)^ the permission of the Librarian ; provided, that the President shall also have authority over the Constitution and the works on Parliamentary Law. II. The Librarian shall keep a copy of these rules continually posted in the Library. * THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION: CONTAINING OF THE NEW HEAVEN AND THE NEW CHURCH. QT^e Eotcb ffitiitfon. THE %Tr\je Christian Religion: tC CONTAINING THE f\ eaniliersal Cljeologp ~J5^ OF THE '2 NEW CHURCH, ^2 FORETOLD BY THE LORD IN DANIEL VII. 13, 14; AND Hi ^^ REVELATION XXI. i, 2. o ►A By EMANUEL :SWEDENBORG, ^0 SERVANT OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. *T5 flptclj ^ition. .s PHILADELPHIA E^ J. B. LIPPINCOTT & COMPANY, 1879. DANIEL VII. 13, 14. / saw in the night visions, and behold one like the Son of Matt came with the clouds of the heavens. And there was given Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom ; and all people, nations, and latiguages shall serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting do/ninion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. APOCALYPSE XXI. i, 2, 5, 9, 10. / fohn saw a new heaven and a new earth. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down fro)n Cod out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And an angel talked with tne, saying. Come hither, I will show thee THE Bride, THE Lamb's Wife. And he carried me away in the spirit, upon a great and high tnountain, and showed me that great city, the Holy ferusalem, descending otit of heaven from Cod. He that sat 7ipon the throne said, Behold, I make all THINGS NEW. And He said uuto me, Write : for these words are true and faithful. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1877, by SAMPSON REED, PELEG W. CHANDLER, AND THEOPHILUS PARSONS (trustees). In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. f3X g7lX GENERAL INDEX THE CONTENTS. THE FAITH OF THE NEW HEAVEN AND THE NEW CHURCH, IN THE UNIVERSAL FORM AND IN THE PARTICULAR FORM. n. 1-3. CHAPTER I. CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. Concerning ihe Unity of God. n. 5-15. I. The whole Sacred Scripture, and thence all the doctrines of the churches in the Christian world, teach that there is a God, and that He is one. n. 6, 7. II. There is a universal influx from God into the souls of men, that there is a God, and that He is One. n. 8. III. Thence it is, that in all the world there is no nation having religion and sound reason, which does not acknowledge a God, and that God is one. n. 9. IV. As to what the One God is, nations and people have differed, and still differ, from several causes, n. 11. V. Human reason, from many things in the world, may, if it will, per- ceive or conclude that there is a God, and that He is one. n. 12. VI. Unless God were One, the universe could not have been created and preserved, n. 13. VH. The man who does not acknowledge a God, is excommunicated from the church and condemned, n. 14. VIII. With men who do not acknowledge One God, but more than one, nothing of the church coheres, n. 15. Concerning the Divine Esse, which is Jehovah, n. 18-24. I. The One God is called Jehovah from Esse, thus from this, because He a'.one is [and was] and will be ; and because He is the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and the Omega, n. 19. a5lf5.5 iv GENERAL INDEX OF THE CONTENTS. II. The One God is Substance itself and Form itself, and angels and men are substances and forms from Him, and as far as they are in Him and He in them, so far they are images and likenesses of Him. n. 20. III. The Divine Esse is Esse in itself, and, at the same time, Existere in itself, n. 21, 22. IV. The Divine Esse and Existere in itself cannot produce another Divine that is Esse and Existere in itself; consequently, another God of the same essence is not possible, n. 23. V. A plurality of Gods, in ancient and also in modem times, originated from no other cause than from not understanding the Divine Esse. n. 24. Concerning the Infinity of God, or His Immensity and Eternity, n. 27-34. I. God is infinite, since He is and exists in Himself, and all things in the universe are and exist from Him. n. 28 II. God is infinite, for He was before the world, thus before spaces and times arose, n. 29. III. God, since the world was made, is in space without space, and in time without time. n. 30. IV. God's Infinity in relation to spaces is called Immensity, and in relation to times is called Eternity ; and although there are these relations, still there is nothing of space in His Immensity, and nothing of time in His Eternity. n. 31. V. Enlightened reason, from very many things in the world, may see the Infinity of God [the Creator], n. 32. VI. Every created thing is finite, and the Infinite is in finite things as in receptacles, and in men as in its images, n. 33. Concerning the Essence of God, which is Divine Love and Divine Wisdom. n. 36-47. I. God is Love itself and Wisdom itself, and these two make His essence. n. 37- II. God is Good itself and Truth itself, because good is of love, and truth is of wisdom, n. 38. III. God, because He is Love itself and Wisdom itself, is Life itself, which is Life in itself, n. 39, 40. IV. Love and Wisdom, in God, make one. n. 41, 42. V. The Essence of Love is to love others outside of itself, to desire to be one with them, and to make them happy from itself, n. 43-45. VI. These [essentials] of the Divine Love were the cause of the creation of the universe, and they are the cause of its preservation, n. 46, 47. Concerning the Omnipotence, Omniscience, and Omnipresence of God. n. 49-70. I. Omnipotence, Omniscience, and Omnipresence, belong to th« Divine Wisdom from the Divine Love. n. 50, 51. GENERAL INDEX OF THE CONTENTS. V II. There cannot be cognition of God's Omnipotence, Omniscience, and Omnipresence, unless it be known what Order is, and unless these things be- longing to it be known, namely, tliat God is Order, and that at the creation He introduced order into the universe, and into all and every part of it. n. 52-55. in. The Omnipotence of God, as well in the universe as in all and every part of it, proceeds and operates according to the laws of His Order, n. 56-5S. IV. God is Omniscient, that is, perceives, sees, and knows all and every thing, even to the most minute, which is done according to order ; and thence also what is done contrary to order, n. 59-62. V. God is Omnipresent from the firsts to the lasts of His Order, n. 63, 64. VI. Man was created a Form of Divine Order, n. 65-67. VII. Man is so far in power against evil and falsity from the Divine Omnip- otence, and so far in wisdom concerning good and truth from the Divine Omni- science, and so far in God from the Divine Omnipresence, as he lives according to Divine Order, n. 68-70. Concemmg the Creation of the Universe, n. 75-80. No one can obtain for himself a just idea concerning the creation of the universe, unless some universal cognitions, previously acquired, put the under- standing in a state of perception, n. 75. The creation of the universe described by five Relations, n. 76-80. CHAPTER II. CONCERNING THE LORD THE REDEEMER. I. Jehovah God [the Creator of the universe] descended and assumed the Human, that He might redeem and save men. ri. 82-S4. II. Jehovah descended as the Divine Truth, which is the Word, and yet He did not separate the Divine Good. n. S5-SS. III. God assumed the Human according to His Divine Order, n. 89-91. IV. The Human, by whicli God sent Himself into the world, is the Son of God. n. 92-94. V. The Lord, by the acts of Redemption, made Himself Righteousness, n. 95, 96. VI. The Lord, by the same acts, united Himself to the Father, and the Father Himself to Him, [also according to Divine Order], n. 97-100. VII. Thus God became Man, and Man God, in one Person, n. 101-103. VIII. The progress to union was the state of His Exinanition and the union itself is the state of His Glorification, n. 104-106. IX. Hereafter no one from among Christians comes into heaven, unless he believes in the Lord God the Saviour, and goes to Him alone, n. 107, 108. X. A Corollary : Concerning the state of the church before the Coming of the Lord, and concerning its state after it. n. 109. Vi GENERAL INDEX OF THE CONTENTS. Co7tcerning Redemption, n. 1 14-133. I. Redemption itself was a subjugation of the hells, and an establishment of order in the heavens, and thereby a preparation for a new spiritual church, n. 115. II. Without that Redemption, no man could have been saved, nor could the angels have continued to exist in a state of integrity, n. 118-120. III. The Lord thus redeemed not only men, but also angels, n. 121, 122. IV. Redemption was a work purely Divine, n. 123. V. This Redemption itself could not have been effected, but by God Incar- nate, n. 124, 125. VI. The Passion of the Cross was the last temptation which the Lord as the greatest Prophet sustained, and was the means of the Glorification of His Human; but it was not Redemption, n. 126-131. VII. The belief that the Passion of the Cross was Redemption itself is a fundamental error of the church ; and that error, together with the error con- cerning three Divine Persons from eternity, has perverted the whole church, so that not any thing spiritual is left in it. n. 132, 133. CHAPTER III. CONCERNING .THE HOLY SPIRIT AND CONCERNING THE DIVINE OPERATION. I. The Holy Spirit is the Divine Truth, and also the Divine virtue and operation, proceeding from the One God in Whom is the Divine Trinity, thus from the Lord God the Saviour, n. 139-141. II. The Divine virtue and operation which are meant by the Holy Spirit are, in general, reformation and regeneration ; and, according to these, renova- tion, vivification, sanctification, and justification ; and, according to these, puri- fication from evils and remission of sins and finally salvation, n. 142-145. III. That Divine virtue and operation which is meant by the sending of the Holy Spirit, with the clergy specially, is enlightenment and instruction. n. 146-148. IV. The Lord operates those virtues in those who believe in Him. n. 149- 151. V. The Lord operates out of Himself from the Father, and not the reverse. n. 153-155- VI. Man's spirit is his mind, and whatever proceeds from him. n. 156, 157, A Corollary : In the Word of the Old Testament, it is nowhere said that the prophets spoke from the Holy Spirit, but from Jehovah ; but otherwise in the New. n. 158. Concerning ihe Divbie T7-inity. n. 163-184. I. There is a Divine Trinity, which is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. n. 164, 165. GENERAL INDEX OF THE CONTENTS. vii II. These Three, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are the three Essentials of one God, which make one, as the soul, bod}', and operation in Man. n. i66- 169. III. Before the world was created, there was not this Trinity ; but after the world was created, when God became incarnate, it was provided and made ; and then in the Lord God, the Redeemer and Saviour, Jesus Christ, n. 170, 171. IV. A Trinity of Divine Persons from eternity, or before the world was created, is, in the ideas of thought, a trinity of Gods ; and this cannot be abol- ished by the oral confession of one God. n. 172, 173. V. A trinity of Persons was unknown in the Apostolic Church ; but was first broached by the Nicene Council, and from that was introduced into the Roman Catholic church, and from this into the churches that were sepaiated from it. n. 174-176. VI. From the Nicene trinity and the Athanasian together, a faith arose which had perverted the whole Christian Church, n. 177, 178. VII. Thence is that Abomination of desolation and the affliction such as has not been nor ever shall be, which the Lord had foretold in Daniel, and the Evangelists, and in the Apocalypse, n. 179-181. VIII. Thence also it is that unless a New Heaven and a New Church are founded by the Lord, no flesh would be saved, n. 182. IX. From a Trinity of Persons, each one of whom singly is God, according to the Athanasian Creed, have existed many discordant and heterogeneous ideas about God, which are hallucinations and abortions, n. 1S3, 184. CHAPTER IV. CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE OR THE WORD OF THE LORD. I. The Sacred Scripture, or the Word, is the Divine Truth itself, n. 189- 192. II. In the Word there is a spiritual sense, hitherto unknovm. n. 193. (i.) What the spiritual sense is. n. 194. (2.) From the Lord proceeds the Heavenly [Ce/cstia/] Divine, the Spiritual Divine, and the Natural Divine, one after another, n. 195. (3. ) The spiritual sense is in each and every thing in the Word. n. 196-198. (4.) The Lord when in the world spake by correspondences, thus when He spake naturally He also spake spiritually, n. 199. (5.) It is from the spiritual sense that the Word is Divinely inspired, and holy in every word. n. 200. (6.) The spiritual sense of the Word has been hitherto unknown, but it was known to the ancients ; also concerning Correspondences among them. n. 201- 207. ( 7. ) The spiritual sense of the Word will not be given to any one hereafter who is not in genuine truths from the Lord. n. 208. (8.) Wonderful things concerning the Word, from its spiritual sense, n. 209. viii GENERAL INDEX OF THE CONTENTS. Til. The sense of the letter of the Word is the basis, the container, and the support of its spiritual and heavenly [cclestiall sense, n. 210-213. IV. Divine Truth, in the sense of the letter of the Word, is in its fulness, in its holiness, and in its power, n. 214-216. (1.) The truths of the letter of the Word are meant by the precious stones of which the foundations of the New Jenisalem consisted, of which in the Apocalypse; and this from correspondence, n. 217. (2.) The goods and truths of the Word in the sense of its letter are meant by the Urim and Thummim on the Ephod of Aaron, n. 218. (3.) Truths and goods in the ultimates, such as are in the sense of the letter of the Word, are meant by the precious stones in the garden of Eden, where the King of Tyre is said to have been, in Ezekiel. n. 219. (4.) The same were represented by the curtains, veils, and pillars of the Tabernacle, n. 220. (5.) Likewise by the externals of the Temple at Jenisalem. n. 221. (6. ) The Word in its glory was represented in the Lord when He was trans- figured, n. 222. (7.) The power of the Word in ultimates was represented by the Nazarites. n. 223. (8.) Concerning the inexpressible power of the Word. n. 224. V. The Doctrine of the Church is to be drawn from the sense of the letter of the Word, and confirmed by it. n. 225, 229, 230. ( I . ) Without doctrine the Word is not understood, n. 226-228. (2.) Genuine truth, which will be of doctrine, does not appear in the sense of the letter of the Word to any but those who are ip enlightenment from the Lord. n. 231-233. VI. By the sense of the letter of the Word, there is conjunction with the Lord, and consociation with the angels, n. 234-239. VII. The Word is in all the heavens, and angelic wisdom is from it. n. 240- 242. VIII. The Church is from the Word, and it is such with man as his under- standing of the Word is. n. 243-247. IX. In every thing in the Word there is the marriage of the Lord and the Church, and thence the marriage of good and truth, n. 248-253. X. Heresies may be taken from the sense of the letter of the Word, but it is hurtful to confirm them. n. 254-260. ( I.) Many things in the Word are appearances of truth in which genuine truths lie concealed, n. 257. (2.) By confirming the appearances of truth, fallacies exist, n. 258. (3.) The sense of the letter of the Word is a guard for the genuine truths which are concealed within, n. 260. (4. ) The sense of the letter of the Word was represented by cherubs, and is signified by them in the Word. n. 260. XI. The Lord, in the world, fulfilled all things of the Word, and thereby became the Word, that is, the Divine Truth, also in ultimates. n. 261-263. XII. Before the Word which is in the world at this day, there was a Word which is lost. n. 264-266. GENERAL INDEX OF THE CONTENTS. ix XIII. By means of the Word those also have light who are out of the church, and have not the Word. n. 267-272. XIV. If there were not a Word, no one would have a knowledge of God, of heaven, and hell, of the life after death, and still less of the Lord. n. 273- 276. CHAPTER V. THE CATECHISM OR DECALOGUE EXPLAINED AS TO ITS EXTERNAL AND ITS INTERNAL SENSE. I. In the Israelitish Church the Decalogue was Holiness Itself : here con- cerning the holiness of the Ark, in which was the Law. n. 283-286. II. In the sense of the letter the Decalogue contains the general precepts of doctrine and life ; but in the spiritual and heavenly [cel£siia/'\ senses, aU univer- sally. 287-290. III. The First Commandment: Thou shalt have no other God before My faces, n. 291-296. IV. The Second Commandment : Thou shalt not take the Name of Jehovah thy God in vain ; for Jehovah will not hold him guiltless, that taketh His name in vain. n. 297-300. V. The Third Commandment : Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy ; six days thou shalt labor and do all thy work ; but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Jehovah thy God. n. 301-304. VI. The Fourth Commandment : Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be prolonged, and that it may be well with thee upon the earth, n- 305-308. VII. The Fifth Commandment : Thou shalt not kill. n. 309-312. VIII. The Sixth Commandment : Thou shalt not commit adultery, n. 313- 316. IX. The Seventh Commandment : Thou shalt not steal, n. 317-320. X. The Eighth Commandment : Thou shalt not bear false witness againsf thy neighbor, n. 321-324. XI. The Ninth and Tenth Commandments : Thou shalt not covet thy neigh- bor's house ; thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor's. n- 325-328. XII. The Ten Commandments of the Decalogue contain all things which are of love to God, and all things which are of love toward the neighbor, n. 329- 331- CHAPTER VI. CONCERNING FAITH. Preface : Faith is first in time, but charity is first in end. n. 336. I. Saving faith is in the Lord God the Saviour Jesus Christ n. 337-339: since it is in the visible God, in Whom is the invisible, n. 339. X GENERAL INDEX OF THE CONTENTS. II. The sum of Faith is, that he who lives well and believes aright is saved by the Lord. n. 340-342. The first [element] of faith in Him is the acknowledgment that He is the Son of God. n. 34.?. III. Man acquires faith by going to the Lord, learning truths from the Word, and living according to them. n. 343-348. Concerning the Esse of Faith ; concerning the Essence of Faith ; concern- ing the State of Faith ; concerning the Form of Faith, n. 344 and the fol- lowing. Concerning merely natural faith ; that it is persuasion, counterfeiting faith. n- 345-348- IV. An abundance of truths, coherent as if bundled together, exalts and perfects faith, n. 349-354. (i.) The truths of faith may be multiplied to infinity, n. 350. (2.) The disposition of the truths of faith is into series, thus as it were into fascicles, n. 351. {3.) Faith is perfected according to the abundance and coherence of truths. 1- 352, 353- {4.) The tniths of faith, however numerous they are, and however diverse they appear, make one from the Lord. n. 354. (5.) The Lord is the Word, the God of Heaven and Earth, the God of all Flesh, the God of the Vineyard or Church, the God of Faith, Light itself, the Truth, and Life eternal; shown from the Word. n. 354. V. Faith without charity is not faith, and charity without faith is not charity; and neither lives except from the Lord. n. 355-361. (i.) Man can acquire faith for himself, n. 356. (2.) Man can acquire charity for himself, n. 357. (3.) Man can also acquire for himself the life of faith and charity, n. 358. (4.) Yet nothing of faith, and nothing of charity, and nothing of the life of either, is from man, but from the Lord alone, n. 359. (5.) The distinction between natural faith and spiritual faith; the latter is inwardly in the former from the Lord. n. 360, 361. VI. The Lord, charity, and faith, make one, like life, will, and understand- ing in man ; and if they are divided, each perishes, like a pearl reduced to powder, n. 362-367. (i.) The Lord, with all His Divine Love, with all His Divine Wisdom, thus with all His Divine Life, flows in with every man. n. 364. (2.) Therefore the Lord with all the essence of faith and charity flows in with every man. n. 365. (3. ) Those things which flow in from the Lord, are received by man accord- ing to his form. n. 366. (4.) But the man who divides the Lord, charity, and faith, is not a form receiving but a form destroying them. n. 367. VII. The Lord is Charity and Faith in man, and man is cliarity and faith in the Lord. n. 368-372. (i.) It is by conjunction with God that man has salvation and eternal liffc n. 369. GENERAL INDEX OF THE CONTENTS. xi (2.) Conjunction with God the Father is not possible, but with the Lord, and through Him with God the Father, n. 370. (3.) Conjunction with the Lord is reciprocal, that is, the Lord is in man, and man in the Lord. n. 371. (4.) This reciprocal conjunction of the Lord and man is effected by charity and faith, n. 372. VIIL Charity and Faith are together in good works, n. 373-377. (i.^ Charity is to will well, and good works are to do well from willing well. n. 374- (2.) Charity and faith are only mental and perishable things, unless they are determined to works and coexist in them, when possible, n. 375, 376. (3.) Charity alone does not produce good works, still less faith alone, but charity and faith together, n. 377. IX. There is a true faith, a spurious faith, and a hypocritical faith, n. 378- 381. The Christian church began from the cradle to be infested and divided by schisms and heresies, n. 378. ( I . ) The true faith is the one only faith ; it is faith in the Lord God the Saviour Jesus Christ, and is with those who believe Him to be the Son of God, the God of Heaven and Earth, and one with the Father, n. 379. (2.) Spurious faith is all faith that departs from tlie true, which is the one only faith ; and it is with those who climb up some other way, and regard the Lord not as God but only as a man. n. 380. (3.) Hypocritical faith is no faith, n. 3S1. X. There is no faith with the evil. n. 382-384. (i.) The evil have no faith, because evil belongs to hell, and faith belongs to heaven, n. 383. (2.) All those in Christendom have no faith who reject the Lord and the Word, although they live morally, and speak, teach, and write rationally, even about faith, n. 384. CHAPTER VII. CONCERNING CHARITY, OR LOVE TOWARDS THE NEIGH- BOR, AND CONCERNING GOOD WORKS; I. There are three imiversal loves, the love of heaven, the love of the world, and the love of self. n. 394-396. (i.) Of the Will and the Understanding, n. 397. (2.) Of Good and Truth, n. 398. (3.) Of Love in general, n. 399. (4.) Of the Love of Self and the Love of the World in particular, n. 400. (5.) Of the Internal and the External Man. n. 401, (6.) Of the merely Natural and Sensual Man. n. 402. II. These three loves, when rightly subordinated, perfect man; but vrhen they are not rightly subordinated, they pervert and invert him. n. 403-405. XU GENERAL INDEX OF THE CONTENTS. in. Every man individually is to be loved, but according to the quality of his good, n. 406-411. IV. Man collectively, or a smaller and a greater society, and the man into whose composition societies enter, or one's country, is the neighbor that is to be loved, n. 412-414. V. The church is the neighbor that is to be loved in a higher degree, and the I^crd's kingdom in the highest, n. 415, 416. VI. To love the neighbor, viewed in itself, is not to love the person, but the good that is in the person, n. 417-419. VII. Charity and good works are two distinct things, like willing well and doing well. n. 420, 421. VIII. Charity itself is to act justly and faithfully in the office, business, and work in which any one is, and with whomsoever he lias any intercourse, n. 422- 424. IX. The Benefactions of Charity are, giving to the poor, and relieving the needy ; but with prudence, n. 425-428. X. There are Debts of Charity; some public, some domestic, and some private, n. 429-432. XI. The Diversions of Charity are dinners, suppers, and social gatherings. n. 433. 434- XII. The first thing of charity is to put away evils, and the second is to do goods which are of use to the neighbor, n. 435-438. XIII. In the exercises of charity man does not place merit in works while he believes that all good is from the Lord. n. 439-442. XIV. Moral life when it is at the same time spiritual, is charity, n. 443-445. XV. The friendship of love contracted with a man without regard to his quality as to the spirit, is detrimental after death, n. 446-449. XVI. There is a spurious charity, a hypocritical charity, and a dead charity, n. 450-453- XVII. The friendship of love among the evil is intestine hatred of each other, n. 454, 455. XVIII. The conjunction of love to God and love toward the neighbor. n. 456-45S. CHAPTER VIII. CONCERNING FREE-WILL. I. The precepts and dogmas of the present church respecting free-will. n. 463-465. II. That two trees were placed in the garden of Eden, one of life, and the other of the knowledge of good and evil, signifies that free-will in spiritual tilings was given to man. n. 466-469. III. Man is not life, but is a receptacle of life from God. n. 470-474. IV. As long as a man lives in the world, he is kept in the middle between heaven and hell, and there in spiritual equilibrium, wliich is free-will. n. 475- 478. GENERAL INDEX OF THE CONTENTS. Xlll V. From the permission of evil, in which permission every one's intemai man is, it is dearly manifest that man has free-will in spiritvial things, n. 479- 482. VI. Without free-will in spiritual things, the Word would be of no use, and consequently the church would be nothing, n. 4S3-4S5. VII. Without free-will in spiritual things there would be nothing pertaining to man by which in his turn he could conjoin himself with the Lord ; and conse- (juently there would be no imputation, but mere predestination, which is detest- able, n. 4S5. Detestable things made knovm concerning predestination, n. 486-488. VIII. If there were no free-will in spiritual things, God would be the cause of evil, and so there would be no imputation, n. 489-492. IX. Every spiritual thing of the church that enters in freedom, and is re- ceived from freedom, remains ; but not the reverse, n. 493-496. X. Man's will and understanding are in this freedom {libera arbitrio) ; but in both worlds, the spiritual and the natural, the doing of evil is restrained by laws, inasmuch as otherwise society would perish on both sides, n. 497-499. XI. If men had not free-will in spiritual things, all in the whole world might have been led in a single day to believe in the Lord ; but this cannot be done for the reason that what is not received by man from free-will does not remain. n. 500-502. Miracles are not now wrought, for the reason that they take away free-will in spiritual things, and they compel, n. 501. CHAPTER IX. CONCERNING REPENTANCE. I. Repentance is the first of the church with man. n. 510, 511. II. The contrition which at this day is said to precede faith, and to be fol- lowed by the consolation of the Gospel, is not repentance, n. 512-515. III. The mere oral confession that one is a sinner, is not repentance. n. 516-519. IV. Man is bom to evils of everj' kind ; and unless by repentance he re- moves them in part, he remains in them ; and he who remains in them cannot be saved, n. 520-524. What the Fulfilment of the Law is. n. 523, 524. V. Cognition of sin, and the examination of some sin in oneself, begin repentance, n. 525-527. VI. Actual repentance is to examine oneself, to recognize and acknowledge one's sins, to make supplication to the Lord, and begin a new life. n. 528-531. VII. True repentance is, to examine not only the acts of one's life, but also the intentions of his will. n. 532-534. VIII. They repent also, who do not examine themselves but yet desist from evils because they are sins ; and they repent in this way who from religion do the works of charity, n. 535-537. XIV GENERAL INDEX OF THE CONTENTS. IX. Confession ought to be made before the Lord God the Saviour, and then supplication for aid and power to resist evils, n. 538-560. X. Actual repentance is an easy work for those who have sometimes prac- tised it; but it finds very great resistance in those who have not. n. 561-563. XI. One who has never practised repentance, or has not looked into and searched himself, at length does not know what damnable evU is, and what saving good is. n. 564-566. CHAPTER X. CONCERNING REFORMATION AND REGENERATION. I. Unless a man is bom again, and, as it were, created anew, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. n. 572-575. II. The new birth or creation is effected by the Lord alone through charity and faith as. the two means, man co-operating, n. 576-578. III. Because all have been redeemed, all can be regenerated, each according to his state, n. 579-5S2. IV. Regeneration is effected in a manner analogous to that in which man is conceived, carried in the womb, bom, and educated, n. 583-586. V. The first act in the new birth is called reformation, which is of the under- standing ; and the second is called regeneration, which is of the will and thence of the understanding, n. 5S7-590. VI. The internal man is to be reformed, and through this the external, and man is so regenerated, n. 591-595- VII. While this is taking place, a combat arises between the internal and the external man, and the one that conquers rules over the other, n. 596-600. VIII. The regenerate man has a new will and a new understanding, n. 601- 606. IX. A regenerate man is in communion with angels of heaven, and an unre- generate man in communion with spirits of hell. n. 607-610. X. So far as man is regenerated sins are removed, and this removal is the remission of sins. n. 611-614. XI. Regeneration cannot take place without free-will in spiritual things. n. 615-617. XII. Regeneration cannot take place without truths, by which faith is formed, and with which charity conjoins itself, n. 618-620. Some things concerning a masculine se.x and a feminine in the vegetable kingdom, n. 585. CHAPTER XL CONCERNING IMPUTATION. I. The faith of the present church (which is said alone to justify) and impu- tation make one. n. 626, 627. II. The imputation which belongs to the faith of the present day is twofold, GENERAL INDEX OF THE CONTENTS. XV the imputation of Christ's Merit, and the imputation of salvation {sahts) there- from, n. 628-631. III. The faith which is imputative of the Merit and Righteousness of Christ the Redeemer, first arose from the decrees of the Council of Nice, concerning three Divine Persons from eternity, which faith has been received by the whole Christian world from that time to the present, n. 632-635. IV. The faith imputative of Christ's Merit vras unknown in the Apostolic Church, which existed earlier, and it is nowhere meant in the Word. n. 636-639. V. The Imputation of Christ's Merit and Righteousness is impossible. n. 640-642. VI. There is an imputation, but it is that of good and evil, and at the same time of faith, n. 643-646. VII. The faith and imputation of the New Church can by no means be together with the faith and imputation of the former church ; and if they are together, such collision and conflict result, that every thing of the church with man perishes, n. 647-649. VIII. The Lord imputes good to every man, and hell imputes evil. n. 650- 653. IX. The faith with that to which it conjoins itself, makes the sentence. If true faith conjoins itself with good, sentence is made for eternal life ; but if the faith conjoins itself with evil, sentence is made for eternal death, n. 654-657. X. Thought is not imputed to any one, but will. n. 65S-660. CHAPTER XIL CONCERNING BAPTISM. I. Without an apprehension {cognitio) of the spiritual sense of the Word, no one can know what the two sacraments, Baptism and the Holy Supper, involve and effect, n. 667-669. II. By the washing that is called Baptism is meant spiritual washing, which is purification from evils and falsities, and thus regeneration, n. 670-673. III. Baptism was instituted in the place of circumcision, because the circum- cision of the heart was represented by the circumcision of tlie foreskin, in order that an internal church might succeed the external church which in all things and in every single thing figured the internal church, n. 674-676. IV. The first use of Baptism is introduction into the Christian Church, and at the same time insertion among Christians in the spiritual world, n. 677- 680. V. The second use of Baptism is, that the Christian may know and acknowl- edge the Lord Jesus Christ, the Redeemer and Saviour, and follow Him. n. 681- 683. VI. The third use of Baptism, which is the final use, is that man may be regenerated, n. 6S4-687. VII. By the Baptism of John a way was prepared, so that Jehovah the Lord could descend into the world and work out redemption, n. 68S-690. XVi GENERAL INDEX OF THE CONTENTS. CHAPTER XIII. CONCERNING THE HOLY SUPPER. I. Without acquaintance with the correspondences of natural with spiritual things, no one can know the uses and benefits of the Holy Supper, n. 698-701. II. From an acquaintance with correspondences it is known what is meant by the Lord's Flesh and Blood, and that the bread and wine have a similar mean- ing ; that by the Lord's Flesh and by the bread is meant the Divine Good of His Love, also all the good of charity; and by the Lord's Blood and by the vrine is meant the Divine Truth of His Wisdom, also all the truth of faith ; and by eating is meant appropriation, n. 702-710. What is meant by flesh, shown from the Word. n. 704, 705. What by blood, n. 706. What by bread, n. 707. What by wine. n. 70S. III. From understanding what has been already shown, it may be compre- hended that the Holy Supper contains all things of the church and all things of heaven, universally and severally, n. 711-715. IV. The Lord is in the Holy Supper in His fulness, with His whole redemp- tion, n. 716-718. V. The Lord is present and opens heaven to those who approach the Holy Supper worthily ; and He is also present with those who approach unworthily, but does not open Heaven to them; consequently, as Baptism is an introduc- tion into the church, so the Holy Supper is an introduction into heaven, n. 719- ■ 721. VI. They approach the Holy Supper worthily, who have faith in the Lord and are in charity toward the neighbor, thus who are regenerate, n. 722-724. VII. They who approach the Holy Supper worthily are in the Lord and the Lord is in them ; consequently conjunction with the Lord is effected by the Holy Supper, n. 725-727. VIII. The Holy Supper, to those who approach it worthily, is like a signa- ture and seal that they are sons of God. n. 728-730. CHAPTER XIV. CONCERNING THE CONSUMMATION OF THE AGE; CON- CERNING THE COMING OF THE LORD; AND CONCERN- ING THE NEW HEAVEN AND THE NEW CHURCH. I. The consummation of the age is the last time or the end of the church. n. 753-756- II. The present day is the last time of the Christian church, which was foretold and described by the Lord in the Evangelists and in the Apocalypse. n. 757-759- GENERAL INDEX OF THE CONTENTS. xvU III. This last time of the Christian church is the very night into which former churches have gone down. n. 760-763. IV. After this night follows morning, and the Coming of the Lord is the morning, n. 764-767. V. The Coming of the Lord is not His Coming to destroy the visible heaven and the habitable earth, and to create a new heaven and a new earth, as many, from not understanding the spiritual sense of the Word, have hitherto supposed. n. 76S-771. VI. This Coming of the Lord, which is the second, takes place in order that the evil may be separated from the good, also that those may be saved who have believed and do believe in Him, and also that a New Angelic Heaven may be formed from them, and a New Church on earth ; and without this no Flesh could be saved (Matt. xxiv. 22). n. 772-775. VII. This Second Coming of the Lord is not in Person, but is in the Word, which is from Him and is Himself, n. 776-778. VIII. This Second Coming of the Lord takes place by means of a man before whom He has manifested Himself in Person, and whom He has filled with His Spirit, to teach the Doctrines of the New Church through the Word from Him. n. 779," 7S0. IX. This is meant by the New Heaven and the New Jerusalem (Apoc xxi.) n. 7S1-7S5. X. This New Church is the Crown of all the Churches that have hitherto existed on earth. 0.786-791. SUPPLEMENT. 1. Concerning the spiritual world ; its quality, n. 792-795. 2. Concerning Luther in the spiritual world, n. 796. 3. Concerning Melancthon in the spiritual world, n. 797. 4. Concerning Calvin in the spiritual world, n. 798, 799. 5. Concerning the Dutch in the spiritual world, n. 800-805. 6. Concerning the English in the spiritual world, n. 806-S12. 7. Concerning the Germans in the spiritual world. 0.813-816. 8. Concerning the Papists in the spiritual world, n. 817-S21. 9. Concerning the Popish Saints in the spiritual world, n. 822-827. 10. Concerning the Moliammedans in the spiritual world, n. 828-834. 11. Concerning the Africans in the spiritual world; and also something con- cerning Gentiles, n. S35-840. 12. Concerning the Jews in the spiritual world, n, 841-845. THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION: CONTAINING OF THE NEW HEAVEN AND THE NEW CHURCH. THE FAITH OF THE NEW HEAVEN AND THE NEW CHURCH. 1. The Faith, in a universal and a particular form, is prefixed, that it may be as a face before the work which follows ; and as a gate, through which entrance is made into a temple ; and a summary, in which the particulars which follow are in their measure contained. It is said, f/ie Faith of the New Heaven and the New Church, because heaven where angels are, and the church in which men are, make one, as the internal and the external with man. Thence it is, that, as to the interiors of his mind, the man of the church, who is in the good of love from the truths of faith, and in the truths of faith from the good of love, is an angel of heaven \ wherefore, after death, he also comes into heaven, and there enjoys happiness according to the state of their conjunction. It should be known that in the New Heaven which the Lord is at this day establishing, this faith is its face, gate, and summary. 2. The Faith of the New Heaven and the New Church, in the universal Form, is this : That the Lord from eternity, who is Jehovah, came" into the world, that He might subjugate the hells and glorify His Human ; and 2 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. that, without this, no mortal could have been saved ; and that those are saved who believe in Him. It is said, in the imiversal form, because this is the uni- versal of faith ; and a universal of faith is that which will be in the whole and every part. It is a universal of faith, that God is one in essence and in person, in Whom is a Divine Trinity, and that He is the Lord God the Saviour Jesus Christ. It is a universal of faith, that no mortal could have been saved unless the Lord had come into the world. It is a universal of faith, that He came into the world that He might remove hell from man, and that He did remove it, by means of combats against it and victories over it ; thus He subjugated it and reduced it to order and under obedience to Himself. It is a universal of faith, that He came into the world, that He might glorify His Human, which He assumed in the world, that is, might unite it with the Divine, from which it proceeded \ thus He holds hell in order and under obedience to Himself forever. Since this could not have been done but by means of temptations admitted into His Human, even to the last of them, and the last was the passion of the cross, therefore He under- went that. These are the universals of faith concerning the Lord. The universal of faith, on man's part, is, that he should believe in the Lord ; for by believing in Him, conjunction with Him is effected, by which is salvation. To believe in Him, is to have confidence that He saves : and because no one can have this confidence but he that lives well, there- fore this also is meant by believing in Him. This the Lord also says in John : This is the Father's will, thai every one that believeth in the Son, may have eternal life (vi. 40) ; and in another place, He that believeth in the Son, hath eternal life; but he that believeth not the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him (iii. 36). 3. The Faith of the New Heaven and the New Church, in the particular Form, is this : That Jehovah THE FAITH OF THE NEW HEAVEN, ETC. 3 God is Love itself and Wisdom itself, or that He is Good itself and Truth itself: and that He, as to Divine Truth, which is the Word, and which was God with God, descended and assumed the Human, to the end that He might reduce to order all things which were in heaven, and all things which were in hell, and all things which were in the church ; since, at that time, the power of hell prevailed over the power of heaven, and, upon earth, the power of evil over the power of good, and thence a total damnation stood before the door and threatened. This impending damna- tion Jehovah God removed by means of His Human, which was Divine Truth, and thus He redeemed angels and men ; and' afterwards He united, in His Human, Divine Truth with Divine Good, or Divine Wisdom with Divine Love, and thus, together with and in the glorified Human, re- turned into His Divine, in which He was from eternity. These things are meant by this passage in John, llie Word- was with God, and the Word was God: and the Word became flesh (i. I, 14) ; and in the s^nne, I cmne forth frojn the Father, and have come into the world: again I leave the world, and go to the Father (xvi. 28) : and also by this, We kno7v that the Son of God hath come, and given us an understanding, that we may know Him that is true; afid we are in Ifi?n that is true, in His Son Jesus Christ : This is the true God and eternal Life (i John v. 20). From these passages it is manifest that, without the coming of the Lord into the world, no one could have been saved. It is similar at this day : wherefore, unless the Lord comes again into the world, in Divine Truth, which is the Word, no one can be saved. The particulars of faith, on man's part, are, i. That God is One, in Whom is a Divine Trinit}^, and that He is the Lord God the Saviour Jesus Christ; 2. That sav- ing faith is to believe in Him; 3. That evils should not be done, because they are the devil's and from the devil ; 4. That goods should be done, because they are God's and 4 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. from God ; 5. And that these should be done by man as from himself; but that it should be believed, that they are from the Lord, with man and through him. The first two are of faith, the next two are of charity, and the fifth is of the conjunction of charity and faith, thus of the Lord and man. CHAPTER FIRST. CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 4. The Christian Church, since the time of the Lord, had passed through the several stages from infancy to extreme old age. Its infancy was in the time when the apostles lived, and preached throughout the world repentance and faith in the Lord God the Saviour. That they preached these two things, is evident from these words in the Acts of the Apostles : Paul testified, both to the yews and to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ (xx. 21). It is worthy of remembrance, that the Lord, some months ago, called together His twelve disci- ples, now angels, and sent them forth into all the spiritual world, with the command that they should there preach the gospel anew, since the church which was established by the Lord through them, has at this day become so fully consum- mated, that scarcely any remains of it are left ; and that this has come to pass, because they divided the Divine Trinity into three persons, each one of them being God and Lord ; and that thence a sort of frenzy has gone forth into the whole of theology, and thus into the church, which, from the Lord's Name, is called Christian. It is said a frenzy, because the minds of men have been driven by it into such a delirium, that they do not know whether there is one God, or whether there are three ; there is one in the speech of the lips, but three in the thought of the mind, wherefore there is a disagreement between their mind and lips, or between their thought and speech ; from which dis- agreement comes the conclusion that there is no God. The naturalism which reigns at this day is from no other source. Consider, if you please, while the lips speak of one, and the 6 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. mind thinks of three, whether the one does not, inwardly, as they meet, in turn expel the other ; thence it is that man scarcely thinks otherwise concerning God, if he thinks at all, than from the mere word God, without any sense of its meaning which involves cognition of Him. Since the idea concerning God, with all conception of Him, has been thus torn to pieces, I propose to treat, in their order, of God the Creator, of the Lord the Redeemer, and of the Holy Spirit the Operator, and lastly of the Divine Trinity ; to the end that what is torn to pieces may again be made whole ; which is effected while the reason of man is convinced, from the Word and the light thence proceeding, that there is a Divine Trinity, and that it is in the Lord God the Saviour Jesus Christ, as the soul and the body and the proceeding [life] in man ; and thus that this article in the Athanasian Creed is true, — That in Christ, God and Man, or the Divine and the Human, are not two, but in one person ; and that, as the rational soul and flesh is one man, so God and Man is one Christ. CONCERNING THE UNITY OF GOD. 5. Since the acknowledgment of God from cognition of Him, is the very essence and soul of all things in universal theology, it is necessary that an exordium should be made concerning the Unity of God, which will be demonstrated in order by these articles : L The whole Sacred Scripture, and thence the doctrines of the churches in the Christian world, teach that God is one. IL There is a universal influx \_from God'\ into the souls of men, that there is a God, and that He is one. IIL Thence it is that, in all the zvorld, there is no nation, having religion and sound reason, which does not acknowledge a God, and that God is one. IV. As to what the one God is, nations and people have diflired and still differ, from several causes. V. Human reason, from many things ifi the world, may, if it will, perceive or conclude that there is a God, and that He is otie. VL Unless Gad were one, the universe could No. 6.] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. / not have been created and preserved. VII. The man wJio does not acknowledge a God, is excommunicated from the church and condemned. VIII. With the man who does not acknowledge one God, but more than one, ?wthing of the church coheres. But these articles shall be unfolded one by one. 6. I. The whole Sacred Scripture, and thence ALL the Doctrines of the Churches in the Chris- tian WORLD, teach that THERE IS A GOD, AND THAT He is one. The whole Sacred Scripture teaches that there is a God, because, in its inmosts, it is no other than God, that is, the Divine which proceeds from God ; for it was dictated by God ; and nothing else can proceed from God, than that which is Himself, and is called Divine ; this the Sacred Scripture is in its inmosts. But in its derivatives, which are below and from the inmost, that Holy Scripture is accom- modated to the perception of angels and men ; in these it is likewise Divine, but in another form, in which it is called Heavenly [Celestial], Spiritual, and Natural-Divine, which are no other than coverings of God ; since God Himself, such as He is in the inmosts of the Word, cannot be seen by any creature. For He said to Moses, when he prayed that he might see the glory of Jehovah, that no one can see God and live. It is similar with the inmosts of the Word, where God is in His esse and in His essence. But still the Divine, which is the inmost, and is covered with such things as are accommodated to the perceptions of angels and men, shines forth, like light through crystalline forms ; but variously, according to the state of mind which man has formed for himself, from God or from himself. To every one who has formed the state of his mind from God, the Sacred Scripture is like a mirror before him, in which he sees God ; but each one in his own way. The truths which he learns from the Word, and with which he becomes imbued by a life according to them, compose that mirror. 8 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. From these things, in the first place, it is evident, that the Sacred Scripture is the fulness of God. That it not only teaches that there is a God, but also that God is one, is evident from the truths, which, as was said, compose that mirror, in that they cohere in one series, and make man incapable of thinking of God but as one. Thence it is, that every one whose reason is imbued with any sanctity from the Word, knows as from himself that God is one, and perceives that it is like madness to say that there are more. The angels cannot open their lips to pronounce the word Gods \ for the heavenly aura, in which they live, opposes it. That God is one, the Sacred Scripture teaches not only thus universally, as has been said, but also in many particular passages, as in the following : Hear^ O Israel; yehovah our God is one yehovah (Deut. vi. 4) ; and in like manner, Mark. xii. 29. Surely God is in thee, and there is no God beside Me (Isa. xlv. 14). Am not I yehovah .? and there is no God else beside Me (xlv. 21). / am yehovah thy God, and thou shall know no God beside Me (Hos. xiii. 4). Tims saith yehovah, the King of Israel, I am the First and the last, and beside Me there is no God (Isa. xliv. 6). In that day yehovah shall be King over all the earth ; in that day yehovah shall be one, and His name one (Zech. xiv. 9). 7. It is known that the doctrines of the churches in the Christian world teach that God is one; they teach this because all their doctrines are derived from the Word, and they cohere so far as one God is acknowledged not only with the lips, but also in the heart. To those who confess one God with the lips only, and in heart three, as is the case with very many at this day in Christendom, God is nothing but a mere word of the mouth ; and every thing relating to theology is, to them, but as an idol of gold enclosed in a shrine, the key to open it being in the possession of the priests only ; and when they read the Word, they do not per- ceive any light in it or from it, and not even that God is one. The Word, with such persons, is as if it were spotted with No. 8.] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 9 blots ; and, as to the unity of God, entirely covered. These are they who are described by the Lord in Matthew : By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand ; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive : their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and turn themselves about, and I should heal them (xiii. 14, 15). All such per- sons are like those who shun the light, and enter chambers where there are no windows, and feel about the walls, and search for food and for money, and at length acquire a vision like that of birds of the night, and see in darkness. They are like a woman having several husbands, who is not a wife but a lascivious harlot ; and like a virgin who accepts rings from several suitors, and after the nuptials bestows her favors upon one and also upon the others. 8. II. There is a universal Influx from God into THE Souls of Men, that there is a God, and that He is one. That there is an influx from God into man, is evident from the confession of all, that all good which in itself is good, and is in man, and is done by him, is from God ; in like manner all of charity and all of faith ; for it is read, A man can take nothing, except it be given him from heaven (John iii. 27) ; and Jesus said, Without Me ye can do nothing (xv. 5) ; that is, not any thing which is of charity and of faith. That this influx is into men's souls, is because the soul is the inmost and highest part of man, and the influx from God enters into that, and descends thence into those things which are below, and vivifies them according to reception. The truths which will be of faith, indeed, flow in by hearing, and so are implanted in the mind, thus below the soul. But man, by these truths, is only disposed for receiving the influx from God through the soul ; and as the disposition is, such is the reception, and such the trans- formation of natural faith into spiritual faith. That there 10 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. is an influx from God into the souls of men, that God is one, is because all the Divine, taken universally as well as particularly, is God ; and because all the Divine coheres as one, it cannot but inspire into man the idea of one God ; and this idea is corroborated daily, as man is elevated by God into the light of heaven ; for the angels, in their light, cannot force themselves to say Gods ; wherefore, also, their speech, at the end of every sentence, terminates as to accent in unity, which is from no other cause than from the influx into their souls, that God is one. The reason that, although it flows into the souls of all men that God is one, still many think that His Divinity is divided into more than one of the same essence, is because when that influx descends it falls into forms not correspondent, and the form itself varies it, as is the case in all the subjects of the three kingdoms of nature. It is the same God who vivifies man, that vivifies every beast ; but the recipient form causes beast to be beast, and man to be man. It is similar with man while he induces on his mind the form of a beast. There is a similar influx from the sun into every tree, but it is varied according to the form of each ; what flows into the vine is similar to what flows into the thorn ; but if the thorn is ingrafted into a vine, the influx is inverted, and proceeds according to the form of the thorn. The case is similar in the subjects of the mineral kingdom ; the light flowing into lime-stone and into the diamond is the same, but the latter is translucent and the former is opaque. As to human minds, they are varied according to their forms, which inwardly are spiritual according to faith in God, and at the same time a life from God, and those forms become translucent and angelic by faith in one God ; but on the contrary, they become dark and bestial by faith in more than one God, which differs but little from faith in no God. 9. III. Thence it is, that in all the World there IS NO Nation having Religion and sound Reason, No. 9-] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. II WHICH DOES NOT ACKNOWLEDGE A GOD, AND THAT GOD IS ONE. From the divine influx into the souls of men, treated of just above, it follows, that there is an internal dictate with every man that there is a God, and that He is one. That still there are those who deny God, and who acknowledge nature as God, and who acknowledge more Gods than one, and also who worship images as Gods, is because they have filled up the interiors of their reason or understanding with worldly and corporeal things, and thereby have obliterated the primitive idea or the idea of infancy concerning God ; and, at the same time, they then rejected religion from the breast to the back. That Christians acknowledge one God (and in what manner), appears from the general Confession of their faith, which is as follows : The Catholic faith is this, that we should worship one God in a Trinity, and the Trinity in Unity ; there are three Divine Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and yet there are tiot three gods, but there is one God; and there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit, and their Divinity is one, their ^ory equal, and their majesty coeternal ; thus the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God : but although we are compelled by Christian verity to confess each Person, one by one, to be God and. Lord, yet we are for- bidden by the Catholic religion to say three Gods, and three Lords. Such is the Christian faith concerning the unity of God ; but that the trinity of God and the unity of God in that Confession are inconsistent with each other, will be seen in the chapter on the Divine Trinity, The other nations in the world who have religion and sound reason, agree in acknowledging that God is one ; all the Mahome- tans in their empires ; the Africans in many kingdoms of their continent ; and also the Asiatics in many of theirs ; and moreover the Jews at this day. Of the most ancient people in the golden age, those who had any religion, worshipped one God, whom they called Jehovah ; in like 12 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. manner the ancient people in the following age, before monarchical governments were formed, when worldly and at length corporeal loves began to close up the higher parts of their understanding, which before were open, and were then as temples and sacred recesses for the worship of one God. But the Lord God, that He might open them again, and so restore the worship of one God, instituted a church among the posterity of Jacob, and prefixed to all the pre- cepts of their religion this : Thou shalt have no other Gods before Me (Ex. xx. 3). jfehovah, also, the name by which He called Himself anew before them, signifies the supreme and only Being from Whom is every thing that is and exists in the universe. Ancient Gentiles acknowledged Jove as the supreme God, so called perhaps from Jehovah; and many others, who composed his court, they also clothed with divinity ; but the wise men in the following age, as Plato and Aristotle, confessed that these were not gods, but so many properties, qualities, and attributes of one God, which were called gods because in each of them there was divinity. 10. All sound reason, although not' imbued with religion, sees that every thing which is divided, unless it depend upon one, would of itself fall to pieces ; for instance, man, composed of so many members, viscera, and organs of mo- tion and sensation, unless he depended upon one soul ; and the body itself, unless it depended upon one heart. In like manner, a kingdom, unless it depended upon one king ; a household, unless upon one master ; and every office, of which there are many kinds in every kingdom, unless upon one officer. What would an army avail against the enemy, without a leader, having supreme power, and officers sub- ordinate to him, each of them having his proper command over the soldiers ? It would be similar with the church, unless it acknowledged one God, and also with the angelic heaven, which is as a head to the church upon earth, in both of which the Lord is the very Soul. Wherefore, heaven No. ii-l CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 13 and the church are called His body ; which, if they did not acknowledge one God, would both of them be like a life- less corpse, which being of no use would be cast away and buried. ii. iv. as to what the one god is, nations and People have differed and still differ, from several Causes. The first cause is, that cognition concerning God, and thence an acknowledgment of Him, is not attainable with- out revelation ; and cognition concerning the Lord, and thence an acknowledgment that in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, is not attainable except from the Word, which is the crown of revelations ; for man, by the revelation which is given, is able to approach God and to receive influx, and so from natural to be- come spiritual. The revelation belonging to the first age pervaded, all the world, and the natural man had per- verted it in many ways ; whence arose the disputes, dis- sensions, heresies, and schisms of religions. The second cause is, that the natural man cannot perceive any thing concerning God, but only something concerning the world, and apply this to himself; wherefore it is among the canons of the Christian Church, that the natural man is opposed to the spiritual, and that they fight against each other. Thence it is, that those who have recognized, from the Word or other revelation, that there is a God, have differed and still differ concerning the quality of God, and also concerning His unity. Wherefore, those whose mental sight depended on the senses of the body, and who still wished to see God, formed for themselves, as idols, images of gold, silver, stone, and wood, that under these, as objects of sight, they might worship God ; and others, who rejected artificial unages from their religion, formed for themselves ideal images of God in the sun and moon, in the stars, and in various things upon the earth. 14 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. But those who supposed themselves to be wise above the common people, and who still remained natural, from the immensity and omnipresence of God in creating the world, acknowledged nature as God, some in its inmost, some in its outmost parts : and some, that they might separate God from nature, conceived an idea of something most uni- versal, which they called the Ens of the universe ; and because they know nothing more of God, this Ens becomes with them a thing of reasoning, which signifies nothing. Who cannot comprehend that cognitions concerning God are mirrors of God, and that those who know nothing con- cerning God, do not see God in a mirror with its face turned towards their eyes, but in a mirror with its back towards them, which, being covered with mercury, or some dark, glutinous substance, does not reflect but extinguishes the image .'' The faith of God enters into man through a prior way, which is from the soul into the higher parts of the understanding; but cognitions concerning God enter through a posterior way, because they are imbibed from the revealed Word, by the understanding, through the senses of the body ; and there is a meeting of the influxes in the midst of the understanding ; and natural faith, which is only persuasion, there becomes spiritual, which is real acknowledgment ; wherefore the human understanding is as a refining vessel, in which the change is effected. 12. V. Human Reason, from many Things in the World, may, if it will, perceive or conclude that THERE is a God, and that He is One. This truth may be confirmed by innumerable things in the visible world ; for the universe is like a stage, upon which are continually exhibited testimonies that there is a God, and that He is one. But to illustrate this, I will adduce this memorable relation from the spiritual world. Once, while I was conversing with angels, there were present some newly arrived spirits from the natural world. Seeing them, No. 12.] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 1 5 I bade them welcome, and related many things, before un- known, concerning the spiritual world ; and after some con- versation, I inquired of them what knowledge they brought with them from the world concerning God and nature. They said, This, that nature is the operator in all things that are done in the created universe ; and that God, after crea- tion, induced and impressed upon nature that faculty and power ; and that God only sustains and preserves them lest they should perish ; wherefore all things that exist, which are produced and reproduced upon the earth, are at this day ascribed to nature. But I replied, that nature of itself is not the operator in any thing, but God through nature ; and because they asked for proof, I said. Those who believe the Divine operation to be in every thing of nature, can, from very many things which they see in the world, confirm themselves in favor of God much more than in favor of nature ; for those who confirm themselves in favor of the Divine operation in every thing of nature, attend to the wonderful things which are seen in the productions of plants as well as of animals. — In the Productions of Plants : They observe that, from a little seed sown in the ground, there goes forth a root, and by means of the root, a stem, and successively branches, buds, leaves, flowers, and fruits, even to new seeds, just as if the seed knew the order of succession, or the process by which it was to renew itself. What rational man can think that the sun, which is pure fire, knows this, or that it can endue its heat and light with power to effect such things, and that it can intend uses ? The man whose rational faculty has been elevated, while he sees and properly considers those things, cannot think otherwise than that they are from Him who has infinite wisdom, thus from God. They who acknowledge the Divine operation in every thing of nature, also confirm themselves in the acknowledgment when they see those things ; but, on the contrary, they who do not acknowledge it, do not see such things with the eyes of l6 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. their reason in the forehead, but in the back of the head ; who are such as derive all the ideas of their thought from the senses of the body, .and confirm the fallacies of the senses, saying, " Do you not see the sun operating all those things by its heat and light ? What is that which you do not see? is it any thing?" — They who confirm themselves in favor of the Divine, attend to the wonderful things which they see in the Productions of Animals : To speak here first with regard to t^gs, that in them the chicken is concealed, in its seed, with every thing requisite for its formation, and also with every thing for progress after its exclusion, even until it becomes a bird in the form of the parent. Moreover, if we attend to winged creatures in general, such things are presented to the mind which thinks deeply, as excite astonishment ; as that in the least as well as in the greatest of them, in the invisible as well as in the visible, that is, in little insects as well as in great birds and beasts, there are organs of the senses, which are those of sight, smell, taste, and touch ; also organs of motion, which are muscles, for they fly and walk ; as also viscera con- nected with the heart and lungs, which are actuated by the brains. They who ascribe all things to nature see such things, indeed, but they think only that they are, and say that nature produces them ; and they say this because they have turned away the mind from thinking of the Divine : and those who have turned themselves away from the Divine, while they behold the wonderful things in na- ture, cannot think rationally concerning them, still less spiritually ; but they think sensually and materially ; and then they think in nature . from nature, and not above it ; with only this difference from beasts, that they possess rationality, that is, that they are able to understand if they will. Those who have turned themselves away from think- ing of the Divine, and have thereby become corporeal-sens- ual, do not consider that the sight of the eye is so gross and material that it sees many little insects as one obscure No. 12.] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 1 7 object ; and yet every one of them is organized for feel- ing and for moving itself, and so is gifted with fibres and vessels, and also with a little heart, pulmonary tubes, little viscera, and brains ; and that these are woven together from the purest things in nature, and that those contex- tures correspond to life in its lowest degree, by which the minutest of them are distinctly actuated. Since the sight of the eye is so gross that many insects, with the innu- merable parts of each, appear to it as a small, obscure thing, and yet sensual men think and conclude from that sight, it is manifest how very gross their mind is, and thence in what darkness they are with respect to spiritual things. Every man, if he will, may confirm himself in favor of the Divine, from the things visible in nature ; and also he does confirm himself, who thinks concerning God, and His omnipotence in creating the universe, and concerning His omnipresence in preserving it : Avhilst, for instance, he ob- serves the fowls of the air, how each species of them knows its proper food and where it is ; recognizes its fel- lows from sound and sight ; how among the birds they can distinguish which are their friends, and which their enemies ; that they know how to couple ; that they take their mates, build nests with art, there lay their eggs, sit upon them, know the time of incubation ; which being ended, they help the young from the shell ; loving them most tenderly, cherishing them under their wings, offering them food, and nourishing them until they are able to pro- vide for themselves and to do similar things. Every man, who is willing to think of the Divine influx through the spiritual world into the natural, may see it in those things ; and he may also say in his heart, if he will, that such knowl- edge cannot be given to them from the sun by its heat and light ; for the sun from which nature takes its rise and its essence, is pure fire ; and thence the effluxes of its heat and light are altogether dead ; and thus they may conclude that such things are from the Divine influx through the spiritual world into the ultimates of nature. 1 8 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. Every one, from the things visible in nature, may con- firm himself in favor of the Divine, while he sees those worms, which, from the enjoyment in a certain love, seek and aspire after a change of their earthly state into one analogous to the heavenly state ; and for this purpose crawl into suitable places, envelop themselves with a cov- ering, and thus put themselves into the womb, that they may be born again, and thus become chrysalises, aureliai, nymphs, and at length butterflies ; and when they have un- dergone these changes of form, and, according to their species, have been clothed with beautiful wings, they fly abroad into the open air as into their heaven, and there indulge in pleasant sports, take their mates, lay eggs, and provide for themselves a posterity ; and at that time they nourish themselves with pleasant and sweet food from flowers. Who that confirms himself in favor of the Divine, from the things visible in nature, does not see some image of the earthly state of man in them as worms, and an im- age of the heavenly state in them as butterflies ? But those who confirm themselves in favor of nature, see those things indeed, but, because they have rejected the heavenly state of man from the mind (iUiimtis), they call them mere opera- tions of nature. Every one, from the things visible in nature, may con- firm himself in favor of the Divine, while he attends to the things which are known concerning bees, that they know how to gather wax from roses and from blossoms, and to suck out honey, and to build cells like little houses, and arrange them in the form of a city with streets through which they may come in and go out ; that from afar they smell the flowers and herbs from which they may gather wax for their houses and honey for their food ; and that, laden with these, they fly back in the right direction to their hive ; and so they provide for themselves food for the coming winter, as if they foresaw it. They also set over themselves a mistress as queen, from whom a posterity No. 12] CONCERNIXG GOD THE CREATOR. I9 may be propagated ; and build for her, as it were, a palace above them, guarded round about. When the time of bring- ing forth has come, she goes, accompanied by her attend- ants called drones, from cell to cell, and lays her eggs, which her attendants cover with a sort of ointment, that Ihey may not be injured by the air. Hence arises a new race. Afterwards, when this has reached the proper age and is able to do like things, it is expelled from the hive ; the swarm first gathers itself into a band, that it may not be divided and dispersed, and afterwards flies abroad to seek for itself a habitation. About the time of autumn, those drones, because they have brought in no wax nor honey, are led forth and deprived of their wings, that they may not return and consume the food which they took no pains to provide. Many other things might be added. Whence it is evident, that, on account of the use which they per- form to the human race, they have, from the Divine influx through the spiritual world, a form of government such as there is with men on earth, yea, with angels in the heavens. What person of sound reason does not see that such things ■with them are not from the natural world ? What has the sun from which nature is, in common with a government the rival and the analogue of heavenly government .'' From these and similar things observable in brute animals, the advocate and worshipper of nature confirms himself in favor of nature ; whilst the advocate and worshipper of God, from the same things confirms himself in favor of God : for the spiritual man sees in them spiritual things, and the natural man sees in them natural things ; thus each according to his quality. As to myself, such things have been to me evident indications of the influx of the spirit- ual world into the natural from God. Consider also whether you can think analytically concerning any form of government, or concerning any civil law, or concerning any moral virtue, or concerning any spiritual truth, unless the Divine, from His wisdom, flows in through the spiritual v/orld. As to myself, I never could, nor can I now ; for I 20 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. have perceptibly and sensibly observed that influx now for twenty-six years, continually; wherefore I say this from what has been witnessed. Can nature have use as the end, and dispose uses into ordfers and forms ? This can be done only by one who is wise ; and the universe can be thus ordered and formed only by God, whose wisdom is infinite. Who else can fore- see and provide for men things serviceable for food and clothing ; their food from the harvests of the field, the fruits of the earth, and from animals ; and their clothing from the same ? It is among the wonderful things, that those petty worms called silk-worms, should clothe with silk and magnificently adorn both women and men, from kings and queens even to maid-servants and man-servants ; and that those petty insects called bees, should furnish wax for lights, by which temples and palaces are illuminated. These and many other things are standing proofs that God, from Himself through the spiritual world, operates all things which are done in nature. To these things it is proper to add, that, in the spiritual world, have been seen those who, from the things visible in the world, confirmed themselves in favor of nature to such a degree that they became atheists ; and that their understanding in spiritual light appeared open below and closed above, because in thought they looked downwards to the earth and not upwards to heaven. Above the sen- sual, which is the lowest of the understanding, there ap- peared, as it were, a veil sparkling with infernal fire ; in some cases black as soot, in others livid like a corpse. Let every one, therefore, beware of confirmations in favor of nature ; but let him confirm himself in favor of God ; material is not wanting. 13. VI. Unless God were one, the Universe could NOT HAVE been CREATED AND PRESERVED. That God's unity may be inferred from the creation of the universe, is because the universe is a work cohering as No. 13.] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 21 one from firsts to lasts ; also that the universe depends upon one God, as the body on its soul. The universe is so created, that God may be everyAvhere present, and hold all and every part of it under His direction, and hold it together as one perpetually, which is to preserve it. Hence also it is, that Jehovah God says, That He is the First a7id the Last, the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and the Omega (Isa. xliv. 6 ; Apoc. i. 8, 17) ; and, in another place, That He mak- eth all things, spreadeth out the heavens, and stretcheth out the earth by Hitns elf (ls?i. xliv. 24). This great system, which is called the universe, is a work cohering as one from firsts to lasts, because God in creating it had one end in view, which was an angelic heaven from the human race ; and all things of which the earth is composed are means to that end ; for lie who wills an end also wills the means ; where- fore he who contemplates the world as a work containing means to that end, may contemplate the created universe as a work cohering as one, and may see that the world is a complex of uses in successive order for the human race, from which is the angelic heaven. The Divine Love can intend no other end than the eternal blessedness of men from Its own Divine ; and Its Divip^ Wisdom can produce nothing else than uses which are means to that end. From the world surveyed with this universal idea, every wise man may comprehend that the Creator of the universe is one, and that His essence is Love and Wisdom : wherefore there is not a single thing in the universe, in which is not hidden a use, more or less remote, for man.* Those who view some things in the world singly, and. not all things universally in a series in which are ends, mediate causes, and effects, and who do not deduce creation from the Divine Love through the Divine Wisdom, cannot see that the universe is the work of one God, and that He dwells in every use, because He dwells in the end ; for * Several lines are here omitted in the translation ; as they are found in No. 12, and seem to have been repeated accidentally. 22 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. every one who is in the end, is also in the means ; for the end is most internally in all the means, actuating and directing them. Those who do not contemplate the uni- verse as the work of God, and as the habitation of His love and wisdom, but as the work of nature, and the habi- tation of the heat and light of the sun, close the higher regions of their mind towards God, and open its lower regions for the devil ; and thereby they put off the na- ture of man, and put on the nature of beasts ; and they not only believe themselves to be like the beasts, but they also become so ; for they become foxes in cunning, wolves in fierceness, leopards in treachery, tigers in cruelty, and crocodiles, serpents, owls and other birds of the night, ac- cording to the nature of these animals. In the spiritual world, those who are such also appear in the distance like those wild beasts ; their love of evil so figures itself. 14. VII. The Man who does not acknowledge a God, is excommunicated from the Church and con- demned. That the man who does not acknowledge a God, is ex- communicated from tl;,e church, is because God is the all of the church, and divine things which are called theologi- cal constitute the church ; wherefore a denial of God is a denial of all things of the church ; and this denial itself excommunicates him ; thus the man himself, and not God, is the author of his excommunication. He is also con- demned, because whosoever is excommunicated from the church, is also excommunicated from heaven ; for the church upon earth and the angelic heaven make one, like the internal and external, and like the spiritual and natural in man. For man has been so created by God, as to be in the spiritual world as to his internal, and in the natural world as to his external ; thus he has been created a native of both worlds, in order that the spiritual, which is of heaven, may be implanted in the natural, which is of the world, as No. 14.] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 23 seed is planted in the ground ; and that thus man may ac- quire a fixed and everlasting existence. The man who, by a denial of God, has excommunicated himself from the church and thus from heaven, has closed up his internal man as to the will, and thus as to his genial love ; for man's will is the receptacle of his love, and becomes its habitation. But he cannot close up his internal man as to the understanding ; for, if he could and should do this, the man would be no longer man. But the love of his will infatuates the higher regions of the understanding with falsities; whence the understanding becomes as it were closed as to the truths which are of faith, and as to the goods which are of charity ; thus more and more against God, and at the same time against the spiritual things of the church ; and thus he is excluded from communion with the angels of heaven ; and, when thus excluded, he enters into communion with the satans of hell and thinks in unity with them ; and all satans deny a God, and think foolishly concerning God and the spiritual things of the church ; so too does the man who is conjoined with them. When he is in his spirit, as he is when left to himself at home, he suffers his thoughts to be led by the enjoyments of evil and falsity, which he has conceived and brought forth in him- self ; and then he thinks that there is no God, but that what is called God is only a word sounded from the pulpits, to. bind the common people to obedience to the laws of jus- tice, which are laws of society. He also thinks that the Word, from which ministers proclaim a God, is a collection of visionary stories, the sanctity of which is derived from authority ; and that the Decalogue or Catechism is a little book, which, after it has been well worn by children's hands, may be thrown away ; for it ordains that we should honor our parents, that we should not do murder, nor commit adul- tery, nor steal, nor bear false testimony ; and who does not know the same things from the civil law .? Concerning the church, he thinks it is an assemblage of simple, credulous, 24 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. 1. weak-minded people, who see what they do not see. Re- specting man, and himself as a man, he thinks as he do'es of a beast ; and concerning the life after death, he thinks as he does of a beast's life after death. So his internal man thinks, however differently the external man speaks ; for, as was said, every man has an internal and an external ; and his internal constitutes the man, which is called the spirit, and which lives after death ; and the external, in which by a semblance of morality he plays the hypocrite, is buried ; and then, on account of his denial of God, he is condemned. Every man, as to his spirit, is consociated with his like in the spiritual world, and is as one with them ; and it has often been given me to see in societies the spirits of per- sons still living, some in angelic societies and some in infernal ; and I have also been permitted to converse with them for days ; and have wondered that man himself while he lives in his body should know nothing at all of this. Thence it was manifest, that whoever denies a God, is al- ready among the condemned, and after death is gathered to his companions. 15. VIII. With Men who do not acknowledge one God, but more than one, nothing of the Church COHERES. He who in faith acknowledges and in heart worships one God, is in the communion of saints on earth, and in the communion of angels in the heavens ; they are called commimiojis, and they are so because they are in one God, and one God is in them. The same are also in conjunction with the whole angelic heaven, and I might venture to say with all and every one there, for they are all as the chil- dren and descendants of one father, whose minds, manners, and faces are similar, so that they mutually recognize each other. The angelic heaven is arranged into societies ac- cording to all the varieties of the love of good; which varieties aim at one most universal love, which is love to No. i6.] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 2$ God ; from this love have been generated all those who in faith acknowledge, and in heart worship, one God, the Cre- ator of the universe, and at the same time the Redeemer and Regenerator. But the case is altogether different with those who do not approach and worship one God, but more than one ; and also with those who profess one with their lips, and at the same time think of three, as do those in* the church at this day who distinguish God into three persons, and declare that each person by himself is God, and attrib- ute to each separate qualities or properties which do not belong to either of the others. Hence it comes to pass that not only the unity of God is actually divided, but also theology itself, and likewise the human mind, in which it should reside ; what thence can result but perplexity and incoherency in the things of the church ? That such is the state of the church at this day, will be demonstrated in the Appendix to this work. The truth is, that the division of God, or of the Divine essence, into three persons, each of whom by himself, or singly, is God, leads to the denial of God. It is as if one should enter a temple in order to worship, and should see, on a tablet above the altar, one God painted as the Ancient of days, another as the High Priest, and a third as the flying yEolus, with this inscription beneath, " These three are otte God ; " or as if he should there see the Unity and Trinity painted as a man with three heads upon one body, or with three bodies under one head, which is the form of a monster. If any one should enter heaven with such an idea, he would certainly be cast out head long, though he should say that the head or heads signified essence, and the body or bodies, distinct properties. i6. To the above I shall add a Relation [Memora- Bile]. I saw some new comers from the natural into the spiritual world, talking together about three Divine Persons from eternity ; they were dignitaries of the church, and one of tliem a bishop. They came up to me, and after some conversation concerning the spiritual world, of which tliey VOL. I. 2 26 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. before had not known any thing, I said, " I heard you talk- ing about three Divine Persons from eternity ; and I be- seech you to open to me this great mystery, according to your ideas which you conceived in the natural world, from which you have lately come." Then the primate look- ing at me said, " I see that you are a layman ; wherefore I wil! open the ideas of my thought concerning this great mystery, and teach you. My ideas always have been and still are that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, sit in the midst of heaven, upon magnificent and lofty seats or thrones ; God the Father, upon a throne of the finest gold, with a sceptre in His hand ; God the Son, at His right hand, upon a throne of the purest silver, with a crown on His head ; and God the Holy Spirit, near them, upon a throne of shining crystal, holding a dove in His hand ; and that lamps, hanging round about them in triple order, were glittering with precious stones ; and that, at a distance from this circle, were standing innumerable angels, all worshipping and singing praises ; and, more- over, that God the Father is continually conversing with His Son concerning those who are to be justified ; and that they together decree and determine who, upon earth, were worthy to be received by them among the angels, and crowned with eternal life ; and that God the Holy Spirit, having heard their names, instantly hastens to them over all parts of the earth, carrying with Him the gifts of right- eousness, as so many tokens of salvation for those who are to be justified ; and, as soon as He arrives and breathes upon them, He disperses their sins, as a ventilator dis- perses the smoke from a furnace and makes it white ; and also He takes away from their hearts the hardness of stone, and puts into them the softness of flesh ; and at the same time He renews their spirits or minds, and regenerates them, and induces upon them the countenances of infants ; and at last marks their foreheads with the sign of the cross, and calls them the elect, and children of God." The No. i6.] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 27 primate, having finished this discourse, said to me, " Thus I unravelled this great mystery in the world ; and, because most of our order there applauded my opinions on this sub- ject, I am persuaded that you also, who are a layman, give them credit." After these things were said by the primate, I looked at him, and, at the same time, at the dignitaries with him, and observed that they all favored him with their full assent : wherefore I began to reply, and said, " I have well considered the declaration of your faith, and have thence collected that you have conceived and still cherish a merely natural and sensual, yea, material idea concerning the triune God, whence inevitably flows the idea of three Gods. Is it not to think sensually of God the Father, that He sits upon a throne with a sceptre in His hand ? and of the Son, that He sits upon His throne with a crown on His head ? and of the Holy Spirit, that He sits upon His, with a dove in His hand, and that, according to what He hears. He runs throughout the world ? And because such an idea thence results, I cannot believe what you have de- clared ; for, from my infancy, I have not been able to admit into my mind any other idea than that of one God ; and since I have received and still retain only this idea, all that you have said has no weight with me. And then I saw that, by the throne upon which, according to the Scripture, Jehovah is said to sit, is meant kingdom ; by the sceptre and crown, government and dominion ; by sit- ting'on the right hand, the omnipotence of God by His Human; and by those things which are related of the Holy Spirit, the operations of the Divine omnipresence. Assume, sir, if you please, the idea of one God, and revolve it well in your rational mind [ratiocinid], and you will at length clearly perceive that it is so. Indeed, you also say that there is one God, and this because you make the essence of those three persons one and indivisible ; yet you do not allow any one to say that the one God is one Person, but that still there are three ; and this you do, lest the idea of 28 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. three Gods, such as yours is, should be lost ; and you also ascribe to each a character separate from that of another : do you not thus divide your Divine essence ? Since it is so, how can you at the same time think that God is one ? I could overlook it if you should say that the Divine is one. When any one hears that the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God, and that each Person sifigly is God, how can he conceive that God is one ? Is it not a contradiction which can never be believed ? That this cannot be called one God, but similar Divinit)', may be illustrated by these examples : It cannot be said of sev- eral men who compose one senate, synod, or council, that they are one man ; but while they are all and each of them of one opinion, it may be said that they think one thing. Neither can it be said of three diamonds of one substance that they are one diamond, but that they are one as to substance ; and also each diamond differs from the others in value, according to its own weight; but it would not be so, if they were one, and not three. But I perceive that the reason why you call the three Divine per- sons, each of whom by Himself or singly is God, one God, and why you insist that every one in the church should so speak, is that sound and enlightened reason, throughout the whole world, acknowledges that God is one ; and there- fore you would be covered with shame, if you also should not speak in like manner. But even while you utter with your lips one God, although you entertain the idea of three, still the shame does not keep those two forms of expres- sion within your lips, but you speak them out." After this conversation, the bishop retired with his clerical attendants, and in retiring he turned about, and wished to exclaim, " There is one God ; " but he could not, because his thought drew back his tongue ; and then, with open mouth, he breathed out, "Three Gods." Those who were standing by laughed loudly at the strange sight, and departed. 