Scientific discovery of Spiritual Laws given in Rational
Scientific Revelations
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DE
HEMELSCHE LEER
A
MONTHLY MAGAZINE
DEVOTED
TO THE DOCTRINE OF GENUINE TRUTH
OUT
OF THE LATIN WORD REVEALED FROM THE LORD
ORGAN
OF THE GENERAL CHURCH
OF
THE NEW JERUSALEM IN HOLLAND
EXTRACTS
FROM THE ISSUES AUGUST 1930 TO FEBRUAIIY 1932
(ENGLISH
TRANSLATION)
THIRD
FASCICLE
S-GRAVENHAGE
SWEDENBORG
GENOOTSCHAP
LAAN
VAN MEERDERVOORT 229
1932
LEADING
THESES PROPOUNDED IN
"DE
HEMELSCHE LEER" 1.
The "Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg are the Third
Testament of the Word of the Lord. The DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM
CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE must be applied to the three Testaments
alike. 2.
The Latin Word without Doctrine is as a candlestick
without light, and those who read the Latin Word without Doctrine, or
who do not acquire for themselves a Doctrine from the Latin Word, are in
darkness as to all truth (cf. S. S. 50-61). 3.
The genuine Doctrine of the Church is spiritual out
of celestial origin, but not out of rational origin. The Lord is that
Doctrine itself (cf. A. C. 2496, 2497, 2510, 2516, 2533, 2859; A. E. 19).
DE
HEMELSCHE LEER
EXTRACT
FROM THE ISSUE FOR AUGUST 1930
THE
NINETEENTH OF JUNE 1930
Address
by H. D. G. Groeneveld. In our present
celebration of the Nineteenth of June, the day of the foundation of the New
Church, we are filled with great joy, since in our Society in the past year the
Doctrine of the Church has been born. Last year already it was felt that only by
the Doctrine of the Church the further upbuilding of the Church can take place,
and that by the Doctrine of the Church one comes into the sphere of the
essential, therefore for the first time truly living things, which is the sphere
of the Holy Spirit. The Doctrine which, last year, the Church was given to
receive as a seed from the Divine Human of the Lord, by the influx of the Lord
has come to life. After its invisible development, the Doctrine having been
borne in the body of the Church, in the past year it came to birth, as a result
of which the great importance of the Doctrine is now fully seen by the Church.
As to its very essence the attitude which the Church will now take with regard
to the Third Testament, has been changed. Similarly as centuries ago, after it
had been universally assumed, according to the impression of the senses, that
the earth stood still and the sun revolved around the earth, the view was
accepted that this was a fallacy of the senses and that not the earth but
the-sun stands still and that the earth revolves around the sun, whereby the
mode of thought of man was completely changed, so too by the Doctrine of the
Church the entire spiritual mode of thought will be changed. No longer will the
literal sense of the Third Testament be the resting point or the point of
support around which move the thought of the Church, also with regard to the Old
and the New Testament, but the Doctrine of the Church, 4
THE
NINETEENTH OF JUNE 1930 or the internal
or spiritual sense, will be the Centre to which the understanding of the literal
sense of the Third Testament will be directed. In the literal sense of the Third
Testament one is in the sensual fallacies of natural thought, which fallacies
disappear by the rational thought of the Doctrine of the Church. The Third
Testament by its literal sense is within the reach of all, and every one who
merely on the basis of the literal sense draws conclusions with regard to the
essential things of life is in the sensual fallacies of that sense, as a result
of which there is the danger of great falsities coming into existence. It is
only by the Doctrine of the Church which is in enlightenment from the Lord, and
by which the literal sense is read from within and therefore in true order, that
a perception of the essential things of life is possible. Though on the one
hand we may rejoice that the Doctrine of the Church has been born in our
Society, on the other hand we are anxiously waiting to see, whether, the GENERAL
CHURCH too will receive the Doctrine of the Church as the only essential thing
for the upbuilding of the Church. Although to a certain extent we may look
forward to the future with confidence, yet we may not overlook that in the
GENERAL CHURCH we find the following points of view generally represented:
That
the Third Testament is destined only for a special part of the mind, namely the
rational mind;
That
by direct cognizance of the letter of the Third Testament one has to do with the
spiritual sense
itself;
That
the Third Testament is a revelation of the
rational. That the GENERAL
CHURCH took these points of view certainly was according to order, similarly as
now the further upbuilding of the Church can only take place by the Doctrine of
the Church. In the Preface to
the CANONS it is revealed to us that the New Church is the Church to which all
Churches from the first in order have aimed. We further know from the Third
Testament that in the last things all previous things are contained. In the New
Church therefore all preceding Churches are present. 5
H.
D. G. GROENEVELD Before the Coming
of the Lord on Earth the conjunction of the Lord with the human race was from
His Divine through Creation. All the thought of the human race was therefore
founded on sensual and corporeal things. The men of the Adamic Church, as is
known, lived in open in the communication with the Heavens. This Church is the
New Church is the establishment of the Church through Emanuel Swedenborg. It is
the state of the New Church in the beginning, and also the sate of the man who
for the first time comes into touch with the New Church, and in general the
state of children in the New Church. It is a state of overpowering, of right
feeling, however without being able to give expression to a single thought. It was the
Noachic Church, which was the first to receive a written Word on earth. It is
this Church in the of the Church when they New Church which is the state of the
church when they regarded the writings as interiorly Divine, without
understanding, however, what this in its essence means. It is the state of the
man of the New Church who when reading the Writings realizes the rationality
thereof, but who, from himself, that is without literal quotations, cannot
render what he has read.
The succeeding Church, the Hebrew
Church, in the New Church, is the state of the New Church when the Writings were
seen as teachings for the life of man and when the upbuilding of the Church was
seen to be dependent on the spreading thereof by the cultivation of the Old and
the New Testament. It is the natural life of the Church especially that receives
attention. It is the state of the man of the New Church, who recognizes the
importance of gathering cognitions, while his life gives evidence of external or
natural charity. The then
succeeding Church, the Israelitish Church, in the New Church, is the state of
the New Church in which the Church feels itself bound to the letter of the
Writinigs, but when the Divinity thereof and the acceptance of the Writings as
the only means of conjunction of the Lord with the human race recedes into the
background. And thus the Old and the New Testament are then stamped as direct
means of conjunction. The Old, the New, and the Third Testament are regarded as
destined for certain parts of the human mind, and as it is thought that the Old
6
THE
NINETEENTH OF JUNE 1930 and the New
Testament are destined for the sensual and the natural mind and the Third
Testament for the rational mind, the Old and the New Testament are in the first
place regarded as direct means of conjunction with the, Lord. In that state of
the Church there is the great danger that the Writings will be considered as
merely human. The Church remains in existence only if the affection for the
Divinity of the letter of the Writings remains alive. It is in this state that
lies the origin for the separation of bodies such as CONFERENCE and CONVENTION,
which separation came to fulness in the succeeding state of the Church. This state of the
Church is to be compared with the Coming of the Lord on earth. Just as the birth
of the Lord was the Coming of the Father Himself on earth, so also the Church in
this state will recognize the Divinity of the Writings down into the letter and
accept these Writings as the Third Testament and thus as the Word of the Lord.
They, however, who in the previous state came to regard the Writings as merely
human, and with whom therefore the affection for the Divinity of the Writings
has been extinguished, will now most strongly oppose the new truth that the
Writings are the Word of the Lord. And thereby the separation of the above
mentioned bodies from the Church becomes complete. In this new state
the Church again encounters two great dangers, namely on the one hand that men
will take the point of view that by taking direct congnizance of the letter of
the Third Testament they have to do with the spiritual sense itself, and on the
other hand that the Third Testament is considered merely as a rational
revelation.
The first danger is the same as that
to which the Old Church succumbed, namely by not seeing the Divine of the Lord
in His Human, but by placing the Divine above the Human, and therefore by the
acknowledgment of a Son from eternity. By saying that by direct cognizance, that
is from without, the Third Testament is the spiritual sense itself, one places
the Divine of the letter above-the Human, and thus one recognizes in the Second
Coming the Son of man as a Son from eternity. The Second Coming no more than
the, Coming of the Lord in the flesh is an active redemption of the human race. 7
H.
D. G. GROENEVELD The second danger
arises when the Church has attention only for the letter of the Third Testament-
and therefore closes out enlightenment from the Lord by which the letter is read
from within, seeing such a reading does not seem to be in agreement with a
reading of the Third Testament from without. Similarly as the Lord was born from
the virgin Mary and the human of Mary clung to the Lord whereby the Lord was led
into temptation, so also by the birth of the Lord in the Church there clings to
the Church that own human from its affection of the letter of the Writings in
the previous state, which affection carries with it a human or natural rational
view of the Third Testament.
The Church fears to depart from the
letter of the Third Testament. It is as if the Church wishes to keep the Lord on
earth. May the Church in this state listen to the words of the Lord in the
seventh verse of the sixteenth chapter of the Gospel of John: "Nevertheless
I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not
away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if T depart, T will send Him
unto you", and in the thirteenth verse: "Howbeit when He, the Spirit
of Truth is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of
Himself; but whatsoever He shall bear, He shall speak: and He will show you the
things to come." Only then the
Church comes into its next state, which is to be compared with the pouring out
of the Holy Spirit. Then the Church enters into a spiritual state by seeing in
the letter of the Third Testament the truly spiritual things, and into the
understanding That the DOCTRINE CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE applies also to
the Third Testament. This is the state for the development of the Doctrine of
the Church. In all the
preceding states there is ever present the state of the New Church itself,
namely a, revelation of the Doctrine of the Church as an internal Doctrine from
the Holy Spirit itself, apart from the letter of the Third Testament. It is by
the fulness of this revelation that the external Doctrine of the Church receives
its power in the letter of the Third Testament, by which an ever deeper vision
of that Testament is obtained, and consequently also of the Old and the New
Testament, which 8 THE NINETEENTH OF
JUNE 1930 vision appears to
the Church as an ever increasing miracle. Then the influx from the Lord can take
place from the most internal to the most external things, by which also a
rational insight becomes possible into the causes of natural things and
therefore into the Scientific Works of Swedenborg. Only then can the Lord give
the sensual things in their fulness, whereby the human race will dwell in a
paradise on earth.
DE
HEMELSCHE LEER
EXTRACT
FROM THE ISSUE FOR DECEMBER 1930
THE
REGENERATION OF THE NATURAL
ADDRESS
By H. D.G. GROENEVELD, AT THE SOCIAL
SUPPER
OF OCTOBER 26TH, 1930. "I indeed
baptize you with water unto repentance; but He that cometh after me is mightier
than 1, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear; He shall baptize you with the Holy
Spirit, and with fire". MATTHEW 3:11. As we know from
the Third Testament, Baptism signifies the spiritual washing, that is, the
purification from evils and falsities and thus regeneration. Baptism is in the
first place the introduction into the Christian Church, and at the same time
insertion among the Christians in the spiritual world. As in the spiritual world
all things are according to the strictest order, Baptism therefore in the first
place determines the order of man's life. As the reception of this order depends
on man, Baptism determines only that one may receive faith and thus be
regenerated. John the Baptist
stands for the literal sense of the Word; for the first Christian Church for the
literal sense of the Now Testament; for the New Church for the literal sense of
the Third Testament. Water signifies natural truth. The words "I baptize
you with water" thus indicate that the order of man's life is determined by
the natural truth of the literal sense of the Word, and that reception of this
order and thus the regeneration of man depend on a life in accordance therewith
' The words "unto repentance" clearly- indicate that the end is the
change of the mind, namely the natural mind of man. Thus they who cling to the
things of this world prevent the reception of the true order in their minds and
thus hold back regeneration. To the First
Christian Church admission to the Natural of the Divine Human had been given by
the 10
H.
D. G. GROENEVELD revelation of the
New Testament. By the reception of the natural truth of the literal sense of
that Testament, separated from the things of this world, this Church by That
natural truth, and the genuine natural rational formed therefrom, might have put
itself into order for the influx of the Natural of the Divine Human of the Lord.
It would always have had to be a wrestling through the natural. It is of this
that the great artists gave evidence. Instead of
receiving the natural truth of the literal sense of the New Testament, apart
from the things of the world, these things were mixed with it more and more, by
which an ever more false natural rational came into existence. By this the
natural truth of the literal sense of the New Testament was entirely falsified
so that conjunction of the Lord with the human race on that basis was no longer
possible. To the New Church
admission to the Rational of the Divine Human has now been given by the
revelation of the Third Testament. By the reception of the natural truth of the
literal sense of that Testament the Church enters into a rational which puts
itself into order for the influx of the Holy Spirit. More than ever this natural
truth of the literal sense must now be received apart from the things of this
world. Where in the first Christian Church it was the natural that had to be
received, separated from the things of this world, it now is the rational. So
much so is this the case that one never enters into this rational if the natural
truth of the literal sense of the Third Testament is not received and applied to
life apart from the things of this world. In the first Christian Church it was
the rational which was dependent on the reception of the natural; in the New
Church, however, the natural is dependent on the reception of the rational,
since the natural for the New Church is formed only from the rational. A
falsification of the Third Testament, which is the Divine Rational of the Lord
laid down in the natural, therefore is not possible, but only a falsification of
the scientific of that Testament. If one takes up the natural truth of the
literal sense of the Third Testament, mixed with the things of this world, one
forms for one's self a rational that more and more falsifies the scientifics of
that Testament. Instead of this Testament being opened, it is closed mote and
more. 11
THE
REGENERATION OF THE NATURAL, "But He that
cometh after me is mightier than 1, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear; He
shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire". While John the
Baptist stands for the natural truth of the literal sense, the Lord represents
the genuine or internal truth of that sense. For, the first Christian Church the
Lord represents the Natural of the Divine Human. It is this Natural which ought
to have determined the essence of this Church and which might have been
its part by the pouring out of the Holy Spirit. Then this Church could have
come into the possession of a natural from the Lord; for the order of the life
of that Church with regard to the natural would have been determined from within
by the Divine Truth and the Divine Good, as appears from the words "He
shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire". This natural
'Would have been entirely different from the first natural, since this first
natural is still mixed with man's proprium. The new natural is unsoiled, for it
is the Lord's, as appears from the words "but He that cometh after me is
mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear". It is this natural
which the great artists produced. This natural is entirely pure, which appears
from their works, if one is able to see them from within. For the New
Church the Lord represents the Rational of the Divine Human. It is this Rational
which is to determine the essence of the New Church, and which becomes its part
by the Holy ' Spirit. The rational thus obtained is so different, from the
preceding or human rational, that a comparison is not possible, since the human
rational has been obtained by the natural truth of the literal sense of the
Third Testament; the new rational, however, from within by the Holy Spirit. It
is now this rational which is to determine the order of the life of the Church
with regard to the rational. It is through this rational that the Doctrine of
Genuine Truth and thus the Doctrine of the Church comes into existence. Just as John the
Baptist prepares the way for the Coming of the Lord, or the natural truth of the
literal sense of the New Testament prepares the way for the Natural of the
Divine Human, so the natural truth of the literal sense of the Third Testament
prepares the way for the Rational of the Divine Human and thus for the Second
Coming of 12
H.
D. G. GROENEVELD the Lord. From
this it therefore appears that only by the Doctrine of Genuine, Truth and
therefore by the Doctrine of the Church there can be question of the Second
Coming of the Lord, so that they who do not wish to accept the Doctrine of the
Church do not wish to receive the Lord in His Second Coming. 13
DE
HEMELSCHE LEER
EXTRACTS
FROM THE ISSUE FOR JANUARY 1931
MATTHEW
7: 24-27
ADDRESS
BY H. -D. G. GROENEVELD, AT TI-IE NEW YFAR'S
BREAKFAST,
JANUARY IST, 1931. Therefore
whosoever heareth these words of Mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a
wise man who built his house upon a rock; And the rain
descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house;
and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. And every one
that heareth these words of Mine, and doeth shall be likened unto a foolish man
who built his them not, house upon the sand; And the rain
descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house;
and it fell, and great was the fall of it. MATTHEW 7: 24-27. "Words"
signify truths in the literal sense of the Third Testament, namely those truths
which have been opened out of the Doctrine of the Church. Words are words only
when they are animated from within. So too the truths in the literal sense of
the Third Testament are truths only when they are animated out of the Doctrine
of the Church and have been brought to life. "These words of Mine"
clearly indicates that the truths of the literal sense of the Third Testament
are opened only from the Lord, and that therefore the Doctrine of the Church is
the Lord's. "To hear," means to receive into the understanding, and
"to do" to receive into the will. "Whosoever heareth these words
of Mine, and doeth them" thus signifies every one who receives into the
understanding the truths opened out of the Doctrine of the Church and is
obedient to them, and receives them into the will and therefore lives according
to them. "I will liken him" means that the Lord will bring such a one
into the state that is represented by a wise man who has built his house upon a
rock. 14
H.
D. G. GROENEVELD "A man"
signifies truth, namely the truth of the rational. It is that truth by which the
man is man and out of which the woman is woman. "To be wise" means to
take into account, in the natural, the being and the existence of the Divine
Human of the Lord, in order to prevent the things of the Lord from being
violated and thus one's self from being injured. "A wise man"
therefore means a man who, in the meditations of his understanding, and a woman
who in the expressions of the affections in her will, from the rational takes
into account, in the natural, the being and the existence of the Divine Human of
the Lord and thus the Divine Providence in all things. "A house"
signifies the mind, in this case the natural mind of man and also of the Church.
