Page:A Compendium of the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.djvu/232

136 thence quoted by Moses are not proverbs but prophecies. That that Word likewise was Divine or Divinely inspired is plain from a passage in Jeremiah, where we read nearly the same words: "A fire is gone forth out of Heshbon, and a flame from the midst of Sihon, and shall devour the corner of Moab, and the crown of the head of the sons of tumult. Woe he unto thee, O Moab! The people of Chemosh perisheth, for thy sons are taken away into captivity and thy daughters into captivity" (xlviii. 45, 46). Besides these a prophetical book of the ancient Word is also mentioned by David and by Joshua, called The Book of Jasher, or the book of the Upright. By David: "David lamented over Saul and over Jonathan; also he bade them teach the children of Judah the bow: behold it is written in The Book of Jasher" (2 Sam. i. 17, 18). And by Joshua: ''Joshua said. . . Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon, and thou moon in the valley of Ajalon;. . . is not this written in The Book of Jasher?"'' (Josh. x. 12, 13). Moreover, it was told me that the first seven chapters of Genesis are extant in that ancient Word, and that not the least word is wanting. (S. S. n. 102, 103.)

That religion has existed from the most ancient times, and that the inhabitants of the globe everywhere have known of God, with something about the life after death, has not been from themselves and from their own acuteness, but from the ancient Word mentioned above, and afterwards from the Israelitish Word. From these religious knowledge was diffused into the Indies and their islands; through Egypt and Ethiopia into the kingdoms of Africa; from the maritime parts of Asia into Greece; and from thence into Italy. But as the Word could not be written otherwise than by representatives,—which are such things in the world as correspond to and hence signify heavenly things,—therefore the religious truths of many nations were converted into idolatrous forms, and in Greece into fables; and the Divine attributes and qualities into as many gods, over which they placed one as supreme, whom they called Jove, from Jehovah. It is well known that they had a knowledge of paradise, of the flood, of the sacred fire, and of the four ages—from the first or golden age to the last or iron age—by which the four states of the church are signified in the Word, as in Daniel ii. 31-35. It is also known that the Mahometan religion, which succeeded and destroyed the previous religions of many nations, was taken from the Word of both Testaments, (ib. n. 117.)

Profanation is the conjunction of Divine truth with falsities