good; iron from the posterity of these latter, who were in natural truth alone without good. Natural truth is truth in the memory, and not in the life; truth which is of the life is good."-A. E. 176.

Nothing is more clearly taught in the writings vouchsafed to the New Church than that Divine truth is in its power in the ultimates of the literal sense of the Word, which is the basis, continent, and support of the spiritual sense. Ruling or teaching with a rod of iron, is the putting forth of this power in such a way as to convict, chastise, and dissipate the falsities and evils of the natural principle in man, where in fact they have their appropriate seat. Accordingly it is said in parallel diction by the prophet that the Lord "shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath (spirit) of his lips shall he slay the wicked," where, we are informed, by the rod of his mouth is signified divine truth or the Word in the natural sense, and by the breath or spirit of his lips is signified divine truth or the Word in the spiritual sense, both destroying the false of evil in the church.

With this key in our hands we are enabled to unlock the purport of the language in the passage before us, which is an evident quotation from the second Psalm, v. 9, "Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." Instead of "break" which here occurs, the N. T. writer employs the word Toipavit, shall rule or feed, a version in which the Syriac, Vulgate, Arabic, and some others coincide. It is one which is equally agreeable with the original provided it be read without points, térem instead of teroëm, and the points, though usually correct, are by no means an infallible criterion of the sense. From the verse immediately preceding, "Ask of me and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession," it is evident that the interior scope of the annunciation is merciful and not menacing, and therefore it is reasonable to suppose that John has expressed, in the word ouave, the genuine drift of the promise. It cannot be imagined that the end for which the heathen or Gentiles are made the Lord's inheritance is that they may be dashed in pieces like the fictile fabrics of the potter. Such a result would be entirely at variance with the predicted rule of the Messiah, which was to be mild and beneficent instead of severe and destructive. To rule the nations with a rod of iron, is, in the spiritual sense, to convict and subdue the evils and falsities of the natural man, and this, though the process is severe, is the fruit of mercy and not of anger, as might be implied from the comparison employed." A potter's vessels," says our author," signifies such things as are from self-derived intelligence, thus falsities in the natural man, and the reason is, that potter's ware or earthen vessels correspond to a device, and a device is that which springs from the self-derived intelligence of man," and for such devices falsities is but another name. The term for potter in the original is, yotzèr, a former, and, yetzer, formation, figment, is the term employed, Gen. vi. 5, " And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination (yetzer) of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." This depraved and vicious train of

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imaginations or perverted thoughts is the real pottery which is to be broken to pieces by the iron rod of truth, and it is pertinently remarked by Swedenborg, that although in the literal sense the expression is a comparison, since it is said as a potter's vessels, yet in the internal sense comparisons are not perceived as comparisons, inasmuch as comparisons are equally from significatives. That is to say, the force of the correspondence bears down and nullifies the import of the particles denoting comparison. The potter's vessels broken are, in the spiritual sense, the falsities, because they are the formations or figments of self-derived intelligence, and the one is not nearly likened to the other.

Availing ourselves of the same clew we come to the interpretation of Rev. xii. 5, "She brought forth a man-child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron." By this we are informed is signified the power of natural truth from spiritual, arguing with and convincing those within the limits of Christendom who are in falses and evils. As by the woman who brought forth is signified the New Church, so by the male-child is signified the doctrine of that church. The doctrine then of this church is to come in conflict with the falsities and evils of the old church, through the medium of the literal sense, and of rational arguments drawn from the light of nature and addressing themselves to the natural principle of those who are immersed in such falsities and evils. The effect is, with those who are in a state to feel the force of this kind of appeal, to break down, demolish, and batter to pieces, as it were, the fabrics of falsities in the hearts of men. The New Church is not, therefore, to be distinguished by the entire absence of polemics from its sphere of action. It is, on the other hand, a part of its mission to enter, by argumentative discussion, into active warfare with the prevailing errors, and it is to press into its service every species of science and reasoning which is adapted to reach and teach the natural intelligence of those who will give the truth a hearing. All such works, therefore, as Noble's Appeal, Clissold's Letter, Parson's Essays, Des Guays' Letters, &c., are in fact the iron rod here spoken of by which the nations are to be ruled. Every one who contributes a volume, a tract, or an essay to the establishment of New Church truth and to the refutation of the opposite error is in fact wielding with more or less effect the same iron rod to the same convincing purpose. It is not indeed to be expected that every one in the church will be a controvertist by the lip or the pen, but every one can do something towards sustaining the hands that are to wield the rod. At this day it is through the press that this power of confutation is to be exerted, and he that contributes to the support of the press with this aim is converting his material gold and silver into spiritual iron.

G. B.

EXTRACT.

"A man who does not shun evils as sins may indeed love truths, but then he does not love them because they are truths, but because they serve to extend his reputation, whence he derives honor or gain; wherefore when they no longer are subservient to his end, he ceases to love them."-Doctrine of Life, 35.

ARTICLE III.

THE JEWISH TABERNACLE VIEWED IN ITS SPIRITUAL IMPORT.

No. III.

THE TABERNACLE AND THE COURT.

