or Heavenly Doctrine, has been called into question, and it has been maintained that to entitle a magazine in this manner is out of order; we will therefore commence with an explanation of what is meant by this title. It is not meant that the magazine is

the Heavenly Doctrine itself, for the Heavenly Doctrine is the Son of Man Himself as seen in spiritual vision, before

THE INFALLIBILITY OF GENUINE DOCTRINE

Whom a man falls prostrate, as John said concerning himself: "And when f saw Him, T fell at His feet as dead" (Rev. 1 : 17). This is the sign of the seeing of the Son of Man, that one falls at His feet as dead, for during the seeing of the Son of Man all one's proprial life is as it were dead. Although the Writings are the Heavenly Doctrine, the Son of Man, vet it is obvious at this day that the Son of Man is seldom seen, for if we read the Writings in our ordinary state, We see little vision, the y often appear to us tedious, full of repetitions and uninspiring; instead of our proprial life being prostrate, it is very active. The Heavenly Doctrine itself is the vision of the Son of Man. The genuine Doctrine of the Church as written down in natural language, is a description of what has been seen. This description is more or less perfect according to man's powers of description; in this the letter of the Doctrine of the Church differs from the letter of the Writings, for in the case of the latter the letter is of infinite perfection.

A man writes a book on astronomy and calls it TI e 8tarr?l Heavens; no one takes exception to the title, but it is recognized as an appropriate one, although every one recognizes that the book is not the starry heavens.

The Word and thus the Writings are infallible in an infinite sense, for they are the infinite Truth itself accommodated to all men and Angels to all eternity. On the other hand the Doctrine drawn from the Writings, in so far as it is genuine, is infallible in a relative and finite -By infallible

manner. in an absolute sense is meant that

the Word is infallible in relation to the infinite; by infallible in a relative sense is meant that genuine Doctrine is infallible in relation to the finite series in which it occurs, on its own plane, and in its proper relations. That such relatively infallible truth exists on the natural plane is obvious from the science of mathematics. Thus if we say that five and six equal eleven we have spoken an infallible truth in this sense, for we can be certain that the time can never come when five and six will not equal eleven; and no matter what the subtleties of modern mathematics may develop, five plus six will always remain eleven on the plane of addition. Again in relation to astronomy there are certain known laws of the motion of the heavenly bodies, by which eclipses are predicted. These laws on their own

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Plane, and in their proper relation, will never change to eternity.

We have said that an appearance of truth as seen by man, if genuine, is infallible on its own plane, and in its proper series. Let us illustrate this again by a natural example. It is an eternal truth that the sun rises in the east and not in the west, in its proper plane and series, namely, in

relation to the surface of the earth and the appearance to man thereon. Yet if we tell a child that the sun rises in the east and later on someone tells him that the .sun stands still and the earth turns around, and the child objects that be has been told that the sun rises in the cast, then the child is using a genuine appearance of truth on a lower plane to invalidate a genuine appearance of truth on a higher plane, and thus he comes into t falsity. Again if be is told that the sun does not stand still but has its own motion among the stars, and if be replies that his teacher has told him that the sun stands still and the earth revolves about it, he again uses and appearance of truth on a lower plane to invalidate a truth on a higher plane. The truth itself as to the motion of the sun, would be its relation to the infinite, which is not in time and space, and this relation no man can see.

Hence it can be seen that while truth itself is infinite, and beyond the Comprehension of any man, yet the genuine appearances of truth in which man is, are also infallible, in a relative sense, for they are appearances of the Divine Love and Wisdom which is eternal.

Every genuine Doctrine drawn from the, Writings is infallible in the above sense. Take for example the Doctrine that the Writings are the Word of God. No matter bow much the understanding of what is signified by the Word may vary with increased wisdom, no matter how the idea may vary with increased wisdom, no matter how the idea may be phrased more suitably, the idea which was born in the Church will remain an eternal appearance of genuine truth,

Whatever spiritual thing a man sees clearly in spiritual light, is a genuine appearance of truth and is eternal. To deny on the plane of spiritual sight what obviously applies on the plane of natural sight would to deny the reality of spiritual sight.

THE INFALLIBILITY OF GENUINE DOCTRINE

If I see a house I can state with authority it is a house and is not a tree. If some one insists that it is a tree, I must conclude that either the man has something wrong with his eyes or is out of his mind; and the same thing applies to a spiritual tree and a spiritual house. What man is there who has any internal vision of the Writings who cannot say with authority that they are the Word of God, and that any one who does not see them as such has an imperfection in his spiritual eye?

While such a truth is necessarily spoken with authority, yet the one who speaks it does not expect another to take the truth on his authority; he does not say: believe this because I tell it to you; but he says: go to the Writings, read them, and then pray to the Lord and your eyes may be opened to see the truth.

There is very little spiritual truth we can see in clear light-, in fact there is very little spiritual truth we can see at all. But if any truth is seen clearly in spiritual light, it necessarily has authority for him who sees it, and this in spite of the limitedness of his vision. To deny that we see a thing in spiritual light when we actually see it, would be dishonest and a denial of the Lord's gift. There is nothing more irritating to the natural man than that another should see in clear light what he cannot see, particularly if he sees it in a light different from what we are accustomed to. Any one who confesses that he has such light, is in danger of having abuse directed against him; such is the history of the world; yet if a man has such light he may not deny without sinning against God.

But it may be said such light may be the light of fantasy, or imaginary light. But even in such a case it is no use telling a man that he is in the light of fantasy, and that he must deny the light by which be sees, and that if he does not do this be is in self-conceit and not in charity, because he thinks lie has light that others do not have. If a man is in the light of fantasy he is to be pitied, and the only possible cure in such a case, would be to gradually show the man that he, was in fantastic light. To take an intolerant attitude to the light, by which a man sees, is opposed to charity, even if the light were fantastic.

It is especially apt to animosity if the new light which a man believes that lie has, is said to be of a discrete

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degree different from the former light. Any such belief is apt to be looked upon as the product of conceit and its fantasy; it is thought that those who say they have such light look with contempt on others, and boast themselves in their own superiority. Yet if the light is genuine the very opposite is the case for in the new light he sees a thousand times more evil and falsity in himself; he realizes many times more fully that he is nothing but evil and falsity; he sees more clearly that if it were not for the Lord's mercy he would immediately sink into hell; and he is in more danger of wishing to give up the new responsibility and of envying those who do not have it, than to look with contempt upon his fellows. Nevertheless be can see the limitations of the former light in the new light, for he has been in both and can compare them. This is the experience of everyone who comes to the New Church; in the new light he can clearly see the limitations of the former light in which he was.

It is clearly taught in the Writings that progress is according to discrete degrees. If an intolerant attitude is taken towards the possibility of the opening of such degrees in practice, it is indeed a great hindrance. If a man claims that such an advance is being made and the claim is false, the falsity must be shown to exist, but there should be no intolerance before the falsity is shown; and even afterwards there should be pity rather than intolerance.

A discrete degree differs from a continuous degree in that in the case of the former there is a gap that separates, and there is communication only by correspondence. No advancement along continuous degrees can bridge this gap. In the Church we have this difference illustrated in the difference between the GENERAL CHURCH and CONVENTION. A man in CONVENTION may be very learned in the Writings while a man who really sees the Writings as the Lord in His Second Coming may be very simple and have little knowledge; yet the latter has a kind of wisdom that the former can never come to, unless he comes to see the Writings as the Lord. This is of course not to be taken as a personal judgment concerning the individuals of the two organizations.

DE HEMELSCHE LEER, if accepted, makes a Copernican revolution in one's mode of thinking; or to use an expression

THE INFALLIBILITY OF GENUINE DOCTRINE

from the Writings, it requires an inversion of state. And if one has once seen the universe from this -new point of view, it is quite as impossible to imagine going back to the former point of view, as it would be to imagine going back to the Ptolemaic system of astronomy after coming to see the Copernican system. This illustration is more than a mere comparison, as will appear.

In the former state the literal sense of the Writings is like a central globe in the universe around which the spiritual thoughts and affections of the Church were as it were carried. In the new state the spiritual sense of the Writings becomes the center and the literal sense of the Writings is seen carried in its orbits around the spiritual sense. Man still remains on earth; this is his foundation; he still rests on the letter of the Writings, but be nevertheless as it were views the solar system from the point of view of the sun,, that is from within.

DE HEMELSCHE LEER is accused of departing from the commandment not to judge. Yet DE HEMELSCHE LEER by no means makes a personal judgment; to interpret it as doing so, is to misunderstand its spirit. To judge we are told in several places in the Writings, is to teach truths which are from the Divine. Further we are told that judgment belongs to the Son of Man.

Wherefore any doctrine that is false is a false judgment, and is from the man himself. On the other hand in so far as the Doctrine taught is genuine, so far it is not from the man, but is the judgment of the Son of Man. This kind of judgment has been manifest in the Church in the past. Namely in the teaching of Hindmarsh and later in the teaching of the ACADEMY. The Word, being infinite, applies to all states of the life of the Church to all eternity. The genuine Doctrine drawn from the Word will show bow it applies. If the Church were not given truth by which it could judge itself, it would in time come into a state like an imaginary heaven. The question therefore to be considered is as to whether the Doctrine born in the Church is genuine or not; if it is, it is the judgment of the Son of Man, if not it is the kind of personal judgment that is condemned.

DE HEMELSCHE LEER

EXTRACT FROM THE ISSUE FOR DECEMBER 1931 FROM THE TRANSLATIONS OF THE SWEDENBORG GEZELSCHAP

Extract from the Minutes of the Meeting of Saturday.

December 6th, 1930.

The memorandum, calling This meeting together, reads as follows: 1. General renewal of the membership. 2. Review of Mr. Groeneveld's address of December 30th, 1928, on The Coming of the Lord for Conjunction with the Church, as printed in the issue for April 1929 of DE WARE CHRISTELTIJKE GODSDIENST, pp. 38-45.

Rev. Ernst Pfeiffer proposes to prefix to the declaration of principle for the new year the following quotation from n. 6895 of the ARCANA COELESTIA:

"By the Coming of the Lord is not understood His appearing with the Angels in the clouds, but the acknowledgment in the hearts through love and faith; also His appearing out of the Word, the

inmost or supreme sense of which treats of the Lord alone; … thus the Coming of the Lord in love and faith with those who will be from the New Church".

The declaration of principle: " We, the undersigned, have united into a Swedenborg Gezetschap for the purpose of cooperating towards the internal and external upbuilding of the Church by the explanation of the Word in the light of the Doctrine of the Church, and by our devotion to the principles of that Doctrine", after having been read by the Rec. Pfeiffer, was signed by all present.

[For the convenience of the English reader a translation of Mr. Groeneveld's address is here inserted (ED.)].

FROM THE TRANSACTIONS

THE COMING OF THE LORD FOR CONJUNCTION WITH THE CHURCH

ADDRESS BY H. D. G. GROENEVELD AT THE SOCIAL SUPPER OF 30TH DECEMBER 1928.

(Translated from the issue for April 1929 of DE WARE CHRISTELIJKE GODSDIENST, pp. 38-45).

The Coming of the Lord on earth is the Coming of the Lord into the Flesh, as appears from the first chapter of the Gospel of John: "And the Word was made flesh". Before the Coming of the Lord on earth there ruled in the Church the Good of the Human Divine or the Word in firsts.

This Word was in the Heavens and determined the will of the human race. As is known from the Writings the men of the Adamic Church had no written Word. The Word was internally in their hearts, while externally it was present in creation. In all things of creation they saw internal things. They lived on earth in communication with the Heavens. According to the Writings the Lord operates from firsts through lasts. In the Golden Age the operation of the Lord took place from His Human Divine through creation. Internally the Word was in the hearts of men, while the Lord through creation was the Word. This too appears from the first chapter of the Gospel of John: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word."

When the men of the Adamic Church in their degree became external, and therefore the operation of the Lord through creation was no longer possible, the conjunction externally was effected through the rational, on account of which a written Word appeared on earth. The men of the Noachic Church had a conscience of truth, so that that Word must have been interior, for which reason that Word, wit ' h a view to the danger of profanation, has been lost. When the Churches, and therefore also the Heavens, became more and more external, the moment came when the Heavens could no longer be present internally. Externally the Lord now operated on the external will of the human race, on account of which, from then on, the Word mentions pure history. The then existing church therefore was no actual church, seeing the internal was lacking, but was only the representative of a Church. From then on the

OF THE SWEDENBORG GEZELSCHAP

Lord by the statutes and commandments of the Hebrew Word had in fact already come on earth, but in His Human Divine. Still more and more external became the human race, on account of which the Lord had to be present more and more externally in His Human Divine.

Every more external presence of the Human Divine was born from the seed of the preceding external presence. Finally the seed of the Human Divine had become so external, that it was present as a natural seed and was received by the virgin Mary. According to the Writings, in the external the internal is present. In this seed therefore was contained the Human Divine from the beginning, that is the Good of the Human Divine; this gives the key to the internal sense of the genealogy in the first chapter of Matthew); whereas in the natural seed itself the Divine Human and therefore also the Holy Spirit was present as a germ; (this gives the key to the internal sense of the genealogy in the third chapter of Luke). This appears from the 35th verse of the first chapter of Luke: "The Holy Spirit shall come upon Thee and the power of the Most High shall overshadow Thee."

After the birth the Truth of the Human Divine, in the form of the Old Testament, was at first only externally with the Lord, while the Lord by the conjunction of this Truth of the Human Divine, which came to Him from without, with the Good of the Human Divine, which was within Him, gradually glorified His Human, and by thin-, became the Word in ultimates. Every state of glorification consisted in this that the Lord by the conjunction of the Truth which He received from without, with the Good which was within Him, brought this Good of the Human Divine into ultimates, whereby it became the Good of the Divine Human.

