ms: Mnz.3^ S^8 ¦'CAN:0i\8, OR THE ENTIRE THE.OLOGY TH^ j^^EW CHURCH. coaxerni;inCt the one and.infinitb god. (Concerning THE lohu the redeemer; AND CONCERNING REDEMPTION. CONGEENING THE HOLY SWRlt. CONCERNING THE DIVINE TRINITY. ' A POSTHU*(QUS WOR^: OP y E MANUEL SWEDENBORG. PUBLISHED BY JOHN ALL^N, 139 NASSAU STREET. BOSTON : OTIS CLAPP ; LONDON : JJ S. H0D30N AND XV.. NEWBERY,. , 18'48. JUST PUBLISHEP, DES QUAYS LETTERS TO A MAN OP THE WORLD. ThiSinvaliuable wosk is how for safs by Johm;.-Aillen and i-^ undoubtedly the best compend exteiit- ©f tha piiilosopliJcaland psycholog-ical principle*,, of Swedenborg. It is unrivalled in its adaptation t© the wants of, a skep tical state o£ the' mind, ,;unsatislied ^witii the prevalent, religious d.ogmasi yet not knowing where ta, seek far anything better. The followuig cxtrai^t from, the Prefaae will convey an idea of its .scope and character, "It would' B®t be' easy to point to any single work: illustrative of the ooiijoiut, phi losophy aud theology of Swedenborg, more' happily adapted' to its end, Tak^ ing the disturbed but meditative skeptic in the crisiis of his meutal' cdinflict,p,ji it leads Jiim gently onward, from certain 'nldimentary principles of belief, through a series. of well compacted and consecutive reasonings, tothe.grand' conei'u.sioiis einbodied in the faith, of the New Church, The evolution of , the- argument is so skilfully conductied— ojio step of tbe demonstration rises so. naturally from another — every difficulty proposed is so Inininoii.sly cleared up' -^that admission after admis,sion is forced fro'fn the .doubteiytlll at length the^ momentous result is seen tp bo inevitable — man is immortal ; there J.s a heaven and a hell; he lives as perfect a man after deatli as before; he dwells in a spiritual body, in a spiritual world; that W'orld is replete with objective .scenery suited to the senses which take cognizance of it; his destiny there is t'i« necessary ,pro(luct of his life and chkracter here ; and eve"ry coiicliisioii reached onlhe subject by the fairest reasons goes to coidirm the truth' of Rev elation." Piice 50 ets. per copy. ' NOBLE'S LECTURES. J. A. ha.? also just published Nom.e's Lectures on Important Doctri.m-.s OF the Tr.uE CiiRisTiAN Religion, including, fimong others,, the Lord's Second Advent ; the , Diyine Character, Unity, Trinity, and' Person ; the Assumption of Humanity, and putting forth thereby of the Powei of Re demption; the Sacrifice of Jes.us Chri.st and Salvation by His Blood; His Mediation and Afoneinent; the Justification of a. Sinner; Harmony with the Doctrine. of a Plurality bf Worlds. All theS'e subjects are treated at leiigth and with diPtingui.'-lied ahiliiy.'and so arrnycd in contrast with the teachings. of the popular Creeds en the t^i.me ihcmes, that the .superior logical qnd 'Scrip tural consistency of the New Chnrch views stands out. in bokl relief. .The work as to style will be nearly an exfict reprint of the Loitdon'edition in au 8vo. volume of about 500 pages,' in large clear t3'pe, and on firm ])aper, and will be sold at $1,50, per copy, little more tiiaaoue half r'^e price of the English- Edition. . CANONS; OB THE ENTIRE THEOLOGY OP THE NEW CHURCH. CONCERNING THE ONE AND INFINITE GOD. CONCERNING THE LORD THE REDEEMER; AND CONCERNING REDEMPTION. CONCERNING THE HOLY SPIRIT. CONCERNING THE DIVINE TRINITY. A POSTHUMOUS WORE OF EMANUEL SWEDENBORG, PUBLISHED BY JOHN ALLEN, 139 NASSAU STREET. BOSTON : CglS CLAPP ; LONDON : J. S. HODSON AND W. NEWBERY. 1848. CONTENTS. FAfiS Peologue • ,,,..., 1 Summary. — Concerning God ...,...•••,.. 7 CONCERNING GOD. Chap. I.— Ofthe Unity of God 8 II. — Ofthe Essence and Existence of God 8 III.— Of The Infinity of God 9 I'V. — Of the Creation of the Universe by God 10 V. — ^,0f the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom . 11 VI. — Ofthe Creation from both the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom 12 VII. — Of the End of the Creation, viz. an Angelic Heaven ..... 12 Otherwise - 13 VIII. — Of Omnipotence ; Omniscience ; Omnipresence 14 CONCERNING THE LORD THE REDEEMER. I. — That in God is Love and Wisdom ; or Divine Goad and Divine Truth 15 II. — That He descended as to Divine Truth 16 in.— That that Truth is the Word 16 IV. — What the Holy Spirit is, and what the Virtue of the Most High 17 V. — That the Human ofthe Lord is the Son of God 17 VI. — Of the Lord's state of Exaninition in the World IS VII. — Of the Unition of the Divine Truth and Good in the Human 18 Vni. — That after the Unition he returned to the Father 19 IX. — That he successively glorified Himself 20 X. — That the Union is like that of the Soul and the Body 20 CONCERNING REDEMPTION. I. — That the Church declines from Good to Evil successively 21 II. — That the End of the Church is when the Power of Evil and of Hell prevails over Good and Heaven 22 III. — That in like manner there is a falling away from the Intemal to the External 23 rV. — Description ofthe End and of Progression towards it in the Word 23 V. — That then a total Damnation threatens 24 VI. — That the Lord redeemed Men and Angels 24 VIL— Of the Temptations of the Lord Christ 25 VIII. — ^That Redemption could not be effected except by God Incarnate 26 iv CONTENTS. CONCERNING THE HOLY SPIRIT. L — That the Holy Spirit is the Divine Proceeding 28 H.- That it proceeds from God through the Human 29 III. — ^That it passes through Heaven into the World 29 rV. — And thence through Men to Men 30 v.— That the Holy Spirit is the Word 30 Vl. — That its Operation is Instruction, Reformation, &c 31 vn. — That God is known from Divine Truth 31 Vni.— What is to be understood by the Spirit of Man 31 CONCERNING THE TRINITY. I. — That there is a Divine Trinity 32 n. — That the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three Essentials of One God 33 III. — That the Trinity was not before the World was created 34 IV. — That the Trinity came into being in Jesus Christ after the World was created 36 V. — That there is this Trinity (shown) from the Word, as also from the Apostolic and Nicene Creeds 37 VI. — That an absurd Idea arises from the Nicene Creed 39 VII. — That tliis Trinity has perverted the Church 39 VIII.— That it has also falsified the Word 40 IX. — ^That thence has arisen that Affliction and Desolation predicted by the Lord 41 X. — That there would be no Salvation unless a New Church were to be established by the Lord 42 XI. — That the Trinity is in the Lord the Saviour, consequently that he only is to be a,pproached, to obtain Salvation or Eternal Life 43 PREFACE. The foUowing work was first published in Latin, by the London Printing Society, in 1840. It appears to be the introductory portion of a larger work, which Swedenborg probably intended to have completed, as a summary of propositions, containing principles of theological science, and armouncing the fundamental and essential truths of the New Clmrch. It contains, in the original, fifty-six pages, and is full of these important propo sitions, expressed with a wonderful degree of terseness and condensation. From what is here presented to the reader he can judge of what the whole would have been had the author's design been fully executed. But happily the most valuable portion, the founda tion of the whole, has been preserved, and the axiomatic principles of the true theology, here briefly and pithily declared, are moreover fully explained and demonstrated in hi,s other works, particularly the True Christian Religion and the Diviue Love and Wisdom, The Tract, we believe, has never been translated entire. Portions of it have appeared in the London Intellectual Repository, and in the Boston New Jerusalem Magazine. The whole is now given to the New Churoh public in an English dress, and they will probably appreciate more fully the past desideratum by having it supplied. We will only observe that the word " canon" is here employed in the same sense in which it occurs in the True Christian Religion, n. 50,330, and in every other part of Swedenborg's writings, viz. as a ruit or lav) of truth and thought, concerning the subject in question. G. B. THE CANONS OF THE NEW CHURCH. PROLOGUE, That at this day nothing else than the self-evidencing reason of love will re-establish (the Church), which has fallen away (from the truth). That the modern Church has erred concerning God, that it has erred con cerning Faith, that it has erred conceming Charity, and that it knows notMng of Eternal Life, thus that it is in darkness. That the w^hole of rehgion is founded upon the idea of God, and that the former follows according to the latter. That this Church is that to which all churches, from the first onwards in order, have pointed j and concerning which Daniel prophesied. SUMMARY. Concerning God. 1. That God is one. 2. That this one God is Esse Itself, which is Jehovah. 3. That this God Himself is from eternity; and thence is Etemity Itself. 4. That God, who is Esse Itself, and is from eternity, is the Creator of the Universe. 5. That this One Only God is Love Itself, and Wisdom Itself, and thus Life Itself. 6. That He created the universe from Divine Love by Divine Wisdom, or, which is the same, from Divine Good by Divine Truth. 7. That with Him the creation of the universe has for its' end (the formation of) an angelic heaven iirom the human race ; 8. Consequently the communication and conjunction of his own Love and his own Wisdom with men and angels, and thence their highest felicity to aU eternity. 9. That this end in God the Creator was from eternity and is to eternity, and that thence is by Him the conservation of the created universe. 10. That God has Omnipotence, Omnipresence, and Omniscience through His Divine Proceeding.— (y^iJoc. Rev. n. 31.) THE CANONS OF THE NEW CHURCH. CHAPTER I. Concerning the Unity of God; or, that there i$ One God. 1, That the supreme and inmost of all the doctrinals of the Church, and hence the most universal principle of them all, is the knowledge and ac knowledgment that Gor is one, 2. That unless there were one God, the universe could not have been created and preserved. 3. That in the man who does not acknowledge Gpd the church is not, and consequently heaven is not. 4. That in the man who does not acknowledge one God, but several nothing of the churoh coheres together. 5. That there is a universal influx from God, and from the angelic heaven, Into the soul of man, (teaching) that there is a God, and that he is one. 6. That human reason, if it will, can perceive from many things in the world that there is a God, and also that he is one. 7. Hence it is, that in the whole world, there are no people, who have reh gion and sound reason, that do not acknowledge and confess that there is onk God. 8. That the Sacred Scriptures, and hence the doctrines of the churches iu the Christian world, teach that there is one God. 9. But as to the nature of that one God, people and nations have differed, and do stUI differ. 10. That they have differed, and do still differ, conceming God and his unity, arises from many causes. CHAPTER H. That that One God is Esse Itself, which is Jehovah,- hence the Essence and Existence of God in Himself. 1. That that one God is called Jehovah from Esse, thus from this circum stance, that it is he " IVho is, was, and is to come;" or, what is the same thing, that he is "the First and the Last, the Beginning and the Ending, the Alpha and the Omega." — {Apoc, ch. i. ver. 3, 11 ; ch. xxii. ver. 13; Isaiah, ch. xiv. ver; 6.) 2. Thence that the one only God is Essence, Substance, and Form, and that men and angels are spiritual essences, substances, and forms, or images and likenesses, inasmuch as they derive it from the one only Divine Essence, Sub stance, and Form. 3. That this Divine Esse is Esse in Itself. 4. That the Divine Esse in Itself is, at the same time, the Divine Existere in Itself. 5. That the Divine Esse and Existere in Itself, cannot produce any other Divine, which is Esse and Existere in Itself. 6. Consequently, that another God of the same Essence with the one God is not possible. THE CANONS OF THE NEW CHURCH. 9 7. That a plurality of Gods in ancient times, and, for the most part, in mod ern times, is derived from no other origin than that of not understanding the Divine Essence. 8. Concerning the Essence and Existence of God ; conceming the immen sity and eternity of God ; or concerning chiefly such things, 9. That theological things, which are innumerable, should occupy the supreme region of the human mind. 10. That in the midst of them is God. 11. That there is an influx firom Him into all and every thing around and below, as from a sun. 12. That thus speech {oratio) and knowledge concerning Him pervade and fill all things. 13. That conjunction with Him makes man His image. 14. That conjunction is effected by Love and Wisdom. CHAPTER III. Concerning the Infinity of God. 1. That God, since he was before the world, thus before there were spaces and times, is Infinite. 2. That God, since he is and exists in Himself, and since all things in the world are and exist from Him, is Infinite. 3. That God, since, after the world was made, he is in space without space, and in time without time, is Infinite. 4. That God, since he is the all in all things of the world, and, in particular, the all in all of heaven and the churoh, is Infinite. 5. That the Infinity of God, correspondently to spaces, is called Immensity, and that His, Infinity, correspondently to times, is called Eternity. 6. That although the Immensity of God is correspondently to spaces, and the Eternity of God correspondently to times ; still there is nothing of space in his Immensity, and nothing of time in his Etemity. 7. That by the Immensity of God is understood his Divinity as to Esse ; and by Eternity his Divinity as to Existere ; both in Himself. 8. That every created thing is finite ; and that the Infinite is in finite things as in its receptacles. 9. That angels and men, because they are created and hence finite, cannot comprehend the Infinity of God, neither his Immensity and Eternity, such as they are in themselves. 10. Nevertheless, when illustrated by God, they can see, as through a glass, that God is Infinite. 11. That also an image of the Infinite is impressed on the varieties and propagations of things m tlie world ; on the varieties, that there is not one thing precisely like another ; and on the propagations both animate and inani mate, that the multiplication of one seed may be carried on to infinity, and prolification to etemity, besides many other things. 12. That in the degree, and according to the manner, in which men and 10 THE CANONS OF THE NEW CHURCH. angels acknowledge the Unity and Infinity of God, in the same degree, and in the same manner, if they live well, they become receptacles and images of God. 13. That it is vain to think what was before the world, also what is without, or beyond, the world ; since before the world there was no tune, and beyond the world there is no space. 14. That a man from thinking concerning these things may fall into delirium, unless he is, to a certain extent, withdrawn by God from the idea of space and time, which inheres in all and every particular of human thought, and adheres to angelic thought. CHAPTER IV. Concerning the Creation of the Universe by the One Infinite God. 1. That no one can conceive in idea, and perceive that God created the universe, unless he knows something concerning the spiritual world and its sun, and also concerning the correspondence, and thence conjunction, of sphitual things with natural. 