I. THE CONSUMMATION OF THE AGE
II. THE LAST JUDGMENT
III. THE COMING OF THE LORD
IV. RESTORATION AND THE NEW CHURCH: ITS QUALITY
1. THE APPEARING OF THE LORD JEHOVIH
2. THE MORNING, OR RISE
3. THE DAY, OR PROGRESSION
4. THE EVENING, OR VASTATION
5. THE NIGHT, OR CONSUMMATION
6. THE COMING OF THE LORD
7. THE LAST JUDGMENT
8. THE NEW HEAVEN
9. THE NEW CHURCH
10. REDEMPTION
ABOUT MIRACLES
SUMMARIES
I. There have been four Churches on this earth since the time of the creation: a First, which is to be called the Adamic; a Second, the Noachian; a Third, the Israelitish; and a Fourth, the Christian.
II. There have been four Periods, or successive States, of each Church, which in the Word are meant by "morning," "day," "evening," and "night."
III. In each Church the four changes of states have been consecutive; the first of which has been the Appearing of the Lord Jehovih and Redemption, and then was its Morning, or Rise; the second has been its Instruction, and then was Mid-day, or Progression; the third has been its Decline, and then was its Evening, or Vastation; the fourth has been its End, and then was its Night, or Consummation.
After its End, or Consummation, the Lord Jehovih appears and executes a judgment on the men of the former Church, and separates the good from the evil, and raises the good to Himself Into heaven, and removes the evil from Himself into hell.
After these things, of the good raised to Himself He forms a new heaven, and of the evil removed from Himself, a new hell; and in both He establishes order, so that they may remain under His control and under obedience to Him to eternity; and then through the new heaven He successively inaugurates and establishes a new Church on earth.
From this new heaven, the Lord Jehovih derives and produces a new Church on earth; which takes place by means of a Revelation from His mouth or from His Word, and by inspiration.
IV. These periodical changes of state which occurred in succession in the first, or Most Ancient Church, which was the Adamic, are described by Moses in the first chapters of Genesis; but by celestial representatives, and by other things, belonging to the world, to which spiritual things correspond.
V. The periodical changes of state which occurred in succession in the second, or Ancient Church, which was the Noachian, are also described in Genesis, and here and there in the four remaining books of Moses.
VI. The periodical changes of state which occurred in succession in the third Church, which was the Israelitish, are also described in Moses, and afterwards in Joshua, in the Books of the Judges, of Samuel, and of the Kings, and likewise in the Prophets.
VII. The periodical changes which occurred in succession in the fourth Church, which is the Christian, are described in the Word of both Testaments; its Rise, or Morning, in particular, in the Evangelists, and in the Acts and writings of the Apostles; its Progression towards Noon-day, in the ecclesiastical history of the first three centuries; its Decline, or Evening, by the history of the centuries immediately following; and its Vastation even to Consummation, which is its Night, in the Apocalypse.
VIII. After those four Churches, a new one is to arise which will be truly Christian, foretold in Daniel and in the Apocalypse, and by the Lord Himself in the Evangelists, and looked for by the Apostles.
* * * * * * *
IX. The Church successively declines from the truths of faith and the goods of charity, and it declines in the same proportion also from the spiritual understanding and genuine sense of the Word.
X. Consequently, the Church departs in the same proportion from the Lord, and removes Him from itself.
XI. In proportion as this is effected, it tends towards its end.
XII. It is the end of the Church, when there remains no longer any truth of faith or genuine good of charity.
XIII. The Church is then in falsities and the evils therefrom, and in evils and the falsities therefrom.
XIV. Hence, from the deceased out of the world hell increases, so that it raises itself up towards heaven, and interposes itself between heaven and the Church, like a black cloud between the sun and the earth.
XV. This interposition prevents the access of any truth of faith, and thence any genuine good of charity, to the men of the Church; but, instead of them, falsified truth, which in itself is falsity, and adulterated good, which in itself is not good.
XVI. Then naturalism and atheism take possession together.
XVII. This state of the Church is meant and described in the Word, by "Vastation," "Desolation" and "Consummation."
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XVIII. While Vastation lasts, and before Consummation supervenes, the Lord's Advent is announced, also Redemption by the Lord, and after this there is a new Church.
XIX. While the Israelitish Church still endured, these three were announced in many passages of the Word in the Prophets.
XX. The Coming of the Lord.
XXI. Redemption.
XXII. A new Church.
Almost everywhere in the prophetic Word, Vastation and Consummation, also the Last Judgment, the Lord's Coming, a new Church, and Redemption, are treated of.
* * * * * * *
XXIII. As regards Redemption in particular, through which alone Salvation takes place, it was accomplished by Jehovah God incarnate, who is our Lord Jesus Christ.
XXIV. The first part of Redemption was a total subjugation of the hells.
XXV. The second part of Redemption was the separation of the evil from the good, and the casting down of the evil into hell and the raising of the good into heaven.
XXVI. And, lastly, there is the arrangement in order of all in hell, and the arrangement in order of all in heaven.
XXVII. And then, at the same time, Instruction concerning the truths which are to be of faith, and the goods which are to be of charity.
XXVIII. And thus the Establishment of a new Church.
XXIX. The final and efficient Cause of Redemption was the Regeneration of man, and thereby salvation.
XXX. The Lord, because He is the only Redeemer, is therefore the only Regenerator, and thus the only Saviour.
* * * * * * *
XXXI. By His first Advent, and the Redemption then wrought, the Lord was not able to form a new heaven of Christians, and from that a new Church, because there were as yet no Christians, but they came into existence gradually through the preachings and writings of the Apostles.
XXXII. Neither was He able afterwards, since from the beginning so many heresies broke forth that scarcely any doctrine of faith appeared in its own light.
XXXIII. And at length the Apostolic Doctrine was increasingly torn, rent asunder, and adulterated by abominable heresies.
XXXIV. This is meant by "the abomination of desolation," and by "the affliction such as was not, either will be," and by "the darkening of the sun, moon, and stars," in the Evangelists, in Daniel, and also in the Prophets; likewise by "the Dragon" and many other things, in the Apocalypse.
XXXV. Because the Lord foresaw these things, therefore of necessity if man were to be saved, He promised that He would come again into the world and accomplish a Redemption, and would thus institute a new Church, which would be truly Christian.
XXXVI. The Lord Himself foretold His Second Coming, and the Apostles frequently prophesied respecting it, and John openly so in the Apocalypse;
XXXVII. In like manner respecting the New Church which is meant by the "New Jerusalem" in the Apocalypse.
XXXVIII. This Second Redemption was effected in the same way as the first (of which above, from n. xxiii to xxx),
XXXIX. And also for the sake of the Regeneration, and hence the Salvation, of the men of the Church, as its final and efficient cause.
* * * *
XL. The falsities which have hitherto desolated, and have at length consummated, the Christian Church, were chiefly the following:
XLI. They receded from the worship of the Lord, preached by the Apostles, and from faith in Him.
They separated the Divine Trinity from the Lord, and transferred it to three Divine Persons from eternity, consequently to three Gods.
XLII. They divided saving faith among these three Persons.
XLIII. They separated charity and good works from that faith, as not at the same time saving.
XLIV. They deduced justification-that is, remission of sins, regeneration, and salvation-from that faith alone, independently of man's co-operation.
XLV. They denied to man free-determination in spiritual things, thus asserting that God alone operates in man, and that man on his part does nothing.
XLVI. From this necessarily flowed forth Predestination, by which religion is abolished.
XLVII. They decreed that the Passion of the Cross is Redemption.
XLVIII. From these heresies, falsities burst forth in such abundance that there does not remain a single genuine truth which is not falsified, nor, consequently, a single genuine good which is not adulterated.
XLIX. The Church knows absolutely nothing about this, its Desolation and Consummation, nor can it know, until the Divine Truths announced by the Lord in the work entitled THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, are seen in light and acknowledged.
The Word is thus obscured and darkened, so that not a single truth any longer appears in it.
L. For many reasons this New Christian Church is not being established through any miracles, as the former was.
LI. But, instead of them, the spiritual sense of the Word is revealed, and the spiritual world disclosed, and the nature of both heaven and hell manifested; also, that man lives as a man after death; which things surpass all miracles.
* * * * * *
LII. This New truly Christian Church, which is at this day being established by the Lord, will endure to eternity, as is proved from the Word of both Testaments; also it was foreseen from the creation of the world; and it will be the Crown of the four preceding Churches, because it will have true faith and true charity.
LIII. In this New Church there will be spiritual peace, which is "glory," and internal blessedness of life, as is also proved from the Word of both Testaments.
LIV. These things will exist in this New Church, by reason of its conjunction with the Lord, and through Him with God the Father.
LV. An invitation addressed to this Church and to the whole Christian world; and an exhortation to worthily receive the Lord, who has Himself foretold that He would come into the world for the sake of this Church and to it.
LASTLY, ABOUT MIRACLES
I. Miracles were performed in the Church before the Lord's Advent, because, at that time, men were external, or natural, and could not be led to their representative worship except by miracles.
The Miracles performed in Egypt, in the wilderness, in the land of Canaan, and even to the present time, are to be enumerated.
And that, yet, they never influence men.
II. After the Lord's Advent, when man from external became internal, and when the capacity of being able to know was imparted to man, miracles were withheld.
Also, if that capacity were impeded, man would become more external than before.
III. Miracles would abolish worship truly Divine, and introduce the former idolatrous worship; as also has taken lace for very many centuries back.
Nevertheless, the latter have not been Divine miracles, but such as were wrought by the magicians of old.
IV. At this day, in place of miracles, there has taken place a manifestation of the Lord Himself, an intromission into the spiritual world, and enlightenment there, by immediate light from the Lord, in such things as are the interior things of the Church.
But, above all, the opening of the spiritual sense in the Word, in which the Lord is in His own Divine light.
V. These Revelations are not miracles; since every man is in the spiritual world as to his spirit, without any separation from his body in the natural world-I, however, with a certain separation, though only as to the intellectual part of my mind, but not as to the voluntary;-and as regards the spiritual sense, the Lord through it is with all who approach Him in faith in the above light; also, through that sense He is in man's natural light.
1. THE CORONIS OR APPENDIX* TO THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION
THESE three subjects-the Consummation of the Age, the Coming of the Lord, and the New Church-have, it is true, been treated of in the last chapter of the work entitled THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. The reason why a Continuation follows about them, is, because no one at this day knows what the Consummation of the Age is, why a Second Advent of the Lord must take place, or that a New Church is about to come; and yet these three subjects are treated of in both the Prophetic and the Apostolic Word, and fully in the Apocalypse. That those three subjects are treated of in the Prophetic Word of the Old Testament, was made evident to me while it was given me to lay it open by means of the spiritual sense; and in like manner that they are treated of in the Prophetic book of the New Testament, which is called the Apocalypse: that they are also in the Evangelic and Apostolic Word, will be plain from the following pages. Hence it follows, that, without some knowledge respecting the Consummation of the Age, the Second Advent of the Lord, and the New Church, the Word is as it were shut up; nor can anything but knowledges open it: these are like keys which open the door and let one in. When this takes place with the Word, then the treasures which lay concealed therein as at the bottom of the sea, come into view; for, at the bottom, there are in the Word nothing else but treasures. In this Appendix, or Continuation, I shall proceed, in like manner as in the work itself, by prefixed Summaries, which will be confirmed from Scripture and illustrated from reason.
* This Appendix is promised in Nos. 15, 177, 343, 485, 627 and 758 of the work itself.
2. PROPOSITION THE FIRST
I. THERE HAVE BEEN FOUR CHURCHES ON THIS EARTH SINCE THE TIME OF ITS CREATION: A FIRST, WHICH IS TO BE CALLED THE ADAMIC; A SECOND, THE NOACHIAN; A THIRD, THE ISRAELITISH; AND A FOURTH, THE CHRISTIAN. That four Churches have existed on this earth since the creation of the world, manifestly appears in Daniel; first, from the image seen by Nebuchadnezzar in a dream, and, afterwards, from the four beasts rising up out of the sea. On the subject of Nebuchadnezzar's image we read as follows:
Daniel said, Thou, O King, sawest, and behold a great image. And the appearance thereof, standing over against thee, was excellent, and the aspect thereof was terrible. The head of this statue was of fine gold; its breast and arms, of silver; its belly and its thighs, of brass; its legs, of iron; its feet, partly of iron and partly of clay. Thou sawest until a stone was cut out, which was cut without hands, and smote the image upon its feet that were of iron and clay, and ground them to powder. Then were the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, ground to powder together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors, so that the wind carried them away, and no place was found for them: but the stone which smote the image, became a great rock, and filled the whole earth. In these days shall the God of the heavens set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed; and His kingdom shall not be entrusted to another people: it shall break in pieces and consume all those kingdoms, but it shall stand for ever (Dan. ii 31-35, 44).
That this dream did not signify four political kingdoms on this earth, but four Churches, which should follow one after another, is plain from the following considerations: (1) That such kingdoms, one after another, have not existed on this earth. (2) That the Divine Word, in its bosom, does not treat of the kingdoms of the world, but of Churches, which constitute God's kingdom on earth. (3) Also, because it is said that the God of the heavens shall set up a kingdom which shall not be destroyed to the ages, and that a stone, cut out, not by hands, became a great rock, which filled the whole earth. (4) And, inasmuch as the Lord our Saviour Jesus Christ, in the Word of both Testaments, is called the "Stone" and "Rock," it is manifest that His kingdom is meant by the last words in this passage. (5) Moreover, the state of the Church is described, in innumerable passages of the Word, by gold, silver, brass, and iron; its spiritual state as to the good of love by gold, its spiritual state as to the truth of wisdom by silver, its natural state as to the good of charity by brass, and its natural state as to the truth of faith by iron (as may be seen confirmed from the Word in the APOCALYPSE REVEALED, n. 913, 2 and elsewhere). [2] For this reason, the wise in the first ages, who knew the significations of metals, compared the ages which were to follow one another from the first to the last, to those four metals, and called the first age "golden," the second age "silver," the third age "copper," and the fourth age "iron"; and they described them thus according to goods and truths; and, since genuine goods and truths are from no other origin than from the God of heaven, they described them according to the states of the Church with those who lived in those ages; for from these and according to these, all the civil states of kingdoms in respect to justice and judgment exist, thrive and live.
[3] That the Lord the Saviour Jesus Christ is called the "Stone" and "Rock" in the Word of both Testaments, is plain from the following passages. That He is called a "Stone" from these:
Thus said the Lord Jehovih, Behold I will lay in Zion a Stone of approval, a precious corner[-stone] of settled foundation; he who hath believed will not make haste; then I will set judgment to the rule, and justice to the plummet (Isa. xxviii 16, 17).
Jehovah will visit His flock; from Him will come forth the cornerstone (Zech. x 3, 4).
The Stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner (Psalm cxviii 22).
Have ye not read in the Scripture that the Stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner? (Matt. xxi 42; Mark xii 10, 11; Luke xx 17, 18; Isa. viii 14, 15).
Ye have come to the Lord, the living Stone, rejected indeed of men, but chosen of God; ye yourselves also, as living stones, are built up into a spiritual house; therefore, it is said in the Scripture, I lay in Zion a corner-stone, elect, precious, and he who believeth on Him shall not be ashamed (1 Pet. ii 4, 5, 6).
Ye are built upon the foundations of the apostles and prophets, whose corner-stone is Jesus Christ, by whom the whole building, well cemented together, groweth into a holy temple in the Lord; by whom ye are built together into a habitation of God in the spirit (Ephes. ii 20, 21, 22).
Jesus Christ is the Stone, rejected by the builders, which is become the head of the corner; and there is no salvation in any other (Acts iv 11, 12).
That the Lord is called a "Rock," is evident from these passages in the Word:
When Jeshurun waxed fat, he kicked, and he forsook God who made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation (Deut. xxxii 15, 18).
The God of Israel said, The Rock of Israel spake to me (2 Sam. xxiii 3).
Let the words of my mouth be well-pleasing, O Jehovah, my Rock and my Redeemer (Psalm xix 14).
And they remembered that God was their Rock, and the High God their Redeemer (Psalm lxxviii 35).
