TCR 68, 69, 70 - So Far As a Person Lives According to Divine Order

TCR 68

A person has power against evils and falsities
from the Divine omnipotence
so far as he lives according to Divine order,
because no one can resist evils and their falsities
but God alone.

TCR 69

A person is in wisdom concerning good and truth
from the Divine omniscience
as far as he lives according to Divine order,
because all the love of good and all the wisdom of truth,
that is, all the good of love and all the truth of wisdom,
are from God.

TCR 70

A person is in God from the Divine omnipresence
so far as he lives according to order,
because God is omnipresent,
and wherever He is in His own Divine order
there He is,
as it were, in Himself,
because He is order itself . . ..
Since a person was created a form of Divine order,
God is in him;
but so far as a person lives according to order,
God is fully in him.

~ A Nation (a Church) Looks to the Lord Then Doesn't ~

The word of the Lord came to me:
"Son of man,
confront Jerusalem with her detestable practices
and say, 'This is what the Sovereign Lord
says to Jerusalem:
Your ancestry and birth
were in the land of the Canaanites;
your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite.
On the day you were born your cord was not cut,
nor were you washed with water to make you clean,
nor were you rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths.
No one looked on you with pity
or had compassion enough
to do any of these things for you.
Rather, you were thrown out into the open field,
for on the day you were born
you were despised.

"'Then I passed by
and saw you kicking about in your blood,
and as you lay there in your blood
I said to you,  "Live!"
I made you grow like a plant of the field.
You grew up and developed
and became the most beautiful of jewels.
Your breasts were formed and your hair grew,
you were naked and bare.

"'Later I passed by,
and when I looked at you
and saw that you were old enough for love,
I spread the corner of My garment over you
and covered your nakedness.
I gave you My solemn oath
and entered into a covenant with you,
declares the Sovereign Lord,
and you became Mine.

"'I bathed you with water
and washed the blood from you
and put ointments on you.
I clothed you with an embroidered dress
and put leather sandals on you.
I dressed you in fine linen
and covered you with costly garments.
I adorned you with jewelry:
I put bracelets on your arms
and a necklace around your neck,
and I put a ring on your nose,
earrings on your ears
and a beautiful crown on your head.
So you were adorned with gold and silver;
your clothes were of fine linen and costly fabric
and embroidered cloth.
Your food was fine flour, honey and olive oil.
You became very beautiful
and rose to be a queen.
And your fame spread among the nations
on account of your beauty,
because the splendor I had given you
made your beauty perfect,
declares the Sovereign Lord.

"'But you trusted in your beauty
and used your fame to become a prostitute.'"

 ''' . . . Your mother was a Hittite
and your father an Amorite.
Your older sister was Samaria,
who lived to the north of you with her daughters;
and your younger sister,
who lived to the south of you with her daughters,
was Sodom.
You not only walked in their ways
and copied their detestable practices,
but in all your ways
you soon became more depraved than they.
As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord,
your sister Sodom and her daughters
never did what you and your daughters have done.

"'Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom:
She and her daughters were arrogant,
over fed and unconcerned;
they did not help the poor and needy.
they were haughty and did detestable things before Me.
Therefore I did away with them as you have seen.
Samaria did not commit half the sins you did.
You have done more detestable things than they,
and have made your sisters seem righteous
by all these things you have done.
Bear your disgrace,
for you have furnished some justification for your sisters.
Because your sins were more vile than theirs,
they appear more righteous than you.
So then, be ashamed and bear your disgrace,
for you have made your sisters appear righteous.'"

(Ezekiel 16:1-15, 45.5-52)

TCR 63, 67 - The Universe and End, Cause, and Use

TCR 63

. . . God is in all space yet without space,
and in all time without time,
and consequently that the universe
as to its essence and order
is the fullness of God;
and because this is so,
by His omnipresence He perceives all things,
by His omniscience He provides for all things,
and by His omnipotence He administers all things.
Hence it is evident that
omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence make one,
or that each implies the other,
and thus that they cannot be separated.

TCR 67

. . . the universe was created by God
for the existence of uses,
and so it may be called a theater of uses . . .

 . . . use is the end which
love purposes, and accomplishes through the cause;
and when use results
love and wisdom really exist,
and in use they make for themselves
a habitation and an abiding-place,
where they rest as in their own home.
It is the same with a person
in whom are present the love and wisdom of God
while he performs uses;
and that he may perform Divine uses
he was created an image and likeness,
that is, a form of Divine order.

~ Repent! ~

"Therefore say to the house of Israel,
'This is what the Sovereign Lord says:
Repent!
Turn from your idols
and renounce all your detestable practices!

. . . "'Then the people of Israel
will no longer stray from me,
nor will they defile themselves anymore
with all their sins.
They will be My people,
and I will be their God,
declares the Sovereign Lord.'"

(Ezekiel 14:6, 11)

TCR 49 - A Summary of the Omnipotence, Omniscience, and Omnipresence of God; TCR 55 - Laws

TCR 49

(1) Omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence
are attributes of the Divine Wisdom from the Divine Love.

(2) The omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence
of God cannot be understood
unless it is known what order is;
and unless it is known that God is order,
and that at creation
He introduced order into the universe and into all its parts.

(3) The Omnipotence of God,
in the universe and in all its parts,
proceeds and operates according to the laws of His order.

(4) God is Omniscient, that is,
He perceives, sees, and knows all things,
even to the most minute,
that are done according to order,
and also from these, whatever is done contrary to order.

(5) God is Omnipresent in all things
from first to last of His order.

(6) Man was created a form of Divine order.

(7) A man has power against evil and falsity
from the Divine omnipotence,
wisdom concerning good and truth
from the Divine omniscience,
and is in God from the Divine omnipresence,
so far as he lives according to the Divine order.

TCR 55

Every one knows that there is not
an empire, kingdom, dukedom, republic, state or house
which is not established by laws,
constituting the order and thus the form of its government.
In every one of these
the laws of justice hold the first place,
political laws the second,
and economic laws the third.
If these legal systems are compared with a man,
the laws of justice form the head,
the political laws the body,
and the economic laws the dress;
and therefore these economic laws
can be changed like garments.
The main concern of the order
in which the Church has been established by God
is that God, and also the neighbor
towards whom order is to be practiced,
should be in everything pertaining to it.
The laws of this order 
are the truths contained in the Word.
The laws relating to God form the head of the Church,
those relating to the neighbor form the body,
and the ceremonial laws form the dress;
for if the former were not arrayed in an orderly ritual,
it would be as if the body were stripped naked
and exposed to the heat of summer
and the cold of winter;
or as if the walls and roof were removed from a temple,
to expose in full daylight
the shrine, the altar, and the pulpit
to all manner of sacrilege.

~ The Glory of the Lord Leaves the Temple ~

I looked, and I saw the likeness of a throne of sapphire
above the expanse
that was over the heads of the cherubim.
The Lord said to the man clothed in linen,
"Go in among the wheels beneath the cherubim.
Fill your hands with burning coals
from among the cherubim
and scatter them over the city."
and as I watched, he went in.

Now the cherubim were standing
on the south side of the temple when the man went in,
and a cloud filled the inner court.
Then the glory of the Lord rose from above the cherubim
and moved to the threshold of the temple.
the cloud filled the temple,
and the court was full of
the radiance of the glory of the Lord.
The sound of the wings of the cherubim
could be heard as far away as the outer court,
like the voice of God Almighty when He speaks.