2. That there are two worlds, a spiritual world, where spirits and angels are ; and a natural world, where men are. 3. That there is a Sun in the spiritual world and another in the natnral world ; and that the spiritual world exists and subsists from its Sun, and the natural world by its sun. 4. That the Sun of the spiritual world is pure Love from Jehovah God, who is in the midst of it, and that the sun of the natural world is pure fire. 5. That every thing which proceeds from the Sun of the spiritual world is alive, and that every thing which proceeds from the sun of the natural world is dead. 6. That hence every thing which proceeds from the Sun of the spiritual world is spiritual ; and every thing which proceeds from the sun of the natural world is natural. 7. That Jehovah God, by the Sun in the midst of which he is created the spiritual world ; and by this, as a means, or mediately, the natural world. 8. That spiritual things are substantial, and that natural things are material • and that these have existed and subsist from those, as what is posterior- from what is prior, or what is exterior from what is interior. 9. That hence all things which are in the spiritual world are also in the natural world, and vice versa, with a difference of perfection. 10. That what is natural, since it has originated from what is spiritual as what is material from what is substantial, is every where together with the spiritual ; and that thus what is spiritual exercises- its activities and performs its functions by what is natural. 11. That an idea of creation perpetually exists in the spiritual world ¦ since all things which there exist and happen are created in a moment by Jehovah God. 12. From these things it is evident, that the creation of the universe from THE CANONS OF THE NEW CHURCH. 11 the One and Infinite God, without a previous knowledge concerning the spirit ual world and its Sun, and concerning correspondence, can never be con ceived ; and that in consequence hypotheses have been entertained, founded upon naturalism, concerning the creation of the universe, which hypotheses are foolish. 13 . That in the spiritual world creation can be presented to the eye, where all things are created by the Lord, so that a house is created in a moment; the utensils of a house, food, garments, lands, gardens, and fields, are created ; cattle and herds are created ; these and innumerable other things are created according to the affections and thence perceptions of the angels, and appear around them, and continue so long as they are in that affection, and are re moved as soon as that affection ceases. In hell, also, serpents and noxious beasts and birds are created ; not that they are created by the Lord, but that goods are there changed into evUs. Hence it is evident, that all things in the world are created by the Lord, and are fixed by natural things which surround or enclose them. CHAPTER V. Concerning the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom in God. 1. That Love and Wisdom are the two essential and universal principles of life ; Love, the Esse of life, and Wisdom, the Existere of life from that Esse. 2. That God is Love Itself and Wisdom Itself, because he is Esse Itself and Existere Itself in Himself. 3. That unless God were Love Itself and Wisdom Itself, there would be no thing of Love and Wisdom with the angels in heaven, and with men in the world. 4. That as much as angels and men are united to God by Love and Wisdom, so much they are in true Love and true Wisdom. 5. That two principles proceed from Jehovah God by the Sun in the midst of which he is, heat and light, and that the heat thence proceeding is Love and the light Wisdom. di That the light thence proceeding is the splendor of Love, which in the Word is understood by Glory. 7. That that Light is Life Itself. 8. That angels and men are so much alive as they are in Wisdom origina ting in Love from God. 9. That it is similar if it be said, that God is Good Itself and Truth Itself, or Love Itself and Wisdom Itself; since all Good is of Love and all Truth is of Wisdom. 10. That Love and Wisdom are inseparable and indivisible : likewise Good and Tmth ; wherefore such as the Love is with angels and men, such is the Wisdom with them ; or, what is the same, such as the Goodness is, such is the Trath, bnt not contrariwise. 12 THE CANONS OF THE NEW CHURCH. CHAPTER VI. Concerning the Creation of the Universe from the One and Infinite God, from Divine Love by Divine Wisdom. 1. That illustrated reason may see, that the first origm of all things of the world is Love, and that the world is created from that by Wisdom ; hence it is, and from no other ground, that the world, from its first prhiciples to its ulti mates, is a coherent work to eternity. 2. That the world is created from Love by Wisdom, thus by the Sun which is pure Love, in the midst of which is Jehovah God, can be seen from the cor respondence of Love with heat and of Wisdom with light. That by these two, namely, heat and light, the world subsists, and every year all things are created upon its surface, and that if these two were withdrawn, the world would fall into a chaos and thus into nothing. 3. That there are three things which follow in order, and which proceed in inseparable, consort, namely,Love, Wisdom, and Use. 4. That Love by Wisdom exists and subsists in Use. 5. That those three things are in God, and proceed from God. 6. That the created universe consists of innumerable receptacles of these three principles. 7. That Love and Wisdom exist and subsist in Use ; that the created -nni- verse is the receptacle of uses, which, from their origin, are infinite. 8. Since all Good is from God, and Good and Use are one, and since the created universe is full of uses in forms, it follows that the created universe is full of God. 9. That creation was effected from Divine Love by Divine Wisdom, is understood 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 the world was made by him." (ch. i, ver. 3, 10). By God is understood the Divine Good of Love ; and by the Word, which also was God, the Divine Truth of Wisdom. 10. That evils, or evil uses, did not exist until after creation. CHAPTER VII. Concerning the very End of Creation, which is an Angelic Heaven from the Human Race. , 1. That in the created world there are perpetual progressions of ends : ifrom first ends, by mediate ends, to ultimate ends. 2. That the first ends are of Love, or relations to Love ; that mediate ends are of Wisdom, or relations to Wisdom ; that ultimate ends are of Uses, or relations to Use : that these things are so, because all things which are infinite in God and from God, are of Love, Wisdom, and Use. 3. That these progressions of ends proceed from first principles to ultimates and return from ultunates to first principles ; and that they proceed and return by periods which are called the circles of things. THE CANONS OF THE NEW CHURCH. 13 4. That these progressions of ends are more or less universal, and that these are the complex of particular ends. 5. That the. most universal end, which is the end of ends, is in God; and that it proceeds from God, from the first principles of the spiritual world to the ultimate principles of the natural world ; and that from these ultimate princi ples it returns to those first principles, and thus to God. 6 . That that most universal end, or that end of ends contemplated by God, is an angelic heaven from the human race. 7. That that most universal end is the complex of all ends, and of their pro ¦ gressions in both worlds, the spiritual and the natural. 8.* That that most universal end is the inmost, and, as it were, the life and soul, the force and endeavor in every created thing. 9.* That thence there is a continued connection of all things in the created universe, from first principles to ultimates, and from ultimates to first principles. 10.* That from this end implanted in created things, in general and in par ticular, is the preservation of the universe. OTHERWISE 1. That Love is spiritual conjunction. 2. That true Love cannot be quiescent in Itself, and be restrained within its own limits, but that it wishes to go forth and embrace others with Love. 3. That true Love wishes to be conjoined to others, and to communicate with them, and to give them of its own. 4. That true Love wishes to dwell in others, and in Itself from others. 5. That the Divine Love, which is Love Itself, and God Himself, wishes that it may be in a subject which is his image and likeness ; consequently he wishes to be in man, and that man should be in Him. 6. In order that this may be effected, it follows from the very essence of Love, which is in God, and hence from an urgent cause, that the universe must needs be created by God, in which are earths, and upon them men, and in men minds and souls, with which the Divine Love can be conjoined. 7. That therefore all things which are created regard man as the end. 8. Since the angelic heaven is formed from men, that is, from their spirits and souls, all things which are created regard the angelic heaven as an end. 9. That the angelic heaven is the very habitation of God with men, and of men with God. 10. That eternal beatitudes, felicities, and delights together, are the ends of creation, because they are of Love. 11. That this end is the mmost; thus as it were the life and soul, and as force and endeavor in every created thmg. 12. That that end is God in them. 13. That this end implanted in created things m general and in particular, preserves the universe in a created state, so much as the ends of an opposite love do not prevent and destroy. 14. That God, from his Divine Omnipotence, Omnipresence, and Omnis- • Over these three paragraphs, Nos. 8, 9, and 10, chap, vii, in the author's MS. aline Is drawn with a pen. 14 THE CANONS OF THE NEW CHURCH. cience, continually provides, lest opposite ends, from opposite loves, should prevail, and the work of creation be ruined and destroyed. 15. That preservation is perpetual creation, as subsistence is perpetual existence. CHAPTER VIII. Concerning the Omnipotence, Omniscience, and Omnipresence of God. 1. That the Omnipotence, Omniscience, and Omnipresence of God are not apprehended by the human understanding; because the Omnipotence of God is Infinite Power, the Omniscience of God is Infinite Wisdom, and the Omni presence of God is Infinite Presence, in all things which have proceeded, and which do proceed, from Him ; and what is Divine and Infinite is not appre hended by the finite understanding. 2. That God is Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent, is acknowledged without a rational investigation ; since this flows in from God into the supe rior region of the human mind, and hence into the acknowledgment of all who have any religion and sound reason. It also flows in with others who have no religion ; but with them there is no reception, and consequently no acknowledgment. 3. That God is Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent, can be confirmed from innumerable things which ate of reason, and, at the same time, of reli gion, as from the following : — 4. First, — That God Alone is and exists in Himself; and that every other being, and every other thing is and exists from Him. 5. Secondly, — That God Alone loves, is^ise, and lives and acts from Him self; and that every other being and every other thing lives and acts from Him. 6. Thirdly, — That God Alone can act from Himself; and that every other being and every other thing is and acts from Him. 7. Consequently, that God is the Soul of all ; from whom all beings and all things are, live, and mo\?e. 8. That unless all things, even to the minutest particulars in the world and in heaven, related to one Being, who lives and who acts from Himself, the uni verse would be dissipated in a moment. 9. That hence the universe created by God is full of God ; wherefore He Himself said that He is the "First and the Last, the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and the Omega, who was, is, and will be, the Omnipotent," — {Apoc, &c.) 10. That the preservation of the universe, which is perpetual creation, is ^ full testimony that God is Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent. 11. That opposites, which are evils, are not destroyed; because God is Om nipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent;, since evils are out of subjects and out of things created, and do not penetrate to Divine things which are within. 12. That evils, by the divine providence, which also is universal in things most particular, are more and more removed from the interiors, cast out and THE CANONS OF THE NEW CHURCH. 15 thus alienated and separated, lest they should inflict any injury on things in ternal, which are divine. 13. That the Divine Omnipotence is by His Humanity; that this is under stood by sitting on the right hand, and by being the First and the Last, as is said concerning the Son of Man in the Apocalypse : and there is the Omnipo tent Cause, since God acts from first principles by ultimates, and thus contains all things. 14. The Lord acts from first principles by ultimates -with men ; not by any thing of man, but by His own in Him. With the Jews He acted by the Word with them, thus by His ow^n ; by that also He performed miracles by Elias and Ehsha ; but because the Jews perverted the Word, God Himself came down and assumed the Ultimate, wheq. from Himself He performed miracles. 15. That Order was first created : according to which God acts ; wherefore God made Himself Order. SUMMARY. CONCERNING GOD THE REDEEMER JESUS CHRIST, AND CONCERNING REDEMPTION. CHAPTER I. ITiat in Jehovah God there are two things of ihe same Essence, — Divine Love, and Divine 'Wisdom; or. Divine Good, and Divine Truth. 1. That, universally and particularly, all things in both worlds, the spiritual and the natural, relate to Love and Wisdom, or to Goodness and Trath ; since God, the Creator and the Author of the universe, is Love Itself, and Wisdom Itself; or Goodness Itself, and Truth Itself ; 2. Altogether as universally and particularly all things, in man, relate to will and understanding; since the will is the receptacle of goodness or love, and the understanding, of wisdom and truth ; 3. And altogether as all things of the universe, as to existence and subsist ence, have relation to heat and light ; and heat in the spiritual world, in its essence, is love ; and light there, in its essence, is wisdom ; and heat and light, in the natural world, correspond to Love and Wisdom in the spiritual world. 4. Hence it is that all things hi the Church relate to charity and faith ; since charity is goodness, and faith is truth. 5. That, therefore, in the prophetic Word there are two expressions; one of which relates to goodness, and the other to truth ; and thus to Jehovah God, who is Goodness Itself, and Truth Itself. .6, That in the Word of the Old Testament, Jehovah signifies the Divine Esse, which is Divine Good ; and God signifies the Divine Existere, which is Divine Truth ; and that Jehovah God signifies both ; likewise Jesus Christ. 7. That Good is Good, and Truth is Tmth, m the degree and according to th^ quality of their conjunction. 16 THE CANONS OF THE NEW CHURCH. 