plane. Such are still prone to call for the reason or Animal Nature, has been produced by a parand philosophy of the truth. Hence it has hap-entage of the same kind, that is, has not had any pened, that the works of certain expounders of natural parentage, except on one side, which Swedenborg, such as "Noble's Lectures," "No- makes the case still more analogous to the birth ble's Appeal," "Noble's Plenary Inspiration of the of Christ. For instance, the first animal (and for Scriptures," "Des Guay's True System of Reli- distinction's sake, we may as well speak of one gious Philosophy, in Letters to a Man of the World," first as many first) had no animal father, but was “Hindmarsh's Lamb Slain from the Foundation of a development from the vegetable kingdom. The the World," "Hindmarsh's Seal upon the Lips of all-pervading Divine Essence, God, was the FaTrinitarians and Unitarians," Parson's "Essays," ther, which took effect in the advanced stages of Bush's "Letters to a Trinitarian," Rendell's "An- the vegetable kingdom as the mother, and so the tediluvian History," (showing the interior sense first animal production was born. Be it observed, of the first eleven chapters of Genesis,) Rendell's that although we use the term "development," yet "Peculiarities of the Bible," and Hayden's "Sci- we do not mean to convey, for it is not true, that ence and Revelation;" it has happened, we say, the vegetable developed the animal by any power that such works as these have produced conviction inherent in the vegetable kingdom as vegetable. at first, when the original writings of Swedenborg, We must adopt the theory of "spiritual causes which form the basis of the above-named authors, for all that exists. The Divine Essence was what have at first failed of that result. The reason is, wrought in vegetable nature and through it, to Swedenborg occupies too high a plane for the produce or develop the animal creation. And it merely natural mind. Such writers, expounders is certain, that neither the animal kingdom as a of him, bring the matter down to the natural plane, whole, nor any part of it, not even the firsts, had or to the spiritual-natural, and exhibit it more in any animal father or cause. For no animal existaccordance with the reason and philosophy of na-ed before the first. The Divine Spirit, then, was ture. We should recommend, therefore, the above the Father, which took conceptive effect and form works, as helps to those who would otherwise in the suitably advanced stages of vegetable nastumble at Swedenborg. ture, and produced the first animal existence.

For similar reasons, we feel ourself called upon to say a few words in defence of that central doctrine of the System of Truth proclaimed by our author, and also of the Divine Word. First, the DOCTRINE OF THE LORD. The remarks which we now have to offer, are mainly addressed to that large and increasing class of minds, whose tendencies are determinedly natural — who are continually asking for the philosophy of Divine Truths whose reason is the predominant faculty of their nature, and who, unless supported by a strong basis of philosophics and scientifics, are apt to verge, and finally merge, into a Naturalism varied and distinguished by the different degrees of pantheistic and spiritual philosophy. We wish we had room for a more extended and thorough unfolding. As it is, being limited to a few pages, we must necessarily be brief and imperfect.

