has in itself all the joy of heart, which is called heavenly joy, and also heaven; the reason is, because the Lord is in that love or in that affection, and with the Lord is also heaven; this joy therefore, or this delight, satisfaction, and blessedness, is what is properly understood by the reward which they shall receive who do good and speak truth from the love and affection of good and truth, thus from the Lord, and by no means from themselves; and whereas they act and speak from the Lord, and not from themselves, therefore the reward is not of merit but of grace; from these considerations it may appear, that he who knows what heavenly joy is, may know also what reward is."-A. E. 695.

IV.

HEB. I. 2.

"Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds."

On these words Mr. Barnes, in his commentary, distinctly intimates that Christ was the instrumental cause of creation, or, as he otherwise expresses it, by whose agency God created the worlds. The idea of an instrumental Creator is one that bids defiance to the power of the human mind. If Jesus Christ created the universe, it must have been by virtue of his attributes as originally and essentually divine, a view which is utterly inconsistent with the idea of anything like instrumentality or delegation. A delegated omnipotence is the first-born of absurdities. The fact undoubtedly is, that the word" worlds" in this connection has nothing to do with the modern astronomical sense of the term. This is a sense in which the word never occurs in the sacred writers. Its genuine import is that of age, dispensation, worldly order of things. To attempt to affix upon it the sense of a planetary globe, is to do downright violence to the language of holy writ, in order to make it speak what we in our foolish wisdom think it ought to speak. Mr. B. appears to be aware that the matter is attended with some doubt, as he remarks that the only perfectly clear use of the word in this sense in the New Testament is, Heb. xi. 3, "Through faith we understand that the worlds, aiwvas, were made by the word of God," &c. But this passage is as far from proving it as any other. The far more obvious sense is, that the ages, the dispensations, the Adamic, the Antediluvian, the Patriarchal, the Mosaic, &c., were appointed, constituted, adjusted, by the word or efficacious will of God. So here the real purport of the language is undoubtedly that suggested by Grotius, and which Mr. B. says may be the true one, to wit, that the various ages, dispensations, or religious economies, were ordered in reference to (da) Christ. He was the grand prominent object had in view from beginning to end of all the divine dispensations. We are only surprised that this obvious and legitimate sense of the word av, world, did not at once direct Mr. B. to the true construction of the connected phrase" by whom he made." If the term aivas, does not signify material worlds, then irochet does not signify the creation of

66

such worlds, and consequently 'v cannot properly be rendered " by whom." The verb has the import of constituted, appointed, and the preposition conveys the sense of for or in reference to, as it does in multitudes of other cases. Time and a deeper research into the inner sense of revelation will doubtless evince, that the absolute verities of the physical universe are much less frequently alluded to by the sacred writers than is generally supposed.

V.

REV. XXI. 22, 23.

"And I saw no temple therein; for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it; for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof."

Upon the phrase "glory of God," Swedenborg thus comments (4. E. 1306); "By the glory of God is signified the Word in its divine. light; by the light thereof is signified the divine truth therein, for that is meant by light in the Word. By the words, therefore, is described their understanding of the Word who are in the doctrine of the New Jerusalem, and in a life agreeing with it; with such the Word shines as it were when it is read; it shines from the Lord by means of the spiritual sense, because the Lord is the Word, and the spiritual sense is in the light of heaven which proceeds from the Lord as a sun, and the light which proceeds from the Lord, as a sun, is in its essence the divine truth of His divine wisdom. That by the glory of God is meant the Word in its divine light, may appear from the following passages: The Word was made flesh, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father' (John i. 14); that by glory is meant the glory of the Word or divine truth in Him, is evident because it is said, the Word was made flesh: the same is meant by glory in what follows, where it is said, 'the glory of God did lighten it, and the lamp thereof is the Lamb' (verse 23). The same is meant by the glory in which they shall see the Son of Man when He shall come in the clouds of heaven' (Matt. xxiv. 30; Mark xiii. 25); nor is anything else meant by the throne of glory upon which the Lord will sit when He shall come to the last Judgment' (Matt. xxv. 31); because He will judge every one according to the truths of the Word, wherefore it is also said, that He will come in his glory."

6

We are often surprised at the confidence with which the impugners of our Lord's supreme divinity deny the existence of any Scriptural testimony on this head whatever. What then do they make of the obvious import of this language? What can be plainer than the assertion in the above passage of an identity between the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb which cannot, without shocking every sentiment of reason and religion, be conceived as existing between a created being, however exalted, and the infinite and eternal Jehovah ? Now the Lamb is confessedly Jesus Christ the Saviour: "Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world." Yet here the

Lamb is represented as constituting with the Most High God himself the temple of the New Jerusalem, and as being emphatically the Light or Luminary of the Celestial City. But if there should be any possible evasion on this head, what can be offered to countervail the force of the testimony with which the following passage is laden? The prophet is speaking of the same mystical city as that described by John in the Apocalypse, "The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee; but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself; for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended" (Is. lx. 19, 20). The original for "Lord" here is "Jehovah," and how the evidence can be resisted that the Lord and the Lamb are one and the same being, and that being Jehovah, we are unable to conjecture. It can be done, we think, only by denying the authority either of Isaiah or John. But again, we have an express allusion to this glorious city in the closing chapter and verse of Ezekiel, ch. xlviii. 35, " And the name of the city from that day shall be, The Lord is there (Jehovah Shammah)." As by name in the Word is signified distinguishing quality or character, the import is that the acknowledgment of the Lord, that is, of Jesus Christ as the Lord or Jehovah, shall be the grand and ruling feature of that dispensation. Accordingly we read in Jer. iii. 17, "At that time they shall call Jerusalem (i. e. the New Jerusalem) the throne of the Lord; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the Lord Jehovah, to Jerusalem." He who is the Light and Glory of the New Jerusalem of course gives it its name, and this, as we have seen, is the Lamb. Once more we cite in this connection the following:-" And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife" (Rev. xxi. 9). Compare this with Isaiah liv. 4, 5, "Fear not, for thou shalt not be ashamed; neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame; for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more. For thy Maker is thine husband; the Lord of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; the God of the whole earth shall he be called." Can there be then any doubt as to who is the true husband of the Church? If this title be given both to Jehoand the Lamb, how can the inference be for one moment questioned that Jehovah and the Lamb are one and the same ? Do the Unitarians believe the Apocalypse to be a portion of the inspired Scriptures which are to be appealed to with the other sacred books in proof of the doctrines of Christianity?

