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is possible only after the formation of the rational,  but is evidently nothing else than the first  light which is given to man in the celestial state of infancy as an unmerited advance. From all these particulars it clearly appears that in Bishop de Charms's conception neither the three discrete degrees of truth or of the rational, nor the genuine essence of Doctrine, nor the genuine essence of enlightenment are seen, and that therefore the essence of the three things required for the opening of the Word, namely of the Doctrine of genuine Truth, of the science of correspondences, and of enlightenment from the Lord, is lacking.

  That the Third Testament contains the three discrete degrees of truth, between which there is no relation save that of correspondence, may be elucidated by the following example. It is generally known that the spiritual sense of the Word has reference to truth or to charity, and the celestial sense to good or to the Lord. Nevertheless it is self-evident that also the natural sense contains a complete Doctrine concerning truth and charity and concerning good and the Lord, and that also the spiritual sense contains a complete Doctrine concerning good and the Lord. This is because the spiritual and the celestial are also present in the natural, in the form of the natural rational, in which form the natural man may grasp the Doctrine concerning charity and the Doctrine concerning the Lord, and that the celestial is also present in the spiritual in the form of the spiritual rational, in which form the spiritual man may grasp the Doctrine concerning the Lord. Nevertheless it is plain that the spiritual and the celestial Doctrine concerning charity and concerning the Lord, such as they are in the mind of a spiritual or a celestial man differ discretely from the Doctrine concerning charity and concerning the Lord, such as they are in the mind of a natural man; but they correspond to each other, and the natural man cannot grasp any single spiritual or celestial rational idea in. its proper form, but only in the corresponding natural rational form. If one has grasped this true essence of the discrete degrees of truth, one can no longer doubt the existence of a spiritual and a celestial sense in the Third Testament. In Bishop de Charms's argument, however, the existence is not accepted of the discrete degrees of truth, into which man can come by the

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opening of the interior degrees of the mind, while yet the possibility of a spiritual Church and of a celestial Church depends on the existence of these degrees.

  The celestial Doctrine and the spiritual Doctrine are described  in the Word  as  follows:  "The  Doctrine of celestial good, which is that of love to the Lord, is the most comprehensive and the most hidden. . . . This Doctrine is contained in the inmost sense of the Word; the Doctrine of spiritual good, however, in the internal sense. The Doctrine of spiritual good, which is that of the love towards the neighbor, is also very comprehensive and hidden, but much less than the Doctrine of celestial good. . . . That the Doctrine of love towards the neighbor or of charity is very comprehensive, may appear from this that it extends to all and the singular things which man thinks and wills, thus to all that he speaks and does; and also that there does not exist the same charity with the one as with the other, and that the one is not the neighbor in the same way as the other", ON THE NEW JERUSALEM AND ITS CELESTIAL DOCTRINE, 107. Any one can see that this description has reference to the essential discrete degrees of truth, which are also contained in the Third Testament, and into which man can only come through regeneration, by the opening of the interior degrees of the mind; that thus, in the Third Testament also the celestial Doctrine is most hidden and the spiritual Doctrine also very hidden. From this description it is also clear that the spiritual Church from the Lord out of the Third Testament will draw the Divine truth that will extend "to all and the singular things which man thinks and wills, thus to all that he speaks and does", and that that Doctrine will extend to an application to individual men, since "there does not exist the same charity with the one as with the other, and the one is not the neighbor in the same way as the other". That this Doctrine can never be obtained by direct cognizance alone of the letter of the Third Testament, but that it is dependent on the opening and the formation of the spiritual rational with man, any one who wishes, may clearly see.  Since, however, this spiritual Doctrine, and the celestial Doctrine, is nothing else than the spiritual and the celestial sense of the Third Testament, it is clear that the genuine Doctrine of the Church out of

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the Word is nothing else than the true spirit of the Word, and therefore from the Lord alone, and therefore Divine.

  PROF. DR. CHARLES H. VAN 0s. — In the article by Bishop de Charms, which forms our subject for to-night, many true thoughts have been expressed in a striking way, and with these thoughts we, I presume, will wholeheartedly agree. If, however, one compares these considerations with those which during the last years have been held in our Society, a contain superficiality strikes us — I cannot think of a better word to convey my impression. The reason of this seems to me the following. While in the article by Bishop de Charms the necessity of progressive enlightenment and a more interior understanding of the Word is granted, the impression is created, with me at any rate, that in this connection he thinks only of a gradual development, thus of a progression along continuous degrees. For our thinking, on the other hand, it has during the last years been a fundamental thesis that, with the progression to a more interior understanding, also transitions according  to the discrete degrees take place.  In other words we have come to the recognition that with the development of the Church and of the man of the Church there will always again be moments in which a new light breaks through and the truths are seen in an entirely new way. This comes to pass because in the minds of the members of the Church new interior provinces are opened, on which account the Lord can inflow with new interior truths.

  That thus progressions alternate according to continuous and according to discrete degrees, is a general law in human thinking, which is also clearly represented in the history of science. About the year 1890 the physicists were of the opinion  that everything that man can find  out about nature was practically known; that further progress would consist only in an ever more accurate study of what in the main was already known. It is generally known that since that time many new discoveries have been made and that our views have been altered in such a way that one may safely say that modern physics differ discretely from those of the second half of the nineteenth century. We speak here only of degrees in the natural; this is, however, a representation of the progress in the thinking of the

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Church from the natural to the spiritual and the celestial.

  Something else is connected with this. When the members of the Church have arrived at a new insight, they will try to express these views in order to communicate them to others. The others, after having grasped the new truths, will try to clothe them likewise in their own words. In course of time the truths will thus be accommodated to the idea even of the simple members of the Church. Thus the Church as a whole will have advanced in the understanding of truth. And this advance will be of a permanent nature; it will remain, also when those by whom this advance became possible will have departed. Yea, even if for some time such a degree of enlightenment would no longer occur in the Church, the new views would nevertheless continue to exist.  From all this it appears that the Church as it were has its own life, to a certain extent independent of the life of its members, although it remains true that the life of the Church is accomplished in the life of its members. If therefore Bishop de Charms says that the spiritual development of the Church is one with that of the members who constitute it, this is only one side of the truth; and just the other side which has here been expounded is of essential importance in connection with the problems now occupying us.

  This again may be illustrated by means of the history of science. No one will deny that Archimedes was one of the greatest mathematicians who have ever lived; but at the same time no one will deny that since the days of Archimedes new views of mathematics have been acquired, of which Archimedes did not dream. These views have become common property of all mathematicians, so that they are the property also of those whose power of thinking remains far behind that of Archimedes. We see here how for the rational understanding of a truth a much less degree of enlightenment is required than is necessary for seeing the truth for the first time. From this it also follows that if in the light of history a judgment is expressed on former states' of the Church, this has nothing to do with a judgment on the degree of enlightenment or regeneration of the men who in those former states made the Church. The judgment: "Greek mathematics, as compared with ours, were very imperfect", has nothing to do with the judg-

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ment: "Archimedes was a very great mathematician".

  If one does not consider these things, it does not become clear either to what end the Church properly serves. If Bishop de Charms says that the task of the Church properly is only to again and again refer to the Word, the question arises whether for this an organized Church is really required.  That the  Church is  our Mother, that without her no real spiritual life can possibly exist, — these truths in this way are not at all seen.

  On the other hand it is certainly true that the Word and the Doctrine in the mind of each man of the Church ever again must be seen in their mutual connection; that every member of the Church has the call, by wrestling through these things, to come to his own insight. This, moreover, follows from the preceding; for if the Word were not, always anew, to be read by the members of the Church independently, it would be impossible for new light ever anew to inflow into the Church and this to be led to new states.

  All this again is clearly represented in the history of the sciences. As long as a science is in its infancy, it will often happen that some one not strictly belonging to the students of that science, makes discoveries which later on appear to be of the greatest value to that science. In the measure, however, in which that science advances, a thing of that kind becomes ever more difficult, and with sciences such as mathematics and theoretic physics the probability that such a thing will happen has become exceedingly small. So in the course of time it will become ever more improbable that any one, not partaking of the life of the Church, only by independent reading of the Word, should attain an enlightenment which may be compared with that ruling in the Church.

  On the other hand, every young student of science is led to convince himself of  the  fundamental  truths of science by his own reflections and his own experiments, and every new view that is expressed by one of the leaders is put to the test by his colleagues. Were this ever to cease, it would mean the degeneration of science. So too every member of the Church must ever anew turn to the Word.

  In the second part of his argument Bishop de Charms explains in what way the Doctrine may be drawn from the letter of the Word. He points out that in the sense of the

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letter of the Word some things are, as it were, naked, others clothed, and that, in order to arrive at a Doctrine one should begin by collecting those places where truth appears naked. These passages must be arranged in order and brought into mutual connection, and with the help of what is thus acquired one should penetrate more and more into those things which originally were obscure. All this certainly is true, and is abundantly confirmed by statements from the literal sense of the Third Testament. The question, however, should be put as to which things are naked and which clothed. And then the reply is that this depends on the state in which man finds himself. When a new light breaks through, many things that formerly were hidden, are seen, but, conversely, things which formerly seemed clear, appear to hold unsuspected dark depths. Things which first were clothed, thus now become naked, but things which first seemed naked, prove to be clothed. The entire work therefore at every new stage must as it were be done over again from the beginning. Nothing of this appears in Bishop de Charms's argument; one rather gains the impression as if the things which once were naked, remain so.

  This development very clearly appears in the history of science during the last decades. By the numerous new discoveries and views many obscure things have come to clarity. On the other hand it has, however, been proved that the apparently most simple ideas, such as "point", ''curved line", "simultaneousness", contain in themselves enormous difficulties, and a large part of the work of the present day scientists is devoted just to the study and analysis of these fundamental ideas. So too, in the Church, the most fundamental ideas will have to be examined ever anew.

  In the third part of his address Bishop de Charms argues that the science of correspondences may be applied only in a very limited measure to the Third Testament. By "application of the science of correspondences" he understands the rendering of a teaching clothed in sensual ideas with the help of moral demands, or with the help of abstract ideas. He thinks, for instance, of the connection between a text from the Old Testament, the explanation thereof in the New Testament, and the explanation in the

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Third Testament. It is clear that a teaching thus clothed in abstract ideas, cannot again be translated into another form of human language, since there exists no form of human language which might be still further removed from the sensual idea—except perhaps, I woui'd remark, the symbolic language of mathematics and music, which however, at the moment is still far too imperfect for the end here spoken of. This, perhaps, gives us the best approximating idea of the language of the Angels. Apart from such possibilities it is clear that the drawing up of an internal sense, in the way which Bishop de Charms means, finds its logical end in the teachings clothed in abstract concepts of the Third Testament. We would however remark that this is a rather limited conception of the science of correspondences. If, for instance, the Church is seen as a man and thus that which has been communicated concerning the regeneration of man, is applied to the Church, then is this not an application of the science of correspondences? Or if we consider that the Lord reveals Himself in the man of the Church, and that thus all that is revealed concerning the Lord, must be reflected in every individual man? In such instances both the passage subjected to the exegesis, and also the results of the exegesis, are clothed in abstract concepts, and still one may say that by the exegesis a hidden sense has been brought to light. Still this is then something which, in itself, remains in the natural; it may show us, however, that the law of correspondences is a universal law, and that if the Church is to come into the spiritual and celestial senses of the Word, the science of correspondences will also have to be applied to the Third Testament.

