good and the bad are congregated after death, until their final place in heaven or in hell is determined. The world of spirits, as to place, appears below heaven, and hell there appears underneath. This view is corroborated by the narrative of John in the Apocalypse, who, in consequence of his spiritual sight being opened into the world of spirits, there saw "heaven opened" above him, and the "earth" opened below him, from whence, that is from hell, various monstrous forms arose. Amongst other awful scenes and events witnessed by the Revelator, he names, “ thunderings, lightnings, and voices." We are informed by our author, that the appearances presented to John were prophetic representatives of the degraded state to which the Christian church would be reduced; and of the judgment which would take place upon those wicked members of it, who had been removed by death into the world of spirits, and were congregated there at the period of the Lord's Second Advent.

In the world of spirits, as was said, the evil and the good are mixed together. Their final separation, at the period of the general judgment, was effected by a more than usually full influx of Divine Truth from the Lord through heaven, which, producing its correspondence to the spiritual senses, was heard as thunder, and was seen as lightning. The influx, however, operated in a two-fold manner, differently upon the evil and the good. The former, by a more vivid excitement of their evil state, which perverted the divine influx, were explored and made to throw off their hypocritical pretences to goodness, to appear in their own proper deformity; and in consequence of the opposition of the divine influx to their state, which affected them with anguish, they rushed blaspheming to join their like in hell. But by this new and increased out-pouring of the divine influx, the good, whose state received and did not pervert it, were more interiorly affected with the love of goodness and truth, and were inwardly invigorated to throw off all remains of mortal infirmity which adhered to them, so as to render them meet to ascend to the mansions of light. Thus did the Lord, in a voice of thunder, appear to exclaim respecting the wicked: "Cast him into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth" while the good heard a small voice within the thunder sweetly address them: "Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." The reason why the divine influx assumed this awful correspondence of

thunder, arose, not from the influx itself, but from the disorderly states of the hearers which were not in agreement with it.

Now the correspondence of the USE of this spiritual thunder with the use of natural thunder, appears to view from the following consideration. Man, while in the body, is in close association with spirits in the world of spirits, and by them, with heaven or hell. When the world of spirits was crowded with the evil, the influx from heaven to man was obstructed in its course; but by a judgment on the wicked, the divine thunder cleared the spiritual medium or atmosphere, and spiritual health was again made accessible to man. Thus was man redeemed from the

bondage of everlasting death.

In further illustration of this view, I refer to the "Apocalypse Revealed," Nos. 472 and 615. In the former number the author says, "What the Lord speaketh through heaven, when it descendeth to the parts below, is heard as thunder." That this is really the case, might be proved from several passages of the Word, particularly from John xii. 28 to 30. It appears also from our author, that lightning specifically corresponds to the divine truth flowing forth and illustrating the minds of the good, and exploring and exposing the perverse persuasions of the wicked: and that the thunder (all sound having relation to affection or love) corresponds to the divine love, from which the divine truth proceeds, flowing forth in union therewith, and affecting the good with interior joy, and the wicked with anguish and dismay. In the passage of John's Gospel above referred to, we thus read: " Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I both have glorified it, and will glorify it again. The people, therefore, that stood by and heard it, said that it thundered: others said, an angel spake to him. Jesus answered and said, This voice came not because of me, but for your sakes." In this passage it appears evidently, first, that the sound of the voice was heard by the spiritual ears of the hearers; for it was variously heard. It appears that the disciples heard the TRUTH, as proclaimed in heaven, distinctly delivered in words; but the people who stood by, being, as to their spirits, below heaven, in the world of spirits, heard the proclamation simply as thunder; but some of them had a perception of a more interior character, and conceived the sound to be the voice of an angel, although ignorant of its import. The verse which' immediately No. VI.-VOL. I. 30

follows those above quoted is particularly to be noticed: "Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out." It is here clearly indicated, that the thunder heard was in connection with the judgment which was executed by the Incarnate God upon the infernals who held mankind in bondage.