It is useless to try to evade this, by saying that the line of division is so indistinct between the highest vegetables and the lowest animals, and the two kingdoms run so gradually and imperceptibly, one into another, that it is impossible to tell where one ends and the other commences. It is true, this is the appearance. But notwithstanding all this, every one must acknowledge the truth of spiritual causes, and also the doctrine of discrete degrees. See, under head of "Discrete and Continuous Degrees," COMPENDIUM, Nos. 1795-1814. The simple truth is, mere vegetable nature had no power in itself, as vegetable, to grow into animal nature; but the indwelling Divinity, or that degree of the divine vitalizing Essence which corresponded to animal life, took conceptive effect and form in the suitably advanced stages of the vegetable world, and produced a discrete creation, viz., aniFirst, then, as to the "Miraculous Conception" mal nature. Notwithstanding, then, the impercepof the Lord Jesus Christ in the womb of the Vir-tible gradations by which the kingdoms of nature gin. We hold that this is strictly in accordance are distinguished, in their higher and lower points with the laws and analogies of nature. It is quite of contact, yet every one allows, at least true phicommon, however, especially among certain Uni- losophy must allow, that they are distinguished, tarians and professed "Spiritualists" of this day, even in their beginnings and endings, by a very to deny the scriptural account of the conception decided degree of the divine vitalizing principle. of Jesus Christ, as inconsistent with the "Con- Their running, then, one into another, imperceptistitution and Course of Nature." When will bly to our powers of observation, has nothing to do men cease to prate of the non-existence of things, with the truth in hand. The great truth is, the simply because they fall not within the scope of Divine Spirit was the Father, or Cause, of eac1: their knowledge? Let us see how the Kingdoms successive development, and not any vitalizing of Nature rise up before us, every one of them power in the kingdoms of nature themselves. confirmatory, by the full strength of a divine anal- It is to be distinctly observed, for further illusogy, of the declared birth of Jesus Christ. Nei-tration, that the Divine Principle existed in the ther of the three Kingdoms of Mineral, Vegetable, primitive gaseous and electrical materials of this

globe, in different degrees of the creative Essence. | this birth recognized. Even the language of There must be, in the Divinity, those degrees of Scripture confirms this view of the subject. So far as the correspondential language of Genesis can be applied to the natural creation, the following language is significant. "And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God moved, (or brooded) upon the face of the waters." Gen. i. 2. It is a word borrowed from the process of the hen in hatching her eggs, or fostering her young.

his vitalizing Essence, which correspond to, and cause, the different kingdoms of nature: - thus the divine, but yet unmanifested, mineral essence; the divine vegetable essence; the divine animal essence; the divine human essence; and the Divine itself, or very Divine. And now, precisely as worlds were produced at first, that is, by the great Spiritual Sun impregnating the great material sun, so has each successive degree of the divine es- We need not multiply evidence. The great sence operated upon the plane of material nature fact is conspicuous. "The creation of the uninext beneath it, and thus, with a spiritual Father verse, or world, (says Oken) is itself nothing but and a natural mother, produced a new and discrete an act of impregnation. The sex is prognosticreation. Thus, that degree of the Divine Spirit cated from the beginning, and pursues its course which may be called the divine unmanifested min- like a holy and conservative bond, throughout the eral essence, took conceptive effect and form in whole of nature. He therefore who so much as the previously existing gaseous and electrical for- questions the sex in the organic world, compremations, and produced the first manifest mineral hends not the riddle or problem of the universe." nature. That degree of the Divine Essence which Behold now again, how this truth applies to the corresponded to the yet unmanifested vegetable further elucidation of our subject. When the dinature, took effect in the matrixes of the mineral vine unmanifested vegetable essence (or that deworld, and the first vegetables were born into ex-gree of the divine vitalizing principle which coristence. Again, after sufficient continuity of the responds to vegetable nature,) impregnated the vegetable kingdom, the same discrete operation mineral kingdom, it was the female departments of was repeated. The next higher degree of the Di- it. It was the matrix or matrixes of the mineral vine Life came down, or out, to meet the prepared world the great womb of the earth, which rereceptacles of vegetable nature, and animal exist-ceived the divine influx in established order, and ence was the product and birth.

vegetable nature was thus brought into being. So also, it was the female departments, or department, of the vegetable kingdom, which received the influx of the divine animal essence, as yet unincarnated in animal nature, and the first living animal breathed the breath of life. In each instance, God was the Father, and nature in her female departments was the mother, of each discretely distinctive kingdom.