8. That Good exists by Tmth; consequently that Trath is the form of Good, and hence the quality of Good. CHAPTER II. That Jehovah God descended as Divine Wisdom, or Divine Truth, and assumed the Humanity in the Virgin Mary. 1. That Jehovah God assumed the Humanity, that, in the fulness of time, he might become the Redeemer and Saviour. 2. That he became the Redeemer and Saviour by Righteousness, which then, as to His Humanity, he put on. 3. That He could not have become Righteousness or Justice, and thus Re deemer and Saviour, as to His Humanity, except by Divine Truth ; 4. Since by Divine Trath, from the beginning, all things were made which were made. 5. That Divine Truth could combat against the hells, also could be tempted, blasphemed, reproached, and suffer. 6. But not Divine Good, neither God, except in the human principle, con ceived and born according to Divine Order. 7. That Jehovah God thus descended as Divine Trath, and assumed the Humanity. 8. That this is according to Sacred Scripture, and according to reason illustrated from it. CHAPTER HI. That this Divine Truth is understood by the Word which was made Flesh. (John i.) 1 . That the Word, in the Sacred Scriptures, signifies various things ; as that it signifies a thmg which really exists ; also the thought of the mmd, and thence speech. 2. That in the first place it signifies everything which exists and proceeds from the mouth of God; thus Divine Truth; thus the Sacred Scripture, since there is divine truth in its essence and its form. From this circumstance it is, that the Sacred Scripture is called in one term, the Word. 3. That the ten Words (Commandments) of the Decalogue signify all the Divine Truths in a summary. 4. That the Word hence signifles the Lord the Redeemer and Saviour since all things there are from Him; thus Himself. 5. That from these things it can be seen, that by the Word which was in the beginning with God, and which was God, and which was with God before the worid, is understood the Divine Truth which was before creation in Jeho vah, and after creation from Jehovah, and lastly the Divine Humanity which Jehovah assumed in time; for it is said that the Word was made flesh that is, man,. 6. That the hypostatic Word is nothing else than Divine Trath. THE CANONS OF THE NEW CHURCH. 17 CHAPTER IV. T%at the Holy Spirit which came over Mary signifies the Divine Truth; and that the power of the Most High, which overshadowed her, signifies the Divine Good from which that exists. 1. That the Holy Spirit is the Divine Proceeding, thus the Divine Truth, teaching, reforming, regenerating, and vivifying. 2. That the Divine Trath, which also is the Word, was in the Lord by na tivity from conception ; and that afterwards He had it " without measure," that is, that it was infinitely increased, is understood by the Spirit of Jehovah resting upon Him. 3. That this is the Divine Truth which Jehovah God spake by the prophets, and which tlie Lord Himself spake whilst he was in the world. 4. That the spirit of Jehovah is called the Holy Spirit, since what is holy in the Word is predicated of Divine Truth. Hence it is that the Humanity of the Lord born of Mary is called Holy. (Luke i.) And that the Lord Himself is called alone Holy (Apoc.) ; and that others are called Holy, not from them selves, but from Him. 5. That the Most High in the Word is predicated of the Divine Good, wherefore the power of the Most High signifies power proceeding from the Divine Good. 6. That thus those two things, the Holy Spirit coming over her, and the pow^er of the Most High overshadowing her, signify both, viz : Divine Truth and Divine Good ; the latter being the soul, and the former the body, and hence communication. 7. Consequently, that those two in the Lord recently born were distmct, as are soul and body, and afterwards united. 8. It is similar in man, who is born and afterwards regenerated. CHAPTER V. That the Humanity of the Lord Jehovah is the Son of God sent into the world. 1. That Jehovah God sent Himself into the world by assuming the Humanity. 2. That this Humanity, conceived from Jehovah God, is called the Son of God which was sent into the world. 3. That this Humanity is called the Son of God, and the Son of Man; the Son of God, from the Divine Truth and Divine Good in Him, which is the Word ; and the Son of Man, from the Divine Truth and Divine Good from Him, which is the doctrine ofthe church from the Word. 4. That no other Son of God is understood in the Word, but He who was born in the world. 5. That a Son of God born from eternity, who is a God by himself, is not from the Sacred Scripture ; and that it is also contrary to reason illustrated by God. 6. That this was invented and propagated by the Nicene Council, as an 2 18 THE CANONS OF THE NEW CHURCH asylum, to which those who wished to avoid the scandals disseminated by Arius and his followers, conceming the Humanity of the Lord, could betake themselves. 7. That the primitive church, which is called the Apostolic Church, knew nothing conceming the burth of any Son of God from eternity. CHAPTER VI. Uiat the Lord, so far as He was in Divine Truth as to His Human Nature separately, so far He was in a state of Exinanition,* and so far as He was conjoined with Divine Good, so far He was in a state of Glorification. 1, That the Lord had two states, one which was called a state of exinan ition, the other a state of glorification. 2. That the state of exmanition was also a state of humiliation before the Father, and the state of glorification was a state of unition with the Father. 3. That the Lord, when he was in a state of exinanition or of humiliation, prayed to the Father as though absent or remote ; and that when He was in a state of glorification or unition, he spoke as with Himself, -whilst with the Father, altogether as are the states of the soul and body in man, before and after regeneration. 4. That the Lord, when He was in Divine Truth separately, was in a state of exinanition, since that could be attacked by the hells, or by the devils there, and be reproached by men ; wherefore the Lord, when He was in that state separately, could be tempted and suffer. .5. But on the contrary, that the Lord, when He was in Divine Good con jointly, could not be tempted and suffer by devils in hell, nor by men in the world, since that could not be approached, still less invaded, or assaulted. 6. That the Lord, when in the world, was alternately in those two states. 7. That the Lord could not otherwise have become Justice and Redemption. 8. That sunilar things happen with man who is regenerated by the Lord. 9. This can be shown from experience, reason, and the Sacred Scripture. CHAPTER VII. TTiat the Lord united Divine Truth with Divine Good, and Divine Good with Divine Truth, thus the Humanity with the Divinity ofthe Father, and the Divinitu ofthe Father vnth the Humanity, through temptations, and fully by the Passion of the Cross. 1. That the Lord, whilst He was in the worid, admitted into Himself and underwent grievous and dreadful temptations from the hells, and that to the last of them, which was the passion of the cross. • The terra "exinanition" means a pouring oremptyineout. and it in»,ni,.,z>= , u . • -a ty the prophet : " He powed out (or exinanited) h£ soul u^to ^^^,^*^'i'°l'« what is said THE CANONS OF THE NEW CHURCH. 19 2. That the Lord combated in temptations with the hells and overcame and subjugated them. 3. That by this means he reduced the hells to order, and at the same time ,the heavens where the angels are, and the church where rrien are, since the one state continually depends upon the other. 4. That the . Lord also by temptations and reprobations, and lastly by the passion of the cross, represented the state of the Church, such as it then was as to Divine Truth, thus as to the Word. 5. That the Lord by fulfilling the Word, and by temptations, and fully by the last of them, which was the passion of the cross, glorified the Humanity. 6. That thus He took away the universal damnation which threatened not only the Christian world, but also the whole universe, and likewise the angelic heaven. 7. That this is understood by His bearing and taking away the sins of the world. 8. That He tmderwent temptations and reprobations whilst He was in a state of truth separately, -which was a state of His exinanition. 9. That the conjunction of tbo spiritual man with the natural, and of the natural man with the spiritual, is effected by temptations. CHAPTER VHI. That after tlie Unition was accomplished. He returned to the Divinity in which He was from Eternity, together with and in the Glorified Humanity. 1. That Jehovah God from etemity had a Humanity such as the angels in heaven have, but of infinite essence, thus Divine ; and that He had not a hu manity such as men on earth have. 2. That Jehovah God assumed the Humanity such as men on earth have according to His own Divine Order, which is, that it should be conceived, born, grow up, and successively be imbued with Divine Wisdom and Divine Love, 3. That thus He united this Humanity with His Divinity from eternity, and thus He went forth from the Father, and returned to the Father. 4. That lehovah God in this Humanity, and by it, exercised justice, and made Himself the Redeemer and Saviour. 5. And that by His unition with His Divinity, He made Himself a Redeemer and Saviour to eternity. 6. That Jehovah God, by the union of His Humanity with His Divinity, ex alted His Omnipotence, which is understood by " His sitting on the right hand of God." 7. That Jehovah God in this Humanity, is above the heavens, illuminating the universe with the light of Wisdom, and inspiring into the universe the power or virtue of Love. 8. That they who address Him as a Man, and who live according to His precepts, receive these two principles freely from Him. 9. That Jehovah God alone is fully a Man amongst or with the angels. 20 THE CANONS OF THE NEW CHURCH. CHAPTER IX. That Jehovah God successively put off the Humanity from the Mother, and put on a Humanity from the Father, and thus made that Humanity Divine. 1. That the soul of the offspring is from the father, and that in the womb it puts on a body from the substances of the mother; analogically as seed ui the earth, and from the substances of the earth. 2. That hence the image of the father is implanted in the body, first obscurely, then more and more evidently, as the son applies himself to the studies and offices of the father. 3. That the body of Christ, inasmuch as it was from the substances of the mother, was not life in itself, but a recipient of life from the Divine in Him, wliich -was Life in Itself. 4. That Christ, as He successively exalted the Divine Wisdom and Divine Love in Himself, took upon Himself the Divine Life, which is Life in Itself. 5. That Christ, in the degree that He took upon Him life in Himself, from the Divine in Himself, so far He put off the humanity from the mother, and put on the Humanity from the Father. 6. That Christ, by this means, made His humanity Divine, and from the Son of Mary, He made Himself the Son of God. 7. That Jesus Christ could not otherwise be in angels and men, and angels and men in Him. 8. But because Mary, His mother, afterwards represented the Church, that in this respect she is to be called His mother. 9. That Christ, when He was in the humanity from the mother, was in a state of exinanition, could be tempted, reproached, and suffer. 10. That, in this .state. He prayed to the Father, because He was then as though absent from Him. CHAPTER X. That the Divinity from Eternity and the Humanity assumed in Time, united as a Soul and Body, are One Person, who is Jehovah. 1. That m Jesus Christ, the Divine from eternity, and the Human assumed in time, are united as soul and body in man. 2. That unition was and is reciprocal, and thus fuU. 3. Consequently that God and Man, that is. Divinity and Humanity, are one Person. 4. That all the divine things of the Father exist together in the Humanity of the Lord. 5 . That thus the Lord is the one and only God, who had all power m heaven and on earth from eternity, and will have to etemity. 6. That He is the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End, who was, who is, and who is to come, the Alpha and the Omega, the Almighty. THE CANONS OF THE NEW CHURCH. 21 7. That he is the everlasting Father, Jehovah our Righteousness, Jehovah the Saviour and Redeemer, Jehovah of Hosts. 8. That they who go to Him, as Jehovah and the Father, and are united to Him, become His children, and are called " the sons of God." 9. That these are the receptacles of His Divine Humanity. CONCERNING REDEMPTION. Annotations. That Redemption itself was the subjugation of the hells, and the arrange ment ofthe heavens, and thus the preparation for a new spiritual churoh. That without that Redemption no man could have been saved, nor could angels have remained in their state of felicity. That the Lord not only redeemed men, but angels also. That Redemption w^as purely a Divine work. That this Redemption could not have been effected, except by an Incarnate God. That the passion of the cross was the last temptation, which He sustained as the Greatest Prophet, and by which also He fully subjugated the hells and fully glorified His Humanity ; thus, that it was the means of Redemption, but not Redemption itself. That the passion ofthe cross was itself Redemption, is a fundamental errc • of the Church. That this error, together with the error concerning three divine persons from eternity, has perverted the whole Church, so that nothing spiiitual remains. The errors shall be enumerated which spring from the dogma of Redemption, which is believed, at the present day, to consist solely in the passion of th» cross. CHAPTER I. That the Church, in process of time, wanders from the good of charity, and thence to the false principle of faith, and dies. 1. That there is a churoh in heaven, and a church on earth, and that th^r constitute a one, as the internal and external in msfti. 2. That the church both in heaven and on earth is together before the Lord, and appears before the angels as one man. 3. That hence the ohurch can be compared to a man, who is at first an in fant, next a youth, afterwards a man, and lastly an old man. 4. That the ohurch; whUst it is an infant, is in the good of charity ; ana whilst a youth and man, is in the truths of faith from that good ; and when an old man, in the marriage of charity and faith. 5. That the church, whilst it is so, and remains so, endures to eternity; but otherwise, if it recedes from the good of charity in its infancy. 22 THE CANONS OF THE NEW CHURCH. 6. That if the church recedes from the good of charity in its infancy, it be comes obscure with respect to truths, and falls into falses like a blind man into a pit. ,' 7. That the four essentials of the church are, — the knowledge of God, the knowledge of the good of charity, the knowledge of the truths of faith, and a life according to them. 8. That as the church recedes from charity, it also recedes from those foiir essentials, and hence false ideas flow in concerning God, and concerning charity, faith, and worship. 9. That these falsities flow into the dignitaries of the church, and from them into the people, as from the head into the body. 10. That there are two causes why false ideas flow into the dignitaries of the church, and are disseminated by them : one is, the love of ruling from the love of self; the other is, intelligence from the proprium, and not from the Sacred Scripture. 