HR90

THE SCIENCE OF CORRESPONDENCES

Banner777
TSL9
SC700c

THE SCIENCE OF CORRESPONDENCES
ELUCIDATED

Edward Madeley

<< CHAPTER XIII >>

THE CORRESPONDENCE OF ANIMALS, PARTS OF ANIMALS, AND COMPOUND
AND MONSTROUS ANIMALS, WITH ILLUSTRATIONS.


ALL kinds of animals have their peculiar correspondences, in agreement with their forms, characteristics, and uses; for they all derive their existence from spiritual causes, and, by virtue of their instinct, are in momentary connection with the spiritual world, the Word of God the beasts of the earth the tame and useful as well as the wild and ferocious, the clean and the unclean correspond, in general, to various good or evil affections, according to their orders and qualities, and the subject of which they are predicated, birds, or winged tribes of animals, distinguished by their astonishing quickness of sight both clean and unclean agreeably to their respective genera and characters, and the subject treated of, correspond to the various kinds and degrees of thought, reason, intelligence, and the power of understanding, and are predicated both of what is holy and what is profane. For these faculties and their attainments impart to man intellectual acuteness and penetration, enabling him to fly, as it were, with wings, and disport himself in the atmosphere of knowledge. The fishes and the reptiles, according to their respective forms and habitudes, correspond to those low external principles of man's earthly nature, which, before the mind is regenerated, flit and grovel among sensual objects and selfish pursuits.

In the very characteristics of many animals, to say nothing of their forms and uses, which are both good and evil, there is a striking correspondence which is almost universally admitted. Thus, how frequently are corresponding qualities of the mind associated with various animals, or parts of animals. In the ferocity of the tiger, the cunning of the fox, the strength of the lion, the subtlety of the serpent, the filthiness of the swine, the innocence of the lamb, the cruelty of the wolf, the voracity of the vulture, the nocturnal propensities and powers of the owl and the bat, the soaring power of the eagle, the rapid flight of the swallow, the affection of the turtle for its mate, the virulent poison of the asp, the deadly sting of the scorpion, the destructive propensities of the caterpillar, the treachery of the spider, the instructive prudence and industry of the bee, etc., we may at once recognize the general correspondence of those animals.

Who, if he reflects on the subject, may not perceive that the croaking of the frog represents mere atheistical reasonings against the truth and authority of God's Word ? This was the reason why among the plagues of Egypt one was of frogs, which came up and covered the land (Ex. viii.) ; and why " the spirits of devils, working miracles, and going forth into the whole world," are described as " three unclean spirits like frogs, [proceeding] out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet" (Rev. xvi. 13, 14). Or, again, who cannot recognize a horse, as descriptive of ability and power ? Or, again, who does not see that the eggs of that malignant reptile called a cockatrice, basilisk, or asp, are corresponding forms of the germs of evil originating in falsity, thus of sensual affections in the heart, which, if eaten, or inwardly appropriated, cause death; or if crushed, or made externally manifest, bring forth the poisonous viper ? Or, that the spider which spins its gossamer web with which it fabricates its filmy covering and snare from its own bowels, and stealthily watches to seize the unwary victim entangled in its meshes, is a true correspondent of those cunning arguments and contrivances, grounded in treacherous falsehood, which derive their flimsy substance, and weave a mysterious and deceitful texture, from man's own self-intelligence, prompted by the artful persuasions of hell, and with which weak minds are successfully deluded and snared ? Hence we read in the prophet this description of so depraved a state of the church and the mind :" None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth : they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity. They hatch cockatrice eggs, and weave the spider s web ; he that eateth of them dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper." And to denote the frailty, deceitfulness, and unworthiness of such false assumptions, it is added : " Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works : their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands " (Isa. lix. 4-7). And Job, speaking of the weakness and instability of self-righteousness, says, " The hypocrite s hope shall perish : whose hope shall be cut off and whose trust shall be a spider s web. He shall lean upon his house, but it shall not endure" (viii. 14, 15). A single touch of truth dissolves the elaborate but flimsy fabric which man contrives for the odious purpose of concealing his own deformities and corruptions, and ensnaring the innocent, and where he repose, in fatal security ; but he will perish in the ruins of the deceitful habitation he has constructed.