17. Afterwards I inquired where I might find, amongst No. i;.] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 29 the learned, those who are of the most acute genius, and who maintain that there is a Divine Trinity divided into three persons ; and three presented themselves, to whom I said, " How can you divide the Divine Trinity into three persons, and assert that each person by himself, or singly, is God and Lord ? Is not such a confession of the mouth that God is one, as distant' from the thought as the south is from the north ? " To which they replied, " It is not in the least, because the three persons have one essence, and the Divine Essence is God. We were, in the world, guardians of a Trinity of persons ; and the ward under our care was our faith, in which each divine person had his office : God the Father, the office of imputation and donation ; God the Son, that of intercession and mediation ; and God the Holy Spirit, that of effecting the uses of imputation and media- tion." But I asked, " What do you mean by the Divine Essence ? " They said, " We mean omnipotence, omni- science, omnipresence, immensity, eternity, equality of maj- esty." To which I said, " If that essence makes one out of several Gods, you may add still more, as, for example, a fourth who is mentioned in Moses, Job, and Ezekiel, and is called God Shaddai. In like manner also did the ancients in Greece and Italy, who ascribed equal attrib- utes and thus similar essence to their gods, as to Saturn, Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto, Apollo, Juno, Diana, Minerva, yea, also to Mercury and Venus ; but still they could not say that all these were one God. And also you, who are three, and, as I perceive, of similar learning, and so of sim- ilar essence as to that, still are not able to combine your- sehes into one learned man." But at this they laughed, saying, " You are jesting ; it is otherwise with the Divine Essence ; this is one, and not tripartite, and it is indivisible, and so not divided ; partition and division do not reach it." To this I rejoined, "Let us come down to this ground, and argue the subject." And I asked, "What do you mean hy J>erson, and what does the word signify ? " And they said, 30 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. L " The appellation Person signifies not a part or quality ir. an- other, but what subsists by itself \_proprie subsistit\ Thus do all the principal doctors of the church ^^^wo. person, and we agree with them." And I said, " Is this the definition of person ] " And they replied, " It is." To which I answered, " Then there is not any part of the Father in the Son, nor any of either in the Holy Spirit ; whence it follows, that each has His own judgment, right, and power ; and so there is not any thing which joins them together except the will, which is proper to each, and thus is communicable at pleas- ure : are not the three persons thus three distinct Gods ? Again, you have also defined person, that it is what subsists by itself : consequently it follows that there are three sub- stances into which you divide the Divine Essence ; and yet this, as you also say, is incapable of division, because it is one and indivisible ; and, moreover, to each substance, that is, to each person, you attribute properties which are not in another, and which cannot be communicated to an- other, such as imputation, mediation, and operation ; and what else thence results, than that the three persons are three Gods ? " At these words they withdrew, saying, " We will discuss these things, and, having discussed them, we will answer." There stood by a certain wise man, who, hearing these things, said, " I do not wish, by such subtle speculations [subtiles transennas], to look into this high sub- ject ; but leaving those subtilties, I see in clear light that, in the ideas of your thought, there are three Gods ; but, because it would be to your shame to publish them to all the world (for if you should publish them you would be called madmen and idiots), therefore, to avoid that dis- grace, it is expedient for you to confess with your lips one God." But the three disputants, still tenacious of their own opinion, paid no attention to these words ; and, in going away, they muttered out some terms bor- rowed from metaphysical science ; whence I perceived, that that was their tripod, from which they wished to ffive answers. No. 19-] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 3 1 CONCERNING THE DIVINE ESSE, WHICH IS JEHOVAH. 18. We shall treat first of the Divine Esse, and after- wards of the Divine Essence. It appears as if these two were one and the same ; but still esse is more universal than essence, for an essence supposes an esse, and from esse essence is derived. The Esse of God, or the Divine Esse, cannot be described, because it is above every idea of human thought, into which nothing else falls than what is created and finite, but not what is uncreate and infinite, thus not the Divine Esse. The Divine Esse is Esse itself, from which all things are, and which must be in all things, that they may be. A further notion of the Divine Esse may flow in from the following articles : I. The one Godis called Jehovah from Esse \io be\ thiis from this, because He alone is, was, and will be, and because He is the First 'and the Last, the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and the Omega. II. The one God is Substance itself and Form itself, and angels and men are substances and forjns from Him ; and as far as they are in Him and He in them, so far they are images and like- nesses of Him. III. The Divine Esse is Esse [to be"] in itself, and at the same time Existere \to exist'\ in itself IV. The Divine Esse and Existere in itself cannot produce another Divine which is Esse and Existere in itself ; consequently, there cannot be aftother God of the same essence. V. A plu- rality of gods in ancient and also in modern times, existed f-om no other cause than from not understanding the Divi?ie Esse. But these articles are to be elucidated one by one. 19. I. The one God is called Jehovah from Esse, THUS FROM THIS, BECAUSE He ALONE IS [aND WAS] AND WILL BE ; AND BECAUSE He IS THE FiRST AND THE LaST, THE Beginning and the End, the Alpha and ' the Omega, That Jehovah signifies I am and To be, is known j and 32 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. that God was so called from the most ancient times is evi- dent from the book of Creation, or Genesis, where, in the first chapter. He is named God^ but in the second and the following, jfehovah God; and afterwards, when the descend- ants of Abraham by Jacob, during their sojourning in Egypt, forgot the name of God, it was recalled to their remem- brance ; concerning which it is thus written : Moses said unto God, What is thy name ? God said, I AM THA T I AM. Thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you ; and thou shalt say, Jehovah, the God of your fathers, hath sent me iinto you ; this is My name for ever, and this My niemorial front generation to generation (Ex. iii. 13, 14,- 15). Since God alone is the I AM, and the Esse, or Jehovah, therefore there is not any thing in the created universe which does not derive its esse from Him ; but in what manner will be seen below. The same is also meant by these words : / am the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and the Omega (Isa. xliv. 6; and Apoc. i. 8, 11 ; xxii. 13) ; by which is signified, Who is the Itself and the Only, from firsts to lasts, from which are all things. That God is called the Alpha and the Omega, the Begin- ning and the End, is because Alpha is the first and Omega is the last letter in the Greek aljohabet ; and thence they signify all things in the complex : the reason is, because every alphabetic letter in the spiritual world signifies some- thing ; and a vowel, which serves for tone, something of affection or love : from this origin is spiritual or angelic speech, and also writing there. But this is an arcanum hitherto unknown ; for there is a universal language, in which all angels and spirits are ; and this has nothing in common with any language of men in the world: every man comes into this language after death, for it is im- planted in every man from creation ; wherefore all can un- derstand each other throughout the whole spiritual world. It has been given me often to hear that language, and I No. 20. 1 CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 33 have compared it with languages in the world, and have found that it does not even in the least degree make one with any natural language upon earth : it differs from them in its first principle, which is, that every letter of every word signifies a thing. In consequence of this, God is called the Alpha and the Omega, by which is signified that He is the Itself and the Only, from firsts to lasts, from which are all things. But concerning this language, and the writing of it, flowing from the spiritual thought of angels, see the work concerning Conjugial Love (n. 326-329), and also the following pages. 20. II. The one God is Substance itself and Form ITSELF, AND AnGELS AND MeN ARE SUBSTANCES AND Forms from Him ; and as far as they are in Him AND He in them, so far they are Images and Like- nesses OF Him. Since God is Esse, He is also Substance, for an esse, unless it be a substance, is only a thing of reasoning ; for substance is the thing which subsists : and whoever is a substance is also a form, for substance, unless it be a form, is a thing of reasoning ; wherefore both can be predicated of God, but so that He is the only, the very, and the first Substance and Form. That this form is the very Human, that is, that God is very Man, all things of whom are infinite, is demonstrated in the " Angelic Wisdom concern- ing the Divine Love and Wisdom," published at Amster- dam in the year 1763: in like manner, that angels and men are substances and forms, created and organized for receiving the Divine things flowing into them through heaven ; wherefore, in the book of Creation, they are called images and likenesses of God (Gen. i. 26, 27) ; and in other places. His sons, and bom of Him ; but in the course of this work, it will be fully demonstrated that, as far as man lives under the Divine influence, that is, suffers himself to be led by God, so far he becomes an image of Him, more and 2* 34 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. more interiorly. Unless an idea be formed of God, that He is the first substance and form, and of His form, that it is the very human, the minds of men would readily imbibe idle fancies, like spectres, concerning God Himself, the origin of man, and the creation of the world : of God they would conceive no other notion than as of the nature of the universe in its firsts, thus of the expanse of the universe, or as of emptiness or nothing ; of the origin of men, as of the conflux of the elements into such a form by chance ; of the creation of the world, that the origin of its substances and forms is from points, then from geometrical lines, which, because nothing can be predicated of them, are therefore in themselves not any thing. With such persons, every thing of the church is like the Styx, or the thick darkness of Tartarus. 21. HI. The Divine Esse [to be] is Esse in itself, AND, AT THE SAME TiME, ExiSTERE [tO EXISt] IN ITSELF. That Jehovah God is Esse in itself, is because He is the I AM, the Itself, the Only and the First, from eternity to eternity, from which is every thing which is, that it may be any thing ; thus, and not otherwise. He is the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last, and the Alpha and the Omega. It cannot be said that His Esse is from itself, be- cause this FROM ITSELF supposes what is prior, and thus time, which is not applicable to the Infinite, which is called '■'■from eternity ; " and also it supposes another God, who is God in Himself, thus a God from God, or that God formed Himself, and so could not be uncreate or infinite, because thus He made himself finite from Himself or from another. From this, that God is Esse in itself, it follows that He is Love in itself. Wisdom in itself, and Life in itself, and that He is the Itself, from which are all things, and to which all things refer themselves, that they may be any thing. That God is Life in itself and thus God, is evident from the Lord's words in John v. 26 ; and in Isaiah, / yehovah No. 22.] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 35 make all things^ and spread out the heavens alone, and stretch out the earth by Myself {y^w. 24) ; and that He alone is God, and beside Him there is no God (xlv. 14, 15, 21, 22; Hos. xiii. 4). That God is not only Esse in itself, but also Existere in itself, is because an esse, unless it exist, is not any thing ; and, in like manner, an existere, unless it be from an esse ; wherefore, one being given, the other is given : in like man- ner, a substance is not any thing, unless it be also a form ; of a substance, unless it be a form, nothing can be predi- cated ; and this, because it has no quality, is in itself noth- ing. The reason why we here say Esse and Existere, and not Essence and Existence, is because a distinction is to be observed between Esse and Essence, and thence between Existere and Existence, as between what is prior and what is posterior ; and what is prior is more universal than what is posterior. Infinity and eternity are applicable to the Divine Esse, but to the Divine Essence and Existence Divine Love and Divine Wisdom are applicable, and, by means of these two, omnipotence and omnipresence ; of which, therefore, we shall treat in their order. 22. That God is the Itself, the Only and the First, which is called Esse and Existere in itself, from which are all things that are and exist, the natural man by his own reason cannot possibly discover ; for the natural man by his own reason can apprehend nothing else than what is of nature ; for this squares with his essence, because from his infancy and childhood nothing else has entered into it. But since man was created to be spiritual, also because he is to live after death, and then among the spiritual in their world, therefore God has provided the Word, in which He has not only revealed Himself, but also that there is a heaven and a hell ; and that in one or the other of these every man is to live to eternity, each according to his life and his faith together. He has also revealed in the Word that He is the I AM, or the Esse, and the Itself, and the 36 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. Only, which is in itself, and so the First or the Beginning, from which are all things. It is from this revelation that the natural man can elevate himself above nature, thus above himself, and see such things as are of God ; but yet only as from afar, although God is nigh to every man, for He is in him with His essence ; and, because it is so, He is nigh to those who love Him ; and those love Him who live according to His commandments and believe in Him ; these, as it were, see Him ; for what is faith, but a spiritual sight that He is? And what is a life according to His commandments, but an actual acknowledgment that from Him is salvation and eternal life ? But those who have not spiritual faith, but natural, which is only knowledge, and have thence a similar life, see God, indeed, but from afar, and this only when they are speaking of Him. The differ- ence between the former and the latter is like that between those who stand in clear light, and see men close to, and touch them, and those who stand in a thick fog, from which they cannot distinguish men from trees or stones. Or it is like the difference between those who stand upon a high mountain where there is a city, and who go hither and thither and talk with their fellow citizens, and those who look down from that mountain and know not whether the objects which they see are men, or beasts, or statues. Yea, it is like that between those who stand upon some planet- ary orb, and see their companions there, and those who are in another planet, with telescopes in their hands, and look thither, and say that they see men there, when yet they only see, in general, the earthy parts as lunar bright- ness, and the watery parts as spots. There is a similar difference between seeing God and the Divine things which proceed from Him in their mind, with those who are in faith and at the same time in the life of charity, and with those who are only in knowledge about them ; consequently, between natural and spiritual men. But those who deny the Divine sanctity of the Word, and still carry the things No. 23.] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 37 which are of religion, as it were, in a sack upon the back, do not see God, but they only utter the word God, differing little from parrots. 23. IV. The Divine Esse and Existere in itself cannot produce another divine that is esse and Existere in itself ■ consequently, another God of THE SAME Essence is not possible. That one God, who is the Creator of the universe, is Esse and Existere in itself, thus God in Himself, has already been shown : thence it follows that a God from God is not possible, because the very essential Divine, which is Esse and Existere in itself, is in Him incommuni- cable. It is the same, whether it be said "begotten by God," or " proceeding from Him ; " in either case, there would be "produced by God;" and this differs but little from being created. Wherefore, to introduce into the church the faith that there are three Divine persons, each of whom singly is God, and of the same essence, and one born from eternity, and a third proceeding from eternity, is wholly to abolish the idea of the unity of God, and with this all notion of Divinity, and so to cause all the spiritual of reason to be banished into exile ; thence man becomes no longer man, but totally natural, differing from a beast only in possessing the power of speech ; and he is opposed to all the spiritual things of the church, for these the natu- ral man calls foolishness ; hence, and only hence, have originated heresies concerning God so enormous. Where- fore a Divine Trinity, divided into persons, has brought into the church not only night but also death. That an identity of three Divine Essences is an offence to reason, appeared evident to me from the angels, who said, that they could not even utter '''' three equal Divmitics ;'''' and if any one should come to them, and wish to utter that expression, he could not but turn himself away ; and after having given it utterance, he would become like the trunk of a man, and .•5.'5485.^> 38 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. would be cast out, and afterwards would go away to those in hell who do not acknowledge any God. The truth is that, to implant in infants and children an idea of three divine persons, to which inevitably adheres the idea of three Gods, is to take away from them all spiritual milk, and after^'ards all spiritual meat, and lastly all spiritual reason, and to bring upon those who confirm themselves in it spiritual death. The difference is this : Those who in faith and in heart worship one God, the Creator of the universe, and Him at the same time the Redeemer and Regenerator, are as the city of Zion was in the time of David, and as the city of Jerusalem in the time of Solo- mon after the temple was built; but the church which believes in three persons, and in each as a distinct God, is like the city of Zion and Jerusalem destroyed by Vespasian, and the temple there burnt. Moreover, the man who wor- ships one God, in whom is the Divine Trinity, thus who is one Person, becomes more and more a living and angelic man ; but he who confirms himself in a plurality of Gods, from a plurality of persons, gradually becomes like a statue made with movable joints, within which Satan stands, and speaks through its jointed mouth. 24. V. A Plurality of Gods, in ancient and also IN MODERN TliMES, ORIGINATED FROM NO OTHER CaUSE than from NOT UNDERSTANDING THE DiVINE EsSE. That the unity of God is most interiorly inscribed on the mind of every man, since it is in the midst of all the things which flow into the soul of man from God, has been shown above (n. 8) ; but that still it has not descended therefrom into the human understanding, is because there have been wanting the cognitions by means of which man ought to ascend to meet God ; for every one should prepare the way for God, that is, should prepare himself for reception, and this should be done by means of cognitions. The cogni- tions which have hitherto been wanting to enable the un- No. 24.] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 39 derstanding to penetrate where it might see that God is one, and that only one Divine Esse is possible, and that all things of nature are from that, are the following: i. That hitherto no one has known any thing concerning the spiritual world, where spirits and angels are, and into which every man comes after death. 2. Also, that in that world, there is a sun, which is pure love from Jehovah God, who is in the midst of it. 3. That from that sun proceeds heat which in its essence is love, and light which in its essence is wisdom. 4. That thence all things which are in that world are spir- itual, and affect the internal man, and make its will and understanding. 5. That Jehovah God, out of His sun, not only produced the spiritual world and all its spiritual things, which are innumerable and substantial, but that He also produced the natural world, and all its natural things, which are also innumerable but material. 6. That hitherto no one has known the distinction between the spiritual and the natural, nor even what the spiritual is in its essence. 7. Nor that there are three degrees of love and wisdom, according to which the angelic heavens are arranged. 8. And that the human mind is distinguished into as many degrees, to the end that it may be elevated after death into one of the three heavens, which is effected according to man's life and faith conjointly. 9. And, finally, that all those things could not have existed as to a single point but from the Divine Esse, which in itself is the Itself, and so the First, and the Beginning, from which are all things. These cognitions have hitherto been wanting ; yet they are the means by which man may ascend and have cognition of the Divine Esse. It is said that man ascends ; but it is meant that he is raised up by God ; for man has free will in providing himself with cognitions ; and as he provides himself with them from the Word by means of the understanding, he thus prepares the way by which God descends and elevates him. The cognitions by means of which the human understanding ascends, being upheld and 40 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. led by God, may be compared to the steps of the hidder seen by Jacob, which was set on the earth, whose top reached to heaven, and by which the angels ascended, and jfehovah stood above it (Gen. xxviii. 12, 13). But it is quite other- wise when those cognitions are wanting, or when man despises them ; then the elevation of the understanding may be compared to a ladder raised from the ground to the windows of the first story of a magnificent palace, where men have their habitations, and not to the windows of the second story where spirits are, and still less to the win- dows of the third story where angels are. Thence it comes to pass that man abides in the atmospheres and material things of nature, in which he keeps his eyes, ears, and nostrils ; from which he derives no other ideas of heaven, and of the Esse and Essence of God, than such as are of the atmosphere and of matter ; and whilst a man thinks from these, he does not form any judgment concerning God, whether He exists or not, or whether He is one or more ; and still less what He is as to His Esse and as to His Essence. Thence arose a jDlurality of gods in ancient and also in modern times. 25. To the above I shall add this Relation : Some time since, having awaked from sleep, I fell into profound medi- tation concerning God ; and when I looked up, I saw above me in heaven a very bright light, in an oval form ; and when I fixed my gaze upon that light, the light receded to the sides and entered into the circumferences ; and then, lo, heaven was opened to me, and I saw magnificent things, and angels standing in the form of a circle on the southern side of the opening, and they were talking together ; and because I had an ardent desire to hear what they were say- ing, it was therefore given me first to hear the tone, which was full of heavenly love, and afterwards the speech, which was full of wisdom from that love. They were talking to- gether about the one God, and about conjunction with Him, and thence salvation. They spoke ineffable things, No. 25.] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 4 1 most of which cannot be expressed in the words of any natural language ; but because I had sometimes been in company with angels in heaven itself, and then in a similar speech with them, because in a similar state, I was there- fore able now to understand them, and to select from their conversation some things which may be rationally expressed in the words of natural language. They said that the Di- vine Esse' is One, the Same, the Itself, and Indivis- ible. This they illustrated by spiritual ideas, saying that the Divine Esse cannot be communicated to several, each of whom has the Divine Esse, and still itself be One, the Same, the Itself, and Indivisible ; for each one would think from his own Esse from himself, and singly by himself ; if then also from the others and by the others, unanimously, there would be several Gods of one mind, and not one God ; for unanimity, because it is the agreement of several, and at the same time of each one from himself and by himself, does not accord with the unity of God, but with a plurality, — they did not say of Gods, because they could not ; for the light of heaven from which was their thought, and the aura in which their discourse was uttered, opposed it. They said, also, that when they wished to pronounce the word Gods, and each one as a person by himself, the effort of pronouncing was instantly directed to One, yea, to the Only God. To this they added, that the Divine Esse is a Divine Esse in Itself, not from itself \ hec2in?,& from itself supposes an Esse in itself from another prior ; thus it sup- poses a God from God, which is not possible. What is from God is not called God, but is called Divine; for what is a God from God ? thus, what is a God born of God from eternity ? and what is a God proceeding from God through a God born from eternity, but words in which there is noth- ing of light from heaven ? They said, moreover, that the Divine Esse, which in itself is God, is the Same, not the same simply, but infinitely ; that is, the Same from eternity to eternity : it is the Same everywhere, and the Same with 42 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. every one, and in every one ; but that all variableness and changeableness is in the recipient ; the state of the recipi- ent makes this. That the Divine Esse, which is God in Himself, is the Itself, they illustrated thus : God is the Itself, because He is Love itself and Wisdom itself, or be- cause He is Good itself and Truth itself, and thence Life itself, which, unless they were the Itself in God, would not be any thing in heaven and the world, because there would not be any thing in them having relation to the Itself, Every quality has its quality from that which is the Itself from which it is, and to which it has relation that it maybe such as it is. This Itself, which is the Divine Esse, is not in place, but is with those and in those who are in place, according to reception ; since of Love and Wisdom, or of Good and Truth, and thence of Life, which are the Itself in God, yea, God Himself, place cannot be predicated, nor progression from place to place, whence is Omnipresence ; wherefore the Lord says that He is in the midst of thevi ; also that He is in them, and they in Him. But because He cannot be received by any one as He is in Himself, He appears, as He is in His essence, as a sun above the angelic heavens ; the proceeding from which as light is Himself as to wisdom, and the proceeding as heat is Himself as to love ; that sun is not Himself ; but the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom emanating from Him, proximately, round about Him, appear to the angels as a sun. He within the sun is Man; He is our Lord Jesus Christ, both as to the Divine from which [are all things], and also as to the Divine Human ; since the Itself, which is Love itself and Wisdom itself, was a soul to Him from the Father \ thus the Divine life, which is life in itself. It is otherwise in every man ; in him the soul is not life, but a recipient of life. The Lord also teaches this, saying, I am the 7vay, the truth, and the Life; and in another place. As the Father hath life in Himself, so also hath he given to the Son to have life in Himself (John v. 26). Life in No. 26] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 43 Himself is God. To this they added that those who are in any spiritual Hght may perceive from these things that the Divine Esse, because it is One, the Same, the Itself, and thence Indivisible, cannot be in more than one ; and that, if it should be said to be, manifest contradictions would result. 26. When I had heard these things, the angels perceived in my thought the common ideas of the Christian church, concerning a trinity of persons in unity and their unity in the trinity, relating to God ; and also concerning the birth of the Son of God from eternity; and then they said, " What are you thinking ? Do you not have those thoughts from natural light, with which our spiritual light does not agree ? Wherefore, unless you remove them from your mind, we shut up heaven to you, and depart." But then I said, " Enter, I beseech you, more deeply into my thought, and perhaps you will see an agreement." They did so, and saw that by three persons I understood three proceeding Divine attributes, whiclj are Creation, Redemption, and Regeneration ; and that they are attributes of one God ; and that by the birth of the Son of God from eternity I understood His birth foreseen from eternity and provided in time \ and that it is not above what is natural and ra- tional, but contrary to what is natural and rational, to think that any Son was born of God from eternity ; but not so, that the Son, born of God by the Virgin Mary in time, is the only Son of God, and the only begotten ; and that to believe otherwise is an enormous error. And then I told them that my natural thought concerning the trinity of per- sons and their unity, and concerning the birth of a Son of God from eternity, was from the doctrine of faith in the church, which has its name from Athanasius. Then the angels said, " Well." And they requested me to say from their mouth that, if any one does not approach the very God of heaven and earth, he cannot come into heaven, be- cause heaven is heaven from this only God, and that this 44 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. God is Jesus Christ, Who is the Lord Jehovah, from eternity Creator, in time Redeemer, and to eternity Regenerator ; thus Who is at once the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit ; and that this is the gospel which is to be preached. After these things the heavenly light, which was before seen over the opening, returned, and gradually descended thence, and filled the interiors of my mind, and enlightened my ideas concerning the trinity and unity of God. And then I saw the ideas at first entertained concerning them, which had been merely natural, separated as chaff is sepa- rated from wheat by winnowing, and carried away as by a wind to the northern region of heaven, and dispersed. CONCERNING THE INFINITY OF GOD, OR HIS IMMENSITY AND ETERNITY. 27. There are two things peculiar to the natural world, which cause all things there to be finite ; one is Space, and the other is Time ; and because this world was created by God, and spaces and times were created together with this world and make it finite, therefore it is proper to treat of their two beginnings, which are Immensity and Eternity; for the immensity of God has relation to spaces, and His eternity to times ; and Infinity comprehends both im- mensity and eternity. But because infinity transcends what is finite, and the cognition of it transcends a finite mind, therefore, that it may in some measure be perceived, it is to be treated of in this series : I. God is infinite, since He is and exists in Himself, and all things in the universe are and exist from Him, II. God is infi7iite,for He was before the world, thus before spaces and times arose. III. God, since t/ie world was made, is in space without space, and in time with- out time. IV. \(^od^s'\ Infinity, in relation to spaces is called immensity, and in relation to times is called eternity ; and, although there are these relations, still there is nothing of space in His immensity, and nothing of time in His eternity. No. 28.] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 45 V. Enlightened reason, from very many things in the world, may see the infinity of God the Creator. VI. Every created thing is finite, and the infinite is in fifiite things as in its re- ceptacles, and in men as in its images. But these things shall be explained one by one. 28. I. God is infinite, since He is and exists in Himself, and all Things in the Universe are and exist from Him. It has already been shown that God is One, and that He is the Itself, and that He is the first Esse of all things, and that all things which are, exist, and subsist in the uni- verse, are from Him ; thence it follows that He is infinite. That human reason may see this from very many things in the created universe, will be demonstrated in the sequel. But although the human mind from those things may ac- knowledge that the first Being, or the first Esse, is infinite, still it cannot know what that is, and therefore it cannot define it otherwise than that it is the Infinite All, and that it subsists in itself, and thence that it is the very and the only Substance, and, because nothing is predicable of a substance, unless it be a form, that it is the very and the only Form. But still what are these things ? It does not thus appear what the Infinite is ; for the human mind, how- ever highly analytical and elevated, is itself finite, and the finiteness in it cannot be removed ; wherefore it is by no means capable of seeing God's infinity as it is in itself, thus God ; but it may see Him in the shade from behind, as it is said of Moses, while he prayed to see God, that he was put in the hole of a rock, and saw His back parts (Ex. xxxiii. 20 to 23). By the back parts of God are meant the things visible in the world, and especially the things perceptible in the Word. Hence it is manifest that it is vain to wish to have cognition of what God is in His esse or in His substance ,• but that it is enough to acknowledge Him from finite, that is, created things, in which He is 46 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. infinitely. Whosoever is anxious to know more may be compared to a fish drawn up into the air, or to a bird put into the receiver of an air-pump, which, as tlie air is pumped out, gasps for breath, and at last expires. He may also be compared to a ship, which, when it is overcome by a tem- pest and does not obey the rudder, is carried upon the rocks and quicksands. So it is with those who wish to have cognition of the infinity of God from within, not con- tented that they may acknowledge it from without, from manifest tokens. It is related of a certain philosopher amongst the ancients that he cast himself into the sea, because he could not see in the light [lumen] of his mind, or comprehend, the eternity of the world ; what would he have done if he had desired to comprehend the infinity of God? 29. II. God is infinite, for He was before the World, thus before Spaces and Times arose. In the natural world there are times and spaces, but in the spiritual world, not so actually, but still apparently. The reason why times and spaces were introduced into the worlds was, that one thing might be distinguished from another, great from small, many from few ; thus quantity from quantity, and so quality from quality ; and that, by means of them, the senses of the body might be able to distinguish their object^, and the senses of the mind theirs, and thus might be affected, think, and choose. Times were introduced into the natural world by the rotation of the earth about its axis, and by the progression of those rota- tions, from station to station, along the zodiac ; while these changes appear to be made by the sun, from which the whole terraqueous globe derives its heat and light. Thence are the times of the day, which are morning, noon, evening, and night ; and the times of the year, which are spring, sum- mer, autumn, and winter ; times of days for light and dark- ness, and times of years for heat and cold. But spaces No. 29.] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 47 were introduced into the natural world by the earth's being formed into a globe, and filled with various kinds of matter, the parts of which were distinguished from each other, and at the same time extended. But in the spiritual world there are not material spaces, and times corresponding with them ; but still there are appearances of them, which ap- pearances are according to the differences of the states in which are the minds of spirits and angels there ; wherefore, times and spaces there conform themselves to the affections of their will, and thence to the thoughts of their understand- ing ; but those appearances are real, because constant ac- cording to their state. The common opinion concerning the state of souls after death, and thence also of angels and spirits, is, that they are not in any extense, and, conse- quently, not in space and time ; according to which idea it is said of souls after death, that they are in an undeter- mined somewhere, and that spirits and angels are aerial beings \^pneumata\ of which no other idea is entertained than as of ether, air, vapor, or wind ; when, nevertheless, they are substantial men, and live together, like men of the natural world, upon spaces and in times, which, as was said, are determined according to the states of their minds. If it were not so, that is, if there were no spaces and times, that whole world where souls are gathered after death, and where spirits and angels dwell, might be drawn through the eye of a needle, or concentrated upon the point of a single hair. This would be possible if there were no substantial extense there ; but since this is there, therefore angels dwell separately and distinctly from each other, yea, more dis- tinctly than men who have a material extense. But times there are not distinguished into days, weeks, months, and years, because the sun there does not appear to rise and set, nor to be borne along, but it remains stationary in the east, in the middle degree between the zenith and the hori- zon. They also have spaces, because all things in that world are substantial, as in the natural world they are mate- 48 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. rial ; but concerning these things, more will be said in the Lemma of this chapter, concerning Creation. From what has been said above, it may be comprehended that spaces and times make finite all and every thing in both worlds, and thence that men are finite, not only as to their bodies, but also as to their souls; and in like manner angels and spirits. From all these things it may be concluded that God is infinite, that is, not finite ; because He, as the Crea- tor, Maker and Former of the universe, made all things finite ; and He made them finite by means of His sun, in the midst of which He is, and which consists of the Divine Essence, which proceeds as a sphere from Him. There and thence is the first of finiteness, and its progression extends even to ultimates in the nature of the world. It follows that He in Himself is infinite, because He is un- created. But what is infinite appears to man as not any thing, because man is finite, and thinks from what is finite ; wherefore, if the finite which adheres to his thought were taken away, it would seem to him as if the residue were not any thing ; yet the truth is that God is infinitely all, and that man, respectively, is of himself not any thing. 30. in. God, since the World was made, is in Space without Space, and in Time without Time. That God, and the Divine which proceeds immediately from Him, is not in space, although He is omnipresent, and with every man in the world, and with every angel in heaven, and with every spirit under heaven, cannot be com- prehended by a merely natural idea, but it may to some extent by a spiritual idea. The reason why it cannot be comprehended by a merely natural idea, is because in that idea there is space ; for it is formed from such things as are in the world, in all and in every one of which that is visible to the eye, there is space : every thing great and 'small there is of space ; every thing long, broad, and high there is of space j in a word, every measure, figure, and form there is No. 30.] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 49 of space. But still man may to some extent comprehend this by natural thought, provided he admit into it some- thing of spiritual light. But, in the first place, something shall be said concerning an idea of spiritual thought. This derives nothing from space, but it derives its all from state. State is predicated of love, of life, of wisdom, of affections, of joys, in general of good and truth ; a truly spiritual idea concerning these things has nothing in common with space ; it is above, and looks down upon the ideas of space under it, as heaven looks down upon the earth. The reason why God is present in space without space, and in time without time, is because God is always the same from eternity to eternity ; thus such since the world was created as He was before it ; and in God and in the sight of God there were no spaces nor times before creation, but after it ; where- fore, because He is the same. He is in space without space, and in time without time : thence it follows that nature is separate from Him, and yet He is omnipresent in it; scarcely otherwise than as life is in every substantial and material part of man, although it does not mingle itself therewith ; comparatively as light in the eye, sound in the ear, taste in the tongue, or as ether in the land and water, by means of which the terraqueous globe is held together and made to revolve, and so on ; and if these agents should be taken awayj the things substantiated and materialized {siibsta7itiata et materiata ; see "Divine Love and Wisdom," n. 229, &c.) would in a moment fall to pieces or be dispersed \ yea, the human mind, if God were not everywhere and at all times present in it, would be dissipated like a bubble in the air ; and both spheres of the brain, in which it acts from its principles, would go off into froth ; and thus every thing human would become dust of the earth, or an odor flying in the atmosphere. Since God is in all time without time, therefore in His Word He speaks of the past, and of the future, in the present, as in Isaiah : Unto tis a Child is horn; u?no us a Son is given, IVhose name is Alighty, the Prince of VOL. I. 3 50 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. Peace (ix. 6) ; and in David : / will declare the decree, Jeho- vah said to me, Thou art my Son ; this day have I begotten Thee (Ps. ii. 7). These words are concerning the Lord, who was to come : wherefore it is also said in the same, A thou- sand years in thy sight are as yesterday (Ps. xc. 4). That God is everywhere present in the whole world, and yet not any thing proper to the world is in Him, that is, not any thing which is of space and time, may be clearly seen from very many other passages in the Word, by those who look and are watchful, as from this passage in Jeremiah : Am I a God at hand, and not a God afar off 7 Can any hide him- self in secret places, that I shall not see him ? Do ?iot I fill heaven and earth 1 (xxiii. 