They all drank spiritual drink; for they drank of the spiritual Rock; the Rock was Christ (1 Cor. x 4; Exod. xvii 6).
From these passages, it is now plainly evident that by the Stone which smote the image, and became a great rock and filled the whole earth, and whose kingdom shall stand for ever, is meant our Lord Jesus Christ.
3. The same four Churches on this earth are described by four beasts rising up out of the sea, in Daniel; of which it is there written:
The first was seen like a lion, but it had eagle's wings. I beheld until the wings thereof were plucked out, and it was lifted up from the earth, and set up upon feet, erect like a man, and a man's heart was given to it. Afterwards, behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side; three ribs were in its mouth between the teeth: moreover, they were saying thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh. After these things, I beheld, and, ID, another, like a leopard, which had four wings, like birds' wings, upon the back of it; the beast had also four heads; and dominion was given to it. After this, I saw in the night visions, and beheld a fourth beast, terrible and dreadful, and strong exceedingly, which had great iron teeth; it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with its feet; but it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. I beheld till thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit; and the judgment was set, and the books were opened; and, behold, one like the Son of Man was coming with the clouds of the heavens. And there was given Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom; and all peoples, nations and languages should worship Him: His dominion is a dominion of an age, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not perish (Dan. vii 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, [10], 13, 14, etc.).
That by these beasts, in like manner, are meant and described those four Churches, is manifest from all the particulars there (which shall be unfolded in their order in the following pages); more especially from the last expressions there, that after those four beasts there will come "the Son of Man, to whom shall be given dominion, and a kingdom which shall not pass away nor perish"; who, also, is meant by the Stone made into "a great Rock, which shall fill the whole earth," as may be seen above 2 (n. 2, at the end).
[2] That the states of the Church are likewise described by beasts, as well as by metals, in the Word, is evident from numberless passages, some only of which I will adduce here; which are as follows:
Thou causest the rain of benefits to drop; thou wilt confirm thy wearied inheritance; the beast* -thy assembly-shall dwell therein (Psalm lxviii 9, 10).
Every wild beast of the forest is Mine, the beasts in the mountains of thousands; I know every bird of the mountains, the beasts of My fields are with Me (Psalm l 10, 11).
Asshur was a cedar in Lebanon, his height was exalted; all the birds of the heavens made their nests in his branches, and under his branches did all the beasts of the field bring forth, and in his shadow dwelt all great nations (Ezek. xxxi 3, 5, 6, 13; Dan. iv 7-13).
in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beast of the field, and with the bird of the heavens, and I will betroth Myself unto thee to eternity (Hosea ii 18, 19).
Rejoice and be glad; be not afraid, ye beasts of My fields; for the habitations of the desert are become full of grass (Joel ii 21, 22).
Thou, son of man, say unto the bird of every wing, and to every beast of the field, Gather yourselves together to My sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel: thus I will set My glory among the nations (Ezek. xxxix 17, 20, 21).
The enemy hath reproached Jehovah; deliver not the soul of the turtle-dove unto the beast** (Psalm lxxiv 18, 19).
Jehovah gathereth the outcasts of Israel; every beast of My fields, come (Isa. lvi 8, 9).
The spirit urging, made Jesus to go forth into the wilderness and He was with the beasts; and angels ministered unto Him (Mark i 12, 13).
He was not with beasts, but with devils, with whom He fought and whom He subdued-(not to mention a thousand other passages, which are adduced in part in the APOCALYPSE REVEALED, n. 567). Moreover, it is well known that the Lord Himself, in the Word, is called a "Lamb" and also a "Lion"; likewise, that the Holy Spirit was represented as a "Dove"; that the cherubs, also, by which the Word in the literal sense is signified, appeared like "four beasts," in Ezekiel and in the Apocalypse; and that the man of the Church who acknowledges the Lord as his God and Shepherd, is called a "sheep"; and, on the other hand, he who does not acknowledge Him, is called a "he-goat" and also a "dragon"; and that an assembly of the latter is described, in like manner as in Daniel, by
The beast out of the sea, like a leopard, whose feet were as it were a bear's, and his mouth as it were a lion's (Rev. xiii 1, 2).
These comparisons originate from the spiritual world, where all the affections and thoughts therefrom, of angels and spirits, are presented at a distance from them as beasts, which also appear in a form in all respects similar to that of the beasts in the natural world; the affections of the love of good as gentle beasts and good uses, but the affections of the love of evil as savage beasts and evil uses. Hence it is that beasts are so often named in the Word; and by them in the spiritual sense are signified affections, inclinations, perceptions and thoughts. From these considerations it is manifest what is meant by creatures in the following passages:
Jesus commanded the disciples to go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature (Mark xvi 15).
If any one be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things have passed away, and all things are become new (2 Cor. v 17).
These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creature of God (Rev. iii 14).
By "creatures," here, are meant those who are capable of being created anew, that is, regenerated, and thus becoming of the Lord's Church.
* "Thy beast" is the literal rendering of the Hebrew in this passage, which
is [Hebrew]; but it is assumed, in the text here, to be used figuratively for "thy congregation." See Fuerst, in loc. [Hebrew].
** See R.V.; also the previous footnote.
4. That there have been four Churches on this earth, one before the flood, which is to be called the Adamic; the second, after the flood, which is to be called the Noachian; and a third, after this, which was called the Israelitish; also a fourth, which exists at this day, and is called the Christian, will be demonstrated in the following pages, in the exposition of each of them separately.
5. II. THERE HAVE BEEN FOUR SUCCESSIVE STATES, OR PERIODS, OF EACH CHURCH, WHICH IN THE WORD ARE MEANT BY "MORNING, "DAY," "EVENING," AND "NIGHT." That there have been four successive states, or periods, of every one of these Churches above-named, will be illustrated in the following pages, wherein each will be dealt with in its turn. They are described by those alternations of time, because every man who is born in the Church, or in whom the Church has commenced, first comes into its light such as that is in the dawn and morning; afterwards, he advances to its day, and, he who loves its truths, right on to its mid-day; if he then stops in the way, and does not advance into the heat of spring and summer, his day declines towards evening, till at length, like the light at night-time, it grows dark; and then his intelligence in the spiritual things of the Church becomes a cold light, like the light of the days in winter, when he indeed sees the trees standing beside his house, or in his gardens, but stripped of leaves and destitute of fruits-thus, like bare trunks. For, the man of the Church advances from morning to day, to the end that he may be reformed and regenerated by means of the light of reason, which only takes place by a life according to the Commandments of the Lord in the Word. If this does not take place, his light becomes darkness, and the darkness, thick darkness; that is, the truths of light with him are turned into falsities, and the falsities into unseen evils. It is otherwise with the man who suffers himself to be regenerated: night does not overtake him, for he walks in God, and hence is continually in the day; into which, also, he fully enters after death, when he is associated with angels in heaven. This is understood by the following words in the Apocalypse, concerning the New Jerusalem, which is the New Church, truly Christian:
That city shall have no need of the sun and of the moon to shine in it; for the glory of God shall lighten it, and the Lamb is the lamp thereof. And the nations which are saved shall walk in the light of it; and there shall be no night there (Rev. xxi 23, 24, 25; Ezek. xxxii 8; Amos v 20; viii 9).
That the successive states of the Church are understood by "morning," "day," "evening," and "night," in the Word, is evident from the following passages therein:
Watch, for ye know not when the Lord of the house will come, at even, or at mid-night, or at cock-crowing, or in the morning (Mark xiii 35; Matt. xxv 13).
The subject there treated of is the Consummation of the Age, and the coming of the Lord at that time.
The God of Israel said, The Rock of Israel spake to me: He is as the morning light, a morning without clouds (2 Sam. xxiii 3, 4).
I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the bright and morning Star (Rev. xxii 16).
God shall help her, when the morning appeareth (Psalm xlvi 5).
He is calling to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night? The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night (Isa. xxi 11, 12).
An evil, one evil, behold, is come. The end is come [The morning is come] upon thee, O inhabitant of the land; the time is come, the day is near. Behold the day, behold, it is come; the morning hath gone forth (Ezek. vii 5, 6, 7, 10).
There shall be a day . . . which shall be known to Jehovah; not day nor night; for about the time of evening there shall be light (Zech. xiv 7).
About the time of evening, behold, terror; before the morning, he is not (Isa. xvii 14).
In the evening; weeping will endure all night, but singing in the morning (Psalm xxx 5).
Even to the evening and the morning,* two thousand three hundred; then shall the holy place be justified: ... the vision of the evening and the morning is true (Dan. viii 14, 26).
Jehovah in the morning will bring His judgment to light; He will not fail (Zeph. iii 5).
Thus said Jehovah, If ye have made void My covenant of the day and My covenant of the night, so that there be not day and night in their season, My covenant also shall be made void with David My servant (Jer. xxxiii 20, 21, 25).
Jesus said, I must work the works of God while it is day; the night cometh when no one can work (John ix 4).
In this night there shall be two men on one bed; one shall be taken, but the other shall be left (Luke xvii 34).
In these passages, the Consummation of the Age and the Coming of the Lord are treated of. Hence it may be evident what is meant by there being
Time no longer (Rev. x 6),
namely, that there would be no morning, day, or evening in the Church, but night; likewise what is meant by
Time, times, and half a time (Rev. xii 14; Dan. xii 7); as also what is meant by the
Fulness of time (Ephes. i 10; Gal. iv 4).
* For the occurrence of the terms "evening and morning" in this verse, see R.V.; also margin of A.V.
6. III. IN EACH CHURCH THE FOUR CHANGES OF STATE HAVE BEEN CONSECUTIVE; THE FIRST OF WHICH HAS BEEN THE APPEARING OF THE LORD JEHOVIH AND REDEMPTION; AND THEN WAS ITS MORNING, OR RISE: THE SECOND HAS BEEN ITS INSTRUCTION; AND THEN WAS ITS DAY, OR PROGRESSION: THE THIRD HAS BEEN ITS DECLINE~ AND THEN WAS ITS EVENING, OR VASTATION: THE FOURTH HAS BEEN ITS END; AND THEN WAS ITS NIGHT, OR CONSUMMATION. That there have been in each Church four successive states, which in the Word are understood by "Morning," "Day," "Evening," and "Night," has been shown in the immediately preceding article. That every one of the four Churches above-mentioned underwent those states, will be fully established in the following pages, where each will be dealt with in its turn; also, that the appearing of the Lord Jehovih and redemption was its "Morning"; that instruction was its "Day" or progression into light; also, that decline was its "Evening" or vastation; and that its end was its "Night" or consummation. In the Word, both in its historical and its prophetical portions, those four changes of state are everywhere treated of.
7. The order into which every man was created by God, is, that after infancy he may become a man. For, when he is born, he is only an external image or form of a man, and at that time less a man than a new-born beast is a beast; but, so far as he is inwardly perfected in this form, as to his mind, or his spirit, in wisdom and love, he becomes a man. A man is like a tree, which first grows from a seed into a shoot, and, when it increases in height, puts forth branches, and from these, twigs, and clothes itself continually with leaves; and, when it comes to maturity, which takes place in its middle age, puts forth blossoms, and produces fruits; in every one of which it deposits seeds, which, being cast into the earth, as into a womb, grow up into similar trees, and thus into a garden. And if you will believe it, that same garden remains with the man after death; he dwells in it, and is every day delighted with the sight of it, and with the enjoyment of its fruits. It is such a man who is described in David by these words:
He shall be like a tree planted beside the rivers of waters, which shall yield its fruit in its time, and its leaf shall not fall (Psalm i 3; and likewise Rev. xxii 1, 2).
[2] But it is different with the man born in the Church who, when he has spent his morning and advanced into the first light of day, whereby he has become rational, then stops, and does not produce fruit: such a one is, or acts, like a tree abounding in leaves, but not bearing fruit, which is rooted up out of the garden, its branches cut off, and the trunk cleft in pieces with axe, or saw, and the whole then cast piecemeal into the fire. The light of his Rational becomes like the light of the days of winter, in which the leaves of the trees first grow yellow, then drop off, and lastly decay. His Rational, also, may be compared with a tree whose leaves are consumed by worms in early spring; likewise with a crop that is choked by thorns; and also with vegetation which is laid waste by locusts. The reason is, that his Rational is merely natural, because it takes its ideas solely from the world through the senses, and not from heaven through the affections and the perceptions thence. And since, on this account, there is nothing spiritual inwardly in his Rational, if he then converses on any one of the spiritual things of the Church, his voice is heard by the angels no otherwise than as the voice of a parrot or a goose; for his voice is merely animal because merely natural, and not human because not inwardly spiritual; for it flows forth from the respiration of the body only, and not from any respiration of the spirit. Such is the man who does not, from natural, become spiritual; and no one becomes spiritual, unless, after he has become rational, he brings forth fruits, that is, puts on charity by life.
8. That the four changes of state, which are called "morning," "day," "evening," and "night," are in the Word predicated of the Church, is because the Church consists of men, and a man is a Church in particular, and the total of these men is what is called the Church. Those in this totality, or Church, who live according to the order described above (n. 7), are trees of life, which, also, are trees of good use; but those who do not live according to that order are trees of the knowledge of good and evil, which also are trees of evil use. The latter are the ones of whom "evening" and "night," or, what amounts to the same, vastation and consummation, are predicated; but not the former. These things, however, will be presented in the very clearness of reason in the following pages; but it is proper, that, at the beginning of this volume, some preliminary observations should be made, because knowledges must precede before any one can know that by "morning" is understood the rise of the Church, and that this is preceded by redemption; by "day," the progression of the new Church into light, and its intelligence; by "evening," the decline of that Church from good and truth, which is called vastation; and by "night," its end and destruction, which is called consummation; and so on.
9. The end of the Church, or the consummation of the age, is when there is not any genuine truth remaining, and hence not any genuine good, or, not any good and hence not any truth, but, in their place, falsity and thence evil rules, or evil and thence falsity, and then there is the "fulness [of time]" in the Church, the members of which are like persons walking in the night, who, because they do not see anything that appears, in the light of the sun, are uncertain about all things relating to the Church, and in general about God, about heaven and hell, and about the life after death; and both those who confirm themselves in the denial of these things, and those who remain alternately in doubt and in affirmation, at length shun the light, and, if they be priests, they procure for themselves on those subjects a false light, such as night-owls, cats and mice have in the darkness of night. This light is kindled with them, as with these wild beasts, through the activities of their lusts.
10. IV. AFTER ITS CONSUMMATION, OR END, THE LORD JEHOVIH APPEARS, AND EXECUTES A JUDGMENT ON THE MEN OF THE FORMER CHURCH, AND SEPARATES THE GOOD FROM THE EVIL, AND RAISES THE GOOD TO HIMSELF INTO HEAVEN AND REMOVES THE EVIL FROM HIMSELF INTO HELL. That towards the end of every Church the Lord Jehovih appears to execute a judgment on those who have lived from its first institution to its consummation will be established in the following pages, where each Church will be separately dealt with. Every man, indeed, is judged after death; but, at the end of a Church, all are collected together and a general judgment executed on them; and this to the intent that they may be conjoined into a heavenly order, which is effected by the arrangement of the faithful into a new heaven, and of the unfaithful into a new hell beneath it; of which arrangement we shall speak more at large in the following article.
11. Judgment, which is the last phase of every Church, does not take place in the natural world, but in the spiritual world, into which all are gathered after death; and they are collected into heavens distinctly according to religion, thus according to faith and love. Judgment takes place in the spiritual world, for the reason that every man after death is a man; not a material man, as before, but a substantial man. Every man's mind, or spirit, is such a man: the body which he carried about in the world, is only a covering, and as it were sheath, which he has laid aside, and from which his spirit has disengaged itself. Now, since it was man's mind, or spirit, that thought in the material body, and then either from religion or not from religion, and in favour of God or against God, from truths of faith or from falsities of faith, that loved his neighbour or held him in hatred; and since the material body was only obedience; it follows that the mind, which is the substantial man, and is called the spirit, is what undergoes judgment, and, according to the intentions and acts of its life, is rewarded or punished. From these things it can be plainly seen that judgment, which is the last of every Church, takes place in the spiritual world, but not in the natural world.