So, again, in a good sense, a lion at one time signifies the omnipotence of truth in defending the Lord s church, where the motive is good, as where it is written," Who shall rouse him up ?" (Gen. xlix. 9) , and on this account the Lord Himself was pleased to assume the name of " the Lion of the tribe of Judah " (Rev. v. 5). But at another time, a lion is spoken of in an opposite or bad sense, to signify the power of infernal falsity, actuated by a bad motive, which desolates and tears and destroys goodness and truth in man, as in the Psalms: "Save me from the lion's mouth" (xxii. 21). Among other spiritual blessings, therefore, promised to the members of the Lord's true church, it is said, " No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast go up thereon; it shall not be found there" (Isa. xxxv. 9).

As a further illustration of this part of our subject, we will consider the signification of the horse. This noble and powerful animal, so graceful in symmetry, so swift in motion, and so eminently service able to man, is very frequently spoken of in the Word. When the subject treats of man in the process of regeneration, or is predicated of heaven and the Lord, the horse corresponds to the affection or desire of understanding truth for the sake of eternal use, or the faculty of making progress in spiritual knowledge rationally understood ; and, in an opposite sense, when the subject treats of the unregenerate, or is predicated of hell, the horse corresponds to the desire of acquiring knowledge for the sake of self, the love of self-derived intelligence, under whose perverted and perverting influence vain and conflicting reasonings against truth, and in confirmation of falsity, appear to be the result of intellectual inquiry. Every just description that could be given in regard to the form, the physiology, the instinct, and the various qualities and habitudes of the horse, serves to demonstrate the correctness of this signification. The strength of the horse de notes intellectual powrer ; his fleetness, quickness of intellectual discernment ; his form, intellectual beauty ; his sagacity, intellectual perception ; his snorting, intellectual reasonings ; his aptitude for the battle, and his fierceness in the encounter, intellectual skill and contention ; his hoofs are mentioned to denote the lowest scientific principles or ultimate of the intellect ; the color will denote the various qualities of the understanding; and when yoked to the chariot or wagon, they will represent the power of the understanding associated with varieties of doctrines. In the book of Job (xxxix. 25), therefore, speech and understanding are attributed to the horse, and, in the language of correspondence, a person distinguished for his intellectual endowments, whether he employs them in favor of truth and doctrine derived from the Word of God, or in confirmation of false principles derived from the infernal world and from his own self-intelligence, and, abstractedly from persons, the faculty itself, is denominated " a horseman."

If this spiritual signification be applied to the horse wherever it is described or spoken of in the sacred books of the Word, from Genesis to the book of Revelation, we shall always have a consistent, intelligible, and truly edifying sense. For instance, in consequence of man s proneness, by reason of his fallen nature, to depend upon his own prudence and cunning, in preference to the Divine Providence, he is disposed to multiply and trust the vain reasonings and pretexts of a perverted intellect, rather than place confidence in the Divine wisdom and direction from above, that in the spiritual sense of the Word he is forbidden by the Lord " to multiply horses " (Deut. xvii. 16). The divine declaration, " A horse is a vain thing for safety : neither shall he deliver any by his great strength " (Psalm xxxiii. 17), is a most striking form of instruction, in order to impress upon us the utter vanity of mere human reasonings and their inability to effect our deliverance from sin and to obtain the gifts of eternal salvation ; the worthlessness of self-dependence, the deceitfulness of self-intelligence ; that mere intellectual excellence and confidence are hollow and dangerous, mere intellectual attainment and power, weakness itself; that faith alone, or truth alone, is spurious and impotent, neither conjoining man with God or his neighbor, nor insuring for him any heavenly inheritance. Again, to represent the contrariety which must always exist between trust in God and mere intellectual confidence, to teach us that, as the Lord s delight is inseparable from his infinite goodness, so He can take no pleasure in man s understanding, however clear, vigorous, and well stored with knowledge, unless it be conjoined with purity of heart and life, it is said, " The Lord delighteth not in the strength of the horse" (Psalm cxlvii. 10). To express a sincere and humble conviction of the insufficiency, the impotence, and the folly of men placing their dependence for salvation on the selfish reasonings of faith alone, they are exhorted to turn to the Lord, to confess their iniquities, and say unto Him, "Asshur shall not save us ; we will not ride upon horses : neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods : for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy"(Hos. xiv. 3). And in another remarkable passage, " Some trust in chariots, and some in horses : but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. They are brought down and fallen : but we are risen and stand upright" (Psalm xx. 7, 8).

