Scriptures. Now, from this universal acknowledgment of the necessity of a guide, we may plainly see that the declaration of Swedenborg, that

66

the Word cannot be understood without genuine doctrine as a guide,” is founded in truth, and in the common consent of the human mind. But, as stated before, very much depends upon the doctrine which is adopted as a guide. It is evident that this doctrine, if genuine, must likewise come from Him who is not only the TRUTH, but the WAY also; for the Lord is, in relation to all true doctrine, the Way to every thing good and true, that is, the Guide. Hence it may be seen, that a system of genuine doctrine could not be drawn from the Word but by especial illumination from the Lord. And this is precisely the important difference which we consider characterizes Swedenborg above Luther, Calvin, Wesley, or other guides, who, in the course of Providence, have been called forth as instruments of use in the Lord's vineyard. We, therefore, consider that Swedenborg was especially enlightened, by an extraordinary interposition of Providence, to teach the true doctrines of the Word, and thus to lead mankind from shadows and appearances into the light of truth itself,"from the oldness of the letter to the newness of the spirit." Whereas, others were called forth under the ordinary operations of Providence, and were, no doubt, useful for the times in which they lived,-times in which great changes were effected, and such as were necessary to bring pass, in due progress, a still greater change,-even the entire renovation of the Christian Church, both as to doctrine and life.

to

Some may suppose that we are led to the right understanding of the Scriptures by the Spirit of God, independently of a true doctrine as a means; but those who know any thing of divine order, are fully aware that the Spirit of God operates by means, and that if we do not employ the means providentially supplied, we can entertain no reasonable hope that we shall be enlightened by the Spirit of Truth. It is true that the Lord's Holy Spirit, or His Divine Influence, is constantly and incessantly operating on the souls of all, to enlighten and vivify them with his divine light and love, and that without this operation, human reason could not possibly have any life or power either to think or to understand any thing whatever ;-still, genuine doctrine, as a means, is indispensable to a proper understanding of the Word. How thankful ought we to be, that amidst the general confusion and dissention which prevail as to the proper understanding of the Word, the Lord has now provided a genuine Doctrine by which, as a guide, our reason may be led to a knowledge of the divine truths of Revelation!

FIDELIS,

EXTRACTS FROM SWEDENBORG'S SPIRITUAL DIARY.

Those who live in faith in the Lord, thus, who live in the Lord, can by no means be injured by the wicked, because they live in the order of natural, spiritual, and celestial things.

2688. From a general spiritual idea, I was permitted to see that he who lives in order can in no wise be injured by the evil; for the universal heaven is kept in order by the Lord alone, because He alone is order. There is the order of celestial things, hence of spiritual and hence of natural things, in which order the universe is kept by the Lord, which, if not thus preserved, would perish; for from Him all things, even to the minutest particulars, derive their principles. The order of spiritual and celestial things is FAITH, and the things which belong to faith in the Lord. Natural things are, as it were, vessels, instruments, and organical forms; and natural truths, which relate to natural uses and ends, are such vessels, into which spiritual things are insinuated; and into these latter, celestial things are implanted by the Lord alone, no one knowing and perceiving when and how this is done; this is not effected by the angelic heaven, for the Lord is the all in all of what is good and true.

289. I was permitted to see, in a spiritual idea, that when all things are kept in order by the Lord alone; so that the universal Man, that is, all angels and good spirits, are in order, then whatever acts counter or opposes, is reduced to order; for no one can act counter to the order of the universe; wherefore the man who lives in order, that is, in the truth, or in faith, cannot be injured by evil spirits, because the Lord protects him.-July 26, 1748.

[That the faith which is preached and inculcated at the present time has no power to protect man against the hells.]

It was ascertained, when I was in the faith formed from the knowledge of truths derived from the Lord, that evil spirits had no power to refute those truths, and no power of reasoning against them. These truths were to the effect, that the Lord governs the universe, and that He alone is life, and that the proprium of man is nothing but evil, and the like. The evil spirits who heard these things, although they did not believe them, could not, however, contradict them. * * Hence it was evident that those who are in the simple faith of truth, resist evil spirits; and I saw some who were in these truths pass through several hells, when all the infernal spirits receded, and could not approach, still less do any evil. Whereas, they who believe those things which

the Church at the present time teaches as faith, could not do that; evil spirits cared nothing about them, [they could approach and injure them], because truth from the Lord was not in their faith.-(Appendix to Diary, page 61.)

QUERY CONCERNING MATTHEW XI. 12.

THE Bible translation of this passage is,―

"From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force."

The marginal translation of the latter part of the passage is,—

"The kingdom of heaven is gotten by force, and they that thrust men take it by force."

And the translation of the same portion, according to Mr. Clowes, should be,

"The kingdom of the heavens presseth violently, and the violent seize upon it." The last translation requires the interpretation of the agents mentioned to be in a "good sense;" but the former translation in a "bad sense." Mr. Clowes observes, that "what is rendered suffereth violence, is expressed in the original by the term βιάζεται from βιάζομαι, which literally signifies to be violent, or to press violently. The idea, therefore, intended to be expressed appears manifestly to be this, that the heavenly kingdom, or, what amounts to the same, the influx of heavenly life, was urgent with man for admission, and they who were urgent, in their turn, to admit it, did actually, by such urgency, take possession of the heavenly inheritance. The passage therefore teaches, according to this construction of it, the necessity of a reciprocality of exertion and operation on the part of heaven, in the first place, and on the part of man, in the second, in order to effect man's assent to, and conjunction with, the life and powers of the heavenly world."

