upon

image of God created he him; male and female created he them: and God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth the earth and God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat and to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat; and it was so and God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good and the evening and the morning were the sixth day." And now the varied stores of scientific information having been arranged according to Divine order in the mind, Divine mercy leads him to see that every affection of the natural mind must be made subservient to justice and judgment. From the lowest appetite that concerns the preservation and comfort of bodily life, to the charities that lead him to care for family, for kindred, for country, and for kind, let none be repudiated; let all be produced, and all be filled with spiritual life, so that "whether he eat or drink, he do all for the glory of God."* He is patient and persevering in the performance of daily duty; he is mild, gentle, and compassionate as a disciple of Jesus Christ; he is guileless and innocent as a lamb; and he has all his affections subdued and subordinated to the power, will, and wisdom of the Most High, who looks upon this best monument of creative excellence, and pronounces it very good.

Not only so, but He gives him to enjoy all these excellences in entire freedom. He stands out with virtues such as gentle animals represent, but in an order unspeakably higher than theirs. Freely patient, freely benevolent, freely loving, he is a man, the image and likeness of God and His holy angels, through whose instrumentality Divine Mercy has led him to this perfection, having dominion over every thought, contemplation, appetite, and emotion; seeing the truths they confess and loving what they love. A man, not a slave, not a subject of compulsion, the Divine love, wisdom, and power have conspired to enable him to feel as free as Divinity itself. A man, glorious type of the Eternal; head of the works of God;+ understanding what

* 1 Cor. x. 31.

Whether the angels, whom the divine condescension used in communicating with His creatures, as indicated by "Let us make," &c., were from another earth, or were inhabitants of this, who had died previous to the sixth state having been

is right and just, and pursuing it for the sake of right, and truth, and justice; rationally holy, spiritually just, affectionately active, devoutly wise, freely happy, A MAN.

This noble production of Deity is constantly supplied with spiritual food. The trees of righteousness, the branches of the planting of Jehovah, are for him. Lessons of love are on every hand, and they lead him to bring forth fruits of righteous living. Each heavenly idea made his own, is the seed of twenty more; and in the luxuriance of his continual supply, he exclaims to the Divine Giver, "Thou hast prepared a table before me; thou hast anointed my head with oil; my cup runneth over: surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever."

Such is a brief sketch of the Spiritual Sense of the six days of Creation; and may we not fairly appeal to every candid mind. if this be not a more profitable way of regarding them, than that of attempting to make them teach what we are enabled to learn much more fully from studying existing nature. If God had intended to teach how the natural universe was created, He would surely have done it in such a manner as that no human philosopher could add to, much less surpass it, and leave it to be supposed adequate to a childish state of the human mind. This must be the conclusion, if we remain literalists; but if we take the view presented by Swedenborg, and preserve the spirit and life of the Sacred Narrative, while truth after truth opens upon our delighted mind, may we not exclaim with the Psalmist, "The law of the Lord is perfect, CONVERTING THE SOUL: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. More are they to be desired than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb."*

B. A.

attained, is of little importance to consider, since there were doubtless both. It is scarcely necessary to notice the error that has been supposed to be countenanced by this passage, viz., That three divine persons are referred to; for if such had been the fact, man would have been made three persons, since he is the image of God. Besides, the three persons are in the one God; so that if God included the three persons, the speech was made to a fourth, fifth, or sixth divine person.

* Psalm xix. 7, 10.

EXTRACTS FROM SWEDENBORG'S SPIRITUAL DIARY. (Now first translated from the original Latin; continued from page 20.)

Concerning those who are called learned, and who are believed to be so,—that such persons can confirm their own dogmas and whatever they please in the other life.

There are many persons who can confirm whatever they please, and so dexterously, that it appears [to them] entirely as though it were true, and on this account [because they are clever reasoners] they are in the world esteemed learned, and more rational than others; whereas such persons have scarcely any understanding of truth whatever, so that their intellectual principle is obscure and closed. This fact was ascertained from experience in the case of several individuals, one (Rosenadler) who could so cleverly confirm whatever he pleased, that scarcely any body could do it better; and whatever he confirmed he believed himself to be true. This man was believed to possess a more interior understanding than others, and that hence he had such a faculty of reasoning and confirming He was sent to a place where interior thought was [operative], when he became so blind that he could see nothing, and this occurred to him so often as he was led into [the sphere of] interior thought. He therefore said, as he believed in the world, that whatever he wished he could make to be true, but it was shown to him, that this was a fallacy, and that he could not even see that the proposition in itself was true. A Syren appeared who could make herself more handsome than others, and she appeared to be so beautiful, that all who beheld her from natural light, declared that she was a most beautiful woman; she could also adorn herself with beautiful and splendid garments; but when all this fallacious external was removed, she appeared in a diabolical form.

