Scientific discovery of Spiritual Laws given in Rational
Scientific Revelations
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1 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 2 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). 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
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 4
REV. ERNST PFEIFFER 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 5
THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE WORD
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).
6
REV. ERNST PFEIFFER
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
7
THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE WORD
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
8
REV. ERNST PFEIFFER 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- 9
THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE WORD
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 10
REV. ERNST PFEIFFER 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
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 11
THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE WORD
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
12
REV. ERNST PFEIFFER 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 13
THE UNDERSTANDING. OF THE WORD
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
14
REV. ERNST PFEIFFER 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 15
THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE WORD
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
16 REV. ERNST PFEIFFER 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
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 17
THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE WORD
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 ). 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 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 22 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. 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
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
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 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
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 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
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 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,
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
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 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
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
32 REV. THEODORE PITCAIRN then
the influx is according to order. Such influx exists with those who have been
regenerated; but as before said, there is another influx before they have been
regenerated, namely that the good of the rational does not inflow immediately
into the good of the natural, but mediately through the truth of the rational,
and thus presents something like good in the natural, but which is not genuine
good, and consequently not genuine truth; but it is such that inmostly it really
has good from the influx through the truth of the rational, but no
further", A.C. 3563.
It must be noted that the rational that is here signified by Isaac and
Rebekah, is the rational that has been formed by the influx of both good and
truth through the internal
The nature of the influx of the good of the rational, signified by Isaac,
into the truth of the rational, signified by Rebekah, and from this into the
truth of the natural, signified by Jacob,
and thence
into the good
of the natural, signified by Esau, previous to regeneration, in which
case truth is within and good without, and the 33
SERIES AND DEGREES IN THE LATIN WORD nature
of the state after regeneration when there is an immediate influx of the good of
the rational into the good of the natural and thence into its truth, which
influx then becomes primary and the former influx secondary, is a subject which
can with difficulty be explained on account of a lack of knowledge. Here we will
confine ourselves to certain external illustrations by which some idea of the
subject may be had.
The most essential rational concept that has been given to the Church was
expressed by the words: The Writings
Again, in the early days of the ACADEMY, from a love of order, especially
from a desire that the Lord's Divine order should prevail on earth, it was seen
that goods and truths of the New Church in their true order were the means of
the salvation of the New Church, and that the New Church
As in all things there should be a correspondence between the spiritual
and the natural, it was seen that there should be a distinctive social life in
the New Church and that internal friendship was only possible with those within
the Church, for such association alone corresponds to the association of Angels
with their goods and truths. This doctrine was put into practice and thus became
the good of the natural in the various societies of the Church. Thus there was
an influx from the good of the rational into the truth of the rational, and
thence into the truth of the natural, and finally into the good of the natural.
Bat later this order must be inverted, that is, within it there must be an
influx of the good of the rational into the good of the natural, and thence into
its truth. In reference to the above illustration, the good of the rational is
the love of the orderly arrangement of the goods and truths of the
34 REV. THEODORE PITCAIRN Church;
when this flows immediately into the good of the natural, it takes the form of
the love of those who are in similar goods and truths. In this state a
perception is given
When the inversion takes place, there is an influx of truth into the
natural from within, from the interior man, which truth man could not observe
before. These truths are represented by the four hundred men that came with
Esau, see A.C. 4249. These truths are the result of the ordering of the good of
the natural from the Lord, see A.C. 9337. When this inversion has taken place, the spiritual man is regenerated; for the natural is then regenerated and receives influx out of the rational, from the Lord. "For when the natural has been regenerated, the things which flow in from the Lord through Heaven, thus through the rational into the natural, are received because they agree. For the natural is nothing but a receptacle of good and truth out of the rational from the Lord. By the natural is meant the external man, and by the rational the internal man". A.C. 4612. 35
SERIES AND DEGREES IN THE LATIN WORD
But in the story of GENESIS, as soon as this order has been established,
a new disorder arises in the natural, represented by the dreams of Joseph and
his consequent rejection by his brothers, see GENESIS chapter 37, and the
following chapter which treats of Judah and the women he took. That
these two
chapters are
closely related,
is indicated by the opening words: "And it came to pass at this
time", see A.C. 4814.
