BE 44 - shunning evil, doing good, believing in the Lord

BE 44 (end)
The three remaining propositions, namely,
That evils ought to be shunned,
because they are of the devil and from the devil;
and that goods ought to be done,
because they are of God and from God;
but that it is to be believed that they are from the Lord,
with him and through him.
There is no need to illustrate and demonstrate these;
for the whole Sacred Scripture, from beginning to end, proves them,
and, in short, teaches nothing else
but to shun evils, and do goods, and to believe in the Lord God.
Besides, without these three there is not any religion,
for religion is of the life;
and life is to shun evils and do goods,
and a person cannot do goods and shun evils except as of himself.
Wherefore if these three are removed from the church,
the Sacred Scripture, together with religion,
is likewise removed at the same time:
which being removed the church is not a church.

BE 43 - the faith of the New Church

BE 43
And this faith is in God the Savior Jesus Christ
which in its simple form is as follows:

1. That there is One God in Whom is the Divine Trinity,
   and He is the Lord Jesus Christ.
   
2. Saving Faith is to believe in Him.
3. Evils ought to be shunned, because they are of the devil,
   and from the devil.
   
4. Goods ought to be done, because they are of God, and from God.
5. And they ought to be done by a person as of himself,
   but it is to be believed that they are from the Lord,
   with Him and through Him.

TCR 846 - the Word's spiritual sense

TCR 846
In every detail the Word contains a spiritual sense
corresponding to the natural sense,
and by means of that sense
the Word forms a conjunction between people in the church and the Lord;
it also creates an association with angels,
and the holiness of the Word resides in that sense.

TCR 829 - levels in a person

TCR 829
. . . religion occupies the highest levels in a person,
and the highest levels give life and light to the levels below . . .

TCR 814 - freedom

TCR 814
When the freedom to speak and write is restricted,
so is freedom of thought,
that is to say,
freedom to take the widest view of things is kept under restriction.

TCR 805 - the love of married couples

TCR 805
. . . the true love of married couples is a heavenly love,
and it is untouched by a desire to dominate.

TCR 787 - one visible God

TCR 787
This new church is the crown of all the churches
which have up to now existed upon earth,
because it will worship one visible God,
in whom is the invisible God,
as the soul is in the body.
In this way
and no other
is God's conjunction with a person possible,
because a person is natural and so thinks in a natural fashion;
and conjunction must take place in his thinking
and so in the affection of his love,
and this happens when a person thinks of God as Man.

TCR 782 - Why New Jerusalem?

TCR 782
The reason why the new church is meant
by the New Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven (Revelation 21),
is that Jerusalem was the capital city in the land of Canaan.
It was there that the temple was and the altar where sacrifices were made,
and so the Divine worship to which three times a year
every male in the whole land was commanded to come.
It was also because Jerusalem is where the Lord was, and taught in its temple;
and He afterwards there glorified His Human.
These are the reasons why Jerusalem means the church.

TCR 774 - the Lord's perpetual presence

TCR 774
The Lord is perpetually present with every person,
wicked as well as good,
for no one could live without His presence.
But His coming is restricted to those who receive Him,
and these are those who believe in Him
and keep His commandments.
It is the Lord's perpetual presence
which gives a person the faculty of reason
and the ability to become spiritual.


Create for me, God, a clean heart,
and make new a steadfast spirit within me.
Psalm 51:10

TCR 754 - the results of self-love and love of the world

TCR 754
There are various ways in which a church comes to an end.
It happens principally through circumstances
which cause falsity to look like truth;
and when this happens, the good which is inherently good,
what is called spiritual good, can no longer exist.
What is then believed to be good
is only natural good, the product of a moral life.
The reason for truth coming to an end,
and good with it,
is principally the two natural loves
which are diametrically opposed to the two spiritual loves;
these are called self-love and love of the world.
When self-love is dominant,
it is the opposite of love to God;
and when the love of the world is dominant,
it is the opposite of love towards the neighbor.
Self-love is wishing well to no one but oneself,
except for selfish reasons;
and likewise the love of the world.
Once those loves have got a grip,
they spread like mortification through the body,
and stage by stage destroy every part of it.

TCR 746 - the love of service, or uses, holds society together

TCR 746
At a person's first creation . . .
he was endowed with wisdom and the love of wisdom,
not for his own sake, but so that he might share it with others.
So there is a warning attached to the wisdom of the wise,
that no one is to keep his wisdom to himself alone,
or live for himself alone,
but is to share it at the same time with others.
That is the origin of society, which could not otherwise exist.
To live for others is to perform services.
Services are what hold society together,
and there are as many ways of doing this
as there are ways of doing good,
and services are beyond counting.
There are spiritual services,
which have to do with love to God and love towards the neighbor.
There are moral and political services,
which have to do with the love of the community and country
in which a person lives, and with his colleagues and fellow-citizens.
There are natural services,
which have to do with the love of the world and its demands.
And there are bodily services,
which have to do with looking after oneself,
so as to be able to perform higher services.

All these services are imprinted on a person,
and they follow in their proper order, one after the other;
when they are present together,
then one is contained within another.

Moreover, every love has its own pleasure,
for this is what gives it life;
and the pleasure of the love of service is a heavenly pleasure
which enters into the pleasures that follow in turn,
and in accordance with the order in which one follows the other
it uplifts them and makes them everlasting.

