Holy Word, then the human race on earth could be gradually elevated to heavenly order and happiness; otherwise man must perish. "Except these days should be shortened, no flesh should be saved."

By the use, then, of the key of correspondences, the seals of the Word could be broken and the Book opened. But who was able to do it? None but the "Lion of the tribe of Judah could prevail to open the Book, and loose the seals thereof." The seals were all in the human mind. It was sealed with seven seals; that is, every state of the human mind was closed against spiritual light. Man was altogether natural. But there were some minds in a religious state of natural good, and in such a state of natural rational freedom as to have their minds opened by instruction from the Lord, so. as to see spiritual light through natural symbols, could they be so instructed.

But how was this mighty work to be done? How was the human mind to be opened and instructed, so as to behold the wonderful things written in God's law; to see the glory of the world of causes, and to look down upon effects, and see them as they really are? There was but one way to do it; and that was, for a man to take the Holy Word, give it his supreme time and attention, and work out its wonderful problems step by step; proving every operation, as he went along, by the truths of the Word itself, looking to the Divine Master for instruction. Thus, the mind, in this new study, would have to be as gradually opened, enlightened, and expanded, in spiritual science, as minds are naturally in the pursuit of natural science.

But a mind, to do this work, must be a mind in a state of strong natural truth and good. It must be a mind possessing rational and unwavering faith in the Lord, in

the divinity of the Word, and in the work before him; a mind humble, prayerful, open, and confiding toward the Lord. But where was the mind to be found competent to the task of going to this Fountain of wisdom, working out its spiritual problems, and spreading out before the world a clear and satisfactory solution of the work, proved and authenticated by the Divine Truth itself?

EMANUEL SWEDENBORG was the man, in the Divine Providence, for this work. But what peculiar qualifications had he for entering upon a study so high and heavenly? From his youth, his training and education had prepared his mind for just such a work. With always a conscientious regard for the Bible, and a love of truth and virtue, he had mastered all the human literature of the age; deeply investigated the laws of matter in the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms; had traced the economy of the human body up to the soul, and nature up to God; and had rationally seen something of the relation between mind and matter, and of the laws of creation. In this way, his natural mind had become a sincere and open vessel, adapted to the reception of spiritual truth; and his active soul was thirsting for something higher, and looking up to receive it. And thus, at the mature age of fifty-five years-ripe in natural goodness and truth, and in scientific and literary wisdom—he was prepared to enter upon the divine study of the Holy Word in its spiritual sense.

This study rationally opened his mind to the laws of the spiritual world; so that he gradually came, while in the flesh, into a state of free, open, and sensible consciousness of spiritual society and scenery, and this by a process of such perfect mental growth and development, accord

ing to divine order, that, when his spiritual senses had become clearly opened to the spiritual world, they were permanently so; because his views of that world were not surface and uncertain views, presented from a disordered or inflated imagination, but they were scientific views. He saw and understood the law by which spiritual forms are manifested, and this law he found in the Holy Word. It is the SCIENCE OF CORRESPONDENCES, in which the Word is written, and which he labored to make known to the world; and, in the ardent exercise of this benevolent desire to give it freely to his fellow man, his soul was rationally opened to receive it from the Lord.

Twenty-nine years of intense application were devoted to this work, in which he presented to mankind twenty massive volumes, opening and expounding the Sacred Scriptures, and specifically recording his illustrations, and the science of correspondences by which they are explained. This he did in the most modest and quiet manner, without any startling miracles, or outward displays of power, but in a deep, calm, and contemplative state of mind; looking prayerfully and confidingly to the Lord while reading the Word.

In this way, the science of correspondences, and the spiritual sense of the Word, and its doctrines, have been presented to the world. But who has done it? Certainly not Swedenborg, but the Lord Himself. Swedenborg never, in all these volumes, gives us so much as a single opinion of his own upon the meaning of the Word or its doctrines, or of the science of correspondences; but the illustrations are so given as to make the Word itself its own interpreter. It is the Lord, therefore, and not Swedenborg, that speaks to the heart and the head of the reader of these volumes. Yet Swedenborg was not in

spired. He acted not as an amanuensis, as did the prophets. He freely saw and understood what he wrote. He knew it was true; but he knew, also, that it was not one particle of it his own wisdom; and he was far from claiming it.

These twenty volumes, therefore, in their explanations of the Word and its doctrines, become to the understanding reader, positive and conclusive evidence of their own truth and the truth of the Holy Word. They call in an array of testimony, which carries everything before it. They call our own internal selves on to the stand, with all our evils, and all we know of human nature and make them cry out, Amen! They call in to their support all the truths of science and art. Indeed, they call in everything the vast universe of mind and matter, and the law of analogy between them. Everything in nature, from the smallest dust of the earth to the sun in the heavens, bears testimony in these volumes to the truth of the Word, and the divinity of its Author; proving beyond a doubt, that the Creator of the universe is the Author of the Holy Word; that the spiritual truths of the Word are the Divine Wisdom by which God created and sustains the universe; and that the universe now stands in relation to that wisdom, as effects to causes. All this is satisfactorily proved by the law of analogy which pervades the whole Word.

Thus the Lion of the tribe of Judah, according to prophecy, has prevailed to open the Book, and loose the seven seals of God's Holy Word; and has mercifully given to the world the divine science of correspondences -the grand key which opens the door to that fountain of wisdom which is to bring the world into order.

CHAPTER XIX.

BOOKS OF THE BIBLE, WITH OR WITHOUT A SPIRITUAL SENSE.

By the science of correspondences men are enabled to ascertain what writings have an internal sense, and what have not; what are of God, and what are of men which books of what is called the "Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments," are plenarily inspired, and which are not.

The analytical investigation of languages, by this science, is exceedingly interesting, ever pointing, as with the finger of God, to the marked distinction between what is Divine and what is human, and thereby bringing out the Holy Word in bold relief, in its essential superiority over all other writings, because filled with living thoughts and feelings, evolving throughout a new and consecutive sense, far above the letter, breathing a Divine spirit expressive of a peculiar relation to human souls, touching their understandings and wills, and plainly directing their actions; each part of the Word evincing a sensible connection with all the other parts, and even, by correspondences, with all the things of nature. Such is this wonderful book of God: whereas the same analysis, applied to any merely human composition, fails in all these particulars.