Judah in this chapter signifies the evils and falsities in the natural,
which are opposed to the celestial. With the regenerated spiritual man all
things in man from the inmost to the natural are held in order from the Lord,
but with him the evils and falsities opposed to the celestial, although
quiescent, have not been conquered; wherefore if man is to become celestial,
these evils and falsities must manifest themselves. Thus from the thirty-seventh
to the last chapter of GENESIS, in their most essential sense in relation to
man, the regeneration of man from being spiritual to becoming celestial, is
treated of. As this subject is of such an interior nature, it can with
difficulty be illustrated at the present time.
It may be noted that from Lot and later from Eliezer of Damascus, through
Ishmael to Isaac, there is an ascending series
which finally culminates
in the
recognition of Rebekah as
Isaac's wife, in the twenty-sixth chapter of GENESIS. In this series Abram or
Abraham, signifying the internal, is the essential which causes the ascent. Then
there is a descending series, of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, which culminates in
the regenerated natural from within, Jacob being the son of Isaac, and Isaac the
son of Abraham. If man, or the Church, is to become celestial on the basis of
this regenerated natural, another ascending series must 36 REV. THEODORE PITCAIRN
internal
represented by Abraham, and is not elevated from
The celestial of the spiritual then establishes a new order in the
natural, Joseph rules over Egypt, and the goods and truths of the Church in the
natural submit themselves, Joseph's brethren bow down to Joseph. From the
internal celestial, Joseph, are born a new will and understanding in the
natural, Ephraim and Manasseh, into which the internal celestial flows, through
the spiritual of the natural, Israel, see GENESIS, chapter 48, concerning the
blessing of Manasseh and Ephraim by Israel. This last descending series
culminates in the genuine will and understanding of the Word, in the natural of
the celestial man or Church.
In the beginning of the creation of the celestial man from the spiritual,
a contention again arises as to which is the
firstborn of
the natural,
good or truth.
This is represented by the
birth of the twin sons of Judah by Tamar, Zarah and Pharez. The reason this
contention again arises is because in every new state, truth again comes
apparently in the first place. Zarah, signifying good, opened the womb with his
hand, which signifies that the new birth takes place from the power of good, but
that nevertheless truth manifests itself first, signified by Pharez coming forth
first. Concerning which we read as follows: "Unless there were light from
good inwardly in man, he would never be able to see truths so as to acknowledge
and believe them", A.C. 4930. When man first reads the Word, particularly
the Latin Word, it appears to him as truth. It is only afterwards that a man can
come to see that internally the Word is the good which is inwardly in man from
the Lord, and that the truths of the Word which are apparently from without by
means of the senses, are only genuine truths with the man in so far as they are
a form of this good.
The final doubt as to which is the firstborn in the natural, good or
truth, arises in connection with the blessing of Ephraim and Manasseh. In the
blessing Joseph, the internal of the celestial, accounts good, signified by
Manasseh, as primary; but Israel, the spiritual from the natural, accounts
truth, represented by Ephraim, as primary. Due to the 37
SERIES AND DEGREES IN THE LATIN WORD the
natural, Joseph putting his hand on his father's, the spiritual does indeed
acknowledge good as primary, but nevertheless Ephraim was given the primary
blessing for the reason that truth is more manifest; and also for the reason
that even with the celestial man and the celestial Church it is an eternal truth
that "The Church is from the Word, and is such as its understanding of the
Word", S.S. 76.
It is obvious that the foregoing is the briefest outline, and that if the
subject were to be opened as to its particulars, it would fill innumerable
volumes. It may also appear too difficult for many to comprehend. While it is
not necessary that all should enter into the particulars, it is necessary that
all should acknowledge that what they know of the contents of the Latin Word is
but as a drop compared to the ocean; for it is an acknowledgment of this truth
from the heart that introduces a man into the palace of wisdom. To the natural
mind this cannot but appear as an exaggeration, for it is contrary to the
appearance of the literal sense of the Latin Word as seen by men. This truth
cannot be acknowledged rationally unless it is acknowledged that the Latin Word
has an internal sense which does not appear in the letter, an acknowledgment at
which the natural mind tends to rebel. For the following words have a universal
application: "How greatly those deny the internal sense of the Word has
also been given me to see from such persons in the other life, for when the
existence of an internal sense of the Word that does not appear in its literal
If it is perceived that a man does not know one ten-thousandth part of a
ten-thousandth part of the things in the ARCANA CELESTIA concerning the
regeneration of man, and that the internal things concerning the Glorification
of the Lord are a thousand times still more deeply hidden, it 38
A LETTER FROM THE REV. DR. ALFRED ACTON EXTRACT
FROM THE ISSUE FOR JANUARY 1933
The REV. PROF. DR. ALFRED ACTON requests the publication of the
following: To
the Editor
of DE HEMELSCHE LEER.
