The Word, moreover, we are taught, has worn different garments, or varied natural senses, at different eras. The first church, Adam, or the primeval race of men, did not possess a written Word, but were gifted with a perception of spiritual essences. Nature was literally spread before them as an open book. To them, Nature was the expression of the Divine Wisdom; and they saw in every beast of the forest, in every flower of the field, and in every scene of creation, evidence of the Divine presence, and material emblems of spiritual and heavenly things. As men declined from purity, and, together with their innocence, lost their wisdom and their powers of celestial perception, a written Word became necessary, accommodated to the changed state of the new spiritual church called Noah. In time, this Word had also to be withdrawn, for its purity and language transcended the apprehension of a falling and sensualised world. Yet this Ancient Word, Swedenborg tells us, is not lost, but still exists in Tartary, probably as an unvalued treasure, which may be restored to the church in due season. To this Ancient Word, we have two allusions in the Jewish Scriptures; the first in Numbers xxi. 14, where we read: “Wherefore it is said in the book of the _Wars of Jehovah_;” and the second in Joshua x. 13: “Is not this written in the book of _Jasher_?” The book of the Wars of Jehovah, and the book of Jasher, forming parts of the Ancient Word, became unintelligible from being written in high correspondential and emblematic language; and uninteresting because not associated with the personal and worldly interests of men. The Jewish Scriptures were then written. The Divine Wisdom clothed itself in such words, histories, and laws, as the earthly-minded Jews could love and reverence, and thus be kept, in some measure, in connection with heaven, and in the possession of the most general and leading truths of religion. The Gospels, added in the course of time to the Jewish Word, served still further to preserve the church in union with heaven and the Lord. But now we see that mankind having in the course of centuries re-ascended to a higher degree of intellectual life, begin to be dissatisfied with the Scriptures, to arraign the truth of science against them, to wonder how it is possible that such writings can be the Word of God, and to ask, with Emerson, “What have I to do with jasper and sardonyx, beryl and chalcedony, what with arks and passovers, ephahs, heave-offerings, and unleavened bread; what with chariots of fire, and ephods; what with lepers and emerods; what with dragons crowned and horned, behemoth and unicorn?” But the Lord anticipates all man’s wants; and, caring above all things for his spiritual well-being, never permits him to live without a witness of His love and designs towards him. By His Word, the Lord reveals himself to man; and without it, man could know nothing of God, of heaven and hell, and of a life after death.