There are also other spirits of a similar character; there was one who could so dexterously inveigh against others, and who could dispose his ingenuity in such a form [could so employ it] as to penetrate into the interiors of the mind [animi, the external mind], employing at the same time, such things from his memory as were derived from erudition, and interior ingenuity. It was also thought by those who saw him, that he had such an understanding as he appeared to have, but when he was explored, it was found that he had none, and that he did not understand any thing from an interior principle (Gustaf Benzelst). Many others also are of this character, who in the world were esteemed as learned, N.S. NO. 50.-VOL. V.

H

and indeed more learned than others, because they knew how to speak [learnedly] from the memory, as from the rational mind; whereas they spoke nothing from themselves but from the memory, their interiors being entirely closed and something obscure and dark in the place of light (Lars Benzel. and Eric Benzelius).

They also are of a similar character who have confirmed their doctrines by many things, which, although false, appeared to them as true according to the quality and quantity of the confirmation. However it be told to such persons, that truth is truth, they do not understand it in themselves, but out of themselves, thus in a natural or external light, and not in an internal light. Such persons when explored, have no intellectual principle, to them what is intellectual is obscure and closed. Whereas the simple good who have not confirmed themselves [in false doctrines] have their intellectual principle opened interiorly, and they not only understand better than the learned, but they also believe the truth when they hear it,—especially from good.

Such persons as have closed their intellectual principle by false confirmations, are chiefly those who have confirmed themselves in faith alone, and have not lived the life of faith, because they believed that life contributed nothing to salvation, but faith alone, and that any good of life is of no account to this purpose. From examination, it was ascertained that such persons cannot be elevated into heavenly light, because their interior intellectual principle was so closed that it could not be opened.— Certain Englishmen, who were then present, and who had interior light, could be elevated. In general it is thus :-sensual lumen appears as spiritual light to the ignorant, so long as it is not known whether it be from the memory or from the understanding; moreover, sensual lumen shines more than internal light, because it is in the world. They especially who are in evil, are in sensual lumen, and much more subtle than others; wherefore by the ancients they were called serpents, because they could reason more than others.

I have conversed with spirits concerning the light arising from confirmation, which when confirmed appears lucid; this was shewn and proved by experience. But I stated that the things which confirmed should be removed, and that the principle itself which is confirmed should be considered whether any light could be seen in it, that is, whether the principle be true or not true; inasmuch as any proposition made by another, or occurring to one's own mind, even although it be most false, may, notwisthstanding, by reasoning and confirmation, receive light. When they were reduced to consider the principle itself, they saw nothing, but were in darkness; then it was permitted to state, that they could see, if

they would but admit light from heaven into the proposition, but the light from heaven enters by good, thus, by the will, wherefore if they were in good, light would be in the principle, and they would see clearly [whether it be true or not], because heaven does not enter by any other way, than by that of goodness, or love, thus by the will; wherefore, if they lived the life of good, they would see light in the principle itself, otherwise nothing but darkness. Hence also they would see things confirmatory in the Word, and likewise in their own memory, and those things only would be called forth which confirm, and light would be there [in the memory] also. It was further shown, that if even the proposition be truth itself, it might receive light by confirmation: nevertheless, if there be not the good of life, the truth itself would, in like manner, be in darkness. Wherefore it was said, that if a man even knew all things in the universal heaven, and yet, if he were not in the good of life, he could not have heavenly light, but inferior light, which is only natural, and which is such as, if connected with evil of life, perishes.

I then conversed concerning the foundations of truth, stating that there are two;—one from the Word, and the other from nature, or from the truths of nature; that the foundation from the Word is for the universal heaven, thus for those who are in the light of heaven; whereas, the foundation from nature is for those who are natural and in natural lumen, thus, for those who from the literal sense of the Word have confirmed themselves in non truths [or things not true], yea, in falses, that [by the foundation from nature] they may be convinced; for they can no longer be convinced from the Word. Nevertheless, one foundation concords with the other, which was proved by the intuition of certain things in the Word;* inasmuch as the sciences have closed the understanding, therefore the sciences must also open it again, and it is opened in proportion as man is in good. It was also discovered that all things of heaven have, notwithstanding, their foundation in the laws of the order of nature in the world and in man, which foundation remains continually fixed, as the body, and the things belonging to the body and its sense, are respectively to the interiors which belong to the will and the understanding; but because falses have closed the intellectual principles, and since all ideas of thought are founded upon natural things, wherefore such things also serve for a foundation to those who are in false ideas (apud quos false ideæ sunt).

We also conversed concerning the Word, saying, that it is the very

* Per intuitionem quorundam in Verbo; these words might also be rendered thus: by the intuition [or looking] of certain persons into the Word, which is probably the sense of the passage.-ED.