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suppose that the dove was a divine person. The divine characters and attributes are, when represented in particular, embodied forth under peculiar correspondences. The omnipotence of the divine love, BY THE LION OF THE TRIBE OF JUDAH. The Lord, as to his divine humanity, by a LAMB. The divine truth, purifying, and regenerating, and illuminating the understanding, by the dove; when teaching and promulgating doctrine under the influence of love, by the cloven tongues as of fire.

Y.

ON THE CHARACTER OF SWEDENBORG,

As viewed in the New Church.

We are often asked in what light we consider Emanuel Swedenborg. To this question we answer :- -We view him as a messenger commissioned by the Lord himself, to declare the truths of the New Jerusalem dispensation, which were revealed to him for the use of the future church. From the commencement of his childhood, he was prepared in all the natural sciences, for a complete and enlarged conception of truth, and disposed to occupy himself in the contemplation of divine things. He was not of the clerical order, but being disentangled from the peculiar opinions of a sect or order, he was the better enabled to receive truths from the Lord. We therefore, consider him merely as a messenger. We receive the message, and make that the object of our consideration, not the man. "The Lord only knows who is the most proper messenger, by whom to reveal the doctrines of the New Jerusalem Church, be he an archbishop, or only one of his menial servants." He says of himself, "This knowledge is given to me from our Saviour, not for any particular merit of mine, but for the great concern of all christians' salvation and happiness." A passage from the prophet Amos, vii. c. 10. v. &c. is very applicable. "Then Amaziah the priest of Beth-el, sent to Jeroboam, king of Israel, saying, Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel: The land is not able to bear all his words. Also Amaziah said unto Amos, O thou Seer, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there. But prophesy not again any more at Bethel; for it is the king's chapel, and it is the king's court. Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither

was I a prophet's son, but I was an herdman, and a gatherer of wild figs. And the LORD took me as I followed the flock, and the LORD said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel." Let us take heed how we say of the messenger of the New Dispensation, "The land is not able to bear all his words," and forbid him to prophesy amongst us.

Z.

ERROR

In English Translation of Apocalypsis Explicata, vol. i. p. 225, No. 163.

In turning over the Apocalypsis Explicata, my attention was lately arrested by a note at the bottom of page 225, in the first volume of the English translation, in which it is said, "It is remarkable, that what is here rendered by our author bed, in the ARCANA CELESTIA is rendered Nazarite, from the original Hebrew term 1. It is not easy to see what was the author's reason for adopting these two different translations, but it is satisfactory to reflect, that as to the internal sense, they do not differ, since each is alike significant of the natural principle here spoken of, as may be seen by consulting the author's explication, at No. 6437 of the A. C." So wide a disagreement in the translations of our great scribe, excited sensations not a little painful, and I immediately referred to the original Hebrew, where, of course, I found the word v Nězīr. I immediately turned to the two great Hebrew concordances of Calasio and Buxtorf, where I traced every passage in the Hebrew Bible in which the word was used, and found not one in which there was the slightest foundation for translating the word as "bed." I then turned to a number of Hebrew Lexicons, D'Olonne, Gussetius, Robertson, and Michaelis, and to the Latin version of Pagninus, and the Chaldee paraphrase of Onkelos-not a vestige was to be found authorizing such an interpretation. I had recourse then to the other passages quoted in the same number of AP. Ex. (163) from the WORD in which the term "bed" was found, and discovered that the Hebrew word, in those instances, was uniformly no□ mittāh, which is the proper term for "bed." Jealous for our learned and highly gifted scribe, and confident that he could not have erred in so strange a manner, I referred to a Latin translation of Rabbi Solomon Yerchi's Commentary on the Old Testament,

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where I found the word rendered "selecti," and comparing this with the original Latin of E. S. where I found the word "lecti," I began to conclude our worthy friend R. Hindmarsh, who printed the Latin work, had made a typographical error by printing "lecti" for "selecti," leaving out the first syllable "se." Still, not altogether satisfied, I referred to the Latin translation of Sebastian Schmidt, whose version generally agrees with E. S. and behold the word "lecti" exactly as in our author's original Latin. I immediately suspected an error in the English translation, and tracing the word "lectus," I found the well-known passage of Virgil, “ Lectas de more bidentes.” "The two toothed, or two year old sheep selected or chosen according to custom." The whole mystery was now solved, and I found our scribe, so highly instructed both as to this world and to the kingdom of heaven, was neither inconsistent with himself, nor with the true knowledge of the Hebrew language. Finding thus a proper clue, and retracing my steps, I again investigated very particularly the meaning of the word in the Hebrew, and found that its original signification was "to separate or abstain from," and that a "Nazarite" is so called from his "separating himself" from the customs of the world, and abstaining from its modes in certain respects, as in drinking wine and cutting the hair. Taking then the passage in the original Hebrew, I found " and upon the crown of the head of THE CHOSEN, or THE EXCELLENT, or THE SEPARATE one of his brethren." Those who are chosen are separated from the mass.

