Athanasian Creed (Harley)

1. THE ATHANASIAN CREED

PREFACE

Those things which the Lord spoke as recorded in Matthew [24:29-31] concerning the last time of the Church should here be inserted, giving the words themselves and their explanation as in the work HEAVEN AND HELL, n. 1.

2. It is the doctrine of the Church that the above passage treats of the Coming of the Lord. Thence it is that there have been opened, by the Lord, arcana* concerning heaven and hell, man’s life after death, the Word and the last judgment. All these things have been written down in the Latin language and sent to all the Archbishops and Bishops of this kingdom [of Great Britain] and to the Nobility. So far, not a voice has been heard. This is a sign that the things which pertain to heaven and the Church do not affect them interiorly. It also shows that it is now the very end of the Church and indeed that the Church no longer exists. For the Church exists where the Lord is worshipped and the Word is read with enlightenment.** . . . Summaries of the truth presented in the little works referred to may be seen at the end of this work.
* Secret; hidden things: from Latin, arcanum (plural, arcana).
** Similar passages in the Writings referring to the Church being “where the Lord is worshipped and the Word is read” are to be found, for example in:
AC 10761. “That is called the Church where the Lord is acknowledged and where the Word is.”
AE 252:2. “The Church specificially is where the Word is and where the Lord is known through the Word.”
LJ 55. “. . . for the Church exists where the Lord is worshipped and the Word is read.”
The meaning of the last phrase in the Latin text, however, is obscure. It may have been a note written by Swedenborg to remind himself of a point to be amplified when he came to write the work in full, perhaps a reference to the need for self-examination as the fundamental of actual repentance (TCR 528), repentance being the first thing of the Church with man (TCR 510), and the need for regular self-examination (CL 529 and AR 224:6). – Tr.

3. Because there is one Divine, it is the same Divine, as may be confirmed from the Word; thus, not equal to, but the same as the Father.

4. Who cannot see that there are pure contradictions which are thence repeated – and there are several of these. Thus things are to be believed which can never be seen by faith and comprehended. But such people are so far to be excused since they draw those things from the sense of the letter of the Word. The spiritual sense was not yet known, nor did they know that it existed. Wherefore, there has been disclosed the spiritual sense through which it is granted to know why the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are named, and, it is, indeed, because the Father signifies the Divine Itself, the Son the Divine Human and the Holy Spirit the Divine Proceeding.

5. No one can be saved who believes in three but they are saved who believe in one God. It may be shown from Athanasius what it means not to be saved.

6. If thought concerning the Divine of the Lord be directed to His Human, and not to another Divine called the Father, then the thought and thence the faith does not fall to the left of the Lord, thus outside Him, but to the Lord. Accompanying the idea is the perception that no one comes to the Father except through Him, that is through His Divine Human. Examine yourselves, you who think of three persons. Is it not the case that, when the Father is named, such think of another Divine than that of the Lord Himself, thus outside Him?

7. THE CREED OF ATHANASIUS

Let it be presented, in full –

8. They saw there that God is one, although they assumed three persons in favour of their principle. It may be shown how cautiously they proceeded.

9. It may also be shown that they saw that soul and body are one.

10. They saw that His Divine, and not another Divine, assumed the Human.

11. They made this Divine absolutely the same with two other Divines.

12. It was of the Divine Providence of the Lord that they thus wrote lest they should go completely astray in respect of the Lord, and so no one be saved.

13. They distinguished among persons although this [is] not in the Word. They distinguished among three from certain passages because they did not understand the sense of the letter of the Word, nor did they know that there is a spiritual sense within every single part of the Word.

14. There is, therefore, a Trinity or Trine or Triunity in the Lord, consisting of the Divine Itself called the Father, the Divine Human called the Son and the Divine Proceeding called the Holy Spirit.

15. The reason why they distinguished in this way between the Divine and the Human nature was because they had only vague ideas from the sense of the letter of the Word.

16. The Lord said – and this in several passages – that if there was faith, so it should be done. The cause for this was that it should first be implanted in their minds that the Lord is God and Omnipotent. For this is the fundamental principle of all the teachings of the Church. Knowledge precedes, in the case of everyone. But not until man lives the life of faith which is charity does this knowledge become faith. That which is prior belongs to knowledge, for the Lord makes faith from cognitions* with man.
* The term cognitiones, here used in the Latin, is translated “cognitions” to distinguish these knowledges from those that are meant by the Latin scientifica also used in the Writings of Swedenborg. Two of the meanings most commonly associated with cognitiones are (i) a particular species of knowledge, as knowledges of the Word, of good and truth, or of spiritual things (AC 24, 3665, 9945; NJHD 51; HH 111, 351, 469, 474, 517, 518); and (ii) a higher type of knowledge which is from understanding and perception (AC 1486-7; HH 110, 353).

17. That the hells were subjugated by the Lord, see Luke 10:20.

18. Father and Son is the Lord alone. The reason He is so called is because He was in the world in a state of union. In the Old Testament, too, He is called Jehovah and the Holy One of Israel. These are two names but yet referring to one God, that is, the Lord. He is called Jehovah God, He is called Lord, He is called Jehovah and God, also Jehovah and Lord, also Jehovah Zebaoth. Let the passages be quoted in which He is called Jehovah, and the Holy One of Israel, and in which He is called Jehovah and God.

19. CONCERNING THE CREED OF ATHANASIUS

The whole creed of Athanasius can be reconciled when it is acknowledged that there is one, one only Divine, and if it is acknowledged that the one only Divine is His Divine which the Lord calls His Father.

20. Moreover it can be reconciled so as to be perceived wholly in accordance with the actual expression of the Athanasian Creed – which is used in England, namely that they adore a Trinity in Unity and a Unity in Trinity. For a Trinity in Unity is adored when acknowledged in one, or in one Person, and Unity is adored in a Trinity, or one Person in Whom is a Trine.

21. That the Lord is called the Lord Jehovah, see Isa. 40:3, also 52:8, and 61:1, and Ps. 96:2, 13 and throughout the psalm.

22. Who can conceive that the Divine Itself, in a body, can be at the same time in the human derived from the mother which is thence infirm? Cannot anyone see that the Divine which is Life Itself made the Human an image of Itself, thus also Divine? It may be seen, too, that He did these things by successive stages as He glorified the Human by means of temptations. If this were not so, should we not have an idea that the corporeal, just as the Divine of the Lord, was, as it were, outside the Human, and not within it and so one with the Human? Indeed, the Creed of Athanasius thus teaches that they are not two, but one Person and that they are united as soul and body. How then is it feasible to think separately of the soul of any man and separately of the body, that is, to separate those in thought? Would not this be to think of a human body devoid of life, as of a corpse?

23. Isaiah 7:14, 15; Immanuel – that this is said clearly with reference to His Human, see explained in the work on the Revelation (AE 619).

24. To declare that the Son is born of the Father from eternity is just a paradox, concerning which no human intellect, nor even an angel in the third heaven, can be so enlightened as to have any perception of it. For what does it mean – to bring forth from eternity?

25. Besides, it is said that the three persons are one substance or essence, when nevertheless, they are divided as to their attributes. For it is said that the Father created, the Son redeemed and the Holy Spirit teaches. Those are Divine attributes. When they are divided it follows that the very substance or essence which is called one is divided, by specific attributes, into three essences.

26. It is an arcanum in heaven and in the world, namely that from creation, every good conjoined with truth clothes itself in forms, chiefly the human form, since Divine Good and Divine Truth proceed from the Divine Human of the Lord, and from every part of his Body. The putting on of form which is everywhere in the atmospheres, is an arcanum which no one yet knows, and it is an essential of the spiritual, as well as of the natural atmosphere. Hence it is that insects are born, each one whatever it is according to its spiritual genius, and so it is that affection everywhere clothes itself with a body. Hence there are so many insects, large and small. That the same is true of the vegetable kingdom is because their prime substances are in Nature and thus are devoid of life, etc., etc., and that they have reference to the human, etc., etc.

27. These things have been presented so that some idea about the Divine Human from the Father may be obtained – namely, that the Divine clothed itself with the Human according to Divine order from first things to last. Wherefore there was Divine order in the Human Itself. Consequently, it thus instills all things or is everywhere omnipresent.

28. That the Divine Truth, which is the Holy Spirit, or the Spirit of Truth, is from the Lord alone, is evident from the passages where it is said that the Holy Spirit is from Him, or that the Holy Spirit is Divine Truth, as in John 7:39, and elsewhere.

aRef Jer@33 @15 S0′ aRef Jer@23 @6 S0′ aRef Jer@33 @16 S0′ aRef Isa@7 @15 S0′ aRef Isa@7 @14 S0′ 29. That the Human is Divine is evident when it is stated in Isaiah that “A Virgin shall bring forth a Son whose name is God with us,” [7:14, 15] and elsewhere that, “A son and child shall be born whose name shall be God, Father of eternity.” [9:6].

Then again it is said,

“Of David shall be born One who will be called Jehovah our Righteousness.” [Jer. 23:5, 6; 33:15, 16].

In these and other passages is meant the Lord as to the Human, which therefore is called God, Father of Eternity and Jehovah.

aRef Luke@1 @35 S1′ aRef Luke@1 @34 S1′ 30. CONCERNING THE CREED OF ATHANASIUS

This is in complete harmony if only one God is acknowledged, so that there is no thought of three persons. If, in accordance therewith, the Creed of Athanasius is read, without allowing any other idea to enter, then full harmony is effected.

1. It is denied by no one that the Divine which took on the Human was His Divine, thus that the Lord suffered Himself to be born. Thence it follows that this is the Divine of Whom it is written in Matthew and in Luke. Nor was there another Father from whom He was conceived but the very Divine which He called His Father. Nor was there any other. This accords with the words in Matthew that Joseph “touched her not,” [1:25] and again in Luke when Mary said that “she knew not a man” [1:34], and when Joseph “found that she was with child, and so was minded to put her away.” [Matt. 1:19.]

