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DE HEMELSCHE LEER

         A MONTHLY MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO THE DOCTRINE OF GENUINE TRUTH

  OUT OF THE LATIN WORD REVEALED FROM THE LORD

ORGAN OF THE FIRST DUTCH SOCIETY OF THE' GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM

EXTRACTS FROM THE ISSUES AUGUST 1932 TO MARCH 1934 (ENGLISH TRANSLATION AND ENGLISH ORIGINALS)

FIFTH FASCICLE

     s-GBAVENHAGE SWEDENBORG GENOOTSCHAP LAAN VAN MEERDERVOORT 229

1934

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LEADING THESES PROPOUNDED IN "DE HEMELSCHE LEER"

  1.   The Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg are the Third Testament of the Word of the Lord. The DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE must be applied to the three Testaments alike.

  2.   The Latin Word without Doctrine is as a candlestick without light, and those who read the Latin Word without Doctrine, or who do not acquire for themselves a Doctrine from the Latin Word, are in darkness as to all truth (cf. S.S. 50-61).

  3.   The genuine Doctrine of the Church is spiritual out of celestial origin, but not out of rational origin. The Lord is that  Doctrine itself  (cf. A.C. 2496,  2497,  2510  2516 2533, 2859; A.E. 19).

DE HEMELSCHE LEER

EXTRACTS FROM THE ISSUE FOR AUG.-SEPT -19.12

    THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE WORD

ADDRESS BY THE REVEREND ERNST PFEIFFER BEFORE THE NEW CHURCH CLUB, LONDON, JULY 29TH, 1932.

  The understanding of the Word ought to be. seen in the Church as a problem of primary importance. For we read that "the Church is out of the Word, and that it is such as is its understanding of the Word" (S.S. 76—79). We even read in the same place that "it is not the Word which makes the Church, but the understanding of it, and that the Church is of such a character as is the understanding of the Word among those who are in the Church. . . . The Word is the Word according to the understanding of it with man, that is, as it is understood. If it is not understood, the Word is indeed called the Word, but with the man it is not. The Word is the truth according to the understanding of it; for the Word may be not the truth, for it can be falsified. The Word is spirit and life according to the understanding of it; for the letter without the understanding of it, is dead".

  If the question is asked whether this teaching must be applied not only to the Old and to the New Testament but also  to  the  Third Testament, and if this question is answered in the affirmative, it will be seen that this must lead to a conclusion of far-reaching importance. That also the Third Testament may be the object of even intense study while at the same time its genuine meaning is not understood, and that therefore, though in itself it is the Word and it is called the Word, with the man it may not be the Word; and that it may be not the truth because it is falsified; and that it may be a dead letter, lacking spirit and life, does not admit of doubt. For the law that the meaning of a thing may be misunderstood has a universal application. So also the Third Testament as a whole and as to all its particulars may be misunderstood, and

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even by those who are convinced that their understanding of it is true. That mistaken opinions with regard to the significance of the Third Testament and with regard to many of its particular teachings, have played and still play a part in the history of the Church, is evident.

  Though, if the question is asked in this simple way, it is thus plain that nobody can deny that also the Third Testament may be misunderstood, it is nevertheless the general belief in the Church that there can be no question about the true understanding of it. It is generally believed that the understanding of the Word has been destroyed and lost in the old church, that it has been restored by the Lord Himself in the revelation of the Third Testament, and that thus the true understanding of the Word has there been Divinely given. That this is the general belief appears from the position which is held that the Doctrine of genuine truth can be gathered "by a simple reading of the Writings", and from the statements which during the last years we have repeatedly seen made, namely, that "the Doctrines freely yield the spiritual light to the earnest reader", that "Swedenborg was at pains to set forth the arcana of spiritual wisdom with all possible clarity", that "devout men, when they read the rationally ordered language of the Writings, see nothing else than spiritual and angelic truths", that "in the Writings the doctrine of genuine truth, as to many of its particulars, is expounded at length, and with the greatest possible clarity of expression", and accordingly that a man has "a fairly wide knowledge of what is said in the Writings", or that a man is  "well  informed  in  their contents".  Such statements clearly indicate the established opinion that the Word of the Third Testament is of such a nature that there can be no serious difficulty with regard to its genuine understanding, and that such an understanding is given as soon as a man has gathered a fairly wide knowledge of its letter, so that it may be said that he is well informed in its contents. There is no doubt that these statements have been made in good faith, but it seems evident that this could only happen in a moment when there was no realization of the infinity of the Word, of which it is said that "Nobody, unless he knows the quality of the Word, can conceive with some idea that in the singular things of it

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there is an infinity, that is, that it contains innumerable things, which even the Angels cannot exhaust. Everything there can be compared with a seed, that out of the ground can grow up into a great tree and produce an abundance of seeds, out of which there come again similar trees, which together make a garden, and out of the seeds thereof again gardens, and so on to infinity. Such is the Word of the Lord in its singular things" (T.C.R. 290). And such is also the Latin Word. Our concept of the Latin Word remains natural as long as this infinity of it is not seen; and a realization of this infinity is only possible if the difference is seen between the Latin Word as the Word in itself and man's understanding of it. The Latin Word contains all the series and degrees of truth for the Church to all eternity, but man can only come into these truths and see them there in the measure in which his understanding is  developed  and  opened  by regeneration as  to  all  the degrees of his mind. The excellency of the Third Testament by which it transcends the former Revelations does therefore not lie in this that in it all rational and spiritual truths themselves have Divinely and openly been given so as simply to be taken up by direct cognizance, which, as being contrary to the order of discrete degrees, is entirely impossible; but herein that in it all the seeds of truth have been given in such a way that if they are Divinely received in the soil of the human mind they may there germinate and spring up into a garden of gardens, which is the paradise into which man comes after death.

  The application of the teaching that "the Word is the Word according to the understanding of it with man" to the Latin Word, leads to a conclusion of great importance. For the understanding of man involves the whole intellectual part of his mind and the intellectual part involves also the voluntary part, and thus it is plain that the teaching involves the whole man. Accordingly it must be said that the Latin Word in itself is indeed the Word, but that as soon as it is received in man it is no longer the Word, unless the reception is in that in man which is of the Lord alone, unless therefore the reception is orderly, genuine, pure, and holy, in one word, Divine. For the Lord with a man can dwell only in what 'is His Own, and the Divine must be in what is Divine (cf. A.C. 9338).