11. That thus, from one false principle proceed falses in a continued series, and this until notliing of truth remains. 12. That the Sacred Scripture, whilst it is used to confirm those things, is completely falsified, and thus the church perishes. CHAPTER 11. That then the end of the Church is at hand, when the power of Evil by Falses begins to prevail over the power of Good by Truths in the Natural World, and at the same time the power of the hells over the power of heaven. 1. That every man after death comes into his o-«vn good, and thence tmth in which he was in the world ; in like manner into his own evils, and thence falsity. 2. That they who are in Good, and thence in Truth, enter into Heaven ; and that they who are in evil, and thence in what is false, enter into hell. 3, That they who on earth are in Good, are interioriy in Truths; and if in falses, they can after death receive Truths conformable to their Good. But it is contrary with those who are iu evils; the reason is, because good and evil are of the will ; and the will is the esse of man, and the understanding hence exists. 4. That it is known from the state of heaven and hell in the spiritual worid, how much good prevails oVer evil, or evU over good on the earth, since every man after death is gathered to his own, that is, comes into his own evil or good ; and heaven and hell are from the human race. 5. That this could by no means be known upon earth, for many reasons. 6. That between heaven and hell, there is an interstice, into which evil from heU is exhaled, and good descends from heaven, and there they meet. 7. That in the midst of this interstice, is the equilibrium between good and evU. 8. That from this equUibrium, it is known how much good prevails over evil, or evil over good. THE CANONS OF THE NEW CHURCH. 23 9. And that the Lord weighs that there as in a balance. 10. That the equilibrium is raised toward heaven as evil prevails over good, and it is depressed toward hell as good prevails over evil ; because good from heaven depresses it, and evil from hell elevates it. 11. That the equilibrium is as a footstool to the angels of heaven, in which their good terminates, and upon which it rests. 12. That according to the degree in which that equilibrium is elevated, the happiness of the angels of heaven, from their goods, and thence truths, is diminished. 13. That when evils prevail over good on earth, then also hell prevails over heaven. 14. From these things it is evident, that the end of the church is at hand, when the power of evil prevails over the power of good. 15. It is called the power of good by truths, and the power of evil by falses, since good has power by truths, and evil has power by falses. CHAPTER III. That as the Church wanders from Good to Evil, thus also it wanders from internal worship to external. 1. That in the degree evil increasesin the church, in the same degree, the man of the church becomes external. 2. That in the degree the man of the church becomes external, in the same degree, he is double-minded ; that is, evil in internals, and apparently good in externals. 3. That every man after death at length becomes such as he was in inter nals, but not such as he -was in externals. 4. Hence also it is that the world, because it judges from externals, knows nothing of the states of the church, thus also, neither how the church de creases and verges towards its end. 5 . That every man has an intemal and an extemal, which is called the hiternal and external man. 6. That in the intemal man the will governs, thus love, the principle of life ; but that in the external man the understanding governs, which either mani festly, prudently, or cunningly favors the intemal. 7. That if the internal man is evil, and the external man good, he is a dis sembler and a hypocrite. 8. That no man is good, as to his internal man, except from the Lord. CHAPTER IV. TTiat the progression of the Church to its end, and the end itself, is described in very many places in the Word, 1 . That the successive decrease of Good and Truth, and the increase of the evil and false in the Church, are called in the Word vastation and desolation. 24 THE CANONS OF THE NEW CHURCH. 2. That the last state, when nothing of goodness and truth remains, is there called consummation and decision. 3. That the very end of the Church is the fulness (of time). 4. That also similar things in the Word are understood by evening and night. 5. And also by these' things in the Prophets and Evangelists, "Then the sun shall be darkened, the moon shall not give her light, the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers ofthe heavens shall be shaken." 6. That then there is no longer a Church, only as to name; but that still there are remams there, so that man may know, and understand traths, and do good, if he will. CHAPTER V. That in the end of the Church, a total damnation threatens men upon earth, and angels in heaven. 1 . That every man is in the equilibrium which is between heaven and hell, and thence in the freedom of looking and turning himself to heaven or to hell. 2. That every man after death comes first into this equilibrium, and thus into a similar state of life in which he was in the world. 3. That they who in the world looked and turned to heaven or to hell, also, in like manner after death, so look and turn themselves. 4. That in the end of the Church, when the power of evil prevails over the power of good, this equilibrium is distended and filled with the evil who de part from the worid. 5. That hence that equilibrium is elevated more and more towards heaven, and according to approximation infests the angels there. C. That all they who are in that elevated equilibrium, are interiorly infemal and ex'eiiorly moral. 7. That these, because they are snch, perpelrally endeavor to destroy heav en which is above them, which also they do by cunning devices from hell, ¦with which, as to their interiors, they constitute a one. 8. Hence it is that, at the end of the Church, destruction, and hence dam nation, even threaten tbe angels of heaven. 9. That unless judgment were then executed, no man upon earth could be saved, nor any angel in heavefi remain in his salvation. CHAPTER VI. That Jehovah God, by His Advent into the World, took away that total damna tion, and thvs redeemed men upon earth, and angels in heaven. 1. That Jehovah God Himself came into the worid, to deliver men and an gels from the assaults and violence of hell, and thus from damnation. 2. That He .effected this by combats against hell, and by victories over if and that He subjugated it and reduced it to order, and made it submissive to His obedience. THE CANONS OP THE NEW CHURCH. 25 3: That also after this judgment. He created, that is, formed, a new heaven, aud by this a New Church. 4. That by these things, Jehovah God put himself in the power of saving all who believe in him, and who do His precepts. 5. That thus He redeemed all in the universal world, and all in the univer sal heaven. 6. That this is the Gospel, which He commanded should be preached through out the world. 7. That this is the Gospel to those who repent, but not to those who pur posely transgress His precepts. CHAPTER VII. Tliat the Lord, when He was in the world, enduredthe most grievous Temptations from the Hells, and also from the Jewish Church, and that by victories over them. He reduced all things to order, and at the same time glorified His Humanity, and thus redeemed angels and men, and also redeems them to eternity. 1. That all spiritual temptations are combats against what is evil and false, thus against the hells ; and that those temptations are more grievous, the more they invade the sphit of man, and at the same time his body, and torment them both. 2. That the Lord sustained the most grievous temptations of all, because he fought against the hells, and also against the evils and falses of the Jewish Church. 3. That his temptations are but little described in the Gospels, only by com bats with the beasts, that is, with satans in hell, forty days in the wildemess, and afterwards by infestations from devils, and lastly by His sufferings in Gethsemane, and by the atrocious passion of the cross. But that His tempta tions or combats with the hells, are fully and particularly described in the Prophets and in David, which, because they were invisible, could not be man ifested.' (Isaiah Ixiii.) 4. That the Lord underwent those temptations, that He might subjugate the hells -which infested heaven, and likewise the Church ; and that He might deliver angels and men from that infestation, and thus save them. 5. That the end of all spiritual temptation, is the entire subjugation of what is evil and false, thus also of hell ; and at the same time, the entire subjugation of the external man, for into him flow evils and falses from hell. For by temptations, the dominion of evil over good, and of the external man over the internal is effected, wherefore, on which side victory is gained, on that side dominion is acquired ; consequently, when victory is gained on the side of good, good occupies the dominion over evil, and also the internal man over the external. 6. That the Lord suffered those temptations from His childhood even to the last period of His life, and thus successively subjugated the hells, and succes sively glorified His Humanity; and that in the last temptation upon the cross, which was the most grievous of aU, He fully conquered the hells, and made His Humanity Divine. 26 THE CANONS OF THE NEW CHURCH. 7. That the Lord combated with the hells, and also against the evils aud falses of the Jewish Church, as the Divine Truth Itself, or the Word, which was Himself; and that He suffered Himself to be reproached, to be assailed with contumely, and to be slain, as the Church had then done with the Word. Almost the same was done with the Prophets, because they represented the Lord as to the Word, thus with the Lord, who was the Great Prophet, because the Word Itself. That it was so, was according to Divine order. (Conceming the representation of the states of the Church by the Prophets, and in Ezekiel, where it is frequently said, " That he heareth the iniquities of the house of Israel," and that the Lord is called the Greatest Prophet, see D.C.L, 15, 16, 17.) 8. That an image of the victories of the Lord over the hells, and the glorifi cation of His Humanity, by temptations, is presented in the regeneration of man; for as the Lord subjugated the hells and made His Humanity Divine, in like manner -with man, He subjugates them, and makes him spiritual, and so regenerates him. 9. It is known that the Lord snatches man from the jaws of the devil, that is, of hell, and raises him to Himself in heaven, and that He does this by with- drawmg man fro.m evils, which is effected by contrition and repentance ; these two are the temptations which are the means of regeneration. Annotations. That the Lord as Prophet bore the miquities of the Jewish Church, but did not take them away. That His glorification or unition with the Divine of His Father, which in Him was as the soul in man, could not have taken place unless by reciprocal operation; that the Humanity co-operated with the Divinity, but nevertheless it was principally from the Divinity, but still the reception, action, or re-action from the Humanity as from Itself. But in the degree in which it was conjoined He acted at the same time from both; In like manner as man is regenerated, and becomes spiritual from the Lord. That when an infant. He was as an infant; that when a boy. He was as a boy, and that He grew in wisdom. (Luke ii. 40, 50.) That He could not be born wise, but that He became wise according to order. That he progressed to full conjunction. CHAPTER VIIL TTwt Redemption could not have been effected, neither any Salvation errpnf from an Incarnate God. ' ^ 1. That the word of the Old and New Testament teaches that God was i„ carnate. "' THE CANONS OF THE NEW CHURCH. 27 2. That all the worship of the Church before God was incarnate, represented and regarded Him after He became incarnate ; and that hence, and no other wise, was that worship Divine. 3. That God Incarnate is Jehovah our Righteousness, Jehovah our Redemp tion, Jehovah our Salvation, and Jehovah our Truth ; and that all these things are understood by the two names, Jesus Christ. 4. That God, unless He had become incarnate, could not have combated against the hells, and have conquered them. 5. That God, unless He had become incarnate, could not have been tempted, still less have suffered the cross. 6. That God, unless He had become incarnate, could not have been seen and known, and thus not approached ; and thus neither, unless incarnate by Himself, could he have been conjoined to men and angels. 7. That faith iu a God not incarnate, is impossible, but only in an incarnate God. 8. Hence it is, that it was said by the ancients, "that no one can see God and live," and by the Lord, " that no one can see the form or shape of the Father, nor hear His voice." 9. Also, that God manifested Himself to the ancients through or by angels, to be seen in a human form, which form was representative of the Incarnate God. 10. That every operation of God takes place from first principles by ulti- mfites, thus from His Divinity by His Humanity ; hence it is, that God is the First and the Last, who was, who is, and who is to come. 11. That in the ultimates of God are all Divine things together, thus in our Lord Jesus Christ are concentrated all things of the Father. , 12. From these things it follows, that Redemption could by no means have been effected, except by an Incarnate God. 13. And that there could have been no Salvation, except from an Incarnate God, thus only by the Lord, the Redeemer and Saviour ; which salvation is perpetual redemption. 14. Hence it is, that they who believe in the Lord Jesus Clirist, have eternal life ; and that they who do not believe in Him, have not that life. CONCERNING THE HOLY SPIRIT. Universais. \, That the Holy Spirit is the Divuie (Proceeding), which proceeds from the One Infinite, Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent God. 2. That the Holy Spirit, in its essence, is that God Himself; but that in subjects in which it is received, it is the Divine Proceeding. 3. That the Divine (Proceeding), which is called the Holy Spirit, proceeds from that God Himself by His Humanity, comparatively as that which pro ceeds from man, namely, as that which he teaches and operates, proceeds from his soul by his body. 4. That the Divine (Proceeding), which is called the Holy Spirit, proceeding 28 THE CANONS OF THE NEW CHURCH. from God by His Humanity, passes through the angelic heaven, and by this into the worid, thus bv angels into men. 5. That hence from men to men, and in the Church chiefly from the clergy to the laity; that which is holy is continually given, but it recedes if the Lord is not addressed. 6. That the Divme Proceeding, which is called the Holy Spkit, m its proper sense, is the Holy Word, and therein Divine Truth. 7. And that its operation is instruction, reformation, and regeneration, and hence vivification and salvation. 