In reference to a fallen and degraded state of the church, where her members would become blind as to a right discernment and use of truth, and to signify the opposition with which self-reliance on intellectual power must always be met, before it is finally removed ; to rebuke that selfconceit which ever accompanies mere intellectual skill, and to represent the direful condition into which those who cherish such principles will plunge themselves, together with the miserable punishment which they bring upon their souls, but which appears to their perverted imaginations as the wrathful inflictions of a divine vengeance, it is prophetically said, " The stout-hearted are spoiled, they have slept their sleep : and none of the men of might have found their hands. At thy rebuke, O God of Jacob, both the chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleep"(Psalm Ixxvi. 5, 6). " In that day, saith the Lord, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with mad ness : and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the people with blindness " (Zech. xii. 4). " Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses, and trust in chariots because they are many ; and in horsemen because they are very strong ; but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the Lord !" (Isa. xxxi. 1.)

In Isa. v. 28, the divine judgments threatened against rebellious Israel, and to be accomplished by the agency of the heathen nations, are thus described: "Whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent, their horses hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind." Where by arrows, or darts and bows, are signified false doctrines, from which combat is waged ; by horses are signified things intellectual, in this case perverted ; and by their hoofs are denoted falsity in the ultimates of an evil life. And also Ezek. xxvi. 10, 11, where the inspired prophet is speaking of the devastation of Tyre, or the destruction of those who depend for salvation on truth or faith alone, signified by Tyre in a perverted sense, and says, " By reason of the abundance of the horses of the king of Babylon, their dust shall cover thee : thy walls shall shake at the noise of the horsemen, and of the wheels, and of the chariots, when he shall enter into thy gates, as men enter into a city wherein is made a breach. With the hoofs of his horses shall he tread down all thy streets : he shall slay thy people by the sword, and thy strong garrisons shall go down to the ground." Unless spiritual subjects are included in these words, what can they mean ? Without an interior sense, would they be anything but expressions of sound, when yet every expression in the Word has weight because from God. See A. C. 7729 ; also Micah iv. 13. In Rev. ix. 17, we have a symbolical description of formidable Euphratean horses, seen in vision by the apostle, in the spiritual world. And from the signification given to horses, we may plainly see that they are spoken of in a perverted sense ; that they denote some distinctive religious doctrines, and the pernicious influence of those false reasonings which spring from evil in the heart, by which they are maintained. In this wonderful vision these defiled and mischievous reasonings are here disclosed. Those who cherish them suppose themselves intelligent above others. It is, therefore, the doctrine of faith alone, and momentaneous salvation thence derived, which is here abstractedly but accurately described. The understandings and interior reasonings of such as admit this false and fatal notion are called horses, but monstrous in their forms and destructive in their nature. They are represented as having heads like lions, to denote their ruling fantasies and love of dominion, substituted for genuine wisdom and humility. Out of their mouths are said to issue fire and smoke and brimstone, to signify that their imvard sensual thoughts, from whence their words proceed, are nothing but the concealed love of self and the world, signified by fire ; the inflated pride of self-conceit, signified by smoke ; and the lusts and concupiscences of the merely carnal mind, signified by brimstone. They are said to have tails like serpents, having as their extremities serpents heads, to de scribe and represent the crafty fallacies of their reasonings, and to denote their cunning power to persuade and captivate others ; and the artifice by which they make the literal sense of the Word appear to confirm their opinions. And it is added, as the resulting effect, that by such perverted reasonings "they do hurt;" that is, they injure goodness and truth in the minds of the well-disposed, and dissipate the importance of obedience, and the necessity of good works, as essential to human salvation.

For a confirmation of this brief and imperfect exposition of what is regarded as a most difficult passage, we have only to turn to Ezek. xxxviii. 22 ; Psalm xi. 6 ; Isa. xxxiv. 8-10 ; Rev. xiv. 9, 10 ; Deut. xxix. 21-23, and many other places where these representative images are used, and bear a precisely similar signification. But in a good sense, from the sagacity, beauty, strength, fleetness, and utility of the horse, we may trace out its direct correspondence, and plainly perceive that it signifies the faculties of the intellect in subordination to goodness of heart and life, the affection of spiritual intelligence, a living desire to receive, to comprehend, and to use the wisdom of God. In this sense the horse is frequently mentioned in association with other animals, and is described by appropriate phrases and epithets. Thus, when He who is the sole fountain of wisdom and intelligence revealed Himself, by a representative of this kind, to the apostle John, " He sat," it is said, "on a white horse;" and his name was called " the Word of God ; " and because the angels of heaven receive all their intelligence and illumination from the Lord by means of his Word, therefore it is said that " The armies which were in heaven followed Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean" (Rev. xix. 11, 13, 14). Again, in the holy feast which the Lord provides at his sacred table, the guests are to be " filled with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war" (Ezek. xxxix. 20), by which is signified, that when man is prepared to approach the Divine Word, in full reliance on the Lord's mercy, he shall be replenished with all degrees of spiritual intelligence, enabled to appropriate all needful kinds of heavenly truth and doctrine, and is thence supplied with the requisite strength to vanquish his spiritual foes.

