AC 4197 - One Truth; AC 4198 - The Presence of the Lord

AC 4197 [7-8, 9] - One Truth

The command given in the representative church,
that all truth shall stand
on the word of two or three witnesses,
and not on that of one
(Num. 35:30; Deut. 17:6, 7; 19:15; Matt. 18:16),
is founded on the Divine law
that one truth does not confirm good,
but a number of truths;
for one truth without connection with others
is not confirmatory,
but a number together,
because from one may be seen another.
One does not produce any form,
and thus not any quality,
but only a number that are connected in a series.
For as one tone does not produce any melody,
still less harmony,
so neither does one truth.
These are the things
on which the law in question is founded,
although in the outward form
it appears to be founded in the civic state;
the one however is not contrary to the other,
as is also the case
with the precepts of the Decalogue . . .
written upon the tables of stone
are called in one word the "testimony,"
as in Moses:

Jehovah gave unto Moses,
when He had made an end of speaking with him
upon Mount Sinai,
the two tables of the testimony,
tables of stone,
written with the finger of God.
(Exodus 31:18)

because they were of the covenant,
thus of the conjunction between the Lord and man;
which conjunction cannot come into existence
unless man keeps the precepts,
not only in external form,
but also in internal.

AC 4198 - The Presence of the Lord

As regards the presence of the Lord,
He is present with everyone,
but according to the reception;
for everyone's life is from the Lord alone.
Those who receive His presence in good and truth,
are in the life of intelligence and wisdom;
but those who do not receive
His presence in good and truth,
but in evil and falsity,
are in the life of insanity and folly;
but yet are in the capacity
of understanding and being wise.
. . . may be seen from their knowing
how to feign and simulate what is good and true
in the outward form,
and thereby to captivate people,
which would be by no means the case
if they had not this capacity.