ADDRESS TO THE SWEDENBORG SOCIETY. 355 Our Lord tells you that he came to fulfil the law: you ask, Which version of the law? Our Lord tells you that not one jot or tittle of the law shall fail: you ask, Where is that copy of the law of which not one jot or tittle is incorrect? Does it not savour of the Masoretic superstition?—Well, then, so long as you can find variations in the copies, or jots or tittles capable of emendation, go and search the Scriptures, not for eternal life, but for various readings and emendations; and insist upon it, that until all these are settled, you cannot interpret the Scriptures, you cannot say whether they have been fulfilled or not, whether Christ is that prophet that should come into the world; for if what your criticism deems to be a false reading should happen to be spiritually interpreted, and in that sense be said to be fulfilled, and there should be those who believe in the interpretation and fulfilment, and become disciples, and form themselves into a society of Christians—what then? Why, then you can shew that the whole "goes to pieces upon the rocks of fact," for you can prove that the text is not to be trusted, that the versions of Scripture differ from each other, and that some spiritual interpretation is founded upon what you consider to be a false reading. Therefore, in these days of manuscripts, readings, criticisms, and emendations, beware of any spiritual interpretation; for even if there be such a thing, the foundation has yet to be laid! Beware, above all, of Swedenborg's teaching concerning our Lord's awful struggles with the powers of darkness, the glorification of his Humanity, the reördination of all things in heaven and in earth, until you have settled the question of Dr. Mill's thirty thousand various readings, Dr. Kennicott's and De Rossi's host of corruptions, the merits of Tischendorf's Sinaitic manuscript, and his controversy with the monk Simonides; and when you have done all this, be not impatient, for you know not how many more manuscripts remain to be discovered! You have plenty to do before you can become so certified of the literal sense that you can make it the basis of a spiritual sense, even if you admitted a spiritual sense, which most of you do not. This life is short, but there is eternity before you; and the question will be to you as endless in the other life as it is in this-" Whether it be so?" Oh, happy prospect of everlasting criticism !—because when you have settled the text others will doubt it, and when others have settled the text you will doubt it; and yet until every various reading, every jot and tittle be critically correct, there is no assured basis for spiritual interpretation; inasmuch as you might be doing, what you charge Swedenborg with doing, founding a spiritual interpretation upon 356 ADDRESS TO THE SWEDENBORG SOCIETY. a false reading. Well, then, if your worn and weary soul should seek repose in some more genial system of belief or unbelief, you have before you these alternatives-the authority of the church, absolute infidelity, or the dictation of spirits; all of which may advise you not to seek life in the dead letter of a book, but to dispense with the Masoretic text and the Book altogether. If you believe in the Bible at all, and think that Swedenborg has given the wrong spiritual interpretation, why do you not give the right one? Is it because you have none to give? Is it because you regard it as a revival of Gnostic and Cabalistic superstition? As to the text, you have laboured to set forth its various readings and corruptions. As to the history, you have laboured to show it to be unhistorical. As to spiritual interpretation, what have you done? You have been walking through the scenery of the garden of Eden, and seen no more of its rivers of life, its mountains of gold, its precious stones, its gorgeous flowers, its trees overladen with all manner of fruit, than if you had been walking through the valley of the shadow of death! Be not offended, then, if you are reminded of those words which have already been addressed to you by a divine of the Church of England:* “Clear, therefore, it is, that men may devote their whole lives to Biblical criticism; that they may spend their days and nights in collating the manuscripts of Holy Scripture, and in careful comparison of its ancient and modern versions, and in minute philological analyses of its words and idioms; that they may make elaborate researches into its history, chronology, and geography; that they may combine the learning of the Rabbis with the labors of the Masorites,—and yet may know nothing of the true meaning of Holy Scripture; but on the contrary, may be blind leaders of the blind,' and may even pervert the sense of Scripture, and may reject Him who is the True Light." A KNOWLEDGE of this, the true nature of the Lord's work of Redemption, opens the eyes to the understanding of many passages of Scripture, which, without such knowledge, are quite unintelligible. For instance, the following sublime passage from Isaiah :— "Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, *Holy Bible, with Notes and Illustrations, by Chr. Wordsworth, D.D., Canon of Westminster, Preface, p. 8. THE LORD'S GLORIFICATION. 857 I have trodden the wine and thy garments like him that treadeth in the wine-fat? press alone, and of the people there was none with me. mine anger, and trample them in my fury, and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment; for the day of vengeance is in my heart, and the year of my redeemed is come." (Isaiah lxiii. 