truth, the Rock of Ages, and to throw their confidence upon their own idle speculations and pretended merits; but a woe is pronounced upon all such as thus " say to the wood, Awake; to the dumb stone, Arise, it shall teach;" who thus set up the idols of their own unclean hearts in the place of God and of his Word, for "they sacrifice unto devils, not to God. Of the rock that begat them they are unmindful, and have forgotten God that formed them" (Deut. xxxii. 17, 18).

"All goods which exist in act are called uses, and all evils which exist in act are also called uses, but the latter are called evil uses, and the former good uses. Now, as all goods are from the Lord, and all evils from hell, it follows that no other than good uses were created by the Lord, but that evil uses originated from hell. By uses, we mean all things that appear on earth, as animals of all kinds and vegetables of all kinds; of both the latter and the former, those which furnish use to man are from the Lord, and those which do hurt to man are from hell." "The things that do hurt to man are called uses, because they are of use to the wicked to do evil, and because they contribute to absorb malignities, and thus also as remedies. Use is applied in both senses, like love; for we speak of good love and evil love, and love calls all that use which is done by itself." "Evil uses on earth mean all noxious things in both the animal and vegetable kingdoms, and also in the mineral kingdom." "Such in the animal kingdom are poisonous serpents, scorpions, crocodiles, dragons, owls, mice, locusts, frogs, spiders, noxious worms and insects, also flies, moths, lice, mites, and injurious animalcules; in a word, those that consume grasses, leaves, fruit, seeds, meat and drink, and are noxious to beasts and men. In the vegetable kingdom they are all malignant, virulent, and poisonous herbs, as hemlock and aconite, and pulse and shrubs of the same kind; in the mineral kingdom, all poisonous earths. These few particulars, adduced for the sake of science, are sufficient to show what is meant by evil uses on earth." "Nothing whatever exists in the natural world that does not derive its cause and origin from the spiritual world, and that good is from the Lord, and the evil from the devil, that is, from hell. By the spiritual world is meant both heaven and hell." Now, it is influx from hell which operates those things that are evil uses, in places where those things are which correspond." "Such, likewise, are the appearances in the spiritual world, which are all correspondences; for the interiors of the mind of the inhabitants of both heaven and hell are, by such effigies, presented actually before their uses."-See D. L. W., pp. 336 -347; also Ap. Ex. 109; H. & H. 103–190.

CHAPTER XV.

CORRESPONDENCE OF EARTHS, MINERALS, ETC., WITH ILLUSTRATIONS.

THE

HE inorganic substances of the mineral kingdom, of which growth, motion, and sensation are not predicable, are likewise spoken of in the Word of God, to represent and signify, in a good sense, the principles of love and wisdom, and, in a negative sense, those of evil and error, in the very externals, or least sensitive principles, of the mind and life,—to such spiritual things as are manifest even to sensual discernment, and form the lowest and firmest basis of a heavenly and eternal state; or, on the contrary, to such infernal things as, confirmed by corporeal affection and sensual reasoning, extinguish all heavenly truth.

Of these correspondences several striking examples have already been given, from which it may be clearly inferred that the precious metals and stones, according to their indefinite varieties, colors, principles, and uses, correspond to those infinitely various kinds of goodness and truth which serve to enrich, adorn, and give stability to the extreme principles of the mind and life. But in their opposite sense, metals and stones signify evil and erroneous principles and persuasions in their external forms. That such is their signification, might be abundantly proved from the Word, as when the Lord is describing by the mouth of his prophet a grossly corrupt state of the church and the mind, together with the direful punishment which it necessarily induces, and which is called God's anger, and appears to be the infliction of his vengeance (for the wrath or fury of God, is, as we have previously shown, only an appearance of truth), He says, "Because ye are all become dross, behold, therefore, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem. As they gather silver, and brass, and iron, and lead, and tin, into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire upon it, to melt it; so will I gather you in mine anger and in my fury, and I will leave you there and melt you" (Ezek. xxii. 19, 20). But when He speaks of an exalted state of his church and of the mind, together with the glories and blessings which belong thereto,

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He says, "For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver, and for wood brass, and for stones iron" (Isa. lx. 17). We have before observed, that the precious stones which adorned the breastplate of the high-priest, and those which are the foundations of the New Jerusalem, signify all kinds and degrees of divine wisdom and knowledge in the Word translucent and resplendent from pure goodness, from which intelligence and just judgment are derived, and on which the church in heaven and on earth is founded. The Lord Himself, as to his divine Word or truth, and its eternal durability, as derived from this divine love, is also called "a rock," on which his church is said to be erected. In a perverted church He is represented as a stone which the builders-the teachers of a false religion-have rejected; but in the true church He is acknowledged as the "headstone of the corner" (Ps. cxviii. 22; Matt. xxi. 42),—the "living stone, disallowed indeed of men" (1 Pet. ii. 4),-"the tried stone, the precious corner-stone, the sure foundation" (Isa. xxviii. 16), on which all faith and hope and love must rest. That stone is called the corner-stone, or chief corner-stone, which is placed in the extreme angles of a foundation, conjoining and holding together two walls of the pile, meeting from different quarters. So also in the beautiful and instructive. parable of the wise and foolish builders, in which is portrayed the characters of such as erect their spiritual habitations on the immovable rock of the Word of God, or divine truth, by hearing and doing the Lord's will; in which case they are conjoined to Him in an everlasting covenant; and, on the contrary, to such as build their spiritual houses on the delusive sand of human imagination, faith alone, and mere external profession, in which case their minds. disjoined from the eternal source of life, are brought to irretrievable ruin, and the knowledge they have acquired is dissipated. "Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine," saith the Lord, "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 sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, who 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 thereof" (Matt. vii. 24-27). Here, the solid rock manifestly signifies divine truths, which, when received into the mind from affection, combined with goodness of heart, and brought down into