"A rock" means the natural animated from the Lord. It is those truths
from the literal sense of the Third Testament which are kept conjoined by the
Lord in the natural mind of man, therefore those truths of the literal sense
which have been opened out of the Doctrine of the Church. "A wise man who
built his house upon a rock" thus means a man who in the meditations of his
understanding or a, woman who in the expressions of the affections in her will,
from the rational, for the upbuilding of his or her natural mind, takes into
account only the truths of the literal sense animated from the Lord. It is the
state of the Church 'In which for its upbuilding, from the rational, it takes
into account only the truths of the literal sense of the Third Testament opened
out of the Doctrine of the Church. "The rain
descending, the floods coming, and the winds blowing" represents the
consecutive temptations into which the man of the Church, as also the Church,
enter with a change of state. "The rain descending" is the falsities
from the evil of the will; "the floods coming" are the falsities
formulated by the understanding from the natural rational and "the winds
blowing" the thoughts resulting therefrom. As appears from the text the man
of the Church, as also the Church, stand firm in the ensuing combat because The
upbuilding has been done on truths of the literal sense of the Third Testament,
for man on such as were animated from the Lord, and for the Church on such as
were opened out of the Doctrine. "And every
one that heareth these words of Mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto
a foolish man who 15
Matthew
7: 24-27 built his house
upon the sand. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew,
and beat upon that house; and it fell, and great was the fall of it". Every
one who receives into the understanding the truths of the literal sense of the
Third Testament opened out of the Doctrine of the Church, and does not apply
them to life, brings himself into the state which- is represented by a foolish
man who built his house upon the sand. "A foolish
man" signifies the evil and the falsity in the natural from the rational
separated from the Lord. It is that rational by which the man loses the
masculine and the woman loses the feminine. "The sand" signifies the
scientifics of the literal sense of the Third Testament which are without any
connection. They are those scientifics which have been taken up from without by
the natural memory. "A foolish man who built his house upon the sand"
thus means a man who in the meditations of his understanding, or a woman who in
the expressions of the affections In her will, for the upbuilding of his or her
natural mind, from a separated rational, takes into account mere scientifics
taken from the literal sense of the Third Testament, and thus disconnected
scientifics, whereby mere phantasies come into existence. It is the state of the
Church in which for its upbuilding, from a separated rational, it takes into
account such scientifics. By the opening of
the truths of the literal sense out of the Doctrine of the Church the above
mentioned falsities are called forth one after the other in the mind of man and
in the Church, whereby the phantasies built in the natural mind from the
disconnected scientifics of the literal sense, are entirely destroyed and the
man and the Church are deprived of a supposed possession of truths. May we therefore
be impressed with this that the knowledge that the Lord is the Creator of Heaven
and earth does not save us. Let us continually kneel before the Lord, let us
throw down the natural mind which, with regard to each affection and with regard
to each thought, is soiled with the love of self and the love of the world; so
that the Lord may raise us and we may live in the genuine sense of the Third
Testament from within, and thus in the truths opened out of the Doctrine of the
Church, and not in that Testament from without. 16
REVEREND
THEODORE PITCAIRN
THE
SECOND ETDUCATION
BY
THE REVEREND THEODORE PITCAIRN. We read in the
ARCANA COELESTIA, n. 8552, that unless in respect to his spiritual life a man is
conceived anew, born anew, and educated anew, that is created anew, from the
Lord, he is damned". The first
education is for the sake of the second education, and in so far as it prepares
for this it is good and true, and in so far as it does not prepare for the
second education it is evil and false. Wherefore without a knowledge of the
second education no true doctrine of education is possible, and as this
knowledge is at present lacking or is very slight, we can at this time only deal
in we have certain glimpses, that may be compared to a flash of lightning in
contrast to the steady light of the noon-day sun. If the church had
perception in spiritual things it would have no need of elaborate theories of
education, for it would clearly see the nature of the second education, and from
this have the necessary knowledge as to the first or preliminary education. This
is involved in the statement in the MEMORABILIA, n. 4059: "If man were in
the love of true faith he would have no need to write so many books about the
education of infants and children". The first
education is an education in the things of the world, and especially an
education in the things of the letter of the Word including the letter of the
Writings. All things that are acquired during this education must as it were
die, in order that man may be educated anew, for they are such things as
appertain to his natural memory, and are therefore quiescent in Heaven. They are
like a fruit which must decay in order that the seed may take root and live, or
like the shell of a nut which must break in order that the kernel may live and
grow. The words "Unless a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die it
abideth alone; but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit" have a universal
application. There is great
danger that the first education may, as it were, be too effective, so that it
with difficulty dies; it may become like a shell that is so hard that the kernel
cannot burst its bonds and come forth.
17
THE
SECOND EDUCATION We have said that
a man can take nothing that lie acquires by the first education into
Heaven; by Heaven is meant all things which appertain to the spiritual and
celestial mind, whether a man is living in this world or the next. It is of
great importance to realize that the letter of the Writings belongs to the first
education, which must, as it were, be left behind when one enters upon
the second education; if one confuses the letter of the Writings with the
spiritual and celestial things that are acquired by the second education, no
genuine doctrine of education is possible. That the letter
of the Writings belongs to the first education is obvious from the fact that
this can be taught to any one and learned like any other subject; while the
second education is part of the new creation by the Lord, and is only possible
with those who have first been conceived and born anew by the Lord. The word
education has the root meaning of leading out. The first education is a leading
of the mind out of merely corporeal and sensual things into natural things. The
second education is a leading out of the mind from natural things into spiritual
and celestial things. The first education is apparently done by man, the second
education is manifestly done by the Lord. The first education is also performed
by the Lord, but of this man is unconscious. While in the case of the
second education it is perceived that it is the work of the Lord. The second
education is an education in the genuine spiritual and celestial things of the
internal sense of the Word, and this is performed by the Lord by means of the
genuine Doctrine of the Church drawn from the Word. In, the following
we will treat of certain general aspects of education in relation to science,
language and art.
Science. Much is said in
the Writings concerning science, scientifics, and scientific truth. Scientific
truth is the second degree of truth, it is a discrete degree above sensual
truth, and it is below the higher forms of truth. There are two
kinds of scientifics, the scientifics of the letter of the Word including the
Writings, and the scientific 18
REVEREND
THEODORE PITCAIRN of the world.
Scientifics when used in the Writings, usually refer to the scientific of the
Word, or as they are called the scientifics of the Church. The scientifics of
the world are only useful as a scaffolding while the mind is being built up; as
they are beyond the borders of the Church they have no permanent place in the
human mind. Nevertheless the
scientifics of the world correspond to the scientifics of the Church, as is
evident from much that is said in the Writings concerning them, especially in
connection with the science of anatomy. The scientifics of the world are
mentioned in the letter of the Writings only for the sake of the representation
of interior things and have no part in the internal natural sense of the
Writings. To illustrate: when the Writings speak of optics and mathematics as
being useful sciences, the Angels of the natural 14eaven can only think of the
optics of the spiritual world, that is, the laws governing spiritual light and
the spiritual eye, that is, the laws of truth, and how truth is accommodated to
the understanding, by reflection and refraction. Likewise when mathematics are
mentioned they can have no idea of number such as have the mathematicians of the
world, but of the things that correspond thereto. The useful
spiritual scientifics of the Church are the spiritual science of astronomy,
geometry, optics, chemistry, mechanics, history, anatomy, medicine, civil law,
and such things also as are called philosophical (MEMORABILIA, CODEX MINOR,
4657), and above all the science of correspondences, the science of sciences. If we consider
these sciences correspondentially, it is clear that this is a description of the
Writings in their letter: astronomy is the science of cognitions, geometry the
science of degrees, optics the science of the influx of truth, chemistry the
science of means, history, the science of progression of state, medicine the
science of repentance and reformation, civil law the science of the government
of truth, and philosophy the science of cause and effect. These scientifics
of the Church, like the scientifics of the world, belong to the first education,
for they are subjects which can be taught to any one. Scientifics, we
are taught, are vessels which must be infilled with spiritual and celestial
things if they are to
THE
SECOND EDUCATION have life. It is
this infilling of scientifics that is meant by the second education. This
infilling of scientifics takes place by influx both immediate and mediate. At
first on] immediately from the Lord into the letter giving a general perception,
afterwards both immediately from the Lord and mediately through the Heavens.
During the first period man does not truly take part in the second education,
for he remains in the letter. It is only with the commencement of mediate influx
that an is lead by the Lord out of the letter. This twofold influx is treated of
in the eighteenth and nineteenth chapters of EXODUS. Here it may be noted that exodus,
going out, and education, leading out, are almost identical in
meaning. In fact the book of EXODUS is nothing else than a description of the
second education, by which man is led out of the letter into the spirit, and
with the New Churchman. specifically, a leading out of the letter of the
Writings into their spiritual and celestial senses. This leading out is done by
the Lord alone as described under the representation of Moses. And it is
involved in the words of the ARCANA COELESTIA, 8552; "Unless in respect to
his spiritual life a man is conceived anew, born anew, and educated anew, that
is created anew, from the Lord, he is damned". The same teaching
is involved in the words of Jethro to Moses: "The word that thou doest is
not good", this signifies that a change must take place; "wearing thou
wiIt wear away, both thou, and this people that is with Thee", this
signifies that thus the truth which has been inseminated would perish (A. C.
8696). Jethro had seen
Moses judging the people alone, and saw that this could not continue. The people
are the scientifics of the letter of the Writings or those who are in such
scientifics; Moses represents the immediate influx from the Lord into these
scientifics. At the commencement of the Church, and at the, beginning of
regeneration, this is the only influx from which the scientifics of the Word
have life. But this state cannot endure or all truth in time would perish. This
first state is a state of good from truth, or a state of mere obedience to
truth, afterwards the Church must come into a state in which it is in good, and
from this sees truth. Then truths are said to be im- 20
REVEREND
THEODORE PITCAIRN planted in good.
With this change mediate influx through the Heavens commences, by which the
interior degrees of the mind of the Church are built up. And it is this building
up of the mind that is meant by the second education or education anew. Previously the
Lord did inflow with good into the truths of the letter, for without good, truth
is but a dead shell, but this influx was immediate and not perceptible. In the
second state when a man is in truth from good, there is a twofold influx, both
immediate from the Lord, and mediate by means of the Heavens; this influx is
perceptible, and is called revelation. Thus we read in
the ARCANA COELESTIA, n. 8694: "By revelation is meant enlightenment when
the Word is read, and then perception; for they who are in good and long for
truth are taught in this way from the Word; but they who are not in good cannot
be taught from the Word, but can only be confirmed in such things as they have
been instructed in from infancy, whether true or false. The reason why those who
are in good have revelation, and those who are in evil have no revelation, is
that in the internal sense each and all things in the Word treat of the Lord and
of His kingdom, and the Angels that are with man perceive the Word according to
its internal sense. This is communicated to the man who is in good and reads the
Word, and from affection longs for truth, and consequently has enlightenment and
perception. For with those who are in good and from this in the affection of
truth, the intellectual part of the mind is opened into Heaven, and their soul,
that is their internal man, is in fellowship with the Angels; but it is
otherwise with those who are not in good. But what is the nature of the
revelation of those who are in good and from this in the affection of truth
cannot be described. It is not manifest, neither is it altogether hidden; but it
is a certain consent and favoring from within that a thing is true, and a
non-favoring if it is not true. . . . The cause of its being so is from the
influx of Heaven from the Lord; for through Heaven from the Lord there is light,
that surrounds and enlightens the intellect, which is the eye of the internal
sight. The things which are then seen in that light are truths, for this very
light is the Divine Truth which proceeds from the Lord. 21
THE
SECOND EDUCATION That this Divine
Truth is light in Heaven has been frequently shown". This passage
shows that the scientifics in the Writings are not the source of light to the
mind, but are the objects which must be seen in light. The light itself is from
the Lord by means of the internal sense of the Writings which is with the Angels
and which may be communicated to a man who is in fellowship with them, when
reading the Writings. The spiritual and celestial sense, as it in itself, cannot
be expressed in natural language, and there ore is called ineffable,
nevertheless it may descend into corresponding natural language, in which case
the genuine Doctrine of the Church is born. The genuine Doctrine of the Church
is therefore the result of the education anew by the Lord. The genuine Doctrine
of the Church is in itself spiritual and celestial and therefore can only be
seen when in a state of enlightenment. If one reads the letter of the Doctrine
of the Church when not in a state of enlightenment one acquires mere scientifics,
as is the case when one reads the letter of the Three Testaments. From what has
been said it may be seen that there can be no knowledge of the second education
without mediate and immediate revelation from the Lord, and where there is no
knowledge of the second education there can be no genuine Doctrine as to the
first education. The second
education is described in the APOCAI,YPSE EXPLAINED as follows: "By
prophets here and elsewhere in the Word are meant in the nearest sense such
prophets as those were in the Old Testament through whom the Lord spoke; but in
the spiritual sense those prophets are not meant, but all whom the Lord leads;
with these also the Lord flows in and reveals to them the secrets of the Word,
whether they teach or not. . . . Prophets mean all whom the Lord teaches,
thus all who are in the spiritual affection of truth, that is who love truth
because it is truth; for the Lord teaches these, and flows into their
understanding and enlightens; and this is more true of these than of the
prophets of the Old Testament. From this it can be seen that prophets mean in
the spiritual sense all who are wise from the Lord; and this whether they teach
or do not teach. And as every truly spiritual sense is abstracted from the idea
of persons, places and 22
REVEREND
THEODORE PITCAIRN times, so the
prophets also signify in the highest sense the Lord in relation to the Word, and
a- to Doctrine from the Word; and likewise the Word and Doctrine. A prophet
means Divine Truth, which is the Word, and which is in the Church out of the
Word" (n. 624). Hence it may be
seen -that the Word, and to the New Churchman especially the Latin Word, Must be
as a vessel in his mind, and that the second education consists of an immediate
and mediate revelation from the Lord into this Divinely formed receptacle. Before passing on
let us consider briefly the place of what is called Swedenborg's scientific
works. From what has been said it can be seen that it is only in so far as these
works are seen as spiritual scientifics that they have a rightful place within
the borders of the Church, that is in so far as the corresponding spiritual
scientifics are seen within the apparent worldly scientifics of their letter. In
Providence the scientific works were not written to give, man a literal or
factual account of the physical world; but to act as an ultimate basis for the
giving of the Writings. The scientific works were given because they . contain
natural scientifics which correspond to spiritual scientifics. In the
future no one will think of even discussing the point as to whether the
scientific works agree with the facts of worldly science; for to do so brings
the mind down to the sensual corporeal plane; just as now a New Church minister
does not discuss whether the account of creation given in Genesis agrees with
the actual mode of the creation of the World, for to do so brings him into the
sphere of the perverted Christian church. If viewed from
within the Writings and philosophic works will indeed be seen to be in agreement
with the true scientifics of the world. but not if viewed from without, or from
the scientific. This may be illustrated by works of art: Those who regard the
works of art of Egypt, of Greece, of the Middle Ages, and other works of art,
merely from the science of anatomy, cannot see the agreement between the work of
art and human anatomy. But those who view art from within, that is those who see
art from the genuine love of art, see the harmony and agreement between the
things of art and 23
THE
SECOND EDUCATION of nature; this
is so because the agreement is internal, and the internal can never be
seen in the light of the external, but the external always in the light of the
internal.
Language. The subject of
language in a sense runs parallel to that of science; there are the languages of
the world and the languages of the Word, the three sacred Ianguages. Neither the
one nor the other can enter into Heaven nor have they any part in the internal
sense, and therefore languages as such belong solely to the first education. The
spiritual language, which one comes into without instruction when raised to the
spiritual degree of the mind, is the medium of the second education; while
living on earth this language descends into the natural mind and clothes itself
with corresponding words of natural language for the sake of communication. Concerning the
spiritual language we read in HEAVEN AND HELL, n. 236: "All in the
universal Heaven have one language. . . . This language is not learned there,
but is implanted in everyone, for it flows from their very affection and
thought". A tongue or language represents Doctrine or the truth of
Doctrine; the above passage therefore signifies that spiritual Doctrine cannot
be learned like natural doctrine, but flows out of the very affections and
thoughts, and indeed from the Lord. This was
represented by the tongues of flame descending upon the Apostles on the day of
Pentecost. The tongues of flame represented Doctrine from love. These tongues
caused the Apostles to speak in tongues, that is caused each one to hear the
Apostles in their own language. The descent of the tongues was the descent of
pure love, but those tongues of flame when received take on external doctrinal
form according to the nature of the mind of the one who receives, thus each one
heard according to his own tongue. We read in
GENESIS 11 : 1: "The earth was one lip", that is flier was but one
Doctrine, the lip of the Angels; yet the Ancient Church differed greatly as to
doctrinals. But as all these doctrinals were from the universal Doctrine they
were united by charity. Charity 24
REVEREND
THEODORE PITCAIRN was the life or
internal of their doctrinals, wherefore they were- in true doctrinals, although
in diverse ones. When charity no longer was the life of doctrinals the
doctrinals were separated from the Doctrine, and when so separated they had no
longer a uniting medium, which is represented by Jehovah confounding the lip.
What is said in the ARCANA COELESTIA in this connection about charity does not
mean that charity can unite false and true doctrinals, but that if the
doctrinals are from genuine charity then they are in harmony, because from the
universal Doctrine, and this no matter bow they may differ as to doctrinals. When an Angel
speaks to a man he speaks to him in his own language. An Angel represents the
good and truth of the internal mind; to speak represents influx of the Doctrine
out of Heaven; the man who hears represents the external mind; the language of
the man represents the doctrinal things that a man has acquired out of the Word.
