Page:A Compendium of the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.djvu/130

34 ''us? . ., And Jehovah looked at him and said, Go in this thy might. . . . And Jehovah said unto him, Surely I will be with thee" (vi 12, 13, 16); and afterwards, "When Gideon perceived that he was an angel of Jehovah, Gideon said, Alas, Lord Jehovih! for because I have seen an angel of Jehovah face to face. And Jehovah said unto him. Peace be unto thee; fear not" (ver. 22, 23). Here, in like manner, it was an angel who appeared to Gideon, but in such a state that he knew not but that he was Jehovah, or the Lord. So again in the book of Judges: "The angel of Jehovah came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you into the land which I sware unto your fathers; and I said I will never break my covenant with you" (ii. 1); where, in like manner, the angel spake in the name of Jehovah, saying, that he had brought them up out of the land of Egypt; when yet the angel did not bring them up, but Jehovah, as it is frequently said in other places. From this it may be seen how the angels spake by the prophets, viz., that the Lord Himself spake, though by angels, and that the angels did not speak at all from themselves. That the Word is from the Lord appears from many passages; as from this in Matthew: "That it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a Son"'' (i. 22, 23); not to mention other passages. It is because the Lord spake by angels when He spake with man, that throughout the Word He is called an angel; and in such cases, as observed above, some essential is signified appertaining to the Lord, and proceeding from the Lord. (A. C. n. 1925.) The Israelitish church worshipped Jehovah, who in Himself is the invisible God, but under a human form, which Jehovah God put on by means of an angel; and in this form He was seen by Abraham, Sarah, Moses, Hagar, Gideon, Joshua, and sometimes by the prophets; which human form was representative of the Lord who was to come. (T. C. R n. 786.)

The very Infinite, which is above all the heavens and above the inmost things in man, cannot be manifested except by the Divine Human, which exists with the Lord alone. The communication of the Infinite with the finite is in no other way possible; which is also the reason why Jehovah, when He appeared to the men of the Most Ancient Church, and afterwards to those of the Ancient church after the Flood, and also