THE RESTORATION OF THE SCIENCE OF CORRESPONDENCES

Rev. Abiel Silver ~ 1863

"Behold, I make all things new." (Revelation 21:5)

Our present theme is the way and manner in which the long lost Science of Correspondences has been restored, and thereby, the spiritual sense of the Word and the life of its doctrines, revealed.

1863 years ago* when our Lord made His appearance in the flesh, human nature was at its lowest state of sin and depravity. To this wretched condition the race had gradually fallen, during thousands of years, from a state of innocence and virtue in the Garden of Eden.

In his highest primeval condition, man's mind was in true order. He saw from internals to externals. He saw effects from the causes which produced them. He saw the world of matter as an out birth from the world of mind. In seeing this, he saw that a perfect analogy existed between material and mental things. He therefore saw the qualities of the thoughts and feelings of God and man perfectly represented in the material forms around him. He saw that material things could not possibly exist but as the effects of will and wisdom from above; and that, therefore, they must be true manifestations of that will and wisdom.

In all this, he saw the true language; the divine language; the hieroglyphic language; the only universal language; the first written language; the only undisguised and certain expression of thoughts and feelings.

But, in this clear perception of things, man had but a mere shade of will and thought of his own. He felt and saw, almost exclusively, from the divine love and wisdom. His mind was but little else than a mere undeveloped vessel, receiving goodness and truth from the Lord, and giving them forth in feelings and thoughts.

Yet he had a selfhood given him, that he might be something more than a mere machine: for, without this selfhood, he would have been incapable of progress and rational enjoyment; therefore he would not have been a man. The essence of this selfhood was rationality and freedom; reason to determine, and freedom to act, as a distinct individual.

In consequence of this selfhood, it appeared to man as though the wisdom and love by which he saw and acted were his own; but he was also capable of understanding that this will and wisdom were not entirely his own, but were principally the Lord's. The truth is, this selfhood gave him a will and understanding as his own; but, in this intuitive condition, this will and understanding were in perfect harmony with the divine love and wisdom, and acted with them. Yet it appeared to man as though he were thinking and acting entirely from his own free-will.

This selfhood, therefore, necessarily made man free to reason and act, either as from his own will and wisdom, or as from the Lord's; and, as it seemed to him that he felt and acted entirely from himself; his selfhood made him capable of using the Lord's love and wisdom as his own, and of falling, by habit, into the selfish belief that they were really his own, and that he was perfectly competent to manage his own affairs himself. Therefore, in the ability to look to the Lord, and progress upwards, was the ability to look to himself, and decline into evil. Man was free to take either course. He took the latter. Hence the long progressive fall, from the primeval age to the coming of the Lord in the flesh.

In this downward process, man lost the divine language, founded on the science of correspondences; and with it he lost all true knowledge of the world of causes, or of the laws of creation, and the relation between mind and matter. He entirely lost his internal standpoint, where he could see in unison with God's wisdom; and he took his position in the dark, sensual depravity of the external mind, where he saw things, not as they really were, but only as they appeared to be. Thus everything in his nature had become perverted. He saw himself as the very centre of all being, and the universe as the circumference; and thus he was about to perish for the want of light and life.

In this state of things, our heavenly Father, that He might restore man again to order and true life, came and took His central position again in our nature. He took upon Himself, by conception and birth, human nature, in the omega, as it then was. He became again the centre, and that humanity, the circumference. Still, that humanity, as assumed, had a will not in harmony with the divine will. It still had its own centre in the circumference of things, and its natural inclination was to look and act from that apparent centre. But, by its connection with the Great Divine Centre, it was enabled gradually to change its position, and to see from the divine will and wisdom.

This was effected by its yielding up its own will to the divine will, in the midst of temptations and trials, until everything in that nature which was impure and ungodly was seen by that nature in the divine light, as not good, and freely rejected, and put away. Thus that nature, by free-will and consent, became perfected and glorified, and made one with the Father; the whole having one will, and that will divine—the very Centre of all existences.

