Skepticism; divine revelation; and call to the New Jerusalem ...

Front matter

I LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.

Shelf s

^<V f

Contents

SECTION PAGE

L A Personal God 1

II. Special Revelation from a Personal God 3

II. Special Revelations from a Personal G-od

Y special revelations from the Lord are meant reve- > lations either to or through individual men or women. The first thought which occurs is, ? why should our Creator, if He is impartial, good, and merciful, reveal truth

B to one man, or apparently favor him more than others, in this respect ? " There are many reasons for His selecting individual men for such a mission, either one of which would seem satisfactory. Revelations are not made simply for the benefit of the individual, hut that the truths may be taught to others, and handed down to posterity either by tradition or in a written form; and, to say the least, it is often doubtful whether the revelator is specially favored at all or not A man to be benefited by truth must receive it in freedom, and not only receive it into his understanding, but he must also live according to it, and thus weave it into the very fibres of his spiritual organization, or it will do him no good. If he fails to shape his life, or walk according to the truth, he will profane it; or, in other words, by the light which he has received he will be enabled to sink himself deeper into evil and consequent suffering. If direct revelations were made to all men, irrespective of their state, it is certain that many might be compelled, as it were, to believe who have no desire to live a good and true life, and therefore would be very seriously injured by such revelations ; but when the truth is taught to them by their fellow-men, or handed down by tradition, or in a written form, it comes with less authority, and does not interfere with their freedom or compel them to believe, and they can receive or reject it, according to the state of their affections ; — having eyes they can -see not, having ears they may hear not — not receiving the truth they do not profane it, and consequently it does them comparatively little harm. The "flaming sword" of self-love is placed at the east of the garden, in the mind of the evil man, to protect the truth from profanation ; fortunately, it is rarely sheathed except by repentance, faith in the Lord, and a sincere effort to lead a good life. Consequently, as a general rule, an evil man cannot see genuine spiritual truths, which is very fortunate for him. Here then would seem to be a very satisfactory reason why the Lord does not directly reveal truth to all men. Then, all men are not in

HAVE WE AtfY SPECIAL REVELATIONS? 5

a proper state, but our Creator seeing the hearts and capacity of all can select the best, or the one least likely to be injured by the truth to be revealed. If it is simply to write the words dictated by Him, it would seem possible that the man chosen need not necessarily be a good man, but one protected by the flaming sword of self-love from seeing the truth revealed in its true light, and thus from being injured by it; and the love of glory or fame might lead such a man to proclaim the truth with zeal, and others be benefited thereby, and himself not injured.

Ill- Have we any Special Revelations from a Personal God?

THIS is a practical question, and one which no sensible man will hastily decide in the negative. The certainty of there being a personal Creator, and the equal certainty, if there is such a being, of whom man when regenerated is the image and likeness, that He would reveal to mankind such truths as are essential to be lived by us, that we may be happy here and hereafter, have been considered already. It becomes then, every man who is skeptically inclined, with due reverence and humility, to look for such a revelation, or such revelations ; and, as far as possible, not to look with a combative or negative spirit, for such a spirit is of necessity almost, if not quite, a bar to the truth being seen. You attempt to show a man a house — yes, a beautiful house for human habitation — he, unfortunately, is naturally, as most men are spiritually, a little near-sighted; and instead of waiting until he has seen the entire house and can form a general idea of it, as you approach the gate or the outer door he begins to cavil and deny that that door is a house, or any part of a house, as it does not swing in the direction or manner the door to his house has always swung; or his house has no outer door. You call his attention to a beautiful window, b CALL TO THE NEW JEKUSALEM.

Gothic perhaps in form ; but this is not like the window in his house, it is obstructed with glass, which to you has a use, but without waiting to understand this use, he decides at once it is no part of a house, or at least of a suitable house for him to live in; and so you go on throughout your entire house, showing him all parts of it, its halls, its rooms, its furniture, etc., and he denying and combating at every step. Can you convince such a man? Never ! In our Father's house are many beautiful mansions, but from a negative and combative state a man can never see or reside in one of them. We must come like little children, in a teachable spirit, not to believe blindly everything which is told us, or which we read, but to use the reason with which God has endowed us, to judge after a fair survey between truth and error. If we come in such a spirit, and shape our lives according to the truth, the Lord will lead us into one of His many beautiful mansions.

