Swedenborg...

THE CORONIS OR APPENDIX TO

THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION: IN WHICH IT TREATS

OF THE FOUR CHURCHES OF THIS EARTH FROM

THE CREATION OF THE WORLD, AND OF THEIR

PERIODS AND CONSUMMATION;-OF THE N EW CHURCH ABOUT T O SU CCEED

THOSE FOUR, WHICH W IL L H~ I~I,.Y CHR ISTIAN ,

AND THE CROWN OF THE PRECEDING ONES;

OF THE COMING OF THE LORD TO IT, AND OF

HIS DIVINE AUSPICES THEREIN

TO ETERNITY,

AND FURTHER

OF THE MYSTERY OF REDEMPTION:

THEN ALSO

"THE INVITATION TO THE NEW CHURCH"

FROM THE LATIN OF

EMANUEL SWEDENBORG

THE SWEDENBORG SOCIETY 20 BLOOMSBURY WAY

LONDON, w.c.i 1966


THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

First printed in this edition 1931

Reprinted 1966

Printed in Great Britain b..y Morrison and Gibb Limited, London and Edinburgh

CONTENTS OF THIS VOLUME PAGE

.1. THE CORONIS 9

2 THE CONSUMMATION OF THE AGE, THE SECOND COMING OF

THE LORD, AND THE NEW CHURCH 85

3 THE INVITATION TO THE NEW CHURCH 95

PREFATORY NOTE CONCERNING THE CONTENTS OF THIS VOLUME

THE work, which opens the Volume-" The Coronis "-is, as it proclaims itself, an "Appendix to THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION," and was written for the purpose of treating somewhat more in detail certain specified points which had been little more than touched upon in that work.

It suffers under the two disadvantages of never having been issued to the world by its author, and QLbeing incom lete.

So far as known, the work in its complete form nowhere now exists. The MS., we are informed, was lent by Swedenborg, during is_last_illness, to_DIIVIesSlter, ana, un orfiiIi"itely, " ne~rly one-half of it" was "mislaid and finally lost at the

( Dr's house" (see DOCUMENTS CONCERNING SWEDENBORG, Vol. Ill, p. 1022).

A careful comparison of the work, as given in the following pages, with the full plan of it outlined in the " Summaries" prefixed to it, will show that the present Volume does not give the complete treatise as designed by'-Swe-denborg. The working outo ftnelaniscan:ied orlJY. as far as to the end ofP~op'ositiOi1VI of the" Summaries," when the matter comes to an abrupt stop

1 at the successive changes of state in the Israelitish Church. This ) \ i~s far as the rescue~eortion of the MS. gQes.

I Ue_e.mL~e<isp.na.!:lle to st!PP-Qs~thaLthe_MS . was comJili:te when placed by Swedenborg in Dr M~s~iter's hands, and that, therefore, the.l-<t.rge_pprJiQILoCit which_was first" mislaid and finally lost at the Dr's house," contained th e full exec ution of ( th e ori inal lan. That it carried the work considerably beyond ] the contents of the present Volume must, at any rate;15e certain, - T ne-fact that themiSsin~J~ortion commenced~ith the discussion of the Rise, Development, Decline and Fall of the First r

NI Christian Church, and, after that, furnished some forecast 11 res ectin the N ew and " truly Christian " Church, makes the

loss of it a matter of Rarticular regret to th e la tter Church now existin -in however in firm and strugglm a form-in the world. But, imperfect though the work is, it is stITfOl high importance to the Church, and well worthy of publication to serve as a

vu

PREFATORY NOTE

sequel to the work to which it is the "Appendix," and also of careful study.

Il THE CORONIS, together with THE CONSUMMATION OF THE AGE,

2 . THE SECOND COMING OF THE LORD, AND TH~-.!i~YC~URCH, and .3 THE INVITATION TO THE NEW CHURCH, which follow it in this

Volume, would seem, from Dr R. L. Tafel's DOCUMENTS CON

CERNING SWEDENBORG (pp . 1020 and 1022), to have th e s ecial I interest of being the last works tha t Swedenbor ever enned.

In the Revision of THE CORONIS, I have had the benefit of the assistance of the Revs. J . G. Dufty and P. H. Johnson, RA., RSc.; in that of THE CONSUMMATION OF THE AGE, etc., and THE

INVITATION TO THE NEW CHURCH, of the Rev. G. F. Colborne Kitching.

References to the chapters and vers~s of Scripture ar e ~

in accordance with th e Authorized VerSIon of the English Bible, even w ere Swedenborg, through his use ottneLatiii-VerSlon of Schmidius, or from any other cause, employs a (I{ffere; t enumeration.

JAS. F. BUSS, Editor and Reviser.

Vlll

[SCHEME OF "THE CORONIS," OR APPENDIX TO

"THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION"]

Cl) THE CONSUMMATION OF THE AGE

1. THE LAST JUDGMENT

@!)T H E COMING OF THE LORD

IV. RESTORATION, AND THE NEW CHURCH: ITS QUALITY

1. THE ApPEARING OF THE LORD J EHOVIH

2. THE MORNING, OR RISE

3. THE DAY, OR PROGRESSION

4. THE EVENING, OR V ASTATION

5. THE NIGHT, OR. CONSUMMATION

6. THE COMING OF THE LORD

7. THE LAST JUDGMENT

8. THE NEW HEAVEN

9. THB NEW CHURCH

10. REDEMPTION

ABOUT MIRACLES

ix

SUMMARIES

1. There have been four Churches on this earth since the time of the creation: a First, which is to be called the Adamic; a Second, the Noachian ; a Third, the Israelitish; and a Fourth, the Christian. GDThere have been four Periods, or successive States, of each Church, which in the Word are meant by " morning," " day," " evening," and" night."C!!9 In each Church the four changes of states have been

consecutive; the first of which has been the Appearing of the Lord]ehovih and Redemption, and then was its Morning, or Rise; the second has been its Instruction, and then was Mid-day, or Progression; the third has been its Decline, and then was its Evening, or Vastation; the fourth has been its End, and then was its Night, or Consummation.

After its End, or Consummation, the Lord ]ehovih appears and executes a judgment on the men of the former Church, and separates the good from the evil, and raises the good to Himself into heaven, and removes the evil from Himself into hell.

After these things, of the good raised to Himself He forms a new heaven, and of the evil removed from Himself, a new hell; and in both He establishes order, so that they may remain under His control and under obedience to Him to eternity ; and then through the new heaven He successively inaugurates and establishes a new Church on earth.

QD

From this new heaven, the Lord ]ehovih derives and produces a new Church on earth; which takes place by means of a Revelation from His mouth or from His Word, and by

tion .IV. These periodical changes of state which occurred in

succession in the first, or Most Ancient Church, which was the Adamic, are described by Moses in the first chapters of Genesis; but by celestial representatives, and by other things, belonging to the world, to which spiritual things correspond. ~Theperiodical changes ofstate which occurred in succession in the second, or Ancient Church, which was the Noachian, are also described in Genesis, and here and there in the four remaining books of Moses.

THE CORONIS

@The periodical changes of state which occurred in succession in the third Church, which was the Israelitish, are also described in Moses, and afterwards in Joshua, in the Books of the Judges, of Samuel, and of the Kings, and likewise in the Prophets. CYlI. The periodical changes which occurred in succession in

the fourth Church, which is the Christian, are described in the Word of both Testaments; its Rise, or Morning, in particular, in the Evangelists, and in the Acts and writings of the Apostles; its Progression towards Noon-day, in the ecclesiastical history of the first three centuries; its Decline, or Evening, by the history of the centuries immediately following; and its Vastation even to Consummation, which is its Night, in the Apocalypse.

VIII. After those four Churches, a new one is to arise which will be truly Christian, foretold in Daniel and in the Apocalypse, and by the Lord Himself in the Evangelists, and looked for by the Apostles.

* * * * * * * (0The Church successively declines from the truths of faith and the goods of charity, and it declines in the same proportion also from the spiritual understanding and genuine sense of the Word.

X. Consequently, the Church departs in the same proportion from the Lord, and removes Him from itself.

x I:' In proportion as this is effected, it tends towards its end. I . It is the end of the Church, when there remains no

longer any truth of faith or genuine good of charity. XIII The Church is then in falSities a nd the evils therefrom,

and i evils and the falsities therefrom. XIV. Hence, from the deceased out of the world hell increases,

so that it raises itself up towards heaven, and interposes itself between heaven and the Church, like a black cloud between the sun and the earth. ~This interposition prevents the access of any truth of faith, and thence any genuine good of charity, to the men of the Church; but, instead of them, falsified truth, which in itself is falsity, and adulterated good, which in itself is not good. CXVj)Then naturalism and atheism take possession together. ~XVli)This StateOfthe-Church is-meant and described in the

ord, by " Vastation," " Desolation" and" Consummation."

* * * * * * * (XVnj)While Vastation lasts, and before Consummation

supervenes, the Lord's Advent is announced, also Redemption by the Lord, and after this there is a new Church.

2

OR APPENDIX TO THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

~While the Israelitish Church still endured, these three we.re announced in many passages of the Word in the Prophets. (XXjThe Coming of the Lord. cxxt:/Redemption . ~XXII0 A new Church. r AliiioS'!- everywhere in the prophetic Word, Vastation and

1 Consummation, also the Last Judgment, the Lord's Coming, a I new Church, and Redemption, are treated of.

* * * * * * * ::"'XXIIJ)As regards Redemption in particular, through which alone Salvation takes place, it was accomplished by J ehovah GOQ incarnate, who iSJ:mr Lord Jesus Christ. -

'- XXfV:)The first part of Redemption was a total subjugation of the hells. -- -- ' ~~The second part of Redemption was the separation of the evil from the good, and the casting down of the evil into hell and the raising of the good into heaven.

XXVI> And, lastly, there is the arrangement in order of all in hell, and the arrangement in order of all in heaven. <--X X V I I) And then, at the same time, Instruction concerning

I the truths which are to be of faith, and the goods w@ch areto l be of charity. - ,,'

XXVIIi)And thus the Establishment of a new Church. ~ XXIX)The final and efficient Cause of Redemption was the Reg~neration of man, and thereby salvation. .~XX)~ Lord, because He is the only Redeemer, is there

fore the only Regenerator, and thus the only Saviour. * * * * * * *

QS.X~I)BY His first Advent, and the Redemption then wroug t, the Lord was not able to form a new heaven of Christians, and from that a new Church, b~cause theTI:~ere as yet no Christians, but they came into existence gradually through the preachings and writings of the Apostles. (XX X II . Neither was He able afterwards, since from the

beginning so many heresies broke forth that scarcely a.I!x.@<:.tri!1e of' faith appeared in its own light. . _ _ \.1QQ~!!!:fAnd at length (ih~ Apo~!Q).~Doctrine. was in

creasingly torn, rent asunder, and adulterated by abominable heresies.

XXXIV. This is meant by " the abomination of desolation," and by " the affliction such as was not, either will be," and by " the darkening of the sun, moon, and stars," in the Evangelists, in Daniel, and also in the Prophets; likewise by " the Dragon" and many other things, in the Apocalypse.

3

THE CORONIS

~Because the Lord foresaw these things, therefore of necessity if man were to be saved, He promised that He ~u ld IJII

come again into the world and accomplish a Redemption, aa.d "Youldthus institute a_new Church,. ~~ch wou!9.- be _~y Christian. .A ~ ~ I

XXXVI. TheLorc:J! Himself foretold His!Secon~Coming, and the post es frequentfy prophesied respecting i0ndJohn openly so in the Apocalypse; ~ z;

XXXVII. In like manner respecting the NeJ"Chu..!:ch ' hich is meant y the" New Jerusalem" in the Apocalypse.

XXXVIII. This Second Redem tion was effected in the same way as t e rst (of which above, from n. xxiii to xxx), c.X X X q f ) And also for the sake of the Regeneration, and hence the Salvation, of the men of the Church, as its final and efficient cause.

* * * * * * * C X LJ T he falsities which have hitherto desolated, and have at length consummated, the Christian Church, were chiefly the following:

C2'L j)T hey receded from the worship of the Lord, preached by the Apostles, and from faith in Him.

They separated the Divine Trinity from the Lord, and transferred it to three Divine Persons from eternity, consequently to three Gods.e.XtIOThey divided saving faith among these three Persons. . XII . They separated charity and good works from that faith, as not at the same time saving. " XLIV. They deduced justification-that is, remission of sins, regeneration, and salvation-from that faith alone, independently of man's co-operation. . XLV. hey denied to man free-determination in spiritual things,

thus asserting that God alone operates in man, and that man on his part does nothing.

XLVI. From this necessarily flowed forth Predestination, by whic religion is abolished.

XLVII. heydecreedthat the Passion ofthe Cross is Redemption. XLVIII. From these heresies, falsities burst forth in SUCh )

abundance that there does not remain a single genuine truth which is not falsified, nor, consequently, a single genuine good which is not adulterated.

C X LI:X)T he Church knows absolutely nothing about this, its Desolation and Consummation, nor can it know, until the Divine Truths announced by the Lord in the work entit~E TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION:-ares een in light and acknowledged.

The Word is thus obscuredand-darkened, sOi: l:iat not a single truth any longer appears in it.

4

OR APPENDIX TO THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

IWFor many reasons this New Christian Church is not being established thrau 11 an miracles, as the former was.

LI. But, instead of them, the spiritual sense of the Word is revealed, and the spiritual world disclosed; and the nature of both heaven and hell manifested ; also, that man lives as a man after death; which thingsfsurpass all miracles.

* * * * * ..- LII This!N~ truly Qhristian Church Jwhich is at this day bemg established by the Lord, will endure to eternity, as is proved from the Word of both Testaments; alsoit was foreseen from the creation of the world; and it will be the Crown of the four p'r~ding Churches, because it will have true faith andtrUe charity. ~In this New Church there will be spiritual p;~§-e , which is " " ," and internal blessedness of life, as is also 1 ved from t~ ~d of both Testaments. \.!:!YJ These things will.£xist ~ this New Church , by r~

its con junction with the Lord, and t Firoug~ with God the J Father. ~n invitation addressed t~and to the whole Christian world; and all Ehortati~ to_w.£rthily receive the Lord, who has Himself foretold that He would come into the world for the sake of this Church and to it. --- - ~

LASTLY, ABOUT MIRACLES

cDMiracles were performed in the Church before the Lord's Advent, because, at that time, men were external, or natural, and could not be led to their representative worship except by miracles.

The Miracles performed in Egypt, in the wilderness, in the land of Canaan, and even to the present time, are to be enumerated.

And that, yet, they never influence men. Q£:/After the Lord's Advent, when man from external became

internal, and when the capacity of being able to know was imparted to man, miracles were withheld.

Also, if that capacity were impeded, man would become more external than before.

Ill. Miracles would abolish worship truly Divine, and introduce the former idolatrous worship; as also has taken place for very many centuries back.

Nevertheless, the latter have not been Divine miracles, but ~~s were wrought by the magicians of old . UVAt this day, in lace of miracles, there has taken · lace a manifestation of the Loro~imself, an intromission into the spmtual--woI- a, andeiiHghteniile'nt there, .sx immediate light frc;rrlHie-r:ora~in suchthings as are the interior things of the Church. ----

lftrt, above all, the opening of the spiritual sense in the Word, in which the Lord is in His own Divine light. Q)Th ese Revelations are not miracles; sinc e every: man is in the spiritual world as to his s irit, without any separation from his body in the natural world-I, however, with a certain separation, though only as to the intellectual part of my mind, but not as to the voluntary ;-and, as regards the spiritualsense, the Lord through it is with all who approach Him in faith in the above light; also, through that sense He is in man's natural light.

6



c.-2

THE CORONIS OR APPENDIX 1 TO


I. THESE three subjects-the Consummation of the Age, the Coming of the Lord, and the New Church-have, it is true, been treated of in the last chapter of the work entitled THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. The reason why a Continuation follows about them, is, because no one at this day knows what the Consummation of the Age is, why a Second Advent of the Lord must take place, or that a New Church is about to com.e; and yet these three subjects are treated of in both the Prophetic and the Apostolic Word, and fully in the Apocalypse. That those three subjects are treated of in the Prophetic Word of the Old Testament, was made evident to me while it was given me to lay it open by means of the spiritual sense; and in like manner that they are treated of in the Prophetic book of the New Testament, which is called the Apocalypse: that they are also in the Evangelic and Apostolic Word, will be plain from the following pages. Hence it follows, that, Without~owledge

respecting the Consummation of the Age, the ~dven t of the Lord, and th New Church, the Word is as it were shut up; D;r tiii anything: but_know edg~s (J£en Jt: these are like .key} which open the door and let one in. When this takes pJaCe with the Word, then the treasures which 1~~e.!!.LeJLtherein \ 1 as at the bottom of thesea;--cc>me in to view; for, at the bottom, ! t~are in the Word notllmg else but treasures. In this !

App.!'!!l.ix.Lof. Continuqjion, I shall proceed, in hke manner as in the work itself, by prefixed Summaries, which will be confirmed from Scripture and illustrated from reason,

J PROPOSITION THE FIRiiJ

2@THERE HAVE BEEN FOUR CHURCHES ON THIS EARTH SINCE THE TIME OF ITS CREATION: A FIRST, WHICH IS TO BE CALLED THE ADAMIC; A SECOND, THE NOACHIAN; A THIRD, THE ISRAELITISH;

1 This Appendix is promised in Nos. 15, 177, 343, 485, 627 and 758 of the work itself.

9

2] THE CORONIS

AND A FOURTH, THE CHRISTIAN. That four Churches have existed on this earth since the creation of the world, manifestly appears in Daniel; first, from the image seen by Nebuchadnezzar in a dream, and, afterwards, from the four beasts rising up out of the sea. On the subject of Nebuchadnezzar's image we read as follows:

Daniel said, Thou, 0 King, sawest, and behold a great image. And the appearance thereof, standing over against thee, was excellent, and the aspect thereof was terrible. The head of this statue was offin.s:...gQ!d; its breast and arms, of silver; its belly and its thighs, of brass; its legs, of iron; its feet, partly of iron and partly of clay. Thou sawest until a stone was cut out, which was cut without hands, and smote the image upon its feet that were of iron and clay, and ground them to powder. Then were the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, ground to powder together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors, so that the wind carried them away, and no place was found for them: but the stone which smote the image, became a great rock, and filled the whole earth. In these days shall the God of the heavens set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed; and His kingdom shall not be entrusted to another people: it shall break in pieces and consume all those kingdoms, but it shall stand for ever (Dan. ii 31-35,44).

That this dream did not signify fQ.!!r political kingdoms on this earth, but four Churches, which should follow one after another, is plain from the following considerations: (I) That such kingdoms, one after another, have not existed on this earth. (2) That the Divine Word, in its bosom, does not treat of the kingdoms of the world, but of Churches, which consriture.God's kingdQ.I!!...Qn e.ill:!E. (3) Also, because it is said that the God of the heavens shall set up a kingdom which shall not be destroyed to the ages, and that a stone, cut out, not by hands, became a great rock, which filled the whole earth. (4) And, inasmuch as the Lord our Saviour Jesus Christ, in the ~d of both Testaments, is called the " ~!one " and" Rock," it is manifest that His..kingqom is meant by die last words in this passage. (5) Moreover, the state of the Church is described, in inmtmerable passages of the Word, by gold, silver, brass, and iron; its spiritual state as to the good oflove by gold, its spiritual state as to the truth ofwisdom by silver, its natural state as to the good of charity by brass, and its_natUl:al~~te astoJhe__tDLth _9f~~th by iron (as may be seen confirmed from the Word in the APOCALYPSE REVEALED, n. 913,

2 and elsewhere). For this reason, the wise in the first ages, who knew the significations of metals, compared the ages which were to follow one another from the first to the last, to those four metals,

10

OR APPENDIX TO THE TRUE CHRISTIAN REl.IGION [2

and called the first age" golden," the second age" silver," the third age "copper," and the fourth age "iron "; and they described them thus according to goods and truths; and, since genuine goods and truths are from no other origin than from the God of heaven, they described them according to the states of the Church with those who lived in those ages; for from these and according to these, all the civil states of kingdoms in respect to justice and judgment exist , thrive and live.

3 That the Lord the Saviour Jesus Christ is called the" Stone" an~ Rock " l ntheworcrofOOth': estaments, IS plain from the following passages. That He is called a " Stone" from these:

-:s-

Thus said the Lord Jehovih, Behold I will lay in Zion a Stone of approval, a precious comer[-stone] of settled foundation; he who hath believed will not make haste; then I will set judgment to the rule, and justice to the plummet (Isa. xxviii 16, 17).

Jehovah will visit His flock; from Him will come forth the cornerstone (Zech. x 3, 4).

The Stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner (Psalm cxviii 22).

Have ye not read in the Scripture that the Stone which the I builders rejected is become the head of the corner? (Matt. xxi 42; Mark xii 10, 11; Luke xx 17, 18; Isa. viii 14, 15).

Ye have come to Qie Lord, the living Stone, rejected indeed of "I men, but chosen of God ; ye yourselves--aISQ,'" as living stones, are built up into a spiritual house; therefore, it is said in the Scripture, I lay in Zion a corner-stone, elect, precious, and he who believeth on Him shall not be ashamed (I Pet. ii 4,5,6).

Ye are built upon the foundations of the apostles and prophets, whose~orI!-~!:~g~J~I,.I~rist, by whom the whole building, well cemented together, groweth into a holy temple in the Lord; by whom ye are built together into a habitation of God in the spirit (Ephes, ii 20, 21, 22).

_J~SUSJ::::hIist is the Stone, rejected by the builders, which is become the head of the corner; and there is no salvation in any other (Actsiv 11, 12).

That the Lord is called a " Rock," is evident from these passages in the Word: c;-

When Jeshurun waxed fat, he kicked, and he forsook God who made him, and lightly esteemed t~e Rock of his sa.kation (Deut, xxxii 15, 18).

The God of Israel said, The Rock of Israel spake to me (2 Sam. xxiii 3).

Let th e words of my mouth be well-pleasing, 0 Jehovah, my Rock and my Redeemer (Psalm xix 14).

11

2-3] THE CORONIS

And they remembered that God was th eir Rock, and the High God their Redeemer (Psalm Ixxviii 35).

They all drank spiritual drink; for they drank of the spiritual Rock; the Rock was Christ (1 Cor. x 4; Exod. xvii 6).

From these passages, it is now plainly evident that by the Stone which smote the image, and became a great rock and filled the whole earth, and whose kingdom shall stand for ever, is meant l j our Lord Jesus Christ.

3. The same four Churches on this earth are described by four beasts rising up out of the sea, in Daniel; of which it is there written:

The first was seen like a lion, but it had eagle's wings. I beheld until the wings thereof were plucked out, and it was lifted up from the earth, and set up upon feet, erect like a man, and a man's heart was given to it . Afterwards, behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side; three ribs were in its mouth between the teeth: moreover, th ey were saying thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh. After these things, I beheld, and, 10, another, like a leopard, which had four wings, like birds' wings, upon th e back of it; the beast had also four heads; and dominion was given to it. After this, I saw in the night visions, and beheld a fourth beast, terrible and dreadful, and strong exceedingly, which had great iron teeth; it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped th e residue with its feet; but it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. I beheld till thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit; and the judgment was set, and the books were opened; and, behold, one like the Son of Man was coming with the clouds of the heavens. And there was given Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom; and all peoples, nations and languages should worship Him: His dominion is a dominion of an age, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not perish (Dan. vii 3, 4, 5,6, 7, 9, [10], 13, 14, etc .),

That by these beasts, in like manner, are meant and described those four Churches, is manifest from all the particulars there (which shall be unfolded in their order in the following pages); more especially from the last expressions there, that after those four beasts there will come" the Son of Man, to whom shall be given dominion, and a kingdom which shall not pass away nor perish"; who, also, is meant by the Stone made into" a great Rock, which shall fill the whole earth," as may be seen above

2 (n. 2, at the end). That the states of the Church are likewise described by beasts, as well as by metals, in the Word, is evident from numberless passages, some only of which I will adduce here j which are as follows:

12

OR APPENDIX TO THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION [3

Thou causest the rain of benefits to drop; thou wilt confirm thy wearied inheritance ; the beast I-thy assembly-shall dwell therein (Psalm lxviii 9, 10).

Every wild beast of the forest is Mine, the beasts in the mountains of thousands; I know every bird of the mountains, the beasts of My fields are with Me (Psalm I 10, 11).

Asshur was a cedar in Lebanon, his height was exalted; all the birds of thc heavens made their nests in his branches, and under his branches did all the beasts of the field bring forth, and in his shadow dwelt all great nations (Ezek. xxxi 3, 5, 6, 13; Dan. iv 7-13).

In that day will I make a covenant for them with the beast of the field, and with the bird of the heavens, and I will betroth Myself unto thee to eternity (Hosea ii 18, 19).

Rejoice and be glad; be not afraid, ye beasts of My fields; for the habitations of the desert are become full of grass (J oel ii 21, 22).

Thou, son of man, say unto the bird of every wing, and to every beast of the field, Gather yourselves together to My sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel: thus I will set My glory among the nations (Ezek. xxxix 17,20,21 ).

The enemy hath reproached J ehovah; deliver not the soul of the turtle-dove unto the beast 2 (Psalm lxxiv 18, 19).

Jehovah gathereth th e outcasts of Israel; every beast of My fields, come (Isa. lvi 8, 9).

The spirit urging, made Jesus to go forth into the wilderness; and He was with the beasts; and angels ministered unto Him (Mark i 12, 13).

He was not with beasts, but with devils, with whom He fought and whom He subdued-(not to mention a thousand other passages, which are adduced in part in the APOCALYPSE REVEALED,

n. 567). Moreover, it is well known that the Lord Himself, in the Word, is called a " Lamb" and also a " Lion"; likewise, that the Holy Spirit was represented as a " Dove"; that the cherubs, also, by which the Word in the literal sense is signified, appeared like" four beasts," in Eeekiel and in the Apocalypse; and that the man of the Church who acknowledges the Lord as his God and Shepherd, is called a " sheep "; and, on the other hand, he who does not acknowledge Him, is called a " he-goat" and also a "dragon"; and that an assembly of the latter is described, in like manner as in Daniel, by

The beast out of the sea, like a leopard, whose feet were as it were a bear's, and his mouth as it were a lion's (Rev. xiii 1,2).

1 " Thy beast" is the literal rendering of the Hebrew in this pass age, which is 'i'(l,Cl; but it is assumed, in the text here, to be used figuratively for "thy congregation." See Fuerst, in loc. :1;Cl.

2 See R.V.; also Note I .

13

3-5] THE CORONIS

These comparisons originate from the spiritual world, where all the affections and thoughts therefrom, of angels and spirits, are presented at a distance from them as beasts, which also appear in a form in all respects similar to that of the beasts in the natural world; the affections of the love of good as gentle beasts and good uses, but the affections of the love of evil as savage beasts and evil uses. Hence it is that beasts are so often named in the Word; and by them in the spiritual sense are signified affections, inclinations, perceptions and thoughts. From these considerations it is manifest what is meant by creatures in the following passages:

Jesus commanded the disciples to go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature (Mark xvi 15).

If anyone be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things have passed away, and all things are become new (2 Cor. v 17).

These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creature of God (Rev. iii 14).

By " creatures," here, are meant those who are capable of being created anew, that is, regenerated, and thus becoming of the Lord's Church.

