The spiritual Exodus ...

Preface

In preparing these studies of the Book of Exodus the writer has made use, for the literal meaning, of the recent researches of archaeologists and exegetes, and, for the spiritual meaning, of the interpretation given in the ."Arcana Coelestia," anonymously published in London in the years 1749 to 1756, and known to have been w r ritten by Emanuel Swedenborg, whose training as a man of science qualified him to study rationally the symbolism of Holy Scripture, which Philo Judaeus, Origen, Boehme and other good men had sought to explain, but without the necessary scientific preparation, and therefore with a result which was as alchemy to chemistry or as astrology to astronomy.

Technical terms have been avoided. The full text is not quoted, but extracts, in italics, are made a part of the commentary. The

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IV PREFACE.

maps and plans found in the best Teachers' Bibles make their insertion here unnecessary.

The potency of revelation is not in its historical setting, but in the application to present religious experience of history, prophecy, paraable and psalm ; and now, as on the first Easterday, it is necessary that the Lord Jesus Christ open the mind to understand the Scriptures. 1 The prayer of all who would follow Him in the spiritual Exodus must be, " Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law." 2

T. F. W.

Cambridge, Mass.

1 Luke xxiv. 45. 2 Psalm cxix. 18.

Contents

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Trinities ......

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