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  The truth that the Lord can dwell with man only in what is His Own, has been known in the Church from the beginning; but the idea evidently was, that the Divine of the Latin Word in itself could be transferred from outside of man to within man in such a way as to become there the Lord's Own in which He could dwell. For, although also the law that all influx is according to reception in a general way was known, nevertheless it apparently was not realized that such a transfer cannot take place without all the human faculties as to will and understanding in free cooperation being involved, and that thus the Divine of the Latin Word in itself is not sufficient for such a transfer, but that there must be at the same time the Divine from the Lord in the receiving man, which is only possible by his regeneration. For the old proprium of man, which is infernal, cannot receive the Lord; it cannot cooperate with Him; it cannot understand the Word; from which it follows that also the Latin Word is the Word with man only if the reception and understanding of it is from the Lord alone and thus Divine. It is true that also before regeneration there must be the possibility of a certain genuine understanding; for otherwise regeneration could never make a beginning. This understanding is from remains, which also are of the Lord alone.

  The genuine understanding of the Word is represented by the white horse. From the preceding considerations it may be plain that in the New Church the white horse especially signifies the genuine understanding of the Third Testament. The signification of the white horse is given in the APOCALYPSE REVEALED, n. 298, as follows: "By a horse is signified the understanding of the Word, and by the white horse the understanding of truth out of the Word". And in the APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED, n. 355: "That the white horse signifies the understanding of truth out of the Word, is plain from the signification of horse, being the intellectual, and from the signification of white, in that it is said of truth. . . . The understanding of truth out of the Word and its quality with the men of- the Church, is here described by horses. Whether you say that this understanding is described or those who are in it, it is the same; for men, spirits, and Angels are the subjects in which it is". There are two things which may be seen from

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these quotations. First: That the white horse, if applied to man, does not mean the Word itself, but man's understanding of the Word. There is indeed a sense in which the white horse signifies the Word itself, namely where it represents the infinite Divine Understanding of the Lord Himself. This is the sense in which the signification of the white horse with regard to the Third Testament thus far has generally been understood. But whereas the Third Testament is the Word itself and since the white horse, if applied to man, signifies the understanding of truth out of the Word, it is plain that it signifies man's genuine understanding of the Third Testament. From the fact that man's understanding of the Third Testament may be not-genuine, and especially from the fact that a not-genuine understanding of the Third Testament has already played such a great part in the history of the New Church as to seriously delay its progress, it appears of what great importance this truth is. Secondly: From the quotation from the APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED it appears that the genuine understanding of the Latin Word which is signified by the white horse, and of which it may be said that it is the Lord's with man, perfectly orderly, pure, and holy, and thus Divine, cannot be thought of as something apart from the receiving human mind itself, including all its faculties involved in free cooperation as of itself. For it is said: "Whether you say the understanding of truth out of the Word or those who are in it, it is the same; for men, spirits, and Angels are the subjects in which it is". And in n. 4380 of the ARCANA COELESTIA it is said: "Good and truth cannot be predicated without a subject which is man". If seen in this light this indeed appears to be a self-evident truth, and it may be thought that it is unnecessary to state it. But the position has been advanced that the genuine Doctrine of the Church, of which it was admitted that it ought to be distinguished from the Latin Word itself, and which is the same as man's genuine understanding of the truth out of the Latin Word signified by the white horse, is Divine, and even that "in a very real sense it is the Coming of the Lord to the Church and to the individual man of the Church", while at the same time it is held that man's understanding of it is not Divine but always imperfect and mixed with falsities. That this

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position cannot be maintained because it is in contradiction to itself, is plain from the passage quoted.

  The fact that the human understanding is involved if it is said that the Latin Word is the Word not only in itself but also with man, is of such great importance that it  must  enter into  every orderly  thought regarding the Lord, the Word, the Church, in one word into all things of theology and religion. The teaching that the Latin Word is the Word and the truth only according to man's understanding of it, and that the Latin Word may be not the truth because it can be misunderstood and falsified, plainly involves this truth that the Latin Word is not the Word with man unless man's understanding of it is of the Lord alone and thus Divine. And so also it is true that the Latin Word is spirit and life according to the understanding of it; the Latin Word in itself has indeed its own Spirit and Life, but this is the infinite Spirit and Life of. the Lord Himself. This Spirit and Life itself cannot be imparted to any Angel or man. If the Latin Word is to be spirit and life with man, this spirit and life have to be born from the Lord with every individual man from within, which, as to the different degrees of this spirit and life, can only happen by regeneration as to all those degrees. We will come back further on to these different degrees of the spirit of the Latin Word, which involve three different discrete degrees of truth into which the Church will gradually enter. Let me at this place only point out that whereas the Latin Word with man is not the Word unless the understanding of it with man, either from remains or by regeneration, is of the Lord alone, and whereas the whole Word in the respective sense in all its particulars treats of the regeneration of man, it may be said that the first purpose of the whole Word is nothing else than to teach man the laws by which the Latin Word with him may actually become the Word. From this it fully appears what would be the disastrous result of a confirmed denial of the Divine origin and essence of the genuine understanding of the Word, or, what is the same, of the genuine Doctrine of the Church. For there is no regeneration except through the Word, and the Word is not the Word with man except in the measure in which by regeneration it has become so. This may appear as para-

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doxical; but the first condition for every progress in regeneration unquestionably is that the Word with man first be the Word; for genuine Doctrine always must precede genuine life. The very first genuine understanding, however, before the actual beginning of regeneration, is from remains.

  The truth is revealed that "all in all things of the Church is from the Lord" and that "the Church is not Church out of the proprium of men, but out of the Divine of the Lord" (A.E. 23). This truth is also given in the following passages: "It is the Divine of the Lord that with man makes the Church; for there is nothing which can be considered to be the Church but that which is the proprium of the Lord" (A.C. 2966). "The Divine things which proceed from the Lord make the Church, and nothing whatever of man" (A.C. 10282). And in n. 215 of the ANGELIC WISDOM- CONCERNING THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE we read the explicit words "the Divine things of the Church". The Divine of the Lord in the Church from which the church is Church is described in many places of the APOCALYPSE, where the description of the New Jerusalem is given. The Church of the New Jerusalem. is described as "prepared as a bride adorned for her husband" which signifies that "that Church is conjoined with the Lord through the Word" (A.R. 881, 895); it is further described as "the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out  of Heaven  from God", by which is signified that Church with regard to its Doctrine, in which is the good of love and which is holy out of the Divine truths out of the Word, and which is of a celestial origin (cf. A.R. 896). Of this Church it is said that "it has the glory of God", by which is signified that "in it the Word will be understood" (n. 897); of this Church it is said that "its length is as much as the breadth", by which is signified that "good and truth make one in that Church as essence and form" (n. 906); of this Church it is said that "the length and the breadth and the height of it are equal", by which is signified that "all things of it are out of the good of love" (n. 907); of this Church it is said that "its measure is the measure of a man which is that of an Angel", which signifies  that  "that  Church  makes one with Heaven" (n. 910); of this Church it is said that "it is pure gold like