Before we come to the origin of man, we must now invite attention to another peculiarity in this creating process; and that is, that creation is a sexual process throughout. It is, in these great discreted divisions of it, a begetting by the Divinity, and a bringing forth of Nature. For in all Nature, there are now recognized by science and philosophy, the male and female departments. In Botany, especially, the sexes, and loves, and im- If now, we should consider the origin of the first pregnations, and fecundations of the plants, are a human pair, which, for want of room, we cannot subject of peculiar truth and interest. When they here treat so fully as we might, we should find a have acquired the property of reproduction, they precisely similar process. We do not wish to become adults, and exhibit the sexual parts, both dogmatize, or speculate unworthily; but the analin the male and the female. And the science of ogy would seem to require that the first pair, or Botany is replete with facts, showing the clear pairs, which could be distinctively called man, truth of the sexual propagation of the vegetable though of course very low in the scale of human exkingdom. But can it be a characteristic of one istence, should be born proximately of the animal kingdom and not of another? Is not nature uni-kingdom as a mother, but by no means of animal naform? Such a well-known truth in one depart-ture as the father, or by any process of natural dement of nature, and that inanimate, is sufficient to velopment, such as denies spiritual or divine causes, establish it for all. And it is now a truth well or such as the atheistical and pantheistical systems recognized, that in all animate and inanimate na- sometimes set forth. There may have been an ture, these principles prevail. The Divine Love animal mother, (though when we speak thus, we and the Divine Wisdom, which give in humanity must not fix too rudely in mere forms, and such the male and female distinctions, have also con- forms too as we are apt to consider when we do ferred them upon all other nature; and in positive not sufficiently reflect upon the gradual perfection and negative, in impregnation and production, in and high ascent of the animal kingdom; but we all the generative processes of creation, we are must consider well the essence and principle of the obliged to recognize, though we cannot always feminine nature, and such forms as are compatible discern it, the sexual operation. Creation is a with their highest ascent and approximation to the conception and a birth; and especially in the great human:) there may have been, we say, an animal discrete divisions of the kingdoms of nature, is mother, in which, as a matrix, the divine unmani

fested human essence took conceptive effect and | by an interior way, and taking conceptive effect form, precisely as it did in each previous kingdom. and form in the human kingdom, and in the feThere is nothing contrary to this theory of the ori- male department of it, and thus again, God was gin of man, either in the Scriptures, or in the rev- the Father, and Mary was the mother, of the Dielations of science. And the analogies of nature vine Man, Christ Jesus! seem absolutely to require it. All objections, then, against this view of the subject, may only be the effect of human prejudice, in ignorance of the great laws by which the Creator has wrought. But if our views are correct, then we have man at first, without any human father, yet with feminine nature in the kingdom next beneath him as the mother, as in all previous instances. Indeed, whatever view we take of the first man, we are assured he had no human father, for there could be none before the first. And recognizing as we must plainly, a whole discrete degree between the animal and the human, we must, unless we take the theory that he was made miraculously out of the dust of the earth, or in some other way inconsistent with nature, recognize his birth from the animal kingdom in some such way as we have designated. Whether it is not best to preserve the analogy between the origination of the human, and the origination of the animal and vegetable kingdoms, we leave for the reader to decide. For ourselves, we make no question of the truth of these general principles.

But, let what has been said of the origin of the first man be passed over as something which the reader is not prepared to admit. All must see the truth with regard to God being the Father, and Nature the mother, somehow, of the respective kingdoms, and somehow sexually; for the term father suggests mother, and it is an undeniable fact that there was nothing of power, spirit, or influence, in mineral, vegetable, or animal nature, as nature, capable of producing the kingdoms above each respectively. But the Divine Essence wrought in and through them.

The simple truth is, there has been a whole succession of "miraculous births," which are capable of being rationalized. And this is the order in which they stand. Mineral, Vegetable, Animal, Human, Divine. Every one of them conceived of God the Father, in the wombs of nature, and born into the world. Creation has been from the first, in a continual effort to put forth the human form, because God is in that form; and this effort is manifest even in the fins of the fish, where the five fingers of a man are rudimentally shadowed forth. In the higher animals, we see more distinctly the approach to the human form. Then man appears, and lastly God himself has developed himself, rather, ultimated himself in nature, at the summit of all created existence, and above it, inasmuch as the soul of the Man Christ Jesus was the pure Divine Essence itself. He had a human nature derived from the mother, and so was subject to temptation. But this last and unprecedented birth "Immanuel, God with us"-this completed the circle. As a seed stops not till it produces a seed, so God ceased not in his divine sexual operations till He unfolded and produced himself in a concentrated form of all the Divine qualities, in a perfect GOD-MAN: for as the human being has two natures, spiritual and animal, so Christ had two natures, divine and human.

