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fore his birth; that Abraham was a native of one, and an honored visitor at the other; and that it was hardly likely he would have been unaffected by the culture in which he was born, or the rival civilization of those two empires. They consider that it must modify the view which regards Abram as a wandering Bedouin Sheikh. Cer

tiquity of the race, but also that there existed in those days a method of writing, which would be as easily read now as in the days of Nabonides.

logical proofs of the antiquity of the earth, and of man, and of the impossibility of such a flood as is described in Gen. vii., led the way to a fresh examination of those accounts of the creation and deluge to be found in the mythic literature of ancient peoples. Side by side with the Biblical account of the creation and deluge, we have the Mexican, the Hindoo, the account of Be-tainly it proves not only a high anrosses, that of Abydenus, cited by Eusebius, and many others. But the one which has caused the greatest sensation, was that on the Assyrian tablets discovered by the late Mr. Smith, of the British Museum, in Babylonia. Sir H. Rawlinson affirmed, at the meeting at which the tablets were first read, that the legend dated at least 5000 years before the Christian era, or 2500 years before the deluge. This astounding statement has very recently received a strange confirmation. At a meeting of the Biblical Archæological Society, held Nov., 1882, a paper was read on the Chaldean cylinders, discovered by Mr. Rassam, in his excavations in Babylonia. They date from the time of Nabonides, and record among other things, that this sovereign, digging under the foundations of the Sun-God temple at Sipara, forty-five years after the death of Nebuchadnezzar, came upon a cylinder of Naramsin, the son of Sargon, which no one had seen for 3200 years. This gives us the date of that ancient sovereign 3750 B. C., or within 50 years of the creation, accord-churches, but also as a knowledge or sciing to Usher. Professor Oppert pointed out, that there was in those early days a "lively intercourse between Chaldea and Egypt." The Jewish World considers that these tablets prove the existence more than 5500 years ago of two highly civilized and highly cultured empires in Egypt and Chaldea: and that constant intercourse between them passed through Southern Palestine, the home of Abraham, but 1800 years be-strongest evidences of the principle we

There may be said, then, to be four great accounts of the deluge extant, the Assyrian, the Bhagavat, that of Berosas, and that of the Bible, and there can be little doubt that the two former are more ancient than the Biblical account, evidencing the fact of a widely spread tradition, long before the time of Moses. If, however, as is now generally believed by Biblical philologists, the first eleven chapters of Genesis were merely reproductions by Moses of existing documents,-parts of a more ancient Word and revelation, it may still be, that the two older accounts are but inflections of that, and traditionary records of events, in which the real actors had passed from the historical to the unhistorical or mythical form of existence in the lapse of ages. It has been already shown by the author that the science of correspondences was widely known not only in the most ancient and ancient

ence, among the most ancient Egyptians, the Druids, etc. : and it needs but a small acquaintance with the subject to trace the existence of that science in all the ancient productions of India, Mexico, and Scandinavia,—and in all the myths spread over the nations of antiquity. It is only by means of this science that such accounts can be rationally understood; but read by it, they form the

teresting from the light which they may ultimately be made to throw on the early moral and religious history of our race.

have laid down,-that this science was
widely known among the ancients, and
point therefore to a time when it was
common among different nations, who
must, therefore, have had one common
spiritual origin. We believe that that
origin is to be looked for in the ancient
and most ancient churches, whose wis-
dom has been transmitted to us in this
mythical form-interesting indeed even
for their antiquity-but far more in-state.-Ed.]

The author intended to have treated the history of Creation, the Garden of Eden, Babel, and the subsequent events connected with the rainbow; but the materials were left, at the time of his death, in an unfinished and incomplete

[XXI-THE THREE TERMS, CORRESPONDENCES, REPRESENTATIVES, AND SIGNIFICATIVES.

they are in the language itself. Each conveys its own idea.