  In the fourth part of his address Bishop de Charms speaks  of the  interpretative doctrine,  existing  in  the Church, and of the danger of binding authority being ascribed to this doctrine. Various remarks may here be made. First of all this, that it is a one-sided idea to call the Doctrine of the Church an "interpretative doctrine". From the truth that the Doctrine must be. drawn out of the letter of the Word, and be confirmed by the letter, it in no way follows that the function of the Doctrine consists solely in an interpretation of the letter.

  The peculiar relation existing here may perhaps again

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be best elucidated by pointing to analogous relations in the world of science. In the last century there have been, and there are still, many scholars, who see the task of science exclusively  in this  that facts are collected and brought into mutual connection and thus may serve to explain each other. These men are called positivists, and in analogy with this I would call Bishop de Charms's position, if I understand it correctly, a positivist  position.  It  is difficult, however, to bring the real development of science into agreement with the positivist ideal, in its simplest form at any rate. Let us, by way of example, consider the teaching of electricity,  as this has  been developed by Maxwell. In the teaching of electricity, men are concerned with the powers operating one on the other by objects charged with electricity, or through which there run electric currents. In order to explain these powers it has proved necessary to represent to one's self that in the space between the objects — in the ether as is sometimes said — certain conditions and changes of conditions occur that may be mathematically described. These conditions and changes of conditions cannot be observed, they can only be indirectly indicated by the influence which they exercise on our instruments. We see here how science for the explanation of the phenomena observed is obliged to draw up a teaching about things that cannot be perceived. So too in the Church for the explanation of the Word more and more definite ideas will be formed concerning the things which are not directly seen in the exclusively literal sense of the Word.

  And finally the concepts "authority" and "infallibility", which in connection with the problem of the Doctrine of the Church have been foremost in stirring the minds. Here too it will serve to elucidate if we think of the relations in the world of science. For a right understanding, let us first remark that here, as well as in the former instances, we view science on its favorable side which comes to light if its students limit themselves to subjects which are within the domain of their study. That at all times many scholars have been shortsighted and intolerant, no one will deny; however, as a rule this referred to subjects not belonging to the field of their studies, and in respect of which no kind of authority could be ascribed to them. If,

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however, we regard science in its own territory we see how here, without any external compelling authority, a certain relation of authority comes into existence as of itself. This reveals itself in the fact that the theses enounced by some are immediately studied in the most serious way, even by those who ultimately are not in agreement with those theses; the sayings of some others, on the contrary, are at once passed by with a shrug of the shoulders. Of course there is the possibility that this common opinion is mistaken, and that theses that were first laughed at, later on appear to be of great importance. The further, however, that science progresses, the smaller the chance that such a thing will happen. And if in some fields of science this chance is already fairly small, how much the smaller then will it not become in the Church, of which we believe that the Lord leads it? And indeed, the true authority of the Doctrine lies in this, that it is spiritual out of celestial origin, and that it is the Lord Himself.

  At the same time we see that this authority does not exclude the independent investigation and. reflection of others, but, on the contrary, supposes this. And so too, it is in the Church. Only then will the Doctrine of the Church possess actual authority if the members by their own reading and reflection ever again convince themselves of the meaning of that which is stated by the Doctrine.

  The point of view one takes in respect of the problem of authority and infallibility is intimately connected with the representation one makes for himself of the way of the Church's progress. If one believes that the progress of the Church takes place along continuous degrees, as, according to my impression, is Bishop de Charms's opinion, then the state of the Church, however far it may advance, essentially never differs from the state in the beginning of its development. If the Church, composed of fallible men, in the beginning is fallible, it must be so at all times with regard to each of its doctrines. The testing, ever anew, of each of its statements by the Word then, truly, shall never be allowed to come to an end. This, however, becomes entirely different, as soon as a development according to discrete degrees is accepted. If the Church has advanced to a new state, discretely differing from the preceding one, the development which had been attained in the preceding

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state, is closed off. The truths acquired in the preceding state and in which the insight obtained in that state has been laid down, have then become the Church's definite possession of which nothing will ever again be altered, and of these truths it may therefore be said that they have been pronounced with authority.

  This again may be illustrated by the development of science. The laws which Newton formulated as the basis of mechanics, will for ever form the basis for mechanics; the science which takes these laws as its starting point, is therefore infallible. This is not in conflict with the fact that it appears from the investigations of recent) years that,  with regard  to  certain  phenomena,  the laws  of Newton must be substituted by others; for the provinces to which these modified laws apply, differ so much from the field for which Newton formulated his laws, that one may here speak of differences according to discrete degrees. So, when the thinking of the Church is elevated to a new province,  will  the truths  that had been found for the preceding province have to be substituted by new ones; but for the province for which they have been found, the truths will continue to apply.

  REV. THEODORE PITCAIRN. — In the address of Bishop de Charms, one of the essential statements disagreeing with DE HEMELSCHE LEER, reads as follows: "A love of truth ... imparts illustration to the spirit. This it does by a direct reading of the text, and this both with the Writings and with the former Scriptures". In connection with a similar statement in a doctrinal class, Bishop de Charms, as a confirmation, refers to n. 1. CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE OR THE WORD OF THE LORD FROM EXPERIENCE. The word experience here on first sight appears to refer to the things which Swedenborg saw and heard with the external spiritual body in the external spiritual world, a number of which are described in this work. If the mind is raised above these external appearances it is evident that the experience refers to the experiencing of the internal things of the Word, that is by experiencing the states of regeneration described in the Word. It is the nature of experience that it can be described, but cannot be transferred from one to another; every man

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must experience a thing for himself before he has any living knowledge concerning the experience. If a man has not experienced states of regeneration he cannot have any living knowledge of regeneration, no matter how many scientifics he may have acquired concerning regeneration from the Word. This is taught in the ARCANA CELESTIA, n. 4027, as follows: "The things which have thus far been explained as to the internal sense of the Word, are too interior and thus too arcane to admit of being clearly explained to the understanding. ... Something of them may be seen in the regeneration of man, because the regeneration of man is an image of the Lord's Glorification. Of regeneration man may have some idea, but not unless he be regenerated; nevertheless it will be an obscure one as long as he lives in the body. ... Those however who are not regenerated, cannot possibly have any conception of the subject". As the spiritual sense treats throughout of the regeneration of man, it follows that if man is not regenerated, he "cannot possibly have any idea of the subject" in the internal sense. If men have experienced states of regeneration they can "see inwardly in themselves, and not from others"; such when they read the Word see their experiences described in the Word. and can thus be illustrated by the Lord, hence such can see from experience whether the doctrine accepted by the Church is the genuine Doctrine of the Church or not. Those who have not experienced internal states, and "read the Word from the doctrine received from others, are not able to see truths from the light of their own spirit, thus not inwardly in themselves, but outside themselves. For they think that a thing is true because others have seen it, and hence they attend only to what corroborates it", A.E. 190 (see NEW CHURCH LIFE, Nov. 1931, page 651).

  Not only man individually experiences spiritual states, but also the Church, such states of the Church when genuine are called the days of the Son of Man. Thus we read: "To desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, LUKE XVII : 22, denotes to see one of the states of Divine Truth, which is genuine. The subject here treated of is the end of the church", A.C. 9807. In the early days of the ACADEMY the Church experienced such a state, and in the light of this state they saw that the Writings are the Divine Truth itself.

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  The heading of CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE FROM EXPERIENCE, n. I, reads: "The sense of the letter of the Word, in which is the spiritual sense, represented". The description which follows is evidently a representation, and hence obviously belongs to the literal sense of the Word, wherefore it is said: "The sense of the letter of the Word, in which is the spiritual sense, represented. I was given to see great purses, apparently like sacks, in which was hidden silver in great abundance; and since these sacks were opened, it seemed as if any one might take from the silver placed therein, yea, steal from it; but near the sack sat two Angels who were guards". As is stated this was a representation of the letter of the Word in which is the spiritual sense. As the Word was opened from the Lord through Swedenborg, it speaks of the sacks being opened, and as by this opening of the Word it appears as if any one might take to himself spiritual truths, it says: "It seemed as if any one might take from the silver placed therein".  "In  the  sacks  was  hidden  silver  in  great abundance", signifies, that although the Word is opened, still its interiors are hidden. The two Angels who were guards signify "that every one may take thence the cognitions of truth, but that care must be taken lest its interior sense in which is nothing but verities, be falsified". That the "interior sense" of the Word does not here refer to the literal sense of the Latin Word is evident, for it says that every one may take from the Word the cognitions of truth; and the interior truths drawn thence, which are the truths of the Church, were represented by the modest virgins in the next room; for we read: "The modest virgins who were seen in the chamber signified the truths of the Church". Thus the opened sacks in which silver was hidden do not represent the interior truths of the Church, but the Word which, although opened, still contains interior hidden things. It is only in so far as these hidden things have been drawn forth, and in so far as they have become living in the Church, that the truths of the Church are modest virgins, and, when united with the good from the Lord in the Church, become a chaste wife. The chaste wife signifies "the conjunction of truth and good which is everywhere in the Word". That the taking the silver from the sacks requires cooperation on the part of man, and-

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thus the making of Doctrine, is evident from the warning .against falsification. If truth could be drawn directly from the literal sense of the Third Testament apart from the making of Doctrine, there would be no need for the warning of the danger of falsification, for the falsification of truth is the opposite to the making of genuine Doctrine.