4. That there have been four Churches on this earth, one before the flood, which is to be called the Adamic; the second, after the flood, which is to be called the Noachian; and a third, after this, which was called the Israelitish ; also a fourth, which exists at this day, and is called the Christian, will be demonstrated in the following pages, in the exposition of each of them separarely. 5®TH~RE HAVE BEEN FOUR SUCCESSIVE STAT~, OR PERIODS, !

OF EACH CHURCH, WHICH IN THE WORD ARE MEANT BY " MORNiNG," " DAY," "EVENING," AND "NIGHT." That there have been four successive states, oc periods,of everyone of these Churches above-named, will be illustrated in the following pages, wherein each will be dealt with in its turn. They are described by those alternations of time, because e~ry man who is born in the Church, or in whom the Church has commenced, first comes into its light such as that is in the dawn and morning; afterwards, he advances to its day, and, he wh o loves its truths, right on to its mid-day; if he then stops in the way, and does not ( advance into the heat ~~pring and~mer, his day cfecli~s towards evening, till at length, like the light at night-time, it grows dark; and then his intelligence in the spirituanhings--of the Church becomes a cold light, like the light of the days in winter, when he indeed sees the trees standing beside his house, or in his gardens, but stripped of leaves and destitute of fruitsthus, like bare trunks. For, the man of the Church advances

14

I


from morning to day, to the end that he may be reformed and regenerateCl- oy means of the light of reason, which only takes place by a life according to the Commandments of the Lord in the Word. If this does not take Rlace, his light becomes darknessv ,»- - '- - - - - --=-and the darkness, tnick darkness; that is, the truths of light with him are turned into falsities, and the falsities into unseen evils. I t is otherwise with the man who suffers himself to-be rege~d : night does not overtake him, for he walks in -Coa.;aIia:nence is continually in the day; into whTCh--:also,he"fun~rs ~er deatlf when lie is associated with angels in heaven. This is understood by the following words in the Apocalypse, concerning the New Jerusalem, which is the New Church, truly Christian:- - - -- _ . .- ------

That city shall have no need of the sun and of the moon to shine in it; for the g!9EY of God shall .lighten it, and the Lamb is the la~[>

thereof. And the nations which are saved shall walk in the light of it; and there shall be no night there (Rev. xxi 23, 24, 25; Ezek. xxxii 8; Amos v 20; viii 9).

That the successive states of the Church are understood by "morning," "day," " evening," and" night," in the Word, is evident from the following passages therein:

(' Watch, for ye know not when the Lord of the house will come, \ at even, or at mid-night, or at cock-crowing, or in the morning ! (Mark xiii 35; Matt. xxv 13).

The subject there treated of is the Consummation of the Age, and the coming of the Lord at that time.

The God of Israel said, The Rock of Israel spake to me: He is as the morning light, a morning without clouds (2 Sam, xxiii 3, 4).

I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the bright and morning Star (Rev. xxii 16).

God shall help her, when the morning appeareth (Psalm xlvi 5). He is calling to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night?

Watchman, what of the night? The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night (Isa. xxi 11, 12).

An evil, one evil, behold, is come. The end is come [The morning is come] upon thee, 0 inhabitant of' the land; the time is come, the day is near. Behold the day, behold, it is come; the morning hath gone forth (Ezek. vii 5, 6, 7, 10).

There shall be a day ... which shall be known to Jehovah; not day nor night; for about the time of evening there shall be light (Zech. xiv 7).

About the time of evening, behold, terror; before the morning, he is not (Isa. xvii 14). ..---. -- '-'

In th~sveniEg; ~eepiIlg ~11 endure all night, but singing in the morning (Psalm xxx 5).

15

5-6] TIlE CORONIS

Even to the evening and the morning,1 two thousand three hundred; then shall the holy place be justified : ... the vision of the evening and the morning is true (Dan. viii 14, 26).

Jehovah in the morning will bring His judgment to light; He will not fail (Zeph. iii 5).

Thus said Jehovah, If ye have made void My covenant of the day and My covenant of the night, so that there be not day and night in their season, My covenant also shall be made void with David My servant (Jer. xxxiii 20, 21, 25).

Jesus said, I must work the works of God while it is day; the night cometh when no one can work (John ix 4).

In this night there shall be two men on one bed; one shall be taken, but the other shall be left (Luke xvii 34).

In these passages, the Consummation of the Age and the Coming of the Lord are treated of. Hence it may be evident what is meant by there being

Time no longer (Rev. x 6),

namely, that there would be no morning, day, or evening in the Church, but night; likewise what is meant by

Time, times, and half a time (Rev. xii 14; Dan. xii 7);

as also what is meant by the

Fulness of time (Ephes. i 10; Gal. iv 4).

6.@)IN EACH CHURCH THE FOUR CHANGES OF STATE HAVE BEEN CONSECUTIVE; THE FIRST OF WHICH HAS BEEN THE ApPEARING OF THE LORD JEHOVIH AND REDEMPTION; AND THEN WAS ITS MORNING, OR RISE: THE SECOND HAS BEEN ITS INSTRUCTION; AND THEN WAS ITS DAY, OR PROGRESSION: THE THIRD HAS BEEN ITS DECLINE; AND THEN WAS ITS EVENING, OR VASTATION: THE \ FOURT~AS BEEN ITS END; AND THEN WAS ITS NiGilT, OR -CON- i

SUMMATION-:- Thatthere aye been in each Church four suCC;;;sive ) stat;, ';-hich in the Word are understood by" Morning," " Day," " Evening," and" Night," has been shown in the immediately preceding article. That everyone of the four Churches abovementioned underwent those states, will be fully established in the following pages, where each will be dealt with in its turn j also, that the appearing of the Lord Jehovih and redemption was its " Mornmg-n-;- tna"n IiStrliction wasitS"~Day " or progression into light; also, that decline was its" Evening" or vastation; and that its end was its "Night" or consummation. In the

1 For the occurrence of the terms "evening and morning" in this verse, see R.V. ; also margin of A.V.

16

OR APPENDIX TO THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION [6-7

Word, both in its historical and its prophetical portions, those four changes of state are everywhere treated of.

7. The order into which every man was created by God, is, that after infancy he may become a man. For, when he is born, he is only an external image or form of a man, and at that time less a man than a new-born beast is a beast; but, so far as he is inwardly perfected in this form, as to his mind, or his spirit, in wisdom and love, he becomes a man. A man is like a tree, which first grows from a seed into a shoot, and, when it increases in height, puts forth branches, and from these, twigs, and clothes itself continually with leaves; and, when it comes to maturity, which takes place in its middle age, puts forth blossoms, and produces fruits; in every one of which it deposits seeds, which, being cast into the earth, as into a womb, grow up into similar trees, and thus into a garden. And if you will believe it, that same garden remains with the man after death; he dwells in it, and is every day delighted with the sight of it, and with the enjoyment of its fruits. It is such a man who is described in David by these words:

He shall be like a tree planted beside the rivers of waters, which shall yield its fruit in its time, and its leaf shall not fall (Psalm i 3; and likewise Rev. xxii I, 2).

2 But it is different with the man born in the Church who, when he has spent his morning and a vanced into the first light of day, whereby he has become rational, then sto s, and does not

( produce fruit: such a one is, or acts, like a tree aboun~ leaves, ut not bearing fruit, which is rooted up out of the garden, its branches cut off, and the trunk cleft in pieces with axe, or saw, and the whole then cast piecemeal into the fire. The light of his Rational becomes like the light of the days of winter, in which the lea~s ~f t~~~r§! grow _yellow, then drop off, ana lastly decay. His Rational, also, may be compared with a tree whose leaves are consumed by worms in early spring; likewise with a crop that is choked by thorns; and also with vegetation which is laid waste by locusts. The reason is, that his Rational is merely natural, because it takes its ideas solely from the world through the senses, and not from heaven through the affections and the perceptions thence. And since, on this account, there is nothing spiritual inwardly in his Rational, if he then converses on anyone of the spiritual things of the Church, his voice is heard by the angels no otherwise than as the voice of a parrot or a goose; for his voice is merely animal because merely natural, and not human because not inwardly spiritual;

17

7-10] THE OORONIS

for it flows forth from the respiration of the body only, and not from any respiration of the spirit. Such is the man who does not, from natural, become spiritual; and no one becomes spiritual, unless, after he has become rational, he brings forth fruits, that is, puts on charity by life.

8. That the four changes ofstate, which are called" morning," " day," " evening," and " night," are in the Word predicated of the Church, is because the Church consists of men, and a man is a Church in particular, and the total of these men is what is called the Church. Those in this totality, or Church, who live according to the order described above (n. 7), are trees of life, which, also, are trees of good use; but those who do not live according to that order are trees of the knowledge of good and evil, which also are trees of evil use. The latter are the ones of whom" evening" and" night," or, what amounts to the same, vastation and consummation, are predicated; but not the former. These things, however, will be presented in the very clearness of reason in the following pages; but it is proper, that, at the beginning of this volume, some preliminary observations should be made, because knowledges must precede before any one can know that by " morning" is understood the rise of the Church, and that this is preceded by redemption; by" day," the progression of the new Church into light, and its intelligence; by " evening," the decline of that Church from good and truth, which is called vastation; and by " night," its end and destruction, which is called consummation; and so on.

9. The end of the Church, or the consummation of the age, is when J ..h ~~o~y genuine truth remaining, and hence not any genuine good, or, not any good and hence !!ot aEY truth, but; intIleir place, falsity and thence evil rules, or evil -a nd thence falsity, and then there is the " fulness [of time] " in the Church, the members of which are like persons walking in the night, wh~ausethey do not see anything that appears.Tin1 th. e light of the sun, are uncertain about all things relating to the Church, and in general about G~, about heaven and hen, and_about the life after death j and both those who confirm themselves in the d_enial of these things, and those who remain alternately in <i~ub t 'and in affirmation, at length shun !!.le light, and, if they be priests, they procure for themselves on those subjects a false light, such as night-owls, cats and mice have in

I the dark"iiessof night. This light is kindled with them, as with) these wtld beasts, through the activities of their lusts.'

1O.CJY).AFTER ITS CONSUMMATION, OR END, THE LORD

JEHOVIH APPEARS, AND EXEOUTES A JUDGMENT ON THE MEN OF

18


THE FORMER CHURCH, AND SEPARATES THE GOOD FROM THE EVIL, AND RAISES THE GOOD TO HIMSELF INTO HEAVEN AND REMOVES THE EVIL FROM HIMSELF INTO HELL. That towards the end of every Church the Lord Jehovih appears to execute a judgment on those who have lived from its first institution to its consummation, will be established in the following pages, where each Church will be separately dealt with. Every man, indeed, is judged after death; but, at the end of a Church, all are collected together and a general judgment executed on them; and this to the intent that they may be conjoined into a heavenly order, which is effected by the arrangement of the faithful into a new heaven, and of the unfaithful into a new hell beneath it; of which arrangement we shall speak more at large in the following article.

11. Judgment, which is the last phase of every Church, does not take place in the natural world, but in the spiritual world, into which all are gathered after death; and they are collected into heavens distinctly according to religion, thus according to faith and love. Judgment takes place in the spiritual world, for the reason that every man after death is a man j not a material man, as before, but a substantial man. Every man's mind, or spirit, is such a man: the body which he carried about in the world, is only a covering, and as it were sheath, which he has laid aside, and from which his spirit has disengaged itself. Now, since it was man's mind, or spirit, that thought in the material body, and then either from religion or not from religion, and in favour of God or against God, from truths of faith or from falsities of faith, that loved his neighbour or held him in hatred; and since the material body was only obedience; it follows that the mind, which is the substantial man, and is called the spirit, is what undergoes judgment, and, according to the intentions and acts of its life, is rewarded or punished. From these things it can be plainly seen that judgment, which is the last of every Church, takes place in the spiritual world, but not in the natural world. •

12. The judgment which is executed upon all of a spent Church, takes place to the end that, both generally and individually, the good may be separated from the evil, and the good be raised up into heaven and the evil cast down into hell. Were this not to take place when a Church is consummated, that is, when it is no longer in truths and goods, not one person therein could be saved. That he could not be saved is because he could not be regenerated; and everyone is regenerated by means of the truths of faith and the goods of love. To this reason

19

12-13] THE CORONIS

the following is added: that, from the time of the vastation of a Church right on to its consummation, hell surges up to so great an extent as to overshadow the whole angelic heaven, through which regenerative truths and goods descend from the Lord to the men of the earth. Owing to this obscuration, neither any truth of thought from faith, nor any good of will from charity, can penetrate, except through chinks; yea, what does penetrate is perverted either on the way before it reaches man, or else by the man himself when it is in him; that is, the truth is either rejected or falsified, and the good is either quenched or adulterated. In a word, a Church at its end is as it were obsessed

/ by satans. (Those are called satans who take pleasure in falsities, \... and are delighted with evils.) In order, therefore, that the total

darnnatiori'Wliicli then ~erh angs everyone's head, and menaces him, may be averted, it is necessary that hell, which has raised itself on high, and, as was said, surged up even to heaven, should be removed-not merely suppressed, but also dispersed and subjugated-and then the good separated from the evil, that is, the living from the dead . This separation, and the coincident raising up of the goOdinto heaven, or into the land of the living, and casting down of the evil into hell, or into the land of the dead,

jJ \\ is what is called]udgment. That such a judgment was actually executed in the year 1757 on the men of the present Christian Church, was declared, and it has been described, in a separate small work published in London in the year 1758.

13. Who does not see the necessity that the evil should be

l\

separated from the good, lest the latter should be infected with the contagion of de~y_evil, and perish? Fo evil inasmuCh ) as it is i~lante~ ~~~~na ture by birth, n more and more in enerated in children from arents when the Church is appro~hing consummation, is like t~Jignant disease:...whiEh is callea cancer, which spreads round about, and gradually mortifies the healthy and living parts. What husbandman, or gardener, when he sees briars, nettles, thorns and thistles growing, does not extirpate them before he sows and tills his corn and food crops? What farmer, when he sees his young crops and grass consumed by worms, or locusts, does not dig a ditch, and separate the flourishing field from the wasted one, and thus take measures for the preservation of his crops and thriving fields? What shepherd, when he sees wild beasts multiplying about his sheep pastures, does not call together the neighbouring shepherds and the servants, and with weapons, or traps, kill

2 those wild beasts, or drive them away? What king, when he sees both the towns of his kingdom round about his metropolis

20


taken by enemies, and the property of his subjects seized by them, does not assemble the troops and cast out the enemy, and restore the stolen goods to their owners, and, moreover, add thereto the spoils of the enemies' wealth, and so compensate them?

14.@AFTER THESE THINGS THE LORD JEHOVIH FOUNDS A ~EAV~OF THE GOOD RAISED UP TO HIMSELF, AND A NEW HELL OF THE EVIL REMOVED FROM HIMSELF; AND BRINGS BOTH INTO ORDER, SO THAT THEY MAY REMAIN UNDER HIS GUIDANCE,[

,AND UNDER OBEDIENCE TO HIM, TO ETERNITY. It is writteri'inI Isaiah:

Jehovah said, Behold I am creating-hew heave;;iI,and a new earth (Isa. Ixv 17). \, ./

And elsewhere in the same prophet:

As the'~heavens' and the new earth, which I am about to make, shaifs tancfoerc;;.e me (Isa. Ixvi 22).

In the Apocalypse :

I saw ,~n l:w heav~!1-'and a new earth; the former heaven and the former earth have passed away (Rev. xxi 1).

And in Peter:

According to promise, we look fo new heavens 'and a new earth, wh crein Sllalf dwell righteousness (2 et. III

It has not hitherto entered into the mind of anyone to suppose otherwise than that by " heaven," in these places, is meant the visible heaven, that is, the whole firmament, with the sun, moon and stars; and that, by " earth," there, is meant the habitable earth, or the globe, and that these will perish at the day of the Last udgment; when, nevertheless, by heaven, there, the angelic heaven is m~, and by e~rth, the@urc!!> That by-: e~rth," e erywhere III the ProR Q.etlC Wo£d 1 meant the{Churdi. \ has

( been fu!!y sho~ in the APOC~LYPSE REVEALED '(n~":85P The reason why, by new heavens and a new earth, have hitherto been understood the visible heaven and the habitable earth, is because men have not known an thin of the spiritual world, consequently not anything of e ange lC eaven nor anyt ing of the prophetic sense, which carries an stores up in its bosom nothing else than spiritual things; and the spiritual thing relating to the earth is the Church. When,~so, _the. angels,_inasmueh

Ill' a~~y ~Eiritual, look down into the earth, they see nothing I at all of it, but only the Church with men.

15. That when tlie ora-jenovl ounds a new heaven and 21

15-16] THE CORONIS

a new Church, He introduces order, so that they may abide under His guidance, and un er obedience to Him, to eternity, is becaus~.Jhe_angelicheaY.en_an5L!he Church on earth together constitute one body, whose Soul and Life Ts- tJie-Lofcf]ehOVIh, who is the _Lord our Savio~r. The universal angelic'li~en, together with the qlll';rch~lso appears beforethe tord~ne man ;- and a man abides under the guidance of and obedience to his own soul: consequently, the en tire ~n , together with th e Clll{ ch"0tbides und er the gu ida I:!f e Qf a!1.d oh~dieI1ce .t~_theW : or the L..QuLis '1LthcJJ1, ang th e are in the Lord ohn

) xiv 20; xv 4, 5; xvii 23, 26); thus,JIe_isJhe.JUn all things there. But the order which the Lord sets up in hell is such that in w 0 are there may be diametrically opposite to all who are in heaven: whence it is evident, that, since the Lord rules heaven He also rules hell, and that He rules the latter by means of the former.

16. Moreover, the arrangement of all in the heavens, and of all in the hells, is most perfect. For every heaven tl;;ns founded b)' the Lord after the consummation of each Church is made

ree-Iold] it is made highest, middle and lowest. Into the are elevated t~~~O _lilg es _l;!..rc~.t<L...till:--.LP..r.d and in

wisdom thence; into the middle, those who are in ~pirituallove t~~ nei hbour and in intelligence thence; into the lowest, those who are in ~ iritual-natu;-allove towards the neighbour, which is called charity, and thence in the faith of the

~ truths concerning God and III a life according to the flrecepts of the Decalogue. Thes t}};;;e heaveng iconstitute . m:ee expanseSone above another, and comm unica te with each otner y a Divine influx from the Lord out of the sun of the spiritual world. In the depth underneath, there are also three expanses into which the hells are distinguished, between which, in like manner, there is provided a communication by means of an influx

-.. through the heavens from the Lord. By means of these communications there is an intimate and indissoluble eOrllllllction of all things .in the hea:~~~;" ~;;d-~'r";'ll .things in th~ hells ;'--b~tin the -la tte~ -i"t- is"a con 'unction of all the lusts of the love of evil, while in the heavens it is a conjunction of all the affections of(

. the love of good, By virtue of that conjunction, heaven is like one Lord sitting upon a throne girt about with wreaths formed of precious stones of every kind; but hell ~...QI1~1 sitting -I upon a seat entwined with vipers, serpents and poisonous worms' --J From this orderly arrangement, induced on both, it follows that both abide under the guidance and control of the Lord to eternity.

22


17. It is well known, that, in order_that anything may jJe ) ) perfect, there -""list be a trir0in just order, one--:-uilder another, anaa communication between-;-ancrtnat this trine must make a one, not unlike a pillar,-at the top of which is the capital, under this the smooth shaft, and under this again the pedestal. ~_~h.-a_trjne~n: his highest part is the head, his middle part is the body, and his lowest the feet and soles. In this respect, every kingdom is like a man; there must be a king there as the nead, also adminis~' and officers as the body, and yeomanry with servants as feet and soles: in like manner in the Church, there must be a mitred primate, parish Rriests, J ~cier th em cu:rat'es. Nor does t~.5i. itself subsist without three things following in order, namely, morning, noon and evening; as also the yearly spring, summer and autumn-spring for the sowing of seeds, summer for their germination, and autumn for bringing forth fruit: night and winter, however, do not con

2 tribute to the upholding of the world. Now since every per:(e.£t thin _must be a trine in order to be a one, and to cohere well together, therefore both worlds, spiritual and natural, consist and subsist from three atmospheres, or elements; the first of

' which immediately encompasses the sun, and is called (aUr~J the second is under this, and is called ~ and the third-!S'under( them both, and is calle air ) In the natural world these three\ atmospheres are natural, and in themselves passive, because they proceed from a sun which is pure fire; but the three corresponding to them in the spiritual world are spiritual, and in themselves active, because they proceed from a sun which is pure love .

3 The angels of the heavens dwell in the regions of these three atmospheres; the angels of the highest heaven 10 t e_celestia0 aura which immediatel-encom asses therun, 'Where the Lord 1. IS; t e angels of the middle'heaven in th~Qiritual _ether, under ) the former ; and the angels of the lowest heaven in the spiritual- J ~ral air, under those two. Thus are all the heavens eoestablished, from th~t to this last which is p eing organized by t e Lord at the present day. From these things it may be apprehended whence it is that by ~e in the WQr9 js sigrill!ed what complete (see APOCALYPSE REVEALED, n. 505, 875).

18. VI. FROM THIS NEW HEAVEN THE LORD J EHOVIH DERIVES J ) AND PRODUCES A NEWCHi!R~"iI ON EARTH, WHICH TAKES PLACE BY MEANS OF A REVELATION OF TRUTHS FROM HIS MOUTH, OR FROM HIS WORD, AND BY INSPIRATION. It is written that John

Saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, descending from God out of heaven, prepared as €:~dornedfor her husband (Rev. xxi 2). c.-3 23

18-19] THE CORONIS

By the holy city, New Jerusalem, is meant the doctrine of the New Church, consequently the Church as to doctrine; and by Jerusalem descending from30d 0 It of the new_heaven, is meant that th~true doctrinecifl the Ch1,!£.ch is from I.!Q....Q!her~ce . That the ooctrine descended, is because a Church is a Church from doctrine and according to it; apart from doctrine, a Church is no more a Church than a man is a man without members, viscera and organs, thus from the mere covering of skin, which only defines his external shape; nor any more than a house is a house without bed-chambers, dining-rooms and articles of use within, thus from the wall and arched roof alone. The case is similar with the Church apart from doctrine. That Jerusalem signifies the Church with respect to doctrine, may be seen proved from the Word ill th e worK: Itsel~E TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION (n. 782). From these things, it is manifest

~ that the Church on earth is derived an_d_Rroduced Ey~e Lord)I' bv means of th e angelic heaven.

19. I will mention some marvellous things, which yet are not marvellous in heaven; these are: (1) That t~i!.!~d J could not exist exceRt from the s iritual world; nor, con~ly, subsist, inas~h as subsistence-is perpetual existence.

2 (2) That the Church is not possible with man, unless its internal be spiritual and its external natural: there cannot be a~hurch

3 purely spiritual nor a Church exclusively natural. (3) Consequently, that no Church, nor anything of the Church, can be raised up with man except there be an angelic heaven, from which its whole spiritual is derived by the Lord and through which it

4 descends. (4) Since, therefore, the spiritual and the natural thus make one, it follows that the one cannot exist and subsist apart from the other; neither the angelic heaven apart from the Church with man, nor the Church with him apart from the angelic heaven; for, unless the spiritual flow into and terminate in the natural, and rest therein, it is like a prior without a posterior, consequently like an efficient cause without an effect, and like an active without a passive-which would be like a bird flying in the air perpetually, without any resting 'place on the earth, and like the mind of a man perpetually thinking and willing, without any organ, sensory or muscular, in the body, to which it may descend and produce the ideas of its thought, and

5 bring into operation the endeavours of its will. (5) These things are adduced to the end that it may be perceived, or known, that, as the natural world is not possible without the spiritual I world, nor conversely the spiritual world without the natural J world, so neither can there be a Church on earth unless there

24 .


be an angelic heaven through which it may exist and subsist, nor conversely an angelic heaven unless there be a Church on

6 earth. (6) The af!gels_kno~this; on which account, tJ:.ey grievp_u~ Iament..when th Church_on _earth i..s desolated by falsi tieLand3.Q!lli!~..mated_b-¥- viis; and, at such time0hey compare the state of their life with drowsiness, fDr1nen eaven (J is to th em as if its resting:IJlace were tak en from ben eath it, and like a body de rived of feet; but, when the Church on earth has been restored by the Lord, they compare the state of their life to~akefulness . ~

20. That the Lord derives and produces the(~n earth through th:e new li~by means of a revelation of truths from His mouth or from His Word, and bins ira tion, will be shown in the section concerning the four Churches in their order, especially concerning the Israelitish and the present Christi an C~h. It should be known, that,w nen hell surge up, and passed over the great interstice, or gulf, fixed between itself and heaven (Luke xvi 26), and reared up its back even to the confines of the heavens where the angels are,-which came to pass at intervals of the vastation and consummation of the Church,-no doctrine whatever of the Church could be conveyed through heaven, from the Lord, to men of the earth. The reason is, that, at such times, man is in the midst of satans ; and satans envelop

( his head with their falsities , and inspire~elights of evil and the conseguent attractions of falsity, wnereby all the light rrom heaven is darkened, and all the pleasure and attraction of truth is intercepted. As long as this state continues, there cannot be infused into man any doctrine whatever of truth and good out(

2 of heaven, because it is falsified. But, after this tangled veil of falsities, or covering of the head by satans, is taken away by the Lord-which is effected by' the Last Judgment (Ofwl1ic 1 a ove,

) m Article IV.)-then man is led, in a freer and more s ntaneous spirit, to discard falsitiesall' to receive trut s. With t ose who arecompIi~d suffcrtnemselves to oe led by the Lord, the Ir do<:t:rine of the ~ew heaven, which is the doctrine of truth and goo , IS afterwards conveyed down and introduc~d, like the morning dew falling from heaven tothe earth, which opens the pores of plants, and sweetens their vegetable juices: and it is like the manna which fell in the mornings, and was in appearance

Like coriander seed, white, and in taste like a cake kneaded with honey (Exod. xvi 31). .

It is also like seasonable rain, which refreshes the newlyploughed fields and causes germination, and like the fragrance

25

20-21] THE CORONIS

exhaling from fields, gardens and flowery plains, which the breast eagerly and delightedly draws in with the breath. But still, the Lord compels or urges no one against his will, as one does a beast of burden with whips; but He draws and afterwards continually leads him wh " iIling, to all appearan ce as thou h the willing xpan did goods and believed trut IS 0 himself, wh en ye t it is from the ora;-Wno operates every genuine good of life, and every~~~ne truth of faith in him.

21~THIS DIVINE WORK IS LIKEWISE CALLED REDEMPTION, WITHOUT WHICH NO MAN CAN BE SAVED, BECAUSE HE CANNOT BE REGENERATED. That the redemption accomplished by the Lord when He was in the world was a subjugation of the hells, an arrangement of the heavens in order, and by these means a preparation for a new spiritual Church, may be seen in the work, THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION (n. 115-117; and the following nos., 118-133). But inasmuch as this is new, and has lain hidden for ages, like the wreck of a ship with its precious cargo at the bottom of the sea, and nevertheless the doctrine of redemption is as it were the treasure-house of all the spiritual riches, or tenets, of the New Church, therefore, in the last section of this volume, the Mystery of Redemption shall be treated of, where the following propositions will be unfolded and elucidated:

2 [JJDeliverancefrom enemies is what in the Word is called Redemption. n I.] Consequently it is deliverance from evils and falsities, which,

since they are from hell, are spiritual enemies; for they kill souls, as natural enemies do bodies.

