Page:The Doctrines of the New Church Briefly Explained.djvu/121

Rh other, so the literal and spiritual senses of the Word are united in like manner,—the former being the appropriate receptacle or Divine medium of the latter.

The idea of a spiritual sense in every part of the Scripture, was not original with Swedenborg. It was the generally received doctrine of the Primitive Church—believed and taught by Origen, Ignatius, Justin Martyr, Jerome, Augustine, Pantænus, Tatian, Theophilus, Pamphilius, Clemens and Cyril of Alexandria, and nearly all the early Christian Fathers. And the same belief has been held by many eminent theologians ever since. Dr. Mosheim, speaking of the illustrious writers of the second century, says: "They all attributed a double sense to the words of Scripture; the one obvious and literal, the other hidden and mysterious, which lay concealed, as it were, under the veil of the outward letter." But the Fathers had no recognized rule for eliciting the spiritual sense. Each one's own fancy or spiritual perception was his only guide. A hundred different expositors, therefore, might give as many different expositions of the same text.

But the Key to the deeper and heavenly meaning of Scripture has now been revealed (so it is believed and claimed), for the use of all who