  While it is now permitted "to enter intellectually into the arcana of faith", this does not mean that the guards have been removed; for the guards are all the more necessary lest interior truth be profaned, which would be done if men could enter into the interior things of the Church by direct reading, apart from the making of Doctrine. If this were possible it would mean that from now on man can come into the interior truths of the Word without cooperation on man's part, an obvious falsity. Bishop de Charms does indeed speak of the importance of the Church making Doctrine; and he says: "We are told that those passages in which spiritual truth is clearly seen in a state of illustration must be collected and arranged in order, that they may be seen together. When this is done, they constitute the doctrine of genuine truth, by which further light may be given", in confirmation of which he quotes: "But the Doctrine must be collected from the Word; and while it is being collected, the man must be in enlightenment from the Lord", A.C. 9424. In the statement of Bishop de Charms the true order is inverted, for he speaks of truths being first clearly seen and then arranged into order; yet before order has been induced, spiritual truths cannot be clearly seen. There are many passages in the Latin Word which speak of the ordering of truths from the Lord in man, and it is stated that truths before they have been ordered from the Lord in man, are not truths but scientifics. But Bishop de Charms appears to teach that a man must see truths clearly in a state of illustration, by direct  reading,  before  troths  have  been  collected  and arranged into order from the Lord, thus he appears to teach that the disordered mind is to see truth clearly and then bring truths into order. Many places in the Latin Word teach the true order, namely that man must have the things of the Word in his memory, which are made truths with him by being ordered from the Lord; if this takes place, in a certain sense with the simple, who are not

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acquainted with all the laws of exposition, it nevertheless takes place according to these laws. When truths have been ordered from the Lord, they are not the result of direct reading, but are the result of the ordering from the Lord from within.

  When truths have been so ordered they take on an entirely new meaning, which has no relationship with their former meaning than that of correspondence. This Bishop de Charms seems to deny, for he says: "The Science of Correspondences is primarily the means by which, from the Old and New Testaments, an internal sense may be drawn forth, far removed from the sense of the letter, yet expressed in the natural to become a new basis for the thought of the church. As such, it cannot be used in connection with the Writings". Yet it was just such a process as Bishop de Charms says cannot be used in connection with the Writings, which has formed the basis of the GENERAL CHURCH, namely the Doctrine that the Writings are the Word. This Doctrine could not have been derived from the literal sense of the Latin Word by direct reading, for it cannot be seen by direct reading in the Latin Word. This Doctrine was due to an ordering from the Lord of the passages from the Latin Word in the mind of the Church, and it is this Doctrine which has been a lamp to the GENERAL CHURCH, and has given it the light which is lacking in the other bodies of the Church. Bishop de Charms does indeed acknowledge that there are discrete degrees of truth in the Church, but he says "there differences are purely perceptive", and he implies that as such they cannot be expressed in words as is possible in Heaven. Yet it is obvious that the perception of the Writings as the Word has been expressed in words that have conveyed the perception to others; if this were not possible, how could the Holy Spirit be communicated from man to man? Is not the Doctrine that the Writings are the Word a new Doctrine, due to the orderly exposition of the Latin Word? Yet Bishop de Charms says that the science of correspondences, which is one of the three essentials of exposition, "does not lead to the discovery of new doctrine". The Doctrine that the Writings are the Word, is based on correspondence, for it is based on the fact that every new Church must be based on a new Word, and there is a

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corresponding relation between the New Church and the Word of the New Church and previous Churches and the Testaments upon which they were based. In fact it is an acknowledged truth in the Church that all things which took place at the First Coming of the Lord correspond to things which take place at the Second Coming of the Lord. By means of this correspondence new truths have been seen and still more will be seen in the Latin Word. How then can Bishop de Charms say that by this means no new doctrine can be discovered?

  We read further in the passage quoted "that the place where the sacks were deposited, appeared like a manger in a stable. In the next chamber were seen modest virgins, with a chaste wife". The first chamber signifies the external mind, which sees the Word and particularly the Latin Word as sacks containing silver, while the next chamber signifies the spiritual mind, where the interiors of the Word are seen as modest virgins and as a chaste wife; for "the marriage of the Lord with the Church is the marriage of good and truth in the Word", n. VIII, Heading. That the first chamber represents the natural mind, is evident from its appearing like a stable with a manger. Concerning which it states: "The manger in the stable where the purses lay, signifies spiritual instruction for the understanding. A manger signifies this, even the one wherein the Lord was laid; for a horse signifies the understanding, hence a manger signifies ifs nourishment". In the APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED, n. 706", we read: "A manger signifies the Doctrine of truth from the Word, from the fact that by horses is signified the understanding of the Word". It needs no demonstration to be able to see that a stable represents something more external than a house or here than the chamber where the modest virgins and the chaste wife were. That the stable represents the first instruction of the understanding of the Church from the Word, is evident from the fact that it was at the beginning of His life on earth that the Lord was in the manger. An inn also signifies a place of instruction of the Church in Doctrine from the Word, see A.E. 375. The inn in which there was no room, signifies the instruction in doctrine from the Word in the Jewish Church and according to the doctrine of the Jewish Church; but whereas this was doctrine falsified, it was non-receptive of the Lord. The Lord being in a manger, signifies the new instruction of the Christian Church from the Word in its beginning apart from the doctrine of the Jewish church. Raising the mind above the historical, the Jewish church signifies all who are in the literal sense of the Word and from it make falsified natural doctrine or traditions. The Christian Church in its true meaning signifies the spiritual, who are instructed anew from the Word apart from the falsifications of the literal sense of the Word. Such instruction is as it were in a stable, but when spiritual truths have become living in the Church, then they are like a virgin and afterwards like a wife in an inner chamber.

  Near the chamber were two infants, signifying "the innocence of wisdom in the Word; they were Angels from the third Heaven, who. all appear like infants". Thus is described the celestial sense of the Word, and this sense is said to be represented by Angels from the third Heaven, for the reason that an Angel as to what is truly angelic, is  nothing  else  but  a  manifestation  of  the  celestial  and spiritual sense of the Word, wherefore .an Angel signifies this sense. And it was said that the two infants "were not to be played with in a childlike manner, but wisely". No explanation of this sentence is given, although it is the very core of the subject. Nor can we unfold it ulteriorly at this time; except to note that "to play", being the natural expression of the innocence of ignorance signifies the innocence of wisdom here in relation .to the Word. And as in the celestial sense of the Word and in the Doctrine of that sense resides the conjugial of the Lord and the Church, play is spoken of in this connection in HEAVEN AND HELL, n. 281, where it is said: "Hence there is a play as of infancy in conjugial love". Play is a contrast to work; in this connection it may be noted that there are six days of labor or work followed by a day of rest or play, in which the Lord leads man in the innocence of wisdom as a little child; then is man in the sense of the Word signified by the two infants, who were to be played with wisely.

  This first number of the work CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE contains a complete description of the Word, and includes infinite particulars; what is given here is indeed very little, yet it is sufficient to show that the

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number could have been better quoted to show how arcane the Third Testament is, rather than to show that one comes into illustration by a direct reading of the text. True, the number does to a degree explain itself, and thus gives the Church  a  valuable  assistance; nevertheless a careful consideration makes it obvious that the explanations are of a similar nature as the explanation of the parables given to His apostles by the Lord when on earth, and that the interiors, although explained, still lie hidden, like hidden silver in opened sacks, which it appears as if one can take, but which it is impossible to do unless one is prepared.

  N. J. VELLENGA. — Bishop de Charms's address gives me occasion to speak of the following two points: 1. That the science of correspondences in the Old and the New Testament is said to differ from that in the Third Testament. 2. That the Doctrine of the Church is said to be only an interpretative doctrine.

  With reference to the first point: Bishop de Charms establishes a difference between the correspondences of the Old and the New Testament on the one hand and those of the Writings of Swedenborgon the other hand. A difference that he sees a. in the characteristic form in which the Writings of Swedenborg have been written, b. in the nonexistence of a complete analogy between the three Scriptures, and c. in the fact that those Writings are the last and crowning Revelation. By "characteristic form" Bishop de Charms understands the sensual metaphors of the Old Testament, the moral teaching of the New Testament, and the rational statements of the Writings of Swedenborg. According to him the first and the second category are now said to lend themselves to a more elevated means of expression, but the last category no longer.

  The relation between the three Testaments is however, quite a different one.  From  the history of the New Church it has become clear of what essential nature was the teaching that the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg are the Word. It is this same teaching which now again runs the danger of being jeopardized in the GENERAL CHURCH itself, which indeed previously used to strive for it.  That  this is  so  appears  for example from the  remark "we would prefer not to speak of the 'letter' of the

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Writings,  because this term implies another  'internal sense' which does not exist". But what then are we to think of the entire Fourth Chapter of THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION which treats of nothing else than of the literal, the spiritual, and the celestial sense of the Word? Is the Word there then not the Third Testament? When in THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION the Word is spoken of, no distinction is made between the various Testaments. If therefore the Third Testament is the Word, everything therein written is also applicable to itself. This could scarcely be otherwise. Now this view they are willing to accept but with "a discriminating sense of the differences involved in the rational ultimates through which this Final Revelation has been made". Those differences, in the way they are elucidated find, however, no support in the Word., and to my mind consist only in the comprehensible aversion from accepting in their entirety the consequences of the teaching "the Third. Testament is the Word". This aversion lies in the proprium of man who does not wish to lose himself before the Divine things. If it is written that the Word — and there is only one Word — is Divine in the letter and that in it are contained spiritual and celestial things, then it is clear that the consequences thereof should be accepted.

  In the history of the New Church it will clearly appear with what wrestlings the Third Testament will come to be fully acknowledged, an example of the circumstance that the sluggishness of the human race in general is so enormous because of its tenacious clinging to the proprium. As long as it is accepted that the proprium of man in some way or other should have part in the truth which man has received into his understanding, this is an impediment for the truth to come into its rights. The "human element" seen otherwise than as a vessel of truth is an obstacle for the influx of truth, to become of man. The knowledge that the Divine influx is from firsts to lasts, of itself brings with it the acknowledgment that the Third Testament, in its last, in its letter, contains all degrees of truth. All laws concerning degrees and correspondences are applicable to the whole and to each particular, to each sentence, each word. However could every title and jot of the Third Testament, the law of the Lord, be fulfilled, if this were

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not so? So also the Third Testament in. its literal sense speaks first to the natural degree of the present day man, with the possibility of its spiritual and celestial degrees being opened. Once these are opened, only them. the Old and the New Testaments come to the full value of their contents. Yea, the Third Testament is even the condition for the fullfilment of the promise that the Old and the New Testaments in every title and jot will come to their right.

  It is clear that if the Word is thus seen there is a perfect application of all the laws concerning degrees and correspondences to all parts of the Word without any reserve. Reserve in that sense can only be made by man's proprium, which corresponds to hell and therefore believes it can of itself  contribute  to  or take a-way something from  the Divinity of that Word. The human clement lies only in the fact that man too is a last, into which all those Divine things should be admitted in order to be able to come to fullfilment. Beyond this, man has no power whatsoever to see truth. On the other hand, that faculty goes so far that it may come into correspondence, also for men on earth, with the Angels even of the highest Heaven. In any other way it would not be possible for a man ever to become an Angel of the highest Heaven.