As has already been said, before the Coming of the Lord on earth the Good of the Human Divine ruled and determined the will of the human race. Every state of glorification of the Lord therefore was a victory over evil and falsity, from evil; whereas every state of the Second Coming of the Lord was a victory over evil and falsity, from falsity. The Coming of the Lord on earth therefore brought redemption of the spiritual world and at the same time for the human race living after the Coming of

FROM THE TRANSACTIONS

the Lord, seeing the hells of evil and falsity, from evil, and falsity, from evil, had been subjected. Before the Coming on earth the con junction of the Lord with the human race, out of His Human Divine, with regard to good was mediate, namely through the Heavens, and with regard to truth immediate. This clearly appears from the Golden Age, when the men of the Adamic Church lived in open communication with the Heavens and saw the Lord present in all things of creation. After the Coming of the Lord on earth, that is to say, after the conjunction of the, truth of the Human Divine, which the Lord received from without, with the Good of the Human Divine in the Lord Himself, by which this Good became the Good of the Divine Human, the conjunction of the Lord with the, human race, out of His Divine Human, with regard to good became immediate, and with regard to truth mediate, namely through the Heavens. All conjunction

between the Heavens and the earth is dependent on the human race on earth. With all mediate conjunction of the Lord with the human race there is the danger that the conjunction may perish.

While before the Coming of the Lord on earth the mediate conjunction of the Lord through the Heavens, out of the Good of His Human Divine, determined the will of the human race, after the Coming of the Lord on earth the mediate conjunction of the Lord through the Heavens, out of the Truth of His Divine Human, determined the understanding, namely the external understanding of the human race. The men of the first Christian Church established by the Lord must therefore be of a different nature from the men before the Coming of the Lord.

The New Testament given to the first Christian Church was the Truth separated by the Lord from His Divine Human. It is that Truth by which the conjunction of the Lord with the human race did not yet take place immediately out of His Divine Human. This Truth with regard to the conjunction with the human race was still separated from the Good of the Divine Human, as the Son from the Father. The New Testament therefore does not contain only the birth, the life, and the crucifixion of the Lord Himself on earth, but also the coming, the life, and the Crucifixion of the Truth on earth separated from the Divine Human, and likewise the victory over the bells

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by the last judgment and the conjunction of that Truth with the Good of the Divine Human, as may appear among other places from the 7th verse of the 19th chapter of the Revelation of John: "For the marriage of the lamb has to come, and His wife has made herself ready."

The conjunction of the Lord with those who received the Truth separated from the Divine Human took place out of the Good of His Divine Human. More and more external became the reception of the Word by the human race, so that instead of the good and truth from the Truth separated from the Divine Human, evil and falsify appeared. More and more this Truth was detached from the internal, namely from the Good of the Divine Human, so that finally this truth was regarded by itself, and therefore faith alone was considered as saving and the crucifixion of the Lord as an active redemption. As that Truth has been detached from the internal, the good proceeding thence, in the form of the most external worship, and the truth proceeding thence , in the form of the most external faith, are considered as the greatest piety. The most external kindness and the most external assistance to others is regarded as the highest charity.

Between the Heavens and the Earth more and more clouds Is gathered in consequence of the evils and the falsities. from falsity on earth, so that finally conjunction was no longer possible between the Heavens and the earth. Similarly as the Lord Himself came on earth when internally or with regard to good (Conjunction between the [leavens and the earth was no longer possible, so likewise the Lord Himself came when externally or with regard to truth conjunction was no longer possible; and He came, in the clouds of Heaven, as appears from the 30th verse of the 24th chapter of Matthew: "And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in Heaven, and then shall all, the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of Heaven with great power and glory".

While the first Coming of the Lord was to combat evil and falsity, from evil, the Second Coming of the Lord is to combat evil and falsity, from falsity. It may therefore to some extent become

clear why it is just the work THE BRIEF EXPOSITION OF THE I)OCTRLNE OF THE @NE\V

FROM TIIE TRANSACTIONS

CFIURCH WHICII IS SIGNIFIED BY TIIE NEW JERUSALEM IN TIIE REVELATION, a
work laying bare the false doctrines of the Roman-Catholics and the Protestants, which is the Second Coming of the Lord. Now conjunction of the Lord with the human race also with regard to Truth finds place immediately out of His Divine Human.

"In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and God was the Word." Before the Coming of the Lord on earth the conjunction of the Lord with the human race was mediate through the Word or the Good of the Human Divine; this Good was with the Lord, while by the Coming on earth the Lord was this Good in lasts. After the Coming of the Lord on earth the conjunction of the Lord with the human race was mediate through the Word or the Truth separated from the Divine Human; this Truth was with the Lord, while by the Second Coming the Lord was this Truth 'in lasts. The Writings of Swedenborg, which have been given to the New Church established by the Lord, are the Truth of the Divine Human and therefore the Word. This Truth now determines the understanding, namely, the internal understanding of the human race. This Truth therefore is internal. They who receive the Writings only in an. external way, and therefore for their end have the gathering of the knowledge of correspondences, see only the importance of natural life. They will continually speak of charity, which consequently is nothing but external charity; while in the restrictions of the natural life they see an attack on the freedom of which the Writings speak. They cannot join in the development of Truth, as they see no charity therein. They therefore in fact oppose all upbuilding of the Church, as the upbuilding of the Church can take place only by the deepening of truth, for the Lord is present in the Truth of His Divine Human.

The REV. ERNST PFEIFFER gave the following elucidation of Mr. Groeneveld's address: If, in the new light which the Lord has given us in the past year on the essence of the Third Testament and on the Doctrine of the Church, we read this address, which is already two years old, we marvel at the depth and the comprehensiveness of the thoughts laid down therein. Although it
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contains certain concepts which had at that time not yet been opened, and which only later on, once more essentially through Mr. Groeneveld's work, we have learned to grasp, it appears nevertheless that this argument concerning the essence of the successive Churches on this earth forms a perfectly cohering whole, to which at this day, in spite of
the then as yet unsolved difficulties, we cannot add anything of essential importance.

The concept of the Divinity of the Doctrine of the Church had indeed at that time already been received by us as a truth, but the rational foundation of that concept on the text of the ARCANA COELESTIA concerning the 12th, 20th, and 26th chapters of GENESIS had not yet been attained, a work which Mr. Groeneveld did not accomplish until a few months later in his address on The Doctrine of the Church of February 2nd, 1929. The Doctrine of the Church therefore in the address of December 30th, 1928, is not mentioned. And whereas now we would be inclined to say that the problems dealt with in this address can only be understood by one who, in a conscious way, is in possession of the essential principles of the Doctrine of the Church, we marvel when we see how these problems even at that time, had been grasped and solved. The greatest importance of this address lies in this that here for the first time it has been explained in a rational way why the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg are the Word of God'. It is
indeed customary in the GENERAL CHURCH to say that the Writings are the Word; yea, there have been some even from the beginning of the New Church who said that the Writings were the Word. But so far a rational explanation of this truth has not been arrived at. The faith in this truth was based essentially on the express testimony of the Writings concerning their Divine origin, and on the conclusion from the teaching in the ARCANA COELESTIA (1540 and other places) that the internal sense is the Word itself (see C. Th. Odhner, Testimony of the Writings concerning themselves). It is true that some (E. S. Hyatt, C. Th. Odhner), with regard to the Writings as the Word, attempted to deduce a rational concept from the concept of the Trinity and from the concept of the three degrees 'o£ the mind, by which they were led to speak, with regard to the Writings, of "the
FROM THE TRANSACTIONS

Word of the Holy Spirit" (Hyatt), and, with regard to the Three Testaments, of "the Trinal Word" (C. Th. Odhner). We should not underestimate the historical significance of these contributions, but more than a tentative formulation of the problem thus far has not been attained.

The subject of this address is the order of the conjunction between God and the human race and the principles of the Divine operation by which this conjunction has become possible. The order of conjunction. between God and man is determined in the first place by the fact that God in Himself is infinite and man finite; that therefore there is no ratio between God in Himself and man, and that no conjunction is possible between God in Himself and man. The Human is the Mediator between God in Himself and man. God in His Human is the Lord, and therefore conjunction is possible only in the Lord. Before the Incarnation God had no Human of His own, and the conjunction was then through His Divine which made the Heavens and which is called the Human Divine, that is. He made use of the Angels for the conjunction with the human race. But after the Incarnation God had a Human of His own, which in contradistinction to the Human Divine is called the Divine Human.

The order of conjunction between the Lord and man is further determined by the fact that the Lord is Life, and that man has been created as an organ or a receptacle of Life; furthermore by the law that conjunction is-only possible if man participates in it as from himself. Without the cooperation of man as from himself no reciprocal and therefore no actual and remaining conjunction is possible. The conjunction of the Lord with man and the reciprocal conjunction of man with the Lord is effected through the two faculties which are called rationality and liberty. This is because all that a. man does out of freedom in accordance with his thought is appropriated to him as his own, and remains. These two faculties are from the Lord with every man; out of these faculties man has will and understanding, and out of these faculties man has life as from himself (cf. D. P. 71—79). It is by virtue of these two faculties and thence by virtue of the will and the understanding of man, if he is regenerated, that it is said that the Lord with man dwells in His Own.
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It is a law of Divine -Providence that every man should act as from himself, thus out of freedom according to his reason; butonly the regenerated man acts out of freedom itself according to
reason itself (cf. D. P. 97). Every man therefore from the Lord out of his creation has the as-from himself; but the proper or celestial as-from-himself man receives only through regeneration. The celestial as-from-one's-self, or freedom itself and reason itself, exists in the will and the understanding which have been regenerated out of freedom and reason. There is thus conjunction of the Lord with man through freedom and reason, but there
is reciprocal conjunction of man with the Lord only through freedom itself and reason itself, thus only through the regeneration of the will and the understanding.

The complete conjunction of man with the Lord cannot take place otherwise than gradually according to a certain orderly series of successive states to which the successive ages of man from infancy to old age, correspond. Man is born as a natural being, he then during his manhood becomes spiritual, and finally in his old age celestial. In order, however, that man may later on become spiritual and celestial, he is born from the Lord out of his soul into the celestial of the innocence of infancy, or into the state of the innocence of ignorance. The celestial of infancy is thus given to man by way of an unmerited advance; it does not belong to man himself, as does the celestial of the innocence of wisdom of old age, by the complete development of the as-from- one's-self. In order now that man later on may become spiritual and celestial, he must
first leave his first celestial state. In his first infancy he is in a celestial state, under the care of the celestial Angels, subsequently in his boyhood in a spiritual state, under the care of the spiritual Angels, and then in the years of adolescence in a natural state, under the care of the natural Angels. In this state an inversion takes place, and man now, by wrestling through the natural, must turn back inwards and climb up and return to the celestial state from which he started, but now as from himself. Then first of all, in his early manhood (juventus, cf. A. C.
10225), he is in a spiritual natural state and as to his spirit as an Angel of the first Heaven; he thereupon, during his manhood (virilitas), comes into a spiritual
FROM THE TRANSACTIONS

state and as to his spirit becomes as an Angel of the second Heaven; and finally, in his old age, he comes into a celestial state and as to his spirit becomes as an Angel of the third Heaven. So it happens with every man who makes it -possible for the Lord to regenerate him, from the lowest degree -to the highest degree, according to the order of the successive degrees of the mind. From this it appears that man can only enter into the complete reciprocal conjunction with the Lord with regard to good and truth, or into the celestial as-from-himself, by passing through this series of successive states. •

According to the Third Testament a similar gradual development of the as-from-one's-self applies also to the history of the whole human race. Mankind from the most ancient times, in the form of the successive Churches had, as it were, to pass through all the ages of man, from the state of the innocence of infancy to the state of the innocence of wisdom. The period of the infancy of the human race was during the Adamic Church, which was a celestial Church; the period of the boyhood of the human race was during the Noachic Church, which was a spiritual Church; the period of the adolescence of the human race was during the Church of Eber, which was a natural Church; the inversion took place during the Israelitish Church, which was the representative of a Church, when the Lord came into the world; the period of the early manhood of the human race was during the Lord's life on earth, with those who believed in Him, which was a spiritual natural state; the period of the manhood of the human race was during the Christian Church, which was
a spiritual Church; the period of the old age of the human race is that of the New Church, which is a celestial Church. Only bypassing through these successive states could the faculty of the complete mutual conjunction of the human race with the Lord, or the celestial as-from-one's-self of the human race, be developed. That the celestial as-from-one's-self of the Adamic Church and the spiritual as-from-one's-self of the Noachic Church, as compared with the spiritual as-from- one's-self of the Christian Church and the celestial as-from-one's-self of the New Church were of an incomplete nature, will appear from the following explanations.
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The Lord, in the regeneration of man, operates from firsts through lasts; that is, to begin with there must be something from the Lord with man both in firsts and in lasts, if it is to be possible for man to be regenerated. That which according to order from firsts through lasts comes into existence in mediates is the regenerated man. In the states of the descending line from infancy to adolescence where the inversion takes place, the Lord operates successively from the good of the celestial, of the spiritual, and of the natural, which has as it were been given to man as an advance, as from firsts, and in these states He operates through sensual things which are received by direct cognizance, as through lasts. In the states of the ascending line however, from early manhood to old age, the Lord operates. from the natural-, spiritual-, and celestial-good, which man has acquired as from himself as his own property, as from firsts; and in these states He operates successively through the natural-rational-, spiritual-rational-, and celestial-rational- truth, laid down in the natural, to which by the wrestling through the natural the entrance is gradually and successively opened to man, as through lasts.

That the Churches from creation until the Coming of the Lord followed each other in such .a descending line, is known. That all these Churches with regard to the basis for their thought were not in any internal truth itself, but were dependent-on sensual things, therefore on things outside of man, is taught in many places in the Third Testament. Of all Churches before the Coming of the Lord it is said that they were not in the truth (T. C. R. 786); it is also said that all Churches before the Coming were representative Churches, which could not see the Divine Truth except in the shadow, but that after the Coming of the Lord a Church was instituted from Him, which saw the Divine Truth in light (S. S. 99; D.L.W. 233; T.C.R. 109). On a former occasion already (see DE HEMELSCHE LEER, First Fasc., pp. 38—40; 82—87) it has been explained in some detail that all Churches before the Coming of the Lord, since they missed the Divine Human as a basis for their thought, were dependent on sensual things for the conjunction with the Lord, and that neither the Adamite, nor the Noachite, nor the Israelite could
FROM THE TRANSACTIONS

form an idea of the Divine things except as represented in the sensual things of creation.

