GG. The Holy Language Described by Emmanuel Swedenborg

Comte de Gabalis [1913], at sacred-texts.com

THE HOLY LANGUAGE DESCRIBED BY EMMANUEL SWEDENBORG.

GG"The most ancient manner of writing was that of representing things by persons, and by words, by which was understood something altogether different from what was expressed. In such manner, indeed, that nothing was literally true just as it was written, but under these narratives something allegorical was understood. Thus they set forth the various affections under the forms of gods and goddesses, to which the heathen nations afterwards instituted Divine worship; which may be known to every scholar, since such ancient books are still extant. This method of writing they derived from the most ancient people, who lived before the flood, and who represented to themselves things heavenly and Divine, by such as are visible on the earth and in the world, and thus filled their minds and souls with joyous and delightful perceptions. The

p. 283

most ancient people as they had communication with spirits and angels, had no other speech than this, which was full of representatives, and in every expression of which there was a Spiritual sense. . . . Hence it may appear how far man afterwards removed himself from heaven: when, at this day, he does not even know that there is in the Word anything else than what appears in the letter, not even that there is a spiritual sense; and whatever is mentioned beyond the sense of the letter is called mystical, and rejected on that account. Hence also it is that communication with heaven is at this day intercepted, insomuch that few believe there is any heaven, and, what is surprising, much fewer amongst the learned and erudite than amongst the simple." ARCANA COELESTIA, TRANSLATION OF COUNTESS OF CAITHNESS IN "THE MYSTERY OF THE AGES," PAGES 488-9.

SAMSON.

Of "these marvellous men filled with strength" was Samson. Concerning his mother, the wife or Manoah, of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, we read the following in the Book of Judges, xiii, verses 6, 7, and 24. "Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, A man of God came unto me, and his countenance was like the countenance of an angel of God, very terrible: but I asked him not whence he was, neither told he me his name: But he said to me, Behold, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and now drink no

p. 284

wine nor strong drink, neither eat any unclean thing: for the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb to the day of his death. " And the woman bare a son, and called his name Samson "--which is to say " Serving like the Sun."