VI.

MARK X. 21, 22.

"Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest; go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou

shalt have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow me, And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved; for he had great possessions."

But why was this apparently zealous aspirant for the blessings of eternal life commanded by the Lord to sell all that he had, previously to giving it away to the poor? Could he not have imparted his possessions immediately to the poor and needy without the preliminary process of selling them? The spiritual sense helps us to the solution of the query. To sell, Swedenborg informs us, denotes alienation, as its counterpart to buy signifies appropriation. In the present case the young man was commanded to divest himself of what he valued as his highest riches, or, in other words, to reject the falses which were the doctrines of the Jewish nation, and receive the doctrine of truth from the Lord. Selling, therefore, in the spiritual sense, implies simply alienation without involving the idea of a price or an equivalent. Consequently the giving his possessions to the poor was itself the selling enjoined by the Lord. This is confirmed by the parallel usage in regard to buy, which denotes appropriation without the exchange or quid pro quo which enters into the ordinary or external sense of the term. "To buy signifies to procure for one's self and thereby to appropriate; procuration and appropriation is effected spiritually by good and truth." Accordingly we read in the prophet, (Is. lv. 1), "Ho every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." A buying without paying an equivalent is a very different kind of buying from that which is known in the merchandize of the world. But the idea becomes quite intelligible by the aid of the spiritual sense. "That the wine and milk here mentioned, which were to be bought without money and without price, signify things purely spiritual to which they corres pond, must be obvious to every one; wherefore by wine is signified spiritual good; which in its essence is truth, and by milk the good of that truth. That these are given gratis by the Lord to such as are in ignorance of truth and good, but who nevertheless are in the desire thereof, is signified by their being invited to come, to buy, and to eat without money."

G. B.

EXTRACT.

"The spirit of man is not a substance separate from the viscera, organs and members of a man, but adheres conjoined to them, for a spiritual principle accompanies all their stamina from the outermost to the inmost, and thence also all the stamina and every fibre of the heart and lungs, wherefore when the connection is dissolved between man's body and spirit, the spirit is in a similar form to that in which the man was before; it is only separation of a spiritual substance from what is material, and hence it is, that the spirit has a heart and lungs as the man had in the world, wherefore also it has similar senses and similar motions, and likewise it has speech, yet senses, and motions, and speech, are not given without heart and lungs; spirits also have atmospheres, but spiritual; how greatly therefore are they mistaken, who assign to the soul a peculiar place in any part of the body, whether in the brain or in the heart, since the soul of man, which is to live after death, is his spirit.”—Concern. Div. Wis. vii. 2.

SELECTIONS.

LUTHERIAN GEMS.

No. 3.

CONCERNING GOOD WORKS.

Good works do not make a good man, but a good man makes good works. Evil works do not make an evil man, but an evil man makes evil works. It is needful, therefore, that the subject, or the person himself, be good before there be any good works, and then from the good person the good works will follow and proceed.-Op. Tom. i. 469, a.

He that would work to effect must begin, not from working, but from believing; for nothing but faith makes the person good, and nothing but unbelief makes it evil.-Id. Tom. i. 469, a.

The good works which follow justification serve merely as testimonies of this faith and please God, not simply for their own sake, but on account of the person exercising faith.-Id. Tom. i. 75, a.

CONCERNING THE CHRISTIAN.

A Christian, if properly and accurately defined, is a son of grace and of the remission of sins, who has no law, but is above law, sin, death, and hell.—Id. Tom. iv. 54, a.

The pious man by doing nothing does all things, and by doing all things does nothing.-Id. Tom. iv. 471, a.

It is impossible that any son of God should sin; at the same time it is nevertheless true that he does sin, but inasmuch as he is forgiven, therefore it is properly to be said that the sinner does not sin.-Id. Tom. 305, b.

Christian sanctity or holiness is not an active but a passive holiness.--Id. Tom. iv. 5, b.

I became in the first place clearly convinced that there was indispensable need of a gratuitous gift in order to the attaining of celestial light and life, and labored sedulously and anxiously to gain an understanding of the declaration in Rom. ch. i., that "the righteousness of God is revealed from heaven," in the Gospel. I stuck here for a long time seeking and knocking. The great difficulty was in the phase righteousness of God," which is usually thus defined; -"The righteousness of God is divine virtue in consequence of which he is formally just and damns the sinner." Thus all the doctors, with the exception of Augustin, has interpreted it; the righteousness of God is in effect the anger of God. As often as I read this passage I could but wish that God had never revealed the Gospel; for who could love a wrathful, judging, and damning God? And so it was until, under the illuminating influence of the Holy Spirit, I had thoroughly weighed the words of Habakkuk, "The just shall live by faith." I thence gathered that life should exist from faith, and referring the abstract to the concrete, the whole Scripture and heaven itself was opened to me.-Iu. Tom. i. 67, b.

Let us stand by this; that there is no other word of God than that which every Christian is commanded to proclaim-that there is no other baptism than what every Christian is authorized to administer-that there is no other celebra