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In this last remark Swedenborg gives us the very pith of the matter; he shows what the very essence of evil is :-that it is not a new substance, but simply an old substance changed in its form; it is love still, but changed in its direction—namely, from love to others into self-love; and as every love is attended with delight, which, as Swedenborg remarks, is its very life, therefore the delight also is continued, but, like its parent, is changed in its nature, and becomes an evil and disorderly delight, namely, the delight of self-love. For, as we all know, every evil has its delight, else men would not continue in it; but the delight of evil, being a perverted, disorderly delight, soon, in its indulgence, comes into conflict with the order or nature of things established by the Divine Creator, and from the resistance pain and suffering ensue. Evil soon punishes itself, because it runs counter to the true order of things, and thus is soon stopped in its course, brought to a stand, and turned back upon itself. Hence the torment which the evil suffer, because they cannot be allowed the indulgence of their perverted loves, since these are opposed to the whole order and happiness of the universe. Each man's self-love comes into conflict with every other man's self-love; hence discord, misery, hell.

We thus see what evil is; it is simply love turned from its proper direction, which is upwards and outwards towards God and our fellowmen,—inwards and downwards to self. Self-love being thus formed, anger is soon begotten of it; for anger, in itself, is simply the excitement of self-love directed against whoever would interfere with its indulgence: then hatred follows, for hatred is the feeling of anger continued, then violence, and all sorts of injuries, even to murder itself. Self-love is the one parent of them all. We thus see how evil came into existence, and how it thence has spread itself through the world. London. O. P. H.

(To be continued.)

THE LITERAL AND SPIRITUAL SENSES OF THE WORD.

IN the September number of the Repository is the "Report of the Committee appointed by the Conference of 1867, to consider the relative uses of the literal and spiritual senses of the Word." In that report there are two passages which appear to me to give a wrong impression respecting the words of Swedenborg, and I hope the esteemed authors of the report will excuse the liberty I am taking in criticising the expressions referred to.

The first passage is given as a quotation from Swedenborg in confirmation of the first proposition. It is as follows :—

"There is no communication with angels if the Word is understood according to the letter, without doctrine, which is the internal of the Word." (A.C. 9410.)

Now this passage is not found in the number referred to. The words of Swedenborg are :—

"Quoniam omnia quæ sunt sensus literæ Verbi correspondent rebus spiritualibus et cœlestibus, in quibus sunt angeli; cum quibus nulla communicatio est, si Verbum modo secundum literam capitur, et non simul secundum aliquod doctrinale Ecclesiæ, quod est internum Verbi."

It will be seen from this, that the authors of the report have not given the words of Swedenborg, but a general idea of what they conceive to be the sense of the passages. It appears also to me, that they have fallen into an error as to the sense, in making the second quibus agree with angeli as its antecedent, in the masculine gender. The logical antecedent of the second quibus, as well as of the first, is in my opinion, rebus, and the pronoun refers to rebus spiritualibus et cœlestibus. And I find, on reference to the English translation of the Arcana, that Mr. Clowes took the same view of the subject. If this be the correct meaning, Swedenborg does not say there is no communication with. angels; but no communication with spiritual and celestial things, that is, no communication with the spiritual and celestial perceptions of the angels. I think he could not mean to say there was no communication with the angels; for he often asserts that even children, when they read the Word, have communication with heaven; yet children cannot be in the internal sense of the Word. Moreover, he observes, that when he read the Word, and understood it in the natural sense, the angels understood it in the internal sense, according to their respective states of perception. (U. T. 235.)

The second passage I refer to, is in a new translation which the writers of the report have given of a quotation from the S. S., in which they have rendered the Latin ex by "through." Now, the general sense of ex is out of, from, by; it is true, it may sometimes be rendered through in a causative sense, signifying by reason of, but not in the sense of by means of, which is the meaning implied in the proposed translation. I cannot see any meaning in the idea of drawing the spiritual sense THROUGH the literal. But to speak of deducing the spiritual sense from the literal, presents a clear idea, and accords with what is said in other places, that the internal sense is often found naked in the letter.

That the preposition ex is to be understood in the passage above referred to in the ordinary sense of from, may be seen from the proposition prefixed to No. 225, of the "Universal Theology :"-" Quod Doctrina Ecclesiæ ex sensu literæ Verbi haurienda sit;” that the doctrine of the Church must be drawn from the literal sense of the Word. To say the doctrine of the Church must be drawn through the literal sense, would certainly convey a very singular idea.

If I have misunderstood or misrepresented the meaning of the report, I shall be happy to be corrected. ROBERT ABBOTT.

EDUCATION AS A MEANS OF MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND THE FORMATION OF CHARACTER.-No. II.

(Continued from August No.)