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auto pure glass" by which is signified that "the all of that Church is the good of love flowing in together with the light out  of  Heaven from the Lord" (n. 912); of this Church it is said that "there shall not enter into it anything unclean", by which is signified that "nobody who adulterates the goods and falsifies the truths of the Word shall be received in it" (n. 924); of that Church it is further said that "there shall be no curse in it, and the throne of God and of tho Lamb shall be in it, and that His servants shall serve Him", by which is signified that "in it there shall be none separated from the Lord, because the Lord Himself shall rule there, and those who are in truths through the Word from Him and do His commandments. shall be with Him because conjoined"; and further that "they shall see His Face, and His Name shall be in their foreheads", by which is signified that "they will turn themselves to the Lord and the Lord Himself to them, because they are conjoined through love" (n. 938); and it is said that "there shall be no night there and they need no lantern neither light of the sun; for the Lord G-od illustrates them", by which is signified that "in the New Church there will be not any falsity of faith, and that men shall be there in the cognitions regarding God not out of natural lumen which is out of self-intelligence and out of glory arising out of conceit, but they will be in spiritual light out of the Word from the Only Lord" (n. 940).

  These are remarkable descriptions of the Church of which, by the Sacrament of Baptism, we have become members. It is said that "in it the Word is understood"; that "in it good and truth make one as essence and form", that "all things of it are out of the good of love"; that "it makes one with Heaven"; that "the all of it is the good of love flowing in together with the light out of Heaven from the Lord"; that "nothing unclean will be received in it"; that "none in it shall be separated from the Lord but all conjoined with Him"; that "there will be not any falsity of faith in it"; and it is said that, with regard to its Doctrine, "the good of love is in it and that it is holy out of the Divine truths out of the Word, and that it is of a celestial origin". If one compares the state of the visible New Church, the history of which abounds with testimonies to its many

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human weaknesses and shortcomings, with these descriptions, one may be in doubt as to their exact significance. Are they applicable in any sense to the actual state of the New Church in the past and in the present, or do they only refer to some ideal  state in the far future?  And  yet we read that here a description is given of "the New Church which after the last Judgment was to exist in the lands" (A.R. ch. XXI, Contents); and that "this Church is  called  Bride  while it is  being  established,  and  Wife when it is established" (A.R. 896). There can thus be no doubt that the description of those purely Divine qualities actually refers to the historical New Church from its very beginning. It seems, however, that it has never been realized that then the description must refer to things which are called holy and Divine after having passed through actual reception in the minds of the members of the Church, thus to things which are born in the Church. This seems evident from the fact that when it was pointed out for the first time that the genuine Doctrine of the Church is Divine. this position met with an almost general refusal. The idea with regard to these revealed Divine qualities of the New Church always seems to have been that they are to be sought for exclusively in the Divine Revelation itself given to the Church, and by no means in the men themselves which constitute the Church. It is not surprising that this should have been the idea with regard to what is said about the Divine essence of this Church as to its Doctrine, namely, that "the good of love is in it and that it is holy out of the Divine truths out of the Word, and that it is out of a celestial origin"; and thus that "the Word in it is understood", and that "there will be not any falsity of faith in it"; for it is according to order that the Church in its beginning should identify the literal sense of the Revelation given to it with its Doctrine. And so also did the New Church. The words that "in it the Word will be understood" were simply taken to mean that in the "Writings" the "Word" is understood; and similarly the words that "there will be not any falsity of faith in it", that the "Writings" are free of falsities. But the Divine essence  which  in  those  descriptions is ascribed to the New Church extends not only to its Doctrine, but to all and everything of it. and it is said of it in the most general

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way that "there shall not enter into it anything unclean".

  If the Church is seen from the Lord it may appear in the form of one Man, which consists of all the members of the Church as to their regenerated celestial and angelic proprium which they have from the Lord (cf. A.C. 252). It is this greater Man, which as to its origin and essence is of the Lord alone and thus Divine, and this Man alone, which before the Lord is called the Church. And it is this very real and very actual greater Man which is called the Bride and the Wife of the Lamb, and which is described in those passages quoted from the APOCALYPSE REVEALED. So in ARCANA COELESTIA, n. 253, we read: "Out of the celestial and angelic proprium the Church in the Word is called Woman, and also Wife, Bride, Virgin, Daughter". Though this greater Man, which is the proper Church, .cannot appear before the bodily eyes of man, nevertheless man can form an abstract and rational understanding of all  its  essential  qualities.  So  a  concept  can be  formed concerning what constitutes the soul of that Man, its body, and its spirit. That Man which is the Church proper, and indeed not only if the Church is seen as a whole but also with regard to the individual men, is conceived from the Lord alone (cf. A.C. 1438); and it is conceived in and born from the affection of the Latin Word. Its soul is the genuine love of truth, its body is the good of life in the genuine things of the Church in the natural, and its spirit is the genuine Doctrine proceeding from that soul through that body. It may therefore be evident that only those things with the members of the Church, which belong to its genuine soul, spirit, and body, belong also to the Church proper which is signified by the New Jerusalem. And it is plain that where the affection of the Latin Word as the very and proper Word itself of the New Church is lacking, there that Church proper in man which is to be the Bride and the Wife of the Lord, has not even been born as yet. From this it appears in full light how far beyond the borders of that Holy City which is described in the APOCALYPSE, are those who are confirmed in a ratiocinated denial of the Divine Human as present in the Latin Word. And it is also plain that in a mind where the ruling love is not the love of truth, which in the Church is  nothing  else  than  the  desire  that  the  Lord  and  His

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Church should become all in all things and that the proprium should be reduced to nothing, in a mind thus which with its heart is engaged in the pursuits of the world, there can be no growth as to those things which make the spirit and the body of the living Church. If the New Church is seen in this way it is no longer difficult to understand why it is said of it that "there shall not enter into it anything unclean", and why it is described in those passages quoted as being of a Divine origin and essence. There will indeed always adhere to the Church the things of the old proprium of the members of the Church, which is  infernal.  But  these  evils  and  falsities  are  altogether extraneous to the texture of those things which constitute the Church proper; just as there always are impurities adhering to the corporeal body, without and within, which nevertheless remain extraneous to its texture, as long as the body is in a healthy state.