In a particular sense, or in reference to man individually, the correspondence of thunder may be thus described. The constitution of the human mind or spirit may be generally viewed as follows. First, the internal or spiritual man, the seat of heavenly affections and intelligence, above which the Lord Himself is enthroned, and thence communicates every spiritual good immediately to man. Beneath this is the interior or rational man (or mind) which is the seat of conscience, and is partly formed by the activity of the internal man above it, and the reception thence of goods and truths from the Lord, and partly by goods and truths of man's own acquisition, extracted or sublimated from the external or natural man which is below it, The first corresponds to the natural heavens, where the sun, moon and stars are or appear; the second corresponds to the atmosphere, (which is primarily derived from the sun, but which, being by itself too much rarified for the support of animal life, requires the presence of gasses or vapours furnished by the earth,) and the last corresponds to the earth. Now the external man is, by birth, under the rule of impure affections of self-love and the love of the world, and from thence there arise, as it were, exhalations of lust and error, which, spreading through the rational man, darken the light flowing from the internal man into it, and obstruct and weaken its salutary influences. This state of obscurity and straitness, the Lord, in his mercy, operates to remove; but that operation—that pure divine influx, falling upon man's disorderly passions and propensities, assumes the appearance of a mighty storm. The thunders of divine truth resound, and the seas and the winds of temptation roar; but the tempest only announces to the Christian the approach of his Redeemer, who, by the voice of his thunder, purifies the rational man from whatever is heterogeneous therein; executes a judgment on all principles that offend; and gives new vigour, and a more perfect arrangement to the goods and truths therein; and in consequence thereof, a gracious influence, like rain, softly descends and refreshes the

external man, making it fruitful in the outward graces of holiness and use. Just the opposite effect to this takes place in the case of the wicked, who are going on following the "father of lies" in the way that leads to destruction. For, in consequence of their rebelliously refusing to listen to the voice of conscience reproving their evils and impieties, the thunder within them is prevented from performing its use, and therefore it assumes a destructive form. The cherished evils pervading the rational mind (instead of resembling lightning safely conveyed to the earth) become to the external man as a thunder-bolt, a devouring fire; the rain is converted into a grievous hail, destroying the vine and the figtree, (Ps. cv. 32.) depriving them of all goodness and truth; and then, instead of repenting and turning to the Lord, they call upon the mountains and rocks to hide them, they shelter themselves from the thunders of divine truth in their own confirmed evils and false persuasions: thus do they successively make up their full state by the abuse of all opportunities of amendment, and prepare themselves for that awful period, when they shall seek refuge in the caves of night eternal, "from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb."

Blessed are they who follow the Lord in the regeneration; for they shall not fear when the thunders and lightnings are abroad, being assured of their safety under the shadow of their Divine Protector!

In conclusion of my remarks, and in connection with the subject, I recommend the perusal of the lxxvii. and xcvii. Psalms.

I am, Gentlemen,

Your's faithfully,

Z.

INQUIRY AND ANSWER RESPECTING AN EXTRAORDINARY VARIOUS READING OF PSALM XIV.

To the Editors of the Intellectual Repository.

GENTLEMEN,

I have been much interested by your remarks on the Integrity of the Word, contained in the latter numbers of the Intellectual

Repository. The subject is one of the highest moment; as, if the Word be proved to be defective or corrupted, the faith of the Christian is in danger of being shaken, and his hope, of being disturbed. But though we believe in the integrity of the Word, in the original languages; yet it cannot be doubted, that it is in some translations defective, in others corrupted, and `in some both. Hence it becomes necessary, whenever sufficient ground for doubt appears, that persons who are unable to solve such doubt, should have recourse to those whose correct information on the subject will probably lead to a right conclusion. Believing you, gentlemen, from your critical knowledge of the bistory of the Word, to be able to resolve a difficulty of this kind, I beg ` leave to lay it before you.

I lately read a book written by a Roman Catholic clergyman, to warn his flock against the delusions of heresy, in which he asserts, that the 14th Psalm in our authorised version is deficient in four verses, and he refers to the Book of Common Prayer in proof of the assertion. To my surprise, I find, by comparing the two versions, that the Psalm in the Bible contains only seven verses, while that in the Prayer-Book has eleven. One of the four is supplied by the difference of the division into verses; but the 5th, 6th, and 7th are entirely omitted. That an error, with regard to these verses, exists somewhere, is clear; but where does it exist? Is it an interpolation in the septuagint, or in the version from it contained in the Prayer-Book? Is it (like the passage quoted by you, Gen. iv. 8, "Let us go out into the field,") an omission in the Hebrew text?-or, lastly, is it an omission in our translation from the Hebrew? The first of the two latter suppositions seems to be the true one; for St. Paul (who with the other Apostles, and our Lord himself, we are informed, made his quotations from the Septuagint) expressly cites all the deficient verses. The quotation is contained in the 10th and eight following verses of the 3rd chapter of the epistle to the Romans. It flows in an uninterrupted series, and is nearly verbatim the same as in the Psalm of the Prayer-Book version. The translators of the Bible have given in the margin of the passage in Romans, no fewer than eight references to the Psalms, Proverbs, and Isaiah, six of which are necessary to complete the passage; but when these scattered parts are united, they do not correspond near so closely with the apostle's quotation as the Psalm itself does, as given in the Prayer