Scientific discovery of Spiritual Laws given in Rational
Scientific Revelations
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151
REPLY TO THE REV. PROF. DR. ALFRED ACTON
in
correspondences and representations, the Writings therefore cannot be the Word.
As it was then not yet seen that and in what way the Writings are written in
correspondences and representations, it was therefore comprehensible and a sign
of discernment that Bishop W. F. Pendleton with respect to the question of what
is and what is not the Word, laid stress not on the external things, the letter,
but on the internal things, that is, the spirit. He therefore The fact that he then believed
that the Latin Word has not been written in correspondences and representations,
and that he then believed "that the Word or Divine Truth in heaven cannot
be fully expressed or written out
in a natural language" (although he was acquainted with the fact that
Divine Truth in the letter is in its fullness), and that he therefore said:
"It is not contended that the Writings are the Word such as it is in heaven
in its entirety or fullness" (1900 : 115), can only be appreciated as to
its significance when one takes into consideration the final end in view. But
now that the core of the problem has been transferred to the proper essence of
the letter itself of the Latin Word, Bishop W. F. Pendleton's conception with
regard to that letter becomes untenable, and those who would wish to use this
conception as a witness of Bishop W. F. Pendleton against the Writings as being
the Word where Divine Truth in correspondences is in its fullness, would thereby
deviate from the proper spirit from which this conception came forth. For that
spirit was only directed towards showing that the Writings, on the strength of
their interior essence are the Word: the problem of the essence of their
152
REPLY TO THE REV. PROF. DR. ALFRED ACTON letter
thereby remained
in the background. When now, however, the essence of the letter of the
Latin Word is presented as a problem by itself, then one sees that the Divine
Truth in the letter of the Latin Word is in its fullness, and that therefore in
that letter all Divine, celestial, spiritual, and natural truths are
simultaneously present; that therefore in that letter "the Divine Truth in
Heaven is completely
expressed or
written out
in a Divine Natural
language", and that "the Writings are the Word
Page 6. Dr. Alfred Acton.
Here the same thing applies that has been said above respecting Rev. W. H.
Acton, namely that the fact of the difference between exterior-natural-rational,
interior-natural-rational, spiritual-rational, and celestial-rational ideas, and
that they stand in relation to each other only by correspondence, is not yet
seen. From the words "... to those who would receive", it appears that
it is not realized that the reception depends on regeneration and is different
according to the degrees of regeneration.
Page 7. Rev. C. Th. Odhner.
Rev. C. Th. Odhner had a general perception that the Writings must be written in
correspondences; but he remained in the dark as to the particular consequences
of this truth. Therefore he said on the one side: "The Writings are written
according to the law of correspondence, and have within them an internal 153
REPLY TO THE REV. PROF. DR. ALFRED ACTON
sense; were this not the case they would be an exception to all writing", and "Every Divine Revelation is correspondential and has an internal sense and internal senses one within the other even unto the Divine itself"; therefore internal senses distinguished in discrete degrees. If then already it had been possible to support this theory by a real exegesis of those internal senses, one would have had to come to see that the orderly means are the Science of Correspondences, the Doctrine of genuine Truth, and Enlightenment from the Lord. But seeing such an exegesis is impossible, unless first the Doctrine of the Church is born in the Church and the Church is raised from the interior-natural state to the exterior-rational or spiritual state, Rev. C. Th. Odhner on the other side arrived at the conception "that any attempt to translate the Writings into a discretely interior sense ... is bound to meet with failure" (N. CH. L. 1915: 200); and in order to reconcile the contradictions in which he saw himself involved, he said: We do not claim "that the Writings have an internal sense in the same way as the Word in the letter. . . . The doctrine of discrete degrees applies to the science of correspondences as to all other things". From these words it appears that Rev. C. Th. Odhner did not see the Writings as the letter of the Word. By the words "the doctrine of discrete degrees applies to the science of correspondence", he evidently means the three "discrete" degrees of the three different literal senses of the Three Testaments, and he wishes to say that in the case of the two lower degrees, namely the literal senses of the Old and the New Testament, the letter can be translated into a discretely interior sense, but not in the case of the third degree, that is, not in the case of the literal sense of the Writings; and thereby he then extinguishes the profound truth of which he had first received a general perception, namely that "the Writings are written according to the law of correspondence and have within them an internal sense". And this was because he mistook the non-essential correspondences existing between the literal senses of the three Testaments for the properly essential correspondences between the literal sense of each of the three Testaments and the spiritual realities in the Heavens. See concerning the non-essential correspondences here above, page 136. Non-essential they are called
154
REPLY TO THE REV. PROF. DR. ALFRED ACTON because
they are correspondences between things which both
Page 7. Dr. Cranch. In
contradistinction to Rev. C. Th. Odhner who regarded the Writings as the Word as
it is in the Heavens, and not as the letter of the Word, Dr. Cranch gives
expression to the conception that the Writings are the Third Testament of the
letter of the Word, in which the Divine is present in its fullness, in its
holiness, and in its power, and that as a literal form of the Word they make 155
REPLY TO THE REV. PROF. DR. ALFRED ACTON
Page 8. Rev. C. Th. Odhner.
To this also applies what has been said above respecting Rev. W. H. Acton and
Dr. Alfred Acton, namely that the fact of the difference was not seen between
the exterior-natural-rational, the interior-natural-rational,
the spiritual-rational and
the celestial-rational, therefore not the essence of that difference
either; nor that they stand in relation to each other only through
correspondence; that therefore for the exegesis of the internal sense of the
Latin Word not only the Doctrine of genuine Truth and Enlightenment from the
Lord, but also the Science of Correspondences is indispensable.
Page 8. Dr. Alfred Acton.
Respecting this see here above p. 139, where it has been shown that Dr. Acton as
it were with one hand writes down the truth that the New Church must draw the
Doctrine from the Writings, and with the other hand that it need draw no
Doctrine from the Writings.
Page 8. Rev. Albert Bjorck.
If the natural language of Swedenborg were the literal sense of the Writings,
then certainly these would not be the Third Testament of the World of God or the
Divine Truth in ultimates, in its fullness, in its holiness, and in its power.
Nothing else than the Divine-Natural language of the Lord Himself is the literal
sense of the Latin Word. It appears that the "internal rational sight"
of which Rev. Bjorck there speaks, is nothing else than the rationality of the
interior-natural, and that the difference is not seen between the
exterior-natural-rational, the interior-natural-rational, the
spiritual-rational, and the celestial-rational. Such a reflection as Rev. Bjorck
there describes leads to the natural Doctrine of the interior-natural
Church; the spiritual
Doctrine is thereby not touched at
all, still less the celestial Doctrine.
Page 9. Contrast with the
above the assertions made by DE HEMELSCHE LEER with respect to past students of
the subject . . . Here follow the quotations from DE HEMELSCHE LEER which
apparently gave occasion to the reviewer for the reproach of "a lack of
information concerning the positions that have been held in the past with regard
to the Writings as the Word" (page 4). The passages quoted from NEW CHURCH
LIFE by the reviewer were not unknown to
156
REPLY TO THE REV. PROF. DR. ALFRED ACTON has been said in DE HEMELSCHE LEER concerning the former positions held in the Church. The passage on page 71 of DE HEMELSCHE LEER to which the reviewer takes exception, has been incompletely quoted by him, and in reality reads "that perhaps this Doctrine might be fully applied to the Writings". That the essence of the Writings as the Word cannot be understood before the DOCTRINE CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE is applied to them without reserve, is one of the fundamental principles of DE HEMELSCHE LEER. On the first page of DE HEMELSCHE LEER it is said that the crowning thesis of the belief that the Writings are the Word, is that the DOCTRINE CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE must be applied to these Writings. In. the beginning of his review (p. 3, line 17) Dr. Acton seems to wish to belittle this fundamental truth, the entire review is directed against it, and the passages quoted from NEW CHURCH LIFE clearly prove that the truth that the Doctrine concerning the essence of the Writings as the Word is identical with the DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE, was not seen in the Church. — The second passage too. that they have had the curious idea ... is an incorrect quotation. In reality the passage reads: "There has been the curious idea that the Lord in an almost arbitrary fashion has written the Word of the Old and the New Testament in correspondences as something quite exceptional . . .". That this, now still, is the ordinary mode of thought of the large majority of the members of the Church, may be known to everyone. It is not said there that nobody previously had thought of the possibility of applying the law of correspondences to the Writings. That
some, such as Rev. C. Th. Odhner, have expressed similar thoughts was well known
to the writer. It has, however, been shown above (page 153) that the idea which
these writers formed themselves of correspondences, was determined by the
mistaking of the non-essential correspondences between the three literal senses
for the essential correspondences between the spiritual and the natural. —
That they have mistaken the natural ideas of the Writings for genuine rational
truths. It has been shown in the above discussion of the passages quoted by the
reviewer from NEW CHURCH LIFE that none of the writers using the concept of the
rational in their 157
REPLY TO THE REV. PROF. DR. ALFRED ACTON
157 considerations
were conscious of the fact of the difference between the
exterior-natural-rational, the interior-natural-rational, the
spiritual-rational, and the celestial-rational, let alone of the essence of this
difference. The exterior- and the interior-natural-rational, however, are not
the genuine rational, but as to their essence they are purely natural. Even the
spiritual-rational is not the genuine rational. but only the celestial-rational.