In order to represent the union of the love of God in the heart with the attainments of wisdom from his Word in the understanding, as the essential mediums of introducing the soul into a glorious state of heavenly delight and peace," a chariot of fire, and horses of fire," were seen in the spiritual world by Elisha, at the translation of the prophet Elijah, and, in grief on account of the loss of his master, he exclaimed, " The chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof" (2 Kings ii. 11, 12; xiii. 14). Elijah, and afterwards Eli sha, were so called, because they represented the internal and external quality of the Word.118 For such, indeed, are its outward character and inward power, wrhen its burning and shining truths and doctrines of life are received in genuine affection, and obeyed from a sincere faith. They elevate man s soul into heaven, and introduce him into consociation with angels. They surround him with the sphere of divine protection in every time of danger and distress. And could we see, with the organs of spiritual vision, of which the organs of natural sight are the true corresponding forms, like the young man who was alarmed for the safety of his master, Elisha, in the midst of infuriate enemies, we should behold, with the clearness and distinctness of spiritual discernment, the mountain on which he stands " full of horses and chariots of fire round about" him (2 Kings vi. 17). Such are " the horses and chariots of salvation " (Hab. iii. 8) which wait to convey every faithful Christian along the paths of righteousness to his eternal home in the kingdom of God. And to teach us, still further, that the powers of the understanding were designed to be diligently cultivated in all kinds of science and knowledge, and that, in subordination to divine wisdom, they are to be consecrated to the Lord s service, it is said, " In that day [of the Lord], shall there be upon the bells of the horses, HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD " (Zech. xiv. 20).

In the book of Revelation, which is wholly composed of symbolic writing, arranged by plenary inspiration, even as to every expression, according to the science of correspondences, and which treats only of divine and spiritual subjects, we read that the apostle John was favored with a most magnificent vision, recorded in the 5th and 6th chapters, in which he "saw in the right hand of Him that sat on the throne, a book, written within and on the back side, and sealed with seven seals." He wept that no one was found worthy to open it, but was comforted with the assurance that " the Lion of the tribe of Judah " had "prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof." By this was signified that the Lord Jesus Christ, who is omnipotent and omniscient (Matt, xxviii. 18 ; John ii. 24, 25), knows and perceives the secrets of every heart, and that to Him judgment belongs, because He alone, as the very divine truth or Word, can reveal the inmost states of the life of all men, both in heaven and upon earth. The opening of the seals, therefore, was designed to signify the revelation that was about to be made of the interior character.of all those who approach the Word of God, as to their reception and appropriation, or rejection and profanation of its sacred truths, and the charity and faith which they inspire, together with the quality of their understandings and intelligence. When the first seal was opened, there issued out of the book a white horse ; on the opening of the second seal, there proceeded from it a red horse ; on the open ing of the third seal, there went forth a black horse ; and on the opening of the fourth seal, there came out a pale horse. Each horse had its appropriate rider, each of whom was differently equipped, and to each of them a particular divine commission was intrusted.

Every single expression in these chapters, like the rest of the inspired Word, has its peculiar significance and application. I can only direct the reader's attention, at this time, to the meaning of the horses. We have already made some remarks on the signification of colors, as denoting the qualities of those subjects or things treated of; for colors are occasioned by the modifications of heat and light, and the reflection and refraction of their rays by the objects on which they fall, or in which they are received. The colored horses which pro ceeded out of the book as its seals were successively broken, signify and represent various qualities of the understanding, and the whole is a revelation of the inward states of all who approach the Volume of eternal truth with a desire to know its sacred contents. The WHITE HORSE and his rider signify the understanding of those who are illustrated by genuine truths, whose translucent purity is denoted by white. These are receptive of a heavenly principle of charity from the Lord, as well as a holy principle of faith. By the power of truth, when thus united to goodness of heart and purity of life, all kinds of evil and falsity are overcome and dissipated. Man goes forth, with the " crown and bow," in the Lord s name, " conquering and to conquer."