12. The judgment which is executed upon all of a spent Church, takes place to the end that, both generally and individually, the good may be separated from the evil, and the good be raised up into heaven and the evil cast down into hell. Were this not to take place when a Church is consummated, that is, when it is no longer in truths and goods, not one person therein could be saved. That he could not be saved is because he could not be regenerated; and every one is regenerated by means of the truths of faith and the goods of love. To this reason the following is added: that, from the time of the vastation of a Church right on to its consummation, hell surges up to so great an extent as to overshadow the whole angelic heaven, through which regenerative truths and goods descend from the Lord to the men of the earth. Owing to this obscuration, neither any truth of thought from faith, nor any good of will from charity, can penetrate, except through chinks; yea, what does penetrate is perverted either on the way before it reaches man, or else by the man himself when it is in him; that is, the truth is either rejected or falsified, and the good is either quenched or adulterated. In a word, a Church at its end is as it were obsessed by satans. (Those are called satans who take pleasure in falsities, and are delighted with evils.) In order, therefore, that the total damnation which then overhangs every one's head, and menaces him, may be averted, it is necessary that hell, which has raised itself on high, and, as was said, surged up even to heaven, should be removed-not merely suppressed, but also dispersed and subjugated-and then the good separated from the evil, that is, the living from the dead. This separation, and the coincident raising up of the good into heaven, or into the land of the living, and casting down of the evil into hell, or into the land of the dead, is what is called Judgment. That such a judgment was actually executed in the year 1757 on the men of the present Christian Church, was declared, and it has been described, in a separate small work published in London in the year 1758.
13. Who does not see the necessity that the evil should be separated from the good, lest the latter should be infected with the contagion of deadly evil, and perish? For evil, inasmuch as it is implanted in human nature by birth, and more and more ingenerated in children from parents when the Church is approaching consummation, is like the malignant disease which is called cancer, which spreads round about, and gradually mortifies the healthy and living parts. What husbandman, or gardener, when he sees briars, nettles, thorns and thistles growing, does not extirpate them before he sows and tills his corn and food crops? What farmer, when be sees his young crops and grass consumed by worms, or locusts, does not dig a ditch, and separate the flourishing field from the wasted one, and thus take measures for the preservation of his crops and thriving fields? What shepherd, when he sees wild beasts multiplying about his sheep pastures, does not call together the neighbouring shepherds and the servants, and with weapons, or traps, kill those wild beasts, or drive them away? [2] What king, when he sees both the towns of his kingdom round about his metropolis taken by enemies, and the property of his subjects seized by them, does not assemble the troops and cast out the enemy, and restore the stolen goods to their owners, and, moreover, add thereto the spoils of the enemies' wealth, and so compensate them?
14. V. AFTER THESE THINGS THE LORD JEHOVIH FOUNDS A NEW HEAVEN OF THE GOOD RAISED UP TO HIMSELF, AND A NEW HELL OF THE EVIL REMOVED FROM HIMSELF; AND BRINGS BOTH INTO ORDER SO THAT THEY MAY REMAIN UNDER HIS GUIDANCE AND UNDER OBEDIENCE TO HIM, TO ETERNITY. It is written in Isaiah:
Jehovah said, Behold I am creating new heavens and a new earth (Isa. lxv 17).
And elsewhere in the same prophet:
As the new heavens and the new earth, which I am about to make, shall stand before me (Isa. lxvi 22).
In the Apocalypse:
I saw a new heaven and a new earth; the former heaven and the former earth have passed away (Rev. xxi 1).
And in Peter:
According to promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein shall dwell righteousness (2 Pet. iii 13).
It has not hitherto entered into the mind of any one to suppose otherwise than that by "heaven," in these places, is meant the visible heaven, that is, the whole firmament, with the sun, moon and stars; and that, by "earth," there, is meant the habitable earth, or the globe, and that these will perish at the day of the Last Judgment; when, nevertheless, by heaven, there, the angelic heaven is meant, and by earth, the Church. That by "earth," everywhere in the Prophetic Word, is meant the Church, has been fully shown in the APOCALYPSE REVEALED (n. 285). The reason why, by new heavens and a new earth, have hitherto been understood the visible heaven and the habitable earth, is because men have not known anything of the spiritual world, consequently not anything of the angelic heaven, nor anything of the prophetic sense, which carries and stores up in its bosom nothing else than spiritual things; and the spiritual thing relating to the earth is the Church. When, also, the angels, inasmuch as they are spiritual, look down into the earth, they see nothing at all of it, but only the Church with men.
15. That when the Lord Jehovih founds a new heaven and a new Church, He introduces order, so that they may abide under His guidance, and under obedience to Him, to eternity, is because the angelic heaven and the Church on earth together constitute one body, whose Soul and Life is the Lord Jehovih, who is the Lord our Saviour. The universal angelic heaven, together with the Church, also appears before the Lord as one man; and a man abides under the guidance of and obedience to his own soul: consequently, the entire heaven, together with the Church, abides under the guidance of and obedience to the Lord: for the Lord is in them, and they are in the Lord (John xiv 20; xv 4, 5; xvii 23, 26); thus, He is the All in all things there. But the order which the Lord sets up in hell is such that all who are there may be diametrically opposite to all who are in heaven: whence it is evident, that, since the Lord rules heaven He also rules hell, and that He rules the latter by means of the former.
16. Moreover, the arrangement of all in the heavens, and of all in the hells, is most perfect. For every heaven that is founded by the Lord after the consummation of each Church is made three-fold: it is made highest, middle and lowest. Into the highest are elevated those who are in love to the Lord and in wisdom thence; into the middle, those who are in spiritual love towards the neighbour and in intelligence thence; into the lowest, those who are in spiritual-natural love towards the neighbour, which is called charity, and thence in the faith of the truths concerning God and in a life according to the precepts of the Decalogue. These three heavens constitute three expanses, one above another, and communicate with each other by a Divine influx from the Lord out of the sun of the spiritual world. In the depth underneath, there are also three expanses into which the hells are distinguished, between which, in like manner, there is provided a communication by means of an influx through the heavens from the Lord. By means of these communications there is an intimate and indissoluble conjunction of all things in the heavens, and of all things in the hells; but in the latter it is a conjunction of all the lusts of the love of evil, while in the heavens it is a conjunction of all the affections of the love of good. By virtue of that conjunction, heaven is like one Lord sitting upon a throne girt about with wreaths formed of precious stones of every kind; but hell is like one devil sitting upon a seat entwined with vipers, serpents and poisonous worms. From this orderly arrangement, induced on both, it follows that both abide under the guidance and control of the Lord to eternity.
17. It is well known, that, in order that anything may be perfect, there must be a trine in just order, one under another, and a communication between, and that this trine must make a one, not unlike a pillar,-at the top of which is the capital, under this the smooth shaft, and under this again the pedestal. Such a trine is man: his highest part is the head, his middle part is the body, and his lowest the feet and soles. In this respect, every kingdom is like a man; there must be a king there as the head, also administrators and officers as the body, and yeomanry with servants as feet and soles: in like manner in the Church, there must be a mitred primate, parish priests, and under them curates. Nor does the world itself subsist without three things following in order, namely, morning, noon and evening; as also the yearly spring, summer and autumn-spring for the sowing of seeds, summer for their germination, and autumn for bringing forth fruit: night and winter, however, do not contribute to the upholding of the world. [2] Now, since every perfect thing must be a trine in order to be a one, and to cohere well together, therefore both worlds, spiritual and natural, consist and subsist from three atmospheres, or elements; the first of which immediately encompasses the sun, and is called aura; the second is under this, and is called ether; and the third is under them both, and is called air. In the natural world these three atmospheres are natural, and in themselves passive, because they proceed from a sun which is pure fire; but the three corresponding to them in the spiritual world are spiritual, and in themselves active, because they proceed from a sun which is pure love. [3] The angels of the heavens dwell in the regions of these three atmospheres; the angels of the highest heaven in the celestial aura which immediately encompasses the sun, where the Lord is; the angels of the middle heaven in the spiritual ether, under the former; and the angels of the lowest heaven in the spiritual-natural air, under those two. Thus are all the heavens co-established, from the first to this last which is being organized by the Lord at the present day. From these things it may be apprehended whence it is that by three in the Word is signified what complete (see APOCALYPSE REVEALED, n. 505, 875).
19. I will mention some marvellous things, which yet are not marvellous in heaven; these are: (1) That the natural world could not exist except from the spiritual world; nor, consequently, subsist, inasmuch as subsistence is perpetual existence. [2] (2) That the Church is not possible with man, unless its internal be spiritual and its external natural: there cannot be a Church 3 purely spiritual nor a Church exclusively natural. [3] (3) Consequently, that no Church, nor anything of the Church, can be raised up with man except there be an angelic heaven, from which its whole spiritual is derived by the Lord and through which it descends. [4] (4) Since, therefore, the spiritual and the natural thus make one, it follows that the one cannot exist and subsist apart from the other; neither the angelic heaven apart from the Church with man, nor the Church with him apart from the angelic heaven; for, unless the spiritual flow into and terminate in the natural, and rest therein, it is like a prior without a posterior, consequently like an efficient cause without an effect and like an active without a passive-which would be like a bird flying in the air perpetually, without any resting place on the earth, and like the mind of a man perpetually thinking and willing, without any organ, sensory or muscular, in the body, to which it may descend and produce the ideas of its thought, and 5 bring into operation the endeavours of its will. [5] (5) These things are adduced to the end that it may be perceived, or known, that, as the natural world is not possible without the spiritual world, nor conversely the spiritual world without the natural world, so neither can there be a Church on earth unless there be an angelic heaven through which it may exist and subsist, nor conversely an angelic heaven unless there be a Church on earth. [6] (6) The angels know this; on which account, they grievously lament when the Church on earth is desolated by falsities and consummated by evils; and, at such times, they compare the state of their life with drowsiness, for then heaven is to them as if its resting-place were taken from beneath it, and like a body deprived of feet; but, when the Church on earth has been restored by the Lord, they compare the state of their life to wakefulness.
20. That the Lord derives and produces the new Church on earth through the new heaven by means of a revelation of truths from His mouth or from His Word, and by inspiration, will be shown in the section concerning the four Churches in their order, especially concerning the Israelitish and the present Christian Church. It should be known, that, when hell surged up, and passed over the great interstice, or gulf, fixed between itself and heaven (Luke xvi 26), and reared up its back even to the confines of the heavens where the angels are,-which came to pass at intervals of the vastation and consummation of the Church,-no doctrine whatever of the Church could be conveyed through heaven, from the Lord, to men of the earth. The reason is, that, at such times, man is in the midst of satans; and satans envelop his head with their falsities, and inspire the delights of evil and the consequent attractions of falsity, whereby all the light from heaven is darkened, and all the pleasure and attraction of truth is intercepted. As long as this state continues, there cannot be infused into man any doctrine whatever of truth and good out of heaven, because it is falsified.
[2] But, after this tangled veil of falsities, or covering of the head by satans, is taken away by the Lord-which is effected by the Last Judgment (of which above, in Article IV.)-then man is led, in a freer and more spontaneous spirit, to discard falsities and to receive truths. With those who are compliant, and suffer themselves to be led by the Lord, the doctrine of the new heaven, which is the doctrine of truth and good, is afterwards conveyed down and introduced, like the morning dew falling from heaven to the earth, which opens the pores of plants, and sweetens their vegetable juices: and it is like the manna which fell in the mornings, and was in appearance
Like coriander seed, white, and in taste like a cake kneaded with honey (Exod. xvi 31).
It is also like seasonable rain, which refreshes the newly-ploughed fields and causes germination, and like the fragrance exhaling from fields, gardens and flowery plains, which the breast eagerly and delightedly draws in with the breath. But still, the Lord compels or urges no one against his will, as one does a beast of burden with whips; but He draws and afterwards continually leads him who is willing, to all appearance as though the willing man did goods and believed truths of himself, when yet it is from the Lord, who operates every genuine good of life, and every genuine truth of faith in him.
21. VII. THIS DIVINE WORK IS LIKEWISE CALLED REDEMPTION, WITHOUT WHICH NO MAN CAN BE SAVED, BECAUSE HE CANNOT BE REGENERATED. That the redemption accomplished by the Lord when He was in the world was a subjugation of the hells, an arrangement of the heavens in order, and by these means a preparation for a new spiritual Church, may be seen in the work, THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION (n. 115-117; and the following nos., 118-133). But inasmuch as this is new, and has lain hidden for ages, like the wreck of a ship with its precious cargo at the bottom of the sea, and nevertheless the doctrine of redemption is as it were the treasure-house of all the spiritual riches, or tenets, of the New Church, therefore, in the last section of this volume, the Mystery of Redemption shall be treated of, where the following propositions will be unfolded and elucidated:
[2] I. Deliverance from enemies is what in the Word is called Redemption.
II. Consequently, it is deliverance from evils and falsities, which, since they are from hell, are spiritual enemies; for they kill souls, as natural enemies do bodies.
[3] III. Hence it becomes evident that the first purpose of the Redemption accomplished by the Lord was the separation of the evil from the good, and the raising of the good to Himself into heaven, and the removal of the evil from Himself into hell; for thus are the good liberated from the evil. This first thing of Redemption is the Last Judgment (which has been treated of above, n. 10-13).
[4] IV. The second purpose of Redemption was the co-ordination of all things in the heavens, and the subordination of all things in hell, by which the good were still more distinctly separated and liberated from the evil; and this is the new heaven and the new hell (which has been treated of above, n. 14-17).
[5] V. The third purpose of Redemption was a revelation of truths from the new heaven, and thereby the raising up and establishment of a new Church on earth; by which means the good were further separated and liberated from the evil, and are separated and liberated for the future (this third cause has also been treated of above, n. 18-20).
[6] VI. The final purpose of Redemption was to make it possible for the Lord, by virtue of His Divine omnipotence, to regenerate man, and thus save him; for, unless man be regenerated he cannot be saved (John iii 3).
[7] VII. The regeneration of a man, inasmuch as it is a separation and deliverance from evils and falsities, is a particular redemption by the Lord, proceeding from His general Redemption.
[8] VIII. With those who are being regenerated, evils are first of all separated from goods, and this is like Judgment; afterwards, goods are collected into one, and arranged into a heavenly form, and this is like a new heaven; and, lastly, a new Church is thereby implanted and produced, the internal of which is heaven; and the external from the internal, consequently both together, with man, is what is called the Church.
[9] IX. All are redeemed, since all who reject the falsities of the former Church, and receive the truths of the new Church, are able to be regenerated; but still the regenerated are, properly, the redeemed.
[10] X. The goal of redemption, and the prize of the redeemed, is spiritual peace.
[11] XI. A redemption has also been accomplished by the Lord at this day, because the present day is His Second Coming according to prophecy; by which, having been an eye-witness thereof, I have been convinced of the truth of the foregoing arcana.
But these are only general statements, which must be unfolded in detail, and set forth in both spiritual and natural light, at the end of this volume, where the Mystery of Redemption is to be treated of.
22. Moreover, it will be proved in its own article in what follows, that the passion of the Lord's cross was not Redemption, but the means of the inmost union with the Divine of the Father, from which He came forth and into which He returned. In the work, THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION (n. 132, 133), of which this volume is the Appendix, I set out to show that the passion of the Cross being believed to have been Redemption itself, is a fundamental error of the present Christian Church; and that this error, together with the error concerning three Divine Persons from eternity, has perverted the whole Church to such an extent that not a vestige of spirituality remains in it. This will also be further shown in the following pages; and, that these two falsities and delusions have been comparatively like mating butterflies flying about in a garden, which produce the eggs whence are hatched the caterpillars which entirely consume the opening leaves of the trees therein; and further, that they have been like the quails from the sea sent down upon the camp of the Israelites, owing to which, while they were eating, a great plague fell upon the people; and this because they loathed and spurned the manna from heaven, by which, in the highest sense, is meant the Lord (Num. xi 5, 6, 32-35; and John vi 31, 32, 49-51, 58). And, further, these two errors have been like two drops of black paint, or shoemaker's blacking, dropped into generous wine, and shaken about in the wine-glass; in consequence of which all the brightness, delightful fragrance and fine flavour of the wine are changed into blackness, stench and nauseousness.