The state of the Churches before the Coming of the Lord was the state of the good of the celestial, the good of the spiritual, and the good of the natural respectively. In the measure in which by the shunning of evil they were in the good of their degree, they were without more, by
direct cognizance, in the representative truth of their degree. — The state of the Adamic Church was that of the good of the celestial of the infancy of the human race and therefore of the innocence of ignorance. The inmost degree of the human, the interior rational, which constitutes the third Heaven, with them was opened (A. C. 1914, 5145), and out of that interior rational all things of creation for them were representatives of the celestial and Divine things. In this way out of the interior rational the sensual things of creation were the basis for their thought, and without this sensual basis they could not form a single thought; they could never think of the celestial and Divine things otherwise than as represented in the sensual things of nature. The entire natural creation in this way was a paradise for them; on earth they lived as it were in Heaven. With regard to their internal they were among the Angels of their Heaven and had open communication with them. They saw the Lord as represented in the sun and His infinite qualities as represented in the things of creation; and the Lord also appeared to them often as an Angel of Heaven. Their religion, their charity, and their faith were one and the same with their celestial life. The Lord with them operated from the good of the celestial of the infancy of the human race as from firsts, and through the sensual things of their paradise, by direct cognizance, as through lasts. As long as by the shunning of the evil of self-love they remained in the good of their Heaven, that is in the good of the Human Divine which then made the third Heaven, out of that good by direct cognizance of the sensual things of creation they immediately perceived their interior rational truth, which, however, was only of a representative nature, for which reason it is said of them that they were not in the truth. — When the Adamic Church had been consummated a Coming of the Lord to the human race took place from the Human Divine which
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then made the external of the Adamic Heaven, as from a seed, for the establishment of a new Church. According to the order of procreation of life from a higher degree to a lower degree, out of the external of the preceding degree there comes the internal of the next degree, for from the truth of the preceding degree is the good of the next degree. From this seed came into existence the Noachic Church. The good from the truth of the interior rational was the internal of this seed. With the man of the Noachic Church therefore the interior rational remained closed, and since it was out of the good of the interior rational that the Adamite in the sensual things of creation saw celestial truth, the Noachite in the sensual things of creation by themselves could no longer see truth. He was dependent on a written Word. The state of the Noachic Church was that of the good of the spiritual of the boyhood of the human race, that is, the state of the exterior or spiritual rational or of spiritual charity. The Lord operated with them from the good of the spiritual of the boyhood of the human race as from firsts, and through the sensual things of their social order and of the world, as seen in the light of their Word, by direct cognizance, as through lasts. While all particulars of creation without more for the Adamic man represented Divine and celestial things, the things of creation for the Noachic man represented Divine and spiritual things only so far as they were seen in the light of their Word and could be brought into some connection with their social order as things of spiritual use and of spiritual charity.

The basis for their thought was thereby considerably limited as compared
with that of the Adamites, but just on account of this limitation the spiritual man, as compared with the celestial man, was now for the first time able to form a somewhat concrete concept of the Divinity and of the essential human things; but nevertheless not yet as ideas of the truth in itself, but only as represented in sensual things. As long as the Noachites by the shunning of evil, in the light of their Word, remained in the good of spiritual charity, that is, in the good of the
Human Divine which then made the second Heaven, out of that good by direct cognizance they could immediately see their representative spiritual rational truth. — When the Noachic Church had been consummated a Coming of the
FROM THE TRANSACTIONS

Lord to the human race took place from the Human Divine •which then made the external of the Noachic Heaven, as from a seed, for the establishment of a new Church. From this seed came into existence the Church of Eber. The good from the truth of the exterior rational was the internal of this seed. With the man of this Church therefore also the exterior rational was closed. Their state was that of the interior natural, that is, of genuine natural charity. According to their internal they were in conjunction with the lowest Heaven. The Lord operated with them from the good of the interior natural of the adolescence of the human race as from firsts, and through the sensual things of their interior natural social order and of the world, as seen in the light of their Word, by direct cognizance, as through lasts. The man of this Church thus was in the good of the interior natural, and out of this good, by direct cognizance, he was in the truth of his degree, therefore more limited again than the Noachite, namely exclusively with regard to the things of their social order in the world out of interior natural charity. As long as they by the shunning of evil, in the light of the Word, remained in the good of interior natural charity, that is, in the good of the Human Divine which then made the first Heaven, out of that good by direct cognizance they could immediately see their representative interior natural truth. — When this Church too had been consummated a Coming of the Lord to the human race took place from the Human Divine which then made the external of the last Heaven, as from a seed, for the establishment of a new Church. From this seed came into existence the Israelitish Church. The good from the truth of the interior natural was the internal of this seed. With the Israelites therefore the Church had become so external that even the lowest interior degree of good remained closed, and therefore an operation of the Heavens on the man of this Church was no longer possible, since the Heavens couldno longer be internally present. The Lord operated with them from their merely external obedience to the commandments and statutes of the Old Testament as from firsts, and through the sensual things seen in the light of the Old Testament, by direct cognizance, as through lasts. The Israelite was therefore in the good of the exterior
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natural, and out of this good, by direct cognizance, he was in the truth of his degree, which was now limited to the ecclesiastic life of his people, as the people of God. As long as by the shunning of external evil, in the light of the Old Testament, they remained in their worship in an external holiness, out of this good by direct cognizance they could immediately see their representative natural truth.

When also the Israelitish Church, which in reality was merely the representative of a Church, had been consummated the Coming of the Lord into the Flesh took place. The Word in the Israelitish Church had become so external that an operation with regard to internal things through that Word was no longer possible, so that there was no question any longer of a proper Church; and if
in this state of the human race the Word had not become Flesh, the conjunction would have been broken and the human race would have perished. In the Adamic Church the Lord operated from the good of the celestial, or the inmost good, as from firsts, and through the sensual of the celestial, which is the outmost, because all-comprehensive and unlimited sensual, as through lasts. In the Noachic Church the Lord operated from the good of the spiritual as from firsts, and through the sensual of the spiritual as through lasts. In the Church of Eber the Lord operated from the good of the interior natural as from firsts, and through the sensual of the interior natural as through lasts. Firsts and lasts in this way in the successive descent had approached each other more and more, until in the Israelitish Church they were both in the exterior natural, so that interior mediates could no longer come into existence, and there was no longer question of any internal good. For the Lord operated with them from their obedience to the commandments and statutes of the Old Testament laid upon them from without, as from firsts, and through the sensual things seen in the light of the Word, as through lasts. From this it now clearly appears that if the Lord Himself had not come, and had not brought His Good into lasts, the human race would have perished. The Human Divine which in accordance with the ever more external nature of the successive Churches had gradually descended as a seed from the highest to the lowest degree, had now become so external that it
FROM THE TRANSACTIONS

could be received as a Natural Seed by the Virgin Mary. This Seed therefore contained the Good of the Human Divine from the highest to the lowest degree (as described in the Genealogy of Matthew), and the Natural Seed itself contained the germ of the Divine Human and of the Holy Spirit (as described in the Genealogy of Luke). The Lord by the Glorification of His human conjoined the Truth of the Human Divine which in the form of the Old Testament came to Him from without, with the Good of the Human Divine which He had in Himself; the Good of the Human Divine became the Good of the Divine Human; the Word became Flesh; the Divine Human is the Divine Good even in lasts.

It has already been explained above how in the successive Churches by the descent of the good of the Human Divine from which the Lord successively operated as from firsts, the representative sensual things through which the Lord could operate as through lasts were more and more limited. This gradual limitation of the representative sensual things as a basis for man's thought, had now advanced to a total discontinuance, and the thought of mankind was now limited to the Word become. Flesh, that is, the Truth not as represented but the Truth in itself.
The basis for the thought of the human race, from the sensual things of creation, that is, from the merely external things, had now been transferred to the Divine Human, that is, to the internal things. By this the inversion of the human race from its descending to its ascending development was accomplished. Commencing with the lowest interior degree, the interior natural, and advancing through the middle interior degree, the exterior rational, the human race had now finally to be brought to the highest interior degree, the properly human basis for the thought, the interior rational.

In the period of the descending development, that is, before the Coming of the Lord, it was good which determined the state of the human race; in the period of the ascending development, that is, after the Coming of the Lord, it is truth which determines the state of the human race.
Before the Coming of the Lord man, by the shunning of evil, came into good and out of this good by direct cognizance he was immediately in his truth; after
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the Coming of the Lord man by the shunning of evil comes into truth and through truth into good. By shunning the evil of the first hell man comes into the truth of the first interior degree and through this truth into the good of the Divine Human which makes the first Heaven; by shunning the evil of the second hell man comes into the truth of the second interior degree and through this truth into the good of the Divine Human which makes the second Heaven; by shunning the evil of the third hell man comes into the truth of the third interior degree and through this truth into the good of the Divine Human which makes the third Heaven. The purpose of the wrestlings with the proprium or of the shunning of evil in the Churches after the Coming of the Lord is therefore to arrive at one of the interior degrees of truth and to maintain one's self in this truth, rejecting all lusts of the proprium which appear in the light of this truth, thus by an interior faithfulness to the spirit of this truth, by which a man comes gradually into the good itself of the respective degree and is thereby taken up into the Divine Human of the Lord.
The purpose of the Churches after the Coming of the Lord is therefore first of all in their Word to arrive at the proper essence of the truth, in order so to attain an internal basis for their thought, for only in this way can they come to good. Before the Coming the Lord operated successively from the good of the celestial, of the spiritual, and of the natural of the Human Divine, which had been given to mankind as an advance, as from firsts, and through sensual things that were taken up by direct cognizance, as through lasts; after the Coming
the Lord operated successively from the natural-, spiritual-, and celestial-good of the Divine Human, which the human race as from itself had acquired as its own property, as from firsts, and successively through the natural-rational-, spiritual-rational-, and celestial-rational-truth, laid down in the natural, to which by the wrestling through the natural the entrance is gradually and successively opened to man, as through lasts. For the new truth which is given to man after the wrestling as a revelation by perception, is laid down in the natural, so that the Word becomes an ever more internal basis in lasts for the further thought: by this the letter of the Word is gradually opened more and more to man; the interior doctrinal
FROM THE TRANSACTIONS

things which lie concealed in the letter more and more take the place of the literal things of the Word which first served as a basis.

By the Coming of the Lord on earth, His appearance before the eyes of men, and by the recognition of Him as the Son of God (Luke I :°35, 38, 43; ch.2 : II, 17, 20, 26, 30, 31, 32, 38), the transition from the adolescence of the human race to the early manhood was accomplished. No longer now did the sensual things of creation serve as a basis for the thought of men, but the Divine Human of the Lord. By the faith in the Divinity of the Lord the human race for the first time had left the representative truth and had been introduced into the truth itself. It was the task of the human race from now on, by ever deeper going victories over the proprium, therefore by a progressive wrestling through the. degrees of the natural, to climb up to the interior degrees of truth. — The period of the early manhood of the human race was during the life of the Lord on earth and until the Ascension and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit related in the ACTS OF THE APOSTLES, with those who believed in Him, which was a spiritual natural state. The good from which the Lord now operated as from firsts, was the good of His Divine Human, for the Lord had now taken all the Good of the Human Divine upon Himself. For this reason the Lord said: "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in Me. I am the vine, ye are the branches" (John 15 :4, 5). The truth through which the Lord now operated as through lasts, was the truth of His Divine
Human. In this first spiritual natural state, during the early manhood of the human race, while the Lord as a natural man was immediately present before their senses, the truth through which He could operate was determined by their faith that He was the Son of the living God. At this interior truth of the lowest degree they could only arrive by wrestling through the natural in the first degree. With those who could not believe that the essence of His Human was from the Divine, because they remained in the proprium, the Lord could not operate. This is described in the Gospel of Matthew: "Jesus saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon &.
Peter
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answered and said, Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him: „Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona" (ch. 16 : 15—17). And therefore too the Lord said: "Verily, verily, I say unto you: He that believeth on Me hath everlasting life Whoso eateth
My Flesh, and drinketh My Blood, hath eternal life" (John 6 : 47, 54); and: "He breathed into the disciples and said: Receive ye the Holy Spirit" (John 20:22). Concerning this we read in THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION: "The Lord breathed upon the disciples and said this because the breathing-upon (aspiratio) was an external symbol representative of the Divine breathing-into (inspiratio); the breathing-into, however, is the insertion into angelic societies" (n. 140). — The transition to the period of the manhood of the human race could take place only by the Lord leaving the earth; for man must first become independent of the sensual presence of the Lord if he is to receive the influx of the more interior degrees of truth. This the Lord teaches in the following words in the Gospel of John: ' It is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you. When
He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth" (ch. 16 :7, 13). The period of the manhood of the human race was during the Christian Church. To this Church there had been opened in the Word of the New Testament the entrance to the natural and therefore also to the exterior rational of the Human Divine. It was the purpose of the Christian Church, by wrestling through the natural, to arrive at the essence of its Word, the New Testament, as at the spiritual basis for its thought, and through this to its good, the good of spiritual charity. Its task
therefore was by the shunning of evil to penetrate to the genuine spirit of the New Testament, which never has reference to the merely natural things themselves that are mentioned therein, but to the Divine, celestial, and spiritual things of the natural of the Divine Human of the Lord. That man without victory over the proprium could never arrive at that genuine spirit of the Divine Human, the Lord Himself says in the Gospel of John: "I shall pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth
Him
FROM THE TRANSACTIONS

not, neither knoweth Him" (John 14:16, 17). In this way the Christian Church could have come to a spiritual basis for its thought, and by this to the good itself of the natural of the Divine Human of the Lord. For this reason it is said in the Third Testament that the Christian Church, as to its internal essence, was a spiritual Church, for the characteristic of the spiritual is the combat with and the victory over the natural. It is also said that the Christian Church, as to its internal essence, was like the Noachic Church, of which it is known that it was a spiritual Church. In this
way the human race in an orderly way might have gone through its period of manhood, and gradually have been prepared for the reception of the interior rational things themselves of the Divine Human. From this Church also it clearly appears that all Churches after the Coming of the Lord should no longer base their thought, as did the Churches before the Coming, on the sensual, that is, on the direct cognizance of the letter of their Word, but that, by wrestling through the natural, that is, by the shunning of evil as sin against the Lord, they should raise themselves to an internal basis for their thought. The Christian Church, however, only in its first ages took up its Word internally; and indeed in many things in the Epistles and in the writings of the church fathers the genuine Doctrine of the Christian Church is contained. In those states there was conjunction with the Heavens and with the Lord. But gradually the reception of the Word became more and more external, so that instead of coming into the Divine Human to which they could have come by genuine truth, they came more and more into the evil of the proprium.
Instead of the interior truth there came the separated letter, instead of spiritual charity and living faith there came faith alone and the hypocrisy of a most external piety and philanthropy. What the complete development of the exterior or spiritual rational during the manhood of the human race might have become, in the theology of the Christian Church therefore does not appear; but rather may thr degeneration of that manly faculty be discerned in the many philosophic systems which were developed during the period of that Church, in which as a rule the Divine Human has been entirely lost sight of, or was falsified by the separated natural rational.
OF THE SWEDENBORG GEZELSHAP