On p. 184 of DE HEMELSCHE LEER for May, 1931, you refer to a letter
received from me as saying "that for the acquiring of the internal sense of
the Writings, there is . . . no need of 'genuine doctrine and illustration'
". Will you pardon me for saying that you must have misunderstood my
letter. I have never thought, still less stated, that genuine doctrine and
illustration are not necessary for the interior understanding of the Writings.
Indeed, my belief is the exact opposite. It is universally held in the GENERAL
CHURCH that what is called the Academy doctrine has been a guiding light in the
understanding of the Writings; and that illustration from heaven is necessary,
is too obvious to need demonstration.
ALFRED ACTON DE
HEMELSCHE LEER EXTRACT
FROM THE ISSUE FOR AUG.-SEPT. 1933 FROM
THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE SWEDENBORG GEZELSCHAP Extract
from the Minutes of the Meeting of Saturday, May 7th, 1932.
The memorandum, calling this meeting together, reads as follows: The
address by Bishop George de Charms, The Interior Understanding of the Writings,
NEW CHURCH LIFE, November 1931.
The following gentlemen took part in the discussion: Rev. Ernst Pfeiffer,
p. 39, Prof. Dr. Charles H. van 0s, p. 53,
Rev. Theodore
Pitcairn, p.
60, N. J.
Vellenga, p. 67, J. P. Verstraate, p. 71, H. D. G. Groeneveld, p. 76.
All attributes ascribed to the Word in THE DOCTRINE CONCERNING THE SACRED
SCRIPTURE are Divine attributes, which in a characteristic way
show the Divine essence of the Word above the essence of ordinary books.
This especially applies also to this attribute, that the Word in the natural
world is clothed in a literal sense, accommodated to the thinking of simple men
and of children, 40
FROM THE TRANSACTIONS and
to those who "prepare the way or open the door only to the last or natural
degree", T.C.R. 34, of which sense it is also said "that it conjoins
man with the first Heaven", A.C. 3476. The remark has been made that if the
Writings of Swedenborg also contained interior senses, hidden behind the letter,
and which by the Church may be brought to light, these Writings would not be the
last and crowning Revelation. That this attribute, however, is a Divine
attribute and in no way one which belittles the essence of the Word, as is
surmised in the remark made, clearly appears from this, "that the Word in
the sence of the letter is in its fullness and in its holiness and in its
power", S.S. 37, and "that the celestial and the spiritual sense of
the Word
It is a fundamental attribute of the Word in all its Testaments, without
which the Word would not be the Word, that in the letter all discrete degrees of
truth are simultaneously present, and that the natural man therein sees natural
truth, the spiritual man spiritual truth, and the celestial man celestial truth.
There is in this respect no essential difference between the three Testaments.
This also is clearly taught in the Word, for we read: "The man of the Most
Ancient and of the Ancient Church, if he lived at this day and would read the
Word, would pay no attention to the sense of the letter, which he would account
for nothing, but to the internal sense; they are much surprised that any one
should perceive the Word 41
OF THE SWEDENBORG GEZELSCHAP otherwise",
A.C. 1540, cf. n. 1143. The cause why they would be able to do this is, that
they are celestial and spiritual men. For the essence of the discrete degrees of
truth lies in the difference between the natural, the spiritual, and the
celestial. It is these that make the difference between the three Heavens, and
therefore also the difference between the natural man, the spiritual man, and
the celestial man. So too, it is clear that the natural man in the New Church,
even in the Third Testament is never in a higher discrete degree than in the
first; only the spiritual man is in the second degree or in spiritual truth, and
only the celestial man is in the third degree or in celestial truth.