24. This Church, like the rest, is to be treated of in the following order:
I. Its Rise, or Morning, which is its first state.
II. Its Progression into light, or Day, which is its second state.
III. Its Decline, or Evening, which is its third state, and is called Vastation.
IV. Its End, or Night, which is its fourth state, and is called Consummation.
V. The Separation of the Evil from the Good, which is the Last Judgment upon all who were from that Church.
VI. The Elevation to God of the Good, of whom a new Heaven is formed; and the removal from God of the Evil, of whom is formed a new Hell.
That the four Churches of this earth-spoken of above-have undergone these changes of state, will be shown in what follows; and lastly, that the Church truly Christian, which succeeds those four at the present day, will never undergo consummation.
* * * * * *
25. THE FIRST STATE OF THIS MOST ANCIENT CHURCH, OR ITS RISE AND MORNING, is described in the first chapter of Genesis by these words:
God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and God created man in His own image; in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them (Gen. i 26, 27);
and also by these in the second chapter:
Jehovah God formed man dust of the earth, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of lives; and man became a living soul (Gen. ii 7).
That its rise, or morning, is described by his being made, or created, "in the image of God," is because every man, when he is first born, and while an infant, is an "image of God" interiorly; for the faculty of receiving and of applying to himself those things which proceed from God, is implanted in him; and since he is also formed "dust of the earth" exteriorly, and there is thence in him an inclination to lick that dust like the serpent (Gen. iii 14), therefore, if he remains an external or natural man, and does not become at the same time internal, or spiritual, he destroys the "image of God," and puts on the image of the serpent which seduced Adam. But, on the other hand, the man who strives and labours to become an "image of God," subdues the external man in himself, and interiorly in the natural becomes spiritual, thus spiritual-natural; and this is effected by a new creation, that is, regeneration by the Lord. Such a man is an "image of God," because he wills and believes that he lives from God and not from himself: on the contrary, man is an image of the serpent as long as he wills and believes that he lives from himself and not from God. What is man but an "image of God" when he wills and believes that he is in the Lord and the Lord in him (John vi 56; xiv 20; xv 4, 5, 7; xvii 26), and that he can do nothing of himself (John iii 27; xv 5)? What is a man but an "image of God" when, by a new birth, he becomes a "son of God" (John i 12, 13)? Who does not know that the image of the father is in the son? The rise, or morning, of this Church is described by Jehovah God's "breathing into his nostrils the breath of lives," and by his thus "becoming a living soul," because by "lives," in the plural, are meant love and wisdom, which two are essentially God; for, in proportion as a man receives and applies to himself those two essentials of life, which proceed continually from God, and continually flow into the souls of men, in the same proportion he becomes "a living soul"; for "lives" are the same as love and wisdom. Hence it is evident, that the rise and morning of the life of the men of the Most Ancient Church, who taken collectively are represented by Adam, is described by those two shrines of life.
* * * * * *
27. II. THE SECOND STATE OF THIS MOST ANCIENT CHURCH, OR ITS PROGRESSION INTO LIGHT, AND DAY, is described in the second chapter of Genesis, by these words:
God planted a garden in Eden at the East, and there He put the man whom He had formed, to dress it and to keep it. And Jehovah made to spring forth every tree pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And a river went forth out of Eden to water the garden, which was made into four heads, in the first of which was gold and the schoham stone. And Jehovah God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden, eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, eat not (Gen. ii 8-17).
The progression of this Church into light, or day, is described by Adam's being placed in the garden of Eden, because by a garden is signified the Church as to its truths and goods. That there "went forth out of Eden a river which became into four heads, in the first of which was gold and the schoham stone," signifies that in that Church there was the doctrine of good and truth; for a "river" signifies doctrine, "gold" the good thereof, and "schoham stone" its truth. That two trees were placed in that garden, the one of life, and the other of the knowledge of good and evil, was because the "tree of life" signifies the Lord, in whom and from whom is the life of heavenly love and wisdom, which in itself is eternal life; and the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil" signifies man, in whom is the life of infernal love, and thence insanity in the things of the Church, which life considered in itself is eternal death. That it was allowable to eat of every tree of the garden except of the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil" signifies free-determination in spiritual things; for all things in the garden signified spiritual things, and without free-determination in those, a man can in no wise advance into light, that is, into the truths and goods of the Church, and procure for himself life; for, if he does not aim at and strive after this, he procures to himself death.
[2] That a "garden" signifies the Church as to its truths and goods, is owing to the correspondence of a tree with man; for a tree, in like manner as man, is conceived from seed; is put forth from the womb of the earth as a man from the womb of his mother; it grows in height in like manner, and extends itself into branches as he into members; clothes itself with leaves, and adorns itself with flowers as man does with natural and spiritual truths; and also produces fruits as man does goods of use. Hence it is that in the Word a man is so often likened to a "tree," and hence the Church to a "garden"; as in the following passages:
Jehovah will set out her desert like Eden, and her solitude like the garden of Jehovah (Isa. li 3);
speaking of Zion, by which is signified the Church in which God is worshipped according to the Word.
Thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of waters, whose waters shall not lie (Isa. lviii 11; Jer. xxxi 12);
where also the Church is treated of.
Thou art full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty; thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering (Ezek. xxviii 12, 13);
respecting Tyre, by which is signified the Church as to the knowledges of truth and good.
How good are thy dwellings, O Israel! as valleys they are planted, and as gardens beside the river (Num. xxiv 5, 6);
by Israel is signified the spiritual Church; but by Jacob, the natural Church in which there is something spiritual.
Nor was any tree in the garden of God equal to him in beauty; so that all the trees of Eden, in the garden of God, envied him (Ezek. xxxi 8, 9);
speaking of Egypt and Assyria, by which, where mentioned in a good sense, the Church is signified as to knowledges and as to perceptions.
To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God (Rev. ii 7).
[3] Owing to the correspondence of a garden with the Church, it comes to pass that everywhere in the heavens gardens appear, producing leaves, flowers and fruits according to the states of the Church with the angels; and it has been told me, that in some of the gardens there, trees of life are observed in the middle parts, and trees of the knowledge of good and evil in the boundaries, as a sign that they are in free-determination in spiritual things. The Church is over and over again described in the Word by a "garden," a "field," and a "sheepfold"; by a "garden" from the trees, as has been mentioned above; by a "field" from its crops, wherewith man is nourished; by a "sheepfold" from the sheep, by which are meant the faithful and useful.
28. In the work itself, named THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, it has been shown that by the two trees, the one of "life" and the other of the "knowledge of good and evil," being placed in the garden of Eden, is signified that free-determination in spiritual things was given to man (n. 466-469); to which must be added that without such free-determination man would not be a man, but only a figure and semblance; for his thought would be without reflection, consequently without judgment, and thus in Divine things, which are the things of the Church, he would have no more power of turning himself, than a door without a hinge, or, with a hinge, bolted with a steel bar; and his will would be without decision, consequently no more active with respect to justice or injustice than a tombstone, beneath which lies a dead body. That man's life after death, and the immortality of his soul, is owing to the gift of this free-determination, and that this is the "likeness of God," has been proved in the work itself-as also above. [2] Yea, man, that is, his mind, without this would be like a sponge which imbibes water in great abundance but is not able to discharge it, in consequence of which both would decompose,-the water into foulness, and the sponge into slime. Consequently, the Church with such a person would not be a Church, and thus a temple wherein the worship of God is performed; it would be like the den of some wild beast under the root of a lofty tree which sways to and fro overhead; except, only, that it would be able to take something therefrom, and apply itself to some other use than lying in tranquillity under it. Moreover, without free-determination in spiritual things, man would be blinder in all and each of the things of the Church, than a bird of night in the light of day, but more sharp-sighted than such a bird in the darkness of night; for with his eyelids he would close his eyes, and dim their sight to the truths of faith, but would raise his eyelids, open his eyes, and expand their sight like an eagle, to the falsities of faith. Free-determination in spiritual things arises from man walking, and living his life in the midst between heaven and hell; from heaven operating into him from above, and hell from beneath; and from the option given to man of turning himself either to higher or to lower things, thus either to the Lord or to the Devil.
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29. III. THE THIRD STATE OF THIS CHURCH, WHICH IS ITS DECLINE AND EVENING, AND IS CALLED VASTATION, is described in the third chapter of Genesis, by these words:
The serpent became more subtle than any beast of the field which Jehovah God had made. He said to the woman, Wherefore also hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And when the woman said unto the serpent, Of the fruit of the tree we may eat; only of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die-the serpent said, Ye shall not die; for God doth know, that, in the day wherein ye shall eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil. The woman, therefore, saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and to be desired to give understanding; therefore she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat; and she gave to her man (vir) with her, and he did eat (Gen. iii 1-6).
That a decline from light to the shade of evening, that is, a falling away from wisdom and integrity, consequently a state of vastation of this Church, is described by these words, is because, owing to having been made a "likeness of God" (by which is signified that, to all appearance he, like God, thinks those things which are of wisdom, and wills those things which are of love, from himself,-see above, n. 26), he believed the serpent's words, that if he should eat of that tree he would become as God, and thus also be God, in knowing good and evil. By this "tree" is signified the natural man separated from the spiritual, which, when left to itself, believes nothing else.
[2] Every man has a natural mind and a spiritual mind, distinct from each other like two stories of one house connected by stairs; in the upper story of which dwell the master and mistress with their children, but in the lower the men-servants and maid-servants, with other menials. From birth even to early youth, the spiritual mind in man is shut; but after that first age the spiritual mind is step by step opened; for there is given to every man from birth the capacity, and afterwards the ability, of preparing for himself steps by which he may ascend and speak with the master and mistress, and then descend and execute their commands: this power is conferred upon him through the gift of free-determination in spiritual things. Nevertheless, no one can ascend to the upper story, by which is meant the spiritual mind, except he eat of the trees of life in the garden of God; for, by eating of these man is enlightened and restored, and, receives faith; and through the nourishment of their fruits he attains the assurance that all good is from the Lord, who is the Tree of Life, and not the least of it from man; and yet, that, by abiding together and working together, hence by the Lord's being in him and he in the Lord, he will do good of himself, but still, in the faith and assurance that it is not from himself but from the Lord. [3] If a man believe otherwise, he produces a semblance of good, inwardly in which there is evil, because merit; and this is eating of the trees of the knowledge of good and evil, among which dwells the serpent, in the dreadful persuasion that he is as God, or else that there is no God, but that Nature is what is called God, and that he is compounded of its elements. Furthermore: those eat of the trees of the knowledge of good and evil who love themselves and the world above all things; but those eat of the trees of life who love God above all things and the neighbour as themselves. Those also eat of the trees of the knowledge of good and evil who put forth regulations for the Church from self-intelligence, and afterwards confirm them by the Word; but, on the other hand, those eat of the trees of life who procure for themselves regulations for the Church by means of the Word, and afterwards confirm them by intelligence. Those, again, who teach truths from the Word, and live wickedly, eat of the trees of the knowledge of good and evil; but those eat of the trees of life who live well and teach from the Word. Speaking generally, all eat of the trees of the knowledge of good and evil who deny the Divinity of the Lord and the holiness of the Word, inasmuch as the Lord is the Tree of Life and the Word, from whom the Church is a "garden eastward in Eden."
30. The spiritual man is an erect man who with his head looks to the heaven above him, and about him, and treads the earth with the soles of his feet; but the natural man separated from the spiritual is either like a man stooping, who wags his head, and constantly looks on the ground, and at the steps of his own feet; or, he is like a man inverted, who walks on the palms of his hands, and raises his feet towards heaven, and performs worship by shakings and clappings of these. The spiritual man is like a rich man who has a palace in which are upper stories, bed-chambers and dining-rooms, the walls of which are continuous windows of crystalline glass, through which he sees the gardens, fields, flocks and herds which also belong to him, and with the sight and use of which he delights himself day by day. But the natural man separated from the spiritual is also like a rich man who has a palace containing chambers, the walls of which are continuous panels of rotting wood, which sheds around an illusory light, wherein shapes of pride, originating in the love of self and of the world, appear like molten images of gold in the midst, and of silver at the sides, before which he bends the knee like an idolater. Again, the spiritual man, in himself, is actually like a dove as to gentleness, like an eagle as to the sight of the mind, like a flying bird of paradise as to progress in spiritual things, and like a peacock as to their adornment from spiritual things; but, on the other hand, the natural man separated from the spiritual is like a hawk chasing a dove, like a dragon devouring the eyes of an eagle, like a fiery serpent flying at the side of a bird of paradise, and like a horned owl beside a peacock. These comparisons are adduced that they may be as lenses through which the reader may more closely observe what the spiritual man is in itself, and the natural man in itself. But the case is altogether different, when the spiritual man by its spiritual light and spiritual heat is inwardly in the natural; then, both make one, just like effort in motion, and will (which is living effort) in action, and like appetite in taste, and like the sight of the mind in the sight of the eye, and still more evidently like the perception of a thing in the knowledge of it, and the thought of it in speech.
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31. IV. THE FOURTH STATE OF THIS CHURCH, WHICH WAS ITS END, OR NIGHT, AND IS CALLED CONSUMMATION, is described by these words, also in the third chapter of Genesis:
Jehovah God called unto the man, and said unto him, Where art thou? and he said, I heard Thy voice in the garden, therefore I was afraid. Then Jehovah said, Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat of it? And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And Jehovah God said unto the woman, Wherefore hast thou done this? And the woman said The serpent deceived me, and I did eat. Then Jehovah God cursed the serpent, and afterwards the woman, and after her the man. Whereupon Jehovah God sent the man forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken (Gen. iii 9-23).
From the literal, or historical, sense of the description of Adam's life, it is manifest that he was cursed because he believed the serpent, that he should be as God; and he who believes this, at length does not acknowledge God. And as the natural man separated from the spiritual is in such faith at heart, however he may talk otherwise with his mouth, therefore, when from spiritual he became natural, he was cursed, and he was cursed as to his Sensual, his Voluntary, and his Intellectual; for his Sensual is signified by the serpent, his Voluntary by the woman, and his Intellectual by the man: these three were cursed, because one follows the other. (In the ARCANA COELESTIA, every expression, and every meaning of the expressions, is laid open by the spiritual sense, which has been revealed to me by the Lord; which explanation, being published, may be consulted.)
32. After this curse, the fourth state of this Church, which was its state of night in spiritual things, and is called consummation, is described by the man being driven out from the garden "to till the earth from whence he was taken," by which is meant hat he was deprived of the innocence, integrity and wisdom in which he was while he was spiritual, consequently that he was cast down from heaven, that is, dissociated from the angels, just as is written of the dragon:
The great dragon was cast down; the old serpent, which is called the Devil and Satan, was cast forth out of heaven, where he fought with Michael and his angels, to the earth; and his angels were cast down with him (Rev. xii 9).
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34. V. THE FIFTH STATE OF THIS CHURCH WAS THE SEPARATION OF THE GOOD FROM THE EVIL, WHICH WAS THE LAST JUDGMENT ON ALL WHO WERE OF THAT CHURCH. This state is described by the "flood," in which all the wicked who remained perished; and by "Noah and his sons," by whom are meant all the good who were saved. The end of the Most Ancient Church, represented by Adam, is described in the sixth chapter of Genesis by these words:
When Jehovah saw that the wickedness of man was multiplied in the world, and moreover every imagination of his heart only evil every day, it repented Jehovah that He had made man on the earth: therefore Jehovah said, I will blot out man whom I have created from off the faces of the earth: only Noah found grace in the eyes of Jehovah (Gen. vi 5-8).
But the Last Judgment upon them is described by the flood. It is described by a "flood" for the reason that "waters" in the Word signify truths, and in an opposite sense falsities. Truths are signified by the waters of a fountain, the waters of a river, the waters of rain, and by the waters of the washings in time past, and the waters of baptism at this day: such correspondence arises from the circumstance that truths purify man's soul from uncleanness, as waters do his body; hence they are called "living waters." But in the opposite sense falsities are signified by "waters"; but by impure waters, such as those of marshes, evil-smelling cisterns, urine, and deadly waters; in general, by all hurtful and death-producing waters, therefore, also, by waters from an inundation of which man dies, consequently the Noachian flood.
