Page:The Doctrines of the New Church Briefly Explained.djvu/123

Rh as in its substance. It differs from all human productions in the style of its composition, as well as in the nature of its contents. It infinitely transcends them all, as the works of God infinitely transcend the works of man. And as in nature the greatest wonders are not obvious at first view—lie never upon the outside—but the farther we penetrate into the interior structure of God's works, the more wonderful and perfect do we find them, so precisely is it with the written Word. According to this teaching, therefore, God's Word is literally what the apostle declares all inspired Scripture to be—theopneustos—God-breathed. It is so constructed that the Divine can dwell in it in all fulness, as in seeds and germs and all things else in the realms of Nature. It is this, pre-eminently, which stamps it with the impress of Divinity. It is this which makes it God's Word, and a Divine medium of man's conjunction with his Maker. It is this which gives it its quickening and transforming power—a power over the human heart which no uninspired word, no utterance of human wit or wisdom however exalted, ever had or ever can have.

But although the Word is spiritual in its nature, being given exclusively for man's spiritual edification—although it contains a spiritual sense