As it will be our aim not to write this treatise from a negative spirit, but from an affirmative state, we will here make a general statement, and afterwards consider it more fully in detail. Not that we expect in the short space we have allotted to ourselves to set before the reader evidence enough to satisfy all, but we do hope to call the attention of many an earnest enquirer to a serious examination of the writings which have, after a patient and careful examination, so fully and happily satisfied us, and increasing thousands of intelligent men and women.

Although born and educated in a Christian country, and accustomed to read the Bible from childhood, and to sit under the ministrations of religious teachers, not a few, owing to the apparent conflict which seems to exist between the Word of God in its letter and His works, which has been so clearly developed by the scientific researches of this day, have been led to doubt, and some unfortunately openly to deny, that the sacred Scriptures are either revelations from God, or entitled to any more respect than the acknowledged writings of men. It is not to be supposed for a moment, by any liberal-minded man, that all such doubters are either dishonest or that they do not desire the truth ; the young, especially in the flush of scientific investigations, are liable to be led into such doubts, and it is but too evident that religious teachers, by the light afforded by the letter of the Bible alone, have not been able to either shield them or deliver them from such doubts. But the Lord does not leave Himself without a witness ; consequently in the Gospels and Book of Eevelations He promises a second coming in the clouds of Heaven — not the clouds of earth, please bear in mind. When on earth, our Saviour declared that He had many things to tell men, but mankind then were not in a state to receive them. As a kind parent does to his child, so our Heavenly Father adapts His instruction, or revelations, to the capacity and needs of His children. At an age when the earth seemed to men, and was believed to be the centre of the universe, and the sun, moon and stars were supposed to make a journey around it daily, the Lord was supposed to be angry, revengeful, even hating some of the creatures He had made.

Such was the language of God's works and of His Word to the untutored men of those dark ages — the one in strict harmony with the other. But the enlightened science of this day shows that the supposed motion of the sun, moon and stars was only an apparent truth — not a real truth, the real truth being that day and night are caused by the motion of the earth — when it turns from the sun it is night. So a spiritual revelation in keeping with the natural science of to-day, must show that the supposed anger, revengefulness and hatred attributed to God, are but apparent truths, adapted to the state of mankind when given ; and men were permitted to dwell in such apparent truths for the sake of being restrained by their fears, and because they were not capable of comprehending or being benefited by real truths. The real truth being, that God is never angry, never hates and is never revengeful, but He is love and unchangeable, the same yesterday, to-day and forever. His tender mercies are around all His creatures; but when man turns from the Lord to himself, and seeks selfish ends, instead of regarding the rights of others, and perverts his God-given passions and appetites to purely sensual and selfish gratification irrespective of their legitimate use, making their gratification the chief object of his life, thus turning from the Lord to self, mental darkness overshadows him; and when he begins to suffer the legitimate consequences, or, if you please, punishments which necessarily follow from the violation of the spiritual and physical laws of his being, which the Lord has ordained for his good, it seems to him that God is angry with him and hates him ; and who will not say that it is well that he has been permitted to remain in this apparent truth.

But the men of this day are rapidly outgrowing the state in which they can be restrained by the apparent truths of God's Word, for they are fast losing their belief in and reverence for a personal God and all revelations from such a being. Even the fears of a literal hell are being shaken off, and men no longer tremble before the anathemas of the most venerable churches, or the denunciation of their clergymen.

Look around, reader, upon the confusion in the religious world, the manifestations of sectarianism, the love of rule in spiritual things, the growing skepticism, the Lo here and Lo there, and tell us if it is not time for us to be looking for the sign of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven, and for the new order of things which he has promised us in His "Word, when He declared, "Behold I make all things new." Look at the wonderful strides being made in the mechanical arts and in the sciences, and remember the order of creation and regeneration is, first that which is natural and afterwards that which is spiritual. This is the true order with the individual man, and it is true with the race,