It must not, however, be considered that Christ was produced as a mere natural development, without regard to use, personal will and agency, but for stupendous purposes of human redemption, such as are set forth in this book. And if any are still disposed to view God's highest incarnation in man, we would remind them that this is to acknowledge no fully incarnated Divinity at all, but only humanity; for man himself is not divine, not even in his inmost, but God simply dwells in man's inmost. Man's nature is human nature only; whereas, God's nature is both human and divine.

fore an absurdity; it is God resident in man, not that man himself is a little divinity. But the Lord Jesus Christ was God himself, humanized in nature, as He had been from eternity in Himself.

Now then, what more was ever claimed for Christ? He had no human father, it is said. And what of it? This is an objection, if it be an objection, that lies equally against every kingdom of nature! The fact is, admitting Christ's birth so, it is not an exceptional case, except in its individ-To speak of the Divinity of human nature is thereuality; not at all in its principle; it is not something contrary to all analogy, and all known laws of nature. And if it were, it would perhaps be presumptuous in man to pretend that there was not some law adequate to this event, of which he had no knowledge. But it is not so. And although he had no human father, yet it is an interesting truth that both the male and female principles actively concurred in his production. All nature is in exact analogy to this sacredly declared Now, here is the strongest proof, apart from the fact. Here is, in fact, the next ascension of the direct testimony of the divine Word, of the DivinDivine Principle. (Naturally speaking, it is as-ity of Jesus Christ. For as sure as the next discension; spiritually speaking, it is descension.) crete degree above the mineral world is vegetable, It is the Divine Itself, or very Divine, as yet un- and the next above the vegetable is animal, and manifested in nature, except in man, coming out the next above the animal is human, so sure is the

Thus we have endeavored to show the rationale of the "miraculous conception." The Scriptures teach nothing here but what is amply supported by the analogies of nature, and the Word of God and the Works of God are seen fully to harmonize.

next above the human Divine. For there is noth- | in Zion "a stone of stumbling and a rock of ofing above the human but divine; all angels being fence." (Isaiah viii. 14.) But this is in reality no once of human nature, and even now but glorified objection at all. It is founded upon space and men and women. The "miraculous conception," time, which are purely natural ideas. But to meet then, being granted, the Divinity of Christ follows it on its own ground, it is only necessary to imagine. necessarily. He is "the First and the Last," as the universe no bigger than an orrery. What is the Scriptures positively testify. Rev. i. 11. xxii. 13. true on a small scale, can be equally true on a And how immensely important is this subject! large. Suppose, then, our solar system were the Sometimes it is said by those who are indifferent entire universe. This is only to accommodate about theological truths, that it is no matter how the idea to our finite capacity, leaving the same Christ was conceived and born, if we only imbibe principles in full operation. If now, God should his spirit. And without controversy, it is most important that we have his moral likeness in our hearts; but the truth is, we cannot have that likeness, we cannot be so spiritually elevated, we cannot have that love towards Him, nor towards the Father whose impersonation He was and is, without this view of Him. If this was the manner of his conception and birth, this proves Him divine, and this makes Him another character to us, with an immensely higher office in the affairs of the universe, with far higher and different influences upon us, nay, the whole centre and spirit of Theology is changed to us. And in short, without this, redemption is impossible. Let none, therefore, think of imbibing his spirit, as a mere humanitarian influence.