When the Christian Church was consummated the Second Coming of the Lord took place in the Word of the Third Testament. The Third Testament is the Rational of the Divine Human of the Lord. Man comes into the proper essence of this Word only through the interior rational which constitutes the third Heaven. Before the Incarnation the Lord operated from the good of the Human Divine as from firsts, and through the sensual things of creation as through lasts. The conjunction of the Lord with the human race therefore with regard to good was mediate through the Heavens and with regard to truth immediate through creation. After the Incarnation the Lord operated from the good of the Divine Human as from firsts, and through the truth of the
New Testament as through lasts. With regard to good the conjunction of the Lord with the human race was now immediate, therefore independent of )l»' Heavens, since the Lord had made all the Human Divine the Divine Human in Himself. But with regard to truth the conjunction now became mediate through the Heavens. This appears from the following consideration: The New Testament is the Natural of the Divine Human, or, as Mr. Groeneveld has expressed himself in this address "the Truth separated by the Lord from His Divine Human; that Truth by which the conjunction of the Lord with the human race did not yet take place immediately out of His Divine Human; that Truth which with regard to the conjunction with the human race was still separated from the Good of the Divine Human, as the Son from the Father". For the influx of Divine Truth is immediately out of the Lord only into the interior rational; in the lower degrees, however, it is mediate through the Heavens, so that the human race as long as admittance had been given only to the natural of the Divine Human, for the opening of the truth of that Word was dependent on the influx of the Heavens. This appears from the following place in the CANONS: "Thus the Holy of God, which is called the Holy Spirit, flows in order into the Heavens; immediately into the supreme Heaven, which is called the third; immediately and also mediately into the middle Heaven, which is called the second; similarly into the ultimate Heaven, which is called the first" (The Holy Spirit 3 : 2). As long as the Christian Church, on
FROM THE TRANSACTIONS

the basis of the New Testament, by the shunning of evil, came into the genuine spirit of the truth of that Word, there was therefore conjunction mediately through the Heavens with the Lord.
However, in the degree in which the reception of truth became more and more external, and they therefore instead of coming into the Divine Human came into the proprium, more and more there came into existence between the Heavens and the Church imaginary. heavens animated from the hells, until finally the conjunction of the Lord through the Heavens with the human race threatened to perish completely. Then the Lord to<)k over from the Heavens upon Himself the task of mediation for conjunction also with regard to truth. This was done by His Second Coming in the Word of the Third Testament.

The Word of the Third Testament is the Divine Rational, and therefore the Truth itself conjoined with the Good itself of the Divine Human of the Lord. Man comes into the proper essence of this Word only through the interior or celestial rational, which constitutes the third Heaven (A. C. 5145). In this interior rational there is immediate conjunction with the Lord Himself also with regard to truth, as appears in the passage quoted from the CANONS (The Holy Spirit 3:2). By the Second Coming of the Lord in the Third Testament therefore the conjunction of the Lord with the human race has become immediate and independent of the Heavens also with regard to truth. On this rests the imperishableness of the New Church; for every conjunction which is dependent on the Heavens is also dependent on the human race, out of which the Heavens are made; and every conjunction which is dependent on the human race is exposed to the danger of destruction. Here it now clearly appears in a rational way that the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg are the Truth of the Divine Human and therefore the proper Word of God itself. The proper proof is given by the application of the words: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word, to the Coming and to the Second Coming of the Lord. Before the Coming of the Lord the conjunction of the Lord with the human race with regard to good was mediate through the Heavens; the Word thus was with God. By the Incarnation the Lord became that Word itself; thus God was the Word. Before
OF THE SWEDENBORG GEZELSCHAP

the Second Coming of the Lord the conjunction with regard to truth was mediate through the Heavens; the Word thus was with God. By the Second Coming the Lord in the Third Testament became that Word itself; thus God was the Word.

In the Third Testament the entrance has been opened to the human race to the rational of the Divine Human. By this the transition of the human race from the period of manhood to the period of old age was accomplished. The characteristic of the old age of man is the state of wisdom and of innocence in wisdom. Man in this state after surmounting the natural has entered the rational itself, that is, the interior rational which constitutes the third Heaven; the wrestling through the natural has ceased, man has become a celestial man, and with regard to his spirit, he is among the Angels of the third Heaven; he is in the immediate perception of truth out of celestial good, that is, for the first time he is in the proper human itself. The human race in the New Church comes into the proper essence of the Third Testament as the basis for its thought, only through the interior or celestial rational which constitutes the third Heaven. The New
Church is out of the Third Testament. Everything that is essentially New in this Church is out of the Rational of the Divine Human, therefore with regard to man out of the interior rational which constitutes the third Heaven. And since it is not the Word which makes the Church, but the understanding of the Word, and as the Divine Rational in the letter of the Third Testament has been laid down in the natural and the natural man thence cannot take up anything but merely natural scientifics, and as the genuine Doctrine out of the Word is the internal sense of the Word, it follows that the New Church is out of the Third Testament, not by direct cognizance of the letter of that Testament, but through the celestial Doctrine out of that Testament. All the
germs or seeds of the essentially New truth, out of which the New Church is established, and those out of which it will be further built, originally have been conceived and in the future must always be conceived in the interior rational. This is the reason why the New Church is called a celestial Church and why it is spoken of the New Jerusalem and its celestial Doctrine. It is only in the light of such interior
FROM THE TRANSACTIONS

rational truths out of celestial origin that the letter of the Third Testament can gradually be opened for the Church, and that the Church as a whole can gradually be built. It is clear therefore that the men of the New Church, much more than those of the Christian Church, must avoid basing their thought on the sensual, that is, on the direct. cognizance of the letter of its Word, and, that by the interior wrestling through the natural, they must raise themselves to the internal bases of truth.

In this way the human race in the development of the as-from-one's-self, by which alone the complete conjunction with the Lord could become possible, had to pass through all ages from the good of the innocence of ignorance to the good of the innocence of wisdom. In the proper state of the New Church, which is called "the Bride of the Lamb", the state of the complete celestial

as-from-one's-self has for the first time been attained and the conjunction of the Lord with the human race thereby has become an immediate conjunction both with regard to good and with regard to truth.

109

DE HEMELSGHE LEER

EXTRACTS FROM THE ISSUE FOR JAN.-FEB. 1932

THE NEW YEAR

ADDRESS BY H. D. G. GROENEVELD AT THE NEW YEAR'S BREAKFAST, JANUARY 1st 1932.

By the Doctrine of the Church the internal things have been given to the Church. These things, as in a seed, are present in the Church, which seed will be opened more and more when it is received and brought to life by the external things of the Church. It is the things of the Doctrine of the Church which determine the internal man, while these things can also flow into the external man, if after a preparation of- the external man the Lord is born in that man. All things which in the former state were present from the Lord in the external man, have been taken up into the internal man, and they there make one man who is the Lord's. In the new state everything of the external man of all of us again appears impure before the Lord. By the Lord we must be provided in the external man with new garments, that is with new goods and truths, in order that in the new light we may again appear before Him in His Church. Let us therefore turn our eyes away from the things of this world and direct them only to ourselves. Let us examine ourselves with regard to each affection and with regard to each thought in the external man.

Hear therefore the words in the second verse of the third chapter of the Gospel of Matthew: "Repent ye, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand", and in the eighth verse: "Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance".

Let us thus very diligently read the Word in the new light which the Lord has given to the Church, and let us acknowledge our evils and falsities before the Lord from love to Him, in order that the Lord may be born in the

H. D. G. GROENEVELD

external man in us. We should approach the Word and the Doctrine of the Church in lull devotion and receptivity, as appears from the 15th verse of the tenth chapter of the Gospel of Mark: "Verily I say unto you: whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein".

The deeper hells and therefore our hidden love of self and love of the world will forcibly draw us away from the coming combat. For they wish to keep us in the good and the truths thence proceeded, of the former state. This good and these truths are of no power for the new state of our external man. The goods and truths of the former state are immediately present before us in ultimates and bring us no goods and truths for the new state of our external man. The new goods and truths must be born in the external man in us from the Lord out of the internal man, which is possible only after a combat against the evils and falsities which are now consciously present in the external man. It is these things that are contained in the .words of the ninth verse of the third chapter of the Gospel of Matthew: "And think not to say within yourselves: We have Abraham to a father, for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham".

Let us be simple and upright, let us put off all semblance and outwardness. Let us realize more and more that all things of our understanding and all things of our will in the external man regard nothing but self-intelligence and love of self, in order that finally there may arise in us a feeling of complete helplessness and dependence. Then the Lord can come to dwell in our external man, thence to save us from our evils and falsities, as appears from the second verse of the eighth Psalm: "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast Thou ordained strength because of Thine enemies, that Thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger."

Let us therefore order our lives, our work, our- families according to the things of the Church. Let us all fulfill our duties towards the Church from love, for in the Church the Lord is
present, there we receive power. May we therefore in this new year accept the combat for the sake of ourselves, for the sake of the Church, for the sake of the Lord, our Father.
SWEDENBORG GEZELSCHAP

FROM THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SWEDENBORG GEZELSCHAP

Extract from the Minutes of the Meeting of Saturday, February 7th, 1931.

The memorandum, calling this meeting together, reads as follows.: The Review of DE HEMELSCHE LEER in NEW CHURCH LIFE.

The following gentlemen took part in the discussion of the review which appeared in the January issue of NEW CHURCH LIFE: Rev. Ernst Pfeiffer (p. Ill), Prof. Dr. Charles H. van 0s (p. 116), E. Francis (p. 120), N. J. Vellenga (p. 125), J. P. Verstraate (p. 132), H. D. G. Groeneveld (p. 136), Rev. Theodore Pitcairii (p. 144).

REV. ERNST PFEIFFER. — The subject of DE HEMELSCHE LEER, namely the Third Testament of the Word, and the Doctrine of the Church, has been clearly indicated in the first fascicle of the English edition which was reviewed; and the truth of the new theses has been amply confirmed with comprehensive documentation, derived from the literal sense of the Third Testament. The reviewer's argument in each separate sentence so clearly indicates that neither the essence of the subject, nor anything of the documentation quoted, has been understood by him, that it might justly be passed by unnoticed. It is greatly to be regretted that the editor of NEW CHURCH LIFE has presented this irrelevant article to the members of the GENERAL CHURCH as a review of DE HEMELSCHE LEER, so that they remain deprived of a correct guidance with regard to truths which will prove to be of great importance to the New Church.

The Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg are the Word itself, or the Divine Truth in lasts, in its fullness, holiness, and power. There is an essential difference between the Word and the Doctrine of the Church. The Word is the infinite Divine Doctrine itself. The Doctrine of the Church is not the Word but out of the Word. We read in the ARCANA COELESTIA: "The Word in the letter cannot be
FROM THE TRANSACTIONS

grasped except through Doctrine out of the Word, made by one who is enlightened" (n. 10324). It is clear that such a Doctrine cannot but be from the Lord alone, and is by no means a human production; how otherwise could it be a lamp to the understanding when the Word is being read? Therefore it is also expressly said, "That the Doctrine is spiritual out of celestial
origin, but not out of rational origin" (A. C. 2496, 2510, and the whole of the twentieth chapter): and, "That the Lord is that Doctrine itself" (A. C. 2859). The spiritual essence out of celestial origin of the genuine Doctrine has, in its essential particulars, been shown and described in DEHEMELSCHELEER (First Fascicle, pp 14—17; 56—65; 97—125).

Thus there is the Divine Doctrine, that is, the Word itself. The Divine Doctrine in itself is above the Heavens and cannot be grasped by man or Angel; it is infinite. And there is the Doctrine of the Church; it is a natural Doctrine in a natural Church and in the last Heaven; it is a spiritual Doctrine in a spiritual Church and in the middle Heaven; and it is a celestial Doctrine in a celestial Church and in the highest Heaven. These three degrees of the Doctrine of the Church correspond to each other, and there is no relation between them but that of correspondence.
From this it appears clearly that also the cognitions of the different Doctrines differ entirely from each other, and that there is no relation between them but that of correspondence. So, for instance, the cognition of God: this cognition is different in the natural Heaven, different in the spiritual Heaven, and different in the celestial Heaven. A cognition of a higher Heaven cannot possibly be grasped by an Angel of a lower Heaven; and this is so also with regard to the cognitions of the discrete degrees of the Doctrine of the Church. Indeed, man comes into the full enjoyment of the spiritual and the celestial only when he has put off his natural body, but this has nothing to do with the opening of the three discrete degrees of the Church, and thus of the Doctrine of the Church. That this opening has to take place during the life in the natural body, and that there is a natural Church, a spiritual Church, and a celestial Church, is well known out of the Third Testament; consequently that there is a natural Doctrine,
OF THE SWEDENBORG GEZELSCHAP

a spiritual Doctrine, and a celestial Doctrine (cf. N. J. C. D. 107; A. R. 350).