The reviewer himself in all the particulars of his review gives evidence that he
still "mistakes merely natural ideas for genuine rational truths",
which we shall further show in what follows. — . . . their literal sense
for the precious things
within them. This is a quotation from THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION; that it
applies to the Third Testament has been shown in DE HEMELSCHE LEER. It clearly
appears from the passages that have been quoted from NEW CHURCH LIFE that even
those who had a g-eneral perception of the truth that there is an internal sense
in the Writings, nevertheless did not see the proper essence of the internal
sense, nor the difference between the letter and the internal sense and
therefore like all others in reality continued to regard the literal sense as
the precious things within.
Page 9, line 13. The new element .. . It is here represented by the reviewer
as if the conception "that the Writings have been written in
correspondences and therefore have an internal sense", has long been
accepted in the Church, and he gives
one the
impression. from his words
that he himself also favors this conception. If the Writings have an internal
sense because they have been written in correspondences, then the difference
between the internal sense and its external sense is the same as between the
soul and its body, or between the, spiritual and its natural with which it
clothes itself. The internal sense then is spiritual, and the external sense
natural, the spiritual sense for the spiritual man, the natural sense for the
natural man; the distance there between is immeasurable, as between the earth
and the firmament, and the internal sense can never be found except if, besides
the other means, also the science of correspondences is used. But although the
words of the reviewer here create the impression, as if he and with him the
Church in general have always favored the conception "that the Writings
have been written in correspon-
158
REPLY TO THE REV. PROF. DR. ALFRED ACTON dences
and therefore have an internal sense", vet, in other places of his review,
he clearly shows that he does not accept the thought of an internal sense on the
strength of the law of correspondence. For on page 19 he says: "That we
must enter more interiorly into the understanding of the Writings, has always
been acknowledged. In the past, moreover, this deeper understanding has
sometimes been called the spiritual or internal sense of the Writings. As a
definition, however, this term is not only vague and lacking in the element of
nice discrimination, but it is also open to serious misinterpretation. ... We
would therefore Only
he who from the Lord by the orderly means, that is the Science of
Correspondences, the Doctrine of Genuine Truth born in the Church, and
Enlightenment from the Lord, is raised above this plane, comes for the first
time into the actual spiritual sense. Only in this light does it become clear
what the words signify "that the Latin Word has been written in
correspondences and therefore has an internal sense". That the words
"enter more 'deeply" as they are used in n. 961 of the APOCALYPSE
REVEALED and in n. 26 of the TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION in reality signify an
entering by correspondence, has been shown by the Rev. Theodore Pitcairn (see
above p. 46). It is therefore not in agreement with the facts if it is
represented by the reviewer that the conception that the Writings have been
written in correspondences and therefore have an internal sense, had long been
accepted in the Church. For the "internal sense" of which he speaks,
is nothing but an entering more deeply on the same plane, 159
REPLY TO THE REV. PROF. DR. ALFRED ACTON
and
it is possible to speak of an internal sense only on the strength of the
correspondence between the spiritual and the natural.
Page 9, line 27. According to the view long held in the Church ... One would
imagine, when reading this paragraph, that the Church, in practice, has for a
long time already in the Writings also, made a difference between their literal
sense and their internal sense; and that therefore the priests of the Church,
since it is their acknowledged task to preach not the literal sense of the Word
but the internal sense, in accordance with the nature of this special kind of
correspondences with which the Word in the Writings is clothed, have always
striven to rise above the literal sense of the Writings and to explain their
internal sense to the people. In the work The Science of Exposition by Bishop W.
F. Pendleton, which is acknowledged by the Church to be a standard work on the
exposition of the Word, there is no mention of such a literal and internal sense
of the Writings. From this work it clearly appears that the task of the priest
is seen in the exposition of the internal sense of the Old and the New
Testament; an internal sense of the Writings and the necessity of elucidating it
according to the special kind of correspondences with which the Word in the
Writings is clothed are not mentioned there. It is difficult to understand how
the sporadic efforts of some of the writers in NEW CHURCH LIFE to prove the
existence of an internal
160
REPLY TO THE REV. PROF. DR. ALFRED ACTON only
example quoted' by the reviewer that can be mentioned
Page 9, line 33. . . . to be seen shining out of the natural-rational truths .
. . The natural-rational truths of the literal
Page 9, line 35. .. . in the same way as the Old and New Testaments are now
elucidated from our pulpits. Here it clearly appears how greatly the reviewer
has misunderstood the position of DE HEMELSCHE LEER. It has been shown above
(pages 134—135, 142, 144) that before first of all the literal sense of the
Third Testament has been opened, or what is the same, before the spiritual
Doctrine of the Church has been born, all exposition of the internal sense of
the Old and the New Testament, cannot possibly rise above the natural sense; and
that the genuine spiritual sense of the Old and the New Testament is seen only
then if first the true spiritual sense of the Third Testament is seen.
Page 10, line 3. Yet, in the actual expositions of the 161
REPLY TO THE REV. PROF. DR. ALFRED ACTON
Writings,
no use is made of this manifestly important distinction, and emphasis seems
rather to be laid on ... Apparently the reviewer does not take into account the
fact that the essence of
correspondence, in the Third Testament also, just as with all essential
correspondences, consists in the relation between the spiritual cause and the
natural effect. The
application of
the science of
correspondences by
which one
arrives from
sensual-natural ideas
to genuine
rational-natural ideas,
for instance from
heat and light to the genuine interior-natural idea of good and truth as
it rules in the natural Heaven, is only a very first step; there is after that
still an entirely different application of that science, namely to
arrive from the
natural-rational to
the spiritual-rational, and
still later even, from the spiritual-rational to the celestial-rational
ideas. The great use of this
application appears from this (as has been described in DE HEMELSCHE LEER, First
Fasc., p. 119) that "the correspondences of the rational ideas which have
been laid down in the natural by the higher degrees of the Doctrine of the
Church, in the form of scientifics are one of the most important means of
raising ever higher the unfolding of truth and of extending it ever
further".
Page 10, line 13. The reader, therefore, will not be surprised ... These words
are addressed to the readers of DE HEMELSCH.E LEER, who from the beginning and
during several years have assisted in the development of
Page 10, line 32. These positions have been arrived at as a logical consequence
... It has already been pointed 162
REPLY TO THE REV. PROF. DR. ALFRED ACTON out
previously that DE HEMELSCHE LEER did not arrive by logical conclusions at its
positions concerning the essence of the Third Testament. These positions of
themselves flow forth from the truth that the Writings are the Divine Truth in
ultimates, in its fullness, holiness and power. Only after the truth of those
positions had appeared before the rational thought and been confirmed by the
letter of the Latin Word, were they summarized in this one fundamental teaching,
that the DOCTRINE CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE must be applied also to the
Third Testament without difference or reserve. In the supposition of the
reviewer the true train of thought of DE HEMELSCHE LEER has therefore just been
reversed.
Page 10, line 36. Past students ... If one sees that also in the Third
Testament the Divine Truth has been laid down in the natural, and that therefore
there too, the distance to the spiritual is immeasurable, such as between the
earth and the firmament, it clearly appears that there is no real difference as
regards the means of the unfolding of the various literal senses. This is
generally acknowledged with regard to the Old and the New Testament, where also
the ultimates are different; for different means or methods are never used
there. The conclusion of the reviewer is based on the supposition that in the
Third Testament one can arrive at the internal sense by an "entering more
deeply" into the literal sense, therefore on the same plane, while in this
way one never rises above the interior-natural, and always remains a discrete
degree below the spiritual sense.
Page II, line 23. ... and since the Writings are written on the plane of
natural-rational truths, that every particular truth therein so corresponds.
This is a truth which perfectly agrees with the conception of DE HEMELSCHE LEER;
but in the conception of the reviewer the la.w of correspondence is not taken
into account. For by the idea of entering more deeply into the literal sense,
the necessity is done away with of going over from the natural plane to the
spiritual plane on the strength of the law of correspondence; however deeply one
enters into the letter, one yet always remains on the same natural plane.
According to the conception of DE HEMELSCHE LEER, however, in the letter of the
Third Testament all Divine, 163
REPLY TO THE REV. PROF. DR. ALFRED ACTON celestial,
and spiritual truths have been laid down in the natural, so that the Lord sees
that letter in a Divine way, the celestial Angel and the celestial man in a
celestial
Page II, line 29. ... can surely not be said of the Writings . . . Whoever is
conscious of the infinite contents of the
Word will
have no
difficulty in
understanding that the places quoted by the reviewer (A.C. 10441, 6839,
9025, etc.) must be applied to the
letter of the Third Testament, without difference and reserve.
