satisfactory character, confirmed by the General Committee of the Swedenborg Society, and published in October 1872. Unhappily, some obstructive circumstances arose, and vol. i. was reprinted with nearly all the old faults, postponing for years the possibility of a revision that would be uniform. All the volumes needing to be printed since that year have been revised to a considerable extent, but some have not needed reprinting. The series, therefore, is quite irregular. Hence has arisen the desire to have an entirely new edition, comprising many special advantages. In November 1876 the Committee of the Swedenborg Society passed a resolution requesting Dr. Bayley to take charge of such an edition, with such aid as he may find needful. A portion of this resolution, just sent by the secretary, is as follows: 6 A new edition of the Arcana Cœlestia,' to be called 'The Cabinet Edition,' to consist of eight volumes, corresponding to the eight originally published by Swedenborg. Reasons for the new edition: 1st, That variety promotes the sale of a work, and affords inducements to many persons to become possessors who would not be so otherwise. 2nd, That the work be uniformly rendered. 3rd, The quaint forms of speech, such as 'all and singular the things;' the awkward translations, such as wallet for 'sack.' 'Add to see my faces.' Arise, illuminate, instead of 'arise, shine;' and such words as 'oppugnance,' 'animadvertence,' etc., be replaced by plain English equivalents.” The new edition to be so managed as not to burden the Society. The feeling was not sufficiently general at that time to encourage the immediately carrying out of the undertaking; and the full revision itself was a work requiring time. Now the preparation has been made, and all is ready to commence the work, the feeling of its necessity is becoming general. Some years ago we hoped to secure a demand for 600 of each volume; but now we are certain of a much larger amount of success. London will be responsible for 300 of each volume; Manchester has cheerfully responded for 300; Yorkshire has sent a most encouraging promise of co-operation, possibly to 200; Scotland expresses great interest in the work, and will probably take 100; Accrington believes they will take 100, and we are looking for at least 1500 of a demand for each volume. The chief advantages are as follows: 1. Eight volumes instead of twelve; but no abridgment. 2. The price per volume, 3s., reducing the cost one half. 3. A volume each two months, making it easy to be purchased by young men and persons of limited means; and, above all, presenting an inducement to read each volume before the next appears. 4. Correcting the erroneous use of the word "principle;" only using it, as Swedenborg does (4. C. 2991, 2992). For a confusing use see 10,336. 5. Great improvement in clearness, correctness, and simplicity of language. 6. All quotations to be in the language of the English Version of the Bible, unless absolute correctness for the sake of the spiritual sense necessitates a change. 7. New and more agreeable style of binding. 8. A new preface, giving an outline of the important character and of the amazing treasures of the work. J. BAYLEY, President of the Swedenborg Society. DO ANGELS EAT MATERIAL FOOD? ANSWER TO A. C. We have been in the habit hitherto of inserting Inquiries and Answers to them together; but it seemed to us that more interest might be felt, and more satisfactory answers supplied, if the questions were left open. Our expectation has been disappointed. Two inquiries have been inserted, but no answer to either of them has been received. Under these circumstances answers will in future be supplied and printed with the inquiries. Of the two inquiries which have already appeared, the last will be answered first. The other we hope to be able to take up next month. Our correspondent asks what explanation Swedenborg gives of the angels who appeared to Abraham eating, being, in fact, treated like ordinary human guests. So far as we are aware Swedenborg gives no explanation of how these natural acts, or apparently natural acts, took place. The nearest approach to an answer is contained in the remarks our author makes in his "Adversaria." In the eighteenth chapter of Genesis we read that the Lord appeared unto Abraham as he sat in the tent door. He saw three men, but he addresses them as one; he says, "My Lord, if now I have found favour in Thy sight, pass not away, I pray Thee, from Thy servant: let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree : and I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts; after that ye shall pass on for therefore are ye come to your servant. And they said, So do, as thou hast said." On this the author remarks that Abraham was well aware that Jehovah God was not in want of such bread, wherefore he did not presume to produce that which he offered until leave had been given. God said, Do as thou hast spoken. There is not much information on the point in question We learn that Abraham was aware, as we all must be, that the Divine Being does not require natural food. And yet when he has obtained leave, he produces a feast for his guests. "And he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat." here. The relation presents, and was no doubt intended to present, all he appearance of the Divine Being eating the food which Abraham had prepared. How is it to be understood? As the Lord appeared to the patriarchs in the person of an angel, we may dismiss the idea of God Himself eating natural food, and ask how it is to be understood of angels. One opinion is, that when angels became visible to men, they clothed themselves for the time with a body from the elements of nature: thus they might eat natural food, and performi other natural acts. Milton, who no doubt expresses an opinion not exclusively his own, does not consider it necessary for angels to assume materiality in order to partake of material food. He therefore puts this speech into the mouth of the angelic visitant whom Adam and Eve invited to dine with them on the fruits of Paradise : "Therefore what He gives (Whose praise be ever sung) to man in part Spiritual, may of purest spirits be found No ingrateful food: and food alike those pure As doth your rational; and both contain Within them every lower faculty Of sense, whereby they hear, see, smell, touch, taste, And corporeal to incorporeal turn. For know, whatever was created needs To be sustained and fed: of elements The grosser feeds the purer. Though in heaven the trees Of life ambrosial fruitage bear, and vines Yield nectar; though from off the boughs each morn As may compare with heaven; and to taste : This passage contains much truth. It is not, however, true that angels, when they appeared to the patriarchs, either clothed themselves with matter or ate material food. The phenomenon has therefore to be