2. The Divine of the Lord took on the Human. If the Divine is one, it follows that the Divine Itself, which is one, assumed the Human. Nor is any good done by the idea that the Divine which created the universe put on the Human. For in the Creed it is said that the Divine of the one Person, and the Divine of the other Person are entirely equal, as in these words – “Just as the Father is infinite, eternal, uncreate, omnipotent, God the Lord, so is the Son. For no one of them is first or last, greatest or least, but they are altogether equal.” What, then, matters it whether I think that the Divine of the Lord or the Divine of the Father assumed the Human, so long as there exists the same idea in either case? Yet when it is said that the Divine of the Father put on the Human, the idea today in the Christian world is opposed. Nevertheless, it is exactly the same since the one Divine is altogether equal with the other.

3. It is said that the Lord was perfect God and perfect Man. Or, concerning the Human it is said that He was perfect Man consisting of a rational soul and a perfect body, and thence that he was Man from the nature of the mother. No one who thinks about this matter from the Divine order known to everyone, is able to accept it into his faith, for it would be to say that the Lord can exist as rational Man, or perfect Man from the mother alone. For was He not from the Father? And is it not the case that life and the initiament of life is from the father and its additions from the mother? To believe that the Lord was perfect Man from the mother alone, is quite contrary to all order and to what is said. Is there not the image of the father in children equally with that of the mother? The very love or ruling affection of the father stands out clearly in grandchildren and in families. In a word, there must be father and mother that man may be perfect man. How then is it to be believed that He was perfect Man from the mother?

4. Does it not then follow that the Divine was in the Lord from conception as is the soul in the case of every man.

5. This was considered by Athanasius when he said that God and Man are one Christ, not two but a united person like soul and body. From these statements it is clear that, according to our creedal faith, the Divine and the Human in the Lord are together in one Person, and not that the Divine is outside the Human as many crazily imagine.

6. Again, it is further stated that the two natures were not co-mingled, but that the Divine took to itself the Human. Neither are soul and body co-mingled with any man; but with every one, the soul clothes itself with a body and so takes to itself that which is called the human. In this also there is agreement.

7. And so when the Divine takes to itself the Human, uniting Itself with the Human as soul and body, so that there is one united person, then also the Human participates in the Divine, namely by becoming one [with it]. Thence also it can be confirmed that the Human, too, is Divine.

8. This also is confirmed in the Word, as in the Old Testament, that a Son was born whose name shall be God, The Everlasting Father, God with us, Jehovah our Righteousness. These names refer to the Human of the Lord, for it is said that thus shall the Son be called [Isa. 9:6]; also elsewhere, as particularly in Revelation, where such things are said concerning “The Son of Man” by which name, also, the Divine Human of the Lord is meant.

31. These things are to be first set forth briefly or in summary form in a few words and afterwards clearly explained.

32. Consider, my Reader, what kind of idea you can have of a Son born from eternity. Is it not such an idea as immediately flees of its own accord and so vanishes? Then, in the absence of any idea, there is only sound with which no thought has anything in common. Is it thus that God is to be thought of? Whereas if reflection is brought to bear upon the idea which has now been presented, then the idea becomes an intelligible one in which alone there can be faith.

33. The learned, according to their idea, place the Divine of the Lord outside Himself, for the reason that they are thinking of the Divine of the Father, and think only of the Human of the Lord as separate from the Divine. They do not think of the Divine of the Lord Himself in the Human. Nor do they pay heed to the last words in the Athanasian Creed on the point. They do not carefully ponder these words. But, contrary to the words of the Creed, they maintain only the idea of two natures which they separate.

34. And because they separate the Divine from the Human, and place the Divine outside His Human in their thought, it follows that they think that the Human with a rational soul and perfect body came into being from the mother alone. Anyone can see that to think thus is contrary to all the rational conceptions of a man.

35. If, therefore, there is a Trinity, or a Trine of the Lord, namely, the Divine from conception which is the Father, the Divine Human which is the Son, and the Divine Proceeding which is the Holy Spirit – then all things and every particular fall distinctly into the thought, and also then can be understood.

36. This also can be deduced from the Creed of Athanasius; let it be explained:

1. That just as the one, so the other is infinite, eternal, uncreate, omnipotent, God and Lord, but yet not three infinites but one. Then this can be understood.

2. There is one God, and there is no need to say with Athanasius that although each person is God, yet according to the Christian faith He is to be called one God, for from this it appears as though he said, although there are three Gods, he was only able to say one God.*

3. Then since no one of them is greatest or least, first or last, but altogether equal, this also can be understood.

4. And also that there are not two but one Christ, and that the Divine and the Human of the Lord is one Person.

5. Also they were not co-mingled but the Divine took unto Himself the Human.

6. Thus they are one, as soul and body.

7. And then it may be known that the Lord was endowed with a rational soul and a perfect body, not from the mother alone, but from the Father and the mother. This, too, can then be understood.

8. Then, too, may be understood all things contained in the Word concerning the Lord as that the Father and He are one, that the Father is in Him and He in the Father, and as stated in many other passages.

9. Only let it be understood that the Divine successively took unto Himself the Human while in the world. This will be treated of later.
*cf. HH 2; AC 2329:5; 5256; 10736.
AC 10821. “Those who in regard to the Divinity have an idea of three Persons, cannot have an idea of one God. If they say one with the mouth, they nevertheless think of three. But those who in regard to the Divinity have an idea of three in one Person, can have an idea of one God and can say ‘one God’ and also think ‘one God’.”

37. In a word, all things of the Athanasian Creed can thus be comprehended, as consistent. But if this is not known and accepted, nothing whatever in the whole creed can be comprehended, although it is the most essential thing of the Church.

sRef Luke@1 @35 S0′ 38. It is clearly stated in Luke that the Human of the Lord is the Son of God, and that It is Holy –

“Wherefore also that Holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” [Luke 1:35].

sRef John@14 @6 S0′ 39. The way to heaven is to the Lord, for He says, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life; no one cometh to the Father but by Me.” [John 14:6].

The same is meant by –

“Ye shall ask the Father in My name.” [John 15:16; 14:13]. Again He says “Hereafter ye shall not pray the Father but Me, and I will give to you.” Find where this is stated and let it be explained. [John 16:26; 14:14. Matt. 11:28. Rev. 2:10-28].

40. That is called saving faith which comes from the belief that the Father loves for the sake of the Son. But no one is saved by this. The Father never hears you but the Lord, and by this no one is saved because they pass the Lord by and pray to the Father. This is quite contrary to the Lord’s commandment. Besides, no one has seen the Father nor heard His voice.

41. That all power over heaven and earth belongs to the Lord [may be seen] in Dan. 7:14. Rev. 11:15.

sRef John@5 @19 S0′ sRef John@5 @18 S0′ sRef John@5 @21 S0′ 42. In the following passage from John [it may be shown], that the Human of the Lord is equal to His Divine – “The Jews sought to kill Jesus because He said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God. Jesus saith, ‘Verily, I say unto you, whatsoever things the Father hath done, these also doeth the Son likewise. As the Father raiseth the dead, and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom He will’.” [5:18-end].

Add the passages following, chap. 5:18 to the end, and pick out from these where it states that the Human of the Lord is Divine [Zech. 3:8; Micah 5:2].

There are many passages in Revelation, which should first be read, also the Prophets of the Old Testament and the Gospels whence passages may be gathered.

43. CONCERNING ATHANASIUS

It was granted to me to speak with Athanasius. Because he had confirmed himself in the faith of three Gods, he vacillated among three and was not able to acknowledge one God. Hence it is that he is in error in everything, and unable to know anything of the truth of faith. It is the same with others who have confirmed themselves in the faith of three Gods. On the other hand they who have not confirmed themselves in that faith, but have only heard and retained it while maintaining the faith of one God, come into heaven. For since they have not confirmed themselves, they reject the idea of three Gods and preserve the idea of one God.

44. They say that, according to certain passages in the Word in the external sense, it is not permitted to enter with the understanding into the things concerning the Trinity. While this faith reigns, and is ratified and confirmed, then there is no room in the understanding for enlightenment. Such a faith closes the way of access for the light and indeed for the understanding of the Word in the spiritual sense. Yet if it is believed that the Divine is only in the Lord, then the understanding can be enlightened from many passages in the Word, which passages are not otherwise seen or understood, as for example, that the Lord is one with the Father, and many other examples.

I have heard certain spirits reasoning about three persons and yet one God, and they reasoned from the words there [The Athanasian Creed], that they are one substance or essence and thus that the three are one, or, as is there said, that there is a trinity in unity, and a unity in trinity, thus believing that still there is one Divine. By that reasoning they confirmed themselves with the lips that they are one trine and so that it is scarcely a unanimous trine. It was then said to them that they are able to say these things and to persuade others who only pay attention to words that such is the case. But it was said to them, “Think of one of three persons, each one of whom is God,” then they were asked whether, from that thought, they were able to say or affirm one God, but they could not. It was thence evident that those were only words, but that each one thought in no other way than of three Gods. It was further said that such things are in the Athanasian faith, because in no other way could they connect the one with the other, knowing from interior thought and also from the Word, that God is one, consequently but one Person.

45. The Lord liberated and liberates from hell all who are in truths from good, thus those who receive Him by means thereof. Thus He subjugated the hells and glorified His Human. These facts may be seen in many passages about Redemption, in the APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED and in many passages in the Gospels, especially those in Luke, chapters 1 and 2, in the prophesies concerning Himself, and in Matt. chap. 1:21.

aRef Matt@1 @20 S0′ aRef Luke@1 @0 S0′ 46. In the Creed of Athanasius they assert that His Human consists of a rational soul and body, and this, as if the soul of a man is from the mother. But the soul of every man is from the father, and its clothing from the mother, and so in these words Athanasius is mistaken. The soul of the Lord was the Divine Itself, as is confirmed in Matthew and Luke. Hence it is clear that His soul was His Own Divine Itself. Also, because the body is not the man, apart from the soul – indeed everything of the body even in its least particulars lives from the soul – consequently such as is the soul, so is the body, and the body is formed to the likeness of the soul, similarly with the young of animals, eggs and even sprouts of plants. Thus they make three parts in the Lord, when yet there are two, the Divine and the Human, and these two are only one Person.