HAVE WE ANY SPECIAL KEVELATIOITS ? 9

Emanuel Swedenborg, the son of a Bishop of the Church of Sweden, who lived over a century ago, was thoroughly educated and trained in tfre sciences of his day, and devoted his life until he was over 50 years of age to scientific and mechanical pursuits, when, he assures us in his writings, he was called by the Lord from his scientific labors to the important mission of revealing to the world for the benefit of all Christians and others, the truths of a New Dispensation, or of the Second Coming of the Lord. He assures us that his spiritual sight was opened, as it was with the prophets, St. Paul and John the revelator; that he wa3 permitted to see the inhabitants of the spiritual world, including those of heaven and hell, and to describe them and their condition, and to show the relation which the acts and deeds of this life have upon the future life; and he wrote a work entitled, "Heaven, the World of Spirits and Hell; from things seen and heard;" full of the most useful and practical instruction. Interspersed throughout his other works are relations of what he claims to have seen and heard in the spiritual world. He shows conclusively that the spiritual world is the world of causes, the real, the living world, and the natural world the world of effects: from this it follows that there is a strict correspondence between every object in this world and its cause in the spiritual world.

As is truly said by the Rev. George Field, in his work entitled "The Two Great Books of Xature and Revelation," which work will richly repay both the theological and scientific student for a careful perusal, and from which we shall not unfrequently quote in the following pages :

u The natural universe is therefore but an outer form of the Divine mind ; and all its multitudinous contents are but so many .symbols of the varied truths and affections existing in the world of mind. Thus the creation is, as it were, the alphabet of the Creator; and it is by its types that the Creator speaketh! Or, as the apostle wrote, 'The invisible things of Him [God] from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made' (Rom. i. 20). A doctrine as old as the world, and taught by Hermes Trismegistus (the Egyptian Thoth, some 2000 years before it was thus reiterated by Paul. His words in English are, 'All things that are in heaven, are in the earth in an earthly form ; and all things that are in the earth, are in heaven in a heavenly form* Which sentiment is thus transferred to poetry by Milton :

' What if earth Be but the shadow of heaven : and things therein Each to other like, more than on earth is thought.'

"How immense — how wonderful is the idea that the works of the Creator should be the signs for the words of His revelation ! and that the one is to the other as the soul is to the body, and the mystic chain which binds them is correspondence, or the relation which exists by creation between spiritual and natural things.

"'To the most ancient people/ says Mr. Kirby, < the creation was a Book of Symbols, a sacred language of which they possessed the key, and which it was their delight to study and decipher/ {Introduction to Entomology.) Correspondence is the necessary relation subsisting between things spiritual and things natural, or between thoughts and their outward images : thus, not as might be inferred, that one natural thing corresponds to another natural thing, as this would be merely arbitrary or speculative, for though one may illustrate the other, it does not correspond to it, or have any necessary relation to it. Actions correspond to feelings: words correspond to thoughts: sounds or intonations correspond to the quality of the affection, because they actually produce them. So every object in nature corresponds first to its prototype in the Divine mind, and secondarily to its antitype in the human mind, by as fixed and immutable a law as that effects are produced by causes.' "

In a work by the late Prof. Agassiz on Lake Superior, he says : " There will be no scientific evidence of God's workinsr in nature, until naturalists have shown that the whole creation is the expression of a thought, aud not the product of physical agents ; " and he adds, * Let the naturalists look at the world under such impressions, and evidence will pour in upon us, that ail creatures are expressions of the thoughts of Him whom we know, love, and adore unseen."

That Man is not only the final end of Creation, but that God, the Creator, must have been the Infinite Divine Pattern — the self-existent Divinely Human Fountain, is also thus forcibly presented by Agassiz: "Man (he says), is the end to which all the animal creation has tended from the first appearance of the first Palaeozoic fishes." But, says Hugh Miller, "Xo longer, however, the natural, but the Diyixe Max — occupying what is at once its terminal point, and its highest apex." — Testimony of the Rocks, pp. 229, 235.

In the late Mr. Bancroft's speech before the New York Historical Society he says : " The comparative anatomist has shown that all created vertebrae, without exception, are analogous, so that the induction becomes irresistible that an arclietype existed previous to the creation, of the first of the hind. Shall we then hesitate to believe that the system of law likewise pervades the moral world ? TVe cannot shut our eyes to the established fact that an ideal, or archetype, prescribed the form, of animal life ; and shall we not believe that the type of all intellectual life, likewise, exists in the Divine Mind ? "

According to this science of correspondences — which Swedenborg has shown is the science of all sciences — the sacred Scriptures were written, consequently they can only be correctly interpreted in accordance with this universal science. A correct interpretation therefore cannot be arbitrary, but it must be in accordance with rules and laws, and can never conflict with natural science, nor can one portion of the Word of God, when correctly interpreted, ever conflict with another portion. He has shown, consequently, that the Word of Grod, like His works, is filled with life, and differs as much from the writings of men as His works do from the works of men. The sacred Scriptures then have not only a literal sense, hut also a connected spiritual sense running throughout, and within, as the soul is within the hody.