Thus, having conquered and overcome all evil influences in our nature and come near to us in the letter and spirit of the gospel, the Lord was able to reach and draw all men toward Him, who would yield to the influence of the truth of His Word. But men were then so low, sensual, and natural, that they could not receive spiritual truth. They could not be at once elevated into the spiritual light of causes, where they could look down again upon effects, and see them in their true light. They had, therefore, to be reached in the circumference where they were. Here they could be reached only by natural truth and good; and to effect even this, they had to be overawed by the power of the Lord's miracles, and forced into an assent and submission to things which they did not understand. But by their faith in the power of the Lord, and obedience to His commandments, they, by actual experience, gradually saw and felt the truth and goodness arising from righteousness of life, repented of their natural evils, and, in their degree, became regenerated. Some of the disciples appear to have had, at times, glimpses of higher light; but they could not retain it, and the simple letter of the Word—the natural truth—was all that they could bear. But it is very certain that some of the most spiritually-minded of the disciples and early fathers of the church were sensible that there must be some higher meaning to the Word than the letter; but the subject was so new, so high, and so vast, that their natural state could not receive it. The Christian church, therefore, settled down upon the literal sense of the Word, with wholesome doctrines drawn therefrom; and all who have sincerely received these literal truths, faithfully repented of their sins, and regulated their lives by the commandments, through faith in the Lord, have found their way to happiness and heaven.

But, not being able to receive spiritual truths, this state of things did not last, as the Savior declared that it would not. The dark ages came on. The church declined in doctrines and in life. "The traditions of men made the commandments of God of none effect." Schisms and division ensued, carrying martyrdom, bloodshed, fire, and fagot in their train, until the people were anything else than the followers of the meek and lowly Jesus, loving their enemies, and rendering good for evil.

This crisis was reached about one hundred years ago*; and the Lord declares of it in Matt. 24: 22, that "except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved." Under this state of things, what could be done? The true nature of God had been lost sight of, and the true way of life. All the doctrines of the Word were falsified. How could man be reached? Nothing short of an entire new light, differing in toto from anything the world then had, could elevate the race. They wanted a new God, a new Bible, new doctrines, and new truths, before they could be moved one step upwards. And yet all the needed, new life, and light, and doctrines were in the old Bible before them; but they could not see them.

But, though they had been becoming blind to the true light of the gospel, yet men had been making rapid progress in natural science. Their natural faculties, and powers of reasoning, had become greatly developed; and many were becoming prepared to look for some rational ground of religious faith. Nothing else could now reach their wants. Human nature had grown up to natural manhood. Its intellectual eyes, in the natural plane, were opened; and it was asking for light in matters of religion as well as science. Marvel and mystery could no longer satisfy or control the free mind, and there were some living remnants in fragmentary Israel who were hungering and thirsting for something to satisfy the longing soul. But they knew not what it was, nor where to find it. The period had, therefore, fully come, when something new must be done, and when something new could be done.

There were minds now that could begin to receive the spiritual sense of the Word, if it could only be brought scientifically before them. This sense was the only thing that could lead their thoughts to the true God, give them right views of His nature, and faith in His Holy Word. The lost Science of Correspondences was the only key to that spiritual sense that would fit their minds. If that science could be brought rationally before the minds of men, so as to enable them, from their low, natural position, to look understandingly up through the world of effects to the world of causes—through natural things to spiritual, material to mental,—so as to see and receive spiritual light from the Holy Word, then the human race on earth could be gradually elevated to heavenly order and happiness; otherwise man must perish. "Except these days should be shortened, no flesh should be saved."

By the use, then, of the key of correspondences, the seals of the Word could be broken, and the Book opened. But who was able to do it? None but the "Lion of the tribe of Judah could prevail to open the Book, and loose the seals thereof." The seals were all in the human mind. It was sealed with seven seals; that is, every state of the human mind was closed against spiritual light. Man was altogether natural. But there were some minds in a religious state of natural good, and in such a state of natural-rational freedom as to be able to have their minds opened by instruction from the Lord, so as to see spiritual light through natural symbols, could they be so instructed. But how was this mighty work to be done? How was the human mind to be opened and instructed, so as to behold the wonderful things written in God's law; to see the glory of the world of causes, and to look down upon effects, and see them as they really are? There was but one way to do it; and that was for a man to take the Holy Word, give it his supreme time and attention, and work out its wonderful problems step by step; proving every operation, as he went along, by the truths of the Word itself, looking to the Divine Master for instruction. Thus the mind, in this new study, would have to be as gradually opened, enlightened, and expanded, in spiritual science, as minds are naturally in the pursuit of natural science.

