TCR 50
. . . God's omnipotence, omniscience
and omnipresence arise through
the wisdom of His love
is what is meant by the following passage from John:
In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
All things were made through Him,
and without Him was nothing made which was made.
In Him was life, and the life was the light of men;
and the world was made through Him;
and the Word was made flesh.
John 1:1, 3-4, 10, 14
'Word' here means Divine Truth,
or, what comes to the same thing,
the Divine Wisdom.
That is why it is also called life and light;
for these are nothing but wisdom.
TCR 51
In the Word
righteousness is used with reference to love
and judgment to wisdom . . ..
TCR 53
God is order itself
and therefore that He of Himself
introduced order both into the universe
and every one of its parts.
It was a most perfect order that He introduced,
because all that He created was good,
as we read in the Book of Creation.
TCR 55
Anyone can see
that there is no empire, kingdom, duchy,
republic, city or house
which lacks the support of laws,
to impose order
and so control the form of its government.
In each case
the laws of righteousness occupy the highest place,
political laws the second place,
and the laws governing the economy the third.
If we make a comparison with a person,
the laws of righteousness are the head,
those of politics the body,
those of the economy the clothes.
That is why these last can be changed,
like clothes.
As for the order
which God established for the church,
this consists in having God in every single part of it,
and having the neighbor as the object
towards which order should be directed.
The laws of this order are as many
as the truths in the Word;
the laws which relate to God make up the head,
those which relate to the neighbor the body,
and its ceremonies make the clothes.
For if the ceremonies were not there to contain
the other things in their proper order,
it would be like stripping the body
and exposing it to heat in summer
and cold in winter;
or like taking away the walls and roof of a church,
so that the chancel, altar and pulpit
were in the open air
exposed to all the various extremes of the weather.
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