23, 24.) 31. IV, God's Infinity in Relation to Spaces is CALLED Immensity, and in Relation to Times is called Eternity ; and although there are these Relations, still there is Nothing of Space in His Immensity, and Nothing of Time in His Eternity. That the infinity of God in relation to spaces is called immensity, is because immense is predicated of whatsoever is great and large, and also of what is extended, and of what is spacious in extense. But that the infinity of God in rela- tion to times is called eternity, is because " to eternity " is predicated of things progressive (which are measured by times), and without end ; as, for example, the things which are of space are predicated of the terraqueous globe viewed in itself ; and the things which are of time are predicated of its rotation and progression ; the latter also make times, and the former make spaces ; and they are thus presented from the senses in the perception of reflecting minds. But in God there is nothing of space and time, as was shown above ; and yet the beginnings of these are from God ; thence it follows that His infinity in relation to spaces is meant by immensit}^, and that His infinity in relation to times is meant by eternity. But in heaven the angels perceive by No. 3I-] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 5 1 the immensity of God Divinit)' as to Esse, and by eternity Divinity as to Existere ; and also by immensity Divinity as to Love, and by eternity Divinity as to Wisdom. The rea- son is, because the angels abstract spaces and times from Divinity, and then these notions result. But since man cannot think otherwise than from ideas derived from such things as are of space and time, he cannot perceive any thing concerning God's immensity before spaces, and His eternity before times ; yea, when he wishes to perceive them, it is as if his mind were falling into a swoon ; almost like one who, having fallen into the water, is at the point of sinking, or like one settling down in an earthquake, on the eve of being swallowed up ; yea, if he should persist in penetrating into those things he might easily fall into a de- lirium, and from this be led to a denial of God. I also was once in a similar state, while thinking what God was from eternity ; what He did before the world was created ; whether- He deliberated concerning creation and thought out the plan of it ; whether deliberate thought were possible in a pure vacuum ; beside other vain things. But lest by such things I should become delirious, I was elevated by the Lord into the sphere and light in which the interior angels are ; and after the idea of space and time, in which my thought was before, was there a little removed, it was given me to com- prehend that the eternity of God is not an eternity of time, and that, because time was not before the world, it was utterly vain to think any such things concerning God ; and also because the Divine from eternity, thus abstracted from all time, does not involve days, years, and ages, but all these are to God an instant, I concluded that the world was created by God, not in time, but that times were intro- duced by God with creation. To these things I shall add this memorable circumstance : There appear," at one ex- tremity of the spiritual world, two statues, in monstrous human form, with mouths wide open, and jaws dilated, by which those seem to themselves to be devoured who think 52 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. vain and foolish things concerning God from eternity ; but they are the fantasies into which those cast themselves who think absurdly and improperly concerning God before the world was created. 32. V. Enlightened Reason, from very many Things in the World, may see the Infinity of God [the Creator]. Some things shall be enumerated from which human reason may see the infinity of God, which are, I. That in the created universe there are not two things which are the same : that such identity does not exist in simultaneous things, human learning from reason has seen and proved ; and yet the substantial and material things in the universe, considered individually, are infinite in number. And that there is not an identity of two effects in things which are successive in the world may be concluded from the rota- tion of the earth, in that its eccentricity at the poles causes that there is never a return of the same thing. That it is so is evident from human faces, in that throughout the whole world there is not any one face wholly like another's or the same as another's, neither can there be to eternity ; this infinite variety could not by any means exist, but from the infinity of God the Creator. II. That the mind \ani??it{s\ of one is never exactly like another's ; where- fore it is said, ^^ Many men, many minds;" consequently the mind \7nens\ that is, the will and the understanding, of one, is never wholly like another's or the same as an- other's ; hence, also, neither is the speech of one, as to the tone and as to the thought whence it proceeds, nor his action, as to the gesture and as to the affection, exactly similar to that of another ; from which infinite variety, also, the infinity of God the Creator may be seen as in a mirror. III. That there is a kind of immensity and eternity inher- ent in every seed, as well of animals as of plants ; an immensity, in that it may be multiplied to infinity; and an No. 32] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 53 eternity, in that such multipHcation has continued hitherto, without interruption, from the creation of the world, and continues perpetually. From the animal kingdom take, for example, the fishes of the sea, which, if they should multiply according to the abundance of their seed, within twenty or thirty years would fill the ocean so that it wouW consist of mere fishes; thence its water would overflow and so destroy all the earth ; but, lest this should hap pen, it was provided by God that one fish should be food for another. It is similar with the seeds of plants , if as many of them as annually arise from one should be planted, within twenty or thirty years they would cover the surface not only of one earth, but also of several ; for there are shrubs of which every single seed produces a hundred and a thousand others. Try it by calculation,- reckoning the product of a single seed in a series of twenty or thirty terms, and you will see. From both cases, of plants and of animals, the divine immensity and eternity, from which a resemblance cannot but be produced, may be seen as in a common face. IV. The infinity of God may appear to the eye of enlightened reason, from the infinity to which every science may grow, and thence the intelligence and wisdom of every man ; both of which may grow as a tree from seeds, and as forests and gardens from trees ; for there is no end to them ; the memory of man is their ground, and the understanding is where their germination, and the will is where their fructification, takes place ; and these two faculties, the understanding and the will, are such that they may be cultivated and perfected in the world to the end of life, and afterwards to eternity. V. The infinity of God the Creator may also be seen from the infinite number of stars, which are so many suns ; and thence so many systems. That in the starry heaven, also, there are earths, upon which are men, beasts, birds, and plants, has been shown in a little work describing things seen. VI. The infinity of God has appeared still more evi- 54 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. dent to me from the angelic heaven, and also from hell, see- ing that they are both of them ordered and arranged into innumerable societies or congregations, according to all the varieties of the love of good and of evil, and that every one obtains a place according to his love ; for there all of the human race, since the creation of the world, have been col- lected, and are to be collected to ages of ages ; and seeing that, although every one has his own place or habitation, still all there are so joined together that the whole angelic heaven represents one Divine Man, and all hell one mon- strous devil. From these two, and from the infinite won- ders in them, the immensity, together with the omnipotence of God, is manifestly exhibited to view. VII. Who also cannot understand, if he elevates the rational powers of his mind a little, that the life to eternity, which every man has after death, is not communicable but from an eternal God ? VIII. Besides those things, there is a sort of infinity in many things which fall into natural light [/umm] and into spiritual light \lumai\ with man. Into natural light \lumeji\ — that there are various series in geometry which go on to infinity; that, between the three degrees of height, there is a progress to infinity, in that the first degree, which is called natural, cannot be perfected and elevated to the perfection of the second degree, which is called spiritual, nor this to the perfection of the third, which is called heavenly \celestial\ The case is similar with re- spect to end, cause, and effect ; as that the effect cannot be perfected so that it may become as its cause, nor the cause, so that it may become as its end. This may be illustrated by the atmospheres, of which there are three degrees ; for the highest is the aura, under this is the ether, and below this is the air ; and no quality of the air can be elevated to any quality of the ether, nor any of this to any quality of the aura ; and yet an elevation of perfec- tions to infinity is possible in each. Into spiritual light [lu7nen'\ — that natural love, which is that of a beast, can- No. 33] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 55 not be elevated into spiritual love, which from creation was implanted in man : the case is similar with the natural intelligence of a beast in relation to the spiritual intelli- gence of a man ; but these things, because they are as yet unknown, will be explained in another place. From these things it is evident that the universals of the world are perpetual types of the infinity of God the Creator ; but in what manner particulars resemble universals, and repre- sent the infinity of God, is an abyss ; and it is an ocean, in which the human mind may, as it were, sail ; but it must beware of the tempest, arising from the natural man, which, from the helm where the natural man stands confident in himself, will submerge the ship with its masts and sails. ;^S- VI. Every created Thing is finite, and the INFINITE is in FINITE THINGS AS IN RECEPTACLES, AND IN Men AS IN ITS Images. Every created thing is finite, because all things are from Jehovah God, by means of the sun of the spiritual world, which proximately encompasses Him ; and that sun is of the substance which has gone forth from Him, the essence of which is love ; out of that sun, by means of its heat and light, the universe was created, from the firsts to the lasts of it. But to set forth in order the progress of creation, does not belong to this place : some scheme of it will be given in the following pages. It is important here only to know that one thing was formed from another, and that thence were made degrees, three in the spiritual world, and three corresponding to them in the natural world, and as many in the quiescent things of which the terraque- ous globe consists. But whence and what those degrees are has been fully explained in the " Angelic Wisdom concerning the Divine Love and Wisdom," published at Amsterdam in the year 1763 ; and in a small treatise con- cerning "The Intercourse of the Soul and Body," pub- lished at London in the year 1769. It is by means of 56 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. these degrees that all posterior things are receptacles of prior things, and these of things still prior, and thus, in order, receptacles of the primitives of which the sun of the angelic heaven consists, and thus that finite things are re- ceptacles of the infinite. This also coincides with the wis- dom of the ancients, according to which all and every thing is divisible to infinity. The common idea is that, because what is finite does not comprehend what is infinite, finite things cannot be receptacles of the infinite. But, from those things which are said concerning the creation in my works, it is evident that God first made His infinity finite, by substances emitted from Himself, from which existed His pro.ximate encompassing sphere, which makes the sun of the spiritual world ; and that afterwards, by means of that sun. He perfected other encompassing spheres, even to the last, which consists of things quiescent ; and that thus, by means of degrees, He made the world finite more and more. These things are adduced in order that human reason may be satisfied, which does not rest unless it see the cause. 34. That the Infinite Divine is in men, as in its images, is evident from the Word, where this is read : And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness ; so God created man into His owti image, into the image of God created He him (Gen. i. 26, 27): from which it follows that man is an organ recipient of God, and that he is an organ according to the quality of the reception. The human mind, from which and according to which man is man, is formed into three regions, according to three degrees : in the first degree it is heavenly [celestial], in which also are the an- gels of the highest heaven ; in the second degree it is spiritual, in which also are the angels of the middle heaven ; and in the third degree it is natural, in which also are the angels of the lowest heaven. The human mind, organized according to those three degrees, is a receptacle of the Divine influx ; but still the Divine flows in no further than as man prepares the way, or opens the door ; if he does No. 34.] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 57 this even to the highest or heavenly [celestial] degree, then man becomes truly an image of God, and after death he becomes an angel of the highest heaven ; but if he prepares the way, or opens the door, only to the middle or spiritual degree, then, indeed, man becomes an image of God, but not in that perfection, and after death he becomes an angel of the middle heaven ; but if he prepares the way, or opens the door, only to the lowest or natural degree, then man, if he acknowledges God and worships Him with actual piet\-, becomes an image of God in the lowest de- gree, and after death he becomes an angel of the lowest heaven. But if he does not acknowledge God and does not worship Him with actual piety, he puts off the image of God, and becomes like some animal, e.xcept that he enjoys the faculty of understanding and thence of speech. If he then shuts up the highest natural degree, w'hich corresponds to the highest heavenly [celestial], he becomes as to love like a beast of the earth ; but if he shuts up the middle natural degree, which corresponds to the middle spiritual, he becomes as to love like a fox, and as to the sight of the understanding like a bird of the evening; but if he also shuts up the lowest natural degree as to its spiritual part, he becomes as to love like a wild beast, and as to the understanding of truth like a fish. The Divine life, which by influx from the sun of the angelic heaven actu- ates man, may be compared with the light from the sun of the world, and with its influx into a transparent ob- ject ; the reception of life in the highest degree, with the influx of light into a diamond ; the reception of life in the second degree, with the influx of light into a cr^-stal ; and the reception of life in the lowest degree, with the influx of light into glass, or into a transparent membrane ; but if this degree as to its spiritual part be entirely shut up, which is done when God is denied and Satan is worshipped, the reception of life from God may be compared with the influx of light into the opaque things of the earth, as into 3* 58 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. rotten wood, or into the turf of a bog, or into dung, &c. ; for man then becomes a spiritual carcass. 35. To the above I will add this Relation. I was once in amazement at the vast multitude of men who ascribe creation, and thence all things which are under the sun and which are above the sun, to nature ; saying from an acknowledgment of the heart, when they see any thing, " Is not this of nature ? " And when they are asked why they say that those things are of nature, and why not of God, when, nevertheless, they sometimes say with people in general that God created nature, and thence they may just as well say that the things which they see are of God as that they are of nature, they answer with an internal tone scarcely audible, " What is God but nature ? " All these from persuasion concerning the creation of the uni- verse by nature, and from that insanity as from wisdom, appear so elated that they look upon those who acknowl- edge the creation of the universe by God as ants which creep upon the ground and tread the beaten path, and upon some as butterflies which fly in the air, calling their opin- ions dreams, because they see what they do not see, saying, "Who has seen God, and who does not see nature?" While I was in amazement at the multitude of such per- sons, an angel stood at my side, and said to me, " What are you meditating about ? " And I replied, " About the multitude of the persons who believe that nature is of it- self, and thus the creator of the universe." And the angel said to me, " All hell is of such, and they are called there satans and devils ; satans, who have confirmed themselves in favor of nature, and thence have denied God ; devils, who have lived wickedly, and have thus rejected from their hearts all acknowledgment of God. But I will conduct you to the g^'mnasiums, which are in the south-western quarter, where there are such who are not yet in hell." And he took me by the hand, and led me along ; and I saw small houses, in which were gymnasiums, and, in the midst of them, one No. 3S] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 59 which was as the public hall of the rest : it was built of stones black as pitch, which were overlaid with little plates as of glass, sparkling as it were with gold and- silver, like those which are called selenites, or mirror-stones ; and here and there were interspersed glittering shells. Hither we came and knocked ; and presently one opened the door and said, "Welcome." And he ran to a table, and brought four books, and said, "These books are wisdom which is at this day applauded by many kingdoms ; this book or wisdom is applauded by many in France ; this, by many in Germany ; this, by some in Holland ; and this, by some in Britain." He said, further, " If you wish to see it, I will make these four books shine before your eyes ; " and then he poured forth and around the glory of his fame, and the books presently shone as from light, but this light before our eyes immediately vanished. And then we asked what he was now writing ; and he replied that he was produc- ing and bringing forth from his treasures things that are of inmost wisdom, which in a summary are these: I. Whether nature be of life, or whether life be of NATURE. II, Whether the centre be of the expanse, OR whether the expanse be of the centre. III. Concerning the centre and the expanse [of nature] AND OF life. Having said this, he placed himself again upon the seat at the table, but we walked in his gymnasium, which was spacious. He had a candle upon the table, be- cause the light of the sun was not there, but the nocturnal light of the moon ; and what appeared to me wonderful, the candle seemed to be carried round about there, and to give light ; but because it had not been snuffed, it gave but little light. And when he wrote we saw images in various forms, flying from the table to the walls, which, in that nocturnal lunar light, appeared like beautiful Indian birds ; but when we opened the door, in the daylight of the sun they appeared like the birds of evening which have wings of net-work ; for they were resemblances of 6o THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. truth, which by confirmations became fallacies, which had been ingeniously connected by him into series. After we had seen these things, we came up to the table, and asked him what he was now writing. He said, Concerning the first question, Whether nature be of life, or whether LIFE be of nature J and of this he said that he could con- firm both sides, and make them true ; but because something lurked within, which he feared, he durst confirm only this, That nature is of life, that is, from life, and not That life is of nature, that is, from nature. We asked him courteously what it was that lurked within, which he feared. He re- plied that it was that he might be called by the clergy a naturalist, and thus an atheist, and by the laity a man of unsound reason, since the latter and the former either believe from a blind faith or see from the sight of those who confirm it. But then, from some indignation of zeal for the truth, we addressed him, saying, " P>iend, you are very much deceived ; your wisdom, which is an ingenuity in writing, has misled you, and the glory of fame has in- duced you to confirm what you do not believe. Do you not know that the human mind is capable of being elevated above the sensual things which are in the thoughts from the senses of the body, and that when it is elevated it sees those things which are of life above, and those things which are of nature below .? What else is life but love and wisdom ? and what else is nature but their receptacle, by which they may work their effects. or uses ? Can these be one except as principal and instrumental are ? Can light be one with the eye, or sound with the ear ? Whence are the sensations of these but from life 1 whence their forms but from nature ? What is the human body but an organ of life ? Are not all things and every thing therein organi- cally formed for producing those things which the love wills and the understanding thinks ? Are not the organs of the body from nature, and love and thought from life ? A.nd are not these wholly distinct from each other ? Ele- No. 35-] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 6l vate the keen sight of your genius yet a little higher, and you will see that it is of life to be affected and to think, and that it is of love to be affected, and of wisdom to think, and both are of life ; for, as was said, love and wisdom are life. If you elevate the faculty of understanding a little higher still, you will see that love and wisdom do not exist unless their origin is somewhere, and that their origin is Love itself, and Wisdom itself, and thence Life itself ; and these are God from whom nature is." Afterwards we conversed with him about the second. Whether the ex- panse BE OF the centre, OR WHETHER THE CENTRE BE OF THE expanse; and we asked him why he discussed this. He replied, for the end that he might conclude con- cerning the centre and the expanse of nature and of life, thus concerning the origin of the one and the other. And when we asked him what was his opinion, he replied con- cerning these, just as before, that he could confirm both sides, but that for fear of the loss of fame, he would con- firm that the expanse is of the centre, that is, from the centre ; " although I know that before the sun there was something, and this ever}-where in the expanse ; and that this from itself flowed together into order, thus into the centre." But then we again addressed him from an indig- nant zeal, and said, " Friend, you are insane." And when he heard this, he drew back the seat from the table, and looked timidly at us, and then listened, but laughing : we, Iiowever, continued the discourse by saying, " What can be said more insane, than that the centre is from the ex- panse ? By your centre we understand the sun, and by your expanse we understand the universe; and thus that the universe existed without the sun. Does not the sun make nature and all its properties, which depend solely on the light and heat proceeding from the sun through the atmos- pheres ? Where were these things before ? But whence they are we will say in the discussion that is to follow. Are not the atmospheres and all things which are upon the 62 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. earth as surfaces, and the sun their centre ? What are all those things without the sun ? Can they subsist a moment ? Then what were all these things before the sun ? Could they have existed ? Is not subsistence perpetual existence ? Since, therefore, the subsistence of all things of nature is from the sun, it follows that the existence of all things is so too. Every one sees this, and acknowledges it from seeing it himself. Does not what is posterior subsist from what is prior even as it exists from it ? If the surface were prior and the centre posterior, would not the prior subsist from the posterior, which yet is contrary to the laws of order ? How can posterior things produce prior, or ex- terior interior, or grosser purer ? Then how can surfaces, which make the expanse, produce the centre ? Who does not see that this is contrary to nature's laws ? We have adduced these arguments from reason's analysis, to prove that the expanse exists from the centre, and not the reverse, although every one who thinks justly sees this without the arguments. You said that the expanse flowed together into the centre from itself. Did it thus flow by chance into such wonderful and stupendous order, that one thing is for the sake of another, and all and every thing for the sake of man and his eternal life ? Can nature, from any love, by any wisdom, intend ends, provide causes, and thus provide effects, that such things may exist in their order ? Can nature from men make angels, and of these a heaven, and cause those who are there to live for ever ? Suppose these things and reflect, and your idea concerning the existence of nature from nature will fall." After this, we asked him what he had thought and what he then thought about the third. Concerning the .centre and the ex- panse OF nature and of life ; whether he believed the centre and the expanse of life to be the same with the cen- tre and the expanse of nature. He said that he hesitated, and that he had formerly thought that the interior activity of nature was life, and that love and wisdom, which essen- No. 35] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 63 tially make the life of man, were therefrom ; and that the fire of the sun by heat and light, through the medium of the atmospheres, produced it ; but that now, from what he had heard concerning the life of men after death, he was in doubt ; and that this doubt carried his mind now upwards, and now downwards ; and when upwards, he acknowledged a centre of which he before had not known any thing ; and when downwards, he saw the centre which he had believed to be the only one ; and that life was from the centre of which he before had not known any thing, and that nature was from the centre which he before believed to be the only one, and that each centre had an expanse around it. To this we said, " Well ; " provided he would also look at the centre and the expanse of nature from the centre and the expanse of life, and not reverse the order. And we in- structed him that above the angelic heaven there is a sun which is pure love, to appearance of fire like the sun of the world ; and that from the heat which proceeds from that sun angels and men have will and love, and that from the light thence they have understanding and wisdom ; and that the things which are therefrom are called spiritual; and that the things which proceed from the sun of the world are containers or receptacles of life, and are called natural ; also that the expanse of the centre of life is called the Spiritual World, which subsists from its sun ; and that the expanse of nature's centre is called the Natural World, which subsists from its sun. Now, because spaces and times cannot be predicated of love and wisdom, but instead of them states, it follows that the expanse around the sun of the angelic heaven is not an extense, but still is in the extense of the natural sun, and with the living subjects there according to reception, and the reception is according to forms and states. But then he asked, " Whence is the fire of the sun of the world or of nature ? " We replied that it is from the sun of the angelic heaven, which is not fire, but the Divine love proximately proceeding from God, who 64 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. is in the midst of it ; and because he wondered at this we demonstrated it thus : " Love, in its essence, is spiritual fire ; thence it is that fire^ in the Word, in its spiritual sense signifies love ; wherefore priests in the temples pray that heavenly fire may fill the hearts, by which they mean love. The fire of the altar and the fire of the candlestick in the tabernacle, among the Israelites, represented noth- ing else but the Divine love. The heat of the blood, or the vital heat of men and of animals in general, is from no other source than the love which makes their life ; thence it is that man is enkindled, grows warm, and is inflamed, whilst his love is exalted to zeal, or excited to anger and burning passion. Wherefore from this, that spiritual heat which is love produces natural heat with men, so far as to enkindle and inflame their faces and limbs, it may be evident that the fire of the natural sun existed from no other source than from the fire of the spiritual sun, which is Divine Love. Now, because the expanse arises from the centre, and not the reverse, as we said above, and the centre of life, which is the sun of the angelic heaven, is the Divine Love proximately proceeding from God, who is in the midst of that sun ; and because the expanse of that centre, which is called the spiritual worlds is thence ; and because from that sun existed the sun of the world, and from this, its expanse, which is called the natural world, it is manifest that the universe was created by God." After this we de- parted, and he accompanied us out of the court of his gymnasium, and talked with us concerning heaven and hell, and concerning the Divine auspices, from new sagacity of genius. CONCERNING THE ESSENCE OF GOD, WHICH IS DIVINE LOVE AND DIVINE WISDOM. 36. We have distinguished between the Esse of God and the Essence of God, because there is a distinction between the infinity of God and the love of God ; and the term in- No. 37.] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 65 finity is used in application to the Esse of God, and love to the Essence of God ; for the Esse of God, as was said above, is more universal than the Essence of God : in like manner the infinity is more universal than the love of God ; wherefore infinite is an adjective belonging to the essen- tials and attributes of God, all which are called infinite; as it is said of the Divine Love that it is infinite, of the Divine Wisdom that it is infinite, and of the Divine Power like- wise ; not that the Esse of God existed before, but because It enters into the Essence, as an adjunct, cohering with, determining, forming, and at the same time elevating it. But this member of this chapter, like the former, shall be divided into articles, as follows : I. God is Love itself and Wisdom itself and these two make His Essence. 11. God is Good itself and Truth itself ; because Good is of Love, and Truth is of Wisdom. III. Sfiod, because He is'\ Love itself and Wisdom itself is Life itself which is Life in itself JV. Love and Wisdom, in God, make one. V. The Essence of Love is, to love others out of itself to desire to be one with them, and to make them happy fro7n itself VI. These [essen- tials'\ of the Divine Love were the cause of the creation of the universe, and they are the cause of its preservation. But of these one by one. 37. I. God is Love itself and Wisdom itself, and THESE TWO MAKE HiS ESSENCE. Earliest antiquity saw that love and wisdom are the two essentials, to which all the infinite things which are in God and which proceed from Him refer themselves ; but the ages following successively, as they withdrew their minds from heaven and immersed them in worldly and corporeal things* could not see it ; for they began not to know what love is in its essence, and thence what wisdom is in its essence ; not knowing that there cannot be love abstracted from form, and that love operates in form and by form. Now, because God is the very and the only and 66 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. thus the first Substance and Form, whose essence is love and wisdom ; and because from Him all things were made, that were made ; it follows that He created the universe, with all and every thing of it, from love by wisdom ; and that thence the Divine Love together with the Divine Wis- dom is in all created subjects and in every one. Love, more- over, is not only the essence which forms all things, but it also unites and conjoins them, and thus keeps them in con- nection when formed. These things may be illustrated by innumerable things in the world; as by the heat and light from the sun, which are the two essentials and universals, by means of which all and every thing upon the earth exists and subsists : these are there, because they correspond to the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom ; for the heat which proceeds from the sun of the spiritual world, in its essence, is love ; and the light thence, in its. essence, is wisdom. They may also be illustrated by the two essentials and uni- versals by which human minds e.xist and subsist, which are THE WILL and THE UNDERSTANDING ; for of thcsc two the mind of every one consists ; and the two are and operate in all and every thing of it. The reason is, because the will is the receptacle and habitation of love, and the understanding of wisdom in like manner ; wherefore the two correspond to the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom, from which they originate. Moreover, the same things may be illus- trated by the two essentials and universals by which human bodies exist and subsist, which are the heart and the LUNGS ; or the systole and diastole of the heart, and the respiration of the lungs : that these two operate in all and every thing there is known ; the reason is, because the heart corresponds to love, and the lungs to wisdom ; which correspondence is fully demonstrated fn the " Angelic Wisdom concerning the Divine Love and Wisdom," pub- lished at Amsterdam. That love as the bridegroom and husband produces or begets all forms, but by wisdom as the bride and wife, may be proved by innumerable things. No. 38.] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 6/ both in the spiritual and the natural world ; this only is to be observed, that the whole angelic heaven is arranged into its form and preserved in it from the Divine Love by the Divine Wisdom. Those who deduce the creation of the world from any other soufce than froni the Divine Love by the Divine Wisdom, and do not know that those two make the Divine Essence, descend from the sight of reason to the sight of the eye, and kiss nature as the creator of the universe, and thence conceive chimeras and bring forth phantoms ; they think fallacies, reason from them, and their conclusions are eggs in which are birds of night. Such cannot be called minds, but eyes and ears without understanding, or thoughts without a soul ; they speak of colors as if they existed without light, of the existence of trees as if without seed, and of all the things of the world as if without a sun ; since they make derivatives primitives, and effects causes ; and so they turn every thing upside- down, and lull to sleep the powers of reason, and thus see dreams. 38. IL God is Good itself and Truth itself, be- cause Good is of Love, and Truth is of Wisdom. It is universally known that all things have relation to good and truth ; a proof that all things derived their existence from love and wisdom ; for all that proceeds from love is called good, for this is felt, and the enjoy- ment by which love manifests itself each one calls good ; but all that which proceeds from wisdom is called truth, for wisdom consists of nothing but truths, and affects its objects with the pleasantness of light ; and this pleasant- ness, while it is perceived, is truth from good. Where- fore love is the complex of all varieties of goodness, and wisdom is the complex of all truths ; but both the former and the latter are from God, who is Love itself and thence Good itself, and Wisdom itself and thence Truth itself. Thence it is that in the church there are two 68 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I, essentials, which are called charity and faith, of which all and every thing of the church consists, and which are to be in all and every thing of it : the reason is because all the goods of the church are of charity, and are called charity ; and all its truths are of faith, atid are called faith. The enjoyments of love, which are also the enjoyments of charity, cause what is good to be called good ; and the pleasantness of wisdom, which is also the pleasantness of faith, causes what is true to be called true ; for enjoyments and pleasantness of various kinds make their life, and without life from them goods and truths are like inani- mate things, and they are also unfruitful. But love's enjoyments are of two kinds, as are also the varieties of pleasantness which appear as of wisdom ; for there are enjoyments of the love of good and enjoyments of tfhe love of evil, and thence there are varieties of pleasantness from the faith of truth and varieties of pleasantness from the faith of falsity. In the subjects in which they are, those two enjoyments of love, from the sensation of them, are called good ; and those two kinds of the pleasantness of faith, from the perception of them, are also called good ; but because they are in the understanding, they are no other than truths : they are so called, although they are opposite to each other, the good of one love being good, and the good of the other love being evil, and the truth of one faith being true, and the truth of the other faith being false. But the love whose enjoyment is essentially good is like the heat of the sun, fructifying, vivifying, and oper- ating on a fertile soil, on useful plants, and fields of corn ; and where it operates there is produced, as it were, a para- dise, a garden of the Lord, and, as it were, a land of Canaan ; and the pleasantness of its truth is as the light of the sun in the time of spring, and as the influx of light into a crystal vessel in which are beautiful flowers, and from which when opened there breathes forth a fragrant perfume ; but the enjoyment from the love of evil is as the No. 39-] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 69 heat of the sun, parching, killing, and operating on barren ground, on noxious plants, as on thorns and briers ; and where it operates there is produced a desert of Arabia, where are hydras and venomous serpents ; and the pleas- antness of its falsity is as the light of the sun in the time of winter, and as light flowing into a bottle in which there are worms swimming in vinegar, and reptiles of noisome smell. It should be known that every good forms itself by truths, and also clothes itself with them, and thus dis- tinguishes itself from other goods ; and also that the goods of one stock or kind bind themselves into bundles, and, at the same time, clothe them, and thus distinguish them- selves from others : that formations are so effected is mani- fest from all and every thing in the human body ; and that similar formations are effected in the human mind is evident, because there is a perpetual correspondence of all things of the mind with all things of the body. Thence it follows that the human mind is organized inwardly of spiritual substances, and outwardly of natural substances, and lastly of material substances. The mind the enjoy- ments of whose love are good consists inwardly of spirit- ual substances such as are in heaven ; but the mind the enjoyments of whose love are evil consists inwardly of spiritual substances such as are in hell ; and the evils of the latter are bound into bundles by falsities, and the goods of the former are bound into bundles by truths. Since there are such bindings of goods and evils into bundles, therefore the Lord says, T/iat the tares are to be bound together into bundles, to be burned, atid in like manner all things that offend (Matt. xiii. 30, 40, 41 ; John xv.'B). 39. III. God, because He is Love itself and Wisdom ITSELF, is Life itself, which is Life in itself. It is said in John, The Word was with God, and the Word was God ; in Him was life, and the life was the light of men (i. i, 4). By 6^^^/ there is meant the Divine Love, yo THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. and by the Word the Divine Wisdom ; and Divine Wis- dom is properly Hfe, and Hfe is properly the light which pro- ceeds from the sun of the spiritual world, in the midst of which is Jehovah God. Divine Love forms life, as fire forms light. There are two properties in fire, that of burn- ing and that of shining ; from its burning property proceeds heat, and from its shining property proceeds light. In like manner, there are two things in love ; one, to which the burning property of fire corresponds, which is something most interiorly affecting the will of man ; and another, to which the shining property of fire corresponds, which is something most interiorly affecting the understanding of man. Thence man has love and intelligence ; for, as has been several times said above, from the sun of the spiritual world proceeds heat which in its essence is love, and light which in its essence is wisdom ; and those two flow into all and every thing of the universe, and affect them most interiorly ; and with men, into their will and understanding, which two were created receptacles of the influx ; the will, the receptacle of love, and the understanding, the recepta- cle of wisdom. Thence it is manifest that the life of man dwells in his understanding, and that it is such as his wisdom is, and that the love of the will modifies it. 40. It is also read in John, As the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself (v. 26) ; by which is meant that as the Divine itself, which was from eternity, lives in itself, so also the Human, which it assumed in time, lives in itself. Life in itself is the very and the only life, from which all angels and men live. HumUn reason may see this from the light which proceeds from the sun of the natural world, in that this is not creata- ble, but that forms receiving it have been created ; for eyes are its recipient forms, and the light flowing in from the sun causes them to see. It is similar with life, which, as was said, is the light proceeding from the sun of the spirit- ual world, that it is not creatable, but that it flows in No. 4i] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 7 1 continually, and, as it enlightens, it also enlivens the under- standing of man ; consequently that, because light, life, and wisdom are one, wisdom is not creatable ; so neither is faith, nor truth, nor love, nor charity, nor good ; but that forms receiving them have been created : human and angelic minds are those forms. Let every one, therefore, be cautious how he persuades himself that he lives from himself ; and also, that he is wise, believes, loves, perceives truth, and wills and does good from himself ; for as far as any one indulges such a persuasion, he casts down his mind from heaven to earth, and from spiritual becomes natural, sensual, and corporeal ; for he shuts up the higher regions of his mind, whence he becomes blind as to all the things which are of God and heaven and the church ; and then, all that he by chance thinks, reasons, and says concerning them, is done in foolishness because in darkness, and then, at the same time, he becomes confi- dent that they are of wisdom ; for when the higher regions of the mind, where the true light of life dwells, are shut up, the region below them opens itself, into which only the light [lu7nen'\ of the world is admitted; and this light \luffie7i\, separate from the light of the higher regions, is a delusive light [iiwie/i] in which falsities appear as truths, and truths as falsities, and reasoning from falsities as wisdom, and from truths as madness ; and then he believes himself to be endued with the keen sight of an eagle, al- though he sees the things which are of wisdom no more thai: a bat sees in the light of day. 41. IV. Love and Wisdom, in God, make one. Every wise man in the church knows that all the good of love and charity is from God ; in like manner, all the truth of wisdom and faith : that it is so, human reason may also see, if it only knows that the origin of love and wis- dom is from the sun of the spiritual world, in the midst of which is Jehovah God ; or, what is the same, that it is from 72 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. Jehovah God, through the sun, which is round about Him ; for the heat proceeding from that sun, in its essence, is love, and the light thence proceeding, in its essence, is wis- dom : thence it is manifest, as in clear daylight, that love and wisdom, in that origin, are one ; and consequently in God, from whom is the origin of that sun. This may be illustrated, also, from the sun of the natural world, which is pure fire, in that heat proceeds from its fiery property, and light proceeds from the splendor of its fiery property ; and thus that both are, in their origin, one. But that they are divided in proceeding is evident from their subjects, some of which receive more of heat, and some more of light : this is the case especially with men ; in them the light of life, which is intelligence, and the heat of life, which is love, are divided ; which is done because man is to be reformed and regenerated ; and this cannot be done, unless the light of life, which is intelligence, teaches him what ought to be willed and loved. It should, however, be known that God is continually working for the conjunction of lave and wisdom in man, but that man, unless he looks to God and believes in Him, continually works for their division ; wherefore, as far as those two, the good of love or charity and the truth of wisdom or faith, are conjoined in man, so far man becomes an image of God, and is ele- vated to heaven and into heaven where the angels are ; and, on the contrary, as far as those two are divided by man, so far he becomes an image of Lucifer and the dragon, and is cast down from heaven to earth, and then under the earth into hell. From the conjunction of those two, the state of man becomes like the state of a tree in the time of spring, when the heat conjoins itself equally with the light ; whence it produces buds, blossoms, and fruit ; but, on the other hand, from the division of those two, the state of man becomes like the state of a tree in the time of winter, when the heat recedes from the light, whence it is stripped and divested of all its foliage and verdure. When No. 42.] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. J^ spiritual heat, which is love, separates itself from spiritual light, which is wisdom, or, what is the same, charity from faith, the man becomes like sour or rotten ground, in which worms are bred ; and, if it produces shrubs, their leaves are covered with lice, and are consumed. For the allure- ments of the love of evil, which in themselves are lusts, burst forth ; which the understanding, instead of subduing and restraining, loves, pampers, and cherishes. In a word, to divide love and wisdom, or charity and faith, which two God continually endeavors to join together, is comparatively like depriving the face of its redness, whence comes a death-like paleness ; or like taking away the whiteness from the redness, whence the face becomes like a burning torch. It also becomes like dissolving the marriage-connection between two partners and making the wife to become a harlot, and the husband an adulterer ; for love or charity is as the husband, and wisdom or faith is as the wife ; and when those two are separated, spiritual whoredom and scortation ensue, which are the falsification of truth and the adulteration of good. 42. Moreover, it should be known that there are three degrees of love and wisdom, and -thence three degrees of life, and that the human mind, according to these degrees, is formed, as it were, into regions, and that life in the highest region is in the highest degree, and in the second region, in a lower degree, and in the last region, in the lowest degree. These regions are opened successively in man ; the last region, where life is in the lowest degree, is opened from infancy to childhood, and this is done by knowledges ; the second region, where life is in a higher degree, from childhood to youth, and this is done by thoughts from knowledges ; and the highest region, where life is in the highest degree, from youth to early manhood and onwards, and this is done by perceptions of truths, both moral and spiritual. It should be further known that the perfection of life consists not in thought, but in VOL. I. 4 74 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. the perception of truth from the light of truth. The differ- ences of life with men may be thence ascertained ; for there are some who, as soon as they hear the truth, per- ceive that it is truth ; these are represented in the spiritual world by eagles : there are others who do not perceive truth, but conclude it from confirmations, by appearances ; and these are represented by singing birds : there are others who believe a thing to be true because it has been asserted by a man of authorit}^" ; these are represented by magpies : and, also, there are others who are not willing, and who are not able, to perceive truth, but only falsity ; the reason is, because they are in a delusive light, in which falsity appears as truth, and the truth appears either as something above the head, hid in a thick cloud, or as a meteor, or as falsity ; the thoughts of these are represented by birds of the night, and their speech by screech-owls. Those amongst them who have confirmed their falsities cannot bear to hear truths ; and as soon as any truth strikes the drum of their ears they repel it with aversion, just as the stomach when loaded with bilious matter nauseates and vomits out food. 43. V. The Essence of Love is to love Others OUTSIDE OF Itself, to desire to be one with them, AND TO MAKE THEM HAPPY FROM ItSELF. There are two things which make the essence of God, — love and wisdom ; but there are three things which make the essence of His love, — to love others out of itself, to desire to be one with them, and to make them happy from itself : the same three things also make the essence of His wisdom, because love and wisdom, in God, make one, as was shown above ; but love wills those things, and wisdom produces them. The first essential, which is, to love others outside of itself, is acknowledged from God's love towards the whole human race ; and for their sake God loves all the things which He has created, because they are No. 43.] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 75 means ; for he who loves the end also loves the means : and all persons and all things are outside of God, because they are finite, and God is infinite. The love of God goes and extends itself, not only to good persons and good things, Dut also to evil persons and evil things ; consequently, not only to those persons and things which are in heaven, but also to those which are in hell ; thus not only to Michael and Gabriel, but also to the Devil and Satan ; for God is everywhere, and from eternity to eternity the same. He says also that He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and that He sendeth rai?i on the Just and on the un- just (Matt, V. 45). But the reason that evil persons and evil things are still evil is in the subjects and objects them- selves, in that they do not receive the love of God, as it is, and as it is most interiorly in them, but as they themselves are ; just as the thorn and the nettle do with the heat of the sun and the rain of heaven. The second essential of God's love, which is to desire to be one with them, is ac- knowledged also from His conjunction with the angelic heaven, with the church upon earth, with every one there, and with every good and truth which enter into and make man and the church ; love also, viewed in itself, is nothing but an effort to conjunction ; wherefore, that this object of the essence of love might be attained, God created man into His image and likeness, with which conjunction may be effected. That the Divine Love continually intends con- junction is manifest from the words of the Lord, that He wills that they may be one. He in them and they in Him, and that the love of God may be in them (John xvii. 21, 22, 23, 26). The third essential of God's love, which is to make them happy from itself, is acknowledged from the eter- nal life, which is blessedness, happiness, and felicity with- out end, which God gives to those who receive His love in themselves ; for God, as He is love itself, is also blessed- ness itself ; for every love breathes forth from itself enjoy- ment, and the Divine Love breathes forth blessedness itself, 'jG THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. happiness and felicity to eternity. Thus God makes angels happy from Himself, and also men after death, which is effected by conjunction with them. 44. That such is the Divine Love is recognized from its sphere, which pervades the universe, and affects every one according to his state. It especially affects parents, from which it is that they tenderly love their children, who are outside of themselves, that they desire to be one with them, and that they desire to make them happy from themselves. This sphere of Divine Love affects not only the good, but also the evil ; and not only men, but also beasts and birds of every kind. For what else does a mother think of, when she has brought forth her child, than that she may, as it were, unite herself with it, and provide for its good ? What other concern has a bird, when she has hatched het young, than to cherish them under her wings, and through their little mouths to put food into their throats ? That dragons and vipers also love their young is known. This universal sphere affects, in a special manner, those who receive that love of God in themselves, who are such as believe in God and love their neighbor ; charity with them is an image of that love. Friendship amongst those not good also counterfeits that love ; for a friend, at his table, gives to a friend the better things : he kisses and caresses him, takes him by the hand, and proffers useful offices. The sympathies, and the efforts of homogeneous and similar things to conjunction, derive their origin from no other source. That same Divine sphere operates also into inanimate things, as into trees and plants, but through the sun of the world and its heat and light ; for the heat enters them from without, conjoins itself with them, and causes them to bud, blossom, and bear fruit, which things are in the place of blessedness in animals ; this heat does so, because it corresponds to spiritual heat, which is love. Representations of the operation of this love are also ex- hibited in various subjects of the mineral kingdom ; types No. 45-] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 'J'J of it are presented in their exaltation to uses, and thence to proportionate values. 45. From the description of the essence of Divine Love, it may be seen what is the essence of diabolical love ; this may be seen from the opposite. Diabolical love is the love of self ; and this is called love, but, viewed in itself, it is hatred, for it does not love any one outside of itself, nor does it desire to be conjoined to others that it may do good to them, but only that it may do so to itself ; from its inmost it continually desires to rule over all, and also to possess the goods of all, and at last to be worshipped as a god. This is the reason why those who are in hell do not acknowledge God, but worship as gods those who have power over others ; thus lower and higher, or lesser and greater gods, according to the extent of their power ; and because every one there has this at heart, he also burns with hatred against his god, and the god against those who are under his power ; and he reputes them as vile slaves, with whom, indeed, he speaks courteously as long as they adore him, but he rages as from fire against others, and also inwardly or in his heart against his dependents ; for the love of self is the same with the love in robbers, who kiss each other while they are engaged in robberies, but afterwards they burn with the desire of killing each other, that they may also rob each other of their booty. This love causes its lusts to appear in the distance in hell where it reigns like various species of wild beasts, some like foxes and leopards, some like wolves and tigers, and some like crocodiles and venomous serpents ; it causes the deserts where they live to consist only of heaps of stones or of naked gravel, with bogs interspersed, in which frogs are croaking ; it also causes doleful birds to fly over their huts and screech. The ochim, tziim, and ijim, which are mentioned in the prophetical parts of the Word, where the love of ruling from the love of self is spoken of, are noth- ing else (Isa. xiii. 21 ; Jer. 1. 39 ; Ps. Ixxiv. 14). y8 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. 46. VI. These [Essentials] of the Divine Love WERE the Cause of the Creation of the Universe, AND they are the CaUSE OF ITS PRESERVATION. That those three essentials of the Divine Love were the cause of creation may be clearly seen from an attentive examination of them. That this first, which is to love others outside of itself , was a cause, is evident from the uni- verse, which is outside of God, as the world is outside of the sun ; and into which He can extend His love, and exercise His love in it, and so rest. It is read also that after God had created the heaven and the earth, he rested ; and that thence the day of the Sabbath was made (Gen. ii. 2, 3). That the second, which is to will to be one with them, was a cause, is evident from the creation of man into the image and likeness of God ; by which is meant that man was made a form receptive of love and wisdom from God, so that God can unite Himself with man, and, for his sake, with all and. every thing of the universe, which are no other than means ; for conjunction with a final cause is also a conjunction with the mediate causes. That all things were created for the sake of man is manifest also from the book of Creation (Gen. i. 28, 29, 30). That the third, which is to make them happy fron itself is a cause, is evident from the angelic heaven, which is provided for every man who receives the love of God, where all are made happy from God alone. That those three essentials of God's love are also the cause of the preservation of the universe is because preservation is perpetual creation, as subsistence is perpetual existence ; and the Divine Love, from eternity to eternity, is the same ; thus such as it was in creating the world, such it is and continues to be in the created world. 47. From these things, rightly perceived, it may be seen that the universe is a work cohering from firsts to lasts, because it is a work comprising ends, causes, and effects, in an indissoluble connection ; and because in all love there is an end, and in all wisdom the promotion of an end by No. 48.] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 79 mediate causes, and through them to effects, which are uses, it follows also that the universe is a work comprising Divine love. Divine wisdom, and uses, and thus a work alto- gether coherent from firsts to lasts. That the universe consists of perpetual uses produced by wisdom and begun by love, every wise man may see as in a mirror, when he gains a general idea of the creation of the universe, and in that views the particulars ; for particulars adapt themselves to their general, and the general disposes them into form so that they may agree. That it is so, will be more fully illustrated in the following pages. 48. To this will be added this Relation. I once con- versed with two angels, one from the eastern heaven, and the other from the southern heaven. When they perceived that I was meditating upon arcana of wisdom concerning love, they said, " Do you know any thing about the schools of wisdom in our world ? " I replied, that I did not yet ; and they said, " There are many ; and those who love truths from spiritual affection, or truths be- cause they are truths, and because by means of them is wisdom, come together at a given signal, and discuss and determine those questions which are of deeper understand- ing." They then took me by the hand, saying, " Follow us and you shall see and hear ; the signal of a meeting has been given to-day." I was led over a plain to a hill, and, behold, at the foot of the hill, an avenue of palm- trees, continued even to its top; we entered it, and as- cended ; and on the top or summit of the hill was seen a grove ; and among the trees, the raised ground formed as it were a theatre, within which was an area, paved with little stones of various colors. Around it, in a square, were placed seats, upon which the lovers of wisdom were sitting; and in the middle of the theatre was a table, upon which lay a paper sealed with a seal. Those who sat on the seats invited us to the seats still vacant ; and I replied, " I have been led hither by two angels, that I may see and hear, and 80 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. not to sit." And then those two angels went into the middle of the area to the table, and loosed the seal of the paper, and read in the presence of those who were sitting the arcana of wisdom written on the paper, which they were now to discuss and unfold. They were written by angels of the third heaven, and let down upon the table. There were three arcana : The first, " What is the image of God, and what the likeness of God, into which man was created i " The second, " Why is not man born into the knowledge of any love, when yet beasts and birds, noble as well as ignoble, are born into the kno7V ledges of all their loves .? " The third, " What does the tree of life signify ; and what the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; and what the eating from them ? " Underneath was written, "Join those three together into one, and write it upon a new paper, and lay it back upon this table, and we shall see it ; if the opinion appear even- balanced and just on the scale, to each of you shall be given the prize of wisdom." The two angels, having read this, retired, and were carried up into their heavens. And then those who sat upon the seats began to discuss and unfold the arcana proposed to them ; and they spoke in order ; first those who sat at the North, then those at the West, afterwards those at the South, and lastly those at the East. And they took up the first subject of discussion, which was, " What is the image of God, and what the likeness of God, into which man was created ? " And then, in the first place, these words from the book of Crea- tion, were read in presence of all : God said. Let us make ?nan ifi our image, after our likeness; and God created man into his own image; into the image of God created He him (Gen. i. 26, 27). In the day that God created man in the likeness of God, made He him (Gen. v. i). Those who sat at the North spoke first, saying, that The image of God and the likeness of God are the two lives breathed into man by God, which are the life of the will, and the life of the understanding ; for it is read, jfehovcih No. 48] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 8 1 God breathed into the nostrils of Adam the soul of i^iVES, aiid man was made into a living soul (Gen. ii. 7) : by which seems to be meant that there was breathed into him the will of good and the perception of truth, and thus the soul of lives ; and because life from God was breathed into him, an image and a likeness signify integrity from love and wis- dom, and from justice and judgment in him. Those who sat at the West favored these things, adding however this, that The state of integrity breathed into him by God is con- tinually breathed into every man after him ; but that it is in man as in a receptacle, and that man, as he is a receptacle, is an image and likeness of God. Afterwards the third in order, who were those who sat at the South, said, *' The image of God and the likeness of God are two distinct things, but united in man by creation ; and we see, as from a kind of interior light, that the image of God may be de- stroyed by man, but not the likeness of God. This appears obscurely (as through a lattice) from this, that Adam re- tained the likeness of God after he had lost the image of God ; for it is read after the curse. Behold the man is become as one of us, by knowing good and evil (Gen. iii. 22). And afterwards he is called the likeness of God, and not the image of God (Gen. v. i). But let us leave to our conso- ciates who sit at the east, and are thence in superior light, to say what is properly an image of God, and what is prop- erly a likeness of God." And then, after there was silence, those sitting at the East arose from their seats, and looked up to the Lord ; and afterwards they sat down again upon their seats and said, that An image of God is a receptacle of God ; and because God is Love itself and Wisdom itself, an image of God is the reception of love and wisdom from God in it ; but that a likeness of God is a perfect likeness and a full appearance, as if love and wisdom were in man, and thence altogether as his ; for man is not sensible but that he loves from himself, and is wise from himself ; or that he wills good and understands truth from himself; 82 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. when yet none of this whatever is from himself, but from God. God alone loves from Himself and is wise from Him- self, because God is Love itself and Wisdom itself. The like- ness or appearance that love and wisdom, or good and truth, are in man as his, causes that man may be man, and that he can be conjoined to God, and thus live to eternity ; from which it flows that man is man from this, that he can will good and understand truth altogether as from himself, and still know and believe that it is from God ; for as he knows and believes this, God puts His image in man ; it would be otherwise, if he should believe that it is from himself, and not from God. When these things were said, there came upon them a zeal from the love of truth, from which they spoke these words : " How can man receive any thing of love and wisdom and retain it and reproduce it, unless he feels it as his own ? And how can conjunction with God be given by means of love and wisdom, unless there has been given to man some reciprocal of conjunction ? For with- out a reciprocal no conjunction is possible, and the re- ciprocal of conjunction is that man loves God, and does those things which are of God, as from himself, and yet believes that it is from God. Besides, how can man live to eternity, unless he be conjoined to the eternal God ? Con- sequently, how can man be man, without that likeness in him ? " All favored these words, and said, " Let a conclu- sion be made from them ; " and it was made thus : " Man is a receptacle of God, and a receptacle of God is an image of God ; and because God is Love itself and Wisdom itself, man is a receptacle of these ; and a receptacle becomes an image of God according to the reception." Also this : " Man is a likeness of God from this, that he feels in himself that the things which are from God are in him as his ; but still, from that likeness he is so far an image of God as he ac- knowledges that love and wisdom, or good and truth, are not his in him, and therefore are not from him, but are in God only, and thence are from God." After this, they took No. 48.] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 83 up the second subject of discussion, "Why man is not BORN INTO THE KNOWLEDGE OF ANY LOVE, WHEN YET BEASTS AND BIRDS, NOBLE AS WELL AS IGNOBLE, ARE BORN INTO THE KNOWLEDGES OF ALL THEIR LOVES." First they confirmed the truth of the proposition from various things ; as, concerning man, that he is born into no knowledge, not even into the knowledge of conjugial love ; and they in- quired and heard from investigators that an infant does not even know the breast of its mother from any connate knowledge, but that it learns this from its mother or nurse by being put to the breast ; and that it only knows how to suck, and that it has imbibed this knowledge from a con- tinual suction in the mother's womb ; and that afterwards it does not know how to walk, nor to articulate sound into any human word, nor yet to sound the affections of its love, as beasts do ; further, that it knows not what food is suitable for it, as beasts do, but that it lays hold of whatever comes in its way, whether clean or unclean, and puts it into its mouth. The investigators said that man without instruc- tion knows nothing at all about the modes of loving the sex, and that not even virgins and young men know any thing of this without instruction from others. In a word, man is born corporeal as a worm, and remains corporeal unless he learns to know, to understand, and to be wise, from others. After this they proved that animals, noble as well as ignoble, as the beasts of the earth, the fowls of the air, reptiles, fishes, and the vermicules which are called insects, are born into all the knowledges of the loves of their life ; as into all things concerning nourishment, into all things concerning habitation, into all things concerning the love of the sex and prolification, and into all things concerning the education of their young. These things they confirmed by the wonderful things which they recalled to memory from what they had seen, heard, and read in the natural world, in which they once lived, and in which there are not repre- sentative but real beasts. After the truth of the proposi- 84 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. L tion was thus established, they applied their minds to investigate and. discover the causes by means of which they might unfold and lay open this mystery ; and they all said that those things could not but exist from the Divine Wisdom, that man may be man, and beast may be beast ; and that thus the imperfection of man's nativity is his perfection, and the perfection of a beast's nativity is its imperfection. Then those on the North began first to open their minds, and they said, that " Man was born without knowledges, that he might be able to receive them all ; but, if he were bom into knowledges, he would not be able to receive any ex- cept those into which he was born, and then he would not be able to appropriate any to himself ; " which they illus- trated by this comparison : " Man when first born is like ground in which no seeds have been planted, but which can yet receive all, and bring them forth, and cause them to bear fruit. But a beast is like ground already sown and covered over with grass and herbs, which receives no other seeds than those which have been sown ; and if others were sown they would be choked. Thence it is that man is many years in coming to his growth, during which he may be cultivated like the ground, and bring forth as it were grain of every kind, flowers, and trees ; but a beast comes to its growth in a few years, during which it can be cultivated for no other things than tlipse which are born with it." Afterwards those on the West spoke, and said that man is not born knowledge, like a beast, but that he is born a faculty and an inclination ; a faculty for know- ing, and an inclination for loving ; and that he is born a faculty [* not only for knowing, but also for understanding and for being wise ; and also that he is born a most perfect inclination] not only for loving those things which are of himself and the world, but also those which are of God and * What is here enclosed in brackets is from the treatise concern- ing Conjugial Love, n. 134. No. 48.] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 85 of heaven ; consequently, that man is born an organ which scarcely lives by the external senses, except obscurely, and by no internal senses, to the intent that he may succes- sively live and become a man ; first natural, afterwards rational, and at length spiritual ; which would not be the case if he were born into knowledges and loves as beasts are ; for the knowledges and affections of love which are born with one, limit the progression ; but mere faculties and inclinations born with one, limit nothing; wherefore man may be perfected in knowledge, intelligence, and wis- dom to eternity. Those on the South took up the subject, and declared their opinion, saying that it is impossible for man to derive any knowledge from himself, but he must derive it from others, since no knowledge is connate with him ; and as he cannot derive any knowledge from him- self, so neither can he any love, since where there is no knowledge there is no love ; knowledge and love are in- separable companions ; they can no more be separated than will and understanding or affection and thought ; yea, no more than essence and form ; wherefore, as man receives knowledge from others, so love adjoins itself to it as its companion. The universal love which adjoins itself is the love of knowing, and afterwards of understanding and of being wise ; man alone and no beast has these loves, and they flow in from God. We agree with our companions from the West that man is not born into any love, and thence not into any knowledge ; but that he is only born into an inclination for loving, and thence into a faculty for receiving knowledge, not from himself, but from others, that is, through others : it is said, through others, because neither have these received any thing from them- selves, but originally from God. We agree also with our companions at the North that man when first born is like ground in which no seeds have been planted, but in which all seeds, as well noble as ignoble, can be planted : thence it is that man was called ho^no from humus, the ground; and 86 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I he was called Adam from Adama, which, too, means ground. To this we add that beasts are born into natural loves, and thence into the knowledges corresponding to them ; but that still from the knowledges they do not know, think, un- derstand, nor are wise ; but that they are led to them from their loves, almost in the same manner as blind men are led through the streets by dogs ; for as to the understand- ing they are blind, or rather they are like persons walking in sleep, who do what they do from blind knowledge, while the understanding is asleep. Lastly those on the East spoke and said, " We assent to those things which our brothers have spoken, that man knows nothing from himself, but from others and through others, that he may cognize and acknowledge that all things which he knows, understands, and is wise in, are from God ; and that man cannot other- wise be born and begotten of God, and become an image and likeness of Him. For he becomes an image of God by acknowledging and believing that he has received and does receive all the good of love and charity and all the truth of wisdom and faith from God, and nothing at all from himself : and he is a likeness of God in that he feels those things in himself as if from himself ; and he feels this, be- cause he is not born into knowledges, but receives them ; and the receiving appears to him as from himself. To feel thus is also given to man by God, that he may be a man, and not a beast ; since by this, that he wills, thinks, loves, knows, understands, and is wise, as from himself, he receives knowledges, and exalts them into intelligence, and by their uses into wisdom ; thus God conjoins man with Himself, and man conjoins himself with God. These things could not have been done unless it had been provided by God that man should be born in utter ignorance." After this statement all desired that a conclusion should be made from the things discussed ; and it was made thus : That man is born into no knowledge in order that he may be able to come into all, and advance into intelligence, and No. 48.] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 8/ through this into wisdom ; and that man is born into no love in order that he may be able to come into all by ap- plications of knowledges from intelligence, and may come into love to God through love towards the neighbor, and thus be conjoined to God, and by that means become a man and live to eternity. After this they took the paper, and read the third sub- ject for investigation, which was, What does the tree OF LIFE SIGNIFY ; WHAT THE TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL ; AND WHAT THE EATING FROM THEM ? And they all requested that those who were from the East would unfold this mystery, because it is of deeper under- standing, and because those who are from the East are in flamy light, that is, in the wisdom of love ; and this wisdom is meant by the garden of Eden, in which those two trees were placed. And they answered, " We will speak ; but because man does not take any thing from himself, but from God, we will speak from Him, but still from ourselves as if from ourselves." And then they said, " A tree signi- fies man, and its fruit the good of life ; thence by the tree of life is signified man living from God ; and because love and wisdom, and charity and faith, or good and truth, make the life of God in man, by the tree of life is signified the man in whom are those things from God, and who has thence eternal life. Similar things are signified by the tree of life, from which it will be given to eat (Apoc. ii. 7, xxii. 2, 14). By the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is sig- nified the man believing that he lives from himself, and not from God ; thus, that love and wisdom, charity and faith, that is, good and truth, are in man his, and not God's ; be- lieving this, because he thinks and wills, and speaks and acts, in all likeness and appearance as from himself ; and because man thence persuades himself that he is also a God, therefore the serpent said, God doth know that, in the day ye eat of the fruit of that tree, your eyes will be opened, and ye will be as God, knowing good and evil (Gex\. iii, 5). 88 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. By eating from those trees is signified reception and appro- priation ; by eating from the tree of Ufe, the reception of eternal life ; and by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the reception of damnation. By the ser- pent is meant the devil, as to the love of self and the pride of one's own intelligence j and this love is the possessor of the tree, and the men who are in pride from this love are the trees. They are, therefore, in an enormous error who believe that Adam was wise and did good from himself, and that this was his state of integrity ; when yet Adam was himself cursed on account of that belief ; for this is signi- fied by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil ; wherefore he then fell from the state of integrity which he had from believing that he was wise and did good from God and nothing from himself ; for this is meant by eating from the tree of life. The Lord alone, when He was in the world, was wise from Himself, and did good from Him- self, because the Divine Itself was in Him and was His from the nativity ; wherefore also He became Redeemer and Saviour by His own power." From all these things they drew this conclusion, that " By the tree of life, and by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and by eat- ing from them, is meant that life, to man, is God in him, and that he thus has heaven and eternal life ; and that death, to man, is the persuasion and belief that God is not life to man, but that man is life to himself ; whence he has hell and eternal death, which is damnation." After this they looked at the paper which was left by the angels upon the table, and saw written underneath, Join THE THREE TOGETHER INTO ONE OPINION. And then they collected them, and saw that the three cohered in one series, and that the series or opinion is this, that " Man was created to receive love and wisdom from God, and yet in all likeness as from himself, and this for the sake of reception and conjunction ; and that therefore man is not born into any love, nor into any knowledge, nor even No. 49.] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 89 into any power of loving and being wise from himself. Wherefore, if he ascribes all the good of love and all the truth of wisdom to God he becomes a living man ; but if he ascribes them to himself he becomes a dead man." This they wrote on a new paper and laid it upon the table ; and lo, suddenly the angels were present in a bright cloud, and they carried the paper away into heaven ; and after it was read there, those who sat upon the seats heard thence the words, "Well, well, well." And forthwith there appeared one from heaven as if flying, who had as it were two wings about the feet and two about the temples, bHng- ing the prizes, which Avere robes, caps, and wreaths of laurel. And he alighted, and gave to those who sat at the North robes of an opaline color ; to those at the West, robes of a scarlet color ; to those at the South, caps, the borders of which were adorned with bands of gold and pearls, and the higher parts of the left side with diamonds cut in the form of flowers ; but to those at the East he gave wreaths of laurel in which were rubies and sapphires. And they all went home with joy from the school of wisdom, decorated with these rewards. CONCERNING THE OMNIPOTENCE, OMNISCIENCE, AND OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD. 49. We have treated of the Divine Love and the Di- vine Wisdom, and shown that these two are the Divine Essence. We come now to treat of the Omnipotence, Omni- science, and Omnipresence of God, because these three pro- ceed from the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom, scarcely otherwise than the power and presence of the sun are in this world, and in all and every part of it, by means of light and heat. Also, the heat from the sun of the spiritual world, in the midst of which is Jehovah God, in its essence is Divine Love, and the light thence is in its essence Divine Wisdom ; whence it is manifest that as infinity, immensity, 90 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. and eternity pertain to the Divine Esse, so omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence pertain to the Divine Es- sence. But as those three universal predicables of the Divine Essence have not hitherto been understood, be- cause their progression according to their ways, which are the laws of order, has been unknown, it is proper to pre- sent them here by distinct articles, as follows : I. Omnip- otence, Omniscience, and Ot/inipresence belong to the Divine Wisdom from the Divitie Love. II. There cantiot be cognition of God's Omnipotence, OmJiiscience, and Omnipresence, unless it be known what Order is, and unless these things belonging to it be known, ?iamely, that God is Order, and that at the creation He introduced Order into the universe, and into all and every part of it. III. The Om/iipotence of God in the universe, and in all and every part of it, proceeds and operates accorditig to the laws of His Order. IV. God is omniscient, that is, perceives, sees, and knows all and every thiiig, even to the most minute, 7vhich is done according to Order ; and thence also what is done contrary to Order. V. God is omnipresent from the firsts to the lasts of His Order. VI. Man was created a form of Divine Order. VII. Man is so far in power against evil and falsity from the Divine Omnipotence, and so far in wisdom cojicerning good and truth from the Divine Ojnniscience, and so far in God from the Divine Om?iipres- ence, as he lives according to Divine Order. But these arti- cles are to be unfolded one by one. 50. I. Omnipotence, Omniscience, and Omnipres- ence BELONG TO THE DiVINE WiSDOM FROM THE DiVINE Love. That omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence belong to the Divine Wisdom from the Divine Love, but not to the Divine Love by means of the Divine Wisdom, is an arcanum from heaven, which has not hitherto shone in the under- standing of any one ; because no one has yet known what love is in its essence, nor what wisdom thence is in its es- No. 51.] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 9I sence, and still less concerning the influx of one into the other ; which is, that love, with all and every thing of it, flows into wisdom, and resides in it as a king in his king- dom, or as a master in his house, and relinquishes all the government of justice to its judgment ; and, because justice is of love and judgment is of wisdom, relinquishes all the government of love to its wisdom. But this arcanum will receive additional light in what follows ; in the mean time let it stand as a canon. That God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent, by means of the wisdom of His love, is also meant by these words in John : In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All thifigs were made by Hi7n, and without Him was not any thing made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of me?t ; and the world was made by Him ; and the Word was made flesh (i. i, 3, 4, 10, 14). By the Word is there meant the Divine Truth, or what amounts to the same the Divine Wisdom ; wherefore it is also called life and light ; and life and light are no other than wisdom. 51. Since in the Word justice is predicated of love, and judgment of wisdom, therefore some passages shall be ad- duced to prove that the government of God is effected in the world by means of those two ; the passages now fol- low : O Jehovah, Justice and Judgment are the support of Thy thro7ie (Ps. Ixxxix. 15). Let him that glorieth, glory in this, that Jehovah doeth Judgment and Justice in the earth (Jer. ix. 24). Let Jehovah be exalted, because He hath filled Zion* with Judgment <2;2</ Justice (Isa. xxxiii. 5). Let Judgment run down as water, and Justice as a mighty stream (Amos v. 24). Thy Justice, O Jehovah, is like the mountains of God, Thy Judgments are as a great deep (Ps. xxxvi. 6). Jehovah will bring forth ihy\ Justice as the * The Latin is here terram, not Zionem. Elsewhere, however, we find Zionem, which agrees with the Hebrew. See A. C. n. 2235. t The Latin here reads stuim (his). Elsewhere we find tuam and tutim (thy), which agrees with the Hebrew. See A. C. n. 1458. 92 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. light, and \thy\ Judgment as the noonday (Ps. xxxvii. 6), He* shall judge thy people in Justice, and thy poor in Judg- ment (Ps. Ixxii. 2). When I shall have learned the Judg- ments of Thy Justice (Ps. cxix. 7 ; 164). J will betroth thee u7ito Me in Justice and Judgment (Hosea ii. 19). Zion shall be redeemed iti Judgment, and her converts in Justice (Isa. i. 27). He shall sit upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to establish it in Judgment and Justice (Isa. ix. 7). J will raise unto David a righteous Branch, who shall reign as King, and shall do Judgment and Justice in the earth (Jer. xxiii. 5 ; xxxiii. 15), And in other places it is said that they ought to do Justice and Judgment (as in Isa. i. 21 ; V. 16; Iviii. 2 ; Jer. iv. 2 ; xxii. 3, 13, 15 ; Ez. xviii. 5; xxxiii. 14, 16, 19; Amos vi. 12; Micah vii. 9; Deut. xxxiii. 21 ; John xvi. 8, 10, 11). 52. II. There cannot be cognition of God's Om- nipotence, Omniscience, and Omnipresence, unless it BE known what Order is, and unless these things belonging to it be known, namely, that God is Order, and that at the Creation He introduced OrSer into the Universe, and into all and every Part of it. The number and the quality of the absurdities which have crept into the minds of men, and thence through the heads of innovators into the church, in consequence of their not understanding the Order into which God created the universe and all and every part of it, will be evident from the bare mention of them in the following pages. But here we will first explain Order by a general definition of it. Order is the quality of the disposition, deternwialion, and ac- tivity of the parts, substances, or entities which make the form: whence is the state; the perfection of which is produced by wis- dom from its love, or the imperfection of which is forged by the * The Latin here reads "Jehovah,'' " His people,'' and " His poor.'* The common English version agrees with the Hebrew. No. 54.] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 93 unsoundness of reason from cupidity. In this definition sub- stance, form, and state are mentioned ; and by substance we at the same time mean form, because every substance is a form ; and the quaUty of the form is its state, the perfection or imperfection of which results from the order. But these things, because they are metaphysical, cannot but be in dark- ness ; but this will be dispersed in what follows by applica- tions to examples, which will illustrate the subject. 53. That God is Order is because He is Substance itself and Form itself ; Substance, because all things which sub- sist existed and exist from Him ; Form, because all the quality of substances arose and arises from Him, and quality is derived from no other source than from form. Now, be- cause God is the verj' and the only and the first Substance and Form, and at the same time the very and the only Love, and the very and the only Wisdom, and because wisdom from love makes form, and the state and quality of this is according to the order therein, it follows that God is Order itself, and that from Himself He introduced order into the universe, and also into all and every part of it, and that He introduced most perfect order because all things which He created were good, as is read in the book of Creation. It will be demonstrated in its proper place that evils began to exist at the same time- with hell, thus after creation. But now to such things as more readily enter, more clearly enlighten, and more gently affect the understanding. 