When influx takes place it is according to the reception by vessels. We read in the
ARCANA COELESTIA, n. 7236: "From only twenty three letters, put together in
different ways, there can arise the words of all languages, and even with a
perpetual variety if there were thousands of languages". The twenty-three
letters signify the letter of the Word, the languages signify the Doctrine that
is drawn out of the letter of the Word. From the letters by arrangement words
are formed, from these sentences and from these chapters. It is only in the
chapter that the full use of the letters becomes evident, and, in fact, in the
meaning of the chapter; when one has learned to read fluently one becomes
unconscious of the letters. The same is true of the letter of the Word including
the letter of the Writings. From these words are formed, the internal natural
sense, from these sentences, the spiritual sense, and from these chapters, the
celestial sense. So far the Church has been occupied largely with acquiring- the
alphabet. Note that the language is finite and limited, while the alphabet is
unlimited and a-, it were infinite. But let us not
forget that the spiritual language which belongs to the second education is not
learned, but comes to a man from influx as he is raised into a spiritual state. 25
THE
SECOND EDUCATION
Art. The same
universal laws that rule in science and language rule in art. All genuine art is
a representation of celestial and spiritual things, it is not only a
representation but also corresponds. Thus all genuine art contains within it
what is spiritual and celestial, and within this what is Divine. All internal
art like all genuine Doctrine is due to immediate and mediate influx from the
Lord. Nevertheless art is natural, spiritual, or celestial, according to the
nature of the reception. Spiritual natural
art is characterized by the fact that the artist is unaware of the influx, while
with the interior degrees the influx is perceptible. This is involved in the
following quotation from the ARCANA COELESTIA, n. 552: "that all the joy
and happiness in Heaven are from the Lord alone has been shown me by many
experiences, of which the following may be related. I saw that with the utmost
diligence some angelic spirits were fashioning a lampstand with its lamps and
flowers of the richest ornamentation in honor of the Lord. For an hour or two I
was permitted to witness with what great pains they labored to make everything
about it beautiful and representative, they supposing that they were doing it of
themselves. But to me it was given to perceive that of themselves they could
devise nothing at all. At last after some hours they said that they had formed a
very beautiful representative candelabrum in honor of the Lord, whereat they
rejoiced from their hearts. But I told them that of themselves they had devised
and formed nothing at all, but the Lord alone for them. At first they would
scarcely believe this, but being angelic spirits they were enlightened, and
confessed that I was so. So it is with all other representative things, and with
everything of affection and thought both in general and in particular, and also
with heavenly joys and felicities, the very smallest bits of them is from the
Lord alone". Here we may note that the candlestick which the angelic
spirits, that is the Angels of the Lowest Heaven, formed, was Doctrine, without
which they could not have read the Word. The genuine Doctrine that The Church
has drawn from the Writings so far is included in what is here said concerning
this 26
REVEREND
THEODORE PITCIARN candlestick. For
the Church has thought it has fashioned it in honor of the Lord, when in truth
the Church has devised and fashioned no genuine Doctrine, but, the Lord alone
for it. Art is based on a
perception of nature as a representation of the Divine Human; in the lowest
degree of genuine art this perception, as such, is not consciously
realized by the artist. While genuine art
contains within it spiritual and celestial things, as it is first seen it is
merely sensual, and unless there is influx from Heaven raising the mind above
what is sensual, art remains so to the beholder; just as in the case of the
Doctrine of the Church, if the mind is not raised into spiritual light it is
seen only as natural. As one in enlightenment draws Doctrine from the infinite
source of the letter of the Word, so the genuine artist draws from the
indefinite source of nature the spiritual and celestial things that lie within.
But if the beholder is not in enlightenment he cannot see the spiritual
and celestial things that have been drawn out and let down again into the
natural, but he only sees the sensual appearances. In other words if the
beholder does not come into something of the same inspiration as the artist, he
cannot see art. This is involved in the following quotation, ARCANA COELESTIA,
n. 1954: "The eye does not see from itself, but from interior sight;
interior sight, does not see from itself, but from a still more interior sight,
or that of man's rational. Nay, neither does this see from itself, but does so
from a still more internal sight, which is that of the internal man. And even
this does not see from itself, for it is the Lord who sees through the internal
man, and He is the only one who sees, because He is the only one who lives, and
He it is who gives man the ability to see, and this in such a manner that it
appears as 'If lie saw of himself". As this law has a
universal application, it applies to art as well as to other things, whence it
can be seen that there is no genuine sight of art except from the Lord, and
their this sight becomes more and more interior according to the opening of the
degrees of the mind. Hence it is evident why there is no real seeing of art in
the world as it is today; nothing is seen, but the sensual appearance. As the
genuine seeing of art belongs to the second 27
THE
SECOND EDUCATION education, it
cannot be taught, but is due to mediate and immediate influx from the Lord. Man
in art as in Doctrine can only act as midwife.
Education
of Children in Heaven. The second or new
education is described in the Writings under the representation of the education
of children in Heaven. Heaven is the internal mind, into which a man enters by
the second birth. After this entrance a man must be educated anew, for at first
he is bit a child in the things of the spiritual world. Here we will
consider but a few of' the thin-s which are said in the Writings concerning the
education of' children in Heaven, in order that we ma see bow they apply to the
education anew. In the
MIEMORABILIA, n. 5660 and following numbers, we read: "How 'maidens are
educated in the other life and in Heaven". "Maidens" are the
affections of truth, "in Heaven" represents in the internal or
spiritual mind "They are always kept at their own work which is embroidery,
and the things which they make are either for themselves, or they give them to
others. . . . They receive their garments gratis, not knowing bow, which they
put on daily, and a better one, for festivals". "The garments which
they receive gratis" represent the truths or things of genuine Doctrine
which the internal mind receives by influx from the Lord without any effort on
the part of man. These garments
are woven by the Lord from within, or as said of the work of the weaver that it
is spiritual out of the celestial. "The festival days on which they receive
better garments" are such states -is are represented by the Sabbath days
and the days of feasts. Such days represent especially the conjunction of good
and truth, in such states more interior truths are received. "The
embroidery which is their work" represents the collection and arrangement
of spiritual scientifics. Concerning embroidery, we read as follows in the
ARCANA COELESTIA: "The work of the embroiderer signifies the things which
,ire scientific. The cause of this is from the representatives in the other
life. There appear their garments embroidered in various ways, by which are
signified scientific truths. Scientific 28
REVEREND
THEODORE PITCAIRN truths differ
from intellectual truths as external things from internal ones, or as the
natural from the spiritual; for the intellectual is the visual of the internal
man, and scientifics are its objects in the external man" (n. 9688).
"The work of the embroiderer signifies the cognitions of good and truth.
The work of the embroiderer signifies that which is from the scientific. The
reason it is said by means of the cognitions of good and truth, is that by these
are meant interior scientifics, such as are those of the Church concerning faith
and love" (n. 9945). The work of the
maidens in Heaven, that is, the work of the affection of truth in the internal
mind, is to collect and arrange interior scientifics, that is the cognitions of
good and truth, as if of themselves. It is obvious that these scientifics which
are called the cognitions of good and truth are by the New Churchman gathered
especially from the Writings. Yet this embroidery work belongs to the external
mind; man is given to do this work as if from himself in order that he may
perform uses, although reality this also is done by the Lord. As to truths
themselves here represented by the garments, these are given to the man gratis
by the Lord, man "not knowing how". "When they
see spots on their garments, it is a sign that they have thought what is evil
and that they have done what is wrong". In relation to the Church this
signifies that when something of the love of self or the world enters in,
blemishes begin to appear in the Doctrine of the Church and this is a sign for
the need of repentance. We read in the
MEMORABILIA, n. 5668: "On the education of little children in
Heaven: 1.
They are with their nurses whom they call their mothers"; a nurse
represents innocence, or the "spiritual celestial"; innocence guards,
protects, and feeds the spiritual affection of truth, for unless this ears for
it as a mother, the affection of truth perishes. 2.
"They read the Lord's prayer, and learn prayers from nurses by
influx out of Heaven". The, Lord's prayer represents the Word, especially
the Word as to worship. Prayers we are told represent revelation, for in genuine
prayer there is a revelation from the Lord which is an answer to the prayer; it
is here clearly stated that the prayers are by means of influx out of Heaven. 29
THE
SECOND EDUCATION 3.
"There are preachers for them". Preachers preach the Doctrine
of good and truth, wherefore abstractly from person the preacher signifies such
Doctrine. It is the Doctrine of genuine good and truth which instructs the
newborn internal affection of truth. 4.
"Intelligence flows in and also wisdom, which surpasses the
intelligence of the learned in the world, although they have an infantile idea
of these things". The learned of the world represent the scientifics of the
Word, and those who are in such scientifics. After the second birth intelligence
and wisdom flow in from the internal sense of the Word; this intelligence
surpasses the intelligence that has been acquired merely from the letter,
although as yet, the man, being but a spiritual infant, has only an infantile
idea of these things. 5.
"They have representations from Heaven". The representations
signify doctrinals, especially doctrinals as to their letter, for it is these
that represent interior things. 6.
"They are dressed according to their diligence, especially with
flowers and garlands". As has been shown above their diligence refers to
the acquiring of scientifics; they who do this in humility and innocence are
gifted with garments. The flowers and garlands represent the things of
intelligence, with which they are endowed. 7.
"They are led into paradises". Paradise represents the things
of wisdom. 8.
"They are tempted". During the first education man only
undergoes natural temptations, that is temptations as to the good and truth of
the letter of the Word. During the second education, that is, the education as
to the things of the internal sense of the Word, man undergoes spiritual
temptations, which are here represented by temptation of children in Heaven. 9.
"They grow according to their state of reception". Man's
internal mind like his external mind is a vessel, and the growth of this mind is
according to its opening to the reception of both immediate and mediate influx
from the Lord. 10.
"They are of diverse genius". The things of the internal mind,
like those of the external mind, are of diverse genius; it is the Divine of the
Lord which makes 30
REVEREND
THEODORE PITCAIRN each society of
Heaven, it is the Divine of the Lord which makes the spiritual sense of the Word
with every man whose mind is opened, yet the reception of the Divine of the Lord
is different, with every one and is indeed according to the genius of
each individual. 11.
"Nurses are given them who in the world have loved little
children". As we have already spoken of nurses we, will omit further
elucidation. 12.
"They who are educated is little children know no otherwise than
that they were born in Heaven". All birth takes place in the natural,
wherefore the word natural is derived from the word meaning birth. The birth of
the .spiritual mind originally takes place in The things of the letter of the
Word and Doctrine. Yet when it is perceived that all the things of the spiritual
mind are due to influx from the Lord immediately and through the Heavens, it it'
they were born in the spiritual mind instead of, as is really the case, that
they were raised by the Lord out of the things of the letter of the Word in the
natural mind. 13.
"They do not know what time and space and such earthly things
are". The things of time and space as related to the Church, signify the
things of the letter of the Word; such things cannot enter into Heaven, nor can
they enter into the things of the interior mind, so much is this the ease that
if man is in interior thought the things of the letter it were disappear
to such an extent that he does not know what such things are. 14.
"They speak the angelic language within a month". When man's
spiritual mind is first opened by means of the second birth, he cannot speak the
spiritual language, that is he cannot talk from genuine Doctrine, but is as it
were dumb. But this period is of short duration; it only applies to his first
state as to faith. After a month he can speak the angelic Ianguage, and this, as
was shown above, without instruction. The above are but a few preliminary thoughts
with regard to the second education; until we know more of this education, as we
have said, we can have scarcely any idea of the genuine nature of the first
education. Before closing we wish to note that no man
merits the second education; introduction into the things of the internal 31
THE
SECOND EDUCATION mind, that is introduction into the
things of the spiritual sense of the Word, is du(, to the merit of the Lord and
not due to any merit on man's part. No one merits Heaven; if any one
imagines that he can enter the things of the spiritual sense of the Word either
by study or by doing good works and not by means of the Lord, he is among those
in the other life who cut grass or chop wood to keep warm, under which is, as it
were, something of the Lord. Such do not enter into the sheep-fold by the door,
but like robbers climb up some other way.
DE HEMELSCHE
LEER
EXTRACT
FROM THE ISSUE FOR FEBRUARY 1931
LIFE
ACCORDTNC TO THE DOCTRINE
OF
THE CHURCH
AN
ADDRESS BY H. D. G. GROENEVELD, DELIVERED
AT
THE SOCIAL SUPPER, NOVEMBER 30TH, 1930. And Jesus, seeing great multitudes about
Him, gave commandment to depart unto the other side. And a certain scribe came and said unto
Him: Master, I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest. And Jesus said unto Him: The foxes have
holes, and the birds of heaven have nests, but the Son of Man has not where to
lay His head. And another of His disciples said unto
Him: Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. But Jesus said unto him: Follow Me; and
let the dead bury their dead.
MATTHEW
8 :18-22. Every man has interior things and exterior
things. The interior things are opened more and more if the exterior things
cooperate. When by the life of man the interior things and the exterior things
operate as one whole, man from the Lord receives an internal and an external.
The external derives its existence from the internal, while the internal
is the being of the external. The mind of man then is simple, one side
being the internal or the rational and the other side the external or the
natural. From the internal all things can then be seen in the external. "Jesus", with regard to the Lord,
signifies the Good of the Divine Human, and with regard to an the good from the
Divine Human of the Lord or the good of love to the Lord. It is the love which
dwells only in the internal or the rational of man. "Seeing great multitudes about Him"
signifies the understanding of the different truths in the natural or 34
H.
D. G. GROENEVELD In the external. "And Jesus, seeing
great multitudes about Him" therefore signifies the understanding from the
Doctrine of the Church of different truths of the literal sense of the Word, now
especially those of the literal sense of the Third Testament, in their proper
order. For the Doctrine of the Church -s the dwelling-place for the good of love
to the Lord, while the literal sense of the Word and also of the Doctrine of the
Church, only gives truths laid down in the natural. "The departing into the
other side" signifies a change of state, namely the going from the truths
as they are in the internal or rational to the truths as they are in the
external or natural. This change of state is necessary because the truths of the
Doctrine of the Church are from the internal or rational. and they who are in
the natural cannot see these truths. They see only the truths of The literal
sense of the Word and of the literal sense of the Doctrine of the Church. "And a certain scribe came and said unto
Him: Master. T will follow Thee withersoever Thou goest". A scribe
signifies one who is in truth from good. It is the truth from the internal or
rational. In an unfavorable sense I scribe is one who is in truth alone, that
is, in truth from the natural, therefore in the truth of the literal sense of
the Word or of the literal sense of the Doctrine of the Church. He is therefore
one who is in the natural rational as also appears from this, that he calls the
Lord "Master". Such a one will be in entire agreement with the
rational of the literal sense of the Word and of the literal sense of the
Doctrine of the Church, as appears from his Words: "Master, T will follow
Thee whithersoever Thou goest". "And Jesus saith unto Him: The foxes
have holes and the birds of heaven have nests, but the Son of Van has not where
to lay His bead." The foxes stand for the things of the will, the birds of
heaven for the things of the understanding. The foxes signify the rational thing
of the natural with regard to evil or with regard to apparent good, the birds of
heaven the rational things of the natural with regard to falsity or with regard
to apparent truth. "The foxes have holes, the birds of heaven nests"
signifies that the rational things with regard to evil and also apparent good
and the rational things with regard to falsity and also apparent truth find 35
LIFE
ACCORDING TO DOCTRINE a resting place with the human race in
general and in the Church in particular. For these things there is love, with
these things there is conjunction as by marriage. "But the Son of Man has not where to lay
His head". The Son of Man stands for the Doctrine of the Church, as appears
from the third verse of the fifth chapter of the second part of the CANONS:
"This Human is called the Son of God and the Son of Man: the Son of God
from the Divine Truth and the Divine Good in Him, which is the Word; and the Son
of Man from the Divine Truth and Good out of Him, which thence is of the
Doctrine of the Church out of the Word." The "head" signifies the
highest or inmost, therefore the good of love to the Lord. The head of the Son
of ),fan is therefore The good of love to the Lord, which is the inmost of the
Doctrine of the Church. It is the good of love from which the Doctrine of
the Church comes into existence, for the Doctrine is spiritual out of celestial
origin. There is then in The Church, in case of change of state, no love for the
essential of the Doctrine of the Church. There is no love for conjunction; the
true conjugal love is lacking. The external of the, Doctrine of the Church or
its literal sense is touched with coarse bands, without feeling the tenderness
of what is bidden within. Who is not painfully affected when he sees that a
small child, and especially a new born child, is, coarsely handled? Does not one
experience a certain fear to touch a newborn child with the hands or even with
the mouth? Ts one not especially sensitive on such an occasion of one's own
coarseness and impurity? Do not all movements express a tenderness so as not to
hurt the child? Let us then approach also the Doctrine of the Church as having
been born from the Lord with humility and with a feeling of our own coarseness
and impurity. "And another of His disciples said unto
Him: Lord, suffer me to o and bur my father." A "disciple"
signifies one who is in truth, more especially natural truth which leads to
good. "Father" signifies good, in the, unfavorable sense evil, and
also apparent good. Burying signifies resurrection, therefore a life in the
good of truth or in the unfavorable sense a life in the evil of falsity, and
also in the apparent good of apparent truth. In general 36
H.
D. G. GROENEVELD these words of the disciple signify that man
desires to continue to I've in the things of the world and not in the things of
Heaven. In particular they signify that the man of the Church loves the things
of the natural and therefore desires to be in those, things and not in the
things of The rational. which is to say that he primarily loves the thin-s of
the literal sense of the Third Testament and thus desires to live in those
things and not in the things of the, internal sense or the truths of the
Doctrine of the Church. For, when the Doctrine is offered to the men of the-
Church many will be of the opinion that the interior things are not vet
necessary, as there are very many truths in the literal sense that are not vet
known, and have therefore not, vet been applied to life, and that, consequently,
very many evils have not vet been removed. It is man's proprium that thus
expresses itself, fearing to lose its rest and its dominion. This appears from
the Lord's answer. "But Jesus said unto him: Follow Me, and
let the dead bury their dead". They who are in love to the Lord will
perceive from the influx of the Lord that one must live, according to the
interior things, therefore according to the truths of the Word opened by the
Doctrine of the Church, and that it may be left to the evil spirits to raise up
the evils and the falsities that are in man's mind. The man of the Church
therefore should not occupy himself with the things of the world, but must leave
them to those who are in those things. But also more and more must the man of
the Church leave the truths of the literal sense of the Word, and -now
especially those of the Third Testament, and turn to the interior things. Ever
more and more must the man of the Church direct himself to the interior things
and consequently withdraw more and more from the natural, so that finally each
fibber of his spiritual body is turned to the Lord alone. Then there is no
longer any gleam from the proprium in us and we are in the shadow of God. Then
for the first time the Lord is our Father and we are His children.