47. As soul and body make one man, so Divine and Human is one Christ. This is in accordance with the Creed of Athanasius.

48. First, it is said that He is Man from the rational soul and body, thus that the soul is from the mother. Afterwards, it is said that as soul and body is one man, so the Divine and the Human is one Christ. Hence it is obvious that there is contradiction.

49. THINGS TO BE NOTED

Let it be reasoned as clearly as possible that the Divine could not subjugate the hells and restore to order all things in the heavens and on the earths, except from the Divine through an assumed Human, because every Divine operation passes through the whole order from first things to ultimates, and operates in them, for all things are simultaneously present in ultimates. On account of this, it has been shown that there is strength in ultimates, not from themselves but from those things which are in last things from first things, and so there is strength in the sense of the letter of the Word. It is for that reason that the Lord so often said that it is the Father in Him Who doeth the works, also elsewhere that He Himself doeth the works. Wherefore it can he confirmed that the Divine would not have been able to undertake any work of the kind unless He had assumed the Human, thus He could do no more for the human race by His Own Divine because when the Lord came into the world the human race had to such an extent removed itself and was therefore so remote that not even in one case was there natural good from a spiritual origin, and thus it [the human race] was consummated. This is also confirmed from various references in Daniel and in passages in the Word treating of consummation and settlement and of the end that would come, and from other passages. Perhaps also [it may be confirmed] that the last judgment described by the flood was effected from the Divine in the remnant of the human race, thus the Divine effected it from what was His own there, and so from first things through ultimates. The ultimate was then in the remnant of the human race. And when this ceased to be the case, the Divine Itself, in order that the human race might be saved was pleased to make Himself the ultimate in the Human which He assumed, making it at the same time Divine so that it might operate to eternity from first things through ultimates.

50. Adduce the things declared and shown concerning the ultimate in ARCANA CAELESTIA, also those in HEAVEN AND HELL and elsewhere.

51. But this is an arcanum hitherto unknown.

52. In the Old Testament the Lord is called the Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. Quote from the APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED n. 328.

53. It is contrary to the Divine that God the Father alienated from himself the human race and effected reconciliation through the blood of the Son. See in the APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED n. 328.

54. The Lord is Life Itself because He is from the Divine which is Life Itself, from which all in the heavens and on the earths live. Men and angels are not life but recipients of life. At this point, explanation from the Word is required concerning life itself and the reception of life, and [illustrated] from the Word.

55. Moreover, who knows what is meant by His being born from eternity and being born yet co-eternal with the Father, and none being before or after? Wherefore, no one can think this. One can only retain the words without any perception.

56. Besides, who knows what is unity in trinity and trinity in unity, if the explanation is to be that unity in trinity means that there is one essence in the three, and that trinity in unity means that there are three in one essence?

57. Since on the basis of the Athanasian faith they make one essence of three and these three are attributes of one essence, thence it is clear that they make the attributes themselves to be Gods. And they call them three persons or three Gods from the three attributes, naming them the Father the Creator, the Lord the Intercessor and Redeemer, and the Holy Spirit the Regenerator and Enlightener. In this way they make creating, redeeming and enlightening, which are attributes of one Divine essence or of one God, to be three Gods because three persons. Since there are these attributes, they say, in order to make their deductions agree, that all the attributes are as if in His own body. See the words in the Creed. The ancients also did likewise. When the Church doubted, they made Gods of the attributes, hence they worshipped God Schaddai and many others. The Gentiles did the same. That is why they had so many Gods. They made a God out of every Divine attribute.

58. In every matter connected with theology, one’s idea is formed according to one’s understanding. This is true also regarding those things of which it is said that the understanding ought to be kept under obedience to faith. Such things especially are those which concern three persons according to the Creed of Athanasius. The idea which is formed of a thing is the understanding of it. If there is no understanding there is merely knowing, and they are but empty words which are considered. The idea becomes clear in the other life. As for the sort of ideas formed by man about the Trinity and about the union of the Divine and the Human in the Lord they are numerous and such as destroy rather than build up. I do not wish to enumerate them because for the most part they are utterly incongruous. And yet, thought concerning God being one, and that one the Lord, is the principal and fundamental thought of all in the doctrine of the Church. Without that no one can be saved.

59. The statement of Athanasius that the Human consists of a rational soul and body involves the rational soul being from the mother. Whereas, nothing is from the mother except the covering, and the soul which is to become rational is from the Father. Hence contradiction arises.

60. Nevertheless, it was of the Lord’s Providence so written in the Creed of Athanasius, in order that faith concerning the one and only God, and concerning the Lord, might still be preserved. Compare some quotations from it and this will be seen.

61. The reason why they were permitted to write thus, was that they knew nothing of the spiritual sense of the Word and therefore remained in the sense of the letter, also because it was foreknown that faith alone would be taken as the essential of the Church, with which doctrine belief in the Lord alone does not accord.

aRef Ex@24 @10 S0′ 62. The Son from eternity was the Divine Human from eternity, and was also the Divine Proceeding from which is heaven, thus the Divine forming heaven. This is evident from the Lord’s words that they neither saw nor heard the Father and that all things were done by means of the Divine Truth. It is said, too, that the Lord appeared as a man before the sons of Israel, and was seen with, as it were, a sapphire under the soles of his feet and heaven as to clearness [Exod. 24:10]. Further it is said “this day have I begotten thee.” The Lord also said “Such as I was with thee from the foundation of the world.” In Daniel it is stated that He was also the Son of man, and the Lord became so as to the Human. In Luke, too, he is called the Son of God, for it is said that the Word was made flesh. Hence it is evident that it was the one and the same Divine.

63. To make three Persons because it is said “Father, Son and Holy Spirit” is to falsify the Word. In the Word there are appearances of truth which, if made to be truths actually and really, become falsities. Otherwise they are truths in both senses, namely in the sense of the letter and the spiritual sense, this sense comes from the Lord through the enlightened rational, as is similarly shown concerning the progression and position of the sun, no. 719 in the APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED. Here may be quoted many passages where the Father and Son are named, showing that these are true in both senses, if viewed from Doctrine, otherwise the sense of the letter is made false.

64. The first and primary [thing] of the Church is to know her God, thus the Lord and so one God. This is because the other things of the Church, both doctrines and perceptions are dependent thereon. It is not possible, otherwise, for man to understand the Word. This may be seen from the case of the ancients who were Gentiles, although they, likewise, had altars and sacrifices, besides many rituals of the Church. Yet they who did not worship Jehovah, but worshipped, some Schaddai, some another God, were extirpated because nothing of their doctrine and worship was then acceptable in heaven. Because of that, the Lord questioned those with whom He worked miracles as to whether they had faith, saying that according to their faith so it would be done. This was in order that they should acknowledge that He Himself was the Son of God, and could do all things, thus He was God descending out of heaven. This acknowledgment was the first and primary [thing] of God’s conjunction with man.

65. This is now the first [thing] of the Church which is called The New Jerusalem.

66. All Papists who adore the Lord and only acknowledge the pope as the chief priest, are accepted. They are accepted because they rarely worship the Father and separate the Lord from the Father. Yet they are empty by reason of their doctrine which is empty of truths.

67. What kind of idea there is about the Lord with those who are in the doctrine of a trinity of Persons, to wit, they place His Divine above and also outside Himself, for the reason that they think of the Lord as they do of a common man, thus causing separation. Then they think of the Divine of the Father with Whom He is conjoined. Thus they speak of the conjunction of the Father with the Lord, and not of the conjunction of the Divine of the Lord and of that conjunction with the Human. Hence they approach the Father that He may be merciful for the sake of the Son. Because of this, their thoughts ascend above the Lord, and they think not at all about the Divine of the Lord, in accordance with the Athanasian faith. Yet such thinking is clearly contrary to the faith of the Church. For in the Athanasian faith, the Divine is conjoined to His Human, as soul to body, and this in Himself, etc.

68. The idea can with difficulty be held by Christians that the Divine, called the Father, is in the Lord, because they consider that the Divine of the Father, in as much as It created the universe, cannot be in the Human, and then owing to their thinking of the whole heaven and the whole earth, that it could not be conceived in a human body. They think from the idea of extent and space. Yet the Divine Itself is not to be thought of from an idea of extent and space. For in this way, instead of God, the purest substance of nature and of the visible universe is contemplated. From such an idea man becomes a natural man and at length an atheist, acknowledging nature as creator. Yet the idea of extent and space does not obtain in the spiritual world, where spaces are only appearances of space. Concerning this, see the work on HEAVEN AND HELL. There should, however, be no other idea of God than of a Divine Man, and of the creation of the whole heaven and earth as from the Sun which is the Divine Love. Regarding the Divine Proceeding from which are all things of heaven and the world, an idea of extent can be held, especially in the natural world.

69. There should be no other thought of God, that is, of the Lord, than that He is Life Itself, and of created beings, as angels and men, than that they are forms recipient of life. The Lord’s Life is the Divine Love, and this alone has Life and is Life. From this it is clear that no one has life except from Him. Men believe that life is in themselves because, in the recipient form, life is felt as one’s own, just as the principal in the instrumental which act together as one cause. Because Divine Love is such that it wishes what is its own to be another’s it is granted that life may be perceived as if it were man’s, and man may seem to receive life as if from himself. Reception is possible in no other way, because there is no reciprocity. This, however, is treated of elsewhere.