As to his being a separate person from the Father, this is only an apparent truth. The simple truth is, He is the Father manifested in the flesh, and afterwards, to the mental eye, impersonated forever in the heavens. Abstractly, (and it must be remembered that there are no real abstractions, Divine Goodness and Truth being a veritable substance and form) abstractly speaking, Divine Good is the Father, and Divine Truth is the Son. There is no eternal Son of God but the Divine Truth, which is the form of the Divine Good. Any Unitarian would admit this. Now, that eternal Divine Good and Truth were simply concreted in Christ - brought out or down from the depths of infinity and eternity, where no mortal, since the fall, could ever see or conceive of it, so as to have it a personal reality before him, and made manifest, clear, and appreciable, in Jesus Christ. How simple and beautiful the truth! Here is a common ground for Unitarians and Trinitarians. We have the strict and supreme Divinity of Jesus Christ, and the strict unity of the Divine Person. The scriptural language we cannot of course here revert to, passages are so numerous but here is the philosophy of the theology, and the following pages will assist the reader to the true meaning of the Scripture.

see fit to incarnate himself any where, surely some
one planet out of all the rest must be selected.
Why not our earth as well as any other? But
Swedenborg assigns the special reason why our
earth was made the theatre of this vast transac-
tion. It is, among others, because the inhabitants
of our earth are among the most external, sensu-
ous, and even corporeal, of all the human inhabit-
ants of the universe. Surely, there must be some
one world which is the most, or one of the most,
corporeal and sensual, and liable to greatest cor-
ruptions and evils. And I leave it to the reader
to imagine, if possible, a world more superficial
and sensual, or more degraded to a level with the
brute creation, or which has more sinfully and
effectually quenched the better and more spiritual
part which allies it to heaven, than this same planet.
Here, then, the Son of God — the Divine Truth
of the Divine Good (called the Truth, when Christ
is spoken of, because of manifestation, for good
alone without truth cannot appear) here the eter-
nal and infinite Jehovah incarnated himself in
human flesh-took on all and the lowest of human-
ity's corruptions in his external nature, that He
might triumph over all, and thus, by processes ex-
plained in this book, redeem the worst and most
fallen of all the creation of God!
Here He came
to the very outskirts and superficies of the
human universe, that He might cover the whole
ground unite highest Divinity with lowest hu-
manity, and make redemption possible, once for
all, in all other worlds which might need it,
throughout the extent of His infinite dominions.
Transaction worthy of a God - Philosophy worthy
of such a Theology!

--

We presume it will not be at all felt as a difficulty, after the foregoing explanation, that God could thus be impersonated in Christ, and still be at the centre and throne of the universe. These objections are all outbirths of the purely natural mind, and grow out of spaces, times, and such sensuous appearances as do not at all apply to divine and spiritual subjects. It can certainly be But we must notice briefly that commonest of all comprehended how the Infinite God could put objections, that the Great God of infinity should forth a ray, or sphere, even to a personal presenso contract himself as to appear in human form on tation of Himself in incarnation, without regard to this mote of his creation! The God of innumera-space, to the remotest part of the universe. And bie worlds and systems, each of them infinite to to illustrate so high a subject by so common an our conception, born of a woman on this grain of occurrence, how often is it that the psychical phesand! Surely, to the natural man, God hath set nomenon occurs, of a person making himself mani

