Sidor som bilder
PDF
ePub

literal propriety; for the OTHER mediately and indirectly, by similitude only and analogy." Bp, BROWNE'S Divine Analogy, p. 166.

1103. [John vi. 63.] The terms together with the conceptions applied to things supernatural and spiritual, are the same which are in common use for things temporal and human; but the application is new and holy; they are only consecrated to a divine use and signification: They are so far sanctified and to be reverenced as they are thus appropriated to religion; to the representation of the intrinsic nature and attributes of GOD; and to the glorious, and otherwise ineffable mysteries of the gospel.

Bp. BROWNE'S Procedure of the Understanding, p. 474.

1104. [John vi. 51.] The Lord is alone the life of all: from Him come all and every thing which angels and spirits, men and devils, think, speak and do. The latter speak and do what is evil, because they so receive and pervert all that is good and true from the Lord; for such as the form of the recipient is, such is the reception and affection. This circumstance will admit of comparison with the various objects which receive light from the sun these, according to their form and the disposition and determination of their parts, turn the received light into unpleasing and disagreeable colors, or into such as are pleasing and beautiful. Thus the universal Heaven, the universal World of spirits, and the whole race of mankind, live by every thing which proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord; every one having thence his very life. -If angels, spirits, and men were deprived of this meat, they would expire immediately.

1105.

SWEDENBORG'S Arcana, n. 681.

If light were fire, we should have excessive heats before the sun's coming to the tropick, as well as after; the heat would be the same in May as it is in June; or at nine o'clock in the morning as at noon. But light only accelerates the fire; yet, when this fire is violently agitated, it preserves its power when the light is withdrawn. Hence we may justly conclude, that light only feeds fire, and is not the same thing.

[ocr errors]

Nat. Delin. vol. iv. p. 93.

1106. [John vi. 27.] Spiritual food is science, intelligence, and wisdom; for from these things spirits and angels live and are nourished. They even desire and appetite them, as men who are hungry desire and appetite food. By virtue of that food they also grow up to maturity. Departed infants, in the other life, appear as infants, and indeed are infants as to the understanding. But, in proportion as they grow in intelligence and wisdom, they appear not as infants, but as advanced in age, and at length as adults.

SWEDENBORG's Arcana, n. 4792.

1107. [John vi. 56.] In the Elysian fields, says Fenelon after the poet Virgil, "The day has no end, and night with her dark veil is unknown; a pure and mild light is spread around these amiable men, and surrounds them with rays as with a garment. This light is not like that which comes before the eyes of feeble mortals, and which, in truth, is but darkness; it is rather a celestial glory than light. It penetrates the thickest substances with more subtilty than the solar rays penetrate the purest crystal; it never dazzles, but, on the other hand, strengthens the eyes, and carries serenity to the inmost recesses of the soul. It is by it alone that the blessed are nourished; it comes forth from them and it enters into them again; it penetrates and becomes incorporated with them, as food becomes incorporated with us, they see, they feel, and they breathe it; it excites in them an inexhaustible source of peace and joy; they are plunged into this delicious abyss like fishes into the sea. All their wishes are gratified, and the fulness of their enjoyment raises them above all that avaricious and ambitious men desire upon earth."

[blocks in formation]

1108. [John i. 1, 9.] By the Word of GOD, the Light, we understand, says BARCLAY, a Spiritual, Heavenly, and Invisible Principle, in which GOD, as Father, Son, and Spirit, dwells; a measure of which Divine and Glorious Life is in all men, as a Seed, which of its own nature draws, invites, and inclines to GOD; and this, he adds, some call Vehiculum Dei, or the Spiritual Body of Christ, the Flesh and Blood of Christ, which came down from heaven; of which all the saints do feed, and are thereby nourished to eternal life.

Apology for the Quakers, sect. xiii. p. 138.

1109. [John vi. 53.] In the Glorified Jesus Christ, the Grand Man of the Angelic Heaven which is finally to receive all the good souls from our earth, the Inmost Human answering to the soul of man is the Assumed Sphere of the angels there, the next degree answering to the human spirit is the Assumed Sphere of disembodied spirits in the intermediate state, and the outermost part answering to our fleshly body is the Assumed Sphere ascending from the innocent children and purified adults of the whole human race here below. These different degrees of the Assumed Human Spirit, combined and saturated with the Infinite Human and with the Essential Divine, re-enter and feed in due order Angels, Spirits and Men: in this view, that which is born of the spirit is spirit and becomes the bread of life to spiritual beings, and that which is born of the flesh is flesh that true bread from heaven, that flesh and blood given for the life of the world, of which our Lord speaks so sublimely in his edifying discourse delivered at Capernaum.