Page II, line 35. Moreover, unreservedly to apply to the Writings the literal
statements ... Such a procedure is entirely in disagreement with the mode of
thought of DE HEMELSCHE LEER. According to DE HEMELSCHE LEER one must leave the
literal sense entirely, in order to arrive
at the genuine Doctrine. With
regard to the DOCTRINE CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE this applies as
well to the Third Testament, as to the Old and the New Testament. If the Church
remains in the literal sense of the Third Testament, one can never see that the
DOCTRINE CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE must be applied to the Third Testament.
Page 11, line 41. I have already presented
some specimens ... Here we have a summary of the results of the elucidation of
the internal sense, such as it has long been accepted in the
Church. The
specimen of the progress in the understanding of the doctrines — (all
the other examples are
taken from Rev.
Hyatt) — has reference to
the development of the natural Doctrine of the Church. The characteristic of
this Doctrine is that "to man in this state it is entirely impossible to
see the spiritual, let
alone the
celestial, in its proper essence (A.C. 1911); as regards his own internal
things he is in the thickest darkness, yea, he has no idea whatever of them, so
that for instance, in the Latin Word he identifies
the spiritual
rational with
the rational-natural
scientific (A.C.
1904), while
in reality
he only just 164
REPLY TO THE REV. PROF. DR. ALFRED ACTON participates
in the natural rational and with. him there is as yet no question at all of the
spiritual rational. It is inherent to the merely natural essence of this state
that
Page 14, line 24. Whether or not one agrees ... In the expositions quoted by
the reviewer it has been shown that the elucidation of the title of the ARCANA
COELESTIA, which has been given on page 3 of that work, in the internal sense
contains a complete description of
the essence of the Word and of the
Doctrine of the Church,
while this elucidation in the literal sense seems to be no more than an
unimportant editorial annotation. If the exposition quoted is based on an
orderly exegesis and these things are actually contained in the internal sense
of the text of page 3 of the ARCANA COELESTIA, then a practical
proof has
there been given that the
Latin Testament contains an internal
sense which must be unfolded
with the orderly means of exegesis, and that the natural signification must
there be put entirely aside, so that the literal sense as it were entirely
disappears. Furthermore, if the exegesis of the concepts experience and text is
based on reality, a proof has been given that the Doctrine of the Church is
Divine, for it is shown that by the text the forms of the Doctrine of the Church
are indicated, that these are spiritual out of celestial origin, and therefore
of purely Divine origin and of
Divine essence. It
is therefore surprising
that the
reviewer considers it to be sufficient to say: "Whether or not one
Page 14, line 27. There is nothing new ... in them 165
REPLY TO THE REV. PROF. DR. ALFRED ACTON
Doctrine
of the Church is of Divine origin, of Divine Page
14, line 28. ... thoughts which might easily have teen gathered from a
plain reading of the Writings
Page 14, line 31. . - . that what DE HEMELSCHE LEER puts forth as
elucidations is plainly taught in the Writings . . . The essential contents of
these elucidations are the two above-named
teachings, namely
that the
DOCTRINE CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE must be applied to the Third
Testament without difference and reserve, and that the Doctrine of the Church is
of Divine origin, of Divine essence, and of Divine authority. The reviewer here
says that these things are plainly taught in the Writings.
Page 14, line 38. Here we note ... The Doctrine or the internal sense is to be
confirmed by the literal sense (S.S. 53).
It is entirely
incomprehensible why this is
reproached as a fault to DE HEMELSCHE
LEER. But although DE
HEMELSCHE LEER has continually confirmed its Doctrine according to order by the
literal sense, yet its
thought is not in the
literal sense.
This has
been elucidated above
(page 163)
on the
strength of
the example that if the Church remains in the literal sense of the Third
Testament, one can never see that the DOCTRINE CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE
must be applied to the Third Testament without difference and reserve.
Page 14, line 41. . . . yet, according to DE HEMELSCHE LEER the "natural
signification" of the Writings "must be put entirely aside", if
we would arrive at its spiritual teaching. In the exposition of. page 3 of the
ARCANA COELESTIA, as it has been given in the articles Arcana una cum
Mirabilibus in DE HEMELSCHE LEER, the intent of which was to arrive at the
spiritual teaching of that text, the
natural signification
has been
put entirely aside. But the
confirmation of that exposition had to be 166
REPLY TO THE REV. PROF. DR. ALFRED ACTON given
according to order through the literal sense of the Word, not through the
internal sense. "An appeal to their internal sense", as the reviewer
says, would be contrary to order.
Page 14, line 37. ... but what is the internal sense of the teaching itself?
The Doctrine, that is the internal sense, must be confirmed through the literal
sense. The question of the reviewer is therefore not directed against DE
HEMELSCHE LEER, but against the Latin Word itself, where this apparently
paradoxical truth is clearly taught. The core of the reviewer's question is,
"how can the internal sense be confirmed by the literal sense, in view of
the fact that the literal sense must be left, if one will see the internal
sense?" This is possible because in the literal sense of the Latin Word the
Divine Truth is in its fullness,
and because therefore
all Divine,
celestial, and spiritual truths have there been laid down in the natural.
If a man opens the literal sense of a given passage according to order, he will see that
the internal sense which then appears before him, is taught clearly in many
other places in the letter. By this he sees the internal sense confirmed through
the literal sense. But only he who has thus been raised to the internal sense
will be able to see this, since he now sees out of the celestial, or out of
good; he now sees those confirmatory passages of the letter from within, or out
of the celestial, or out of good. About this seeing from within we read in the
ARCANA COELESTIA: "Those who when reading the Word are in enlightenment,
see it from within, for their internal is open, and when the internal is open it
is in the light of Heaven; this light flows in and enlightens" (n.
10551). However, he who remains in the letter with regard to the passage
to be expounded, remains entirely in the natural also
with regard to the
confirmatory passages, for he does not see them from within, but from without.
Therefore, even there where the internal sense of the passage to be expounded is
clearly taught in the letter, he sees nothing
whatever of the internal
sense, but he remains in merely natural ideas. It is therefore not in
agreement with the facts if the reviewer says that the teaching that the truth
of a higher degree becomes the good of the next lower ... is given as the
internal 167
REPLY TO THE REV. PROF. DR. ALFRED ACTON
sense
of the words "experience" and "text". First, this teaching
is not in direct connection with the explicatio From
this it is that those who are in external things without what is internal do not
acknowledge internal things, because they do not feel and see them; and also
that some deny them, and together with them, the things celestial and
Divine" (n. 10468). By the external the external or literal sense of the
Word is meant (see n. 10397, 10401, 10402, 10460); in the New Church the literal
sense of the Latin Word. By the internal the genuine spiritual and celestial
things born in the human mind and living there, are meant. That the man of the
New Church may to all appearance be well informed in the letter of the Latin
Word, and yet have no part in the living spiritual and celestial things, is
clear.
168
REPLY TO THE REV. PROF. DR. ALFRED ACTON
Page 15, line 1. Moreover, why should truths be thus concealed in the
Writings? In the letter of the Word, being the Word in lasts, Divine Truth has
been laid down in the natural. The distance between the natural and the
spiritual, or between the literal sense and the genuine spiritual truths of the
Church is immeasurable, and there is no relation there between but that of
correspondence.
Page 15, line 7, ... we cannot imagine that Swedenborg was ignorant of the
"spiritual sense" . . . DE HEMELSCHE LEER contains no single word that
could give occasion to such a strange thought as that Swedenborg was ignorant of
the spiritual sense, or that he, knowing it, sought to hide it.
Page 15, line 19. Would it not be clouds that have come? We read that the Son
of Man will come "in the clouds of Heaven with great glory and power"
(Matt. 24 : 30), and in REVELATION, chapter I, verse 7: "Behold, He cometh
with clouds" (cf. here above, page 116). From the question of the reviewer
it seems one would have to conclude that he has not made himself acquainted with
•the address by H. D. G. Groeneveld, on the Coming of the Lord in the Doctrine
of the Church (First Fasc., pp 38— 43). It needs no argument, that if one has
not entered into what has been laid down in this address, one cannot understand
the view of DE HEMELSCHE LEER.
Page 15, line 22. DE HEMELSCHE LEER criticizes those who call the Writings the
internal sense of the Word. It is said in DE HEMELSCHE LEER: "Indeed the
Third Testament is the revelation of the internal sense of the Word, but only if
one regards the literal sense of that Word not from without, but from within or
from the spiritual-rational" (First Fasc. pp. 43, 35, 129, 130). The places
here quoted by the reviewer are just as many confirmations of this truth. In the
APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED, n. 376, it is said in the sentence immediately preceding
the words quoted by the reviewer: "No one is ever admitted into the
spiritual sense unless he is in genuine truths out of good". In the second
passage quoted by the reviewer, APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED, n. 950, it is said:
"Divine Truth proceeding from the Lord is what appears before the eyes of
the Angels as light, for the reason that Divine Truth enlightens their
understanding; and what enlightens the under- 169
REPLY TO THE REV. PROF. DR. ALFRED ACTON
169 standing
of the Angels is light to their eyes. Such is Divine Truth in Heaven, and such
is the Word in its spiritual sense; while Divine Truth on the earth is such as
the Word is in the sense of the letter, in which there are few genuine truths,
but they are appearances of truths; the natural man receives no other". And
just as clear are the very words quoted by the reviewer from this number:
"That man may again be conjoined with Heaven". For the conjunction
between man and Heaven is based, on the correspondence between the spiritual and
the natural; where both are not present, the natural as well as the spiritual,
and they do not make one by correspondence, there is no conjunction. And
likewise the other places here quoted by the reviewer; they confirm the position
of DE HEMELSCHE LEER.
