and instantly destroying those who touched it profanely or even innocently. The ark of the covenant represented the Word in the heavens; and what seemed a miracle from the earthly standpoint, was the orderly operation of a spiritual law.
It gives great offence, without any rational foundation, to the leaders in orthodox communions, that Swedenborg should assert that the Epistles, the Acts of the Apostles and several minor books in the Old Testament, are not of equal value with the rest of the Scriptures. Some of them even intimate that Swedenborg found it convenient, in defence of his new theology, to expunge from the canon those portions which militate most against it. How utterly unfounded such a charge is, will be apparent on the slightest examination of the facts.
The separate books of which the Bible is composed were written in different ages and places and by different persons. They were not collected into one volume until several hundred years after Christ. The task of separating the true Word of God from the mass of spurious or apocryphal literature which had gathered around it was undertaken by councils of bishops, or left to individual churches. There was no great guiding light or principle. The de-
