tion of them appears as if from the Lord; but in reality it all proceeds from the evil that is in them; for evil and its punishment are inseparable companions. Infernal spirits wish and delight in nothing more than to do mischief, and torment others that are not under the divine protection; and as all that offend through malicious wickedness withdraw themselves from that protection, on such they rush and exercise their cruelty. This may be illustrated from the administrations in this world, where the punishment also follows its evil. Thus human laws have provided a penalty for every crime, and which the delinquent brings upon himself, only with this difference, that offences may be concealed here, but not in the other life. Thus the Lord can no more be said to be the author of the sinner's misery, than the king, the judge, or the law, to be the cause of the criminal's punishment, as having nothing to do with the guilt that entails it upon him.

TO THE EDITORS.

GENTLEMEN,

We are told in Genesis, chap. i. 26, “God said, Let us make man in our image," which seems, as some think, to imply a plurality. An explanation will greatly oblige me, and, I doubt not, but the public likewise.

૨.

ANSWER.

The reason why it is said in the plural number, "Let us make man in our image," is because it means the regeneration of man, which is effected by the Lord through the ministry of angels. But that yet this is done by the Lord alone, who is God in One Person, is plain from the words that follow, verse 27, and which are expressed in the singular number thus, "So GOD created man in HIS OWN image."

What the most ancient Church understood by an image of the Lord, is too comprehensive a subject to admit of a full and perfect explanation. Man is altogether ignorant that he is governed by angels and spirits from the Lord, and that with every particular person there are at least two spirits, and two angels; by spirits man hath communication with the world of spirits, and by angels he hath communication with Heaven; without communication by spirits with the world of spirits, and by angels with Heaven, it would be utterly impossible for man to live; his life dependeth entirely on such conjunction, so that supposing spirits and angels to depart from him, he would instantly perish. Whilst man

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remaineth unregenerate, he is governed in a manner altogether different from what taketh place when he is regenerate; for whilst he is unrege nerate, evil spirits are with him, who rule over him in such a sort, that the angels, notwithstanding they are present, can effect nothing to any purpose, but merely to prevent his plunging himself into the lowest depths of mischief, and to incline him to some sort of goodness, which they contrive, by making his lusts, in some degree, subservient to good, and the fallacies of the senses to truth; in this state he hath communication with the world of spirits by means of the spirits that are attendant on him, but he hath not the like communication with Heaven, inasmuch as the evil spirits have the dominion over him, and the angels only endeavor to avert their influences. But when he is regenerate, then the angels have the dominion, and inspire him with whatever is good and true, infusing at the same time a dread and fear of what is evil and false. The angels, indeed, guide man, but herein they only minister to the Lord, who alone governeth him by angels and spirits; and whereas such government is effected by the ministry of angels, therefore it is here at first said in the plural, Let us make man in our image; but inasmuch as the Lord alone governeth and disposeth, in the following verse it is said in the singular, God created man in HIS own image; which also the Lord plainly declareth in Isaiah, "Thus saith Jehovah thy Redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb; I Jehovah make all things, stretching forth the Heavens alone, and spreading abroad the earth by myself," xliv. 24. The angels likewise confess that they have no power of their own, but that they act from the Lord alone. M. K.

GENTLEMEN,

TO THE EDITORS.

After being so often enlightened and delighted with your expositions of Scripture passages, I have no hesitation in submitting another enquiry to your consideration. "I was hungry, and ye gave me meat;" repeat your charitable kindness, for you appear to be rich in spiritual truths, and I am but a blind mendicant. "Inasmuch as ye did it unto me"-you may find the consequence in the fortieth verse of the twenty-fourth chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel.

I have often perused, with much attention, and no small degree of perplexity, the fourteenth chapter of Zechariah. It contains some of those dark prophecies, that put natural reason at defiance, and which must be fulfilled spiritually if there be any fulfilment intended. The verses in this chapter which strike me the most forcibly, are the twelfth, the sixteenth, and the seventeenth, which, in our common version of the Bible, read as follows:

VOL. II.

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No. 4.

"12. And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite al! the people that have fought against Jerusalem: Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.

"16. And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem, shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.

“17. And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain.”

Here, gentlemen, you will please to observe that the prophecy in the twelfth verse was not fulfilled at the subsequent fighting against and sacking of Jerusalem; and, also, that (in the nature of things) the prophecy in the sixteenth and seventeenth verses, CAN NEVER BE FULFILLED, in the literal sense. What I wish, then, is, that you would explain the spiritual sense of these verses; in doing which, you will, perhaps, enlighten many others, besides AMICUS.

DICTIONARY OF CORRESPONDENCES.

(Continued from page 74.)

ALTAR, the horns of, represented the power of Divine Truth, as derived from Divine Good.

The souls seen by John under the altar, Rev. vi. 9, were those who had been principled in Divine Good or Charity, but were not sufficiently fortified with Divine Truth to resist the seductions of the dragon; wherefore they were preserved by the Lord under the altar, that is, in the lower earth of the spiritual world, till the accomplishment of the last judgment, when their enemies were removed, and they themselves elevated into Heaven.

ALTERCATION, a contention about truths between those who are within the Church, and not yet admitted into the internal sense of the WORD. Of such a nature is the altercation between the two Hebrews, Exod. ii. 13. Sée also chap. xxi. 18. 22. etc.