Page 16, line 1. That this sense is there clothed in the language of rational
thought is evident. Divine Truth has been laid down in the Third Testament in
the rational-natural. Rational
thoughts the
celestial Angels
and celestial men alone have (A.C. 6240). Here we have an example that
the reviewer "mistakes merely natural ideas for genuine rational
truths" (see here above, p. 157), in that he identifies the
rational-natural with the rational.
Page 16, line 6. But surely it is not suggested . . . If it is such a
self-evident truth that truth in the Writings is clothed with the things derived
from the world, why then is the teaching not accepted that the truth must there
first be stripped of its clothing, if one wishes to arrive at the naked, that
is, the genuine truth? Moreover, it is a fact that even to-day the large
majority of the members of the Church, and among them leading priests, regard
the literal
Page 16, line 9. "It is not contended (wrote Bishop W. F. Pendleton) .
.." If the Writings were not the Word such as it is in Heaven in its
entirety or fullness, they would not be the Word at all (see here above pp.
150-152). And, by the way, the reviewer is dealing with the question whether the
truth in the Writings is naked or clothed, but Bishop W. F. Pendleton is dealing
with the question whether the truth in the Writings has been given in its
170
REPLY TO THE REV. PROF. DR. ALFRED ACTON entirety
or only partially; these two concepts have nothing whatever to do with each
other, which also is confirmed by the fact that Bishop W. F. Pendleton in the
same paragraph adds the following words: "The Word in heaven is veiled or
covered in the letter, but unveiled, laid open plainly to view, in the
Writings" (NEW CHURCH LIFE 1900 : 216).
Page 16, line 14. We are taught ... What does the reviewer wish to prove by
this passage? He has just said that the truth in the Writings is clothed with
the things derived from the world. And now he quotes this passage in order to
say that the spiritual sense, which is the truth stripped of the things of the
world, is for men also. The complete passage reads as follows: "The
spiritual sense of the Word is for the Angels, and also for those men who are
spiritual" (A.E. 697). A man who is spiritual is only he who is as an Angel
of the second Heaven. Such a man reads the Latin Word from within, or from the
spiritual-rational; in all the natural things with which the truth in the letter
of the Latin Word is clothed, he sees the abstract spiritual concepts of the
good and the truth, with which those natural things correspond. The same is
taught in the following places in the ARCANA COELESTIA: "The internal sense
is for the Angels, and for those men who are angelic minds" (n. 3016); and
"The internal sense is for those who are in Heaven; and also for those who
are in the world, yet in so far as they are at the same time in Heaven (n.
8912).
Page 16, line 15. And what else do devout men see . . . This is another example
of how the reviewer "mistakes merely natural ideas for genuine rational
truths".
Page 16, line 19. "Through this revelation ..." The conjunction
between the two worlds is based on the correspondence between the internal or
spiritual and the external or natural sense of the Latin Word. There is an open
communication with the Angels of Heaven only in the measure in which the minds
of men have been opened into Heaven. There is communication of the
interior-natural men with the Angels of the first Heaven; there is communication
of the spiritual men with the Angels of the second Heaven; there is
communication of the celestial men with the Angels of the third Heaven. It
is in the light of this 171
REPLY TO THE REV. PROF. DR. ALFRED ACTON
truth,
namely that by this Revelation an open communication with the Angels of Heaven
has been granted, that Mr. Groeneveld in his New Year's Address for 1930,
realizing the great significance of the new state which will dawn for the Church
by the birth of the Doctrine of the Church, said: "We shall be in the
Heavens here on earth" (First Fasc., p. 18).
Page 16, line 23. . . . these correspondences are rational truths. For the
celestial man they are rational truths (A.C. 6240). The scientifics of the
letter are rational-natural ideas and correspond with the rational truths. There
is no other possibility of arriving from the letter at those rational truths
than the application of the Science of Correspondences, the Doctrine of Genuine
Truth, and Enlightenment from the Lord.
Page 16, line 24. .. . Swedenborg . .. It is self-evident that the truths
of the Latin Word for Swedenborg were rational truths. DE HEMELSCHE LEER
contains no single word that could give occasion to a different thought.
Page 16, line 32. . . . curiously enough . . . The correspondences between the
sensual things of the Old Testament and the rational-natural ideas of the Third
Testament are non-essential correspondences (see here above p. 136); essential
correspondences exist only between the actual spiritual and celestial causes and
the natural effects.
Page 16, line 37. Surely ... If we have to do with essential correspondences,
then indeed the ideas of God, the Lord, etc., derived from the letter of the
Writings, are entirely different from the interior ideas hidden therein, in the
same way in which stone and wood differ from the things which they signify; and
then the distance between the letter and the spiritual sense in the Third
Testament proves to be just as great as in the Old and in the New Testament.
This becomes clear if one realizes that an Angel of the First Heaven has a
natural idea of God and the Lord as well as of stone and wood, while an Angel of
the second Heaven has a spiritual idea of stone and wood as well as of God and
the Lord; and the celestial Angel has a celestial idea of both. The necessity of
applying also the science of correspondences to the Third Testament here clearly
appears.
172
REPLY TO THE REV. PROF. DR. ALFRED ACTON teaching
. . . The passage referred to in the INVITATION reads
Page 17, line 8. . . . the lifted veil, signifying "that now the
Word is laid open" .. . It is said in the beginning of this number that the
lifted veil signified that now the Word has been laid open; but that thereby is
not meant that in the Third Testament the truths lie naked and open to day
before the eyes of all men, clearly appears from what follows in that number,
where it is further elucidated what is to be understood by the words NUNC LICET
and by the lifted veil; namely that now the understanding of man can be raised
more and more into the light of Heaven, that is, first into the light of the
first Heaven, later into the light of the second Heaven, and finally into the
light of the third Heaven. There is no other relation between these three
degrees of light than that of correspondence. The lifted veil signifies, that it
is now allowed to enter, which is possible only by regeneration, but not, that
every man has already entered who takes direct cognizance of the letter of the
Latin Word. That it is possible to take cognizance of the letter of the Latin
Word, while the veil still remains, history has abundantly demonstrated.
Page 17, line 10. "Now it is allowed . . ." Although it is now
allowed to enter intellectually into the Word and to penetrate into all its
arcana, yet the Church so far has been given to rise only above the
exterior-natural of the Word. DE HEMELSCHE LEER has pointed out that the Church,
if this is done according to order, may now rise above the natural and enter
into the spiritual, and later 173
REPLY TO THE REV. PROF. DR. ALFRED ACTON
it
is here
quoted by the
reviewer to prove
that if only one has entered
into the Latin Word, one has then already entered
intellectually into its
properly spiritual and
celestial arcana. Page 17, line 31. This was not the case in the Old Testament or the New ... If the truths of the Old and the New Testament were not truths continuous from the Lord, truths that are uninterrupted in their descent from firsts to lasts, then the Old and the New Testament would not be the Word. How otherwise could there have been, with the well-disposed Israelites and with the well-disposed Christians, "conjunction with the Lord and association with the Angels through the sense of the letter of the Word" (S.S. 62)? If there was the affection of good and truth, then there was conjunction through each smallest word of that letter; the interruption of that conjunction, was caused not by the nature of that letter, but only and exclusively by the lack of the affection of good and truth, and especially by the affection of evil and falsity. We read concerning the Word as the uniting means between the earth and Heaven, in the ARCANA COELESTIA: "The Word has been given from the Lord to man and also to the Angels in order that through it they may be with Him; for the Word is the uniting medium of the earth with Heaven, and through this with the Lord; it is its literal sense which unites man with the first Heaven; and as within the literal sense there is an internal sense which treats of the Kingdom of the Lord, and within this a supreme sense which treats of the Lord, and as these senses are in order one within the other, it is evident what is the nature of the union through the Word with the Lord" (n. 3476). That
this passage must be applied to all three Testaments of the Word is clear. From
this it also appears that the literal sense of the Latin Word conjoins man with
the first Heaven. In the passage referred to in THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION (n.