  There is the teaching that "all in all things of the Church is from the Lord" (A.E. 23); there is the teaching that "all influx is according to reception"  (A.C. 5118; H.H. 569); and there is the teaching that "good and truth cannot be predicated without a subject which is man" (A.C. 4380; cf. A.E. 355); and if these teachings are seen harmonized together it can be seen that there is no Church unless the Divine of the Lord is also Divinely received by man, as of himself, but nevertheless from the Lord; and then it becomes clear what is meant by the teaching that "the Lord can dwell with man only in what is His Own; for the Divine cannot dwell in what is of man's proprium but only in what is Divine" (A.C. 9338). The realization of this truth opens the way to the greatest and profoundest experience a man can have; it introduces him for the first time into genuine spiritual light, whereby he for the first time begins to see and view the Divine realities of religion not outside himself but within himself, and thus begins to see things not from without but from within; and far from this making him self-conscious and self-satisfied, he is led into a realization of his own nothingness and the necessity of regeneration in such a degree as was never possible before. A rather frequent use has of late been made of the words "to see from within"; but nobody can see the Divine things within himself and thus see things from within unless

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by virtue of the Divine in him, which must inflow with him from the Lord from within; for it is said that "to see something within one's self is to see out of Heaven" (A.C. 10675).

  We have said that it is not surprising that the Divine which in those passages quoted from the APOCALYPSE REVEALED is predicated of the New Jerusalem as to its Doctrine, should thus far always have been ascribed exclusively  to  the Third Testament  itself,  because it is according to  order that the Church  in the  beginning identifies the literal sense .of the Revelation given to it with its Doctrine.  Moreover the Church was strongly confirmed in this belief because the literal sense of its Revelation in several places styles itself "the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem". The Word has been doctrinal in all its Testaments (cf. A.C. 9780). And just as it may be said that the Old Testament was the Doctrine of the Jewish Church, and the  New Testament the Doctrine of the Christian Church, so it may be said that the Third Testament is the Doctrine of the New Church. The word Thorah, by which the Jews designated the five books of Moses which they in the strictest sense considered as their Word, in Hebrew means Doctrine. The Word is the infinite Doctrine itself from which a Church by the orderly means must draw its own finite Doctrine; and so the Latin Word is the infinite Divine Doctrine itself from which the New Church may draw its own Doctrine to eternity. But the infinite Doctrine itself and the Doctrine of the Church, although they make one, are not identical; just as genuine good and genuine truth, although they cannot exist unless in a celestial marriage they make one, are not identical. The "Marriage of the Lamb" (APOCALYPSE XIX : 7) refers to nothing else than to this celestial marriage of good and truth in the Church; the good being the Lord Himself and the truth being the genuine Doctrine which the Church has made for itself as of itself out of the Latin Word. It is of the greatest importance to realize that the "making of this Doctrine" (cf. A.C. 10548) does not consist in a simple direct reading or taking cognizance of the Latin Word, but that in it all the human intellectual faculties, including all the different discrete degrees of the rational, are involved. It ought to be evident that a man may "read" the

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Latin Word to all eternity without understanding one single genuine truth, of it, if the interior faculties of his understanding have not been formed and opened from the Lord. It is plain that a reference to the teaching that man is  enlightened  when  he  reads  the  Word,  is  not  only meaningless but misleading, if it is not known what "to read" really means, namely "to understand out of illustration, thus to perceive" (A.E. 13).

 The Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg are the very Word of the Lord. Their true essence cannot be seen unless all  and  every  thing  which is revealed concerning the essence of the Word in the DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE is applied to them. Every effort to prove that the analogy with the other Testaments is not complete, and that the application should be made with differences and with reserves, if interiorly scrutinized will appear to detract from the Latin Testament one or other quality which is  essential  to  the  Word  and  inalienable.  "The  Latin Word is the Word according to the understanding of it  with  man,  that  is,  as  it  is  understood.  If it is not understood, the Latin Word is indeed called the Word, but with the man it is not. The Latin Word is the truth according to the understanding of it, for the Latin Word may be not the truth, for it can be falsified. The Latin Word is spirit and life according to the understanding of it; for the letter without the understanding of it is dead" (cf.  S.S.  76—79).  And  this  truth  can  be  derived  from innumerable places in all the books of the Third Testament. A few quotations must here suffice. So we read in n.  1776 of the ARCANA COELESTIA:  "The Word of the Lord is a dead letter, but it is vivified from the Lord in the reader according to the faculty of each one; and it becomes living according to the life of his charity and the state of innocence, and this with innumerable variety". In n. 8456 we read: "No truth ... of the Word becomes truth with man before it has received life from the Divine". That this Divine is the Divine within man from the Lord is plain. In n. 10703: "It is said light in the external of the Word from its internal, but it is understood light in the external of man from his internal, when he reads it; for the Word does not give light out of itself except before

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a.  man  who  is  in  light  from  the  internal;  without  this  the Word is only a letter"; and finally in n. 10707: "When it is  said  the  internal  of  the  Word,  the  internal  of  the Church ... is also understood; for the Church is there where the Word is, and it is out of the Word; ... hence it is that such as is man's understanding of the Word, such is the Church in him". In these and innumerable similar passages we may see exactly what is meant when the position is advanced that the genuine understanding of the Church and thus the genuine Doctrine must be Divine, namely, that otherwise the Word itself with man is not Divine. It is not the purpose to exalt the proprium of man above the Lord. Just the opposite is the purpose; for if we read that the Word, thus the Latin Word, is a dead letter unless it has become living according to the state of innocence with man, it ought to be plain that without this innocence in man the Latin Word with man is not the Word. Innocence is the inmost of the Divine Human which makes the Heavens and the Church. The Lord alone is Divine; the Lord alone has authority; and the Lord alone is infallible. It would be insane to ascribe the Divine, and authority, and infallibility, to the proprium of man. The teaching is that if the Word is not understood, and if it is not vivified by states of innocence, it is not the Word, and not the truth, and not Divine. It then has no authority and it then cannot be adduced as being infallible.  The Latin Word as it is in itself is indeed Divine, but with man its Divinity, its Authority, and its Infallibility are dependent on the presence of the Holy Spirit.