When the Lord commanded the man in linen,
"Take fire from among the wheels,
from among the cherubim,"
the man went in and stood beside a wheel.
Then one of the cherubim reached out his hand
to the fire that was among them.
He took up some of it
and put it into the hands of the man in linen,
who took it and went out.
(Under the wings of the cherubim could be seen
what looked like the hands of a man.)

I looked, and saw beside the cherubim four wheels,
one beside each of the cherubim;
the wheels sparkled like chrysolite.
As for their appearance,
the four of them looked alike;
each was like a wheel intersecting a wheel.
As they moved,
they would go in any one of the four directions
the cherubim faced;
the wheels did not turn about as the cherubim went.
The  cherubim went in
whatever direction the head faced,
without turning as they went.
Their entire bodies,
including their backs, their hands and their wings,
were completely full of eyes,
as were their four wheels.
I heard the wheels being called "the whirling wheels."
Each of the cherubim had four faces:
One face was that of a cherub,
the second the face of a man,
the third the face of a lion,
and the fourth the face of an eagle.

Then the cherubim rose upward.
These were the living creatures
I had seen by the Kebar River.
When the cherubim moved,
the wheels beside them moved;
and when the cherubim spread their wings
to rise from the ground,
the wheels did not leave their side.
When the cherubim stood still,
they also stood still;
and when the cherubim rose,
they rose with them,
because the spirit of the living creatures was in them.

Then the glory of Lord departed
from over the threshold of the temple
and stopped above the cherubim.
While I watched,
the cherubim spread their wings
and rose from the ground,
and as they went,
the wheels went with them.
They stopped at the entrance
to the east gate of the Lord's house,
and the glory of God of Israel was above them.

These were the living creatures
I had seen beneath the God of Israel
by the Kebar River,
and I realized that they were cherubim.
each had four face and four wings,
and under wings
was what looked like the hands of a man.
Their faces had the same appearance
as those I had seen by the Kebar River.
Each one went straight ahead.

. . . the the cherubim, with the wheels beside them,
spread their wings,
and the glory of the God of Israel was above them.
The glory of the Lord went up from within the city
and stopped above the mountain east of it.
The Spirit lifted me up
and brought me to the exiles in Babylonia
in the vision given by the Spirit of God.

Then the vision I had seen went up from me,
and I told the exiles everything the Lord had shown me.

(Ezekiel 10; 11:22-25)

TCR 48 - Ascribing to God or Oneself

TCR 48 [20]

Man was created to receive love and wisdom from God,
yet to all appearance as if from himself,
and this for the sake of reception and conjunction;
and therefore a man is not born with any love,
nor any knowledge,
nor even any power of loving and of becoming wise
from himself.
Therefore 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.

~ Ezekiel Sees Another Vision ~

In the sixth year, in the sixth month on the fifth day,
while I sitting in my house
and the elders of Judah were sitting before me,
the hand of the Sovereign Lord came upon me there.
I looked, and I saw a figure like that of a Man.
From what appeared to be His waist down
He was like fire,
and from there up
His appearance was as bright as glowing metal.
He stretched out what looked like a hand
and took me by the hair of my head.
the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven
and in visions of God
He took me to Jerusalem,
to the entrance to the north gate of the inner court,
where the idol that provokes to jealousy stood.
And there before me was the glory of the God of Israel,
as in the vision I had seen in the plain.

(Ezekiel 8:1-4)

 

TCR 43 - God is Love Itself

TCR 43 [4]

For as God is Love itself
so also is He Blessedness itself,
since all love breathes out from itself 
what is delightful,
and Divine Love breathes out 
blessedness itself, happiness and felicity to eternity.
Thus God makes angels happy from Himself,
and also people after death,
by conjunction with them.

 

~ Twice He Raises Ezekiel to His Feet ~

He said to me, "Son of man,
stand up on your feet and I will speak to you."
As He spoke,
the Spirit came into me and raised me to my feet
and I heard Him speaking to me.

He said:  "Son of man,
I am sending you to the Israelites,
to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against Me;
they and their fathers have been in revolt
against Me to this very day.

"But you, son of man, listen to what I say to you.
Do not rebel like that rebellious house;
open your mouth and eat what I give you."

. . . Then I looked,
and I saw a hand stretched out to me.
In it was a scroll,
which He unrolled before me.
On both sides of it were written words
of lament and mourning and woe.

. . . Then the Spirit lifted me up,
and I heard behind me a loud rumbling sound --
May the glory of the Lord
be praised in His dwelling place! --
the sound of the wings of the living creatures
brushing against each other
and the sound of the wheels beside them,
a loud rumbling sound.

(Ezekiel 2:1-3, 9-10; 3:12-13)

TCR 37 - The Divine Love and Wisdom Are in All Created Things

TCR 37

. . . love and wisdom are the two essentials
to which are related all the infinite things
which are in God and which proceed from Him.
. . . Now since God is Substance itself and Form itself,
the only and thus the first,
whose Essence is Love and Wisdom,
and since from Him
all things were made which are made,
it follows that He created
the universe with everything in it,
from Love by means of Wisdom;
and consequently that the Divine Love,
together with the Divine Wisdom,
is in every created subject.
Love, moreover, is not only the essence
which forms all things;
but it also unites and conjoins them,
and thus keeps them in connection when formed.
These truths may be illustrated
by innumerable things in the world,
as for instance, by the heat and light from the sun,
the two essentials and universals by means of which
all things on the earth exist and subsist.
Heat and light are in the world
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,
which is derived from it,
in its essence is wisdom.

~ Ezekiel's Vision Begins ~

I looked, and I saw a windstorm coming out of the north --
an immense cloud with flashing lightning
and surrounded by brilliant light.
The center of the fire looked like glowing metal,
and in the fire was what looked like four living creatures.
In appearance their form was that of a man,
but each of them had four faces and four wings.

. . . Their faces looked like this:
Each of the four had the face of a man,
and on the right side each had the face of a lion,
and on the left the face of an ox;
each also had the face of an eagle.

. . . As I looked at the living creatures,
I saw a wheel on the ground
beside each creature with its four faces.

. . . When the living creatures moved,
the wheels beside them moved;
and when the living creatures rose from the ground,
the wheels also rose.
Wherever the spirit would go,
they would go,
and the wheels would rise along with them,
because the spirit of the living creatures
was in the wheels.

. . . When the creatures moved,
I heard the sound of their wings,
like the roar of rushing waters,
like the voice of the Almighty,
like the tumult of an army.
When they stood still, they lowered their wings.

Then there came a voice
from above the expanse over their heads
as they stood with lowered wings.
Above the expanse over their heads
was what looked like a throne of sapphire,
and high above on the throne
was a figure like that of a Man.
I saw that from what appeared to be His waist up
He looked like glowing metal,
as if full of fire,
and that from there down He looked like fire;
and brilliant light surrounded Him.
Like the appearance
of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day,
so was the radiance around Him.

This was the appearance of the likeness of
the glory of the Lord.
When I saw it,
I fell face-down,
and I heard the voice of one speaking.

(Ezekiel 1:4-6, 10, 15, 19-20, 25-28)

TCR 30 - Spiritual Thought

TCR 30 [1-2]

. . . something must first be said concerning spiritual thought.
This derives nothing from space,
but everything from state.
State has relation to love, life, wisdom, affections, joys,
and, in general, to good and truth.
A truly spiritual idea concerning these
has nothing in common with space:
it is on a higher level,
and looks down upon spatial ideas beneath it
as heaven looks down upon the earth.