508), where these "truths continuous from the Lord" are spoken of, the
"doctrinal things of the New Church" are contrasted with the
"dogmas in the present-day Christian churches"; of the former it is
said that they are "truths continuous from the Lord revealed through the
Word", but of the latter, that is, of the dogmas in the present-day
Christian churches, it is said that they are
174
REPLY TO THE REV. PROF. DR. ALFRED ACTON "not
out of the Word, but patched together out of self-intelligence and thence out of
falsities, and also confirmed by some things out of the Word". From this
passage -the reviewer arrives at the conclusion that the "revelation to the
New Church is a revelation of truths continuous from the Lord, while this is not
the case in the Old Testament or the New". That this passage does not mean
to contrast the Old and the New Testament with the Third Testament, but to
contrast the dogmas of the Christian church with the doctrinal things of the New
Church appears from the literal words. Of the dogmas of the Christian church it
is said that they are not out of the Word; of the doctrinal things of the New
Church it is said that they are from the Lord revealed through the Word. That by
this last mentioned Word the Third Testament is meant, and that the doctrinal
things of the New Church are not the unopened letter of that Word, has been
explained above, where it has been shown that the New Church is not out of the
Old and the New Testament, but out of the Third Testament (pp.
124, 140), and that the truths of the letter of the Latin
Testament are not the truths of the Doctrine of the New Church, but that they
differ there-from (p. 115). In what follows, where we shall speak of the
"mirrors of the Lord" this will be further elucidated.
Page 17, line 36. The Divine invitation ... "Enter henceforth - - .".
It has been explained in DE HEMELSCHE LEER that as long as the Church remains in
the literal sense
of the Latin Word, it cannot rise above the interior-natural, and that therefore
as yet it accepts the Divine invitation to enter into the mysteries of the Word
only in a very imperfect manner. The literal sense, also of the Third Testament,
at direct cognizance, consists of mere scientifics,
and there
is no
other possibility of thence
arriving at genuine spiritual truths but the application of the revealed orderly
means. That in this also the science of correspondences is indispensable,
appears from the following passage in the ARCANA COELESTIA: "So far as the
ideas of thought concerning spiritual things are formed independently of
correspondences, so far they are formed either from the fallacies of the senses,
or from what is inconsistent with such
things" (n. 9300). That
it is impossible by direct cognizance of the scientifics of the 175
REPLY TO THE REV. PROF. DR. ALFRED ACTON
Latin
Word to enter into the mysteries of faith is described in the following passage
in the ARCANA COELESTIA: "Making a king and not from Me, and making princes
and I knew it not, denotes to hatch truth and primary truths out of one's own
lumen and not from the Divine. . . . Making their silver and their gold into
idols, denotes to pervert the scientifics of truth and good out of the sense of
the letter of the Word . . . and still to worship them as holy, although, being
out of their own intelligence, they are devoid of life. ... Outwardly they
appear like truths, because they That
these words must be applied to the Third Testament is clear; and this is also
admitted by the reviewer when he says that "men may misinterpret and
pervert those truths" (n. 18). But how otherwise is it possible not to
misinterpret them than out of enlightenment from the Lord? And the reviewer says
that the internal sense may there be seen without enlightenment (see above, p.
134). And how can the natural man in the letter of the Latin Word, where all
Divine, celestial, spiritual, and natural truths are together, distinguish the
spiritual truths from the natural, and even the celestial truths from the
spiritual and from the natural? In order to be able to do this there must be
"an influx of living light through the internal man from the Lord" (A.C.
9103). For "the Lord does not openly teach any one truths, but through good
He leads to the thinking of what is true" (A.C. 5952). The reviewer points
out to DE HEMELSCHE LEER the truth that now a Divine invitation has been
extended to the man of the Church to enter into all the mysteries of the Word,
while in reality DE HEMELSCHE LEER indicates the orderly means of rising above
the natural things in order to eater also into the spiritual things.
Page 17, line 39. Clearly ... In the foregoing the reviewer has said that the
revelation to the New Church is a revelation of truths continuous from the Lord,
truths 176
REPLY TO THE REV. PROF. DR. ALFRED ACTON that
are uninterrupted in their descent from firsts to lasts, and that this was not
the case in the Old Testament and the New. Now here the reviewer says that
clearly "the mirrors of the Lord" of which mention is made in n. 508
of THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, are the rational truths of the Writings, which
form the last and ultimate link in the chain of truths continuous from the Lord.
The reviewer therefore says that the truths of the Writings are mirrors of the
Lord, but that the truths of the Old and the New Testament are no mirrors of the
Lord. This is confirmed by him with the words "What would be the
significance of the expression henceforth, if the Word, that is, the Writings,
is still shut up behind a veil?" But the passage referred to in THE TRUE
CHRISTIAN RELIGION, n. 508, here quoted by the reviewer in small capitals, reads
as follows: "Enter henceforth
into the mysteries
of the Word, ... for all its
truths are so many mirrors of the Lord". Thus the truths of the Word are
mirrors of the Lord. Just as has been shown above that all the truths also of
the Old and the New Testament are truths continuous from the Lord, so it is here
taught even literally that all truths of the Word, therefore also those of the
Old and the New Testament, are mirrors of the Lord. That those truths for the
Christian church no longer were mirrors of the Lord, does not lie in the nature
of that Word but in the perverted state of man. This is expressly taught in the
following passage of the same work: "For every one who has formed the state
of his mind from God the Holy Scripture is like a mirror wherein he sees God;
but every one in his own way. This mirror is made up of those truths that he
learns out of the Word and that he appropriates by living in accordance with
them" (n. 6). The reviewer thus says that the truths of the Old and the New
Testament are no mirrors of the Lord, because there the mirrors are covered by a
veil, a veil caused by the writers of the Old and the New Testament. The Word
itself teaches that all truths of the Word are mirrors of God, for those who
have formed their minds from God. DE HEMELSCHE LEER says that the truths also of
the Third Testament are mirrors of the Lord only for those who have formed their
minds from the Lord. For those who are regenerated in the third degree the
singular truths of 177
REPLY TO THE REV. PROF. DR. ALFRED ACTON
that
Testament are such mirrors of the Lord that they see therein the Divine Human as
do the celestial Angels; for those who
are regenerated
in the second degree,
those truths are such mirrors of the Lord that they see therein spiritual
truth as do the spiritual Angels; for those who are regenerated in the first
degree, those truths are such mirrors that they see therein spiritual-natural
truth as do the natural Angels.
Page 17, line 40. . . . the rational truths of the Writings
Page 18, line 1. What would be the significance of the expression
"henceforth" . . .? It is one of the leading principles of DE
HEMELSCHE LEER that as long as the New Church remains merely in the literal
sense of the Latin Word, it is only in natural truths with regard to all three
Testaments, while the significance of the invitation "enter henceforth into
the mysteries of the Word" is that it should enter also into the spiritual
truths in order to get a step further on the road to its goal where it will be a
celestial Church, for the first time the Bride of the Lamb.
Page 18, line 8. We note ... The Rev. Theodore Pitcairn has already shown that
"to enter more deeply") as it is here said, 'signifies entering
according to correspondences (see above, p. 46); this is expressly
confirmed in the text itself by the words: "And then I told them that my
natural thought about the trinity and unity of persons
Page 18, line 12. DE HEMELSCHE LEER limits the application . . . Seeing the
reviewer identifies the Doctrine of the Church with the letter of the Latin
Word, it is comprehensible that he regards the truths which man derives from
that letter by direct cognizance as the doctrinal things of the New Church. It
has, however, already been
178
REPLY TO THE REV. PROF. DR. ALFRED ACTON pointed
out above -that in the passage referred to the doctrinal things of the New
Church are contrasted with the dogmas of the old church, and by no means the
letter of the Third Testament with the letter of the Old and the New Testament.
Of the dogmas of the old church it is said that they are "not out of the
Word but out of self-intelligence", and of the doctrinal things of the New
Church it is said that they are "from the Lord revealed through the
Word". Since the reviewer acknowledges the Writings as the Word and favors
the conception that the New Church must draw its Doctrine also out of this Word,
one would believe he would see in this place too that by the Word also the Third
Testament is meant. It would be easy to fill many pages with quotations from the
Third Testament from which it appears that with regard to the unopened letter of
the Word there can never be any question of doctrinal things, but that these
arise only there where the Church takes up that letter and. opens it as to its
contents. That this also applies to the New Church and to the Latin Word is
self-evident; yea, it now applies more than ever before, for in the New Church
it has for the first time been allowed "to enter intellectually and to
penetrate into all the mysteries of the Word". The order of the arising of
doctrinal things is described in the following passages in the ARCANA COELESTIA:
"Scientifics and doctrinal things are distinct from each other in this,
that out of scientifics are doctrinal things; these have respect to use, and are
procured by reflection out of scientifics" (n. 3052); here it clearly
appears that there never is any question of doctrinal things, unless by the
activity of the human mind; all doctrinal
things are
ever necessarily
preceded by scientifics
which are gained by direct cognizance. "Doctrinal things are conclusions
from scientifics; for there flows in through the rational as it were a dictate
that this is true, and this not true" (n. 3057); it is clearly described
here how doctrinal things arise in the human mind. "Out of scientifics
afterward may be learned and comprehended truths still more interior, which are
called doctrinal things" (n. 3309). "From this it is that man ought to
begin out of scientifics, which are the truths of the natural man, and afterward
out of doctrinal things, which are the truths of the spiritual man in his
natural, in order to be initiated 179
REPLY TO THE REV. PROF. DR. ALFRED ACTON
into
the intelligence of wisdom" (n. 3726). "That they have their doctrinal
things out of the Word does not make them to be Divine truths; for out of the sense of the letter of the Word any doctrinal
whatever may be hatched, ... but not so if the doctrinal is formed out of the
internal sense" (n. 7233). "It is similar with those who remain in the
mere literal sense of the Word and collect nothing doctrinal thence; for they
are separated from the internal sense, inasmuch as the internal sense is the
doctrinal itself" (n. 9380).
