TO THE REV. W. MASON. 17 years ago, into the previously existing "Duality of the Divine Nature." There was no Son before, or no element in the Divine Nature signified by this term; and of course there could have been no Divine marriage union of Father and Son. But in the passage just cited, Swedenborg declares that the indwelling of the Father in the Son and the Son in the Father, spoken of in the New Testament, is the union of the Divine Good with the Divine Truth, which he calls the Divine marriage; and not only so, but he tells us that this Divine marriage "was from eternity." But this eternal union of the Father with the Son, of the Divine with the Human, or what is the same, of the Divine Good with the Divine Truth, did not, I admit, exist in ultimates prior to the incarnation. Yet the nature of this union was not essentially different, nor were the elements themselves different, after the advent in the flesh, from what they had been before, and from all eternity. They were the very same, only brought down to human conditions and wants, and ultimated on the lowest plane of human existence. Accordingly, in the very paragraph just quoted, Swedenborg says" But the Divine Human which was born from eternity, was also born in time; and what was born in time and glorified, is the same;" (ib. 2803.) that is, the same Divine marriage of Good with Truth, and of Truth with Good, which had existed from eternity. This marriage, it is true, was not full and perfect in ultimates at the birth of Christ; he came as the Word or Divine Truth, and this was united to Divine Good, even in the natural or assumed humanity, through a series of temptation combats, admitted into that humanity. And this process-the uniting of Divine Truth with Divine Good in the natural or assumed humanity, is what we are to understand by the glorification of that humanity. And we can form some idea of this by contemplating the process that goes on in our own regeneration-considering how truth, received at first only into the external memory, is gradually, and by a series of temptation combats, united to good in the will, and this even in the natural degree of our minds. For as the Lord glorified his human," says our author, he regenerates man; wherefore, as has been occasionally said above, the regeneration of man is an image of the glorification of the Lord; hence it is evident that the first state of his glorification was to make his human divine truth, and to unite it with the divine good which was in himself; and that the second state was to act from divine good by divine truth." A. C. 10,057. And speaking again of this arcanum, and describing the nature of that reciprocal union of Father and Son in the humanity assumed, which he says was a reciprocal unition of Divine Good and Divine Truth," our author remarks : [Enl. Series.-No. 85, vol. viii.] 66 2 66 SO 18 THE REV. B. F. BARRETT'S REPLY A "But these things may be better apprehended from the reciprocal conjunction of good and truth with the man who is regenerated by the Lord, for, as was before said, the Lord regenerates man as He glorified his human. No. 10,057. When the Lord regenerates man, he insinuates the truth which is to be of faith into the man's intellectual, and the good which is to be of love into his voluntary, and therein conjoins them; and when they are conjoined, then the truth which is of faith has its life from the good which is love, and the good which is of love has its quality of life from the truth which is of faith." A.C. 10,067. Truth in the external memory of man, is as the human which the Lord assumed before the glorification was complete. But truth when united to good in the will, as it is by a life of steadfast obedience, is as the Divine Human, or the very Divine Truth infilled and so united with the Divine Good. In the last paragraph quoted, our author says, "that no one can be conjoined by faith and love to the Divine itself, without the Divine Human; for the Divine itself, which is called the Father, can not be thought of, because it is incomprehensible." But when the Divine Love clothes or manifests itself under the form of Divine Truth, then it becomes comprehensible in some degree-then it can be seen as it were, and so received by angels and men. Accordingly Swedenborg, after citing a few passages from the Word in confirmation of the remark just quoted, immediately adds:-" The reason why it is also said that no one knoweth the Son but the Father, is, because by the Son is meant Divine Truth, and by the Father Divine Good, each in the Lord, and the one can not be known but from the other. That the Son is Divine Truth, and the Father Divine Good, each of the Lord. See Nos. 2803, 2813, 3704, 7499, 8328, 8897, 9807; from these considerations it is now evident, that the Divine in the heavens is the Divine Human of the Lord." In perfect accord with the foregoing remarks, and with what Swedenborg says, in A.C. 2803, about the eternal conjunction of Father and Son, is the following:-" As to what concerns the origin of light (heavenly light, of course) it was from eternity from the Lord alone, for Divine Good itself, and Divine Truth, whence light comes, is the Lord: the Divine Human, which was from eternity, (see John xvii. 5.) was that essential light; and whereas that light could no longer affect the human race, who had removed themselves so far from good and truth, and thus from light, and had cast themselves into darkness, therefore the Lord was willing to put on the essential human by nativity; for thus he was enabled to illuminate not only man's rational principle, but also his natural; for he made both the rational principle and the natural TO THE REV. W. MASON. 19 in himself Divine, that they also might have light who were in such gross darkness." A. C. 3195. From this, as well as from some previous quotations, it will be seen how much Mr. Mason is mistaken in supposing that the union of Father and Son, spoken of in the Word, is not eternal in its nature, consequently that the Divine Trinity is not eternal; and how greatly he errs also, when he says-"That whenever our author says the Father spiritually signifies the Divine Good, and the Son the Divine Truth, he is referring to the period of the Lord's life in the world, before he was fully glorified; for to say that the Son now means the Divine Truth, is to say that the glorification and the union of the Father and the Son-the Divine and the Human in the Lord-was never completed!" How so? May not the light of the sun be spoken of, and certain things be predicated of it, as if it were separate and distinct from the heat, even though the union of light and heat be perfect? So when we speak of the Son as now meaning the Divine Truth, we do not, of course, mean the Truth apart or separate from the Divine Good, for it has no such separate existence, any more than light has apart from heat. But not only does the Son now mean