70. Man was so created as to be a heaven in the least form, corresponding to the greatest.

The Lord was heaven itself, as to the life of all things, and angels and men as to reception in finite forms. Because the Lord was conceived of the Divine Itself, thus from Life Itself – and concerning Life Itself there cannot be held the idea of extent and of space as there can of receptacles of life – it is thence clear that the Lord was Man as Life, just as every other man is [a form of life]. And so from Him as from the very fount of life is all the life of heaven, concerning the extension of which it is impossible to think clearly except from extension of the forms of life.

71. It will be told elsewhere that the Lord thence was made life in respect of His Human too. The Divine Itself as the Soul cannot dwell except in life.

72. These things which have now been said, are to be related as ideas of angelic thoughts about the Lord. It has been said by angels that such are their ideas concerning the Lord, but that those which have been related are very general. Of these matters they know and think innumerable and specific things which are not perceived by men as to the thousandth part, nor can they be told in human language. Hence it was evident that those things which they discuss among themselves concerning the Lord are ineffable and incomprehensible to man. Moreover, such things are in the inmost sense of the Word, where it treats of the Lord alone.

73. Those who hold the idea of the Divine of the Lord as being above the Human should consider what kind of idea they have concerning Him in heaven. They should consider whether the Human is where the Divine is, whether the Divine is separate with the Father and the Human in heaven, and thus whether the Lord is not one but two. Hence it can be established as to whether anyone ought to hold such an idea of the Lord.

74. It is said that there is one substance or essence when yet there is specific difference, because the attribute in the specific case belongs more to one than to another. Consider whether this is not so when you speak of the Father as Creator, the Son as Redeemer, the Holy Spirit as Enlightener. Does not the thought then attribute to one something which it does not attribute to another except in a general way? Then, let it be considered whether their being one, or one substance means that the work of creation proceeds from the Father to the Son, and from the Son to the Holy Spirit, and so on in succession. Indeed, can there be formed the idea of the work of creation proceeding reciprocally from the Holy Spirit to the Son and from the Son to the Father? This is contrary to the notion conveyed by the expression “to proceed”. Yet as there is one substance for the three, there will also be the idea of reciprocal proceeding which is not possible, otherwise there are three substances, etc.

75. An attempt was made to find out what kind of idea they hold when they are speaking and thinking, while they ask the Father to be merciful for the sake of the Son. It was perceived that they held an idea quite repugnant to the doctrine of faith and to the Word. Namely, they are thinking of the Father, and the Son they think of as an ordinary man who suffered the cross. As a result they entirely separated the Son from the Father, placing Him below. Because the question was then asked how at the same time they thought regarding the Divine of the Lord, it was seen that they think nothing about It or else they think of It as one with the Father, offered for the sake of the Human or the Son. If they think in any other way, they implore the Divine above, placing the Human as separate. In a word, it is clearly contrary to the doctrine of Athanasius that the Divine and the Human is one Person, thus that the Human is also with the Father and one with the Father, which cannot be thought unless the Human is also Divine. For the Father is the Infinite, Uncreate, Omnipotent God, neither can the Human truly be, and be one substance with the Divine of the Father unless the Human also be Divine.

76. There are contradictions involved in saying that Christ is rational and perfect Man from the mother alone. It is contradictory to say that the Lord as Man can be the Father with the Father or with the Divine when yet if there is only one Person, and thus the Divine Human, the case is otherwise. It is contradictory to say that God and Man can be one Person unless the Human be Divine.

77. The ideas of the learned entirely wander from the Athanasian faith concerning the Human of the Lord. An examination of the quality of their ideas reveals that they do not know of those things in Athanasius.

78. Examination was made among spirits who, while in the world, were learned, to find out whether it were possible for them to think of one God when thinking of three persons and each person God. It was clearly found that they could by no means do so, except by thinking of the three as unanimous, thus still as three. An examination was next made regarding the origin of a Son from eternity, born of the Father. They were asked whether they could think of His having been born from eternity. But it was found that they could think from no other thought than that of speech which is the lowest form belonging to the body. Examination was made as to whether they could contemplate the origin of the Holy Spirit from eternity, by considering it as proceeding from the two. With this it was the same, namely, that it could not be contemplated that there is a God who exists as a person by Himself, besides being God from Himself, and being Himself by virtue of Himself.

79. Neither did the learned spirits understand what I had said about the Lord in the world being Divine Truth and afterwards Divine Good, then becoming one with the Father. It was therefore granted to explain it as follows. The Divine Truth is the same with the Divine Intelligence and Wisdom, for the understanding is from truths. Also while man is being regenerated by the Lord, his understanding is formed from truths, and to the extent that it is formed; so is he intelligent. Further, Divine Good is Divine Love, and love is will. Wherefore, so far as man is being regenerated from truths which form the understanding, and those become of good that is to say of love, so far is he regenerated. Concerning the Lord, He was thus far glorified or made Divine because from the Divine Itself. The reason for the mention of Divine Truth and Divine Good is because reference is to God, that He is Good Itself and Truth Itself. This is so, since all the good of love and truth of intelligence with angels and with mankind come from Him.

80. Let the whole Creed of Athanasius regarding the Trinity be explained from beginning to end in accordance with the truth concerning the Trine of the Lord. It will be seen that it can be explained and that thus, of the Divine Providence of the Lord, that Divine Truth has been saved or preserved. So, regarding the Infinite, the Eternal, the Omnipotent it may be found that there are not three but one, that there is one substance, that there is trinity in unity and unity in trinity, that God and Man is one Person and that the Divine took to Itself the Human. Only, how is it to be understood that the Father is greater? Yet if not, heaven could not have been able to be with man.

81. The simple think of God as of a Man. Those of most ancient times did the same. Also those of the Church from Adam even to the time of Abraham. Moses and the Prophets both saw Him as Man and called Him Jehovah. That He was the Lord is evident from John 8:58, where it is said that the Lord was, before Abraham. The wise heathens thought similarly, thence their idols. At the present time, the Africans in particular do the same and also the inhabitants of all the earths. All the angels in the heavens, from the very form of heaven can think in no other way. The idea is thence from influx, and thus, as if ingrafted. But it is lost among the learned in the Christian world. See APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED n. 806.

Let him who will, reflect whether he thinks of the Divine of the Lord when He alone is named, thus whether His Divine is approached. Otherwise when three persons are named, then most people think of three Gods. Is it possible ever to approach the One God in this way?

82. Those who, while thinking of God, think of the Lord, have a fixed idea. But many who think of God the Father have an indeterminate idea, easily acknowledging nature as God. So, in the other life, it is granted them to be seated above on a high throne, someone who calls himself God the Father and near by or elsewhere some other spirit called His Son. This is allowed to those people lest, from an indeterminate idea of God, they become fools and insane. Moreover, I can assert that many, who are able to reason intelligently, determine their idea in accordance with him on high, and take orders from him. He is a certain bearded* man from some part or other. For the most part, the people there are those who desired that they should be worshipped as supreme, but still there are those among them who do not acknowledge the Lord. In a word, their thoughts at length become such that they believe there is no God, and so they are sent into hell. Some say that God is everywhere, but it has been shown that the Divine Proceeding is everywhere, as the heat and light from the sun. Yet it is foolish to say that the sun, as to its body, is everywhere.
* See AC 1124; 10711 for similar references to “barbatus”. Tr. 39

sRef Luke@18 @8 S0′ 83. Almost all who pass from the world into the other life believe in the Lord, as a mere man, and very few have an idea of His Divine. This is to be understood from Luke 18L8, “Shall He find faith on the earth?”

The reason is because they say three persons and One God, distinguishing between the Human of the Lord and His Divine. It is impossible in this way to name and believe in one God. It is impossible almost to believe that God is God, for the idea of Divinity is thus destroyed. It is quite different when it is said that the Lord alone is the One God.

See Isaiah 11:9, 10, and explain that the Lord is Jehovah, then that He came to effect judgment.

aRef Mark@3 @29 S0′ 84. The sin against the Holy Spirit is the denial of the Divine in the Word. For those who deny this deny secretly and in the heart, all things of heaven and the Church, for these are all from the Word. They even deny that the Lord is Divine. Wherefore, in the other life, all are taught that there is a spiritual sense in all and every particular of the Word, so that they may know and acknowledge the Word, and that they may not be led away by evil spirits by reason of all the passages of the Word which, in the sense of the letter appear paradoxical and as though they were not Divine.

85. As for the Lord’s calling the Divine his Father, some understand from their own conjecture that He spoke from His Own Divine, as the Son born from eternity; but that it was from the Human that He thus spoke is evident from His very words to Philip “he that seeth (A.V. hath seen) Me, seeth (A.V. hath seen) the Father” [John 14:9], and again in John “and we beheld His glory as of the only Begotten of the Father.” [John 1:14].

86. It is manifestly clear in Isaiah 50:6, 7, where Jehovah is speaking concerning Himself, that “to smite with the hands” and “to give the face to shame and spitting,” signifies to do to the one Divine as was done to the Lord.

87. Let there be stated my experiences concerning the Gentiles who acknowledged God under a human form in various ways and who, according to this, have been saved.

88. It may be shown from the Word that the Lord rode on an ass and a colt the foal of an ass as a sign of royalty. [Matt. 21:5.]

Man ought to think of the Lord when he thinks of God and he ought to think from Him. Otherwise man cannot think with angels and thus be with them. The reason for this is that the angels think of God as a Man, because heaven is in the human form. In no other way are they able to think of God. On account of this, too, the Lord is to be approached and not God the Father entreated for the sake of the Son.

89. They who, concerning the Human of the Lord, have an idea of the human alone, make two persons of the Lord which they call natures, and they seek Him in two places in heaven thus not as one Lord. It is a wonder that from the beginning of the Church, they have not given heed to the words of the Athanasian confession that God and Man is as soul and body.