From all these places it may be clear beyond doubt to every one that the
unopened scientifics of the letter of the Third Testament are not the doctrinal
things of the New Church; but that the New Church must gather those doctrinal
things out of the letter of the Third Testament according to order in a state of
enlightenment, which can only be done if they are formed out of the internal
sense of that Testament.
Page 18, line 25. But a further consequence ... From the preceding remarks it
is clear that if one regards the letter of the Latin Word from within, or out of
the celestial of one of the Heavens, all particulars of that letter are
"truths continuous from the Lord", and therefore also "as
Page 18, line 35. . .. and it is this fact that makes the Writings different
from and superior to all revelations . . . Here it is again repeated that the
truths of the Old and the New Testament are no truths continuous from the Lord
(see above, p. 173).
Page 19, line 7. ... but it is the internal sense of a revelation . . . What
has this description of what according to the reviewer is the purpose of the
language in which this revelation is couched to do with a characterization of
the internal sense of that revelation? The Word in all its Testaments has an
internal and an external or a spiritual and a natural sense, that is, a soul and
a body. The purpose of all the Testaments is to lead to the knowledge of the
Lord Himself.
Page 19, line 35. .. . the deeper arcana concerning the
180
REPLY TO THE REV. PROF. DR. ALFRED ACTON glorification
of the Lm-d. We lead in HEAVEN AND HELL: "The Doctrine of the inmost Heaven
is more full of wisdom than the Doctrine of the middle Heaven, and this more
full of intelligence than the Doctrine of the lowest Heaven; for the
Doctrines are
adapted to the perception of the Angels in. each Heaven" (n. 227)
and in ON THE NEW JERUSALEM AND ITS CELESTIAL DOCTRINE: "The Doctrine of
celestial good, which is that of love to the Lord, is the most comprehensive and
at the same time the most hidden; for it is the Doctrine of the Angels of the
inmost
Page 19, line 37. ... the fundamental truths of Christ- 181
REPLY TO THE REV. PROF. DR. ALFRED ACTON
ianity
... The history of the Churches, the First and the Second Coming of the Lord:
John the Baptist, the birth of the Lord, the life, the passion and the death,
the resurrection, the ascension, the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, the Second
Coming; furthermore the history of the Christian Church from its beginning to
its consummation, all these things in the spiritual sense have an application to
the history of the New Church, of which the Church has not even surmised the
existence.
Page 19, line 38. . . . is there not a latent danger . . . The literal
sense derives its entire life from the internal sense. Without the internal
sense the letter is dead. The same objection that the reviewer here makes is
always made by the old church over against the New Church. In what measure,
however, the realization of the internal sense bestows new life and new power to
the letter, has been seen by this that one now begins to realize how the text of
the Third Testament is Divine even in the singular words. Our principles of
translation have thereby been so strongly influenced that we now see that it is
of importance to give a literal translation of each smallest word. In the future
it will prove impossible to arrive at the genuine sense of the Latin Word on the
basis of translations that are not accurate as regards each smallest word.
.Page 19, line 41. When, for instance, we read . . . From this question it
appears clearly how thick the veil of truth has become in the Third Testament.
If the natural signification of these words were not put entirely aside, they
could never have the least significance for the spiritual or for the celestial
thought.
182
REPLY TO THE REV. PROF. DR. ALFRED ACTON
Page 20, line 27. "By the male child is signified the Doctrine of that
Church . . ." DE HEMELSCHE LEER fully acknowledges that what has been said
in that passage concerning the birth of the male child and concerning the
dragonists applies in the literal sense to the revelation of the Third Testament
itself. The fact that there is an internal sense concealed in the literal sense
does not mean that the literal sense itself is not true. But that here in the
spiritual sense the birth of the Doctrine in the Church itself is treated of,
appears clearly from this that by the
Page 20, line 36. . . . that the Writings are the Heavenly Doctrine ... The
Latin Word in itself is the Divine Doctrine itself; it contains the celestial
Doctrine, the spiritual Doctrine, and the natural Doctrine. Only the celestial
man of the future celestial New Church will be able to see therein the proper
celestial Doctrine (see above, pp. 127, 144—145). It has been explained in DE
HEMELSCHE LEER, in connection with the concept explicatio, that is, unfolding,
as it appears on page 3 of the ARCANA COELESTIA, "that the Third Testament
is indeed in itself an unfolding of the Word, but that as to its literal sense,
such as we take direct cognizance of from without, it must be unfolded anew, if
man is not to remain in merely natural scientifics; for the proper rational, the
spiritual and the celestial, can never lie in sensual cognizance alone, but it
consists in internal states to which man according to order must raise himself,
and this raising consists in the successive opening of the folds of truth"
(First Fasc., pp. 97-99). The reviewer has not entered upon this fundamental
exposition with a single word. For those who have understood this exposition it
is clear that also everything which the reviewer says in this second part of his
review concerning the Doctrine of the Church, is based on an entire
misapprehension. 183
REPLY TO THE REV. PROF. DR. ALFRED ACTON
Page 22, line 13. ... while in the doctrine of the Church drawn from those Writings and formulated by men, it is openly revealed. The reviewer mistakes the literal sense of the Doctrine for the proper Doctrine itself, of which it is said "that it is spiritual out of celestial origin" (A, C. 2496, 2510), "that the Lord is that Doctrine itself" (A.C. 2859), and "that the internal sense is the Doctrine of the Church itself" (N.J.H.D. 260; A.C. 9025, 9430, 10400, and in many other places). It has been clearly explained in DE HEMELSCHE LEER that this Doctrine is an internal vision of the truth from the Lord, that it exists only in a state of enlightenment in the living mind of a regenerated man, and that in the moment in which it is expressed or written down in natural words, the truth thereof for those who are not likewise in that state, is again veiled and sealed; yea, the veil of truth in the literal sense of the Doctrine of the Church has become still thicker than it was in the letter of the Third Testament. It is entirely in disagreement with the position of DE HEMELSCHE LEER to say that the truth has been openly revealed in the letter of the Doctrine, formulated by men. That
the truth also in the letter of the Doctrine of the Church has been laid down in
the natural, and that therefore those who take up that letter by direct
cognizance, thereby do not in any way receive genuine truths, but only
scientifics of truths, appears clearly from the following passages in the ARCANA
COELESTIA: "Scientifics are full of the fallacies of the senses, which
cannot be dispelled by those who are in mere cognitions out of Doctrine, and not
in the perception of truth out of good.
184
REPLY TO THE REV. PROF. DR. ALFRED ACTON external
or natural memory; ...
[that is to say] the scientifics out of the Word or out of the Doctrine of the
Church" (n. 9723). "They who are in enlightenment are in the light of
Heaven as to their internal man; .. . they who are thus enlightened apprehend,
the Word according to its interior things; therefore they make for themselves a
Doctrine out of the Word, to which they apply the sense of the letter. .,. But
they who are not of this kind merely confirm the doctrinal things of their
Church" (n. 9382); and so in many other places.
Page 22, line 15. ... the men of the Church will be able lo supply a vehicle of
words ... while Swedenborg was unable to do this, or unwilling. DE HEMELSCHE
LEER contains no single word which could give occasion to an affirmative reader
for such a thought. In the Spirit of the Lord, in the spirits of the Angels who
were witness to the revelation of the Third Testament and in the spirit of
Swedenborg, the Third Testament when it was given was Divine, celestial and
spiritual; but in the letter the Divine, the celestial and spiritual, was laid
down in the natural By direct cognizance a natural man can never receive
there-from anything else than the rational-natural scientifics.
The same
is the
case with
the genuine Doctrine of the
Church; with those who from the Lord have been raised to the source of genuine
truth, that is, to the celestial of one of the three Heavens, that Doctrine is
spiritual out of celestial origin; but in the letter thereof the spiritual has
again been laid down in the natural.
Page 22, line 22. If the Writings are not the Heavenly Doctrine ... The Third
Testament in itself is the Divine Doctrine itself; it contains the celestial
Doctrine which is seen therein by the celestial man; it contains the spiritual
Doctrine which is seen therein by the spiritual man; and it contains the natural
Doctrine which is seen therein by the interior-natural man.