God is present in space apart from space,
and in time apart from time
because He is always the same from eternity to eternity,
the same before the creation of the world as after it.
There was neither space nor time
in God and in His sight before creation,
but only since
because He is the same,
He is in space apart from space,
and in time apart from time.
Consequently it follows that nature is separate from Him,
while yet He is omnipresent in it,
just as life is present
in every substantial and material part of a person,
yet does not mingle with them . . ..

~ Hope ~

I remember my affliction and my wandering,
the bitterness and the gall.
I well remember them,
and my soul is downcast within me.
Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:

Because of the Lord's great love
we are not consumed,
for His compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is Your faithfulness.
I say to myself, "The Lord is my portion;
therefore I will wait for Him."

The Lord is good to those whose hope is in Him,
to the one who seeks Him;
it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
It is good for a man to bear the yoke
while he is young.
Let him sit alone in silence,
for the Lord has laid it on him.
Let him bury his face in the dust --
there may yet be hope.
Let him offer his cheek to one who would strike him,
and let him be filled with disgrace.

For men are not cast off by the Lord forever.
Though He brings grief,
He will show compassion,
so great is His unfailing love.
For He does not willingly bring affliction or grief
to the children of men.

(Lamentations 3:19-33)

TCR 24 - Knowledge And Being Held in God's Hand

TCR 24 [1-2]

Every one should prepare the way for God,
that is, should prepare himself for His reception;
and this is done by means of knowledge.

This knowledge has hitherto been wanting;
yet it is by this knowledge
that a person may ascend and know the Divine Being.

It is said that person ascends;
but it is to be understood that he is raised by God;
for a person has free will
in acquiring knowledge for himself,
and as he acquires it from the Word
by means of his understanding,
he thus prepares the way
by which God may descend and raise him.
The knowledge in its sequence
by which a person's understanding ascends,
while God all the time
holds him in His hand and leads him . . ..

~ "The Lord Is Righteous, Yet I Rebelled" ~

"The Lord is righteous,
yet I rebelled against His command.
Listen, all you peoples;
look upon my suffering.
My young men and maidens have gone into exile.

"I called to my allies but they betrayed me.
My priests and my elders perished in the city
while they searched for food
to keep themselves alive.

"See, O Lord, how distressed I am!
I am in torment within,
and in my heart I am disturbed,
for I have been most rebellious."

(Lamentations 1:18-20)

 

TCR 19 - "I Am"; TCR 22 - God Is Near Every Person

TCR 19 [1-2]

It is well known that Jehovah signifies "I Am" and "Being";
and that God was so called from the most ancient times
appears from the Book of Creation, or Genesis,
where in the first chapter He is called God,
but in the second and following chapters, Jehovah God.
Afterwards, when the descendants
of Abraham through Jacob
forgot the name of God during their sojourn in Egypt,
it was recalled to their remembrance as it is written:

Moses said to God, what is Your name?
God said: I Am who I Am.
Thus you will say to the children of Israel,
I Am has sent me to you, and you shall say,
JEHOVAH God of your fathers has sent me to you:
this is My name for ever,
and this is My memorial unto all generations.
(Exodus 3: 13, 14, 15)

Since the only God is the I Am,
and Being (Esse) or Jehovah,
there is nothing in the created universe
which does not derive its being (esse) from Him.
How this is will be seen below.
The same is also meant by these words:

I am the First and the Last,
the Beginning and the End,
the Alpha and the Omega.
(Isaiah 44:6: Revelation 1:8, 11; 22:13)

by which is meant that He is the Self and only One
from first things to last,
and that all things are from Him.

God is called the Alpha and the Omega,
the Beginning and the End
because Alpha is the first
and Omega the last letter in the Greek alphabet,
and therefore they signify all things in the complex.
This is because every letter of the alphabet
in the spiritual world has a signification of its own;
and every vowel, because it is a symbol of sound,
signifies something of affection or love.

TCR 22 [1-2]

. . . as a person has been created
that he might also be spiritual,
since he will live after death
among spiritual beings in their world,
God has provided the Word,
in which He has revealed not only Himself
but also the existence of heaven and hell,
in one of which every person will live to eternity,
depending upon the life he has lived
in accordance with his faith.
He has also revealed in the Word
that He is the I Am or Being,
the Self and only One which is in itself,
and thus the Beginning, the Source of all things.

From this revelation
the natural person can raise himself above nature,
and thus above himself,
and see such things as are of God,
but yet as from a distance,
although God is near every person,
for He is in him with His Essence.
Because this is so,
He is near those who love Him;
and they love Him
who live according to His commandments
and believe on Him;
and these, as it were, see Him.
For faith is nothing but a spiritual perception that He is,
and a life according to His commandments
an actual acknowledgment
that salvation and eternal life are from Him.

~ Lamentations or "Funeral Songs" ~

The roads to Zion mourn,
for no one comes to her appointed feasts.
All her gateways are desolate,
her priest groan,
her maidens grieve,
and she is in bitter anguish.

Her foes have become her masters;
her enemies are at ease.
the Lord has brought her grief
because of her many sins.
Her children have gone into exile,
captive before the foe.

All the splendor has departed
from the Daughter of Zion.
Her princes are like deer that find no pasture;
in weakness they have fled before the pursuer.

(Lamentations 1:4-6)

 

TCR 13 - The Universe

TCR 13 [1-2]

This great system which is called the Universe
is a work cohering as a unity from first to last
because God in creating it had one end in view,
namely, an angelic heaven from the human race;
and all things of which the world consists
are means to that end:
for he who wills the end,
wills also the means.

Therefore he who looks upon the world as a work
comprising the means to that end
can look upon the created universe as a coherent unity
and can see that the world
is a complex of uses in successive order
for the service of the human race,
from which the angelic heaven is formed.
The Divine Love can, from its own Divine nature,
design no other end
than the eternal happiness of people,
and the Divine Wisdom can produce nothing but uses,
as means to that end.
From the contemplation of the world
in the light of this universal idea
every wise person may understand
that the Creator of the universe is one,
and that His Essence is Love and Wisdom.
There is, therefore, nothing in the universe
in which does not reside some use,
more or less remote, for the service of a person.


TCR = True Christian Religion

~ The Babylonians Destroy and Remove ~

The Babylonians broke up the bronze pillars,
the movable stands and the bronze Sea
that were at the temple of the Lord
and they carried all the bronze to Babylon.
They also took away the pots, shovels,
wick trimmers, sprinkling bowls, dishes
and all the bronze articles used in the temple service.
The commander of the imperial guard
took away the basins, censers,
sprinkling bowls, pots, lampstands,
dishes and bowls used for drink offerings --
all that were made of pure gold or silver.

The bronze from the two pillars,
the Sea and the twelve bronze bulls under it,
and the moveable stands,
which King Solomon had made
for the temple of the Lord,
was more than could be weighed.
Each of the pillars was eighteen cubits high
and twelve cubits in circumference;
each was four fingers thick and hollow.
The bronze capital on top of the one pillar
was five cubits high
and was decorated with a network
and pomegranates of bronze all around.
The other pillar, with its pomegranates, was similar.
There were ninety-six pomegranates on the sides;
the total number of pomegranates
above the surrounding network was a hundred.