DE HEMELSCHE
LEER
EXTRACTS
FROM THE ISSUE FOR AUG.- SEPT. 1931
THE
NINETEENTH OF JUNE 1931
Address
by the Reverend Ernst Pfeiffer. This is the tenth time that the FIRST DUTCH
SOCIETY celebrates the Nineteenth of June; it was on Sunday, 19th June 1921,
that the Society was established. There were then twelve members of the GENERAL
CHURCH present, who signed the declaration of principle of the Society to be
established. During these ten years a deep-going change of state has Gradually
developed, and there are not more than two or three of those who originally
signed, who have been able or willing to follow us on the way which, as we
believe, the Lord has shown to us. But nevertheless we are convinced that the
inmost principle which has led us, is the same as that which then brought us
together, namely the inmost of the PRINCIPLES OF THE ACADEMY, the real heart of
those Principles, which the Church inherited from its great leader Bishop Benade
and his spiritual predecessors, namely that the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg
are the Word of God. The truth that the Writings are the Word is the only light
in which the Divine essence of the Doctrine of the Church can be seen. It is a
fact we may rejoice over that practically all new members of our society who
after its establishment as a result of our evangelisation have Joined us, have
gone with us in our development in an affirmative spirit. Although we believe that the inmost principle
which ten years ago gave life to our Society, is the same, our thought at the
present day has been entirely renewed. We believe it has been deepened
from the Lord, and we have the clear light and from that light the, interior
certainty that it is the Lord Himself who has led the Society, and that from the
beginning He has had a spiritual end in view with it, which we could then not
yet see, but which as we now 38
THE
NINETEENTH OF JUNE 1931 understand, has been attained in a remarkable
way. In a certain sense we may say it has been attained, for we have the
confidence that the spiritual things which have been born in our Society will
prove imperishable; but at the same time we are all deeply impressed with the
great difficulties in which we find ourselves now placed. The state of the
Society in many respects hovers in uncertainty. For this reason I feel urged to
restrict myself to-night as much as possible to a consideration of the abstract
spiritual things which fill our thought and not to enter into particular
as regards the concrete state of the Society. We may leave the further
development with the fullest confidence to the Lord's Providence. By The birth of the Doctrine of the Church
the essential life of the Church has been removed entirely from the natural or
external things to the spiritual or internal things. We have learnt to see the
letter of the Latin Word as something natural, as the Divine Truth laid down in
the Natural, and we have found that this truth has also been seen by leading men
of the past, although they have never before realized the consequences, with the
exception of the Rev. E. S. Hyatt who had a general perception of the difference
between the Latin Word and the Doctrine of the Church. We have learnt to understand that all that is
said in the DOCTRINE CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE concerning the natural and
the natural or literal sense applies essentially to the Third Testament. As long
as man regards the letter of the Old and of the New Testament as the natural and
the letter of the Third Testament as the spiritual, he remains in a purely
natural state; only when we, begin to distinguish in ourselves what has been
revealed concerning the difference between the natural and the spiritual, and
not in anything outside of us, then we begin for the first time to see where we
stand, and then for the first time the possibility opens itself for man to pass
on from the interior-natural state to the spiritual state. We read in THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, n.
508, the description of a Temple in the spiritual world, and in connection with
this of a veil that has been lifted; and it is said that it is now allowed to
enter intellectually into the mysteries of faith. We have formerly always
believed that 39
REVEREND
ERNST PFEIFFER the lifting of this veil was nothing else
than the revelation of the Third Testament, and that therefore, when those Books
were in the world, the veil was lifted. But upon deeper insight it clearly
appears in that description that by the old state which preceded the lifting of
the veil and the new state that is meant by the lifting of the veil, not simply
the Old and the New Testament on the one side and the Third Testament on the
other side are meant, but the state of the old church at its end, after it had
falsified all truths of the Old and the New Testament, and the state of the New
Church, which had become possible on the basis of the Third Testament. This
appears clearly from the fact that in that description the doctrinal things of
the New Church are contrasted with the dogmas of the old church. Of the dogmas
of the old church it is said that they "are not out of the Word, but
patched together out of self-intelligence and thence out of falsities, and also
confirmed by some things oat of the Word"; and of the doctrinal things of
the New Church it is said that they "are truths continuous from the
Lord revealed through the Word". That by the Word here the Third Testament
is meant, is clear; for the New Church is not out of the Old Testament
and not out of the New, but out of the Third Testament; and that by, doctrinal
things the particulars of a literal sense of a universal revelation are never
meant, but the doctrinal thoughts which the Church on the basis of that letter
has developed, is clearly taught in many places of the Third Testament (A.C.
3052, 3057, 3309, 3726, 7233, 9380). In the measure in which the Church will
understand the words "that the doctrinal things of the New Church are
truths continuous from- the Lord", its understanding will be enlightened
and be more and more lifted up to the Lord. Then will it be understood what is
meant by this that by the Doctrine of the Church the essential life of the
Church has been removed from the natural or external things to the spiritual of
internal things, therefore from what is without to what is within. It will be
seen that the -genuine spiritual truths of the Church, all in the measure of its
regeneration, are, born from the Lord within in the human minds; that these
genuine spiritual truths differ from the truths which one has taken up by direct
cognizance out of the letter of the Third Testament, and that there is no 40
THE
NINETEENTH OF JUNE 1931 relation between them except that of
correspondence, such as exists between the spiritual and the natural. It is my intention this evening to say a few
words once more, as simply as possible, concerning one of the most interior and
therefore most hidden arguments in connection with the Doctrine of the Church,
as brought forth by Mr. Groeneveld in his address on The Coming of the Lord
in the Doctrine of the Church (DE HEMELSCHE LEER, First Fasc., pp.
38-43), namely concerning the difference between the rational And the natural,
both in the Divine Human of the Lord and in the individual man. It is the proper
task of the priest in the spiritual Church to clothe the interior arcana of the
Word in such words that they become conceivable to some extent to all members of
the Church, therefore even to the most simple. If one is able to understand this
difference between the rational and the natural and their mutual relation, one
his understood the proper core of the Doctrine of the Church, and this in such a
way, in the light of spiritual truth, that as a constants verity it will never
again be lost sight of. It is said that the Human of the Lord and the
human of each man consists of the rational and the natural. The natural are the
affections and thought, relative to the outside world, with which we come into
contact by the senses. In that respect a man is similar to a beast, a natural
being. But above and within that natural, man has a rational, which is directed
inwardly to the eternal things, to Heaven and the Lord. This rational together
with that natural makes the human, and the rational is the inmost of the human. Now it is said that the Lord, when He came
into the world, for the first time assumed a Rational of His own and a Natural
of His own, since He then assumed a Human of His own. Before, when He manifested
Himself as a Man, this was not done in a Human of His own, but He made use of
His Human Divine* in the Heavens, that is, He made use of the Angels. But by His
Incarnation He assumed a In the expression "the Human
Divine" the word "Divine" is the noun and the word
"Human" is the adjective, in contradistinction to the expression
"the Divine Human", where the word "Human" is the noun and
the word "Divine" the adjective. 41
REVEREND
ERNST PFEIFFER Human of His own, consisting of a Rational
and a Natural. The coming into existence of this Human of
the Lord's own should be seen as follows: It is the most of the human that makes
Heaven with man; it is therefore the rational that makes Heaven. Now the
rational which 'before the Incarnation of the Lord made the Heavens, was the
Rational Divine, come into existence, by the reception by the Angels of the
influx of the Divine of the Lord. Here the difference clearly appears between
the Rational Divine which before the Incarnation made the Heavens, and the
Divine Rational of the Lord which now makes the Heavens. The Rational Divine was
dependent on the reception by the Angels, the Divine Rational is the Lord's
alone, seeing He has assumed a Human of His own. When the time for the Coming of
the Lord was at hand, He clothed all that Rational which made the then existing
Heavens, with a very finest Natural, and so made a purely Divine Seed, which the
Virgin Mary conceived. This purely Divine Seed by the conception was clothed in
the Virgin Mary with the interior and exterior natural, to which clung the
hereditary evil of Mary. But the Lord's own 'Natural, filled with all the
Rational Divine, which since creation had come into existence, was the soul of
the Child that had been conceived, and this soul was purely Divine. The Lord,
first in the time from the conception to the birth, and then from the birth to
the resurrection, by the Glorification entirely renewed the natural which He bad
assumed from Mary and made it Divine. The Lord by His temptations and victories
brought the natural with Him into order and thereby raised Himself from the
natural or from the external man to the rational or the internal man with Him.
The Rational Divine, now became His own Divine Rational. The regeneration of man is an image of the
Glorification of the Lord. Each man out of conception has, as the inmost of his
human, a germ of the rational, which in the mother's body is clothed with an
interior and exterior natural. Man's life, before regeneration is in the
natural. The rational or the internal man with him, which is the Lord's, before
and during regeneration makes itself felt only by an unconscious influx. For
that rational in itself is the proper celestial with man, since that rational in
itself or the 42
THE
NINETEENTH OF JUNE 1931 interior rational makes the third Heaven (cf.
A. C. 5145). It is therefore clear that man, before he has become celestial,
does riot live in the rational but only receives an influx from the rational. In the letter of the Third Testament the
Rational has been laid down in the Natural, which means that the particulars of
that letter, such as man first receives them as scientifics, are as it were
types in the natural, formed in correspondence with the rational; for the
natural-rational of the letter corresponds with the rational proper which is in
the celestial Heaven, and with the Divine Rational itself of the Lord. The man
who is to be regenerated now first takes up into his memory those types or
effigies of the rational laid down in the natural, and it is the order of
regeneration that in the light of these effigies he begins to fight against his
proprium and in this light gradually wrestles through the natural. The
rationality which leads him in this state, is therefore by no means as yet the
rational itself, but only an influx of the rational into The natural; as to his
essence he still is a purely natural man; riot an infernal-natural man such as
before the commencement of regeneration, but a interior-natural man. In this
light is to be understood what has been said in DE HEMELSCHE LEER, namely that
the Church before the birth of the Doctrine of the Church was in a purely
natural state. Also in the second state of the Church, when
for the first time from an interior-natural Church it has become a genuine
spiritual Church, the proper characteristic of its order of regeneration is a
wrestling through the natural. Only in the place of the purely natural types of
the rational laid down in the letter of the Third Testament, there have
gradually come genuine spiritual truths, as this letter can now be opened, and
the internal sense which has reference to purely spiritual realities, good a-ad
truth, and its opposites, evil and falsity, is seen, that is, the spiritual
Doctrine of the Church. The proper combat of the Church, the interior combat
against the hells, now really only be ins. Man also in this state, with regard
to his will, has by no means been elevated from the natural to the rational, bat
this gradually becomes so with regard to his understanding. For this reason it
is said that the exterior-rational makes the spiritual man or the second Heaven;
and it is also said that 43
REVEREND
ERNST PFEIFFER the essence of the second Heaven is truth;
for the internal essence of charity is truth. Only when the combat has been entirely fought
and the wrestlings of temptation can cease, man rises entirely above the
natural, and enters with his entire being into the rational proper. Man has now
become a celestial man, for only the celestial man is an essentially rational
man; only celestial men have genuine rational truths (A.C. 6240). Now for the
first time the proprium has completely receded (although regeneration continues
throughout eternity), and man is now no longer anything but a pure vessel, a
pure receiver, of the influx of the Lord. He has freed himself from his impure
external man, the natural soiled with hereditary evil and the evil of his
proprium, and from the Lord he has been raised to his internal man, the proper
rational or the celestial. The natural with him has been entirely renewed; it
has become the external of his rational, which no longer has any life of its own
which is in opposition to the rational, but which serves the rational, so that
as it were the rational is everything and the natural as it were nothing. And
still man has now for the first time become an actual and complete man, with a
rational which is consciously his and with a natural which clothes his,
rational; Heaven and earth with him have become one complete whole. But this celestial state of the Church, where
the essential Second Coming of the Lord has become a reality also with regard to
the human race, and the New Church will be the Bride of the Lamb, still lies in
a far distant future. We believe that with the birth of the Doctrine of the
Church the spiritual state of the Church has now for the first time dawned. If
one sees the difference between the natural and the rational as I have tried to
explain it in a few words, then it is no longer possible to doubt that the
truths of the letter of the Latin Word, which one takes up by direct cognizance,
are, with man, not rational but only natural truths, and that rational truths
can never come from anywhere but by regeneration from within from the Lord. We have this evening a special occasion for
joy and gratitude on account of the appearance in this month of the CANONS and
of the NINE QUESTIONS CONCERNING THE TRINITY. The CANONS at present make upon us
the impression 44
THE
NINETEENTH OF JUNE 1931 of being one of the most important books of
the Third Testament, if it were possible here to speak of more or less
important. But we have this impression because in this book in many passages it
is openly spoken in the letter of the Divinity of the Doctrine of the Church;
especially where it treats of the Son of Man and it is declared that by this is
meant the Doctrine of the church or the Truth of the Church out or the Word.
Address
by H. D. G. Groeneveld. This day is a festival for the New Church. It
is the commemoration of the Second coming of the Lord and of the establishment
of the New Church. The Word given to the Christian Church, the New Testament,
gradually was more and more falsified by the love of self and the love of the
world of the human race, until it last there was no longer any truth present in
the church. When the obscuration and affliction had come to fulness and
therefore the conjunction of the Lord with the human race threatened to be
broken, the Lord came again by the giving of a new Word, the Third Testament,
and by the establishment of a new Church. Although the Christian church has the
Old Testament, and the New, it nevertheless is not in the possession of a single
truth. This proves that the Word by itself does not give to the Church the
possession of truths. It is the presence of the Lord in the church by which the
Church is in the possession of genuine truths. The conjunction of the Lord with
the human race is therefore present externally by the Word given from the Lord,
and internally by the presence, of the Lord in the Church. The presence of the
Lord in the Church externally by the Word without the internal presence is then
as a body without soul and spirit, that is, as a dead body, of which it is said
in the 28th verse of the 24th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew: "For
wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together".
It is therefore not the Third Testament by
itself, that distinguishes the New Church from the old church, but especially
the presence of the Lord in the Church, by which the New Church sees and
acknowledges the truths of the 45
H.
D. G. GROENEVELD Third Testament, while this Testament has
remained closed for the old church. It is therefore not through the Writings of
Emanuel ,Swedenborg alone that we have joined the New Church. It is especially
by the love of truth that our eyes have been opened for these Writings. It is
this love of truth which brought the internal presence of the Lord. It is from
this love that the, Church has been established-, it is from this love that the
Church will grow more and more. It is from this love alone that we put aside the
love of self and of the world and were absorbed in love for the Church. It is
from this love that we shunned evil and falsity as sin against the Lord. It is this love that is the soul of the
Church and takes the internal conjunction with the Lord. This soul descending
into the natural clothes itself in the rational with a tender body, from which
the Holy Spirit proceeds in the Church, while in the affection for the Writings
the body of the Church has been made, to which body clings the evil and falsity
of the love of self and of the world. That, good makes the soul and the spirit
makes the body appears from the sixth article of the fourth chapter of the
CANONS, Concerning the Lord Saviour: "Therefore these two things,
'the Holy Spirit coming upon her', and 'the power of the Most High overshadowing
her', signify both, namely, Divine Truth and Divine Good, this forming the soul,
and that the body, - and communication." It is from the presence of the Holy Spirit in
the Church that the Church has acknowledged the Writings is the Third Testaments
and as the Word of God. In his state the Church is withdrawn from the things of
the world. All its love is directed to its body and to the Word. Its spirit,
although in germ, belongs to the Lord, and its body is one with its soul and
living from the Lord, while the things of the Word are seen in its body. It is
the soul which in this state principally l(@,,ids the body, on account of which
the Church, because the soul is of the body and the body of the soul, at direct
cognizance of the Third Testament sees the internal sense. Since the Church at
direct cognizance of the Word sees the internal sense, it acknowledges the
Writings themselves as the Doctrine of the Church. This finds its cause in this
that the spirit of the Church, 46
THE
NINETEENTH OF JUNE 1931 which is the Lord's, is so far only present
in germ, so that it is not possible that the Church in this state sees that the
acknowledgment of the internal sense and of the Writings as the Doctrine of the
Church is the effect in the natural of the spirit of the Church, which is the
internal presence of the Lord. All attention therefore is directed to the letter
of the Third Testament and the taking cognizance from the soul out of the spirit
of the Church, still in germ, and the combat and victory over the then active
evils and falsities, results in development and as it were glorification of the
body of the Church. However if the Church enters into the
provinces of the body which have not yet been regenerated by the Holy Spirit in
the Church and are therefore not yet in order and in connection, then the
Church, on account of the spirit of the Church not being present, in the
internal is separated from its soul. The internal conjunction with the Lord
still takes place through the soul, whereas the external presence of the Lord is
there through the Word. All attention is then directed to the external presence
of the Word. From it salvation is expected, because previously the taking
cognizance of the Word out of the spirit of the Church brought enlightenment.
However, internally the taking cognizance is not in connection because the
spirit of the Church is not present, as a result of which the danger of faith
alone arises. It is then not realized that the Church must be regenerated and
that its body must be pure out of the spirit of the Church which is the Lord's.
From the affections of good and truth for the letter of the Word the man who is
thus imprisoned in the literal sense of the Word exclaims in despair: "Art
Thou the Christ or do we await another?" It is these things that are
treated of in the second and third verses of the eleventh chapter of the Gospel
of Matthew, where we read: "Now when John had heard in the prison the works
of Christ, he sent two of his disciples, and said unto Him, Art thou He that
should come, or do we look for another?" As is known, John stands for the literal
sense of the Word. Indeed The Third Testament is the Second Coming of the Lord
and brings salvation if the Lord is also internally present in the Church as the
spirit of the Church, on account of which the things of the Word are connected 47
H.
D. G. GROENEVELD in the body of the Church, as appears from
the fifth verse: "The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the
lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor
have the gospel preached to them". In the state in which the presence of the
Lord takes place only externally through the Word the Church sees the literal
sense in absolute obscurity and explains it arbitrarily. In the seventh verse
this has been described as follows: "And as they departed, Jesus began to
say unto the multitudes concerning John, What went ye out into the wilderness to
see? A- reed shaken with the wind?" It is by the development of the spirit of the
Church that these new provinces of the body may be brought into order and into
connection. The entire body of the Church is now dependent on its becoming
conscious of this spirit of the Church. The Lord during His life on earth was in
the things of the Father and after that in the things of His Human, and thus
increased in wisdom and stature, as is described in the 49th verse of the second
chapter of the Gospel of Luke: "And He said unto them, How is it that ye
sought Me? Wist ye not that I must be in the things of My Father?" And in
the 52nd verse: "And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in
favor with God and man". So the Church in its new state will be in the
things of its spirit and after that in the things of its body. Just as the Lord
in the Spirit became conscious that He was the Father Himself, so too the Church
will become conscious that the spirit of the Church is the presence of the Holy
Spirit in the Church. And just as the Rational of the Lord had first to be
Divine before conjunction of the Divine with His Human could take place, so too
the Church will have first to receive the influx of the Holy Spirit in the
rational, before conjunction of its body with its soul, therefore with the Lord,
can take place. It is this development of the spirit of the
Church which the, Doctrine of the Church now brings. It is therefore not a. mere
coincidence that now Those things have again been brought to the fore which have
previously been uttered by the spirit of the Church. -It is these things which
now are more opened and are seen in clearer light. Only from the love of truth can this spirit
of the Church be conceived in the affection in the natural for the Word. 48
THE
NINETEENTH OF JUNE 1931 May therefore on the day of the commemoration
of the Second Coming of the Lord and especially on the day on which our Society
has existed for ten years, the love of truth in us be kindled, through which we
Joined the New Church, so that this spirit of the Church may become body.
