the council of angels convoked by God; the appearance of Satan among them; his debate with God, and commission received from him; the several speeches of Job and his friends; the conclusion of the whole, by the apparition of God himself in a whirlwind; and all this, as the critics observe, delivered in verse; make it highly probable, or certain rather, that it was intended, as I have said, for an instructive or moral drama. Yet we find it referred to, and applied, by Ezekiel and St. James, in the same manner as if it were a real history;* because its moral or doctrinal part could not fail to have the same effect in the one way, as in the other.

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The case is the same with the parables of our Saviour. For example the parable of Dives and Lazarus is delivered in so lively and affecting a manner, as to have given rise to a dispute, both among the ancients and moderns, whether it be a fable or true history, or mixed and compounded of both. But in what way soever it be taken, it yields the very same fruit to us and all the interpreters, from the time of its publication to this day, have been drawing from it, as from a real history, many excellent lessons both of faith and practice. St. Chrysostom, in four several homilies, harangues upon it, as a perpetual source of instruction to all conditions of men; and though he treats it as a proper parable, yet he makes this reflection on the whole; that advice and admonition have the surest effect, when we see the riotous chastised and punished, not in words only, but in fact and reality.†

To conclude: Since it is allowed to have been the practice of all the sages of the ancient world, in treating of the origin of things, and the sublime doctrines of theology, to wrap up what they delivered, under the veil of enigmas, symbols, and allegories; and since this was more peculiarly the custom of the Egyptians, among whom Moses was born, and diligently trained in all the mysterious parts of their learning and wisdom; it is reasonable to imagine, that, on the subject of the creation, and the origin of man, he should use a manner of writing which all other nations then used, and which his masters, the Egyptians, had particularly taught him. This, I say, is what we should previously expect from such a writer, on such a subject; and this is what we find him to have actually performed; as is evident, as well from the turn and manner of his writing, as from the testimony of those very people for

Ezek. xiv. 14. † Jam. v. 11.

whose instruction he wrote; who generally treat these first chapters of Gencsis as allegorical; and are said to have restrained their youth from reading them, on account of the difficulties of the literal sense, and the wrong notions which it might imprint of God, till they had reached a maturity of age and judgment, which might qualify them to comprehend its more recondite meaning. The Christians, also, when they received these books from the Jews, received from them, at the same time, this method of expounding, which they universally followed in the primitive ages: and on the authority of such guides, it cannot surely be thought rash, or give any just scandal, to adhere to the same interpretation; especially since it will be found, as I have said above, the most effectual of all others to clear our religion from those objections, which in all ages have shocked the faith of many, on their very entrance into it.

* When our author here says, that Christians received the allegorical method of expounding from the Jews, it is not to be understood that they received from them the expositions themselves, but only the general principle, that there is a hidden sense in the Scriptures; which, as is well known, they applied to the truths of the gospel: and this principle they did not derive immediately from the Jews, but rather from the Lord and his Apostles. In their explanations, indeed, of the history of Adam and Eve, the early christians frequently followed the celebrated Jew, Philo: but it is generally admitted, that the explications of Philo were not such as would have been given by the Jewish Rabbins, but were drawn by him from the principles of the Platonic philosophy, in which he was profoundly versed: indeed, he is claimed by some of the Fathers, as a Christian. Dr. Middleton, however, deems it no argument against the principle of allegorical interpretation, that it was held by the Jews: very differently from some inconsistent modern writers, who object to it on that account, notwithstanding it is sanctioned by the Lord and his Apostles; though at the same time, without any such sanction, they draw from the Jews all their ideas of sacrifice and atonement. Certain it is that neither the Jews nor the early Christians were acquainted with the genuine spiritual sense of the Scriptures, as regularly unfolded by the science of correspondences; but they had a general perception of the existence of such a sense: which surely is an argument in favour of its reality: and to revile the belief that the Scriptures contain such a sense, by saying that the early Christians borrowed it from the Jews, is just as reasonable as it would be, to revile the belief that the Old Testament contains a revelation from God, because this, also, the Jews firmly maintained. Both were great traths, acknowledged by them, though by them they were buried under a superstructure of error: but when the mistakes which have been fastened upon them are cleared away, these truths will still remain immovable, to become foundations to the palace of heavenly wisdom.

IMPORTANT SENTIMENTS OF THE NEW CHURCH, ADVOCATED BY DR. WATTS AND MR. LOCKE.

To the Editors of the Intellectual Repository.

GENTLEMEN,

I send you some extracts from the works of Dr. Watts and Mr. Locke, with some remarks thereon; if you think them worth inserting in your Repository, you are very welcome to use and apply them in any way you may think fit. I have endeavoured to preserve consistency so as to make the subjects follow in proper and natural order, all which however is submitted to your judgment.

I am, Gentlemen,

Your obedient servant,

F. H.

London, 17th January, 1824.