  The greatest danger which delays the progress of the New Church is the same which destroyed all the previous churches, namely, that the proprium of men should come to nestle and dwell in the letter of the Latin Testament which is not understood, and which thereby is separated from its genuine spirit. Concerning this we read: "The evil  [of  all  churches  from  the beginning which have perished] was that they do not believe the Lord or the Word, but themselves and their senses" (A.C. 231). A man who bases his life and his religion on a mere direct cognizance of the Latin Word, without making for himself a Doctrine according to all his genuine faculties, out of the

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life of his charity and the state of his innocence from the Lord (cf. A.C. 1776); or a man who takes the scientifics he has taken up from the letter of the Latin Word for genuine truths before they have received life from the Divine which is within him (cf. A.C. 8456), does not believe the Word but himself and his own senses. It ought to be realized that these things cannot be remedied only by the admission that for the understanding also of the Third Testament there must be illustration from the Lord; for the Word cannot be opened by illustration alone; unless the degrees of the mind are opened, the Latin Word as to its interiors  remains closed.  It ought also to be  realized that the genuine understanding of the Word or the Doctrine of genuine truth cannot justly .be designated by the term "derivative doctrine". For this term involves the idea as if there were any original not-derived doctrine accessible to men, which alone is Divine and which alone should be considered as the true Divine Doctrine of the Church. It is plain that the not-derived Doctrine does exist in the Lord alone, and that it is therefore meaningless to introduce the distinction between not-derived and derived doctrine with man. Before the Word has entered man's understanding it is with him not the Word and all understanding is derived; there is no sense in speaking of an understanding which is not-derived. Neither can the term "interpretative doctrine" be admitted as suitable to designate  the  essence  of  the genuine Doctrine of the Church; for this term implies the idea of something which comes in between man and the Word or the Lord, while in reality the essential purpose of Doctrine is that man should come with his own understanding, as of himself, into contact and into conjunction with the very spirit of the Word and thus with the very Lord Himself; and that he should not remain in the unopened scientifics of the Latin Word, in which his proprium may come to dwell so as to form with the very scientifics of the Word something which will come in between him and the Lord and cause a separation. Of such it is said in n. 10641 of the ARCANA COELESTIA that with them there is " seduction in the Word itself".

  From what has been revealed in the Latin Testament concerning the essence of the Word, the following leading

18                    REV. ERNST PFEIFFER 

theses have been formulated: 1. The Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg are the Third Testament of the Word of the Lord. The DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE must be applied to the three Testaments alike. 2. The Latin Word without Doctrine is as a candlestick without light, and those who read the Latin Word without Doctrine, or who do not acquire for themselves a Doctrine from the Latin Word, are in darkness as to all truth (cf. S.S. 50—61).  3. The genuine Doctrine of the Church is spiritual out of celestial origin, but not out of rational origin. The Lord is that Doctrine itself (cf. A.C. 2496, 2497, 2510, 2516, 2533, 2859; A.E. 19; and innumerable other places). Time forbids to enter into an analysis of these theses. But they are in themselves sufficient to show that if the genuine Doctrine of the Church is claimed to be Divine, this does not mean that the Doctrine of the Church is exalted above the Word. And they also show why the position that "the Writings are the very Doctrine of the Church, Divinely given", proves to be contrary to the teaching of the Latin Word itself, if by this it is meant to say that no Doctrine born in man, ' which is spiritual out of celestial origin, is necessary to see the truth in the Latin Word.

  On the one side it is a revealed truth that the Word remains in darkness unless there is a genuine Doctrine out of the Word and confirmed by it; on the other side it is also a revealed truth that to make genuine Doctrine is impossible, unless it be drawn out of the letter and confirmed by it. The mere fact that the Doctrine must be confirmed by the letter of the Latin Word, is a proof that that Doctrine is not identical with that letter; for there is no sense in saying that the letter of the Word must be confirmed by the letter. And so the exact position the purpose of which is to establish the Divine essence of the genuine Doctrine of the Church may be expressed in the very words of the Latin Word itself, namely: "The Doctrine of the Church out of the sense of the letter and together with it has authority" (ON THE SACRED SCRIPTURE FROM EXPERIENCE, XVIII ).

  As regards the question whether there are discrete degrees of truth involved in the understanding of the

19            THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE WORD

Latin Word, it ought to be seen that the key of this problem lies essentially in the doctrine concerning the discrete degrees of the human mind. If the actuality of these degrees — which are the exterior natural, the interior natural, the exterior rational, and the interior rational (cf. A.C. 5145) — is realized, it will appear that the Word in all its Testaments alike, thus also the Third Testament, by direct reading or direct cognizance can only yield truths of the first and second degree which are sensual scientifics and cognitions. If these are genuine they are from the Lord with man; the order according to which they become genuine is described by the journey of Abram in Egypt, and because the innocence of the spiritual childhood of man is the soul of them, they are even called "celestial truths" (A. C. 1402). As long as the Church considers the literal sense of its Word itself as its Doctrine and thus believes that it can gather that Doctrine by a direct reading, that is by the way of sensual cognizance, all its truths, though they are genuine truths, nevertheless are essentially of a natural-rational origin. They belong to the interior natural degree of the mind; and the essence of that which in this state makes the Church in man is obedience to these truths.

20              REV. ERNST PFEIFFER

of the Church in this state in the Latin Word are called genuine spiritual truths; they are the genuine natural or external of the very spiritual truths themselves in which are the Angels of the second Heaven. Although these truths are not identical with the truths of the spiritual Angels themselves, because as long as man lives in this world he is not conscious above the natural degree of the mind, nevertheless they are discretely above the truths of the previous state; because the natural degree, though in itself it is continuous, by correspondence with the spiritual and celestial degrees if these are opened, becomes so distinctly divided into degrees that it fully appears as if it  were  in  itself  discrete  (D.L.W.  256).  The  spiritual Doctrine is the abstract system of truths concerning the Divine things of the spiritual Church. That it is unlimited and can never be brought to an end, is plain. The Latin Word in every least word in the spiritual sense treats of these concepts of good and truth which make the spiritual New Church. In the spiritual Doctrine all the natural and historical concepts of the letter of the Latin Word have been left behind. There is no relation between the truths of this spiritual Doctrine and those of the natural Doctrine but that of correspondence.

  It is only when the fourth or inmost degree of the mind, the interior rational, is opened, that man comes into the very rational itself. This is the celestial state of man, and therefore it is said: "A truly rational man is no one but he who is called the celestial man" (A.C. 6240). It is in this state that the celestial Doctrine of the Church is born, and although the law that the Doctrine must be drawn from the letter of the Latin Word and be confirmed by it, remains true also with regard to this inmost degree of Doctrine, nevertheless it is plain that, even much less than the spiritual Doctrine, it is not the result of direct cognizance of the letter. The celestial Doctrine is an immediate revelation by perception from the Lord (cf. A.C. 10270; CANONS: The Holy Spirit 3 : 2).