  To say that the Third Testament is the Word, and not to accept the consequences thereof, is equal to a denial. To say and to believe that the Third Testament is the Word, without being willing to accept this in its particulars, is a negation of the whole. Now as soon as even an as yet only general conclusion of that basic thesis is laid before the man of the New Church, there is a conflict ever anew. The general conclusion which is here referred to is that the Doctrine of the Church may elucidate the Third Testament in the letter, so that the Church may acquire the spiritual sense which lies hidden. It is thus required of the New Church that it will no longer stare itself blind on the fact that the Israelites and the Christians no longer knew what correspondence is and that their doctrine is false, but it is required that we shall acknowledge the laws of correspondence equally in the letter of the Third Testament and draw a Doctrine there from, and that we do not, like the Israelites and the Christians, cling to that letter with our proprium. In other words, for our times, the Third

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Testament is the all comprehensive Divine Truth in lasts written in a perfect Divine style and absolutely holy in the letter. The law of correspondence thus in the Third Testament applies to all sensual, natural, and rational things that are set forth therein, without exception.

  With regard to the second point: The Doctrine of the Church can never be separated from the Word, no more than the spiritual and celestial senses can be separated there from.  This is the meaning of the words that the Doctrine must be drawn out of the letter, and confirmed by it. That Doctrine is requisite for this very reason that the particular influences of persons be not applied to their own profit: the Doctrine of the Church is the corrective means for a possible falsification of the Word by the individual.

  The Doctrine' of the Church must never be identified with the doctrine of one man; a distinction that in the .opposition to that Doctrine is not in any way made. Especially it should not be lost sight of that it is a Doctrine of the Church, not a Doctrine of the individual. The distinction between these is made clear in THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, n. 194. What is there said is very characteristic  of  the  expression  "interpretative  doctrine".  It appears there from that "interpretative doctrine' 'is nothing but an ecclesiastical teaching from one person, but no Doctrine of the Church. That interpretative or ecclesiastical teaching belongs to the natural degree, the Doctrine of the Church to the interior degrees. The difference is as between a natural man and a spiritual or a celestial man.

  Only in the Church is it possible to form a Doctrine which is spiritual out of celestial origin; the individual would always at a given moment remain stuck in an ecclesiastical or interpretative doctrine, if he were not fed by the Doctrine and the life of the Church. From the number referred to, it appears that a distinction is made between the spiritual sense-of the Word and the literal or ecclesiastical sense, obtained by any one studying and explaining the Word with the purpose of confirming one or other "dogma of the Church. This explanation has nothing to do with the spiritual sense which is the end of the Doctrine of the Church. From the same number it also appears that just because the letter of the Word contains a spiritual

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sense, that letter is written in pure correspondences. It also says clearly in the same work, n. 195, that men on earth may be in correspondence with one of the three celestial kingdoms, and it is just the task of the Doctrine of the Church, to open the correspondences of the various Heavens, to give life to them, and to maintain them. Without this possibility the Word would remain a dead letter and could not come to life. There would be no possibility of growth, except only in the breadth, since the letter corresponds to the lowest Heaven.

  The Doctrine of the Church will be given in natural language, without any other power than that of truth, because it is drawn out of the letter of the Word according to order, and because it is spiritual out of celestial origin. That language is not of a Divine style as the language of the Word; nevertheless its purity of expression as far as possible is based on the terms of the Word, as it itself is.

  Without the Doctrine neither the man nor the Church will be able to check whether the Word is read "with reverence, with a sincere desire to learn the truth", as Bishop de Charms expresses himself. Nevertheless the Doctrine is never to be identified with the Word.

  From the above it results that the acceptance of the teaching that the Word is completely involved in the Third Testament, brings with it the acceptance of the consequences thereof. Namely, that within the letter it has a spiritual and celestial contents and that the Church should apply itself by means of the Doctrine, by means of the science of correspondences, and on the strength of enlightenment from the Lord, to grasp the internal of the Word and to bring it to life.

  J. P. VERSTRAATE. — The explanation of the negative attitude which Bishop de Charms in his address has adopted as regards the new conceptions which have been expounded in DE HEMELSCHE  LEER, may be found if the laws governing the difference between the discrete degrees are taken into account. It is remarkable how in this address the influence of these laws may be noted.

  The letter of the Third Testament contains all the discrete degrees of truth, and it therefore has a natural, a spiritual, and a celestial sense. These senses are the three discrete

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degrees of the Doctrine of the Church. The Doctrine of the Church has its basis and sanction in the literal sense. Thence the literal sense itself may as it were be distinguished into three literal senses, which are all directed towards, and as a body make one whole with, the three degrees of the Doctrine to which they respectively belong. This relation clearly comes to the fore by the fact that when there is no acknowledgment of the teaching that "The Doctrine concerning the Sacred Scripture applies to the Writings of Swedenborg", which thesis belongs to the spiritual degree of the Doctrine of the Church, there can be no acknowledgment either of the literal statements in the Third Testament which are the basis and sanction of this thesis. It is the same as it was formerly with the Israelitish Church. The Lord, at the time of His Coming in the flesh was not acknowledged and accepted, and thence the New Testament could have no signification for them and all the descriptions and prophecies in the Old Testament, which had reference to the Lord, could not be seen by them. And likewise, in the Christian Church, where there is no acknowledgment and acceptance of the Second Coming, the Third Testament cannot be seen, nor for this reason the clear statements in the New Testament which have reference to the Second Coming. When the truth has become clear to us that the DOCTRINE CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE must without reserve be applied also to the Writings of Swedenborg, then we see that this truth is confirmed as it were on every page of those Writings. For him, however, who adopts a negative attitude it is impossible to see all these confirmations.

  In Bishop de Charms's address there are the following statements: "This it does by a direct reading of the text"; "This is done by no conscious process of interpretation"; "When this is done, they constitute the doctrine of genuine truth"; "The Writings are indeed the Word; but the analogy between them and the former Scriptures is not complete"; "Who at this day, when celestial perception has been replaced by a conscience, often spurious, is able to distinguish, even in himself, that which is from the Lord and that which enters from other sources?"

  These are statements which all cover a separate field, but they all have this in common that they are clear

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evidence of the characteristic of the natural state. This state, taken by itself, is entirely according to order, and the laws governing it will, also in the future, not lose their power. Into the most distant future man will have to be regenerated, and the first states cannot but be natural. Also to the New Church as a whole this law applies, and the first states of the New Church are likewise natural.

  By the birth of the truth that there is a difference between the Word and the Doctrine out of the Word, a change has come about by which the New Church may now enter into the spiritual state. The New Church as a whole may now receive the disposal over entirely new faculties, which in the preceding state were not yet opened. It will be for the Church as if it were introduced into quite another world. This is founded on the fact that as a whole will the Church be able to come into communication with the spiritual Heaven, where indeed other food is taken, where the thinking is different, where other work is done, and the enjoyments are different from those in the preceding state, where, in general, communication only with the natural Heaven was possible.

  The result of this is that in man it will be possible for as it were entirely new faculties to become active which will bring into existence affections and thoughts of quite a different nature. In the measure that new spiritual faculties make themselves more and more felt, the difference between these and the natural faculties is ever more clearly demonstrated and man learns to keenly distinguish between what lives in him from the Lord and what has entered from a foreign source. Man then begins to see in the literal sense of the Word a spiritual sense, from. which in his spiritual thinking ideas and representations are formed which are as real and conceivable to him as in the case of his natural thinking and representations. In this way he begins to see that indeed the spiritual sense differs from the natural sense and that this is so with every truth of the Word.

  The progress of the Church as a whole in regeneration is dependent on the opening of the interior things of the Word, for every progress in regeneration must be received as an idea of thought in the spiritual thinking. Regeneration is one with the Doctrine of genuine truth which is the

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spiritual sense of the Word. With this is also connected the process of temptation, for the entering into the spiritual sense of the Word and the conception and birth of the good and truth of which the Doctrine of genuine truth consists, is dependent on victories in the conflict of temptation. And how can this strife lie carried on if it is not possible to keenly distinguish between what is from the Lord and what is from hell? That the difference between the activity of the natural and the spiritual faculties may be perceived by man, is confirmed by the Latin Word, where it treats of the difference between natural and spiritual loves. It is there said that it is difficult to indicate what the difference really is, but that those who are in spiritual loves may know what the difference is, but that this is not the case with those who are only in natural loves.

  That by the spiritual sense the truths of the Word which apparently have no relation to the actual life of man, do indeed for each man come to apply to his daily life, may become clear by the following example. In HEAVEN AND HELL it is recounted what happens to the man who leaves the natural world. These events are described even to the particulars of the perception and the thoughts. So far in the Church this, fact was only thought of in relation to the death of a man. By the opening of the spiritual sense these things will also obtain actual signification for each man of the Church during his life on earth. The spiritual sense describes what each man must pass through when the spiritual degree is being opened. This applies for each natural truth in which the spiritual sense is born. In the spiritual degree man disposes over the faculty to draw himself up from the natural things as if from himself. It is, however, the Lord alone who does this. The fears and afflictions which arise in man when it becomes evident to him that for him too the time has come to leave the natural body, and which are worse according as the man is more attached to the natural things, play a large part also in the process of regeneration. For man then perceives much more keenly that the natural things with their charms and lusts must be put off and this putting off takes place by means of temptations. In the measure in which man is more attached to these natural things and places his life

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in them, the spiritual fears and afflictions are much more intense.

  From the address it clearly appears that the Doctrine of genuine truth is identified with the literal sense of the Word. In the natural state of the Church there is the appearance as if this were so. It is not possible in this state for the reality of the relation of the Doctrine of the Church to the Word to be seen, nor for the relation of the Doctrine of the Church to the individual doctrines or interpretative doctrines, as they are called in the address. There is however, a great difference between the truths of the Doctrine of the Church and those of the literal sense of the Word. In the well-known number 9025 of the ARCANA COELESTIA this is literally said. Thus one may note that in many addresses entire pages are filled only with literal quotations because in this state not only must the confirmations be from the letter of the Word, but also is the Doctrine of genuine truth itself identified with the letter. Those places in the letter that are accounted as Doctrine, are the places that are called naked, and there is in the natural state indeed an appearance as if these truths are related to other truths as spiritual truths to natural truths. However, the face and the hands by which these naked truths are meant, just like the covered body, belong to the natural or exterior man, if the Word is seen as a man, so that in reality there exists no essential difference between both categories of truth.

  The revelation of the Divine Human on which the Christian Church is based, for that Church meant a different basis from that of the Israelitish Church. That the Christian Church has a more interior degree of the Word as basis, which differed from the basis of the Israelitish Church appears from Peter's confession in Matth. XVI : 16: "Thou art the Christ, the Son ' of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him: Blessed art thou, Simon, BarJona; for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father which is in heaven. And I also say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of hell. shall not prevail against it". This confession of Peter in respect to the New Church signifies that now in the New Church there is a faith that the Third Testament not only is a complete Word, but that

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this Testament is the proper Word and the foundation for the New Church. This faith has became possible by and is based on the truth that the Doctrine concerning the Sacred Scripture without reserve applies to the Writings of Swedenborg. That this truth is not of men, but that it is a Divine truth, appears from the words: "Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father which is in heaven". That this faith signifies an entirely new foundation for the New Church appears from these words: "And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and on this rock I will build My church".