But a mind, to do this work, must be a mind in a state of strong natural truth and good. It must be a mind possessing rational and unwavering faith in the Lord, in the divinity of the Word, and in the work before him; a mind humble, prayerful, open, and confiding towards the Lord. But where was the mind to be found competent to the task of going to this Fountain of wisdom, working out its spiritual problems, and spreading out before the world a clear and satisfactory solution of the work, proved and authenticated by the Divine Truth itself?

EMANUEL SWEDENBORG was the man, in the Divine Providence, for this work. But what peculiar qualifications had he for entering upon a study so high and heavenly? From his youth, his training and education had prepared his mind for just such a work. With always a conscientious regard for the Bible, and a love of truth and virtue, he had mastered all the human literature of the age; deeply investigated the laws of matter in the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms; had traced the economy of the human body up to the soul, and nature up to God; and had rationally seen something of the relation between mind and matter, and the laws of creation. In this way, his natural mind had become a sincere and open vessel, adapted to the reception of spiritual truth; and his active soul was thirsting for something higher, and looking up to receive it. And thus, at the mature age of fifty-five years—ripe in natural goodness and truth, and in scientific and literary wisdom—he was prepared to enter upon the divine study of the Holy Word in its spiritual sense.

This study rationally opened his mind to the laws of the spiritual world; so that he gradually came, while in the flesh, into a state of free, open, and sensible consciousness of spiritual society and scenery, and this by a process of such perfect mental growth and development, according to divine order, that, when his spiritual senses had become clearly opened to the spiritual world, they were permanently so; because his views of that world were not surface and uncertain views, presented from a disordered or inflated imagination, but they were scientific views. He saw and understood the law by which spiritual forms are manifested, and this law he found in the Holy Word. It is the SCIENCE OF CORRESPONDENCES, in which the Word is written, and which he labored to make known to the world; and, in the ardent exercise of this benevolent desire to give it freely to his fellow-man, his soul was rationally opened to receive it from the Lord.

Twenty-nine years of intense application were devoted to this work, in which he presented to mankind twenty massive volumes, opening and expounding the Sacred Scriptures, and specifically recording his illustrations, and the Science of Correspondences by which they are explained. This he did in the most modest and quiet manner, without any startling miracles or outward displays of power, but in a deep, calm, and contemplative state of mind; looking prayerfully and confidingly to the Lord while reading the Word.

In this way, the Science of Correspondences, and the spiritual sense of the Word and its doctrines, have been presented to the world. But who has done it? Certainly not Swedenborg, but the Lord Himself. Swedenborg never, in all these volumes, gives us so much as a single opinion of his own upon the meaning of the Word or its doctrines, or of the Science of Correspondences; but the illustrations are so given as to make the Word itself its own interpreter. It is the Lord, therefore, and not Swedenborg, that speaks to the heart and the head of the reader of these volumes. Yet Swedenborg was not inspired. He acted not as an amanuensis, as did the prophets. He freely saw and understood what he wrote. He knew it was true; but he knew, also, that it was not, one particle of it, his own wisdom; and he was far from claiming it.

These twenty volumes, therefore, in their explanations of the Word and its doctrines, become to the understanding reader positive and conclusive evidence of their own truth and the truth of the Holy Word. They call in an array of testimony which carries everything before it. They call our own internal selves and experience on to the stand, with all our evils, and all we know of human nature, and make them cry out, Amen! They call in to their support all the truths of science and art. Indeed, they call in everything,—the vast universe of mind and matter, and the law of analogy between them. Everything in nature, from the smallest dust of the earth to the sun in the heavens, bears testimony in these volumes to the truth of the Word, and the divinity of its Author; proving, beyond a doubt, that the Creator of the universe is the Author of the Holy Word; that the spiritual truths of the Word are the Divine Wisdom by which God created and sustains the universe; and that the universe now stands in relation to that wisdom, as effects to causes. All this is satisfactorily proved by the law of analogy which pervades the whole Word. Man therefore rests in the evidence of these volumes, as God's own testimony of the truth of His Word; for by them the Lord opens the seals of every mind that reads and understands them: and as man turns from his evils, and yields his heart to this light, the Lord gradually purifies and elevates his thoughts and feelings above falsehoods and evils to heavenly light and life.