90. The cause for their not having attended to those words is that the Christian Church became Babylonia and Philistia.

sRef John@17 @1 S0′ sRef John@17 @5 S0′ aRef John@14 @10 S0′ 91. The Divine took to Himself the Human, and the Human conjoined itself to the Divine. This shows how reciprocal union is effected, as that of good and truth, and of truth and good. Just so, a man becomes spiritual, and an angel from the Lord. To show that it was reciprocal, He said, The Father was in Him and He in the Father [John 14:10] and again “Glorify Thy Son that Thy Son also may glorify Thee.” [John 17:1, 5.]

92. Unless the Lord had now effected a last judgment which is His Coming, no one in the Church could any more have been saved, because all are in falsities and the whole Word has been falsified. This can be confirmed in the work CONCERNING SPIRITUAL FAITH.* It is because of this that the Lord has now revealed the spiritual sense as the truths of doctrine, as was done also in His Coming when He assumed the Human.
* DE FIDE was published in 1763.

93. There are hidden things which are to be related regarding His incarnation.

94. All who deny the Divine of the Lord have separated themselves from heaven, placing as it were a cover over themselves. They also appear to themselves to be* without strength in [the joints of] their arms which hang loosely and in pendulum fashion are swung hither and thither. Indeed, they fall into falsities of every kind. When they are thinking of God the Father, some spirit from the lowest heaven, and sometimes an evil spirit, replies and inflows into their thoughts. (Many more things may be seen in the extracts).
* . . . the reference here as in HH 3, is to those who have denied the Divine of the Lord. – Tr.

aRef Mark@3 @29 S0′ 95. It will be shown from the Word that to deny the Divine of the Lord and thus of the Word, is to sin against the Holy Spirit.

96. In the other life, all are examined by means of influx from heaven as to the quality pertaining to their spiritual faith and life concerning the Divine Human of the Lord.

They who receive (the influx), see and acknowledge [the Divine Human] are conjoined with angels. The reason for this is that all heaven is in that acknowledgment. And so, the operation of heaven is received only by those who are in the life of faith which is charity.

97. It may, indeed, be received by others, but only by those who care nothing as to whether they reason falsely and act wrongly. For example, the sirens can simulate every affection but afterwards they are allotted places in the hells according to their lives.

aRef Luke@9 @17 S0′ aRef Mark@6 @3 S0′ aRef Luke@9 @16 S0′ aRef Luke@9 @15 S0′ aRef Luke@9 @14 S0′ 98. The Lord lived in so humble a way as to be scarcely distinguished from an ordinary man, and not in splendour as God. This was lest the Jews should, from externals and not from internals, acknowledge Him as the Messiah. For the same reason He was unwilling to give them signs from heaven. For if they had acknowledged Him from externals and had not seen afterwards that this was exalting themselves as lords of the earth, they would have fallen back and become profaners. So He did not wish to give them a sign as may be seen. That He possessed all things may be manifest from this – that He fed the five thousand, then the four thousand, also that He provided them with wine at Cana and that He was able to pay the tribute money from a fish. But that He wished to seem poor was for the reason already stated.

aRef Mark@6 @3 S0′ 99. That He was a carpenter’s son was because a worker in wood signifies good of life from the doctrine of truth.

100. It is stated in the Athanasian Creed that the Lord as man was inferior to the Father while yet His Divine was as the soul, and the Divine cannot dwell except in the Divine, so that they are one.

101. It is also stated that He is rational man – but because such a rational man is from the mother alone, lest this should involve contradiction it therefore follows that the Divine and the Human is one person. So there is agreement and not contradiction.

102. It has been made out by the Papists that the Human of the Lord was inferior to the Divine of the Father, thus inferior to His Own Divine.

aRef Isa@49 @26 S0′ 103. That the Human of the Lord is Divine, is evident from the passages in the Word where the Lord is called the Redeemer, as for example, in the Old Testament – “Jehovah, your Redeemer” [Isa. 49:26] and “the Lord your Redeemer.” This has reference to the Divine Human, for in respect of that [Human] the Lord was the Redeemer.

104. Since throughout the heavens the Lord alone is acknowledged and the Trine in Him alone, so the first essential is to acknowledge the Lord. Any other idea cannot enter heaven but is repelled as it fails to effect conjunction in heaven or in the world, so that after death there is no elevation into heaven.

aRef John@14 @6 S0′ 105. In many passages, the Lord calls Himself the Divine Truth or the Word, as in John [14:6] in the transfiguration in the presence of the disciples [Matt. 17:1, 27], and in other passages. By the term Son of Man is signified the same as by Son of Man in the Old Testament.

106. By His death the Lord cast off all the human from the mother and put on the Human from the Father. See APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED 899.

107. The Lord said that He was free to die or not to die. This meant that He would, by His own power, glorify the Human within Him and that this would be done from freedom.

108. To spirits who were saying that they believed in three persons but only one God, because one essence or substance pertains to the three, I said “What need is there of the metaphysical term essence and substance?” So as to persuade them by this [I said] “Consult your thoughts. Consider whether you can think of three Gods, and so believe in three Gods and whether you can think metaphysically.” It was found that it was so, for if there are three persons there are three Gods. That term admits no other result than that they are of one mind, or that one wills as the other, and what one does, the other wills, while yet their properties differ. Is not the Father petitioned for the sake of the Son and the Holy Spirit approached on account of enlightenment, the Father being adored for creation, the Son for redemption and the Holy Spirit for enlightenment Could this be admitted if God were three persons, and all of them the one or the other according to His works.

109. To worship the Father alone, induces severe pain in the arm and shoulder blade, as I know from frequent experience.

110. Take the idea that there is one person, with a trinity in that person, and you will see that the Creed of Athanasius will coincide and agree from beginning to end without any paradoxes or things that must be of faith although not understood.

aRef John@8 @56 S0′ 111. That the Divine Human existed from eternity is confirmed from the following incidents. The Lord said that Abraham had seen Him [John 8:56]. It was the Lord Himself Who was seen, not the Father. It was He Himself Who spoke, Who also is “the Holy One of Israel,” and Who was seen. There are many other instances in the Word. These things cannot be said of the Divine Itself, for this can appear to no one, but these things are said of the Divine Human.

aRef Luke@24 @39 S0′ aRef Rev@22 @13 S0′ 112. Why the Lord came into the world and became Man, scarcely anyone knew, wherefore it will be told but it is understood only by a few among the learned. There are successive things from the Lord through the heavens to man, thus to ultimates. Successive order is not continuous, but discrete. That is, one thing is from another, just as in everything in the world, exterior things contain in themselves in successive order successive things, in their own order. This order is called simultaneous. Now, in this simultaneous order, all things are at the same time in successive order, just as you wish to carry into action things formed in the will. First things are created interiorly, and extend to the furthest circumference. Since the successive is at the same time in the simultaneous, so in the latter is all strength and all power. Because this ultimate no longer operated among men in the world not even in their truths and goods in which the Lord may dwell, therefore He came into the world that He might become the ultimate and thus, as the First, act through ultimates, reducing to order all things in the heavens and in the hells, indeed from first things through ultimates. For when He acts from first things through ultimates, He works through all things, in successive order in ultimates as in first things. This was the cause why the Lord came into the world so also He was in the fulness of His creation. What the Lord operates, He does in fulness, hence it is that, in the Word, the Lord is called the First and the Last. It also follows that the Word in the letter is most holy because it is the Divine Truth in the ultimate of order wherein lies its very strength. The truth of this has been especially made known to me. Hence it is, too, that the Lord said to the disciples that He had flesh and bones, thus differing from a spirit. So, also, is the Lord able to be present with man in ultimates and to save those who are also in ultimates.

113. Because man is a little heaven, he has also within him successive states corresponding to the successive things in the heavens. Both in his natural parts and especially in the ultimate are successive things in simultaneous order. Also since the Lord had heaven in his Human, thus from the heaven in Himself He disposed all things in order in the heavens and in the hells.

114. Concerning successive and simultaneous order, see the work HEAVEN AND HELL, n. 38 and give the excerpt.

115. It cannot be understood in the world that the Lord could from Himself dispose all things of heaven and hell into order. But men’s lack of understanding is because they think from ideas of space and distance. Space and distance in the spiritual world, however, are states of the affections and thoughts; in accordance with which are all the spaces and all the distances there. It has been granted to me to know this by experience. For, indeed, those separated to the extent of thousands and hundreds of thousands of miles have been present together when in a similar state. In the same way I, too, have been able to be present around the earths of our solar world and around earths outside that world, while yet remaining as to the body and also the spirit in its place. What could not the Lord do, Who operates all things in Himself from the Divine, and from the Divine in Himself?

116. The Lord was from eternity the Divine Proceeding, thus the Divine Human. This can be seen from the fact that the whole heaven is the Grand Man. The Divine Proceeding effects this. This matter is treated of in the work HEAVEN AND HELL where it speaks of the Grand Man. That this was the Divine Human is evident from those passages where it is stated that the Father was not seen nor heard, but the Son, also that the Lord spoke through the prophets, and because God cannot appear as a man except by the Divine Proceeding.

117. The Lord says that He would be with the Father as it was from eternity. This is because He was in the world as the Divine Truth, which is the Divine Proceeding. Hence it is clear what was the Son of God from eternity and what the Son of God born in time. How otherwise is any mortal able to understand “being born” from eternity? But as now stated, it can be understood.

aRef John@14 @11 S0′ 118. That the Lord is the Father may he shown from the Word. He is there called “the Father of Eternity,” “Jehovah,” “one with the Father,” “in the Father and the Father in him.” [John 14:11]. The Father cannot be in a Human other than in that which is from Himself, thus in His Own Divine Human.

119. He was in a Human from first creation and in a Human from Himself, namely in the whole heaven, which in its complex has relation to one man. But this was not His proprium* because it was in the angelic heaven, but in the Divine Human He is in His proprium.
* The Latin word proprium means “what is one’s own”. Swedenborg uses it in a special sense meaning “what is of the self”.

