Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

correspondence, its general signification, is unalterably the same, whether the distinctive quality be good or bad. Thus the sun corresponds to love: to divine love, if the subject be good; to infernal love, if the subject be evil. The vine, and the juice of the vine, correspond to doctrines or opinions received as truth; to pure doctrine, if the subject be good; to false doctrine, if the subject be evil. In the former case they are derived from Jesus Christ, as the living vine; in the latter they are "wild grapes," or the fruit of the "wild vine." Again, the horse corresponds to the understanding of truth; a white horse to the purity of the understanding, a black horse to the understanding in a darkened state. The general law is in every instance preserved, while the particular application depends upon the subject.

It would be very easy to multiply examples of this rule; we shall, however, only notice one or two. A mountain, signifies the highest, or ruling love, here is the basis: in Isaiah ii. 3, it signifies the highest ruling affection of good, or love to the Lord; while in Zachariah iv. 7, it signifies the ruling affection of evil. Again, the moon corresponds to faith; either a true faith, emanating from divine love, or a false and perverted faith, emanating from evil love it corresponds to the first in Revelation xii. 1, where the woman, by which is implied the church, has the moon under her feet; that is, she stands upon the moon, or rests upon a pure and saving faith; it signifies the latter in Isaiah xxiv. 23, where the moon, it is said, shall be ashamed when the Lord of Hosts shall reign; that is, when the true faith in Jesus Christ shall be established, all the professors of a false faith shall become confounded and ashamed. In all these instances the general basis is unalterable, and the good or evil application changes only with the subject.

Generally, however, it may be laid down as a rule, that good and useful or clean animals, birds, fish, plants, metals, stones, represent, or correspond, to the affections of good and truth; while unclean, or noxious animals, poisonous plants, minerals, reptiles, &c., represent, or correspond, to the affections of evil and error. Thus the cow, the sheep, the ox, the ass, the olive, the vine, the fig, the pomegranate, gold, silver, iron, stone, precious stones, correspond generally to goodness, and to the affections of truth; while the bear,

the tiger, the owl, the bittern, the serpent, the viper, the laurel, the bay-tree, correspond to evil, and the affections of error.

These rules will be found necessary to be kept in remembrance, while tracing the spiritual meaning of the Divine Word, since only by a constant reference to them can that meaning be clearly perceived.

RULES FOR RECONCILING APPARENTLY CONTRADICTORY PASSAGES.-There are in the Scriptures several passages, which have excited the ridicule of the infidel, and perplexed the simple-minded; namely, (I.) Passages which appear to contradict each other: as, "God is angry with the wicked every day," (Psalm vii. 11.)—" Fury is not in me,” (Isaiah xxvii. 4.)—" God repenteth him of the evil," (Exodus xxxii. 14.-" God is not the Son of man that he should repent," (Num. xxii. 19.)—" The Lord did tempt Abraham," (Gen. xxii. 1,)—" God tempteth no man," (James i. 13.) (II.) Passages relating occurrences which appear not adapted for the general reader, as the history of Lot and his daughters, (Gen. xix. 32.) (III.) Passages which contain only apparent truth, as, "the sun knoweth his going down," (Psalm civ. 19.)" The corners of the earth,' (Isaiah xi. 12.) (IV.) Passages which have no meaning in the literal sense, as, Their tongue walketh through the earth," (Psalm xxxiii. 9,)- They shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm,” (Isaiah ix, 20.)—" If thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut it off," (Matt. v. 30.)

66

66

It is only by a reference to the science of correspondence that the meaning of these passages is seen, and the apparent contradictions reconciled. The design of our heavenly Father appears to have been, so to arrange the letter of the holy Word, that it might serve as a body or covering to the spirit within and with this view, things which seem of small importance in the literal sense, may have a most important meaning in the spiritual sense. As the ark was but of ordinary wood, though it bore within it the divine law, and was overshadowed by the divine glory; so the literal sense of the Word of God, though but written in natural language, bears within it, and is framed to bear within it, the divine wisdom, while the glory of God rests upon it.

The ceremonial law of the Jews is one extensive and continued chain of correspondencies. It has not simply one meaning, or, as many affirm, a reference to the sacrifice and death of Christ. The types of the law vary in every instance. The meat-offering, the drink-offering, the waveoffering, the heave-offering, the sacrifices and offering of oxen, sheep, goats, turtle doves, young pigeons, &c., all differ; and it is derogatory to the character of the Divine Being, to suppose that he instituted them merely from caprice, or that he would establish a hundred types to signify one and the same thing, when that thing might easily have been expressed by one type only. The whole ceremonial law contains within itself a description of the process of man's regeneration, and to the spiritual mind, in its various corresponding figures, presents the varying states of the servant of God, from the first emancipation from natural bondage, to his final rest in the heaven of angels.

