tastefully arranged. Their colouring did not consist of a great variety of tints or blendings, being limited to the few positive colours, blue, red, and yellow, and black and white. Considerable taste and skill, however, are displayed in their arrangement, the contrasts being carefully preserved, and the combinations generally agreeable to the eye. Flowers and scrollwork have been found ornamenting the slabs with which some of the doorways were paved.

But, with all this profusion of decorative skill and industry, very limited indeed is the number of really beautiful or otherwise interesting subjects about which their artistic skill was employed. Their horses are, perhaps, the best conceived and executed representations of natural beauty. Any more of faithful delineation or of expression to the human figure than was necessary to the story of the sculpture, does not seem to have been attempted. A few animals after nature are occasionally met with, outlined with considerable correctness. Besides these, the lion and bull, varied with the human head and wings, and the hawk's head, giving variety to the winged human figures, and these ranging from miniature to colossal dimensions, supplied nearly all the subjects of animated existence for the pencil and the chisel of the Assyrian artist. Very little variety is to be seen among their forms of imaginative art. Their fringes and borders, and other ornaments, were worked with a very scanty sample of patterns, and would afford very little to help the ornamental designers of our day. From what the sculptures and other decorative representations exhibit, it does not appear that architecture had reached at all that point of excellence which places it among the fine arts. No approach to the graceful column, the richly carved capital, or the elegantly proportioned temple, rising to the view, as one of beauty's harmonised forms. Large flatroofed buildings, consisting of rectangular parts, of various dimensions, not, perhaps, unsymmetrically arranged, and elevated upon platform erections, seem to mark the prevailing character of Assyrian architecture, ornamented, perhaps, exteriorly with sculpture, similar to their interior decorations. Their love of ornament, instead of leading them to the study and cultivation of the truly beautiful, was engrossed by the exhibition of themselves, in their favourite pursuits of war and hunting, and repeating, in monumental language, the proud stories of their prowess, their victories, and their riches.

(To be continued.)

OBSERVATIONS ON EXODUS, CHAP. iii, 5.

"Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground."

In times past an application has been made of this passage of Holy Writ which has tended to deter the humble and sincere Christian of the Lord's New Church from obtaining correct doctrinal knowledges upon the most important subjects, and especially upon that most important of all New Church doctrines, - "THE DOCTRINE CONCERNING THE LORD," including the Glorification of His Humanity. This is the most essential and distinguishing doctrine of the New, and true Christian Church.

Man's rational faculty is the Lord's precious gift to him above the animal creation; and is the true medium whereby he is capable of being elevated into conjunction with its Divine Giver. No employment of this noble faculty, therefore, can be more legitimate than the exercise of it in the endeavour to obtain satisfactory information concerning the Lord. This is its highest and noblest use. But from the use made of, and the interpretations given to, the above passage, it has been inferred that man is not to think from this faculty concerning the Lord; that reason is to be hushed into submission to the statements of the Divine Word: which statements are to be received without its aid, when yet such neither is nor can be the case.

66

Our Lord emphatically says, SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES; for in them ye think ye have ETERNAL LIFE; and they are they which testify of ME." -John vi. 39. Now man cannot search without the exercise of his

reason.

If he do, his searching will not be worth anything; it will be productive of no useful result. But it is one thing to investigate, and thus to exercise freely our reason in relation to subjects of Divine doctrine, and another and quite a different thing to think, spiritually speaking, with our shoes on our feet.

"In the Word, the sole of the foot and the heel signify the ultimate natural principle; the shoe is what clothes the sole of the foot and the heel, wherefore the shoe signifies a natural principle still more remote, consequently the very corporeal principle itself."-A.C. 1748.

Now man, let it be remembered, is only required to "put off his shoes;" he is not required to put off his feet. That is, he is required and commanded to abstain from thinking concerning divine things, from mere sensual and corporeal ideas and impressions. But, with this, the fullest and freest exercise of the rational faculty is quite compatible. Nay, that man may think rationally, appears to be the object for the accom

66

--

plishment of which this divine command is given; for when man thinks sensually, and reasons from sensual impressions, his reasoning is not rational thought; it is mere ratiocination,- a mere semblance of reason, head downwards. Such thought judges of man by the bulk of his body, the comeliness of his person, the dignity of his demeanour, and the like. Thus it 'goes in the back way" to every subject of contemplation. But, if man takes the literal statements of the divine Word, rather than the evidences of sense, as the ground of his thought, no danger can result from the freest and fullest exercise of his rational powers. The GROUND is holy," the faculty is God-given, and the subjects are DIVINE. Where then is the incongruity? The Divine Word tells us how to think and judge, where it says "Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment."John vii. 24. And also where it tells us, that it is "not that which goeth into the mouth which defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man."-Matt. xv. 11. From these passages it is clear, that to think from what is internal to what is external is the true order of thought: and is to think in agreement with the Divine rule therein implied. Thus we are required to think from causes to effects, from principles to actions, from essence to person. And this is true rational thought. It is that by which we are to correct the fallacious impressions of the senses. Yes, whoever thus thinks, upon subjects of DIVINE DOCTRINE, is at full liberty to exercise himself on the "holy ground," because he acknowledges its holiness, and has taken off his shoes. When he thinks concerning the Lord, he does not conclude that because the Lord, when on earth, appeared like an ordinary man, therefore he was such. He will not say, Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda and Simon; and are not his sisters here with us?" and then be "offended at him."-Mark vi. 3. sceptical disciple "Thomas," require ocular and tangible evidence before he gives credence to the statements of the Divine Word concerning the Lord. But, while he firmly trusts its divine statements, he will humbly and teachably apply himself to get clearer and more satisfactory ideas as to what those divine statements mean. And thus will he be in a condition to behold wonderful things in the Divine Law; as well as to receive therefrom, divine counsel and admonition, and humiliating reproof.

