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Swedenborg THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG 186
corded these with great frankness and in an awed sense of their deep significance, in his Dreams and Spiritual Diary. At the same time in his Adversaria he noted down glimpses appearing to him of an inner meaning of the Scriptures. But it is in the introduction to the Arcana Ccelestia that he plainly declares, after asserting that the sacred Scriptures have a spiritual sense:
" That this is really the case in respect to the Word it is impossible for any man to know except from the Lord, wherefore it is expedient here to premise, that, of the Lord's mercy, it has been granted me now for several years to be constantly and uninterruptedly in company with spirits and angels, hearing them converse with each other and conversing with them. Hence it has been permitted me to hear and see things in another life which are astonishing and which never before came to the knowledge of any man or entered into his imagination. I have thus been instructed concerning different kinds of spirits, and the state of souls after death; concerning hell or the lamentable state of the unfaithful; concerning heaven or the most happy state of the faithful; and particularly concerning the doctrine of faith which is acknowledged throughout all heaven, on which subjects, by the divine mercy of the Lord, more will be said in the following pages."
S. Theological: Here begins, then, the period of Swedenborg's theology and spiritual philosophy, or what is called by him the " angelic wisdom," being a survey of the two worlds, natural and spiritual, and of the operation of God as end and final cause, through the spiritual world as instrumental or efi-icient cause, into or upon nature as the world of effect. The series of theological works was begun by Arcana Coolestia (an exposition of the internal sense of Genesis and Exodus, published anonymously in Latin, 8 vols., London, 1748-56).
Of this " internal sense," Swedenborg say's: " In the following pages it will be seen that the first chapter of Genesis in its internal sense treats of the new creation of man or of his regenera-
1. The tion in general; and specifically, of the"Internal most ancient Church; and this in such Sense" of a manner that the-e is not a single Scripture. syllable which does not represent, signify, and involve something spiritual." The first eleven chapters of Genesis are declared by Swedenborg to be strictly symbolic and to have been derived by Moses from a more ancient word given in purely correspondential language in which spiritual truths are clothed with natural figures. Beginning with Abraham, the Word is historical in form but divinely composed into a drama of the spiritual life of man in its progress from the bondage of nature and self, represented by Egypt, into the liberty of the heavenly kingdom. The temptations and struggles of the forty-years' wandering are prophetic of the Lord's temptation combats in the flesh, by which he, in the fulness of time and in fulfilment of all the prophets, overcame the power of hell and set man spiritually free. In this way the Word is shown to be everywhere in its spiritual sense descriptive of the incarnation and, glorification of the divine humanity in Jesus Christ. While this minute explanation in the Arcana covers only the books of Genesis and Exodus, its citations from other parts of the Word are so numerous as to make it a very comprehensive Biblical exegesis. A subsequent posthumous publication gives an outline of the " Internal Sense of the Prophets and Psalms."
Heaven and its Wonders and Hell; and the World of Spirits; from Things heard and seen (London, 1758) is a. description of heaven in its three degrees or planes and of the angelic life and its occupations,
showing that angels are regenerated 2. Heaven, human beings who have lived in the Hell, natural world and are now living in a Spirits, and perfected civilization according to the Revelation. perfected of the divine order of life in the spiritual world, heaven itself being a reflection of the divine human form, in its life of related uses and neighborly service. Hell is in the opposite or re versed order of the heavens, and exhibits the divine love in its endeavor to control and restrain the wicked who are governed by the love of self, and to protect them from their own insanities. The world of spirits is the intermediate state between heaven and hell into which all souls enter immedi ately upon the death of the body. Here the judg ment takes place and the revelation, to each one, of the nature of his own ruling loves and of his ability or inability to be happy in heaven, where the ruling love is love to the Lord and charity to the neigh bor. Four smaller works are: The Earths in the Universe; The Last Judgment; The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrines; and The White Horse of the Apocalypse . (London, 1758). The Apocalypse Explained, Giving the Internal Sense of the Book of Revelation reveals the internal history of the Chris tian Church, showing its decline in the two dominant evil tendencies, the " harlot " or the lust of domin ion, exhibited in the Roman Catholic hierarchy, and the " dragon " or doctrine of faith alone as saving, exhibited in the Protestant sects, termina ting with the judgment enacted in the world of spirits in the year 1757. This judgment, which marks the transition into a new age of the world and of the Church, is effected by the coming of the Lord to spirits and to man in the opening of his Word in its spiritual sense, which is his promised second coming. In the light of this " book of life," the false and evil spirits are cast down and the good are enabled to recognize the Lord Jesus Christ in his glorified humanity as the only God, and to fol low him in the life of charity and faith combined, and so to compose the new Christian heaven. Out of this will descend to the earth more and more the holy city, New Jerusalem, by which is signified the true doctrine of faith and of life as seen in heaven in which God will himself dwell with men and be with them their God (see NEW JERUSALEM CHURCH). The Apocalypse Explained was not finished by the author, but was replaced later by an abridgment en titled the Apocalypse Revealed (Amsterdam, 1766).The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem respecting the Lord; the Sacred Scriptures; Faith; and Life; commonly known as the Four Leading Doctrines (Amsterdam, 1763) are brief treatises which embody in concise form what may be called the religion of the New Church. The Lord Jesus Christ is shown by Scripture texts to be Jehovah incarnate in a humanity born of the virgin; who, by triumphs over the hells in the conflicts of his temptation and passion on earth, set man free from the tyranny of evil which threatened the human race, and opened the way to heaven. This is redemption. The doe-