(Jeremiah 52:17-23)

TCR 11 - Faith, Knowledge, Understanding

TCR 11 [3]

Faith in God enters into a a person by an inner way,
from the soul into the higher parts of the understanding.
Knowledge concerning God,
from which are formed conceptions of Him,
enters by an outer way,
because it is derived from the revealed Word
by the understanding through the senses of the body.
Both these forms of influx
meet midway in the understanding.
There natural faith,
which is merely persuasion,
becomes spiritual faith,
which is real acknowledgment:
the human understanding therefore, is, as it were,
a place of exchange, or a refining vessel,
in which the change takes place.

 

~ His Power, Wisdom and Understanding ~

"He made the earth by His power;
He founded the world by His wisdom
and stretched out the heavens by His understanding.
When He thunders,
the waters in the heavens roar;
He makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth.
He sends lightning with the rain
and brings out the wind from His storehouses."

(Jeremiah 51:15-16)

 

TCR 1, 2, 3 - Basics

TCR 1

. . . heaven, where angels are,
and the Church, in which people are,
act as one
like the internal and the external with a person.
So it is that the member 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 as to the interiors of his mind.
Thus he enters into heaven after death,
and there enjoys happiness
according to the degree in which
those principles are united in him.

TCR 2 [3]

The general form of faith on the part of a person is
that the he should believe on the Lord;
for belief on Him brings about conjunction with Him,
and consequently salvation.
To believe on Him is to have confidence that He saves;
and since no one can have this confidence
except the person who lives a good life,
therefore this also is understood by believing on Him.
This the Lord says in John:

 "This is the will of the Father,
that every one that believes on the Son
may have eternal life."
(John 4:40.

 An in another place:

 "He that believes on the Son has eternal life;
but he that believes not the Son shall not see life,
but the wrath of God abides on him."
(John 3:36)

TCR 3 [1-2]

. . . unless the Lord had come into the world no
one could have been saved.
The case is similar to-day;
and therefore unless
the Lord comes again into the world in the Divine Truth,
which is the Word, no one can be saved.

The particulars of faith on person's part are:

(1) God is one, in whom is the Divine Trinity,
and He is the Lord God the Savior Jesus Christ.

(2) A saving faith is to believe on Him.

(3) Evil actions ought not to be done,
because they are of the devil and from the devil.

(4) Good actions ought to be done,
because they are of God and from God.

(5) Moreover these things ought to be done
by a person as of himself;
but he should believe that they are from the Lord
acting with him and through him.

The first two particulars have reference to faith,
the next two to charity,
and the fifth to the union of charity and faith,
and thereby of the Lord and man.

~ "In Those Days, At That Time" ~

"In those days, at that time," declares the Lord,
"the people of Israel and the people of Judah together
will go in tears to seek the Lord their God.
They will ask the way to Zion and turn their faces toward it.
They will come and bind themselves to the Lord
in an everlasting covenant that will not be forgotten."

(Jeremiah 50:4-5)

ISB 18 - Knowing; ISB 20 Fishermen

ISB 18

. . . what is knowing
but collecting and storing up riches in a casket,
and only looking at them occasionally
and counting them over,
without any thought of use from them?

ISB 20

What is a spiritual fisherman?
. . . a fisherman in the spiritual sense of the Word,
signifies a person who investigates and teaches
natural truths,
and afterwards spiritual truths rationally.

. . . because "water" signifies natural truths;
likewise "a river";
"fish," those who are in natural truths;
and so "fishermen" signify those
who investigate and teach truths.

___________________________________

When the Writings were originally published,
they were published for the general public. 
When ISB was published, it was sent only to universities.

~ Drink the Cup ~

This is what the Lord says:
"If those who do not deserve t
o drink the cup must drink it,
why should you go unpunished?
You will not go unpunished, 
but must drink it."

(Jeremiah 49:12)

ISB 13 - The Delights of Love and the Pleasantness of Wisdom; ISB 16 - Degrees

ISB 13

. . . a person is not life,
but an organ recipient of life from God,
and that love together with wisdom is life,
also that God is love itself and wisdom itself,
and thus life itself . . ..
So it follows that so far as a person loves wisdom,
or so far as wisdom in the bosom of love is with him,
so far he is an image of God,
that is, a receptacle of life from God . . ..

ISB 16 [5-6]

. . . there are three angelic heavens:
a highest, which is also called the third heaven,
where are the angels of the highest degree;
a middle, which is also called the second heaven,
where are the angels of the middle degree;
and a lowest, which is also called the first heaven,
where are the angels of the lowest degree.
Those heavens are also distinguished
according to the degrees of wisdom and love.
Those who are in the lowest heaven
are in the love of knowing truths and goods;
those who are in the middle heaven
are in the love of understanding them;
and those who are in the highest heaven
are in the love of being wise, that is,
of living according to those things
which they know and understand.

Since the angelic heavens
are distinguished into three degrees,
therefore the human mind is also
distinguished into three degrees,
because the human mind is an image of heaven,
that is, it is a heaven in the least form.
So it is that a person can become
an angel of one of those three heavens,
and this is effected according to
his reception of wisdom and love from the Lord:
an angel of the lowest heaven
if he receives only the love of knowing truths and goods;
an angel of the middle heaven
if he receives the love of understanding them;
and an angel of the highest heaven
if he receives the love of being wise,
that is, of living according to them.

~ A Small Sentence in the Lord's Warning to Moab ~

"A curse on him who is lax in doing the Lord's work!"

(Jeremiah 48:11)

ISB 8, 11, 12 - Influx and Garments

ISB 8

These two, namely heat and light, or light and wisdom,
flow conjointly from God into the soul of man,
and through this into his mind,
its affections and thoughts,
and from these into
the senses, speech, and actions of the body.

ISB 11

. . . there is only one life,
and this is not capable of being created,
but is eminently capable of flowing into
forms organically adapted to its reception.

ISB 12

Spiritual things, thus clothed in a person,
enable him to live as a rational and moral person, .
thus a spiritually natural person.

From the principle established above,
that the soul clothes itself with a body
as a person clothes himself with a garment,
this follows as a conclusion.
For the soul flows into the human mind,
and through this into the body,
and carries life with it,
which it continually receives from the Lord,
and thus transfers it mediately into the body,
where by the closest union
it makes the body as it were to live. 

 

~ Do Not Fear or Be Dismayed ~

"Do not fear, O Jacob My servant;
do not be dismayed, O Israel.
I will surely save you out of a distant place,
your descendants from the land of their exile.
Jacob will again have peace and security,
and no one will make him afraid.
Do not fear, O Jacob My servant,
for I am with you," declares the Lord.
"Though I completely destroy all the nations
among which I scatter you,
I will not completely destroy you.
I will discipline you but only with justice;
I will not let you go entirely unpunished."

(Jeremiah 46:27-28)

 

ISB 6 - Spiritual Heat and Light

ISB 6

. . . every one knows that spiritual heat is love,
and spiritual light is wisdom,
for a person grows warm according as he loves,
and his understanding is in light according as he is wise.

-----

ISB = The Intercourse (or Conversation)
Between the Soul and the Body
Which Is Believed to Be Either by Physical Influx,
or by Spiritual Influx, or by Pre-Established Harmony

~ At Tahpanhes ~

In Tahpanhes the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah:
"While the Jews are watching,
take some large stones with you
and bury them in clay in the brick pavement
at the entrance to Pharaoh's palace in Tahpanhes.
Then say to them,
'This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says:
I will send for my servant
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon,
and I will set his throne 
over these stones I have buried here;
he will spread his royal canopy above them.
He will come and attack Egypt,
bringing to death those destined for death,
captivity to those destined for captivity,
and the sword to those destined for the sword.
He will set fire to the temples of the gods of Egypt;
he will burn their temples and take their gods captive.
As a shepherd wraps his garment around him,
so will he wrap Egypt around himself
and depart from there unscathed.
There in the temple of the sun in Egypt
he will demolish the sacred pillars
and will burn down the temples of the gods of Egypt.'"