21

M

[blocks in formation]

1112. [Ps. xviii. 26.] In regard to the life of every one, whether man, or spirit, or angel, it flows in solely from the LORD, Who is the essential life; and diffuses Himself through the universal heaven, and even through hell, consequently into every individual therein; and this in an incomprehensible order and series. But the life which flows in is received by every one according to his prevailing principle. The good and true spheres from Him are received as good and true by the good; but the same good and true spheres are received as evil and false by the wicked, and` in them are even changed into evil and false. This is comparatively as the light of the sun, which diffuses itself into all objects on the face of the earth, but is received according to the quality of each object; becoming of a beautiful color in beautiful forms, and of a disagreeable color in unsightly forms.

See SWEDENBORG's Arcana, n. 2888.

1113. [Matt. v. 8.] Truth is like the dew of Heaven; in order to preserve it pure, it must be collected in a pure vessel. St. PIERRE.

1114. [Ps. xxxvi. 9.] As the sun cannot be known but by his own light, so God cannot be known but with his own light. PLOTINUS.

1115. [Matt. v. 8.] A man can think analytically and rationally respecting the civil and moral objects and speculations which are within the compass of nature; as also respecting the spiritual and celestial objects and spheres which are above nature: nay, he can be so elevated into wisdom, as to

[ocr errors][merged small]

1116. [Jer. xxxi. 33, 34.] Every animal has the science of all the things appertaining to its love; which love has respect to nourishment, a safe habitation, the propagation of its kind, and the care of its young. This science is said to be connate, and is called instinct; but it is of the love in which brutes are principled. If man also were in love to God and his neighbour, his proper love by which he is distinguished from the brute creation, he would in that case be not only in all requisite science, but also in all intelligence and wisdom. Neither would he have occasion to learn them; for they would flow in from heaven into those loves; that is, through heaven from the Divine Being. See SWEDENBORG's Arcana, n. 7750.

[blocks in formation]

The Hottentots, even, run to the suppression of strife, when it has invaded a family, the same as we do to extinguish a fire; and allow themselves no repose till every matter in dispute is adjusted. MAVOR.

1119. [Matt. v. 40.] In disputes betwcen individuals it has long been the decided judgment of the society of Quakers, that its members should not sue each other at law. It therefore enjoins all to end their differences by speedy aud impartial arbitration, agreeably to rules laid down. If any refuse to adopt this mode, or having adopted it, to submit to the award, it is the direction of the yearly-meeting that such be disowned. Month. Mag. for Feb. 1812, p. 32.

[blocks in formation]

1121. [Matt. x. 22.] The strongest antipathy in nature subsists between the good and the bad.

POPE.-Works of Sir W. Jones, vol. iv. p. 552.

1122. [Acts ix. 16.] There are many precepts in the New Testament which require us to suffer with fortitude and resignation, for righteousness' sake, for truth, for our religion, or the benefit of mankind; but we find none which enjoin sufferings for their own sake, or represent them as meritorious in themselves. St. Peter exhorts his disciples to suffer patiently for these great ends, "because Christ also suffered for them, leaving us an example that we should follow his steps"; but he does not advise us to suffer for no end at all.

JENYNS' Works, vol. iv. p. 138.

1123. [Matt. v. 13.] Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.

Salt is one of the most essential ingredients in every thing we eat. It tempers our food in such a just proportion, as makes it both agreeable and nutrimental. Nat. Delin. vol. iii. p. 135. Most of the Asiatic nations have affixed to salt, a certain sacred property. FORSTER.-Pinkerton's Coll. vol. ix. p. 281.

1124. [Mark ix. 50.] ln the interior countries of Africa, the greatest of all luxuries is salt. A child there will suck a piece of rock-salt, as if it were sugar. —The classes poorer of the inhabitants are, however, so very rarely indulged with this precious article, that to say a man eats salt with his victuals, is the same as saying, he is a rich man. —The long use of vegetable food creates so painful a longing for salt, that no words can sufficiently describe it.

