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actual, so that, in taking upon Himself man's nature, the Lord would take upon Himself not merely the first rudiments of human nature as they existed at creation, but every possible tendency, voluntary and intellectual, as arising out of the hereditary transmission of all previously realized principles, in the form of a tendency to realize them actually again. Thus the realized states of man being inherited by the Lord in the form of tendencies to do and think, as a man, all that man had ever done and thought; and these tendencies being brought into activity, would receive from the Lord correction, supposing the fall to have rendered it necessary, or perfecting, supposing no fall, but only full development from interiors to ultimates, to have occurred; and thus all states possible to man would have a ground in the Lord's Humanity by which, and from which, He could omnipotently operate on all the tendencies of his creatures, thus gathered together in one in Him, for their eternal good and conservation.

But now let us suppose that the nature of man had been developed in fulness exactly at the period at which the Lord's incarnation took place, and in the manner described by Swedenborg in the above extract, without man ever having fallen; and let us also suppose that it was therefore unnecessary (as might appear from A. C. 2661,* taken by itself), that the Lord should assume the Humanity, let us ask, What is the reason given by our author why the church called the New Jerusalem will never fall away, but will exist for ever and ever? This question is answered as follows in T. C. R. 787:- "The reason why this New Church is the crown of all the churches which have existed in the world, [and it is the crown of all because it will endure for ever, as explained in the following number,] is, because it will worship one Visible God in whom is the invisible, as the soul is in the body; for thus, and no otherwise, can conjunction be effected between God and man. The reason of this is, because man is natural, and consequently thinks naturally, and the conjunction must be effected in his thought, and so in the affection of his love, and

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According to the interpretation of the writer, Swedenborg, in this number, affirms that if the celestial church had remained in its integrity, there would have been no need for the Lord to have assumed the Humanity to save mankind, for in coming to save he had in view the salvation of those who succeeded the celestial church. Swedenborg does not here touch the question whether the Lord would have come at the fulness of man's unfallen development (supposing such a fulness) to prevent his fall taking place. Of course it is not meant to suggest that anything is contingent in the view of Omniscience. The Lord foresaw the fall, and he moulded his provisions for human salvation so as to be in unison with his Divine plan for the final safety and happiness of man, according to which he carried on his great works of creation and providence.

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such conjunction is produced when man thinks of God as a Man. *** That God was not visible before He assumed the Humanity, see John v. 37, compared with Exod. xxxiii. 20. But that He is seen by His Humanity, see John i. 18; xiv. 6, 7, 9. That conjunction is effected with the invisible God by Him who is visible, see John xv. 4, 5; xiv. 20; xvii. 21-26. That salvation depends on conjunction with God, has been abundantly shewn above." Now it cannot be questioned, that this passage informs us (1) that the perpetuity of the New Jerusalem results only from the Lord's having assumed Humanity, and consequently that no church could exist in perpetuity until the Lord should gather all his rational creatures into conjunction with Himself by His Humanity. (2) Whence it also follows, that by virtue of this Divine provision, there can be no general falling away hereafter, but the human race will be (as Swedenborg says in the previous extract) as a man who advances continually in intelligence and wisdom; and consequently, had not the Humanity been assumed, a general falling away-that is a fall, supposing no previous fall-must needs occur, for nothing but the assumption of Humanity could prevent it. Had the human race been developed, according to the order described by Swedenborg, without a fall, and the Humanity not have been assumed by the Lord, then would the certainty ́ of a fall, as an evil to come, still be impending over man, because nothing but the assumption of Humanity (after the fulness of times) could prevent it, whence it follows that the Lord must needs have assumed Humanity when fully developed in order to prevent a fall, and therefore, that this must needs be a part of the Divine plan, as Paul says, from eternity. (3) But it is said by Swedenborg, that the course of the development of our race provided by the Creator was from the infantine celestial state to the " grown up state" of "thinking naturally," when man had become natural, at the period of the Jewish church. Whether man fell or no, it was part of the Divine plan that man should become natural in his thought, and we cannot suppose that God willed the fall of man in order to his becoming natural,—and in the extract last made, it is stated, that a necessity was created when man became natural in his thought, that God should assume the Humanity, because otherwise man, having become natural in his thought, could not think of God, and therefore, could not be conjoined with him, and therefore, could not be saved. Thus it is plain, that the necessity for the assumption of Humanity by the Lord is made by Swedenborg mainly to depend in the successive development of man as planned by the Creator, and not upon man's fall, which formed, of course, no part of the Creator's plan. (4) It appears clear that Swedenborg considered that the Jewish idea of God as a man,

because He appeared to be a man as to form when He presented Himself visibly by means of an angel filled with his presence, was such a kind of idea of Him, or was so partial and insufficient, that it was not adequate to effect that conjunction with Him which should secure to all the possibility of salvation through such conjunction, and thus secure the existence of a church in perpetuity. It was indispensable that a full idea should be attained of THE FACT of God being a man, through the knowledge of his having actually been born a man in the world,—a man in all external respects, like an ordinary man. Why, else, should Swedenborg say, and prove from the Word, that God was not visible before He assumed Humanity; that He is seen by his Humanity; and that conjunction is only effected with the Invisible through the Visible; closing with the remark that salvation depends on such a conjunction with God?

It appears difficult to attach any weight to this whole passage on the supposition that fully developed man could have been so conjoined with God as to insure his salvation without the assumption of Humanity; and hence the writer of this article concludes, that that stupendous work was not undertaken in consequence of the fall merely.