54. But the quality of the order into which the universe was created, cannot be fully explained but by many pages. Some sketch of it will be exhibited in the following Lemma concerning Creation. It is to be held that the things in the universe were all and each created into their orders, so that they may subsist each one by itself, and that from the beginning they were so created, that they may conjoin themselves with the order of the universe, to the intent that each particular order may subsist in the universal, and thus make one. But to refer to some examples : Man was 94 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. created into his order, and also every particular part of him into its order ; as the head and the body, each into its order ; the heart, the lungs, the liver, the pancreas, the stomach, into their orders ; every organ of motion, which is called a muscle, into its order ; and every organ of sense, as the eye, the ear, the tongue, each respectively into its order 3 nay, there is not the smallest artery or fibril there which was not created into its order ; and yet these innumerable parts conjoin themselves with the common body, and so insert themselves in it that all together make one. The case is similar with other things, the bare men- tion of which is sufficient for illustration. Every beast of the earth, every bird of the air, every fish of the sea, every reptile, nay, every worm, even to the moth, has been created into its own order ; in like manner, every tree of forest and of orchard, every shrub and plant, into its order ; and more- over every stone and every mineral, even to every particle of the dust of the earth, into its order. 55. Who does not see that there is not an empire, king- dom, dukedom, republic, state, or family, which is not established by laws, which make the order and thus the form of its government? In each of them the laws ot justice are in the highest place, political laws in the second, and economical laws in the third : if these are compared with man, the laws of justice make the head, political laws the body, and economical laws the dress ; wherefore these also, like the dress, may be changed. But as to what concerns the order into which the church has been established by God, it is this : That God should be in all and every thing of it ; and the neighbor, also, towards whom order is to be exercised. The laws of that order are as many as there are truths in the Word ; the laws which relate to God will make its head, the laws which relate to the neighbor will make its body, and the cere- monies will make the dress ; for unless these held the others together, in their order, it would be as if the body No. 56.] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 95 were stripped naked, and exposed to the heat in summer and to the cold in winter ; or as if the walls and roof should be removed from a temple, and thus the sacred repository, the altar, and the pulpit should stand without protection, exposed to various kinds of violence. 56. III. The Omnipotence of God, as well in the Universe as in all and every Part of it, proceeds AND operates ACCORDING TO THE LaWS OF HIS OrDER. God is omnipotent, because He has all power from Him- self, and all others [have power] from Him. His power and His will are one ; and because He wills nothing but what is good, therefore He can do nothing but what is good. In the spiritual world, no one can do any thing contrary to his own [su/is] will ; this they derive there from God, Whose power and will are one. God also is Good itself ; wherefore, while He does good. He is in Himself, and He cannot go out of Himself. Thence it is manifest that His omnipotence pro- ceeds and operates within the sphere of the extension of good, which is infinite ; for this sphere from the inmost fills the universe and all and every thing therein ; and from the inmost it governs those things which are without, as far as they conjoin themselves according to their orders ; and if they do not conjoin themselves still it sustains them, and with all effort labors to bring them into order, according to the universal order in which T^od is in His omnipotence, and according to which He acts ; and if this is not effected they are cast out from Him, where, nevertheless. He sustains them from the inmost. From this it is evident that the Divine Omnipotence can by no means from itself go out to the contact of any thing evil, nor promote it from itself, for evil turns itself away ; thence it is that evil is entirely sep- arated from Him, and cast into hell ; between which and heaven, where He is, there is a great gulf. From these few things it may be seen how delirious they are who think, still more they who believe, and still more than these they who 96 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. teach, that God can condemn any one, curse any one, cast any one into hell, predestine the soul of any one to eternal death, avenge injuries, be angry, or punish. He cannot even turn away His face from man and look at him with a stern countenance ; these and similar things are contrary to His essence, and what is contrary to this is contrary to Himself. 57. It is at this day a prevailing opinion that the omnip- otence of God is like the absolute power of a king in the world, who can at his pleasure do whatever he wills, absolve and condemn whom he pleases, make the guilty innocent, declare the faithless faithful, exalt the unworthy and unde- serving above the worthy and deserving : nay, that he can under any pretext deprive his subjects of their goods, and sentence them to death ; besides other similar things. From this absurd opinion, faith, and doctrine, concerning the Di- vine omnipotence, as many falsities, fallacies, and chimeras have flowed into the church, as there are changes, speci- fications, and generations of faith therein ; and as many more may yet flow in as would equal the number of pitch- ers which might be filled with water from a large lake, or of serpents which creep out of their holes and bask in the sunshine in the desert of Arabia. What need is there of more than two words, ovinipotence and faith ; and then to spread before the common people conjectures, fables, and trifles, such as fall into the sens'es of the body ? For reason is banished from them both ; and when reason is banished in what does the thought of man excel the reason of a bird that flies over his head ; or what then is the spiritual, which man has above the beasts, but something like the stench in the dens of beasts, which is agreeable to the wild beasts there, but not to man, unless he be like them ? If the Divine omnipotence were extended to do evil as well as good, what would be the distinction between God and the devil ? Would there be any but such as is between two monarchs, one of whom is a king and at the same time a tyrant, and the No. 58.] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 97 other a tyrant whose power has been restrained, so that he ought not to be called a king ? or that between two shep- herds, one of whom is permitted to act the part of a sheep and of a leopard also, while the other is not permitted to do so ? Who cannot know that good and evil are opposites, and that if God from His omnipotence could will them both, and from willing could do them both, He could do nothing at all ? Thus He would have no power, much less omnipotence. This would be as if two wheels with opposite motion should mutually act against each other, from which opposite action both wheels would stop and be entirely at rest ; or like a ship in a rushing stream driving it contrar}' to its course, which unless it rest at anchor would be carried away and lost ; or like a man having two wills opposed to each other, one of which must necessarily be at rest while the other acts ; but if both should act at once, delirium or giddiness would seize his mind. 58. If God's omnipotence were, according to the faith at this day, absolute for doing evil as well as good, would it not be possible, nay, easy, for God to elevate all hell into heaven, and to convert devils and satans into angels, and to cleanse every sinner on earth from his sins in a mo- ment, to renew, sanctify, and regenerate him, and from a child of wrath to make a child of grace, that is, to justify him ; which would be done merely by the application and imputation of the righteousness of His Son ? But God from His omnipotence cannot do this, because it is contrary to the laws of His order in the universe, and at the same time contrar)^ to the laws of order prescribed to every man, which are, that conjunction should be mutual, on the part of both ; that it is so, will be seen in what follows in this work. From this absurd opinion and faith concerning God's om- nipotence, it would result that God could convert every man-goat into a man-sheep, and of His good pleasure re- move him from His left to His right side ; also, that He could of His good pleasure change the spirits of the dragon VOL. I. 5 98 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. L into angels of Michael, and that He could give the eagle's sight to a man whose understanding is like that of a mole ; in a word, make a man-dove out of a man-owl. These things God cannot do, because they are contrary to the laws of His own order, although He continually wills and endeav- ors to effect them. If He could have done such things. He would not have permitted Adam to hearken to the serpent and take fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and put it to his mouth ; if He could have done so, He would not have permitted Cain to kill his brother, David to number the people, Solomon to build temples to idols, and the kings of Judah and Israel to profane the .temple, as they so often did ; nay, if He could have done so, He would have saved the whole human race without exception through the redemption of His Son, and would have extirpated all hell. The ancient gentiles ascribed such omnipotence to their gods and goddesses ; whence arose their fabulous stories, as concerning Deucalion and Pyrrha, that the stones thrown behind them became men and women ; concerning Apollo, that he changed Daphne into a laurel ; concerning Diana, that she changed a hunter into a stag; and that another of their gods turned the virgins of Par- nassus into magpies. There is at this day a similar be- lief concerning the Divine omnipotence, whence so many fanatical and hence heretical opinions have been intro- duced into the world, in every country where there is any religion. 59. IV. God is Omniscient, that is, perceives, sees, AND KNOWS ALL AND EVERY ThING, EVEN TO THE MOST MINIWE, WHICH IS DONE ACCORDING TO OrDER ; AND THENCE ALSO WHAT IS DONE CONTRARY TO OrDER. That God is omniscient, that is, perceives, sees, and knows all things, is, because He is Wisdom itself, and Light itself ; and Wisdom itself perceives all things, and Light itself sees all things. That God is Wisdom itself was shown above ; No. 6o.] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 99 that He is Light itself is because He is the Sun of the angehc heaven, which enhghtens the understanding of all, both of angels and men ; for, as the eye is illuminated by the light of the natural sun, so the understanding is illumi- nated by the light of the spiritual sun. Nor is it merely illuminated ; but it is also filled with intelligence, according to the love of receiving it, since this light in its essence is wisdom. Wherefore in David it is said that God dwelleth in light inaccessible ; and in the Apocalypse, that in the New jferusalem they have no need of a candle, because the Lord God giveth them light ; and in John that the Word which was with God, and was God, is the Light, which lighteth every fna?i that conieth into the world. By the Word is meant the Divine Wisdom. Thence it is that the angels, as far as they are in wisdom, are so far in the brightness of light ; and thence also it is that in the Word where light is named wisdom is meant. 60. That God perceives, sees, and knows all things, even to the most minute, which are done according to order, is, because order is universal from being in the smallest par- ticulars severally ; for the single parts all taken together are called a universal, as particulars taken together are called a general; and a universal together with all its several parts is a work cohering as one, so that one part cannot be touched and affected without some sense of it being communicated to all the rest. It is from this quality of order in the uni- verse that there is something like this in all created things in the world ; but this will be illustrated by comparisons taken from visible things. In the whole man there are gen- eral things and particular things, and the general include the particular therein, and they join themselves together by such a connection that one is of another. This comes in this way : That there is a general covering about every member there, and that this insinuates itself into every part therein, so that they make one in every office and use. For example, the sheath of every muscle enters into its several 100 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. moving fibres, and clothes them from itself ; in like man- ner the coverings of the liver, the pancreas, and the spleen, enter into all the particular parts which are within ; in like manner the covering of the lungs, which is called the pleura, enters into the interior parts of the lungs ; and in like man- ner the pericardium, into all and every part of the heart ; and the peritonaeum generally, by anastomoses with the coverings of all the viscera ; in like manner the meninges (jf the brain, by threads emitted from them, enter into all the little glands lying beneath, and through these into all the fibres, and through these into all parts of the body; thence it is, that the head, from the brains, governs all and every thing put beneath it. These things are ad- duced merely for the purpose that from visible things some idea may be formed how God perceives, sees, and knows all things, even to the most minute, which are done accord- ing to order. 6i. That God, from those things which are of order, per- ceives, knows, and sees all and every thing, even to the most minute, which is done contrary to order, is because God does not hold man in evil, but withholds him from evil ; thus He does not lead him on, but strives with him. From that perpetual striving, struggling, resistance, repug- nance, and reaction of evil and falsity against His good and truth, thus against Himself, He perceives both their quan- tity and quality. This follows from the omnipresence of God in all and every part of His order, and at the same time from His perfect knowledge of all and every thing there ; comparatively, as he who has an ear for music and harmony accurately notices every discordant and unhar- monious sound as soon as it enters, also the extent and the character of the discord ; in like manner he whose senses are in their enjoyment, quickly notices the intrusion of what is undelightful ; or as the eye which is looking at a beautiful object sees it distinctly while any thing ugly is at tlie side of it ; wherefore it is customary for painters to No. 62.] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. lOI place an ugly face at the side of a handsome one. It is similar with good and truth while they strive against evil and falsity; for these are distinctly perceived from their opposites ; for every one who is in good can perceive what is evil, and he who is in truth can see what is false. The reason is that good is in the heat of heaven and truth in its light ; but evil is in the cold of hell and falsity in its dark- ness ; which may be illustrated by this, that the angels of heaven can see whatever is done in hell and what monsters are there ; but, on the other hand, the spirits of hell cannot see any thing at all that is done in heaven, and not even the angels, any more than a blind man, or than the eye looking into mere air or ether. Those whose understand- ings are in the light of wisdom are like those who at noon- day stand upon a mountain and see clearly all things that are below ; and those who are in still higher light are com- paratively like those who through telescopes see the objects around and below them as if they were present ; but those who are in the delusive light of hell, from the confirmation of falsities, are like those who stand upon the same moun- tain in the time of night with lanterns in their hands, and see nothing but the nearest objects, and the forms of these indistinctly, and their colors confusedly. A man who is in some light of truth and yet in evil of life, while he is in en- joyment from his love of evil, does not at first see truths otherwise than as a bat sees the linen hanging in a garden, to which it flies as to its place of refuge ; and afterwards he becomes as a bird of night, and at length as an owl ; and then he becomes like a chimney-sweeper sticking fast amid the smoke of a chimney, who, when he raises his eyes up- wards sees the sky beyond the smoke, and when he looks downwards sees the fire from which the smoke arises. 62. It is to be observed that the perception of opposites differs from the perception of relatives ; for opposites are what are without, and are contrary to those things which are within ; for an opposite takes its rise when one thing en- 102 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. tirc'ly ceases to be any thing, and another thing rises up with the effort of counteracting the former, as a wheel acting against a wheel, or a stream against a stream ; but relatives have respect to the disposition of many and vari- ous things in convenient and agreeable order, as of pre- cious stones of divers colors in the stomacher of a queen, or flowers of different colors in a garland, to give pleas- antness to the sight. There are, therefore, relatives in each opposite, in good as well as in evil, and in truth as well as in falsity, thus in heaven as well as in hell ; but the relatives in hell are all opposite to the relatives in heaven. Now, because God perceives and sees, and thence cognizes all the relatives in heaven, from the order in which He is, and thereby perceives, sees, and cognizes all the opposite rela- tives in hell, as follows from what was said above, it is mani- fest that God is omniscient in hell as well as in heaven, and likewise among men in the world ; thus that He perceives, sees, and cognizes their evils and falsities from the good and the truth in which He is, and which in their essence are Himself ; for it is said. If I ascend into heaven, Thou art there ; if I lay me down in hell, behold Thou art there (Ps. cxxxix. 8) ; and in another place, If they dig through ifito hell, thence shall my hand take them (Amos ix. 2). 63. V. God is Omnipresent from the Firsts to THE Lasts of His Order. God is omnipresent from the firsts to the lasts of His order, by means of the heat and light from the sun of the spiritual world, in the midst of which He is : by means of this sun order was made, and from it He sends forth heat and light, which pervade the universe from the firsts to the lasts of it, and produce the life of men and every animal, and also the vegetative soul in every germ upon the earth ; and those two flow into all and every thing, and cause every thing to live and grow, according to the order impressed upon them from creation ; and be- No. 64.] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 103 cause God is not extended, and yet fills all the extenses of the universe, He is omnipresent. That God is in all space without space, and in all time without time, and that there- fore the universe, as to essence and order, is the fulness of God, has been elsewhere shown ; and because it is so, by omnipresence He perceives all things, by omniscience He provides all things, and by omnipotence He operates all things. Whence it is manifest that omnipresence, omni- science, and omnipotence make one, or that one implies another, and thus that they cannot be separated. 64. The Divine omnipresence may be illustrated by the wonderful presence of angels and spirits in the spiritual world. In that world, because there is no space but only an appearance of space, an angel or a spirit may in a mo- ment become present to another, provided he comes into a similar affection of love and thence into thought, for these two make the appearance of space. That such is the pres- ence of all there, was manifest to me from this, that I could see inhabitants of Africa and of India there very near, although they are so many miles apart on earth ; nay, that I could become present to those who are in other planets of this system, and also to those who are in the planets of other solar systems. By virtue of this pres- ence, not of place but of the appearance of place, I have conversed with apostles, deceased popes, emperors, and kings ; with the founders of the present church, Luther, Calvin, and Melancthon ; and with others from countries widely separated. Since such is the presence of angels and spirits, what limits can be set to the Divine presence in the universe, which is infinite ! The reason that angels and spirits have such presence is because every affection of love, and thence every thought of the understanding, is in space without space, and in time without time ; for any one can think of a brother, relation, or friend in the Indies, and then have him as it were present with him ; in like manner he may be affected with their love by remembrance. By 104 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. these things, because they are familiar to every one, the Divine omnipresence may in some measure be illustrated ; so, too, by human thoughts, as, when any one recalls to his remembrance what he has seen upon a journey in vari- ous places, he is in those places, as if they were present. Nay, the sight of the body emulates the same presence ; the eye does not perceive distances except by intermediate objects which as it were measure them. The sun itself would be near the eye, nay as it were in the eye, unless intermediate objects discovered that it is so distant : that it is so, writers on optics have also observed in their books. Such presence has each sight of man, the intellectual and the corporeal, for his spirit sees through his eyes ; but no beast has similar presence, because beasts have not any spiritual sight. From these things, it is evident that God is omnipresent from the firsts to the lasts of His order. That He is also omnipresent in hell was shown in the preceding article. 65. VI. Man was created a Form of Divine Order. Man was created a form of Divine order, because he was created an image and likeness of God ; and as God is Order itself man was created an image and likeness of order. There are two things from which order has existed and by which it subsists, — Divine Love and Divine Wisdom ; and man was created their receptacle ; wherefore, also, he was created into the order according to which those two act in the universe, and principally according to which they act in the angelic heaven ; thence all the angelic heaven is in the greatest effigy a form of Divine order ; and this heaven is in God's sight as one man ; and, also, there is a plenary correspondence between this heaven and man ; for there is no society in heaven which does not correspond to some member, viscus, or organ in man. Wherefore it is said in heaven that a society is in the province of the liver, or the pancreas, or the spleen, or the stomach, or the eye, or N.J. 67-] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 105 the ear, or the tongue, &c. ; the angels themselves also know in what realm of some part of man they dwell. That it is so, has been given me to know to the life. I have seen as one man a society consisting of several thou- sands of angels ; whence it was manifest that heaven in the complex is an image of God, and an image of God is a form of Divine order. 66. It is to be known that all things which proceed from the sun of the spiritual world, in the midst of which is Jeho- vah God, have a relation to man, and that therefore what- ever things exist in that world conspire to the human form, and in their inmost they exhibit it ; whence all the objects which are presented to the eyes there are representatives of man. There appear there animals of every kind, and they are likenesses of the affections of the love and thence of the thoughts of the angels ; so too the shrubberies, flower-gardens, and green fields there ; and it is given to know what affection this and that object represents ; and, what is wonderful, when their inmost sight is opened, they recognize their own image in those things ; and this is the case because every man is his own love and thence his own thought ; and because the affections and thence the thoughts in every man are various and manifold, and some of them answer to the affection of one animal, and some of another, therefore images of their affections are thus ex- hibited. But more will be seen concerning these things in the following sheet concerning Creation. From these things also is manifest the truth that the end of creation was an angelic heaven from the human race, consequently man, in whom God can dwell as in His receptacle ; thence is the reason why man was created a form of Divine order. 67. Before the creation God was Love itself and Wis- • dom itself, and these two in the effort to do uses ; for love and wisdom without use are only the flying things of reason ; and they also fly away unless they apply them- selves to use. The two prior also, separate from the Io6 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. third, are like birds which are flying over a great ocean, and at length, being wearied with flying, they fall down and are drowned. Thence it is evident that the universe was created by God that uses might exist ; wherefore, also, the universe maybe z'^iW^^ 2i theatre of uses ; and because man is the principal end of creation it follows that all and every thing has been created for the sake of man, and conse- quently that all and every thing of order has been brought together into him, and concentrated in him, that God may do primary uses through him. Love and wisdom without their third, which is use, may be compared to the heat and light of the sun, which, unless they operated upon men, animals, and vegetables, would be empty things ; but they become real by influx into them and operation in them. There are also three things which follow each other in order, — end, cause, and eif ect ; and it is known in the learned world that the end is not any thing unless it looks to the efficient cause, and that the end and this cause are not any thing unless the effect is produced ; the end and the cause may, indeed, be contemplated abstractly in the mind, but still for the sake of some effect which the end intends, and for which the cause provides. It is similar with love, wisdom, and use. Use is what love intends, and produces by the cause ; and when the use is produced, love and wisdom really exist and make for themselves a habitation and abode in it, and rest as in their house. It is similar with the man in whom are the love and wis- dom of God while he is doing uses ; and that he may do the uses of God he has been created an image and like- ness [of God], that is, a form of Divine order. 68. VII. Man is so far in Power against Evil and Falsity from the Divine Omnipotence, and so far in Wisdom concerning Good and Truth from the Divine Omniscience, and so far in God from the Divine Omni- presence, as he lives according to Divine Order. No. 69.] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 10/ The reason that man is in power against evil and falsity from the Divine omnipotence so far as he lives according to Divine order, is because no one can resist evils and the falsities thence but God alone ; for all evils and the falsities thence are from hell ; and in hell they cling together as one, just as all goods and the truths from them do in heaven ; for, as was said above, the whole heaven is in the sight of God as one man, and, on the other hand, hell is as one giant, that is a monster ; wherefore, to act against one evil and one falsit)' thence, is to act against that monstrous giant or hell ; and this no one can do but God, because He is omnipotent ; whence it is manifest that man, unless he goes to the om- nipotent God, has from himself no more power against evil and the falsity thence than a fish has against the ocean, than a flea against a whale, or than a particle of dust against a falling mountain ; and far less than a locust has against an elephant, or a fly against a camel. And, moreover, man has still less power against evil and the falsity thence, because he is born into evil, and evil cannot act against itself. Hence it follows that unless a man lives . according to Divine order, that is, unless he acknowledges God and His omnipotence, and its protection against hell ; and, further, unless man on his part fights with the evil in himself (for this combat together with that acknowledg- ment is of order), he cannot but be immersed and over- whelmed in hell, and there be driven about by evils, one after another, as a boat on the sea is driven about by tempests. 69. The reason that man is in wisdom concerning good and truth, from the Divine omniscience, so far as he lives according to Divine order, is, because all the love of good and all the wisdom of truth, or all the good of love and all the truth of wisdom, are from God. That it is so is also according to the confession of all the churches in the Chris- tian world. Whence it follows that man cannot be interiorly in any truth of wisdom unless from God, because God has I08 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. 1. Omniscience, that is, infinite wisdom. The human mind is distinguished into three degrees like the angelic heaven, and therefore it may be elevated to a degree higher and higher, and also it may be let down to a degree lower and lower ; but as far as it is elevated to the higher degrees, so far it is elevated into wisdom, because so far into the light of heaven ; and this cannot be done except by God ; and as far as it is elevated thither, so far it is a man ; and as far as it is let down to the lower degrees, so far it is in the delusive light of hell, and so far it is not a man, but a beast. Man, also, for this reason stands erect upon his feet, and looks towards heaven with the face and can raise it to the zenith ; but a beast stands upon the feet with the body parallel with the earth, and with the whole countenance looking towards it ; nor can it without difficulty be raised up towards heaven. The man who elevates his mind to God, and acknowledges that all the truth of wisdom is from Him, and at the same time lives according to order, is like one who stands upon a high tower, and sees a populous city below him, and at the same time whatever is done there in the streets. But the man who confirms in himself the idea that all the truth of wisdom is from the natural light \lumen\ in him, thus from himself, is like one who stays in a cavern under that tower, and looks through the holes there into the same city ; he sees nothing but the walls of a single house in that city, and how the bricks there are joined. Again, the man who derives wisdom from God is like a bird flying aloft, which looks about upon all things that are in the gardens, woods, and villages, and flies to those things which are of use to it ; but the man who derives from him- self such things as are of wisdom, without a belief that they still are from God, is like a hornet, which flies along near the ground, and where it sees a heap of dung it flies to it and finds enjoyment in its stench. Every man, as long as he lives in the world, walks in the midst between heaven and hell, and thence is in equilibrium, so that he has free- No. 70.] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 109 dom of will to look upward to God or downward to hell. If he looks upward to God he acknowledges that all wis- dom is from God, and as to his spirit he is actually in heaven with the angels ; but he who looks downward, as every one does who is in falsity from evil, is, as to his spirit, actually in hell with the devils. 70. That man, from the Divine omnipresence, is so far in God as he lives according to order, is because God is omnipresent, and because where He is in His order there He is as in Himself ; for He is Order itself, as was shown above. Now, because man was created a form of Divine order, God is in him ; and, so far as he lives according to Divine order, fully ; but if he does not live according to Divine order, still God is in him, but in his highest parts, and gives him the power to understand truth and to will good ; that is. He gives him a faculty for understanding and an inclination for loving. But as far as man lives con- trary to order, so far he shuts up the lower parts of his mind or spirit, and thus prevents God from descending and filling his lower parts with His presence ; consequently God is in him, but he not in God. It is a general canon in heaven that God is in ever}- man, evil as well as good, but that man is not in God unless he lives according to order; for the Lord says that He willeth that man should be in Hhn, and He in man (John xv. 4). That man is in God by a life according to order is because God is omnipresent in the universe, and in all and every part of it in the inmost of the parts, for these are in order; but in those things which are contrary to order, which are such only as are out of the inmost, God is omnipresent by a continual struggle with them and by a continual effort to bring them back to order. Wherefore, as far as man allows himself to be brought back to order, so far God is omnipresent in the whole of him ; consequently, so far God is in him and he in God. The absence of God from man is no more possible than the absence of the sun, by its heat and light, from the I lO THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. earth. The objects of the earth, however, are not affected by the sun's power except so far as they receive the Hght and heat proceeding from it. as is the case in the time of spring and summer. These things may be thus applied to the om- nipresence of God : That man is in spiritual heat and at the same time in spiritual light, that is, in the goods of love and in the truths of wisdom, so far as he is in order. Spiritual heat arid light, however, are not like natural heat and light ; for natural heat recedes from the earth in the time of win- ter, and light in the time of night ; and this is the case because the earth, by its rotations about its axis and its revolutions about the sun, makes those times. But spirit- ual heat and light are not so ; for God by means of His Sun is present with them both, and does not make changes, as the sun of the world apparently does. Man himself turns away, comparatively, as the earth turns from its sun ; and when he turris himself away from the truths of wisdom, he is like the earth turned from its sun in the time of night ; and when he turns himself away from the goods of love, he is like the earth turned from its sun in the time of winter. Such is the correspondence between the effects and uses from the sun of the spiritual world and. the effects and uses from the sun of the natural world. 71. To the above shall be added three Relations. First: I once heard under me, as it were, a roaring of the sea; and I asked, "What is this ? " And some one said to me that it was a tumult among those who are gathered together in the lower earth, which is next above hell. And presently the ground, which made a roof over them, opened wide ; and lo, through the opening, birds of night flew out in flocks which spread themselves to the left hand ; and immediately after them rose up locusts, which leaped upon the grass of the earth, and made a desert wherever they were ; and a little afterwards I heard by turns from those birds of night as it were a screeching, and at the side a con- fused din, as if from spectres in the woods. After this I No. 71] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. Ill saw beautiful birds from heaven, which spread themselves to the right hand. The birds were remarkable for their wings as of gold, having stripes and spots as of silver inter- spersed, and upon the heads of some of them were crests in the form of crowns. Whilst I was looking and wonder- ing at these things, suddenly a spirit raised himself up from the lower earth, where that tumult was, who could transform himself into an angel of light ; and he cried, " Where is he who speaks and writes concerning the order to which the omnipotent God has tied Himself in relation to man ? We have heard these things below, through the roof." While he was above that earth he ran through a paved street ; and at length he came to me and immediately feigned himself an angel of heaven ; and speaking in a tone not his own he said, " Are you the man who thinks and speaks concerning order ? Tell me briefly what order is, and some things which are of order." And I replied, " I will tell you the gen- eral things, but not the particulars, because you do not re- ceive them." And I said, "I. God is Order itself. 11. He created man from order, in order, and into order. HI. He created his rational mind according to the order of the whole spiritual world, and his body according to the order of the whole natural world ; wherefore man was called by the ancients a hWe heaven and a little -world. IV. Thence it is a law of order that man from his little heaven or little spiritual world should govern his microcosm or his little natural world, as God from his great heaven or the spiritual world governs the macrocosm or the natural world in all and every part of it. V. It is a law of order thence result- ing, that man ought to introduce himself into faith by truths from the Word, and into charity by good works, and thus reform and regenerate himself. VI. It is a law of order that man should purify himself from sins by his own exer- tion and power, and not stand still in a belief of his inability, and expect God to wash away his sins immediately. VII. It is also a law of order that man should love God with all 112 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. his soul, and with all his heart, and his neighbor as him- self, and not wait and expect that these two loves should be infused into his mind and heart immediately by God, as bread from the baker may be put into his mouth:" besides many similar things. When the satan had heard these things, he replied with a mild voice, in which there was inwardly craft, " What is it that you say ? that man, of his own [sims] power, is to introduce himself into order by obeying those laws of it ? Do you not know that man is not under the law, but under grace } that all things are given to him freely ? and that he cannot take any thing to himself unless it be given him from heaven ? and that in spiritual things man has no more power to act from himself than the statue Lot's wife, and no more than Dagon the idol of the Philistines at Ekron ? and that so it is impos- sible for man to justify himself, which must be done by faith and charity ? " In reply to these questions I only said, " It is also a law of order that man by his own exer- tion and power should procure to himself faith by means of truths from the Word, and yet should believe that not a grain of faith is from himself but from God ; and also that man by his own exertion and power should justify himself, and yet should believe that nothing of justification whatever is from himself, but from God. Is it not com- manded that man should believe in God, and love God with all his strength, and his neighbor as himself ? Think, and say how these things could have been commanded by God, if man had no power to obey and do them." When the satan had heard this he was changed as to his face, which from white became at first ghastly and then black ; and speaking from his own mouth he said, " You have spoken paradoxes against paradoxes ; " and then he in- stantly sunk down to his companions and disappeared. And the birds on the left hand, together with the spectres, uttered strange sounds, and cast themselves into the sea, which is there called the Sea SuJ>/i, and the locusts leaped No. 72.] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 1 13 after them ; and the air was purified, and the earth was cleared of those wikl creatures, and the tumult below ceased, and it became tranquil and serene. 72, Second Relation. I once heard an unusual mur- mur at a distance, and in the spirit I followed the direction of the sound, and approached it. When I came where it began, behold there was a company of spirits reasoning about Imputation and Predestination. They were from Holland and from Great Britain, and some from other na- tions were mingled with them, who, at the conclusion of every argument, exclaimed, " Wonderful ! Wonderful ! " The question discussed was, "Why God does not impute the merit and righteousness of His Son to all and every one created and afterwards redeemed by Him. Is He not omnipotent .-' Can He not, if He will, make archangels of Lucifer, the dragon, and all the goats ? Is He not omnipo- tent ? Why does He permit the injustice and impiety of the devil to triumph over the righteousness of His Son and over the piety of the worshippers of God ? What is easier for God than to bestow faith, and thus salvation, upon all ? What is necessary for this but a little word ? And if all are not saved, does He not act contrary to His own words, which are that He desires the salvation of all and the death of none ? Say, therefore, from whom and in whom is the cause of the damnation of those who perish." And then one of the Hollanders, a Supralapsarian Predestina- rian, said, " Is not this at the good pleasure of the Almighty ? Shall the clay find fault with the potter because he has made of it a vessel without honor ? " And another said, " The salvation of every one is in His hand as a balance in the hand of him who uses it." There stood at the sides some who were simple in faith and upright in heart, some of them with their eyes inflamed, some as it were amazed, some as it were intoxicated, and some as it were suffocated, muttering amongst themselves, "What have we to do with tliese ravings ? Their faith has infatuated them, which is 1 14 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. that God the Father imputes the righteousness of His Son to whom He will and when He will, and sends the Holy Spirit to give assurances of that righteousness ; and, lest man should claim any thing to himself in the work of his salvation, he must be altogether like a stone in the business of justification and like a stock in spiritual things." And then one of them thrust himself into the company, and speaking with a loud voice he said, " O madmen ! Your reasoning is about goat's wool ! You are totally ignorant that the omnipotent God is Order itself, and that the laws of order are myriads, even as many as there are truths in the Word, and that God cannot act contrary to them, be- cause to act contrary to them would be to act contrary to Himself, and thus not only contrary to His justice, but also contrary to His omnipotence." And he saw in the distance at his right hand as it were a sheep and a lamb and a flying dove ; and at his left hand as it were a goat, a wolf, and a vulture ; and he said, " Do you suppose that God by virtue of His omnipotence can change the goat into a sheep, or the wolf into a lamb, or the vulture into a dove, or the re- verse ? No ; for it is contrary to the laws of His order, of which not even a tittle can fall to the ground, according to His own words. How then can He introduce the right- eousness of His Son's redemption into any one who rebels against the laws of His righteousness ? How can Right- eousness itself commit unrighteousness, predestine any to hell, and cast any into the fire at which the devil stands with torches in his hand to feed it ? O madmen ! empty in spirit ! your faith has seduced you. Is it not in your hands as a snare for catching doves ? " A certain magician, hear- ing these words, formed a snare, as it were, from that faith, and hung it upon a tree, saying, " You will see that I shall catch that dove." And presently a hawk flew up, and put his neck into the snare, and was caught ; and the dove, see- ing the hawk, flew by. Those who stood near wondered, and exclaimed, " Even this play is The Reward of Right- eousness." No. 73] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. II5 73. The next day there came to me several from the company who were in the faith of predestination and im- putation, and they said, " We are, as it were, drunk, not from wine, but from what was said by tliat man -yesterday. He spoke concerning omnipotence, and at the same time concerning order ; and he concluded that as omnipotence is Divine, so also order is Divine, nay, that God Himself is Order ; and he said that there are as many laws of order as there are truths in the Word, which are not only thou- sands, but myriads of myriads, and that God is bound to His "laws there, and man to his. What then is the Divine omnipotence, if it is tied to laws .