3 IillJ Hence it becomes evident that the first purpose if the Redemption accomplished by the Lord was the separation if the evil from the good, and the raising of the good to Himself into heaven, and the removal of the evil from Himself into hell; for thus are the good liberatedfrom the evil. This first thing of Redemption is the Last Judgment (which has been treated of above, n. 10-13).

4 IIV'J The second purpose if Redemption was the co-ordination if all things in the heavens, and the subordination if all things in hell, by which the good were still more distinctly separated and liberatedfrom the evil; and this is the new heaven and the new hell (which has been treated of above, n. 14-17).

5 IT. JThe third purpose if Redemption was a revelation of truths from the new heaven, and thereby the raising up and establishment if a new Church on earth; by which means the good were further separated and liberatedfrom the evil, and are separated and liberatedfor thefuture (this third cause has also been treated of above, n. 18-20) .

6 @lThe final purpose if Redemption was to make it possible for the Lord, by virtue of His Divine omnipotence, to regenerate man,

26


and thus save him; for, unless man be regenerated he cannot be saved (John iii 3).

7 I~I'['l The regeneration of a man, inasmuch as it is a separation and deliverance from evils and falsities, is a particular redemption by the Lord, pro...ceeding from His general Redemption.

8 [VIlli With those who are being regenerated, evils are first of all separated from goods, and this is like Judgment; afterwards, goods are collected into one, and arranged into a heavenly form, and this is like a new heaven; and, lastly, a new Church is thereby implantedandproduced, the internal of which is heaven; and the external from the internal, conseqE,Cntly both together, with man, is what is called the Church.

9 ~X) All are redeemed, since all who reject thefalsities of theformer C urch, and receive the truthsof thenewChurch, are able to beregenerated; but still the regenerated are, properly, the redeemed.

10 CKJ The goal of redemption, and theprize of the redeemed, is spiritual peace.

11 /XLI A redemption has also been accomplished by the Lord at this day, because the present day is His Second Coming according to prophecy ; by which, having been an eye-witness thereof, I have been convinced of the truth of theforegoing arcana.

But these are only general statements, which must be unfolded in detail, ~nd set forth in both spiritual and natural ~igh.t,~e end of this volume where th e M sf:EY_ ol Redem tzon IS to be

( tr ea ted of. - nMoreover, it will be proved in its own article in what follows, that the passion of the Lord's cross was not Redemption, but the means of the inmost union with the Divine of the Father, from which He came forth and into which He returned. In the work, THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION (n. 132, 133), of which this volume is the Appendix, I set out to show that the passion of

CD the Cross being believed to have been Redemption-rrseIf,Ta fundamental errorof the present Cllristian Chu-;ch; and that this error, together with the error concerning three Divine

cfJ Persons from eternity, has perverted the whole Church to such an extent that not a vestig~_()~Q!rjj_lJ~!!!Y~!Jl~iI~j!!}t. This will also be further shown in the following pages; and, that these two falsities and delusions have been comparatively lik.e mating butterflies flying about in a garden, which produce 'ffie eggs whence are hatched the caterpillars which entirely consume the opening leaves of the trees therein; and further, that they have been like the quails from the sea sent down upon the camp of the Israelites, owing to which, while they were eating, a great plague fell upon the people; and ffils--becausetney loathed and spurned the manna from heaven, by which, in the highest sense,

27

22] THE CORONIS

is meant the Lord (Num. xi 5, 6, 32-35 ; and John vi 31, 32, 49-51, 58). And, further, th ese two errors have been like two } drops of black paint, or shoemaker,;; blacking, dropped into generous wine, and shaken about in the wine-glass; in coosequence ot.....which all the brightness, delightful fragrance and fine flavour of the wine are changed into blackness, stench and nauseousness.

28


-PROPOSITION THE SECOND

The Adamic, or Most Ancient Church of this Earth

23. The world has hitherto believed that by " the creation of heaven and earth," in the first chapter of Genesis, is meant the creation of the universe, according to the letter; and by Adam, the first man of this globe. Seeing that the spiritual or internal sense of the Word has not been disclosed till now, the world could not believe otherwise; nor, consequently, that by" creating heaven and earth" is meant to collect and found an angelic heaven from those who have finished with life in the world, and by this means to derive and produce a Church on earth (as above, n. 18-20); and that by the names of persons, nations, territories and cities, are meant such things as are of heaven, and at the same time of the Church: in like manner, therefore, by "Adam." That by "Adam," and by all those things which are related of him and his posterity in the first chapters of Genesis, are described the successive states of the Most Ancient Church-which are: its rise, or morning, its progression into light, or day; its decline, or evening; its end, or night; and after this the Last Judgment upon those composing it, and thereafter a new angelic heaven from the faithful, and a new hell from the unfaithful, according to the series of the progressions laid down in the preceding Proposition-has been explained, unfolded and demonstrated in detail in the ARCANA CJELESTIA on Genesis and Exodus, the labour of eight years, published in London; which work being extant in the world, nothing further is necessary than to recapitulate therefrom the universals respecting this Most Ancient Church, which will be cited in the present

2 volume. At the outset, however, some passages shall be adduced from the Word, by which it is proved that by " creating" is there signified to produce and form anew, and, properly, to regenerate; on which account it is that regeneration is called a " new creation," by which the universal heaven of angels and the universal Church of men, exist, consist and subsist. That " creating" signifies this, is plainly manifest from these passages in the Word:

Create in me a clean heart, 0 God; and renew a steadfast spirit in the midst of me (Psalm li 10).

29

23-24] THE CORONIS

Thou openest the hand, they are filled with good; Thou scndest forth the Spirit, they are created (Psalm civ 28, 30).

The people that shall be created shall praise Jah (Psalm cii 18). Thus said J ehovah, thy creator, 0 J acob; thy former, 0 Israel:

Every one that is called by My Name, I have created for My glory (Isa. xliii I, 7).

That they may see, know, consider and understand, that the hand of Jehovah hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it (Isa. xli 20).

In the day that thou wast created, they were prepared; thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou was created, until perversity was found in thee (Ezek. xxviii 13, 15):

these things are concerning the king of Tyre.

J ehovah that createth the heavens, that spreadeth abroad the earth, that giveth breath unto the people upon it (Isa. xlii 5; xlv 12, 18).

Behold I create a new heaven and a new earth; be yt. glad to eternity in that which I create: behold I will create Jerusalem a rejoicing (Isa. Ixv 17, 18).

As the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall stand before Me (Isa. Ixvi 22).

I saw a new heaven and a new earth: the former heaven and the former earth are passed away (Rev. xxi I).

We, according to promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein shall dwell righteousness (2 Pet. iii 13).

From these passages it is now manifest what is spiritually meant in the first chapter of Genesis, by the verses,

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth; and the earth was waste and empty (Gen. i I, 2).

The earth's being said to be " waste and empty," signifies that there was no longer any good of life or truth of doctrine with its inhabitants. That" wasteness " and " emptiness" signify the lack of those two essentials of the Church, will be established in Proposition IV of this volume, respecting the Israelitish Church, by a thousand passages from the Word: at present let the following in Jeremiah serve for some illustration:

I saw the earth, when, behold, it was vacant and empty; and [I looked] towards the heavens, when their light was not. Thus said J ehovah, The whole earth shall be wasteness; for this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above shall be made black (Jer. iv 23, 27, 28).

24. This Church, like the rest, is to be treated of in the following order:[!j Its Rise, or M nning, which is its first state.

30


(IiJ Its Progression into light, or Day, which is its second state. IlIt] Its Decline, or Evening, which is its third state, and is called

Vastation.LM Its End, or Night, which is its fourth state, and is called

Consummation. l V. / The Separation of the Evil from the Good, which is the Last J~ment upon all who werefrom that Church.

eyfl The Elevation to God of the Good, cif whom a new Heaven is formed ,. and the removal from God cif the Evil, of whom is formed a new Hell.

That the four Churches of this earth-spoken of above-have undergone these changes of state, will be shown in what follows; and lastly, that the Church truly Christian, which succeeds those four at the present day, will never undergo consummation.

* * * * * * * 25.c:r;; FIRST STA-;;VOF THIS MOST ANCIENT CHURCH, OR ITS

RISE AND MORN~ described in the first chapter of Genesis by these words:

God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and God created man in His own image; in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them (Gen. i 26, 27);

and also by these in the second chapter:

Jehovah God formed man dust of the earth, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of lives j and man became a living soul (Gen. ii 7).

That its rise, or morning, is described by his being made, or created, " in the image of God," is because every man, when he is first born, and while an infant, is an "image ofGod "interiorly; for the faculty of receiving and of applying to himself those things which proceed from God, is implanted in him j and since he is also formed "dust of the earth" exteriorly, and there is thence in him an inclination to lick that dust like the serpent (Gen. iii 14), therefore, if he remains an external or natural man, and does not become at the same time internal, or spiritual, he destroys the" image of God," and puts on the image of the serpent which seduced Adam. But, on the other hand, the man who strives and labours to become an " image of God," subdues the external man in himself, and interiorly in the natural becomes spiritual, thus spiritual-natural; and this is effected by a new creation, that is, regeneration by the Lord. Such a man is an " image of God," because he wills and believes that he lives from God and not from himself: on the contrary, man is an

31

25-26] THE CORONIS

image of the serpent as long as he wills and believes that he lives from himself and not from God. What is man but an " image of God" when he wills and believes that he is in the Lord and the Lord in him (John vi 56; xiv 20; xv 4,5,7; xvii 26), and that he can do nothing of himself (John iii 27; xv 5)? What is a man but an "image of God" when, by a new birth, he becomes a " son of God" (John i 12, 13)? Who does not know that the image of the father is in the son? The rise, or morning, of this Church is described by Jehovah God's" breathing into his nostrils the breath of lives," and by his thus" becoming a living soul," because by " lives," in the plural, are meant love and wisdom, which two are essentially God; for, in proportion as a man receives and applies to himself those two essentials of life, which proceed continually from God, and continually flow into the souls of men, in the same proportion he becomes "a living soul"; for" lives" are the same as love and wisdom. Hence it is evident, that the rise and morning of the life of the men of the Most Ancient Church, who taken collectively are represented by Adam, is described by those two shrines of life.

26. The "likeness of God," after which man was made, is that he is able to live, that is, to will, to love, and to intend, as also to think, reflect and choose, to all appearance as of himself; consequently, that he is able to receive from God those things which are of love and those which are of wisdom, and to reproduce them in an image, as God does, of himself; for God says:

Behold the man was as one of us, in knowing good and evil (Gen. iii 22);

for, without the faculty of recervmg and reproducing those things which proceed into him from God, to all appearance as of himself, man would be no more a " living soul" than the oyster in its shell at the bottom of the river, which is not in the least able to move itself out of its place: nor would he be any more an "image of God" than a jointed carving of a man capable of motion by means of a handle, and of giving forth sound by being blown into; yea, the very mind of man, which is the same as his spirit, would actually be wind, air, or ether, according to the idea of the present Church respecting spirit; for, without the faculty of receiving and reproducing the things flowing in from God, altogether as of himself, he would not have anything of his own, or any proprium, except an imperceptible one, which is like the proprium of a lifeless carving. But more about the image and likeness of God with man may be seen in a

32


memorable relation in the preceding work (n. 48), of which this is the Appendix.

* * * * * * * 27.C!i.: THE SECOND STA~OF THIS MOST ANCIENT CHURCH,

OR ITS PROGRESSION INTO LIGHT, AND DAY, is described in the second chapter of Genesis, by these words:

God planted a garden in Eden at the East, and there He put the man whom He had formed, to dress it and to keep it. And Jehovah made to spring forth every tree pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And a river went forth out of Eden to water the garden, which was made into four heads, in the first of which was gold and the schoham stone. AndJehovah God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden, eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, eat not (Gen. ii 8-17).

The progression of this Church into light, or day, is described by Adam's being placed in the garden of Eden, because by a garden is signified the Church as to its truths and goods. That there" went forth out of Eden a river which became into four heads, in the first of which was gold and the schoham stone," signifies that in that Church there was the doctrine of good and truth; for a "river" signifies doctrine, "gold" the good thereof, and " schoham stone" its truth. That two trees were placed in that garden, the one of life, and the other of the knowledge of good and evil, was because the " tree of life" signifies the Lord, in whom and from whom is the life of heavenly love and wisdom, which in itself is eternal life; and the" tree of the knowledge of good and evil " signifies man, in whom is the life of infernal love, and thence insanity in the things of the Church, which life considered in itself is eternal death. That it was allowable to eat of every tree of the garden except of the " tree of the knowledge of good and evil" signifies free-determination in spiritual things; for all things in the garden signified spiritual things, and without free-determination in those, a man can in no wise advance into light, that is, into the truths and goods of the Church, and procure for himselflife; for, if he does not aim

2 at and strive after this, he procures to himself death. That a " garden" signifies the Church as to its truths and goods, is owing to the correspondence of a tree with man; for a tree, in like manner as man, is conceived from seed; is put forth from the womb of the earth as a man from the womb of his mother; it grows in height in like manner, and extends itself into branches as he into members; clothes itself with leaves, and adorns itself

33

27] THE CORONIS

with flowers as man does with natural and spiritual truths; and also produces fruits as man does goods of use. Hence it is that in the Word a man is so often likened to a " tree," and hence the Church to a " garden"; as in the following passages:

Jehovah will set out her desert like Eden, and her solitude like the garden of Jehovah (Isa. li 3);

speaking of Zion, by which is signified the Church in which God is worshipped according to the Word.

Thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of waters, whose waters shall not lie (Isa. Iviii 11; Jer. xxxi 12);

where also the Church is treated of.

Thou art full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty; thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering (Ezek. xxviii 12, 13);

respecting Tyre, by which is signified the Church as to the knowledges of truth and good.

How good are thy dwellings, 0 Israel! as valleys they are planted, and as gardens beside the river (Num. xxiv 5, 6);

by Israel is signified the spiritual Church; but by Jacob, the natural Church in which there is something spiritual.

Nor was any tree in the garden of God equal to him in beauty; so that all the trees of Eden, in the garden of God, envied him (Ezek. xxxi S, 9);

speaking of Egypt and Assyria, by which, where mentioned in a good sense, the Church is signified as to knowledges and as to perceptions.

To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree oflife, which is in the midst of the paradise of God (Rev. ii 7).

3 Owing to the correspondence of a garden with the Church, it comes to pass that everywhere in the heavens gardens appear, producing leaves, flowers and fruits according to the states of the Church with the angels; and it has been told me, that in some of the gardens there, trees of life are observed in the middle parts, and trees of the knowledge of good and evil in the boundaries, as a sign that they are in free-determination in spiritual things. The Church is over and over again described in the Word by a "garden," a "field," and a "sheepfold"; by a " garden" from the trees, as has been mentioned above; by a " field" from its crops, wherewith man is nourished; by a " sheepfold" from the sheep, by which are meant the faithful and useful.

34

OR APPENDIX TO THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGI ON [28-29

28. In the work itself, named THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, it has been shown that by the two trees, the one of" life" and the other of the" knowledge of good and evil," being placed in the garden of Eden, is signified that free-determination in spiritual things was given to man (n. 466-469); to which must be added that without such free-determination man would not be a man, but only a figure and semblance; for his thought would be without reflection, consequently without judgment, and thus in Divine things, which are the things of the Church, he would have no more power of turning himself, than a door without a hinge, or, with a hinge, bolted with a steel bar; and his will would be without decision, consequently no more active with respect to justice or injustice than a tombstone, beneath which lies a dead body. That man's life after death, and the immortality of his soul, is owing to the gift of this free-determination, and that this is the" likeness of God," has been proved in the

2 work itself-as also above. Yea, man, that is, his mind, without this would be like a sponge which imbibes water in great abundance but is not able to discharge it, in consequence of which both would decompose,-the water into foulness, and the sponge into slime. Consequently, the Church with such a person would not be a Church, and thus a temple wherein the worship of God is performed; it would be like the den of some wild beast under the root of a lofty tree which sways to and fro overhead; except, only, that it would be able to take something therefrom, and apply itself to some other use than lying in tranquillity under it. Moreover, without free-determination in spiritual things, man would be blinder in all and each of the things of the Church, than a bird of night in the light of day, but more sharp-sighted than such a bird in the darkness of night; for with his eyelids he would close his eyes, and dim their sight to the truths of faith, but would raise his eyelids, open his eyes, and expand their sight like an eagle, to the falsities of faith. Free-determination in spiritual things arises from man walking, and living his life in the midst between heaven and hell; from heaven operating into him from above, and hell from beneath; and from the option given to man of turning himself either to higher or to lower things, thus either to the Lord or to the Devil.

* * * * * * * 29. Ill. THE THIRD ST~ ii) OF THIS CHURCH, WHICH IS rrs

DECLINE AND EVENING, AND IS CALLED VASTATlON, is described in the third chapter of Genesis, by these words:

The serpent became more subtle than any beast of the field which Jehovah God had made. He said to the woman, Wherefore

35

29] THE C ORONIS

also hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And when the woman said unto the serpent, Of the fruit of the tree we may eat; only of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die,-the serpent said, Ye shall not die; for God doth know, that, in the day wherein ye shall eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil. The woman, therefore, saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and to be desired to give understanding; therefore she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat; and she gave to her man (vir) with her, and he did eat (Gen. iii 1-6).

That a decline from light to the shade of evening, that is, a falling away from wisdom and integrity, consequently a state of vastation of this Church, is described by these words, is because, owing to having been made a " likeness of God" (by which is signified that, to all appearance he, like God, thinks those things which are of wisdom, and wills those things which are of love, from himself,-see above, n. 26), he believed the serpent's words, that if he should eat of that tree he would become as God, and thus also be God, in knowing good and evil. By this" tree" is signified the natural man separated from the spiritual, which, when left to itself, believes nothing else.

2 Every man has a natural mind and a spiritual mind, distinct from each other like two stories of one house connected by stairs; in the upper story of which dwell the master and mistress with their children, but in the lower the men-servants and maidservants, with other menials. From birth even to early youth, the spiritual mind in man is shut; but after that first age the spiritual mind is step by step opened; for there is given to every man from birth the capacity, and afterwards the ability, of preparing for himself steps by which he may ascend and speak with the master and mistress, and then descend and execute their commands: this power is conferred upon him through the gift of free-determination in spiritual things. Nevertheless, no one can ascend to th e upper story, by which is meant the spiritual mind, except he eat of the trees of life in the garden of God; for, by eating of these man is enlightened and restored, and, receives faith; and through the nourishment of their fruits he attains the assurance that all good is from the Lord, who is the Tree of Life, and not the least of it from man; and yet, that, by abiding together and working together, hence by the Lord's being in him and he in the Lord, he will do good of himself, but still, in the faith and assurance that it is not from himself but from

3 the Lord. If a man believe otherwise, he produces a semblance 36


of good, inwardly in which there is evil, because merit; and this is eating of the trees of the knowledge of good and evil, among which dwells the serpent, in the dreadful persuasion that he is as God, or else that there is no God, but that Nature is what is called God, and that he is compounded of its elements. Furthermore: those eat of the trees of the knowledge of good and evil who love themselves and the world above all things; but those eat of the trees of life who love God above all things and the neighbour as themselves. Those also eat of the trees of the knowledge of good and evil who put forth regulations for the Church from self-intelligence, and afterwards confirm them by the Word; but, on the other hand, those eat of the trees of life who procure for themselves regulations for the Church by means of the Word, and afterwards confirm them by intelligence. Those, again, who teach truths from the Word, and live wickedly, eat of the trees of the knowledge of good and evil; but those eat of the trees of life who live well and teach from the Word. Speaking generally, all eat of the trees of the knowledge of good and evil who deny the Divinity of the Lord and the holiness of the Word, inasmuch as the Lord is the Tree of Life and the Word, from whom the Church is a "garden eastward in Eden."

30. The spiritual man is an erect man, who with his head looks to the heaven above him, and about him, and treads the earth with the soles of his feet; but the natural man separated from the spiritual is either like a man stooping, who wags his head, and constantly looks on the ground, and at the steps of his own feet; or, he is like a man inverted, who walks on the palms of his hands, and raises his feet towards heaven, and performs worship by shakings and clappings of these. The spiritual man is like a rich man who has a palace in which are upper stories, bed-chambers and dining-rooms, the walls of which are continuous windows of crystalline glass, through which he sees the gardens, fields, flocks and herds which also belong to him, and with the sight and use of which he delights himself day by day. But the natural man separated from the spiritual is also like a rich man who has a palace containing chambers, the walls of which are continuous panels of rotting wood, which sheds around an illusory light, wherein shapes of pride, originating in the love of self and of the world, appear like molten images of gold in the midst, and of silver at the sides, before which he bends the knee like an idolater. Again, the spiritual man, in himself, is actually like a dove as to gentleness, like an eagle as to the sight of the mind, like a flying bird of paradise as to progress in

37

30-31] THE CORONIS

spiritual things, and like a peacock as to their adornment from spiritual things; but, on the other hand, the natural man separated from the spiritual is like a hawk chasing a dove, like a dragon devouring the eyes of an eagle, like a fiery serpent flying at the side of a bird of paradise, and like a horned owl beside a peacock. These comparisons are adduced that they may be as lenses through which the reader may more closely observe what the spiritual man is in itself, and the natural man in itself. But the case is altogether different, when the spiritual man by its spiritual light and spiritual heat is inwardly in the natural; then, both make one, just like effort in motion, and will (which is living effort) in action, and like appetite in taste, and like the sight of the mind in the sight of the eye, and still more evidently like the perception of a thing in the knowledge of it, and the thought of it in speech.

* * * * * * * 31. V . THE FOURTH STA ~OF THIS CHURCH, WHICH WAS ITS

END, OR NIGHT, AND IS CALLED CONSUMMATION, is described by these words, also in the third chapter of Genesis :

Jehovah God called unto the man, and said unto him, Where art thou? and he said, I heard Thy voice in the garden, therefore I was afraid. Then Jehovah said, Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat of it ? And the man said, The woman whom thou gayest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And Jehovah God said unto the woman, Wherefore hast thou done this ? And the woman said, The serpent deceived me , and I did eat. ThenJehovah God cursed the serpent, and afterwards the woman, and after her the man. Whereupon Jehovah God sent the man forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken (Gen. iii 9-23).

From the literal, or historical, sense of the description of Adam's life, it is manifest that he was cursed because he believed the serpent, that he should be as God; and he who believes this, at length does not acknowledge God. And as the natural man separated from the spiritual is in such faith at heart, however he may talk otherwise with his mouth, therefore, when from spiritual he became natural, he was cursed, and he was cursed as to his Sensual, his Voluntary, and his Intellectual; for his Sensual is signified by the serpent, his Voluntary by the woman, and his Intellectual by the man: these three were cursed, because one follows the other. (In the ARCANA CJELESTIA, every expression, and every meaning of the expressions, is laid open by the spiritual sense, which has been revealed to me by the Lord; which explanation, being published, may be consulted.)

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32. After this curse, the fourth state of this Church, which was its state of night in spiritual things, and is called consummation, is described by the man being driven out from the garden " to till the earth from whence he was taken," by which is meant that he was deprived of the innocence, integrity and wisdom in which he was while he was spiritual, consequently that he was cast down from heaven, that is, dissociated from the angels, just as is written of the dragon:

The great dragon was cast down; the old serpent, which is called the Devil and Satan, was cast forth out of heaven, where he fought with Michael and his angels, to the earth; and his angels were cast down with him (Rev. xii 9).

33. What person of sound mind is there who cannot see that, by those things which are related of Adam are not meant any states of the first-formed man, but states of the Church? As, for example, that God placed two trees in the midst of the garden, from the eating of one of which man had eternal life, and from the other of which he had eternal death; and that He made the latter " good for food, pleasant to the eyes, and to be desired for giving understanding" ([Gen.] iii 6), thus as if it were to bewitch their souls; also, that he admitted the serpent, and allowed it to speak deceitful words to the woman in the presence of her husband, who was the image and likeness of God, and suffered them to be ensnared by its fiatteries and arts; as, moreover, why it was not provided,-since it was foreseen-that they, and the whole human race from them, should not fall into the damnation of His curse; for we read in the Christian books of orthodoxy: "That, in consequence of this original sin, 'in place of the lost image of God, there is in man a most inward, most wicked, most profound, inscrutable, unspeakable corruption of his whole nature, and of all his powers,' and that it is the root of all actual evils (Formula Concordie, p. 640) "; and that God the Father turned away that universal damnation from His face, and sent His Son into the world, who might take it on Himself, and thus appease [Him]; besides many other things which are,

2 as everyone may see, inconsistent with God. Who may not, from the particulars above-mentioned understood in their historical sense, reasonably conclude, to use comparisons, that it would be like a person who gives his dependent a most fruitful field, and in it digs a pit, which he covers over with boards that fall inwards at the touch of a hand or foot; and, in the midst, places upon a stand a harlot clothed in crimson and scarlet, holding in her hand a golden cup (like the woman in Rev. xvii 4), who, by her

c.-4 39

33-34] THE CORONIS

blandishments, allures the man to herself, and so brings it to pass that he falls into the pit and is drowned? Would it not, indeed, be like one who makes a present to his friend of a luxuriant field of corn, and in the midst thereof conceals snares, and sends out a siren who, with the allurement of song and of a sweet voice, entices him to that place, and causes him to be entangled in the snare, from which he is unable to extricate his foot? Yea, to use a further comparison, it would be like a person who should introduce a noble guest into his house, in which there are two parlours, and tables in each of them, at one of which are seated angels, and at the other evil spirits, on the latter of which are cups full of sweet but poisoned wine, and dishes on which are viands containing aconite; and who should permit the evil spirits there to represent the orgies of Bacchus, and the follies of buffoons, and entice them to those foods and

3 drinks. But, my friend, the things related of Adam, of the garden of God, and of the two trees therein, appear under quite a different aspect when spiritually comprehended, that is, unswathed by the spiritual sense. It is then clearly seen that, by Adam, as a type, is meant the Most Ancient Church; and the successive states of that Church are described by the vicissitudes of his life. For a Church, in the beginning, is like a man created anew, who has a natural and a spiritual mind, and by degrees from spiritual becomes natural, and at length sensual, and believes nothing but what the senses of the body dictate; and such a man appears in heaven like a person sitting on a beast, which bends its head backward, and with its teeth bites, tears and mangles the man sitting upon it; while the truly spiritual man appears in heaven also like a person sitting on a beast, but on a gentle one, which he controls with a slender rein, and even by a gesture.

* * * * * * * 34. V. THE FIFTH STA~ OF THIS CHURCH WAS THE SEPARA

TION OF THE 000 FROM THE EVIL, WHICH WAS THE LAST JUDGMENT ON ALL WHO WERE OF THAT CHURCH. This state is described by the" flood," in which all the wicked who remained perished; and by " Noah and his sons," by whom are meant all the good who were saved. The end of the Most Ancient Church, represented by Adam, is described in the sixth chapter of Genesis by these words:

When Jehovah saw that the wickedness of man was multiplied in the world, and moreover every imagination of his heart only evil every day, it repented Jehovah that He had made man on the earth: therefore Jehovah said, I will blot out man whom I have

40


created from off the faces of the earth: only Noah found grace in the eyes of Jehovah (Gen. vi 5--8).

