^"1I 1 YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY THE COLLEGE OF MISSIONS LIBRARY at the YALE DIVINITY SCHOOL THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION CONTAINING anfje JKnibrrsal JEJjeoloflg OF THE NEW HEAVEN AND THE NEW CHURCH. &i)t ftatrfj Titian. True Christian Religion: CONTAINING THE anftersal Cfjeologg NEW CHURCH, FORETOLD BY THE LORD IN DANIEL VII. 13, 14; AND IN REVELATION XXI. 1, 2. By EMANUEL SWEDENBORG, SERVANT OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST Uolclj (SMtton. PHILADELPHIA : J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. 1887. DANIEL VII. 13, 14- / saw in the night visions, and behold one . like the Son of Man came with the clouds of the heavens. And there was given Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom ; and all people, nations, and languages shall serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. APOCALYPSE XXI. i, 2, 5, 9, 10. / John saw a new heaven and a new earth. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for Iter husband. Atid an angel talked with me, 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 ?nountain, and showed me that great city, the Holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And He said unto 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. 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 tlie Unity of Gad. 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. u. 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, u. 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. u. 12. VI. Unless God were One, the universe could not have been created and preserved, u. 13. VII. 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 JeJiovah. n. 18-24. I. The One God is called Jehovah from Esse, thus from this, because Ho j!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. 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 modern times, originated from no other cause than from not understanding the Divine Esse. u. 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 tlie Essence of God, which is Divine Love and Divine Wisdom. u. 36-47. I. God is Love itself and Wisdom itself, and these two make His essence. ¦>• 37- II. God is Good itself and Truth itself, because good is of love, and truth is of wisdom. 11. 38. III. God, because He is Love itself and Wisdom itself, is Life itself, whicn 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 • 345-348- IV. An abundance of truths, coherent as if bundled together, exalts and perfects faith, n. 349-354. (1.) 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. »• 352> 353- (4.) The truths 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. (r.) 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. (1.) 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. 11. 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 charity and faith in the Lord. n. 36S-372. (1.) It is by conjunction with God that man has salvation and eternal life D. 369. GENERAL INDEX OF THE CONTENTS. xi (2.) Conjunction with God the Father is not possible, but with the Lord, «nd 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. VIII. Charity and Faith are together in good works, a. 373-377. (1.) Charity is to'will well, and good works are to do well from willing well- »• 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. ~. 377. IX. There is a true faith, a spurious faith, and a hypocritical faith, n. 378- 38i- The Christian church began from the cradle to be infested and divided by schisms and heresies, n. 378. ( 1 . ) 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 the 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. 11. 380. (3.) Hypocritical faith is no faith, n. 381. X. There is no faith with the evil. n. 382-384. (1.) 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 universal loves, the love of heaven, the love of the world, and the 'ove of self. n. 394-396. (1.) 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 whet tiiey are not rightly subordinated, they pervert and invert him. n. 403-405. Xli GENERAL INDEX OF THE CONTENTS. III. Every man individually is to be loved, but according to the quality, ol 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 Lord'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 has 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, a. 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. u. 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- 45°-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 neighboi. n. 456-458. 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 things was given to man. n. 466-469. III. Man is not life, but is a receptacle of life from God. u. 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, which is free-will, n 475- 47»- GENERAL INDEX OF THE CONTENTS. xiii V. From the permission of evil, in which permission every one's intemai man is, it is clearly manifest that man has free-will in spiritual tilings, 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. 483-485. 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 quently there would be no imputation, but mere predestination, which is detest able, n. 485. Detestable things made known 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, u. 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 (liiero 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. 11. 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 born to evils of every 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. 11. 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. a. 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, u. 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. b. 561-563. XI. One who has never practised repentance, or has not looked into and searched himself, at length does not know what damnable evil is, and what saving good is. n. 564-566. CHAPTER X. CONCERNING REFORMATION AND REGENERATION. I. Unless a man is bora again, and, as it were, created anew, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. a. 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. 579-582. IV. Regeneration is effected in a manner analogous to that in which man is conceived, carried in the womb, born, 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, u. 587-590. 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. 11. 607-610. X. So far as man is regenerated sins are removed, and this removal is the remission of sins. u. 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, »nd with which charity conjoins itself, n. 618-620. Some things concerning a masculine sex and a feminine in the vegetable kingdom, u. 585. CHAPTER XI. 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 (salus) 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. 11. 632-635. IV. The faith imputative of Christ's Merit was 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. u. 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- J53- IX. The faith with that to which it conjoins itself, makes the sentence. If Vue faith conjoins itself with good, sentence is made for eternal life ; but if the tuth conjoins itself with evil, sentence is made for eternal death, n. 654-657. X. Thought is not imputed to any one, but will. n. 658-660. CHAPTER XII. 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, u. 670-673. III. Baptism was instituted in the place of circumcision, because the circum cision of the heart was represented by the circumcision of the 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. 684-687. VII. By the Baptism of John a way was prepared, so that Jehovah the Lord could descend into the world and work out redemption, u. 688-690. 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 wine 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. u. 704, 705. What by blood, n. 706. What by bread, u. 707. What by wine. n. 708. 