8. That m the degree that any one knows and acknowledges the Divme Trath which proceeds from the Lord, in the same degree he knows and acknowledges a God; and in the degree any one does the Divine Truth, so much he is in the Lord, and the Lord in him. 9. That the Spirit in respect to man is his intelligence (or mmd), and what ever proceeds from it. CHAPTER I. That the Holy Spirit is the Divine {Proceeding), which proceeds from the One Infinite, Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent God, by His Humanity assumed in the world. 1. That the Holy Spirit is not God by itself separately or singly, nor what proceeds from God the Father by the Son, as a person from persons, accord ing to the doctrine of the Church at the present day. 2. That this by no means agrees, because a person is defined to be that which is not a part and quality in another subject, but that which properly subsists by itself 3. As also that although the properties and qualities of the one may be separated from the other, nevertheless they are from one individual essence. 4. That hence tliere inevitably results not only the idea, but also the confes sion, of three gods, which however from the Christian faith are not to be called three but one, according to the Athanasian Creed. 5. That the truth is, that from eternity, or before creation, there were not three persons, of which each was God ; thus there were not three infinite, three uncreate, three immense, eternal, omnipotent beings, but one Being. 6. But that, after creation, there arose a Divine Trinity, inasmuch as then a Son was bom from the Father, and from the Father by the Son proceeds a Holy (Proceeding), which is called the Holy Spirit. 7. That hence, because the Father is the soul and life of the Son, and the Son the Human body of the Father, and the Holy Spirit the Divine Proceeding, it follows that they are consubstantial, and hence they do not subsist sepa rately or singly, but conjointly. 8. And that because the properties of the one are derived according to order, and pass over to the other, and from this to a third, they are one Person and thus one God. 9. Comparatively as in every angel, and in every man, from the soul, by the body, proceeds every operation. THE CANONS OF THE NEW CHURCH. ^ 29 10. That reason, illustrated by the Sacred Scripture, may perceive this, thus that there is a Trinity iu One Person which is a Trinity in God, but not a trinity of persons, because this is a trinity of gods CHAPTER H. That the Holy Spirit, which proceeds from the one God by His Humanity, in its Essence is the same God, but that apparently, in respect to subjects, which are in spaces, it is the Divine Proceeding. 1. That what God was before creation, such He was after it; thus such as He was from eternity, such He is to etemity. 2. That God, before creation, was not in external space, thus neither after creation to eternity. 3. Consequently, that God is in space without space, and in time without time. 4. That thus the Holy Spirit, which proceeds from that one God by His Humanity, is the same God. 5. That concerning God, because he is everywhere the same, it cannot be said that He proceeds, unless apparently in respect to spaces, because these do proceed, thus apparently in respect to subjects, which are in spaces. 6. And because these are in the created world, it follows that the Holy Spirit there is the Divine Proceeding, 7. That the Omnipresence of God fully convinces us, that the Holy Spirit is the Divine Proceeding from the one and individual God, and not a God as a person by Himself. CHAPTER III. Tliat the Divine {Proceeding), which is called the Holy Spirit, proceeding from God by His Humanity, passes through the Angelic Heaven into the World, thus by Angels into Men. l.-That the one God in His Humanity is above the angelic heaven, appear ing there as a Sun, from which proceeds Love as heat, and Wisdom as light. 2. That thus the Holy (Proceeding) of God, which is called the Holy Spirit, flows in order into the heavens, immediately into the supreme heaven, which is called the third heaven ; immediately and also mediately into the middle heaven, which is called the second heaven ; likewise into the ultimate heaven, which is called the fhst heaven. 3 . That it flows through these heavens into the world, and by this into men there. '4. That nevertheless the angels of heaven are not the Holy Spirit. 5. That all the heavens, together with the churches upon earth, are in the sight of the Lord as one Man. 6. That the Lord alone is the soul and life of that Man, and that all who are animated and live from Him are His body ; hence it is said, that the faithful constitute the body of the Lord, and that they are in Him, and He in them. 30 THE CANONS OF THE NEW CHURCH. 7. That the Lord flows into the angels of heaven, and into the men of the church, m a manner similar to that m which the soul flows into the body of man. CHAPTER IV. That hence through Men to Men, and in the Church chiefly from the Clergy to the Laity. 1. That no one can receive the Holy Sphit except from the Lord Jesus Christ, because It proceeds from God the Father through Him ; by the Holy Spirit is understood the Divine Proceeding. 2. That no one can receive the Holy Spirit, that is, the Divine Truth and the Divine Good, except he addresses the Lord immediately, and, at the same time, is in the love of Him. 3. That the Holy Spirit, that is, the Divine Proceeding, never becomes man's own, but that it is constantly the Lord's with man. 4. That therefore the Holy (Proceeding), which is understood by the Holy Spirit, does not inhere, nor does it remain, except so long as the man who receives it believes in the Lord, and, at the same time, is in the doctrine of tmth from the Word, and in a life according to it. 5. That the Holy (Proceeding), which is understood by the Holy Spirit, is not transferred from man to man, but by the Lord through man to man. 6. That God the Father does not send the Holy Spirit, that is, His Divine (Proceeding), by the Lord into man; but that the Lord sends it from God the Father. 7. That the clergy, because they are to teach doctrine from the Word con cerning the Lord, and concerning redemption and salvation from Him, are to be inaugurated by the covenant [or promise, sponsionem] of the Holy Spirit, and by the representation of its translation ; but that it is received by the clergy according to the faith of their life. 8. That the Divine (Proceeding), which is understood by the Holy Spirit, proceeds from the Lord through the clergy to the laity, by preachings, accord ing to the reception of the doctrine of truth thence derived. 9. And also by the sacrament of the Holy Supper, according to repentance before receiving it. CHAPTER V. That the Divine Proceeding, which is called the Holy Spirit, is, in its proper sense, the Word, wherein is the Holy {Principle) of God. 1. That the Word is the Very Holy itself in the Christian church, from the Divine of the Lord, which is therein and which is thence ; wherefore the Divine Proceeding which is called the Holy Spirit, is, in the proper sense the Word and the Holy of God. ' THE CANONS OF THE NEW CHUSi^H. 31 2. That the Lord is the Word is because it is from the Lord, and concerning the Lord, and thus, in its essence, is the Lord Himself. 3. That the Lord, because He is the Word, is alone Holy, and that He is the Holy One of Israel, who is so often mentioned by the Prophets, and conceming whom it is aiso said that he alone is God. 4. That it is for this reason that the place where the ark stood in the taber nacle, because in it was the law, the principle of the Word, over which was the propitiatory, and over this the cherubim— all which signified the Lord and the Word— was called the Sanctuary and the Holy of Holies. 5. That it is also for this reason that the New Jerusalem, which is the church that goes to the Lord alone, and derives truths from His Word, is called holy, and also the city of holiness (or, holy city), and that the men in whom that church is are called a people of holiness (or, holy people), as also that this church is the Kingdom of the Saints which is to endure forever, according to Daniel. 6. That the Prophets and Apostles, because the Word was written by them, are called holy men. 7. That the Holy Spirit, from the Holy Word which is taught by the Lord, is called the Spirit of Truth, of whom the Lord says that he shall not speak from himself, and that he Himself is he. 8. That to him who speaks a word against the Holy Spirit it shall not be forgiven, is because he denies the Divinity of the Lord and the Holiness of the Word ; with such a man there is no religion . 9. That to him who speaks a word against the Son of Man it shall be for given, is because he denies that this and that thing is the Divine Tmth from the Word in the church, but still believes that in the Word and from the Word are Divine Truths. The Son of Man is the Divuie Trath from the Word in the church, and this cannot be seen by all. CHAPTER VI. That the operation of the Holy Spirit is Instruction, Reforraation, and Re generation, and thence Vivification and Salvation. CHAPTER Vll. That in the degree that any one knows and acknowledges the Divine Truth which proceeds from the Lord, in the same degree he knows and acknow ledges God; and in the degree that any one does the Divine Truth, in the same degree is he in the Lord and the Lord in him. CHAPTER VHL That the Spirit in respect to Man is his intelligence and whatever proceeds from it.* * The titles only of the above three chapters are given in the original. They are the same -with the last three Universals before mentioned, and the author may have thought that the truths propounded -were too obvious, after what he had already said, to need ex pansion. — Tk. 32 THE CANONS OF THE NEW CHURCH. CONCERNING THE DIVINE TRINITY. 1. That the idea of the common people concerning the Divine Trinity, is, that God the Father sits on high, and His Son at His right hand, and that they (together) send the Holy Spirit to men. 2. That the idea of the clergy in respect to the Trinity, is, that there are three persons, each of which is God and Lord, and that to the three there is one and the same essence. 3. That the idea of the wiser among the clergy, is, that there are three com municable properties or qualities, but, by three persons are understood such as are incommunicable. 4. That there is a Divhie Trinity is clear from the Sacred Scripture and from reason. 5. That from a trinity of persons there inevitably follows a trinity of gods. 6. That if God is one, the Trinity of God becomes necessary, and thus the Trinity of person (not persons). 7.. That the Trmity of God, which is also a Trinity of person, is from God incarnate, or Jesus Christ. 8. This is confirmed from the Sacred Scripture. 9. And also from reason, inasmuch as there is a trinity in every man. 10. That the Apostolic Church never thought of a trinity of persons, as appears from their Creed. 11. That a trinity of persons was first invented by the Nicene Council. 12. That it was admitted into the churches that arose after that time, ind has been continued to the present day. 13. That the errors of that doctrine could not be corrected at any time pre vious to the present. 14. That a trinity of persons has inverted the whole church and falsified all and singular things pertaining to it. 15. That all say that it is beyond comprehension, and that the understand ing is to be held captive under the obedience of faith. What is a son born from eternity'? 16. That in the Lord there is a Trinity, and in Trinity is Unity. CHAPTER L That there is a Divine Trinity, to vrit: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 1. That the Unity of God is received and acknowledged throughout the whole world wherever there is religion and sound reason. 2. That therefore the Trinity of God could not have been known, for if it had been known, yea, if only declared, man would have thought that the Trinity of God implied a plurality of Gods, which both religion and sound reason abhor. THE CANONS OF THE NE^V CHURCH. 33 3. That therefore the Trinity of God could not have been known except from revelation, thus not except from the Word, nor could it have been re ceived unless the Trinity of God were also the Unity of God, for otherwise it would be a contradiction which begets a non-entity. 4. That the Trinity of God did not actually exist before the Son of God, the Saviour of the world, was born, and that previously there was neither Unity in Trinity nor Trinity in Unity. 5. That the salvation of the human race depends upon the Trinity of God, which is at the same time Unity. 6. That by the Trinity of God, which is at the same time Unity, is under stood the Divine Trinity in one person. 7. That the Lord, the Saviour of the world, taught that there was a Divine Trinity, to wit: the Father, the Son, and the Spirit; for he commanded the disciples to baptize in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit ; he said also that he would send to them the Holy Spirit from the Father ; he spake moreover very often of the Father, and of himself as his Son, and breathed upon the disciples, saying, "Receive ye the Holy Spirit." Add to this, that when Jesus was baptized in Jordan a voice came forth from the Father, saying, " This is my beloved Son," and the Spirit appeared over him iu the form of a dove. The angel Gabriel said also to Mary, " The Holy Sphit shall come upon thee, and the virtue of the Most High shall overshadow thee, and the Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." The Most High is God the Father. The Apostles likewise in their epistles often name the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit ; and John in his first epistle says "There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit," etc. CHAPTER II. That those three. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are three Essentials of one God, since they are one as Soul, Body, and Operation with man are one. 1. That the Divine Trinity, which at the same time is Unity, can by no gleans be comprehended by any one, unless (it be viewed) as the Soul, Body, and proceeding Operation with man ; consequently unless the Divine Itself, which is called the Father, be considered as the Soul, the Human, which is called the Son, as the Body.of the Soul, and the Holy Spirit as the proceedmg Operation from both. 2. That therefore in the Christian Church it is every where acknowledged that in Christ, God and Man, that is, the Divine and Human, are one person, as the soul and body in man. This is thus acknowledged from the Athana sian Creed. 3. Therefore he that apprehends the union of the soul and body and the residting operation, apprehends the Trinity, and at the same time the Unity, of God in a kind of shadow. 4. That the rational man knows, or may know, that the soul of the son is 3 34 THE CANONS OF THE NFM CHURCH. from the father, and that the soul clothes itself with a body in the womb of the mother, and that afterwards all operation proceeds from both. 5. That he who knows the union of the soul and body, knows or may know, that the life of the soul is in the body, and thus that the life of the body is the life of the soul. 6. Consequently that the soul lives, and therefore feels and operates in the body and from the body, and that the body lives, feels, and operates from itself while still from the soul. 7. That the reason of this is, that all things of the soul are of the body, and all things of the body of the soul ; from this and nothing else is theur union. 