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142 DOCUMENTS CONCERNING SWEBENBORG.
that darkness" (vi. 23). By the eye, in the spiritual sense of the Word, is meant
the understanding. Hence, then, it is evident, that the spiritual sense of the Word
was to be revealed for a new church, which will acknov/ledge and worship the
Lord only, and hold His Word sacred, and love divine truths, and reject faith
separated from charity. But more may be seen relative to this sense of the Word,
in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the Sacred Scripture, 6-26 ; as, what
the spiritual sense of the Word is^-26 : that there is a spiritual sense in all and
every particular of the Word, 9-17 : that it is by virtue of the spiritual sense that
the Word is of divine inspiration, and holy in every single expression, 18, 19 :
that the spiritual sense of the Word has been heretofore unknown, and why it
was not revealed before, 2a-25 : that from henceforth the spiritual sense of the
Word will be opened to none but those who are principled in genuine truths
from the Lord, 26. From these considerations, then, it may appear, that it is of
the Divine Providence of the Lord that the spiritual sense has been concealed
from the world until the present age, and in the mean time was preserved in
heaven among the angels, who from it derive their wisdom. This sense was
known and also cultivated among the ancients who lived before Moses ; but in-
asmuch as their posterity converted the correspondences, of which solely their
Word, and, consequently, their religion consisted, into various idolatries, and
the Egyptians into magic, the knowledge of it, by the Divine Providence of the
Lord, was withdrawn,—first among the children of Israel, and afterwards, for
the reasons mentioned above, among Christians, and is now first opened for the
Lord’s New Church.’
11. In regard to the Doctrines of Religion contained in our author’s works, and
which are dispersed through them all, but especially through those volumes
which constitute the second class of his writings ; we see them everywhere
illuminated, and, even according to the letter, unanswerably confirmed, by the
clearest declarations of the Word. For it is a fundamental rule with him respect-
ing every doctrine of the church, that it must be drawn from the literal meaning
of the Word, taken in its proper series and connexion, and confirmed thereby.
This rule he has pursued in all his doctrines, which are always clearly proved
by the most unquestionable passages of Scripture. See, for example, how he
has demonstrated, in the Doctrine concerning the Lord, that there is but one God;
that Jesus Christ is that God; and that in Him is the Divine Trinity, called
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
" Every part, therefore, of Swedenborg’s writings will, upon a due investiga-
tion, have a tendency to enable us to see and to acknowledge,—j^r.s/, an unde-
niable conformity between his doctrines and the genuine meaning of the Word
of God : secondly, such a strength in the demonstrations as cannot be overthrown
if we take this for a principle, that the doctrine of the church must be that wisdom
which Cometh from above (^Janies iii. 17): thirdly, in these writings there will be
found a thorough harmony with the doctrines contained in the writings of the
apostles; which doctrines, by means of the abovementioned principles, are ex-
cellently illustrated and developed, and thus acquire a peculiar clearness and
strength, especially when we take notice of what the author alleges in his Doc-
trine of the Lord, 55, respecting the primitive Christian Church : m\.d fourthly, we
shall be enabled to see that the tendency of the whole of the author’s doctrines
is, to impress Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as the only God of heaven and earth ;
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