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, u. 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, u. 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. u. 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. "• 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. ¦>• 757-759- GENERAL INDEX OF THE CONTENTS. xvii 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 «nd 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. u. 768-771. 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, 780. IX. This is meant by the New Heaven and the New Jerusalem (Apoc. xxi.) n. 781-785. X. This New Church is the Crown of all the Churches that have hitherto existed on earth, n. 786-791. SUPPLEMENT. 1. Concerning the spiritual world ; its quality. 11. 792-795. z. 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, u. 806-812. 7. Concerning the Germans in the spiritual world, n. 813-816. 8 Concerning the Papists in the spiritual world, n. 817-821. 9. Concerning the Popish Saints in the spiritual world, n. 822-827. to. Concerning the Mohammedans in the spiritual world, n. 828-834. 11. Concerning the Africans in the spiritual world ; and also something > cerning Gentiles, n. 835-840. [2. 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. i. 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, the 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, //; the universal 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, chat 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, that 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 thewrath 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, The Word was with God, and the Wordwas God: and the Word became flesh (i. 1, 14) : and in the same, I came forth from 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 know that the Son of God hath come, and given us an understanding, that we may know Him that is true ; and we are in Him that is true, in His Son Jesus Christ : This is the true God and eternal Life (1 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, 1. That God is One, in Whom is a Divine Trinity, 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 Jews 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, irom 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 : I. The whole Sacred Scripture, and thence the doctrines of the churches in the Christian world, teach that God is one. II. There is a tmiversal influx [from God] into the souls of men, that there is a God, atid thai He is one. 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. IV. As to what the one God is, nations and people have differed and still differ, from several causes. 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. VI. Unless God were one, the universe could No. 6.] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 7 not have been created and preserved. VII. The man who 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, nothing 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; Jehovah our God is one Jehovah (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 Jehovah 1 and there is no God else beside Me (xlv. 2 1). I am Jehovah thy God, and thou shalt know no God beside Me (Hos. xiii. 4). Thus saith Jehovah, the King of Israel, I am the First and the Last, and beside Me there is no God (Isa. xliv. 6). In that day Jehovah shall be King over all the earth ; in that day Jehovah 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 1* IO THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. L 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 not 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 glory e*qual, 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. [CHAr. 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). Jehovah, also, the name by which He called Himself anew before them, signifies the supreme and only Beingfrom 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. u.] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 1 3 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. n. 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 images 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 r.ewly arrived spirits from the natural world. Seeing them No. 12.J CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 15 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, ilso 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 oi 16 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 eggs, 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. 17 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 : whilst, 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 theii 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 lie 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 heal 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, aureliae, 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 {animus), 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.] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR 19 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 they 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 world. As to myself, I never could, nor can I now ; for J 20 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. L 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 orders 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 Gcd ; 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 ol the universe, is because the universe is a work coherino- 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 everywhere 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 and the Last, the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and the Omega (Isa. xliv. 6; Apoc. i. 8, 17); and, in another place, That Hemak- eth all things, spreadeth out the heavens, and stretcheth out the earth by Himself (Isa. 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 he 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, Erom 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 Divine 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 the 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. I. weak-minded people, who see what they do not see. Re specting man, and himself as a man, he thinks as he does 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 ir 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 communions, 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. 16.] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 25 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 peisons, 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 ^Eolus, with this inscription beneath, " These three are one 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. 16. 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 them a bishop. They came up to me, and after some conversation concerning the spiritual world, of which they 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 will 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 tire sign of the cross, and calls them the elect, and children of God:' The No. 16.] 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 [ratiocinio], 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 singly 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 Divinity, 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 o£ 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. 17.] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 2C1 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 simv ilar essence as to that, still are not able to combine your selves 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 by person, and what does the word signify ? " And they said, 30 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. L " The appellation Person signifies not apart or quality m an other, but what subsists by itself \Jroprie subsistit]. Thus do all the principal doctors of the church define person, and we agree with them." And I said, " Is this the definition of person i " 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 [subfiles 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 lijs 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 give answers. No. [9. J 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 God is called Jehovah from Esse [to be], thus 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 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. 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 another God of the same essence. V. A plu rality of gods in ancient and also in modern times, existed from no other cause than from not understanding the Divine 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 FlRST AND THE LAST, the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and the Omega. That Jehovah signifies I am and To be, is known ; and 32 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. L that God was so called from the most ancient times is evi dent from the book of Creation, or Genesis, where, in the fiist chapter, He is named God, but in the second and the following, Jehovah 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 namel God said, I AM THAT 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 unto you ; this is My name for ever, and this My memorial from 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 : I am the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and the Omega (Isa. xliv. 6; and Apoc. i. 8, n ; 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 alphabet ; 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- everv 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.| 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 born 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 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. III. The Divine Esse [to be] is Esse in itself, AND, AT THE SAME TlME, 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, I Jehovah Mo. 22.] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 35 make all things, and spread out the heavens alone, and stretch out the earth by Myself (xliv. 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 nis 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. L 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 mea. But those who deny the Divine sanctity of the Word, and still carry the tiling 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 Divinities ; " 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 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 afterwards 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 als'j rN modern Times, 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. 24J 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: 1. 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. 1. led by God, may be compared to the steps of the ladder seen by Jacob, which was set on the earth, whose top reached to heaven, and by which the angels ascended, and Jehovah ttood 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 Avindows 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 plurality 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.I- CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 41 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 ; because 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, 01 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 may be 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 them ; 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 lam the way, the truth, and the Life ; and in another place As the Father hath life in Himself, so also hath he riven 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 light 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, which are Creation, Redemption, and Regeneration; and that the)' 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 Sen 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. 1 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. 1 1. God is infinite, for He was before the world, thus before spaces and times arose. III. God, since the world was made, is in space- 7vithout space, and in time with out time. 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. 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 finite 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 exJsts 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 thos-e 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. IChap. 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 the 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 objects, 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 qf 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 rvn. 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. III. 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 ; in a word, every measure, figure, and form there is No. 30.] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 45, 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 away, the things substantiated and materialized (substantiata 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 us a Child is born; unto us a Son is given, Whose name is Mighty, the Prince of vol. 1. 3 JO THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I. Peace (ix. 6); and in David: I 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? Can any hide him self in secret places, that I shall not see him ? Do not I fill heaven and earth? (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 ;s 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 tilings 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 immensity, 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 Divinity 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 [animus] of one is never exactly like another's ; where fore it is said, "Many men, many minds;" consequently the mind [mens], 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 multiplication 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 would 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 [lumen] and into spiritual light [lumen] with man. Into natural light [lumen] — 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 [lumen] — 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. 33. 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 proximate 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 own 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.J CONCERNING GOD THE CRE .TOR. 57 this even to the highest or heavenly [eel jstial] degree, then man becomes truly an image of God, and after death he becomes an angel of the highest heaven ; but if he prepaiea 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 piety, 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, except that he enjoys the faculty of understanding and thence of speech. If he then shuts up the highest natural degree, which 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 crystal ; 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 5 8 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I rotten wood, or into the turf of a bog, or into dung, &c. ; foi 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 vhich are above the sun, to nature; saying from an a:knowledgment 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 gymnasiums, 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. 35 J 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 fonns, flying from the table to the walls, which, in that nocturnal lunar light, appeared like beautiful Indian biids ; 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 60 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. 