But the Last]udgment upon them is described by the flood . It is described by a " flood" for the reason that " waters" in the Word signify truths, and in an opposite sense falsities. Truths are signified by the waters of a fountain, the waters of a river, the waters of rain, and by the waters of the washings in time past, and the waters of baptism at this day: such correspondence arises from the circumstance that truths purify man's soul from uncleanness, as waters do his body; hence they are called " living waters." But in the opposite sense falsities are signified by " waters " ; but by impure waters, such as those of marshes, evil-smelling cisterns, urine, and deadly waters; in general, by all hurtful and death-producing waters, therefore, also, by waters from an inundation of which man dies, consequently the

2 Noachian flood . That falsities in the mass are described by inundations, may be evident from the following passages:

Jehovah is causing to come up upon them the waters of the river (Euphrates), strong and many; it shall pass through Judah, it shall inundate, it shall pass over, it shall reach even to the neck (Isa, viii 7, 8).

By the" waters of the river" Euphrates, are signified reasonings from falsities, because by Assyria, whose river it was, reasoning is signified.

The spirit of Jehovah, like an inundating stream, shall divide in two even to the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity (Isa . xxx 28) :

by an inundating river, here, in like manner, is signified reasoning from falsities.

Behold waters are rising up out of the north, which are like an inundating stream, and it shall inundate the land and the fulness thereof (Jcr. xlvii 2):

here the Philistines are treated of, by whom are meant those who are not in charity, and hence not in truths; the falsities of these are signified by "waters coming up from the north," and the devastation of the Church in consequence thereof, by "an inundating stream that shall inundate the land and its fulness "; "the land" is the Church, and its "fulness" all things pertaining to it.

41

3

34-35] THE CORONIS

Say unto those who daub what is unfit, There shall be an inundating rain, in which hail-stones shall fall upon you (Ezek, xiii 11, 13):

the " daubing of what is unfit" is the confirmation of falsity, and hail-stones are falsities.

In an overflowing inundation He shall make the place thereof a consummation, and thick darkness shall pursue His enemies (Nahum i 8):

by " the inundation" which shall consummate, is signified the falsification of truth, and by " thick darkness," truths themselves in the night.

Ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell have we made a vision; when the scourge of inundation shall pass over, it shall not come unto us; we have made a lie our trust, and in falsity we will hide ourselves (Isa. xxviii 15).

Here " inundation" manifestly denotes destruction by falsi ties; for it is said that they placed confidence in " a lie," and would hide themselves in " falsity."

After the sixty-two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for Himself; then the people of the Prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary, so that the end thereof shall be with an inundation even to desolations (Dan. ix 26);

speaking of the Christian Church that was to come, in which the worship of the Lord would perish; which is meant by "Messiah being cut off, but not for Himself"; that it would perish by falsifications, is meant by " the end thereof being with an inundation even to desolations"; "desolation" denoting the falsification. Hence it is, that, after the Lord spoke of the abomination of desolation foretold by Daniel the prophet, and of the" consummation of the age" thereby, He said

That His coming would be as in the days when the flood came, and took them all away (Matt. xxiv 15, 39).

That by the drowning of Pharaoh and the Egyptians in the Red Sea (Exod. xiv), is meant, in the spiritual sense, destruction by falsities, has been shown in the ARCANA CiELESTIA, in the explanation of that chapter.

35. Since the Churches in the Christian world, both the Roman Catholic Church and those separated from it, which are named after their leaders, Luther, Melancthon and Calvin, trace all sin from Adam and his transgression, it is permissible to subjoin here something about the sources whence evils are inherited;

42 •


for these sources are as many as there are fathers and mothers in the world . That inclinations, aptitudes and propensities to various evils are derived from these, is clear as daylight from the testimony of experience, and also from the assent of reason. Who does not know, from the collective testimony of experience, that there is a general likeness of dispositions, and hence of manners and features, from parents in children and children's children, even to indefinite posterity? Who cannot thence infer that original sins are from them? The notion suggested to every one, when he looks at the countenances and manners of brothers and relatives in families, causes him to know and acknowledge

2 this. What reason, then, is there for deducing the origin of all evils from Adam and his seed? Is there not equal reason for deducing it from parents? Does not the germ of these similarly propagate itself? To deduce the tendencies from which, and according to which, the spiritual forms of the minds of all men in the universe exist, from Adam's seed alone, would be exactly like deriving birds of every species from one egg, also beasts of every nature from one seed, and trees of every kind of fruit from one root. Is there not an infinite variety of men? one like a sheep, another like a wolf? one like a kid, another like a panther? one like a gentle cob harnessed to a carriage, another like an untamable wild ass before it? one like a playful calf, another like a voracious tiger? and so on. Whence has each his peculiar disposition but from his father and his mother? Why, then, from Adam?-by whom, however, is described in a representative type the first Church of this earth, as has been already shown? Would not this be like tracing from one stock, deeply hidden in the earth, a plantation of trees of every appearance and use, and from a. single plant shrubs of every value? Would that not also be like extracting light from the obscurity of the ages and of histories, and like unravelling the thread of a riddle that is without an answer? Why not rather derive them from Noah,

Who walked with God (Gen. vi 9), and

Whom God blessed (Gen. ix I),

and from whom with his three sons alone surviving

The whole earth was overspread (Gen. ix 19)?

Would not the hereditary qualities of the generations from Adam 3 be thus extirpated, as if drowned by a flood? But, my friend,

I will lay bare the true source of sins. Every. evil .i_s con~eived of the devil as a father and is born of atheistical faith as a mother;

43 - -- ,

35-36] THE CORONIS

and, on the other hand, every good is conceived of the Lord as a; father and' is born, as of a mother, of saving faith in Hi The generations of all goods in their infinite varieties with men, are f!£.m no other origin than from the marriage of the Lw:d and

~} the ~h ; and, on the contrary, the generations of all evils in tliclr varieties with them, are from no other origin than from the union of thedevil with -t oe community of the profane. Who does not know, or may not know, that a man must be regenerated by_the Lord, that is, be created anew, and that, so far as this takes place, so far he is In goods? Hence thisfoll9,ws: that, in so far as a man is unwilling to be generated anew, _or created ane~, so far he takes up and retains tIie evilS-implan ted . inliimfrom his parents. This is what lies concealed in the first precept of the Decalogue :

I am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the sons, upon the third and upon the fourth generationof th~at

hQld _Me in hatred, and showing mercy unto thousands wJ:<2Jove Me and keep My commandments (Exod. xx 5, 6; Deut. v 9, 10).

* * * * * * * 36.cYi. THE SIXTH S~ OF THE MEN OF THIS CHURCH,

WHICH WAS THE ELEVATION TO GOD, AFTER THE LAST JUDGMENT, Jl OF THE FAITHFUL, OF WHOM A NEW 'HEAvEN WAS FORMED, AND J THE REMOVAL FROM GOD OF THE UNFAITHFUL, OF WHOM WAS FORMED A NEW HELL. In the preceding propositions (from n. 10 to 13, and from n. 14 to 17), it was explained that, after consummation, a Last Judgment was executed upon all who were of each of the four Churches above named, and after this a new heaven and a new hell formed from them, and thus that t~ have been four judgments in this earjh on....its inha~ts,

and four heJ!:Lens and hells formed from them; and it has been granted me to know, that both those heavens and those hells are so entirely distinct from each other, that no person can by any possibility pass out of his own into that of another. All these heavens have been described in the little work on CONJUGIAL LOVE; and, as the spiritual origin of love truly conjugial! is from no other source than the marriage of the Lord and the Church, thus from the Lord's love towards the Church and that of the Church to the Lord (as was shown in that little work, from n.lT6-to-nl), and as the most ancient people were in both

I Here, and elsewhere throughout this work, conjugialis is translated .. conjug ial " in preference to .. marriage," on account of the new spiritual concept introduced by Swedenborg. In the first translation of De Amore Conjugiali, Rev.]. Clowes introduced this translation of conjugialis, but in this he is not followed by some translators of Swedenborg.

44

OR APPENDIX TO THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION (36-37

these loves so long as they retained in themselves the image of God, therefore, I may transcribe from that little work the following particulars respecting that heaven, to which I was at the time granted admission; which are as follow:

37. "On a time, when I was meditating on conjugial love, the desire seized my mind of knowing what that love had been like with those who lived in the Golden Age, and what, afterwards, in the succeeding ones which are called the Silver, Copper and Iron ages. And, as I knew that all who lived well in those ages are in the heavens, I prayed to the Lord that it might be permitted me to speak with them and be instructed.

" And, lo! an angel stood by me, and said, ' I am sent by the Lord to be your guide and companion; and I will read and accompany you, first, to those who lived in the first era, or Age, which is called the Golden.' (The Golden Age is the same as the age of the Most Ancient Church, which is meant by the head of fine gold, on the statue seen by Nebuchadnezzar in a dream-Dan. ii 32--of which we have spoken before.) The angel said, 'The way to them is laborious; it lies through a dense wood, which no one can traverse unless a guide be given him by the Lord.'

2 " I was in the spirit, and prepared myself for the journey, and we turned our faces to the east; and as we proceeded.jj. saw a mountain, whose summit towered beyond the re ion of ~s. e crosse a great esert, an reached a wood crowded with all kinds of trees, and dark by reason of the dense growth thereof, of which the angel told me beforehand. But that wood was intersected by numerous narrow paths. The angel said that these were so many windings of error, and that unless the eyes were opened by the Lord, and the olive-trees girt about with vine tendrils seen, and the steps led from olivetree to olive-tree, the traveller would stray into Tartarus. ThiS ) wood is of such a nature, to the end that the approach may be guarded; for no other race but the primeval one dwells on that mountain.

3 " After we entered the wood, our eyes were opened, and we saw here and there the olive-tree.~~_~wined with vines, from which hung bunches of g0E..es of a dark-blue colour, and the olive-trees were arrangeOln perpetual windings; wherefore, we wa.IkeClround and round as they came into view; and at length we saw a grove of lofty cedars, and some eagJes on their branches. When he saw these, the angel said, ' Now we are on the mountain, not far from its summit.' - . - -

- "-And we went on; and lo! behind the_grove was ~r

45

37] THE CORONIS

plain, where were feeding male and female lambs, which were forms" represe~" " -Of "t1iestateOTinnocence and peace of the

-inhabitantSOf the mountain. - - cc ~e__c"n)ssid_this_pl(lir.!"'.Jl.nd .12.! there were seen thousands and thousands of tents to the front, and at thesides lil-eV(;ry

Jdirection, as faras ffie sight could reach-.- Andt ne angeCsaId, 'l'Now we---are- rn t he camp-where dwell the armies of the Lord

~ Je~forSOthey call themselves an<f their habitations:-fhese most ancient people,whiletlley were-in-the world, dweltln tents; for wli1cll reason they also dwetHnllre~t I said, ' Let us bend our way to the south, where the wiser of them dwell, that we may meet some one with whom we may enter into conversation.'

4 " On the way, I saw at a distance three boys and three girls sitting at the door of their tent; but as we drew near, both the b.2TI.. and the girls were seen as men and women of medium height. And the angel said, ' All the inhabitants of this mountain appear at a distance as young children, because they are in the state of innocence, and early childhood is the appearance of innocence.'

" On seeing us, the three men (viri) ran towards us, and said, , Whence are you ,-"and how have you come hither? your faces <m;_Il..Qt.Q[..tb..e.. faces belonging to this mountain:

"But the angel replied~-and told the means by which we obtained access through the wood, and the reason of our coming.

" On hearing this, one of the three men invited and conducted us into his tent. The man was clad in a coat of a ~ple colour, and a tunic of white wool; and his wife was dressed in a crimson robe, anOl1ad, underneath, a vest of fine embroid~~~

5 - a Bu t inasmuch as the desireof Kn6wiiig "aootifthe marriages of the most ancient people was in my mind, I looked at the ~ husband and the wif<: b turns, and observed as it were a unIty of their souls in their faces; and I said, ' You two are one.'

- " And the man answered:"'" e a re one; er IiIelsm me and mine In her. We are two bodies, but one soul. There is between us a union like that of the two tents in the breast, which are called the heart and the lungs; she is the substance of my heart, and I am lier lungs; buras by heart we here mean IQY.e, and by lungs wisdom-we understand the latter by the formefOn account of correspondence-she is the love of my wisdom, and I am the

i wisdom of her love . Hence, as you saId, there is the appeariThce L.- oLth-e_l.ill!!Y of our souls in our faces. Hence, it is as impossl le }J

to~her~,"J9..J.Q9"k inJust uRo the wife of a companion, as it is to look at the light of our heaven from the shaaeorrartarus.'

46


CV

"And the angel said to me, ' You hear now the speech of these angels, that it is the speech of wisdom, because they speak from causes.'

"After this conversation, I saw a great light on a hill among the tents, and I asked, ' Whence is that light? '

" He said, ' From the sanctuary of our tabernacle of worship.' ) " I enquired whether it was allowed to approach; and he said

that it was. Then I drew near, and saw the tabernacle exactly according to the descrie§>n without all:d withinJ_of the TabernacIe whIch was setUp for the sons~el in the wi!Qerness, the form of which was shown to Moses on Mount Sinai (Exod. xxv 40; xxvi 30). I asked, further, 'What is there within, in its sanctuary, whence so great a light proceeds? '

" And he answered, 'There is a tablet, on which is written, 1\ 11" THE COVENANT BETWEEN THE LORD JEHOVIH AND HEAVEN.'" 1,1 He said no more. '\ - z.. "

"Then, also, I questioned them about the LORD JEHOVIH, whom they worship; and I said, 'Is He not God the Father, the Creator of the universe? '

"And they replied, 'He is; but, by the Lord Jehovih we understand J ehovah in His Human; for we are not able to look upon Jehovah in His inmost Divinity, except throygh His ~ ': and then they exE!ained what they: understood, and also what at this day they understand, by the

Seed of the woman trampling the serpent's head (Gen. iii 15);

namely, that the Lord ] ehoyih would come into the world, and redeem and save all who believed on Him, and who would believe thereafter.

" When we had finished this conversation, the man ran to his tent, and returned with a pomegranate in which was a vast number of golden seeds, which he presented to me, and I brought away: this was a token that we had been with those who lived in the Golden Age." [See the little work on CONJUGIAL LOVE, n. 75.]-For an account of the heavens of the remaining Churches which succeeded the Most Ancient, in their order, see in the same little work on CONJUGIAL LOVE (n. 76-82).

38. The hell of those who were from the Most Ancient Churcn is, beyond all other hells, the most atrocious. It consists of those who in the world believed themselves to be as God, accoraIIlg to t e cunnmgjlt:cla!:~ti9n_Qf the seq~ent (Gen. iii 5); and those are deeper in that hell who persuaded themselves, from the fantasy that God had transfused His' Divinity into men, that they were altogether gods, ~nd_Jh1JsJhaLthere_w-aS _p._QJ91!.ger a God

47

38] THE CORONIS

in the. .tlgiverse. By reaso..!!_-9f that dreadful persuasion, there exhaled from that hell a deadly stench, which infects the adjacent places with so baleful a contagion, that, when anyone approaches, he is at first seized with such a mad delirium that presently, after some convulsive struggles, he seems to himself to be in the agonies(

. of death. I saw a certain one, in the vicinity of that place, lying as it were dead; but, on being removed thence, he revived. That hell lies in the middle region at the south, surrounded with rampar ts, on which stand sO!pew.Qosholl!..9~t)l!:Cl.lou~, ~~ian

( volce,_." Approach no nearer." I have heard from the angels who are in the heaven above that hell, that the vile spirits there

t appear like ser ents twisted into inextricable coils ; which is a tl)consequence of their vain ecelts an InCantatIOns, by which j the~uded the simple into agreeing that they are ~ods, and

that there is no God beside them. The ancients, who wove all things into fables, denoted these by the " gia n ts," who besieged the camp of the gods, and were cast down 6y Jupiter by his thunderbolts and thrust under the fiery mountain Etna, and called "C~s." They also called the hells of these, " ~r

tarus " and " pools of Acheron s r , and the deeps there "S~x " , , " aW those who dwe lt there, " Lerneean Hydras," and so fort .


LPROPOSITION THE THIRDJ Th e Noachian, or Ancient Church of this Earth ...--------

39. SINCE every Church is three-fold, inmost or celestial, C!ciddle or spiritua0and ~rornatura t ere ore oa

had three sons; and by Shem is signified the inmost, or celestial Church, by Japheth the middle or spiritual Church, and by Ham, the external, or natural Church. But there is not room here to describe with whom is the first Church, and with whom the second and third, as also what their quality is in themselves, or among themselves: for there are highest, middle and lowest heavens, to which those three degreesof the Church correspond. Moreover, this Noachian, or Ancient Church, was diffused throughout Asia, especially into Syria, Mesopotamia, Assyria, Chaldea, the land of Canaan, and the lands adjacent, Philistia, Egypt, Tyre, Sidon, Nineveh, and also into Arabia and Ethio..£ia, and in course of time into Great Tartary, and thence downwards as far as to the Black Sea, and thence into

[ all the regions of Africa. That the nations in every part of the eartllliave been in worship from some sort of religion, is well known; and religion cannot exist except by some revelation and by the propagation thereof from natIon to nation-as may be seen in the preceding work, THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION (n. 273-276); where, also, it was shown, that, prior to the Israelitish Word, there was a Word, which in process of time

1)\ was lost, but is still, of the Divine Providence of the Lord, pre!l.erved in _Grea t Tartary, from- whiChlStneITDivine worship even to the present day (see also n. 264-266, and n. 279, of the said work).

40. Who can deny that the universe was created for the sake of the human race, III order that from It should be formedan angelic 1:J,eavCll whereTn (}J!light dwell in the dominion of His[

( gory? IT o pr~e and ac~sh this end, what me diate\ causeIs ther~J?ut relJK!Qn?Jjand what else is religion but i1 walking with God? Moreover, ~l!gig1.1)sJike_a seed producing just and

1 \ tn~e desir~s, and hence judgments and acts, in spiritual t -lngs, , ana-bymeans of these in moral things, and by means of the

latter and the former in civil things. In order, therefore, that it may be known what is the quality of the man who has religion,

49

40-41] THE CORONIS

and what of him who has not religion, it shall be stated. The \ man who has religion is, in spiritual!:!!ings, like a pelican, nourishI ing its young with its own "oIood; but the man who has not , religion, is in those things like a vulture, in a state of starvation,i devouring its own offspring. The man who has religion is, in

moral thlngs~ 3:turtle-dove in the nest with its mate, sitting on its eggs or young; but the man who has not religion is, in

IJI these things, like a kite or hawk in the coop of a dove-coLI/The)f man who has religionis,-ii1P01tical things, like a swan flying with ( Ia bunch of grapes in its mouth; but he who has not rehgIon, ( is in these matters like a basilisk with a poisonous herb in its I mouth. t The man who has religion is, in judiciary matters, like a ' tribune riding on a noble hOI§e; but the man who has not religion, is in those things like a serpent in the desert of Arabia biting its tail in its mouth, and hurling itself, thus enfolded, upon a horse to coil itself about its rider. The man who has

. religion is, in other civil affairs, like a prince, the son of a king, , who exhibitst he marks o{charity and the graces of truth; but

Ithe man who has not religion, is like the three-headed dog Cerberus at the entrance to the court of Pluto, foaming out poison from its triple mouth.

41. The successive states of this Church-which are: rise or morning; progression into light, and day; vastation or evening, and consummation or night-it is not permitted to follow up with a description in the same manner as we before described the states of the Most Ancient Church, because the states of that Church cannot be so collected from our Word; for the posterity of Noah, through his three sons, is recorded only in a summary, in one or two pages; and, moreover, that Church was spread through many kingdoms, and in each kingdom it differed, and hence that Church underwent and ran through the states

2 mentioned in a different manner. That THE FIRST AND SECOND

STATE THEREOF in the regions round about the Jordan and about Egypt, was like the" garden of Jehovah," is evident from the words:

The plain ofJordan . . . was . . . like the garden of J ehovah, like the land of Egypt, where thou comest unto Zoar (Gen. xiii 10).

And that the like was the case with Tyre, appears from the following:

Thou prince of Tyre, ... full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in . . . the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering; ... thou was perfect in thy ways, from the day

50


that thou wast created until perversity was found in thee (Ezek. xxviii 12-15).

That Asshur was like a " cedar in Lebanon," appears from the following:

Behold, Asshur is a cedar in Lebanon, beautiful in branch, lofty in height; ... all the birds of the heavens nested in his branches, and under his branches did every beast of the field bring forth its young, and in his shadow dwelt all great nations: No tree in the garden of God was equal to him in beauty, and all those trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied him (Ezek. xxxi 3-9).

That wisdom flourished in Arabia, is evident from the queen of Sheba's journey to Solomon (I Kings x 1-13); also from the three wise men who came to the new-born Jesus, a star going

3 before them (Matt. ii 1-12). THE THIRD AND FOURTH STATE OF THAT CHURCH, which was that of its vastation and consummation, is described in various places in the Word, both in its historical and prophetical parts. The consummation of the nations round about the Jordan, or round about the land of Canaan, is described by the destruction of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboim (Gen. xix ); the consummation of the Church of the nations within the Jordan, or in the land of Canaan, is described in Joshua and in the Book ofJudges by the expulsion of some and the extermination of others. The consummation of that Church in Egypt, is described by the drowning of Pharaoh and the Egyptians in the Red Sea (Exod. xiv ). And so on.

42. Certain it is that this Ancient Church was a representative Church, which, in visible and natural types and signs, figured forth the invisible and spiritual things of the Church which was yet to come, when Jehovah Himself would manifest Himself in a natural human form, and by this means secure for Himself entrance to men, and for men access to Himself, and thus would divest Himself of types, and found a Church with precepts which should lead all who believe on Him as Man, and do His commandments, by a ready way to heaven, the dwelling-place of His Divinity. But, inasmuch as this Ancient Church, typical of that which was to come, turned the representative correspondences into magic and idolatry, and thus into things infernal, Jehovah raised up the Israelitish Church, in which He restored the primitive types, which were heavenly : such types were all the tabernacles, feasts, sacrifices, priesthoods, the garments of Aaron and his sons, and the anointings; besides the statutes in a long series which were promulgated through Moses.

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43-44] THE CORONIS

43. I will touch, in a few words, upon the manner in which the representative Church with them was turned into an idolatrous one: All the spiritual things which are of heaven and the Church were presented before them in visible and tangible images, as was mentioned just above; those images were taken from the subjects of the three kingdoms of nature, animal, vegetable and mineral, by which were represented such things as are of the heavenly kingdom. They placed these typical images in their sanctuaries, in the inner chambers of their houses, and in the market-places and streets, arranging them according to their significations. But after the knowledge ofcorrespondences was lost, and consequently the discernment of the signification of those images had perished, a later posterity began to look upon and acknowledge them as so many Divine and holy things; and then to some they bowed the knee, some they kissed, and some they adorned and decorated with necklaces, boxes of perfumes and anklets, just as children do their dolls, and as papists do their images; yea, of some they made household gods, of some guardian demigods, and of some Pythons; some, moreover, they carried in miniature forms in their hands, some they hugged in their bosoms, stroked, and whispered petitions in their ears; and so on. Thus were heavenly types turned into infernal types, and the Divine things of heaven and the Church into idols. On account of this transformation and distortion of heavenly things, a new representative Church was raised up among the sons of Israel, in which genuine representations, as was stated above, were instituted; and to which it was forbidden to celebrate Divine worship by any others, as is evident from these words in the first Commandment of the Decalogue:

Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor any figure that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor worship them (Exod. xx 4, 5; Deut. v 8, 9).

44. It has been stated that from the people of every Church, at its end, is formed a new heaven and a new hell; and, since I gave an account in the preceding section of the heaven and hell formed from those who were of the Most Ancient Church, it seems well also to do so respecting these [of the Ancient Church]; for access has been granted me thereto, inasmuch as I have been permitted to traverse and observe the whole spiritual world, to the end that the New Church, truly Christian, may not be in thick darkness concerning heaven and hell, and concerning the lot of these after death according to the deeds

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OR APPENDIX TO THE TR UE CHRISTIAN RELIGION [44

of their life. These things are likewise in the little work on CONJUGIAL LOVE (n. 76).

CONCERNING THE HEAVEN FORMED FROM THESE

2 "An angel came to me and said, 'Do you desire me to accompany you to the peoples who lived in the Silver Era, or Age, that we may hear from them respecting the customs and life of their times?' It was also said that they may not be approached except under the auspices of the Lord.

" I was in the spirit, and accompanied my guide, and came, first, to a hill on the confines of the east with the south; and when we were on its slope, he showed me a vast stretch of country, and we saw at a distance an eminence like a mountain, between which and the hill on which we stood, was a valley, and beyond this a plain, and from this plain a gently-rising ascent.

" We descended the hill to cross the valley, and saw here and there, at the sides, blocks of wood and stone carved into figures of men, and of various beasts, birds and fishes. And I asked the angel, ' What are these? Are they not idols? '

( "And he replied, ' By no means; they are representative forms .0.f various moral virtues and spiritual truths. The pe?p~s

I of that age possessed a knowledge of correspondences; and, as beas~·6ird and fish correspond to some quality, therefore, each carved figure represents and signifies some aspect of virtue or truth, and many together the virtue or truth itself, in a certain general extended form; these are what in Egypt were called hieroglyphics. '

3 "We proceeded through the valley, and when we entered the plain, lo! we saw horses and carriages, the horses variously caparisoned and harnessed, and the carriages variously shaped; some being carved out like e~gks, some like U ~£o!!!S, and some like wMt;s: we also saw some carts at the boundary, and stables round about at the sides. But, when we approached, both horses and carriages disappeared, and instead of them we saw men, in pairs, walking, talking together and reasoning. And the angel said to me, 'The semblances of horses, carriages and stables, seen at a distance, are aEpea.J::<tn(;~ of t~ rational intellig<;p.ce of the men of that .;;lge ; for a horse, by correspondence, signifies the understanding of truth; a carriage, the doctrine of truth; and stables, places of instruction. You are aware that all things in this world appear according to correspondences.'

t " But we passed these things, and went up by the ascent. At length we saw a city, which we entered; and, in walking

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44] THE CORONIS

through it, we observed its houses from the streets and squares. In the midst of it, were palaces built of marble, having steps of alabaster in front, and at the sides of the steps pillars of jasper. We saw also temples, made of precious stone of a sapphire and azure colour. And the angel said to me, 'Their houses are of stones because stones signify natural truths, and precious stones spiritual truths; and all those who lived in the silver age, had intelligence from spiritual truths, and thence from natural; for silver has a like signification.

5 "While exploring the city, we saw here and there married partners, both husbands and wives. We expected that we should be invited somewhere; and, while this was in our mind (animus), we were called back by two into a house, which we entered; and the angel, speaking with them for me, explained the reason of our coming to this heaven, informing them that it was" for the sake of instruction, concerning the customs of the Ancients, of whom you are.'

" They replied, ' We were from the peoples in Asia, and the study of our age was the study of truths, through which we had intelligence. This study was the study of our soul and of our mind. But the study of the senses of our bodies was the representations of truths in natural forms; and the knowledge of correspondences conjoined the sensations of our bodies with the perceptions of our minds, thus natural and corporeal things with spiritual and celestial, and procured for us communication with the angels of heaven.' .