   Time forbids here to enter in detail upon these profound problems. They have been developed as to many essential particulars in the journal of the Church in Holland, which in its English edition is also accessible to the English reader. The main point of the present argument is to show

21                    THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE WORD

that the problem whether there are discrete degrees of truth involved in the understanding of the Latin Word, and whether therefore the science of correspondences must be applied to that Word, can only be seen in the light of the doctrine concerning the discrete degrees of the human mind. Essential correspondences are between the natural, the spiritual, and the celestial; and thus between the natural truths in the Church, the spiritual truths in the Church, and the celestial truths in the Church. Natural truths are in generals; spiritual truths are in particulars; celestial  truths  are  in  singulars.  Natural  truths  are composite truths; spiritual truths are their components; and celestial truths are the components of these (cf. A.C. 4154). There is no relation between these degrees of truths but that of correspondence. It is here that the essential application of the science of correspondences lies. If this is realized it becomes plain that the theory that the Lord Himself has raised the truths from degree to degree in the successive Revelations, so that in the Third Testament they are "rational truths", which is the highest degree to which man can attain, will' not suffice to solve the problem of the discrete degrees of truth in the Latin Word. The problem of the relation between the three Testaments is far more intricate than it has there been surmised. The Old Testament was a Revelation of the Human Divine; the New Testament was a Revelation of the Divine Natural of the Divine Human; and the Third Testament is a Revelation of the Divine Rational of the Divine Human. The approach to all the three Testaments is the same, namely in the exterior natural, or in sensual cognizance; for the Word is Divine Truth in lasts, and also in the Third Testament the Divine Truth has been laid down in lasts. "Now it is allowed to enter intellectually" does not mean a direct cognizance of genuine rational truths, of which it  is  believed  that  they  are  there  lying  open  or  naked before our eyes; it is an exhortation to the man of the Church that he should suffer himself to be regenerated, whereby the interior degrees of his mind may be opened. and he may be "arrayed in fine linen, clean and white", as it is said of the Bride of the Lamb (Ap. XIX : 8), which signifies that he may be instructed in genuine and pure truths through the Latin Word from the Lord. We

22                     REV. THEODORE PITCAIRN

read in the APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED, n. 1222, that "fine linen signifies  truth  out  of celestial origin";  and  in n.  1143:  "Truths out of celestial origin are the   truths with those who are in love to the Lord". The love to the Lord, and thus the essential love which makes the man of the Church to be a man and to be a Church, is therefore the love for such truths out of celestial origin.

  SERIES AND DEGREES IN THE LATIN WORD AS ILLUSTRATED BY THE LAW OF THE FIRSTBORN

ADDRESS BY THE REVEREND THEODORE PITCAIRN BEFORE THE XXV. BRITISH ASSEMBLY, LONDON, AUGUST 1ST, 1932.

  In GENESIS there are three stories in which the subject is the right of the firstborn, and in which this right appears to be taken from. the elder son and to be given to the younger brother. These stories treat of the twin brothers Esau and Jacob; the twin brothers Zarah and Pharez, the sons of Judah by Tamar; and Manasseh and Ephraim, sons of Joseph. In each case the subject is the relation of good and truth, or charity and faith, in the natural, and the apparent primacy of truth and the actual primacy of good. In many respects there is a resemblance between the birth of the twin sons of Isaac and Judah, and between the blessing of Esau and Jacob, and Manasseh and Ephraim, so much so that the literal sense of the ARCANA CELESTIA presents the appearance as if the subject considered were the same, and it is only by means of seeing the series of GENESIS as a whole, that the essential difference can become manifest.

  As is well known, the seven days of creation, in the first chapters of GENESIS is a summary of the whole of the Word; thus it is a summary of the whole of the Glorification of the Lord, and therefore of the whole of the regeneration of man, and also of the whole history of the Church. This is according to the law that the first of a series is a summary of all that follows. This law is also manifest in the first verse of the Word: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth". And it also applies

23            SERIES AND DEGREES IN THE LATIN WORD

to the first book of the Word, namely GENESIS; for if the book of GENESIS is seen in a series, it becomes manifest that it treats of the complete Glorification of the Lord, and of the complete regeneration of man. It is according to this series that we will consider the subject.

  In the inmost sense, as has been said, GENESIS treats of the Glorification of the Lord, from Conception to His Ascension. In the inmost representative sense it treats of the regeneration of the celestial man whose regeneration is a likeness of the Glorification of the Lord; in the interior representative sense it treats of the regeneration of the spiritual man, the regeneration of whom is an image of the Glorification of the Lord. The reason the regeneration of the spiritual man is an image and not a likeness is because the spiritual man is not regenerated as to all the degrees of the mind, and he is therefore not fully a man. In a lower sense it treats of the regeneration of the spiritual natural man.

  The essential internal sense in relation to man is always in relation to the celestial man, the regeneration of whom is alone an image and likeness of the Glorification of the Lord. This internal sense is at present far in the distance like a mountain-range covered with clouds; nevertheless, of the Divine Mercy of the Lord, certain general, although incomplete outlines begin to become manifest. The Word is written in a Divine series, which series as it is in itself can be seen by the Lord alone, nevertheless there are indefinite series  which  can  become  visible  to  men.  All  genuine spiritual sight of men depends on being in one of these Divine series; if man is not in a Divine series he can see no genuine truth in any of the Testaments of the Word. If these series are not opened by the Lord to the man of the New Church, he remains in the literal sense of the Third Testament, in which case he can have no perception of the infinity of the Latin Word, although he may acknowledge its infinity from the general statements of Doctrine. That this however is not an internal acknowledgment, is evident from the fact that he imagines that he is in the full light of the spiritual Sun in reading the literal sense of the Latin Word, while in fact he is in a cloud and can hardly see that which is too far to touch with the hand.

  It is asked: But why emphasize the clouds of the literal

24              REV. THEODORE PITCAIRN

sense of the Latin Word and not its Glory? This is not the question. The question is not what man should emphasize, but what is the truth. If man in first reading the Latin Word is in dense clouds, it is important that he should know it, lest he become as one of those of whom the Lord said: "If ye were blind ye should have no sin; but now ye say: We see; therefore your sin remaineth", JOHN 9 :41.

