down from heaven," something that cometh down from heaven; and the member of the New Church also understands by that phrase, something that cometh down from heaven; so far they are agreed. By the Lord's flesh and blood, Protestants not only understand the Lord's sufferings, but they also understand, as in reason they are bound to do, the benefits resulting from his love in condescending to suffer for mankind.* Hence the Lord's substitution of the phrase "bread of life," for "flesh and blood," serves to suggest these blessings, as the flesh and blood served to suggest the sufferings through which they came to, and, in a figurative sense, were purchased for mankind. The Apostle who taught that Jesus Christ was "made perfect through suffering," also looked for the blessed consequence, that our vile [spiritual] body [vile through hereditary evil] should be made like unto his Glorious Body. (Phil. iii. 21.)+ Doubtless he would consider this glorious Body as his spiritual Bread, while he could say, "I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me;" and while, in another place, he could declare, that "Christ is made unto us of God wisdom and righteousness," and also that "he is the power of God, and the wisdom of God;" saying, also, that "Christ is our life," and to the soul that is spiritually dead, "Christ shall give thee light."

With such ideas in his mind, the apostle would understand that the Lord, was his living bread, inasmuch as he lived by HIM, and from HIM;-by Him, in consequence of his acts and sufferings as the Redeemer; and from Him, because of his operations in him by his Spirit, as his Saviour. And if the writings of the apostles prove that such were their views and feelings, why may not the readers of their writings believe with them, and understand the Lord's language figuratively where the apostles themselves understood it figuratively? True it is, that modern Christians have changed the figurative meaning adopted by the apostles most wofully, but still they have adhered to the fact (though not without abusing it), that the passages (in John vi.) referred to, are to be taken not literally, but figuratively. I am aware that they interpret the figure as meaning merely the belief of their doctrine of the atonement; nevertheless it still signifies the reception of the

*E. S. says that the passion of the cross (as stated in the above quotation from his T. C. R.) was intended by the Lord to be remembered when he said, “Do this in remembrance of me;" but, of course, the Lord did not mean a merely historical advertence to the bare fact, but a thankful remembrance of the Love manifested in it, and the blessings consequent upon it.

The apostle had been anticipating (in verse 11,) a resurrection in this life for his "vile body,"-a spiritual resurrection by regeneration,-consequently by this "vile body" he must have meant a spiritual, and not a material body.

apostles' own doctrine of atonement, and all the blessings consequent on that atonement,—the at-one-ment described by the Lord, when he makes his oneness with the Father to be the ground of our becoming a one (by the union of the internal and external man in one in us) in the Father and the Son, that is, in the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom. (John xvii. 22.) Clear it is from the above apostolic testimonies, that in order to our attainment of this state of conjunction with the Lord, we must first partake of (figuratively eat) the Lord's sufferings and temptations, in order that we may afterwards partake of (figuratively eat) the Lord's glory.

Supposing a stranger to be asked, "Did the Lord's sufferings come down from heaven?" he might not improperly reply, "No, but the Sufferer did,—the Word which was 'made flesh,' and who as to his flesh' suffered, the Just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive by the Spirit." Certainly with such an answer ready, the respondent would be likely to regard the question as a cavil, whatever the questioner might think of his reply. The Lord's sufferings, in respect to their endurance, although not as to their infliction, originated with the Divine Love to mankind, and so far they may, in a restricted sense, be said to come down from heaven. Is not this idea naturally suggested by the Lord's saying, "No man taketh my life from me; but I lay it down of myself; I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again." (John x. 18.) The truth is, that we are saved by the act, and, of course, by the Doer of it; the terms "flesh and blood" appear to suggest to the intelligent general reader of the Scriptures, an idea of the act; and the phrases, "Bread of God," and "Bread of life that cometh down from heaven," appear to suggest the idea of the Agent. It is true that the Lord expressly says, "the bread that I will give is my flesh," but while I rejoice in the superiority of the spiritual sense, I should not object to a figurative-natural sense in the following terms being attached to this passage, "the blessing I shall bestow ('the bread') is, in a sense, identical with the means of procuring it, the sufferings I am about to endure ('my flesh')."

I am duly impressed that every natural-figurative sense that can possibly be assigned, not being firmly fixed, like the purely spiritual sense, upon the basis of a fixed correspondence between things spiritual and natural, must be relatively to the latter, loose and uncertain. But this admission is perfectly consistent with the affirmation of a true naturalfigurative sense being intended to be attached to the language referred to. Neither the admitted uncertainty of interpretation, nor the actual

erroneousness of "orthodox" explanations, can affect this certain fact, that there is a natural-figurative sense in the passages under view. It is our business to rectify erroneous figurative interpretations (and not to repudiate them in the abstract), while we offer the purely spiritual sense in addition. Our offer is not the more likely to be accepted, because we force it on a free agent, practically saying to him, “take that, or none." Let us also be persuaded, that however smart an argument may appear to our own self-complacency, it is actually good for nothing, if it contribute nothing to the rational conviction of the hearer or reader, and this an illegitimate argument cannot reasonably be expected to do.

While animadverting on this alleged mistake in the publication alluded to, it is hoped that credit may be given, that no remarks would have been made but for the assumed, and it might be said, the obvious necessity of guarding against such a mistake in future. If the mistake had been made by an individual minister, it would have been worth while to seek its correction; but how much greater appears to be the obligation to point it out, when it is invested with the authority of the General Convention of the New Church in the United States, and is put forth in a manner implying the utmost confidence of accuracy.*

EQUITAS.

DR. HASE'S STATEMENT CONCERNING SWEDENBORG, (Translated from his " Church History,” p. 476, Leipsic, 1841.)

DEAR SIR,

To the Editor of the Intellectual Repository.