explained on another principle. But before attempting to explain it we may notice a similar instance with respect to our Lord Himself. When He appeared to His disciples at the Sea of Tiberias after His resurrection, He said unto them, "Have ye here any meat? And they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb. And He took it, and did eat before them." This presents no difficulty to those who believe that the Lord's resurrection body was material, though in some sense spiritualized. But in the New Church we believe that the Lord's resurrection body was not material, nor even spiritual, but Divine, and had therefore no more need of material food than Jehovah God who appeared to Abraham. Yet Swedenborg adduces the passage quoted above as an evidence of the Lord having glorified His body. He says, "That the Lord glorified His humanity, even to the ultimates which are called natural and sensual, He manifested by showing His hands and His feet, and by His disciples handling Him, and by His saying that a spirit hath not flesh and bones as He had, and by eating of a broiled fish and of an honeycomb." It might seem from the manner in which this is stated that the Lord actually partook of material food after He had put off all materiality. And if the Lord, why not angels? It is, however, evident from His accompanying explanation, and from the nature of the intercourse which the Lord had with His disciples after His resurrection, that the Gospel narrative is not to be understood in the natural sense; nor is the relation respecting the angels in the Old Testament to be taken literally. Our author states that the Lord, after His resurrection, was no longer visible to the natural eye, and that when He made Himself visible to His disciples it was by opening their spiritual sight. It was the same with Abraham and the angels. Angels are invisible to the natural sight, and can only be seen by the spiritual. This being the case, the whole transaction was spiritual, the scene being in the spiritual, not in the natural world. But how, it may be asked, could all these things exist and those acts be done in the spiritual world, when everything was so seemingly natural, that neither Abraham nor the Lord's disciples had any other sensation than that the whole was perfectly natural? We are told that everything that exists in the natural world naturally exists in the spiritual world spiritually, and that the two worlds are, superficially, so entirely alike that no difference can be discerned between them. It is from this fact that naturalminded souls, when they first enter the spiritual world, believe and sometimes maintain, against all evidence to the contrary, that they are still in the natural world. Besides, in the spiritual world things exist and events take place according to correspondence. Appearances there are according to states; and hence it is that whatever state a soul or spirit is in, his surroundings represent it, because they are produced through it. All that took place between Abraham and the angels, and between the Lord and His disciples, was according to correspondence, and everything, even to the minutest particular, was correspondent, in order that it might be written in the Word, every particular of which is so framed in the letter as to contain a spiritual sense, explicable by the law of correspondence. Swedenborg, therefore, in continuance of the statement already quoted respecting the Lord eating the broiled fish and the honeycomb, goes on to say, "By a broiled fish is signified the natural mind as to truth derived from goodness, and by honey is signified the natural mind as to the goodness from which truth is derived. These things were eaten by the Lord in the presence of His disciples, because they corresponded to the natural man, and hence signified the natural man; for a fish, from correspondence, signifies the natural mind as to what is scientific, wherefore fish in the Word signifies the science and knowledge which belong to the natural man, and a broiled fish science which is from natural goodness; but with the Lord it signified the Divine Naturak as to truth derived from goodness." "The honeycomb and the broiled fish which the Lord did eat after His resurrection, signified also the external sense of the Word, the fish as to its truth and the honeycomb as to its pleasantness, and in consequence of this signification the Lord says to them, 'These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning Me.' It appears as if such things were not signified, because it seems to be of chance that they had a piece of broiled fish and a honeycomb, nevertheless it was of Providence, not only in this instance, but also as to others contained in the Word even in respect to the minutest particulars. Inasmuch as such things were signified, therefore the Lord spake of the Word, that in it they were written of Him; but the things which were written of the Lord in the Word of the Old Testament in the sense of the letter are few, whilst the things contained in the internal sense are all written of Him, for hence is the sanctity of the Word. These things are meant by all things being fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms concerning Him." We admit there is an apparent recognition by the author in this explanation that the Lord actually partook of the fish and honeycomb which the disciples had. But such a conclusion would be inconsistent with his own assertion that the Lord was then unrecognisable by natural sense. There is a passage in the Word itself which seems conclusive as to the spirituality of the food which the Lord ate with His disciples after His resurrection. According to John (xxi. 9), after the miraculous draught of fishes, "As soon then as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon, and bread." Evidently this was supernatural. It might be said, indeed, that though supernaturally produced the things themselves were natural. But we think it may reasonably be concluded that this circumstance took place and is recorded to give us a key to the whole mystery of angels and the Lord seeming to eat of material food. Correspondence. A NEW USE FOR OUR HYMN-BOOK. (To the Editor of the "Intellectual Repository.") DEAR SIR, Calling upon an invalid, I found by the side of her couch a copy of our new Hymn-Book, and on entering into conversation with her upon its merits, she stated that she found it very valuable as a "text-book." Open it wherever she might chance, some beautiful text of Scripture met the eye, and if she were only able to read but for a few moments, that text was so sweetly paraphrased and set forth in the verses below it, that the book had become a constant companion to her. Many invalids have this liking for a "text-book," and to supply the want by our new Hymn-Book would be a pleasant change to them. -I am, etc. J. B. February 20, 1881. |