(Jeremiah 43:8-13)

BE 120 - The Holy Spirit

BE 120

We do not anywhere read in the Old Testament,
that the prophets spoke the Word from the Holy Spirit,
but from Jehovah the Lord;
and where 'the Holy Spirit' is mentioned
in the New Testament,
the proceeding Divine is meant,
which is the Divine
enlightening, teaching, vivifying,
reforming, and regenerating.

. . . the Holy Divine, which is meant by the Holy Spirit,
proceeds from the Divine in the Lord
through His glorified Human,
which is the Divine Human, comparatively
as all activity proceeds
from the soul through the body with man.

~ Nebuzaradan Frees Jeremiah ~

The word came to Jeremiah from the Lord
after Nebuzaradan commander of the Imperial guard
had released him at Ramah.
He had found Jeremiah bound in chains
among all the captives from Jerusalem and Judah
who were were being carried into exile to Babylon.
When the commander of the guard found Jeremiah,
he said to him,
"The Lord your God decreed this disaster for this place.
And now the Lord has brought it about;
He has done just as He said He would.
All this happened
because you people sinned against the Lord
and did not obey Him.
But today I am freeing you
from the chains on your wrists.
Come with me to Babylon, if you like,
and I will look after you;
but if you do not want to, then don't come.
Look, the whole country lies before you;
go wherever you please."
However, before Jeremiah turned to go,
Nebuzaradan added,
"Go back to Gedaliah son of Ahikam,
the son of Shaphan,
whom the king of Babylon
has appointed over the towns of Judah,
and live with him among the people,
or go anywhere else you please."

Then the commander gave him
provisions and a present and let him go.
So Jeremiah went to Gedaliah son of Ahikam at Mizpa
and stayed with him among the people
who were left behind in the land.

(Jeremiah 40:1-6)

BE 117 - The Faith of the New Church

BE 117

The faith of the New Heaven and the New Church,
in its particular form is, is this:

That Jehovah God is love itself and wisdom itself,
or that He is good itself and truth itself;
and that as to the Divine truth itself, which is the Word,
and which was God with God,
He came down and assumed the Human,
for the purpose of restoring to order
all things which were in heaven,
and all things which were in hell,
and all things which were in the church;
inasmuch as at that time,
the power of the devil, that is, of hell,
prevailed over the power of heaven,
and on earth the power of evil over the power of good;
and consequently a total damnation
stood before the door and threatened.
This impending damnation
Jehovah God removed by His Human,
which was the Divine truth,
and thus He redeemed both angels and men;
and afterwards He united in His Human
the Divine truth to the Divine good,
 and thus He returned into His Divine,
in which He was from eternity,
together with His glorified Human.
This is signified by these words in John:

The Word was with God,
and God was the Word;
and the Word became flesh.
(John 1:1, 14)

And by this in the same:

I went forth from the Father,
and am come into the world;
again I leave the world,
and go to the Father.
(John 16:28)

~ King Zedekiah Questions Jeremiah ~

Then King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah the prophet
and had him brought to the third entrance
to the temple of the Lord.
"I am going to ask you something,"
the king said to Jeremiah.
"Do not hide anything from me."

Jeremiah said to Zedekiah,
"If I give you an answer, will you not kill me?
Even if I did give you counsel,
you would not listen to me."

But King Zedekiah swore this oath secretly to Jeremiah:
"As surely as the Lord lives,
who has given us breath,
I will neither kill you
nor hand you over to those who are seeking your life."

Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah,
"This is what the Lord God Almighty,
the God of Israel, says:
'If you surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon,
your life will be spared
and this city will not be burned down;
you and your family will live.
But if you will not surrender
to the officers of the king of Babylon,
this city will be handed of to the Babylonians
and they will burn it down;
you yourself will not escape from their hands.'"

(Jeremiah 38:14-18)

BE 111 - Regeneration; BE 113 - Self-examine & Repent

BE 111 (2,3)

. . . unless one is regenerated,
he cannot enter into heaven,
is very evident from the Lord's words:

Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth,
no one can see the kingdom of God
unless he is born again.
. . . "I tell you the truth,
no one can enter the kingdom of God
unless he is born of water and the Spirit."
(John 3:3, 5)

The precepts of regeneration are . . .:
That evils ought to be shunned,
because they are of the devil and from the devil;
that goods ought to be done,
because they are of God and from God;
and that the Lord is to be approached,
that He may lead us so to do.

BE 113

. . . if anyone from purpose or confirmation
acts against any other commandment of the Decalogue;
he then also offends against the rest,
because he does not account anything a sin.
It is very similar with those
who are in good from the Lord. These,
if from the will and understanding,
or from purpose and confirmation,
they abstain from one evil because it is a sin,
abstain from all,
and still more if they abstain from many;
for whenever anyone abstains,
from purpose and confirmation,
from any evil, because it is a sin,
he is kept by the Lord
in the purpose of abstaining from the rest;
wherefore if through ignorance,
or any predominant lust of the body,
he does an evil,
it nevertheless is not imputed to him,
because he did not purpose it to himself,
nor confirm it with himself.
A man comes into this kind of purpose,
if he examines himself once or twice a year,
and repents of the evil he discovers in himself. 

~ The Lord Sounds the Warning and the King Burns the Scroll of Warning ~

In the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah,
this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord:
"Take a scroll and write on it all the words
I have spoken to you concerning Israel,
Judah and all the other nations
from the time I began speaking to you
in the reign of Josiah till now.
Perhaps when the people of Judah hear about
every disaster I plan to inflict on them,
each of them will turn from his wicked way;
then I will forgive their wickedness and their sin."

So Jeremiah called Baruch son of Neriah,
and while Jeremiah dictated
all the words the Lord had spoken to him,
Baruch wrote them on the scroll.
Then Jeremiah told Baruch,
"I am restricted; I cannot go to the Lord's temple.
So you go to the house of the Lord on a day of fasting,
and read to the people from the scroll
the words of the Lord that you wrote as I dictated.
Read them to all the people of Judah
who come in from their towns.
Perhaps they will bring their petition before the Lord,
and each will turn from his wicked ways,
for the anger and wrath pronounced
against this people by the Lord are great."

. . . So Baruch read it to them.
When they heard all these words,
they looked at each other in fear and said to Baruch,
"We must report all these words to the king."
Then they asked Baruch,
"Tell us, how did you come to write all this?
Did Jeremiah dictate it?"

"Yes," Baruch replied, "he dictated all these words to me,
and I wrote them in ink on the scroll."

Then the officials said to Baruch,
"You and Jeremiah, go and hide.
Don't let anyone know where you are."

After they put the scroll
in the room of Elishama the secretary,
they went to the king in the courtyard
and reported everything to him.
The king sent Jehudi to get the scroll,
and Jehudi brought it
from the room of Elishama the secretary and read it
to the king all the officials standing beside him.
It was the ninth month
and the king was sitting in the winter apartment,
with a fire burning in the firepot in front of him.
Whenever Jehudi had read
three or four columns of the scroll,
the king cut them off with a scribe's knife
and threw them into the firepot,
until the entire scroll was burned in the fire.
The king and all his attendants
who heard all these words showed no fear,
nor did they tear their clothes.
Even though Elnathan, Delaiah and Gemariah
urged the king not to burn the scroll,
he would not listen to them.
Instead, the king commanded
Jerahmeel, a son of the king,
Seraiah son of Azriel and Shelemiah son of Abdeel
to arrest Barach the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet.