[2] That falsities in the mass are described by inundations, may be evident from the following passages:
Jehovah is causing to come up upon them the waters of the river (Euphrates), strong and many; it shall pass through Judah, it shall inundate, it shall pass over, it shall reach even to the neck (Isa. viii 7, 8).
By the " waters of the river" Euphrates, are signified reasonings from falsities, because by Assyria, whose river it was, reasoning is signified.
The spirit of Jehovah, like an inundating stream, shall divide in two even to the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity (Isa. xxx 28):
by an inundating river, here, in like manner, is signified reasoning from falsities.
Behold waters are rising up out of the north, which are like an inundating stream, and it shall inundate the land and the fulness thereof (Jer. xlvii 2):
here the Philistines are treated of, by whom are meant those who are not in charity, and hence not in truths; the falsities of these are signified by "waters coming up from the north," and the devastation of the Church in consequence thereof, by "an inundating stream that shall inundate the land and its fulness"; "the land" is the Church, and its "fulness" all things pertaining to it.
Say unto those who daub what is unfit, There shall be an inundating rain, in which hail-stones shall fall upon you (Ezek. xiii 11, 13):
the "daubing of what is unfit" is the confirmation of falsity, and hail-stones are falsities.
In an overflowing inundation He shall make the place thereof a consummation, and thick darkness shall pursue His enemies (Nahum i 8):
by "the inundation" which shall consummate, is signified the falsification of truth, and by "thick darkness," truths themselves in the night.
Ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell have we made a vision; when the scourge of inundation shall pass over, it shall not come unto us; we have made a lie our trust, and in falsity we will hide ourselves (Isa. xxviii 15).
Here "inundation" manifestly denotes destruction by falsities; for it is said that they placed confidence in "a lie," and would hide themselves in "falsity."
[3] After the sixty-two weeks shall Messiah he cut off, but not for Himself; then the people of the Prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary, so that the end thereof shall be with an inundation even to desolations (Dan. ix 26);
speaking of the Christian Church that was to come, in which the worship of the Lord would perish; which is meant by "Messiah being cut off, but not for Himself"; that it would perish by falsifications, is meant by "the end thereof being with an inundation even to desolations"; "desolation" denoting the falsification. Hence it is, that, after the Lord spoke of the abomination of desolation foretold by Daniel the prophet, and of the "consummation of the age" thereby, He said
That His coming would be as in the days when the flood came, and took them all away (Matt. xxiv 15, 39).
That by the drowning of Pharaoh and the Egyptians in the Red Sea (Exod. xiv), is meant, in the spiritual sense, destruction by falsities, has been shown in the ARCANA CAELESTIA, in the explanation of that chapter.
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36. VI. THE SIXTH STATE OF THE MEN OF THIS CHURCH, WHICH WAS THE ELEVATION TO GOD, AFTER THE LAST JUDGMENT, OF THE FAITHFUL, OF WHOM A NEW HEAVEN WAS FORMED, AND THE REMOVAL FROM GOD OF THE UNFAITHFUL, OF WHOM WAS FORMED A NEW HELL. In the preceding propositions (from n. 10 to 13, and from n. 14 to 17), it was explained that, after consummation, a Last Judgment was executed upon all who were of each of the four Churches above named, and after this a new heaven and a new hell formed from them, and thus that there have been four judgments in this earth on its inhabitants, and four heavens and hells formed from them; and it has been granted me to know, that both those heavens and those hells are so entirely distinct from each other, that no person can by any possibility pass out of his own into that of another. All these heavens have been described in the little work on CONJUGIAL LOVE; and, as the spiritual origin of love truly conjugial* is from no other source than the marriage of the Lord and the Church, thus from the Lord's love towards the Church and that of the Church to the Lord (as was shown in that little work, from n. 116 to 131), and as the most ancient people were in both these loves so long as they retained in themselves the image of God, therefore, I may transcribe from that little work the following particulars respecting that heaven, to which I was at the time granted admission; which are as follow:
* Here, and elsewhere throughout this work, conjugialis is translated "conjugial" in preference to "marriage," on account of the new spiritual concept introduced by Swedenborg. In the first translation of De Amore Conjugiali, Rev. J. Clowes introduced this translation of conjugialis, but in this he is not followed by some translators of Swedenborg.
38. The hell of those who were from the Most Ancient Church is, beyond all other hells, the most atrocious. It consists of those who in the world believed themselves to be as God, according to the cunning declaration of the serpent (Gen. iii 5); and those are deeper in that hell who persuaded themselves, from the fantasy that God had transfused His Divinity into men, that they were altogether gods, and thus that there was no longer a God in the universe. By reason of that dreadful persuasion, there exhaled from that hell a deadly stench, which infects the adjacent places with so baleful a contagion, that, when any one approaches, he is at first seized with such a mad delirium that presently, after some convulsive struggles, he seems to himself to be in the agonies of death. I saw a certain one, in the vicinity of that place, lying as it were dead; but, on being removed thence, he revived. That hell lies in the middle region at the south, surrounded with ramparts, on which stand some who shout out in a loud, stentorian voice, "Approach no nearer." I have heard from the angels who are in the heaven above that hell, that the vile spirits there appear like serpents twisted into inextricable coils; which is a consequence of their vain deceits and incantations, by which they deluded the simple into agreeing that they are gods, and that there is no God beside them. The ancients, who wove all things into fables, denoted these by the "giants," who besieged the camp of the gods, and were cast down by Jupiter by his thunderbolts and thrust under the fiery mountain Etna, and called "Cyclopes." They also called the hells of these, "Tartarus," and "pools of Acheron"; and the deeps there, "Styx," and those who dwelt there, "Lernaean Hydras," and so forth.
39. PROPOSITION THE THIRD
The Noachian, or Ancient Church of this Earth
SINCE every Church is three-fold, inmost or celestial, middle or spiritual, and external or natural, therefore Noah had three Sons; and by Shem is signified the inmost, or celestial Church, by Japheth the middle or spiritual Church, and by Ham, the external, or natural Church. But there is not room here to describe with whom is the first Church, and with whom the second and third, as also what their quality is in themselves, or among themselves: for there are highest, middle and lowest heavens, to which those three degrees of the Church correspond. Moreover, this Noachian, or Ancient Church, was diffused throughout Asia, especially into Syria, Mesopotamia, Assyria, Chaldea, the land of Canaan, and the lands adjacent, Philistia, Egypt, Tyre, Sidon, Nineveh, and also into Arabia and Ethiopia, and in course of time into Great Tartary, and thence downwards as far as to the Black Sea, and thence into all the regions of Africa. That the nations in every part of the earth have been in worship from some sort of religion, is well known; and religion cannot exist except by some revelation and by the propagation thereof from nation to nation-as may be seen in the preceding work, THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION (n. 273-276); where, also, it was shown, that, prior to the Israelitish Word, there was a Word, which in process of time was lost, but is still, of the Divine Providence of the Lord, preserved in Great Tartary, from which is their Divine worship even to the present day (see also n. 264-266, and n. 279, of the said work).
40. Who can deny that the universe was created for the sake of the human race, in order that from it should be formed an angelic heaven, wherein God might dwell in the dominion of His glory? To promote and accomplish this end, what mediate cause is there but religion? and what else is religion but a walking with God? Moreover, religion is like a seed producing just and true desires, and hence judgments and acts, in spiritual things, and by means of these in moral things, and by means of the latter and the former in civil things. In order, therefore, that it may be known what is the quality of the man who has religion, and what of him who has not religion, it shall be stated. The man who has religion is, in spiritual things, like a pelican, nourishing its young with its own blood; but the man who has not religion, is in those things like a vulture, in a state of starvation devouring its own offspring. The man who has religion is, in moral things, like a turtle-dove in the nest with its mate, sitting on its eggs or young; but the man who has not religion is, in these things, like a kite or hawk in the coop of a dove-cot. The man who has religion is, in political things, like a swan flying with a bunch of grapes in its mouth; but he who has not religion, is in these matters like a basilisk with a poisonous herb in its mouth. The man who has religion is, in judiciary matters, like a tribune riding on a noble horse; but the man who has not religion, is in those things like a serpent in the desert of Arabia biting its tail in its mouth, and hurling itself, thus enfolded, upon a horse to coil itself about its rider. The man who has religion is, in other civil affairs, like a prince, the son of a king, who exhibits the marks of charity and the graces of truth; but the man who has not religion, is like the three-headed dog Cerberus at the entrance to the court of Pluto, foaming out poison from its triple mouth.
41. The successive states of this Church-which are: rise or morning; progression into light, and day; vastation or evening, and consummation or night-it is not permitted to follow up with a description in the same manner as we before described the states of the Most Ancient Church, because the states of that Church cannot be so collected from our Word; for the posterity of Noah, through his three sons, is recorded only in a summary, in one or two pages; and, moreover, that Church was spread through many kingdoms, and in each kingdom it differed, and hence that Church underwent and ran through the states mentioned in a different manner.
[2] That THE FIRST AND SECOND STATE THEREOF in the regions round about the Jordan and about Egypt, was like the "garden of Jehovah," is evident from the words:
The plain of Jordan . . . was . . . like the garden of Jehovah, like the land of Egypt, where thou comest unto Zoar (Gen. xiii 10).
And that the like was the case with Tyre, appears from the following:
Thou prince of Tyre, . . . full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in . . . the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering; . . . thou was perfect in thy ways, from the day that thou wait created until perversity was found in thee (Ezek. xxviii 12-15).
That Asshur was like a "cedar in Lebanon," appears from the following:
Behold, Asshur is a cedar in Lebanon, beautiful in branch, lofty in height; . . . all the birds of the heavens nested in his branches, and under his branches did every beast of the field bring forth its young, and in his shadow dwelt all great nations: . . . No tree in the garden of God was equal to him in beauty, . . . and all those trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied him (Ezek. xxxi 3-9).
That wisdom flourished in Arabia, is evident from the queen of Sheba's journey to Solomon (1 Kings x 1-13); also from the three wise men who came to the new-born Jesus, a star going before them (Matt. ii 1-12). [3] THE THIRD AND FOURTH STATE OF THAT CHURCH, which was that of its vastation and consummation, is described in various places in the Word, both in its historical and prophetical parts. The consummation of the nations round about the Jordan, or round about the land of Canaan, is described by the destruction of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboim (Gen. xix); the consummation of the Church of the nations within the Jordan, or in the land of Canaan, is described in Joshua and in the Book of Judges by the expulsion of some and the extermination of others. The consummation of that Church in Egypt, is described by the drowning of Pharaoh and the Egyptians in the Red Sea (Exod. xiv). And so on.
42. Certain it is that this Ancient Church was a representative Church, which, in visible and natural types and signs, figured forth the invisible and spiritual things of the Church which was yet to come, when Jehovah Himself would manifest Himself in a natural human form, and by this means secure for Himself entrance to men, and for men access to Himself, and thus would divest Himself of types, and found a Church with precepts which should lead all who believe on Him as Man, and do His commandments, by a ready way to heaven, the dwelling-place of His Divinity. But, inasmuch as this Ancient Church, typical of that which was to come, turned the representative correspondences into magic and idolatry, and thus into things infernal, Jehovah raised up the Israelitish Church, in which He restored the primitive types, which were heavenly: such types were all the tabernacles, feasts, sacrifices, priesthoods, the garments of Aaron and his sons, and the anointings; besides the statutes in a long series which were promulgated through Moses.
43. I will touch, in a few words, upon the manner in which the representative Church with them was turned into an idolatrous one: All the spiritual things which are of heaven and the Church were presented before them in visible and tangible images, as was mentioned just above; those images were taken from the subjects of the three kingdoms of nature, animal, vegetable and mineral, by which were represented such things as are of the heavenly kingdom. They placed these typical images in their sanctuaries, in the inner chambers of their houses, and in the market-places and streets, arranging them according to their significations. But after the knowledge of correspondences was lost, and consequently the discernment of the signification of those images had perished, a later posterity began to look upon and acknowledge them as so many Divine and holy things; and then to some they bowed the knee, some they kissed, and some they adorned and decorated with necklaces, boxes of perfumes and anklets, just as children do their dolls, and as papists do their images; yea, of some they made household gods, of some guardian demigods, and of some Pythons; some, moreover, they carried in miniature forms in their hands, some they hugged in their bosoms, stroked, and whispered petitions in their ears; and so on. Thus were heavenly types turned into infernal types, and the Divine things of heaven and the Church into idols. On account of this transformation and distortion of heavenly things, a new representative Church was raised up among the sons of Israel, in which genuine representations, as was stated above, were instituted; and to which it was forbidden to celebrate Divine worship by any others, as is evident from these words in the first Commandment of the Decalogue:
Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor any figure that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor worship them (Exod. xx 4, 5; Deut. V 8, 9).
44. It has been stated that from the people of every Church, at its end, is formed a new heaven and a new hell; and, since I gave an account in the preceding section of the heaven and hell formed from those who were of the Most Ancient Church, it seems well also to do so respecting these [of the Ancient Church]; for access has been granted me thereto, inasmuch as I have been permitted to traverse and observe the whole spiritual world, to the end that the New Church, truly Christian, may not be in thick darkness concerning heaven and hell, and concerning the lot of these after death according to the deeds of their life. These things are likewise in the little work on CONJUGIAL LOVE (n. 76).
CONCERNING THE HEAVEN FORMED FROM THESE
[2] "An angel came to me and said, 'Do you desire me to accompany you to the peoples who lived in the Silver Era, or Age, that we may hear from them respecting the customs and life of their times?' It was also said that they may not be approached except under the auspices of the Lord.
"I was in the spirit, and accompanied my guide, and came, first, to a hill on the confines of the east with the south; and when we were on its slope, he showed me a vast stretch of country, and we saw at a distance an eminence like a mountain between which and the hill on which we stood, was a valley, and beyond this a plain, and from this plain a gently-rising ascent.
"We descended the hill to cross the valley, and saw here and there, at the sides, blocks of wood and stone carved into figures of men, and of various beasts, birds and fishes. And I asked the angel, 'What are these? Are they not idols?'
"And he replied, 'By no means; they are representative forms of various moral virtues and spiritual truths. The peoples of that age possessed a knowledge of correspondences; and, as beast, bird and fish correspond to some quality, therefore, each carved figure represents and signifies some aspect of virtue or truth, and many together the virtue or truth itself, in a certain general extended form; these are what in Egypt were called hieroglyphics.'
[3] "We proceeded through the valley, and when we entered the plain, ho! we saw horses and carriages, the horses variously caparisoned and harnessed, and the carriages variously shaped; some being carved out like eagles, some like unicorns, and some like whales: we also saw some carts at the boundary, and stables round about at the sides. But, when we approached, both horses and carriages disappeared, and instead of them we saw men, in pairs, walking, talking together and reasoning. And the angel said to me, 'The semblances of horses, carriages and stables, seen at a distance, are appearances of the rational intelligence of the men of that age; for a horse, by correspondence, signifies the understanding of truth; a carriage, the doctrine of truth; and stables, places of instruction. You are aware that all things in this world appear according to correspondences.'
[4] "But we passed these things, and went up by the ascent. At length we saw a city, which we entereth; and, in walking through it, we observed its houses from the streets and squares. In the midst of it, were palaces built of marble, having steps of alabaster in front, and at the sides of the steps pillars of jasper. We saw also temples, made of precious stone of a sapphire and azure colour. And the angel said to me, 'Their houses are of stones because stones signify natural truths, and precious stones spiritual truths; and all those who lived in the silver age, had intelligence from spiritual truths, and thence from natural; for silver has a like signification.
[5] "While exploring the city, we saw here and there married partners, both husbands and wives. We expected that we should be invited somewhere; and, while this was in our mind (animus), we were called back by two into a house, which we entered; and the angel, speaking with them for me, explained the reason of our coming to this heaven, informing them that it was "for the sake of instruction, concerning the customs of the Ancients, of whom you are.
"They replied, 'We were from the peoples in Asia, and the study of our age was the study of truths, through which we had intelligence. This study was the study of our soul and of our mind. But the study of the senses of our bodies was the representations of truths in natural forms; and the knowledge of correspondences conjoined the sensations of our bodies with the perceptions of our minds, thus natural and corporeal things with spiritual and celestial, and procured for us communication with the angels of heaven.'