IN dealing with the spiritual sense of the Word of God, and in unfolding its splendors, it is obvious that we must Correspondence is derived from three use the ordinary language of our race; Latin words, cor, re, spondeo, and literally but, as the ideas to be conveyed are means to answer again from the heart. distinct from any which have before The word is employed in common existed, it will also follow that many language to imply that epistolary comof the terms employed will have new munications have passed between two and peculiar meanings attached to them, or more persons; and this is only which, indeed, we find to be the case in considered complete when the second the writings of the church. To obtain, person, the one addressed, has replied exactly, the ideas intended to be con- to the communication of the addressor, veyed, we must first obtain, exactly, the or, literally, has spoken to him again from ideas contained in the mere words them- his heart. It is used in New-Church selves. If we were to attempt to study phraseology to imply the relationship Euclid before we had mastered the which exists between two things united, axioms and definitions, and before we as cause and effect, when a discrete had a clear notion of the forms described degree subsists between them-we say by the terms used, we should find that when a discrete degree subsists between we should be led only into a state of them, because it is necessary to guard absolute confusion. The problem is against supposing that correspondence only clear when its terms are clearly exists wherever there is a relation of understood. It is precisely so in the cause and effect between any two macase before us, and with reference to terial subjects, or subjects on the same the terms, correspondence, representa-plane of existence. The material cause tive, significative. Each has a distinct is, in all such instances, a merely secmeaning; and though, through carelessness, the words are sometimes used as though they were synonymous, we shall readily see the loss of spiritual ideas which results by such careless use of words.

ondary one, acting from another hidden within itself or operating through it.

We will endeavor to make this important word, so frequently used in the foregoing pages, more clearly understood, as, not only does much depend The three words are no more synony-upon a clear appreciation of its meaning, mous in New-Church theology than but the very word will then, when used,

open up to the inquiring mind fields of investigation, which will repay the student, yet will ever surpass the powers he can bring to bear on the work.

the essential life, power, and energy of which we have spoken; and from himself He created the glorious world of heaven, with all its spiritual realities. But here let us digress a moment and take an illustration. No man, as a mediate cause, produces anything but a form of that which existed previously in his own mind. This is true of the artist, every stroke of whose pencil, every idea of whose form of beauty, existed and was made in his imagination before it was transferred to his canvass or marble. We can see that it is equally true of the poet, architect, or mechanic. The idea, as separate from

Every created object may be said to be composed of two parts-a life, power, or energy, and a form capable of bringing that life, power, or energy into effect. The more we study the Divine works in nature, the more we find this true, and the more exact the analogy we perceive between these two principles or parts. This, at once, opens to us a most important fact, that there must be here a union of two forms, one spiritual and the other natural; the spiritual form being the life, power, and the object, exists prior to the object itenergy, and the material, the one pre-self, and the outward work is but the sented to the senses, being the form by which these are brought into act; and the relationship existing between the two will show that they must necessarily be the same, not necessarily as to shape, but as to use. Now that which is true of the part is true also of the whole; and, therefore, the entire universe must be a form capable of bringing into effect a life, energy, or power, with which it is replete, and which acts through it; and there must be the same relationship between these two. But what are these two?

material form, as it is the effect, of the spiritual idea or spiritual form. But in a higher sense is this the case with the Lord. His love and his wisdom are the first and only realities, and as compared with these all other things are only appearances. But they were also the creating principles, and the first things created by them would necessarily have impressed upon them that same law to which we have already referred; these must and would be the most perfect forms, most perfectly adapted for the reception and use of the life, power, and energy of the Divine Creator. But they would also, as such forms, in accordance with the law laid down, be not only the embodiment but also the manifestation of those principles, bringing them forth to view, they being seen in the uses such forms are capable of ac

We reply, all creation is first derived from the suns of the material universe, and the various worlds are but forms, capable of receiving and bringing forth their life, power, and energy. But material suns are themselves only effects, and behind or within them, as a grand cause, shines the Sun of heaven itself-complishing. In the highest sense, the glorious effulgence of the life, power, and energy of the Lord himself; and these material suns are but forms capable of bringing these things into outward and material effects.

But the cause both precedes and enters into the effect. Let us trace this idea a little further. The Lord himself is the grand and glorious Cause of all things

therefore, the things of heaven are as effects, embodiments, and shadowings forth of the divine principles which exist in them and which are their

causes.

But, 2dly, the same law may be applied to man and to the world of nature by which he is surrounded. All these proceed from the same grand Cause,

the things by which we are surrounded; and a knowledge thereof leads us, in

and exist under the same divine law we have been considering. Passing through the spiritual world and its spiritual deed, "through Nature up to Nature's forms, which are the forms of thought and affection, the forms of the principles of the human soul which belongs to that world, the same life, power, and energy, coming down with material forms through the suns of the spiritual and material universes, created and formed all things in perfect harmony with themselves, rendering nature a material form exactly imaging forth the spiritual form within and the inmost Divine form; for nature is but a form created most perfectly to receive and bring into ultimate effect the life, power, and energy of God. This truth was seen by the Apostle when he wrote "the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things which are made, even his eternal power and Godhead" (Rom. i. 20).