8. That it is only an appearance that the soul operates separately, from itself through the body, while yet it operates in the body and from the body. 9. That from all this the rational man who knows the intercourse of the sou! and the body may comprehend these words of the Lord, that the Father and He are one— that all things of the Father redound to Him— that the Father hath given all things into his hand— that as the Father works, so the Son also works — that he that sees and knows the Son, sees and knows the Father also — that they who are one in the Son are one in the Father— that no one hath seen the Father except the Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, and who hath brought him forth to view — that the Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father— that no one cometh to the Father except through the Son — that as the Father hath life in Himself, so he has given to the Son to have life in himself — that in Jesus Christ all the fulness of the Divinity dwells bodily — ^besides many more. By the Son, in these passages, is meant the Human of the Father. 10. That from these things it follows, that the Divinity and the soul of the Son of God are not distinctly two, but one and the same. That the Son of God is the Human of God the Father, is fully shown above ; for what else did Mary, the mother, bring forth than the Human in which was the Divine from the Father 1 Hence He was called from nativity the Son of God ; for the angel Gabriel says to Mary, the Holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be call ed the Son of God, and tbe Holy which was bom of Mary was the human in which was the Divine from the Father. CHAPTER IIL That before the world was created there was no Trinity of God. 1. That God is one the Sacred Scripture teaches, and reason illustrated by the Lord sees it there and thence ; but that God was triune before the world was created the Sacred Scripture does not teach, nor does reason thence illus trated see. That it is said in David, " This duy have I begotten thee." does not imply that it is from eternity, but in the fulness of time, for the future is present in God, thus also "to-day;" in like manner with that of Isaiah, "A child is born to us, a Son is given, whose name is God, Hero, the Father of etemity." 2. What rational mind, when it hears that before the creation of the world THE CANONS OF THE NEW CHURCH. 35 there were three Divine persons called Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, does not say within itself when thinking on the subject, What is meant by a Son's be ing born from God the Father from eternity ? How could he be born 1 And what is the Holy Spirit proceeding from God the Father through the Son from eternity ^ And how could he proceed and become God by himself? Or how could a person beget a person from eternity, and both produce a person 1 Is not a person a person % How can three persons, of which each is God, be conjoined in one God, otherwise than in one person t And yet this is contrary to theology, and that to this. How can the Divinity be distinguished into three persons, and yet not into three Gods, when yet each person is God 1 How can the Divine essence, which is one, the same, and indivisible, fall into number, and consequently be divided or multiplied ¦? And how can three divine per sons be together and take counsel with each other in the non-extense of space, such as was before the worid was created "? How could three equalities them selves be produced from Jehovah God, who is One, and thence Sole, Infinite, Immense, Increate, Eternal, and Omnipotent 1 How can a trinity of persons be conceived of in the unity of God, and the unity of God in a trinity of per sons? — besides that the idea of plurality destroys that of unity, and vice versa. It might perhaps have been possible for the Greeks and Romans to conceive of all their Gods, which were many, as being, compacted solely by identity of essence into one God. 3. The rational mind, in revolving and investigating a Trinity of persons in the Godhead from eternity, might also ponder upon the question, of what use it could be for a Son to be born before the worid was created, and for the Holy Spirit to go forth from the Father through the Son T Was there a use for three to consult how the universe should be created ? — and thus that three should create it, when yet the universe was created by one God ? Neither was there any occasion for the Son to redeem, since redemption was accomplished after the world was created in the fulness of time; nor for the Holy Spirit to sancti fy, when as yet there were no men to be sanctified. If then there were those uses iu the idea of God, still they were not realized before the creation of the worid, but after it actually came into existence ; from which it follows, that a Trinity from eternity was not a real Trinity, but an ideal (or potential) one, and still more a Trinity of persons, 4. Who in the ohurch, while reading the Athanasian Creed, can understand this, that it is of the Christian verity, that each person by himself is God, and yet that it is not lawful from the Catholic religion to name them Gods 1 Is not religion to such a man something else than truth, (when he holds) that three persons are from truth three Gods, but that from religion they are one God ? 5. That a Trinity of persons in the Godhead before the world was created, never came into the mind of any one from the time of Adam down to the advent of the Lord, appears from the Word of the Old Testament and from the histories of the religion of the ancients. That neither did it come into the minds of the Apostles, as is evident from their writmgs in the Word. That it moreover came mto the mind of no one in the Apostolic Church prior to the Council of Nice, as appears from the Apostles' Creed, in which no Son torn etemity, but a Son born of the Virgin Mary, is mentioned!. That a Trinity of 36 THE CANONS OF THE NEW CHURCH. persons is not only above reason, but against it; it is against reason that three persons should have created the universe; that there should have been three persons, and each person God, and yet not three Gods but one, and then three persons and not one person. Will not the future new church call this age of the old church benighted and barbarous, as worshiping three Gods ¦? Equally irrational are the various inferences deduced from that Trinitarian dogma. 6. That a Trinity of persons existing in the Godhead from eternity, was first taught by the Nicene Council, as appears from the two Creeds, the Nicene and the Athanasian, and that it was afterwards received by the churches from that time onward to the present day, as the principal dogma — the head indeed of all doctrines. That there were two causes why this doctrine of the Trinity was propounded by the council of Nice ; the first, that they knew not how otherwise to dissipate the scandals of Arius who denied the Divinity of the Lord ; the other, that they did not understand what is said by the evangelist John, ch. i. 1, 2, 10, 14; ch. xvi. 22; ch. xvii. 5. How these things are to he understood may be seen above. 7. That the Divinity before the world was created was believed to consist, according to the Nicene council and the churches afterwards, of three persons of which each was God, and the second born from the first, and the third pro ceeding from the other two, is not only above comprehension, but contrary to it, and the faith of a paradox which does violence to the rational understand ing. It is a faith in which there is not any thing of the church, but is rather a persuasive of the false, such as obtains among those who are insane in matters of religion. Still we do not here affirm this religious insanity of those who fail to perceive things so contradictory and contrary to Sacred Scripture, and therefore yield their credence to them ; consequently we do not affirm it of the council of Nice, and the subsequent churches, because they did not see (the repugnancy). CHAPTER IV. That tlie Trinity of God came into being after the world was created, and actually in the fulness of time, and then in God incarnate, who is the Lord, the Saviour Jesus Christ. 1. That the Trinity of God neither did nor could exist before the creation of the world, as also that there are three essentials of one person in God Man from which the Trinity is predicated of God, has been shown above. 2. That God as the Word was to come into the worid and to assume the human m the Virgm Mary, and that the Holy thence born was to be called the Son of the Most High, the Son of God, the Only Begotten, is known from the Old Word where it is predicted, and from the New where it is described. 3. Since therefore the Most High God, who is the Father, begot, through his Divine proceeding, which is the Holy Spirit, the human in the Virgin Mary, it follows that the human born from that conception is the Son, and the begetting Divine the Father, and that both are together the Lord,' God, Saviour, Jesus Christ, God and Man. THE CANONS OF THE NEW CHURCH. S7 4. It follows also that the Divine Truth, which is the Word, and in which is the Divuie Good, was the seed from the Father from which the human was conceived ; the soul is from the seed, and by the soul is the body. 5. For confirmation let this arcanum be related, that the spiritual origin of all human seed is Trath from Good, yet not Divine Truth from Divine Good, in its 0"wn infinite and uncreated essence, but in its own finite and "created form. See the "Delights of Wisdom concerning Conjugial Love," n. 220, 245. 6. It is known that the soul adjoins to itself a body which may serve it for operating uses, and that it afterwards conjoins itself to the body as it serves, and that too while yet the soul is of the body, and the body of the soul, and this is -what is in effect implied in the Lord's words, that He is in the Father, and the Father in Him. 7. From these things it follows, that the Trinity of God came into being after the world was created, and then in God who is the Lord, the Saviour, Jesus Christ. CHAPTER V. That the Trinity of persons in the Godhead originated in the council of Nice, and was thence derived into the Catholic Church in succeeding times, and is therefore to be called the Nicene Trinity; that the Trinity of God in one person, the Lord God the Saviour, is from Christ Himself, and thence established tn the Apostolic Church, whence it is to be called the Christian Trinity ; and that this Trinity of God is the Trinity of the New Church, 1. There are three summaries of the doctrine of the Christian Church con cerning the Divine Trinity and at the same time the Unity, which are called Symbols or Creeds- the Apostolic, the Nicene, and the Athanasian. The Apostles' Creed was -written by men who are called the Apostolical Fathers; the Nicene Creed by an assembly of Bishops and Priests who were convened by the Emperor Constantino at the city of Nice, with a view to dissipate the heresies of Arius in his denial of the Divinity of the Son of God ; and the Athan asian Creed by a certain person or persons immediately after that council. These three Creeds were acknowledged and received as ecumenical and Catholic, that is, as the universals of the doctrine respecting the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 2 The Apostolic Creed teaches thus :— " I believe in God the Father, Omnip otent, the God of heaven and earth; in Jesus Christ his Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and bom ofthe Virgin Mary. I believe m the Holy Spirit," &c. ,,,,,, ^ • The Nicene Creed teaches thus :-" I believe in one God, the Father Omnip otent, Maker of heaven and earth; and in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only- begotten Son of God, born of the Father before the ages, begotten not made consubstantial with the Father, by whom all things were made, who descended from heaven and became incarnate and was made man by the Holy Spirit rom the virgin Mary; and in the Holy Spirit, Lord and Vivifier who P;o°-ds from the Father and the Son, who is adored and glorified together with the Father and the Son ; who spake through the prophets." 38 THE CANONS OF THE NEW CHURCH. The Athanasian Creed teaches thus : — " The Catholic Faith is this, that we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity. That there is one person ofthe Father, another of the Son, another of the Holy Spirit. That to the Father, Sou, and Holy Spirit pertains one Divinity and etemal majesty. That the Father is increate, immense, eternal, omnipotent, God and Lord ; in like manner the Son, and in like manner the Holy Spirit; and yet that there are not three increate, immense, eternal, omnipotent Gods and Lords, but one. That the Son is from the Father only, not made, not created, but begotten ; the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son, not made, not created, not begotten, but proceeding. That in this Trinity there is nothing prior or posterior, nothing greater or less, but all the three persons are coeternal and coequal. But as we are obliged by the Christian verity to acknowledge each person by him self to be God and Lord, so we are forbidden by the Catholic religion to say three Gods and Lords. Furthermore concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, that although He is God and Man, yet they are not two, but one Christ." 3. That from the things thus declared in these three Creeds it may be gath ered how in each is to be understood the Trinity of God in Unity, and the Unity in Trinity. For the Apostolic Creed teaches concerning God the Father, that He is the Creator of the Universe ; concerning his Son, that He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary ; and concerning the Holy Spirit, that He is. The Nicene Creed teaches concerning God the Father, that He is the Creator of the Universe ; concerning the Son, that He was begotten before all ages, and that He descended and became incarnate ; and concerning the Holy Spirit, that He proceeds from both. But the Athanasian Creed , teaches concerning the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that they are three coeternal and coequal persons, and that each of them is God, and yet that there are not three Gods, but one ; and that although from the Christian verity each person is by himself God, yet from the Catholic religion it is not allowable to say three Gods. 4. That from these three Creeds it appears that two Trinities are taught, one which existed before the world was created, the other, after; the Trinity be fore the worid, in the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds ; the Trinity after it, in the Apostolic ; consequently that the Apostolic Church knew nothing of a Son from eternity, but only of a Son born in the worid, and thus that it invoked Him and not him ; and, on the other hand, that the church which arose and established itself anew after the (date of the) Nicene Creed, acknowledged a Son from eternity as God, and a Son born in the world not as God. 5. That these two Trinities differ as much from each other as evening and morning, yea, as night and day, and thus that both can by no possibility be confirmed in one and the same man of the Church, as with him religion would peri.sh, and with religion sound reason; the cause is, that from the Nicene and Athanasian Trinity God cannot be thought of as one, but from the Apostolic Trinity he can and is, because this Trinity exists in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God born in the world. 