Old Testament and in the New. By inspecting the 68th Psalm, at 11th verse, we find the testimony it gives of itself, "The Lord (Jehovah) gave the Word." This positive declaration of the Old Testament Word we find most amply corroborated in the New, by referring to the evangelical life of our Lord, by his beloved disciple, John, who was thus inspired to commence his gospel. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God;" or, as will equally answer to the Greek original, "And God was the Word." Hereto the apostle inspiredly adds, "All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made,” when follows, in verse 14, " And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us."

In both these passages of Scripture, the one from the Old Testament, and the other from the New, we are decidedly taught, that the Word has its origin and spring immediately from Jehovah God himself. In the Old Testament Scripture, it is explicitly stated that the Lord (Jehovah) gave the Word. In the second adduced Scripture from the New Testament, it is divinely asserted, "The Word was God;" or, more pointedly still to the present part of our subject, "God was the Word." No one that believes in the divine inspiration of the Word, with these two Scriptures in his sight, can hesitate to acknowledge that the Word has its source and spring immediately from Jehovah God, and, consequently, that its quality is necessarily divine, and in consequence of being divine at its centre and root, it cannot but partake of a divine quality in all its degrees; and this the same, whether in the celestial or the spiritual degree, as settled in heaven, or in its ultimate natural degree, as we have it in our hands who are, as yet, inhabitants of this natural and material globe. It may cast some light into our minds, in the investigation of the beautiful and sublime subject before us,—the conjunction of the Lord with angels and men, and of their reciprocal conjunction with him, by the medium of the Word, to endeavor, in the next place, to obtain a clear view of the Word, as applicable to our human creaturely condition.

Upon this part of our subject we may say, upon the authority of the apostolical and evangelical declarations before quoted, that the Word was the operative hand whereby the Lord God performed, and still performs, the work of creation. That it was the operative divine hand whereby the work of redemption was accomplished, the history of our blessed Lord and Saviour's life in the world, as recorded by the four evangelists, manifests beyond all controversy; and that it is the

operative divine hand whereby the regeneration, the purification, and the sanctification of the Lord's people are effected, he himself teaches, in his doctrine to his disciples, as recorded in the gospel by John, xv. 3, "Now ye are clean, through the Word that I have spoken unto you."

Having now seen the Word, in its more general quality, to be the divine operative hand, whereby the Lord our God performs all things in creation, redemption, and regeneration, it may further assist our investigation of the subject before us, of the conjunction of the Lord with angels and men by means of the Word, to observe that the Word, besides possessing this more general quality, is the divine truth proceeding from, and one with, the divine good of Jehovah God, who from eternity was in first principles of humanity, and prior to the incarnation, and since that eventful epoch, is, and evermore will be, in the last.

There are two qualities of the Lord our God that, in their proceeding from him, are applicable to all his works, great or small, whether pertaining to creation, to redemption, to regeneration, or to providence. These two qualities are the divine love and the divine wisdom. These two attributes are one in the Lord; but they are distinctly one, inasmuch as notwithstanding they flow from the Lord conjointly in one beam, yet we can contemplate the divine love as of the divine will and affections, and the divine wisdom as of the divine understanding and thoughts.

We may here further notice, that the divine love and the divine wisdom, in their proceeding from the Lord, are attempered, if we may so speak, so that, at their entrance into man, their quality are the divine good and the divine truth. These two are present in every beaming

ray, from the heavenly sun of righteousness, in whose midst the Lord has his personal habitation; for that thrice glorious luminary is formed of the proximate sphere, issuing on all hands from his divine humanity. The divine good of the divine love issuing therefrom is heavenly and spiritual heat; and the divine truth, which is the embodiment and the conveyance of the divine good, is spiritual and heavenly light.

This proceeding from the Lord of divine goodness and truth, of heavenly and spiritual heat and light, in its obtaining a basis and foundation in the natural world, is denominated the Word of Jehovah God. This proceeding of divine truth, inclosing the divine goodness, is the Word that was in the beginning, that was with God, and that God This divine proceeding is the operative hand whereby all divine

was.

works have been performed and are still performing. This also, in its ultimate degree in this natural world, was made flesh, and dwelt among us as a man for three-and-thirty years. The essence of the Word, its internal, is the divine good; its more manifest quality,— its external, is the divine truth. We therefore meet with the supplication, Psalm cxix. v. 43, “O Lord, take not the Word of truth utterly out of my mouth." Also the direct assertion in ver. 142, "Thy law is the truth." Furthermore, we meet with the expressions, "The Word of truth," in many parts of the apostolic epistles.