Should you think the accompanying extract at all interesting to your readers, it is at your service. It is extracted from a "Church History," lately published in the German language by Dr. Hase, which is held in high estimation by the Lutheran Clergy of Germany for its (in their opinion) intrinsic merits, and is oftener used by them than the larger one of Dr. Neander, on account of its compendiary form.

Yours, &c.,

HERBERT THURTELL.

* Should the reader desire to look further into this subject, he is recommended to procure three Tracts in the Glasgow Series (numbered 13, 14, and 15), on the subject of The Blood of the Lord.

"Emanuel of Swedenborg, [born 1688, died 1772,] an Assessor of the Board of Mines at Stockholm; a very learned man, who has enriched the physical sciences by his writings; in still deeper search into the arcana of nature and the interior workings of religion, came into a similar state of mind as Birgitte,* Jacob Böhme,t and their followers, and believed that he was rendered worthy of communication with spirits, to which end, he was (probably under magnetic influence) transported in an exstacy, sometimes into heaven, sometimes into hell: he ingeniously represents his visions by images, drawn from earthly states, as a Dante of the North, and proves this spiritual communication by some inexplicable matter-of-fact predictions.+

"Yet only from a personal revelation of the Lord himself to him, he felt himself called upon, in order to arrest the decline of Christianity since the Council of Nice, to found the Church of the New Jerusalem as the third Testament§ and spiritual coming of Christ.

"Chiefly influenced by a belief in the sacred character of his (E. S.'s) writings, isolated congregations of the New Church assemble themselves in England and North America: in the more civilized states of Sweden his views have spread extensively in Wütemburg they have been publicly noticed by the amiable Prelate Oetinger,|| and are revived with enthusiastic ardour by the pious librarian Tafel. They have also found adherents in France.

:

"Swedenborg's doctrine is a Phantastical Rationalism, which in the place of the doctrine of the Atonement and the Trinity, supposes a three-fold revelation of the same God, who must become man, in order to afford ground for the belief in God as a man, and to subjugate the hells.

"The organ for communication with the spiritual world can be opened in every individual.

"The arcana of the spiritual sense of the Holy Scriptures, serve only to enlighten, and elevate the spiritual sight from the literal sense of natural truth. "Hereafter the friends of this revelation will, on the one hand, become too credulous in every mysterious phenomenon of nature and spiritual existence, and, on the other, receive Christianity as a religion of the understanding (an intellectual religion)."

"Birgitte," a pious female visionary of the royal house of Sweden; she founded the "order of redeemers" (commonly called "Ordo S. Birgitte"). She died A.D. 1373. The Revelations of Birgitte were published at Lubeck, A.D. 1492.

+"Jacob Böhme," a shoemaker by trade, and a native of Prussia; very celebrated as a Theosopher, or rather Mystic writer. He had formerly many adherents, but time has thinned their numbers. His works are also vary scarce: when in Germany I used every endeavour to procure a copy of them, but without avail; I know therefore nothing of him except from hear-say. He is said to have formed a kind of natural language, in which he endeavoured to prove that love was the ground of every thing. He died A.D. 1624.

"Inexplicable matter-of-fact predictions" alludes to the extraordinary know ledge which Swedenborg, during his lifetime, showed he possessed, as in the case of the fire at Stockholm, &c.

S" Third Testament." Allusion is here made to E.S.'s Theological works, under the false supposition that they claim for themselves a sanctity equal to that of the Word itself.

"Oetinger," a Prelate of Würtemburg, who lived during the last century. Swedenborg's "Heaven and Hell” was published by him at Leipsic, A.d. 1765;—See I. R., 1830, pp. 1-8.

[We have inserted the above extract from "Dr. Hase's Church History" not to afford any pleasure to our readers, but to exhibit the abominable ignorance of the so-called learning of the present day. We are aware that Dr. Hase's work is considered to be a very learned production, and that it is much read by the Protestants of Germany, and, therefore, we embrace this opportunity of shewing the public, that if his researches into sources of Church history are not characterized by greater depth, expansion, and correctness than his investigations of the Theological writings of Swedenborg, his "Church History" is worse than useless, and only a vehicle of misrepresentation and falsehood. We do not say that Dr. Hase is wilfully guilty of misrepresentation and falsehood, but from sheer negligence in properly investigating the subject on which he presumes to make a statement to the public at large, upon whom his publications cannot but produce considerable effect, he has betrayed his numerous readers into the path of egregious error and misconception concerning the writings of Swedenborg. And, first, what affinity is there between the case of Birgitte and that of Swedenborg? The former was the author of many legendary tales which were current in the dark ages, and sanctioned by a corrupted Church for the purpose of more securely establishing its dominion over the multitude whom it kept in ignorance and superstition. Whereas the discoveries of Swedenborg, concerning the eternal world and state, are characterized by the sublimest rationality, the strictest accordance with Scripture, and by the most practical and beneficial tendency to promote the highest interests, both temporal and eternal, of the human race. In every thing he states concerning the spiritual world, and man's relations to that, world, some laws of mind are discovered, and some lesson of spiritual wisdom is conveyed, which produces such an awakening effect upon the reader,-arousing him to a degree of perception and feeling concerning his duties to God and his neighbour,-as cannot, we verily believe, be produced by any other human production whatever. And, next, as to Böhme, it is well known by all who are in the slightest degree conversant with the subject, that the dark mysticisms of his writings, and the undefined and undefinable terms in which he has so often expressed his sentiments, have no affinity whatever with the lucid, spiritual expositions of Scripture given by Swedenborg, nor with the works he has written explaining the doctrines of Christianity, and developing that intellectual and heavenly philosophy, which has been so much needed to enable the human mind to dwell in the light of genuine intelligence and wisdom. The writings of Böhme, however, since they tend to holiness of life, and proclaim that God is love,