120. The reason why men cannot understand how the Creator of the universe can be in a Human is because they form their ideas of the universe from the conception of space. Such an idea does not pertain to God unless there be the idea of the Divine Proceeding. Neither should the idea of the Divine Proceeding in the spiritual world be understood from space, but only in the natural world. The idea of the Divine, from Whom the universe was created, cannot be understood otherwise than as a Divine Man in first principles, who is Life Itself, and whose Divine Love appears as a Sun above the heavens, whence all things are.

121. The Lord means His Divine by “the Father”; this assumed the Human, wherefore it is like a soul in its body. For the Father is not to be understood as a first person. In this case there would have been two fathers. The Divine cannot be in a body other than His own, thus it must be Divine.

122. Heaven was endangered through the conjunction of the hells with its disordered ultimates. This is illustrated by the complete breakdown of a man by reason of which he at length dies. Thus no one could have been saved unless the Lord had come into the world. This is shown in the APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED, n. 744. The more distinct the separation between heaven and hell, the more perfect is the state of heaven. See APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED, n. 746.

123. Let there be added information gathered from the spiritual world concerning the faith of the Mahommedans, about a trinity of persons and about Christ, not yet brought forward, because [explained] elsewhere n. 5952.*
* Spiritual Experiences n. 5952

124. Christians were examined as to the quality of their idea regarding three Persons of the Divinity. It was discovered that they had various ideas. Some place the one alongside the other, as both being in consultation and sending out a third one from them. Some describe them in conference with Christ interceding. Some place them in successive order, some otherwise. But because there are three Gods in the presence of the Mahommedans and Gentiles who see their ideas, they are ashamed of them and on their guard against them.

125. Let all the representatives presented in the Gospels concerning the Lord be taken up, for example, that He was laid in a manger, because there was no room in the inn, and that He was the Son of a carpenter, that He chose the twelve disciples, all the incidents relating to His passion, His garments and other things.

126. The reason why the Lord is called a Prophet (as in Deut. 18:15, 18; and in the Gospels) is because a prophet signifies the Word and doctrine from the Word.

127. The meaning of “proceeding” when concerning the Holy Spirit may be explained in terms of the light and heat proceeding from the sun. The common opinion is that He hears and comes forth just as one person from another.

128. The paradoxes in the Athanasian Creed and, in consequence, the opinions of the mass of people are various. For any acceptance of them, the intellect has to be continually fettered under the guise of faith. By the heavenly doctrine, however, in accordance with which any paradox may be explained, there is no subservience of the intellect to mere faith.

129. Concerning the Divine Human from eternity, that the love of the Father Himself became man and this even to ultimates, this could only be effected by birth from a virgin.

130. The Lord was the Divine Truth in the world but while He was in the human derived from the mother, He was not as regards the human, Life in itself, but afterwards when He had put off that human, He was Life from Himself.

131. Let it be explained what is Life from itself and what Life not from itself, that he was Life from itself from the Divine which was His soul and which was inwardly in the Human from the Mother. Life from itself is pure love, the Divine Itself. Life not from itself is a form recipient of life. Let this be illustrated by other things, etc.

132. The Divine Truth is Christ, the Divine Good Proceeding is Jesus. The Divine Human is the Son of God, the Divine Proceeding or the Word is the Son of Man.

133. The separation of the Human of the Lord from the Divine was made in the Council of Nice, on account of the pope, lest he should be called God over the earth.

134. Let there be brought forward such details as to who were present from the papist party in the Council of Nice, and that unless the words “that He is perfect Man” had been accepted, the pope could not have been acknowledged as His vicar. But yet this was not solely for the pope. He would in other respects be acknowledged as God of heaven and God of earth, if he had taken upon himself the Divine, when nevertheless it is actually Divine to save men, to create them anew, to impart heaven to them, to lead them from infancy to the close of life and afterwards to eternity. But the Protestants also saw the contradictions in the findings of the Council, therefore they admitted the things that follow, to which however, few Protestants of the present day pay any attention. Wherefore, they believe along with the Papists that it is not the Human that is Divine, thus placing the Divine above the Human alongside the Father.

135. From the Creed of Athanasius it is allowable to say that the three Gods are one God by unition. That they are three is a matter of thought, that they are one is a matter of speech. Can one be prohibited from thus speaking? How would the Mohammedans, Jews, Gentiles feel towards such an expression? Would they not say that such people are crazy?

aRef Luke@2 @7 S0′ aRef Luke@2 @2 S0′ 136. Give the signification of His bearing the iniquities of all according to the Prophets who represented the quality of the Church, also what is signified by His having been laid in a manger because there was no room in the inn, etc., etc., etc.

137. Let it be illustrated in many ways how the Lord through temptations subjugated the hells and glorified the Human, as from the state of spirits in temptations from the hells, and more things from actual experience.

138. That the Divine Human was from eternity is also meant by the statement that the Word which in the beginning was with God, became flesh; and this because from the Divine Love, the Lord conceived of Jehovah, was also Divine Truth in the world.

139. Concerning three Persons – that specific properties distinguish them, and if not so distinguished, they would not be three Persons but one – moreover they are conjoined in one metaphysical God; and concerning trinity in unity and unity in trinity, which never enters the mind of an unlettered man nor yet of a learned man. Wherefore it follows of necessity that three Gods are considered.

140. There is an idea among men if it is said that the second Person descended and assumed the human, but not when it is said the first Person; and yet they are altogether equal. Therefore let examination be made as to whether there must not be held a finite idea concerning the second Person and not a truly infinite idea as of the Father, and also whether there must he held concerning the Father an idea of infinity as of entirety, and that the idea of his descending is an impossible one while the other is possible. From this may be concluded the kind of idea held concerning the Lord as God and that it is because of this that He is not approached.

141. It may be said that it is contrary to perception that the Divine which is the Father took on the Human, but not that the Divine which is the Son did so, when yet it is the same thing both because the one Divine is equal to the other, and because they are one as to substance. So, therefore, this also ought not to be separated because thus three Divines as to persons, which are one as to substance, assumed the Human. Otherwise they would be separated, and one would be the soul in the Human and not the other.

142. Thus also, one saved the human race and not the other; that is, to one would belong the work of redemption and not to the other. For the Lord effected redemption from the Human.

143. And besides, it is believed from the general faith that His soul was from the Divine which is called the Father.

144. Besides, the idea of man is that the Divine which is the Father did not take on the Human because He fills the whole world. But the idea of space ought not to come into this, because God regarded in Himself is Man, as will be shown. It would be the same if the Divine which is called the Son took the Human, for it is the same as the Divine called the Father. For it is not denied that the Divine of the Lord assumed the Human, nor can the idea of extension into the universe be held in regard to this Divine any more than to the Divine of the Father.

aRef John@1 @2 S0′ aRef John@1 @18 S0′ aRef John@1 @3 S0′ aRef John@1 @1 S0′ 145. The extension of the Divine into the universe is what can be predicated of the Divine Proceeding, which is the Divine Truth and is called the Word. By this were all things made which were made and the world was created from it, according to the words in John, chapter 1. But an idea is to be held concerning the Divine Itself, the idea as of a Man whose Divine Love appears as a Sun from which the light is Divine Truth and the heat Divine Good. But still the idea of extension is applicable only to the natural world but not to the spiritual world, in which, extension as space and distance is only an appearance concerning which see the work on HEAVEN AND HELL in the chapter dealing with space.

146. When the Lord was transformed and seen in glory, a voice out of the cloud proclaimed, “This is my beloved Son.” It was His Human which was transformed and seen in glory, and this was the Son of God. (Matt. 17 and other passages.)

147. The essential of the doctrine of the New Church which is called the New Jerusalem is this concerning the Lord; and he who wishes to be therein acknowledges it. For this Church is the very Christian Church, and no one is admitted there unless he who thinks of and believes in one God, thus the Lord alone. It ought to be known that each one is admitted into heaven in accordance with his confession of God. He is examined as to the quality of his thought and faith concerning God, for through that confession there is conjunction, and when there is conjunction there is enlightenment in every single thing. Everything of love and of faith depend thereon. Wherefore, those who deny God are in hell because [this brings about] separation. The first, and primary thing, therefore, is to know, to acknowledge, believe in, and love God. All other things depend on this.

148. Anointing, mentioned in the Old Testament, represented the Lord. Wherefore, He is called “the Messiah” and “Christ” or “the Anointed”, for the reason that in Him was the Divine Good of Divine Love. By the oil with which kings were anointed is signified the good of love.

149. By “the Son of God” is signified Divine Truth, because by son in the Word are signified truths and therefore, by “Son of God” is meant Divine Truth. Hence by “the Son of God from eternity” is meant the Divine proceeding which is called Divine Truth, from which is heaven. And so also the Lord in the world was the Divine Truth which afterwards proceeded from Him. Thence it is that they who are recipients of Divine Truth are called “sons of God”.

sRef Ps@2 @1 S0′ sRef Ps@2 @6 S0′ sRef Ps@2 @2 S0′ sRef Ps@2 @7 S0′ 150. The Lord was conceived of the Divine Itself and afterwards born from Himself; for what was born of Mary, the Lord from His Own Divine put off. Thence He assumed a Human corresponding to the Divine. He thus united the Divine which means that the Divine took to Itself the Human. Hence it is that He was not only conceived but also born of Jehovah, according to that written in Ps. 2:2, 6.

“I will declare the decree, Jehovah hath said unto Me, Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee”. [Ps. 2:7.]

And hence it is that He is the Son of God.

151. The chief essential of the Church is to know and acknowledge its God, for without this very essential there is no conjunction with God, thus no heaven and life eternal. The reason is because in the spiritual world thought and will have their conjunction with him who is regarded and loved. Thither he turns, and thence [are] all things of the man. Wherefore, the direction of the whole heaven is towards the Lord. Concerning which conjunction see the work HEAVEN AND HELL. (Experiences concerning the turning in accordance with thought and love and concerning enlightenment when the turning is to the Lord.)