That from creation It is man's essential end of life successively to come
into the discrete degrees of good and truth, cannot be doubted by the man of the
Church. For we read: "The human mind, out of which and according to which 42 firmed
by the fact that the human race from creation until the Coming of the Lord was
successively in the discrete degrees of truth, between which there was no
relation but that of correspondence, and that therefore they were successively
celestial, spiritual, and natural men. From this it clearly appears that the
conception of Bishop de Charms that the Lord Himself has raised the truth in the
successive Revelations by means of correspondences from degree to degree, so
that to the Writings "being addressed to the rational plane of the mind, is
given the highest form of speech and writings with which it is possible to
invest things Divine and heavenly as with an ultimate clothing", does not
touch the essence of the discrete degrees and thus is not sufficient to explain
the problem of the discrete degrees of truth in the Third Testament.
It is indeed true that in the Old Testament the Divine Truth has been
revealed in a form accommodated to the sensual thinking of man, that in the New
Testament the Divine Truth has been revealed in a, form accommodated to the
natural thinking of man, and that in the Third Testament the Divine Truth has
been revealed in a form accommodated to the rational thinking of man, and it is
also true that therefore the three literal senses in a certain
If one wishes to grasp the essence of the discrete degrees of truth into
which man, by the opening of the interior degrees of the mind may come, one must
see the difference between the series of these discrete degrees and the series 43
OF THE SWEDENBORG GEZELSCHAP of
the three literal senses. He who is not able to distinguish between these, will
never be able to free himself from the confusion that will entangle him when he
wishes to think about these things. It
is the marriage of good and truth that makes the three Heavens or the three
discrete degrees; good as to
It is in the natural as on a basis that the celestial and the spiritual
make the discrete degrees. This is the cause why man's natural is threefold, as
we read: "It is to be known that man's natural is threefold, rational,
natural, and sensual. The rational is the highest there, the sensual is the
lowest there, and the natural is the middle", A.E. 1147. The basis for the
first or the natural degree is in the sensual, the basis for the second or the
spiritual degree is in the natural, and the basis for the third or the celestial
degree is in the rational; for the thinking of the natural
44 FROM THE TRANSACTIONS
of
the human race before the Coming of the Lord, which
The essence of the opening of the Word which has been enjoined upon the
Church as a task, is to arrive at the interior senses of the Word, the spiritual
sense, and the celestial sense, that is, to the discrete degrees of truth. Here
lies the use and the application of the science of correspondences. According to
Bishop de Charms's conception, however, the purpose of the application of the
science of correspondences would be to arrive from one literal 45
OF THE SWEDENBORG GEZELSCHAP one,
which is called the natural". From this it clearly appears that also the
rational literal sense of the Third Testament conjoins man only with the
ultimate Heaven, and that therefore also the Third Testament contains a
spiritual and a celestial sense, which stand in no relation to the literal sense
and to each other but that of correspondence, and which can only be grasped by a
spiritual rational or a celestial rational man.
The mutual relation of the three literal senses of the Word, such as
these have been successively given in the Old, the New, and the Third
Testaments, is that of the sensual, the natural, and the rational. In the
sensual Old Testament an orderly basis has been given from the Lord for the
thinking of the human race in its natural age, for the basis of the thinking of
the natural man is in the sensual, and the characteristic attribute of the human
race in the Israelitish era, when the Old Testament was given,
The sensual, the natural, and the rational letter, in which the Old, the
New, and the Third Testaments have successively been given are therefore nothing
but Divine bases in lasts for the thinking. For in the letter of the Word the
Divine Truth has been laid down in lasts; only in lasts has the Divine Truth its
basis, its containant, and its firmament. In
these three therefore the essential discrete degrees do not lie; but they lie in
the natural, the spiritual, and the celestial, and the truth thereof is the
natural rational or the natural Doctrine, the spiritual rational or the
spiritual Doctrine, and the celestial rational
According to Bishop de Charms's conception the science 46 of
correspondences does not apply to the Writings of Swedenborg, because "they
are the last and crowning Revelation", and because they "with their
rational statements of Doctrine appeal to the highest plane in the natural mind
which can be addressed directly by a characteristic form of speech or
writing". The application of the science of correspondences is thus limited
to the three bases of truth in the natural, that is to the translation of the
truth from a sensual basis to a natural basis, and from a natural basis to a
rational basis. According to this conception the correspondences are seen only
in the mutual relation of the three bases, while yet the Word teaches that
essential discrete degrees of truth are between natural truth, spiritual truth,
and celestial truth. According to
Bishop de Charms's conception the application of the science of correspondences
lies in the translation of the truth from the form of speech and writing of the
Old Testament into the form of speech and writing of the New Testament, and from
the form of speech and writing of the New Testament into the form of speech and
writing of the Writings of Swedenborg, while yet the Word teaches that the
science of correspondences which has now been revealed, is one of the means of
.arriving at the interior degrees of
truth, the spiritual
truth and
the celestial truth.
