THE NATIVITY OF JOHN THE BAPTIST.

V.

"Now Elisabeth's full time came that she should be delivered; and she brought forth a son."-LUke i. 57.

It was shown in the preceding parts of this explanation, that the birth of John the Baptist represents a spiritual birth in the mind of man, and that since John represents the Divine truth in the letter of the Word, his birth signifies a state in which the divine authority of the Word, as to its literal precepts and commandments, is acknowledged by the natural man. The conception of John signifies the first living inward perception and monition that the Word is such a book of divine authority. Between this and that full acknowledgment, which leads to the direct determination to submit the life to the government of the divine precepts, there may be very many intermediate steps, of mental resolutions and determinations, interspersed with states of hesitation, delay, and doubt, and perhaps of temporary forgetfulness. In most men the internal and external mind are so separated, and so incoherent, that the bringing forth of any spiritual conception into life is difficult, slow, and painful.

And it is also difficult to understand and comprehend the nature of these mental processes, which are described in the internal sense of the Word, because people are not accustomed to analyze the operations of their own minds, and because especially they do not distinguish between what is internal and what is external. And this is still more difficult to be done, on account of the false notions which have generally prevailed respecting the work of regeneration, which has been taught to be a matter of faith only; and from this false teaching, there could but result false and confused ideas respecting the mind itself and its operations. Still these things can be understood, and can be explored and examined in one's self, though they must appear comparatively in obscurity while in the life of the body.

Let, then, each one consider whether he has not a secret

chamber in his heart where he lays up the memories of things most dear to him, into which his mind withdraws itself when he is alone, there to indulge in freedom his favorite trains of thought, to dream over his darling schemes for future execution, and to cherish his fondest hopes; and whither he retires when wearied with the strife of the world around him, as into a kingdom where he may rule uncontradicted. This is the internal of the natural man, or mind.

Here are conceived, in the womb of thought, the plans and purposes which he labors from day to day to execute. Here imagination spreads forth before him her beautiful ideals, and indulges him with pleasing dreams of what he would be and do. But he takes care that the world shall know little or nothing of what passes there. Not much of it does he reveal even to his best friends. Outside of this hidden chamber are the appearances of goodness, morality, honesty, and veracity, with which he clothes himself before the world. Outside of it are the stores of knowledge, gained from information or observation, upon which he chiefly draws to entertain his company, or those whom he visits abroad. In this outer tabernacle of the mind, also, lie his concerns of business with his neighbors and the world, and all those thoughts of things which he looks upon, not as pleasures, but as duties to be done, and necessities to be cared for.

Such is the mind of the natural man, at least so far as he himself knows; for there are yet inner chambers there, of which he knows but little chambers into which he does not wish, nor scarcely dare to look. There are his rational faculties, given him for the sake of becoming intelligent and wise, but little used, and much oftener abused. And there, too, in closets of which angels hold the keys, are stored up the remains of the innocence of infancy and childhood, but whose existence may be almost forgotten by the man himself. But if he is such a man as can be led to heaven, they will not always lie forgotten. In some calm and quiet hour, or at a time when the pain of some affliction has deadened the eager thirst for worldly gain, the angels gently open the long-closed inner

doors, and breathe upon him a vernal breath of the tenderness and peacefulness of those long-forgotten childish and infantile states. They bid imagination spread before him a picture of a calmer, sweeter heaven than he has ever found or felt amid the fires of worldly lust and passion. They whisper in his ears, how much better and nobler it would be to become really and inwardly, such as he has wished, by deceptive appearances, to persuade the world that he was. And by such means, they seek to implant in man's inner mind some true desire for better and heavenly things. Thus they prepare the way for the affection of truth to enter with its delights. Thence is the acknowledgment and reception of truth. And when this internal acceptance has ripened into a full determination to submit the outward life to its government and guidance, then is the state arrived at, which is signified by Elisabeth's full time being come, when John, the preacher of repentance, was born.

58. "And her neighbors and her kinsfolks heard how the Lord had shewed great mercy upon her, and they rejoiced with her."

This signifies the communication of the gladness of the affection of truth, to the more remote and external things of the mind. And it also signifies the presence and influx of good spirits, because when man comes into a better state, other and better spirits become associated with him in place of the evil ones, by which he was formerly ruled.

59. "And it came to pass that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child; and they called him Zacharias after the name of his father.

60. "And his mother answered and said, Not so, but he shall be called John.

61. "And they said unto her, There is none of thy kindred that is called by this name."

This disputing concerning the name by which John should be called signifies doubt and disagreement among those who receive the Word, as to its nature and origin. For there are many who honor and respect it, and even those who obey it, who do not see its divine character, or who believe it to

be only partially inspired, or only the work of good men raised up by the Lord, to give instruction in sacred things. The neighbors and relatives of Elisabeth, who would have John called after the name of his father, represent the state of those who ascribe the Word to the apparent human authors of it. But they who are in the genuine affection of truth, are able to see that it must be in some way or other from the divine. Therefore Elisabeth, who represents this affection, names him John, which name denotes the true quality of the Word as being the divine truth itself.

"62. And they made signs to his father how he would have him called.

"63. And he asked for a writing table, and wrote, saying, His name is John. And they marvelled all.

64. And his mouth was opened immediately, and his tongue loosed, and he spake and praised God."

We must now recall to mind what was said in a former part of this explanation, concerning Zacharias, as representing the guardian angels appointed to watch over men, and concerning his inability to speak after the vision, as denoting the inability of those angels to induce men to receive spiritual things by any influx of theirs, on account of man's not being in a state to receive anything heavenly. And it was then told that this inability must needs continue to exist, until a certain course of spiritual states should be passed through. These states or events are the things which are signified by the circumstances afterwards related concerning Elisabeth and Mary. For these transactions spiritually signify things which must take place in the mind of man, before he can be prepared heartily to receive and acknowledge the Divine Truth, and submit his will and understanding to its government. The man who has come into this state of acknowledgment and submission, from a genuine love of the truth itself, may be affected as to his external thoughts by the doubts and cavils which prevail in the world, concerning the Divine authority of the Word, but he will not be seduced and carried away by them. He

will rather submit the matter to the decision of the light of truth itself, which he perceives shining into his mind from within. This is signified in what is here said, that they made signs to Zacharias, the father of the child, to inquire how he would have him called. For since the light of truth which a man has is given him through the means of the angels who are associated with him, and would fail if he were withdrawn from that heavenly association, therefore to look to the light of truth is to look towards heaven, where the angels are. And the response which the angelic influx gives, is a strong affirmation of the Divine authority of the Word, which the affection of truth had previously suggested as the most reasonable and worthy one. The hearty reception of this response from within lays fully open the way of communication for the heavenly and angelic influx to descend even to the external mind, and be received there; consequently Zacharias is no longer dumb, but can be heard speaking and praising God, even in that part of the mind where scarcely anything before was heard, or willingly listened to, but the voices of this world and the praise of And in this state is fulfilled the saying of the Lord in the Gospel of John, "Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man." For the Son of man here denotes the Word, and the angels ascending and descending signify free and unimpeded influx of Divine Truth from heaven to man, by means of the Word, because that is the very means by which heaven and man are associated together. The angels are seen ascending when man elevates Divine Truths in his mind, and acknowledges them to be from the Lord, and to be the Lord's; and they are seen descending when there is influx of light and life to man from the Lord through the Word.

men.

D. H. H.