152. There are many arcana about man’s turning and enlightenment therefrom, as that each has societies towards which men turn when in obscurity, that there is presence when they think of anyone, and that there is conjunction with him whom they love. They who acknowledge other gods turn to their own loves. They who look to the Father turn in various ways, the greater part towards the summit of heaven whence there is no other turning. Wherefore those who do not acknowledge the Lord cannot be with the angels of heaven, etc., etc.

153. The ancients, when they depicted God in paintings, depicted Him as a Man, surrounded about the head with a radiant circle as if the rays of the sun were round about. Similarly, those of the present day depict the Lord. This is from the general idea which all have from heaven that the Divine is like the sun or that the sun encircles God.

154. Just as the ancients used to depict God in pictures as a Man, the same is done today. Look at the mural paintings. This, too, comes from the general idea of God from heaven. But still today, there has been lost the idea of the Divine in human form. The reason is that they draw conclusions from ideas of space, since there is an extension of the sphere from the Divine into the universe, like that of the sun. Indeed, the sphere proceeding from the angels extends itself into much of heaven. The cause of such an idea is that men are too external and thence are limited to the extent that they are sensual. The inhabitants of all earths have a perception of God in human form, so also had the wise men of old, such as Abraham, and at the present day those of interior wisdom such as the Africans. It is not so with our wise ones, but only with the simple, with whom the general idea about God that comes from heaven has not been extinguished by perverted reasonings.

155. Let those things also be seen which have been said in the APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED (684) and have been drawn from the Word, that the Lord alone was united to Jehovah as to the Divine Human, because in Him was the Divine Good of Divine Love which is signified by oil and was represented by anointing. Passages from the Word also may be seen in the same connection. Hence it may be seen that His Human is Divine.

156. A canon which will be explained more particularly is, that the Lord is the “Anointed of Jehovah”, the “Messiah” and “Christ”, also the “Son of God” as to the Divine Human from the fact that the Divine Good of Divine Love which is Jehovah and the Father was in Him from conception, and from which His Human was made Divine Truth when He was in the world, thus such as in heaven. But afterwards it was successively made the Divine Good of Divine Love by union with the Father which was the very being [esse] of his life and was His soul which is called Jehovah. Hence the Lord was made one with Jehovah and thus the Father as to both. The Divine Truth which makes heaven and is called the Holy Spirit proceeds thence. Those who receive that truth from the Lord are “sons of God”. From these explanations it can also be confirmed that the Lord in time was not only conceived of Jehovah, but also born of Him and that the Holy Spirit proceeds from Him. See the passages brought forward in the APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED (n. 684) – that the Anointed, the Messiah, the Christ and the Son of God are synonymous terms, also how He was King, and that they are the Lord as to the Divine Human, ibid.

157. The Divine Human is “the holy thing” (as in Luke 1, and elsewhere in the Word; from Ps. 89:4, 5, 20, and Dan. 9); “the Holy of Holies” (as in many passages), “the Holy One of Israel”, (quote freely). That “the Holy thing” is the Divine Human is clear in Luke 1.

158. That the Spirit is the Divine Proceeding is evident in Isaiah (11:2, 3), which passage treats of the Lord.

159. In the doctrine of our faith it is also said that the Lord overcame death, and ascended with triumph into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of the Father. What else is meant by death which He overcame and by triumph than the subjugation of the hells? For death signifies hell, because all who are there are called dead. And what is meant by sitting at the right hand of the Father, but the Divine Omnipotence? For how can the human which is not at the same time Divine sit at the right hand of the infinite Divine?

aRef John@14 @10 S0′ aRef John@14 @11 S0′ aRef John@14 @9 S0′ 160. Those who separate from the Lord the Divine which is called the Father and who place the Divine of the Father outside the Human of the Lord should be called followers of Philip, from Philip who asked of the Lord that he might see the Father. To whom the Lord said that he saw Him, and that he who seeth Him seeth the Father, because the Father is in Him and He in the Father. [John 14:9-11.]

aRef John@12 @24 S0′ aRef John@20 @17 S0′ 161. That the Lord put off all the maternal in the sepulchre, and rising therefrom, glorified Himself, and that for this purpose did He die, is evident from the Lord’s reference to the seed cast into the earth, how first it dies. [John 12:24.] Also He said to the woman that she should not touch Him now because He had not yet ascended to the Father. For in the sepulchre all such [as came from the mother] had to be dissipated.

162. The Lord, in the sepulchre, thus by death, cast off all the human from the mother and dissipated it, (from which He underwent temptations and the passion of the cross, since the maternal could not be conjoined with the Divine Itself), and so He assumed the Human from the Father, and thus* the Lord rose with the Human completely and manifestly glorified. This also is in accordance with the faith of the Church, that He overcame death, that is, hell, and rose triumphant. The third day on which He rose also signifies (what is) full and complete, and the Passover** signifies that glorification.
* Marginal note in English “exquisitely and clearly”.
** See AC 2342:3

aRef Isa@20 @3 S0′ 163. That the Lord carried sins, signifies that He sustained [the attacks of] the hells, and in a peculiar sense this represented the falsities and evils of the Church. For the representations are many, especially those which are of His passion, which may be enumerated and confirmed by those things which the prophets underwent, whereby they represented the Church. Because these are so numerous, bring forward simply as stated in Isaiah that He carried sins. That thus also they are taken away is an arcanum which may be explained; here, by temptations admitted into Himself, etc.

164. The words in the Creed of Athanasius sound as if it were permissible to think of three Gods but to name only one God. Let the words be quoted.

aRef Hos@1 @8 S0′ aRef Ezek@4 @12 S0′ aRef Ezek@4 @8 S0′ aRef Ezek@4 @10 S0′ aRef Ezek@4 @9 S0′ aRef Hos@1 @4 S0′ aRef Hos@1 @3 S0′ aRef Hos@1 @9 S0′ aRef Hos@1 @6 S0′ aRef Hos@1 @5 S0′ aRef Hos@1 @10 S0′ aRef Hos@1 @1 S0′ aRef Hos@1 @7 S0′ aRef Ezek@4 @13 S0′ aRef Hos@1 @2 S0′ aRef Hos@1 @11 S0′ aRef Ezek@4 @7 S0′ aRef Ezek@4 @2 S0′ aRef Ezek@4 @6 S0′ aRef Ezek@4 @5 S0′ aRef Ezek@4 @11 S0′ aRef Ezek@4 @4 S0′ aRef Ezek@4 @1 S0′ aRef Ezek@4 @3 S0′ 165. What it is to carry iniquities: – (1) It is to sustain all the hells, by temptations; (2) So that in Him might be represented the state of the Church, as in the case of the prophet* who was to take a harlot to wife, [the prophet]** who was to go naked and barefoot, [the prophet]*** who was to eat a cake made from dung, and was to lie on the right side and the left, and carry iniquities. So it was with the Lord in the particulars of His passion.
* Hosea 1:1-11.
** Isaiah 20:3, 4.
*** Ezekiel 4:1-13.

166. It had been permitted to say three persons, because indeed at the beginning it was only possible to think of Jehovah as God the Father, Creator of the Universe, and it could scarcely be thought on account of habit that the Lord was He. This seemed to them to be a thing that could not be received, that the Creator of the Universe descended and became man. Only the idea of Jehovah, filling all heaven and all the world from His presence and His providence, would impede that, wherefore in the sense of the letter of the Word, three are named for that reason, as if there were three persons into whose names they should baptize. Hence also it was permitted that similar things should be in the Athanasian Faith which was to be received for Christianity; and yet only so that the Trine of one Person, thus of the Lord, could be received by those who are in enlightenment, and also that in the end of the Church it should be received. The Athanasian Faith is such as to be incomprehensible and thence incredible and also contradictory. Let things therein be brought forward, showing that this truth is clear and that that faith does not stand in the way of anyone’s receiving it, but also this may be seen by those who wish to understand what they believe, while those who do not wish to understand what they believe, may retain their own opinion. Let them know, however, that in the spiritual world no one receives anything which he does not see, that is, understand, for he says – perhaps it is not true.

167. Mohammedans did not acknowledge three persons, but one God, thus denying the Divinity of the Lord and acknowledging the Father alone as God. (2.) For the same reason the Socinians also do the same, saying that there is one God and that He is the Father. (3) For the same reason, many others, the learned as well as the simple, tacitly acknowledge the Father alone, and the Lord only as an ordinary man. Let each one examine himself as to whether he has an idea of Divinity concerning the Lord, even when belief in Him is necessary in order to have eternal life. (4) For the same reason, the Jews charge the Christians that they have three Gods. (5) For the same reason, most of those in the other life, when examined, worship the Father alone, or the Holy Spirit but not the Lord; and yet without faith in the Lord, there is no salvation. (6) All these things [result] because they have divided the one Divinity into three persons.

168. It is a contradiction for them to say three Persons and one God, for the term ‘person’ involves something distinct and different from another. The very distinction and difference is even laid down in the doctrine of the Church, and because the distinction differs among the Persons, it follows that each one is a separate God from another; and if separated, it follows that there are three Gods.

(2) To make one God from the substances or the essences from them, this falls into the conception of no one, when the essence or substance is distinguished by attributes of one not proper to another, for in this way, one is worshipped for this attribute, and another for that.

169. If, however, you think that substance or essence is what is called person, then it necessarily results as one Person with a trine in that person, thus there is unity in trinity and trinity in unity.