1 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 ; 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, " Friend, 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 Avhich 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 Avork 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 ? whence their form9 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 ? And 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 everywhere 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, however, continued the discourse by saying, " What can be said more insane, than that the centre is from the ex panse ? By your centre we unde'rstand the sun, and by your expanse Ave 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 Avhence 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 hot 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.I 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 Avhen 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 knoAvn 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, Avhich 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. 1. is in the midst of it ; and because he wondered at this Ave demonstrated it thus : " Love, in its essence, is spiritual fire; thence it is that fire, in the Word, in its spiiitual 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 Ave 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, Avhich is called the spiritual world, 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 becomes an adjective of the essentials 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 Avith, determining, forming, and at the same time elevating it. But this member of this chapter, like the former, shall be divided into articles, as folloAVS : I. God is Love itself and Wisdom itself, and these two make His Essence. II. God is Good itself and Truth itself; because Good is of Love, and Truth is of Wisdom. III. [God, because He is] Love itself and Wisdom itself is Life itself, which is Life in itself. IV. 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 from 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 HlS 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 exist and subsist, which are the will and the understanding ; for of these 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 In 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 Avisdom as the bride and wife, may be proved by innumerable things, No. 38.] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 67 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 source than from the Divine Love by the Divine Wisdom, and do not know that those tAvo 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. II. 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. 1. 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, and 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 Avhat 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 the 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 Avhich 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 seh'es 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 imvardly 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, That the tares are to be bound together into bundles, to be burned, and in like manner all things that offend (Matt. xiii. 30, 40, 41 ; John xv. 6). 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. 1, 4). By God there is meant the Divine Love, 70 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. 1 and by the Word the Divine Wisdom ; and Divine Wis dom is properly life, and life 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. Human 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-J CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 71 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, reason's, 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 [lumen] of the world is admitted; and this light [lumen], separate from the light of the higher regions, is a delusive light [lumen] 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 e.igle, al though he sees the things which are of wisdom n 0 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, ill the truth of Avisdom and faith : that it is so, human reason may also see, if it only knows that the origin of love arvi 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 fr»«q 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 love 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. 73 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 Avhich 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 Avord, 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. 1. 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 authority ; 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-r 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 thi igs, but 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 rain 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, Avith 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 x\ii. 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. •Jb 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 her 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 kve. 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. 7 7 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 Avhom, 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, Avhere the love of ruling from the love of self is spoken of, are noth ing else (Isa. xiii. 21 ; Jer. 1. 39 ; Ps. lxxiv. 14). 78 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 from 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 lcve 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.J 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 Avho love truths from spiritual affection, or truths be cause they are truths, and because by means of them is Avisdom, 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 i/ere three arcana : The first, " What is the image of God, and what the likeness of God, into which man was created? " 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 knowledges 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 avhich 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 man in our imagev 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. 1). 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, Jehovah No. 48.] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 8l God breathed into the nostrils of Adam the soul of lives, and 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 cf 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 1 he state of integrity breathed into him by God is con tinually breathed info 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. 1). 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; 4* 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, andthus 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, fiom 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 knoAvs 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 Avhich there are not repre sentative but real beasts. After the truth of the pronosi- 84 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap. I 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 3s 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 born 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 Avhich 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 those 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, a. 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 1; oi n 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 oui 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 homo from humus, the ground; and 86 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION [Chap. I ae 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. 87 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 (Gen. 