We read in a sketch belonging to the INVITATION TO THE NEW CHURCH, concerning The Consummation of the Age and the Abomination of Desolation: "No cognition of God. No cognition of the Lord. No cognition of the Holy Spirit. No cognition of the Holiness of the Word. No cognition of Redemption. No cognition of Faith. No cognition of Charity. No cognition of Free Choice. No cognition of Repentance. No cognition of the Remission of sins and of Conversion. No cognition of Regeneration. No cognition of Imputation. No cognition of Heaven and Hell. No cognition of man's state after death, and hence of Salvation. No cognition of Baptism. No cognition of the Holy Supper". In the literal sense these words have reference to the consummation of the first Christian church. But in the internal sense they have a universal reference, namely to the consummation of a preceding lower degree, when a Church or a man is to be raised to the next higher degree. The Church then enters into a state of obscurity with regard to all cognitions of good and truth; the former • cognitions prove to be of no power for the higher degree, and the cognitions of the higher degree must first be acquired by a further wrestling through the natural. This also is the signification of the words, "That the Lord will come with the clouds" (Matth. 24 : 30; Rev. I : 7). When man tries to grasp the interior truths as essential concepts, then first of all he sees nothing but clouds as it were, the genuine truth first appears to him as inaccessible; only after heavy wrestling can the victory be obtained, and does the light finally break through, and can the essence of the Divine things be grasped as a cognition. They are greatly mistaken who fancy that by direct cognizance of the Third Testament, without such a wrestling, one can arrive at genuine truth. These things in the INVITATION TO THE NEW CHURCH are described in the following words: "The Lord's
Coming is according to this order that the spring does not come until after winter; nor the morning until after the night; that the travailing woman has comfort and joy only after pain; that states of comfort are after temptations; and that there is genuine life after undergoing death; even as the Lord says: Unless the grain • . . die (John
FROM THE TRANSACTIONS

12:24). The Lord Himself exhibited the type of this order, when He suffered Himself to be crucified and to die, and when afterwards He rose again; this type signifies the state of the Church" (n. 34).

It has been said above that there is an essential difference between the Word and the Doctrine of the Church. What this difference is, now clearly appears. The Third Testament is an infinite universal revelation of Divine Truth in lasts, in its fullness, holiness, and power; but the Doctrine of the New Church is a particular revelation of Divine truth from the Holy Spirit, on the basis of the Third Testament, but dependent on the regeneration of the Church and thus of the men of the Church. The Divine Truth of the Third Testament is the Son of God, but the Divine truth of the Doctrine of the Church is from the Holy Spirit. The Doctrine of the Church contains no single truth that has been taken up by direct cognizance of the Third Testament; all its truths have been received as a revelation by perception from the Holy Spirit. The fact that false doctrines can creep into a Church and maintain themselves for a short time, has nothing to do with this truth; for such teachings form no part of the genuine Doctrine of the Church. Then only the Word with man is the Word, and he then sees the Divine Truth, namely, when the understanding of man and all human things and states concerned with the reception, by regeneration are from the Lord.
Therefore also it is said: "The Divine, proceeding, which is called the Holy Spirit, in its proper sense is the Holy Word, and there the Divine Truth" (CANONS, The Holy Spirit, UNIVERSALS VI). Compare with this the reviewer's words: "If men hail the Word and the Writings as Divine, and accept them without reservations, the Divine Doctrine becomes also the Doctrine of the Church.

. .. It is thus the Holy Spirit … and is not qualified by human states" (p. 34). It is clear that "the Holy Spirit" of which the reviewer here speaks, is not the Holy Spirit, but Divine Truth in itself; that, however, Divine Truth in itself is not the Doctrine of the Church, is clear. The fundamental truth that the reception of the Holy Spirit depends on the state of man, namely on his regeneration, has here entirely been lost sight of. "From this it now
clearly appears that where the difference between the
OF THE SWEDENBORG GEZELSCHAP

Word and the Doctrine of the Church is not seen, there is no properly spiritual cognition of the Lord, no properly spiritual cognition of the Divine 'Human, no properly
spiritual cognition of the Divine Trinity, no properly spiritual cognition of the Word, no
properly spiritual cognition of the Holy Spirit and the Divine Operation, and consequently no properly spiritual cognition of Redemption and no properly spiritual cognition of Regeneration.

If one is to understand the essence of the Third Testament and the order of the reception of the truth there from, one should have some conception of the difference between the Divine operation for conjunction with man before the Incarnation of the Lord and after the Incarnation of the Lord. Before the Incarnation of the Lord, in the states of the infancy, the boyhood, and the adolescence of the human race, man, out of good, by direct cognizance was
in truth; after the Incarnation of the Lord, when the development of the as-from-one's-self of the human race had progressed to the state of adult age, the human race does not enter into the interior degrees of truth by direct cognizance. Man must first by wrestling through the natural raise himself to one of the interior degrees of truth, and thereby he comes to good. This -was explained in detail in our last meeting, with reference to Mr. Groeneveld's address on The Coming of the Lord for Conjunction with the Church (See above pp. 86—108). So it is also with regard to the Third Testament. In that Testament by direct cognizance one only comes to natural scientifics; to the genuine spiritual and celestial truths in that Testament man only comes by a revelation through perception, that is by the Doctrine which is spiritual out of celestial origin.

The remark has been made that by this view of the Divine essence of the Doctrine of the Church, "the Writings" are removed from the exalted position which should be given to them in the Church. He who has read DE HEMELSCHE LEER with an open mind, may know that just the opposite is true. It is there shown that the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg are Divine in each smallest word, and truly the Third Testament of the Word of God; yea, that they are the proper Word itself.
FROM THE TRANSACTIONS

To one for whom the essence of this Word in a rational way begins to become clear, it will therefore soon be evident that the name of "the Writings" is properly not the essential name for them. It is indeed not wrong to speak of "the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg", for it would certainly also be allowable with regard to the Pentateuch to speak of "the Writings of Moses", and with regard to the Psalms of "the Writings of David", and with regard to the fourth Gospel and the Revelation of "the Writings of John". But every one at once sees that these are not the essential names of those Books, and they are therefore scarcely in practical use. In the measure in which the essence of the Word will be rationally seen, one will not call the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg otherwise than the Third Testament or the Latin Word. But to speak with regard to this Word of "the Writings of the New Church", as is sometimes also customary, is essentially not correct. This may at once be seen in considering that with regard to the Old Testament one never speaks of "the Writings of the Israelitish Church", or with regard to the New Testament of "the Writings of the Christian Church". The writings of the Israelitish Church are the non-canonical books of the Old Testament, and these, the "Ketoovim", are also thus called by the Israelites; and the writings of the Christian Church are the Epistles and
the writings of the Churchfathers, and the further ecclesiastical literature of the Christian Church. And so "the writings of the New Church" are writings written by the members of the Church. But the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg are the Third Testament or the Latin Word.
May the Lord give that the members of the GENERAL CHURCH, by an independent and unprejudiced study, may soon arrive at a vision of the real contents of the articles contained in DE HEMELSCHE LEER.

PROF. DR. CHARLES H. VAN 0s. — The Lord when He came on earth pronounced a judgment over the Jewish church, and by His Second Coming the Christian church was judged in the literal sense of the Latin Word. In the mind of the man who stands affirmatively towards the Latin Word, the evils and falsities of the Christian
OF THE SWEDENBORG GEZELSCHAP

church are brought to light by its literal sense, and they may subsequently be removed from his thought. The Latin Word requires from us that we separate ourselves entirely from the old Christian church, that is, that we do not in any way further allow those evils and falsities, after having recognized them as such, to determine our thought. This is represented by the fact that at the Last Judgment; a strict separation took place among those who were in the world of spirits, and that they who could not be raised into Heaven, sank down into hell. Only after this removal and separation can man receive genuine good and truth from the Lord.

The task before which man is thus placed offers peculiar difficulties. For in the literal sense of the Latin Word the evils and falsities of the former churches are continually spoken of, and they are thus called into our thoughts again and again. We must, however, learn to realize that these passages in the internal sense treat of more interior evils and falsities that are present in us after we have long belonged to the New Church, yea, after we have perhaps considerably advanced in regeneration. For the further a man advances in regeneration, the more he can be given to see the evils and falsities of the proprium.

If we do not sufficiently realize this, and if we continue to direct our attention to the literal sense of these passages, then peculiar dangers to our spiritual life arise. We shall then feel ourselves elevated above the Christians of the old church, because the falsity of their doctrine has been revealed to us, but meanwhile we are apt to forget that the real work is still to commence, and that the Lord wishes to raise us to heights we have never been able to dream of.

Mr. Odhner's . article contains a number of remarks strongly calling such things to mind. He declares for instance that the revelation contained in the Writings, has terminated the time of mystery and uncertainty; that in the Writings the internal sense is comparatively near the surface; that the veil of the literal sense is of no more importance than the sunspots and the mists of noonday. These are expressions by one who is of opinion that he has reached the goal, and that no new, unthought of
FROM THE TRANSACTTOTJS

possibilities still exist. Over against this, we may point out that in every passage of the Latin Word. there is contained an infinity of spiritual things. This is illustrated by the fact that man
lives only a limited number of years in the natural world, but to eternity in the spiritual world, where new things will ever be given to him. Life in the natural word and that in the spiritual world correspond to the literal and to the internal sense of the Word. We may also reflect that our earth corresponds to the sensual apperception of the Grand Man or to the literal sense of the Word; and that the billions of other earths in the universe correspond to the internal sense of the Word. From this it appears that we cannot think of the arcana of the Latin Word as deep enough, or of the veil which covers the more internal things, as thick enough.

It is of such states that the Internal sense of the following passage treats: "When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith, .1 will return unto my house whence I came out. And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there; and the last of that man is worse than the first" (Luke II : 24—26). — In the proximate internalsense it here treats of a man, whose mind is temporarily cleansed by truths which. he has seen, but who does not live according to those truths, and who thereby finally falls into still worse evils and falsities than those in which he first was. Of that nature were the Jews, and of that nature also are many Christians. Of any one living in the New Church we may believe that he knows to avoid such dangers. To this text, however, applies, what we have already remarked above, that it retains its signification for us however far we may have advanced in regeneration. This text applies for each standing still in the progressive process of regeneration, and points to the dangers connected with such a standstill.

If by the reception of the literal sense of the Latin Word the genuine sense of the Old and of the New Testament in a certain sense has been revealed for us, this is still only the casting out of the evil spirits from our minds;
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we are thereby saved from the false explications of the old Christian church and the false conclusions resulting therefrom. Now, however, the legitimate inhabitants, that is the genuine goods and truths, must enter into the mind, as otherwise the house remains empty and the danger exists, that the evil spirits return. This takes place when by the Doctrine of the Church the genuine internal sense of the Word is seen.

In connection with this we may think of still other things. We read repeatedly that the evil spirits acknowledge the Son of God, but that He forbids them to speak and say that He is the Christ. The same thing He forbids the sick whom He has healed, yea, sometimes even His disciples. The casting out of the evil spirits signifies, as we have seen, the preliminary removal of the evils and falsities from our minds, thus the state of reformation. The truths which come to us from the Word cause the evils and the falsities to recede, as the darkness disappears before the light. That the falsities recede before the truths, thus as it were acknowledging their superiority.. is represented by this that the evil spirits acknowledge the Son of God. That, however, the evil spirits are not allowed to speak, signifies that man, from the fact that falsities recede, must not yet conclude that the truths which have now been taken up into his memory are already genuine truths. As long as the truths of faith have proved their power in man by this only that they have driven out the falsities, the possibility exists that presently new teachings will come to man, and make a still greater impression on him, for the sake of which he becomes unfaithful to the principles first received; yea, even without this in the long run, when the charm of what is new is
weakened, evils and falsities will be hatched by his proprium and will choke the truths of faith. This" is just the course of affairs described in the passage quoted. It is the Lord's end in view that by the truths which, by direct cognizance of the letter, have come to us from without and have been taken up into our memories — truths therefore that are by no means as yet genuine truths and by no means our legitimate possession — the birth of genuine truths out of good is made possible with us, of truths thus that actually live and rule in us, grow, flower, and bring forth fruit.
FROM THE TRANSACTIONS

Only then will our minds not be empty and will it be impossible for the evil spirits to re-enter. As long as we still listen to the spirits that have been driven out and the sick that have been healed, that is, as long as we know the truth only by its opposites, we have not yet been truly saved.
Even the disciples are not always allowed to speak, that is, even those truths in us which already receive life from the Lord, we may use only with caution as a basis for our faith. From all of this we see how dangerous it is to pride ourselves on what we have already acquired and to believe that we have already become spiritual men, even if in reality this might be the case.

The following remark in conclusion. When in the eighteenth century the Latin Testament was written, the Christian church had falsified the Word to such an extent that in the Old and the New Testament no one could see a single genuine truth any more. For this reason the proper signification was revealed of those parts of the Word, on which the falsities of the Christian church principally rested: Genesis, Exodus, the Revelation of John, and the principal things of the Gospels. The Latin Word, on the contrary, has not been falsified by the New Church; we know,- moreover, that it cannot be falsified in such a manner, as it immediately closes itself to him who does not approach it in the right spirit. For this reason the unveiling of the internal sense of the Latin Word does not take place in the form of a new revelation, but by this that the internal things of the Word come to life in us according to order. From this it is evident that Mr. Odhner has misunderstood our purpose, if he is of opinion that we wish to open the letter by the mere application of the science of correspondences. What we see and describe as the internal sense of the Latin Word cannot and may not be anything else than that which through that Word from the Lord lives 4n our minds. As this has been called to life in our minds by means of the literal sense of the "Latin Word, it is self-evident that the essential things of it must afterwards again be found in the letter of that Word.