  H. D. G. GROENEVELD. — In the address of Bishop de Charms to the British Assembly in 1931 we read: "The Writings are the very Doctrine of the Church, Divinely given".

  In the Writings the Lord has accomplished His Second Coming. They are therefore the Divine Human of the Lord on earth; they are the Word of the Lord as  Third Testament.  This Testament contains all spiritual and celestial truths. The words of the literal sense such as they appear to man are only significatives of these truths, for the truths themselves are outside of space and time, since they are in the Divine Human of the Lord.  It is now allowed the human race to enter with the understanding into the spiritual and celestial truths. This entering should therefore essentially take place in the height and not in the breadth, that is to say, the entering into the Third Testament must essentially take place by the seeing of the things of the literal sense outside of space and time, and riot by the gathering of the things of the literal  sense, such as they appear to man. The taking cognizance in the breadth will be dependent on the entering into the height, for the taking cognizance in the breadth which, by the books of the Third Testament being definite in volume, seems to be limited, will, by the entering into the height, prove to be possible ever more and more. That the seeing of the things of the literal sense must take place outside of space and time has been revealed to us in the ANGELIC WISDOM CONCERNING THE DIVINE LOVE AND CONCERNING THE DIVINE WISDOM, n. 51: "But do not, I entreat you, confound your ideas with time and with space, for as far as time and

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space are in your ideas when you read what follows, you •will  not  understand  it;  for  the  Divine  is  not  in  time and space".

  Infinite are the spiritual and celestial truths hidden within the literal sense of the Third Testament, thus the spiritual and celestial truths that are present outside of space and time, for the Lord by His Coming on earth has made His Human Divine, and thus infinite. Since; as is known, the Third Testament is a revelation of the rational and the human begins in the inmost of the rational, by the Second Coming of the Lord in the Third Testament the esse of the Doctrine is with the human race on earth. In this esse of the Doctrine the Lord, however, has no power if this esse of the Doctrine  has not an existere  of the Doctrine. By the existere of the Doctrine the Lord can save man from evils and falsities. If the esse of the Doctrine were to have power, the entire human race in one moment would come to the acknowledgment of the Divine Human of the Lord and thus of the Lord as the Creator of Heaven and earth. In order that the esse of the Doctrine might also exist, the Lord at His Second Coming has established & new Church. It is in the Church alone that the esse of the Doctrine exists and where thus the Lord is present as the Doctrine of the Church. It is for this reason that the Church is holy. All things of life therefore must be directed according to the things of the Church, for if these things make the inmost of our lives, the Lord dwells in us. The Church in essence is not a congregation of persons, but the existere of the esse of the Doctrine, of which all things from the first to the last are connected and make one man by the presence of the Divine Human of the Lord. Every man of the Church has been allotted his place and therefore his function in that man. This man, or the Church, has his life from the Lord when the Doctrine of the Church is the existere of the esse of the Doctrine and thus the Lord's presence on earth. With respect to the Church we read in the ARCANA COELESTIA, n. 10125: "For the Lord does not dwell in anything of the man's and Angel's own, but in His own with them; hence it is that when the Church and Heaven is spoken of, the Divine of the Lord with those who are there is meant". In n. 10151: "Hence it is plain

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that the Divine of the Lord makes the Church, as it makes Heaven". And m n. 10282: "It is said abstractly from person because the Divine things which proceed from the Lord make the Church and nothing at all of man. They flow in with man indeed, but still they do not become man's, but are the Lord's with man".

  The Third Testament therefore, as appears from the above, is the esse of the Doctrine and the Doctrine of the Church is the existere of the Doctrine. The genuine Doctrine of the Church will always be one with the Third Testament, as body and soul are one man. Since the Third Testament as the esse of the Doctrine is infinite, the Doctrine of the Church as the existere of the Doctrine will be capable of development to eternity. For this reason the New Church is the Crown of the Churches and will endure to eternity.

  The esse is not anything if it does not exist, while the existere is not anything if it is not out of the esse; cf. T.C.R. n. 21. The Divine authority of the esse of the Doctrine or of the Third Testament therefore lies in the existere of the Doctrine or in the Doctrine of the Church, while the Divine authority of the existere of the Doctrine or of the Doctrine of the Church is out of the esse of the Doctrine or out of the Third Testament. In this connection there come to us the words of the Lord in the Gospel of John: "The Father and I are one, the Father is in Me, and I in the Father; Father, all Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine; he that seeth Me seeth the Father"; see T.C.R. n. 112. All Divine authority of the Third Testament and of the Doctrine of the Church is therefore the Lord's alone. There is no Divine authority either in the literal sense of the Third Testament or in the literal sense of the Doctrine of the Church, since such a Divine authority would take away from man the free choice.

  If we regard the Third Testament itself as the Doctrine of the Church, then we see only the esse of the Doctrine and not the existere of the Doctrine. This is the case when with man the esse has not yet obtained its existere. This may be elucidated by the conjunction of the Lord with the human race before His Coming on earth, thus before the assumption of His Human.  When  the Lord  then revealed Himself in this world, He did so through an

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Angel whom He filled with His Divinity; see NINE QUESTIONS.  When, however, the esse of the Doctrine obtains its existere, we are soon placed before the choice whether or not to accept this existere. An acceptance of the existere of the Doctrine at once brings us into a wrestling with the natural  man,  which wrestling after an actual victory over the evils and falsities, always brings us redemption; while with a non-acceptance the existere of the Doctrine would be brought to the esse of the Doctrine,  from  which,  by  the devotion to it, redemption is then expected. The acceptance of the existere of the Doctrine brings us to the acknowledgment of the Divine Human of the Lord and to the acknowledgment of the Third Testament as the Word of the Lord, while the nonacceptance would bring us to the acknowledgment of a Son from the eternal. The truths of the literal sense of the Third Testament would, on account of an enlightenment when reading that Testament, be acknowledged as the essential for life. The Second Coming of the Lord would be regarded as an active redemption.

  If we regard the Doctrine of the Church as the essential then we see only the existere of the Doctrine and not the esse of the Doctrine. The existere is the entrance to the esse. This appears from the sixth verse of the fourteenth chapter of the Gospel of John: "No man cometh unto the Father, but through Me", and from ON THE SACRED SCRIPTURE OR THE WORD OF THE LORD FROM EXPERIENCE, chapter XXI: "No one can see the spiritual sense except from the Doctrine of genuine truth".  The Doctrine of the Church must lead man to the Third Testament, since that Testament is the esse of the Doctrine of all spiritual and celestial things. Without the acknowledgment of that Testament as the esse of the Doctrine. there can be no existere of the spiritual  and celestial things with man, since the existere is out of the esse. The acceptance of the esse of the Doctrine brings us to the acknowledgment of the Third Testament as the Divine Human of the Lord and thus as the Word of the Lord, whereas by non-acceptance the esse of the Doctrine would be taken away from the existere of the Doctrine, which would lead to a denial of the Divine Human of the Lord and thus to a denial of the Coming of the Father Himself

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on earth. The Third Testament is then indeed acknowledged as a Divine revelation given to Emanuel Swedenborg, but the Divine revelation is seen as a substitution as it were for the esse of the Doctrine. The existere of the Doctrine is then directed exclusively to the human. The improvement of natural society is regarded as the sole essential.

 The esse of the Doctrine or the Third Testament obtains its existere in the Doctrine of the Church, but only when with the reading of that Testament there is enlightenment; while the Doctrine of the Church by the wrestling through the natural enters into the things outside of space and time and finally finds the esse of the Doctrine in the celestial and spiritual things hidden within the literal sense of the Third Testament. The Doctrine of the Church comes out of the Third Testament and returns to the spiritual and celestial things of that Testament. To us occur the words of the 28th verse of the 16th chapter of the Gospel of John: "I came forth from the Father and am come into the world; again I leave the world, and go to the Father". Then the Doctrine of the Church is one with the Third Testament, as existere and esse, or as body and soul. Then the Doctrine of the Church is Divine and of the Lord alone. Then the words of the literal sense of the Third Testament open as flower buds, and we can understand what is written  in the posthumous sketch ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY OF THE NEW CHURCH: "When the BRIEF EXPOSITION was published the angelic 'Heaven, from the east to the west, from the south to the north, appeared of a purple color, with the most beautiful flowers".

DE HEMELSCHE LEER

EXTRACT FROM THE ISSUE FOR OCTOBER 1933

    THAT THE LORD ALONE IS HEAVEN

ADDRESS BY THE REVEREND THEODORE PITCAIRN BEFORE THE FIRST DUTCH SOCIETY, THE HAGUE, NINETEENTH OF JUNE 1933.

  The subject which is engaging the thought of the Church at this time is particularly the nature of the Lord's proprium with man, and that it is the Lord's Divine Proprium which makes Heaven and the Chuich and nothing of the proprium of Angel or man which is evil. We are taught in the Word that "the Lord is the all in all things of Heaven and of the Church", and as He is the all in all things of Heaven and of the Church, He is the 'all in all things of an Angel and of a man, in so far as an Angel is in the angelic and in so far as a man is of the Church. This subject is treated of in particular in THE ANGELIC WISDOM CONCERNING THE DIVINE LOVE AND CONCERNING THE DIVINE WISDOM, under the heading: That the Angels are in the Lord, and the Lord in them; and, because the Angels are recipients, that the Lord alone is Heaven, n.  113—118.

  The number first treats of the apparent separation of the Lord and Heaven, for it states that: "The Lord is in the Sun above the Heavens, and through His presence in heat and light, He is in the Heavens". But that this separation is an appearance is stated as follows: "Although the Lord is in Heaven in that manner, still He is there as He is in Himself. For, as was demonstrated just above, n.  108—112, the distance between the Sun and Heaven is not distance but an appearance of distance. And because the distance is only an appearance it follows that the Lord Himself is in Heaven, for He is in the love and wisdom of the Angels of Heaven". Here we have a paradox. It is taught that an Angel could no more approach the Sun of Heaven without being consumed by its ardor, than a man could ap-

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proach the sun of the world, and nevertheless that it is but an appearance that there is such a separation, for the Lord is omnipresent. If the mind be raised above the idea of space and its appearances, it can be seen that the apparent distance spoken of here does not refer essentially to the external appearance of distance in the spiritual world, but to the state of Heaven; namely that on the one hand the existence of Heaven and the as of itself life of Heaven, is due to the fact that they see the Lord infinitely above themselves and on the other hand that they acknowledge that the Lord is the all in all things of their love and wisdom, and consequently that their love and wisdom is not theirs but the Lord's. In this connection it may be noted that as the Angels increase in wisdom, on the one hand they acknowledge more fully the Lord's presence, and that all their love and wisdom is the Lord's, while on the other they see more clearly the infinite distance between the Lord and themselves. This may be illustrated by the fact that it is only the learned who realize the great distance to the sun of the natural world, and apart from the science of astronomy no one could imagine that the sun is hundreds of times as far away as the moon, for such knowledge is contrary to the appearance.