But let us now turn to T. C. R. 588, first remarking, that the separation of the will from the understanding, which took place in the Noetic church in consequence of the declension of the Adamic church, it is supposed was rendered essential to man's salvation altogether in consequence of the fall, and that if man had not fallen, no such separation would have been effected. But if, from age to age, man was intended to "grow up" as above described by Swedenborg, such a separation was indispensable to his growth, as a finite creature, for otherwise he could not have advanced from the infantine, and therefore instinctive state of thought existing with the Adamites. In the passage just referred to Swedenborg writes thus:-"To the end that he may be regenerated, man is endowed with a capacity of elevating his understanding almost into the light which the angels of heaven enjoy, that he may see what it behoves him to will and thence to do, in order to his true interest in this world, and that he may be blessed to eternity." Swedenborg then shews the necessity of this separation as arising from the fall, and then adds-"Besides, unless the understanding could be perfectly separate l from the will, and the will, by its means, be separated, man would not be a man but a beast [that is, he would have an instinctive, not a rational nature]; for without such separation, and the ascent of the understanding above the will, he would have no capacity of thinking, nor of speaking by virtue of thought, but would utter a sound expressive of his affection; nor would he have a capacity of acting from reason, but ONLY FROM IN

STINCT." The latter portion of this extract appears to relate to man in the abstract, and not specially to him as a fallen creature. It appears to set forth that the union, or re-union of the will and understanding by regeneration since the Lord's incarnation, is a more perfectly rational state for man as a finite creature, than that which existed before the separation of the will and understanding; more perfect because, as he then shews, there is in the action of the separated will and understanding on each other, a fuller experience of freedom and reciprocity, than existed in the celestial state, when the understanding was an instinctive development from the unfallen will, even although this state did exactly image the order of the union of the Divine Love and Wisdom in God as it must ever exist. It is clear that if man is now more fully in freedom, in respect to the existing relation of his will and understanding, he is a gainer by the separation, which, therefore, should not be regarded as the result of a contingency such as was the fall, but as a part of the grand plan of his development by his Creator. It cannot be questioned that man thinking in ultimates, as at present, and thus in fulness, enjoys a wider range of freedom than existed with those who thought only interiorly, and from the necessity of their state, that is, from the necessary development of thought in the understanding from the will, instinctively rather than rationally. The characters of such were not formed, as now, by the exercise of choice and determination, but by a process resembling the development of a plant, or the instinct of an animal. But now, diverse and opposite things are presented clearly to the understanding, and as the choice is more consciously independent, so the conjunction with God by a right choice is more full and perfect, and, therefore, more blessed, because the elements of blessedness and the sense of blessedness must always be in proportion to each other.

If these views be correct, we are not to look for a restoration in the New Church of the instinctive celestial state of the Adamites, but the rational celestial state as set forth in the spiritual sense of the account of the New Jerusalem. While the abstract man was being developed, the order of the process was a descending order, from interior to exterior; but this having been completed, the order of his advance in intelligence and wisdom will ever be an ascending order, from exterior to interior, as described in the following numbers to that above quoted. (T. C. R. 588.)

Our author has not, indeed, answered the query at the head of this paper in the negative in direct terms, but although it is admitted fully that the Lord did assume the Humanity to redeem mankind from the effects of the fall, and restore conjunction with Himself, (A. C. 2034) it does appear, by fair inferences from what Swedenborg has said, that the

Humanity was not assumed merely to remedy the effects of the fall, but also to carry out a grand and universal plan applicable to all rational creatures created to bear the Divine image and likeness. "In the union of his Humanity with the Divinity, the Lord regarded nothing but the conjunction of the Divinity with the human race." (A. C. 2077.) The question is, then, could man, when fully developed, so as to think naturally on spiritual subjects from a spiritual ground, be permanently conjoined with God without the assumption and glorification of Humanity? The writer of this article, with the above statement of Swedenborg in his last great work before him, feels compelled to conclude, that unless God had become a man, the conjunction of the human race with God could not have been permanently maintained as it will be maintained through the perpetuity of the dispensation of the New Jerusalem.

It is not a valid reason for rejecting this conclusion, that it has not been before deduced from the principles of Swedenborg. If those principles be true, and deductions from them be justly made, the view presented as a consequence is true, notwithstanding its novelty.

OUTLINES OF MY MENTAL HISTORY.

(Concluded from page 228.)

W. M.

THE reader will have perceived, that already in my mental horizon the grey dawn was brightening here and there into ruddy streaks. This change came gradually and imperceptibly to myself. I gained at length some more definite knowledge of the Northern Seer. Vague rumours, to the meaning of which I had no key, I had frequently heard; but now I heard him several times spoken of as giving utterance to something of which I had already attained a degree of perception. My attention was aroused, and I began to inquire. That which first of all attracted me, was the revelation of the interior sense of the Word by the science of correspondences. I saw at once that if this was what it professed to be, it was that which alone was required to make the Bible what it was commonly said, but not seen to be,-the Word of God. I read and heard with delight any thing which elucidated this internal sense. On reading the first volume of the "Arcana Cœlestia," I was astonished beyond measure by the indubitable evidence afforded that the Word had been written with reference to the internal sense, and that this is so clearly made the one object of importance. My delight was unspeakable. Here was a new world of wonders to be explored. I stood on the

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