The RED HORSE and his rider signify the understanding of those who, while they receive the truth, disregard the goodness of the Word and reject the charity which it inculcates ; who, for selfish purposes, occasion contentions and dissensions among men, on the doctrinal tenets and outward forms of religion. In all such, every evil passion and propensity prevails, and they deprive the truth of the Word of its vitality and power. They do violence to love and mercy, and destroy
all peace from the earth. That a red color denotes quality as to good or its opposite evil, has been already shown. Hence, to signify the adulteration of all principles of goodness and charity in the perverted church, she is represented as " a harlot " who had forsaken her rightful husband, " arrayed in purple and scarlet, and sitting upon a scarletcolored beast, full of names of blasphemy" (Rev. xvii. 3, 4). And to denote the extreme perversion and corruption of all truth with
such as violate its sanctions by rejecting the sacred principles of charity, even the Lord s vesture is described as being " dipped in blood" (Rev. xix. 13).

By the BLACK HORSE and his rider are signified the understanding of those who wilfully oppose the influence of divine truth, who falsify and darken its holy counsels by vain and impious reasonings, and induce upon themselves the gloom of eternal ignorance, but who, though they hold all divine instruction concerning what is good and true in lightest estimation, indicated by the balances of justice, and the proclamation of " a measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny," are yet not permitted to infringe or injure its inward sanctity, " to hurt either the oil or the wine. The color black denotes the quality of such a state, for we have seen that it signifies the darkness and obscurity of falsity and evil.

By the PALE HORSE, and its rider, Death, are manifestly signified all who approach the Holy Word, but without understanding any thing of its transcendent glories, because they are in confirmed states of evil, both of heart and life. Though they have a name to live, they are dead (Rev. iii. 1). They hear and learn the truth, and profess to love it, but utterly destroy its life in themselves, and endeavor to deprive all around them of its health-restoring energy and consoling influence. For paleness is the color of a corpse, and denotes the absence of all spiritual life. To describe the miserable result of such direful profanation, and the hopeless end of such insane conduct, it is said that " hell followed ; " for persistence in so dreadful a course conjoins man, here and hereafter, with infernal spirits, hastens the judgment by speedily and certainly filling up the measure of his iniquities, and plunges him, from his own free choice, into a state of spiritual death. Similar things are also signified by the chariots and colored horses which the prophet Zechariah saw in vision and de scribed (Zech. i. 8 ; vi. 1-8).

 Now this signification of a horse, as denoting the intellectual fac ulty, and the result of its active energies and its powers of memory and reasoning, might be extensively illustrated and confirmed from the Grecian mythology. " The signification of the horse," says Swedenborg, " as expressive of understanding, was derived from the ancient churches to the wise men round about. How much the ancients excelled the moderns in intelligence may be manifest from this consideration, that the former knew to what things in heaven several things in the world corresponded, and hence what they signified ; and this was not only known to those who were of the church, but also to those who were out of the church, as to the inhabitants of Greece, the most ancient of whom described things by significatives, which at this day are called fabulous, because they are altogether unknown ; that the ancient Sophi were in the knowledge of such things is evident. Hence it was, that, when they would describe the sun, in which they placed their god of wisdom and intelligence, they attributed to it a chariot and four horses of fire ; and when they would describe the god of the sea [Neptune, to whom more power was ascribed than to any other god except Jupiter], since by the sea was signified sciences derived from understanding, they also attributed horses to him ; and when they would describe the origin of intelligence and wisdom, or the rise of the sciences from understanding, they also feigned a winged horse, which they called Pegasus, whose hoof broke open a fountain, at which sat nine virgins called the sciences, and this upon a hill." [The nine liberal arts were called muses, either from the similarity of their intellectual origin, or because men, by inquiring of them, learned the things of which they before were ignorant.] For from the ancient churches they received the knowledge that the horse signifies the intellectual principle of understanding ; his wings, the spiritual principle of spiritual truth ; the hoof, what is scientific derived from understanding, or truth in the ultimate sense, where is the origin of intelligence ; virgins, the sciences ; a hill, unanimity, and, in the spiritual sense, charity ; and a fountain, doctrine from which sciences are derived ; and so in all other cases. [Minerva, the goddess of wisdom, is figured on some medals as drawn in a chariot by four horses. Mars, the god of war, is frequently described as rushing forth in a chariot drawn by furious war-horses ; and Oceanus, also, who presided over rivers and fountains, was drawn by fabulous sea-horses supplied with wings]. Nor is there anything else signified by the Trojan horse than an artificial contrivance devised by their understanding for the purpose of destroying the walls. Even at this day, when understanding is described after the manner received from those ancients, it is usual to figure it by a flying horse, or Pegasus ; so, likewise, doctrine is described by a fountain, and the sciences by virgins ; but scarcely any one knows that the horse, in the mystic sense, signifies the understanding ; still less, thafr those significatives were derived to the gentiles from the ancient representative churches.119 W. H. 4 ; A. C. 7729.

