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214 DOCUMENTS CONCERNING SWEDENBORG.
divine things, such as all those which relate to the king
dom of the Lord, heaven, and the church, in any other
than a divine, that is, heavenly light. Such things can
receive no light from the light of nature, or the sun of
the natural world, or as we may say, from the pomp of
all natural sciences, which fall under the name of philo
sophy, and the merely human understanding, be they as
pure as possible. Undoubtedly, what is superior can flow
into what is inferior, but not vice versâ ; and the truths
derived from heaven can illustrate and correct the truths
derived from the world, but not these the former. We
certainly stand in need of illumination from the Lord and
Saviour through the heavens, to be enabled to understand
what is spiritual and celestial, which may then be con
firmed with man, through rational and natural sciences,
provided we do not believe that power and strength_are
derived from the latter. I also remember that Sweden
borg no where depends, in his theological writings, upon
the scientific philosophical principles he had learned be
fore, or argues from them ; still less does he draw forth
his arguments from mechanical philosophy ; from the
motion, rest, figure, position , or properties of matter;
from natural phenomena ; nor does he defend the nature
and property of spiritual things by them, forasmuch as
they are as distinct as the poles from natural things,
although they coincide in appearance ; at the same time
that he has himself a knowledge of this branch of philo
sophy, and strongly recommends the pursuit of it to
others. He says, that he is indebted for all his theoso
phical doctrines, and all the clear explanation of the holy
prophecies, to the Word of God alone, and to the illu
mination of the Lord. But in proportion as we form a
more imperfect view of these things, the more we are
careless in suffering the true knowledge of God to obtain
a right form in our hearts,-and the less we meditat
upon the infinite wisdom and divine holiness of the
Word, unendowed with a right conception of it, the fur
ther we are removed from the science of all sciences,
which is called the science of correspondences.
" An illumination comes from the Lord our God ; the
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