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its inspiration by ignoring the spiritual sense; and we have marked the terrible train of consequences. They have sown the dragon's teeth,—the mere sensual and external exposition of the Word; and the armed men are springing up,-the Colensos and the Reviewers.

Now, the doctrine of the Logos is a remedy for this also, for there is a wonderful analogy between the Word incarnate and the Word written. The Divine Logos is at the same time the inner life of the soul and of the Scriptures, effecting conjunction with the human race through the medium of both. Thus there is both a Divine and human element in the body of Christ and the Bible; and as the glorification of the former consisted in the complete union of the human element with the Divine, so that it became entirely pervaded with it, and, so to speak, Divinised, in like manner the inspiration of the latter consists in a perfectly analogous union of the Divine and human elements, so that the infinite ideas of the former are present in all the finite ideas of the latter. And so it is a Divine book, differing from all human books by this very plain and obvious characteristic, that whereas they treat of earthly things, this treats throughout of things heavenly and Divine, which must therefore be concealed within the surface where they do not appear on it, as the Divine Logos is in the humanity of Christ in the infinite degree, and in the human race in the finite degree. And this threefold and intimately-related presence of the Divine within the human has been well illustrated by the presence of the gem in the depths of ocean, the treasure hid in the field, and the light concealed in the cloud. The Scriptures can only be termed the written Word so far as they treat of the living Word in its twofold aspects: first, as "made flesh," and by the union of His humanity to His Divinity effecting the redemption of the world; and secondly, "dwelling among us," or "in us," in consequence, and so effecting regeneration in all who, by faith and charity, develope this Divine internal principle. And hence the apostle identifies the Scriptures being "given by inspiration of God" with their being "able to make us wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus." (2 Tim. iii. 15, 16.) This, then, is the test of the inspiration and Divinity of the Scriptures. Do they treat in every part of redemption and regeneration-by the incarnate Word? The old theology of the Reformation has answered the question in the negative, and thereby surrendered the ark to its enemies, for it has lost sight of the true doctrine of the Logos, which constitutes this wisdom of salvation in which the inspiration of the sacred volume consists.

But blessed be God! "His temple is opened in heaven, and there is seen in His temple the ark of His covenant." (Rev. xi. 19.) A new theology has appeared in the church, giving the fullest and most extensive development of the doctrine of the Logos since it was first propounded, disclosing the arcana of the Word in reference to the Divine Humanity and Regeneration, and bringing forth these two master truths in a most orderly and beautiful series in every page of the sacred oracles, from Genesis to Revelations, where they have always lain concealed (to use an old similitude applied to another but not uncongenial subject) like marble in the quarry, until the skill of the polisher calls forth its inherent beauties.

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Space, of course, precludes any details. Suffice it to say that a law has been discovered whereby the great truths briefly delineated on our preceding pages are found not only in the didactic parts of the Bible, but in all the historical and prophetical books, as the spirit within the letter. (2 Cor. iii. 6, 17; Rev. xix. 10.) This law is the law of analogy or correspondence, whereby earthly things have relation to and express things heavenly, and divine ideas are present and represented in all the visible creation of God. Thus the law of the universe is the law of the Bible; and this arises from the presence of the Divine Logos, as has been already indicated, not only in humanity but in nature, so that " day unto day uttereth speech (literally the Word'), and night unto night sheweth knowledge; " (Ps. xix.) and it is remarkable that the apostle applies what the Psalmist says of the voice of creation and the harmony of the universe to "the Word of God," which is the harmony of the inner universe in the initial and progressive union of the soul to heaven. (Compare Ps. xix. 4, with Rom. x. 17, 18.) Yes, this initial and progressive union of the soul with heaven through the incarnate Word, i.e. redemption and regeneration, appears throughout every chapter and verse of the Bible, by the application of this law shining with celestial brightness, "one-manifold," ever the same, yet in continual variety-constantly unfolding innumerable particulars and singulars in the few simple and general ideas which constitute the first principles of the doctrine of Christ, and thus advancing to universality and perfection. (Heb. vi. 1.)

The new theology thus supplies and complements what was wanting and deficient in the Reformation-namely, an adequate and sure ground of hope and faith: of hope, because it represents incarnate

It is well known to the learned that there is reference in the originals of Ps. xix. 4, to musical sound.

love as embracing every soul, and present therein as the beginning of eternal life: of faith, because it represents the same incarnate love as present in every part of the Bible, constituting its hidden life, which this sublime theology brings forth in a genuine system of interpretation, just as "faith working by love" brings out the higher and hidden life of the soul in regeneration. And thus the Bible becomes as it were transparent with divinity, and the evidence of its inspiration is placed on an immoveable basis. The difficulties in relation to this inspiration, arising from the discoveries of science (otherwise so serious and formidable), are here triumphantly met; for, however numerous and wonderful the truths which science discovers in nature, there are now disclosed in Revelation truths still more numerous, and of a higher order, relating not to the mere earth-life of man, but to the redemption and regeneration of his immortal spirit. Thus nature and Revelation appear, as they ever were, in perfect harmony; science and religion go hand in hand to enlighten and bless man's lower and higher natures, united as with a starry chain by the one great universal truth-that we must penetrate beyond the vail of appearances in the soul, nature, and Revelation, to the Great Reality concealed within-the Divine Logos as the higher and supernal life of all three.