The Word may justly be considered as typified by the ladder that Jacob saw in his dream, whose feet rested on the earth, and whose top reached unto heaven. While it is exhibited on earth, fixed and embodied in natural expressions, its spring and source may be seen to be Jehovah God himself, who is highly exalted far above all the angelic heavens, yea, who is the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity; and yet, in his divine proceeding, he can and does look, pay regard to, and take up his mansion with, the man that is of an humble and contrite spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

Let it now be observed, that the Word is not only truth, it is divine truth. It is the property of whatsoever is divine to have its commencement with, and its immediate procedure from, the Lord himself, and thence to flow, through all intermediates into ultimates, thus to flow from the Lord, through heaven, into the world. This is the case with the Word. In every descending degree the divine degree is at its centre; it is the inmost of them all. The divine degree of the Word, in its passage from the Lord downwards, or outwards, which, in a spiritual point of view, are one and the same, becomes sufficiently attempered, and so verges towards a finite quality, as to be receptible by the blessed inhabitants of the angelic heavens; yea, we say, that in consequence of the reception of divine truth,-one with divine good, by the blessed inhabitants, the angelic heavens are formed and subsist.

Before we further proceed, it may be necessary to notice that we are taught, in this latter day glory, for the edification of our spiritual man, that the general division of the angelic heavens is threefold.

That there are three heavens, may be clearly deduced from the 2nd Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, chap. xii. ver. 2, where he writes, "I knew a man in Christ, about fourteen years ago, whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell, God knoweth; such a one caught up to the third heaven."

That there are distinct dwellings therein, similar to habitations in this world, may be considered as included in our Lord's declarations to his disciples, recorded by John xiv. 2, "In my Father's house are mansions;"" if it were not so, I would have told many prepare a place for you."

you; I to

go

The general division of the heavens is into three, according to the number of the general good affections that enliven the bosoms of their several inhabitants; these are, the good of love to the Lord, the good of charity towards our neighbor, and the good of obedience and of faith. Each of these good affections branches forth into societies, as the stars of heaven; and these again are constituted of individuals to an indefinite number, as are the component parts of the human frame.

With regard to the heavens, more particularly, it may be observed that the Word, in its procedure from the Lord, first enters the superior celestial heaven, and there feeds the fire of the life of all and every one of its blessed inhabitants. This is the love of the Lord their God and Saviour, with all the heart, with all the soul, with all the mind, and with all the strength. The divine law is put into their hearts and written in their inward parts, whence they have a perception given them into all divine truths that accord with and feed the fire of their life. Their wisdom being more immediately from the Lord himself is of such an interior quality that it cannot be put into language, that any others can have the least apprehension of, who are not as highly graduated in the angelic life as themselves.

In this superior heaven the Word that has passed thereinto more immediately from the Lord becomes clothed with ideas in the human celestial degree. These ideas are expressed in celestial language corresponding to the divine treasures of wisdom at its centre, so that the ultimate expressions of the Word in that heaven are all significant; the divine realities and the celestial expressions correspond to each other, as far as what is human can with what is divine.

The divine heat and the divine light, or which is the same, the divine goodness and the divine truth in their descent from the Lord downwards, from the celestial into the spiritual heaven and degree, become further attempered so as to be acceptably received and enjoyed by the blessed inhabitants of the spiritual heaven. The divine Word, in its entrance into this heaven as to its celestial degree within which is the divine, becomes clothed with spiritual ideas and expressions corresponding to the celestial realities within. The doctrine that these spiritual expressions inculcate is that of love to our

neighbor as ourselves; concerning which doctrine our Lord states, that so to do, is fulfilling the second commandment-the likeness of the first.

The Word, in its descent from this spiritual degree, which may be considered as constituting the second heaven, into the first or ultimate heaven, becomes still further attempered so as to be accommodated to the states of reception of the angelic men in that happy region, and therein becomes clothed in celestial-natural or spiritual-natural ideas and expressions according to the nature of the subject, whether pertaining to the good of charity or to the good of faith.

From this first or ultimate heaven the divine Word passes into and through the world of spirits, which is an intermediate state between the natural world and heaven, and we may also say of hell, into this natural world, and thereby to men on earth. In this passage the divine heat and light become attempered still further, so that they can inspire some mortals living in the natural world, and by them be promulgated in natural expressions that pertain to the things of time and sense. These ultimate expressions, wherein the Word is clothed in this natural world, are the containing vessels and forms in that ultimate natural degree of the knowledge, the intelligence, and the wisdom of all the three heavens, and even of the divine wisdom, one with the divine love.

The ultimate natural degree, which the Word wears on its surface, corresponds to the good and true knowledges of faith and obedience that enliven and enlighten the minds of the blessed inhabitants of the first or ultimate heaven. These correspond to the good and true things of intelligence that gladden the spirits of the blessed angels of the second or middle heaven; and these again correspond to the good and true things of wisdom that are the joy of the hearts of the thrice happy angelic men of the third or highest heaven.

Thus becomes demonstrated to the spiritually enlightened mind that the Word has a property and a pre-eminence that neither does nor possibly can attach to any other writing whatsoever. The Word, and the Word only, has this property and this prerogative, because its centre is the Lord himself, and its immediate flowing stream is direct from him.

These observations may enable us clearly to discern the fitness of the name, Emanuel, being given to the Lord born into the world, the Word made flesh. The name, Emanuel, signifies God with us. The Lord came into the world in the ultimates of humanity, in order to stamp that efficacy on his Word in the natural or literal sense, of