The Lord intimates in many passages that the sacred Scriptures, or His words, contain a spiritual sense, as in the following : " It is the spirit that quickeneth ; the flesh profiteth nothing ; the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life." " The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life."

"The Lord," says the Rev. John Hyde, "spoke in parables to the Jews; and further it is declared that, ' Without a partible spake He not to them' (Matt. xiii. 34). All that the Lord uttered was a parable; and was a parable because it possessed an inner meaning recognizable by the instructed, but veiled from the unbelieving. That He adopted this method, even with His disciples, is evident from many passages. * If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out. If thy hand offend thee, cut it off/ ' Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you.' e He that hath no sword, let him sell his coat and buy one.' There was a Divine signification in His words, because He was Divine who uttered them. The words were but the outer covering of the Divine meaning, just as His flesh was but the outer covering of the Divine man. It was this inner ' spirit and life' thai profited them, and that will profit us to know. In this inner or higher sense, all the Scriptures testified of Him. ' The spirit of prophecy was the testimony of Jesus/

" Paul, in like manner, interprets the Sacred Word. To him, the ' Jews after the flesh' were but types of ' the Jews after the Spirit;' f circumcision after the flesh' the symbol of ' circumcision of the heart.' He asserts that the rock from which the Israelites drank was the figure of the ' spiritual rock, which is Christ ;' the tabernacle and its ceremonies, the holy of holies and its yearly entrance, were but ' symbols of the true;' that Jerusalem below was the type of ' Jerusalem that is above, the mother of us all ;' that the earthly Zion was but the figure of ' the Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem/ to which all the disciples of Christ had come ; that Abraham and his two sons were 'an allegory;' that Melchisedec was a type of Christ, as also were the high priests.

"The whole of the Hebrews is but an exposition of typical or symbolic interpretation, and it abounds in confirmations of the statement of David, that the history of the Israelites was ' a parable. ' Into the sublime halls of such spiritual interpretation he conducts us, and justifies our belief in an everywhere-present spiritual sense, by many a glimpse of its presence, where else it had lain concealed. He teaches us as he taught his disciple Timothy, that ' all Scripture is God-breathed (given by inspiration of God), and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness ; that the man of God may be thoroughly furnished unto all good works' (2 Tim. iii. 16, 17) ; given by God to every man, that every man may thus become perfect ; of universal importance because of universal application. Every word of it, consequently, treating of spiritual things, eternal in its interests, and to be spiritually understood."

The early Christian Fathers, "Clemens of Alexandria, and Origen, understood that the sacred Scriptures have a spiritual sense ; and Origen, when the shrewd enemy of Christianity, Celsus, ridiculed the stories of the rib, the serpent, etc., as childish fables, reproaches him for want of candor in purposely keeping out of sight, what was so evident upon the face of the narrative, that the whole is a pure allegory. Indeed so universal was this sentiment, that De la Bigue in his BiUiotheca Patrum, after quoting a number of testimonies to this effect, says: 'For these reasons the interpreters whom we have mentioned, understanding all that is said of Paradise in a spiritual manner, affirmed that divers heresies had arisen, because certain persons had understood what is said of God and Paradise after a carnal manner/ So that it is certain that, in the primitive days, the heretics were those who interpreted this part of Scripture according to the letter" — Noble's Plenary Inspiration.

Aside from the relation of what he saw and heard in the spiritual world, Swedenborg assures us that he received from the Lord, while reading His Word, the true interpretation of the sacred Scriptures, in accordance with the science of correspondences, and also the true Christian doctrines — which had become during the dark ages seriously perverted by the evil inclinations, the conflicting opinions and doctrines of men, which had too frequently made the Word of God of none effect. He claims that without Divine aid he could never have discovered the science of correspondences, the true and rational interpretation of the Word in accordance therewith, and the true Christian doctrines, and he most solemnly assures us that he received nothing of all he has revealed to us upon these subjects from any spirit or angel even, but from the Lord alone while reading His Word.

Swedenborg also shows us that the Lord has never left any nation or people without some knowledge of Himself and of His will — enough, if they will but hearken and obey, to lead to some of the innumerable mansions in His heavenly kingdom.