But the Lord had hidden them.

(Jeremiah 36:1-7, 15.5-26)

BE 102, 103 - The Collision and Conflict of Different Faiths

BE 102, 103

The faith of the New Church
cannot by any means be together
with the faith of the former church,
and if they are together,
such a collision and conflict will take place
that everything of the Church with a person will perish.

There is a further reason why the faith
of the former church and the faith of the New Church
cannot possibly be together,
and that is, because they are heterogeneous;
for the faith of the former church springs
from an idea of three gods,
but the faith of the New Church from the idea of one God;
and as consequently there arises
a heterogeneity between them,
there must inevitably,
if they are together,
be such a collision and conflict,
that everything of the church would perish;
that is, a person would either fall
into a delirium or into a swoon, as to spiritual things,
until at length he would scarcely know
what the church is, or whether there be any church.

~ Jeremiah Buys a Field ~

Jeremiah said, "The word of the Lord came to me:
Hanamel son of Shallum your uncle
is going to come to you and say,
'Buy my field at Anathoth,
because as nearest relative
it is your right and duty to buy it.'

"Then, just as the Lord had said,
my cousin Hanamel came to me
in the courtyard of the guard and said,
'Buy my field at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin.
Since it is your right to redeem it and posses it,
buy it for yourself.'

"I knew that this was the word of the Lord;
so I bought the field at Anathoth
from my cousin Hanamel
and weighed out for him seventeen shekels of silver.
I signed and sealed the deed, had it witnessed,
and weighed out the silver on the scales.
I took the deed of purchase --
the sealed copy containing the terms and conditions,
as well as the unsealed copy --
and I gave this deed to Baruch son of Neriah,
the son of Mahseiah,
in the presence of my cousin Hanamel
and of the witnesses tho had signed the deed
and of all the Jews sitting in the courtyard of the guard.

"In the presence I gave Baruch these instructions:
'This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says:
Take these documents,
both the sealed and unsealed copies
of the deed of purchase,
and put them in a clay jar so they will last a long time.
For this is what the Lord Almighty,
the God of Israel, says:
Houses fields and vineyards
will again be bought in this land.'"

(Jeremiah 32:6-15)

BE 92 - What Forms Heaven In a Person

BE 92

There are two things which form heaven in a person,
namely, the truths of faith and the goods of charity;
the truths of faith effect the presence of the Lord,
and show they way to heaven,
and the goods of charity effect conjunction with the Lord,
and introduce into heaven.
And every one there is introduced
into light according to his affection of truth,
and into heat according to his affection of good.

 

~ 'Know the Lord' ~

"This is the covenant I will make
with the house of Israel after that time,"
declares the Lord.
"I will put My law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be My people.
No longer will a man teach his neighbor,
or a man his brother, saying,
'Know the Lord,'
because they will all know Me,
from the least of them to the greatest,"
declares the Lord.
"For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more."

This is what the Lord says,

He who appoints the sun to shine by day,
who decrees the moon and stars to shine by night,
who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar --
the Lord Almighty is His name . . .

(Jeremiah 31:33-35)

 

BE 82-83 - "The He-Goats"

BE 82-83

Those who are in the present justifying faith,
are meant by "the he-goats" in Daniel . . ..

It is written in Daniel:

I saw in a vision a ram, which had two horns that were high,
but the higher came up last;
and the horn pushed westward, and northward,
and southward, and made itself great.
Then I saw a he-goat coming from the west,
over the face of the whole earth,
which had a horn between its eyes;
and he ran to the ram in the fury of his strength,
and broke his two horns,
and cast him down to the earth, and trampled him:
but the great horn of the he-goat was broken,
and instead of it there came up four horns;
and out of one of them came forth a little horn
which waxed exceeding great
towards the south, towards the east,
and towards honorableness,
and even to the host of heaven;
and it cast down of the host and of the stars to the earth,
and trampled them:
yea, he extolled himself to the prince of the host,
and took from him the daily sacrifice,
and cast away the place of his sanctuary,
for he cast down truth to the earth.
And I heard one saint saying, how long shall this vision be,
the daily sacrifice, and the wasting transgression,
that both the holy place and the host
should be given to be trodden under foot?
And he said, even to the evening the morning,
then shall the holy place be justified.
(Daniel 8:2-14)

~ I Will Be Your God ~

"This is what the Lord says:

"'I will restore the fortunes of Jacob's tents
and have compassion on his dwellings;
the city will be rebuilt on her ruins,
and the palace will stand in its proper place.
From them will come songs of thanksgiving
and the sound of rejoicing.
I will add to their numbers,
and they will not be decreased;
I will bring them honor,
and they will not be disdained.
Their children will be as in days of old,
and their community will be established before Me;
I will punish all who oppress them.
Their leader will be one of their own;
their ruler will arise from among them.
I will bring him near
and he will come close to Me,
for who is he who will devote himself to be close to Me?'
declares the Lord.
"'So you will be My people,
and I will be your God.'"

(Jeremiah 30:18-22)

BE 66 - Predestination; BE 69 - Act and Believe

BE 66

Predestination is also an offspring
of the faith of the present church,
because it is born from a belief
in instantaneous salvation from immediate mercy,
and from a belief in absolute impotence
and no free-will in spiritual things . . ..

But what more hurtful, or more cruel notion
could have been hatched out and believed concerning God,
than that any part of the human race
are predestined to damnation?
For it would be a cruel belief,
that the Lord, who is love itself and mercy itself,
willed that a multitude of men should be born for hell,
or that myriads of myriads
should be born devoted to destruction,
or in other words, born to be devils and satans;
and that, out of His Divine wisdom, which is infinite,
He would not and did not provide for those who live well,
and acknowledge God,
that they should not be cast into
everlasting fire and torment;
whereas the Lord is the Creator and Savior of all,
and He alone leads all,
and wills not the death of any.
What then can be believed and thought more monstrous,
than that multitudes of nations and peoples,
should under His auspices, and in His sight,
from a predestined decree,
be delivered up to the devil as his prey, to satiate his maw?
Yet this is an offspring of the faith of the present church;
but the faith of the New Church abhors it as a monster.

BE 69

In a word,
act of yourselves,
and believe that it is from the Lord,
for thus you will act as of yourselves.

~ Temple Furnishings Not First Moved to Babylon ~

For this is what the Lord Almighty says
about the pillars, the Sea, the movable stands
and the other furnishings that are left in this city,
which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon
did not take away when he carried Jehoiachin
son of Jehoiakim king of Judah
into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon,
along with all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem --
yes, this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel,
says about the things
that are left in the house of the Lord
and in the palace of the king of Judah and in Jerusalem:
'They will be taken to Babylon
and there they will remain
until the day I come for them,' declares the Lord.
'Then I will bring them back
and restore them to this place.'