  It is obvious from Doctrine that the Latin Word is infinite and thus contains infinite Wisdom; yet this is contrary to the appearance of a man who is in' its literal sense, for the ideas contained appear to be limited in number, in fact so very limited, that a man who has spent the few years of his life on earth studying them, may easily come into the fantasy that he has a general knowledge of the contents of the Latin Word. Concerning the Word we read: "That such is the infinity of spiritual seed or of the truths of the Word, can be seen from angelic Wisdom, which is all from the Word. This increases in the Angels to eternity, and the wiser they become, the more clearly do they see that wisdom is without end, and perceive that they are only in the outer court, and cannot in the smallest particular attain to the Lord's Divine Wisdom, which they call a great deep. Since then the Word is from this great deep, because it is from the Lord, it is plain that there is a kind of infinity in every part", T.C.R. 290. Swedenborg at the entrance to the palace of Wisdom was told that the requirement for entrance was the acknowledgment that what one knew, compared to what one did not know, was as a drop of water to the ocean, which Swedenborg said he acknowledged more than others.

  The subject of the ARCANA CELESTIA in the internal sense is the regeneration of man, concerning which we read: "The arcana of regeneration are so innumerable that scarcely a ten-thousandth part of them can be known by the Angels, and those that they do know are what make their intelligence and wisdom", A.C. 5398. What then is known by man? From the above it is evident that the first of wisdom is to acknowledge that what we understand of the Latin Word is as nothing, and that we are in the densest cloud as to all internal and inmost things. But while this may be acknowledged with the mouth, if man has not been given some perception of where the infinite and to man

25               SERIES AND DEGREES IN THE LATIN WORD    

indefinite regions or deeps of the Word, and especially the Latin Word, lie, in his heart he is apt to revert to the fantasy that he has a general acquaintance with the contents of the Latin Word, and this especially for the reason that such a conception flatters his self-intelligence.

  Swedenborg was once granted to see the occupied regions of Heaven and the regions still unoccupied, and he saw that those which were occupied were as nothing compared to those as yet unoccupied.

  It is the  internal  sense  of the Word  which  makes Heaven; in a spiritual idea the unoccupied regions of the Heavens is the internal of the Word which is yet to be opened and appropriated by Heaven and the Church. It is the purpose of this -paper to give some slight indication as to where certain unoccupied regions lie.

  In application to the regeneration of man, the first eleven chapters of GENESIS treat of the operation of the Lord before the actual rebirth of man. These chapters are said to be made historicals, while those which follow are real historicals.

  The difference between made historicals and real historicals is that the former are due entirely to influx from within, while the latter are based on experience from without. In relation to man this signifies that before the actual birth of the new man the Lord operates from within, preparing man for regeneration, but that after man is born anew, he cooperates as of himself and apparently from without, although this latter operation is equally the Lord's with man as was the former, as is indicated by the fact that the chapters before and after the eleventh chapter are equally in a Divine series. Before man has been born again he indeed appears to act as of himself, but it is an as of itself not yet in himself, as is clear from children who also have a kind of as of itself, which is not really theirs.

  In the twelfth chapter commences the story of Abram. Abram in the supreme sense represents the Lord and the states of His Glorification in infancy. Actual regeneration in man does not commence until adult life, wherefore in relation to man, Abram represents the infancy of the new man. For as it is said: "Man must be conceived anew, born anew, and educated anew", thus man of the second birth, or the regenerated man, has. like the man of the first birth.

26             REV. THEODORE PITCAIRN

to pass in an orderly manner through the different ages of life. The man born again is first a spiritual infant, and as such he is held in celestial things from the Lord, but as to his actual life he is entirely in sensual things, the sensual in this story being represented by Lot. The sensual things are particularly the sensual things of the literal sense of the Word. It has been believed in the Church that the Old Testament teaches sensual truth, the New Testament natural truth, and the Third Testament rational truth, and there is indeed a series in which this is true. But in the first state after the rebirth of the man of the New Church, all three Testaments are seen sensually. That the Third Testament is at first seen sensually is evident from the fact that the first things which delight are the external appearances of the spiritual world, which are sensual appearances. Even the inmost statements of Doctrine concerning the Divine Human are at first sensual. For the delight remains in the appearance of the Lord in the Sun of Heaven, and as seen by the external eyes of Angels. thus it is in the sensual; nevertheless in the sensual of the new infancy the celestial is present.

  In the next state man is instructed in the scientifics of the Word. Scientifics are a degree of truth more interior than sensual truth; by means of these truths the natural mind is brought into order under ruling principles. This first ordering of the natural mind is described by the story of Abram in Egypt. If the subject being considered is to be understood, there must be some knowledge concerning the natural that is being treated of, for there are many persons in GENESIS which represent the natural, as for example the servant of Abraham, Esau and Jacob, Ephraim and Manasseh, the ten sons of Israel which came to Joseph, and the Pharaoh in the time of Joseph. Yet while all these are called the natural, it is evident that there is a very great difference as to the representation of these different persons, and in fact that it is entirely different naturals that are treated of. For example, the natural that is signified by Esau and Jacob is born from the celestial rational represented by Isaac, wherefore previous to the birth of Esau and Jacob, this natural does not exist. Joseph also signifies the rational and his sons Ephraim and Manasseh a natural from the rational. Nevertheless the

27                SERIES AND DEGREES IN THE LATIN WORD

rational that Joseph represents is an entirely different rational from that which was represented by Isaac. For in the days of Isaac the rational that was represented by Joseph did not as yet exist. The rational represented by Isaac was born from the inmost represented by Abraham, while the rational that was represented by Joseph was born from the spiritual natural represented by Israel, that is, it  is  a  rational  raised  out  of  the regenerated  spiritual natural. If there is no distinct idea concerning the natural that is being considered, the subject remains in darkness; this is the reason that it is necessary to give certain outlines of GENESIS before entering upon the subject of the contention as to the birth-right. In the Word there are innumerable names which signify the celestial, the spiritual, the natural, the internal, the external, and so forth, and yet there are no. two names which signify exactly the same thing. Again the same name has often many significations, as for example Abram and Abraham have the following significations: Those who are in idolatry, the Lord in His infancy, the Divine itself, the Human of the Lord, the rational, the celestial, the good of the pure intellectory. Isaac represents the spiritual and also the celestial rational. Joseph represents the external of the rational, the celestial of the natural, the celestial of the spiritual, the internal celestial, and the Divine spiritual, besides several other representations. In fact the signification is always according to the series, wherefore a name can never occur twice with exactly the same representation; and a name in any particular place has a different signification according to the series which is being unfolded, which series are infinite, and in relation to man beyond number. Hence it is evident that unless a man is in a Divine series of the Word he can never see anything of the Word in a genuine sense.

  And as these series in the Word are infinite, it is manifest with what dense clouds the ARCANA CELESTIA is veiled, and that it is only by the Mercy of the Lord that a man can see any genuine internal truth.