the Divine Truth, but according to Swedenborg it has from eternity had that meaning, and from eternity been in divine marriage union with the Divine Good signified by the Father. Besides, our author says that "the divine good of the Lord's divine love is everywhere meant by the Father in the Word of the evangelists." A. R. 613. Our view of this subject finds still further confirmation in what Swedenborg says of the Divine Esse, which is the Father, and the Divine Existere, which is the Son. Speaking of these in the Divine Love and Wisdom, (No. 14) he says-" They are distinctly one, as is the case with love and wisdom; for love also is Esse, and wisdom Existere, since love does not exist but in wisdom, nor wisdom but from love; wherefore, when love is in wisdom there it exists. These two are such a one, that they may be distinguished indeed in thought, but not in act; and as they are distinguishable in thought, but not in act, therefore it is said they are distinctly one. Esse and Existere in GodMan are also distinctly one, as soul and body; the soul does not exist without its body, nor the body without its soul. The Divine Soul of GodMan is understood by the Divine Esse (love), and His Divine Body by the Divine Existere (wisdom). Yet according to Mr. Mason's view, the Divine Esse did exist from all eternity, up to the time of the incarnation, without the Divine Existere, or the Divine Soul, without any Divine Body or Form; and at the period of the incarnation it took on 20 66 THE REV. B. F. BARRETT'S REPLY a Form. For while he maintains that "the Son is the Father in Person-the Divine Love in a human form," he insists that this person," or "human form," is not eternal, and denies that the Son means the Divine Truth, which is eternal in its very nature. We would again, therefore, remind him of what Swedenborg says, "that essence is not given without form, nor form without essence; but good is essence or esse, and truth is that by which the essence is formed and the esse exists." C. L. 87. Mr. Mason also labours under a great mistake in supposing that prior to the incarnation there was only a Divine Duality not Trinity—or that God had not then as now, a human form. The teaching of Swedenborg is quite otherwise. He says that the essential Divine could not exist and could not be thought of except under a human form; that there was always, therefore, a Divine Human, as well as a Divine and a Divine Proceeding-a Divine Esse, a Divine Existere, and a Divine Procedere but not brought down to our human conditions and adapted to our human wants, before, as since the advent. He says "that the Lord from eternity was Jehovah or the Father in a human form, but not yet in the flesh, for an angel has not flesh; and whereas Jehovah or the Father willed to put on all the human for the sake of the salvation of the human race, therefore also He assumed flesh." A. C. 9315. See also 6846, 6876. Again, Swedenborg says that "the Divinity, under the human form, even at that time (a time anterior to the incarnation), was the Divine Humanity. But inasmuch as this Divine Humanity was the Divine principle of the Lord in the heavens, and passing through the heavens, when heaven became feeble from this circumstance, that men who constitute heaven, successively from internal become external, and thus natural, it therefore pleased the Divine Being himself (who had always existed, of course, as a Divine Person) to put on the humanity, and to glorify this, or make it divine, that thus from himself he might affect all, as well those who are in the spiritual world as those who are in the natural world." A.E. 151. I assert, therefore, on the authority of Swedenborg, as well as of the Sacred Scripture, that the Lord always existed in human form; that in him there was always a Divine, a Divine Human, and a Divine Proceeding; that the Divine Trinity, which is also the Christian Trinity, is eternal in its nature, though not in its adaptation to human wants, or its power to reach and save men in their fallen state. This adaptation and this power were achieved by the assumption of our fallen humanity, whereby the sphere of the Triune God was extended-a new (yet not new) Divine Human, adapted to the fallen condition of mankind, being, as it were, superinduced upon that Divine Human which was from eternity. Agreeable to this, our author says,-" that the Lord came into the world, and assumed the Human, that he might put himself in power to subjugate the hells, and to reduce all things to order, both in the heavens as on earth. This Human he superinduced over his former Human. The Human that he superinduced in the world was like the human of a man in the world; nevertheless, both were divine, and therefore infinitely transcending the finite human of angels and men; and as he fully glorified his natural human, even to its ultimates, therefore he rose again with his whole body different from any man. By the assumption of this Human he invested himself with divine omnipotence, not only to subjugate the hells, and to reduce the heavens to order, but also to hold the hells in a state of subjugation to eternity, and to save mankind." (D. L. W. 221.) Not that the Lord's power was absolutely increased by the assumption of the Humanity, but only relatively. Relative to our fallen race, and to the hells by which humanity was infested, He did by the assumption of the Human, "invest Himself with Divine Omnipotence." He extended, so to speak, the sphere of His Divine Love and Wisdom, and augmented its relative strength, so that He can now reach our fallen humanity; can enlighten, quicken, purify, and save, as He could not before. Therefore it is said that, "in the angelic heavens He appears as a sun, after His coming into the world, with more powerful rays and in greater splendour than before His coming." (Ibid.) Observe, He appears not essentially different-not now in a form which He had not before-not with any new or third element or essential" superadded, as Mr. Mason imagines, but the very same Divine Being or Person, only "in greater splendour than before,"—just as a good, wise, generous man appears greater and more glorious in the degree that he comes down to his frail, erring, and suffering fellow-mortals, and lifts them up from their degradation and sin-helps them in their weakness and their woes. and 66 But already I have extended these remarks to too great length; yet much that I would be glad to say remains still unsaid. I trust, however, that I have said sufficient to show that my statement of the doctrine of the Trinity, in my Letters to Mr. Beecher, is not inaccurate,'' unjustifiable,' or empirical,' as charged by Mr. Mason, but in strict accordance with the teachings of Swedenborg; that Mr. Mason's criticisms betray, on his part, a partial or superficial view of this subject, and an imperfect understanding of some of the phraseology of our author-that his idea ་ |