Page:A Compendium of the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.djvu/455

 they are figured; and which are thus visibly presented before the very eyes. These are representations. The church therefore is representative when the internal holy things which are of love and faith, from the Lord and to the Lord, are presented by forms visible in the world; as in this chapter and the following (Exod. xxv. xxvi.) by the ark, the propitiatory, and the cherubim, by the tables therein, by the candlestick, and by the other things of the tabernacle. For that tabernacle was so constructed that it should represent the three heavens, and all things that are therein; and the ark, in which was the testimony, represented the inmost heaven, and the Lord Himself there. For this reason the form of it was shown to Moses in the mount, Jehovah then saying, "That they should make for Him a sanctuary, and He would dwell in the midst of them" (ver. 8). Every one who is gifted with any faculty of interior thought may perceive that Jehovah could not dwell in a tent, but that He dwells in heaven; and that that tent could not be called a sanctuary unless it had reference to heaven, and to the celestial and spiritual things which are there. Let every one think within himself what it would be for Jehovah, the Creator of heaven and earth, to dwell in a small habitation made of wood overlaid with gold, and compassed about with curtains, unless heaven and the things of heaven had been represented therein in form. For the things which are represented in form really appear in similar form in the ultimate or first heaven, before the spirits who are there; but in the higher heavens the internal things which are represented are perceived,—which, as was said, are the celestial things which are of love to the Lord, and the spiritual things which are of faith in the Lord. Such were the things which filled heaven when Moses and the people were in a holy external, and reverenced the tabernacle as the habitation of Jehovah Himself. It is plain from this what a representative is, and that by means of representatives heaven, and so the Lord, could be present with man. Therefore, when the Ancient church came to its end a representative church was established, among the Israelitish people, that by such means there might be a conjunction of heaven, and so of the Lord, with the human race; for without conjunction with the Lord through heaven mankind would perish, for man derives his life from that conjunction. But those representatives were only the external means of conjunction, with which the Lord conjoined heaven miraculously. And when conjunction by these also perished the Lord came into the world, and opened the internal things themselves which were represented,—which are the things of love and of faith in Him. Now, these conjoin. But yet the sole medium of conjunction at this day is the Word: since this is so written that all and the single