DE HEMELSCHE
LEER
EXTRACT
FROM THE ISSUE FOR OCTOBER1931
DOCTRINE
DRAWN FROM THE WORD
AN
ADDRESS BY THE REVEREND THEODORE PITCAIRN
BEFORE
THE YOUNGFR GENERATION CLUB, BRYN ATHYN,
JUNE
25TH, 1931. 'he foundation upon which the ACADEMY and
afterwards the GENERAL, CHURCH was founded is the Doctrine that the Writings are
the Word of the Lord to the New Church, and that the Writings are the Lord
Himself in His Second Coming. As this is the foundation of our Church it is of
the utmost importance to understand the nature of the Writings, for if we
misunderstand the nature of the Writings the foundation of the Church will be
insecure. What serious results a misunderstanding of the nature of the Writings
has for the Church is illustrated by CONFERENCE and CONVENTION. The Writings
themselves testify to their own nature more fully than the New Testament bore
testimony to itself; yet these testifications are of a general nature; such as
the following: "This book is the Coming of the Lord". The Writings
call themselves the most excellent of Revelations, and an immediate Revelation
from the Lord, besides other similar statements that are well known. They call
themselves the spiritual and the internal sense of the Word, and elsewhere the
natural sense from the spiritual sense. Apart 4'roni These general statements we
are given few particulars as to their nature; on the other hand there are
general principles which can lead us to a much fuller understanding as to the
nature of the Writings. The Lord when on earth spoke of the Law and
the Prophets, and told His Apostles that all things therein were to be
fulfilled; also He opened The Law and the Prophets to His disciples on His way
to Emmaus and showed them by means of instances from His life how He had
fulfilled the prophecies; and elsewhere the Gospels 50
REVEREND
THEODORE PITCAIRN ,,peak of a thing being done in fulfillment
of a prophecy; concerning the Law and the Prophets He said that one jot or one
tittle could not pass away until all was fulfilled. When the Christian Church came to acknowledge
the New Testament as canonical and as the Word of God, if they had remained in
spiritual illustration they could have come to see that these words of the Lord
had a broader application, namely, that they applied also to the New Testament.
That each word of the New Testament could not pass away until all was fulfilled,
yea that each word was to be fulfilled by the Lord in His Second Coming. The New Church in like manner is to enter
into the mysteries of faith concerning the nature of the Third Testament, in
particular by applying what is said concerning the Word or Sacred Scripture to
the Writings themselves. This is the only door provided by the Lord. If the men
of the Church judge from their own reason as to the nature of the Writings, like
thieves they climb up some other way. Mr. Hyatt some forty years ago first saw
this principle and applied it in a series of sermons, in which he showed that
what was said about the Sacred Scriptures applied equally to the Writings. In
recent times DE HEMELSCHE LEER, adopting the same principle, unfolded the
Doctrine concerning the Word as it applies to the Writings. We will here give
certain illustrations of this application. We read in the DOCTRINE CONCERNING THE SACRED
SCRIPTURE: "The spiritual sense of the Word is not that sense which shines
forth from the sense of the letter while one is studying and unfolding the
meaning of the Word with intent to confirm some dogma of the Church. This is the
literal sense of the Word. The spiritual sense does not appear in the sense of
the letter, being within it as the soul in the body, as thought in the eyes, and
as affections in the face, which act as a one, like cause and effect. It is this
sense chiefly which renders the Word spiritual, not for men only, but for Angels
also; and therefore by means of this sense the Word communicates with the
Heavens" (n. 5). In application to the Writings this passage
teaches that by unfolding the meaning of the Writings to confirm some dogma of
the Church, one does not necessarily enter into the spiritual sense of the
Writings, for the spiritual sense
51
DOCTIVINE
DRAWN FROM THE WORD of the Writings is not that sense which
shines forth from the sense of the letter, while one is malting such a study.
The spiritual sense of the Writings does not appear in the sense of the letter,
being within it as a soul in a body. The New Church is in danger of making the
same mistake as was made by the Christian church, namely, that by studying the
Writings to confirm certain tenets from the sense of the Writings which shines
forth from the letter, it may think that it is in the spiritual sense of the
Word and that it is in its spirit and in its life. Yet we are told that the
spiritual sense does not appear in the sense of the letter, being within it. We read further in the same work:
"Henceforth the spiritual sense of the Word will be imparted solely to him
who from the Lord is in genuine truths. The reason of this is that no one can
see the spiritual sense except from the Lord alone, nor unless from Him he is in
genuine truths. For the spiritual sense of the Word treats solely of the Lord
and His Kingdom; and this is the sense in which are His Angels in Heaven, for it
is the Divine Truth there. To this sense a man can do violence if lie is in the
science of correspondences, and wishes by means of it, from self intelligence,
to investigate the spiritual sense of the Word. For through some correspondences
with which be is acquainted he may pervert the meaning of it, and may even force
it to confirm what is false, and this would be doing violence to Divine Truth,
and also to Heaven. And therefore if any one purposes to open that sense from
himself and not from the Lord, Heaven is closed; and then the man either sees
nothing, or else becomes spiritually insane. Another reason is that the Lord
teaches one through the Word, and teaches out of those truths which are with the
man, and not immediately does He pour new truths in, so that unless he is in
Divine truths, or if he is only in a few truths and at the same time in
falsities, he may from these falsify the truths, as is done by every heretic in
regard to the Word's sense of the letter, as is well known. Therefore in order
to prevent anybody from entering into the spiritual sense of the Word, or from
perverting the genuine truth that belongs to that sense, guards have been set by
the Lord, which in the Word are meant by Cherubim" (n. 26). 52
REVEREND
THEODORE PITCAIRN We are here given the teaching that no one
can see the spiritual sense except from the Lord nor unless from Him he is in
genuine truths. All spiritual truth comes from spiritual influx; physical
influx, that is influx through the senses is an appearance, thus, no one can
come into spiritual truth from without. that is by means of the senses, thus not
by reading or hearing, not even by reading or hearing the Word of God:
nevertheless a man must read and bear the Word of God, for this is the only
ultimate by which the Lord can operate; the spiritual things flow in both
immediately from God by means of the soul, and mediately from God through the
angelic Heavens. If man is in this order of influx then he sees from the Lord,
and is in genuine truth, and he is said to be in the spiritual sense, in which
are the Angels of Heaven. A man in such a state if he reads the Writings sees
Divine truth appearing and accommodated to the state in which h( is. If a
man is not in this order of' influx, and by means of correspondences with which
he is acquainted, and from self-intelligence, wishes to investigate the internal
sense of the Writings, be perverts the meaning of them. And therefore we are
told that if any one purposes to open that sense from himself and not from the
Lord, Heaven is closed, and he, sees nothing or becomes spiritually insane.
Wherefore guards or cherubim have been set so that no one can enter into the
spiritual sense from himself. In the above passage the spiritual sense is
defined as that sense which is seen from the Lord alone, if a man is in genuine
truths, and that it is not that sense which appears in the sense of the letter,
but that which is within it. There are many passages in the Writings to the same
effect. On the other hand the Writings frequently call themselves the spiritual
and also the internal sense. The reconciliation of this apparent contradiction
is to be found in the APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED, n. 1061, where it is said:
"This is the natural sense out of the spiritual sense and is called the
internal sense, and further the spiritual natural sense". As the Writings
are the natural sense out of the spiritual it is obvious that it is the natural
sense which must be first seen and that the spiritual sense lies hidden within
as a soul in its body. When the Lord was on earth He fulfilled the
Law and
DOCTRINE
DRAWN FROM THE WORD The Prophets. He did this by opening up or
unfolding the things of the Old Testament and infilling them with Divine
Spiritual and Celestial things; hence He spake of "His Doctrine" (John
7: 16-17); but when He taught his disciples He spake the Divine Truth
accommodated to the state of the world at the time and this teaching was given
to the world as the Gospels or the New Testament. The Christian Church might
have come to see in a finite degree the Lord's Doctrine by unfolding the words
of the New Testament but instead of seeing the Lord's Doctrine in the New
Testament they perverted it, hence the doctrine of the Christian church was a
false doctrine. Note that although the Lord spoke of His Doctrine, the Word of
the New Testament given to the Christian Church is not called the Doctrine of
the Christian Church. The Lord at the time of the Second Coming again fulfilled
the Word, in this case of both Testaments, and He did this in like manner by
unfolding and infilling the things of the Old and New Testaments 'the Celestial
and Spiritual things. Hence the Lord in the Writings again speaks of His
Doctrine, that is the Writings call themselves the Heavenly Doctrine, but as in
the case of the First Coming so in like manner in the Second Coming the
Doctrine in its descent again becomes folded and is given to the Church as the
Third and final Testament in accommodation to the state of the world. The New
Church must gradually come into the Divine Doctrine, by an unfolding and
fulfilling of' its Word, for the regeneration of the Church like the
regeneration of a man is an image, and likeness of the glorification of the
Lord: and the laws of regeneration, which are the same as the laws of unfolding,
and fulfilling or infilling, are the same, only on finite plane, as are the laws
of glorification, unfolding and infilling, that the Lord performed at the time
of His First and Second coming. Hence the Laws by which the Word was revealed or
reveiled at the time of the Second Coming are the same as those which the Church
will use to enter into interior things. That the laws of exposition by which the
Writings were given are to be used by the ministers of the church, Bishop W. F.
Pendleton showed in his work on The Science of Exposition, although he did not
apply these laws in particular to the unfolding of the Writings. With the Church
this will be an eternal process, for the Word in 54
REVEREND
THEODORE PITCAIRN its three Testaments can never be completely
unfolded to eternity, yea what is unfolded, compared to what is not unfolded,
will always be as it were but a cup of water compared to the ocean. The belief that a man can come directly into
spiritual and celestial truths by studying the Writings, is internally the same
as the old Christian belief of the imputation of the merit of Christ by means of
faith, for it implies that the merit of the Lord in His Second Coming can be
imputed to man, apart from the process of unfolding and infilling, that is apart
from the process of regeneration. We read further in the same work: "The
sense of the letter of The Word is the basis, the containant, and the support of
its spiritual and celestial senses" (n. 27). That the literal sense of the
Writings is the basis, the containant, and the support of the spiritual and
celestial things which the Church comes to see is obvious, for upon what else
could the New Church base its Doctrine; what else contains the Divine thin 's
into which the New Church is to enter; what else gives support to the truths
that are drawn out? We read further: "Every Divine work is
complete and perfect in its ultimate; and in the ultimate is the whole" (n.
28). As the Writings are the most excellent of Revelations, and are a purely
Divine Work, they are indeed complete and perfect in their ultimate, that is, in
their letter. The Writings, as to every word, were dictated from God, and this
in spite of the fact that Swedenborg received the Doctrines in his understanding
and wrote them as if from himself. If viewed from within there is not one word
in the Writings that is not the Word of God; if there was anything that was from
Swedenborg, then The Writings would not be perfect in the ultimate and could not
be said to be the Word of God. That the Writings are complete and perfect in
their ultimate is evident from this consideration, namely, that Swedenborg was
not perfect and his ideas were finite and limited, wherefore it could only be by
a Divine miracle in ultimates that the letter of the Writings could contain the
Infinite Divine Love and Wisdom Itself. We read further: "Divine truth in the
sense of the letter of the Word is in its fulness, in its holiness, and its
power"
55
DOCTRINE
DRAWN FROM THE WORD (n.37). As the Writings are the Lord Himself
in His Second Coming they are the Lord in fulness, in holiness, and in power.
Where are Divine truths in greater fulness, and holiness than in the Writings;
or where do they manifest themselves with greater power? Have not the Writings
all power in the New Church? We read further: "From all this it is
evident that the Word is the very Word itself in its sense of the letter, for
within this sense there are spirit and life, the spiritual sense being its
spirit, and the celestial sense its life. This is what the Lord says: The
words that I speak unto you are spirit and are life (John 6 : 63).
The Lord spoke His words before the world. and in the natural sense. The
spiritual and the celestial sense without the natural sense which is the
sense of the letter, are not the Word; for without it they are like spirit and
life without a body" (n. 39). Again in the Second Coming the Lord
says: "The words that I speak unto you are spirit and are life", and
again the Lord spoke His words before the world, and in the natural sense:
"This is the natural sense out of the spiritual sense" (A.E. 1061). To deny that the Writings in their literal
sense are the Word in its fulness, in its holiness, and in its power, that is,
to deny that everything of the literal sense of the Writings is purely Divine,
and maintain that the Words were from Swedenborg, would be to separate the Human
nature from the Divine nature of the Lord in His Second Coming. We read further: "Doctrine must be drawn
from the sense of the letter of the Word, and be confirmed thereby. That through
Doctrine the Word not only becomes intelligible, but also as it -were shines
with light, is because without Doctrine it is not understood, and is like a
lampstand without a lamp, as has been shown above. Through Doctrine therefore
the Word is understood, and is like a lampstand with a lighted lamp. The man
then sees more things than he had seen before, and also understands things which
before he had not understood" (n. 53, 54). That this teaching concerning
the Word applies to the Writings, to a certain extent has been seen by many in
the GENERAL CHURCH, for it is obvious that the Church draws Doctrine from the
Writings and confirms the Doctrine by the Writings. Nevertheless the Church has
not clearly seen 56
REVEREND
THEODORE PITCAIRN that the Writings without Doctrine are like a
candlestick without light, and that "The genuine truth which must be of
Doctrine appears in the sense of the letter to none others but those who are in
enlightenment from the Lord" (n. 57). In the Writings the literal sense has
been mistaken for the light itself. Yet it is obvious that all who accept the
Writings are in the light of their literal sense and this whether they
are in enlightenment from the Lord or not, and they see certain things even
though they do not draw forth Doctrine, but what they see is not the spiritual
sense, for as we read: "The spiritual sense does not appear in the sense of
the letter", and: "It is not that sense which shines forth from the
sense of the letter of the Word while one is studying and unfolding the meaning
of the Word with intent to confirm some dogma of the church" (n. 5). The more intelligent in the Christian church
would deny that they were literalists. They also believe that the Word contains
many correspondences, as frequently mentioned in the Writings, namely, they
speak of the heavenly Joseph, Canaan, Zion, Israel, and many like things, yet
this does not save them from literalism, because they think the spirit was that
which shines forth from the literal sense when studying and confirming a dogma,
and they deny that "the spiritual sense is in all things of the Word, and
in every single particular". We read that the Christian church does not
inquire what is meant by the particular correspondences of the Word, because
"it places the celestial and spiritual things of the Word in its literal
sense, and calls its interior ones my treat things that it does not care
for" (A. C. 9688). The New Church can easily fall into the same error,
namely, it may call the things which shine forth from the literal sense of the
Writings its spiritual and celestial internal; it may deny that there are Divine
arcana in every word in the Writings which lie deeply hidden, and may call any
opening of the interior truths "mystical things for which it does not
care". We read further: "they who read the Word
without doctrine, or who do not acquire for themselves Doctrine from the Word,
are in obscurity as to every truth, and they are wavering and uncertain, prone
to errors, and pliant to heresies, which also they embrace wherever inclination 57
DOCTRINE
DRAWN FROM THE WORD or authority favors, and their reputation is
not endangered. For the Word is to them like a lampstand without a lamp, and in
their shallow they seem to see many things, and yet see scarcely anything, for
Doctrine alone is a lamp"(n. 52). The Word in its literal sense is adapted to
the early states of the Church, and in these early states the Lord gives the
Church a general light, in which it gathers thin things of the literal sense in
an orderly manner. In the infancy of the Church, the Church, like an infant, is
kept in the sphere of the celestial Angels who protect it. But this state cannot
be a permanent one. The Church must come into its own life and enter into
interior things as if from itself. The Church finds many things in the Word
which it cannot understand, and a Doctrine is born in the light of which it
reads its Word. This Doctrine is either genuine, truth from the Lord or it is
false doctrine originating in the proprium of man, in which case it is a graven
or a molten image. If men read the Writings in the light of false doctrine, or
if they have no Doctrine, they "are in obscurity as to every truth, and
their minds are wavering land uncertain, prone to errors, and pliant to
heresies, which they also embrace wherever inclination or authority
favors". For to them the Word in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, is like "a
lampstand without a lamp, and in their shadow they seem to see many things, and
yet see scarcely anything, for Doctrine alone is a lamp". That this is true
in application to the New Church is obvious from CONFERENCE and CONVENTION. Up to the present the only Doctrine drawn
forth from the Writings which does not shine forth from its letter, that has
been clearly seen in spiritual light as a genuine and eternal truth, is the
Doctrine that the Writings are the Word of the Lord, that they are the Divine
Human of the Lord in His Second coming. The other principles if the ACADEMY are
more on the plane of the literal sense of the Writings, that is, they are such
things that immediately shine forth from the letter, where there is no prejudice
which blurs the vision. So far the Doctrine that the Writings are the
Word has been the lamp which has enlightened the Church in the reading of the
Writings, and the light of this lamp ha 58
REVEREND
THEODORE PITCAIRN been reflected from many things in the
literal sense of the Writings. This light as a general perception has existed in
the Church from the beginning, but in time it tended to fade, until it broke
forth anew and was openly proclaimed and was rationally seen as a fundamental
principle ' in the early days of the ACADEMY. This light caused the Church to
see many things which it had not seen before. To be in enlightenment is to see a thing
clearly in spiritual light from the Lord. What is seen in such light is
necessarily seen as an eternal and genuine truth. What in the Church so far has
been seen as an eternal and genuine internal truth by the Church, except the
fact that the Writings are the Word? Apart from this the Church has only seen as
an undoubted truth from the Lord such things as "shine forth from the
literal sense of the Writings"; but such things do not belong to the
internal sense, for we read: "The spiritual sense of the Word is not that
sense which shines forth from the sense of the letter while one is studying and
unfolding the meaning of the Word with the intent to confirm some dogma of the
Church. This is the literal sense of the Word. The spiritual sense does not
appear in the sense of the letter, being within it as the soul in the body"
(n. 5). Concerning spiritual light we read: "In
a word, that light surpasses a thousand times the noonday light on earth"
(1p.L.W. 182). Any spiritual truth that is seen in enlightenment is seen in
spiritual light that comes from the Lord as a sun; anything seen in such light
is necessarily seen a thousand times more clearly than anything seen in natural
light. To illustrate: If anyone sees that the Writings are the Word, he sees
this truth a thousand times more clearly than be can see any scientific
knowledge, for the former truth is an interior genuine appearance seen in the
light that proceeds from the Lord, while the latter is a gross appearance seen
in the relatively obscure light of the natural mind. We are also given @be
teaching that what is seen in spiritual light can be seen much clearer as to the
particulars than what is seen in natural light, and this on account of the
essence of that light. Unless the interior things which lie hidden within the
Writings, and do not shine forth from the sense of their letter, but can only be
seen by those who are in enlightenment from the Lord, 59
DOCTRINE
DRAWN FROM THE WORD are seen clearly as genuine truths from the
Lord, then it is a sign that the Church is not in the clear light of the
spiritual sun, but is in the general light, represented by the light that was
given on the first day of creation. It has been said that the Doctrine that the
Writings are the Word has been seen by some in spiritual light, yet for the most
part, this has not been fully seen. If it had been fully seen then it would have
been seen that everything said concerning the Sacred Scripture applies also to
the Writings; yet this full vision of the Writings as the Word of the Lord can
be seen 'just as clearly and fully in spiritual light as the partial seeing of
the Writings as the Word that has been prevalent in the ACADEMY, and in the
GENERAL CHURCH. All failure to see the genuine Doctrine of
faith is due to consulting the rational. Concerning Doctrine we read-.
