ing of the children of Israel, their representative journey, and what befell them in the way, as signifying things spiritual, he thus writes to the Corinthians: "Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual meat; and did all drink the same spiritual drink; for they drank of that spiritual Rock which followed them: and that rock was Christ. Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples [rvяo types]: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come Cor. x. 1-4). (1 In the Epistle to the Hebrews we meet with little else than a spiritual interpretation and application of Jewish history. Their burntofferings and sacrifices, their meat-offerings and drink-offerings, their priesthood and rituals of worship, the golden censer and the ark of the covenant, the golden pot that had contained the manna, Aaron's rod which had budded, the table of the covenant, and over it the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy-seat, their fasts and festivals, their civil and ecclesiastical government, their battles and journeys, their captivities and deliverances,-in a word, the whole history of the Jews, as recorded in the Word of God, was, as to every particular, representative of spiritual and divine things (Heb. ix., etc).39 truth of the highest import, should be treated | some particulars, both ritual and historical, with neglect and contempt, while the imperfect allegories of man's devising are universally sought after and admired, as the most pleasing and efficacious method of convey-exposition: e. g., that Moses made all things ing instruction, it is not easy to say."-Horne's Comment. on the Psalms, pref. to new ed., p. xvii. "St. Cyril of Alexandria, in his Commentaries on Isaiah, says. 'The words of the holy prophets always carry a mighty depth, and creep along by abstruse and hidden courses. Therefore, we are not to suppose that the outward surface of the letter always presents the truth intended; but that the internal and spiritual meaning of the letter, joined with and conceived under the letter, is rather to be considered. For the style of the holy prophets is everywhere obscure, and full of dark sentences, as containing the unfolding of the divine mysteries.' ·Holloway's Letter and Spirit, etc., vol. i., int. liii. 39"There is one way, and a very obvious one, in which the consideration of the ritual and history might confirm the early Christians in their mystical explanations of the whole external world. They found mystically expounded in the New Testament, and plain implications, almost assertions, that the whole was capable of similar according to the pattern shewed him in the mount,' and that all that befell God's people in the wilderness happened unto them as types of us.' When, therefore, in the natural world they had ascertained a few chief symbols, it was reasonable for them to infer that these, too, were but specimens, single chords of a harmony to be fully made out hereafter; they would feel like learners of a language, who have picked up the meaning as yet but of a few words here and there, but have no doubt whatever that the whole has its meaning: and perhaps they would think that they found warrant for this in such texts as that of St. Paul to the Romans, 'The invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made.' This would seem to lay down the principle or canon of mystical interpretation for the works of Nature, as the other texts just now specified, for the Mosaic ceremonies and the history And this spiritual interpretation of the Old Testament, the sacred writer distinguishes from the mere letter, by calling it "solid food " (Heb. v. 12-14). And thus warranted by apostolic example, it has been common phraseology, from the earliest period of Christianity, to speak of the sacrifices of the heart, or the hallowing of all the affections (Heb. xiii. 15, 16; Rom. xii. 1); of the altar and the temple of the soul (1 Cor. iii. 16, 17; vi. 19); of "a better country, that is a heavenly," as promised under the type of Canaan (Heb. xi. 16); of a spiritual "bondage" from which the soul must be delivered (Rom. viii. 31); of spiritual enemies from whom we must be protected, and of the Jews."-Tracts for the Times, lxxxix., | the example and shadow of things celesp. 185. "The mention of the sanctuary and tabernacle, the ark, and certain other particulars, must of course lead reflecting minds, even without further information, to the surmise, that in regard likewise of other points not specified, and in short in its whole range and detail, the Jewish economy was typical of the Christian."-Ib., p. 165. In a noble passage of Origen in the fifth Homily of Leviticus, cited by the writer of Tracts for the Times,lxxxix., on account of the light which it seems to throw on analogy, he says, "The details of the law concerning sacrifices are to be received in a different sense from that which the literal text points out. Else, when they are publicly read in the church, they tend rather to the hindrance and subversion of the Christian faith than to the admonition and edification of men. But if we search and find in what sense these things are said, and mark them, as they ought who think of God, who is the declared Author of these laws, then the hearer will become a Jew indeed, but, a Jew inwardly,' according to the distinction of St. Paul in the Epistle to the Romans. Things visible retain with invisible no small affinity; so that the Apostle affirms, 'the invisible things of God, from the foundation of the world;' to be seen, 'being understood by the things which are made.' As therefore a mutual affinity exists between things visible and invisible, earth and heaven, soul and flesh, body and spirit, and of combinations of these is made up this present world; so also Holy Scripture, we may believe, is made up of visible and invisible parts; first, as it were, of a kind of body, i. e. of the letter which we see with our eyes; next of a soul, i. e., of the sense which is discovered within that letter: thirdly, of a spirit, so far as it contains also in itself certain heavenly things; as says the Apostle, 'they serve to tial.'"