  We will not consider here how the natural-, the spiritual-, and the celestial rational are formed, and how by influx into them the genuine Doctrine is formed. It is, however, important to know that the internal that is represented by Abraham and from which the rational is born, is above the

28                 REV. THEODORE PITCAIRN

Heavens, thus above the consciousness of the celestial Heaven and the celestial Church, and that it only becomes manifest to the celestial in the interior or celestial rational represented by Isaac.

  That the Lord alone thought from intellectual truth, represented by Sarah, is taught in the ARCANA CELESTIA, n.  1904.  That the inmost  represented by  Abraham and Sarah does not come to the perception of man is taught in n. 1940. That this internal is only perceived by man or Angel when it flows into the rational is taught in n. 2093.

  That the spiritual, or those who are in the exterior rational, are represented by Ishmael, and the celestial, or those who are in the interior rational, are represented by Isaac, is taught in n. 2078 and further in n. 2661, from which the following is quoted: "The Lord did not come into the world to save the celestial but the spiritual. The Most Ancient Church, called man, was celestial. ... By Isaac is represented the Lord's Divine Rational, and by him are also signified the celestial who are called heirs; and by Ishmael is represented the Lord's merely human rational, and by him are also signified the spiritual who are called sons". From the above it is clear that there is no question of the existence of the natural that is represented by Esau and Jacob, before the birth of the celestial rational represented by Isaac, for these are born from this rational. If this is not known by the Church while reading of the inversion of state that takes place when Esau, representing good, becomes the lord of Jacob, representing truth, there is the danger that the Church might fall into the "celestial heresy", which in the past was so destructive of the genuine things of the Church, in spite of the fact that it appeared to be confirmed by many things from the literal sense of the Latin Word. In the natural that exists previous to the natural born from the celestial rational, there can be no such order as that signified by Esau as being the lord of Jacob.

  Previous to the regeneration of the celestial rational the Lord indeed has His natural in man, and it is in fact by this natural that the truth of the rational is united to the good of the rational, but this natural is the servant of the inmost represented by Abraham, and is called the servant, the elder of his house; see GENESIS, chapter 24. This

29            SERIES AND DEGREES IN THE LATIN WORD

natural is the servant of the inmost and does its bidding, wherefore this natural is never attributed to man as his own.

  Although the natural that is represented by Esau and Jacob is born from the regenerated rational, the natural after this birth must also be regenerated. For at first it is only the internal of the natural that is from the rational; Esau signifies the good of the natural from the rational, and Jacob the truth of the natural from the rational. Although Esau was born first, a dispute arises as to the birth-right, and this for two reasons. First, because there is an appearance that the truth of faith precedes the good of life. And second, because before regeneration truth must be apparently in the first place. The reason truth must be apparently in the first place is because before the will is regenerated, nothing can proceed from it but evil and falsity, wherefore it has to be in apparent subjection to the truth of Doctrine. Nevertheless that even from birth the good of the natural is the first is evident from the fact that no truth can be received with acknowledgment except from delight; wherefore it is the delight or the good of the natural that introduces. But previous to regeneration, this good which introduced the truth does not manifest itself as the good of the natural; and as the only good which manifests itself is not as yet genuine, it sells its birth-right to truth. The birth-right was sold for a mass of pottage, by which is represented a chaotic mass of doctrinal things. All things of the mind must .be ordered by means of good from the Lord which flows in by an internal way. All things which enter from without, from the Word or from the Doctrine of the Church, are in the mind a chaotic mass of doctrinal things, until they have been so ordered from the Lord; and this in spite of the fact that to the man it appears as if he understood the Word and the Doctrine, and thus they appear to be in order in his mind; but this appearance is a fallacy, for truth is nothing but the form of good. Wherefore if it is not good which has ordered the mind the doctrinals with man are not alive and appear in the spiritual world as something material, fibrous, and closed up. Nevertheless a man must have this chaotic mass of doctrinals, for until they are present, there can be no establishment of order in his mind: wherefore Esau must

30                     REV. THEODORE PITCAIRN

sell his birth-right for this pottage. But he did so, saying: "I am about to die", which signifies that good would rise again and .assume the priority.

  Since the beginning of the world there has been a dispute as to which has the priority, good or truth, or faith or charity. In the New Church this dispute centered about a belief that is known in the GENERAL CHURCH as the "celestial heresy". Those in this belief, which dominated the thought of the church in New 'England in the past generation, emphasized the oft repeated passages in the Writings that truth is out of good, and therefore that a minister should teach out of his goodness, and they minimized the importance of Doctrine, which minimization they were also able to confirm by passages from the Writings. At the same time they took Divine authority away from the Writings and attributed it to their own goodness, and thus destroyed the essentials of the Church.

  The ACADEMY rebuked these teachings by showing that good without truth is merely natural, and that if man were not in the truth he could never come into genuine good; at the same time bringing forth the teachings of the Writings concerning themselves, as being the Lord, and the presence of the Lord in the New Church. Thus it was shown that the placing of the authority of the goodness of man superior to the books in which the Lord had made his Second Coming, was profane; thus the genuine New Church was saved from a false doctrine, that, if unchecked, would have destroyed everything genuine. The ACADEMY, however, did not enter into and unfold the genuine meaning of the innumerable passages in the Latin Word which teach that all genuine truth is out of good and that truth is the form of good, and hence that good is the first of the Church and not truth. In fact, by placing the Writings above everything, they appeared to give to the truth of the Writings in the Church the right of primogeniture, and to make good secondary; and indeed this appearance was essential for the salvation of the Church, and led the Church through a necessary and therefore orderly state. But the danger arises that this appearance might be taken for the reality. Because of the perversion that took place in the past, men feared to enter into the passages in the Latin Word which had been perverted. and when any one

31                    SERIES AND DEGREES IN THE LATIN WORD

touched upon them he was warned of the danger. However the Rev. E. S. Hyatt did treat concerning the subject in one of his sermons in exposition of the text concerning the house built upon a rock and the house built upon the sand, in which he showed that by the sand in the New Church is  signified  the  scientifics or appearances  of the  literal sense of the Writings, in the mind of the man of the New Church, which if they are not ordered from the Lord by means of good proceeding from Him, are merely sand, and being perverted by the things of man's proprium are not a basis upon which a house can stand in a storm. And that the rock is these same scientifics ordered and united into a one from the Lord by influx of good from within, and that thus in the New Church it is the Writings in the mind of the Church, so ordered by the Lord who alone is the rock, upon which the Church can be founded; and hence that it is the Divine good in the Church that is the primary and never the appearances of truth that a man draws from the literal sense of the Writings.