When mankind are informed, as is done in the writings of Swedenborg, of many truths of the greatest importance to their spiritual improvement, it is common to reject them without examination, under the impression that no new discoveries of sacred things are ever more to be looked for: and especially when that enlightened herald declares, that he had received the things he teaches by a particular revelation, and was commissioned by the Lord to communicate them to the world;--that he was also enbled from his own experience to affirm, that heaven is a real state of existence, having in it objects in many respects similar to those in this world, but in immensely greater perfection;-and that spirits and angels are real substantial beings in a perfect human form;-the information is rejected at once, as altogether fanciful and incredible. Yet when the very same things are proposed hypothetically, as the dictates, not of knowledge, but of conjecture they then are immediately thought to be perfectly rational, and the writers who suggest them are considered to be highly favoured persons, eminent for their gifts and graces. Instances of such cases are very useful. It ought certainly to undeceive the multitude, in their prejudices against the New Church, when they find, that the very same things, for the assertion of which, as positive facts, Swedenborg is condemned as soaring into the regions of fancy, are presented by writers whose

sobriety was never questioned, as the most probable deductions of reason.

In the following paragraph, Dr. Watts states his sense of the want of precisely such information, on doctrinal subjects as the writings of Swedenborg communicate; and he mentions the very subjects on which the light afforded by those writings is pre-eminently conspicuous: "Nor should a student in divinity imagine that our age is arrived at a full understanding of every thing which can be known by the Scriptures.-Every age since the reformation, hath thrown some further light on difficult texts and paragraphs of the Bible, which have been long obscured by the early rise of antichrist; and since there are at present many difficulties and darknesses hanging about certain truths of the Christian Religion; and since several of those relate to important doctrines, as the origin of sin, the fall of Adam, the person of Christ, the blessed Trinity, and the decrees of of God, &c.--which do still embarrass the minds of honest and enquiring readers, and which make work for noisy controversy; it is certain there are several things in the Bible yet unknown and not sufficiently explained: and it is certain that there is some way to solve these difficulties, and to reconcile their seeming contradictions. And why may not a sincere searcher of truth, in the present age, by labour, diligence, study and prayer, with the best use of his reasoning powers, find out the proper solution of those knots and perplexities, which have hitherto been unsolved, and which have afforded matter for angry quarrelling? Happy is every man who shall be favoured of heaven to give a helping hand towards that introduction of the blessed age of light and love."- (Improvement of the mind, ch.

i. sec. 7.)

In the following extracts he expresses his conviction of the possibility of states of illumination being granted, approximating to those which Swedenborg experienced. In his Twelfth Discourse, On the extraordinary Witness of the Spirit, he says, "I am very sensible that, in our present age, the spirit of God is so much withdrawn from the Christian Church in all its operations, that a man exposes himself to the censure of wild enthusiasm and a heated fancy, if he ventures to discourse at all upon such a theme as this." Again: "I will offer some very probable proofs, that there has been, and is, such a thing, as the ex

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traordinary witness of the spirit of God."-And a little further "The great God the Father of spirits, can reveal a Truth to the mind of his creature with such life, and power, and evidence, that the mind cannot dissent from it or refuse to believe it: the overpowering light may be so divine and convincing, that the creature may be fully and justly persuaded it is a divine truth. -Those who believe the prophets and apostles divinely inspired, can have no reasonable doubts about this proposition."-And again, a little further on: "There is no evidence from reason or Scripture, that all such immediate divine favours are ceased; and though there is not the same occasion for the frequency of them as there was in the beginning of Christianity, yet the spirit of God is a free and unconfined agent; and since it is plain from Scripture that he doth still dwell in his people, and carry on his divine work among the churches of Christ, in all ages to the end of the world, why may he not sometimes discover his power and grace in an extraordinary manner, above and beyond his ordinary and usual operations?"-" Some special seasons and occasions may arise, and indeed have arisen, wherein the blessed spirit of God has thought it proper vastly to exceed the measures and rules of his ordinary operations in' the exercise of his offices of illumination and sanctification; and why may it not be allowed in his consolations also?" (Works, vol. 2. pp. 304, 305.)

So, on the subject of inspiration, Dr. Watts says in his Logic, "Though persons might be assured of their own inspiration by some peculiar and inexpressible consciousness of the divine inspiration and evidence in their own spirits, yet it is hard to make out this inspiration to others, and to convince them of it, except by some antecedent or consequent prophecies or miracles or some public appearances more than human."—(Pt. 2. ch. 2. sec. 9. n. 6.)

We now pass to another subject; on which the following remarks may be properly premised. Suppose the departed spirit of a good and pious man, after having remained in heaven for a considerable time, were appointed to dwell again in the flesh for forty or fifty years, with a perfect knowledge of having been in heaven, and a permission or command to reveal that knowledge; I think no temptations of this world No. II.-VOL. I.

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