Swedenborg says : "That religion has existed from the most ancient times, and that the inhabitants of the globe everywhere know of God with something about the life after death, has not been from themselves and from their own acuteness, but from the ancient Word mentioned above, and afterwards from the Israeli tish Word. * * * It is well known that they had a knowledge of Paradise, of the flood ; of the sacred fire, and of the four ages — from the first or golden age to the last or iron age — by which the four states of the church are signified in the Word, as in Daniel ii. 35. It is also known that the Mahometan religion which succeeded and destroyed the previous religions of many nations, was taken from the Word of both Testaments." " They who do not believe the Word from the Word, can neither believe anything divine from nature ; for the Lord teaches, they have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them ; if they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if any of the dead were to rise (Luke xvi. 29, 31). It is the same if any one, rejecting the Word, will believe from nature alone what certain of the ancients, who were Pagans, have written, such as Aristotle, Cicero, and others, concerning the existence of God and the immortality of the soul ; this they did not first know from their own natural light, but from the religion of the ancients, among whom there had been a divine revelation, which was successively propagated to the heathens.''

To the people of the most ancient or the Adamic age He gave open vision and direct revelations, and they understood the correspondence between spiritual and natural things ; and a knowledge of correspondences and essential spiritual truths, after men began to sink voluntarily into evil, and open vision ceased, were handed down by tradition among all nations; and from this source have originated Mythology, Idolatry, Masonry and sacrifices as the latter have existed among Gentile nations. Objects and images once used to remind men of spiritual truths, the spiritual signification of the objects and images being gradually lost, men came at length to worship the natural object or image, or to use the same in sacrifices. In a more or less perverted form the Ten Commandments have been handed down by tradition among many nations previous to their ever seeing the written word, and some knowledge of spiritual subjects among all nations. When our missionaries come to perceive the fact and act accordingly, that heathen nations are not all heathen after all, and come to recognize the truth and good there is already among them, they will be more successful in converting them to Christianity.

Through Moses and the Prophets, the Evangelists and St. John, were given special revelations in a written form, adapted to the times and wants of the men for whose benefit they were given, all written according to the correspondence between spiritual and natural things; every object, image, and word used representing spiritual ideas, perceptions, affections, and thoughts. Swedenborg claims to have given, or more strictly speaking, that the Lord gave through him, the key for unlocking all these various books written by different men in different ages, and to demonstrate to man's rational perceptions that God was in very deed their author, and from the vast store-house of God's Word he brings forth things new and old for the benefit of the men of this age. Has he accomplished all this ? If he has, the Lord has indeed been mindful of and merciful to the men of this age. Swedenborg asked no man to receive the truth on his say so, in fact he expressly teaches that no one can really receive the truth into his life any further than he perceives it to be true, and if not brought into life it is of no use, and soon vanishes from his mental vision, even if he hears it. With him there is no salvation by truth or faith alone, for all genuine religion has relation to life, and the life of religion is to do good. But the Eev. J. C. Agar says truly and justly,

"The real proof of the existence of anything is to see the thing itself. As soon as we begin to see the spiritual sense which is reflected in the letter, and to see the boundless vista of truth which it opens, and especially when we begin to feel the searching and discriminating power of this higher truth, penetrating to the most hidden motives and springs of action, we need no argument to convince us that there is such a sense in the Bible, and that the Bible is Divine and Infinite by virtue of that sense.

HAVE WE AXY SPECIAL KEYELATIOXS ? 17

" Whether there be such a sense, therefore, is mainly a question of fact. You cannot tell whether it is there or not until you look for it.

"The system of interpretation by which this higher sense is unfolded is set forth in the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg. It is not an arbitrary system, but is based upon the relation which everywhere exists between the spiritual and the natural ; in other words, it is based upon an ontological law, or a law of being. What this law is, and how it is manifested in all nature and in all languages, cannot be explained in a brief space. The fundamental idea of it is this : that as the body not only clothes but reveals the soul, so does the material or natural universally both clothe and reveal the spiritual. The body reveals the soul because it in every way corresponds to it — is the type of it. This is true not only of its form, but of its constitution and the laws by which it is governed. As soon as the relation between the spiritual and the physical is clearly discerned, the study of the body becomes the most fruitful source of information respecting the soul.