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The Two Books of Kings Explained

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The Two Books of Kings Explained: A Complete Exposition of Their Spiritual or Internal Sense with Copious Proof References to the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg and Short Explanatory Notes by the Rev. Henry Maclagan

EXCERPT

PREFACE

Since the time that it pleased the Lord to open the Spiritual Sense of His Holy Word, through the instrumentality of Emanuel Swedenborg, thousands of persons have been enabled, more or less, to perceive the beauty and order of that sense, and to appreciate its practical value. Some, also, have proceeded farther than this, and have explained, in order, complete portions of the Word, or have gi ven, in a general way, the itnernal meaning of whole books, as for instance, the Rev. John Clowes has done with regard to the four gospels.

Following therefore these examples, the present writer has ventured upon a complete exposition of the two books of Kings, so that the reader may have before him the spiritual sense of each verse, and of every sentence in each verse, together with the whole of that sense, written in series, without the intervention of the literal sense, arranged in parallel columns with the text.

The Spiritual Sense of the Word contains the laws of Human Life, and, in its highest aspect, reveals the laws of the Divine Life in the Human. "No man hath seen God at any time." Of the Infinite Life no man can form any conception. We need not, therefore, distress ourselves because we cannot by searching find out Cod, or discern the Divine mystery in a single created thing. It is not necessary that we should do so. But, all the same, it is necessary that we should know God, in the only way in which He can be known-that is, in His Divine Human Life. "The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath brought Him forth to view" (John i. 18). Or as Paul testifies: "In Jesus Christ dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily" (Col. ii. 9). And this is true, not only of the Word ultimate flesh, but of the written Word. For the written Word is the ultimate expression of the Divine Intelligence, as the Word made flesh is the ultimate expression of the Divine Love; and there is just this difference between them, that whereas in the first we see the life of God through the mind of God, in the second we see the mind of God through the life of God. The Word made flesh is the DIVINE God manifested in the Divine Truth ; and the written Word is the DIVINE TRUTH manifested from the Divine Good. And thus the latter is intended to lead us to a realization of the former. The written Word is intended to lead us to a realization of the living Word. It is not enough for us to know that the Lord is a Divine, Man, infinite and glorious, and that we are images and likenesses of Him in finite forrns ; we want to realize this, and thus to realize that the Lord is our Heavenly Father, with whom each of us can be personally acquainted, because, being Infinite, He can adequately manifest Himself to each of us. There are thousands of human beings of whom we can know nothing, and concerning whom we can realize nothing, but we arc all capable of thinking about the Lord-that is, of having an intellectual idea of Him, because that capacity is inherent in us, from the Lord, as human beings(A.C. 1707). And we are all capable of being conjoined to Him by love, in His Divine Human Nature, and hence He says: "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father" (John xiv. 9), and also: "He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself unto him" (John xiv. 21); and besides: "I will not leave you desolate: I will come to you" (John xiv. 18).

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