6 " On hearing these things, the angel requested them to relate something about marriages among them. So the husband said, , There is a correspondence between spiritual marriage, which is that of good and truth, and natural marriage, which is that of man and wife; and as we studied correspondences, we saw that the Church, with its truths and goods, can exist only with those~ho live in truly conjugial Ioye ; for the marriage of good and truth is the Church with man. Wherefore, all we who are in this heaven, say that the husband is truth, and the wife the good of his truth; and that good cannot love any other truth than that which is its own, nor truth love in return any other good than that which is its own; if any other were loved,t'Ile -in tern al or spiritual marriage, which constitutes the Church, would perish, and marriage would become only external or natural, to which idolatry, and not the Church, corresponds.'

7 " On his concluding these remarks, we were conducted into an ante-chamber, where were many designs on the walls, and little images cast as it were in silver; and I asked, ' What are

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these?' They said, , They are pictures and images representative of the many qualities, properties and delights of spiritual things'; as were also the cherubim and palm-trees on the walls of the Temple at Jerusalem.

6 " After these things, there appeared at a distance a carriage drawn by small white horses; on seeing which the angel said, 'That carriage is a sign for us to depart.' Then, as we were going down the steps, our host gave us a bunch of white g@J>es with the vine leaves attached; and lo! the leaves became silver in our hands; and we brought them away for a token that we had spoken with people of the Silver Age."

45. CONCERNING THE HELL FORMED FROM THOSE PEOPLES

The hells of the men of the Noachian, or Ancient Church, consist for the most part of magicians, who have huts and feasting places scattered up and down in the desert. They wander about there with rods in their hands, which are of various forms, and some of them steeped in magical juices. By these, as in former times, they practise their arts, which are effected by the abuse of correspondences, by fantasies, by persuasive assurances by w h ichwas - engendered a faith based 0!l ~cl~s-and miracles were in time past performed; also, by exorcisms, incantations, witchcrafts and sorceries, and many other magical spell5;-by which they pre~~llusory_appear~~~~~al. The supreme delight of their heart is to utter prophecies and prognostications, and to act the Python. From these, chiefly, h'!.ye arisen the various fanaticisms in the Christian world. - - - -

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46-47] THE CORONIS

[_P_R O ; ; --;;IT I O N THE FOURTH~ The Israelitish and Jewish Church

46. IN order that the states of this Church may be thoroughly laid open and distinctly shown, it is of importance that we survey them in the following order:

I. The first State of this Church was the Appearing of the Lord Jehovih, also the Call and Couenanting ; and then was its Rise and Morning.

II. The second State of this Church was Instruction, and eventually Introduction into the Land ofCanaan ; and then was its Progression into light and Day.

Ill. The third State of this Church was the Turning aside from true representative Worship into Idolatry, and then was its Vastation or Evening.

IV. The fourth State of thi! Church was the Profanation I?l holy thin s ; and then was its Consummation or Night. - -

V. Be ore this State, and after it, a Promise was made of the Coming o t e Lord Jehovih into the wor ,an res ec ing - w urch in w le justice an JU gment s ou reign. .-...::= = ::::::

t VI. The .fifth State of this Church was the Separation of the goodfrom the evil, and then Judgment upon those who were from it: but this was in the spiritual world.

VII. Something respecting the Heaven and Hell from that nation. 47(!)THE FIRST STATE OF THIS CHURCH WAS THE ApPEAR-

ING OF THE LORD J EHOVIH, ALSO THE CALL AND COVENANTING; AND THEN WAS ITS RISE OR MORNING. We are taught from the Word, that the Lord Jehovih has appeared at the beginning of each of the four Churches of this earth. This is because God is t~ All-in-all of the Church and of its religion; and the acknm;ledgment of God in it is like the soul in the body, which causes both its interiors and its exteriors to live; and it is like the prolific element in seed, which, abiding inmostly in all the sap drawn from the earth by the root, accompanies it from the first germination even to the fruit, in which it also is, and disposes the vegetative process so that it proceeds in its proper order. For this reason, the man of the Church, without the acknowledgment of God, is in the eyes of the angels a brute like the wild beasts of the forest, or like a bird of night, or like a monster of the deep; yea, without the acknowledgment of God, man is

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like a tree whose branches are lopped off, and the trunk cut in pieces, and the whole piled up together in a heap set aside for the fire; for the Lord says,

ARart from Me ye can do nothing; if anyone abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and they gather it and cast it into the fire, and it is burned (John xv 5, 6).

Without the acknowledgment of God, man, inwardly, as to his rational qualities, is like the ruins of a burned city; he is also like food from which its nutritiveness is boiled out, when it becomes refuse. And so forth.

48. But it is impossible for man to acknowledge God, or anything pertaining to Him, unless God had manifested Himself in a Personal Human Form; for the Nature of the world surrounds him, and he does not see, feel or breathe anything but what is from it and in contact with the organs of his body. From this his mind conceives and adopts a Rational which lies in the interior bosom of Nature, as an embryo in the womb; nor does it see anything until it struggles forth, and receives sight. How, then, can a man in this state by any method look through Nature, and acknowledge anything that is above her-as is everything Divine, heavenly and spiritual, and hence everything religious, which in themselves are above natural things? Wherefore, it is an absolute necessity that God should manifest Himself, and thereby cause Himself to be acknowledged, and after acknowledgment should inspire man with His Divine spirit, and by this received in the heart lead him, even at length to Himself in heaven; which cannot possibly be effected except by instruction. Must not also an emperor, or a king, first cause himself to be acknowledged and crowned, before he enters on his government? And before he is crowned, is he not provided with the insignia of authority, robed and anointed? and must he not bind the people to himself by agreed compacts, sworn to by both sides, whereby the people become the king's, and the king the people's? Must not a bridegroom first cause himself to be seen, before he proposes betrothal, and afterwards marriage? Must not a father present himself before his babe, and embrace and kiss him, before the babe can say, "Abba, father? " and so in other cases. Still more must the Lord Jehovih, who is King of kings and Lord of lords (Rev. xvii 14), the Bridegroom and Husband of the Church (Rev. xxi 9), and consequently the Father of all her offspring. By the "Lord J ehovih" is meant the Lord our Saviour and Redeemer: He is called the " Lord J ehovih " in Daniel, and in the Prophets again and again.

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49] THE CORONIS

49. It was stated above, that the first state with the sons of Israel, was the appearing of the Lord Jehovih, calling and covena nting; and we are taught from the Word, that these three things took place, first with ~m, secondly with Moses, and thirdly with the entire peoFle. The appearing of the Lord Jehovih before Abraham is thus described in Genesis:

Jehovah appeared unto Abraham in the plains of Mamre; he was sitting at the door of his tent, ... and when he lifted up his eyes and saw, behold! three men stood by him, and as soon as he saw th em, he ran from the door of the tent to meet them, and bowed himself to the earth, and said, 0 Lord, if I have found grace in Thine eyes, pass not away, I pray, from Thy servant (Gen. xviii 1-3).

It was the Lord our Saviour who appeared in His Divine Trinity, which the three angels represented; for the Lord said,

Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw and was glad.... Verily, verily I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am (John viii 56, 58) .

There is in the Lord a Divine Trinity; and the Divine Unity was represented in Divine Trinity by the" three men," who were also called" angels" (Gen. xviii 2; xix 1). But in His Divine Unity He was called "Adonai" (Gen. xviii 3; xix 18); and also "Jehovah," very frequently (Gen. xviii 13, 14, 17, 19, 20, 22, 26, 33). The appearing of the Lord J ehovih before Moses is thus described in Exodus:

The Angel of Jehovah appeared to Moses at the mountain of Horeb, in a flame of fire out of th e midst of a bush; .. . Moses therefore said, I will turn aside and see this great vision, wh y the bush is not burnt. And Jehovah saw that he turned asid e ; ... therefore God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. . . . And moreover Moses said to God, . . . What is Thy name? . .. God said, .. . I AM "T H A T I AM••••

Thus shalt thou say unto the sons of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you (Exod. iii [I] 2-4, 14).

The appearing of the Lord J ehovih before the whole people is thus also described in Exodus:

Jehovah said to Moses, Say unto the sons of Israel, that they be ready against the third day; for on the third day J ehovah will come down in the eyes of all the people upon Mount Sinai. ... And it came to pass on the third day, . .. that there were voices, and lightnings, and thick clouds upon the mount, and the voice of a trumpet exceeding loud, so that all the people who wer e in the

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camp trembled.... Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because He descended upon it in fire; and He promulgated the law before the people (Exod. xix 9-24, and xx 1-18).

The Lord also appeared to Joshua as Prince of the amry ofJellOvah, before whom Joshua fell on his face upon the earth, and called him his" Lord" (Josh. v 13, 14).

THE CALLING OF THE SONS OF ISRAEL TO THE LAND OF CANAAN, thus to the Church, also took place three times; once to Abram, that he should depart thereto out of his fatherland, and afterwards the promise that his seed should inherit that land (Gen. xii 1-7). A calling also took place through Moses (Exod. iii 16, 17); and again through Joshua (Josh. i 3, etc., and 11).

50. A COVENANT ALSO WAS ENTERED INTO SEVERAL TIMES; first with Abram (respecting which, Gen. xvii 1-14); then with the people (Exod. xxiv 7, 8) , and once again (Josh. xxiv 24, 25). From these things, it is now manifest that the first state of this Church was the Appearing of the Lord Jehovih, also the Call and Covenanting, and then was its Rise or Morning. That by the" Lord Jehovih," everywhere in the Word, is meant Jehovah in His Human, who is the Lord our Redeemer and Saviour, will be seen in what follows.

51.@THE SECOND STATE OF THIS CHURCH WAS INSTRUCTION, AND EVENTUALLY INTRODUCTION INTO THE LAND OF CANAAN, AND THEN WAS ITS PROGRESSION INTO LIGHT, AND DAY. It has been pointed out above, that this Israelitish Church, as well as the Ancient, or Noachian Church, was, with respect to the whole of its worship, a representative Church. This was of the Divine Providence, because Jehovah had not yet put on the Natural Human (which He took by incarnation in the womb of Mary, thus according to the order established from creation); and prior to this He could not be conjoined to man as to the interiors of his spirit, and so manifest His Divine things,-which are celestial and spiritual, and, thus, far above the discernment of the senses of the body,-to man's perception there. This also was as impossible as it is for a bird to fly in ether, or a fish to swim in air. For if Jehovah were to enter into man except by means of His Human, it would be like putting the severed branch of a tree into the very focus of a burning glass, or quicksilver to a blazing log in a furnace, which would be instantly dissipated. For, from the ardour of His Divine Love, Jehovah is like a consuming fire; and were He to en ter in to man in this without His Human, He would destroy him, as has just been said: for which reason He said to Moses, when he desired to behold His glory with his own eyes, that no man could see Him

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and live. It was otherwise, however, after He put on the Natural Human, and united this, when glorified, to His Divine, and thus, in Himself, conjoined the Divine Celestial, the Divine Spiritual, and the Divine Natural into one. He was then able, by means of this, to conjoin Himself to man in his Natural, yea, in his Sensual, and at the same time to his spirit, or mind, in his Rational, and thus to enlighten man's natural human with heavenly light. That such conjunction was effected after the Coming of Jehovah into the world, is plainly manifest from the words of the Lord Himself:

In that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you (John xiv 20).

2 Now, before the Incarnation ofJehovah took place, conjunction with Him could not occur except through an angel, thus by means of a representative human; on which account, also, all things of the Church of those times were made representative, and consequently men worshipped J ehovah by types affecting the senses of their body, and at the same time corresponding to spiritual things. Hence it was that the men of the Ancient Church, and still more those of the Israelitish Church, were external and natural men, nor could they become internal and spiritual, as men can since the Lord's Coming. But, still, those who acknowledged Jehovah, and, with Him, the Lord I-that is, the Lord who was to come, who in the Word is named the" Lord J ehovih," " God of Israel" and" His Holy One," " Messiah" or the "Anointed of Jehovah," " King," " Rock," and in some places "Son"-and who worshipped them at the same time, received holiness in their spirits, and hence in the types of their religion. The rest, however, did not receive it; consequently, the religion of these was not a religion but a superstition, and their worship was not representative but idolatrous; and, although this was similar in external form, yet it was dissimilar

3 in internal. But in order that this matter may gain some light, it shall be illustrated by comparisons. Idolatrous worship is like a man who reveres a king, a prince, a nobleman, or any man of exalted dignity, solely on account of the grandeur of his retinue, the magnificence of his carriages and horsemen or footmen, and the gorgeousness of his crimson robe; but genuine representative worship is like one who regards a king, prince, nobleman, or any man of exalted dignity, from his religion and his wisdom, and from his justice and judgment, and who attaches importance to

The reader ought to be apprised that the Latin word here is not, as usual, Dominus, but Adonajus, the Latinized form of the Hebrew word Adonai.

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the above-mentioned insignia of his greatness, in consideration of these qualities. Idolatrous worship, moreover, is like a man who regards the primate of the Church solely on account of his tiara and the jewels in it, or any other prelate, or bishop, on account of his head-covering, or mitre; but genuine representative worship is like one who regards them from the warmth of their love for the souls of the men of the Church, and for the eternal salvation of these, and the insignia of their heads on these grounds. Again, idolatrous worship is like a field filled with stalks without ears, or with ears without corn in them, or even of these without any kernel in the corn, and so on; but genuine representative worship is like a field filled with ripe corn, whose grains are bursting with kernels, which yield flour and bread in abundance. Idolatrous worship is also like an egg in which there is no fertilizing germ; but genuine representative worship is like an egg in which there is the fertilized element from which a chicken comes forth. Sill further to illustrate those two kinds of worship by comparison, idolatrous worship is like one who has lost the sense of smell and the sense of taste by a catarrh-when such a one applies any grape to his nostrils, or drops wine on his tongue, he is sensible of nothing but their touch; but genuine representative worship is like one who is keenly sensible at the same time of the fragrance of the grape and the flavour of the wine, and thus enjoys the use and sweetness of both.

52. That the second state of this Church was Instruction, follows from order; for, when anyone is called to the Church, he must be instructed in the precepts of the religion according to which he is going to live. That this took place with the sons of Israel after their calling, is plain from the promulgation on Mount Sinai of the law, in which are contained all the commandments of love and faith towards God, and all those of love and fidelity towards the neighbour. After instruction in the general precepts oflife and faith, there followed the promulgation of various laws, called" judgments" and" statutes," respecting the hallowing of the Sabbath, stated feasts, sacrifices, the priesthood, the tabernacle, the holy observance in it and upon the altar outside it; also respecting the eating of the holy things, the ministry of Aaron and his sons, likewise their garments and the consecration thereof, and the sanctification of all things of the tabernacle by the oil of anointing; and further, concerning the Levitical order, marriages and divorces, cleansings, foods, places of Refuge, besides many other things, all of which were natural representations corresponding to spiritual things. In a word, the last four Books of Moses are nothing else but books of

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52-54] THE CORONIS

instruction for that Church. After these instructions, the sons of Israel were admitted into the land of Canaan, thus into the Church itself; for the land of Canaan represented, and thus signified, the Church. That land also was situated in the middle portion of our entire world: for on the front it looked towards Europe, on the left towards Africa, and on the hinder part and right-hand side towards Asia. But after they came into that land, the precepts given by Moses were enriched by the prophets.! then by their King David, and at length by Solomon after the temple was built; as appears from the Books of Judges, Samuel and Kings. This, therefore, was the second state of this Church, which was its progression into light, or day.

53. The following passages in the Word may be applied to these two states of this Church:

Jehovah, after two days, will quicken us: on the third day He will raise us up, that we may live before him.... Jehovah, His going forth is prepared as the morning; and He shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter rain He shall water the earth (Hosea vi 2, 3).

The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me . ... He is as th e light of the morning, . .. a morning without clouds (2 Sarn. xxiii 3, 4) .

And in Moses:

My doctrine shall drop as the rain; My word shall distil as the dew, as the drops upon the grass, and as the small drops upon the herb : I will proclaim the name of J ehovah; ascribe ye greatness to our God. The Rock, whose work is perfect, all His ways are judgment, a God of faithfulness without perversity, just and right is He (Deur, xxxii 2, 3, 4).

From these passages, also, it may be confirmed that these two states of this Church were from our Lord, who is the " God of Israel" and the "Rock." That He is the" Rock," is clear from these words in Paul:

The Rock was Christ (I Cor. x 4).

54@THE THIRD STATE OF THIS CHURCH WAS DECLINE FROM TRUE REPRESENTATIVE WORSHIP INTO IDOLATRY, AND THEN WAS ITS VASTATION, OR EVENING. Some notable things were adduced above respecting the difference between representative worship and idolatrous worship, from which it may be plainly seen, that, so long as the types, figures and signs, which were

In the Hebrew canon, "the Books of Judges, Samuel and Kings" are designated " the former (or earlier) Prophets"; what we call" the Prophets " - Isaiah to Malachi-being called" the later Prophets."

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1


seized upon by the senses of the body as objects of religion by the men of the Noachian and Israelitish Churches, were not at the same time regarded from a higher, or interior, idea, nearly approaching to a spiritual one, truly representative worship easily declined with them into idolatry. As for example: If, in reference to the tabernacle, they did not think at the same time of heaven and the Church, and of God's dwelling-place in these; concerning the bread of faces (or shewbread) therein, they did not think at the same time of the heavenly bread for the nourishment of the soul; concerning the incense and the burning of it upon the golden altar there, they did not think at the same time about worship from faith and charity, that this is what ascends to Jehovah as a grateful odour; about the lights in the lamps of the golden candlestick, when lighted, they did not think at the same time of the enlightenment of the understanding in the objects of their religion; and about the eating of the holy things, so that they did not at the same time think about the appropriation of heavenly foods, and also about the holy refreshment of their spirits from the performance of the sacrifices: and in like manner with the other things. It is hence manifest, that, if the man of the representative Church did not at the same time look upon the things belonging to that worship with a rational spirit enlightened by heavenly light from the Lord, but only with a rational spirit informed by the natural light (lumen) of the world from self, he could easily be carried away from genuine representative worship into idolatrous worship, and so be vastated; for vastation is nothing else but a turning aside, decline and falling away from representative to idolatrous worship; which two kinds of worship are alike as to external appearance, but

2 not as to internal appearance. On account of this proneness to fall away from one worship which in itself was heavenly, into another which in itself was infernal, the interior things of the Church and of religion-namely, concerning heaven and hell, the resurrection, and the life of their spirits after death, and, also, the immortality of their souls, regeneration, and, in short, the interior things respecting faith and charity; -could not be revealed before the Lord's Advent, and then by light from Him, inasmuch as they would have looked upon them scarcely otherwise than as one looks at birds over the head, or meteors in the air. And, further, they would have covered them over so thickly with the mere fallacies of the senses, that, moreover, not a single vestige of the spiritual things revealed would have been visible, except as much as the tip of the nose in respect to the face, or a fingernail in respect to the hands. They would also have so distorted

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them, that they would have appeared in the presence of the angels no otherwise than like a sea-monster dressed out in a cloak, a mitre on the head, and with a face, after being shaved and painted, like that of an ape-whose face is destitute of hair: and they would also have appeared before the angels like a statue fitted with movable joints and hollowed out; which, some accomplice being introduced into it, would walk about, act and speak, and at length cry out to the superstitious multitude, " Prostrate yourselves; call upon me; behold me, your tutelar deity, your protector, to whom belongs holiness and divine

3 power." Could the ideas of the thought of these concerning the spiritual things of the Church be superior to the ideas of thought of Nicodemus, who was a teacher, on regeneration, which was that of the whole man being re-born in his mother's womb? for he said:

How can a man be born anew? can he en ter the second time into his mother's womb?

To whom the Lord answered,

Art thou a master in Israel, and knowest not these things? If I have told you earthly things and ye believe not, how will ye believe if I shall tell you more than heavenly things? (John iii 3,4, 9, 10, 12).

They would have raved in like manner, if interior things, which in their essence are spiritual, concerning faith and charity, and also the life after death, and respecting the state of heaven and hell, had been disclosed to them. Wherefore, to open the internal sight of their mind or spirit, as to its higher region, which alone heavenly light illuminates, before the coming of the Lord-who came into the world as " the Light," as He Himself says (John i 1-4; viii 12; xii 35, 36, 46)-was as impossible as it is to make a horse fly and turn it into Pegasus, or a stag run in the air, or a calf upon the waters; yea, as it would be to convert an agate into a ruby, a crystal into a diamond, or to put a vein of silver into a common stone, or to make a laurel-tree produce grapes, a cedar olives.va poplar and an oak pears and apples; therefore, also, as impossible as to infuse the intelligence of the learned CEdipus into the listening Davus.

55. But what vastation is, and whence it arose with the people of the Israelitish church, may be gathered from the passages in the Prophets where it is mentioned, which shall, therefore, be adduced therefrom in abundance. It must be premised, that, in the following and the subsequent passages from the Word, by

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" land" is signified the Church, because the land of Canaan is meant, in which the Church was; by" Zion," the Church as to the Word; by" Jerusalem," the Church as to doctrine from the Word; by the" cities" in that land, doctrinals; by the " mountains," " hills," " valleys," and" rivers," the formalities of the Church; and by the territories there, the general things of the Church, and these according to the representation of the tribe by which they were possessed.

56. The passages from the Prophetic Word, where the Israelitish Church is treated of, in which" vastation," " desolation," and" breaking," and also a " desert" are mentioned, are the following;

o inhabitant of Jerusalem, and man of Judah, ... what should I do to My vineyard that I had not done? I looked that it should bring forth grapes, but it brought forth wild grapes.... I will make it a desolation, it shall not be pruned nor weeded, that the briar may come up; . . . and houses shall be a devastation; ... for they regard not the work of Jehovah, neither see the operation of His hands (Isa. v 3-12).

Many shepherds have destroyed My vineyard, they have trampled My field, they have reduced the field of My desire to a desert of solitude; he hath made it a solitude. . . . 0 desolate, desolate is the whole land, because no one layeth it to heart. The vastators came upon all hills in the desert; ... they have sown wheat, but have reaped thorns (Jer. xii 10-13) .

A nation hath come up upon My land, ... and hath reduced My vine to a waste (Joel i 6, 7).

The field is devastated; the land mourneth, for the corn is devastated; the new wine is dried up, the oillanguisheth (Joel i 10):

by " vineyard " and " field " in these as in other passages of the Word, is signified the Church.

In all your dwelling-places the cities shall be devastated, and the high places shall be desolated; that your altars may be devastated and desolated, . . . and your idols may cease, and your images may be cut down, and your works may be abolished (Ezek. vi 6; see also vel'. 14).

My people have forgotten Me, they have burned incense to vanity, ... to make the land a waste (Jer. xviii 15, 16);

" land," here denotes the Church.

The high places of Isaac shall be vastated, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be desolated (Amos vii 9).

Go and say to this people, Hearing hear ye, but understand not; and seeing see ye, but know not; make the heart of this people fat, . .. and shut his eyes: (Isa. vi 9, 10).

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then said the prophet,

Lord, how long? and He said, Until the cities be devastated, .. . and the land reduced to a solitude: Jehovah will multiply deserts in the midst of the land (Isa. vi 11, 12).

Behold, Jehovah maketh the land empty, and maketh it void j ... the land shall be utterly emptied; ... because they have transgressed the laws, passed by the statute, and made void the covenant of eternity. Therefore ... in the city there shall be a waste, and the gate shall be smitten even to devastation (Isa. xxiv 1,3,5, 12).

The paths are devastated, the wayfarer hath ceased, he hath made void the covenant. ... Conceive ye chaff, bring forth stubble (Isa. xxxiii B, 11).

I have kept silence from eternity...• I will desolate and devour together. I will vastate mountains and hills (Isa. xlii 14, 15).

Thy destroyers and devastators shall go forth out of thee.... For as for thy vastations and desolations, and the land of thy devastations, .•. the devourers shall be far away (Isa. xlix 17, 19).

Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you.... They set an asp's eggs, and wove the spider's webs.... Vastation and breaking are in their paths.... We look for light, but behold darkness; ... we grope for the wall like the blind; ... we stumble at noon-day as in the twilight (Isa, lix 2, 5, 7, 9, 10).

The cities of Thy holiness are become a desert, Zion is become a desert and Jerusalem a waste. Our house of holiness . . . is become a burning of fire, and all our desirable things are become a waste (Isa. lxiv 10, -l l ),

The young lions roar against Israel; . . . they reduce his land to a waste (Jer. ii 15).

Woe unto us! for we are devastated. 0 Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness.... How long shall thoughts of iniquity tarry within thee? (Jer. iv 13, 14).

As a fountain maketh her waters to gush forth, so Jerusalem maketh her wickedness to gush forth. Violence and vastation is heard in her. ... Admit chastisement, ... lest I reduce thee to a waste.... 0 daughter of My people, gird thee with sackcloth, and roll thee in ashes; . . . for the vastator shall suddenly come upon us (ler. vi 7, B, 26).

A voice of wailing is heard in Zion, How are we devastated! because we have deserted the land (ler. ix 19) j

" land " denotes the Church.

My tent is devastated, all its ropes are plucked out, . for the shepherds have become foolish, and have not sought Jehovah (Jer. x 20, 21):

" tent" denotes worship. 66


The voice of a tumult; behold it cometh, and a great commotion from the land of the north, to reduce the cities of'judah to a waste, a habitation of dragons (Jer. x 22) .

The whole land shall be a desolation, a devastation (Jer. xxv 11);

" land " denotes the Church.

The voice of a cry from Horonaim, devastation and great breaking; . . . the vastator shall come upon every city (Jer. xlviii 3, 5, 8, 9, 15, 18):

these things are about Moab, by whom is meant confidence in one's own works and in self-intelligence (as is manifest from verse 29 of that chapter).

That they may want bread and water, and be desolated, a man and his brother, and pine away for their inquity (Ezek. iv 17):

" bread" and" water" denote good and truth.

Thou shalt be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of devastation and desolation (Ezek. xxiii 33).

Woe unto them! for they have wandered; devastation unto them! (Hosea vii 13).

The land shall be a desolation, because of them that dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings (Micah vii 13).

Besides many other passages, as Isa. vii 18, 19; xvii 4-6, 9-14; xxii 4-9; xxix 10-12; li 19: Jer. xix 8; xxv 9-11,18; xliv 2, 6, 22: Ezek. ix I to end; xii 19, 20 ; xxxiii 24, 28, 29: Hosea x 14; xii 2: Joel ii 20: Amos v 9: Micah vi 13,16: Hab. i 3: Hag. i 4,9: Zech. vii 14; xi 2,3.

From all these passages may be seen what " vastation " and " desolation" are; and that it is not a vastation and desolation of the peoples of a land and of cities, but of the goods and truths of the Church, in consequence of which there is nothing left but evils and falsities.