Page 22, line 24. , . . does not the same objection apply to the Doctrine of
the Church...? The Doctrine of the Church is spiritual out of celestial origin.
But in its letter it has again been laid
down in the natural, and in that letter the veil of truth has become still thicker
than before. This may be illustrated by this that a newcomer in the Church has
more use for the general truths of the 185
REPLY TO THE REV. PROF. DR. ALFRED ACTON
185 letter
of the Latin. Word than for the particulars of the letter of a highly developed
Doctrine of the Church, which are not easily understood.
Page 22, line 28. ... an understanding consisting of truths
which "are never
truths in themselves but
appearances of truth accommodated to the rational".
In the passage referred to in 1)E HEMELSCHE LEER the subject treated of
is the genuine interior-rational truths of the celestial Heaven, of
the celestial Doctrine, and
of the celestial man. We read on this subject in the 26th chapter of
Genesis: "The spiritual, not having perception as the celestial have,
do not know that Divine truth becomes rational truth with man when he is
regenerated. They do indeed say that all good and all truth are from the Lord;
yet when these exist in their rational, they suppose good and truth to be their
own, thus as it were from themselves; for they cannot be separated from their
own which so wills it; while as regards this matter with the celestial, these
perceive Divine Good and Truth in the rational, that is, in the rational things
which when enlightened from the Divine of the Lord, are the appearances of
truth" (A. C. 3394). These interior-rational or celestial truths are meant
by Mr. H. D. G. Groeneveld in his address on The Doctrine of the Church, on the
basis of the 26th chapter of Genesis (First
Fasc., pp. 14-17; elucidated on pp.
62-65). This argument forms a veritable corner-stone for the Doctrine concerning
the Doctrine of the Church. The reviewer here places the celestial truths, the
highest forms of truth which man. or Angel can. ever conceive, and which make
the proper light of the third Heaven, on one line with the natural scientifics
of the letter of the Doctrine of the Church. The genuine rational appearances of
truth are the truths of the proper celestial Doctrine, the proper presence of
the Divine Human in Heaven and in the Church. In. the continuation of his review
the 'reviewer repeatedly expresses as his opinion that these truths are human
productions.
Page 22, line 37. . . . What then is that difference . ..? The letter of the
Third Testament is the Divine Truth laid down
in the natural; but
also the letter of the
Doctrine of the Church is truth laid down in the natural. But the Doctrine of
the Church in itself is the internal
186
REPLY TO THE REV. PROF. DR. ALFRED ACTON sense
(A. C. 9025, 9430. 10400), an internal vision of the genuine truth in a living
regenerated mind. It is clear that the reviewer continually mistakes the literal
sense of the Doctrine of the Church for the proper essence of the Doctrine of
the Church, while yet the difference there between has been clearly explained in
DE HEMELSCHE LEER, and the reviewer here even in part quotes this explanation
(p. 22, lines 31—36).
Page 23, line II. More justly ...,From these words of the reviewer one would
think one might conclude that he understands the purpose of DE HEMELSCHE LEER in
the Words quoted and agrees with them. But why is a finite unfolding of truth
still required after the infinite unfolding of Truth, which occurred at the time
the Third Testament was given, if, as the reviewer believes, the veil of truth
has then once and for all been removed? And how can a man unfold the truth? Is
not even the finite unfolding by the Doctrine of the Church necessarily the work
of the Lord alone? And the reviewer regards it as a human production. Page
23, line 15. To which we would add... We cannot accept this extension of
the conception of DE HEMELSCHE LEER. The Doctrine of the Church is not a human
formulation; it is spiritual out of celestial origin (A.
C. 2496,
2510); the internal sense of
the Third Testament is the Doctrine of the New Church (A. C. 9025, 9430, 10400);
the Lord is that Doctrine itself (A. C. 2859).
Page 23, line 20. As regards the authority . . . I find it difficult ... It has
been clearly said in DE HEMELSCIIE LEER that: "The Doctrine of the Church
in order to establish its authority, will never refer to its own literal 187
REPLY TO THE REV. PROF. DR. ALFRED ACTON Church,
the decisive weight is never in the external, therefore never in its literal
sense, but in the internal, for the genuine Doctrine of the Church is properly
the internal
Page 23, line 34. -. . and therefore I feel no doubt . . . The reviewer here
states that he agrees with the conception of DE HEMELSCHE LEER that the Doctrine
of the Church in its origin is Divine and authoritative; but it is evident that
he does not see that that origin is in the human mind, for the Doctrine is a
Divine revelation from perception. Nevertheless the words themselves of DE
HEMELSCHE LEER concerning that origin are quoted by him. It is clear that he
means something quite different by that origin, and probably the Divine Truth
above the human mind. But that this is not the immediate origin of the Doctrine,
but
Page 24, line 4. Yet there seems here to be some confusion of thought. The
confusion of which the reviewer here speaks is caused by the following facts.
First, the reviewer mistakes the literal sense of the Doctrine of the Church for
the proper Doctrine itself, which never exists anywhere but in an enlightened
living mind, and which is spiritual out of
celestial orie-in.
Second, the reviewer
188
REPLY TO THE REV. PROF. DR. ALFRED ACTON apparently
with the concept "the origin of truth" thinks of
Page 24, line 7. A sermon, ... is... a human production, ... In the measure in
which a sermon is a human production, it is not 'a good sermon. Because the
priest out of the Word has to teach the Doctrine, he has the promise of the Holy
Spirit; but it is taken up by the priest according to the faith of his life
(CANONS. The Holy Spirit 4 :
7). In the future celestial
Church a sermon will be
purely Divine, even the singular words which the priest shall speak; for with
the celestial man everything has become Divine, even to the natural (A.C. 3490).
"The Lord is all in all things of Heaven and of the Church" (A.E. 23).
Page 24, line 8. . . . and its excellence consists in nothing more than the
pointing to the truth as it stands in the Writings .. - No man from himself can
point to the truth. The Lord alone sees truth, and man never, except from the
Lord. Moreover we read in the ARCANA COELESTIA: "Among the priests . . . of
the Church there are those who teach . . . the truths of the Church out of the
literal sense of the Word, and there are those who teach . . . out of the
Doctrine out of the Word. . . . The latter differ very much from the former in
perception. . . . Those who teach . . . only the literal sense of the Word
without the Doctrine of the Church as a guide, apprehend nothing but what
belongs to the natural or external man; whereas those who teach . . . out of the
true Doctrine which is out of the Word, understand also the things which are of
the spiritual or internal man" (n. 9025). That the Third Testament is here
spoken of, has been shown above. That the work of priests who teach out of true
Doctrine, cannot be their own work, but that 189
REPLY TO THE REV. PROF. DR. ALFRED ACTON
it
is from the Holy Spirit, is clear. It seems as if in the concept of the reviewer
the Doctrine concerning the Holy Spirit has been entirely lost sight of.
Page 24, line 18. Authority rests .. • {only} in the teachings of the
Writings. DE HEMELSCHE LEER says literally: "The Doctrine of the Church in
order to establish its authority, will never refer to its own literal sense, but
always exclusively to the literal sense of the Word itself" (First Fase.,
p. 121).
Page 24, line 29. ... the "Academy Doctrines" ... The reviewer
regards the Principles of the Academy as a human production. DE HEMELSCHE LEER
regards these principles, in as far as they have brought forward genuine truths,
as of Divine origin and of Divine essence, and for those who understand them
interiorly as of Divine authority. According to the conception of the reviewer
one would necessarily have to arrive at the
conclusion that
the Academy movement and the establishment of the General Church was the
work of men. Did the light that enabled the founders and the first leaders of
that movement to do their work, come simply and exclusively from the direct
cognizance of the letter of the Latin Word? Or did it
Page 24,
line 37. ... councils ...
What has the genuine Doctrine, or the genuine spiritual truth, which is born in
the regenerated human mind out of the good from the Lord, and which therefore is
spiritual out of celestial origin, to do with councils?
Page 24, line 39. "And go to the God of the Ward and thus to the Word
..." The God of the Word is the Lord in His Divine Human. The Word in the
letter is the Word in lasts. Unless
the Lord in man operate from firsts
through those lasts the middle things, that is, the genuine living goods and
truths, the letter also of the Latin Word remains dead. It is not the Word that
makes the Church, but the understanding of the Word. They who read the Latin
Word without Doctrine remain in darkness concerning all truth. The internal
sense of the Latin Word is the Doctrine of the New Church. DE HEMELSCHE LEER has
190
REPLY TO THE REV. PROF. DR. ALFRED ACTON always
strictly adhered to the rule that the internal sense
Page 25, line 6. ... while giving Divine authority to the ORIGIN of the
Doctrine of the Church, . . . Here too the appearance is created as if the
reviewer were in agreement with the conception that the origin of the Doctrine
of the Church is Divine. That he does not realize that this origin lies in the
conscious human mind, is clear. As long as the Divine Truth is above the
conscious mind, it is the Divine 191
REPLY TO THE REV. PROF. DR. ALFRED ACTON
Truth
in itself, and it is not possible to speak of the Doctrine of the Church.