6. That there is a Divine Trinity in the Lord God the Saviour Jesus Christ, THE CANONS OF THE NEW CHURCH, 39 he Himself teaches, for He says that He and the Father are one, John x. 30; that He is inthe Father, and the Father in Him, John xiv. 10, 11; that all things of the Father are His, John iii. 35 ; xvi. 15 ; that he that seeth Him seeth the Father, and also that he that believeth in Him believeth in the Father, and according to Paul, that all the fulness of the Godhead dwelleth in Him bodily. Col. ii. 9; according to Isaiah, that He is the Father of eternity, ix. 5; and elsewhere in that prophet, that He is Jehovah the Redeemer, the only God; and that from redemption He is Jehovah our Righteousness, and, when treat ing of Him, that He is God the Father; that He will not give His glory to another; and that the Holy Spirit is from Him. Now because God is one, and because there is a Divine Trinity, the Fathei Son, and Holy Spirit, according to the Lord's words. Mat, xxviii., it follows. that that Trinity is in one person, and in the person of Him who was conceived of God the Father and born of the Virgin Mary, and thence called the Son of the Highest, the Son of God, the only begotten Son, Luke i. 31, 35 ; John i. IS: XX. 34; Mat. iii. 17; xvi. 16; xvii. 5. That in all these and the above cited passages, no Son from eternity is to be understood, appears before the internal and external sight. Since therefore this Divine Trinity, which is also the fulness of the Godhead dvrelling bodily in Him, according to Paul, is in the Lord God, the Saviour Jesus Christ, it follows that He only is to be approached, invoked, and wor shiped, and that when this is done, the Father is approached at the same time, and that such an one receives the Holy Spirit; for He teaches that He is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one cometh to the Father but by Him, and that he that entereth not by Him as the door into the sheepfold, that is, into the church, is not a shepherd, but a thief and a robber; as also that they who believe in Him have eternal life, and that they who believe not shall not see life, John iii. 1-5, 16, 36 ; vi. 40 ; xi. 25, 26 ; 1 John v. 21. 7. Since the Diviue Trinity and at the same time the Divine Unity is in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Redeemer and Saviour of the world, this is the Trinity of the New Church. (There is here a break in the connexion, apparently from a defect in the manuscript, in which Chapters VI. and VIL are presumed to be wanting. The argument however flows on continuously from this point to the end.) 6 That the nature or quaUty of this (behef ?) is described by the statue of Nebuchadnezzar, as to its feet, and by the last beast that ascended from the sea, in Daniel, and by the Dragon and his two beasts in the Apocalypse. 7 As also from the arcanum revealed to me, that every one obtains a place in heaven that is, in its societies, according to his idea of God; and that every one (Obtains a place) in hell, according to his denial of God; moreover, that the denial of one God inheres in the ideas of those who have confirmed them selves in the Athanasian Trinity. 8. That a true soul and life is m that man of the church who acknowledges 40 THE CANONS OF THE NEW CHURCH. the Lord the Son of God as the God of heaven and earth. That He is the God of heaven and earth, he Himself teaches in Matthew, and that He is the true God and etemal life, in John, and that in Him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead, m Paul, and that He is Jehovah our Redeemer, the only God, yea, the Father of eternity, in Isaiah. CHAPTER VIII. That tlie confirmation of a Trinity of persons from eternity, of which each is God, according to the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds, has falsified the whole Word. 1, That every heretic can confirm and does confirm his heresy by the Word ; as this is written by appearances and correspondences, wherefore the Word is called by some the book of all heresies. 2. That a man after confirmation sees no otherwise than that his dogmas are true, although they are false. 3. That a plurality of Gods may be confirmed by many things drawn from the Word ; so also the imputative faith of Christ's merit, in -which three Gods severally take part; as likewise that the works of charity contribute nothing to faith, thus nothing to salvation. 4. That a plurality of Gods may be confirmed by these considerations, viz ; that a Trinity is mentioned by the Lord ; that a Trinity was made apparent when the Lord was baptized; that there are three who bear witness in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit ; that Jehovah God said. Let us make man in our image and likeness ; that three angels appeared to Abraham who are called Jehovah ; that ya. the New Word the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are often named by the Lord in the Evangelists and by the Apostles in their epistles, and yet it is not there said that they are one. •So likewise as to the faith imputative of Christ's merit, and that this faith alone is saving ; and so as to the works of charity, that they do not conduce to salvation ; to which may be added, that the mind prone to ratiocination may construct creed-articles of its own that shall go to establish the former. 5. That all and singular of the above items cannot be seen as false, and thus dissipated, unless reason illustrated by the Lord through the Word shall confirm that God is one and that there is a conjunction of charity and faith. 6. Since such is the fact, it may appear beyond question that a theology founded upon a trinity of persons, of which each one is God, and upon a faith directed to each separately, and also upou tbe unavailableness of charity to salvation, has falsified the entire Word, mainly because these three— God charity, and faith, are together the universals of religion, to which all and singular things of the Word, and thence of heaven and the church, refer them selves. 7. Hence results this enormous error, that the confirmer, wherever he reads of the Father, Son, or Holy Spirit, yea, wherever he reads of Jehovah and God, thinks of three Gods, because of one made up of three ; also whenever he reads of faith, he thinks of no other than that faith which is imputative of THE CANONS OF THE NEW CHURCH. 41 Christ's merit; and whenever he reads of charity, he thinks of it as contribut ing nothing to salvation, or he thinlcs of that faith instead of it. Confirmation once deeply fixed involves this in it. CHAPTER IX. That hence has arisen that affliction and that desolation in the Christian Church which were predicted by the Lord in the Evangelists and by Daniel. 1. That the Lord when he spake with the disciples conceming the consum mation of the age, and concerning his own advent, that is. concerning the end of the modern church and the beginning of the new church, predicted these things, viz : that there should be great affliction such as there was not from the beginning of the world to this time, nor ever shall be, Matt. xxiv. 21 ; that the abomination of desolation foretold by the prophet Daniel should occur ; and that after the affliction of those days the sun should be darkened, and the moon should not .give its light, and that the powers of the heavens should be shaken, Matt. xxiv. 15, 29. 2. That there is such an affliction and desolation in the church is utterly un known and unseen in the world, because it is everywhere said by those in the churoh that they are in the very light of the gospel, and that if an angel should descend from heaven and teach anythii^ else, he -were not to be be lieved. That this is said by the Roman Catholic church, by the Greek church, and by each of the three reformed churches distinguished by the name of their leaders, Luther, Melancthon, and Calvin, and in like manner by each of the heretical churches, which are manifold, 3, But that that predicted affliction and absolution is very palpable in the spiritual world, as all men come after death into that world, and remain in the religion in which they were in the natural world ; and the light there is spiritual light which detects everything. 4. When the clergy are there interrogated conceming God, concerning faith, and concerning charity, which are the three essentials of the church, and thence of salvation, they answer scarcely otherwise than as the blind who have fallen into ditches. Concerning God they say that he is one, and yet that there are three who are unanimous ; and when they say that the three are one, and are commanded to speak as they think, then, as speech and thought are one with those in the spiritual world, they utter, with a clear voice, " three Gods," As to faith, they reply that it is a faith in God the Father, God the Sou, and God the Holy Spirit; and that God the Father gives it, the Son medi ates it, and the Holy Spirit operates it, thus making it a faith in three Gods in order. When further interrogated respecting that faith, whether they know the sign of its entrance, and the sign of its abiding presence, they reply, What is this knowing of signs ? Is not this faith from the mere good pleasure, the election, of God only, without the slightest admixture of anything of man ? When asked whether that faith, inasmuch as it is directed to three, and thus to three Gods, and man is in profound ignorance concerning it, can be really anything- they reply thafit is not only something, but the all of the churoh 42 THE CANONS OF THE NEW CHURCH. and the all of salvation. If interrogated whether it is possible, at this they laugh. As to charity, they say this is where that faith is, and that it is both separate from it and not separate, and that it contributes to salvation and it does not contribute. 5. When the laity are questioned conceming God, faith, and charity, they (are found to) know almost nothing on the subject, except that a few of them have acquired some enigmas from the clergy which they call articles of faith, and which are in general that God the Father has compassion on account of the passion of his Son, and that he forgives sins and justifies. 6. When these two classes are explored as to -whether they have anything of God, of faith, and of charity in themselves, it is perceived that they are utterly destitute, consequently that they have nothing of heaven, of the church, or of salvation, except in the case of those who have done good from religion, as these, in the spiritual worid, are receptible of faith in the Lord God the Saviour. 7. From the few things above adduced it appears whence has arisen that great affliction, such as was not from the beginning of the world, nor shall be, and whence that abomination of desolation which the Lord foretold as to occur at the end of the church, which is now arrived. 8. That such an affliction has not been from the beginning of the church, nor shall be, is because the Gentiles and the Jews themselves kno-w not the Lord God the Saviour, as the fountain of salvation, and ignorance excuses; but the case is otherwise with Christians after his advent, to whom the truth is laid open in the Word of both Testaments. CHAPTER X. That unless a New Church arise which shall abolish the faith ofthe Old Church being as it is, a faith in three Gods, and introduce a new one which shall be a faith in one God, thus in the Lord God the Saviour, Jesus Christ there should no flesh be saved, according to the Lord's words, 1, That the Lord, when he spake with the disciples concerning the consura mation of the age and his advent, that is, conceming the end of the present church and the commencement of the New Church, after describing the deso lation and affliction, said, that unless those days Were shortened no flesh should be saved, that is, all would perish in eternal death. Matt xxiv. 21 22 2. That no flesh should be saved unless that affliction and abomination of desolation were removed, is because that by the faith of the modern church there is no conjunction with God, and thence no salvation, for this depends solely upon conjunction with God, yea, in that conjunction is salvation. 3. That in the end of the modern church there is no conjunction with God is because that faith is a faith in three Gods, and no faith conjoins but a faith ir one God ; because moreover, that that faith is a faith in God the Father who is inaccessible, and also in a Son born from etemity, who is likewise inaccessi ble as being of the same essence with the Father ; and in the Holy Spirit ¦ and because, as there is no Son nor Holy Spirit from eternity, the faith in those' THE CANONS OF THE NEW CHURCH; 43 two is a faith in no God. Add to this, that the modern faith cannot be united with charity, and faith not united with charity, thus alone, does not conjoin. Hence it follows that unless a new church be established by the Lord, which shall abolish that faith and teach a new one, viz : a faith in one God and which is at the same time united with charity, no flesh, that is, no man, could be saved. 4. That the modern faith has destroyed the universal church and falsified the whole V/ord, has been shown above, wherefore unless anew church were to be established by the Lord, which shall restore both the church and the Word to its integrity, no flesh could be saved. 5. Thatthose who are in the faith of the modern church are to be understood by the dragon and the false prophet, and that faith itself by the well ofthe abyss from which the locusts issued, as also by the great city which is spirit ually called Sodom and Egypt where the two witnesses -were slain, is shown in the Apocalypse Revealed ; as also that by the Newjerusalem tliere spoken of is to be understood the New Church. As it is there said that after the dragon and false prophet were cast into hell the New Jerusalem descended from God out of heaven, it appears that after the faith of the modern church is condemned the New Church from the New Heaven shall descend from the Lord and be instituted. 6. From this it appears that unless a New Church exist which shall abolish the faith in three Gods, and receive a faith in one God, thus in the Lord Jesus Christ, and at the same time conjoins this faith with charity in one form, no flesh could be saved. 