"That it may be further known how the case is with the Doctrine of faith,
as being spiritual from a celestial origin, be it known it is Divine Truth out
of Divine Good, and thus wholly Divine. What is Divine is incomprehensible,
because above all understanding even angelic; but still this Divine, which in
itself is incomprehensible, can flow in through the Lord's Divine Human into
man's rational, and when it inflows into his rational, it is there received
according to the truths which are therein; thus variously, and not with one as
with another" (A. C. 2531). It is here taught that the Doctrine of faith
with each man flows into his rational from the Divine Human of the Lord, and
that the Doctrine is the Divine Truth out of Divine Good. If man consults his
rational the rational acts from itself, and thereby closes the way of influx by
which the Divine Doctrine flows in, wherefore we read: "The Doctrine of
faith would become null and void, if the rational were consulted as to its
contents" (A. C. 2512). The rational is in appearances of truth. These
appearances if opened to the Lord, receive the Divine Doctrine, but if man
consults these appearances then be closes the way to influx and thinks from the
appearances. It is the nature of the human rational when not open to the Lord,
to think from appearances and to deny the miraculous. It is a consulting of the
rational that has led the modern so-called Christian church to deny the Divinity
of the Lord and the Word, for the 60
REVEREND
THEODORE PITCAIRN rational method, which judges from
appearances and tries to explain things by natural causes, closes mind to
influx. Although the Writings are the Divine Rational yet it is the
consulting of the rational which led to their rejection by the Christian world
for judging by appearances they could not be seen to be a revelation, and their
acceptance required a belief in the miraculous. It was again a consulting of the rational
which led CONVENTION and CONFERENCE to reject the teaching that the Writings are
the Word, for again from appearances and from all Initiate tendency to deny
Divine miracles, the rational if consulted tends to reject the Divinity of the
Lord in His Second Coming. If the rational is consulted it will deny that the
Writings are fully the Word and that everything said concerning the Word applies
to them, and that the Doctrine drawn from The Writings is of purely Divine
origin and essence; and this for the same reason, namely, because the rational
if consulted judges from appearances and tends to deny the miraculous for what
it calls the natural method. That the internal sense of Writings cannot be
arrived at by a natural method, but only by a miracle of God, is evident from
the fact that the spiritual sense is not that sense, which shines forth from the
letter while one is studying and unfolding the meaning of the Word. The passing
from the literal sense to the spiritual sense is the miracle o turning water
into wine; man can no more enter into the spiritual sense of the writings
without a Divine miracle than he can turn water into wine, wherefore to attempt
to enter into the spiritual and celestial things of the Writings by study
without the acknowledgment that this can only be done by a Divine miracle is
vanity; for if the rational is consulted the Doctrine becomes null and void. 61
DOCTRINE
DRAWN FROM THE WORD The Doctrine is of purely Divine origin and
essence. It is the Lord Himself. It is spiritual out of celestial origin, and as
such it is ineffable and inexpressible in natural language. It can only be seen
in a spiritual state. It is the spiritual sense of the Word itself. As soon as
it is expressed in natural language it is no longer the Doctrine unless seen
from within. The literal text of the Doctrine of the Church is not Divine,
although it administers Divine things. Its junction is to communicate the HOLY
SPIRIT from man to man. The natural of the literal sense of the Doctrine of the
Church is involved in what is said concerning priests in the work ON' THE NEW
JERUSALEM AND ITS HEAVENLY DOCTRINE, n. 317. In this connection we must, note
that to think spiritually is to think from use and not from person. The, use of
a priest is to teach and thereby lead to the good of life. Wherefore in the
spiritual sense a priest represents that which he teaches and administers. The
person of the priest thought of spiritually, that is thought of apart from
person, is the literal sense of what he teaches. This is also involved in the
root meaning of the word person, namely, to sound through, for the spiritual
sense may sound through the natural words of the Doctrine. The number reads:
"Dignity and honor ought to be paid to priests on account of the holy
things, which they administer; but they who are wise give the honor to the Lord,
from whom the holy things are, and not to themselves; but they who are not wise
attribute honor to themselves; these take it away from the Lord. The honor of
any employment is not in the person, but is adjoined to him according to the
dignity of the thing which he administers; and what is adjoined does not belong
to the person himself, and also is separated from him with the employment".
When formulations of Doctrine do not administer to the holy things of the
Church, they lose their honor with their proper employment or administration. Let us illustrate: In the early days of' the
ACADEMY they came to see the Lord Himself in the Writings; this vision was
expressed in the statement that the Writings are the Word; as this statement
administered to this vision and was a means of communicating, it from man to man
it had dignity and honor. If the Lord is not seen 62
REVEREND
THEODORE PITCAIRN in the Writings, and thus this statement no
longer has any living employment, it has no honor or dignity in itself. In this
it is unlike the letter of the Word, which is the Divine Person, the body of the
Lord Himself, as He manifests Himself on earth. It must be noted that a man
cannot come into spiritual and celestial things by means of the literal sense of
the Doctrine of the Church any more than by means of the literal sense of the
Word, apart from a Divine miracle of the Lord, and yet with those who are
prepared the Lord employs the literal sense of the Doctrine of the Church as a
means of communicating the Holy Spirit from man to man. As quoted above:
"They who read the Word without Doctrine, or who do not acquire for
themselves ]Doctrine from the Word, are in obscurity as to every truth, and
their minds are wavering and uncertain, prone to errors, and pliant to
heresies". That this statement applies to the Latin Word as well as to the
previous Testaments is obvious, for from the Writings many opposite views as to
interior Doctrines have been derived, as the history of the Church testifies.
The Doctrine here specified is the Doctrine which man acquires for himself out
of the Word. Concerning such Doctrine we read: "All Doctrine is from the
Divine Good and the Divine Truth, and has in itself the heavenly marriage.
Doctrine that has not this in it is not the genuine Doctrine of faith"
(A.C. 2516). Further we read: "That it may further be known how the case is
with the Doctrine of faith, as being spiritual from a celestial origin, be it
known that it is Divine Truth out of Divine Good, and thus wholly Divine. What
is Divine is incomprehensible, because above all understanding, even the
angelic; but still this Divine, which in itself is incomprehensible, can flow in
through the Lord's Divine Human into man's rational, and when it inflows into
his rational, it is there received according to the truths that are therein;
thus variously, and not with one as with another. In so far therefore as the
truths with a man are more genuine so far the Divine which flows in is received
more perfectly, and so far the man's intellectual is enlightened" (A.C.
253.1). Concerning this opening of the mind we read further: "It has been
so provided and ordained by the Lord that in so far as a man thinks and wills
from Heaven, that is through Heaven 63
DOCTRINE
DRAWN FROM THE WORD from the Lord, so far his ii-internal man is
opened. The opening is unto Heaven even unto the Lord Himself" (A.C. 9707).
"It treats here about the Lord, that all the doctrinal things of faith are
from His Divine; for there does not exist any doctrinal thing, not the least of
it, which is not from the Lord, for the Lord is Doctrine itself. Hence the Lord
is called the Word, because the Word is Doctrine. But as everything that is in
the Lord is Divine, and what is Divine cannot be apprehended by any created
thing, the doctrinal things which are from the Lord, in so far as they appear
before created things, are not truths purely Divine, but are appearances of
truths; yet still in the appearances there are truths Divine" (A.C. 3364).
From the above passages it can be seen that the genuine Doctrine which the
Church or the man of the Church draws from the Word, as to its origin and
essence is purely Divine, but that in man's rational, that is in his conscious
mind, it is in appearances which are more or less perfect, but that these
appearances have within them Divine truths. ']'he genuine Doctrine or internal
sense of the Writings does not shine forth from their letter, but it flows from
the Lord's Divine Human into man's rational while man is reading the Writings.
This Doctrine viewed internally is the internal sense of the Writings as they
are in Heaven. For we read: "Nay, if you will believe it, with man the
internal man is of itself in the internal sense of the Word, because it is
Heaven in the least form, and consequently when it is opened it is with the
Angels in Heaven, and is therefore in like perception with them. ... From this
it is evident that the man whose internal is open, is in the internal sense of
the Word, although he is not aware of it" (A. C. 10400). That the sense which shines forth from the
literal sense of the Writings is not the internal sense as it is in Heaven, is
evident from the following quotation: "The genuine truth which must be of
Doctrine appears to none but those who are in enlightenment from the Lord"
(S. S. 57). Yet it is obvious that the sense which shines forth from the letter
of the Writings can be seen by all, whether they are in enlightenment from the
Lord or not. To continue the quotation: "Enlightenment is from the Lord
alone, and exists with those who love truths because they are truths 64
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THEODORE PITCAIRN and make them uses of life. With others there
is no enlightenment in the Word. The reason why enlightenment is 1'roin the Lord
alone is that the Lord is in all things of the, Word. The reason why
enlightenment exists with those who love truths because they are truths and make
them of use for life, is that such are in the Lord and the Lord in them. For the
Lord is His own Divine Truth, and when this is loved because it is the Divine
Truth, and it is loved when it is made of use, the Lord is in it with the man.
This the Lord teaches in John: "In that day ye shall know that ye are in Me
and I in you. He that hath My commandments, and doeth them, he loveth Me, and I
will love him, and will manifest Myself to him; and I will come unto him, and
make My abode with him" (14 : 20, 21, 23). And in Matthew: "BIessed
are the pure, in heart. for they shall see God" (5 : 8). These are they who
are in enlightenment when they are reading the Word, and to whom the Word shines
and is translucent" (S. S. 57). To continue: "The reason why the Word
shines and is translucent with such, is that there is a spiritual and celestial
sense in every particular of the Word, and these senses are in the light of
Heaven, so that through these senses and through their light the Lord flows into
the natural sense. and into the light of it with man. This causes the man to
acknowledge the truth from an interior perception, and afterwards to see it in
his own thought, and as often as he is in the affection of truth for the sake of
truth" (S.S. 58). It is of the utmost importance to believe
that there is a spiritual and celestial sense in each particular of the
Writings, thus in each word, which does not shine forth from the sense of the,
letter unless a man is in enlightenment from the Lord. For if this is denied
then there would be man-N' things in the Writings which would be unworthy of the
Divine Word, yea a denial of this truth involves a denial of the Divine Body of
the Lord in His Second Coming. To deny that each single word in the Writings
contains Divine arcana that are bidden as the soul is hidden by the body, would
be to deny that the Writings are perfect in their ultimate, and what is not
perfect in its ultimate is not the Word of God. It has been maintained that the
sentence or general rational idea is the ultimate of the Writings, yet it is
obvious that in the Writings as in all 65
DOCTRINE
DRAWN FROM THE WORD speech each word conveys an idea, and in the
Writings the words frequently convey merely natural or even sensual ideas, if
viewed as to their literal sense. Yet we are told that there is not a single
word in the Word of God which does not contain spiritual and celestial things,
and that there is no relation between the celestial, the spiritual, and the
natural than that of correspondence. Let us illustrate: We are told that the
twelve Apostles were sent out into the spiritual world on the nineteenth of
June, 1770. Each of these words expresses a natural idea that could not be
understood as such by the Angels. For the Angels cannot understand the words twelve,
apostles, sent, nineteen. June, nor 1770, except as to their spiritual
signification. If each of these words does not have a correspondence, then it
would be a misuse of language to call the Writings the, Word of God. For there
would be words and natural ideas in the Writings which bad no communication with
the Heavens, nor with the Lord. How the genuine Doctrine comes into existence
in the Church when men's minds are open even, unto the Lord is thus described:
"When a man is being purified, then first of all are learned such truths as
can be apprehended by the sensual man, such as are the truths in the sense of
the letter of the Word; afterwards are learned interior truths, Such as are
collected from the Word by those who are III enlightenment; for these collect
its interior sense from various passages where the sense of the letter is
unfolded. From these when known, truths still more interior art, afterwards
drawn forth by those who are enlightened, which truths, together with the
former, are of service to the Church for Doctrine, the more interior truths for
Doctrine to those who are men of the internal Church, the less interior for
Doctrine to those who are men of the external Church. Both the former and the
latter men, provided they have lived according to these truths, are taken up
into Heaven among the Angels, anti are there imbued with angelic wisdom, which
is from truths still more interior, and finally is from inmost truths in the
third Heaven. These truths, together with the former in their order, close in
the ultimate ones" (A. C. 10028). From this passage and from what precedes,
it is evident that the Writings as to their literal sense, if seen from without,
are not rational truths, 66
REVERENED
THEODORE PITCAIRN as its been frequently supposed, but are
merely natural truths; this is evident from the fact that they cant be seen by
anyone, thus even by those who are natural. As seen by such they are not genuine
natural rational truths, for the genuine natural rational represented by Ishmael
is born from the Lord, Abraham as a father and the affection of the scientifics
of the Writings, represented by Hagar, as a mother; and this is a degree within
the literal sense of the Writings. Wherefore before the spiritual birth
represented by Ishmael takes place, it is only the external appearances of the
Writings that can be seen. The manifestation of the genuine Doctrine of
the Church is further described as follows: "By prophets here and elsewhere
in The Word are meant in the nearest sense such prophets as those were in the
Old Testament through whom the Lord spake; but in the spiritual sense those
prophets are Dot meant, but all whom the Lord leads; with these also the Lord
flows in and reveals to them the secrets of the Word, whether they teach or not.
. . . Prophets mean all whom the Lord teaches, thus all who are iii the
spiritual affection of truth, that is who love truth because it is truth; for
the Lord teaches these, and flows into their understanding and enlightens; and
this is more true of these than of the prophets of the Old Testament. From this
it can be seen that prophets mean in the spiritual sense all who are wise from
the Lord; and this whether they teach or do not teach. And as every truly
spiritual idea ;s abstracted from the idea of persons, places, and times, so The
prophets also signify in the highest sense the Lord in relation to The Word, and
as to Doctrine from the Word: and likewise the Word and Doctrine. . . . A
prophet mean.-, Divine Truth which is the Word, a-ad which is in the Church out
of the Word" (A. E. 624). That the genuine Doctrine of the Church is
from revelation from the Lord, is manifest from the ARCANA COELESTIA, n. 8694,
where we read: "By revelation is meant enlightenment when the Word is read,
and their perception; for they who are in good and long for truth are taught in
this way out of the Word; but they who are not in good cannot be taught out of
the Word, but can only be confirmed in such things as they have been instructed
in from infancy, whether true or false. The reason that 67
DOCTIRNE
DRAWN FROM THE WORD those who are in good have revelation, and
those who are in evil have no revelation, is that in the internal sense each and
all things of the Word treat of the Lord and of His kingdom, and the Angels that
are with man perceive the Word according to the internal sense. This is
communicated to the man who is in good and reads the Word, and from affection
longs for truths and consequently has enlightenment and perception. For with
those who are in good and from this in the affection of truth, the intellectual
of the mind is opened into Heaven, and their soul, that is their internal man,
is in fellowship with the Angels; but it is otherwise with those who are not in
good and from this in the affection of truth. . . . But what is the nature of
the revelation of those who are in good and from this in the affection of truth
cannot be described. It is not manifest, neither is it altogether hidden; but it
is a certain consent and favoring out of the interior that a thing is true and
a, non-favoring if it is not true. The cause of its being so is from the influx
of Heaven from the Lord; for through Heaven from the Lord there is light that
surrounds and enlightens the intellect, which is the eye of the internal sight.
The things which appear in that light are truths, for this very light is the
Divine, truth which proceeds from the Lord". Further we read: "They
who are in The spiritual affection of truth are elevated into the light of
Heaven so completely that they perceive the enlightenment" (A. E. 1183).
Further: "The true spiritual sense of the Word is from the Lord alone; this
is the reason y no one either iii the natural or the spiritual world is allowed
to investigate the spiritual sense of the Word from the sense of its letter,
unless he is entirely in the Doctrine of Divine Truth, and in enlightenment from
the Lord." (DE 'VERBO, 21). That the Lord is the Doctrine of faith which is
from the Word, and in the case of the New Church that is from the Writings, is
taught in the A.RCANA COFLESTIA: "The Lord is the faith with man, and if
the faith, He is also every truth that is contained in the Doctrine of faith,
which is from the Word" (n. 8864). The opening of the mind for the
reception of Doctrine must be even unto the Lord, as we read: "It has been
so provided and ordained from the Lord that in so far as man thinks and wills
from Heaven, that is 68
DOCTRINE
DRAWN FROM THE WORD Through Heaven from the Lord, so far his
internal man is open; the opening is unto Heaven even unto the Lord
Himself" (A. 9707). When a man's Mind is so opened then the goods and
truths with the man are the Lord Himself. For we read: "The Lord does these
things through the Heaven of man, that is through his internal; for all good and
truth are from the Lord, in so much that good and truth with man are the Lord
Himself" (A. C. 9776). We are told that it is not the Word which
makes the Church but the understanding of the Word. Thus in the New Church it is
not the Writings which make the New Church, but the understanding of the
Writings are not understood then they are not the Word with the man. To quote:
"The Word is the Word according, to the understanding, of it with man, that
is, as it is understood. If it is not understood, the Word is indeed called the
Word, but it is not the Word with the man. The Word is the truth according to
the understanding of it, for the Word may not be the truth, because it may be
falsified. 'he Word is spirit and life according to the understanding of it, for
the letter not understood is dead. And as a man has truth and life according,,
to the understanding of the Word, so has he faith and love according thereto.