the conduct, cohere together in unbroken unity, and man erecting thereon his spiritual house, is enabled successfully to resist every storm of temptation, for he is conjoined to the Rock of Ages, even the Lord Jesus Christ. But by sand is as plainly meant truths devoid of coherence, because received into the understanding separated from love and its life, mere outward profession of faith, without spiritual affection; then truths of the holiest quality are but speculative knowledges in the memory and natural understanding, which, losing their cohesion and firmness, and deprived of all connection with their divine source, are profaned to evil purposes, and deprived of all that strength and consistency needful for man's support in times of spiritual trial and opposition. A dependence on these brings eternal ruin to the soul. On account of this spiritual signification of stones, as denoting sacred truths of an external character, and their qualities of firmness and durability, pillars of stones, and heaps of stone, were, in ancient times, set up as witnesses of covenants, boundaries of land, and testimonials of affection, and were not unfrequently consecrated, as things connected with holy worship, by pouring oil upon the top of them (Gen. xxviii. 18; xxxv. 14). And of the temple of Solomon we read that it was completed of stones ready prepared, "so that there was neither hammer, axe, nor any tool of iron heard in the house while it was in building" (1 Kings vi. 7). An altar to Jehovah was, on the same account, commanded to be erected of unhewn stones, or stones unpolluted by the workman's tool (Ex. xx. 25), to represent to us that worship can only be acceptable to God when it is the dictate of pure truth drawn from the Holy Word, unperverted and undefiled by the vain imaginations of self-intelligence.

In consequence of the science of correspondences being well known in ancient times, "historians distinguished the periods, from the first age of the world to the last, into the golden, silver, copper, and iron ages, to which also they added an age of clay. The golden age they called those times when innocence and integrity prevailed, and when every one did what is good from what is good, and what is just from what is just; the silver age they called those times when there was no longer any innocence, but still a species of integrity which did not consist in their doing what is good from what is good, but in their doing what is true from what is true; but the copper and iron ages they called those which were still inferior. The reason why they gave such appellations to those times was not from comparison, but from correspondence; for the ancients knew that silver corresponds

to truth, and gold to good, and this from communication with spirits and angels." "But who at this present day knows that the ages were called golden and silver by the ancients from correspondence? yea, who at this day knows anything about correspondence? And yet he that does not know this, and especially he that makes his chief gratification and wisdom to consist in disputing whether it be so or not, cannot even attain to the least knowledge concerning the innumerable things which are correspondences."-A. C. 5658.

There are various kinds of gold mentioned in the Word, or gold from various localities, as Uphaz, Ophir, Sheba, Havilah, and Tarshish, and they correspond to various kinds and degrees of love and goodness appertaining to the Lord, his Word, his kingdom, and our neighbor, according to the signification of the place mentioned, and the subject treated of. Thus gold from Uphaz signifies the precious principle of celestial goodness, and the wisdom thence derived, or the most exalted love of God, with its rich blessings, and the meaning of the word Uphaz expresses its fineness or purity (Jer. x. 9; Dan. x. 5). Gold from Ophir signifies spiritual goodness, or the love of the neighbor, derived from the love of God; and the name Ophir means making fruitful (Isa. xiii. 12; Ps. xlv. 9). Gold from Sheba signifies the love of truth, derived from the Holy Word, and its application to good and useful purposes in life. Sheba means compassing about; and gold from Havilah and Tarshish denotes the lowest order of love and goodness exemplified in the love of external or scientific knowledge, and in promoting what is profitable and benevolent in moral and civil life (Gen. ii. 11, 12; Isa. lx. 9). Havilah means speaking or declaring, and Tarshish contemplation or examination. From these examples it may be seen how the meaning of Hebrew words often assist the true signification of the things predicated, and how varieties of the same object, both in a good and a bad sense, are to be interpreted. The love of goodness of any degree, when tried and purified by the process of temptation, is called "gold tried in the fire;" that is, unalloyed or genuine (Rev. iii. 18). In an opposite sense, gold signifies the carnal and perverted and inordinate love of self and worldly pleasure of various kinds; it is then described as used in the construction of idols, and its tendency to profanation; it is said, in strains of lamentation, "How is the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold changed! The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter" (Lam. iv. 1, 2).