-Sect. i., t. ii.. p. 205. T. T., p. 55. Scott, in his comment on Exodus xxvi., wherein are described the ark, its shape, materials, and decorations, admits that the whole is representative of spiritual things. He says, "The whole represents the person and doctrine of Christ, his true church, and all heavenly things." And again, in his introductory remarks on Leviticus, the same eminent writer says, "It principally consists of ritual laws, delivered to Moses from above the mercy-seat during the first month after the Tabernacle was erected; though moral precepts are frequently interspersed. In these ceremonies the Gospel was preached to Israel; and the solemn and exact manner, and the many repetitions with which they are enforced, are suited to impress the serious mind with a conviction that something immensely more important and spiritual than the external observances is couched under each of them." "Jerusalem was but a type of the Christian Church, as the carnal Israel, or the carnal seed and posterity of Abraham, were of true and sincere Christians. And therefore Paul expressly distinguishes between the earthly Jerusalem and the Jerusalem which is above (or from above, i. e., the Christian Church), [which he says is the mother of us all]."-Dean Sherlock's Sermons, 1., p. 6. 40 The seven impious nations, or classes of inhabitants, who possessed the land of Canaan, and who were overthrown, or made subservient,, or were extirpated by the descendants of Israel, represented different kinds of idolatry, and various hereditary evil lusts and false persuasions of the natural and sensual mind, which, warring against the powers of heaven in the soul, must be either extirpated or subdued in spiritual combat, before man can be fully regenerated and attain a state of eternal peace. spiritual dangers from which we hope to escape (1 Tim. vi. 12; 2 Tim. iv. 7); of spiritual trials in the wilderness, which we have to endure (1 Pet. iv. 12); of a spiritual Red Sea and Jordan, over which we must pass; of heaven-descended manna, on which we must feed; of living waters gushing from the Rock of Truth, by which we must be refreshed; and of that delightsome land visibly outstretched before us from Pisgah's mount, which we may inherit as an everlasting possession. A land thus described in the beautiful language of correspondence, in order to represent a heavenly state of mind, or the establishment of heaven in the soul, and also to afford us faint ideas of the surpassing loveliness, the inconceivable grandeur, the beatific glory of the heavenly world; the abundance of its precious blessings, the splendor of its spiritual and diversified scenery, the ineffable delights, the ecstatic virtues and the exalted graces of the ever-blessed inhabitants, of which the outward objects, in all their indefinite variety, are all exact correspondences. "A good land and a large, a land flowing with milk and honey" (Ex. iii. 8). "A land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven; a land that the Lord thy God careth for: the eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year" (Deut. xi. 11, 12). "A land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig-trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive and honey; a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack anything in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass" (Deut. viii. 7-9). what does all this justly imply, but that the whole of the eventful history of the Children of Israel, narrated by the plenarily inspired penman, is to be spiritually explained and understood. Thus the Holy Word inculcates its own spirituality, and the writings of the apostles most abundantly confirm the testimony." In the Greek Devotions of Bishop Andrews, translated in Tracts for the Times, lxxxviii. (fourth day, p. 48), occurs the following interesting passage, which indicates that the above nations were regarded by that author as figurative of unclean principles in the mind; it occurs in the prayer for grace. Pride Envy Wrath Gluttony "[Defend me from] Lechery And Hivite. The Cares of Life (Covetousness) Canaanite. Humility, pitifulness, patience, sobriety, purity, contentment, ready zeal.” 41 Voltaire, in ignorance of the true interpretation of the Divine Word, sarcastically quotes the passage in Gen. xv. 18, where the Amorite. Lord said to Abraham, "Unto thy seed I Hittite. have given this land, from the river of Egypt Perizzite. unto the great river. the river Euphrates;' Girgashite. and says, "The critics ask, how could God maintain that it has no other sense than that which the text shows, take away the key of knowledge."