The Hindoos attribute seven horses to the sun. The Oriental nations, who worshipped the sun, not only represented him as riding along the sky in a chariot drawn by the fleetest and most beautiful horses, to communicate his light and warmth to the world ; but, when all idea of correspondence was lost, they consecrated to the sun the finest steeds and chariots, and, as the sun arose, rode to the eastern gates of their cities to pay their homage. The Jews at one time became infected with this species of idolatry ; for we read that Josiah " took away the horses that the kings of Judah [his predecessors] had given [or consecrated] to the sun, at the entering in of the house of the Lord [or the court of the temple towards the east], and burned the chariots of the sun with fire" (2 Kings xxiii. 11). Nor is thia recorded in the Word merely for the sake of the history, but in order to teach us that all spiritual idolatry must be renounced and forsaken, that the soul may become the chosen temple of Jehovah s presence and blessing, and that man may " worship Him," as the Sun of Righteousness, " in spirit and in truth."

The signification of other animals might be as distinctly proved as that we have been considering. Let it be admitted, then, that there is a correspondence between animals and the principles constituent of the mind, both in this world and in another, and we shall at once perceive the reason why animals were seen in the spiritual world in the visions of the prophets and apostles, many of which were unlike any existing in this world, and why the prevailing dispositions of the mind are, in the Word, called doves and owls, lambs and wolves, sheep and dogs, etc. We shall then read a lesson of holiest wisdom in the divine promise that believers should " take up serpents " (Mark xvi. 18), and " tread upon serpents " (Luke x. 19). We shall see how, in the regeneration, the varied affections and desires of the mind, with their delights, spiritual and natural, rational and sensual, are brought under the benign, the peaceful, the harmonious influences of the Lord and heaven, in which " The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid ; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together ; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed ; their young ones shall lie down together : and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice den." " The wolf and the lamb shall lie down together : and dust shall be the serpent s meat " (Isa. xi. 6-8 ; Ixv. 25) ; also why it is promised that " a man shall nourish a young cow and two sheep" (Isa. vii. 21) ; and why, again, they are pronounced blessed " who sow beside all waters, and send forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass " (Isa. xxxii. 20). You will at once understand, too, that the covenant which God is said to make with beasts and birds and creeping things of the earth, means his eternal covenant with man s immortal soul, or with all the affections and thoughts and faculties of both the internal and external mind, represented by the various orders of animals. Read the following inspired passage with this exalted view, and without further explanation you will find it filled with beauty, sublimity, wisdom, and life, worthy of Him who is its Divine Author. "In that day, I, Jehovah, will make a covenant for them [my people] with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground : and I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving kindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee
unto me in faithfulness, and thou shalt know the Lord " (Hos. ii. 18-20).

When the affections of the heart rise towards the Lord, and manifest themselves in the exalted love of the neighbor, and when the thoughts of the understanding find their true and permanent abode in the same elevated and heavenly principles, they derive their internal character and quality from the Lord, and are said to be known to Him, that is, acknowledged as proceeding from Him ; then, in the language of correspondence, He is represented as saying, " Every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls upon the mountains and the wild beasts of the field are mine" (Ps. 1. 10, 11).
 

site search by freefind advanced
 

[Home] [DICTIONARY] [HEAVEN] [EARTH] [DIVINE HUMAN] [THE WORD] [PLACES] [PERSONS] [ANIMALS] [PLANTS] [MINERALS] [NUMBERS]

Copyright © 2007-2013 A. J. Coriat All rights reserved.