According to the literal sense of the Word, there does not appear to have been manifested any such urgency, on the part of man, as that supposed by the translation of Mr. Clowes, to meet the heavenly influence, but, of course, this was a phenomenon of individual state, which could be seen and known only to the Lord. Whether the translation of Mr. Clowes be more accurate than the marginal translation, I am not competent to decide. The Unitarian version is the same as the authorized text. If the marginal translation can be sustained in preference to that of Mr. Clowes, I should judge the spiritual sense of the passage to be this: that as soon as the voice of one crying in the

wilderness, "Prepare ye the way of Jehovah!" was heard by the powers of darkness, a great commotion was excited amongst them, and also their secret adherents in the world of spirits, who had all but invaded the heavens by occupying a region immediately beneath heaven, and there forming heavens by their phantasies, arising from their sense of their own sanctity, although interiorly they were evil; that feeling the effect of “ the voice” (which, viewed in its divine origin, as the voice of God, must have shaken the universe itself), in a state of alarm and fear of being cast down, these hypocritical spirits, by violence and force, attempted to maintain themselves against the divine movement to cause Satan, like lightning, to fall from heaven. (Luke x. 18.) They may well be described as those who thrust men, because, being in falses, and in the constant endeavour to give them influence by investing them with apparent sanctity, they pierced the truth to death, or tried to do so, whenever they met with spirits in simple good, whose intellectual powers were too weak to cope with such practised and cunning antagonists.

Matt. xi., from v. 10 to 13, appears to teach, that the Jewish dispensation of Moses and the prophets, terminated with John the Baptist as the last Jewish prophet, and that, as an intermediate between the Jewish and Christian dispensations, John represented a class of persons superior in quality to those under the former dispensation, but inferior to those under the latter. Possibly such persons are those who are in the state prior to regeneration, but who have been very imperfectly educated, and yet are conscientious, and who might be denominated Jewish-minded Christians. Such persons would have been accepted under the Mosaic dispensation, but their interior quality is such as to place them without the bounds of the Christian Church, properly defined. They are justified only from those things from which men could be justified by the law of Moses. (Acts xiii. 39.)

Some have, for want of a just discrimination, classed John the Baptist with Christian converts. But it appears that John obtained no fixed or clear conviction that Jesus was really the Messiah, by means of his revelations of that fact from God, for it is stated, that he despatched from his prison, where he lay till slain by Herod, two of his disciples, to ask Jesus,—“ Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?" It seems that, like former prophets, John obtained, individually, little idea, from the revelations he was inspired to utter, of the true character of the Lord, however plain and forcible those revelations appear to us through the explanations of them afforded to us by facts and sound doctrine. It is not likely that John attached spiritual ideas

to the greatness which he predicted Jesus should attain; (Matt. iii.) he merely uttered the words he was impelled to utter, but was not instructed as to their meaning, and possibly, like certain of the better instructed disciples of Jesus, (Luke xxiv. 21.) he looked for an external deliverance for his nation from the Romans, and when he found no confirmation of his hopes by facts, he probably began to doubt the reality of his own inspiration, and therefore sent to ask the personage to whose Divine mission he had testified in such extraordinary and emphatic terms, whether he had been mistaken or not. In answer to his inquiry, he received, instead of the natural evidences of Messiahship he had himself erroneously expected, spiritual evidences that Jesus was the Messiah, evidences that the sphere of his official operations was not "of this world," but for the promotion of that true happiness which comes from above. Whether John then became a Christian, to the extent that the Lord's disciples had then attained Christian advantages, or not, we are not informed. Probably he did; but those attainments were very limited, and far below what were enjoyed after the descent of the Holy Spirit.

QUERIST.

REVIEWS.

THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND WEIGHED IN THE BALANCE OF THE SANCTUARY AND FOUND WANTING; being an Examination of the ThirtyNine Articles of Religion, the Three Creeds, and the Book of Common Prayer. London: J. S. HODSON, Clifford's Inn Passage, Fleetstreet. 1846. pp. 227.

THIS work is, although not stated in the title page, a production of the late Rev. Robert Hindmarsh, so well known as the expounder and defender, during half a century, of the doctrines and truths of the New Jerusalem. Many of our readers will, no doubt, be rejoiced to see the memory of this excellent and exemplary man once more vividly revived amongst us. "Although dead he yet speaketh"; his voice is still heard, and will be heard with gladness, by all who had the pleasure to know him, and by all the rising generation of the New Church, who are aware of the great experience and solid judgment of the author.

This work has been selected from the author's manuscripts which he left in a finished state; and we understand, that it is intended to print another of these manuscripts, which is-" On the Spiritual Meaning of the Precious Stones mentioned in the Word," and which will, no doubt, greatly assist in attaining a proper understanding of the Scrip