fest at the distance of a thousand miles, in full form, this excite to further inquiry? And let us recomface and feature, without his removal from the bodily mend the Apocalypse Revealed, as the first work, and personal locality where he is! It must be after this, for the reader to get a full and clear remembered, too, that spiritual qualities do not example of what is meant by the interior sense of diminish by impartation, and are not, like matter, the Word. Let him, after suitable preparation, divisible. I can give to another all my knowledge, and not till then, read that work in course; it may and impart as much as possible of my virtue; in be had in one volume; and then let him, and not other words, I can put forth to any extent, of my till then, pronounce upon the interior sense. He goodness and truth, and still have as much for my-is utterly incompetent until he has at least read self as though I had put forth nothing. Nay, the that work in course. It cannot be judged of by more I give, the more I receive. Spiritual quali- fragments. See what is said of the Arcana Calesties are not diminished, or removed from their tia and the Apocalypse Revealed, in the "Life and centre, by putting them forth, as it were, to Wriings" prefixed to this volume. (243, 244, 320.) another place. So the infinite God could put The truth is, if there is any Word of God at forth a sphere or concentration of Himself in ulti-all, worthy to be called His especial Word, in mates, on this planet, and still not vacate the distinction from all mere human or angelic inspithrone and centre of the universe; and if any cannot at first receive this idea, it is because of fixing too crudely and sensuously in the ideas of persons, without regard to the interiors of the spirit. which, even with two or more persons, to appearance, may still be one in interior reality. In short, it is a sensuous mode of thought altogether, and the fallacies of the natural mind, which realize any difficulty in this respect; and after the foregoing observations on the unity of the divine Good and Truth, as the only true, eternal Father and Son, we now dismiss the subject to the contemplation of all interior minds.

rations, and all such confused notions of divine inspiration as prevail in the theories of the old church, it ought to be just as different from man's word or man's writings, as God's works are different from man's works. Now the most striking peculiarity of God's works, in which they differ from all the works of man, is their interior structure. In a statue, or painting, or piece of machinery, when we have seen the surface, we have seen all. Even the interior of the most complicated piece of machinery, in each of its separate parts, depends upon its surface alone. And, from a statue, or painting, or piece of human mechanism, We must now pass to a brief notice of the break off a piece of the surface, and all is muddy nature of the Divine Word. Let us ask, simply, sup- confusion. Not so in God's works. Not only the posing the reader to have read the selections given whole, but every part, has an orderly interior from our author in the following pages, Is it not structure. The nerves, sinews, and organic apwonderful that there should be such an account of paratus of the animal, or even the fibrous and a Word, so artless, so masterly? How impossible crystalline structure of the vegetable and mineral, to be invented! Suppose, even, that there may all proclaim the supereminent value of the intebe some slight mistakes, or imperfections, or rior, and the dependence of the exterior upon it. errors in translation; yet what a whole! What Such are God's works. Now, his Word, if he has man could do it? And let it be observed here, any in particular, must be analogous to his works. for reasons before stated, that we could give but The mark of the Divinity must not only be upon very small portions of Swedenborg's connected the face of it, but most conspicuously in its interiexpositions of the Sacred Scripture. Yet in what ors. And in fact, it must be interminable to us, we have given of his teachings on the Divine in its depths of interior wisdom. The Word of Word, the principles of its composition, its force God should be a Work, as strikingly declarative and virtue in the heavens and on earth, and its of a divine hand, as any work of nature in diswonderful consistency and persistency, how is it tinction from a work of human art. Now, is such possible to gainsay the main drift of the teaching? the case with the Christian Scriptures? On the But yet the natural mind will find it hard to mas-principles and by the interpretations given through ter; and only little by little, with greater or less Emanuel Swedenborg, such is the case; but on recipiency, will this divine secret find admission no other theory of inspiration whatever.

to the soul.

It should be observed here, that, necessarily limited as we have been in connected expositions of Scripture, yet a great proportion of the matter we have given is professedly derived from the Word, and could not be elicited from any other source. How wonderful that matter! How manifestly lucid, important, and divine, much of it is, even at first sight! What must be the nature of a Word which affords such wisdom? Should not

In short, if any Word at all, why not precisely such a Word as is here represented? Why should not God's writing be threefold, a sense within a sense, and a sense within that, corresponding to the trinity in every perfect divine work? Let the reader consider deeply; also upon the necessity of such a Word if it could be given; and with prayer and study may his eyes be opened to behold wondrous things out of the Holy Scriptures.

But the truth is, the naturalists and so called