་

Nor will he, like the

These observations have been deemed necessary, because there is a manifest diffidence on the part of some earnest recipients of the heavenly doctrines, in forming to themselves fixed ideas upon some subjects [Enl. Series.-No. 62, vol. vi.]

E

of the highest importance, from a fancied notion, derived from the before-mentioned fallacious source, that such subjects are too holy to be approached freely by the inquiring mind: whereas the sincere Christian need not fear to come to the "waters of life FREELY. The Divine complaint is "Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life." (John v. 40.) And the Divine assurance is—" He that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." Let us, then, my brethren, come unto the waters; come, buy and eat. Buy wine and milk, without money and without price."

December 6, 1858.

T. R.

CONFIRMATIONS OF SWEDENBORG.

THE grand evidence in favour of Swedenborg's claims is, his discovery of an internal sense in the Scriptures. This is, in fact, "the seal of his mission." It is true that many before his time have intimated the existence of such a sense, while others have furnished some beautiful anticipations of his views of various passages in the sacred writings; nor have there been wanting some ingenious pre-indications of the great law of analogy or correspondence. But that wherein Swedenborg stands preeminently distinguished is his annunciation of this law (of correspondence) as the key to the internal sense of the Word, and his successful application of it; so that we are now, by means of his writings, enabled to interpret, in series, all the prophetical and historical books which constitute this Word, in consequence of the celestial and spiritual sense residing within them. Here Swedenborg stands “unrivalled and alone" among all that went before him. In unfolding the inward sense of these books, he has developed at the same time the Divine laws according to which they were written, and thus raised them from the rank of mere historical documents and predictions of " uncertain sound," to the dignity of Heavenly records, luminous with the great truths of human redemption and regeneration. Like the Hierophant of old, he leads us through all the darkness and obscurity of the mystic fane, to the interminable serene and auspicious light ever shining in its inmost recesses.

Now, I contend that such a wonderful discovery could only come from the Divine author of the sacred books; nor can it for a moment be rationally supposed that what, in the course of Providence, was not given to the most illuminated men of the former church to find out, should be reserved for one labouring under a mental delusion.

Having thus made a summary and general statement of the argument, let us enter into a few particulars. Truly, the description of the prophet Isaiah, (xxix. 12.) may well be applied to the state of the old church in reference to the interpretation of the sacred writings. "A sealed book," the Bible, has ever been, so far as regards any unvarying and consistent system of Hermeneutics. The "consent of the fathers" was anything but "unanimous," and the "private interpretation" of the reformers was "as the letting in of water," sweeping away all the landmarks of truth and certainty. In the midst of this most unsatisfactory state of things came Swedenborg, presenting to the world a sure key to the sense of the Scriptures, and a beautiful system of interpretation, founded not on fancy, nor on any arbitrary principles, but on a great and eternal truth, the correspondence between the inward and outward worlds, termed by an ancient writer the "resonance of the Divine Word through the universe,"* early caught up by "thrice great Hermes," when he announced that "all Heavenly things existed on earth after an earthly mode, and all earthly things in Heaven after a heavenly mode;" and again expressed in briefer but not less significant terms by the inspired author of the epistle to the Hebrews, when he said, "By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that visible things subsist from things invisible. (Heb. xi. 3.)† The key thus furnished unlocks all the sacred chambers and hidden places of Scripture, disclosing to view the exhaustless treasures concealed within. The laws of interpretation unfolded by Swedenborg, at once simple, wonderful, and beautiful, being applied to the Scriptures, an admirable adaptation is immediately discovered; so that, having by their aid mastered those portions of Holy Writ explained by him, we are enabled to proceed with ease, security, and satisfaction, to the interpretation of all the rest, much like one (to adopt the striking comparison of Dr. Beyer‡) who, having studied a certain number of authors, in any language, by the help of a lexicon, is thereby capacitated to read all other writers in that language, with little or no difficulty. What other commentator, we may safely ask, can enable us to do this? Nay, what commentator, after following him through any one book of the Bible, will afford us sufficient light to interpret another book, or even a single chapter of it? But, on the other hand, let us only master thoroughly even a few

* See the books ascribed to Dionysius the Areopagite. The above idea is implied in Psalm xix. 1-4 (original). See also Psalm cxix. 89.

+ Such is the genuine rendering of the passage, adopted by four out of seven English versions of the Bible.

See his admirable declaration concerning the doctrines of Swedenborg.