  This appearance and reality of the distance of the sun and moon represent the difference in state between those who are in the appearance that they can enter into the spiritual sense of the Word by direct cognizance, and those who see that the Lord as the internal sense is as it were infinitely above the appearances a man comes into by direct cognizance of the literal sense of the Latin Word. Note that the distance to the moon also cannot be realized apart from astronomy, which illustrates how unaware of spiritual distances are those who remain in the mere appearance of the letter of the Word including the Third Testament.

  While the as of itself life and thus the reciprocal of Angels and men depends on the very real appearance of spiritual distance, nevertheless that this is an appearance is manifested from the Word and from Doctrine thence, for we read in n. 114: "That the Lord is not only in Heaven, but also that He is Heaven itself, is because love and wisdom make the Angel, and these two are the Lord's with the Angels; hence it follows that the Lord is Heaven. For

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the  Angels  are  not Angels  from  their  proprium;  their proprium is altogether like man's proprium, which is evil. ... The proprinm is only removed, and in so far as it is removed, in so far they receive love and wisdom, that is the Lord in themselves. Any one can  see, if only he elevates his understanding somewhat, that the Lord cannot dwell with the Angels excepting in His Own, that is in His Proprium, which is Love and Wisdom; and not at all in the proprium of the Angels, which is evil. Hence it is that in so far as evil is removed in so far the Lord is in them, and in so far they are Angels. The angelic itself of Angels is the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom. This Divine is called angelic while it is in the Angels. Hence again it is plain, that the Angels are Angels from the Lord, and not from themselves; consequently Heaven also". From the above it is manifest that the love and wisdom of men a.nd Angels is pure, because it is Divine and is the Lord's and consequently cannot be commingled with anything of  their  proprium,  which  is  evil,  for  if  there  were commingling, profanation would ensue. At times what is of the Lord and what is of man may not be distinguished by man, but Providence continually leads towards making this distinction visible to Angels and men.

  Although love and wisdom are the Lord's, in order that there may be a reciprocal they must appear to be man's; apart from this appearance no conjunction is possible. Thus we read in n. 115:' "The Angel does not perceive otherwise than that he is in love and wisdom from himself, in like manner with man, and hence as if love and wisdom are his and his own. Unless he so perceived, there would not be any conjunction; thus the Lord would not be in him, nor he in the Lord. Nor can .it be possible for the Lord to be in any Angel and man, unless he in whom the Lord 'is with love and wisdom, perceives these as his." And in n. 116: "But how this is brought about, that an Angel perceives and feels as his own, and thus receives and retains, that which is not his own — for as was said above an Angel is  not  an  Angel  from  his  own,  but  from  those  things which are with him from the Lord — shall now be said. The case in itself is thus. With every Angel there is liberty and rationality; these two are with him to the end that he may be receptible of love and wisdom from the

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Lord. Yet both these, the liberty as well as the rationality are not his, but the Lord's with him. But because these two are intimately conjoined to his life, so intimately that they may be said to be in joined upon his life, -they therefore appear as his propria". The faculties of liberty and rationality being the Lord's and not man's, are Divine. The faculties of liberty and rationality are the faculties of receiving truth and good from the Lord; hence it follows that both the good and truth which inflow and also the faculties which receive are the Lord's and not man's, and hence that good and truth after reception are the Lord's alone. The evil have the faculties in potentiality but not the use of the faculties; wherefore with them there is not good and truth, but only will, speech, and act, in a lower degree than liberty itself and rationality itself. These faculties which, as is said, are the Lord's, are conjoined and injoined upon man's life so closely that what belongs to the Lord appears as if man's, yea as if they were his propria, that is as if they were properly his. This appearance causes the reciprocal between the Lord and man and hence conjunction; but it only causes conjunction in so far as it is acknowledged that good and truth and the faculties of receiving them, are the Lord's, for we read: "And yet in so far as any Angel believes that love and wisdom are in him, and thus claims them to himself as his own, in so far the angelic is not in him, and therefore in so far there is no conjunction with the Lord", n. 116. The good and truth here spoken of are not the inflowing good and truth before reception, but that good and truth which appear as his proprium, because belonging to the rationality and liberty which are the Lord's with him.

  The number continues: "For he is not in the truth: and because the truth makes one with the light of Heaven, in so far he cannot be in Heaven, for from this ground he denies that he lives from the Lord, and believes that he lives from himself, consequently that he has a Divine essence". It has been thought that DE HEMELSCHE LEER implies that man has a Divine essence, but deeper reflection will manifest the truth that the reverse is the case, and that in so far as man denies that the good and truth which appear as his own are the Lord's, so far he attributes to himself a Divine essence, even though he may deny it,

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and may even think that he does not do so. That this is so. may be seen from the following.

  The quotations above make it evident that it is the same thing to believe that good and truth are one's own or to believe that one lives from one's self; for all genuine life is the  life  of good and truth. Good and truth flow in with everyone, both good and evil; it is the reception which causes them to be spiritual life in a man. If man could receive them from something properly his own. he would receive them from a life which was his own, for what is dead cannot receive good and truth; to have life which is  one's  own  is  to  have a Divine essence, as quoted above. To state the matter differently: If it is denied that good and truth after reception are Divine, thus making them man's and not the Lord's, a life of good and truth is attributed to man which is not the Lord's. But, as stated in the above quotation, to attribute a life of good and truth to man, really would mean that man had a Divine essence. On the other hand in so far as it is acknowledged that all the good which one does and the truth which one thinks are the Lord's alone and hence Divine, it results  in an internal  acknowledgment that the Lord alone has a Divine essence, and that hence all good and truth are His, and only as if it were man's. This is involved in the continuation of the number which reads: "From these things it may appear that an Angel has a reciprocal for the sake of conjunction with the Lord; but that the reciprocal considered in its faculty is not his but the Lord's. Hence it is, if he abuses that reciprocal from which he perceives and feels as his own what is the Lord's, which is done by appropriating it to himself, that he falls down from the angelic".

  Note that no one can perceive and feel as his own "good and truth and their life before they are received, nor can he appropriate them to himself. Hence it is evident that the warning is as to the danger of appropriating the good and truth which have been received and which are felt as one's own. This is done by denying their Divinity, for to deny their Divinity is to deny that they are the Lord's and not man's. That the Divine Love and Wisdom are the Divine love and  wisdom  in  man, thus after reception, is clearly taught in number 114, quoted above,

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namely: "The angelic itself is the Divine Love and Wisdom. This Divine is called the angelic while it is in the Angels"; further: "They receive love and wisdom, that is the Lord, in themselves", and further: "The Lord cannot dwell with Angels excepting in His own, that is in His Proprium, which is love and wisdom". Hence it is manifest that the Word clearly teaches that love and wisdom in man after reception are wholly the Lord's and not man's, and are therefore Divine.

DE HEMELSCHE LEER

EXTRACTS FROM THE ISSUE FOR NOVEMBER 1933

     PLAIN STATEMENTS OF DOCTRINE

ADDRESS BY THE REVEREND ALBERT BJORCK BEFORE THE XXVI BRITISH ASSEMBLY, LONDON, AUGUST 7TH, 1933, AND BEFORE THE FIRST DUTCH SOCIETY, THE HAGUE,

    JULY 30TH, 1933.

  When life makes the Church, and not doctrine separated from life, the Church is one; but when doctrine makes the Church, there are many, A.C. 8152.

 The attitude of mind that the members of a Church take toward the Divine revelation on which they base their belief decides the doctrinal thought within the Church. Differences in doctrinal thought divide; therefore the divisions or sects in a Church are the consequences or results of different attitudes of mind among the members regarding the character, nature, and qualities of the Revelation of Divine Truth from which they draw their doctrines.

  In the New Church the differences in the doctrinal thought, and there from resulting divisions existing within it, arise from different attitudes of mind taken toward the Theological Writings of Swedenborg.

  The view the majority of New Churchmen have taken concerning these Writings is represented by the thought and activity of the CONVENTION in America and the CONFERENCE in Great Britain. In some respects it is rather vague and includes some diversity of thought, but it may be truly said that the estimation of the Writings, or the attitude of mind from which they are generally regarded within these bodies, is, that they are a Divinely inspired explanation or commentary of the Old and New Testaments, which alone are the Word. The view is that, as the servant of the Lord, Swedenborg's spiritual senses were opened and that he thereby was introduced into the spiritual world. What he there heard, saw, and experienced, made it possible for the Lord to reveal to him the true spiritual teaching or the doctrine representatively revealed in the Word, that is, the Old and New Testaments, when he read them. His Writings are

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therefore those of a Divinely inspired instructor, through whom men are taught the true meaning of the Word; and the doctrines made known there to men can be seen in and confirmed by the literal sense of the Old and New Testaments which alone are the Word.

  Such has been the attitude toward the Writings among the majority of New Churchmen, and still is. But a time came when a new attitude of mind toward the Writings arose, an attitude that had been voiced by individuals here and there at different times without much visible effect, but which now gained in strength, and finally resulted in the formation of the ACADEMY and subsequently, in the organization of the GENERAL .CHURCH OF  THE  NEW JERUSALEM.

  The attitude to the Writings most common in the GENERAL CHURCH today has been .clearly and concisely set forth by Dr. Alfred Acton in his address, The crucial point in the Dutch position, published in NEW CHURCH LIFE, May 1933. As his view seems to have the support of the Bishops and teachers at the center of the Church in the United States, I will quote from him. He says: "An examination of the Writings will show that, save in those cases where it shines out clearly in the letter, the internal sense of the Old and New Testaments, which is the same as the doctrine of the New Church, is not set forth on the authority of plain statements of the Scriptures, or even confirmed thereby, save in a most general way, but rests solely on the authority of a new and immediate revelation". And again: "However great might have been the development of doctrine in the Christian Church, the internal sense of the Word as now revealed could never have been given, save by an immediate revelation, a new Word, to whose teaching men could point as the source of their doctrine".

  "That the doctrines of the New Church must be drawn from the Writings and not from the Old and New Testaments", Dr. Acton states in the very beginning of his address, "has long been taught in the Church, and is widely acknowledged; nay, even before it was taught in so many words, it was practically acknowledged; for all controversies in the Church have been concerned with the interpretation of what is  stated  in the Writings, and not in the Old and New Testaments".

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  We note that according to this the main difference between the CONVENTION and CONFERENCE position on the one side and that of the ACADEMY, also commonly held in the GENERAL CHURCH on the other, is that the latter regards the Writings as their own authority, being a new immediate revelation from the Lord.