[6] "On hearing these things, the angel requested them to relate something about marriages among them. So the husband said,
'There is a correspondence between spiritual marriage, which is that of good and truth, and natural marriage, which is that of man and wife; and as we studied correspondences, we saw that the Church, with its truths and goods, can exist only with those who live in truly conjugial love; for the marriage of good and truth is the Church with man. Wherefore, all we who are in this heaven, say that the husband is truth, and the wife the good of his truth; and that good cannot love any other truth than that which is its own nor truth love in return any other good than that which is its own; if any other were loved, the internal or spiritual marriage, which constitutes the Church, would perish, and marriage would become only external or natural, to which idolatry, and not the Church, corresponds.'
[7] "On his concluding these remarks, we were conducted into an ante-chamber, where were many designs on the walls, and little images cast as it were in silver; and I asked, 'What are these?' They said, 'They are pictures and images representative of the many qualities, properties and delights of spiritual things'; as were also the cherubim and palm-trees on the walls of the Temple at Jerusalem.
"After these things, there appeared at a distance a carriage drawn by small white horses; on seeing which the angel said, 'That carriage is a sign for us to depart.' Then, as we were going down the steps, our host gave us a bunch of white grapes with the vine leaves attached; and lo! the leaves became silver in our hands; and we brought them away for a token that we had spoken with people of the Silver Age."
45. CONCERNING THE HELL FORMED FROM THOSE PEOPLES
The hells of the men of the Noachian, or Ancient Church, consist for the most part of magicians, who have huts and feasting places scattered up and down in the desert. They wander about there with rods in their hands, which are of various forms, and some of them steeped in magical juices. By these, as in former times, they practise their arts, which are effected by the abuse of correspondences, by fantasies, by persuasive assurances by which was engendered a faith based on miracles-and miracles were in time past performed; also, by exorcisms, incantations, witchcrafts and sorceries, and many other magical spells, by which they present illusory appearances as real. The supreme delight of their heart is to utter prophecies and prognostications, and to act the Python. From these, chiefly, have arisen the various fanaticisms in the Christian world.
46. PROPOSITION THE FOURTH
The Israelitish and Jewish Church
IN order that the states of this Church may be thoroughly laid open and distinctly shown, it is of importance that we survey them in the following order:
I. The first State of this Church was the Appearing of the Lord Jehovih, also the Call and Covenanting; and then was its Rise and Morning.
II. The second State of this Church was Instruction, and eventually Introduction into the Land of Canaan; and then was its Progression into light and Day.
III. The third State of this Church was the Turning aside from true representative Worship into Idolatry, and then was its Vastation or Evening.
IV. The fourth State of this Church was the Profanation of holy things; and then was its Consummation or Night.
V. Before this State, and after it, a Promise was made of the Coming of the Lord Jehovih into the world, and respecting a new Church in which justice and judgment should reign.
VI. The fifth State of this Church was the Separation of the good from the evil, and then Judgment upon those who were from it: but this was in the spiritual world.
VII. Something respecting the Heaven and Hell from that nation.
47. I. THE FIRST STATE OF THIS CHURCH WAS THE APPEARING OF THE LORD JEHOVIH, ALSO THE CALL AND COVENANTING; AND THEN WAS ITS RISE OR MORNING. We are taught from the Word, that the Lord Jehovih has appeared at the beginning of each of the four Churches of this earth. This is because God is the All-in-all of the Church and of its religion; and the acknowledgment of God in it is like the soul in the body, which causes both its interiors and its exteriors to live; and it is like the prolific element in seed, which, abiding inmostly in all the sap drawn from the earth by the root, accompanies it from the first germination even to the fruit, in which it also is, and disposes the vegetative process so that it proceeds in its proper order. For this reason, the man of the Church, without the acknowledgment of God, is in the eyes of the angels a brute like the wild beasts of the forest, or like a bird of night, or like a monster of the deep; yea, without the acknowledgment of God, man is like a tree whose branches are lopped off, and the trunk cut in pieces, and the whole piled up together in a heap set aside for the fire; for the Lord says,
Apart from Me ye can do nothing; if any one abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and they gather it and cast it into the fire, and it is burned (John xv 5, 6).
Without the acknowledgment of God, man, inwardly, as to his rational qualities, is like the ruins of a burned city; he is also like food from which its nutritiveness is boiled out, when it becomes refuse. And so forth.
48. But it is impossible for man to acknowledge God, or anything pertaining to Him, unless God had manifested Himself in a Personal Human Form; for the Nature of the world surrounds him, and he does not see, feel or breathe anything but what is from it and in contact with the organs of his body. From this his mind conceives and adopts a Rational which lies in the interior bosom of Nature, as an embryo in the womb; nor does it see anything until it struggles forth, and receives sight. How, then, can a man in this state by any method look through Nature, and acknowledge anything that is above her-as is everything Divine, heavenly and spiritual, and hence everything religious, which in themselves are above natural things? Wherefore it is an absolute necessity that God should manifest Himself, and thereby cause Himself to be acknowledged, and after acknowledgment should inspire man with His Divine spirit, and by this received in the heart lead him, even at length to Himself in heaven; which cannot possibly be effected except by instruction. Must not also an emperor, or a king, first cause himself to be acknowledged and crowned, before he enters on his government? And before he is crowned, is he not provided with the insignia of authority, robed and anointed? and must he not bind the people to himself by agreed compacts, sworn to by both sides, whereby the people become the king's, and the king the people's? Must not a bridegroom first cause himself to be seen, before he proposes betrothal, and afterwards marriage? Must not a father present himself before his babe, and embrace and kiss him, before the babe can say, "Abba, father?" and so in other cases. Still more must the Lord Jehovih, who is King of kings and Lord of lords (Rev. xvii 14), the Bridegroom and Husband of the Church (Rev. xxi 9), and consequently the Father of all her offspring. By the "Lord Jehovih" is meant the Lord our Saviour and Redeemer: He is called the "Lord Jehovih" in Daniel, and in the Prophets again and again.
49. It was stated above, that the first state with the sons of Israel, was the appearing of the Lord Jehovih, calling and covenanting; and we are taught from the Word, that these three things took place, first with Abram, secondly with Moses, and thirdly with the entire people. The appearing of the Lord Jehovih before Abraham is thus described in Genesis:
Jehovah appeared unto Abraham in the plains of Mamre; he was sitting at the door of his tent, . . . and when he lifted up his eyes and saw, behold! three men stood by him, and as soon as he saw them, he ran from the door of the tent to meet them, and bowed himself to the earth, and said, O Lord, if I have found grace in Thine eyes, pass not away, I pray, from Thy servant (Gen. xviii 1-3).
It was the Lord our Saviour who appeared in His Divine Trinity, which the three angels represented; for the Lord said,
Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw and was glad. . . Verily, verily I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am (John viii 56, 58).
There is in the Lord a Divine Trinity; and the Divine Unity was represented in Divine Trinity by the "three men," who were also called "angels" (Gen. xviii 2; xix 1). But in His Divine Unity He was called "adonai" (Gen. xviii 3; xix 18); and also "Jehovah," very frequently (Gen. xviii 13, 14, 17, 19, 20, 22, 26, 33). The appearing of the Lord Jehovih before Moses is thus described in Exodus:
The Angel of Jehovah appeared to Moses at the mountain of Horeb, in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush; . . . Moses therefore said, I will turn aside and see this great vision, why the bush is not burnt. And Jehovah saw that he turned aside; . . . therefore God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. . . . And moreover Moses said to God, What is Thy name? . . . God said, . . . I AM THAT I AM. Thus shalt thou say unto the sons of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you (Exod. iii [1] 2-4, 14).
The appearing of the Lord Jehovih before the whole people is thus also described in Exodus:
Jehovah said to Moses, Say unto the sons of Israel, that they be ready against the third day; for on the third day Jehovah will come down in the eyes of all the people upon Mount Sinai. . . . And it came to pass on the third day, . . . that there were voices, and lightnings, and thick clouds upon the mount, and the voice of a trumpet exceeding loud, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled. . . . Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because He descended upon it in fire; and He promulgated the law before the people (Exod. xix 9-24, and xx 1-18).
The Lord also appeared to Joshua as Prince of the army of Jehovah, before whom Joshua fell on his face upon the earth, and called him his "Lord" (Josh. V 13, 14).
THE CALLING OF THE SONS OF ISRAEL TO THE LAND OF CANAAN, thus to the Church, also took place three times; once to Abram, that he should depart thereto out of his fatherland, and afterwards the promise that his seed should inherit that land (Gen. xii 1-7). A calling also took place through Moses (Exod. iii 16, 17); and again through Joshua (Josh. i 3, etc., and 11).
50. A COVENANT ALSO WAS ENTERED INTO SEVERAL TIMES; first with Abram (respecting which, Gen. xvii 1-14); then with the people (Exod. xxiv 7, 8), and once again (Josh. xxiv 24, 25). From these things, it is now manifest that the first state of this Church was the Appearing of the Lord Jehovih, also the Call and Covenanting, and then was its Rise or Morning. That by the "Lord Jehovih," everywhere in the Word, is meant Jehovah in His Human, who is the Lord our Redeemer and Saviour, will be seen in what follows.
51. II. THE SECOND STATE OF THIS CHURCH WAS INSTRUCTION, AND EVENTUALLY INTRODUCTION INTO THE LAND OF CANAAN, AND THEN WAS ITS PROGRESSION INTO LIGHT, AND DAY. It has been pointed out above, that this Israelitish Church, as well as the Ancient, or Noachian Church, was, with respect to the whole of its worship, a representative Church. This was of the Divine Providence, because Jehovah had not yet put on the Natural Human (which He took by incarnation in the womb of Mary, thus according to the order established from creation); and prior to this He could not be conjoined to man as to the interiors of his spirit, and so manifest His Divine things-which are celestial and spiritual, and, thus, far above the discernment of the senses of the body,-to man's perception there. This also was as impossible as it is for a bird to fly in ether, or a fish to swim in air. For if Jehovah were to enter into man except by means of His Human, it would be like putting the severed branch of a tree into the very focus of a burning glass, or quicksilver to a blazing log in a furnace, which would be instantly dissipated. For, from the ardour of His Divine Love, Jehovah is like a consuming fire; and were He to enter into man in this without His Human, He would destroy him, as has just been said: for which reason He said to Moses, when he desired to behold His glory with his own eyes, that no man could see Him and live. It was otherwise, however, after He put on the Natural Human, and united this, when glorified, to His Divine, and thus, in Himself, conjoined the Divine Celestial, the Divine Spiritual, and the Divine Natural into one. He was then able, by means of this, to conjoin Himself to man in his Natural, yea, in his Sensual, and at the same time to his spirit, or mind, in his Rational, and thus to enlighten man's natural human with heavenly light. That such conjunction was effected after the Coming of Jehovah into the world, is plainly manifest from the words of the Lord Himself:
In that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you (John xiv 20).
[2] Now, before the Incarnation of Jehovah took place, conjunction with Him could not occur except through an angel, thus by means of a representative human; on which account, also, all things of the Church of those times were made representative, and consequently men worshipped Jehovah by types affecting the senses of their body, and at the same time corresponding to spiritual things. Hence it was that the men of the Ancient Church, and still more those of the Israelitish Church, were external and natural men, nor could they become internal and spiritual, as men can since the Lord's Coming. But, still, those who acknowledged Jehovah, and, with Him, the Lord* -that is, the Lord who was to come, who in the Word is named the "Lord Jehovih," "God of Israel" and "His Holy One," "Messiah" or the "Anointed of Jehovah," "King," "Rock," and in some places "Son"-and who worshipped them at the same time, received holiness in their spirits, and hence in the types of their religion. The rest, however, did not receive it; consequently, the religion of these was not a religion but a superstition, and their worship was not representative but idolatrous; and, although this was similar in external form, yet it was dissimilar in internal. [3] But in order that this matter may gain some light, it shall be illustrated by comparisons. Idolatrous worship is like a man who reveres a king, a prince, a nobleman, or any man of exalted dignity, solely on account of the grandeur of his retinue, the magnificence of his carriages and horsemen or footmen, and the gorgeousness of his crimson robe; but genuine representative worship is like one who regards a king, prince, nobleman, or any man of exalted dignity, from his religion and his wisdom, and from his justice and judgment, and who attaches importance the above-mentioned insignia of his greatness, in consideration of these qualities. Idolatrous worship, moreover, is like a man who regards the primate of the Church solely on account of his tiara and the jewels in it, or any other prelate, or bishop, on account of his head-covering, or mitre; but genuine representative worship is like one who regards them from the warmth of their love for the souls of the men of the Church, and for the eternal salvation of these, and the insignia of their heads on these grounds. Again, idolatrous worship is like a field filled with stalks without ears, or with ears without corn in them, or even of these without any kernel in the corn, and so on; but genuine representative worship is like a field filled with ripe corn, whose grains are bursting with kernels, which yield flour and bread in abundance. Idolatrous worship is also like an egg in which there is no fertilizing germ; but genuine representative worship is like an egg in which there is the fertilized element from which a chicken comes forth. Still further to illustrate those two kinds of worship by comparison, idolatrous worship is like one who has lost the sense of smell and the sense of taste by a catarrh-when such a one applies any grape to his nostrils, or drops wine on his tongue, he is sensible of nothing but their touch; but genuine representative worship is like one who is keenly sensible at the same time of the fragrance of the grape and the flavour of the wine, and thus enjoys the use and sweetness of both.
* The reader ought to be apprised that the Latin word here is not, as usual, Dominus, but Adonajus, the Latinized form of the Hebrew word Adonai.
52. That the second state of this Church was Instruction, follows from order; for, when any one is called to the Church, he must be instructed in the precepts of the religion according to which he is going to live. That this took place with the sons of Israel after their calling, is plain from the promulgation on Mount Sinai of the law, in which are contained all the commandments of love and faith towards God, and all those of love and fidelity towards the neighbour. After instruction in the general precepts of life and faith, there followed the promulgation of various laws, called "judgments" and "statutes," respecting the hallowing of the Sabbath, stated feasts, sacrifices, the priesthood, the tabernacle, the holy observance in it and upon the altar outside it; also respecting the eating of the holy things, the ministry of Aaron and his sons, likewise their garments and the consecration thereof, and the sanctification of all things of the tabernacle by the oil of anointing; and further, concerning the Levitical order, marriages and divorces, cleansings, foods, places of Refuge, besides many other things, all of which were natural representations corresponding to spiritual things. In a word, the last four Books of Moses are nothing else but books of instruction for that Church. After these instructions, the sons of Israel were admitted into the land of Canaan, thus into the Church itself; for the land of Canaan represented, and thus signified, the Church. That land also was situated in the middle portion of our entire world: for on the front it hooked towards Europe, on the left towards Africa, and on the binder part and right-hand side towards Asia. But after they came into that land, the precepts given by Moses were enriched by the prophets,* then by their King David, and at length by Solomon after the temple was built; as appears from the Books of Judges, Samuel and Kings. This, therefore, was the second state of this Church, which was its progression into light, or day.
* In the Hebrew canon, "the Books of Judges, Samuel and Kings" are designated "the former (or earlier) Prophets"; what we call "the Prophets"-Isaiah to Malachi-being called "the later Prophets.'
53. The following passages in the Word may be applied to these two states of this Church: Jehovah, after two days, will quicken us: on the third day He will raise us up, that we may live before him. . . . Jehovah, His going forth is prepared as the morning; and He shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter rain He shall water the earth (Hosea vi 2, 3).
The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me. . . . He is as the light of the morning, . . . a morning without clouds (2 Sam. xxiii 3, 4).
And in Moses:
My doctrine shall drop as the rain; My word shall distil as the dew, as the drops upon the grass, and as the small drops upon the herb: I will proclaim the name of Jehovah; ascribe ye greatness to our God. The Rock, whose work is perfect, all His ways are judgment, a God of faithfulness without perversity, just and right is He (Deut. xxxii 2, 3, 4).
From these passages, also, it may be confirmed that these two states of this Church were from our Lord, who is the "God of Israel" and the "Rock." That He is the "Rock," is clear from these words in Paul:
The Rock was Christ (1 Cor. x 4).