Here we conclude our general outline or skiagraph of a subject which it would require volumes to do justice to in detail; but we trust that there has been a sufficient demonstration of the important service rendered to the church by the new theology (which yet is old as "the days of eternity") on those two vital points which constituted, as we have seen, the ground-work of the Reformation-the Gospel and the Bible-Hope and Faith. The 16th century Reformation had, as has been shown, its strength and its weakness-its day-side and its nightside-its vitality and its decay; for it blended the eternal reality of God's love with the phantom of His wrath, and asserted the supremacy of the Bible while denying its spiritual sense-calling the fane sacred without recognising any Divinity within. But the new theology has separated the phantom from the reality, and restored the Divinity to the fane.

And great and good men in every church are beginning to see these things. The creeds of the past will not satisfy them-questions of church government will not satisfy them-questions of conformity and dissent will not satisfy them-questions of Ritualism will not satisfy them-questions of mere Biblical criticism, wrapping the Sacred Volume in doubt and uncertainty, will not satisfy them. They

are athirst for something higher and holier. The Spirit is moving on the face of the waters, and they long for the approaching light. And the light is advancing; it is dispersing the shadows; it is purpling the mountains with day.

Darkness and doubt-they are flying away,

No longer we roam in conjecture forlorn;
So breaks on the traveller, faint and astray,

The bright and the balmy effulgence of morn.

See Truth, Love, and Mercy in triumph descending,

And Nature all glowing in Eden's first bloom;

On the cold cheek of death smiles and roses are blending,

And Beauty immortal awakes from the tomb.

[For a succinct but masterly exposition of the doctrine of the Logos, and its application to the subjects of regeneration and the evidences of the Bible, briefly discussed in the foregoing pages, the reader will find great advantage, as well as delight, in the study of "Inspiration and Interpretation," by the Rev. Augustus Clissold. For an historical development of the doctrine, see the papers which have appeared in the Repository on "Religion, Philosophy, and Literature."]

MR. WHITE AND HIS REVIEWERS.

No. II.

J. B. W.

IN our last we offered some observations on the subject at the head of this paper, but space forbad our full disposal of it; and we therefore resume the pen to add a few remarks, before we quit it entirely. We must, however, observe that it is gratifying to notice the numerous instances of reviews in which the confession of good in Swedenborg very largely outweighs the exceptions taken to him. And, when we see this. to be the result of reading a work so imperfect and questionable in many of its statements as this of Mr. White's, we may hope for a much wider reception of the sublime truths Swedenborg has unfolded when his works. themselves are extensively read and a really competent biography is written,—a work in which the treasures of instruction his disclosures afford are presented, in connection with the interesting features of his life; unaccompanied with the self-important conceits of his biographer, or the indiscriminate idle gossip that has too often been offered for history. We subjoin the review from the "Peoples' Journal," the newspaper said to have the largest circulation in Scotland. The Critic candidly states that he only knows Swedenborg through the medium of Mr. White's publication; and thus feels that he "only gives a view of them through an inverted telescope." The writer observes, that "whilst

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Swedenborg was acting as assessor, he was preparing his great work the Principia,' and his volumes on 'Metallurgy.' Although the importance of these has been exaggerated, they are undoubtedly works of genius; and it is curious to find him asserting the modern law of continuity, respecting which so much was said at the last meeting of the British Association. The method of nature is everywhere the same: what is true of the least is true of the greatest. The force that shapes a dew-drop forms a world. The mechanism of a trunk of an elephant and of a fly is the same.' This principle Swedenborg was one of the first to expound, and apply in all its consequences. Nature is similar to herself in sun and planets as in particles: age makes no difference.' In his work entitled 'The Economy of the Animal Kingdom,' and several subsequent treatises, he gave numerous anticipations of the views of modern Psychologists, and indicated the formation of some of the cardinal points of the religious faith he was afterwards to promulgate."

Referring to Swedenborg's theological works, the critic remarks:"So long as we keep to the cardinal principles of Swedenborg's system, there is much to admire. For instance, when he tells us that every spirit dwells in circumstances corresponding, in every particular, to its own character, and continually varying as that character varies; that, as a spirit is, so it sees the external ever harmonising with the internal—all appearing lovely to the loving, dreary to the unloving, and hideous to those who hate: that spirits move slowly or with speed, in exact proportion to the strength of their desire: that sympathy brings all things present, and antipathy prevents approach, and establishes distance ;—these and corresponding ideas commend themselves to the judgment as fine in conception, if not presumably true." The critic then proceeds to take exception to much that is stated in the visions of Swedenborg, concluding the review in these words :—“The candid and well informed reader will, after perusing these volumes, regard Swedenborg less reverently as a man, but more highly as the exponent of a definite theory of the connection between the Creator and His universe, between the spiritual and natural universe."

To this review we feel pleasure in adding the following note from the pen of another Scotch writer, the Rev. George Gilfillan, the celebrated essayist and poet, who, in a note to book 8 of his noble poem, "Night," recently published, and from which extracts lately appeared in this work, observes that "Mr. White has collected from Swedenborg's works, with great skill and ability, lumps of most fine gold;" and says further-"If Swedenborg had lived now-a-days, given up his

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