(Jeremiah 27:1--22)

BE 57 - God Is One; BE 59 - Do This

BE 57

Who does not know that God is one,
and that besides Him there is no other,
and that God is love itself, and wisdom itself,
or that He is good itself, and truth itself;
and that the very God Himself as to Divine truth,
which is the Word,
descended and assumed the Human to remove the hells,
and consequently damnation from man,
which he effected by combats with,
and victories over the devil, that is, over all the hells,
which at that time infested and spiritually slew
every man coming into the world;
and that afterwards He glorified His Human,
by uniting in it the Divine truth with Divine good,
and thus He returned to the Father
from whom He came forth?
When these things are perceived,
then the following passages in John may be understood:

The Word was with God,
and God was the Word,
and the Word became flesh.
(John 1:1, 14)

And also the following in the same:

I went forth from the Father,
and came into the world;
again I leave the world and go to the Father.
(John 16:28, 29)

Hence also it is evident,
that without the coming of the Lord into the world,
no mortal could have been saved,
and they are saved who believe in Him, and live well.
This face of faith presents itself as clear as the day
to those who are enlightened by the Word,
and it is the face of the faith of the New Church.

BE 59
. . . my friend . . . 
shun evils as sins,
and do goods,
and believe in the Lord,
and saving justification will be given you.

~ Babylon Is Coming ~

Therefore the Lord Almighty says this:
"Because you have not listened to My words,
I will summon all the peoples of the north
and My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon,"
declares the Lord,
"And I will bring them
against this land and its inhabitants
and against all the surrounding nations.
I will completely destroy them
and make them an object of horror and scorn,
and an everlasting ruin.
I will banish from the the sounds of joy and gladness,
the voices of bride and bridegroom,
the sound of millstones
and the light of the lamp.
This whole country will become a desolate wasteland,
and these nations will serve
the king of Babylon seventy years.

"But when the seventy years are filled,
I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation,
the land of the Babylonians,
for their guilt," declares the Lord,
"and will make it desolate forever.
I will bring upon that land
all the things I have spoken against it,
all that are written in this book
and prophesied by Jeremiah against all the nations.
They themselves will be enslaved
by many nations and great kings;
I will repay them according to their deeds
and the work of their hands."

(Jeremiah 25:8-14)

 

BE 40 - The Idea of God

BE 40

. . . the idea of God enters into
all things of the church, religion, and worship;
and theological matters have their residence
above all others in the human mind,
and the idea of God is in the supreme place there;
wherefore if this be false,
all beneath it,
in consequence of the principle from which they flow,
must likewise be false or falsified;
for that which is supreme, being also the inmost,
constitutes the very essence of all that is derived from it;
and the essence, like a soul,
forms them into a body,
after its own image;
and when in its descent it lights upon truths,
it even infects them with its own blemish and error.
The idea of three Gods in theology may be compared
to a disease seated in the heart or lungs,
in which the patient fancies himself to be in health,
because his physician, not knowing his disease,
persuades him that he is so;
but if the physician knows it, and still persuades,
he may justly be charged with deep malignity.

~ A Righteous Branch ~

"The days are coming," declares the Lord,
"When I will raise up to David a righteous Branch,
a King who will reign wisely
and do what is just and right in the land.
In His days Judah will be saved
and Israel will live in safety.
This is the name by which He will be called:
The Lord Our Righteousness.

"So the, the days are coming," declares the Lord,
"When people will no longer say,
'As surely as the Lord lives,
who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,'
but they will say,
'As surely as the Lord lives,
who brought the descendants of Israel
up out of the land of the North
and out of all the countries where He had banished them'
Then they will live in their own land."

(Jeremiah 23:5-8)

 

BE 30-31 - Three Creeds

BE 30 - 31

The whole system of Theology in the Christian world,
at this day, is founded on an idea of Three Gods,
arising from the doctrine of a Trinity of Persons.

BRIEF ANALYSIS

We will first say something concerning the origin or source
from where the idea of a Trinity of Persons in the Divinity,
and thereby of three Gods, proceeded.
There are three Creeds, which are called
the Apostles', the Nicene, and the Athanasian,
which specifically teach a Trinity:
the Apostles' and the Nicene assert simply a Trinity,
but the Athanasian a Trinity of Persons.
These three Creeds are to be met with in many Psalters,
the Apostles' Creed next the Psalm which is sung,
the Nicene after the Decalogue,
and the Athanasian apart by itself.
The Apostles' Creed was written
after the times of the Apostles;
the Nicene Creed at the Council of Nice, a city of Bithynia,
to which all the bishops in Asia, Africa, and Europe,
were summoned by the Emperor Constantine,
in the year 325;
but the Athanasian Creed was composed
since that council by one or more persons,
with an intent utterly to overthrow the Arians
and was afterwards received by the churches as ecumenical.
In the two former creeds
the confession of a Trinity was evident,
but from the third or Athanasian Creed
the profession of a Trinity of Persons was spread abroad:
that from there arose the idea of three Gods . . ..

~ Sing to the Lord! ~

Sing to the Lord!
Give praise to the Lord!
He rescues the life of the needy
from the hands of the wicked.

(Jeremiah 22:13)

 

BE 16 - Not Even An Angel or What the New Church Is Up Against

BE 16

There now follows a brief Exposition
of the Doctrine of the New Church,
which is meant by the New Jerusalem in Revelation
(chaps. 21 and 22).
This doctrine, which is not only a doctrine of faith,
but also of life,
will be divided in the work itself into three parts.

. . . THE THIRD PART will point out the Disagreements
between the dogmas of the present church,
and those of the New Church.
But we will dwell a little upon these now,
because it is believed both by the clergy and laity,
that the present church is in
the light itself of the Gospel and in its truths,
which cannot possibly be
disproved, overturned, or controverted,
not even by an angel if one should descend from heaven:
neither does the present church see any otherwise,
because it has withdrawn the understanding from faith,
and yet has confirmed its dogmas
by a kind of sight beneath the understanding,
for falsities may there be confirmed
even so as to appear like truths;
and falsities there confirmed acquire a fallacious light,
before which the light of truth appears as thick darkness.
For this reason we shall here dwell
a little upon this subject,
mentioning the disagreements,
and illustrating them by brief remarks,
that such as have not their understanding
closed by a blind faith,
may see them as at first in twilight,
and afterwards as in morning light,
and at length, in the work itself,
as in the light of day. 

~ Cursed or Blessed? ~

This is what the Lord says:

"Cursed is the one who trusts in man,
who depends on flesh for his strength
and whose heart turns away from the Lord.
He will be like a bush in the wastelands:
he will not see prosperity when it comes.
He will dwell in the parched places in the desert,
in a salt land where no one lives.

"But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
whose confidence is in Him.
He will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit."

(Jeremiah 17:5-8)

BE 1 - What the Brief Exposition Is

 BE 1

Several works and tracts having been published by me,
during some years past, concerning the New Jerusalem,
by which is meant the New Church
about to be established by the Lord;
and the book of Revelation having been revealed,
I have come to a determination to bring to light
the entire doctrine of that church in its fullness.
But, as this is a work of some years,
I have thought it advisable
to draw up some sketch thereof,
in order that a general idea may first be formed
of that church and its doctrine . . ..
This compendium, however,
is not designed for critical examination,
but is only offered to the world by way of information,
as its contents will be fully demonstrated in the work itself.


BE = A Brief Exposition

Full title: 
A Brief Exposition of the
Doctrine of the New Church
Which is Meant by
The New Jerusalem in the Apocalypse

~ Jeremiah's Prayer and the Lord's Response ~

O Lord, my strength and my fortress,
my refuge in time of distress,
to You the nations will come
from the ends of the earth and say,
"Our fathers possessed nothing but false gods,
worthless idols that did them no good.
Do men make their own gods?
Yes, but they are not gods!"