-In Matt., cap. xxiii. promise the Jews this immense country Origen says, " They who find fault with the which they have never possessed? and how | allegorical exposition of the Scripture, and could God give to them forever that small part of Palestine out of which they have so long been driven?"-Phil. Dict., art. Abraham, vol. i., p. 13. Such baseless objections against the Word of God fall to the ground, like as Dagon did before the ark (1 Sam. v.), when the true principles of interpretation are known. "In all things," says Augustine, "that He [God] hath spoken unto us (in his written Word), we must seek for the spiritual meaning, to ascertain which your desires in the name of Christ will assist us. By which, as by invisible hands, ye knock at the invisible gate, that invisibly it may open to us, and ye invisibly may enter in, and invisibly be healed."-Psalm ciii., Enarratio. And again the same writer says, "Barley, as you know, is so formed that you come with difficulty to the nourishing part of it, wrapped up as it is in a covering of chaff, and that chaff stiff and cleaving, so as not to be stripped off without some trouble. Such is the letter of the Old Testament, clothed with the wrappings of carnal sacraments, or tokens; but if you once come to its marrow, it nourishes and satisfies."-In Joan, tr. 24, 25. "What is the chaff to the wheat, saith the Lord." (Jer. xxiii. 28.) That eminent men have had some idea of the true method of expounding the Word of God, though unacquainted with the direct laws of correspondence, might be confirmed by an abundance of evidence. I quote in proof a passage from Bishop Horne's Commentary on the Book of Psalms. The prelate says, "The spiritual sense is, and must be, peculiar to the Scriptures; because of those persons and transactions only, which are there mentioned and recorded, can it be affirmed for certain that they were designed to be figurative. And should any one attempt to apply the narrative of Alexander's expedition by Quintus Curtius, or the Commentaries of Cæsar, as the New Testament writers have done, and taught us to do to the histories of the Old, he would find himself unable to proceed three steps with consistency and propriety." "The argument, therefore, which would infer the absurdity of supposing the Scriptures to have a spirit-pleasure. ual sense, from the acknowledged absurdity of supposing histories or poems merely human to have it, is inconclusive: the sacred writings differing in that respect from all other writings in the world, as much as the nature of the transactions they relate differs from all other transactions, and the AUTHOR who relates them differs from all other authors." Augustine also remarks that "Now no one doubts that both objects become known to us with greater delight by means of similitudes, and things that are sought for with some difficulty are discovered with more Magnificently, therefore, and healthfully for us, hath the Holy Spirit so adapted the Sacred Scriptures as to satisfy our hunger by passages more manifest, and by those that are more obscure to prevent fastidiousness."-De Doct. Chris., lib ii,, vol. iii., p. 49. CHAPTER VI. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CORRESPONDENCE AND METAPHOR, FABLE, ETC., STATED. CORRESPONDENCE DEFINED, WITH EXAMPLES OF ITS APPLICATION IN EXPOUNDING THE HOLY WORD. E have already seen that the only science by which the Word of God can be spiritually unfolded, and clearly distinguished from all other compositions whatsoever, is the science of correspondences. Let us investigate and illustrate the nature and application of its first principles. The science of correspondences is capable of being established and confirmed by the strictest reasoning and deduction of philosophy. Indeed, the absolute principles of all philosophy must be sought and found within us, and this is true of the philosophy on which correspondence rests; but, as Swedenborg states, "it may also be gathered from analogies, and even from geometry itself" (H. K. 41). This mode of reasoning, however, would lead us into a long train of metaphysical inquiries and researches for which general readers have but little leisure, and still less inclination. In general, we may say of science, that it is a knowledge of the relation which exists between the divine ideas and divine works; between what is infinite and what is finite; between what is spiritual and what is natural; and between what is mental and what is material. While fable has no higher aim than to inculcate moral maxims which have relation only to earthly existence; while figures of speech are but adornments of discourse and ornaments of rhetoric; and while comparison merely likens one natural object in appearance to another for the capricious purpose of illustration; correspondence is the positive affinity or relation which natural objects bear to spiritual realities. It is precisely the relation of the producing cause to its resulting effect; of the inward essence to the manifested form; of the spiritual world to the natural world; of the soul to the body; of the various faculties of the mind and their spiritual uses, to the various organs and viscera of the body and their respective natural uses. Thus, as the whole of the natural world corresponds in all its multitudinous particulars to the spiritual world, |