  Both agree in regarding the Writings as the internal sense of the Old and New Testaments, but whereas the first regards the letter of the Old and New Testaments as the Divine authority by which the doctrines revealed in the Writings should be confirmed, the latter holds that the Writings have Divine authority in themselves, that the truth of the teaching given in them rests on that Divine authority itself and -not on the plain statements of the Old and New Testaments; and that they for this reason are a new Word.

  Dr. Acton says: "When we .come to the internal sense of the Old and New Testaments, that is to say, to the doctrines peculiar to and distinctive of the New Church, we find that these could be given only by an immediate revelation.  And, therefore, of these doctrines we read: 'I  have  not  received  anything  which  pertains  to  the doctrines of the New Church from any angel, but from the Lord alone when reading the Word', T.C.R. 779. These doctrines are not given us on the authority of the Old and New Testaments; nor are they confirmed by the plain statements of those Testaments". But, although the Writings, being an immediate revelation from the Lord, are regarded as, and by Dr. Acton called, a new Word, that new Word according to him has no internal sense itself; it is the internal sense of the Old and New Testaments stated in plain words to men on earth in the form of doctrine.

  About this Dr. Acton says: "The Writings are a revelation in which the spiritual sense, the Divine teaching, is unveiled, not here and there, but everywhere. This is the only basis on which can rest the claim that they are the last and crowning revelation". And again: "I cannot admit that the Writings have an internal sense, in the sense meant by the Dutch school; for this would mean the expectation of a new revelation, and meanwhile darkness with respect to the internal sense".

90            REVEREND ALBERT BJORCK

  Of late years another attitude toward the Writings has been taken by members of the GENERAL CHURCH in Holland and elsewhere, with a different line of doctrinal thinking resulting from it. This new attitude is not in opposition to that which gave rise to the GENERAL CHURCH, but a further development of it, an opening up of the idea that the Writings are the Word. The doctrinal thoughts resulting from it have been published in a magazine called DE HEMELSCHE LEER, printed at The Hague, and have become known as the Hague position, or the Dutch school, and the addresses by Dr. Acton, Rev. H. L. Odhner and the Bishops G. de Charms and N. D. Pendleton, published in the May number of NEW CHURCH LIFE, are all directed against the doctrinal position of the Dutch school.

  The new attitude toward the Writings has been caused by reflection on what the last immediate revelation from the Lord, the new Word, tells us about the manner and order in which the Word of the Lord is given to men on earth. The teaching of the new Word concerning the Divine order in which the Word is given to men is, shortly stated, this: Divine Truth proceeds from the Lord who is Truth itself and the inmost Soul and Life of the Heavens, but above the consciousness of Angels and men and therefore appears to be above the Heavens. As the infinite Divine Truth proceeds it is accommodated to the receptive power of the Angels who constitute the different Heavens. In other words, the Divine Truth proceeding from the Lord takes on different appearances according to the different degrees of love and wisdom from the Lord with the Angels. These different degrees, or appearances of truth, in the different Heavens, the new Word calls celestial, spiritual, and natural. There is no relation between them except by correspondence.

  In the literal or external sense of the Word, through which the Divine Truth can come to the knowledge of men on earth, the celestial and spiritual senses are laid down in representations accommodated to the comprehension of men in the world. This is the teaching of the new Word, given in plain words accommodated to the rational mind .of men in such a way that if they will, they may get knowledge of the order in which the Word proceeds, and of the nature and qualities that characterize its external

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form with men. In confirmation I will quote from N.J.H.D. 252, where we read: "As the Word is a revelation from the Divine, it is Divine in the whole and in every particular; for what is from the Divine cannot be otherwise. That which is from the Divine comes down through the Heavens even to man; and is therefore in the Heavens adapted to the wisdom of Angels who are there, and on earth it is adapted to the comprehension of men who are there. For this reason there is in the Word an internal sense, which is spiritual for Angels, and an external sense which is natural for men. By this means there is conjunction of Heaven with man through the Word". In S.S. 6 it says: "From the Lord proceed the Celestial, the Spiritual, and the Natural, one after another. That is called celestial which proceeds from the Divine Love, and it is Divine Good. That is called spiritual which proceeds from the Divine Wisdom, and it is Divine Truth. The natural is from them both and is their complex in the ultimate. . . . The Divine that descends from the Lord to human beings descends through these three degrees, and when it has descended it contains these three degrees in itself. Such is the case with everything Divine; therefore when it is in its ultimate degree, it is in its fullness. Such is the Word; in its ultimate sense this is natural, in its interior sense it is spiritual, and in the inmost it is celestial; and in every sense it is Divine". One more quotation will serve for the confirmation of the teaching stated. See A.E. 1066«: "Because the Divine Truth which is the Word in its descent into the world from the Lord, has passed through the three Heavens, therefore it has become accommodated to every Heaven, and lastly also to men in the world. It is from this that in the Word there are four senses, one outside the other from the highest Heaven even to the world; or one within the other from the world even to the highest Heaven. Those four senses are called the celestial, the spiritual, the natural from the celestial and spiritual, and the merely natural. This being for the w6rld, that for the ultimate Heaven, the spiritual for the second Heaven, and the celestial for the third. These four senses differ much from each other, so that when one is beside the other they are not recognized [as to their relation], but still they make one when one follows the other. For one follows the other as the effect from its

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cause, and as what is posterior from what is prior. Therefore, as the effect represents the cause and corresponds to the cause, so does the posterior sense to the prior. Hence. it is that all four senses make one by correspondences".

  Some members of the GENERAL CHURCH have reflected on this teaching and have come to see that the conception of the Writings as the Word of the Lord hitherto held in the GENERAL CHURCH is inadequate. If the Writings are the Word, then what is there said in plain words concerning the character and quality of the Word, and the relation of the Doctrine of the Church to the Word, must apply to the Writings themselves equally with the Old and New Testaments; or they are not the Word, and then the attitude of mind towards them taken by the CONVENTION and CONFERENCE is the only logical one.

  Interior perception that the Writings are the Word of the Lord to men, His last external revelation of Divine Truth, is abundantly confirmed by reflecting on what the new Word reveals about itself and the mission of the Lord's servant, his preparation and Divine guidance, through whom the Divine, Celestial, and Spiritual truths of the Lord and the Heavens were given their ultimate, or natural external form.

  In this way a new attitude of mind toward the Writings as the Word has come about and been established with some. When these men study the new Word, they find that plain statements of doctrine found in the new Word, when applied to that Word itself, have a different meaning than before seen, when they were thought of as applying only to the Old and New Testaments.

  We are repeatedly taught that the sense of the letter of the Word cannot be understood without Doctrine. From the many plain statements in the new Word to this effect, I will quote A.C. 10324, where we read: "The Word in the letter cannot be apprehended except by means of Doctrine drawn from the Word by one who is enlightened. For the sense of the letter of the Word is accommodated to the apprehension of even simple men. Wherefore they need Doctrine from the Word for a lamp".

  When those who have accepted the new attitude of mind toward the Writings, regarding them as the new and final Word, having all the characteristics and qualities there

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revealed as belonging to the Word, read these words in A.C. 10324, they convey to them in plain language a truth that is completely hidden to those who do not accept the new attitude.

  To the last named the expressions "the Word in the letter", or "the sense of the letter of the Word", apply only to the Old and New Testaments, while to those with the new attitude they apply equally to the new Word, for within the sense of the letter of the new Word there is also a spiritual, a celestial, and a Divine sense, conjoined by correspondence.

  To the ones the words "one who is enlightened" apply only to Emanuel Swedenborg, who under the guidance of the Lord has drawn the Doctrine of the New Church from the Old and New Testaments, which Doctrine is the same as their spiritual sense. To the others the words, "one who is enlightened", apply to any regenerating man whose faith rests on the revelation of the Lord in the new Word, and whose internal is open to influx from the Heavens.

  To the ones this truth is hidden by their understanding of the sense of the letter. To the understanding of the others this truth is plainly stated in the very letter of the new Word. When they read A.C. 10400 in connection with the words just quoted from n. 10324, they find their understanding confirmed in the following plain doctrinal teaching: "The Doctrine that should be for a lamp is that which the internal sense teaches, thus it is the internal sense itself, which in some measure lies open to every one, . . . who is in the external from the internal, that is, whose internal man is open. For Heaven, which is in the internal sense of the Word, flows in with such a man, when he reads the Word, enlightens him, and gives him perception and thus teaches him".

  In a word, the new attitude of mind towards the Writings as the Word enables us to see truths plainly stated in the letter of the new Word, truths that before were hidden or heavily veiled, and that will remain hidden to those who from their understanding of the new Word think the new attitude untenable or indefensible, and therefore oppose it. The opposition seems in fact to prevent them from understanding what is meant by those who in the magazine DE HEMELSCHE LEER have tried to express some of the doctrinal thoughts resulting from the new attitude and the

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perception, that this attitude has become a basis for, and has opened minds to.

 All the addresses by the opponents published in NEW CHURCH LIFE for May, 1933, show a lack of understanding not only of what is said in DE HEMELSCHE LEER, but also of what was said by the Revs. Pfeiffer and Pitcairn in their addresses on the same occasion. This lack of understanding is caused by a refutation of the new attitude of mind toward the Writings, which does not allow them to  follow the reasoning based on that new attitude, and results in a presentation of what the Dutch school means, which in general is incorrect.

  I will therefore endeavor to give as clear a presentation of the basic doctrinal thought in the Dutch school, as I possibly can in a few words. The Dutch school, holding that the Writings are the Word of the Lord in the full and true sense that they themselves describe as belonging to the Word, says that in its ultimate or literal sense the new Word is natural, in its spiritual sense it is spiritual, and in its inmost it is celestial; and in. every sense it is Divine, as declared in so many plain words in S.S. 6.

  The ultimate or literal sense is natural, but Divine natural. The Divine Human of the Lord is fully and infinitely present with men in that natural sense, and through that the Divine power creates the Church and the Heavens. It is accommodated to the comprehension of natural men, so that even evil men may understand the doctrines there plainly stated if they will. But there is in the Word an external and an internal natural. The external natural sense everyone may learn by reading or by instruction. The internal natural sense is gradually opened to those who from love of truth follow the teaching given in the letter, and their understanding becomes more interior as their natural man is regenerating and they thereby are associated interiorly with the Angels of the first Heaven. But it is still natural, and the doctrine they draw from the Word is the same as their interior natural understanding of the literal sense given them through influx from the first or natural Heaven.

  The thought I have tried to express in these words is plainly stated in A.C. 9025, where we read: "Such things as are from the literal sense of the Word are called

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scientific truths, and differ from the truths of faith which are of the Doctrine of the Church; for the latter arise from the former by explication. . . . Hence also it is that the Doctrines of the Church in many things recede from the literal sense of the Word. It is to be known that the true Doctrine of the Church is that which is here called the internal sense; for in the internal sense there are truths such as those with the Angels in Heaven".