54. III. THE THIRD STATE OF THIS CHURCH WAS DECLINE FROM TRUE REPRESENTATIVE WORSHIP INTO IDOLATRY, AND THEN WAS ITS VASTATION, OR EVENING. Some notable things were adduced above respecting the difference between representative worship and idolatrous worship, from which it may be plainly seen, that, so long as the types, figures and signs, which were seized upon by the senses of the body as objects of religion by the men of the Noachian and Israelitish Churches, were not at the same time regarded from a higher, or interior, idea, nearly approaching to a spiritual one, truly representative worship easily declined with them into idolatry. As for example: If, in reference to the tabernacle, they did not think at the same time of heaven and the Church, and of God's dwelling-place in these; concerning the bread of faces (or shewbread) therein, they did not think at the same time of the heavenly bread for the nourishment of the soul; concerning the incense and the burning of it upon the golden altar there, they did not think at the same time about worship from faith and charity, that this is what ascends to Jehovah as a grateful odour; about the lights in the lamps of the golden candlestick, when lighted, they did not think at the same time of the enlightenment of the understanding in the objects of their religion; and about the eating of the holy things, so that they did not at the same time think about the appropriation of heavenly foods, and also about the holy refreshment of their spirits from the performance of the sacrifices: and in like manner with the other things. It is hence manifest, that, if the man of the representative Church did not at the same time look upon the things belonging to that worship with a rational spirit enlightened by heavenly light from the Lord, but only with a rational spirit informed by the natural light (lumen) of the world from self, he could easily be carried away from genuine representative worship into idolatrous worship, and so be vastated; for vastation is nothing else but a turning aside, decline and falling away from representative to idolatrous worship; which two kinds of worship are alike as to external appearance, but not as to internal appearance. [2] On account of this proneness to fall away from one worship which in itself was heavenly, into another which in itself was infernal, the interior things of the Church and of religion-namely, concerning heaven and hell, the resurrection, and the life of their spirits after death, and, also, the immortality of their souls, regeneration, and, in short, the interior things respecting faith and charity; -could not be revealed before the Lord's Advent, and then by light from Him, inasmuch as they would have looked upon them scarcely otherwise than as one looks at birds over the head, or meteors in the air. And, further, they would have covered them over so thickly with the mere fallacies of the senses, that, moreover, not a single vestige of the spiritual things revealed would have been visible, except as much as the tip of the nose in respect to the face, or a fingernail in respect to the hands. They would also have so distorted them, that they would have appeared in the presence of the angels no otherwise than like a sea-monster dressed out in a cloak, a mitre on the head, and with a face, after being shaved and painted, like that of an ape-whose face is destitute of hair: and they would also have appeared before the angels like a statue fitted with movable joints and hollowed out; which, some accomplice being introduced into it, would walk about, act and speak, and at length cry out to the superstitious multitude, "Prostrate yourselves; call upon me; behold me, your tutelar deity, your protector, to whom belongs holiness and divine a power."
[3] Could the ideas of the thought of these concerning the spiritual things of the Church be superior to the ideas of thought of Nicodemus, who was a teacher, on regeneration, which was that of the whole man being re-born in his mother's womb? for he said:
How can a man be born anew? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb?
To whom the Lord answered,
Art thou a master in Israel, and knowest not these things?. . . If I have told you earthly things and ye believe not, how will ye believe if I shall tell you more than heavenly things? (John iii 3, 4, 9, 10, 12).
They would have raved in like manner, if interior things, which in their essence are spiritual, concerning faith and charity, and also the life after death, and respecting the state of heaven and hell, had been disclosed to them. Wherefore, to open the internal sight of their mind or spirit, as to its higher region, which alone heavenly light illuminates, before the coming of the Lord-who came into the world as "the Light," as He Himself says (John 1-4; viii 12; xii 35, 36, 46)-was as impossible as it is to make a horse fly and turn it into Pegasus, or a stag run in the air, or a calf upon the waters; yea, as it would be to convert an agate into a ruby, a crystal into a diamond, or to put a vein of silver into a common stone, or to make a laurel-tree produce grapes, a cedar olives, a poplar and an oak pears and apples; therefore, also, as impossible as to infuse the intelligence of the learned Oedipus into the listening Davus.
55. But what vastation is, and whence it arose with the people of the Israelitish church, may be gathered from the passages in the Prophets where it is mentioned, which shall, therefore, be adduced therefrom in abundance. It must be premised, that, in the following and the subsequent passages from the Word, by "land" is signified the Church, because the land of Canaan is meant, in which the Church was; by "Zion," the Church as to the Word; by "Jerusalem," the Church as to doctrine from the Word; by the "cities" in that land, doctrinals; by the "mountains," "hills," "valleys," and "rivers," the formalities of the Church; and by the territories there, the general things of the Church, and these according to the representation of the tribe by which they were possessed.
56. The passages from the Prophetic Word, where the Israelitish Church is treated of, in which "vastation," "desolation," and "breaking," and also a "desert" are mentioned, are the following:
O inhabitant of Jerusalem, and man of Judah, . . . what should I do to My vineyard that I had not done? I looked that it should bring forth grapes, but it brought forth wild grapes. . . I will make it a desolation, it shall not be pruned nor weeded, that the briar may come up; . . . and houses shall be a devastation; for they regard not the work of Jehovah, neither see the operation of His hands (Isa. v 3-12).
Many shepherds have destroyed My vineyard, they have trampled My field, they have reduced the field of My desire to a desert of solitude; he hath made it a solitude. . . . O desolate, desolate is the whole land, because no one layeth it to heart. The vastators came upon all hills in the desert; . . . they have sown wheat, but have reaped thorns (Jer. xii 10-13).
A nation hath come up upon My land, . . . and hath reduced My vine to a waste (Joel i 6, 7).
The field is devastated; the land mourneth, for the corn is devastated; the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth (Joel i 10):
by "vineyard" and "field" in these as in other passages of the Word, is signified the Church.
In all your dwelling-places the cities shall be devastated, and the high places shall be desolated; that your altars may be devastated and desolated, . . . and your idols may cease, and your images may be cut down, and your works may be abolished (Ezek. vi 6; see also ver. 14).
My people have forgotten Me, they have burned incense to vanity, . . . to make the land a waste (Jer. xviii 15, 16);
"land," here denotes the Church.
The high places of Isaac shall be vastated, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be desolated (Amos vii 9).
Go and say to this people, Hearing hear ye, but understand not; and seeing see ye, but know not; make the heart of this people fat,
and shut his eyes: (Isa. vi 9, 10).
then said the prophet,
Lord, how long? and He said, Until the cities be devastated, and the hand reduced to a solitude: Jehovah will multiply deserts in the midst of the land (Isa. vi 11, 12).
Behold, Jehovah maketh the land empty, and maketh it void; the land shall be utterly emptied; . . . because they have transgressed the laws, passed by the statute, and made void the covenant of eternity. Therefore . . . in the city there shall be a waste, and the gate shall he smitten even to devastation (Isa. xxiv 1, 3, 5, 12).
The paths are devastated, the wayfarer hath ceased, he hath made void the covenant. . . . Conceive ye chaff, bring forth stubble (Isa. xxxiii 8, 11).
I have kept silence from eternity. . . . I will desolate and devour together. I will vastate mountains and hills (Isa. xlii 14, 15).
Thy destroyers and devastators shall go forth out of thee. For as for thy vastations and desolations, and the land of thy devastations, . . . the devourers shall be far away (Isa. xlix 17, 19).
Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you. . . . They set an asp's eggs, and wove the spider's webs. . . . Vastation and breaking are in their paths. . . . We look for light, but behold darkness; . . . we grope for the wall like the blind; . . . we stumble at noon-day as in the twilight (Isa. lix 2, 5, 7, 9, 10).
The cities of Thy holiness are become a desert, Zion is become a desert and Jerusalem a waste. Our house of holiness . . . is become a burning of fire, and all our desirable things are become a waste (Isa. lxiv 10, 11).
The young lions roar against Israel; . . . they reduce his land to a waste (Jer. ii 15).
Woe unto us! for we are devastated. O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness. . . . How long shall thoughts of iniquity tarry within thee? (Jer. iv 13, 14).
As a fountain maketh her waters to gush forth, so Jerusalem maketh her wickedness to gush forth. Violence and vastation is heard in her. . . . Admit chastisement, . . . lest I reduce thee to a waste. . . . O daughter of My people, gird thee with sackcloth, and roll thee in ashes; . . . for the vastator shall suddenly come upon us (Jer. vi 7, 8, 26).
A voice of wailing is heard in Zion, How are we devastated! because we have deserted the land (Jer. ix 19);
"land" denotes the Church.
My tent is devastated, all its ropes are plucked out, . . . for the shepherds have become foolish, and have not sought Jehovah (Jer. x 20, 21):
"tent" denotes worship.
The voice of a tumult; behold it cometh, and a great commotion from the land of the north, to reduce the cities of Judah to a waste, a habitation of dragons (Jer. x 22).
The whole land shall be a desolation, a devastation (Jer. xxv 11);
"land" denotes the Church.
The voice of a cry from Horonaim, devastation and great breaking; . . . the vastator shall come upon every city (Jer. xlviii 3, 5, 8,9, 15, 18):
these things are about Moab, by whom is meant confidence in one S own works and in self-intelligence (as is manifest from verse 29 of that chapter).
That they may want bread and water, and be desolated, a man and his brother, and pine away for their iniquity (Ezek. iv 17):
"bread" and "water" denote good and truth.
Thou shalt be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of devastation and desolation (Ezek. xxiii 33).
Woe unto them! for they have wandered; devastation unto them! (Hosea vii 13).
The land shall be a desolation, because of them that dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings (Micah vii 13).
Besides many other passages, as Isa. vii 18, 19; xvii 4-6, 9-14; xxii 4-9; xxix 10-12; ii 19: Jer. xix 8; xxv 9-11,18; xliv 2, 6, 22: Ezek. ix 1 to end; xii 19, 20; xxxiii 24, 28, 29: Hosea x 14; xii 2: Joel ii 20: Amos v 9: Micah vi 13, 16: Hab. i 3: Hag. 4, 9: Zech. vii 14; xi 2,3.
From all these passages may be seen what "vastation" and "desolation" are; and that it is not a vastation and desolation of the peoples of a land and of cities, but of the goods and truths of the Church, in consequence of which there is nothing left but evils and falsities.
57. IV. THE FOURTH STATE OF THE CHURCH WAS THE PROFANATION OF HOLY THINGS, AND THEN WAS ITS CONSUMMATION OR NIGHT. Vastation and consummation differ from each other, as do the shade of evening and the thick darkness of night; for vastation is a receding from the Church, but consummation a complete separation from it. Vastation, therefore, is as when any one descends from heaven but not as far as to hell, and tarries in the middle, standing near both; but consummation exists when any one, standing thus, turns his face and breast to hell, and his back and the hinder part of his head to. heaven; in like manner as happened with the Dragon and his angels when they were cast down out of heaven (concerning which see Rev. xii): while they were fighting with Michael, they were in the middle; but when vanquished, they were in hell. Vastation takes place when man looks upon the holy things of the Church from falsities and falsified truths; but consummation when he lives in evils or in adulterated goods. [2] But, that the difference and distinction between the state of vastation and the state of consummation may be still more clearly grasped, it shall be illustrated by comparisons. The state of vastation may be compared with a certain garden, or grove, round a temple-which garden, by reason of the Divine worship performed in the temple, is regarded as holy-in which are places for drinking, feasting, dancing, and histrionics and farce, with spectators in the courts and windows of the temple; but the state of consummation may be compared to the same garden, or grove, in which are satyrs and libertines, with harlots and witches, who all together enter the temple dancing, and there celebrate profane revels, as the Pythons in their sabbaths. [3] The state of vastation may also be compared with a hostile army, when it enters the suburbs of a besieged city and rules them; but the state of consummation may be compared with the same army, when it has demolished the wall, and rushes into the city and gives the inhabitants over to destruction. The state of vastation may further be compared with a ship upon sandbanks, or a sandy shore, when it is violently battered there, and tossed up and down, and the steersman, captain and sailors bewail on account of their danger; but the state is one of consummation when the ship's keel is fretted away by the gravel beneath, and the ship, being shattered and pierced with holes, sinks, and those on board, and the cargo, perish in the waves. [4] The state of vastation may be compared with every disease which invades the members, viscera and organs of the body, by reason of which the patient apprehends death, consults a physician, takes medicines, and all the while lies in bed in hope of recovery; but the state of consummation may be compared with the same disease when it invades the breast, where the heart and lungs reside as in their tabernacle, into which when the disease penetrates, it makes an end of the life of the body.
58. The state of consummation of the Israelitish Church is described in both the historical parts of the Word, and its prophetic parts: in the prophetic, by the atrocious deeds of the kings, first of those of the Israelites, and afterwards of those of the Jews, by whom and under whom the land is said to have been profaned. But it is needless to recite them, because they are well known; only those passages from the prophetic parts shall be adduced in which the consummation and devastation of that Church are treated of. In these passages by "earth" and "land," "Zion," "Jerusalem," "cities," "mountains," "hills," "valleys," and "rivers," similar things are signified as above (n. 55). The following are from the prophetic parts of the Word:
[2] I saw the earth, and behold it was empty and void; and towards the heavens, and their light was not. . . . I saw, when, behold, Carmel* was a desert, and all the cities were desolated at the presence of Jehovah. . . . For thus hath Jehovah said, The whole land shall be wasteness, yet will I not make a consummation. For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be blackened.
Thou, therefore, that art vastated, what wilt thou do? (Jer. iv 23-31; v 10, 18).
The lion hath come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of nations . . . hath gone forth from his place, to reduce the land to a waste. . . . In that day . . . the heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes; and the priests shall be astonished (Jer. iv 7, 9).
In that day, every place where there were a thousand vines shall be . . . for thorns and briars, . . . because all the land shall be thorns and briars (Isa. vii 23, 24).
A voice of the cry of the shepherds and . . . of the powerful ones of the flock, for Jehovah layeth waste their pastures: whence the sheepfolds of peace were devastated. Jehovah hath forsaken His tabernacle, for their land was reduced to a desolation (Jer. xxv 36-38).
This house shall be like Shiloh, and Jerusalem shall be a devastation (Jer. xxvi 9; xxvii 17).
Jerusalem, and all the cities of Judah, shall be a desolation and a devastation in this day, because of the wickedness of your works; your land is become a desolation, an astonishment and a curse (Jer. xliv 2, 6, 22).
I will give the land to devastation, because they have committed transgression (Ezek. xv 8).
They shall be devastated in the midst of the devastated lands, and her cities in the midst of the desolated cities. . . . Then I will make the rivers drought, . . . the land into the hand of the evil, and I will vastate the land and the fulness thereof (Ezek. xxx 7, 12).
When I shall extinguish thee, I will cover the heavens, and will make the stars thereof black. I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine; . . . and I will set darkness upon the land . . . when I shall bring on thy breaking up (Ezek. xxxii 7-9);
in like manner as the Lord foretold concerning the consummation of the present Christian Church (Matt. xxiv 29).
[3] I will give Mount Seir to wasteness and to devastation. . . . I will make thee the wastes of eternity . . . (Ezek. xxxv 3, 4, 7, 9, 12, 14, 15).
In that day they shall bring up a proverb against you . . . and say, In vastating we are vastated (Micah ii 4).
Fear and the pit have taken hold of us, devastation and breaking up (Lam. iii 47).
The mountain of Zion is vastated (Lam. v 18).
Thine iniquity is consummated, O daughter of Zion (Lam. iv 22).
Woe to the sinful nation, heavy with iniquity; . . . they have provoked the Holy One of Israel. . . . From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness; . . . your land is a solitude. . . . The daughter of Zion is left as a tent in a vineyard,
as a besieged city (Isa. i 4-8, and following verses). What will ye do in the day of visitation and devastation?
Consummation is finished, justice is overwhelmed; for the Lord Jehovih is making a consummation and decision in the whole land (Isa. x 3, etc., 22, 23).
I have heard a consummation and decision from the Lord Jehovih of hosts in the whole land (Isa. xxviii 22).
The prophet fell upon his face, and said, Lord Jehovih! Thou art making a consummation with the remnants of Israel (Ezek. xi 13).