1—4.) Here the Lord's conflict with the infernals is described, as is plain from the words" I will tread them in Mine anger, and trample them in My fury;" and that the object of this combat was to effect man's redemption, is evident from the words "For the year of My redeemed is come." The Lord is here said to act from "anger" and "fury;" but these terms, when spoken of the Lord, mean only the zeal of Divine love to save the oppressed from the anger and fury of their oppressors. That there is not, in fact, any such passion as "fury" in the Lord, may be at once perceived by reflecting that He is Love itself, and is unchangeable; indeed, this truth is expressly declared in Isaiah *—"Fury is not in Me." In the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, we have a touching picture of the Lord's temptations and sufferings, endured for our sakes. "He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. Surely, He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed." From a misunderstanding of the true nature of redemption, these words have been supposed to allude to a vicarious atonement, made by the Lord for men by the suffering and death of the cross. But it has been shown, in the preceding essay, that such a doctrine is entirely untenable,—that it is utterly opposed to a true view of the Divine character, as one of love and goodness,--that it puts a complete separation and division between the Father and the Son, between the Creator and the Saviour, making them two distinct Beings, whereas, as we have amply shown from passages adduced above, there is but one God, in one Person, and that God is Himself both man's Creator and his Redeemer. The true meaning of those words, as also of all the rest of that chapter, is that the Lord, by taking upon Himself human nature, with its whole burden of hereditary evils, thereby subjected Himself to the most dire temptations from the infernal powers,-temptations even to the agony and bloody sweat of Gethsemane,-even to the united tortures of mind and body endured on the cross. The passion of the cross was the last and greatest temptation which the Lord endured, and that by * Isaiah xxvii. 4. 358 THE LORD'S GLORIFICATION. which he completed His victory over the hells, and fully glorified His Humanity. That this was the case, is evident from His words, spoken in reference to His approaching death-"Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out:"*"casting out the prince of this world," signifies the complete conquest of the hells. And that by the same great act of endurance He effected the full glorification of His Humanity, is plain from the words pronounced by Him when He was about to be betrayed by Judas—“ After Judas was gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him."t On the above passage from Isaiah, Swedenborg makes the following comment: 666 "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and by his stripes we are healed.' These things are said of the Lord, and thereby are described the temptations which he underwent in the world, in order that he might subdue the hells, and reduce all things in them, and also in the heavens, to order. Those grievous temptations are meant by his being 'wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities, and by the chastisement of our peace being upon him.' Salvation to man by means of these temptations is signified by its being said, and with his stripes we are healed;' and by 'peace,' thence derived, is signified heaven and life eternal, which is given to those who are conjoined with him; for the human race could by no means have been saved unless the Lord had reduced all things in the heavens and in the hells to order, and at the same time glorified his Humanity, which things were accomplished by means of temptations admitted into that Humanity."-Apocalypse Explained, n. 365. Similar is the meaning of the words, "He shall bear their iniquities," and "Jehovah hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." This does not mean any imputative transfer of man's guilt to the Saviour, and allowing Him to endure the punishment of it in man's stead. Such a transfer of guilt is as impossible as it is unjust: the one who commits the wrong has the guilt; and to attribute to an innocent person the crimes of another, and regard him as guilty and the other innocent, is abhorrent to every idea of justice implanted by the Divine Creator in the human mind. The idea is moreover absurd-guilt cannot be transferred, but is inseparable from the sin which causes it; nor, indeed, in a just view, can even the punishment of sin be transferred, for evil carries ever its own punishment. The only way in which the Saviour could bear man's iniquities was hereditarily-that is, by taking upon Him a human nature, in which all man's propensities to evil were contained. The bearing our iniquities signifies also that which was the necessary consequence of his taking upon Him man's depraved * John xii. 31, 33. + John xiii. 31. Isaiah liii. 6-11. THE LORD'S GLORIFICATION. 359 nature, namely, his combats with the hells in temptation, and his delivering mankind from their power. That such is the true meaning of bearing iniquities, is expressly taught in the following passage in Matthew: "When the evening was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils; and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias [Isaiah] the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses." Similar is the signification of the words in John+- Behold, the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world," or, as it would be more correctly translated, “takes up or bears the sins of the world," which means, taking upon him man's hereditary evils by the assumption of fallen human nature. That the Lord endured temptations, deeper than man or all men together can endure, is declared in the words-"His visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men." The depth and grievousness of those temptations is set forth touchingly in many of the Psalms: listen, for instance, to the following:-" Give ear to my prayer, O God, and hide not thyself from my supplication. Attend unto me, and hear me: I mourn in my complaint, and make a noise; because of the voice of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked; for they cast iniquity upon me, and in wrath they hate me. My heart is sore pained within me, and the terrors of death are fallen upon me. Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me. And I said, Oh, that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away and be at rest."§ And again, observe the mental agony expressed in these sentences:- "Save me, O God, for the waters are come in unto my soul. I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me. I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: my eyes fail while I wait for my God. They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head: they that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored that which I took not away."¶ "I restored that which I took not away!"-how simple and pathetic are those words! No, he took it not away-it was we that took it away: it was man who, by his perverseness, deprived himself of good, and happiness, and heaven; and the Lord, in his pity and love, came down to "restore" it to him again. Oh, that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men !" ·- 66 Isaiah lii. 14. * Matthew viii. 16, 17. + John i. 29. Psalm lxix. 1-4. |