MUNGO PARK'S Travels, p. 280.

1125. [Matt. v. 13.] Acids may be considered as the true salifying principles. See LAVOISIER's Chem. chap. xvi.

1126.

In the Valley of Salt near Gebul, about four days' journey from Aleppo, there is a small precipice occasioned by the continual taking away of the salt, in the face of which you may see how its veins lie." I broke a piece of it," says MAUNDRELL, "of which the part that was exposed to the rain, sun, and air, though it had the sparks and particles of salt, yet had perfectly lost its savor. The innermost, which had been connected to the rock, retained itssavor, as I found by proof."

Journal, p. 162.

1127.

In the village Willisca, near Cracone in Poland, there are two apertures leading down more than 200 fathoms into the very extensive salt-mines there, through which the workmen draw up the large lumps, or masses of salt, and then lay them in the high-way or streets, in order that passengers, as well as horses, may trample upon, and break them to pieces under their feet, before they are carried to the mills to be reduced to powder. Nat. Delin. vol. iii.p. 83.

[blocks in formation]

1131. [Matt. v. 15.] There is in our soul an unchangeable focus of intellectual light, which o darkness is able entirely to overpower. This sensorium admonishes the drunken man that his reason is over-elevated; and the failing old man, that his understanding is enfeebled. To behold the shining of that candle within us, a man must have his passions stilled; he inust be in solitude, and above all he must be in the habit of retiring into himself. St. PIERRE's Studies of Nature, vol. iv. p. 10.

[Matt. v. 34, 37.] Swear not at all;—but let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.

1132. [Matt. v. 33.] Whoever now wishes to observe this precept of Christ with literal strictness, should abstain

from all oaths, in which the name of God is not expressly mentioned; such, for instance, as by my soul, my head, &c. SMITH'S Michaelis, vol. iv. art. 302.

able, but real however, and correspondent perfections of the Divinity. Bp. BROWNE'S Procedure of the Understanding, p. 461.

1133. [Matt. v. 34.] The Peers of England are not, like her Plebeians, put to their oath. In all cases when their deposition is required, they simply spread the right hand over the left breast, and pronounce the accused guilty, or not guilty, on their honor. This the law considers as equivalent to the most solemn asseveration of the Commoner.

WHITE.

1134. [Matt. v. 37.] A reasoning concerning things Divine, whether they be so or not, proceeds from the reasoner's not seeing them from the Lord, but desiring to see them from himself; and what a man sees from himself, is evil.

SWEDENBORG's Divine Prov. n. 219.

1138. [Jas. i. 17.] The goodness of God breaking forth into a desire to communicate Good, was the cause and the beginning of the creation: Heuce it follows, that to all eternity, God can have no thought, or intent towards the creature, but to communicate Good; because He made the creature for this sole end, to receive good. The first motive towards the creature is unchangeable; it takes its rise from God's desire to communicate Good, and it is an eterual impossibility, that any thing can ever come from God, as his will and purpose towards the creature, but that same love and goodness, which first created it; He must always will that to it, which he willed at the creation of it.

LAW's Spirit of Prayer, p. 29.

[blocks in formation]

1136.

They who are in spiritual love have wisdom inscribed in their memory; wherefore they talk of divine truths, and do them from principles in the memory. But they who are in celestial love have wisdom inscribed in their life, and not in their memory; which is the reason that they do not talk of divine truths, but do them: whatever they hear they immediately perceive whether it be true or not; and when they are asked whether it be true, they only answer that it is, or that it is not.

SWEDENBORG's Divine Love,

n. 427.

1137. [Matt. v. 48.] Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father who is in heaven is perfect.

As we necessarily infer, in general, that God must have all consummate and infinite perfection; and yet find we can have no direct conception or idea of any particular perfections as they subsist in his real essence; so we necessarily ascribe to him all the particular perfections of our own rational nature: These we call his attributes, because they are only attributed to him; that is, transferred from man to God, and from earth to heaven; and do by semblance and analogy only represent and express the inconceiv

[Matt. vi. 1.] Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father who is in heaven.