-' for thus all absolute power is wanting to omnipotence ; and so is not the power of God less than that of a king in the world who is sole ruler ? for he can change the laws of justice at his pleas- ure, and act absolutely, like Octavius Augustus and also like Nero. After we began to think of omnipotence tied to laws, we became, as it were, drunk, and ready to fall into a swoon unless a remedy be quickly applied ; for, ac- cording to our faith, we have prayed that God the Father would have mercy on us for the sake of His Son ; and we have believed that He can have mercy on whom He will, and remit sins to'whom He pleases, and save whom He will ; and we have not dared to take away the least parti- cle from His omnipotence. Wherefore, to bind God with the chains of any of His own laws we regard as great wickedness, because contradictory to His omnipotence." Having said these words they looked on me, and I on them, and I saw that they were amazed ; and I said, " I will pray to the Lord, and will thereby bring you a remedy by enlightenment on this subject ; but now only by examples." And I said, "The omnipotent God created the world from the order in Himself, and thus into the order in which He is, and according to which He governs ; and He stamped upon the universe, and upon all and every part of it, its order ; upon man, beast, bird, fish, worm, and tree of Il6 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. every kind, yes, upon the grass, its own order [suns]. But, to illustrate by examples, I will briefly adduce the follow- ing : The laws of order prescribed to man are that man should acquire for himself truths from the Word, and think of them naturally, and as far as he can rationally, and thus procure for himself natural faith : the laws of order on the part of God then are that He should approach, fill the truths with His Divine light, and thus fill with the Divine essence man's natural faith, which is only knowledge and persuasion; thus, and not otherwise, saving faith is pro- duced. The case is similar with charity ; but we will briefly mention some particulars. God cannot according to the laws of His order remit sins to any man, except so far as man according to his laws ceases from them. God cannot spiritually regenerate man, except so far as man according to his laws regenerates himself naturally. God is in the perpetual effort to regenerate and thus to save man ; but He cannot effect this, except as man prepares himself to be a receptacle, and so prepares the way for God and opens the door. A bridegroom cannot enter into the cham- ber of a virgin not betrothed to him ; she shuts the door, and keeps the key with her within ; but after the virgin has become a bride, she gives the key to the' bridegroom. God could not from His omnipotence redeem men, unless He became Man ; nor could He make His Human Divine, un- less His Human were at first as the human of an infant, and afterwards as the human of a boy, and unless the Human afterwards formed itself into a receptacle and hab- itation into which its Father might enter ; which was done by fulfilling all things of the Word, that is, all the laws of order therein ; and as far as He did this, so far He united Himself to the Father, and the Father united Himself to Him. But these are a few things, adduced for the sake of illustration, that you may see that the Divine omnipotence is in order, and that its government which is called Provi- dence is according to order ; and that it acts continually and No. 74] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. I17 eternally according to the laws of its order ; and that it can- not act contrary to them nor change them as to a single tittle, because order with all its laws is Himself." When these words were spoken a radiant light of a golden color flowed in through the roof, and formed cherubs flying in the air ; and the effulgence therefrom enlightened the temples of some towards the occiput, but not as yet towards the forehead ; for they muttered, " We are still ignorant what omnipotence is." And I said, '* It will be revealed to you, when the things hitherto said to you shall have received some light." 74. Third Relation. I saw, at a distance, several gath- ered together, with caps on their heads ; some with caps bound round with silk, and who were of the ecclesiastical order ; some with caps whose borders were adorned with bands of gold, who were of the civil order ; all these were men of science and erudition ; and, besides, I saw some with turbans, who were not learned. I approached, and heard them conversing together concerning Divine Power being unlimited ; saying that if it proceeded according to any estab- ■ lished laws of order it could not be without limits, but lim- ited, and w^ould thus be power and not omnipotence. " But who does not see that no law of necessity can compel omnip- otence to do so and not otherwise ? Certainly while we think of omnipotence, and at the same time of the laws of order according to which it is obliged to proceed, our precon- ceived ideas concerning omnipotence fall, like a hand when its staff is broken." When they saw me near them, some of them ran up to me, and with some vehemence said, " Are you the man that has circumscribed God with laws, as with bonds ? How insolent this is ! Thus you have also torn to pieces our faith upon which our salvation is founded, in the centre of which we place the righteousness of the Redeemer, upon that the omnipotence of God the Father, and we make the operation of the Holy Spirit an apj^endage ; and we make its efficacy to lie in man's absolute impotency in spirit- Il8 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. ual things, for whom it is enough to speak of the fulness of justification which is in tliat faitli from God's omnipotence. But we have heard that you see emptiness in it, because there is in it nothing of Divine order on the part of man." On hearing these words I opened my mouth, and, speak- ing with a loud voice, I said, " Learn the laws of Divine order, and afterwards open that faith, and you will see a vast desert, and in it Leviathan, the crooked and the extended, and all around nets, as it were, entangled in a knot that cannot be untied ; but do you as is read of Alex- ander when he saw the Gordian knot, that he drew his sword and cut it in two, and thus loosed its entanglements, and threw its thongs on the ground and trampled them under his feet." At these words those who were assembled bit their tongues, wishing to sharpen them for invectives ; but they durst not, because they saw heaven open above me, and heard a voice thence, — " Listen with self-control to hear for the first time what is the order according to the laws of which the omnipotent God acts. God from Him- self as Order created the universe in order and for order ; and likewise man, in whom He fixed the laws of His order, ■ from which he became an image and likeness of God ; which laws, in the sum, are that he should believe in God and love his neighbor, and as far as he does those two things by natural power, so far he makes, himself a receptacle of the Divine omnipotence, and so far God conjoins Himself to man and man to Himself ; thence his faith becomes liv- ing and saving, and his doing becomes charity, also living and saving. But it should be known that God is perpetu- ally present, and continually strives and acts in man, and also touches his free will, but never violates it ; for if He should violate the free will of man, man's dwelling in God would perish, and there would be only God's dwelling in man ; and this dwelling is in all, as well in those who are upon the earth as in those who are in the heavens, and also in those who are in the hells ; for thence is their ability to No. 74-] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. I19 will and understand. But there is no reciprocal dwelling of man in God, except with those who live according to the laws of order prescribed in the Word ; and these become images and likenesses of Him, and to them paradise is given for a possession, and the fruit of the tree of life for food. But the rest gather themselves together around the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and talk with the serpent there, and eat; but afterwards they are driven out of paiadise; yet God does not leave them, but they leave God." Those in caps understood and approved these words ; but those in turbans denied, and said, " Is not omnipotence thus lim- ited .-• and limited omnipotence is a contradiction." But I replied, " It is not a contradiction to act omnipotently ac- cording to the laws of justice with judgment, or according to the laws inscribed on love from wisdom ; but it is a con- ti'adiction that God can act contrary to the laws of His justice and love ; and this would be from what is not judg- ment and wisdom. Such a contradiction is implied in your faith, which is that God can out of mere grace justify the unjust, and endow him with all the gifts of salvation and the rewards of life. But I will say in a few words what the omnipotence of God is. God from His omnipotence created the universe, and at the same time introduced order into all and every part of it ; God also by His omnipotence pre- serves the universe, and. watches over the order there with its laws perpetually, and when any thing falls from order, He brings it back and makes it whole again. Moreover, God from His omnipotence established the church, and re- vealed the laws of its order in the Word ; and -when it fell from order He re-established it, and when it fell totally He came down into the world, and by the assumed Human He clothed Himself with omnipotence, and restored it. God, by His omnipotence and also His omniscience, ex- amines every one after death, and prepares the righteous 01 the sheep for their places in heaven, and founds a heaven from them ; and He prepares the unrighteous or the goats I20 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. for their places in hell, and founds a hell from them ; and He disposes both classes into societies and congregated bodies, according to all the varieties of their love, which in heaven are as many as the stars in the firmament of the world ; and He joins the societies in heaven together into one, that they may be as one man in His sight ; in like man- ner the congregated bodies in hell, that they may be as one devil ; and He separates the latter from the former by a gulf, lest hell should do violence to heaven, and lest heaven should occasion torment to hell ; for those who are in hell are tormented so far as heaven flows in. Unless God by His omnipotence should every instant do all these things, the nature of the wild beast would enter into men to such a degree that they could no longer be restrained by the laws of any order, and so the human race would perish. These and similar things would happen, unless God were Order and omnipotent in order." On hearing these words those who wore caps went away, with their caps under their arms, praising God ; for in that world the intelligent wear caps. Not so those who wore turbans, because they are bald, and baldness signifies heaviness ; and these went away to the left, but the others to the right. CONCERNING THE CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE. 75. Since in this first chapter we treat of God the Crea- tor, we ought also to treat of the creation of the universe by Him ; as in the following chapter goncerning the Lord the Redeemer we shall also treat of Redemption. But no one can obtain for himself a just idea concerning the creation of the universe, unless some universal cognitions, previously acquired, put the understanding in a state of per- ception ; such are the following : I. There are two worlds, the spiritual world in which angels and spirits are ; and the natural world in which men are. II. In each world there is a sun, and the sun of the spiritual world is pure love No. 75-1 CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 121 from Jehovah God who is in the midst of it ; and from that sun proceed heat and light ; and the heat thence proceed- ing in its essence is love, and the light thence proceeding in its essence is wisdom, and these two affect the will and understanding of man, the heat his will, and the light his understanding ; but the sun of the natural world is pure fire, and therefore the heat therefrom is dead ; in like manner the light ; and these serve for clothing and sup- port to spiritual heat and light, that they may pass to man. III. And, further, those two things which proceed from the sun of the spiritual world, and thence all the things which exist there by means of them, are substantial, and are called spiritual ; and the two similar things which proceed from the sun of the natural world, and thence all the things which exist here by means of them, are material, and are called natural. IV. In each world there are three degrees, which are called degrees of height, and thence three regions according to which the three angelic heavens are arranged, and according to which human minds also are arranged, which thus correspond to the three angelic heavens ; and other things are arranged in like manner, both here and there. V. There is a correspondence between th€ things which are in the spiritual world, and the things which are in the natural world. VI. There is an order into which all and every thing in both worlds was created. VII. An idea concerning these things ought by all means to be first ob- tained ; and unless this is done the human mind from mere ignorance concerning them easily falls into the idea of the creation of the universe by nature, and says only from the authority of the church that nature was created by God ; but because it knows not how, if it inquires into it more interiorly it falls headlong into naturalism which denies God. But because it would be the work of a large volume to present and demonstrate these things in a proper man- ner, one by one, and also as it does not properly enter into such a system of theolog}- as this, as a lemma or an argu- VOL. I. 6 122 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. ment, I will only adduce some Relations, from which an idea of the creation of the universe by God may be con- ceived, and from conception some birth representing it may be produced. 76. First Relation. On a certain day, I was engaged in meditation about the creation of the universe ; and be- cause this was perceived by the angels who were above me on the right side, where were some who had several times meditated and reasoned on the same subject, therefore one descended and invited me in ; and I became in the spirit, and accompanied him ; and after I entered I was con- ducted to the prince, in whose palace I saw several hun- dreds assembled, and the prince in their midst. And then one of them said, " We perceived here that you were medi- tating about the creation of the universe, and we have sev- eral times been in similar meditation, but could never come to a conclusion, since there clung to our thoughts the idea of a chaos, and that this was, as it were, a great egg, out of which were brought forth all and every thing of the universe in their order ; when yet we now perceive that so great a universe could not have been so brought forth. Then, also, there clung to our minds another idea, which was that all things were created by God out of nothing ; and yet we now perceive that nothing is made out of nothing; and our minds have not yet been able to free themselves from these two ideas, and to see creation in any light as to how it was effected ; wherefore, we have called you out from the place where you were, that you may disclose your medita- tion concerning this subject," On hearing these words I replied, " I will do so." And I said, " I meditated on this subject for a long time, but to no purpose ; but afterwards, when I was admitted by the Lord into your world, I per- ceived that it would be vain to conclude any thing concern- ing the creation of the universe, unless it be first known that there are two worlds, one in which angels are, and another in which men are ; and that men by death pass No. 76.] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 1 23 out of their world into the other ; and then also I saw that there were two suns, one from which all spiritual things flow forth, and the other from which all natural things flow forth ; and that the sun from which all spiritual things flow forth is pure love from Jehovah God, who is in the midst of it ; and that the sun from which all natural things flow forth is pure fire. Knowing these things, on a certain time when I was in enlightenment I was enabled to per ceive that the universe was created by Jehovah God by means of the sun in the midst of which He is ; and be- cause there cannot be love except together with wisdom, that the universe was created by Jehovah God from His love by His wisdom. That it is so is evinced by all and every thing that I have seen in the world where you are, and that I have seen in the world where I am as to the body. But to explain from the beginning how the progress of creation went on would be too prolix ; but when I have been in enlightenment I have perceived that by means of the light and heat from the sun of your world, spiritual atmospheres, which in themselves are substantial, were cre- ated one from another ; and because there were three, and thence three degrees of them, three heavens were made ; one for the angels who are in the highest degree of love and wisdom, another for the angels who are in the second degree, and the third for the angels who are in the lowest degree : but, because this spiritual universe cannot exist without a natural universe, in which it may produce its effects and uses, that then the sun from which all natural things proceed was created together with it ; and by this likewise, by means of light and heat, three atmospheres encompassing the former, as the shell does the kernel, or the bark of a tree the wood ; and at last by means of these, the terraqueous globe, where are men, beasts, and fishes, also trees, shrubs, and herbs, was formed of differ- ent kinds of earths, which consist of loam, stones, and min- erals. But this is a very general sketch of the creation and 124 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. its progression ; but the particulars and single things can- not be presented except by volumes of books ; but all things lead to the conclusion that God did not create the universe out of nothing, because, as you said, Nothing is made out of nothing ; but by means of the sun of the angelic heaven, which is from His Esse, and thence is pure love, together with wisdom. That the universe, by wh'ich are meant both worlds, the spiritual and the natural, was cre- ated from the Divine love by the Divine wisdom, all and every part of it witnesses and proves ; and if you consider the parts of the universe in their order and connection, from the light in which the perceptions of your understanding are, you may clearly see it. But it should be kept in mind that the love and wisdom which in God make one, are not love and wisdom in an abstract sense, but in Him as a sub- stance ; for God is the very, the only, and thence the first Substance and Essence, which is and subsists in itself. That all and every thing was created from the Divine love and the Divine wisdom is meant by these words in John : The Word was with God, and the Word 7vas God ; all things were made by Him ; and the world was rnade by Him (i. i, 3, id). God\h&x& signifies the Divine love, and the Word signifies the Divine truth, or the Divine wisdom ; wherefore the Word there is called light, and by light, when spoken of God, is meant the Divine wisdom." After this, when I was saying farewell, rays of light from the sun there de- scended through the angelic heavens into their eyes, and through them into the habitations of their mind; and when thus enlightened they favored the things that had been said by me, and afterwards followed me into ther hall, and my former companion to the house where I was, and from thence he reascended to his society. 77. Second Relation. One morning, when I had awaked from sleep, and was meditating in the early and serene light before full wakefulness, I saw through the window as it were the lightning flashing, and presently I heard as it were the No. 77-] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 1 25 thunder rolling. While I was wondering whence this was I heard from heaven that there were then some not far from me who were reasoning sharply concerning God and Nature, and that the flashing of the light as of lightning and the rolling of the air as of thunder were correspon- dences and thence appearances of the contest and collision of arguments, on one side in favor of God, and on .the other in favor of 7iature. The beginning of this spiritual contest was this : There were some satans in hell who said amongst themselves, " O that we might be allowed to speak with the angels of heaven, and we would completely and fully demonstrate that nature is that which they call God, from whom are all things ; thus, that God is only a word, unless nature be meant." And because those satans be- lieved this with the whole heart and the whole soul, and desired to speak with the angels of heaven, it was given them to ascend out of the mire and the darkness of hell, and to speak with two angels then descending from heaven. They were in the world of spirits, which is mediate between heaven and hell. The satans, when they saw the angels there, ran quickly to them, and cried with a furious voice, " Are you the angels of heaven with whom we are allowed to engage in reasoning concerning God and concerning nature? You are called wise, because you acknowledge God ; but oh, how simple you are ! Who has ever seen God ? or who understands what God is ? Who conceives that God rules, and that He can rule the universe, and all and every part of it ? Who but the multitude and the rab- ble acknowledges what is not seen and understood ? What is more 'manifest than that nature is all in all ? Who has seen with the eye any thing but nature ? Who has heard with the ear any thing but nature ? Who has smelt with the nose any thing but nature ? Who has tasted with the tongue any thing but nature } Who, by any touch of the hand and of the body, has felt any thing but nature ? Are not the senses of our body the witnesses of truths ? Who 126 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. cannot swear from them that it is so ? Is not respiration, by which our body lives, also a witness ? What else do we breathe but nature ? Are not our heads and yours in nat- ure ? Whence is there influx into the thoughts of the head but from nature ? If it be taken away can you think any thing ? " Beside many other things of a similar kind. The angels, on hearing these things, replied, " You speak thus, because you are merely sensual. All in hell have the ideas of their thoughts immersed in the senses of the body, nor are they able to elevate their minds above them ; wherefore we forgive you. A life of evil, and thence a faith of falsity, has so closed up the interiors of your minds that with you elevation above sensual things is not possible, except in a state removed from the evils of life and the falsities of faith ; for a satan can understand the truth when he hears it, equally with an angel, but he does not retain it, because evil obliterates the truth and induces falsity. But we per- ceive that you are now in a state thus removed, and so you can understand the truth which we speak ; wherefore attend to the things which we shall say." Then they said, " You were in the natural world, and you died there, and now you are in the spiritual world ; did you ever till now know any thing concerning a life after death ? Did you not before deny it and make yourselves on a level with the beasts ? Did you know any thing before concerning heaven and hell ? or any thing concerning the light and heat of this world ? or concerning this, that you are no longer within nature, but above it ? For this world and all the things of it are spiritual ; and spiritual things are above natural things, so that not even the least thing of nature, in which you were, can flow into this world. But you, because you believed nature to be a god or a goddess, also believe the light and heat of this world to be the light and heat of the natural world, when yet it is not so at all ; for natural light here is darkness and natural heat here is cold. Did you know any thing concerning the sun of this world, from which No. 77-] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 12/ our light and our heat proceed ? Did you know that this sun is pure love and that the sun of the natural world is pure fire ? and that the sun of the world, which is pure fire, is that from which nature existed and subsists ? and that the sun of heaven, which is pure love, is that from which life itself, which is love together with wisdom, exists and subsists ? and thus that nature, which you make a god or a goddess, is entirely dead .-' You can, if a guard be given you, ascend with us into heaven ; and we can, if a guard be given, descend with you into hell ; and you will see in heaven magnificent and splendid things, but in hell vile and filthy things; there are those differences because all in heaven worship God, and all in hell worship nature ; and those magnificent and splendid things in the heavens are correspondences of the affections of the love of good and truth ; but those vile and filthy things in the hells are cor- respondences of the affections of the love of evil and falsity. From all these things now conclude whether God or whether nature be all in all." To this the satans replied, " In the state in which we are now, we are able to conclude from what we have heard that there is a God ; but when the en- joyment of evil fills our minds we see nothing but nature." The two angels and the satans were standing not far from me, wherefore I saw and heard them ; and, behold, I saw around them many who had been celebrated for erudition in the natural world ; and I wondered that those scholars now stood near the angels, and now near the satans, and that they favored those near whom they were standing. And it was said to me, "The changes of their situation were changes of the state of their mind, which sometimes favored one side and sometimes the other ; for they are as to faith like Vertumni* And we will tell you a secret : we looked down upon the earth at those who were cele- * Vertummis was a god among the Romans, who changed himself into all kinds of forms, like Proteus among the Greeks. The mean- ing of vertumni, the plural, may be inferred. 128 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. brated for erudition, and we found six hundred out of a thou- sand for nature and the rest for God ; and these were for God, because they had frequently said, not from the under- standing but from what they had heard, that nature is from God ; for the practice of speaking from memory and recol- lection, although not at the same time from thought and intelligence, produces a species of faith." After this a guard was given to the satans, and they ascended with the two angels into heaven, and they saw magnificent and splendid things ; and then, in enlightenment from the light of heaven, they there acknowledged that there is a God, and that nature was created to be subservient to the life which is from God, and that nature in itself is dead ; and that thus it does nothing from itself, but is acted upon by life. Having seen and perceived these things they de- scended ; and while they were descending the love of evil returned, and closed their understanding above and opened it below j and then there appeared above it as it were a screen, sparkling from infernal fire ; and as soon as they touched the ea>th with their feet the ground under them opened, and they sunk down again to their companions. 78. Third Relation. The next day an angel came to me from another society of heaven, and said, "We have heard in our society that, in consequence of meditating on the cre- ation of the universe, you were invited into a society near ours, and that there you said. such things about the creation as they favored then, and have since recollected with pleas- . ure. I will now show you how animals and vegetables of every kind were produced by God." And he led me along into a large green field, and said, " Look around." And I looked around, and saw birds of the most beautiful colors, some flying, some perching upon the trees, and some upon the ground, plucking little leaves from the roses ; among the birds were also doves and swans. After these things vanished from my sight I saw, not far from me, flocks of sheep with lambs, and of kids and she-goats ; and round No. 78.] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 1 29 about the flocks I saw herds of cows and calves, and also of camels and mules ; and in a certain grove stags with high horns; and also unicorns. After these things were seen he said, " Turn your face toward the east." And I saw a garden, in which were fruit-trees, as orange-trees, citrons, olives, vines, fig-trees, pomegranates, and also shrubs which bore berries. Afterwards he said, " Look now toward the south." And I saw fields of grain of various kinds — wheat, oats, barley, also beans ; and round about them beds of roses, exhibiting colors beautifully variegated ; but toward the north, groves full of chestnut-trees, palm-trees, linden- trees, plane-trees, and others, all in the richest foliage. When I had seen these he said, " All those things which you have seen are correspondences of the affections of the love in the angels who are near by." And they told me to what affections they severally corresponded ; and they added, " Not only those things, but also all the other things which are presented to our eyes as objects of sight, are cor- respondences ; such as houses and the furniture in them, tables, and meats, and clothes, and also coins of gold and silver, as also diamonds and other precious stones with which wives and virgins in the heavens are adorned. From all these things we perceive what each one is as to love and wisdom. The things which are in our houses and serve for uses constantly remain there ; but to the eyes of those who wander from one society to another, such things are changed according to consociation. These things have been shown you in order that in a particular as a type you might see the whole creation ; for God is Love itself and Wisdom itself ; and the affections of His love are infinite, and the perceptions of His wisdom are infinite ; and each thing and all things that appear upon the earth are cor- respondences of these ; thence are birds and beasts, thence trees and shrubs, thence corn and other grain, thence herbs and grasses ; for God is not extended, but still He is in the extense everywhere ; thus in the universe from its firsts to its 6* I30 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. lasts ; and because He is omnipresent, such correspondences of the affections of His love and wisdom are in the whole natural world ; but in our world, which is called the spirit- ual world, there are similar correspondences with those who receive affections and perceptions from God ; the difference is that such things in our world are created by God instan- taneously, according to the affections of the angels ; but in your world they were created in like manner at the begin- ning, but it was provided that they should be perpetually renewed by generations of one from another, and that crea- tion should be so continued. The reason why creation in our world is instantaneous, and in yours continued by gen- erations, is, that the atmospheres and earths of our world are spiritual, and the atmospheres and earths of your world are natural ; and natural things were created that they might clothe spiritual things, as the skin clothes the bodies of men and animals, as the rind and bark clothe the trunks and branches of trees, as the dura mater, the arachnoid, and the pia mater clothe the brain, as the nerves are clothed by their coats, and as delicate membranes clothe the nerve- fibres, &c. Thence it is that all things in your world are constant, and constantly return with the years." To this the angel added, " Relate these things which you have seen and heard to the inhabitants of your world, because hitherto they have been in entire ignorance concerning the spiritual world ; and without some knowledge of it no one can know or even guess that creation is continual in our world, and that in yours it was similar to this while the universe was created by God." After this we talked upon various subjects, and at last concerning hell ; as, that no such things as are in heaven appear there, but only the opposites ; since the affections of their love, which are the lusts of evil, are opposite to the affections of the love in which the angels of heaven are. Wherefore, with those in hell, and generally in their deserts, there appear birds of night, as bats, and owls of various No. 79-] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. I3I kinds, and also wolves, leopards, tigers, rats, and mice ; beside these, venomous serpents of every kind, dragons and crocodiles ; and where there is any spot of grass, there grow briers, nettles, thorns, and thistles, and some poisonous plants, which at times vanish ; and then there appear only heaps of stones, and bogs in which ftogs croak. All these things are also correspondences ; but, as was said, corre- spondences of the affections of their love, which are the lusts of evil. Yet such things are not created there by God, nor were they created by Him in the natural world where similar things exist ; for all things that God created and creates were and are good ; but such things upon the earth arose together with hell, which existed from men who, by aversion from God, after death became devils and satans. But because these direful things began to hurt our ears, we turned our thoughts away from them, and recollected the things which we saw in the heavens. 79. Fourth Relation. Once, when I was engaged in thinking of the creation of the universe, there came to me some from the Christian world, who in their time were philosophers among the most celebrated, and reputed wise above the rest ; and they said, " We perceive that you are thinking of the creation ; tell us what your mind is about it." But I replied, " Tell first what is yours." And one said, " My mind is, that creation is from nature, and thus that nature created itself, and that it was from eternity; for there is not and cannot be a vacuum. But what do we see with our eyes, hear with our ears, smell with our nostrils, and receive into our breast by respiration, except nature, which because it is without us is also within us ? " Another hearing these words said, "You talk of nature, and make it the creator of the universe ; but you do not know how nature has operated in producing the universe ; wherefore I will tell you. It folded itself into vortexes, which dashed against each other like clouds, or like houses when they fall together in an earthquake ; and by means of 132 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. that collision the denser parts collected themselves together, whence was formed the earth ; and the more fluid parts sep- arated themselves from these, and also gathered themselves together, whence were formed seas ; and the lighter parts separated themselves from these also, whence were formed the air and ether ; and from the lightest of these, the sun. Have you not seen that when oil, water, and dust of the earth are mixed together, they separate of their own ac- cord, and arrange themselves in order, one above another?" Then another hearing this said, " You speak from fancy. Who does not know that the first origin of all things was chaos, which in magnitude had filled a fourth part of the universe ; and that in the midst of it was fire ; and round about it, ether ; and around this, matter ; and that that chaos was cleft, and through the fissures burst out fire as from ^tna and Vesuvius, whence originated the sun ; and that after this the ether issued forth and diffused itself, whence originated the atmosphere ; and at last the residue of matter collected itself into a globe, whence originated the earth ? As to the stars they are only luminaries in the expanse of the universe, which sprung from the sun and its fire and light ; for the sun at first was as it were an ocean of fire, which, lest it should burn the earth, separated from itself little shining flames, which being located in the cir- cumference completed the universe ; thence originated its firmament." But there stood one among them who said, " You are mistaken ; you appear to yourselves to be wise, and .1 appear to you simple; but still, in my simplicity, I have believed and do believe that the universe was cre- ated by God ; and because nature is of the universe, that all nature was then created at the same time. If nature created itself, would it not have been from eternity ? But oh, what folly ! " And then one of those so called wise men ran up nearer and nearer to him who was speaking, and put his left ear near his mouth, for his right ear was stopped up as it were with cotton, and asked what he said ; and he re- No. 79] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 1 33 peated the same ; and then he who ran up looked around to see whether any priest were present ; and he saw one at the side of him who was speaking ; and then he repHed, saying, "I also confess that ail nature is from God, but " — . And then he went away, and whispering to his companions he said, " I said so because the priest was present ; but you and I know that nature is from nature ; and because thus nature is God I said that all nature is from God. But " — • Then the priest, hearing their whispering, said, " Your wis- dom which is merely philosophical has seduced you, and has so closed the interiors of your minds that no light from God and from His heaven could flow in and enlighten you ; you have extinguished it. Consider," said he, " and decide among yourseh^es, whence are your souls, which are im- mortal ; were they from nature, or were they at the same time in that great chaos ? " On hearing this, the former speaker went away to his companions, requesting that they together with him would solve this knotty question ; and they concluded that the human soul is nothing but ether, and that thought is nothing but a modification of ether by means of the sun's light ; and ether is of nature. And they said, " Who does not know that we speak by means of the air, and that thought is nothing but speech in a purer air, which is called ether ? Thence it is that thought and speech make one. Who cannot perceive this from man while he is an infant .'' He first learns to speak, and by degrees to speak with himself, and this is to think. What then is thought but a modification of ether ? and what else is the sound of speech but a modulation of that ? Whence we conclude that the soul which thinks is of nature." But some of them, not indeed dissenting from the rest, but to illustrate the state of the question, said : " Souls sprung into existence when the ether gathered itself together from that great chaos, and then in the highest region divided itself into innumerable individual forms, which infuse them- selves into men while they begin to think from the purer 134 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I air; and these are then called souIsP Hearing this another said, " I grant that the individual forms, formed by the ether in the higher region, were innumerable; but still the men born since the creation of the world have exceeded their number ; how then could those ethereal forms suffice ? Wherefore I have thought with myself that the souls which go out of the mouth of men when they die return to the same after some thousands of years, and they begin and end a life similar to the former ; that many of the wise men believe in similar things and a metempsychosis, is well known." Besides these, other conjectures were broached by the rest, which, because they were mere insanities, I pass by. After an hour or so the priest returned ; and then he who before spoke of the creation of the universe by God told him their decisions concerning the soul ; on hearing which the priest said to them, " You have spoken just as you thought in the world, not knowing that you are not in that world, but in another, which is called the spirit- tial world; all those who have become corporeal-sensual, by confirmations in favor of nature, know no otherwise than that they are in the same world in which they were born and educated. The reason is, because there they were in a material body, while here they are in a substantial body ; and a substantial man sees himself and his companions around him, just as a material man sees himself and his compan- ions around him ; for the substantial is the primitive of the material ; and because you think, see, smell, taste, and speak in like manner as in the natural world, therefore you sup- pose that the same nature is here, when yet the nature of this world is as different and distinct from the nature of that world as the substantial is from the material, or the spiritual from the natural, or the prior from the posterior ; and because the nature of the world in which you before lived is relatively dead, therefore you, by confirmations in favor of it, are become as it were dead ; and this in respect to the things which are of God, heaven, and the church, No. 79.J CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 135 and also in respect to that which concerns your souls. But still every man, the bad as well as the good, may as to the understanding be elevated even into the light in which the angels of heaven are, and then see that there is a God, and that there is a life after death, and that the soul of man is not ethereal, and thus from the nature of the natural world, but spiritual, and therefore that it will live to eternity. The understanding can be in that angelic light, provided natu- ral loves be removed, which are from the world and for the world and its nature, and from the body and for it and what is proper to it." And then in an instant those loves were removed by the Lord ; and it was given them to speak with the angels, and from their conversation, while in that state, they perceived that there is a God, and that after death they live in another world ; wherefore they were cov- ered with shame, and exclaimed, " We have been mad, we have been mad ! " But because this was not their proper state, and therefore after some minutes became tedious and irksome, they turned themselves away from the priest, and would not hear his speech any longer ; and so they returned into their former loves, which were merely natural, worldly, and corporeal ; and they went away to the left from society to society, and at length came to a way where the enjoy- ments of those loves blew upon them, and they said, "Let us go this way;" and they went, and descended, and at length they came to those who were in the enjoyments of similar loves, and so went on. And because their enjoyment was the enjoyment of doing evil, and in the way they also did evil to many, they were imprisoned, and became demons : and then their enjoyment was changed into what is unde- lightful, because by punishments and the fear of punish- ments they were restrained and held in check from their former enjoyment, which made their nature ; and they asked those who were in the same prison whether they were to live so to eternity. Some there replied, "We have been here several ages, and we are to remain for ages of ages ; 136 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. since the nature which we contracted in the world cannot be changed, nor expelled by punishments ; and whenever it is expelled by them, still, after a short lapse of time, it returns." 80. Fifth Relation. Once a satan by permission as- cended out of hell, a woman with him, and they came to the house where I was. On seeing them I shut the window, but yet through it I talked with them, and asked the satan whence he came. He said that he came from the company of his associates. And I asked, "Whence came the woman?" He said, " From the same." She was from a company of sirens, who know how to induce upon themselves by means of fantasies all the habits and forms of beauty and adorn- ment : at one time they figure the beauty of Venus ; at another, gracefulness of person, as it were of a nymph of Parnassus ; at another they adorn themselves, as it were, with the crowns and robes of a queen, and walk magnifi- cently, resting upon a silver wand. Such in the world of spirits are harlots, and they study fantasies. Fantasy is produced by sensual thought, while ideas from any interior thought are shut out. I asked the satan whether she was his wife. He replied, " What is a wife ? I do not know what a wife is, nor does my society. She is my harlot." And then she inspired the man with lascivious desire, which also sirens are skilled in doing ; and on receiving it he kissed her, and said, " Ah, my Adonis ! " But to proceed to serious things : I asked the satan what was his employ- ment ] and he said, " My employment is the pursuit of learning : do you not see the laurel upon my head ? " for his Adonis had formed this by her art, and standing behind she placed it upon his head. And I said, " Since you are come from a society where there are schools of learning, tell me what you believe and what your associates believe concerning God." He replied, " Our God is the universe, which also we call nature, and which the simple among us call the atmosphere, by which they mean the air ; but the wise No. So-l CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 137 call it the atmosphere, meaning the ether also, God, heaven, angels, and the like, about which many tell various stories in this world, are empty words and fictions taken from meteors which play before the eyes of many here. Are not all the things which appear upon the earth created by the sun } Are not worms, with wings and without wings, produced at every coming of the sun, in the time of spring .