57.@THE FOURTH STATE OF THIS CHURCH WAS THE PROFANATION OF HOLY THINGS, AND THEN WAS ITS CONSUMMATION, OR NIGHT. Vastation and consummation differ from each other, as do the shade of evening and the thick darkness of night ; for vastation is a receding from the Church, but consummation a complete separation from it. Vastation, therefore, is as when anyone descends from heaven but not as far as to hell, and tarries in the middle, standing near both; but consummation exists when anyone, standing thus, turns his face and breast to hell, and his back and the hinder part of his hsad to heaven; in like manner as happened with the Dragon and his angels

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when they were cast down out of heaven (concerning which see Rev. xii): while they were fighting with Michael, they were in the middle; but when vanquished, they were in hell. Vastation takes place when man looks upon the holy things of the Church from falsities and falsified truths; .but consummation when he

2 lives in evils or in adulterated goods. But, that the difference and distinction between the state of vastation and the state of consummation may be still more clearly grasped, it shall be illustrated by comparisons. The state of vastation may be compared with a certain garden, or grove, round a temple-which garden, by reason of the Divine worship performed in the temple, is regarded as holy-in which are places for drinking, feasting, dancing, and histrionics and farce, with spectators in the courts and windows of the temple; but the state of consummation may be compared to the same garden, or grove, in which are satyrs and libertines, with harlots and witches, who all together enter the temple dancing, and there celebrate profane revels, as the

:l Pythons in their sabbaths. The state of vastation may also be compared with a hostile army, when it enters the suburbs of a besieged city and rules them; but the state of consummation may be compared with the same army, when it has demolished the wall, and rushes into the city and gives the inhabitants over to destruction. The state of vastation may further be compared with a ship upon sandbanks, or a sandy shore, when it is violently battered there, and tossed up and down, and the steersman, captain and sailors bewail on account of their danger; but the state is one of consummation when the ship's keel is fretted away by the gravel beneath, and the ship, being shattered and pierced with holes, sinks, and those on board, and the cargo, perish in

~ the waves. The state of vastation may be compared with every disease which invades the members, viscera and organs of the body, by reason of which the patient apprehends death, consults a physician, takes medicines, and all the while lies in bed in hope of recovery ; but the state of consummation may be compared with the same disease when it invades the breast, where the heart and lungs reside as in their tabernacle, into which when the disease penetrates, it makes an end of the life of the body.

58. The state of consummation of the Israelitish Church is described in both the historical parts of the Word, and its prophetic parts: in the prophetic, by the atrocious deeds of the ~inEs, first of those of the Israelites, and afterwards of those of the Jews, by whom and under whom the land is said to have been profaned. But it is needless to recite them, because they

68


are well known; only those passages from the prophetic parts shall be adduced in which the consummation and devastation of that Church are treated of. In these passages by " earth" and "land," "Zion," "Jerusalem," "cities," "mountains," " hills," " valleys," and" rivers," similar things arc signified as above (n. 55).

The following arc from the prophetic parts of the Word:

I saw the earth, and behold it was empty and void; and towards the heavens, and their light was not. ... I saw, when, behold, Carmel ' was a desert, and all the cities were desolated at the presence of Jehovah.... For thus hath Jehovah said, The whole land shall be wasteness, yet will I not make a consummation. For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be blackened. . . . Thou, therefore, that art vastated, what wilt thou do? (Jer. iv 23-31; v 10,18).

The lion hath come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of nations . . . hath gone forth from his place, to reduce the land to a waste. . .. In that day ... the heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes; and the priests shall be astonished (Jer. iv 7, 9).

In that day, every place where there were a thousand vines shall be . . . for thorns and briars, . . . because all the land shall be thorns and briars (Isa. vii 23, 24).

A voice of the cry of the shepherds and . . . of the powerfu I ones of the flock, for J ehovah layeth waste their pastures: whence the sheepfolds of peace were devastated. Jehovah hath forsaken His tabernacle, for their land was reduced to a desolation (Jer. xxv 36-38).

This house shall be like Shiloh, and Jerusalem shall be a devastation (Jer. xxvi 9; xxvii 17).

Jerusalem, and all the cities of Judah, shall be a desolation and a devastation in this day, because of the wickedness of your works; ... your land is become a desolation, an astonishment and a curse (Jer. xliv 2, 6, 22) .

I will give the land to devastation, because they have committed transgression (Ezek. xv 8).

They shall be devastated in the midst of the devastated lands, and her cities in the midst of the desolated cities. ... Then I will make the rivers drought, . . . the land into the hand of the evil, and I will vastate the land and the fulness thereof (Ezek. xxx 7, 12).

When I shall extinguish thee, I will cover the heavens, and will make the stars thereof black. I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine; ... and I will set darkness upon the land ... when I shall bring on thy breaking up (Ezek. xxxii 7-9);

I See R.V . margin. 69

saj THE CORONIS

in like manner as the Lord foretold concerning the consummation of the present Christian Church (Matt. xxiv 29).

I will give Mount Seir to wasteness and to devastation.... I will make thee the wastes of eternity ... (Ezek. xxxv 3, 4, 7, 9, 12, 14, 15).

In that day they shall bring up a proverb against you ... and say, In vastating we are vastated (Micah ii ,4).

Fear and the pit have taken hold of us, devastation and breaking up (Lam. iii 47).

The mountain of Zion is vastated (Lam. v 18). Thine iniquity is consummated, 0 daughter ofZion (Lam. iv 22). Woe to the sinful nation, heavy with iniquity; ... they have

provoked the Holy One of Israel. ... From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness; . . . your land is a solitude.... The daughter of Zion is left as a tent in a vineyard, ... as a besieged city (Isa. i 4-8, and following verses).

What will ye do in the day of visitation and devastation? ... Consummation is finished, justice is overwhelmed; for the Lord Jehovih is making a consummation and decision in the whole land (Isa. x 3, etc., 22, 23).

I have heard a consummation and decision from the Lord Jehovih of hosts in the whole land (Isa. xxviii 22).

The prophet fell upon his face, and said, Lord J ehovih! Thou art making a consummation with the remnants of Israel (Ezek. xi 13).

My sanctuary was profaned, and the land ofIsrael was devastated (Ezek. xxv 3).

Were even Noah, Daniel and Job in the midst of it, ... they only shall be delivered, but the land shall become a desolation (Ezek. xiv 14, 16).

4 The completion of the consummation of the Israelitish and Jewish Church was accomplished when the Lord our Saviour, after receiving the sponge of vinegar, cried out upon the cross,

It is consummated (John xix 29, 30);

_. foe it is said in David : They gave gall for My meat, and in My thirst they gave Me

vinegar to drink: .•. let their habitation be devastated (Psalm\~ lxix 21, 25).

And in another place:

Without cause have they hid for Me the pit of the net; without cause have they digged for My soul. Let devastation come upon him before he is aware; ... let him fall into devastation.... Rescue My soul from their devastators, and My only one,-that is, the Church-from the lions' whelps (Psalm xxxv 7, 8, 17).

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I will make Jerusalem heaps, a habitation of dragons; I will reduce th e cities of Judah to a waste; ... behold, I am feeding them, even this people, with wormwood, and I will give them waters of gall to drink (Jer. ix 11-15).

Full consummation, after this, is described in Hosea thus :

The sons of Israel shall sit many days: no king, no prince, no sacrifice, no image, no ephod, and no teraphim (Hosea iii 4).

Such is their state at the present day. There is no need to adduce more passages. The passages in which the vastation, desolation and consummation of this Church are further mentioned, shall be only named: as, for example, Isa. ix 13-21; xxii 4-14: Jer. vii 31-34; xxv 33; xlvii 4: Ezek, xiii 14, 15; xiv 8, 15; xix 7; xxv 12, 13; xxvi 2; xxix 9, 10, 12; xxxii 12, 15: Joel i 15-20; ii 3; iii 19: Nahum i 8, 9: Zeph. i 15; ii 9 : Lam. i 16: Psalm lxxiii 17-19; lxxiv 3. The devastated are also called " thrust through" 1 (Ezek. xi 6, 7; xxi 30, 34; xxvi 6; xxviii 8,23; xxxi 17, 18; xxxii 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32; xxxv 8 : Zeph. ii 12: Lam. iv 9: Psalm lxix 27: and in other places). They are said to be "thrust through" because a " swo;:,.q;: by which this is done, signifies falsity destroying truth. 59.~BEFORE THIS STATE, AND AFTER IT, PROMISE WAS

MADE OF THE COMING OF THE LORD J EHOVIH INTO THE WORLD, AND OF A NEW CHURCH AT THAT TIME, WHEREIN JUSTICE AND JUDGMENT SHOULD REIGN. It is known, from the reading of the prophetic Word of the Old Testament, that, in many places there, the Coming of our Lord is foretold, and also that the Lord is there designated by various names; as, that He is called "Jehovah Zebaoth," "Jehovah our Righteousness," " J ehovah our Saviour and Redeemer," "Lord Jehovih," "Adonai," " Immanuel " or " God with us," " God of Israel," " Holy One of Israel," "Rock of Israel," " M essia h " or "Anointed of Jehovah,"" King,"" David,"" Mighty One ofJacob," " Shepherd of Israel," "High Priest," "Priest after the order of Me1chizedech," "Son of God," "Son of Man," "Angel of Jehovah," "Angel of the Covenant," the "Grand Prophet," " Shiloh " ; also, in Isaiah, " Counsellor," " Prince of Peace," "Father of Eternity"; and in the New Covenant, "Jesus Christ," and" Son of God." That our Lord's Commg was foretold in very many places in the Prophets, will be seen from the predictions adduced in the following pages. But it may be asked,

1 In most of these passages our ordinary Bibles have" slain "; but Young's Literal Translation rif the Bible has" pierced," which , of course, is the same as " thrust through."

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Why was such frequent prediction of His Coming made? T~e

were many reasons, some regarding the Israelitish and Jewish people, and some regardmg-rrie ChrIStian eople aftertIle""m.

2 But we will recount the reasons which especially regarded the Israelitish and Jewish people. The First was that, by His being named and recalled to mind, they might be kept in the interior worship of Jehovah, since, without that, there was no entrance ofJ ehovah to anyone of them, nor approach of anyone of them to Jehovah. The case was then as it is at this day,

that no one hath seen God the Father; the Only Begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath set Him forth (John i 18; v 37);

and again:

No one cometh to the Father, but by Me (John xiv 6).

The Second reason regarding that people was, that the representative types of their Church, which all looked to our Lord and to the Church to be established by Him after His Coming, might serve them as so many signs and symbols of their worship; consequently, that they might acknowledge Him when He came, and suffer themselves to be introduced into the internals of the worship of Him, and, together with the nations that surrounded them, become Christians. The Third reason was that, by calling to mind His Coming, somewhat of the notion, or idea, of the resurrection and eternal life might find entrance into their thoughts. For who of them could not have thought interiorly in himself, or in his heart, " What is the Messiah to us after we are dead, unless we return then, see His glory and reign with Him?" From this source was derived their superstition, that, at that time, they were to be raised again, everyone out of his grave, and return to the land of Canaan. The Fourth reason was that they might be succoured and healed in th~ir state ofvastation and oppression, when they were in temptations and afflictions, like their fathers and brethren in the wilderness (Num. xxi 1-9; John iii 14, 15); for, without such succour and healing, they would have cast aspersions against J ehovah, and departed, in crowds, from the representative worship of Him to idolatry.

3 Indeed, temptations and afflictions, in the state of vastation and oppression, are nothing else than combats of the Lord with the Devil respecting man, that is, respecting his soul, which is to possess it; of which state it may be said, that the God of Israel, or the Lord the Messiah, stands on one side, and Beelzebub and the Serpent, the Devil, on the other, and that the latter casts

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forth out of his mouth blasphemies like a flood against the Lord, but that the Lord turns them aside and bears them away, and thus delivers man from spiritual captivity and slavery. This combat is felt in man as if waged by himself. That temptation is such a combat, and that there is such a perception by man, and hence co-operation, I can avow, for, having often experienced it, I have known it perfectly. That it is carried on outside man, and is felt in him as if by himself, and that man is standing in the middle, and co-operates, is for the end that recompense may be ascribed to him when he conquers; but only that man conquers who looks to the Lord, and trusts in Him alone for help.

4 That everyone who calls upon the Lord in temptations, conquers, but that otherwise he yields, shall be illustrated by comparisons. It is like a ship hurled by storms near the rocks: unless the captain knows how to divert it from its danger, and to direct it to an outlet and thus to port, it must be lost. It is like a city besieged by enemies: unless there be escape or aid somewhere, the commander and his garrison become hopeless and disheartened, and yield themselves prisoners, and surrender their lives to the will of the enemy. It is like a person on a journey entering unawares into a cottage where there are robbers, unless, when he is shut in, a friend come and knock at the door, or show himself at the window, and thereby terrify those villains and rescue him from ill-treatment. It is like a person falling into a cave where there is a bear with cubs, or into a pit where there are a wolf and a leopard, if his father, or brother, on seeing this, do not immediately let down to him a ladder, or a rope, and draw him up thence. It is like a person who stands, or walks, in the day-time, in a thick fog, who consequently does not know which way to turn, unless he light a lamp, and thereby show himself the place where he stands or the way in which he should walk. It is like being in the depth of winter, and short of provisions, if not supported by the hope of a harvest to come, on the return of summer. So, again, it is like a person wandering at midnight in a wood, unless he comfort himself with the hope of day, and in that hope goes to lie down, and sleeps quietly till morning. It is also like one, who, for the sake of salvation, is desirous of being instructed in the things of the Christian Religion, and who meets with mitred doctors and laurelled teachers, who expound them by terms borrowed from metaphysics, and wrap them in mysteries, unless there be some other person to explain those terms, and thereby unravel the perplexities, and to set forth from the Word, thus from the Lord, the holy things of the

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Church, in clear light: would he not otherwise be bewildered by the falsities respecting faith, and the other dogmas which depend on the faith laid down, just as the links of a chain hang

5 together unbrokenly from a hook fixed to the wall? The case would be similar in temptations and the attendant infestations from satans, unless man looked trustingly to the Lord, and fully assured himself that the whole work and ability of deliverance are from Him alone. It is for these reasons that the Coming of the Lord is so frequently foretold in the Old Prophetic Word, and for the same reasons also the Lord is proclaimed in the New Evangelic and Apostolic Word, and his Second Coming foretold; concerning which see the statements following.

60. Now follow some things concerning the Coming of the Lord collected from the prophecies of the Old Word; namely:

Jehovah God said, Lo, I come; in the roll of th e Book it is written of Me (Psalm xl 7).

J ehovah God said to the serpent, . . . Be thou cursed; ... I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her Seed; ~nd H~_ shaH t~mple thy head-;--but thou shalt injure th e heel (Gen. iii 14, 15). \ ----r'he sceptre shall not depart from J udah, nor a law-giver from between his feet, until Shiloh come: to Him shall the cleaving of the peoples be (Gen. xlix 10)

the prophecy of the father, Israel, concerning his sons.

A Star shall rise out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall rise up out of Israel (N um . xxiv 17).

Jehovah thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet out of the midst of thy brethren, like unto Me; Him ye shall obey, . . . and I will put My words in His mouth; ... wh ence it shall come to pass, that the man who will not obey His words, I will require it of him (Deut. xviii 15-19).

The Lord Himself giveth you a sign, Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name, God with us (Isa. vii 14).

Unto us a Boy is born, unto us a Son is given, on whose shoulder shall be the government; His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, GOD, Hero, Father of Eternity, Prince of Peace: of the in crease of His government ... there shall be no end (Isa. ix 6, 7).

There shall come forth a shoot out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch out of his root shall bear fruit; . . . upon Him shall rest the spirit of wisdom and intelligence, th e spirit of counsel and might (Isa. xi I, 2).

In that day the nations shall seek the Root ofJesse, which standeth for an ensign of the peoples, and His rest shall be glory (Isa. xi 10).

Send ye the lamb of the Ruler of the land, from the rock toward 74


the wilderness: . . . His throne is established in mercy, and one shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David, judging, and seeking judgment, and hastening justice (Isa. xvi 1, 5).

It shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God for whom we have waited that He may deliver us; this is Jehovah for whom we have waited: we will exult and rejoice in His salvation (Isa. xxv 9; xxvi 8, 9).

The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of Jehovah, make plain in the desert a path for our God.... The glory of J ehovah shall be revealed; and all flesh shall see it together (Isa. xl 3, 5).

o Zion, thou evangelizer, get thee up upon the high mountain; o Jerusalem, ... thou that evangelizest, lift up thy voice with strength; say to the cities of Judah, Behold your God. Behold, the Lord J ehovih cometh in strength, and His arm shall rule for Him; behold His reward is with Him. . . . He shall feed His flock like a shepherd; He shall gather the lambs in His arm, and carry them in His bosom; He shall gently lead the sucklings (Isa. xl 9-11).

My people shall know My name in that day; for I am He that doth speak; Behold Me. How delightful upon the mountains are the feet of Him that evangelizeth, that causeth them to hear peace, that evangelizeth good, that causeth them to hear salvation, that saith unto Zion, Thy King reigneth.... They shall lift up the voice and sing; they shall see eye to eye that Jehovah is returned to Zion. He hath comforted His people, He hath redeemed Jerusalem: . . . all the ends of the land shall see the salvation of our God (Isa. lii 6-10).

Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; His reward is with Him, and the recompense of His work before Him (Isa. lxii 11).

Shout for joy and rejoice, 0 daughter of Zion; behold, I come, that I may dwell in the midst of thee; ... then many nations shall cleave to Jehovah (Zech. ii 10, 11).

Rejoice greatly, 0 daughter of Zion; shout, 0 daughter of Jerusalem; behold, thy King cometh to thee, just (Zech. ix 9).

Behold, the days come ... when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, who shall reign a King and prosper, and He shall execute judgment and justice in the land; ... and this is His name, ... Jehovah our Righteousness (Jer. xxxiii 5,6; xxiii 15, 16).

Behold, I send My angel, who shall prepare the way before Me; and the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to His temple, and the Angel of the covenant whom ye desire, behold, He shall come (Mal. iii 1).

Thou Bethlehem Ephratah, it is little that thou art among the thousands of Judah; out of thee shall One go forth unto Me, who will be Ruler in Israel, and whose goings forth are from of old, from the days of eternity.... He shall stand and feed the flock

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in the strength of J ehovah, . . . and shall increase even to the ends of the land (Micah v 2, 4).

I anoint My king upon Zion.... I will proclaim concerning the statute, Jehovah saith unto Me, Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee; ask of Me, and I will give the nations for Thine inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Thy possession . . . . Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish in the way; ... Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him (Psalm ii 6-12) .

Behold, the God of my salvation! I will trust and not be afraid. . . . Cry out and shout for joy, 0 inhabitant of Zion; for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee (I sa. xii 2, 6).

In that day a man shall look to his Maker, and his eyes shall have regard to the Holy One of Israel (Isa. xvii 7).

My Beloved had a vineyard in a horn of [the son of] oil (Isa. v l ), Jehovah Zebaoth, Him shall ye sanctify.... He shall be for

a sanctuary, although for a stone of stumbling, and for a rock of offence, .. . and for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitant of Jerusalem (Isa. viii 13, 14; Matt. xxi 42-44; Luke xx 17, 18).

The people that walked in darkness shall see a great light; they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them shall the light shine (Isa, ix 2).

Out of Zion .. . God shall shine forth; our God shall come, and shall not keep silence (Psalm 1 2, 3).

The vision is yet for the appointed time, and speaketh out to the end; yet it shall not lie: though He tarry, wait for Him; because He will surely come, He will not delay (Hab. ii 3).

o Jehovah, I have heard Thy fame; I have revered, 0 Jehovah, Thy work, ... make it present in the midst of the years. . . . God shall come from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of His praise. His brightness shall be as the light; rays [coming forth] from His hand; and there is the hiding of His strength (Hab. iii 2, 3, 4).

Thus said the Lord Jehovih, Behold, I will lay in ~iQ.v. for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-jstonejof wellestablished foundation; ... then I will set judgment to the rule, and righteousness to the plummet (Isa. xxviii 16, 17).

The Lord, appearing above the mercy-seat (Ezek. i 26-28), is described as to the Word, and is called" Lord Jehovih " (Ezek. ii 4; iii 11,27; iv 14; v 7,11; vi 3,11; vii 2, 5; viii 1). In Isaiah liii, throughout, the Lord is treated of, and the state of His life in the world is described by the following expressions: That He had no form nor comeliness; He was despised and not esteemed; He was wounded on account of our transgressions, an~d foiOi:ifiniquITies; ]enovan-causeathe mlqUlties of us all to meet in Him; He was led as a lamb to the slau hter; He was cut off out of the land ofthe li~ing; because He placed

76 --

OR APPENDIX TO TIlE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION [60

their uilt on His soul His days should be prolonged; also, for them He poured out His soul even unto death; He was numbered ) with the transgressors, and . interceded for the trans ressors (Isa. liii 1-12).

I have called Him forth in righteousness.... He shall build My city; and He shall send away My captivity, not for price nor for reward.. . . Verily, Thou art a God that hidest Thyself, 0 God of Israel the Saviour (Isa. xlv 13, 15).

I have caused My righteousness to draw near, ... and My Salvation shall not tarry (Isa. xlvi 13).

As for our Redeemer, Jehovah Zebaoth is His Name, and the Holy One oflsrael (Isa. xlvii 4).

o Jehovah, our Lord, how excellent is Thy Name in all the earth! giving to it honour above the heavens.... Thou hast caused Him to lack little compared with the angels, but Thou hast crowned Him with glory and honour; Thou hast made Him to have dominion over the works of Thy hands, Thou hast put all things under His feet (Psalm viii I, 5, 6, 9).

God . . . shall come down like rain among the herb. . . . He shall have dominion also from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth. The barbarians shall bow themselves before him, and his enemies shall lick the dust; the kings ofTarshish and of the Isles shall bring their present; the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer their gift; all kings shall bow themselves to him, all nations shall serve him; for he shall deliver the wretched, who hath no helper.... He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence: ... His name shall be to eternity; he shall have the name of a son 1 before the sun, and men shall be blessed in him. . . . Blessed be God, the God of Israel: . . . blessed be the name of his glory ... the whole earth shall be filled with his glory. Amen and Amen (Psalm Ixxii 6, 8, ID, 12, 18, 19).

I have made a covenant with My chosen.... Thy seed will I establish even to eternity, and I will build up Thy throne from generation to generation; ... and the heavens shall confess Thy wonders (Psalm Ixxxix 3, 4, 5).

* * * * * * *

[The rest is missing.]

I See for the word" son" A.V. margin.

77

INDEX OF SCRIPTURE REFERENCES *** The numbers of the verses being printed in heavy type, thus 1, 2, 3,

indicates that theuery words of the verses are qu oted in the paragraph mentioned. When the numbers of the verses are printed in thin type, thus I, 2, 3, it

indica tes that the substance of the verse is given, but not the very words. Thin Italic type, thus 1, 2, 3, signifies that the verses so indicated are merely

referred to--not quoted, either substantially or verbally.

REFERENCES TO THE WORD Genesis Exodus-continued

1,2 23 xx 1-18. 49 26,27 25 4,5 43

ii 7 25 5,6 35 8-10, 11, 12, 16, 17 27 xxiv 7,8 50

iii 1-6 29 xxv 40 37 5 38 XXVI 30 37 6 9-13, 14-19,23 14 14, 15 15 22

33 31 25 60 37 26

Numbers XI 5,6,32-35

XXI 1-9 XXIV 5,6

17

22 59 27 60

vi

ix

xii

5-8 9 1 19 1-7

34 35 35 35 49

Deuteronomy v 8,9

9,10. xviii 15, 18, 19. xxxii 2-4

43 35 60 53

xiii xiv

xvii

10 (chapter cited) 1-14 .

41 41 50

15, 18, 30 .

Joshua

2

xviii 1-3 49 Book cited. 41 2 49 3 seq. and 11 49 3 49 v 13,14 49 13,14,17,19,20,22,26, xxiv 24,25 50

xix 33 .

I 18

49 49 49

Judges Book cited. 41

(chapter cited) 41 Samuel xlix 10 60 xxiii 3 2

3,4 5,53 Exodus

iii 1,2-4, 13, 14 16,17

. 49 49

1 Kings 1-13.x 41

xiv (chapter cited) 34,41 Psalms XVI 31 20 i 3 7

xvii 6 2 ii 6,7,8, 12 60' xix 9-11 , 16, 18 49 viii 1,5,6,9 . 60

78

INDEX OF SCRIPTURE REFERENCES

Psaltns--£ontinued XIX 14 2 xxx 5 5

xxxv 7,8,17 58 xl 7 60

xlvi 5 5 I 2,3 60

10,11 3 li 10 23

Ixviii 9,10. 3 Ixix 21,25 58

26 58 Ixxii 6, 8, 10, 12, 18, 19 . 60

Ixxviii 17,19 58 !xxiv 3 58

18,19 3 Ixxviii 35 2 Ixxxix 3,4,5 60

cii 18 23 civ 28,30 23

cxviii 22 2

Isaiah 4,6,7,8 58

v 1 60 3,4,6,9, 12 56

vi 9-12. 56 vii 14 60

18,19 56 23,24 58

viii 7,8 34 13,14 60 14,15 2

IX 2 60 6,7 60 13--21 58

x 3,22,23 58 xi 1,2 60

10 60 xii 2,6 60

xvi 1,5 60 xvii 4-6,9-14 . 56

7 60 14 5

XXI 11,12 5 xxii 4-9 56 XXll 4-14. 58 xxiv 1, 3, 5, 12 56 xxv 9 60

xxvi 8,9 60 xxviii 15 34

16,17 .2,60 22 58

xxix 10-12 56

Isaiah-continued xxx 28 34

XXXlll 8,11. 56 xl 3,5 60

9,10,11 60 xli 20 23

xlii 5 23 14,15 56

xliii 1,7 23 xlv 12,18 23

13,15 60 xlvi 13 60

xlvii 4 60 xlix 17,19 56

li 3 27 19 56

lii 6-10. 60 liii 1-12 . 60

(chapter cited) 60 Ivi 8,9 3

Iviii 11 27 lix 2, 5, 7, 9, 10 56

!xii 11 60 Ixiv 10,11 56 Ixv 17 14

17,18 23 Ixvi 22 14,23

Jeretniah ii 15 56 iv 7,9 58

13,14 56 23, 26-28, 30 58 23,27,28. 23

v 10-18 58 vi 7,8,26 56

vii 31-34 58 ix 11,15 58

19 56 x 20,21 56

22 56 xii 10-13 56

xviii 15, 16 56 xix 8 56

XXlll 5,6 60 xxv 9-11, 18 56

11 56 33 58 36-38 58

XXVI 9 58 xxvii 17 58 XXXI 12 27

XXXlll 15,16 60 20,21,25. 5

79


J eremiah-colllinu3d xliv 2, 6, 22 56

2,6,22 58 xlvii 2 34

4 58 xlviii 3,5,8,9, IS, 18 56

29 56

Lamentations 16 58

III 47 58 iv 9 58

22 58 v 18 58

Ezekiel 26-28 60

ii 4 60 III 1l,27 60 iv 14 60

17 56 v 7, 11. 60

vi 3, 11. 60 6 56 14 56

vii 6,7,10 5 2,5 60

VUl I 60 x (chapter cited ) 56

xi 6,7 58 13 58

XII 19,20 56 Xlll 11,13 34

14, IS 58 xiv 8, IS. 58

14,16 58 xv 8 58

xix 7 58 xxi 30,34 58

xxiii 33 56 xxv 3 58

12, 13 58 xxvi 2 58

6 58 xxviii 8,23 . 58

12, 13 27 12, 13, 14, 15 41 13, 15 23

xxix 9, 10, 12 . 58 xxx 7, 12. 58

xxxi 3,5,6, 13 3 3,6,8,9 41 8,9 27 17, 18 58

Ezekiel-colltinued xxxii 7-9 58

8 5 12, IS 58 20-24, 28--32 58

xxxiii 24,28,29 . 56 xxxv 3, 4,7,9, 12, 14, IS 58

8 58 xxxix 17,21 3

Daniel 11 31-35,44. 2

32 37 IV 7-13. 3

vii ~ 4-7 , 9,10,13,14 3 Vlll 14,26 5

IX 26 34 xii 7 5

Hosea 11 18,19 3 iii 4 58 VI 2,3 53

Vll 13 56 x 14 56

xii 2 56

Joel 6,7 56 10 56 15-20 58

ii 3 58 20 56 21,22 3

III 19 58

Amos v .9 56

20 5 vii 9 56

Vlll 9 5

Micah ii 4 58 v 2,4 60

vi 13, 16 56 VII 13 56

Nahum i 8 34

8,9 58

Habakkuk 3 56

11 3 60 III 2-4, 13, 18, 19 60

80


Zephaniah i 15

ii 9 12

iii 5

Haggai i 4,9

Zechariah ii 10,11

vii 14 ix 9

X 3,4 XI 2,3

XIV 7

Malachi iii 1

Matthew ii 1-12.

xxi 42 42-44

XXIV 15,39 29

xxv 13

Mark 12,13

XIJ 10,11 XUl 35 XVI 15

Luke XVI 26

xvii 34 xx 17,18

17,18

John 1-4 12, 13

REFERENCES Acts

iv 11,12

1 Corinthians x 4

2 Corinthians v 17

Galatians iv 4

58 58 58

5

56

60 56 60

2 56 5

60

41 2

60 34 58

5

3 2 5 3

20 5 2

60

54 25

J otui-s-continued i 18 59

iii

v vi

viii viii

3 21 3, 4, 9, 10, 12 . 54 14,15 59 27 25 37 59 31, 32, 49-51, 58 22 56 25 12 54 56,58 49

ix 4 5 XlI 35,36,46. 54 xiv 6 59

20 51 20 15,25

xv 4,5 15 4,5,7 25 5 25 5,6 47

xvii 23,26 15 26 25

XIX 29,30 58

Apocalypse ii

iii X

XlI

xiii XVll

xxi

XXlI

7 27 14 3 6 5 9 32 14 5 (chapter cited) 57 1,2 3 4 33 14 48 1 14,23 2 18 9 48 23-25 5 1,2 7 16 5

TO THE APOSTOLIC WORD Ephesians

2 i 10 5 ii 20-22 2

.2, 53 1 Peter

ii~ 2 3

2 Peter 5 iii 13 14,23

81

THE CONSUMMATION OF THE AGE, THE SECOND COMING OF THE LORD,

AND THE NEW CHURCH

THE CONSUMMATION OF THE AGE, THE SECOND COMING

OF THE LORD, AND THE NEW CHURCH: 1

[being, apparently, a sketch oJ the last work projected by Swedenborg]

The Consummation of the Age, foretold by the Lord in Daniel, chapter v, and in Matthew, chapter [xxiv] -by means oJ articles.