Em. FRANCIS. —If I am asked, what do you say about the review in the NEW CHURCH LIFE on DE HEMELSCHE
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LEER and the conception laid down therein of an internal sense in the Writings, then I reply that, as far as my vision now 'reaches, the argument of the Rev. Odhner forms a counter-weight to
the conception referred to. — After these expositions of the Rev. Odhner it indeed seems questionable to me whether the various theses which the Rev. Pfeiffer has propounded are not open to contest out of the spirit of the Word. —

The thesis of Rev. Pfeiffer that the Doctrine of the Church is drawn from the Heavenly Doctrine, according to the state of regeneration of the Church, if the hidden sense of the Writings is unfolded while making use of the correspondences, and that the thence proceeding Doctrine of the Church, as far as that has been obtained according to order, is of a purely Divine origin, essence and authority, is contested by Rev. Odhner by what is taught against this in the DOCTRINE CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE, n. 56, namely that: "It may be
believed that the Doctrine of genuine truth can be gathered by means of the spiritual sense of the Word which is given through a knowledge of correspondences; but the Doctrine is not acquired by that, but only illustrated and
corroborated". Indeed it seems to me, as far as I can now see, that, if the Rev. Pfeiffer's conception were the correct one, one might go so far as to [say that] what would be formulated by men as Doctrine of the Church by means of the science of correspondences, stands deeper and therefore on a higher plane than that of the Writings themselves. This seems questionable to me!

Moreover, so too is to me, for the present, the thesis propounded by the Rev. Pfeiffer that so far it has not been seen in the New Church that the Writings contain an internal sense, over against which the Rev. Odhner shows that this has been acknowledged in the New Church since as early as 1799, with this understanding however, that the internal sense of the Old and of the New Testament is remote from their literal sense, which is not the case with that of the Writings, which according to the Rev. Odhner finds confirmation by quoting from the Writings, where in
T. 279 it is said: "But the internal sense is not there 'remote' from the letter as is the case in the Old
FROM THE TRANSACTION

Testament, where a sensual symbolism is used".— [Quoted in English] *.

Against the conception that there would be in the Writings a separated internal sense, a further warning is given by- quoting what stands written in N. CH. LIFE 1915, p. 199, where it says:

"Any attempt to translate the Writings into a discretely interior sense, by means of sensual correspondences, is bound to meet with failure, as was the fate of "a recent attempt to spiritualize and explain away the "plain teachings of the work on conjugial Love". [Quoted in English].

By the application of such a system, Rev. Odhner continues, "actually makes the Doctrine of the New "Church of no effect, … and we would then be left with "abstract principles of good and truth utterly inapplicable "to life in the concrete. — The temptation of New Churchmen holding such a theory in regard to the Writings "would be to revert to a state of rampant individualism, "and religious and social chaos". — [Quoted in English].

These are serious warnings against dangers which are not imaginary, it seems to me!
It is another case to think as does Bishop N. D. Pendleton, as described in the NEW CHURCH LIFE 1923, p. 343, where it says:

"… the Writings as having 'their own ultimate, their "defined formulas, which, in their own way, call for "interpretive explanations' … 'the vital things of revelation come to us through our interpretations' ". [Quoted in English]. Indeed thence come a "secondary body of "doctrine, consisting of interpretative formulas, if these "be guided by the genuine love of truth", [quoted in English], says Rev. Odhner. But, says he further "the "mode of such interpretations is merely the normal process "of man's thinking". [Quoted in English].

* The words quoted are by Rev. Odhner. The passage referred to in THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, n. 279, reads as follows: "Since the Old Word was full of such correspondences as remotely signified celestial and spiritual things, and consequently began to be falsified by many, in course of time by the Lord's Divine Providence it disappeared, and another Word was given, written by correspondences not so remote, and this through the prophets among the sons of Israel". ED.
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These interpretations, however, it seems to me, are not of purely Divine origin, essence and authority, not even the "Principles of the Academy" as far as in the future "they will prove to be imperishable", [quoted in English], as Rev. Odhner says. — And further "Humanly conceived, "they may contain errors, both of perception and formulation, which future ages may discover". [Quoted in English]. For, says Rev. Odhner: "The man's reception, of it "is not Divine, or that human statements of doctrine — "unless they be mere compilations from the Writings — "can be called Divine". — [Quoted in English].

If the Writings indeed have a "discretely internal "sense", [quoted in English], then would "The Writings "are also closed with seven seals", [quoted in English], says Rev. Odhner. And if this is true then could man, even a man enlightened by the Lord, be able to open the internal sense of the Writings, remove their veils by means of correspondences? It seems to me that this conception is not in agreement with what stands written in Rev. 5 :1 to 5, that the Lord alone, "the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the root of David who has prevailed, is able to open the Book and to loose the seven Seals thereof". It further appears from John 16:25 that this has already been done at the establishment of the New Church: "In that day I shall show you plainly of the Father".

In connection with the above, it therefore seems doubtful to me, that, after. that, even men enlightened by the 'Lord, should repeat once more this work of the Lord alone! —

And yet, Rev. Pfeiffer adheres to the conception that "one thing especially has now become evident beyond all "doubt, namely, that the belief that the Word in the "Third Testament is not clothed with a purely natural "literal sense, just as in the Old and New Testaments, is "a mischievous fallacy by which man is kept in a purely "natural state, and is absolutely prevented from rising to "a rational, let alone a spiritual or a celestial state", [quoted in English], and further
that "the Church as a "whole has been in a merely natural state, seeing only "the 'natural' sense of the Writings". [Quoted in English].

In connection with the above I would like to ask, 'what is the characteristic of a natural man, and when does he
FROM THE TRANSACTIONS

become spiritual and even celestial, and in a wider sense, the Church? The answer to this is given by n, 249 of the t)iv. L. AND W., where it says that: "There are three kinds of natural men:

"1. They who know nothing of the Divine precepts.

"2. They who know that there are such precepts, "but do not think about a life according thereto.

"3. They who despise and deny these precepts. —" In n. 237 of the Div.L. W. it says, "That when man is born he comes into the natural degree. — His spiritual degree is first opened by means of the spiritual love of use, which is charity, which grows by means of spiritual truths. — The celestial degree is opened by means of the celestial love of use, which love is the love to the Lord, and this love is nothing else than committing to life the precepts of the Word, that is, to shun evil because it is infernal and diabolical, and to do good because it is heavenly and Divine". On this subject see further amongst other things the numbers 23'8, .242, 243 of the work on the Div. L. AND W. With the opening of the higher degrees it is necessary that with man there inflow spiritual warmth and spiritual light, for it is not sufficient for the understanding to be in spiritual light, while the will is not in spiritual warmth. For a man may in his heart deny the Divine things of the Church, but yet understand them, speak of them, preach about them, and also confirm them in writing with erudition (Div. L. W. 244; see further 245). Over against
this spiritual warmth is acquired because one shuns evil as sin and then looks up to the Lord.
— By this the love to evil and its warmth is removed and instead love to good and its warmth is implanted and by this the higher degree is opened (Div. L. W. 246). —

From these places it therefore does not appear that a man becomes rational and even celestial by the seeing of an internal sense, removed from the literal sense of the Writings.

Finally this is also confirmed by what is said in n. 239 of Div. L. AND W., namely where Swedenborg says: "Ich kannte einen Menschen von mittelmassigen Kenntnissen in der Welt, und nach dem Tode sah ich ihn, und sprach mil ihm im Himmel, und erkannte deutlich, dass er wie ein Engel sprach, und dass, was er sprach, fur den naturlichen Menschen unfasslich war: und dies kam daher. dass
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er in. der Welt die G-ebote des Wortes auf's Leben angewendet, und den Herm verehrt hatte, und daher vom Herm in den dritten Grad der Liebe und Weisheit erhoben wurde" [Quoted in German].

This man knew nothing of an internal sense removed from the literal sense of the Writings, nevertheless he was raised to the 3rd Heaven. — N. J. VELLENGA. — The reviewer of DE HEMELSCHE LEER in NEW CHURCH LIFE for January 1931 has undoubtedly, according to his own insight, made a sincere and intelligent effort to understand the articles of the extracts from the numbers I—8, for January to August 1930. That this attempt, according to our insight, has not at once succeeded, should not cause surprise. We ourselves have had the greatest possible difficulty to come to agreement among ourselves over certain principal theses and have had the advantage of personal conversations. Now that with reference to the reviewer this is unfortunately not possible, we will once more try to make ourselves understood by entering into his ideas. For if we believe we have arrived at another stage with reference to the Latin Word and the Doctrine of the Church, yet our preceding conceptions, similar to those of the reviewer, do not lie so very far behind us. Yea, it is even not impossible that they still find adherence in our midst. In any case it is an imperative demand among men of the New Church to take the Church and each other seriously, and to consider each other. It is not a matter of being right, or of others acknowledging that we are right, but of truth for the sake of truth, with good and use as the end.

The characteristic of genuine truth is that it should speak for itself; therefore argumentation is really superfluous and to a certain extent useless. We might content ourselves by pointing to the numbers 226—233 of THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION; to say more clearly and better what is the Doctrine of the Church, and the relation of that Doctrine to the Word, the Latin Testament, is quite impossible. To make this clearer presently a number of theses, derived therefrom. But if the contention of the reviewer is incorrect, then in itself it will have to contain an interior contradiction, as a proof that in any case the
FROM THE TRANSACTIONS

problem has not yet been. penetrated by him so that it stands lucidly before his spirit. This interior contradiction may for instance be indicated in the following quotations:

Page 27. "The Writings coming to us in literal form, their obvious sense and intended meaning are yet spiritual, and their purpose is to lift the mind to see spiritual and celestial laws". If the obvious sense and intended meaning of the Writings are spiritual, then why, one may ask, must the mind still be lifted to see spiritual and celestial laws? For the mind then in any case sees spiritual laws without lifting itself above the letter. In other words, the reading of the letter of the Writings would of itself bring spiritual ideas with it. A merely natural man — which every one is before regeneration — would of himself, merely by reading, be a spiritual man.

For, says the next sentence, the man of the New Church has now — because he belongs to the New Church? — found the spiritual sense "disclosed". Well, in all solemnity and humility we must confess that we have not yet had that experience. On the contrary, all our lectures and doctrinal classes and addresses of late always start from the teaching that the first step is that from the exterior natural to the interior natural. Let alone that
we should feel ourselves to be "spiritual men". A selfexaltation of this kind we cannot share. In these remarks therefore a difference of insight reveals itself as to what
is the "spiritual sense". We believe in the possibility of a deeper insight into the Third Testament than the literal sense gives. Now this deeper insight, still to be obtained, the Word calls the Doctrine of the Church.

Page 27. "But to New Churchmen whose comfort it has been to feel that this surpassing Revelation has disclosed the spiritual sense, and ended the age of mystery and uncertainty, there comes a decided disturbance of mind when it is suggested that the Writings are, perhaps, only another sealed Letter, whose treasury of hidden truths has to be drawn out by some special process, or translated into spiritual doctrine by specially enlightened prophets yet to come!" — All insight of man into the Word is based on his personal experience; therefore it is only possible to testify of our experience and to wait whether this also conveys anything to another. But that the age of un-
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certainty should have been ended, because we have the "surpassing Revelation" standing in our books, that we cannot believe. That time can come only when the laws which of a man make a "rational" man, stand written m his heart and he applies them — not from the books, but
as from himself; in other words, the certainty of faith does not lie in the fact that we have received a book with a new revelation, but in this that we see the occasion and the possibility opened so to understand the Word by the Doctrine of the Church, that that certainty comes forth from our inmost. So that at the present moment in all humility we cannot acknowledge otherwise than that we are still very far removed from that time, and that the Book, the Latin Testament, is a book sealed with seven seals. For the Doctrine of the Church makes us see that this Testament also must be opened, and that the Doctrine of the Church is the means thereto, and that that Doctrine is from the Lord, and that we may present this Doctrine as from ourselves. Nothing but this for us as yet is "certaint); but the realization of the "uncertainty of truth" indeed gives the greatest suppost to man, because he seeks the certainty in himself as from himself, and not in the fact that "the Writings" are a surpassing revelation.

It speaks for itself that we do not prescribe any special method for this process, but that we keep to the revealed means, and that we wait for particular enlightenment of the Church, and we hope that soon from elsewhere such prophets will come who understand this; one who will understand that there is no question of a "translation into spiritual doctrine", a thing which is absolutely impossible, but only of a deeper insight into the proper meaning of what is the rational and what is the natural.

The question whether "something new" is being advanced by us, this, time alone will teach. For the present we limit ourselves to the purely personal testimony that our insight into the realities of the Word has been deepened. An experience which we shall force on none, but from which we have great expectations for the future of the Church.

Page 32. "But our people have never been acutely conscious of this literal veil before our Revelation, any more than of the sunspots or of the thin mists of noonday;
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and we judge this to indicate perceptiveness on the part of the Church". This expression in our eyes is only a selfexaltation to a semblance of state; becoming conscious of the veil we consider the first condition for the regeneration and new birth of man. The more a man will be able to see veils and lift them up, the more he will realize the thickness of those veils, and arrive at genuine truth, instead of at mere appearances of truth. He will realize that he has not yet by a long way arrived at the genuine appearances of truth, that many clouds should disappear before it would be possible for the Lord to reveal Himself to the "rational" man. This takes place only by the realization of the entirely lowly state of man with regard to the Word. For our feeling, there is in this remark not the least light with regard to the value and the proper significance of the Word, as laid down in the Writings. Moreover it gives the impression as if the Hebrew and the Greek Testament were already explained by the reading of the letter of the Third Testament, while in reality the explanation of the Word must take place by the Doctrine of the Church.