7. It may be seen above, p. 26, that redemption could not be effected, nor salvation thence be given, unless by God incarnate, thus by no other than God, the Redeemer, Jesus Christ; for salvation is perpetual redemption. It was sho-wn moreover that God, faith, and charity are three essentials of the church, and that upon them universal theology, and thus the church, depends; wherefore when falses are taught and imbibed in respect to those three points, there is no salvation to men. 7. Minor clause. That no one can hereafter come into heaven unless he be in the doctrine of the New Church as to faith and life. The reason is, that the New Heaven which is now being established by the Lord, is in faith and life according to that doctrine. CHAPTER XI. That the Divine Trinity is in the Lord God the Saviour, and consequently that the Lord God the Saviour is alone to be approached in order to the attainment of salvation or eternal life. Annotations. These things are to be explained according to what is con tained in the following sections concerning the Sacred Scriptures, n. 13, &c. That it follows from the doctrine of the modern church, that the Lord has no power, as the Father alone imputes his merit, and that he in Him intercedes and prays that he would do this ; and they forget his saying that all things of 44 THE CANONS OF THE NEW CHURCH. the Father are his and redound to Him, and that power over all flesh and all power over heaven and earth are his. That the Lord is the head of the church and the church is His body, where fore He who is its head is to be approached by the body. {The rest is wanting in the Author's Manuscript.) APPENDIX. (As a few additional pages are requisite to complete the present form, -we have deemed it expedient to make a selection from the " Athanasian Creed" of Sviredenborg, in -which he expand?, at greater length, some of the important ideas in relation to the Trinity con tained in the foregoing pages.) THE ATHANASIAN DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY. " We now proceed to the doctrine of the Trinity, which was written by Athanasius, and confirmed by the council of Nice. This doctrine is such, that whilst it is read it leaves a clear idea that there are three persons, and hence that there are three unanimous Gods, but [it leaves] an obscure idea that God is one ; when yet as was above said, the idea of thought concerning one God primarily opens heaven to man ; and, on the other hand, the idea of three Gods closes heaven. That this Athanasian doctrine, whilst it is read, leaves a clear idea that there are three persons, and hence that there are three unani mous Gods, aud that this unanimous Trinity makes the thought that there is one God, let every one decide for himself whether he can think otherwise ; for it is said, in the Athanasian creed, in express words, ' There is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit The Father is uncreate, infinite, eternal, omnipotent, God, Lord, so likewise is the Son, and so likewise is the Holy Spirit. Also, the Father was made and created of none, the Son was born of the Father, and the Holy Spirit proceedeth from both. Thus there is one Father, one Son, and one Holy Spirit. And in this trinity all the three persons are together eternal, and are altogether equal.' FrOm these words no one can think otherwise than that th^ere are three Gods • neither could Athanasius think otherwise, nor also the Nicene council as is evident from these words inserted in the doctrine : ' As we are obliged by APPENDIX. 45 the christian verity to acknowledge every person by himself to be God and Lord, yet are we forbidden by the catholic religion to say there be three Gods and three Lords :' which cannot be understood in any other sense, than that it is allowable to acknowledge three Gods and Lords, but not to name them, or that it is allowable to think of three Gods and Lords, but not to say [that there are three Gods and Lords], That the doctrine of the Trinity, which is called the Athanasian Creed, whilst it is read, leaves an obscure idea that God is one, and so obscure as not to remove the idea of three Gods, may be manifest from this consideration, that the doctrine makes one God of three, by unity of essence, saying, ' This is the christian faith, that we worship one God in trinity, and trinity in unity, neither commixing the persons, nor separating the essence :' and afterwards, 'Thus the unity in trinity, and the trinity in unity is to be worshiped.' These things are said to remove the idea of three Gods, but they do not fall into the understanding otherwise than that there are three persons, but one Divine essence to all ; thus by Divine essence is there meant God, when yet essence, as also divinity, majesty, and glory, which are also mentioned, is a predicate, and God, as being a person, is the subject, wherefore to say that essence is God would be like saying that a predicate is a subject, when yet essence is not God, but is of God, as likewise majesty and glory are not God, but are bf God, as a predicate is not a subject, but is of a subject; hence it is evident the idea of three Gods as of three persons is not removed. This may be illustrated by a comparison : Let there be three rulers in one kingdom of equal power, and let every one be called king; in this case, if power and majesty is meant by king, they may, if it be so commanded, be called and said to be king; but whereas it is person which is meant by king, it is impossible, from any mandate, that three kings can be conceived to be one king : wherefore, if they should say to you, speak to us with the same freedom with which you think, you would, undoubtedly, say, ye are kings, also ye are majesties ; if you should reply, I think as I speak in obedience to the mandate, you are de ceived, because you either simulate or compel yourself, and if you compel yourself, your thought is not left to itself, but inheres in the speech. That this is the case, was seen also by Athanasius, wherefore he explams the above words by the following ; ' As we are obliged by the christian verity to acknowledge every person by himself to be God and Lord, so are we forbid den by the catholic rehgion to say that there are three Gods and three Lords ;' which words cannot be otherwise understood than that it is allowable to ac knowledge three Gods and Lords, but not to name them; or that it is allowa ble to think of three Gods and Lords, but not to say so, because it is contrary to the christian faith ; in like manner, that it is allowable to acknowledge and thiuk of three infinites, eternals, uncreates, and omnipotents, because there are three persons, but not to name three infinites, eternals, uncreates, and omnipotents, but only one. The reason why Athanasius added the above quoted words to the rest is, because no one can think otherwise, not even himself, yet every one can speak otherwise, and that every one ought to speak so, because it is taught by the christian religion, that is, from the word, «iat there are not tliree Gods, but that there is one God. Moreover, the 46 APPENDIX. property which is adjoined to each person as his special attribute, as creation to the Father, redemption to the Son, and illustration to the Holy Spirit, is not thus one and the same with the three persons, and yet each property enters the Divine essence, for creation is divine, redemption is divine, and illustration is divine. Moreover, what man thinks that the trinity in unity and unity in trinity is to be worshiped, neither commixing the persons, nor separating ihe essence, who is desirous to turn the idea of three Gods into the idea of one God ? Who can do this, by any power of metaphysics which transcends the apprehension ! The simple are utterly incapable of doing it; but the learned hurry it over, saying with themselves, this is my doctrine and faith concern ing God; nor do they thence retain anything else in the memory from an ob scure idea, or anything else in the idea from the memory, than that there are three persons, and one God, and every man out of three makes one in his o-wn way, but this only when he speaks and writes, but whilst he thinks, he can not think otherwise than of three, and one from the unanimity of three, and, often, not even from that [unanimity.] But attend, my reader, and do not say to yourself, that these things are too harshly and' tooboldly spoken against the faith universally received concerning the triune God; for, in the following pages, you will see, that all and singular the things which are written in the Athanasian creed, agree with the truth, if only, instead of three persons, one person he believed in, in whom is a trinity. "Another point which the Athanasian doctrine teaches, is, that in the Lord there are too essences, the Divine and the Human ; and in that doctrine the idea is clear that the Divine and the Human pertain to the Lord, or that the Lord is God and Man ; but the idea is obscure, that the Divine of the Lord is in His Human, as the ' soul in the body. The clear idea, that the Lord has a Divine and a Human, is drawn from these words : ' The true faith is, that we believe and confess, that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man ; God of the substance of the Father born before the world, and Man Of the substance of the Mother born in the world ; perfect God and perfect Man, consisting of a rational soul. Equal to the Father as to the Divine, and in ferior to the Father as to the Human,' Here stops the clear idea, nor does it go further, because from what follows it becomes an obscure idea and the things which are of an obscure idea, inasmuch as they do not enter the memory from any thought of light do not gain a place there, except among such things as are not of the light, which things, since they do not appear before the understanding, hide themselves, nor can they be called forth from the memory together with those things which are of the light. The point in that doctrine, which is an obscure idea, is, that the Diviue of the Lord is in his Human, as the soul in the body; for on this subject it is thus said • 'Who although he be God and Man, yet are not two, but one Christ; one altogether by unity of person : since as the rational soul and the body are one man so God and Man is one Christ ;' the idea contained in these words in itself indeed is clear, but still it becomes obscure by the following words : ' One not bv conversion of the Divine essence into the Human, but by assumption of the Human essence into the Divme: one altogether, not by commixture of. essence, but by unity of person.' Inasmuch as a clear idea prevails over an * APPENDIX. 47 obscure idea, therefore most people, both simple and learned, think of the Lord as of a common man, like themselves, and not at the same time of his Divine ; if they think of the Divine, then they separate it in their idea from the Human, and thereby also infringe the unity of person : if they are asked where is his Divine 1 they reply, from their idea, in heaven with the Father ; the reason why they so say and so perceive, is, because they find a repug nance to think that the Human is Divine, and thus one with its Divine in heaven, not aware, that whilst in thought they thus separate the Divine of the Lord from his Human, they not only think contrary to their own doctrine, which teaches that the Divine of the Lord is in his Human, as the soul in the body, also, that there is imity of person, that is, ihat they are one person, but also, they charge that doctrine undeservedly with contradiction or fallacy, in supposing that the Human of the Lord, together with the rational soul, was from the mother alone, when yet every man is rational by virtue of the soul, which is from the father. But that such thought has place, and such a sepa ration, follows also from the idea of three Gods, from which idea it results, that his Divine in the Human is from the Divine of the Father, who is the first person, when yet it is his o-wn proper Divine, which descended from heaven and assumed the Human. If man does not rightly perceive this, he may possibly be led to suppose, that his begetting lex quo'] Father was not one Divine, but threefold, which yet cannot be received with any faith. In a word, they who separate the Divine from his Human, and do not think that the Divine is in his Human as the soul in the body, and that they are one person, may fall into erroneous ideas concerning the Lord, even into an idea as of a man separated from a soul;- wherefore take heed to thyself, lest you think of the Lord as of a man like yourself, but rather think of the Lord as of a Man who is God. Attend, my reader ! when you are perasing these pages, you may be led to suppose, that you have never, in thought, separated the Divine of the Lord from his Human, thus neither the Human from the Divine ; but, I beseech you, consult your thought, when you have determined it to the Lord whether you have ever considered, that the Divine of the Lord is in his Human as the soul in the body 1 rather have you not thought, yea, if you are now willing to make the inquiry, do not you at present think of his human separately, and of his Divine separately ? And when you think of his Human do not you conceive it to be like the human of another man, and when of the Divine do not you conceive it in your idea, to be with the father ? I have questioned great numbers, even the rulers of the church, and they have all replied that it is so ; and when I have said, that yet it is a doctrine of the Athanasian creed, whicb is the very doctrine of their church concerning God and concerning the Lord, that the Divine of the Lord is in his Human as the soul in the body, they have replied, that they did not know this : and when I have recited these words of the doctrine, ' Our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God, although he be God and Man, yet they are not two but one Christ; one altogether by unity of person; since as the rational soul and body are one man so God and Man is one Christ ;' they were then silent and .confessed afterwards, that they had not noted these words, bemg indignant at themselves for having so with careless istrictis-] eyes, examined their own doctrine : sorne 48. APPENDIX them then gave up their mystic union of the Divine ofthe Father with the Human of the Lord, That the Divine is in the Human of the Lord, as^the soul in the body, the Word teaches and testifies in Matthew and iji Luke ; in. Mat thew thus : ' Mary bei-3g betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, was- found to be with child by the Holy Spirit: and an angel said: to Joseph in a di-eam, fear hot to take Mary thy bride, for that which is bom iu her is from the Holy Spirit. And Joseph knew her not. until she brought forth her first.-* bom Son, and he called his naine Jesus,' i. 18, 20, 25 : and in Luke :' The- f angel said to Mary, behold thou shalt conceive in tlie. womb, and shall bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. Mary said- to the angel, how shall this thing be, since I knew not a man; the angel said, in reply, the Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the virtue of the Highest shall overshadow thee, whence the Holy' thing which is born of thep shall be called the Son jof God,' i. 31, 32, 34, 35 : from which words it is evident, that the Divine was in the , Lord from conception, and that it was his life from the Father, which life is soul. These are sufficient for the present ; more will be said concerning them in what follows, when it shall be proved, that even the things in the Athanasian doctrine, -which give an obscure idea, of the Lord, are in agreement with the truth, when the trinity, viz. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is thought and believed to be in the Lord as in one person ¦ without such thought and faith, it may be said, that christians, in contradiction to all people and nations , in the universal globe, who have rationality, worship three Gods,r as indeed it ' is asserted by them ; when yet the christian orb both may and ought to excel all others in the brightness of the doctrine and faith, that God is one both in essence and person, — Atli, Creed, 10-12. YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 3 9002 08837 6232 St,"' ! .15' ''I ' Oil '/'Mfj,. ' .ft «Af' S',!') )) |i,;,' - '¦¦-- 10 ; I'ttft 1; . 1 ¦¦' * 'H'