The Second Coming of the Lord, foretold by the Lord in the Prophets, the Evangelists, and by the Apostles-by means oJ articles.

The Lord's New Church, announced by the New Jerusalem in the Word of both Testaments, and described in the Apocalypseby means oJ articles.

Invitation to the whole Christian world to that Church, and exhQrt;.tion to recei;"ctheLord worthily.

One memorable matter: that all things of the New Church ~pe-ear b.e[ore every enlightened man, in the light of truth; RI!!, ~oo n as subjected to the present-day orthodoxy of the Church, the light of truth becomes shade.

T he particulars of the doctrine of the New Church are to be set forth in order; likewise, those which are of the orthodoxy of the old.

1 The original of this document was at one time in the Library of Count Engestr6m; but its present whereabouts is unknown. It is supposed to have been removed to the Royal Library in Stockholmvbut is not to be found there. The only Latin text availableis in an artlcHy the late Rev. lames Hyde, in The New-Church Magazine for 1903, p. 234.

85

® THE ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION, THE CONSUMMATION

OF THE AGE, AND THE FULNESS OF TIME

1. Concerning the Consummation of the Age, and the Abomination of Desolation at the time.

2. There is no cognition 1 of God, but such as is erroneous, false, and entirely worthless; no cognition whatever of Omnipotence.

3. No cognition of the Lord.

4. No cognition of the Divine Human, but such as is historical.

5. No cognition of the Holy Spirit.

6. Hence, no cognition of the Divine Trinity.

7. No cognition of the holiness of the Word.

8. No cognition of Redemption, but such as is false.

9. No cognition of Faith, but such as is perceived by a blind man, which is n0 I!.e. It is similar with all things which depend upon that faith, and which from" God" are called Theological, from the "Church" Ecclesiastical, and from the "Spirit of God," by which they are inspired, Spiritual.

10. No cognition of Charity.

11. No cognition of Free-determination; and hence no human will; and therefore man is not man.

12. No cognition of Repentance, except oral; which is not Repentance.

13. No cognition of the Remission of Sins, and hence no cognition of Conversion.

The term cognitiones, here used in the Latin, is translated "cognitions " to distinguish these knowledges from those that are meant by the Latin scientifica also used in the Writings of Swedenborg. Two of the meanings most commonly associated with cognitiones are (i) a particular species of knowledge, as knowledges of the Word, of good and truth , or of spiritual things (A.C. 24, 3665,9945 ; N.].H.D. 51; H.H. 111,351 ,469,474,517,518); and (ii) a higher tYPL.-Qfj=ledg.e which is from understanding and perceptio-;i" (tLQ,.J486-14[l; H.H. 110, ,353). ~

86

1

THE ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION

14. No cognition of Reformation and Regeneration. 15. No cognition of the Imputation of good and evil; thus,

no Judgment. 16. No cognition of Heaven and of Hell. 17. No cognition of Man's state after death; and hence no

cognition of salvation and eternal life. 18. No cognition of Baptism and the Holy Supper, which are

scarcely anything but ceremonies. 19. No cognition of the Law but such as is erroneous. 20. No cognition of the Gospel-which is, that man can be

regenerated, and thus saved-except such as is erroneous. 21. There is no doctrine of Theology; thus consummation is

so complete that not any truth whatever remains; which is why the Christian Religion is rent into so many heresies.

22. The Catechism is not anything. 23. The whole Word is not anything. 24. It follows hence that there is ng Religion, Church,

Worship, Ministry; 25. Because from all that precedes, it follows that there is

mere Predestination. 26. It hence follows that in the above Church there remains

not a grain of truth; thus, that it is the Abomination of Desolation.

27. The sayings of the Word burst with the sound of a loud report, when they are sent towards heaven by those who have studied modern orthodoxy-from experience.

28. Falsities ~ust b~~~a<!ic.!!!~Q _befor~ truths are implanted. 29. The "fulness of time" is the consummation, because

time signifies the state of the Church; wherefore we read in Revelation, " time shall be no longer," neither morning nor day, but night; neither spring nor summer, but winter. The like is signified by " for a time, times, and half a time."

30. This state of the Church was foretold by the Lord through Daniel, and in Matthew, and in seven chapters in the Apocalypse, which are to be quoted.

31. The religion of this Church is not to be implanted by means of miracles, but by the Word, and by means of ligh.t therein from the Lord. This light enters and remains to eternity; but religion by means of miracles extinguishes thi s light, and, because it places the miracles before itself, therefore it perishes with a loud report (compare Matt. xxiv 24, 25).

c .-7 87


[32.] I have spoken with Paris,' whose miracles occupy two volumes, as to how he wrought his miracles-that it was done through spirits who entered into man's memory.

I Franc;ois de Paris, who is referred to here and in " Invitation to the New Church," nn. 29 and 55, and in Swedenborg's letter to Venator, was a Jansenist. The miracles at his tomb in the cemetery of St Medard, Paris, led to petitions for his canonization. See the volume entitled Recueil des Miracles Optfres au Tombeau de M. de Paris, • . . Diacre, MDCCXXXII. The petitions were ignored. The first of the two volumes referred to by Swedenborg was published in 1737, and bears the title, La Veri/! des Miracles Optfres par l'Tntercession de M. de Paris. Demontree conire M. l'Archev'que de Sens. Ouorage dedi! au Ray par M. de Monigeron Conseiller au Parlement, A Utrecht chez; les Librairies de la Compagnie, MDCCXXXVII. The second volume, without the dedication to the King, and referring also to the Convulsionnaires, was published in 1741. A third volume followed in 1747. See article by the Rev. E. J. E. Schreck, in The New-Church Review of Boston, Mass., D.S.A., for October 1906.

88


1. The Consummation of the Age, and the Abomination of Desolation at the time.

2. No cognition of God except what is erroneous; therefore, also, no cognition whatever concerning Omnipotence.

3. No cognition of the Lord. 4. No cognition of the Holy Spirit. 5. Hence, no cognition of the Divine Trinity. 6. No cognition of the holiness of the Word. 7. No cognition of Redemption. 8. No cognition of Faith. 9. No cognition of Charity. 10. No cognition of Free-determination. 11. No cognition of Repentance. 12. No cognition of the Remission of Sins, and hence no

cognition of Conversion. 13. No cognition of Regeneration. 14. No cognition ofImputation. IS. No cognition of Heaven and Hell. 16. No cognition of the state of Man after death; and hence

no cognition of salvation and eternal life. 17. No cognition of Baptism. 18. No cognition of the Holy Supper. 19. No cognition of the Law except what is erroneous. 20. No cognition of the Gospel-which is, that man can be

regenerated, and thus saved-except what is erroneous. [21.] There is no doctrine of Theology; thus the con

summation is so complete that not any truth remains; which is why the Christian Religion is rent into so many heresies, concerning which . . .

89

WHAT THE" CONSUMMATION" AND" DESOLATION" IS, AND

THE "FULNESS OF TIME"

1. There is no cognition of God except what is false, and entirely worthless.

2. No cognition of the Divine Human of the Lord except what is historical.

3. No recognition of Redemption except what is false. 4. No cognition of Faith, except such as is seen by a blind

man, which is none: it is similar with all things that depend on this faith, and are called Theological from "God," and Ecclesiastical from the "Church," and Spiritual from the " Spirit" of God, by whom they are inspired.

5. There is no Charity. 6. No Free-determination, thus no human will, and thus man

is not man. 7. No Repentance, except oral; which is not Repentance. -. No cognition of the Remission of Sins. 8. No Reformation and Regeneration. 9. No Imputation of good and evil, thus no Judgment. 10. Baptism and the Holy Supper scarcely anything but

ceremonies. 11. The Catechism not anything. 12. The whole Word not anything. 13. Hence it follows that there is not any Religion, Church,

Worship, Ministry. 14. Since from all these it follows that there is mere Pre

destination, 15. it follows, that in that Church there remains not a grain

of truth; thus, that it is the Abomination of Desolation. 16. H ence are so many heresies. 17. The things said in the Word, when sent towards heaven

by those who have studied present-day orthodoxy, burst with a loud report-from experience.

18. Falsities must be eradicated before truths are implanted. [19.] The "fulness ciC-time''iSCons~ation, because

" time" signifies the state of the Church; wherefore we read in 90

CONSUMMATION, DESOLATION, FULNESS OF TIME

the Apocalypse: "There shall be time no longer," neither morning nor day, but night; neither spring nor summer, but winter. The like is signified by, " for a time, times, and half a time."

[20.] This state of the Church was foretold by the Lord through Daniel, and in Matthew, and in seven chapters in the Apocalypsewhich are to be quoted.

[21.] The religion of this [i.e., the New] Church is not to be implanted by miracles, but by the Word, and by light from the Lord therein. This light enters and remains to eternity; but religion through miracles extinguishes this light; and because it places the miracles before itself (compare Matt. xxiv 24, 25), it therefore perishes with a loud report.

[22.] I spoke with Paris.! of whose miracles there are two volumes, concerning how he wrought his miracles: that it was done through spirits who entered into the memory of the man, and [persuaded] him; very many things concerning them. Still, however, Paris did not apply himself to any religion, and hence did not know anything of the truth of the Church; wherefore he is at the present day with those who are in hell.

lSee footnote on p . 88.

91

v

CONCERNING THE CONSUMMATION OF THE AGE, AND

CONCERNING THE ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION

No cognition of God. No cognition of the Lord. No cognition of the Holy Spirit. No cognition of the holiness of the Word. No cognition of Redemption. No cognition of Faith. No cognition of Charity. No cognition of Free-determination. No cognition of Repentance. No cognition of the Remission of Sins and Conversion. No cognition of Regeneration. No cognition of Imputation. No cognition of Heaven and Hell. No cognition of Man's State after death, and hence of

Salvation. No cognition of Baptism. No cognition of the Holy Supper. It hence follows that there is no Religion, and hence no

Church. Concerning the Lord's Advent. Concerning Miracles. Invitation to the whole world to the New Church. -That there is one Shepherd and one flock; that Jehovah

is one.

92

INVITATION TO THE NEW CHURCH

!J 3

INVITATION TO THE NEW CHURCH I

THERE is no Church truly such, unless God is One, and He, Jehovah God, under a human form.-And thus God is Man, and Man God.

The doctrinals contained in THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION }\\ J a ree wi th the doctrinals of those Of the Roman Cath olic Church, ~ an wiJh_t H:_doc.trinalLoLthos.e_~mong the Protestants who acknowledgL~--p~r§..<m.aLlllli.Q!Li.!! Christ and a p-roach Christ, aIld tak~~ ..!:!~ari s t in two kinds.

Various causes why now, for the first time, and not before, those truths of the Church [have been revealed]; among which ~s this, _~~~a new Church is not instituted before the former

}I Church is being-ccmsumiiiiifeCI .- - -- lhe-Divine ProvIaence in these matters:

From the heresies spread abroad after the time of the Apostles.

Why the Romish Church was permitted. Why the separation from it took place, and the causes why

it was an unworthy mother. Why the Greek Church separated from the Romish.

Various things concerning miracles; that they have destroyed the Church,-also from the Lord's words in Matt. xxiv.

All things tended to the invocation of men who were called saints.

This Church is not instituted and established through miracles, ut through the revelation or the spiritual sense [of the Word],

and throu h the introduction of :rpy s irit an d a t the same time o ml 0 y, mto tne spInua woiIO, so. tha1(!)might there know wh ,:t - eaven and hell are, an atc.!)might imbibe from the Lord immediately in light the truths of faith, where y man IS ~ led to eternal li~. - . . .

The Advent of the Lord-from the Word and the creeds. Invitation to the New Church that men should go t~he

Lord-from/Rev. xxijand xxii; and also from Chap. i, etc., etc.

1 Latin text in Volume recently returned from Upsala to The Swedenborg Society and entitled Opuscula Varia Swedenborgii, VoJ. n. Aug. Nordenskold. Also in Immanuel Tafe1's Diarium Spiriiuale, App. vii, pp . 142-160.

95

1-7] INVITATION TO THE NEW CHURCH

Hereafter men are not to be styled Evangelicals, R eformed, and still less Lutherans and Calvinists, but Christians.

Many things concerning miracles. 1. That in Christ Jesus, Man is God, and God Man, appears

evidently from the Lord's words to His Father,

All Thine are Mine, and all Mine are Thine (John xvii IQ).

From" all Mine are Thine," it appears that Man is God ; and from" all Thine are Mine," that God is Man.

2. During man's Eregenera tionl the light of heaven, and at the same time the heat of heaven, is instilled into natural light; which two constitute, as it were, a new soul by means of which man is formed by the Lord. This ligh t and heat are [email protected] through the higher mind, which is called t~ sQiritual rIllil9. By virtue of this instilling, or insertion, man becomes a new creature, and becomes more enli~_and more intelligent in the things of the Church, and in the reading of the Word; and this is the new understanding and the new will. By means of this light and this heat, man is afterwards led by the Lord and from natural becomes spiri tual.

r (j) There is a still higher or more interior light and heat, which is called celestial. This is inserted and instilled into the former spiritual light and heat; ~is are the angels of the third heaven, who are called celestial. (£> This insertion may be exhibited by a comparison; namely,

by the grafting and budding of trees, in that the grafts receive [the sap] inwardly in themselves, according to their form, etc. ~ It is to be clearly shown that with.9"!~J the Lord's Advent,

no one could have been regenerated, and hence saved; and that this is meant by " the Lamb taking away the sins of the world." This may be evident from the state of the sl?iriEual world before the Lord's coming; which was such that not any truth of faith nor good of chari could ass from the Lord to man. (This is to be I lustrated by th e influx of trut an 00 into evil spirits, into the hinder part 0 t err heads, etc.),

6. Miracles close the internal man, and take away all the. free determination by means of which, and in which, man is regenerated. Free determination belongs properly to the internal man; a~d when this is closed up, man becomes external an_d natural, and such a man does not see any spiritual truth. Mira~~s also are like curtains and bars lest anything might enter. But this bar, or this bolt, is gradually broken, and all truths get dispersed.

7. By the Church of the present day it is declared, in the words 96

mailto:[email protected]

INVITATION TO THE NEW CHURCH [7-11

of Paul, that faith enters by the hearing of the Word; and some add, by a certain meditation from the Word. But by this is to be understood that truths ought to be drawn from the Word, and that man ought to live according to them. Then man approaches the Lord, who is the Word and the5ru th~ and receives faith; for all truths are from the Word, which is spiritual light. Thus faith is acquired; because faith is of truth, and truth is of faith, and no_thing is to be be lieved exce t truth. )

8. There are numberless CV1s In er ror y In man; yea, t ere a re numberless evils in each several lust. Every lust of which

( man becomes conscious is a mass and heap of many things. These man does not see, but only the one mass. When, therefore, man by repentance r:.emoves this, the Lord, who sees the

(. int~r:i~a!1ti inmost things ofme~.> r:.e~~:,~s those interior things. Unless, therefore, man approaches the Lord, he labours illvain to ~e himself The case herein is the same as that described in tEe Memorable Relation concerning Turtles (see THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, n. 462).

9. A man who has thoroughly confirmed himself in the faith and doctrine of the present-day Church, may make no account of repentance, of the law of the Decalogue, nor of works and charity. For he can sa , " I cannot do good from myself; these things are included in faith, whence they proceed one by one without my knowing it "; and so forth. This, also, is the source 1 of the naturalism which prevails at the present time.

10. The" fulness of time" also signifies consummation and desolation: the reason is that " time " signifi es the sta te of the

l

~h (see Rev. x 6; and in Ezekiel). The same also is signified by " a time, times, and half a time " [see Rev. xii 14; Dan. vii 25; xii 7]. Times in the world are spring, summer, autumn; and the fulness of them is winter. Times as to light are morning, noon, evening; and the f~ss of these is n~ht, etc., etc. This is meant by the Lord's coming being in " t e fulness of time," \ or of " t1mes " ; that 1S, wh en there is no long<;£. a ny trut h of \ faith and good of charity remaining. (Concerning , c the 1U:rnFss I

of time," see"Rom. xi 12;25;Ga1. iv 4, and, especially, Ephes. i 9, 10; Gen. xv 16).

11. The presence of the Lord's love is with those who are in faith in Him. This may be clearly understood from the fact that place cannot be predicated of love, nor of faith; for each is spiritual. That the Lord Himself is present is manifest from the consideration that what is s iritual also has no place. It was ever so in my own case, when I was in a spintua 1 ea. In a__word, pre~ence in the spiri!].l.'!L...orld is accordLI:.!&-.1Q...love.

97


Wherefore He is omnipresent; it is not a matter of moving about: it is in place, but not [a proceeding] througl~_J~lace.

It is in space and in extense, but not through space and through extense.

12. The desolation of the truth of the Church may be compared with the consummations on earth: namely, heat and all those seasons [see n. 10, above] are consum mated by winter, ,Ul~

t~n comes sJ2tiyg; and light on earth is consummated by nigi}t, ancr then comes morning. Wherefore, the Lord said to those unde;.=me altar,

[that they should rest yet. for a little time, till their fellOW.servants, and their brethren, who should be killed as the were, should be fulfilled (Rev. vi 11) .

(Many passages are to be adduced from the Apocalypse, to the effect.rhar the Church has been devastated, even dow n to last 1 thin.g"s.)

13. At the present day, the union ofsoul and body is unknown. This is owing to the hypothesis of the learned, es ecially that of t~Cartesiansand others, that the soul is a substance separate

\ from tJlelj()ay, in some place or other; when yet the soul isth-e ,]inmost man; consequently, is man from head to ~l. Thence it is that, according to the ancients, the soul is in the whole, and in every part thereof, and that in whatever part the soul is not inmostly, there the life of man is not. By virtue of this union )

, it is that a ll things of the soul are of the body, and all thin~of ~ the body are of the soul; as the Lord~d concerning His ~

Father, that all His things are the Father's, and that all the Father's things are His [John xvii 10]. Thence it is that the Lord is God, even as to the flesh (Rom. ix 5; - C6loss. ii 9); and that [He said],

" the Father in Me," and" I in the Father" [John xiv 10, 11],

thus that they are one. o.@The human mind is of three degrees, which are the 0§~a])the spiritual, and_th~ natural. In the first degree is the ~; in the second, the s irit or mind, in the third is the ~.

Iris the same thing, whether you say that man's mind is of tree degrees, or that man himself is. For that part of the body which is in the beginnings-thus where its first is-is called the mind. The remaining parts are propagated and continue therefrom. What is the mind, if only in the head, except something separated or alien, and in which the mind does not exist by continuation? Let autopsy settle it : The origins of the fibres are the little glands, so-called,of-ihe cortical substance; thence

98

INVITATION T O THE NEW CHURCH [14-18

proceed the fibres; and these, bundled together into nerves, descend and pass throu h the whole body, and arrange and construct it. (T he celestial degree in which is the soul or inmost ~, is the form of ove 0 t e spintual degree, in whIch is the

" ind or spirit: this is the intermedIate man, and is a semblance I J ~ f wisdom from love; the third degree, in whi ch is the body,

\ which is the ultimate man is the containant of both' a art from itJ-~ t~.o~or::rru:r geSI.ees WO~ , p!1ot subsist. '.nuscan be further shown from the three heavens, the celestial, the spirity.al, and the natural, where such men are. VVIiirefore the angels of the high~avens are invisible to the angels of the lower if the latter approach from their heavens.® Thence it may be clearly seen thaUhe body_exists through

Jthe soul, as a tree from its , seed. Hence also it IS that a tree derives ItS-qualIty from the seea. Inasmuch, therefore, as the\\ soul of Christ is from the Divine essence, It follows that HISiJOdy ) is also. ~ All theologians, when preaching, know nothing of the falsities of .their religion. For they preach that God is one; that the Saviour is to be adored; that man, therefore, ought tQ believe in the Word and in what is preached; that he ought to exercise charity, and perform repentance, so as to desist from evils. While so reaching, they remember nothing about three Gods, ' iibout thei~ qly~ic.iI fiijl li, -'!._ClUt lIIlpotence ~n s iritual( things, and about all the rest. But let them know, that the \§l~tYwfiiChthey ave i!!iQibed in the schools cleaves inwardly, ~a nd that the oth_er...1hing~o!!!y"!n _ili~th; and that, after 'I death, th ey wIll come mto the m tenor thmgs of their spirit

wherefore, these falsities must be entirely eradica ted. And yet they continue in the mouth, like the beard on the chin; which, afterwards, as is the custom , is shaved off, and the man then becomes beardless.

17. When orthodoxy enters and explains those things which the priests preach from the Word concerning faith, that we must believe in God; concerning charity towards the neighbour; concerning conversion; concerning repentance, and hence the life of piety and spirituality-all these things fall, as it were, into a J:mckl':t· lilld then t~_.~re overthrown, as wh en men destroy a building, or house, so that nothing remains but ruins: and then they say, "These -ffiingsa re-·not tnitlfs unlessy;u so believe. What does charity matter? or repentance?" etc. The very Word then falls to the ground, etc. It is as if one undermines a wall by digging ditches under it. All things are overthrown.

18. BE-~ a single examp ~_~here sQ!TIeoqJ':--t!reach es devoutly - 99

18-22] INVITATION TO THE NEW C H U R C H

on the above things from th~.J'YQrd.; _and,_wQen his orthodox is broug~l)ear up on them, you will see that 'all things thatTI( have seen and said are true. (Let an example illustrate this ...) Thus the affirm and th en deny, if orthodoxy is in the internal man anot lie a ove-mentlOned preached in the external. In this case that which then remains in the external man IS of no account.and becomes like froti~-: -I t is a~ if th~~e .we;;;~--e;:;thquake, or as if a ship in the water were wrecked from below.

19. A striking example may also be brought from genuine orthodoxy on the subject of faith, charity, and freedom of choice, from which example the absurdity will appear plainly.

20. That the spiritual things of heaven flow into every man, and that things flow in through the world, is luminously confirmed thus: that spiritual and natural things flow in conjointly, but that the evil man mverts tne two. Tfrat whICh-is wltlllii"he places in his mind without, andtl1at which is without he places within; so that the world is above heaven, or heaven belOw the world. But the pious and good man receives each in its own lorder in which it flows in: the spiritual things which flow in thr~~gh heaven, k places above iii- hismm , and the natural things which flow in through the world, below. This latter man stands erect on his feet; but the former, as it were, upside down.

21. The whole of Theology at the present day is nothing but Divine omnipotence. Thus it is asserted: 1. that God gives faith where and to whom He will; 2. that He remits sins; 3. that He regenerates; 4. that He sanctifies; 5. that He imputes and saves; 6. that He will raise the dead bodies from the graves; that He will cause the skeletons to live, and will put into them their former souls; 7. that He will destroy the world, together with the sun, the stars, the planets, the earths, and will create a new universe; 8. Since omnipotence is everything, and is the order which God is, and which is from God in the whole world,

JLfollowUn.at .th e.-man_o£.the-.ChIJIclLCfln imagine wh atever he will; that he can raise himself even above what is eternal, that is, above reason; and that, wherever he pleases, he can go counter to reason, and simply declare, "reason must be kept under obedience to our faith. For is not God omnipotent? Who i;; able, or dateS. t reason a ainst His omni otence?" Such are all t mgs of the present-day faith, etc.

22. Man cannot discover a single Divine Truth, exc~!J:!.e

aPQroach the Lord immediately. The reason is, that the Lord alone is the Word, an t a He is Light and Truth Itself, and that ~~ not become spiritual, except from the Lord only, but remains natural; and the natural man, in spiritual matters,

100

INVITATION TO THE NEW C HU R C H [22-25

sees all things inver~~ly. That this is so, is known from Paul. This is the reason why not a single truth has remained in the Church, so that there is n~ consummation, desolation, decision,

)\ and fulness. But because the Lord is not dead, therefore there still remains "a root left in the earth" according to Daniel [iv 15, 23, 26]; also that man desires to die, but is not able, according to the Apocalypse [ix 6]. That which is " left" is the facult of beLr~g able Fo understand trutn;ana---or~to will good. This--is_" the root that is left ."~ - 23.- T he ts of modern orthodoxy object that faith, charity, goo works, repentance, remission of sins, etc ., cannot exist with man before he has received the Holy Spirit. But, as has been shown, the Holy Spirit is the Divine which proceeds from the Lo~; and the Lord is perpetually present with every man, evil as well as goo. I OU IS presen ce, no one can rve ; aE...- t e or constantly acts, urges and st!,ives_ to be

received; wherefore, the presence of the Holy Spirit is perpetual. For the sake of con rmation, this was prove-d-in -t hes pin t; al

Iworld, in the case of a certain devil, by th e Lord's presence being removed from him. The devil lay dead, exactly like a corpse. Thousands both of spirrts-and-6f'-t c c er saw tlus, and were astoun e. _.U s_ y virtue of the perpetual presence 0 t e ord that man ha~ th_e faculty 5>f thinkitrg;-u nderstandmg an wlrrmg. These facul ties are due soleI to th e influx of \j f~from the Lord. Both Luther and M elanchthon were present, and at this were not able to open their mouth.