-' And do not the birds, from its heat, mutually love each other and breed ? Does not the earth, warmed by its heat, from seeds bring forth plants, and at length fruits, as an offspring ? Is not thus the universe a God and nature a Goddess ; and does not she as the partner of the universe conceive, bring forth, educate, and nourish them } " I asked further, what he and his society believed concerning religion. He replied : " Religion, with those of us who are more learned than the multitude, is nothing but a charm for the common people, which is as it were an aura about the sensitive and imaginative powers of their mind, in which the ideas of piety fly like butterflies in the air ; and their faith, which connects those ideas as it were in a chain, is like a silk- worm in its silken envelope, from which it flies forth as the king of butterflies. For the common herd of the illiterate love images above the sensual things of the body and of the thought thence, on account of their strong desire to fly ; thus, also, they make for themselves wings, that they may raise themselves on high like eagles, and boastfully cry to those on the ground, ' Look at me.' But we believe what we see, and love what we touch." And then he touched his harlot, and said, " I believe in this, because I see and touch it ; but as for such ridiculous things, we cast them out through the windows from which we look, and drive them away with a blast of ridicule." Afterwards, I asked what he, together with his associates, believed concerning heaven and hell. He replied, with a loud laugh, "What is heaven but the ethereal firmament in its height ? and what are the angels there but spots wandering about the 138 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. sun ? and the archangels but comets with a long tail, on which dwell a troop of them ? And what is hell but bogs where are frogs and crocodiles, which in the imagination of those people are devils .-• Beyond these ideas concerning heaven and hell all others are trifles, introduced by some primate for the purpose of acquiring glory from an ignorant populace." But all these things he spoke just as he had thought concerning them in the world, not knowing that he was living after death, and having forgotten all that he heard when he first entered the world of spirits ; where- fore, also, to an inquiry concerning a life after death he replied, " It is an imaginary entity ; and perhaps some effluvium arising from a dead body in the tomb, in form as a man, or something which is called a spectre, about which some people tell fabulous stories, introduced some such thing into the imaginations of men." On hearing these words I could no longer restrain my laughter from breaking out, and I said, " Satan, you are raving mad. Why, now, are you not in form a man ? Do you not speak, see, hear, and walk ? Recollect that you once lived in an- other world, which you have forgotten, and that now you are living after death, and that you have been talking just as you did before." And recollection was given to him, and he remembered, and then he was ashamed, and cried, " I am mad : I saw heaven above, and heard angels there speaking ineffable things ; but this was when I had recently arrived here ; but now I will retain this, in order to relate it to my companions from whom I came, and perhaps they likewise will then be ashamed." And he kept it on his tongue, that he would call them mad ; but, as he de- scended, forgetfulness expelled recollection, and when he was there, he was as mad as ever, and called those things which he heard from me nonsense. Such is the state of thought and speech of satans after death. They are called satans who have confirmed themselves in falsities, even to belief, and they are called devils who have confirmed evils in themselves by the life. CHAPTER SECOND. CONCERNING THE LORD THE REDEEMER- 8 1. In the former chapter we have treated of God the Creator, and at the same time of Creation ; but in this chapter we are to treat of the Lord the Redeemer, and at the same time also of Redemption ; and in the following chapter, of the Holy Spirit, and at the same time of the Divine Operation. By the Lord the Redeemer we mean Jehovah in the Human ; for that Jehovah Himself de- scended and assumed the Human for the purpose of accomplishing redemption will be demonstrated in what follows. The reason why it is said the Lord, and not yehovah, is because yehovah in the Old Testament is called the Lord in the New, as is evident from these pas- sages : It is said in Moses, Hear, O Lsrael, Jehovah our* God is one yehovah ; and thou shalt love Jehovah thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul (Deut. vi. 4, 5) ; but in Mark, The Lord our * God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul (xii. 29, 30) ; also in Isaiah, Prepare ye the way ^Jeho- vah ; 7nake smooth in the desert a highway for our God (xl. 3) ; but in Luke, Thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to pre- pare His ways (i. 76) ; besides other passages. And also the Lord commanded His disciples to call Him Lord, and therefore He was so called by the apostles in their Epistles, and afterwards by the apostolic church, as appears from its creed, which is called the " Apostles' Creed." The reason was, because the Jews durst not use the name yehovah, on account of its sanctity ; and also by yehovah is meant the * The Latin here reads vester, your. 140 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. II. Divine Esse, which was from eternity, and the human which He assumed in time was not that Esse. What the Divine Esse or Jehovah is, was shown in the foregoing chapter (n. i8 to 26, and n. 27 to 35). For this reason, here and in what follows, by the Lord we mean Jehovah in His Hiwian. Now, because cognition of the Lord sur- passes in excellence all the cognitions which are in the church, yes, those which are in heaven, the arrangement shall be so ordered that that cognition may come into the light, which therefore will be this : I. Jehovah, the Creator of the universe, descended and assumed the Ifuf/tan, that He might redeem and save men. II. He descended as the Divine Truth, which is the Word, and yet He did ?iot separate the Divine Good. III. He assumed the Huma?i according to His Divine order. IV. The Huinan by which He sent Himself into the world, is what is called the Son of God. V. The Lord, by acts of redemption, made Himself righteous- ness. VI. By the same acts. He united Himself to the Father, and the Father Himself to Him ; also according to Divine order. VII. Thus God became Man, and Man God, in otie person. VIII. The progression to union was the state of His exinanition \out-pouring or e77iptying\, and the union itself is the state of His glorification. IX. Hereafter no onefrotn among Christians comes into heaven, unless he believes in the Lord God the Saviour, and goes to Him alone. But these things shall be explained one by one. 82. I. Jehovah God, [the Creator of the Universe,] DESCENDED AND ASSUMED THE HUMAN, THAT He MIGHT REDEEM AND SAVE MeN. In the Christian churches at this day it is believed that God the Creator of the universe begat a Son from eternity, and that this Son descended and assumed the Human to redeem and save men ; but this is erroneous, and falls of itself while it is considered that God is one, and that it is more than fabulous in the eye of reason that the one God No. 82.] THE LORD THE REDEEMER. I4I begat any Son from eternity, and also that God the Father, together with the Son and the Holy Ghost, each of whom singly is God, is one God. This fabulous representation is entirely dissipated, as a falling star to air, while it is de- monstrated from the Word that Jehovah God Himself descended and became Man and also Redeemer. As regards the first, that yehovah God Himself descended and became Man is evident from these passages : Behold a Vir- gin shall conceive and bear a Son, Who shall be called God WITH us (Isa. vii. 14; Matt. i. 22, 23). Unto us a Child is born ; unto us a Son is given ; and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His naine shall be called Wonderful, {^Counsellor,'] God, Might v, Father of Eternity, the Prince of Peace (Isa. ix. 6). // shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God, w^ have waited for Him to deliver jis ; this is Jeho- vah, tae have waited for Him; let us be glad and rejoice in His salvation (xxv. 9). The voice of otie crying in the wilder- ness. Prepare ye the way of Jehovah ; make smooth in the desert a highway for our God ; aiid all flesh shall see it together (xl. 3, 5). Behold, the Lord Jehovih cometh in strength, and His arm shall rule for Him ; behold. His reward is with Him, and He shall feed His flock like a shepherd (xl. 10, i r). Jehovah said. Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion ; for lo, I come to dwell iri the fnidst of thee ; then many nations shall cleave to Jehovah in that day (Zech. ii, 10, 11). I Jehovah have called thee in righteousness, and I will give thee for a covenant of the people ; I am Jehovah; this is my name, AND my glory I will NOT GIVE TO ANOTHER (Isa. xlii. 6, 8). Behold, the days are coming, when I will raise up u?ito David a righteous Branch, Who shall reign King, and do judgment and justice in the earth, and this is His name, Jehovah our Righteousness (Jer. xxiii. 5, 6 ; xxxiii. 15, 16) ; beside many passages where the coming of the Lord is called the day of Jehovah, as Isaiah xiii. 6, 9, 13, 22 ; Ez. xxxi. 15; Joel i. 15; ii. i, 2, 11, 29, 31; iii. i, 14, 18; Amos v. 13, 18, 20; Zeph. i. 7-18; Zech. xiv. i, 4-21; and other 142 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. II. places. That Jehovah Himself descended and assumed the- Human is very evident in Luke, where are these words : Mary said to the angel, Hoiv shall this be, since I kfiow not a man ? To whom the angel replied. The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore the Holy Thing that is born of thee, shall be called the Son of God (i. 2,^, 2>S}' ^'^'^ i" Matthew: The angel said to Joseph, the bridegroom of Mary, in a dream. That which is born in her is of the Holy Spirit ; and Joseph knew her not, until she brought forth a Son, and called His name jfesus (i. 20, 25). That by the Holy Spirit is meant the Divine which proceeds from Jehovah will be seen in the third chapter of this work. Who does not know that tvie child has the soul and life from the father, and that thi.. body is from the soul ? What therefore is said more plainly, than that the Lord had His soul and life from Jehovah God ? and, because the Divine cannot be divided, that the Divine of the Father was itself His soul and life ? Wherefore the Lord so often called Jehovah God His Father, and Jehovah God called Him His Son. What then can be heard more ridiculous than that the soul of our Lord was from the mother Mary ? as both the Roman Catholics and the Re- formed at this day dream, not having as yet been awakened by the Word. '^T,. That any Son born from eternity descended and assumed the Human, utterly falls as erroneous, and is dis- sipated, from the passages in the Word in which Jehovah Himself says that He Himself is the Saviour and the Re- deemer, which are the following: .<4z« «<?// Jehovah ? and there is no God else beside Me ; a just God and a Saviour THERE IS NONE BESIDE Me (Isa. xlv. 21, 22). I atn JeHO- VAH, fl;«^ beside Me there is no Saviour (xliii. ii). / Jehovah am thy God, atid thou shall acknowledge no God beside Me, and there is no Saviour beside Me (Hos. xiii. 4). That all flesh may k?iow that I Jehovah am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer (Isa. xlix. 26 ; Ix, 16). A^ for No. 84-] THE LORD THE REDEEMER. I43 OUR Redeemer, Jehovah Zebaoth is His name (xlvii. 4). Their Redeemer is strong; Jehovah Zebaoth is H-is name (Jer. 1. 34). Jehovah, my Rock and my Redeemer (Ps. xix. 14). Thus said Jehovah, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel^ I am Jehovah thy God (Isa. xlviii. 17 ; xliii. 14 ; xlix. 7). Thus said Jehovah thy Redeemer, I am Jehovah, that makcth all things^ even alone by Myself (xliv. 24). Thus said Jehovah, the King of Israel, a?id His Re- deemer, Jehovah Zebaoth, / afn the First and the Last, and beside Me there is no God (xliv. 6). Thou, Jehovah, art our Father, our Redeemer from everlasting is thy name (Ixiii. 16). With everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, said Jehovah thy Redeemer (liv. 8). Thou hast re- deemed me, Jehovah, God of truth (Ps. xxxi. 5). Let Israel hope in jEHOVAH,y^r with Jehovah is mercy, and with Him is plenteous Redemption, and He 7vill redeem Israel from all his iniquities (cxxx. 7, 8). Jehovah Zebaoth is His Name ; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole earth shall He be called (Isa. liv. 5). From these passages and very many others, every man who has eyes, and whose mind has been opened by means of them, can see that God, Who is one, descended and became Man for the purpose of accomplishing the work of redemption. Who cannot see this as in the morn- ing light while he attends to these the Divine declarations themselves, which have been presented ? But those who are in the shade of night, from confirmation in favor of the birth of another God from eternity, and of His descent and redemption, close their eyes to those Divine declarations, and in that state think how they may apply them to their falsities, and pervert them. 84. There are several reasons, which will be explained in course in the following pages, why God could not redeem men, that is, deliver them from damnation and hell, except by the assumed Human ; for redemption was the subjuga- tion of the hells, and the arrangement of the heavens in 144 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. II. order, and, after this, the establishment of a church : tliese things God by His omnipotence could not effect except by means of the Human ; as no one can work unless he has an arm ; and His Human is called in the Word the Arm of ychovah (Isa. xl. to; liii. i) ; and also as no one can attack a fortified city, and destroy the temples of the idols which are therein, except by means of proper powers. That in this Divine work God had omnipotence by means of His Human is manifest also from the Word ; for God, who is in the inmost and thus the purest things, in vain could pass in any other way to the things farthest off, in which the hells are and in which the men of that time were, compara- tively as the soul cannot do any thing without a body, or as no one can conquer enemies who do not come into His sight, or to whom He cannot come and reach with any arms, as spears, shields, or muskets. To accomplish the work of redemption without the Human was as impossible for God as it is for man to subjugate the Indies without transporting soldiers thither by means of ships ; or as it is to make trees grow only by the heat and light of the sun, with- out the creation of the air through which the heat and light might pass, and without the creation of the earth, out of which they might be produced ; nay, it is as impossible as to cast nets into the air and catch fishes there, and not in the water ; for Jehovah, as He is in Himself, cannot by His omnipotence touch any devil in hell nor any devil upon earth, and repress Him and His fury, and subdue His vio- lence, unless He be in the lasts as He is in the firsts : He is in the lasts in His Human ; wherefore, in the Word, He is called the First and the Last, the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. 85. n. Jehovah descended as the Divine Truth, WHICH IS THE Word, and yet He did not separate The Divine Good. There are tsvo things which make God's essence, the No. 85-] THE LORD THE REDEEMER. I45 Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom ; or, wliat is the same, the Divine Good and the Divine Truth. That these two are the essence of God was demonstrated above (n. 36 to 48). These two in the Word are meant also by yehovah God ; by yehovah, the Divine Love or the Divine Good, and by God, the Divine Wisdom or the Divine Truth ; thence it is that in the Word they are distinguished in vari- ous ways, and sometimes only Jehovah is named, and some- times only God ; for where it is treated of the Divine Good, there it is said yehovah ; and where of the Divine Truth, there God ; and where of both, there yehovah God. That Jehovah God descended as the Divine Truth, which is the Word, is evident in John, where are these words : In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, atid the Word was God. All things were made by Him, and with- out Him was not any thing made that was made. And the Word becatne flesh, and dwelt among us (i. i, 3, 14). That by the Word is there meant the Divine Truth, is because the Word which is in the church is the Divine Truth itself ; for it was dictated by Jehovah Himself, and what is dic- tated by Jehovah is purely the Divine Truth, ajid can be no other ; but because that passed through the heavens, even into the world, it became accommodated to the angels in heaven and also to men in the world. Thence there is in the Word a spiritual sense in which Divine Truth is in light, and a natural sense in which Divine Truth is in shade ; wherefore the Divine Truth in this Word is what is meant in John. This appears still further from this, that the Lord came into the world that He might fulfil all things of the Word ; wherefore it is so often read that this and that was done by Him that the Scripture might be fulfilled. Nor is any other than the Divine Truth meant by the Messiah or Christ ; nor any other by the Son of Man ; nor any other by the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, which the Lord sent after His departure. That He represented Himself as that Word, in His transfiguration before the three disci- VOL. I. 7 146 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. II. pies on the mount (Matt, xvii., Mark ix., and Luke ix.), and also before John (Apoc. i. 12-16), will be seen in the chap- ter concerning the Sacred Scripture. That the Lord, in the world, was the Divine Truth, appears from His own words : I am the Way, the Truth and the Life (John xiv. 6) ; and from these, We know that the Son of God hath come, and given us understanding, that we may know the truth, and we are in the truth, in His Son Jesus Christ : This is the true God and eternal life (i John v. 20) ; and still further by His being called the light, as in these passages : He was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world (John i. 9). yesus said, Yet a little while is the light with you : walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you : while ye have iiGHT, believe in the light, that ye may be children of light (xii. 35, 36 ; 46). I am the LIGHT of the world (ix. 5). Simeon said. Mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, a light to lighten the gentiles (Luke ii. 30, 32). This is the judg?nent, that light hath come into the world; he that doeth the truth, cometh to the light (John iii. 19, 21); besides other places. By the light is meant the Divine Truth. 86. The reason why Jehovah God descended into the world as the Divine Truth was that He might do the work of redemption ; and redemption was the subjugation of the hells, the arrangement of the heavens in order, and, after this, the establishment of a church. To effect these things the Divine Good does not avail, but the Divine Truth from the Divine Good : the Divine Good, considered in itself, is as the round hilt of a sword, or as blunt wood, or as a bow by itself ; but the Divine Truth from the Divine Good is as a sharp sword, and as wood in the form of a spear, and as a bow with arrows, which are serviceable against an enemy. By swords, spears, and bows, in the spiritual sense of the Word, also are meant truths fighting : see "Apocalypse Revealed" (n. 52, 299, 436), where this is demonstrated : nor could the falsities and evils in which all No. S;.] THE LORD THE REDEEMER. I47 hell was and always is, be attacked, conquered, and subju- gated otherwise than by the Divine truth from the Word ; nor could the new heaven, which also was then made, be founded, formed, and arranged in order by any other means ; nor could the New Church upon earth be established by any other means. Moreover, all the strength, all the virtue, arid all the power of God, is of the Divine truth from the Divine good. This was the reason why Jehovah God descended as Divine truth, which is the Word ; therefore it is said in David, Gird Thy sword upon Thy thigh, O Mighty One, and in Thi?ie honor mount up ; ride upon the Word of Truth ; Thy right hand will teach Thee wonderful things ; Thy weapons are sharp ; Thine etiemies shall fall under Thee (Ps. xlv. 3, 4, 5). These words are concerning the Lord, and concerning His combats with the hells, and concerning His victories over them. 87. What good without truth is, and what truth from good is, appears manifestly from man ; all his good resides in the will, and all his truth in the understanding ; and the will from its good cannot do any thing except by the under- standing ; it cannot work, it cannot speak, it cannot feel ; all its virtue and power is by means of the understanding, consequently by means of truth, for the understanding is the receptacle and habitation of truth. The case is- similar with these as with the operation of the heart and lungs in the body ; the heart, without the respiration of the lungs, does not produce any motion or any feeling, but the respiration of the lungs from the heart does both ; which is evident in the swooning of persons who are suffocated or who have fallen into the water, in whom respiration ceases while the systolic activity of the heart still continues ; that such have neither motion nor feeling is known. It is similar with em- bryos in the mother's womb. The reason is, because the heart corresponds to the will and its goods, and the lungs to the understanding and its truths. In the spiritual world, the power of truth is most conspicuous. An angel who is in 148 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. II. Divine truths from the Lord, although as to the body weak as an infant, can still put to flight, pursue to hell, and thrust into the caverns there, a troop of infernal spirits appearing as the Anakim and the Nephilim, that is, as giants ; and when they go out of the caverns, they dare not approach the angel. Those who are in Divine truths from the Lord are in that world as lions, although as to their bodies they have no more strength than sheep. It is similar with men who are in Divine truths from the Lord, when acting against evils and falsities, consequently against bands of devils, who, con- sidered in their essence, are no other than evils and falsi- ties. The reason why there is such strength inherent in Divine truth is because God is Good itself and Truth itself, and He created the universe by the Divine truth ; and all the laws of order, by which He preserves the universe, are truths. Wherefore it is said in John that Bj the Word all things were made, and without it nothing was made that was made (i. 3, 10) ; and in David, By the Word of jfehovah were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth (Ps. xxxiii. 6). 88. That God, although He descended as the Divine truth, still did not separate the Divine good, is evident from the conception, concerning which it is read, that The power of the Highest overshadowed Mary (Luke i. 35) ; and by the power of the Highest is meant the Divine good. The same is evident from the passages where He says that the Father is in Him, and He in the Father ; that all things of the Father are His ; and that the Father and He are one ; and from other passages. By the Father is meant the Divine Good. 8g. III. God assumed the Human according to His Divine Order. In the section concerning the Divine Omnipotence and Omniscience, it was shown that God at the creation intro- duced order into the universe, and into all and every part No. 89] THE LORD THE REDEEMER. 149 of it ; and that therefore the omnipotence of God, in the universe and in all and every part of it, proceeds and oper- ates according to the laws of His Divine order, concerning which we have treated above in a series (from n. 47 to 74). Now, because God descended, and because He is Order itself, as also was there demonstrated, in order that He also might become Man actually, He could not but be con ceived, carried in the womb, brought forth, educated, and successively gain knowledges, and by them be introduced into intelligence and wisdom. Wherefore, as to the Human, He was an infant as an infant, a boy as a boy, &c. ; with this difference only, that He accomplished that progression sooner, more fully and more perfectly, than others. That He advanced thus progressively according to order, is evi- dent from these words in Luke : Ami the Child yesus grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and increased in wisdom and stat- tire, and in favor with God and man (ii. 40, 52). That He did so sooner, more fully and more perfectly than others, is manifest from those things which are said of Him in the same Evangelist; as that when He was a Boy of twelve years, He sat in the temple in the midst of the doctors, and taught ; and that all who heard Him were astonished at His under- standing and answers (ii. 46, 47 ; see also chap. iv. 16— 22, 32). This was done because the Divine order is that man should prepare himself for the reception of God ; and as he prepares himself, so God enters into him as into His habitation and house ; and that preparation is made by means of cognitions concerning God and conceriling the spiritual things which are of the church, and thus by intel- ligence and wisdom ; for it is a law of order that as far as man approaches and draws near to God (which he must do altogether as from himself), so far God approaches and draws near to man, and in the midst conjoins Himself with him. That the Lord proceeded according to this order, even to union with His Father, will be further demonstrated in what follows. 150 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. II. 90. They who do not know that the Divine omnipotence proceeds and operates according to order, may hatch out of their fancy many things opposite and contradictory to sound reason, as why God did not assume the Human im- mediately, without such a progression ; why He did not create or compose for Himself a body out of the elements, from the four quarters of the world, and thus exhibit Him- self to be seen as God-Man, before the Jewish people, nay, before the whole world ; or, if He would be born, why He did not infuse into the embryo itself, or into Himself as an infant, all His Divine ; or why He did not, after His birth, raise Himself up to the stature of manhood, and instantly speak from the Divine wisdom. Such and similar things those may conceive and bring forth who think concerning the Divine omnipotence without order ; and thus they may fill the church with absurdities and trifles, as also has been done ; for example, that God could beget a Son from eternity, and cause that a third God also should then proceed from Himself and the Son ; then that He could be angry with mankind, give them over to destruction, and be willing to be brought back to mercy by His Son, and this by His inter- cession and the remembrance of His cross ; and, moreover, that He could put into man tlie righteousness of His Son, and insert it in his heart; like the simple substance of Wolfius, in which, as that author himself says, are all things of the Son's merit, but that it cannot be divided, since, if it be divided, it falls to nothing ; and, moreover, that He can as 'by a papal bull remit sins to whomsoever He will, or purify the most impious person from his dark evils, and thus make one who is black as a devil white as an angel of light, without man's moving himself any more than a stone, or while he stands still as a statue or as an idol; beside many other insane notions, which those who maintain that the Divine power is absolute, without a recognition or acknowledgment of order, may scatter abroad as a win- nower scatters chaff in the air. These in spiritual things, No. 92-1 THE LORD THE REDEEMER. 15I which are of heaven and the church, and thence of eternal life, may wander from Divine truths, like a blind man in the woods, who now falls upon stones, now dashes his forehead against a tree, now entangles his hair in its branches, 91. Divine miracles also have been done according to Divine order, but according to the Order of the Influx of the Spiritual World into the Natural ; concerning which order no one has hitherto known any thing, because no one has known any thing of the spiritual world. But what that order is will be made manifest in its time, when we treat of Divine Miracles, and of Magical Miracles. 92. IV. The Human, by which God sent Himself INTO THE WORLD, IS THE SON OF GOD. The Lord frequently said that the Father sent Him into the world, and that He was sent by the Father ; as Matt. X. 40 ; XV. 24 ; John iii. 17, 34 ; v. 23, 24, 36, 37, 38 ; vi. 29, 39, 40, 44, 57 ; vii. 16, 18, 28, 29 ; viii. 16, 18, 29, 42 ; ix. 4; and in many other places ; and this He says, because by being sent into the world is meant to descend and come amongst men ; and this was done through the Human, which He assumed by means of the virgin Mary ; and also the Human is actually the Son of God, because it was con- ceived of Jehovah God as a Father, according to Luke i. 32, 35. He is called the Son of God, the Son of Man, and the Son of Mary ; and by the Son of God is meant Jehovah God in His Human ; by the Son of Man, the Lord as to the Word ; and by the son of Mar}', properly the human which He assumed. That by the Son of God and by the Son of Man those two things are meant will be de- monstrated in what follows ; that by the son of Mary is meant the merely human is very manifest from the genera- tion of men, that the soul is from the father and the body from the mother ; for the soul is in the seed of the father, and it is clothed with a body in the mother ; or, what is the 152 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. II. same, all the spiritual that man has is from the father, and all the material is from the mother; as to the Lord, the Divine which He had was from Jehovah, the Father, and the human was from the mother ; these two united are the Son of God. That it is so, is clearly evident from the na- tivity of the Lord, concerning which this is written in Luke : The angel Gabriel said to Mary, The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, a?id the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore the Holy Thing that is born of thee shall be called the Son of God (i. 35). The Lord called Himself Sent by the Father, also for this reason, because by sent is signified the same as by angel; for cngel, in the original language, is sent : for it is said in Isaiah, The Angel of the presence of Jehovah delivered them ; in His love and His pity He redeetned them (Ixiii. 9); and in Malachi, The Lord, Whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the Angel of the COVENANT, Whom ye delight in (iii. i) ; besides other places. That the Divine Trinity, God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, is in the Lord, and that the Father in Him is the Divine from which [are all things], the Son the Divine Human, and the Holy Spirit the proceeding Divine, will be seen in the third chapter of this work, where we shall treat of the Divine Trinity. 93. Since it was said to Mary by the angel Gabriel, The Holy Thing ivhich shall be bom of thee shall be called the Son of God, passages shall be adduced from the Word to show that the Lord as to the Human is called the Holy One OF Israel, which are these: I was seeing in visions; lo, a Watcher and a Holy One descending fro7n heaven (Dan.iv. 10, 13). God came from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Par an (Hab. iii. 3), / jfehovah, the Maker of Israel, the Holy One* (Isa. xlv. 1 1). Thus said jfehovah, the Redeemer of Israel, his Holy One (xlix. 7). I Jehovah thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour (xliii. 3). As for • The Latin here has " Sanctus vester," " your Holy One." No. 93-] THE LORD THE REDEEMER. 1 53 otr Redeemer, jFehovah Zebaoth is His 7iame, the Holy One OF Israel (xlvii. 4). • Thus saith yehovah your Redeemer, THE Holy One of Israel (xliii. 14; xlviii. 17). Jehovah Zebaoth is His naine^ and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel (liv. 5). They tempted God and [iimited'\ the Holy One of Israel (Ps. Ixxviii, 41). They have forsaken Jeho- vah and have provoked the Holy One of Israel (Isa. i. 4). They said, Cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us; wherefore, thus said the Holy One of Israel (xxx. ii, 12). Who say. Let Him hasten His work, that we may see, and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come (v. 19). In that day they shall stay upon Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, in truth (x, 20). Cry out and sing aloud, O inhabitant* of Zion, be- cause p-eat is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee (xii. 6). Thus saith the God of Israel ; At that day His eyes shall look to the Holy One of Israel (xvii, 7). The poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel (xxix. 19; xli. 16). Their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel Qer. li. 5). See also Isa. Iv. 5 ; Ix. 9 ; and other places. By the Holy One of Israel is meant the Lord as to the Divine Human ; for the angel said to Mary, The Holy Thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God (Luke i. 35). That Jehovah and the Holy One of Israel are one, although they are named as if distinct, may be evident from the passages also here adduced to show that Jeho- vah is that Holy One of Israel. That the Lord is called the God of Israel, is evident also from very many pas- sages, as Isa. xvii. 6 ; xxi. 10, 17 ; xxiv. 15 ; xxix. 23 ; Jer. vii. 3 ; ix. 15 ; xi. 3 ; xiii. 12 ; xvi. 9 ; xix. 3, 15 ; xxiii. 2; xxiv. 5 ; XXV. 15, 27 ; xxix. 4, 8, 21, 25 ; xxx. 2 ; xxxi. 23; •xxxii. 14, 15, 36 ; xxxiii. 4 ; xxxiv. 2, 13 ; xxxv. 13, 17, 18, 19; xxxvii. 7; xxxviii. 17; xxxix. i6; xlii. 9, 15, 18; xliii. * The Latin here has "daughter.'''' 7* 154 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. II. lo; xliv. 2, 7, II, 25 ; xlviiL i ; 1. 18 ; li. 33. Ezek. viii. 4; ix. 3 ; X. 19, 20 ; xi. 22 j xliii. 2 ; xliv. 2. Zeph. ii. 9. Ps. xli. 13 ; lix. 5 ; Ixviii. 8. 94. In the Christian churches at the present time, it is common to call the Lord our Saviour the Son of Mary, and rarely the Son of God unless they then mean a Son of God born from eternity: the reason of this is that the Roman Catholics have sanctified Mary the mother above the rest, and have exalted her as a goddess or queen over all their saints ; when yet the Lord, when He glorified His Human, put off all of His mother, and put on all of the Father, which will be fully demonstrated in the following parts of this work. From this common saying in the mouth of all, that He is called the Son of Mary, many enormities have flowed into the church, especially with those who have not admitted into their judgment those things which are said in the Word concerning the Lord, as that the Father and He are one ; that He is in the Father, and the Father in Him ; that all things of the Father are His ; that He called ychovah His Father, arid Jehovah the Father called Him His Son. The enormities which have flowed into the church from their calling Him the Son of Mary, and not the Son of God, are that concerning the Lord the idea of Divinity is lost, and with this, all that which is said in the Word con- cerning Him as the Son of God ; then that through that enter Judaism, Arianism, Socinianism, Calvinism such as it was in the beginning, and at length Naturalism, and with this the fanatical view that He was the son of Mary by Joseph, and also that He had His soul from the mother, and thence that He is called the Son of God and is not so. Let every one, clergyman as well as layman, question him- self whether he has conceived and cherishes any other idea concerning the Lord, as the Son of Mar}^, than as of a- mere man. Since such an idea began already to prevail among Christians in the third centur}', when the Arians arose, therefore the council of Nice, to vindicate the Divin- No. 95-] THE LORD THE REDEEMER. 1 55 ity of the Lord, feigned a Son of God born from eternity ; but by this fiction the Human of tlie Lord was indeed ele- vated then, and witli many also at this day it is elevated, to the Divine ; but not with those who by the hypostatic union understand a union as between two, of whom one is above and the other is below. But what else results from this than that the whole Christian church perishes, which was founded solely upon the worship of Jehovah in the Human, consequently upon God-Man .'' That no one can see the Father, nor have cognition of Him, nor come to Him, nor believe in Him, unless through His Human, the Lord de- clares in many passages. If this is not done, all the noble seed of the church is turned into ignoble seed ; the seed of the olive into the seed of the pine ; the seed of the orange, the citron, the apple, and the pear, into the seed of the wil- low, the elm, the linden, and the holm-oak ; the vine into the bulrush of the bog ; the wheat and barley into chaff ; nay, all spiritual food becomes as the dust which serpents eat ; for in man the spiritual light becomes natural, and at length corporeal-sensual, which, viewed in itself, is delu- sive light ; yes, man then becomes as a bird, which, while it flies on high, when its wings are clipped will fall to the earth, where walking, it sees no more around it than what lies before its feet ; and then concerning the spiritual things of the church, which must be for eternal life, he thinks no otherwise than a soothsayer. These things take place, while man regards the Lord God, the Redeemer and Saviour, as the mere son of Mary, thus as a mere man. 95. V. The Lord, by the Acts of Redemption, made Himself Righteousness. That the Lord alone had merit and righteousness by the , obedience which He yielded in the world to God the Father, and especially by the passion of the cross, is said and be- lieved at this day in Christian churches ; but it has been supposed that the passion of the cross was the very act of 1-56 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. II. redemption, when yet that was not the act of redemption, but the act of the glorification of His Human, of which we shall treat in the following Lemma concerning Redemp- tion. The acts of redemption, by which the Lord made Himself righteousness, were that He executed the last judgment, which was done in the spiritual world, and then separated the evil from the good, and the goats from the sheep, and expelled from heaven those who made one with the beasts of the dragon, and of the worthy He founded a new heaven, and of the imworthy a hell, and successively reduced all things in both to order ; and, moreover, estab- lished a new church. These acts were the acts of redemj>- tion, by which the Lord made Himself righteousness ; for righteousness is doing all things according to Divine order ; and reducing to order those things which have fallen out of order ; for righteousness is Divine order itself. Those things are meant by these words of the Lord : // becometh us* to fulfil all RIGHTEOUSNESS (Matt. iii. 15); and by these in the Old Testament : Behold the days come, when I shall raise unto David a righteous branch, who shall reign King, and do righteousness in the earth, and this is His name, Jehovah our righteousness (Jer. xxiii. 5, 6 ; xxxiii. 15. 16). / speak in righteousness, mighty to save (Isa. Ixiii. i). He shall sit upon the throne of David, to establish it in Judgment and righteousness (ix. 7). Zion shall be redeefned \with judgment, and they that return of hej-\ in righteousness (i. 27), 96. The men of our time, who bear rule in the church, describe the righteousness of the Lord quite differently; and also, by the inscription of it upon man, they make their faith saving ; when yet the truth is that the righteousness of the Lord, because it is such and thence, and in itself purely Divine, cannot be conjoined with any man, and thus cannot produce any salvation, any more than the Divine * The Latin here has " Mihi," Me. No. 96] THE LORD THE REDEEMER. 1 57 Life, which is the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom. The Lord enters with these into every man ; but, unless man lives according to order, that life is in him, indeed, but it contributes nothing at all to his salvation ; it only gives the faculty of understanding truth and of doing good. To live according to Divine order is to live according to the commandments of God ; and when a man so lives and does, then he procures for himself righteousness ; not the righteousness of the Lord's redemption, but the Lord Him- self as righteousness. These are they, who are meant by these words : Unless your righteousness shall exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall not enter into the king- dom of the heavens (Matt. v. 20). Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness' SAKE,y6'r theirs is the kingdom of the heaveiis (v. 10), In the consummation of the age, the angels will go forth, and separate the wicked from the midst of the RIGHTEOUS (xiii. 49) ; besides other places. By the RIGHTEOUS, in the Word, are meant those who have lived according to Divine order, since Divine order is righteous- ness. Righteousness itself, which the Lord became by the acts of redemption, cannot be ascribed to man, inscribed upon him, adapted and conjoined to him, otherwise than light can be to the eye, sound to the ear, will to the muscles of one acting, thought to the lips of one speaking, air to the lungs of one breathing, heat to the blood, &c. ; that these flow in and adjoin themselves, and also conjoin themselves, every one perceives from himself. But righteousness is acquired so far as man exercises righteousness ; and he exercises righteousness as far as he act? with his neighbor from the love of what is just and true : in the good itself or in the use itself which he does, righteousness dwells ; for the Lord says, that every tree is known by its fruit. Who does not have cognition of another by his works, if he attends to them, with reference to the end and purpose of the will, and the cause and intention from which they are done ? AH angels attend to these things, and also all wise men in our 158 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. II. world. In general, every shrub and plant is cognized by its flower and seed, and by its use ; every metal, by its goodness; every stone, by its quality; every field, every kind of food, every animal of the earth, and every bird of the heaven, by their quality : why not man ? But concerning the quality of man's works, whence it is will be disclosed in the chapter concerning Faith. 97. VI. The Lord, by the same Acts, united Him- self TO the Father, and the Father Himself to Him [also according to Divine Order]. That the union was effected by the acts of redemptic n is because the Lord performed them from His Human ; and as He operated, so the Divine, which is meant by the Father, came nearer, assisted, and co-operated, and at length They so conjoined Themselves, that They were not two, but one ; and this union is glorification, of which in the following pages. 98. That the Father and the Son, that is, the Divine and the Human in the Lord, are united like soul and body, is indeed according to the faith of the church at this day, and also according to the Word ; but still scarcely five in a hun- dred or fifty in a thousand know this : this is because of the doctrine of justification by faith alone, which most of the clergy, who seek the reputation of learning for the sake of honors and riches, have embraced with all zeal, until that doctrine has got complete possession of their minds at this day ; and because this has intoxicated their thoughts, like the vinous spirit called alcohol, therefore, like men intoxi- cated, they have not seen this most essential thing of the church, that Jehovah God descended and assumed the Human ; when yet, solely by this union, is given to man conjunction with God ; and by conjunction, salvation. That salvation depends on the cognition and acknowledgment of God, may be evident to every one who considers that God is the all in all of heaven, and thence the all in all of the No. 99-] THE LORD THE REDEEMER. 1 59 church ; consequently, the all in all of theolog)'. But first it shall here be demonstrated that the union of the Father and the Son, or of the Divine and the Human in the Lord, is as the union of soul and body; and afterwards, that the union is reciprocal. That the union is like that of the soul and the body is established