A Compendium of the Chief Doctrines of the True Christian Religion/Chapter 13
XIII. The Sacred Scripture, or Word of God.
AS man is born in utter ignorance of divine things, and incapable of deriving from the mere light of nature any real knowledge of the existence of a God, of life eternal, of heaven and hell, and of many other things conducive to his future welfare and happiness, a revelation is necessary to supply this defect. In all ages of the world, therefore, mankind have been blessed with a revelation from heaven, either by an immediate internal dictate, called perception, enlightening each individual of the church, as was the case with the men of the most ancient times before the flood; or by an external written Word, as was the case with their posterity after the flood, and as is likewise the case in the present day. The first written revelation, which may be called the Ancient Word, though now lost, is yet quoted by Moses in Numb. xxi. 14, 15, 27 to SO; by Joshua, chap. x. 12 to 14; by David, 2 Sam. i. 17 to 19; and by Jude, ver. 14, 15. To this Ancient Word succeeded the Word written by Moses and the Prophets, usually called the Old Testament; and again another Word, written by the Evangelists, usually called the New Testament; both of which are included in what we now call the Sacred Scripture, or Word of God.
The Word, being a revelation from the Divine Being, must therefore be essentially holy and divine; containing in its bosom the divine love and divine wisdom, or what amounts to the same, the divine good and divine truth, proceeding in conjunction from Jehovah the Lord himself, and accommodated to all possible states of reception both in heaven and in the church. Hence, in it's descent to men on earth, it assumes a sense either divinely-celestial, or divinely-spiritual, or divinely-natural, according to the three degrees of life, or reception of life, in angels and men; exciting celestial ideas and perceptions among the angels of the third or highest heaven, spiritual ideas among the angels of the second or middle heaven, and celestial-natural, or spiritual-natural ideas among the angels of the first or lowest heaven: in addition to which it also presents itself among men on earth in a literal, historical, and prophetic form, which, though capable of being separated in idea from the superior or interior senses, is yet in perfect union with them, by virtue of the correspondence subsisting between those senses, and at the same time of the divine presence within them, which is their very life and soul.
By the divinely-celestial sense, spoken of above, is understood whatsoever has more immediate relation to the Lord, and his divine love, or divine good, proceeding from him, and warming the heart of the recipient subject: by the divinely-spiritual sense, whatsoever relates to the divine wisdom, or divine truth, proceeding from him, and illuminating the understanding: and by the divinely-natural sense is meant the complex of both the former in their ultimate forms and terminations; love manifesting itself as simple obedience, and wisdom as an obscure perception of truth, usually called faith. Thus the Word of the Lord is respectively accommodated to the angels of the three heavens, and also to men on earth: so that according to the quality and degree of it's reception in the understanding and in the life, such will always be the true nature and quality of the church both among societies and individuals.
In it's external sense the Word appears to treat much of worldly and terrestrial things; and hence many conclude, that it differs but little from other writings: but in it's internal sense it treats solely of heavenly and divine things, these latter being represented and signified by the former. In the internal it is full of glory, and exhibits such a display of the divine wisdom and love, as cannot be equalled by any other production: while in the external it is like a cloud intercepting the beams of celestial light, and at the same time defending it's interior contents from the wanton eye of curiosity, and from the danger of profanation. It is on this account that the coming of the Lord in his Word, to open and reveal it's spiritual sense, to minds capable of discerning it, is said to be a coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
Moreover the Word is the only medium of conjunction with heaven, and thus with the Lord himself, who is intimately present in his Word, and thereby gives to man a capacity for the enjoyment of eternal life. It is this presence of the Lord in his Word, communicating spiritual life to those who embrace the divine truth contained in it, and who endeavour to live according to it's precepts, of which he speaks, when he says, "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life," John vi. 63. "Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst: but the water, that I shall give him, shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life" John iv. 14. And again. "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God," Matt. iv. 4.
When it is said in the first chapter of John's Gospel, that the Lord himself is the Word, as being the divine truth contained in it, by which all things visible and invisible were created, and which also was made flesh; the declaration is to be understood only in reference to those books, which in their interior senses treat of him and his kingdom, and which were dictated either by himself, or by the spirit proceeding from himself: for such books only can be considered as pre-eminently holy and divine. These are, in the Old Testament, the five books of Moses, called Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy; the book of Joshua, Judges, the two books of Samuel, the two books of Kings, the Psalms of David, the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi; and in the New Testament, the four Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John; and the Apocalypse. Other books may be very useful, so far as they are in agreement with these; but they cannot for a moment be accounted equal to them, or put in competition with them, for want of those infinitely superior prerogatives, which must ever distinguish between a divine and a human production.