Page 33. "Mr. Pfeiffer then illustrates how this can be done, by making an exposition of the "spiritual" sense of the title-page of the Arcana Coelestia". — No exposition has been given of the "spiritual" sense by the explanation of the title-page of the ARCANA COELESTIA. An example only of one of the many interior senses has been .given. Only an example has been given in what way our insight into each word of the Latin Word is still capable of being deepened. All efforts of explanation contain nothing else than that. It is possible that this insight flows forth from the spiritual sense which the Doctrine of the Church brings. But this exegesis is only to be understood as a further indication of the necessity of the Doctrine of the Church to make the Word more intelligible to the man of the Church. This is not "merely the normal process of man's thinking", but it is enlightenment from within, that can bring this along. Man cannot devise these things from himself; but he may, by influx, render them as from himself in word and in writing. For the rest everyone has full liberty to do what seems right to him with the "studies recently undertaken in Holland".
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Page 33. Is the "Doctrine of the Church" Divine? — The Doctrine of the Church is spiritual from celestial origin. The purpose is to show that also the Doctrine of the Church does not find its origin in the brain of one man or another, but is received in the Church from enlightenment in mutual cooperation, now by one, then by another, so that it is not at all to be seen where that enlightenment is particular. Neither is it of any use to investigate this, as the expression by one or the other certainly does not mean that he was the first to receive enlightenment. It is therefore unnecessary and useless to speak of another enlightenment and Doctrine than that of the Church. It speaks for itself that a Doctrine of that kind received in an orderly way,' is of significance to the Church, exclusively by the fact that it is truth conjoined with good, which is spiritual from celestial origin.

Page 36. "A correspondential interpretation of the Writings". — Correspondences: The impression is created as if it were the intention to acquire the Doctrine of the Church merely by
correspondences. That this is not so, is very evident from the means indicated in DE HEMELSCHE LEER, among which enlightenment takes the first place. For the letter of the Word consists of correspondences, and the Doctrine of the Church brings insight into those correspondences, with enlightenment of a spiritual nature from celestial origin.

Page 40. Danger of heresies. — The greatest danger of heresies is in the mere application of the letter of the Word, without the insight given by the Doctrine of the Church; for this letter of the Writings is also suited to give everyone the opportunity of confirming his theses by that letter.
The only control over this is the Doctrine of the Church, acquired in an orderly way; it is the only measure to prevent one from falling into heresies.. In this respect the Latin Word does not differ from the Greek and the Hebrew, for the characteristic of Revelation is always that this is given in the letter, but with spiritual and celestial contents within. Only the pure Doctrine of the Church penetrates into this, and is thus safeguarded from heresies, because the Doctrine sees and dissolves the contradictions.

Page 41. We are not "on the pursuit of celestial truths",
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for we have 1101; yet by a long way arrived at the rational itself. The position-that the possession of the "Rational Word" would immediately make rational men of us, is a phantasy which can only be contested by the Doctrine of the Church. It is, moreover, remarkable to read in how many passages the Doctrine of the Church and the Word are mentioned in one breath. A proof that they should be distinguished, and that this distinction is full of significance. For no word in the Word is without a signification.

THESES:
1. The Writings are the Word.
  
  The True Christian Religion, 226:
2. The Word without Doctrine is unintelligible.
3. The Word, in its literal sense, consists of pure correspondences.
4. Spiritual and celestial things lie hidden in that letter.
5. The letter serves as a basis, and spiritual things are confirmed therein.
6. Divine truths in the letter are rarely found uncovered.
7. Divine truths are clothed in appearances of truth.
8. 9. These appearances are accommodated to the apprehension of the simple.
Some things appear to be contradictory.
1. There is not a single contradiction in the Word, seen in spiritual light.
2. Such being the nature of the Word in the literal sense, it is very evident that without Doctrine the Word cannot possibly be understood.
  
  The True Christian Religion, 227:
3. The Word by means of Doctrine does not only become intelligible, but also clear and enlighteningin the understanding.
4. Doctrine reconciles apparent contradictions.
5. All Christian churches have a Doctrine.
6. Only true Doctrine gives a true interpretation of the Word.
7. This true Doctrine is like a lamp in the darkness.
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The True Christian Beligion, 228:
1. Those who read the Word without Doctrine are in darkness concerning all truth.
2. They easily fall into heresies.
3. The Word is to them like a candlestick without light.
4. Doctrine alone could give them light.
5. The danger is that the Word without Doctrine only favours the love of self and self- intelligence.
  
  The True Christian Religion, 229:
6. Doctrine must be drawn from the literal sense, and be confirmed by it.
7. The letter is and remains the basis or the foundation of Doctrine.
8. The significance of Doctrine is that it arranges the truths of the Word in order, so that they are seen in mutual connection.
  
  The True Christian Religion, 230:
9. Doctrine is not acquired by means of the spiritual sense of the Word, which is given by the science of correspondences.
10. By this, Doctrine is only illustrated and corroborated.
  
  The True Christian Religion, 231:
11. Enlightenment comes from the Lord alone, namely to those who love the truths because they are truths, and apply them to the use of life.
12. With others, there is no enlightenment in the Word.
13. The Word is from the Lord, thus also enlightenment from it, and thus Doctrine also.
14. The man who opens himself for influx by a life according to that Doctrine, acknowledges the truth from an interior perception, afterwards he sees that truth in his thought, and this as often as he is in the affection of truth for the sake of truth; for out of affection is perception, out of perception is thought, and thus arises acknowledgment, which is called faith.
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The True Christian Religion, 232:
1. The contrary is the case with those who read the word and confirm it by their doctrine with a view to their own glory and worldly interests.
  
  The True Christian Religion, 233:
2. The study of the Word should be done from the affection of knowing truth because it is true and leads to the good of life.
All these theses result immediately. from the basic thesis, that the Writings are the Word.

J. P. VERSTRAATE. — It belongs to the Doctrine of the Church that the DOCTRINE CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE without reserve applies to the Latin Word. This thesis is the basis on which the new state which becomes possible by the Doctrine of the Church can develop. By this it has become possible that still another thesis comes to the fore, namely this: that the way in which the Second Coming was effected and all particulars we know about it, in the internal sense give a description of all that is to take place with the Church as a whole. and with each individual man who desires actually to partake of the Second Coming of the Lord, in the same way as the story of the Coming of the Lord in the Flesh to all particulars represents and corresponds to what must spiritually take place with each man where the Lord is born.

The Coming of the Lord in the Flesh was a macrocosmic event, to which the microcosmic event of the birth of the Lord in each man who is prepared for it, completely corresponds. The Second Coming of the Lord in the Spirit through Swedenborg was a macrocosmic event to which the microcosmic event of the Second Coming of the Lord in the mind of each man who is prepared for it, completely corresponds. The macrocosmic Second Coming of the Lord took place in the Writings of Swedenborg, of which the essence is that they have been revealed from the Lord Himself. They contain the essential elements by which the Second Coming took place. Likewise the microcosmic Second Coming of the Lord in the Church takes place in the Doctrine of the Church, of which also the essence is
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that it is revealed from the Lord Himself; and then it appears that the signification of the macrocosmic Second Coming can only be understood through the light of the Divine Doctrine of the Church. The Doctrine of the Church contains the essential elements by which the microcosmic Second Coming takes place. We have come to see with certainty that the Coming of the Lord into the natural world in the New Church corresponds to the acknowledgment and reception of the Divinity of the Latin Testament, and that the Second Coming of the Lord corresponds to the revelation from the Lord of the Doctrine of the Church, which is spiritual out of celestial origin. This has already been seen from Mr. G-roeneveld's address on The Coming of the Lord in the Doctrine of the Church (FIRST FASC., pp. 38—-43; 82—95 and 127—131).

If one denies that the essential Second Coming consists in direct immediate revelation from the Lord in the Church, which, as also has already been said, is the presence of the Holy Spirit in the New Church, one cannot possibly actually partake of the microcosmic Second Coming. The acknowledgment and the reception of these theses give to the Church such an abundance of interior confirmation and exterior evidence that one stands perplexed at the thoughtlessness with
which it is attempted to destroy these holy things, which for the first time make of the Church a properly spiritual Church and conjoin it to the Lord.

In the Church as a whole and in the individual man there are two phases to be distinguished, which, although forming one whole, are still to be strictly distinguished. The Doctrine of the Church has brought the difference between these two phases to the fore, and lately, especially during the consideration of the story of Joseph in Egypt, it has been clearly confirmed that it is entirely according to order that the Church as a whole, and the individual man, at first cannot do otherwise than only take up scientifics from the Word. There can therefore be no question either of the Church, or of man, in the beginning
being concerned with properly spiritual things. The Doctrine of the Church has shown that the idea that in the literal sense of the Latin Testament one has to do with
genuinely spiritual things, is based on error. These genuinely spiritual things cannot be obtained but by
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revelation from the Lord alone, and the microcosmic revelations of which each man can now consciously have part completely correspond to the macrocosmic revelations which Swedenborg received. It has also been clearly shown in DE HEMELSCHE LEER that the unfolding of the natural scientifics of the literal 'sense, which has to take place in
the mind of each one, corresponds entirely to the macrocosmic unfolding of the Word, which took place at the Second Coming of the Lord. By these correspondences such an abundance of confirmations may be found that the smallest measure of good-will and affirmative attitude must lead to definite acknowledgment and acceptance.

The Church and man also must become conscious of the fact that the spiritual state which
is possible by the Doctrine of the Church cannot follow upon the natural state apart from great changes. Very much must first take place and man must pass through severe temptations. It was necessary that, in order to arrive at the state of the Doctrine of the Church, the Church must first become conscious of the fact that the evil and falsity which would assail it, does not essentially differ from that which in the old church played such a part, and which was fatal to it. It was, however, entirely according to order that in the natural state this remained hidden from the Church. If, however, the New Church has progressed so far that it can enter into the spiritual state, then this can only take place if the evil and falsity which in reality is present in
it and secretly operates, openly comes to light and is discerned even to particulars. The Lord will provide that this coming to light and laying bare will take place at the correct time. It is the Doctrine of the Church which shows that all that has been said in the Latin Testament concerning the state of the old church, Roman Catholics and Protestants, etc., in the internal sense gives a description of the evils and falsities which are present in the New Church and now continually form a menace to the life and the development of the Church. Lately it has been pointed out repeatedly that the literal sense by itself can be of no use to our Church, for the old church is dead and no longer counts before the Lord. The literal sense in the New Church has significance only if in reality the things are applied to itself, and if every member is con-
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scions that these evils and falsities are present in him also. In this application to himself, man can never- be severe enough, and he can never think too seriously of the danger with which he himself, and also the Church, are threatened.

He who interiorly sees what the Doctrine of the Church is, the place which it occupies in the development of the individual man, in the Church as a whole, and also in the human race, that it is essentially the Second Coming of the Lord, has no difficulty in seeing that it cannot be otherwise but that everywhere where in the Third Testament the New Church and the old church are mentioned in one relation or another, actually certain states of the New Church are meant.
And it is scarcely otherwise than could have been expected that the Doctrine of the Church during the short period of its existence has already had to meet with so many difficulties. From the attitude taken by its opponents, and also from the things brought up against it. a typical resemblance is very manifest with the things which, as a rule the old church reproaches the New Church. In both cages there is an absolute lack of comprehension as to what the real point is, and numerous literal texts from the Word are now also quoted, giving the appearance as if the Doctrine of the Church were in contradiction therewith.

There are many more phenomena known to a member of the New Church and which now occur anew with regard to the Doctrine of the Church; to mention only a few: In the first instance that an originally negative attitude of a member of the old church, by purely rational arguments alone has never yet led to full conviction and acceptance of the principles of the New Church. It belongs to the experience of a member of the New Church that in the beginning he enthusiastically wishes to communicate thenew thing also to others, in the expectation that, where it is so manifestly self-evident, the great significance will at once be felt. Sometimes it appears that he, from whom most was expected, remains farthest distant. It proves to be an inexorable law that in the very first place goodwill and an affirmative attitude are required. If these requirements are fulfilled then sooner or later independent appreciation will become possible; if these requirements are not fulfilled then it is impossible for anyone to participate in the new principles. The New Church is re-
FROM THE TRANSACTIONS

proached by the old church of over-estimation of self and of conceit, and to the uninitiated there is an appearance as if this were so. The same thing we now see happening with regard to the Doctrine of the Church.

From the preceding the value and significance of articles such as this review of DE HEMELSCHE LEER may be seen. Such arguments indeed play a role, but it is a question whether this is not another role than the one which had been assigned to it. From the argument it clearly appears: 1. That the essential points have not been touched; 3. An absolute lack of comprehension of what it is all about; and 3. It evinces no attitude of good-will and affirmativeness. As long as there is no change in this attitude it is impossible for the new principles to be understood.

H. D. G. GROENEVELD. — After reading the review of DE HEMELSCHE LEER in NEW CHURCH LIFE for January 1931 one cannot but have a feeling of sadness, because it
is so evident that the reviewer has not at all tried to penetrate into the spirit of the articles appearing in DE HEMELSCHE LEER; yea, that he has read these articles with the greatest superficiality. The review gives the impression that there was no question of an affirmative attitude towards the principles advanced in DE HEMELSCHE LEER out of the Latin Word, and
that often the affection of being permitted to understand was lacking, as a result of which utterance has been given even to coarseness. If the review therefore had come from outside the Church, one would have put it aside. Now this review will be examined more closely for the sake of the Church of the Lord.

