spiritual shepherds. Every one will find his true position, and have his rights and duties, and the Lord will rule. The subject of pastoral visiting leads us to ask how far church members attend to their duty of visiting the pastors? Do those who wish for pastors to come and feed them, go on every occasion hungering and thirsting to the place where pastors are appointed to meet them and supply them with all the spiritual food that they have to give? That place is the place of worship, and the time is the sabbath day, and there and then the Lord of the sabbath is present, "laden with divine nourishment" both for pastors and people. A pastor or preacher comes twice on that day to a church, prepared with discourses which are perhaps the fruit, both of much thought and study, and of a richly cultivated mind, and he wishes to see a good attendance of the brethren to hear the discourses, and join him in the appointed services of prayer and praise. If there be, as too often is the case, but few in attendance, it must give him pain. He must, as a faithful minister, feel grieved, as he looks around, and sees his hearers few and far between, here a person and there a person, to hear an elaborate sermon calculated to edify a numerous congregation. He must then think that those persons can hardly be sincere, who seem so wishful to be benefited by pastoral visiting, and yet care so little to visit their pastor, and be edified in a proper way at the church. New Church brethren should be free and frequent in visiting one another. The prophet saith-"Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard it." (Mal. iii. 16.) By the interchange of good feelings and true ideas in frequent social intercourse, they might be much improved and edified. In gaining spiritual knowledge, they should mainly rely on their own study and reading. They should not only "read much and meditate well on the Word of God," but study also the expositions of that Word by Swedenborg. By such self-culture, they will not need so much aid from their minister, and this will but please him the more, as a man desiring their spiritual advancement. They should think for themselves, and not be automatons moved by the thoughts of others. A minister, too, can best help those who are disposed to help themselves. It is much to be regretted that men will read but little the heavenly doctrines. No doubt the good of life is the principal thing, but it can only be attained, and the mind be carried onward and upward, by means of truth. Let all remember that the Lord is ever at hand to teach and lead those who come to him alone. He requires all to come immediately to him, and for this end, he comes immediately to them. He stands at the door of the mind of every man, and knocks. He comes as a stranger seeking admission. Open the door that he may enter. Keep it not shut against him, lest the day come when you, in your turn, shall go and knock at the door and say, Lord, Lord, open unto us, and the Son of Man shall answer, Verily I say unto you, I know you not. “I was a stranger and ye took me not in." Men will join We learn from Swedenborg, that the New Church will be "external at first." (A. E. 403.) It will be so in various ways. congregations, and think they are joining the church. There will be some of the old leaven in the matter of ecclesiastical polity. Some desire to rule may shew itself, and more concern than is needed about organization. The church may, for a while, be too much governed. Church councils should consider that the best of earthly governments are those that govern least, and that men are the most easily governed when they can govern themselves. Self-government should be promoted in the church, or rather men should, as individual churches, be taught or helped to govern themselves, as of themselves, from the Lord alone. The desire to rule will occasion trouble in different ways. It will trouble societies. Even ministers will sometimes be in danger of imagining that they are to govern congregations, instead of ruling or serving the church itself, by feeding it, or being a means of feeding or teaching it, as they shew the way to heaven, and lead men by their example to walk therein. All should shun the love of rule. A Conference should not govern but serve the church. It should promote union in what is essential, and liberty in what is not essential, to order. It was said by one of old, "In essentials let there be unity; in nonessentials liberty; in all things charity." But the New Church will at length be an internal church. A means of attaining it will be discretion and patience in its members. They must learn to bear and forbear. In a day of small things they must not expect too much, nor grieve if they have too little. They must not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax. They must beware of discord and division. By so doing they will help forward the Second Advent. They will hasten the time when the Lord shall reign, and all glory, and honour, and power shall be given to him. In that day men will be "led and taught of the Lord alone." His words will be fulfilled, "One is your Teacher, even Christ, and all ye are brethren." And there will be "one fold, and ONe Shepherd." Z. 297 THE COMMAND GIVEN TO THE ISRAELITES ΤΟ EXTIRPATE ALL WHO HAD INTERCOURSE WITH FAMILIAR SPIRITS, AND WHO SOUGHT INQUIRIES OF THE DEAD. THE command given to the Jews on taking possession of the land of Canaan, to extirpate all who had intercourse with " familiar spirits," and "who sought to converse with the dead," was peremptory, and frequently repeated. But the fullest denunciation against this and other practices with which it was associated is probably the following:— “There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer, or one who seeks inquiries of the dead; for all that do these things are an abomination to the Lord; and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee.' (Deut. xviii. 10, 11, 12.*) And if any of the people of Israel were discovered in the practice of these "abominations," they were to be put to death. We accordingly find that such persons as had familiar spirits, or intercourse with the dead, were put to death. (1 Sam. xxviii. 