ALTERNATE reciprocation, by which conjunction is effected, differs from mutual reciprocation in this, that the former is like the conjunction of the heart with the lungs, and the lungs with the heart; whereas the latter or mutual reciprocation is like the conjunction of the soul with the body, of the will with action, and of the thought with speech. The conjunction of the Lord with man is of this latter or mutual kind, and not of the former or alternate kind. See Truc Christ. Ret. n. 371.

EMANUEL SWEDENBORG was an alternate man, being at one time in the light of the spiritual world, and at another time in its shade, that is, when he was in natural light. When he let his spirit out from the body, by withdrawing his intellectual part more particularly from it, then he was visible to spirits in the spiritual world; but when he

let his spirits more fully into the body, then he became invisible to the inhabitants of that world. Thus he was an alternate man, as he calls himself in his True Christian Religion, n. 280; which peculiarity of character was of the Lord's appointment, that he might be enabled to communicate to men on earth the difference between the spiritual and natural worlds.

ALTERNATION, denotes those changes of state which every person undergoes during regeneration, as cold and heat, darkness and light, etc. While man is under the influence of corporeal and worldly things, he is in a state of cold and darkness; but when he is under the influence of things celestial and spiritual, then he is in a state of heat and light, or charity and faith. And as these changes or alternations of state are experienced by every one, in whom regeneration has commenced, therefore it is said in Gen viii. 22, that "all the days. of the earth, seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease.”

ALTITUDE, in the spiritual sense, denotes the degrees of Good and Truth. In an opposite sense, it signifies the evil of self-love, or pride of mind.

Degrees are of two kinds, the one having respect to longitude and latitude, and the other to altitude and depth. Degrees of this latter kind differ exceedingly from those of the former kind. Degrees of longitude and latitude are what succeed from the middle to the peripheries; but degrees of altitude proceed from things interior to things exterior. The former degrees, namely, of longitude and latitude, are degrees which decrease gradually from the middle to the peripheries, by way of continuity, just as light decreases from the flame until it is lost in obscurity, or as the sight of the eye, which is clear and full while directed to objects that are near at hand, loses itself in the view of distant objects; but degrees of altitude, which proceed from what is inmost to what is outermost, or from what is highest to what is lowest, are not continuous, but discrete; being like the inmost parts of a seed in respect to its exterior parts, or like the inmost things of a man in respect to his extreme parts, or like the inmost of the Angelic Heaven in respect to its external. These degrees are distinct like the cause producing, and the thing produced; and whatever is in the interior degree, is more perfect than that in the exterior degree, having no other likeness unto it than what is effected by correspondences. Hence it is, that they who are in the inmost Heaven, are more perfect than those in the middle Heaven; and those again are more perfect than the angels in the lowest Heaven. The case is the same with a man, in whom the kindom of Heaven is established; what is inmost in him is in a more perfect state, than what is mediate; and this again is in a more perfect state than his ultimates or externals; and in such a man his intimates,* mediates, and ultimates, are consociated and conjoined solely by correspondences.

We are under the necessity of adopting such expressions as intimates, mediates, and ultimates, in order that the idea of their relative significations may be more strictly conveyed; although we are sensible, that to some readers such terms may appear rather new.

They who have no perception of these degrees, cannot possibly understand the difference between one Heaven and another, nor be-: tween the interior and exterior faculties of man, nor consequently between the soul and the body. Neither can they at all comprehend what is meant by the internal sense of the WORD, and how it differs from its external sense; nor yet the difference between the spiritual and the natural world; nor, indeed, can they understand what is meant by correspondences and representations, or whence they take their origin; and scarce do they know the meaning of influx. Sensual men do not comprehend these distinctions and differences, for they suppose, that all increase and decrease is according to degrees of continuity; and therefore some ignorantly imagine, that the soul is nothing more than matter highly purified and refined: thus they stand as it were out of doors, and at a great distance from true wisdom.

Wherever mention is made in the WORD of altitude, or height, something more or less interior is thereby signified, and consequently › something more or less perfect. Hence it is, that the Lord in the WORD is called the Most High, he being essential perfection, essential intelligence and wisdom, and essential good and truth; and hence it is, that Heaven is said to be on high, because it is in perfection, intelligence, wisdom, good, and truth, from the Lord. For the same reason also it is said, that Hell is in the depth, or below, because in it there is no perfection, no intelligence, or wisdom, and no good or truth.

(To be continued.)

OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.

[In continuation from page 103.]

The second objection urged, by A MEMBER OF THE OLD CHURCH,' [page 101] against the writings of EMANUEL SWEDENBORG, is the following:

"I object to his spiritual sense of the Scriptures, because it seems to set aside the letter, which I have always been taught to understand in its plain and obvious sense."

This objection we will now endeavor to remove, by considering the subject in the following order: 1. It will be proper to state what is meant by the spiritual sense, which is asserted to be in every part of the WORD. 2. Show that it is by virtue of that sense, that the WORD is of divine inspiration, and holy in every single expression, And, 3dly. We will adduce a few examples to prove, that without an internal or spiritual sense, the WORD, in many parts, would be trifling, whimsical, and unworthy its Divine Author.

I. We are first to show, what is meant by the spiritual sense. The spiritual sense is not that which arises from a learned and labored investigation of any particular part of the WORD, either in reference to historical facts, or moral duties, for this is only the literal sense. But the spiritual sense is something within the sense of the letter, just a the soul is in the body, or as the mind of a man is in his countece; and it is this sense in which the angels understand the Wear, while man perceives only the letter.