In the beginning of the review (page 27) we read the following: "But to New Churchmen whose comfort it has been to feel that this surpassing Revelation has disclosed the spiritual sense, and ended the age of mystery and uncertainty, there comes a decided disturbance of mind when it is suggested that the Writings are, perhaps, only another sealed Letter, whose treasury of hidden truths has to be drawn out by some special process, or translated into spiritual doctrine by specially enlightened prophets yet to come!" From this it appears that at that moment the reviewer was given to feel after what wrestling it might have been made possible for him to enter into the city of
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the Doctrine of the Church. For every open-minded man of the New Church knows that in the course of regeneration every change of state is accompanied with a disturbance of mind. 'In those moments everything is mystery and uncertainty, and this state ends after victory in the combat. Then the Third Testament, or, as the reviewer says, The Writings, appears in greater clearness than before. From the spirit which speaks from the next few lines, it appears that the reviewer has not accepted the combat, as a consequence of which he has not been admitted into the city of the Doctrine of the Church, and from without he directs his attacks against the walls of that city, wishing to destroy them by the throwing of stones. This is plainly evident from
the fact that the reviewer sees the essence of the Doctrine of the Church in the opening of correspondences, as appears from pages 36 and following. That the essence of the Doctrine of the Church does not lie in the opening of correspondences, appears from DE HEMELSCHE LEER where, on page 65 (First Fasc.), we read: "In this coming into existence of the celestial Doctrine lies the real core of the genuine Doctrine of the Church. It comes into existence by the influx of the celestial within into the rational, which is to say that the genuine Doctrine of the Church is a Divine revelation by internal perception", and on page 89: "As regards man the great importance of this truth lies in this, that this proves that with roan the receptacle of the Holy Spirit does not lie in the natural cognitions derived by direct cognizance from the-Latin Word (Abram in Egypt); nor in the first rational come into existence by the influx of the Lord into the affection of those cognitions (Ishmael, Abram's son by Hagar); nor even in the spiritual Doctrine of the Church, or the spiritual rational, come into existence by the influx of the Lord into the first rational (Abimelech, after the acknowledgement of Sarah as Abraham's wife); nor in the genuine rational cognitions which now may be acquired from the literal sense by the operation of the spiritual Doctrine of the Church (Isaac in Gerar); but first in the celestial rational or in the celestial Doctrine of the Church, come into existence by the influx of the celestial into the spiritual rational, and which consists in a direct revelation of good and truth by perception, far
FROM THE TRANSACTIONS
above the literal sense of the Word (Abimelech, after the acknowledgement of Rebecca as Isaac's wife)".

Anyone who has read DE HEMELSCHE LEER with a receptive mind with amazement will wonder how the reviewer could arrive at the conclusion that the essence of the Doctrine of the Church lies in the opening of correspondences, seeing it has been clearly shown that the principle of the Divinity of the Doctrine of the Church has arisen from the exegesis of the 12th, 20th, and 26th chapters of Genesis. From this alone it is evident that the reviewer has not understood even the slightest thing of the articles by Rev. Pfeiffer, which are entirely inspired by this thought, a fact which makes the manner of judging of the reviewer appear in full light.

As regards the articles by Rev. E. S. Hyatt, which as the reviewer says, were "met with the silence of approval", we read on page 29; "The whole purport of Mr. Hyatt's teaching is to show that, to all intents and purposes, the Writings are the internal sense of the Word; that to the man who views the Writings from the spiritual rational, or who is in enlightenment, the "letter" of their teaching is transparent." This reference to Mr. Hyatt is to serve as a stone with which to strike DE HEMELSCHE LEER. But the reviewer with this only strikes himself, for we read on page 35 of DE HEMELSCHE LEER: "The answer to this question is, that indeed even in the literal sense of the Writings the arcana have been disclosed, but only if one regards the literal sense not from without, but from within, or from the spiritual rational", and on page 43: "Indeed the Third Testament is the revelation of the internal sense of the Word, but only if one regards the literal sense of that Word not from without, but from within or from the spiritual rational".
From this it is evident that the reviewer has misunderstood either the position referred to of Mr. Hyatt, or DE HEMELSCHE LEER, or both.

What the reviewer quotes on page 30 from Rev. C. T. Odhner, namely: "Those who falsify the Writings remain in their literal sense"; … that every Divine Revelation must be "correspondential, and . . . has internal senses, one within the other" agrees with the principles laid down in DE HEMELSCHE LEER. In view of this quotation from Rev. C. T. Odhner one wonders whether the reviewer has
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properly considered it. In what is quoted on the same page, namely: "Being accommodated to the highest plane of the natural mind, the Writings do not contain any further discrete natural degree, such as would require the services of a further distinct revelation", the stress is laid on "discrete natural". Does the reviewer wish to indicate by this that the Writings, or the Third Testament, cannot be received by man in a natural way? If such is the case the reviewer has not penetrated to the spirit of Rev. C. T. Odhner's argument. For the latter here makes a distinction between the Testaments such as to their essence and form they have been given to the human race for the upbuilding of the Church and for the regeneration of man. In this connection we would refer to DE HEMELSCHE LEER, page 129, where with regard to the Third Testament we read: "By the revelation of the Third Testament a new basis has now been given to the human race for its thought, by which access has been given also to the rational things and therefore to the Divine Human in its fullness. The real subject of the Third Testament is never natural things, but always internal or genuine rational things, although to all appearance the letter often treats also of natural things. But it is only for the sake of the appearance before the sensual man, who only after much preparation can be introduced to the essence of the things. There is no single word in
the Third Testament which, if seen as to its proper sense, that is, if interiorly seen, does not treat of spiritual and celestial things. The proper New Church therefore is a purely internal Church, and in its fullness it is, indeed a celestial Church". The man of the Church has to travel a long road and to wrestle through many states before he can see what the Third Testament as to its essence gives to the human race, and what the Second Coming of the Lord signifies. This is clearly shown in DE HEMELSCHE LEER on pages 104 and following, in the explication of the concepts "experience" and "text", and where the successive degrees of the Doctrine of the Church are dealt with, on pages III and following. This seeing of the essence of the Third Testament is nothing else than the Doctrine of the Church, whereby the Church for the first time in reality rationally acknowledges that the Third Testament is the Divine Doctrine and therefore also the
FROM THE TRANSACTIONS

Second Coming of the Lord. From DE HEMELSCHE LEER it is plainly evident for him who reads with a receptive mind, that a new Testament is just what is no longer needed: By the Third Testament the fullness of the Word has now been given to the human race. It is by the Doctrine of the Church that this for the first time will really be seen.

On page 34 we read: "We are indeed given the teaching that Divine Doctrine is the Word, and that therefore doctrine from the literal sense is also Divine (A. C. 3712), because by the letter the Lord's Divine Truth proceeds and appears to men. But this does not mean that man's reception of it is Divine, or that human statements of doctrine —unless they be mere compilations from the Writings —

can be called Divine. The moment we depart from the wording of the Divine Revelation, we must also waive the Divine authority of the statement, and leave the sentiment that we seek to express to be judged by its fidelity to the sphere of thought proceeding from the Writings themselves". With amazement we read that the reviewer does
attribute Divine authority to compilations from the Writings, no matter by whom this is done. For from numerous passages in the Third Testament we know how evil spirits appeal to the Divine authority of the literal

sense of the Word, and what quotations from the Word are in their hands. It is all too evident here that the reviewer was not given to understand the slightest thing of what DE HEMELSCHE LEER writes on the Doctrine of the Church. If, as the reviewer says, man is never able to utter anything that has Divine authority, then why does he refer to persons such as Rev. E. T. Hyatt, Rev. C. T. Odhner, and others? Seeing it is revealed to us in innumerable places in the Third Testament that everything which a man writes or speaks from himself is evil and false, such an appeal would not only be of no value, but thoroughly misleading. Does one not appeal in the Church to persons because one is of opinion that they are in enlightenment from the Lord, and that what they have written or spoken is from the Lord, and therefore of the Lord? Is not everything the Angels speak of the Lord? Is it not the Lord who builds the Church and does the Lord not dwell in the Church in His Own?
According to the reviewer the judgment of the sentiment
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that we seek to express must be left to the fidelity to the sphere of thought proceeding from the Writings themselves. But what proves this fidelity and how is it determined? Will not the Christian church say that it is faithful to the Word, and will not the so-called New Church bodies similarly say that they are faithful to the Writings? A church is Church by its Doctrine out of the Word. A church it not Church on account of the Revelation given to it. By the Revelation given to each Church it is determined what will be the essence of the Church. In the BRIEF EXPOSITION OF THE DOCTRINE OF THE NEW CHURCH it has therefore been revealed to us that the Christian church has been judged by its doctrine. Therefore as to its essence it is no longer a church, although it still bases itself on the Word. The New Church therefore ever more and more, and this to eternity, is essentially a Church by its Doctrine. But its Doctrine is genuine only if it is received out of the Third Testament from the Lord, and consequently if it is of the Lord alone and thus Divine.

On page 34 we read: "If men hail the Word and the Writings as Divine, and accept them without reservations, the Divine Doctrine becomes also the Doctrine of the Church". The reviewer thus identifies the Divine Doctrine with the Doctrine of the Church. The Divine Doctrine is the Word and thus the Doctrine as it is in itself. It is the Lord's alone, infinite, and therefore inconceivable for any Angel or man. The Doctrine of the Church is the Doctrine such as it has been accommodated by the Lord to Angels and men of the Church. It is therefore different for the Angels according as they are Angels of the Third Heaven, of the Second Heaven, or of the First Heaven. and different for the Church according to the state of the Church. The relation of the Divine Doctrine to the Doctrine of the Church is the same as the relation of the Son of God to the Son of Man. It is the same as the relation of the Divine Human in itself, which is far above the Heavens, to the Divine Human that makes the Heavens. To identify the Divine Doctrine with the Doctrine of the Church is, therefore, not yet to accept the Divine Human in itself. To deny this Divine Human in itself would be to see the
"Lord as an ordinary man,
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whereby it would be denied that the Lord is the Creator of Heaven and earth. By making a distinction between the Word and the Writings, where by the Word the Old and the New Testaments are understood and by the Writings the theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg, it is evident that essentially the Writings are not yet accepted as the Word of God. It is just in the argument of Rev. C. T. Odhner in NEW CHURCH LIFE, 1915, quoted by the reviewer, that the former places himself on the standpoint that the Writings are the Word of God. Without
the acknowledgement and the rational vision of the Writings as the Word of God one cannot approach the concept of the Divinity of the Doctrine of the Church. The Doctrine of the Church is from the Divine Human that makes the Church and the Heavens. It is by this that the Doctrine of the Church has not only a Divine origin, but also a Divine essence, and a Divine authority. It
is the Third Testament or the Word which as it were surrounds .the Church; it is the Doctrine of the Church by which the Church enters ever more and more into the possession of the essential things of the Word. From this it is evident that there is no question at all of placing the Doctrine of the Church above the Word. A reference to the Roman Catholic Church, as the reviewer gives on page 35, is therefore not only out of place, it also indicates once more that the reviewer has not understood even in the least what the Doctrine of the Church is.

We read on page 37: "It may be believed that 'doctrine of genuine truth can be gathered by means of the spiritual sense of the Word which is given through a knowledge of correspondences; but doctrine is not so gathered … (S.S. 56)" and further: "What Mr. Pfeiffer attempts, however, is precisely this thing". In this connection we would refer to what has been quoted above from DE HEMELSCHE LEER, pages 65 and 89, and further to page 78, where we read: ". . . and they thought that the science of correspondences, which is revealed in the Writings, and which in itself is only a system of merely natural cognitions, was the spiritual sense itself", and to page 81, where we read: "For the Writings contain … also a fullness of sensual natural ideas, derived from the visible things of the world, which first must all be opened according to order with the
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assistance of the science of correspondences, before man by means of the Doctrine of the Church can approach the spiritual sense of the Writings". From this it is distinctly evident that the Doctrine of the Church is not gathered by means of the science of correspondences, but that this science is only of a preparatory nature. It is Rev. Pfeiffer who in his articles on the pages I—3 of the ARCANA COELESTIA has confirmed just this truth of the Divinity of the Doctrine of the Church. This, however, can only be seen by one who does not look at the unfolding from without, but views it from within. It appears quite clearly that the reviewer has stared at the articles and has not been able to enter into the spirit of them. Also the footnote on page 37, according to which Rev. Pfeiffer would not have noticed the important distinction made in n.
7233 of the ARCANA COELESTIA, shows that it has not been given to the reviewer to penetrate into Rev. Pfeiffer's argument on the successive degrees of the Doctrine of the Church, on pages III and following of DE HEMELSCHE LEER, seeing n. 7233 in which the Doctrine of the spiritual Church is spoken of, can for the first time be really understood just in the light of this argument.

Finally the following quotation from the review. On page 38 we read: "Mr. Pfeiffer's interpretations are also couched in such material forms, and are no closer to the spiritual sense than the words of the Writings themselves". With amazement we see that the reviewer compares Rev. Pfeiffer's argument with the Word. The reviewer seems to be of opinion that the spiritual sense cannot be laid down in a natural language, while this is just what is now possible by the Second Coming of the Lord. It has already become evident that Rev. Pfeiffer's articles have been laid down in such forms that it was not given to the reviewer to understand them. But especially it is evident that the reviewer does not yet rationally sec the Writings as the Word of God, and this Word as the Divine Rational laid down in the natural.

Only a few points from the review have been taken up. It is not possible to deal with every paragraph, as every sentence shows a lack of insight into the principles developed in DE HEMELSCHE LEER.
In conclusion, may the request be addressed to all in the
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GENERAL CHURCH, from love to the Lord and for the sake of the upbuilding of the Church to seriously consider and deeply meditate upon the articles presented in DE HEMELSCHE LEER.

Rev. THEODORE PITCAIRN. — The review of DE HEMELSCHE LEER that appeared in the January issue of NEW CHURCH LIFE is of such a nature, that it is hard to believe that the writer read DE HEMELSCHE LEER with care, or reflected on what he read. In any case the essence of DE HEMELSCHE LEER is passed over as if it did not exist.

It is surprising that the GENERAL CHURCH does not as yet see that the opening of the Writings takes place by means of the opening of the discrete degrees of the mind of the Church, and not by what is called the normal working of the human mind, or the rational method. That CONVENTION or CONFERENCE should not see this would not be surprising, for they are unaware of any discrete degree in the understanding of the Writings. But it should be evident to the members of the GENERAL CHURCH that the understanding of the Writings by one who sees them as the Lord Himself in His Second Coming, differs by a discrete degree from the understanding of those who look upon them as the works of Swedenborg. That the latter vision is granted to the Church by the opening of a more interior degree of the mind and not by what is called .the normal process of man's thinking, may be seen from this, that a man in CONFERENCE or CONVENTION might be very learned in the Writings, might have studied them much and thought about what he read, and still not have his eyes opened to see their Divinity; while on the other hand a simple man who has not been able to study the Writings, may still clearly see them as the Lord in His Second Coming. The simple man who has had his eyes opened is evidently in a more interior degree of understanding than the learned man whose eyes have remained closed.

As the man of the GENERAL CHURCH can see this discrete degree in the understanding of the Writings, he should be able from Doctrine to acknowledge that there

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