1139. [Matt. vi. 1—5.] An outward morality, a decency and beauty of life and conduct with respect to this world, arising only from a worldly spirit, has nothing of Salvation in it; he that has his virtue only from this world, is only a trader of this world, and can only have a worldly benefit from it. For it is an undoubted truth, that every thing is necessarily bounded by, or kept within the sphere of its own activity; and therefore, to expect Heavenly effects from a worldly spirit, is nonsense: As Water cannot rise higher in its streams, than the spring from whence it cometh, so no actions can ascend farther in their efficacy, or rise higher in their value, than the Spirit from whence they proceed. The Spirit that comes fro:n Heaven is always in Heaven, and whatosever it does, tends to, and reaches Heaven : The spirit that arises from this world, is always in it; it is as worldly when it gives alms, or prays in the church, as when it makes bargains in the market. When therefore the Gospel saith, "He that gives alms to be seen of men, hath his reward"; it is grounded on this general truth,—That every thing, every shape, or kind, or degree, of virtue that arises from the spirit of this world, has nothing to expect but that which it can receive from this world: For every action must have its nature, and efficacy, according to the Spirit from whence it proceeds.

LAW's Appeal, 94.

PRAYER.

[Matt. vi. 6.] When thou prayest, enter into thy closet; and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father who is in secret; and thy Father, who sees in secret, will reward thee.

1140. [Luke xviii. 1.]

A soul, in commerce with her God, is heaven;
Feels not the tumults and the shocks of life;
The whirls of passion, and the strokes of heart!
A Deity believ'd, is joy begun;
A Deity ador'd, is joy advanc'd;
A Deity belov'd, is joy matur'd!
Each brauch of piety delight inspires :

Faith builds a bridge from this world to the next,
O'er death's dark gulf, and all its horror hides:
Praise, the sweet exhalation of our joy,
That joy exalts, and makes it sweeter still:
Prayer ardent opens Heaven, lets down a stream
Of glory on the consecrated hour
Of man, in audience with the Deity!

[blocks in formation]

YOUNG.

1141. [Rom. x. 8.] God, the only good of all intelligent natures, is not an absent or distant God, but is more present in and to our souls, than our own bodies; and we are strangers to heaven, and without GOD in the world, for this only reason, because we are void of that spirit of prayer, which alone can, and never fails to unite us with the One, only Good, and to open heaven and the kingdom of GOD within us. LAW's Spirit of Prayer, p. 5.

1142. [Luke xviii. 1.] That prayer is a duty, which all men ought to perform with humility and reverence, has been generally acknowledged as well by the untaught barbarian as by the enlightened Christian. Nothing so forcibly restrains from ill as the remembrance of a recent address to heaven for protection and assurance. After having petitioned for power to resist temptation, there is so great an incongruity in not continuing the struggle, that we blush at the thought, and persevere lest we lose all reverence for ourselves. After fervently devoting our souls to God, we start with horror at immediate apostacy; every act of deliberate wickedness is then complicated with hypocrisy and ingratitude.

Pantalogia.

1143. [Luke xi. 13.] If God does not give us at our first asking; if he only gives to those who are importunate; it is not because our prayers make any change in God, but because our importunity has made a change in ourselves; it has altered our hearts, and rendered us proper objects of God's gifts and graces. When, therefore, we would know how much we

TRUE RICHES.

[Matt. vi. 20, 21.] Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

1146. [Matt. vi. 19.] The ideas and actions of brutes, like those of children, are almost perpetually produced by their present pleasures or their present pains; and they seldom busy themselves about the means of procuring future bliss, or of avoiding future misery. Whilst the acquiring of languages, the making of tools, and the labouring for money, which are all only the means of procuring pleasure; and the praying to the Deity, as another means to procure happiness, are characteristic of human nature.

DARWIN'S Temple of Nature, canto iii. l. 435.

1147. [Luke xii. 15-21.] Commerce, when it is the final love, and money the means subservient, is a good if the merchant shun and avoid frauds and evil arts as sins: not so when money is the final love, and commerce the means subservient to it; for this is avarice, the root of all evils.

SWEDENBORG's Div. Prov. n. 220.

1148. [Luke xii. 33.] The mite and the moth first lay the miser under the necessity of employing many hands in stirring about and sifting his grain, till they force him at last to dispose of it altogether. How many poor wretches would go naked, if the moth did not devour the wardrobes and warehouses of the rich! In India, where coffee, silk and cottons, are real necessaries of life; there are insects which quickly corrode them, and thus prevent their being withheld

« FöregåendeFortsätt »