ולקדקד נזיר אחיו it thus

I thus discovered that E. S. agreed in his translation with himself and the current of Hebrew philologists, for in the case under examination, the word "lecti" is not the genitive of "lectus," a bed, but the genitive of " lectus" " culled, picked, chosen, choice, excellent." It is somewhat curious to trace how this error arose in the translation. Perhaps there has hardly ever occurred a passage in any author, in which so many remarkable circumstances have conjoined to turn the translator from his true road. E. S. first explains the word "bed," giving many examples of the use of it in the WORD, until at last he quotes one from Amos vi. 1, 4, 5, 6, wherein the word "bed" is used, which he explains; when the phrase "the breach of Joseph" presents itself. This leads him to explain the meaning of Joseph, for which purpose he quotes Gen. xlix. 26, wherein are the words "lecti fratrum ejus,” and

the translator supposing the word "bed” was intended to be further explained, mistook "lecti" for "bed" instead of "the chosen, or selected, or most excellent of his brethren." If the passage is carefully examined, it will be found, E. S. does not intend therein to explain the word "bed," but merely the signification of Joseph." Thus we find Swedenborg's translation of Genesis, xlix. 26, in the ARCANA, and the Apoc. EXPL. is in fact the same, except that in the first instance, he gives the Hebrew "Nazarite" without explaining it, and in the latter he explains it by the words "the chosen," or "most excellent one.”*

Y.

ERROR

In the English Translation of Arcana Calestia, Gen. xxxiii. 3, p. 103, 6 Vol. and in Gen. xxxvii. 10. same vol. p. 340, and Gen. same chapter, 35. p. 342.

A lady, in reading the English translation of the Arcana Cœlestia, finding the phraseology of the 3d verse of the xxxiii. chapter of Genesis, very much out of the common mode, called my attention to the passage. The words are," and he passed before them, and bowed himself EARTH seven times." I was equally surprised, and reading the note at the foot of the page, (103) my curiosity was excited to examine the original Hebrew. On referring to this I found that the word to or towards was joined to the word "earth." So that the translation should have been, "He bowed himself to the earth, or earthwards, seven times." For the word in the original is n, earthwards, or to the earth," not y, earth, simply. Here local He, as it is called, is added to the word y signifying "to" or "towards." It has the same effect as adding in English, the termination, "ward," as eastward, westward, northward, southward, as Gen. xiii. 14. and xii. 9. so xv. 9. heavenward, so xix. 1. Sodomward. Instances

* in Gen, xlix. 26, has given rise to much difficulty with scholars. Michaelis Sup. ad Lex. Heb. says, speaking of the different interpretations, Onkelos has certainly rendered it much better segregatus, i. e. eximius ex fratribus suis (the choice or select one of his brethren.) He, however, prefers the Syriac before all; "the crowned one." E. S. and Schmidt agree with Onkelos, which is certainly, as being the Jewish Chaldee paraphrase, of the highest authority. Our common version has "him that was separate from his brethren."

hells, even to the last on the cross. By the glorification of His human, He let himself into the power, that from the divine human He might to eternity subjugate the hells, and keep the heavens in order, and thereby regenerate man, that is, deliver him from hell, and save him. See No. 10239. Thus the prophecy, according to the spiritual sense, is fulfilled: "He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: he was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed." Isaiah iv. 4, 5.

The following elucidation of the Lord's baptism is contained in the Universal Theology of the New Church.

It is recorded that the Lord, full of the Holy Spirit, by which is signified the divine operation proceeding from God, returned from Jordan, and that the Spirit led Him into the wilderness, where He was tempted forty days by the devil. Hence it would seem that the baptism of His humanity was a measure preparatory to the grievous temptations with which He permitted it to be assailed. These He upon that occasion repelled, and finally triumphed over all the principalities and powers, leading captivity captive, or liberating the spirits in prison from that thraldom in which they had been held by the Satanic crew. In this point of view, it may be said, He descended into hell itself.

I would refer the friend and well-wisher of the New Jerusalem Church, and all others who may entertain doubts upon the subject of the Divine Trinity or Unity, to the small treatise concerning the Lord. The time has now arrived for the human understanding to be enlightened with the true knowledge of the divinity, the foundation of all other knowledges, and the medium for effecting a reformation, not merely from the superstition and the more gross errors of Popery, but from the fatal tenets of predestination and faith alone. Such a reformation will produce a change of the heart and of the life, and thus will the prediction of ancient prophecy be fulfilled, "In that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one. "In that day living waters shall go out from Jerusalem, and the Lord shall be King over all the earth."

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