spiritual end or consummation of the first Christian Church under the image of the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple. Jerusalem signifies the church. "The reason why by Jerusalem in the Word is meant the Church," says Swedenborg, "is because there, in the land of Canaan, and in no other place, was the temple and the altar, and sacrifices were offered, thus divine worship itself; wherefore also three feasts were held there yearly, and every male throughout the whole land was commanded to come to them." (Apocalypse Revealed, v. 880.)

That such is the signification of Jerusalem appears evident from numerous passages in the Word where it is mentioned. To cite only a few of them: It is said in a chapter of Isaiah which treats of the Lord's advent, and of the Church to be established by Him, "For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth and the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I create: for behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem and joy in my people." (lxv. 17, 18.) Now we know that the Christian Church was not established among those who were in Jerusalem, but among those who were out of it. Hence it is evident that by Jerusalem is here signified the Church, and not the natural city known by that name. It was

the Church which the Lord came to renovate or create anew, and thus to fill with joy and rejoicing: therefore He says, "Behold I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people."

Again in another chapter of the same prophecy, where Messiah's advent and the Church to be established by Him are treated of, it is written: "Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion, put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city; for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean. Shake thyself from the dust: arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem. Therefore my people shall know my name: therefore shall they know in that day, that I am he that doth speak; behold it is I. Break

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forth into joy, sing together ye waste places of Jerusalem for Jehovah hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem." (lii. 1, 2, 6, 9.) Every one must perceive that it was not the natural city of Jerusalem, but the Church, or mankind in their fallen state, which the Lord came to comfort and redeem:—that it was the Church which had become waste and desolate, and which the Lord's advent was to regenerate, and thus cause to "break forth into joy." It was evidently the Church-the fallen,degenerate human mind-which is commanded to "shake itself from the dust," "to arise," &c.; i. e., to divest itself of the false and evil principles which are signified by dust, and become elevated out of its fallen condition. It was the Church which the Lord commands to "put on its beautiful garments," i. e., to clothe and decorate itself with pure, spiritual truths from the Word for garments signify truths. And it is the true Church into which "the uncircumcised and the unclean" can never come.

Again in Isaiah: "Look upon Zion the city of our solemnities; thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken." (xxxiii. 20.) And in Zechariah; "Thus saith Jehovah, I am returned unto Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; and Jerusalem shall be called the City of Truth; and the mountain of Jehovah of hosts, the holy mountain." (viii. 3.) Also in Joel; "So shall ye know that I am Jehovah your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain; then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more. And it shall come to pass in that day that the mountains shall drop down new wine and the hills shall flow with milk. But Judah shall dwell forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation." (iii. 17, 18, 20.) To suppose that by Jerusalem is here to be understood the natural city by that name, were not less irrational than to suppose that what is said of the mountains dropping down new wine and the hills flowing with milk is to be understood in its literal sense. It is the true and living Church--

the human mind imbued with love and intelligence from the Lord-which shall dwell" from generation to generation."

Again it is written in Jeremiah, "At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of Jehovah: and all nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of Jehovah, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart." (iii. 17.) Here it is quite plain that not to walk after the imagination of an evil heart, is the same as to be gathered to the name of Jehovah, to Jerusalem; i. e., to be brought into the Church by a life of obedience to the divine truth. The Jews, by understanding Jerusalem here and in other parts of the Word, only in its literal sense, suppose that a time is coming when "all nations" (by which they understand all the Jews,) will be brought into the land of Judea, and gathered to their ancient city, which, it is believed, will endure "from generation to generation."

That the Lord's Church is meant by Jerusalem in all these passages, and not that natural city in the land of Canaan, which was inhabited by the Jews, appears still more evident from those portions of the Word, where it is said of the latter that it was to be destroyed, and also that it was entirely ruined. This, which is said in the literal sense of the Word, signifies in the spiritual sense, that the Church would be destroyed, or come to its end, which also has happened as well to the first Christian as to the Jewish Church.

If any one desires more evidence from the Word to be convinced that Jerusalem is therein employed to denote the Church, let him turn to Rev. xxi. 2, where it is thus written: "And I John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." That a natural city cannot be signified by the New Jerusalem here mentioned, is evident from its dimensions, particularly its height, as given in verse 16. And that it does signify the Church-a church which the Lord would establish upon earth when the first Christian Church was consummated-is evident from what is said in the latter part of the chapter, that "the city had no need of

the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it; for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the lamp thereof;" that "the nations of them that are saved shall walk in the light of it;" that "there shall be no night. there;" and that "there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie; but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life." It is the doctrine of genuine truth from the Word now unfolded or brought down to man's apprehension-" coming down from God out of heaven"-descending into human minds, and dispersing the clouds of error and the lusts of evil, and thus reforming man into the image of his Maker, which constitutes the true and living Church, and is what is signified by "the holy city, New Jerusalem." This doctrine, as revealed in the writings of Swedenborg, is clear and luminous," for the glory of God doth lighten it." All who "walk in the light of it," "are saved"-saved from the falses and evils which destroy the soul. They are delivered from the darkness of ignorance and error, and hence "there is no night there." But this heavenly doctrine cannot be received by selfish, impure, and wicked men; cannot be received by any save those who are striving to become heavenly minded-seeking, as of first importance, "the kingdom of God and his righteousness." "There shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie; but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life."

Many other passages might be cited from the Word in proof of what is declared in the writings of Swedenborg to be the spiritual and true signification of Jerusalem. But it is unnecessary to multiply examples.

If, therefore, Jerusalem, when used in the Word, is to be understood not merely in a natural, but in a spiritual sense, as denoting the Church, it is evident that what our Lord says, in those chapters of the Evangelists which foretell his second appearing, concerning the temple that was there, its buildings, and the stones of the buildings, must have some other than a literal signification. If by Jerusalem is denoted the Church, the

stones and buildings of its temple must evidently signify something of a spiritual nature appertaining to the Church.

Now we are taught in the writings of Swedenborg, that temple, because it was the Jews' place of worship, and was therefore regarded by them as most holy, signifies, in its supreme sense, the Lord himself as to the Divine Humanity, who alone is to be worshipped; and that, in a subordinate sense, it denotes the Church as to worship, i. e., as to its interior quality or state of life. (See Apocalypse Revealed, n. 918.) The buildings of the temple, according to the same authority, signify all that appertains to the worship of the Church, or of an individual (ibid. n. 911,); i. e., all those feelings of dependence, humility, gratitude, meekness, selfdistrust, and self-renunciation, without which there is no genuine worship. And the stones of the buildings denote the Divine truths of the Word, (see Arcana Cœlestia, n. 1298) by means of which these heavenly states are produced; or the graces of meekness, charity, &c., which are built up and established in human minds.

It might be shown from the Sacred Oracles 'themselves that these words have the spiritual meaning here given to them, in like manner as has been done in respect to Jerusalem. In the Revelation, for example, where the descent of the New Jerusalem is treated of, it is said that "the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it." And the Apostle Paul calls man "the temple of God." "For the temple of God," he says,

is holy, which temple ye are." (1 Cor. III. 17.) Evidently it is the mind of man to which the Apostle here refers; and this is holy only in the degree that it receives from the Lord the holy principles of truth and love, or in the degree that it is brought into a state to "worship God in spirit and in truth." Therefore temple here denotes man as to the quality of his life, or his state of worship.

Again because the Lord is the very Divine Truth, as He declares in John, "I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life," (xiv. 6.) therefore He is called the head stone of the corner which the builders rejected. [Matt.