In my last article, I spoke of the difference of man and animals, so far to show that while the instincts of animals are spontaneously and rapidly developed to the utmost limit of their narrow range, the human faculties are slowly and laboriously developed in a circle which is bounded only by infinity. Instinct and reason, necessity and liberty, do not, however, express all the grounds of distinction between man and animals, nor can the faculties of the animal ever be developed into those of the man. They differ not in degree, but in kind. Man's nobler faculties are not, as some suppose, the result only of a larger brain and a more perfect organisation, but of his being formed after the image of a Divine Creator, and after the pattern of a higher world, even of things in the heavens. Man's nature transcends that of animals not by a continuous, but by a discrete degree. Man is not a developed animal, but an enveloped angel. He is formed after the pattern of the spiritual, as well as of the natural world. He is not only a microcosm, he is also a microuranus,- a little heaven, as well as a little world. He is the end of which creation is the means. And as there is nothing in the means which is not in the end, so there is nothing in creation which is not in man: in creation naturally, in man humanly. It is this truth which makes and marks the distinctive character of man; which brings to light the nature and order of human development, and which shows us the importance of applying the means provided for the formation of his moral and spiritual character. And, as it is a part of my object to endeavour to trace the development of the human mind, as it proceeds according to discrete, as well as continuous degrees,—to describe the process, and point out the means of the formation of what, in the Writings of the Church, are called the natural, rational, spiritual,

and celestial principles of the mind, it will be useful to consider more minutely than we have done, man's relation to the natural and spiritual worlds, and even to the Creator himself. First we shall take a synthetic view, by endeavouring to trace the creative process of envelopment, before we proceed to trace the educational and regenerative process of development.

The spiritual and the natural worlds, which comprise the created universe, like the soul and body of man, in which they exist in miniature, have nothing in common, but are united by correspondence. They are both produced from the same Divine substance, created by the same Divine power, and, we may say, produced by the same Divine act. But creation is a work of order, and therefore of degrees for order is the harmony resulting from the just relation and concordant action of the constituent elements of a body. God, who is order itself, introduced order, an image of His own, into the created universe. In God himself there are degrees—not degrees of more and less perfect-for all in Him is perfection, but degrees of distinction amongst the different principles and attributes of the Divine nature. In God there are three degrees of life, eternal and infinite; for in him there are three eternal and infinite principles-Divine love, Divine wisdom, and Divine power. These constitute degrees in the Divine Being; for they are not only distinct essentials, or principles of the Divine nature, but one is as it were within or above the other. Love is the inmost principle of the Divine nature; it is the essence, considered as within, and distinct from the form of God; or, to express it still more accurately, though in terms less generally understood, the Divine esse as within, and d'stinct from, the Divine existere. Wisdom is the outer principle of the Divine nature, in which love, as its inmost principle, dwells; it is the form of the Divine essence, the existere of the Divine esse. Power is the outward, or as it may be called, the ultimate, principle of the Divine nature, the active operation or use of love and wisdom united. These are not, as commonly regarded, attributes existing simultaneously as qualities in the Divine mind; but they are principles of the Divine nature, existing distinctly one within or above the other, and constituting three uncreated and infinite discrete degrees of life in the one indivisible and unchangeable Being, who is God.

These three principles or essentials of the Divine nature, thus existing distinctly or discretely, constitute the Divine trinity, which the church has ever recognised and maintained, however variously understood, defined, and explained, whether as three attributes or

as three persons. This triune distinction in the Divine nature is presented before us in the Scriptures, and most clearly in the New Testament, where the actual incarnation of God, for the redemption of man, is recorded; and where the terms Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are first employed in reference to the Divine trinity, because then they first were applicable in the actual or literal sense, the Word having then been made flesh by the assumption of humanity begotten of God. The New Testament speaks of the distinction in the Godhead both prior to and at the Incarnation. John says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word. All things were made by (or through) Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men." The distinction is here more clearly pointed out and explained. God is indeed the name of the Divine Being, but, as distinguished from the Word, God is the Divine love, for eminently God is love. The Word that was with God is the Divine wisdom, which God also is, for the Divine love exists in the Divine wisdom. The nature of these distinct Divine principles, and the order of their creative activity, is also very strikingly set forth. "All things were made by Him," that is, through Him, by another, that other being the Divine love; for Divine love created all things by Divine wisdom; or, as the apostle expresses it," God created all things by Jesus Christ," (Eph. iii. 9.) or by His Son, (Heb. i. 3.) or the Divine wisdom; for "by faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God." (Heb. xi. 3.) We further learn that what the Word produced, the spirit animated; for "the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." (Gen. i. 2.) Thus the Divine Being creates the world by His Word, and quickens it by His spirit; which, expressed in the language of the New Testament, would read-The Father creates by the Son, and quickens by the Holy Spirit. Redemption is effected in the same manner as creation. God redeemed, as He created, the world by His Word, but by the Word made flesh, and He quickens it by the Holy Spirit. The flesh, or human nature, which the Word became by incarnation, was begotten of God, so that the Divine and human natures have the relation and the names of Father and Son. The Divine and human natures in the person of the Lord were literally and most truly Father and Son in relation to each other, but these names became applicable to the Divine love and wisdom-the name of Father to the Divine love, as the Life and the lifegiver; the name of Son to the Divine wisdom, as the Light and light

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