Now as the Church exists by means of faith and love, and according to them, it
follows that the Church is the Church through the understanding of the Word and
according thereto a noble Church if in genuine truths, an ignoble if not in
genuine truths, and a destroyed church 'If in falsified truths" (S. S. 77).
As it is the genuineness of the truths drawn from the, Writings which alone
causes it to be a noble Church, it is of The utmost importance to see from the
Lord as to whether the Doctrine drawn from the Writings is genuine Doctrine or
not. This is a responsibility placed on everyone. For we read: "With such
men, as are in enlightenment, the first thing is to get for themselves Doctrine
from the literal sense of the Word, and thus lighted, they see the Word by its
means. Those however who do not procure Doctrine for themselves, first make
investigation as to whether the Doctrine delivered by others and received by the
Doctrine delivered by others and received by the general body accords with the
Word, and they assent to what 69
DOCTRINE
DRAWN FROM THE WORD Accords, and from what does not accord they
dissent. In this way it becomes to them their own Doctrine, and through Doctrine
their faith. But this takes place with those who not being taken up with worldly
affairs are ablt to exercise discernment. If these persons love truths because
they are truths, and make them of use for life, they are in enlightenment from
the Lord. All others who are in some life according to truths can learn from
them" (S. S. 59) There is only one Heavenly Doctrine, namely,
the Doctrine which is in Heaven from the Lord, which Doctrine also makes the
internal of the genuine Church. Swedenborg was not unique in having this
Doctrine revealed to him by the Lord when reading the Word, for as is evident
from the quotations given above and from many similar passages in the Writings,
enlightenment may be given to others. The uniqueness of Swedenborg's mission was
that the Lord not only revealed to him the Heavenly Doctrine, but also by means
of him, wrote the Third Testament or Latin Word, a work which is perfect in
ultimates, and which like the previous testaments, is the literal sense of the
Word, in its fulness, in its holiness, and in its Power.
THE
NINETEENTH OF JUNE.
An
Exposition. "After this work was finished the Lord
called together His twelve disciples who followed Him in the world; and the next
day He sent them all forth throughout the whole spiritual world to preach the
Gospel that the Lord God Jesus Christ reigns. This took place in the month of
June on the day 19, in the year 1770" (T. C. R. 791) When reading in the Word of the Old or the
New testament of years, the mind of the New Churchman naturally turns to its
spiritual signification, but when a date is mentioned in the Writings the mind
tends to remain in the natural idea. To illustrate The fact mentioned in the
Gospels, that the Lord was about thirty years of age when He commenced His
ministry, was an important historical occurrence, yet the new Churchman
naturally thinks of its spiritual signification, and the idea of three times
ten, signifying a fulness of remains, naturally comes to his mind. But when one
reads in THE TRUE CHRISTIAN 70
REVEREND
THEODORE PITCAIRN RELIGION of the nineteenth day of June 1770,
the mind tends to remain in the natural idea involved, although such ideas could
not exist in THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION such as it is written in Heaven. In the spiritual sense "after this work
was finished" signifies when the men of the New Church have acquired a
knowledge of the, literal sense of the Writings, and have acquired ,t life in
conformity with this sense. In a still more interior sense these words have a
similar signification to the words: "and on the seventh day God finished
His work which He had made," which is explained. is follows: "The
celestial man is the seventh day, which, as the Lord has worked during the six
days, is called His Work; and as combat then ceases the Lord is said to rest
from His work" (A. C. 84). "The Lord called together His twelve
disciples who had followed Him in the world' . "To call" signifies
"Presence from foresight and provision" (A. C. 3495). Also "a
state, of perception as to quality" (A. 3659), and "the arrangement in
order of the truth.-, of faith and the goods of love in the natural" (A.
6335). The twelve disciples represent all the goods and truths of the Word and
of the Church (E. 695); and more specifically "the good of Doctrine from
the Lord" (E. 624); and therefore those who are In such goods and truths. "Who had followed Him in the
world", signifies obedience to such goods and truths on the plain of the
natural mind; in relation to the New Church it signifies obedience to the goods
and truths of the literal sense of the Writings. "And the next day" signifies a new
state. "He sent them all forth" signifies that the goods and truths
proceed from the Lord. "Throughout the whole spiritual world"
signifies that they occupied the spiritual mind of the Church, and were seen as
to their spiritual sense. "To preach the Gospel that the Lord God Jesus
Christ reigns" signifies that all the goods and truths of the Word, both
the goods and truths of the literal sense of the Writings and the goods and
truths of the internal sense of the Writings, are from the Lord who alone reigns
over all things of the Church. The "nineteenth" has a variety of
significations, but its primary signification seems to be from the addition of
12 71
DOCTRINE
DRAWN FROM THE WORD and 7; "twelve" signifying, the
goods and truths of the Church in general which were represented by the
apostles, and the number seven signifying that such goods and truths are holy.
The numeral "nineteen" referring to a day of the month signifies that
this has relation to faith. June involves a signification which we cannot enter
upon at the present time. It is sufficient to note that it is the month. in
which the sun reaches its highest point in the South and thus signifies a state
of enlightenment. As "a month" signifies a state as
to faith, "a year" signifies a state as to love. "One
thousand" signifies what is much; in relation to the subject it signifies
the abundance of goods and truths that will exist in the Church. ",Seven
hundred" as also "seventy" signifies what is holy. It also
signifies the seventh or celestial state of the Church. We are told that when a
larger and a smaller number are brought together in the Word, the larger number
refers to truth and the smaller number to good, hence in this case,, seven
hundred" refers to truth and "seventy" to (see A. R. 287). The Doctrine involved in this number is that
after the Church has come to know and obey the literal sense of the Writings as
to its goods and truths in general, the Lord will elevate these goods and truths
into the spiritual mind of the Church which makes one with the Heavens. he will
re-arrange them there, and they will then proceed from Him as the interior
truths of the Church. While there are states of preparation in the
Church by means of Doctrine, this prophecy will not be fulfilled in its fulness
until the Church comes into a celestial state, for until the Church comes into
such a state the Lord does not fully reign in Heaven and on earth.
DE HEMELSCHE
LEER
EXTRACTS
FROM THE ISSUE FOR NOVEMBER 1931
MARK
11 : 27-33
ADDRESS
BY H. D. G. GROENEVELD AT THE SOCIAL
SUPPER
OF MARCH 29TH, 1931. And they come again to Jerusalem: and as
He was walking in the temple, there come to Him the chief priests, and the
scribes, and the elders. And say unto Him: By what authority doest
Thou these things? And who gave Thee this authority to do these things? And Jesus answered and said unto them: I
will also ask of you one word, and answer Me, and I will tell you by what
authority I do these things. The baptism of John, was it from Heaven or
from men? Answer Me. And they reasoned with themselves, saying:
If we shall say, from Heaven, He will say, why then did you not believe him? But if we shall say, from men, they feared
the people; for they all counted John, that he was a prophet indeed. And they answered and said unto Jesus: We
do not know. And Jesus answering saith unto them: Neither do I tell you by what
authority I do these things. MARK 11 : 27-33. "Jerusalem" signifies the Church
with regard to its Doctrine. "To come to Jerusalem" therefore
signifies to occupy oneself with the things that regard the Doctrine of the
Church. "Again" indicates not only that attention has already formerly
been paid to the principles of the Doctrine of the Church, but also the progress
in the upbuilding of the Church by its Doctrine. In general, therefore without
entering, into particulars with regard to the upbuilding of the Church by its
Doctrine in every degree, The progress takes place by going from the principles
of the Doctrine of the Church of a lower degree to those of a higher degree,
therefore by going from the natural Doctrine of the Church to the spiritual
Doctrine and from the spiritual Doctrine to the celestial Doctrine of the
Church. 74
H.
D. G. GROENEVELD "And as He was walking in the
temple". The temple signifies the Divine Human in itself, and also the
Divine Human that makes the Heavens, and furthermore the Heavens and the Church
as the Bride of the Lamb, built from the Divine Human of the Lord, whereby they
are a receptacle of Life, and conjoined with the Lord by His presence in the
Heavens and in the Church. With regard to the Church the temple therefore
signifies the opened truths of the literal sense of the Third Testament, such as
these manifest themselves to others. "To walk" signifies life.
"And as He was walking in the temple" therefore signifies the Life and
thus the presence of the Lord in the opened truths of the literal sense of the
Third Testament. In these opened truths therefore is the Life of the Lord, from
which it follows that the Doctrine of the Church which opens the truths of the
literal sense is the Lord Himself. "There come to Him the chief priests,
and the scribes., and the elders". The chief priests signify the apparent
goods in the natural, obtained by the life of the proprium according to the
scientifics of the Third Testament, in which goods therefore there dwells not
the Lord but the proprium of man; the scribes stand for the apparent rational
truths in the natural, obtained by the influx of the proprium into the
scientifics of the Third Testament, and the elders for the scientifics obtained
by direct cognizance of the literal sense of the Third Testament. "There
come to Him the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders", therefore
means that these apparent goods, these apparent rational truths, and these
scientifics, or they who are in these things, direct themselves to the Lord as
the Doctrine of the Church. "And say unto Him: By what, authority
doest Thou these things? And who gave Thee this authority to do these
things?" In general this signifies that they who are in apparent goods, and
they who are in apparent rational truths, and also they who have only cognizance
of the scientifics, do not see that the power of the Lord is present in His
Human and that He Himself is the Creator of Heaven and earth. As we know from
the Latin Testament the human begins in the inmost of the rational. Power
therefore begins only when there is possession of the things 75
MARK
11 : 27-33 in the rational. With regard to the Doctrine
of the Church therefore this question indicates that one does not see that the
things of the Doctrine of the Church are present in the rational and that the
Lord Himself is the Doctrine of the Church. "And Jesus answered and said unto them:
I will also ask of you one word, and answer Me, and I will tell you by what
authority I do these things" signifies that the things contained in the
verse following should first, be considered and rationally seen, before an
influx can be received and one can thus perceive with regard to the Lord, that
He is the Creator of Heaven and earth, and with regard to the .Doctrine of the
Church, that it is the Lord Himself and therefore Divine. "The baptism of John, was it from Heaven
or from men? Answer Me". John represents the literal sense of the Third
Testament. Baptism signifies introduction into the Christian Church, and at the
same time admission among the Christians in the spiritual world. This
introduction and this admission take place by the setting up of an order
for life by the acknowledgement of the Lord as the Creator of Heaven and earth
and by shunning evil and falsity as sin against Him. The baptism of John
therefore indicates that the order of life is determined by the literal sense of
the Third Testament and that the acceptance of that order and therefore
regeneration is dependent on life in accordance therewith. ]By the words
"The baptism of John, was it from Heaven or from men" the question is
therefore asked whether the order of life which is determined by the literal
sense of the Third Testament, is from Heaven or from men. 1'rom Heaven means
from the Divine Human of the Lord, for the Divine Human makes The Heavens; from
men means from Emanuel Swedenborg. If the order for life which is determined by
the literal sense of the Third Testament is from the Divine Human of the Lord,
The Divine Human in the literal sense is in its fulness, holiness, and power,
and all discrete degrees are simultaneously present therein. Then all natural,
spiritual, celestial. and Divine truths are present in the literal sense of the
Third Testament. The question therefore is whether the Writings of Emanuel
Swedenborg as to their literal sense are or are not the Word. The Coming of the Lord on earth is the Coming
of the 76
H.
D. G. GROENEVELD Lord in the objective world by the assumption
of a natural Human from the virgin Mary. The Second coming of the Lord is the
coming of the Lord in the clouds of Heaven with great power and glory by the
opening of the Word. In the new Church the Coming of the Lord on earth is the
state of the church in which the Writings of Emmanuel Swedenborg are gradually
seen as the Divine Human of the Lord. Similarly as the churches before the coming
of the Lord were external and had their basis in the sensual things, therefore
in the things outside of man, so too the states of the New Church before the
state of the coming of the Lord on earth have their basis exclusively in the
sensual or direct cognizance of the Writings. These states too of the church
similarly to the churches before the coming of the Lord Become more and more
exterior, until the State is of Such a Nature that the cognizance of the
Writings is merely external and the internal is as it were lacking, as a
consequence of which the state of the Church is such that the church seems a
representation of a church. As a Transition to the Following State, in which the
Writings of Emmanuel Swedenborg are seen as the Divine Human of the Lord, and
the basis is removed from without to within , or from the sensual things, there
fore from the things outside of man and the church, to the things within man and
the Church, John the Baptist, or the vision of the literal sense of the Writings
as the order for life, prepares the way. The church, in the natural, sees that
it must conform with the literal sense of the Writings by a life in accordance
there with, and must depart from the things of the world. Then the church
understands the words of the 28th and 29th verses of the
chapter of the Gospel of Matthew: "And it came to pass, when Jesus had
ended these words, the people were astonished at His doctrine: for He taught
them as one having authority, and not as the scribes". In the affection of
the Church for these things the Lord is born and the church enters into the
state in which it sees the Writings as the divine Human of the Lord. But
similarly as the human from Mary clung to the Lord, so too in this state there
clings to the Church the proprium on account of which it still sees the Writings
also as the work of Emanuel Swendenborg. Similarly 77
MARK
11 : 27- 33 77 As the Lord after heavy combats glorified His
human and made it Divine, so too, in this state the Church after victory in
temptations will gradually see the Writings as the Divine Human of the Lord.
Similarly as the Human of the Lord is not only Divine but the Divine is actually
present in the Human, so the church will regard the Writings not only as the
Divine Human but see the Divine Human present in the literal sense of the
Writings as in its fulness, holiness, and power, whereby these Writings are
accepted as the Word of God in the third or Latin Testament. Then the Church
acknowledges that in the literal sense of the Latin testament all discrete
degrees, thus all natural, spiritual, celestial, and Divine truths are
simultaneously present. Subsequently the Church enters into the state
which corresponds to the Christian Church in which it sees that by direct
Cognizance of the sense of the Third Testament no genuine truths can be
acquired, but that the truths of the literal sense must be struggled through
from the natural to the spiritual, which will only be able to do by a Doctrine
out, of that testament and from the influx of the Holy Spirit. After the fulness
of this state the New Church enters into its proper state. The Lord is present
in the Church in His Second Coming by the presence of His Holy Spirit in the
rational of the Doctrine of the Church. Then the Church sees the things of the
Doctrine of the Church simply in the literal sense of the Latin Word. When the Church enters into this state then
the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders, that is to say those who are
in apparent goods, in apparent rational truths, and in scientific, will ask the
Doctrine of the Church, which Is the Lord Himself: "By what authority doest
Thou these things? And who gave Thee this authority to do these things? And
Jesus answered and said unto them: I will also ask of you one word, and answer
me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of
john, was it from heaven or from men? Answer me." To those who do not see
that the Doctrine of the Church is present in the rational and that it is the
presence of the Lord by his Holy Spirit, the question is therefore asked whether
the order for life which is determined by the 78
REVEREND
THEODORE PITCAIRN literal sense of the Writings is from the Divine Human of the Lord or from Emanuel
Swedenborg. "And the - reasoned with themselves,
saying: If we shall say., from Heaven, He will say, why then did you not believe
him?" signifies that if they consider these things, and accept that the
order for life which is determined by the literal sense of the Writings is from
the Divine Human of the Lord, they will have to acknowledge that the Divine
Human is then present in the literal sense in its fulness, holiness, and power,
and that thus the Writings are the Word of God. "But if we shall say, from men, they
feared the people; for they all counted John, that be was a prophet
indeed", signifies that if they acknowledge that the order for life which
is determined by the literal sense of the Writings is from Emanuel Swedenborg,
then all truths of that sense that had been written and spoken, would be no
truths, while it was precisely the truths of the literal sense which they loved
and which they regarded as the Doctrine of the Church. "And they answered and said unto Jesus:
We do not know. And Jesus answering saith unto them: Neither do I tell you by
what authority I do these things" signifies that if it is not rationally
seen that the Writings are the Word of God in the Third or Latin Testament,
neither can one perceive that the Doctrine of the Church is the Second Coming of
the Lord by His presence by the Holy Spirit.
THE RELATIVE
INFALLIBILITY OF GENUINE
DOCTRINE
DRAWN FROM THE WRITINGS
AN
ADDRESS BY THE REVEREND THEODORE PITCAIRN
BEFORE
TIIE PHILOSOIHY CLUB, BRYN ATHYN
MAY
7th, 1931. The title DE HEMELSCHE LEER, or Heavenly
Doctrine, has been called into question, and it has been maintained that to
entitle a magazine in this manner is out of order; we will therefore commence
with an explanation of what is meant by this title. It is not meant that the
magazine is the Heavenly Doctrine itself, for the Heavenly Doctrine is the Son
of Man Himself as seen in spiritual vision, before 79
THE
INFALLIBILITY OF GENUINE DOCTRINE Whom a man falls prostrate, as John said
concerning himself: "And when f saw Him, T fell at His feet as dead"
(Rev. 1 : 17). This is the sign of the seeing of the Son of Man, that one falls
at His feet as dead, for during the seeing of the Son of Man all one's proprial
life is as it were dead. Although the Writings are the Heavenly Doctrine, the
Son of Man, vet it is obvious at this day that the Son of Man is seldom seen,
for if we read the Writings in our ordinary state, We see little vision, the y
often appear to us tedious, full of repetitions and uninspiring; instead of our
proprial life being prostrate, it is very active. The Heavenly Doctrine itself
is the vision of the Son of Man. The genuine Doctrine of the Church as written
down in natural language, is a description of what has been seen. This
description is more or less perfect according to man's powers of description; in
this the letter of the Doctrine of the Church differs from the letter of the
Writings, for in the case of the latter the letter is of infinite perfection. A man writes a book on astronomy and calls it
TI e 8tarr?l Heavens; no one takes exception to the title, but it
is recognized as an appropriate one, although every one recognizes that the book
is not the starry heavens. The Word and thus the Writings are infallible
in an infinite sense, for they are the infinite Truth itself accommodated to all
men and Angels to all eternity. On the other hand the Doctrine drawn from the
Writings, in so far as it is genuine, is infallible in a relative and finite -By
infallible manner. in an absolute sense is meant that the Word is infallible in relation to the
infinite; by infallible in a relative sense is meant that genuine Doctrine is
infallible in relation to the finite series in which it occurs, on its own
plane, and in its proper relations. That such relatively infallible truth exists
on the natural plane is obvious from the science of mathematics. Thus if we say
that five and six equal eleven we have spoken an infallible truth in this sense,
for we can be certain that the time can never come when five and six will not
equal eleven; and no matter what the subtleties of modern mathematics may
develop, five plus six will always remain eleven on the plane of addition. Again
in relation to astronomy there are certain known laws of the motion of the
heavenly bodies, by which eclipses are predicted. These laws on their own 8o
REVEREND
THEODORE PITCAIRN Plane, and in their proper relation, will
never change to eternity. We have said that an appearance of truth as
seen by man, if genuine, is infallible on its own plane, and in its proper
series. Let us illustrate this again by a natural example. It is an eternal
truth that the sun rises in the east and not in the west, in its proper plane
and series, namely, in relation to the surface of the earth and the appearance
to man thereon. Yet if we tell a child that the sun rises in the east and later
on someone tells him that the .sun stands still and the earth turns around, and
the child objects that be has been told that the sun rises in the cast, then the
child is using a genuine appearance of truth on a lower plane to invalidate a
genuine appearance of truth on a higher plane, and thus he comes into t falsity.