My sanctuary was profaned, and the land of Israel was devastated (Ezek. xxv 3).
Were even Noah, Daniel and Job in the midst of it, . . . they only shall be delivered, but the land shall become a desolation (Ezek. xiv 14, 16).
[4] The completion of the consummation of the Israelitish and Jewish Church was accomplished when the Lord our Saviour, after receiving the sponge of vinegar, cried out upon the cross,
It is consummated (John xix 29, 30);
for it is said in David:
They gave gall for My meat, and in My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink: . . . let their habitation be devastated (Psalm lxix 21, 25).
And in another place:
Without cause have they hid for Me the pit of the net; without cause have they digged for My soul. Let devastation come upon him before he is aware; . . . let him fall into devastation. Rescue My soul from their devastators, and My only one,-that is. the Church-from the lions' whelps (Psalm xxxv 7, 8, 17).
I will make Jerusalem heaps, a habitation of dragons; I will reduce the cities of Judah to a waste; . . . behold, I am feeding them, even this people, with wormwood, and I will give them waters of gall to drink (Jer. ix 11-15).
Full consummation, after this, is described in Hosea thus:
The sons of Israel shall sit many days: no king, no prince, no sacrifice, no image, no ephod, and no teraphim (Hosea iii 4).
Such is their state at the present day. There is no need to adduce more passages. The passages in which the vastation, desolation and consummation of this Church are further mentioned, shall be only named: as, for example, Isa. ix 13-21; xxii 4-14: Jer. vii 31-34; xxv 33; xlvii 4: Ezek. xiii 14, 15; xiv 8, 15; xix 7; xxv 12, 13; xxvi 2; xxix 9, 10, 12; xxxii 12, 15: Joel 15-20; ii 3; iii 19: Nahum i 8, 9: Zeph. i 15; ii 9: Lam. i 16: Psalm lxxiii 17-19; lxxiv 3. The devastated are also called "thrust through"** (Ezek. xi 6, 7; xxi 30, 34; xxvi 6; xxviii 8, 23; xxxi 17, 18; xxxii 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32;
xxv 8: Zeph. ii 12: Lam. iv 9: Psalm lxix 27: and in other places). They are said to be "thrust through" because a "sword," by which this is done, signifies falsity destroying truth.
* See R.V. margin.
** In most of these passages our ordinary Bibles have "slain"; but Young's Literal Translation of the Bible has "pierced," which, of course, is the same as
"thrust through."
59. V. BEFORE THIS STATE, AND AFTER IT, PROMISE WAS MADE OF THE COMING OF THE LORD JEHOVIH INTO THE WORLD, AND OF A NEW CHURCH AT THAT TIME, WHEREIN JUSTICE AND JUDGMENT SHOULD REIGN. It is known, from the reading of the prophetic Word of the Old Testament, that, in many places there, the Coming of our Lord is foretold, and also that the Lord is there designated by various names; as, that He is called "Jehovah Zebaoth," "Jehovah our Righteousness," "Jehovah our Saviour and Redeemer," "Lord Jehovih," "Adonai," "Immanuel" or "God with us," "God of Israel," "Holy One of Israel," "Rock of Israel," "Messiah" or "Anointed of Jehovah," "King," "David," "Mighty One of Jacob," "Shepherd of Israel," "High Priest," "Priest after the order of Melchizedech," "Son of God," "Son of Man," "Angel of Jehovah," "Angel of the Covenant," the "Grand Prophet," "Shiloh"; also, in Isaiah, "Counsellor," "Prince of Peace," "Father of Eternity"; and in the New Covenant, "Jesus Christ," and "Son of God." That our Lord's Coming was foretold in very many places in the Prophets, will be seen from the predictions adduced in the following pages. But it may be asked,
Why was such frequent prediction of His Coming made? There were many reasons, some regarding the Israelitish and Jewish people, and some regarding the Christian people after them.
[2] But we will recount the reasons which especially regarded the Israelitish and Jewish people. The First was that, by His being named and recalled to mind, they might be kept in the interior worship of Jehovah, since, without that, there was no entrance of Jehovah to any one of them, nor approach of any one of them to Jehovah. The case was then as it is at this day,
that no one hath seen God the Father; the Only Begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath set Him forth (John i 18; v 37);
and again:
No one cometh to the Father, but by Me (John xiv 6).
The Second reason regarding that people was, that the representative types of their Church, which all looked to our Lord and to the Church to be established by Him after His Coming, might serve them as so many signs and symbols of their worship; consequently, that they might acknowledge Him when He came, and suffer themselves to be introduced into the internals of the worship of Him, and, together with the nations that surrounded them, become Christians. The Third reason was that, by calling to mind His Coming, somewhat of the notion, or idea, of the resurrection and eternal life might find entrance into their thoughts. For who of them could not have thought interiorly in himself, or in his heart, "What is the Messiah to us after we are dead, unless we return then, see His glory and reign with Him?" From this source was derived their superstition, that, at that time, they were to be raised again, everyone out of his grave, and return to the land of Canaan. The Fourth reason was that they might be succoured and healed in their state of vastation and oppression, when they were in temptations and afflictions, like their fathers and brethren in the wilderness (Num. xxi 1-9; John iii 14, 15); for, without such succour and healing, they would have cast aspersions against Jehovah, and departed, in crowds, from the representative worship of Him to idolatry. [3] Indeed, temptations and afflictions, in the state of vastation and oppression, are nothing else than combats of the Lord with the Devil respecting man, that is, respecting his soul, which is to possess it; of which state it may be said, that the God of Israel, or the Lord the Messiah, stands on one side, and Beelzebub and the Serpent, the Devil, on the other, and that the latter casts forth out of his mouth blasphemies like a flood against the Lord, but that the Lord turns them aside and bears them away, and thus delivers man from spiritual captivity and slavery. This combat is felt in man as if waged by himself. That temptation is such a combat, and that there is such a perception by man, and hence co-operation, I can avow, for, having often experienced it, I have known it perfectly. That it is carried on outside man, and is felt in him as if by himself, and that man is standing in the middle, and co-operates, is for the end that recompense may be ascribed to him when he conquers; but only that man conquers who looks to the Lord, and trusts in Him alone for help.
[4] That every one who calls upon the Lord in temptations, conquers, but that otherwise he yields, shall be illustrated by comparisons. It is like a ship hurled by storms near the rocks: unless the captain knows how to divert it from its danger, and to direct it to an outlet and thus to port, it must be lost. It is like a city besieged by enemies: unless there be escape or aid somewhere, the commander and his garrison become hopeless and disheartened, and yield themselves prisoners, and surrender their lives to the will of the enemy. It is like a person on a journey entering unawares into a cottage where there are robbers, unless, when he is shut in, a friend come and knock at the door, or show himself at the window, and thereby terrify those villains and rescue him from ill-treatment. It is like a person falling into a cave where there is a bear with cubs, or into a pit where there are a wolf and a leopard, if his father, or brother, on seeing this, do not immediately let down to him a ladder, or a rope, and draw him up thence. It is like a person who stands, or walks, in the day-time, in a thick fog, who consequently does not know which way to turn, unless he light a lamp, and thereby show himself the place where he stands or the way in which he should walk. It is like being in the depth of winter, and short of provisions, if not supported by the hope of a harvest to come, on the return of summer. So, again, it is like a person wandering at midnight in a wood, unless he comfort himself with the hope of day, and in that hope goes to lie down, and sleeps quietly till morning. It is also like one, who, for the sake of salvation, is desirous of being instructed in the things of the Christian Religion, and who meets with mitred doctors and laurelled teachers, who expound them by terms borrowed from metaphysics, and wrap them in mysteries, unless there be some other person to explain those terms, and thereby unravel the perplexities, and to set forth from the Word, thus from the Lord, the holy things of the Church, in clear light: would he not otherwise be bewildered by the falsities respecting faiths, and the other dogmas which depend on the faith laid down, just as the links of a chain hang together unbrokenly from a hook fixed to the wall? [5] The case would be similar in temptations and the attendant infestations from satans, unless man looked trustingly to the Lord, and fully assured himself that the whole work and ability of deliverance are from Him alone. It is for these reasons that the Coming of the Lord is so frequently foretold in the Old Prophetic Word, and for the same reasons also the Lord is proclaimed in the New Evangelic and Apostolic Word, and his Second Coming foretold; concerning which see the statements following.
60. Now follow some things concerning the Coming of the Lord collected from the prophecies of the Old Word; namely:
Jehovah God said, Lo, I come; in the roll of the Book it is written of Me (Psalm xl 7).
Jehovah God said to the serpent, . . . Be thou cursed; . . . I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her Seed; and He shall trample thy head, but thou shalt injure the heel (Gen. iii 14, 15).
The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a law-giver from between his feet, until Shiloh come: to Him shall the cleaving of the peoples be (Gen. xlix 10)-
the prophecy of the father, Israel, concerning his sons.
A Star shall rise out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall rise up out of Israel (Num. xxiv 17).
Jehovah thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet out of the midst of thy brethren, like unto Me; Him ye shall obey, . . . and I will put My words in His mouth; . . . whence it shall come to pass, that the man who will not obey His words, I will require it of him (Deut. xviii 15-19).
The Lord Himself giveth you a sign, Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name, God with us (Isa. vii 14).
Unto us a Boy is born, unto us a Son is given, on whose shoulder shall be the government; His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, God, Hero, Father of Eternity, Prince of Peace: of the increase of His government . . . there shall be no end (Isa. ix 6, 7).
There shall come forth a shoot out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch out of his root shall bear fruit; . . . upon Him shall rest the spirit of wisdom and intelligence, the spirit of counsel and might (Isa. xi 1, 2).
In that day the nations shall seek the Root of Jesse, which standeth for an ensign of the peoples, and His rest shall be glory (Isa. xi 10).
Send ye the lamb of the Ruler of the hand, from the rock toward the wilderness: . . . His throne is established in mercy, and one shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David, judging, and seeking judgment, and hastening justice (Isa. xvi 1, 5).
It shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God for whom we have waited that He may deliver us; this is Jehovah for whom we have waited: we will exult and rejoice in His salvation (Isa. xxv 9; xxvi 8, 9).
The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of Jehovah, make plain in the desert a path for our God. . . . The glory of Jehovah shall be revealed; and all flesh shall see it together (Isa. xl 3, 5).
O Zion, thou evangelizer, get thee up upon the high mountain; O Jerusalem, . . . thou that evangelizest, lift up thy voice with strength; say to the cities of Judah, Behold your God. Behold, the Lord Jehovih cometh in strength, and His arm shall rule for Him; behold His reward is with Him. . . . He shall feed His flock like a shepherd; He shall gather the lambs in His arm, and carry them in His bosom; He shall gently lead the sucklings (Isa. xl 9-11).
My people shall know My name in that day; for I am He that doth speak; Behold Me. How delightful upon the mountains are the feet of Him that evangelizeth, that causeth them to hear peace, that evangelizeth good, that causeth them to hear salvation, that saith unto Zion, Thy King reigneth. . . . They shall lift up the voice and sing; they shall see eye to eye that Jehovah is returned to Zion. He hath comforted His people, He hath redeemed Jerusalem: . . . all the ends of the land shall see the salvation of our God (Isa. lii 6-10).
Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; His reward is with Him, and the recompense of His work before Him (Isa. lxii 11).
Shout for joy and rejoice, O daughter of Zion; behold, I come, that I may dwell in the midst of thee; . . . then many nations shall cleave to Jehovah (Zech. ii 10, 11).
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold, thy King cometh to thee, just (Zech. ix 9).
Behold, the days come . . . when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, who shall reign a King and prosper, and He shall execute judgment and justice in the land; . . . and this is His name, . . . Jehovah our Righteousness (Jer. xxxiii 5,6; xxiii 15, 16).
Behold, I send My angel, who shall prepare the way before Me; and the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to His temple, and the Angel of the covenant whom ye desire, behold, He shall come (Mal. iii 1).
Thou Bethlehem Ephratah, it is little that thou art among the thousands of Judah; out of thee shall One go forth unto Me, who will be Ruler in Israel, and whose goings forth are from of old, from the days of eternity. . . . He shall stand and feed the flock in the strength of Jehovah, . . . and shall increase even to the ends of the land (Micah v 2, 4).
I anoint My king upon Zion. . . . I will proclaim concerning the statute, Jehovah saith unto Me, Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee; ask of Me, and I will give the nations for Thine inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Thy possession.
Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish in the way; Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him (Psalm ii 6-12).
Behold, the God of my salvation! I will trust and not be afraid. Cry out and shout for joy, O inhabitant of Zion; for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee (Isa. xii 2, 6).
In that day a man shall look to his Maker, and his eyes shall have regard to the Holy One of Israel (Isa. xvii 7).
My Beloved had a vineyard in a horn of [the son of] oil (Isa. v 1). Jehovah Zebaoth, Him shall ye sanctify. . . . He shall be for a sanctuary, although for a stone of stumbling, and for a rock of offence, . . . and for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitant of Jerusalem (Isa. viii 13, 14; Matt. xxi 42-44; Luke xx 17, 18).
The people that walked in darkness shall see a great light; they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them shall the light shine (Isa. ix 2).
Out of Zion . . . God shall shine forth; our God shall come, and shall not keep silence (Psalm 1 2, 3).
The vision is yet for the appointed time, and speaketh out to the end; yet it shall not lie: though He tarry, wait for Him; because He will surely come, He will not delay (Hab. ii 3).
O Jehovah, I have heard Thy fame; I have revered, O Jehovah, Thy work, . . . make it present in the midst of the years. God shall come from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of His praise. His brightness shall be as the light; rays [coming forth] from His hand; and there is the hiding of His strength (Hab. iii 2, 3, 4).
Thus said the Lord Jehovih, Behold, I will lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-[stone] of well-established foundation; . . . then I will set judgment to the rule, and righteousness to the plummet (Isa. xxviii 16, 17).
The Lord, appearing above the mercy-seat (Ezek. i 26-28), is described as to the Word, and is called "Lord Jehovih" (Ezek. ii 4; iii 11, 27; iv 14; V 7, 11; vi 3, 11; vii 2, 5; viii 1). In Isaiah liii, throughout, the Lord is treated of, and the state of His life in the world is described by the following expressions:
That He had no form nor comeliness; He was despised and not esteemed; He was wounded on account of our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities; Jehovah caused the iniquities of us all to meet in Him; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter; He was cut off out of the land of the living; because He placed their guilt on His soul His days should be prolonged; also, for them He poured out His soul even unto death; He was numbered with the transgressors, and interceded for the transgressors (Isa. liii 1-12).
I have called Him forth in righteousness. . . . He shall build My city; and He shall send away My captivity, not for price nor for reward. . . . Verily, Thou art a God that hidest Thyself, O God of Israel the Saviour (Isa. xlv 13, 15).
I have caused My righteousness to draw near, . . . and My Salvation shall not tarry (Isa. xlvi 13).
As for our Redeemer, Jehovah Zebaoth is His Name, and the Holy One of Israel (Isa. xlvii 4).
O Jehovah, our Lord, how excellent is Thy Name in all the earth! giving to it honour above the heavens. . . . Thou hast caused Him to lack little compared with the angels, but Thou hast crowned Him with glory and honour; Thou hast made Him to have dominion over the works of Thy hands, Thou hast put all things under His feet (Psalm viii 1, 5, 6, 9).
God . . . shall come down like rain among the herb. . . . He shall have dominion also from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth. The barbarians shall bow themselves before him, and his enemies shall lick the dust; the kings of Tarshish and of the Isles shall bring their present; the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer their gift; all kings shall bow themselves to him, all nations shall serve him; for he shall deliver the wretched, who hath no helper. . . . He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence: . . . His name shall be to eternity; he shall have the name of a son* before the sun, and men shall be blessed in him.
Blessed be God, the God of Israel: . . . blessed be the name of his glory . . . the whole earth shall be filled with his glory. Amen and Amen (Psalm lxxii 6, 8, 10, 12, 18, 19).
I have made a covenant with My chosen. . . . Thy seed will I establish even to eternity, and I will build up Thy throne from generation to generation; . . . and the heavens shall confess Thy wonders (Psalm lxxxix 3, 4, 5).
* See for the word "son" A.V. margin.
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