Page 25, line 9. . . . to the formulation of that Doctrine by men . . . The
formulation of the Doctrine, as the reviewer here conceives it, is its literal
sense. DE HEMELSCHE LEER has clearly explained that the Doctrine in order to
establish its authority will never refer to its own letter, but only to the
letter of the Word itself (First Fasc., p. 121).
Page 25, line II. ... that the Doctrine is the Lord Himself. This is no
declaration of DE HEMELSCHE LEER, but a quotation from the Latin Word (A.C.
2533, 2859).
Page 25, line 15. . . . but it leaves us in uncertainty . . . It is the proper
soul of the conception of DE HEMELSCHE LEER that in the 12th, 20th, and 26th
chapters of G-enesis in the ARCANA COELESTIA it is taught that the Doctrine is
spiritual out of celestial
origin. The reviewer has not entered with one single word into a
consideration of this revealed Divine truth.
Page 25, line 26. Divine Authority can attach only to an "immediate
revelation" ... The Old Testament is a mediate revelation (A.C. 7055).
Page 25, line 30. It is true that there is also "Divine revelation by
internal perception", that is to say, by enlightenment; and the Doctrine of
the Church or its understanding of the Word is the fruit of this enlightenment.
Here the reviewer says that the Doctrine of the Church is the fruit of
enlightenment, of a Divine Revelation by perception, and his entire review is
directed to proving that the Doctrine of the Church is a human conception, a
human production. In the measure in which the universal revelation also of the
Latin Word, which has been given to the Church as a basis for its thought, is
not, with regard to each
smallest particular,
joined with
an individual revelation by perception, the Latin Word for man remains
192
REPLY TO THE REV. PROF. DR. ALFRED ACTON many
places of the .Latin Word (A.C. 1786, 2535, 5097, 5111, 5121, 8694, 8748, 8780.
9382, 9905). The reviewer himself here acknowledges that it is a Divine
revelation, and he says that the Doctrine of the Church is the fruit thereof.
The reviewer thus says that the Doctrine of the Church is the fruit of a Divine
revelation by perception
Page 25, line 34. But this revelation is a mediate revelation, ... Both mediate
and immediate revelation is of purely Divine origin and of purely Divine
essence. This is clearly confirmed by the fact that the Old Testament is 193
REPLY TO THE REV. PROF. DR. ALFRED ACTON tion
and individual revelation (thus both being Divine),
Page 26, line 1. This mediate revelation . . . carries with it no authority
except to the individual. .. . Whatever the means by which he himself has been
able to see these truths, he can teach them only on the authority of statements
plainly discernible in the Writings. DE HEMELSCHE LEER says literally: "The
Doctrine of the Church in order to establish its authority, will never refer to
its own literal
Page 26, line 2. It is not a revelation to the Church. Individual Divine
revelation by perception is not the same
Page 26, line 3. Its fruit may of course be of benefit to the Church ... Just
above the reviewer says that "the Doctrine of the Church or the
understanding of the Word is the fruit of a Divine revelation by perception,
that is,
194 by
enlightenment", and here he says that "the fruit of this revelation
may be of benefit to the Church". He
therefore says in other words that the understanding of the Word may be of
benefit to the Church. The Word itself says that the understanding of the Word
makes the Church (S.S. 76—79). Page 26, line 4. .. . but only because by it the man is enabled to see ... things in the Writings not hitherto observed. Out of all those places where in the Latin Word it treats of revelation out of perception it clearly appears that thereby the enlightenment is meant of which it is said that without it the genuine sense of the Word cannot be understood. The mere fact of the existence of individual Divine revelation points to its great significance. If enlightenment is indicated as one of the principal means for the exegesis of the internal sense of the Word, it appears that no one can ever see even the slightest particular of the internal sense, neither in the Old and the New Testament, nor in the Third Testament, without such an individual Divine revelation out of perception. The reviewer acknowledges the fact of the existence of individual Divine revelation (although this subject has scarcely yet had the attention of the Church; cf. N. CH. L. 1922: 615620), but according to him its use consists only in this that "by it man is enabled to see and point out things in the Writings not hitherto observed". It
would seem as if one
had to
conclude from
such an
end and from such a
use of individual revelation, as surmised by the reviewer, that the
universal revelation
of the
Third Testament itself for one reason or another is not able to fullfill
that use, and that from time to time an individual revelation is required, in
order that the Church may meet with new things in the letter, not hitherto
observed. And in the same paragraph the reviewer says that all truths 195
REPLY TO THE REV. PROF. DR. ALFRED ACTON
195 truths
of the Word, not hitherto observed. The essential and primary use of individual
revelation is that by it alone can be seen the genuine sense of the universal
revelation; but further it has indeed this important secondary use for the
Church that by it the letter of the universal revelation for the Church is
opened more and
Page 26, line 10. DE HEMELSCHE LEER, however, contends that since the Doctrine
of the New Church is to be drawn from the Writings, it therefore follows as a
logical consequence, . . . DE HEMELSCHE LEER says that the truth, also in the
Third Testament, has been laid down in the natural, and that the internal sense
or the genuine Doctrine rises out of the truths of the letter by unfolding (A.C.
9025). When Divine Truth from the Lord descends into the natural, it is then
necessarily as it were folded in seven folds and is then sealed with seven
seals; in this way the truth also in the Third Testament is sealed with seven
seals (see First Fasc., pp. 97—103).
Page 26, line 16. . . . inevitably involves a new Divine and immediate
Revelation . . . The Doctrine that the Word without Doctrine is not understood,
does not mean that the Latin Word cannot be understood without a new universal
revelation. No Word ever can be understood without Doctrine out of that Word.
That Doctrine is spiritual out of celestial origin; the Lord is that Doctrine
itself. If the Doctrine of the Church were not Divine, then indeed after this
universal revelation of the Third Testament, a further universal revelation
would still have to come. How otherwise could the Church ever open those places
of the Old and the New Testament that are not treated of in the Third Testament?
And how could the science of correspondences of which it is said that it has now
been revealed (that means completely and entirely revealed)
ever be
196
REPLY TO THE REV. PROF. DR. ALFRED ACTON extended
with authority to those things that are not spoken of in the Third Testament?
Page 26, line 19. it is true that the Jews and Christians. by faithful study of
their Word, might have drawn forth true doctrines there-from. The relation of
the Word to the Doctrine out of the Word is not that one may draw Doctrine if
one will, and also leave it if one will; but that no single particular of the
Word is understood in the genuine sense if one does not read it in the light of
the Doctrine out of the Word, for not the Word is the light, but the Doctrine
out of the Word (S.S. 50—61, A.E. 356). All the genuine light that any of the
Jews or the Christians ever received out of the Old and the New Testament, came
because they made a Doctrine for themselves according to order out of that Word
(A.C. 9382).
Page 27, line 15. . . . when men cry: "Lo here and lo there" . . . DE
HEMELSCHE LEER has pointed out that the Latin Word without Doctrine out of that
Word cannot be understood, and that he who reads that Word without Doctrine
remains in darkness concerning all truth (S.S. 50—61). The genuine Doctrine is
spiritual out of celestial origin; the Lord is the Doctrine itself (A.C. 2496,
2510, 2497, 2516, 2533, 2859, and many other places).
Page 27, line 17. "Art thou the Christ or do we wait for another"??
These are words of _ John the Baptist, which he addressed to the Lord by two of
his disciples (Matt. II : 2—3). John the Baptist in the New Church signifies
the literal sense of the Latin Word. We read in DE HEMELSCHE LEER; "The
Word of the Latin Testament is a Divine unfolding of Truth, and it is therefore
the source itself and the only source of all genuine truth for the New
Church" (First Fasc., p. 118); "From the explanation of the concept
'experience' it is evident that the Doctrine is never genuine if it is not based
on the literal sense of the Latin Word and that the letter remains closed if man
does not apply the truths derived there-from to life" (p. 119); "The
Word of the Latin Testament is an infinite unfolding of Truth" (p. 120);
"All natural scientifics in an infinite way were drawn into the texture of
the Latin Word; and the New Church indeed to all eternity in an infinite way in
the text of the Latin Word will find again all natural scientitics of nature
itself and of the literal sense of the 197
REPLY TO THE REV. PROF. DR. ALFRED ACTON
Old
and the New Testament" (pp. 120—121); "The literal sense of the
Latin Word ...in its entirety and in all its particulars, is an infinite divine
series, therefore infinite even in the particulars, by their place in and their
orderly connection with the infinite whole" (p. 122), According to
DE HEMELSCHE
LEER the
Third Testament is
the revelation of the Divine Rational, and the Word of the Holy Spirit.
In preparation: DE
HEMELSGHE LEER THIRD
FASCICLE OF THE ENGLISH EDITION
To be obtained through: Academy Book Room, Bryn Athyn, Pa. U. S. A. Mr.
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Colchester, England. J. H. Ridgeway Esq., 2, Old Well Court, Durban, South
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