"Therefore I will teach them --
this time I will teach them My power and might.
Then they will now that My name is the Lord."

(Jeremiah 16:19-21)

 

CL 531 - The State of Married Love

CL 531

. . . it is possible for married love to exist in one partner
and not at the same time in the other.
It is possible as well for that love to lie so deeply hidden
that the person himself has no awareness of it.
And it may also be implanted
during the course of one's life.
The reason is that married love in its progress
accompanies religion;
and because religion is
the marriage of the Lord and the church,
religion is what initiates and infuses that love.
Consequently married love is imputed
to a person after death
in accordance with his spiritual rational life.
Moreover, for one to whom that love is imputed,
a marriage is, after his passing,
provided in heaven,
whatever the character of any marriage
he may have had in the world.

 

~ Jeremiah Complains and the Lord Explains ~

You are always righteous, O Lord,
when I bring a case before You.
Yet I would speak with You about Your justice:
Why does the way of the wicked prosper?
Why do all the faithless live at ease?
You have planted them,
and they have taken root;
they grow and bear fruit.
You are always on their lips
but far from their hearts.
Yet You know me, O Lord;
You see me and test my thoughts about You."

This is what the Lord says:
"As for all My wicked neighbors
who seize the inheritance I gave My people Israel,
I will uproot them from their lands
and I will uproot the house of Judah from among them.
But after I uproot them,
I will again have compassion
and will bring each of them back
to his own inheritance and his own country.
And if they learn well the ways of My people
and swear by My name, saying,
'As surely as the Lord lives' --
even as they once taught My people to swear by Baal --
then they will be established among My people.
But if any nation does not listen,
I will completely uproot and destroy it,"
declares the Lord.

(Jeremiah 12:1-3, 14-17)

CL 528, 529 - Committing vs. Refraining from Evil

CL 528

. . . anyone who purposefully or deliberately
acts against one commandment acts against the rest,
since to act purposefully or deliberately
is to deny altogether that the action is a sin,
and anyone who denies the existence of sin
regards it as nothing
if he acts against the rest of the commandments.

CL 529

Something similar is true in the case of people
who are in a state of good from the Lord.
If they from their will and intellect or
purposefully and deliberately 
refrain from one evil
because it is a sin,
they refrain from them all;
and this still more if they refrain from several.
For as soon as anyone purposefully or deliberately
refrains from some evil because it is a sin,
he is kept by the Lord
in a purpose to refrain from the rest.
Consequently, if he then does evil unwittingly
or under the sway
of some overwhelming lust of the body,
still it is not imputed to him,
because he did not purpose it to himself,
nor does he defend it in himself.
A person comes into this purpose
if he examines himself once or twice a year
and repents of the evil that he finds himself.
Not so one who never examines himself.

~ The Lord vs. Idols ~

Hear what the Lord says to you, O house of Israel.
This is what the Lord says:

"Do not learn the ways of the nations
or be terrified by signs in the sky,
though the nations are terrified by them.
For the customs of the peoples are worthless;
they cut a tree out of the forest,
and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel.
They adorn it with silver and gold;
they fasten it with hammer and nails
so it will not totter.
Like a scarecrow in a melon patch,
their idols cannot speak;
they must be carried because they cannot walk.
Do not fear them;
they can do no harm
nor can they do any good."

No one is like you, O Lord;
You are great,
and Your name is mighty in power.
Who should not revere You, O King of the nations?
This is Your due.
Among all the wise men of nations
and in all their kingdoms,
there is no one like You.
They are all senseless and foolish;
they are taught by worthless wooden idols.
Hammered silver is brought from Tarshish
and gold from Uphaz.
What the craftsman and goldsmith have made
is then dressed in blue and purple --
all made by skilled workers.
But the Lord is the true God;
He is the living God,
the eternal King.
When He is angry, the earth trembles;
the nations cannot endure His wrath.

"Tell them this:  'These gods,
who did not make the heavens and the earth,
will perish from the earth and from under the heavens.'"

But God made the earth by His power;
He founded the world by His wisdom
and stretched out the heavens by His understanding.
When He thunders, the waters in the heavens roar;
He makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth.
He sends lightning with the rain
and brings out the wind from His storehouses.

Everyone is senseless and without knowledge;
every goldsmith is shamed by his idols.
His images are a fraud;
they have no breath in them.
They are worthless, the objects of mockery;
when their judgment comes,
they will perish.
He who is the Portion of Jacob is not like these,
for He is the Maker of all things,
including Israel, the tribe of His inheritance --
the Lord Almighty is His name.

(Jeremiah 10:1-16)

CL 516, 519 - The Word

CL 516

For the church is founded on the Word,
and the Word is the Lord.
The Word is the Lord
because He is the Divine good and Divine truth in it.

CL 519

Violation of the Word
is committed by people in the Christian Church
who adulterate its good and truths,
and this is done by those
who separate truth from good
and good from truth.
It is done as well by those
who mistake appearances of truth and fallacies
for genuine truths and defend them.
And so, too, by those
who know truths of doctrine from the Word
and live evilly.

~ Boasting ~

This is what the Lord says:

"Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom
or the strong man boast of his strength
or the rich man boast of his riches,
but let him who boasts
boast about this:
that he understands and knows Me,
that I am the Lord,
who exercises kindness,
justice and righteousness on earth,
for in these I delight,"
declares the Lord.

(Jeremiah 9:23-24)

 

CL 510 - The Excellence of a Man's Life

CL 510

The excellence of a man's life
depends on his married love,
for his life then unites itself
with the life of his wife
and by that union is ennobled.

 

~ What Kind of Wisdom Do They Have? ~

"'How can you say,
"We are wise,
for we have the law of the Lord,"
when actually the lying pen of the scribes
has handled it falsely?
The wise will be put to shame;
they will be dismayed and trapped.
Since they have rejected the word of the Lord,
what kind of wisdom do they have?'"


(Jeremiah 8:8-9)

CL 497, 499 - The Flesh and the Spirit

CL 497[2]

. . . the flesh is against the spirit,
which is to say,
against the spiritual things of the church.

CL 499

. . . natural people, even including carnal ones,
possess human rationality like others,
yet that they use it only
when engaged in their outward lives,
but abuse it when engaged in their inner ones.

It is in consequence of this
that one ought not to base his judgment of a person
on the wisdom of his lips alone,
but on the wisdom of his life too.

 

~ What Will You Do In the End? ~

O Lord, do not Your eyes look for truth?

You struck them, but they felt no pain;
You crushed them, but they refused correction.
They made their faces harder than stone
and refused to repent.
I thought,
"These are only the poor; they are foolish,
for they do not know the way of the Lord,
the requirements of their God.
So I will go to the leaders and speak to them;
surely they know the way of the Lord,
the requirements of their God."
But with one accord
they too had broken off the yoke
and torn off the bonds.
Therefore a lion from the forest will attack them,
a wolf from the desert will ravage them,
a leopard will lie in wait near their towns
to tear to pieces any who venture out,
for their rebellion is great
and their backslidings many.

"Should I not punish them for this?" declares the Lord.
"Should I not avenge myself on such a nation as this?

"A horrible and shocking thing
has happened in the land:
The prophets prophesy lies,
the priests rule by their own authority,
and My people love it this way.
But what will you do in the end?"

"To whom can I speak and give warning?
Who will listen to Me?
Their ears are closed so they cannot hear.
The word of the Lord is offensive to them;
they find no pleasure in it."

(Jeremiah 5:3-6,29-31; 6:10)