In the command given to Moses to construct the Tabernacle (Ex. XXV. 8) it is said, "And let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them." The Heb. word for sanctuary is mikdash, a holy place, from kâdash, to sanctify, to hallow. It denotes a holy habitation, expressly consecrated to the indwelling of the Deity by the representative signals of his presence. This is indicated in a very expressive manner by the original word shakanti, from shakan, to dwell in a tent or tabernacle, especially by means of the Shekinah, a derivative from the same root. The renderings of some of the ancient versions give more prominence to this idea than our own. The Greek has "I will be seen among you;" the Chaldaic, "I will make my glory to dwell in the midst of them;" the Arabic, "That I may make my splendor to inhabit among them." The import plainly is, that the Most High would dwell among them by the signal manifestations of his presence in what is termed by the Rabbinical writers the Shekinah-a term employed by them to denote what they understood by the Divine glory or splendor. The radical letters of the root shakan, viz. s(sh), k, n, are the same in the Greek Gкŋŋ, skene, tent, or tabernacle, from which comes now, skeno-o, to tabernacle, which occurs, John i. 14, "The Word was made flesh and dwelt (εσκήνωσε, eskenose, tabernacled or shekinized) among us, and we beheld his glory." This is doubtless spoken in allusion to the mode of the divine residence in the tabernacle among the Israelites. The term again occurs in equivalent allusion to these words of Moses, Rev. xxi. 3, "And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell (σnvwo, skenosei) with them." This is in fulfilment of the prediction uttered by Ezekiel, xxxvii. 26, 27, “And I will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore; my tabernacle also shall be with them; yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people," announcing a period when there shall be a far more transcendant display of the divine glory on earth than at any former period, although of a far different nature from that which forms the burden of the dreams of Millenarianism. It is the period of the New Jerusalem, upon which we have now in the providence of God entered, and of which the same prophet says, ch. xlviii. 35, "The name of the city from that day shall be, The Lord is there.”

The design of the tabernacle then was to furnish a dwelling-place for the Most High; but his appropriate dwelling-place is heaven, and the inference is very obvious that there must have been intended a very close symbolical relation between this structure and heavena remark equally applicable to the temple, which was substantially

the tabernacle on a larger scale. This relation is not only confirmed by the express intimations of Scripture, but was distinctly recognized by Josephus and Philo, although it may be thought that they founded their analogies rather upon philosophical than symbolical grounds. Philo especially considered the Tabernacle and the Temple, with their courts and outer and inner sanctuaries, to have been modelled in imitation of the general system of the world, in which the outer room, where the priests entered, denoted the sea and land, the habitation of men, while the inner apartment, which was forbidden to the common priests," was, as it were, a heaven peculiar to God." Again he says, "When Moses distinguished the tabernacle into three parts, and allowed two of them to the priests, as a place accessible and common, he denoted the land and the sea, they being of general access to all; but he set apart the third division for God, because heaven is inaccessible to men." Gussetius also, an eminent Hebrew Lexicographer, contends that all the "pattern" shown to Moses on the mount was the heavens themselves. There is little reason to suppose that his views on this score were at all adequate, compared with the light which we now enjoy, but they still rested on a basis of truth. The symbolical affinity between the ideas of heaven and of the tabernacle with its two apartments and its outer courts is doubtless much stronger than would appear to a superficial view of the subject. This will be fully evinced from the spiritual exposition that follows in a subsequent No. in relation to the outer and inner rooms of the edifice. At present we exhibit a view of the tabernacle, with its curtains dropped from it, surrounded by its court, and surmounted with the pillar of cloud :

The order for the construction of the court runs as follows, Ex. xxvii. 9-12, " And thou shalt make the court of the tabernacle: for

the south side southward there shall be hangings for the court of fine twined linen of a hundred cubits long for one side: and the twenty pillars thereof and their twenty sockets shall be of brass: the hooks of the pillars and their fillets shall be of silver. And likewise for the north side in length there shall be hangings of a hundred cubits long, and his twenty pillars and their twenty sockets of brass; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets of silver. And for the breadth of the court on the west side shall be hangings of fifty cubits: their pillars ten, and their sockets ten." This court or open enclosure, in which the tabernacle stood, was of an oblong figure of a hundred cubits (about fiftyeight yards) in length by half that breadth, and the height of the enclosing fence or curtain was five cubits, or nearly three yards, being half the height of the tabernacle. The enclosure was formed by a plain hanging of fine twined linen yarn, which seems to have been worked in an open or net-work texture, so that the people without might freely see the interior. The door-curtain was however of a different texture from the general hanging, being a great curtain of "fine twined linen," embroidered with blue, purple, and scarlet. It is described in precisely the same terms as the door-curtain of the tabernacle itself, and was of the same fabric with the inner covering of the tabernacle and the vail before the Holy of Holies. It was fur

nished with cords, by which it might be drawn up or aside when the priests had occasion to enter. The curtains of this enclosure were hung upon sixty pillars of brass, standing on bases of the same metal, but with capitals and fillets of silver.

The hooks also, to which the curtains were attached, were of silver. The entrance to the court was at the east end opposite that to the tabernacle, and between them stood the altar of burnt-offering, but nearer to the door of the tabernacle than to that of the court. It is uncertain whether the brazen laver was interposed between the altar and the door of the tabernacle or not. Chap. xxx. 18, certainly conveys that impression; but the Rabbins, who appear to have felt that nothing could properly interpose between the altar and tabernacle, say that the laver was indeed nearer to the tabernacle than was the altar, but still that it did not stand in the same line with the altar, but stood a little on one side to the south. As to the position of the tabernacle in the court, nothing is said in the Scriptures on the subject, but it seems less probable that it stood in the centre than that it was placed towards the farther or western extremity, so as to allow greater space for the services which were to be performed exclusively in front of the tabernacle. Within the precincts of this court any Israelite might enter, but none but the priests were permitted to go into the outer room of the tabernacle, and into its inner recess admission was forbidden to all but the high priest.

The pillars of the tabernacle were probably made of shittim-wood, and placed at five cubits distance from each in sockets of brass in the manner represented in the accompanying cut representing a pillar and its sockets, together with its "cords," and "stakes" or "pins."