But one of these is spiritual and the other material, yet one is the effect and the other the cause-one life, power, and energy, the other the form proceeding therefrom, most perfectly adapted to bring them into outward manifestation. There is, therefore, not only as regards mere form, but also as regards use, a perfect and complete analogy between the two—a perfect adaptation of one to the other; and this analogy, this adaptation, this relation of cause and effect, is what the New Church means by Correspondence. The material form, the external character, and the uses of all outward substances, being the outcome of the spiritual principles dwelling in them, become to the outward world of matter precisely what the inward causes are to the world of mind. They "answer thought to thought and heart to heart." Correspondence, then, is no arbitrary relationship, like metaphor or figure, but one founded alike on the inward and outward nature of

God." It enables us also to see the truth of that oldest maxim the world knows, old and associated with a mythical personage, even when Moses studied the secrets of Egyptian lore, "all things that exist in earth exist in heaven, but in a heavenly form; and all things which exist in heaven exist in earth, but in an earthly form." And, carrying this idea from the revelation of God's works to the revelation of God's willhis Holy Word-following out the relationship of cause and effect, we shall be enabled to read in that Word the glorious things of Him who is its inmost life, the possibilities of the human soul, the glorious states it was designed to reach, the wondrous conditions through which it passes, and the merciful means by which man's advancement to heaven is secured.

The second term used in the foregoing work is representative. This word, compounded of re and presentio, literally means to show or present again, or in another form. Correspondence, we have seen, is the relation of cause and effect, and depends on the nature and use of the things spoken of. Representation, while it recognizes and springs from correspondence, belongs not to the nature of things, but to their actions, or the things which spring from them. An illustration will best show what this difference is. The kingly government, apart from the king, is the correspondent form of the divine government, and springs from it as an effect from a cause. But the person of the king, with the government connected with it, and the actions of government, do not correspond to, but represent the divine government of the Lord. Into correspondence, cause and effect only enter; into representation apparent cause and effect may enter. This possible introduction of appear

a sign not only of good but of evil, because the true correspondence was bent and distorted by the miserable states of those whose sins of life hindered heavenly causes from producing heavenly effects in the world, and compelled them to flow into opposite and disorderly chan

ances and the laws which govern them will, therefore, show how wide a distinction obtains between the two words. One, indeed, is the result of the Divine life alone, the other of the admixture of the Divine and human. Thus, iron corresponds to the divine truth in a natural form and degree; but smelted | nels. and hammered and shaped and sharp- To summarize, then: Correspondence ened into the sword or spear, that is, with the results of human labor added to the Divine work, it becomes the representative, not the correspondent, of that degree of truth existing and used in the human soul. Again, the whole of the things used in the sacrificial service of the temple were correspondences; but their use, and the worship, of which they formed a part, were representatives.

is the relation between spiritual and natural things; representation is the action of things which are correspondences in themselves; and significatives are the words and appearances resulting from the actions of either one or the other.

Each of these became necessary in the great work of Revelation. They became necessary because of the condition of man himself. The divine lanThe places mentioned in the Word guage must ever be infinitely above the are also representatives, derived in part comprehension of human thought, and from the correspondence of the position infinitely above the capacity of human in reference to certain other places in language. The one can no more rethe land of Canaan, or to the land it-ceive it than the other can convey it. self;-in part from the surrounding For the divine wisdom to reach and scenery or some particular object, as a mountain, valley, river, and the like; in part from the tribe of the people occupying it; and in part from the meaning of the name of the place, hence frequently changed; the whole dependent, however, on the fixed laws of correspondence described.

The third word, signify, is derived from the Latin signum, a sign, and refers entirely to the actions spoken of or the words uttered, and is governed by the same laws of appearances which apply to representation, to which indeed it is more nearly allied than to correspondence, though of course the laws of correspondence enter so largely into it that in reality it becomes only a modification of those laws. The word is indeed frequently used in this very form in the prophetic portions of the Word, the actions of the prophets and kings being declared to be a sign" to the people,

affect the human soul, it was necessary that a process should be gone through, imaged and represented to us by the actions and uses of the atmosphere surrounding the world in which we live. The rays of heat and light from the sun, were they received without any modification, would be destructive of all life in the objects upon which they fell. Yet they are the sources of all animal, vegetable, and mineral life to all things, but only so after being received into and modified by the motions inherent in the particles composing the atmosphere. Just in the same way the laws of correspondence form a spiritual atmosphere, enabling the divine light and love to flow into the soul and animate all its principles. It is true, indeed, that the Scriptures are the Word of God to us, whether we acknowledge the existence of correspondence or not; but our ignorance of its existence would

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