3, 9; 2 Kings, xxiii. 24.) Now, before we enter upon a consideration of the causes of this divine command to extirpate those who had familiar spirits, and who conversed with the dead, we will endeavour to see what the various terms in the above quotation from Deuteronomy involve. To" use divination" pop (Kahsam) is, as a verb, (says Gesenius,†) "always used of false prophets, and also of evokers of the dead." It was therefore one of the magical arts extensively practised in ancient times, not only in Canaan amongst the corrupt nations whom the Israelites were commanded to extirpate, but also in Egypt, Syria, and likewise in Greece and Rome,‡ and generally throughout the heathen world. The object of divination was to ascertain the will of the gods, the fates and fortunes of men, and, in general, future events. This was done in various ways, by observing the planets and stars, of which ancient superstition astrology is still a remnant; also by observing the flight *See also Lev. xix. 26, 31, xx. 27. + See his Hebrew Lexicon, published by Bagster. and the singing of birds, the entrails of animals, and by various other signs called omens, auspices, and auguries. Priestcraft revelled in these superstitious practices, because they were found to be the means of exercising a dreadful dominion over the masses of the people, and of extorting money to an unlimited extent. We, therefore, see abundant reason why the people of Israel were so strictly commanded to extirpate from the land all "such as practised divination," and why it was considered to be so great an abomination in the sight of God. Divination, therefore, here first mentioned, we consider to be a generic term, involving in a general idea the various species of soothsaying, sorcery, and magic which now follow. The next expression in the above quotation is " an observer of times:"` in Hebrew (meonain,) denotes one who pretends to ascertain hidden and future things by observing the clouds, the planets, and stars, and also the more striking phenomena of nature. This, therefore, was a species of divination and fortune-telling which was to be extirpated from the land, or by no means to be tolerated in the church. (.menachesh) מנחש The third expression is translated " enchanter," from the Hebrew This term denotes one who practises divination either by means of serpents, (which art was called by the Greeks opiμavτeia, or serpent-sorcery,) or by inspecting the entrails of beasts, when slaughtered for sacrifice, or by observing the flight of birds, &c. The term, in its root, signifies to hiss as a serpent. This art was extensively practised as a means of enchantment and delusion, under the pretext of foretelling or forewarning in respect to future events.* The next term, translated "witch," is a (mecashsheph,) which signifies to use magical songs, to mutter, thus to enchant, because mutterings, whisperings, and incantations, that is, magical singing, was used in this species of divination; this term also signifies fumigation, or the offering of incense, but in this sense it is restricted to the worship of idols, denoting that the worship of idols involves witchcraft, sorcery, magic, &c. A "charmer," which is the next term employed, is (chover,) and signifies to bind, to join together, to be confederate, hence to fascinate by some kind of magic, which was practised by the binding of * As the finest specimen in classical literature of the omen of serpents, we refer the reader to the description by Virgil, (Æneas ii.,) of the priest Laocoon and his sons, destroyed by serpents, as the emblem of the destruction of the Temple and Citadel of Troy, magical knots, or a peculiar conjunction or combination of words. It is also predicated of the incantation of serpents. (Psalm lviii. 5.) This term, however, is most generally used in a good sense, and denotes to associate, or to bind to oneself in fellowship and friendship; but in a bad sense it signifies one who uses magical spells and words for the purpose of fascinating the mind of another, and of binding it to himself, that he may exercise an influence over it. "A consulter with familiar spirits" is w (shoel ôv.) The term ôv signifies one who by the power of incantations and magical songs, evokes the spirits of the dead, and endeavours to give answers as to future or doubtful things. It especially denotes a python, or a soothsaying dæmon, of which those persons called pythons, who delivered the responses of the gods in the ancient temples and oracles, were supposed to be possessed. Swedenborg and Schmidius, and other translators, also render this term by python. This ôv or python, was supposed to be within the person possessed; thus in Lev. xx. 27, it is said, “A man or a woman that hath a familiar spirit (literally, in whom is a python) shall surely be put to death." Thus Saul said to the woman of Endor, who had a python, or familiar spirit, "Divine to me by the python." (1 Sam. xxviii. 8.) These pythonic or familiar spirits, are said, in Isaiah, “to speak out of the ground, and their voice to be low out of the dust," (chap. xxviii. 4.) to denote that such spirits were in association with hell and not with heaven. This term was translated by the Septuagint in the sense of ventriloquism, (eyyaσтpıμvooɩ) because ventriloquists amongst the ancients commonly abused this art of inward speaking for magical purposes.* The wizard," (yidoni) in Hebrew, is from a verb signifying to know, and means a knowing, clever, cunning man. It is always used in a bad sense, and the soothsayer thus called was supposed to be in open communication with a familiar or pythonic spirit. The last mentioned is the " necromancer;" the terms in Hebrew of which this is a translation are 'non b w (doresh el hammaithim.) These words literally signify "one who seeks inquiries of the dead," and so they should have been rendered in the common version instead of by necromancer. It would then appear from a correct view of all these terms, that the various ancient arts by which magic and divination were practised were * See Acts xvi. 16, 18, where the spirit who possessed the damsel is called a python. |