 This plain statement applies to all three degrees of truth in the Word, in the Church and in the Heavens. There are in the external sense of the new Word internal truths revealed, from which a regenerating man can draw true doctrine agreeing with the doctrine in the first or natural Heaven, because corresponding with it. But the Doctrine of genuine truth that corresponds to, and agrees with the Divine truth in the second or spiritual Heaven, spiritual from celestial origin, is to the understanding of the natural man, whose spiritual degree is not opened, hidden or deeply veiled by the literal sense. Nevertheless, the rational of a regenerating man is being prepared to receive the influx from the spiritual Heaven. By this his spiritual degree is opened, and when this is the case he sees genuine truths in spiritual light, and is given a new understanding which sees these truths, before hidden, now plainly stated in the letter of the new Word.

  The genuine truths of the Doctrine of the Church can in this way one .by one be opened by such men and by them be expressed in natural words, the meaning of which can be comprehended by others, if they will, and seen to be plainly taught in the letter itself. "For the Word in its ultimate form is like a man clothed with a garment, who is nevertheless naked as to his face and hands. And where the Word is thus naked, there its goods and truths appear naked, as in Heaven, 'thus such as they are in the spiritual sense. Wherefore it is possible that from the literal sense of the Word the Doctrine of genuine good and genuine truth may be seen by those who are enlightened from the Lord, and may be confirmed by those who are not so enlightened", A.E. 778.

  In both cases the interior natural Doctrine corresponding to the Doctrine in the first Heaven, and the genuine spiritual Doctrine corresponding to the Doctrine of the

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second Heaven, drawn by men from the new Word, is the same as their understanding of the Word; but in the one case the understanding is from the light in the lowest Heaven, in the other it is from the light in the second Heaven, and there is no relation between them except that of correspondence.

  In either case the Doctrine is drawn from the Word by regenerating men. This is plainly stated in A.C. 2762 where we read: "The Doctrine of faith is the same as the understanding of the Word as to interior things, or the internal sense"; in n. 2776: "The light of Heaven from the Lord's Divine Human can reach only those who live in the good of faith, that is, in charity"; in n. 9382: "They who are illuminated apprehend the Word as to its interior things, wherefore they make for themselves Doctrine from the Word, to which they apply the sense of the letter"; in A.E. n.  941,  Continuation.:  "When  the  spiritual  internal  is opened, and communication is given by that means with Heaven, and conjunction with the Lord, then a man is enlightened. He is enlightened especially when he reads the Word, because the Lord is in the Word, and the Word is Divine Truth, and Divine Truth is light to the Angels. Man is enlightened in the rational, for this is directly subject to the spiritual internal, and takes the light over from Heaven, and transmits it into the natural purified from evil, filling it with the cognitions of truth and good, and also adapting to these the sciences which are from the world for confirmation and agreement. Hence a man has a rational, and hence also an understanding. He who believes that man has a rational and an understanding before his natural is purified from evils, is deceived. For it belongs to the understanding to see the truths of the Church from the light of Heaven; and the light of Heaven flows in with no others. As the understanding is perfected, so the falsities of religion and ignorance, and the fallacies, are dispersed".

  Dr. Acton says: "I cannot admit that the Writings have an internal sense, in the sense meant by the Dutch school; for this would mean the expectation of a new revelation, and meanwhile darkness in respect to that internal sense". This is of course consistent with the view that the Writings are the spiritual sense of the Old and New Testaments,

97            PLAIN STATEMENTS OF DOCTRINE

or rather the teaching or doctrine of the spiritual sense of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  and  therefore  the Doctrine of the New Church, but it is hardly consistent with the idea that the Writings are a new Word. Doctrine is from the Word, or, expressed in other words, the Word is the source from which the Church must draw doctrine. When Dr. Acton and those who think with him, or have the same attitude of mind towards the Writings, say that the Writings are "a new Word to whose teaching men can point as the source of their doctrine", they mean that the Writings are the Doctrine of the Church revealed in plain words, and that the doctrine drawn from them by men is nothing but the expression they give to their personal understanding of the Doctrine of the Church revealed by the Lord in plain words; but there is nothing in that attitude that explains why the Doctrine given us ;Is plain words becomes a new Word; for the plain words in which the Doctrine of the New Church is given, can, according to that view, have no internal sense other than that which appears to men's understanding as they are instructed by others, or themselves study the revealed Doctrine trying to get a right understanding of the plain words that reveal it.

  Those who have the new attitude of mind towards the Writings find in the plain words of the Writings abundant reasons for, and explanations of, the fact that the Writings are both the infinite Doctrine of the Church and the Word of the Lord, a Word that has a natural, a spiritual, and a celestial sense, which all are Divine; and that the revealed Doctrine is the Word from which the Church, or men of the Church, can draw spiritual Doctrine when they reach a state of regeneration that makes it possible for them to commune with Angels in the spiritual Heaven, and celestial Doctrine when they are able to commune with Angels in the highest Heaven.

  The explanation, as we see it, is this: The internal sense in the Old and New Testaments is transformed and given us as doctrinal teaching expressed in natural ideas and words in the Writings by the Lord through His servant Swedenborg. The Doctrine, revealed in the external or literal sense of the Writings corresponds to the internal and agrees with it as a body with its soul. So also the

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Doctrine of genuine truth, or the Doctrine of the Church, as it is formed out of the letter of the Word, is not the same as the spiritual sense of the Word, as Dr. Acton said, but is from it and agrees with it as the body with its  soul.  This  is  plainly  stated  in  several  places;  see H.D.N.J. 7; S.S. 25, and many others.

  In the Word of the Lord in His Second Coming spiritual and celestial truths are revealed in natural statements of doctrine which represent them to men. On the basis of the teaching in the new Word the progress and perfection of the Church and the Heavens shall go on for ever, because it contains within the external the infinite truths of the Lord's Divine Human, therefore all the Divine truths that are the Heavens, and make, sustain, and perfect them to eternity.

  When it is said that the Church hitherto has been in a natural state, what is meant is simply that the interior natural understanding of the Divine Word and its Doctrine common in the Church has been from, and corresponding to, the Divine Truth in the first or natural Heavens. But as the Church is to become spiritual and celestial as it in regeneration is associated with the spiritual and celestial Heavens, it will receive influx from them, and thus in spiritual and celestial light see truths in the natural sense of the Word never before seen, and see them plainly, stated in its very words.

  Until men of the Church are prepared to receive influx from the spiritual Heavens and so be taught by the Angels there, the Church will, as Dr. Acton says, be in darkness with respect to the interior sense of the new Word; and it should expect and gladly welcome such individual revelation to men of genuine truths from the spiritual sense of the Word which is in the higher Heavens, when these truths are confirmed by and seen plainly stated in the letter of the new Word.

  Dr. Acton, and those who agreeing with him "cannot admit that the Writings have an internal sense in the sense the Dutch school means", will necessarily understand the plain words of Doctrine in the new Word in a different way from those whose perception has brought about the new attitude of mind towards the Writings as the Word.

  When we read the plain teaching in A.C. 2531: "How

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the case is with the Doctrine of faith, that it is spiritual out of celestial origin, it is to be known that it is Truth Divine out of Good Divine", we apply this teaching not only to the new Word, out of which men draw their Doctrine of faith, but to the Doctrine of faith the Church gets from the spiritual sense of the new Word, and sees confirmed in the plain words of its literal sense. We are justified in this according to A.C. 2762: "The Doctrine of faith is the same as the understanding of the Word as to interior things, or the internal sense". When they read the same words they understand them to apply only to the Heavenly Doctrine revealed by the Lord in the natural words of the Writings, as they understand them and they find fault or are indignant with us for applying them in any other way.

  From what has been said on both sides, I think it ought to be quite plain that the divergence in doctrinal thought, that has shown itself to exist in the GENERAL CHURCH in late years, has been caused by, or is the result of, the new attitude of mind towards the Writings that has been taken by some of its members in The Hague and elsewhere. In the discussions of these divergences at Bryn Athyn last spring, this was recognized by the Bishop of 'the Church, the Right Rev. N. D. Pendleton, when he said that 'the representatives of the two different lines of thought speak different languages, in that they, using the same words, mean different things.

  Most of those who have accepted the new attitude of mind towards the Writings, have formerly shared the views set forth by Dr. Acton and others in the addresses directed against the new lines of thought, and we can therefore understand their reasoning, which is consistent with their attitude towards the Writings as the Word. But their negative position to the new attitude seems thus far to have prevented them from entering into or understanding the reasoning that is a necessary consequence of the new attitude.

  The address of the Right Rev. George de Charms shows most clearly that he sees that the new attitude toward the Writings is the cause of the difference in doctrinal thought that has arisen in the Church. As a matter of fact he has been the first one to use the phrase "the attitude toward

100                REVEREND ALBERT BJORCK

the Writings", which yon have heard me use so often in this paper. He points to the fact that the ACADEMY is an attitude of mind toward the Writings, and he says that the new thoughts "involve" a complete destruction of that attitude and, therefore, presumably of the ACADEMY.

  He also seems to identify the GENERAL CHURCH with the attitude toward the Writings that the Academy position was based on at its formation. For he says: "After long and careful study, I have become fully convinced that the teachings contained in this new magazine involve a subtle but a deadly attack upon the General Church. They involve the complete destruction of that attitude towards the Writings which we have known as the 'Academy'. We believe that if those teachings are to be accepted, it should be done with a full realization of that fact". The last sentence appeals to the loyalty of his hearers to the GENERAL CHURCH and the ACADEMY, now when they are subjected to a "subtle but a deadly attack".   • Later he quotes from DE HEMELSCHE LEER the following: "The comparison of the transition from the state of the Church where the literal sense of the Word itself is considered as the Doctrine, to the state where the Doctrine is  seen  as  spiritual  out  of  a  celestial  origin,  with  the transition from the geocentric to the heliocentric system of the universe, is based on actual correspondence. . . . The essence of the thinking in the spiritual state is the spiritual rational; this rational for the first time sees the spiritual causes, or the essence of truth, and henceforward all thinking no longer follows the letter, but the letter follows the thinking". Having made this quotation Bishop de Charms continues: "It is evident from this quotation that, if the teachings contained in DE HEMELSCHE LEER are true, then do we stand at a very crucial .point in the history of our Church. If they are accepted, the entire system of spiritual thought which has been known as the 'Academy' must go the way of the Ptolemaic system of astronomy, to be superseded by a system diametrically opposite to it. The Academy, as to its essence and its soul, is nothing but an attitude of mind toward the Writing?, — an attitude which it is now the purpose of DE HEMELSCHE LEER to change completely. This is the real issue with which we are faced".

  Bishop de Charms's conception of the new attitude toward

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