Let us now recapitulate the rules already laid down. (1.) Correspondence is the connection of a natural object with a spiritual one, by virtue of which the one becomes the representation of the other. (2.) The whole natural universe, even to its minutest parts, corresponds to the spiritual; so that there is not a single material object which does not correspond to, or is not the representation of, something spiritual. (3.) The holy Scriptures throughout are written according to this science, and hence every object named in them has a spiritual meaning. (4.) The general signification of every object is the same and unalterable; but the particular quality depends upon the subject. (5.) Upon this rule of composition, the inspiration of the holy Scriptures rests; for while in the letter they appear to resemble any other composition, in the spirit they contain within them the infinite wisdom of the most high God.

APPLICATION OF THE RULE FOR ILLUSTRATING THE SPIRITUAL SENSE.-We now proceed to apply the rules already laid down, to the understanding of the holy Word; and as this essay is but introductory to the study of correspondencies, we select such illustrations as are the easiest of comprehension, intending in our notes on the Gospel to illustrate the more complex.

As an object that the senses is most familiar with, we choose the " clouds," which signify the literal sense of the Holy Word. (1.) The clouds veil and diversify the light of the sun, studding the atmosphere with a thousand beautiful forms. (2.) They are the sources of rain, which refresh the earth, causing it to bring forth in due season. (3.) They are the reservoirs of storms and tempests, which, though desolating in their particular effects, serve to purify the atmosphere. (4.) Though fulfilling these numerous offices, they are derived from the earth itself, being attracted thence through the influence of the sun.

In all these particulars they correspond to the literal sense of the Word of God; for (1.) as the clouds temper and veil the solar rays, so that glory and wisdom, which is too bright for human comprehension, is tempered and rendered available to the human mind, by being concealed beneath the letter of the Word of God, and while it thus tempers the divine glory, it sets it forth in a thousand graceful forms of natural wisdom and of natural truth. (2.) From the letter of the Word, those natural truths are derived which, like "the former and the latter rain," come down to refresh the natural, but simple mind, and lead it from the first rudiments of knowledge, to that "rest which remaineth for the people of God." (3.) In the letter of the Word are found all those elements of spiritual discord, those storms and tempests which have agitated the christian church from its foundation until now, and which, while many individuals have wrested them to their own destruction, and thus rendered them spiritually fatal, have, nevertheless, in the end tended to the elicitation of truth, and to the benefit of the church and of the world. (4.) Though the letter of the Word thus enshrines the divine glory-though it is the medium by which truth is communicated, it is derived from the mind of man himself-it is composed of human ideas, natural objects, and natural or human language, even as the clouds are drawn from the earth above which they float, and which they appear to render fertile.

Thus the correspondent figure, even in its minutest parts and offices, agrees with its spiritual subject; and if we apply it to those parts of the holy Word where it occurs, will always make a beautiful and consistent sense. Thus,

when the Divine Being, by corresponding figures, revealed himself to the Jewish nation, a cloud always encompassed the divine glory. A cloud hung over the tabernacle, and over the ark of the testimony. God said to Moses at the time when he gave the law on mount Sinai, "Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud," alluding to the multiplied figures of the ceremonial law, the divine wisdom being thus hidden under the cloud of literal observances; and thus, too, when the incarnate Word was revealed to man, and tabernacled with man, a voice out of the cloud declared, This is my beloved Son, IN whom I am well pleased;" the spiritual meaning revealed in the literal manifestation. When the two heavenly witnesses, mentioned in the Revelation, quitted the earth, they ascended to heaven in a cloud; and the consummation of the age, and the coming of the new heaven and the new earth," is ushered in by the sign of the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven." It is in this sense that the Lord maketh the clouds his chariot ;" the truths of the letter are the sources whence all doctrine must be drawn.

66

66

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

CORRESPONDENCE OF THE SUN AND MOON.-We take next the sun and moon as corresponding to love and truth. The sun is the great source of life, the centre of the system, round which all the attendant orbs revolve; it is the great source of fruitfulness, causing the plants to bud, bring forth, and produce fruit in due season; it is the originator of those clouds just named, drawing them from the rivers and lakes by the attractive power of its beams. It may be called the father of light, and by its apparent rising and setting produces the alternation of light and darkness. Here again the spiritual object agrees with its natural manifestation, "GOD IS LOVE"--pure, essential love.—It is love which is the whole of life. Take away all affection, all hope, all desire, and life is extinct. The divine love is invariably the same, but it accommodates itself to the different conditions of man. So the sun, in its general effects, is accommodated to all races of mankind, and they to it. The African endures heat which would prove fatal to a European. But there exist men who perpetually resist the influence of the divine love, and impiously ask, Wherein hast thou loved us?"-they would pervert the

66

« AnteriorContinuar »