Again if be is told that the sun does not stand still but has its own motion
among the stars, and if be replies that his teacher has told him that the sun
stands still and the earth revolves about it, he again uses and appearance of
truth on a lower plane to invalidate a truth on a higher plane. The truth itself
as to the motion of the sun, would be its relation to the infinite, which is not
in time and space, and this relation no man can see. Hence it can be seen that while truth itself
is infinite, and beyond the Comprehension of any man, yet the genuine
appearances of truth in which man is, are also infallible, in a relative sense,
for they are appearances of the Divine Love and Wisdom which is eternal. Every genuine Doctrine drawn from the,
Writings is infallible in the above sense. Take for example the Doctrine that
the Writings are the Word of God. No matter bow much the understanding of what
is signified by the Word may vary with increased wisdom, no matter how the idea
may vary with increased wisdom, no matter how the idea may be phrased more
suitably, the idea which was born in the Church will remain an eternal
appearance of genuine truth, Whatever spiritual thing a man sees clearly
in spiritual light, is a genuine appearance of truth and is eternal. To deny on
the plane of spiritual sight what obviously applies on the plane of natural
sight would to deny the reality of spiritual sight. 81
THE
INFALLIBILITY OF GENUINE DOCTRINE If I see a house I can state with authority
it is a house and is not a tree. If some one insists that it is a tree, I must
conclude that either the man has something wrong with his eyes or is out of his
mind; and the same thing applies to a spiritual tree and a spiritual house. What
man is there who has any internal vision of the Writings who cannot say with
authority that they are the Word of God, and that any one who does not see them
as such has an imperfection in his spiritual eye? While such a truth is
necessarily spoken with authority, yet the one who speaks it does not expect
another to take the truth on his authority; he does not say: believe this
because I tell it to you; but he says: go to the Writings, read them, and then
pray to the Lord and your eyes may be opened to see the truth. There is very little spiritual truth we can
see in clear light-, in fact there is very little spiritual truth we can see at
all. But if any truth is seen clearly in spiritual light, it necessarily has
authority for him who sees it, and this in spite of the limitedness of his
vision. To deny that we see a thing in spiritual light when we actually see it,
would be dishonest and a denial of the Lord's gift. There is nothing more
irritating to the natural man than that another should see in clear light what
he cannot see, particularly if he sees it in a light different from what we are
accustomed to. Any one who confesses that he has such light, is in danger of
having abuse directed against him; such is the history of the world; yet if a
man has such light he may not deny without sinning against God. But it may be said such light may be the
light of fantasy, or imaginary light. But even in such a case it is no use
telling a man that he is in the light of fantasy, and that he must deny the
light by which be sees, and that if he does not do this be is in self-conceit
and not in charity, because he thinks lie has light that others do not have. If
a man is in the light of fantasy he is to be pitied, and the only possible cure
in such a case, would be to gradually show the man that he, was in fantastic
light. To take an intolerant attitude to the light, by which a man sees, is
opposed to charity, even if the light were fantastic. It is especially apt to animosity if the new
light which a man believes that lie has, is said to be of a discrete
82
REVEREND
THEODORE PITCAIRN degree different from the former light. Any
such belief is apt to be looked upon as the product of conceit and its fantasy;
it is thought that those who say they have such light look with contempt on
others, and boast themselves in their own superiority. Yet if the light is
genuine the very opposite is the case for in the new light he sees a thousand
times more evil and falsity in himself; he realizes many times more fully that
he is nothing but evil and falsity; he sees more clearly that if it were not for
the Lord's mercy he would immediately sink into hell; and he is in more danger
of wishing to give up the new responsibility and of envying those who do not
have it, than to look with contempt upon his fellows. Nevertheless be can see
the limitations of the former light in the new light, for he has been in both
and can compare them. This is the experience of everyone who comes to the New
Church; in the new light he can clearly see the limitations of the former light
in which he was. It is clearly taught in the Writings that
progress is according to discrete degrees. If an intolerant attitude is taken
towards the possibility of the opening of such degrees in practice, it is indeed
a great hindrance. If a man claims that such an advance is being made and the
claim is false, the falsity must be shown to exist, but there should be no
intolerance before the falsity is shown; and even afterwards there should be
pity rather than intolerance. A discrete degree differs from a continuous
degree in that in the case of the former there is a gap that separates, and
there is communication only by correspondence. No advancement along continuous
degrees can bridge this gap. In the Church we have this difference illustrated
in the difference between the GENERAL CHURCH and CONVENTION. A man in CONVENTION
may be very learned in the Writings while a man who really sees the Writings as
the Lord in His Second Coming may be very simple and have little knowledge; yet
the latter has a kind of wisdom that the former can never come to, unless he
comes to see the Writings as the Lord. This is of course not to be taken as a
personal judgment concerning the individuals of the two organizations. DE HEMELSCHE LEER, if accepted, makes a
Copernican revolution in one's mode of thinking; or to use an expression 83
THE
INFALLIBILITY OF GENUINE DOCTRINE from the Writings, it requires an inversion
of state. And if one has once seen the universe from this -new point of view, it
is quite as impossible to imagine going back to the former point of view, as it
would be to imagine going back to the Ptolemaic system of astronomy after coming
to see the Copernican system. This illustration is more than a mere comparison,
as will appear. In the former state the literal sense of the
Writings is like a central globe in the universe around which the spiritual
thoughts and affections of the Church were as it were carried. In the new state
the spiritual sense of the Writings becomes the center and the literal sense of
the Writings is seen carried in its orbits around the spiritual sense. Man still
remains on earth; this is his foundation; he still rests on the letter of the
Writings, but be nevertheless as it were views the solar system from the point
of view of the sun,, that is from within. DE HEMELSCHE LEER is accused of departing
from the commandment not to judge. Yet DE HEMELSCHE LEER by no means makes a
personal judgment; to interpret it as doing so, is to misunderstand its spirit.
To judge we are told in several places in the Writings, is to teach truths which
are from the Divine. Further we are told that judgment belongs to the Son of
Man. Wherefore any doctrine that is false is a false judgment, and is from the
man himself. On the other hand in so far as the Doctrine taught is genuine, so
far it is not from the man, but is the judgment of the Son of Man. This kind of
judgment has been manifest in the Church in the past. Namely in the teaching of
Hindmarsh and later in the teaching of the ACADEMY. The Word, being infinite,
applies to all states of the life of the Church to all eternity. The genuine
Doctrine drawn from the Word will show bow it applies. If the Church were not
given truth by which it could judge itself, it would in time come into a state
like an imaginary heaven. The question therefore to be considered is as to
whether the Doctrine born in the Church is genuine or not; if it is, it is the
judgment of the Son of Man, if not it is the kind of personal judgment that is
condemned.
DE HEMELSCHE
LEER
EXTRACT
FROM THE ISSUE FOR DECEMBER 1931
FROM
THE TRANSLATIONS OF THE
SWEDENBORG
GEZELSCHAP
Extract
from the Minutes of the Meeting of Saturday.
December
6th, 1930. The memorandum, calling This meeting
together, reads as follows: 1. General renewal of the membership. 2. Review of
Mr. Groeneveld's address of December 30th, 1928, on The Coming of the Lord
for Conjunction with the Church, as printed in the issue for April
1929 of DE WARE CHRISTELTIJKE GODSDIENST, pp. 38-45. Rev. Ernst Pfeiffer proposes to prefix to the
declaration of principle for the new year the following quotation from n. 6895
of the ARCANA COELESTIA: "By the Coming of the Lord is not
understood His appearing with the Angels in the clouds, but the acknowledgment
in the hearts through love and faith; also His appearing out of the Word, the
inmost or supreme sense of which treats of the Lord alone; ... thus the Coming
of the Lord in love and faith with those who will be from the New Church". The declaration of principle: " We,
the undersigned, have united into a Swedenborg Gezetschap for the purpose of
cooperating towards the internal and external upbuilding of the Church
by the explanation of the Word in the light of the Doctrine of the
Church, and by our devotion to the principles of that Doctrine", after
having been read by the Rec. Pfeiffer, was signed by all present. [For the convenience of the English reader a
translation of Mr. Groeneveld's address is here inserted (ED.)]. 86
FROM
THE TRANSACTIONS
THE COMING
OF THE LORD FOR CONJUNCTION
WITH THE
CHURCH
ADDRESS
BY H. D. G. GROENEVELD AT THE SOCIAL
SUPPER
OF 30TH DECEMBER 1928.
(Translated
from the issue for April 1929 of DE WARE
CHRISTELIJKE
GODSDIENST, pp. 38-45). The Coming of the Lord on earth is the Coming
of the Lord into the Flesh, as appears from the first chapter of the Gospel of
John: "And the Word was made flesh". Before the Coming of the Lord on
earth there ruled in the Church the Good of the Human Divine or the Word in
firsts. This Word was in the Heavens and determined the will of the human race.
As is known from the Writings the men of the Adamic Church had no written Word.
The Word was internally in their hearts, while externally it was present in
creation. In all things of creation they saw internal things. They lived on
earth in communication with the Heavens. According to the Writings the Lord
operates from firsts through lasts. In the Golden Age the operation of the Lord
took place from His Human Divine through creation. Internally the Word was in
the hearts of men, while the Lord through creation was the Word. This too
appears from the first chapter of the Gospel of John: "In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word." When the men of the Adamic Church in their
degree became external, and therefore the operation of the Lord through creation
was no longer possible, the conjunction externally was effected through the
rational, on account of which a written Word appeared on earth. The men of the
Noachic Church had a conscience of truth, so that that Word must have been
interior, for which reason that Word, wit ' h a view to the danger of
profanation, has been lost. When the Churches, and therefore also the Heavens,
became more and more external, the moment came when the Heavens could no longer
be present internally. Externally the Lord now operated on the external will of
the human race, on account of which, from then on, the Word mentions pure
history. The then existing church therefore was no actual church, seeing the
internal was lacking, but was only the representative of a Church. From then on
the 87
OF
THE SWEDENBORG GEZELSCHAP Lord by the statutes and commandments of the
Hebrew Word had in fact already come on earth, but in His Human Divine. Still
more and more external became the human race, on account of which the Lord had
to be present more and more externally in His Human Divine. Every more external presence of the Human
Divine was born from the seed of the preceding external presence. Finally the
seed of the Human Divine had become so external, that it was present as a
natural seed and was received by the virgin Mary. According to the Writings, in
the external the internal is present. In this seed therefore was contained the
Human Divine from the beginning, that is the Good of the Human Divine; this
gives the key to the internal sense of the genealogy in the first chapter of
Matthew); whereas in the natural seed itself the Divine Human and therefore also
the Holy Spirit was present as a germ; (this gives the key to the internal sense
of the genealogy in the third chapter of Luke). This appears from the 35th verse
of the first chapter of Luke: "The Holy Spirit shall come upon Thee and the
power of the Most High shall overshadow Thee." After the birth the Truth of the Human
Divine, in the form of the Old Testament, was at first only externally with the
Lord, while the Lord by the conjunction of this Truth of the Human Divine, which
came to Him from without, with the Good of the Human Divine, which was within
Him, gradually glorified His Human, and by thin-, became the Word in ultimates.
Every state of glorification consisted in this that the Lord by the conjunction
of the Truth which He received from without, with the Good which was within Him,
brought this Good of the Human Divine into ultimates, whereby it became the Good
of the Divine Human. As has already been said, before the Coming
of the Lord on earth the Good of the Human Divine ruled and determined the will
of the human race. Every state of glorification of the Lord therefore was a
victory over evil and falsity, from evil; whereas every state of the Second
Coming of the Lord was a victory over evil and falsity, from falsity. The Coming
of the Lord on earth therefore brought redemption of the spiritual world and at
the same time for the human race living after the Coming of 88
FROM
THE TRANSACTIONS the Lord, seeing the hells of evil and
falsity, from evil, and falsity, from evil, had been subjected. Before the
Coming on earth the con junction of the Lord with the human race, out of His
Human Divine, with regard to good was mediate, namely through the Heavens, and
with regard to truth immediate. This clearly appears from the Golden Age, when
the men of the Adamic Church lived in open communication with the Heavens and
saw the Lord present in all things of creation. After the Coming of the Lord on
earth, that is to say, after the conjunction of the, truth of the Human Divine,
which the Lord received from without, with the Good of the Human Divine in the
Lord Himself, by which this Good became the Good of the Divine Human, the
conjunction of the Lord with the, human race, out of His Divine Human, with
regard to good became immediate, and with regard to truth mediate, namely
through the Heavens. All conjunction between the Heavens and the earth is
dependent on the human race on earth. With all mediate conjunction of the Lord
with the human race there is the danger that the conjunction may perish. While before the Coming of the Lord on earth
the mediate conjunction of the Lord through the Heavens, out of the Good of His
Human Divine, determined the will of the human race, after the Coming of the
Lord on earth the mediate conjunction of the Lord through the Heavens, out of
the Truth of His Divine Human, determined the understanding, namely the external
understanding of the human race. The men of the first Christian Church
established by the Lord must therefore be of a different nature from the men
before the Coming of the Lord. The New Testament given to the first
Christian Church was the Truth separated by the Lord from His Divine Human. It
is that Truth by which the conjunction of the Lord with the human race did not
yet take place immediately out of His Divine Human. This Truth with regard to
the conjunction with the human race was still separated from the Good of the
Divine Human, as the Son from the Father. The New Testament therefore does not
contain only the birth, the life, and the crucifixion of the Lord Himself on
earth, but also the coming, the life, and the Crucifixion of the Truth on earth
separated from the Divine Human, and likewise the victory over the bells 89
OF
THE SWEDENBORG GEZELSCHAP by the last judgment and the conjunction of
that Truth with the Good of the Divine Human, as may appear among other places
from the 7th verse of the 19th chapter of the Revelation of John: "For the
marriage of the lamb has to come, and His wife has made herself ready." The conjunction of the Lord with those who
received the Truth separated from the Divine Human took place out of the Good of
His Divine Human. More and more external became the reception of the Word by the
human race, so that instead of the good and truth from the Truth separated from
the Divine Human, evil and falsify appeared. More and more this Truth was
detached from the internal, namely from the Good of the Divine Human, so that
finally this truth was regarded by itself, and therefore faith alone was
considered as saving and the crucifixion of the Lord as an active redemption. As
that Truth has been detached from the internal, the good proceeding thence, in
the form of the most external worship, and the truth proceeding thence , in the
form of the most external faith, are considered as the greatest piety. The most
external kindness and the most external assistance to others is regarded as the
highest charity. Between the Heavens and the Earth more and
more clouds Is gathered in consequence of the evils and the falsities. from
falsity on earth, so that finally conjunction was no longer possible between the
Heavens and the earth. Similarly as the Lord Himself came on earth when
internally or with regard to good (Conjunction between the [leavens and the
earth was no longer possible, so likewise the Lord Himself came when externally
or with regard to truth conjunction was no longer possible; and He came, in the
clouds of Heaven, as appears from the 30th verse of the 24th chapter of Matthew:
"And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in Heaven, and then shall
all, the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in
the clouds of Heaven with great power and glory". While the first Coming of the Lord was to
combat evil and falsity, from evil, the Second Coming of the Lord is to combat
evil and falsity, from falsity. It may therefore to some extent become clear why
it is just the work THE BRIEF EXPOSITION OF THE I)OCTRLNE OF THE @NE\V 90 FROM TIIE TRANSACTIONS CFIURCH WHICII IS SIGNIFIED BY TIIE NEW
JERUSALEM IN TIIE REVELATION, a work laying bare the false doctrines of the
Roman-Catholics and the Protestants, which is the Second Coming of the Lord. Now
conjunction of the Lord with the human race also with regard to Truth finds
place immediately out of His Divine Human. "In the beginning was the Word and the
Word was with God and God was the Word." Before the Coming of the Lord on
earth the conjunction of the Lord with the human race was mediate through the
Word or the Good of the Human Divine; this Good was with the Lord, while by the
Coming on earth the Lord was this Good in lasts. After the Coming of the Lord on
earth the conjunction of the Lord with the human race was mediate through the
Word or the Truth separated from the Divine Human; this Truth was with the Lord,
while by the Second Coming the Lord was this Truth 'in lasts. The Writings of
Swedenborg, which have been given to the New Church established by the Lord, are
the Truth of the Divine Human and therefore the Word. This Truth now determines
the understanding, namely, the internal understanding of the human race. This
Truth therefore is internal. They who receive the Writings only in an. external
way, and therefore for their end have the gathering of the knowledge of
correspondences, see only the importance of natural life. They will continually
speak of charity, which consequently is nothing but external charity; while in
the restrictions of the natural life they see an attack on the freedom of which
the Writings speak. They cannot join in the development of Truth, as they see no
charity therein. They therefore in fact oppose all upbuilding of the Church, as
the upbuilding of the Church can take place only by the deepening of truth, for
the Lord is present in the Truth of His Divine Human. The REV. ERNST PFEIFFER gave the following
elucidation of Mr. Groeneveld's address: If, in the new light which the Lord has
given us in the past year on the essence of the Third Testament and on the
Doctrine of the Church, we read this address, which is already two years old, we
marvel at the depth and the comprehensiveness of the thoughts laid down therein.
Although it |
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