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 life, 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 ; 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 Avho believe that Adam was wise and did good from himself, and that this was his state of integrity; when yet Adam Avas 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 ; Avhence 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 Avisdom 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 Avrote 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, bring ing the prizes, which were -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 Avisdom, decorated with these reAvards. 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. Alsoy the heat from the sun of the spiritual world, in the midst of Avhich 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 Omnipresence belong to the Divine Wisdom from the Divine Love. II. There cannot be cognition of God's Omnipotence, 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 Order into the universe, and into all and every partofit. III. The Omnipotence of God in the universe, and in all and every part of it, proceeds and operates according to the laws of His Order. 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. 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 concerning good and truth from the Divine Omniscience, and so far in God from the Divine Omnipres 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 DlVINE WlSDOM FROM THE DlVINE 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, Avhich 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. 91 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 Avisdom. 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 things were made by Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men ; and the world was made by Him; and the Word was made flesh (i. 1, 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 noAv fol low : O Jehovah, Justice and Judgment are the support of Thy throne (Ps. lxxxix. 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 and 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 thy f Justice as the * The Latin is here terrain, not Zionem. Elsewhere, however, we find Zionem, which agrees with the Hebrew. See A. C. n. 2235. t The Latin here reads suam (his). Elsewhere we find tuam and tunm (thy), which agrees with the Hebrew. See A. C. n. 145S. 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. lxxii. 2). When I shall have learned the Judg ments of thy Justice. Seven times a day do I praise Thee be cause of the Judgments of Thy Justice (Ps. cxix. 7 ; 1 64). 7 will betroth thee unto Me f in Justice and Judgment (Hosea ii. 19). Zion shall be redeemed in Judgment, and her con verts 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). T 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; lviii. 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 Omnip otence, Omniscience, and Omnipresence, unless it be knoavn what Order is, and unless these things belong ing to it be known, namely, that God is Order, and that at the Creation He introduced Order into the Universe, and into all and every Part of it. The number and the quality of the absurdities Avhich 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, determination, and ac tivity of the parts, substances, or entities which make the form : whence is the state; the perfection of which isproducedby wis dom from its love, or the imperfection of which is forged by the * The Latin here reads "Jehovah," "His people," and "His poor." f The Latin has "Me unto thee;" but see A. C. ... 9182; A. R. n. 567 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 quality 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 sut 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 very 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 ; 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, Avhich 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 lawsAvhich 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 [j-«z/j-] 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 tiring therein ; and from the inmost it governs those things which are without, as far as they conjoin themselves according to their orders ; j.ad if they do not conjoin themselves still it sustains them, a.nd with all effort labors to bring them into order, according to the universal order in which God 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 wr-e 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, Avho 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 cart 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, omnipotence and faith ; and then to spread before the common people conjectures, fables, and trifles, such as fall into the senses of the body ? For reason is banished from them both ; and when reason is banished in what does the thought of man excel the reasdn 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 contrary 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 Avould 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 contrary 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. Pie could of His good pleasure change the spirits of the dragon vol. 1. ¦; 98 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [Chap 1. 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 minute, 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. 60.] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 99 that He is Light itself is because He is the Sun of the angelic heaven, which enlightens 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 Jerusalem 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 man that cometh 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 Avhole 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 IOO 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 heait ; and the peritonaeum generally, by anastomoses with the coverings of all the viscera ; in like manner the meninges of 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. 61. 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 Avithholds 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 the side of it ; wherefore it is customary for painters to No. 62.] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. IOI 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 e'vil 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 lie 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. tirely 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 into 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 iavo 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. 04.] 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 comrersed 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 ove, and thence every thought of the understanding, is in space Avithout space, and in time without time ; for any one can think of a brother, relation, or friend in the Indies, and then haA'e him as it were present with him ; in like mannei he may be affected with their love by remembrance. Ba 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 Avhich 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, 01 the pancreas, or the spleen, or the stomach, or the eye, or No. 67.] CONCERNING GOD THE CREATOR. 105 the ear, or the tongue, &c. ; the angels themselves also know in Avhat realm of some part of man they dwell. That it is so, has been given me to know to tl e 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, Avhen 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 5* 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 droAvned. Thence it is evident that the universe was created by God that uses might exist ; wherefore, also, the universe may be called a 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 effect ; 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. 107 The reason that man is in poAver against evil and falsity from the Divine omnipotence so far as he lives according to DiA