What a vast work this Science of Correspondences, and the consequent influent spiritual light from the Word, have laid out before then! It is nothing less than the entire revolutionizing of the whole mental world on earth, and the restoring of all things to order,—an entire change of all man's views of God, of man, and of nature; placing man in an entirely new position, where he will see with new eyes and in a new light, and, by obedience, will learn to feel with a new heart.

The starting point in this elevation is a true thought of God—some ray of light from the Great Divine Centre into the rational faculty, presenting some true idea of God's nature and character. In the light of this idea, presented to man's rational consciousness, lies the whole revolutionizing power. As we read the Holy Word in the light of this idea, that light brightens and expands into the Sun of Righteousness, and becomes, indeed, the Jehovah God; and we then see Him to be Love, Wisdom, and Power, in union as a whole. And we see this Love, Wisdom, and Power ever going out from the centre of the universe, creating, sustaining, and giving life to everything. We see in this divine character no change or shadow of turning, but infinite and equal mercy towards all.

In this divine light, the Holy Word presents us with a new Author, and with new doctrines, differing in every particular from those entertained by mankind a hundred years ago*. Indeed, then, does the Lord, at His second coming, "make all things new." He makes us see all His own creations and doings to be good, and all evil as springing from man: therefore we see man falling and going astray, and God following him up to save him. But, as we see that man could not fall without the free exercise of his own will and judgment, so also we see that he cannot rise without their free exercise. God gives to man the power to turn from his evil way, and live. This power is in the truth which man sees. The starting-point in this change is the truth so presented to his mind that his own free-will and judgment tell him that the thoughts, feelings and actions in which he is indulging are wrong, and lead to misery and death. The regenerating power that this truth really contains is in the light that it brings of God's true nature, telling us we must be like Him, and that in Him is our only dependence and help. This light the Science of Correspondences everywhere forcibly presents to view in the Holy Word. Hence the regenerating power of the Lord at His second coming.

The Science of Correspondences keeps God's glorious and merciful character before us in every page of the Word, and it shows us what is meant by everything that the literal sense seems to present of Him of a different character. It shows why the Word was so written, and the use; and both senses become thereby perfectly harmonious. Thus we see that the literal truth of the Word flowing into an angry man's mind, presents the merciful God to him as angry: just as the light which falls upon a crooked and imperfect mirror reflects a beautiful face as distorted and ugly. The anger is in the man, as the imperfection is in the glass. The bad man looks at the truth which condemns him, as his enemy; when it is really his friend in effort to save him.

Thus the Lion of the tribe of Judah, according to prophecy, has prevailed to open the Book, and loose the seals of God's Holy Word; and has mercifully given to the world the Divine Science of Correspondences—the grand key which opens the door to that fountain of wisdom which is to bring the world into order. These twenty volumes, with the Holy Word which they open, will yet stand before the world as the great test by which the truth or falsehood of every new system, creed, or practice, which may spring up in this fruitful age of wonders, will be tried. All sects and parties will yet come to these volumes, and the Divine Word, for light; and their decision will be peremptory and final: for there will be found nothing substantial upon which to base an argument against them. They will be regarded as the Great Universal Body of Divinity, the true standard of all wisdom, the basis of all law and order. Nothing can supplant them; for they centre everything in God. Nothing can rise above them; for they give to God the highest excellence. No truth can oppose them; for they are the fountain and embodiment of all truth. The doctrines they present are one harmonious whole, with Jesus in the midst. Their tendency is to show man his sins in such a light as to convince him that they are his certain destruction, and then to show him how to get rid of them in a way so plain that he cannot mistake it. This is their universal tendency, and in this great work they must in due time succeed; purifying, regenerating, and making happy, the whole human family on earth. What this clue time will be, no one can tell. The race was many thousands of years in falling from the alpha of its existence in the Garden of Eden, down to the omega of our nature at the divine incarnation. It may take as many thousands of years to bring us up to full millennial life and glory: but the movement must ever be with accelerating force and influence; for its sphere is amid free and active minds, first enlightening the understanding, and then gaining the heart. And all it gains it holds forever. And its final success is certain: for the Lord declares of it, that "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying."—"And there shall be no more saying, every man to his neighbor, Know ye the Lord; for all shall know Him, from the least unto the greatest: for the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it."
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[*] editor note: Lecture delivered in 1863