24. The onl y c~e why the Reformation took place was that 11 the Word, "WIiich lay buried, mi ht be restored to the world. For many centuries it had een in the world, but at length it was en tombed b the Roman Catholics, and not a single truth o the Church could be roughTforth from it. The Lord could not be known, but the Pope was worshipped as God, in place of the Lord. When, however, the Word had been drawn forth out of its tomb :-t~ Lord could become known, truth could be derived from it, and therecould be conjunction with heaven. For this purpose th e Lord raised up ~mu l taneously so many men JJto the attack. He stirred up weaen, enmar , H olland, England, to bring it [the Word] back; and, lest it [the movement] should be extinguished in Germany through the Pope, He [email protected] up Gustavus Adolphus, who stood for the R eformation and rose against him. ~ this little ~ork be not added to the precedi n one, the C~ch cannot e h~d; there would oe on y a palliative-cure, a wound in which the corrupt matter remains, and eats away

101

25-30] INVITATION TO THE NEW CH URCH

the neighbouring parts. 9 rt,doxY-d itself t~~~~rrupt matter;)Iand th.e doctrine of the New C mrch indeed furnishes a re , but-~-6utwardly.

- 26:-T he origins of all errors in the Church have been that man had been believed to live from himself, or fr9m his own life, and that life is increate in him; when et he is onl an or an of life and is in the midst between heaven and hell, and thus i~

( equilibrium, or freedom of choke.

27. No one is able to see the desolation of truth in the Church [ before the truths of the Word come to light. What heretic,

indeed, knows anything else thant:hatall his heresies are truths? Everyone can swear to his own. There is a delusive light ansmgfroITICOiifirmations. In such light is the natura!..2n~n

until the spiritual man enlightens him. Yea, an atheistic naturalist may swear that there is no God, and that the existence of God is a mere vain imagination of the common herd; wheref~t heart, he scoffs at the learned men of the Church. ~ I t is known in the Church that, the Churc is the Body o~ gE_r~t; bu t how this i~~~s not been' known hitherto. - H ence it is, thatthe whole heav<;!Visas one man before the Lord; and this one man IS Istinguished into societies, each of which has reference to some member or organ, and viscus, in man. In this man, or body, the Lord is the soul or life. For the Lord breathes into men; a~d, when He is present[with them], H~ is present through the eavenS) as the soul through itS"body: The like is the case wl tn1~Church on e~h;' for -thlSis- the external man. Wherefore, everyone, after-death, is gathered to his own in that body, etc.

29. The things which are related of me are not miracles, but testimonies that I have been introduced into the spiritual wOrld £y: the Lord for the sake of ends which -:- .. Reasons why miracles do not take place at this day..- .. Further, from the Lord's words in Matt. xxiv. Concerning the miracles of Anthony of Padua, and of many who are worshipped as saints, of whose miracles the monasteries are full. Concerning the miracles of Paris, concerning which there are two volumes in 4to. 1

30. That the Lord would come in the fulness of time and would judge, is meant by His words,

When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit on the throne of His glory; and there shall be gathered before Him all nations: and He shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the he-goats (Matt. xxv 31,32).

I See footnote on p. 88. 102


This coming of the Lord is meant by the following words concerning Jesus Christ, in the Apostles' Creed r - " He ascended into the heavens, He sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; ttqm thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead"; and also by this concerning the Lord Jesus Christ in the Nicene Creed: "He ascended into heaven; He sitteth at t he right hand of the Father; and He shall come again in glory to judge the quick and the dead; of whose kingdo1TJ:.JMre shall be no end."

31. And also in the Athanasian Creed: "He ascended to the heavens; He sitteth at the right hand ofGod the Father Almighty: from whence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead ... and they shall give account of their own deeds, And they that have done goods shall go into eternal life: and they that have done evils into eternal fire" (Formula Concordie [Leipsic, 1756], pp. 1,2,4).

Besides, the Schmalkaldic Articles teach the same thing as the Apostles', the Nicene, and the Athanasian creeds; namely, " Jesus Christ ascended to the heavens; He sitteth at the right hand of God, ... He shall come to judge the quick and the dead"; and our Catechism [the one used in Sweden] teaches the same (p. 303). From the Augsburg Confession in like manner, " He ascended to the heavens, that He might sit at the right hand of the Father, and reign forever, and exercise dominion over all creatures. . . . The same Christ will openly return to judge ~qui_ck and the de~d, according to the Apostles' Creed" (Formula Concordie, p. 10). Luther teaches the same (in the Lesser Catechism, p. 371; Augsburg Confession, pp. 10, 14).

32. That the Lord will not come to judgment in order to destroy heaven and earth, is plain from many passages in the Word where His coming is treated of; where it is said,

When th e Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth? (Luke xviii 8) ;

besides many more passages which are quoted in THE TRUE

CHRISTIAN RELIGION, no. 765. Further, that He will not come to destroy the visible heaven and the habitable earth (n. 768,

-> et seq.), but to_sl':p~l2lte the evil from t!"t~ good (n. 772, et seq.); and many more besides. The same also is declared in the Credal Faith which is inserted in every Psalm book in the whole Christian world, where the Apostles' Creed only is set forth. The same is introduced thence into psalms. J 3y the _" quick," _!E~bove

places, are meant those who _are in _<:!:ta rity ~ !~i!h , and are called "_sheep" by the Lord; but by the " dea:g~~~ ~~'!!?-t

c.-8 103

32-34J INVITATION TO THE NEW CHURCH

those who are not in charity and faith, and are called by the Lord " he-goats." (Add to the above, Rev. xi 18; and xx 12.)

33. Title: THE CONSUMMATION OF THE AGE, AND THE ABOMINATION OF

THE DESOLATION THEN. There is to be adduced what the Lord says,

I. Concerning the" abomination of desolation"; 2. What He says [concerning vastationJ; 3. What the Lord says concerning the" affliction"; 4. That" no flesh can be saved"; 5. Concerning the "darkening of the sun and of the

moon "; 6. The things which are declared in the Apocalypse (i 18),

Behold, I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am He that liveth unto the ages of the ages (see, also, Rev. ii 8 and v 6f.

And again, the Lord says:

The night cometh when no man can work (John ix 4); In that night, there shall be two men in one bed (Luke xvii 34).

Further, what the Lord says concerning Peter in John xxi 18; also, what Paul says concerning the last times, in 1 Tim. iv 1-3; 2 Tim. iii 1-7; iv 3, 4.

(What the Lord says in Matt. xxiv 27, that this should take place in the day of the Last Judgment, must be explained; also, what He says in vv. 30, 31. That this actually has thus taken place, see THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, n. 791.)

34. The Coming of the Lord is according to the order that the spring does not come until after the winter, nor the morning until after the night; nor -comfort and joy to the travailing woman until after the pain; that consolations are after temptations; one lives truly after death, even as the Lord says, ~

Except the grain ... die, etc. (John xii 24).

The Lord exhibited the type of this order in that He suffered Himself to be crucified and to die, and afterwards rose again. This type signifies the state of the Church . ... This, also, is involved in the image which appeared to Nebuchadnezzar, in that the Stone became a great Rock at the last; it is further involved in the four beasts out of the sea, and in what is related there concerning that horrible nation (all of which is to be explained). It is likewise involved in the four Ages known to the ancients, the golden, the silver, the copper and the iron ages; further, in the ages of every !llan, from infancy to old ag<::

104


then is the end of the life of the body, and then comes the life of the spirit, which is the life of all those who have lived- well. The same also is implied in the heaven which has first to pass away (Rev. xxi 1,2). The case with the Church is similar.

35. The keys of the kingdom of the heavens were given...t.a Peter, because he re resented the Lord as to~Divine _T.1'uth; and this is what is meant by " rock," throughout the whole of the Sacred Scripture. On this account [it is said], .

" Upon this rock," that is, on this Divine Truth, "will I build My Church," namely, the truth that the Lord is " t!J.~

Son of the living God." -It shall be shown from the Word, that "rock" has this signification.

(" Rock" in the Word : Exod. xvii 6; xxxiii 21 , 22; Num. xx 8-11; Deut. viii 15; xxxii 4-37; I Sam. ii 2; 2 Sam. xxii 2, 3, 32, 47; xxiii 3; Ps. xviii 2, 31, 46; xxviii I; xxxi 2, 3; xl 2; xlii 9; Ixii 2, 7; Ixxviii 16, 20, 35; Ixxxix 26; xcii 15; xciv 22; xcv I; cv 41; Isa. ii 10; xxii 16; xlii 11; li I ; I Cor. x 4). (" Fissures of the rock" denote falsified truths, Rev. vi 15, 16; Isa. ii 19; Jer. xvi 16; Song of Solomon, ii 14; Isa. xlviii 21; Jer. xxiii 29; xlix 16; Obad. ver. 3; besides in the Gospels.)

In this wise also some of the Fathers explained it (see Formula Concordie, p. 345).

, 36. Since the Son alone became Man, and not the whole Trinity, was.not then the Divine Essence, which is a one and an indivisible trine, separated, or disunited and divided?

37 That. the whole-.i>f the Lord's prayer, from beginning to enc( has respect to the present time, isvery plain that is,-t~t God the Father is worshipped in human form. This appears if

( this prayer is rightly explained. 38. That the Churches after the times of the Apostles fell

away into so many heresies, and that at the present day there are none other than false Churches, is owing to their not having approached the Lord, when yet the Lord is the Word, and the Ligh! itself wEich enlightens the whole world. And yet-it is as impossible to see one genuine jruth from the Word, whichjs not crowded about and defiled with falsities, and cohering with falsities, as it is impossible to sail to the Pleiades, or to dig olit

\ the gold which is in the centre of the earth. Wherefore, in order that the true Christian religion might be op'ened u , it _wa~

absolutely necessary that some one should be introduced into the spiritual world, and derive from the Lord's mouth genuine

\ truths out of the Word. The Lord cannot enlighten anyone 105


with His light, unless He is approached imme~tely, and acknowledged as the God of heaven.

39. Miracles do not take place at this day, for the reasons stated in THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION [n. 50 I]; wherefore, the Lord said in Matt. (xxiv 24), that they would lead astray. Again, what is more common among the Roman Catholics than to fill the tombs of the saints and the walls of monasteries with miracles? How many leaves of gold and silver are there not in the tomb of Anthony of Padua! What is there not where the three wise men are said to be buried, at Prague, and elsewhere? What else than illusions can be derived from these things? Of-more weight than all these miracles are the facts that I...:;peak with angels and spirits in the spiritual world, that I have described the states of heaven and hell, and of the life after death; also, that the spiritual sense of the Word has been laid open to me; besides much else. Such intercourse, as far as I know, has not been granted by the Lord to anyone before. These are proofs that this is for the sake of the New C~h, which is the crown of all Churches, and which will endure for ever. Being in the spiritual world, seeing the wonders of heaven, and the pitiful things of hell; and being there in the very light of the Lord in which the angels are, surpasses all miracles. Evidences that I am there, may be found in abundance in my books.

40. The sole cause why the Church has immersed itself in so many falsities that not a single truth is left in it; and why it is like a ship that has suffered shipwreck, of which the top of the mast only stands out, is this-that hitherto they have not app~ched the Lord im..mediately; and when He is not approached immediately, not a single truth can appear in its own light. The reason is, that the Lord is the Word, that is, all Divine Truth in the Word, and that He alone is the Light which enlightens all men, as He Himself teaches; and every truth of the Word shines from no other source than from the Lord alone. This light it is which is meant by the " spiritual "; when, therefore, he has not this light, there is nothing spiritual in man's understanding, but only the natural; and the natural man sees only invertedly all things which contain the spiritual: he sees falsity instead of truth. While reading the Word, there-c. fore, he bends all things there to his own falsities, and thus falsifies truths; and is delighted therein. For the human natural mind is in such things as pertain to the world and to self; it is delighted solely by such things: wherefore, unless in the above things there is spiritual light, the natural mind transfers them to

106


those things which are of the world and of self, which he puts in the first place. He thus not only shuns spiritual things, and hides them away, but he also scoffs at them afterwards. Faith is spiritual, that is, it can be called spiritual, from no other source than from the truths which it contains, and thus by virtue of light from the Lord. Unless faith is from this source, it is natural faith, which neither conjoins nor is saving.

41. In the spiritual world no one knows another from his name only, but from the idea of his quality. This idea causes that other to be present, and to be recognized. Thus, and not otherwise, parents are recognized by their children; children by their parents; and relatives, connections by marriage, and friends, by relatives, connections and friends. In like manner the learned are known from their writings, and from the reputation of their learning; great men and rulers by the fame of their deeds; in like manner kings, emperors and popes. All are known by these things alone. It was granted to me to converse with such; but with others this is not possible. A spirit himself is nothing else than his quality; on this account everyone in that world drops his baptismal name, and the name of his family, and is named according to his quality. Hence it is that " name" in the Word does not signify name, but quality. As the Lord says in the Apocalypse:

Thou hast a few names in Sardis (Rev. iii 4);

and again,

I know thee by name (Exod. xxxiii 17)

(besides a thousand other places where" name" is mentioned). From all this, then, it is manifest, that no one has the Lord

present with him, unless he knows His quality. This quality is made known by the truths of the Word; for, as many truths as there are in the Word, just so many mirrors and ideas are there of the Lord, for He is the Word Itself, and He is the Truth Itself, as He Himself says.

Qualities are of two kinds: one kind pertains to the knowledge concerning Him, that He is the God of heaven and earth, the Son of God the Father, One with the Father, that all things of the Father are in Him-in a word, that He is the Human of.Qo~Lthe~r. The other kind pertains to the knowledges of those things that proceed from Him (and the things that proceed from Him ~~lf); as what He teaches concerning charity, freedom of choice, repentance, regeneration, the sacraments and very many other things. These things also make up the idea of the Lord, because they are from Him.

107


42. It is an arcanum from the spiritual world, that unless a person approaches the Lord directly and immediately with an idea concerning Him, the Lord's presence is not brought about, and still less can the person, in that case, become receptive of any communication. It is as if some one stands at the side, and appears in the dark. In like manner, no one can speak with another unless he looks directly at him; communication then takes place when each looks at the other. Thus, and not otherwise, ideas enter into another; and if, at the same time, there is love, conjunction is effected. If anyone, therefore, approaches the Father immediately, He stands, as it were, at the side; and hence He is unable to grant and to impart redemption, that is, is unable to regenerate and afterwards save hi .

43 The manifestation of the Lord in person, and introduction by t e Lord into the spiritual world, both as to sight and as to hearing and speech, surpasses all miracles; for nowhere in history do we read that sue 1 an mtercourse with angels and spirits has been granted from the creation of the world. For I am there with the angels daily, even as I am in the world with men, and now for twenty-seven years. Evidences of this intercourse are the books published by me concerning Heaven and Hell, and also the memorable relations in the last work, entitled THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION; further, what has been there related concerning Luther, Melanchthon, Calvin, and concerning the inhabitants of a number of kingdoms; besides the various evidences which are known in the world, and, in addition, many others which are not known. Say, who has ever before known anything concerning heaven and hell? Who has known anything concerning man's state after death? Who, anything concerning spirits and angels? etc., etc.

44. Add to these most manifest evidences, that the spiritual _~en se of the Word hasken_di.sclosed_py: the Lord. through me, which has never before been revealed since the Word was written among the sons of Israel; and this sense is the very sanctuary of the Word: the Lord Himself is in this sense with His Div~e,

I( and in the natural sense with His Human. Not 'a single iota

in this sense can be opened. exce ~ the Lo~ne. lli surgasses a ll the revelations that have hitherto been made from the creation of the world. By means of this revelation a comrDiillicatio~ has-been opened between men and the angels of heaven, and cogiunction of the two worlds has been effected; since when man -is iii- the natural sense, the angels are in the spiritual sense. See what has been written concerning this sense

108


in the chapter on the Sacred Scripture [in THE TRUE CHRISTIAN

R ELIGION].

{4~ C~rrespondences, by which the Word, as to each and all t~ of it, has been written, p~sess such force and strength that it may be called the force and stren th of Divine O mnipotence ; for t roug t ese correspondences the natural acts conjoint Y with the spiritual, and the spiritual with the natural, thus everything of heaven with everything of the world. Thence it is that tnetwo sacraments are corresRondences of sp'iritual with natural things; thence is their strength and ower,

46 . What, on the other hand, do miracles amount to? Miracles do not take place at this day, because they lead men astray, and make th em natural. They close up the interiors of their mind, in which faith ought to be rooted; wherefore, mere falsities proceed thence (see Matt. xxiv 24). What did the miracles which were wrought in Egypt effect with the sons of Israel? What did those miracles effect which were wrought before them in the wilderness? What those miracles at their entrance into the land of Canaan? What the miracles wrought by Elijah and Elisha? What the miracles performed by the Lord Himself? Was anyone ever made spiritual by their means? What have the miracles among the Roman Catholics done for them? and those of Anthony at Padua? and of the three wise men at Cologne? And what has been the use of the countless miracles in the monasteries, which are filled with pictures, plates and gifts? Has ever anyone been made spiritual thereby? Have they not become natural thereby, so that there is scarcely any truth of the Word among them, but only externals of worship which pertain to men and to traditions?

47. That in Christ Godls Man, and Man God, is confirmed three times in the Formula Concordie ; and also in the Athanasian Creed, where is said, the " taking of the Manhood into God"; from the Word (Rom. xiv 11; Coloss, ii 9; 1 John v 20, 21), as well as, by the Lord Himself, that the Father and He are one; that the Father is in Him, and He in the Father; that all things of the Father are His; that He has Life in Himself; that He is God of heaven and earth. .

48. The soul is the inmost m~, and, according to the ancients, is in the whole and in every part of the body, for the beginning

J o£1!fe resides jn the soul; that p_arLoLthe -.hod~n which the I ~ouLjlL nOLinmost1¥>--does Iloil~e. Wherefore, there exists a

reciprocal union; and hence the body acts from the soul, not the soul through the body. Whate er roceeds from God partakes of the human form, bec ause God is Very Man; this

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(

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is especially the case with the soul, which is the first of man.

\- 49 , Nothing is more common in the whole heaven and in the whole world, than for one thing -to e wltliinanother, thus an inmost, a middle and an outmost, and for the three to inter:: communic~fte-;aiJ.afOr'· -t1lr:P~r of the middle and outmost to be deriv..ed fr.QJ!L the inm~st. That there are th ese three, on'e within the other, is eVIdent from each and every thing in the human body. Around the brain there are three tunics, which are called the dura mater, the pia mater, and the arachnoid; and over these is the skull. Around the whole body there are tunics, one within the other, which, together, are called the skin. Around each artery and vein there are three tunics; likewise around each muscle and fibre; in like manner, around all the rest of the things there. So in the vegetable kingdom. How they intercommunicate, and how the inm.ost enters the middle, ancrtliemlddle the last, anatomy shows, etc. Thence it follows that it is so with light: that spiritual ~t , which in its essence is truth, is inwardly in natural light; m like manner, spiritual h~, which in its essence is love, in natural heat. By natural heat is meant natural love, because that love gr;'ws warm; an this is covered over by t he heat of the blood.

50. All that they say about the Holy Spirit falls to the ground as soon as it is believed that man is....not..life,-buto_nl~an organ.

of life, and _th.US.. lb..a..t..God is constantly presen t in man, and that He strives, acts and ur es that those things which relate to religion, an consequently those relating to the Church, to heaven and salvation, shall be received. It is, therefore, vain to say that the Holy Spirit is " given;r or that it is " withheld." For the HolY Spirit-iSilothing else than th e Divine which proceeds out of the Lord from the Father, and this Divine const1Mes man's life, and also his understanding and love; and the presence of this Divine is perpetual. Wit.!!.Q.u..L!!l~_p~sence of.'\ I t~rd, ..Q! of the Hol)' S.2irit, man would be only a kind oH animal; but he would have no more life than salt, a stone or cl log. The reason of this is, that man is not born with instinct, like the beasts; wherefore, a chiCK of one day.old knows the order of its life better than an in fant.

51. It is allowable to confirm the truths of ·the Church by reason, or the understanding, as much as one pleases, and also by various things in nature; and, in proportion as truths are so confirmed, they become inrooted and shine. It is also allowable to confirm truths by the Word, wherever one pleases, and also to apply for this purpose many things from the Word; and the

110


Word is not then falsified. These sayings of Scripture, through which truths are confirmed, rise into heaven: they are like the fumes from incense; but if falsities are confirmed from the

rWord, they do not rise to heaven, but are driven back; and \ they explode on the way with a loud report. I have heard it a

thousand times. 52. The__maJ!if!:Sl<!.li9!LoLthe_.Lord,_an!Ladmission into the

sgiritIJaLwo.dd.-surpass all m iracles. This has not been granted to anyone since th e creation, as it has been to me. The men of the golden age, indeed, conversed with angels; but it was not granted to them to be in any other than natural light; to me, however, it is granted to be at the same time both in spiritual and in natural light. By this..JI1!:_ans_iLhaLheen-ZIanted ~e

/ to see the wonderful things of heav~.l!,_~J.~~mol1:~els as oneofiliem, and-ar-fhe-same time-to imbibe truths in light, and th~rceiveand teach th~m;_conSequently)~to-I)e1edby\ the Lord. But as concerns miracles: they would have been nothing else than snares to lead astray, as the Lord says (Matt. xxiv 24); and as is related of Simon the sorcerer, that he "bewitched the people of Samaria," who believed that these things were done from" the great power of God" (Acts viii 9 et seq.). What else are the miracles among the Papists, than snares and deceptions? What else do they teach, than that they themselves ought to be worshipped as deities, and that men should give up the worship of the Lord? Have wonder-working images any other effect? Have the idols or dead bodies of saints throughout Popedom any other purpose? Those of Anthony of Padua, of the three wise men of Cologne, and of all the rest, whose miracles fill the monasteries? What have they taught concerning Christ? What concerning heaven and eternal life? Not a syllable.

53. AnLQhurch and any coherent relig!on are impossible, unless ' it is believed that God is One. When, therefore, the Divine Trinity is believed to be divided into three Persons, how can the metaphysical term" essence" make of the three one, so long as the properties of each person are diverse, yea, so diverse that they are said not to be communicable ~ and so long as equal, proper persons subsist by themselves, and one person has no part and no quality in another, or of another, person? But, as soon as it is believed that the one God is not only Creator, but also Redeemer and Operator, then we have one God; and then for the first time the Church exists and subsists, and religion lives. And there cannot be this union of three otherwise han, as in every man, that of the soUl) the body;' and the roceeding.

'li l l 2- - r ~


These three make one man: and why no God-,-w-h-o- is·-Very\ Man from firsts to last~ These things concerning God-Ma~...J have been explained in the book concerning " Tile Divine] Love and Wisdom," and may be consulted; and that He is neither ether, nor air, nor wind. That the soul of every mall is the man himself, thence follows. - . - -

As we no~ have in the Church one God, who is God-Man and Man-God, this Church is called the crown of all the churches.

54. That in Christ M an is God: From three places in the Formula Concordie; From Paul (Rom. xiv 11 and Coloss. ii 9) ; From John (first Epistle V 20, 21);

and from the words of the Lord: I. That God was the Word, and the Word became flesh; 2. That all things of the Father are His; 3. That all who are of the Father come to Him; 4. That as the Father hath life in Himself, so has the Son

(" Life in Himself" is God); 5. That the Father and He are one; 6. That He is in the Father, and the Father in Him; 7. That he who seeth Him, seeth the Father; 8. That He is God of heaven and earth; 9. That He governs the universe (from the Creed);

10. That He is called" Jehovah, the Redeemer"; 11. That He is called" J ehovah, our Righteousness"; 12. That it is said that Jehovah would come into the world; 13. In the Apocalypse (chap. i) it is said, that He is " the

First and the Last";rI4) In a word, that He is God the Father who is invisible, in ~uman which is visible before minds. Inasmuch as there is thus one God in the Church, the Church

is the Church; etc., etc. From the Athanasian Creed: that God and Man in Christ is one

Person, like soul and body. Also that the Human Nature was taken up into God.

55. CONCERNING MIRACLES.

From the sons of Israel; , From the Lord's words concerning the rich man and Lazarus; From the Lord's words in Matt. xxiv 24.

The Popish miracles (which are to be enumerated). They only lead astray, and do not teach anything except that they are to be invoked as deities, and this to the end that they ~y bri!!g gold and silver to the monasteries, or, that they may scrape together the treasures of the whole world. The miracles of

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INVITATION TO THE NEW C H U R C H [55-58

many of them ; as, for instance, those of Anthony at Padua; those of the three wise men of Cologne; those of the wonderworking images, at which treasures are collected; everywhere in the monasteries, where the walls are covered with piCtures-of

\ the miracles worked by -their saints,anet-of-the1r - -Id~The boofS-concerning the mi racles of Paris 1 and others; what else are they for, ~buttp.il.!Jsaints] may be invoked for the purpose of raking in gifts? But who among them has thus far taught the way to heaven, and the truths of the Church out of the Word?

For this reason it has pleased the Lord to prepare me from my earliest youth for the perception of the Word, an<:fHe-has Introduced me into the spiritual world, and enlightened me with ~ the light of His Word more nearly. It is hence manifest that this sur asses all miracles.

Beelzebub did miracles, more than any other of the gentile goclS;-as is plain from the Old Testament; also Simon the sorcerer.

56. -T ha t the Lord made the Natural Man in Himself Divine, , to the end that He might be t he- FirstancrtIieLaSt ;a nd is thus able to enter wi th men even to their natura man, and teach this from the Word, and lead it. For He rose with the whole natural or external man, and did not leave anything whatever of it in the sepulchre; on which account He declared that He had bones and flesh, which spirits have not; and [hence it is] that He ate and drank natural food with His disciples, and indeed before their eyes. haTHewas-IJivine,-He sliowed by passing through doors, and by becoming invisible, which would have been impossible, unless His natural man itself also had been made Divine.

57. T ha t all those things which are said by the orthodox at the present day concerning the" sending" of the Holy Spirit fall to the ground as soon as it is known that the Lord IS constantly resent i r man and cau ses him to live as man; an t at He dwells with man in order that man may go to meet the Lord; and that even if he does not go to meet Him, he still has rationality from Him, which is impossible withou t the Lord's presence. If the Lord .were abs ent from man, he would not be an animal, but a kind of corpse which would be disintegrated. This is meant in Genesis by " God breathing into him a living soul" (Gen. ii 7). ~Th e Lord is _Jhe " ~ngdo~-2.f God" (this is to be shown

from the PvordJ; thus, H e is H eav en and the Church.

1 See footnote on p. 88. 113

59] INVITATION TO THE NEW CHURCH

@ T he re~!est ower dwells in correspondences (to beshown), because !~.them _J:l~aven and the world, or the spiritual and the natural, are to ether; and-for this reason the Word has beep.

- wr:ffien by pure correspondences, wherefore by it there is c0!1Junction ofman (Wltll eaven,-and thus It t e Lord. i:J!ill;, also, the Lord isinfirst'ai1cl at the same time in last thins-so Therefore the sacraments have been instituted through correspondences, in which, therefore, there is Djyine p~er .

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