According to
Bishop de
Charms's conception the
application of the science of correspondences is
the task of the Lord alone, by
the giving of a new Word, namely
the New Testament after the Old. Testament, and the Writings of Swedenborg after
the New Testament; man, however, according to this conception cannot apply the
science of correspondences, except just this that after the examples given in
those Writings, he may also transfer the things of the Old and of the New
Testament that have not been directly unfolded in those Writings, into the form
of speech and writing which the truth has in those Writings, while yet the Word
teaches that the essential use of the given Word is to enable man to fulfill the
essential task of his life, namely "to prepare the way or to open the
door" to the interior degrees of his mind, by which he can successively
from a dead man become a natural man, a spiritual man, and a celestial 47
OF THE SWEDENBORG GEZELSCHAP degrees
of truth, between which there exists no relation than that of correspondence. It
seems that in Bishop de Charms's conception the essence of the discrete degrees
of truth has been entirely lost sight of, since the essential and only
application of the science of correspondences that is acknowledged, has
reference to the three literal
Bishop de Charms indeed says: "We are well aware that
correspondences have a broader application than is here implied. We are fully
cognizant of the fact that truth seen in the spiritual heaven is discretely
removed from that seen in the natural heaven; that truth seen in the celestial
heaven is likewise discretely removed from that which is seen in the spiritual
heaven; and that between these there is no communication save by
correspondences. But to man on earth these differences are purely
perceptive". Thus, in order to prove that the Writings of Swedenborg do not
contain discrete degrees of truth, reference is here made to the difference
between truth with man before and after the departure from this world. According
to this conception in the other life the Angels of the various discrete Heavens
are indeed in discrete degrees of truth, but men in this life are not, for them
the differences of the discrete degrees of truth are "purely
perceptive". It is, however, plain that here again two quite different
things have been confused. It is indeed true that man only after death can come
into the proper spiritual truth itself or into the proper celestial truth
itself; but the natural degree of the mind by the opening of the interior
degrees is divided, already in this life;· into a series of as it were discrete
degrees, D.L.W. 256, of which the truth is the natural rational, the spiritual
rational, and the celestial rational respectively, and these 48 man,
D.L.W. 256. This therefore is not that which makes the difference between truth
with man before and after leaving this world. The real difference between the
thinking before and after death is that man, as long as he lives in the natural
world, for all his thinking remains bound to and is dependent on an external
world, and that only after death he becomes conscious in his internal world, 49
OF THE SWEDENBORG GEZELSCHAP are
opened with man from the Lord according to his life, but not perceptibly or
sensibly except after his departure from the world", D.P. 32.
Divine Truth also in the Third Testament has been laid down in ultimates
according to the order of discrete degrees; any other order according to which
Divine Truth 50 stood".
The discrete degrees of truth are not here spoken of; that above the natural
rational there exists a spiritual rational, and above this a celestial rational,
is left entirely out of consideration. That in each degree, thus even in the
natural degree, a new rational faculty must first be created and formed in the
mind, before a man in an orderly way can "collect and arrange in order
passages, that they may be seen together", and that enlightenment alone is
not sufficient thereto, is evidently not seen. Enlightenment is not the first,
but the last in the opening of the Word. The order of the three essential means
of opening the Word,
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