TCR 739 - the joys & everlasting happiness of heaven

TCR 739 [7]
. . . the joys of heaven and everlasting happiness are not places,
but are the conditions of a person's life.
The conditions of life in heaven arise from love and wisdom;
and because it is service which holds together love and wisdom,
the conditions of life in heaven are due to their combination in service.

TCR 734 - What is heavenly joy?

TCR 734
The pleasure of service
arising from love
by means of wisdom
is the soul
and life
of all heavenly joys.

TCR 726 - How does reciprocal conjunction work?

TCR 726 [2]
Real love towards the neighbor
and real faith
come only from the Lord;
and both are conferred upon a person
when he of his own free will
does good on the natural level to the neighbor,
and believes truths with his reason,
and looks to the Lord,
doing all these three things because of the commandments in the Word.
Then the Lord plants charity and faith in his midst,
and makes both of these spiritual.
So the Lord conjoins a person to Himself,
and the person conjoins himself to the Lord;
for conjunction is impossible if it is not reciprocal.

TCR 719 - the Lord is present

TCR 719
The Lord is present both with the worthy and the unworthy,
because He is omnipresent in heaven and in hell, and also in the world,
and so with the wicked as well as with the good.
But in the case of the good, that is the regenerate,
He is present both at the universal and particular level,
for the Lord is in them and they are in the Lord,
where the the Lord is, there is heaven.

TCR 714 - particulars and universals

TCR 714
For particulars to be kept in their proper order and relationship
there must be universals from which they come into being
and in which they continue in being.
The particulars must also in some way
be an image of the universals to which they refer;
otherwise the whole world would cease to exist along with its parts.
It is this relationship which ensures
that everything in the universe has been preserved intact
from the first day of creation down to the present,
and will continue into the future.
It is well known
that everything in the universe has reference to good and truth.
The reason is that all things were created by God
from the Divine good of love
by means of the Divine truth of wisdom.

TCR 700-701 - the holy treasure that is Holy Supper

TCR 700-701
But because real Christianity is now for the first time arising,
the new church meant by the New Jerusalem in Revelation
is now being established by the Lord;
in this God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are acknowledged as one,
because they are in one person.
It has therefore pleased the Lord to reveal the spiritual sense of the Word,
so that this church may reap
the real benefit of the sacraments of baptism and the Holy Supper.
This comes about when people see with the eyes of their spirit,
that is, with the understanding,
the holiness hidden within them,
and grasp this holiness for themselves
by the means which the Lord taught us to use in His Word.

Without the disclosure of the spiritual sense of the Word,
or what is the same thing,
without the revelation of how natural things correspond to spiritual ones,
the holiness of the sacrament which is the subject of the chapter
could not more be inwardly acknowledged than a treasure hidden in a field.

TCR 694 - everlasting rest is the pleasure of service

TCR 694 [7]
'Everlasting rest,' he said, 'is not leisure,
since that reduces the mind and so the whole body
to a state of feebleness, torpidity, stupidness and somnolence . . .
So everlasting rest is a rest that banishes all those ills
and makes people alive.
This can only be something that uplifts the mind.
So it is some interest or task which excites, enlivens and delights the mind.
This depends upon the purpose for which, in which and towards which it aims.
This is why the whole of heaven is seen by the Lord as a coherent purpose,
and it is the purpose he serves
that makes every angel an angel.
The pleasure of service carries him along,
as a favorable current does a ship,
and confers upon him everlasting peace and the rest peace gives.
This is what is meant by everlasting rest from labors.
The extent to which an angel is alive
depends upon his mental commitment arising from service.

TCR 684 - the purpose behind baptism

TCR 684
The third purpose of baptism, which is its end in view,
is a person's regeneration.

This is the real purpose behind baptism,
and so the end with a view to which it was instituted.
The reason is that one who is truly a Christian
gets to know and acknowledge the Lord the Redeemer, Jesus Christ;
and since He is the Redeemer, He is also the Regenerator.
Redemption and regeneration are one . . ..
Another reason is that a Christian possesses the Word,
in which is available a description of the means of regeneration,
and these are faith in the Lord and charity towards the neighbor.
This is the same as when it is said of the Lord
that He will baptise with the Holy Spirit and with fire
(Matt. 3:11; Mark 1:8-11; Luke 3:16; John 1:33).
The Holy Spirit means the Divine truth of faith,
fire the Divine good of love or charity,
both of these proceeding from the Lord . . .
These two are the means
by which all regeneration is accomplished by the Lord.

The reason why the Lord Himself was baptised by John
(Matt. 3:13-17; Mark 1:9; Luke 3:21, 22)
was not only to introduce the practice of baptism for the future
and to lead the way by His example,
but also because He glorified His Human and made this Divine,
just as He regenerates a person and makes him spiritual.

TCR 676 - washing your heart

Matthew 18: 16-20
"Are you still so dull?" Jesus asked them.
"Don't you see that whatever enters the mouth
goes into the stomach and then out of the body?
But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart,
and these make a man 'unclean.'
For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery,
sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.
These are what make a man 'unclean'.

TCR 676
The external person is not a person,
but only the figure of a person;
for it is the internal,
the power to be wise which comes from God,
which makes the person.
It is much the same with the circumcised and the baptized,
unless each circumcises or washes his heart.