170. Besides, whatever attribute distinguishes one Person from another, is Divine. The attribute of the Father is Divine, the attribute of the Son is Divine, the attribute of the Holy Spirit is Divine, and whatever Divine there is in the three Persons is a distinct Divine substance or essence. Because Athanasius saw this, he took care that all three should be in each single attribute. From these considerations it follows that substance and essence also is not one unless in one person.

sRef John@1 @2 S0′ sRef John@1 @1 S0′ 171. That the Human of the Lord is Divine is clear from this also that it is stated in John that it was the Word by which all things were made and created, and that the eternal is called God (John 1:1, 2). It is also said this was made flesh, consequently that God Who is the Word was made flesh, that is, Man. Hence it follows that the Human of the Lord is Divine.

172. That in the world He effected a last judgment is evident from all those passages in the Prophets where reference is made to His Coming, which is called “the terrible day”, “cruel”, etc., etc., etc.

173. The Coming of the Lord is revealed, in the end of a Church. At the end of the Jewish Church, He Himself came in flesh, and He then revealed Himself as being God or Jehovah Who would come, as written in the Prophets, and still further that He it is Who rules heaven and earth and Who is the only one God, this, in the Gospels (Matt. 24) also is called His Coming. For thus far He had been practically neglected because in thought and idea He was regarded as an ordinary man concerning whom there was scarcely any thought of anything of the Divine, for the reason that men have in their idea placed the Divine outside Him and not within, as undoubtedly He teaches. By the Divine outside Him, most men have understood the Father, thus another person, so that the Lord was practically neglected in the world at the end [of the Church]. Therefore His new and Second Coming is made.

sRef John@1 @10 S0′ sRef John@1 @3 S0′ 174. That the Lord is the Creator is obvious in John [1:3], where it is stated that by the Word were all things made that were made, also that He is the Divine Proceeding, from the statement that “He is the light”.

175. The reason why the Lord so often names the Father was because the Lord, before His Advent, was Himself that which is called the Father; and then the Son was the Divine Proceeding or the Word. This then was the Son and also the Divine Human. For this reason, too, in the Old Testament, before the Lord was born and called the Son of God as to the Divine Human, they knew no other Father because there was no other. Therefore He so often mentions the Father, but afterwards the Lord was made the Father even as to the Divine Human and from this is the Divine Proceeding.

176. The Lord calls the Proceeding Good the Father in the heavens; to see Him as this is to be in love and in innocence. But the Proceeding Divine Truth, He calls the Son of Man.

177. Such as was the Divine Proceeding before the coming of the Lord, is described by circles and by degrees, through the heavens and through the interiors of man. The degrees are successive, concerning which, see the work on HEAVEN AND HELL. Wherefore, while within one degree there are correspondences and as it were transfers, yet when, in the ultimate degree, there is no longer a reception of the Divine, as was the case in the Jewish Church, then the Divine Proceeding could not be extended thither. Wherefore He Himself took on the Human from which the Divine Proceeding would go forth and which can also be in ultimates and thus can preserve the heavens and save the human race. Thence is the omnipresence of His Human in the Holy Supper. Concerning His omnipresence, He spoke in Matthew [18:20, 28:20.]

178. The Divine Proceeding, indeed, is such that in things greatest and least, it is Man. For such as it is in the greatest, so it is in every least thing, and so in nature where the Divine Proceeding is in ultimates. For all things were so created that affection which is of good, or love which is of good, or good which is of affection and love, clothes itself with what is human in the several degrees from first to last. Hence it is that angels are human forms. The same is the case in nature, hence there, too, the human form. This arcanum has hitherto been unknown in the world. That there is such a disposition in the several degrees, namely, that affection clothes itself with a body, and this from the Divine Proceeding, is for the reason that, what proceeds from the Lord proceeds from the single things of His body, interior and exterior. It is in consequence of this that the Divine Proceeding is the Lord in the heavens, and is called the Son of Man and also the Paraclete and the Holy Spirit. From this it is clear what His omnipresence is. Because affection and love put on that human form in every heaven or in every degree, it follows that the Human which is put on is Divine Truth, and that they are in the Divine Proceeding and are truly men who are in love and in truth therefrom. Hence, also, love is the complex of all truths, love being the “esse” (or inmost being) whose “existere”, (or manifestation) is human in form, in every particular of which must be the “esse” from love.

179. The cause of the coming of the Lord [is] because strength is in ultimates and so in the material body. Let the causes be investigated, whence it is that strength is in ultimates; (see Ps. 68:29, 30), otherwise it has not power over the natural man, where all evil is. “The beasts of the reeds”* is the natural man. Wherefore He is called the strength, and the right hand by which is signified all power.
* Notes on the Psalms, by Rev. O. Prescott Hiller, in a translation “directly from the Hebrew”, gives verse 30 of Ps. 68 as follows:

Rebuke the beast of the reed, the assembly of the strong, Among the calves of the People, treading down pieces of silver, They disperse the people, they delight in wars.

180. The Lord is the only God (Isa. 45:13, 14), there concerning the Lord.

181. The whole life of the Lord was representative so that He might be in ultimate things, and thus from first things might subjugate the hells through ultimates and reduce all things into order. In ultimates is all strength. Hence it is that even by all things of His passion there was represented the state of the Church, and how it was contrary to the Divine and to the truths and goods of heaven and the Church. It is an arcanum that spirits do not see a man but only his affections, also that the evil are entirely opposed to the affections of truth and good, holding them in hatred and attempting to destroy them altogether. Therefore He admitted temptations into Himself, because He was at the same time in ultimates. So also it is to be understood that He fulfilled all things of the Law.

182. Concerning the temptations of the Lord; with them may be compared temptations with man. Namely, temptations with man cause the hells to be removed, so that man may become spiritual and an angel. What, then, was accomplished by the temptations of the Lord Who from conception was God, and Who, from His own Divine, brought them to completion? Does it not follow that He subjugated all the hells, and glorified His Human?

183. Let it be considered whether one and the same essence or substance, in which are like properties and like attributes, can be called otherwise than one, and not divided into persons. Otherwise when specific properties and specific attributes are of the same essence or substance, then division into persons is possible. But even then it is not the same essence which, out of three, makes one.

184. Purity by imputation from the merit of the Lord can be understood by no one. If a man is not purified as to his life, can the imputation of the Lord’s merit reform, alter and change a man, and from a devil make him an angel? Must not the evil of his life be removed? Is this possible by the imputation of the merit of the Lord, and by condoning sins and by justification through faith alone so that the Lord gives no heed to the evils? The evils remain, infecting and infesting societies.

185. According to the common idea, the Divine is divided into three Persons, but according to the idea derived from the Creed of Athanasius, there is a second Person, not only Divine but also a Human, so that in the second Person there is more than in the first or third, namely the Human. This argument can by no means be sustained unless there be in the Lord a Trine and unless His Human be Divine.

186. When it is said that God became Man, and that God was willing to be born of the virgin Mary, then that the Word, which was God was made Flesh, as also according to the Creed of Athanasius – that the Divine assumed the Human, does it not then clearly follow that the Human is Divine? Let this be taken up again and shown.

aRef Matt@22 @43 S0′ aRef Matt@22 @44 S0′ aRef Matt@22 @45 S0′ aRef Matt@22 @42 S0′ 187. That the Lord was not Mary’s son is also evident from the words of the Lord to the Pharisees, that He was not David’s son (Matt. 22), wherefore neither was He Mary’s son.

188. In the Creed of Athanasius it is said that the Divine took to Himself the Human. Hence it follows that the Human is a Divine Human. Otherwise the Human could not be assumed by the Divine, when they are as soul and body. Consequently there is not a co-mingling, but union, just as there is of soul and body.

189. There is the idea of a Divine Human, concerning God in all the earths in the universe (quotations). It is also present among the Gentiles in our earth, as with the Africans, and this from the influx of heaven. But this idea has been lost with the Christians, especially the intelligent because of the fact that they think from space and thus from extension, and yet God Himself as Man is surrounded with the Divine Love. This appears, like a Sun, about the Lord as Man.

190. This Love, or Sun, is His Divine Love immediately proceeding from Him. The radiant circles are devolutions of the infinite so that it may be extended to the angels in their order, for an angel cannot bear the presence of the Divine Love any more than a man can bear the presence of the fire of the sun.

191. The Divine Proceeding is what is put forth in the universe and is the Divine Truth and the light of that Sun. Hence it is the inmost of the spiritual world and it is from this that nature had its origin, and this also is put forth in the created universe. Afterwards there is formation successively into spheres, the last of which is the atmosphere of the natural world.

192. Let it also be described how He could expel the maternal human, namely, that the maternal human was the infirm which adheres to the body, and because that is evil, it was in correspondence with hell. When this is expelled, then there succeed those things which concord with and correspond to the Divine. For the body is but a correspondence of the soul or spirit of man and there is correspondence with heaven to the extent that this evil is removed. So also, a new state is put on in its place, and thus man is regenerated and becomes spiritual and an angel. The Lord, however, Whose soul was the Divine Itself, made His body to correspond with the Divine Itself within Him, thus above heaven. Evil with man however, cannot be expelled but is removed, because he is not life in itself, nor Divine as to his soul, but only a recipient of the Divine. Therefore, man as to his body dies. But the Lord from the Divine in Himself expelled the evil from the mother, wherefore He rose with the whole body. He retained the infirm [human] [while in the world] because in no other way could He be tempted, especially on the cross; there the whole maternal was expelled.

193. According to the Athanasian doctrinal concerning the Trinity, it cannot be thought otherwise than that three Gods together make one Divine. For it may be possible to think of three as being of one mind, but not concerning God being one as to person. Because this is the case, which was discerned by Athanasius, it was said that although there are three, still according to the catholic faith, it ought not to be said otherwise than one God. But thought and speech must be alike and the same, nor can they be otherwise.

194. That the Lord made his Human Divine is also evident from this that He subjugated all the hells. For with man, evils come only from hell or by influx from there through evil spirits. Once these [influences] are removed, man is, as it were, without evils. But the Lord from His Divine so removed the hells that they do not gape open to look at Him, nor do they name Him, thus [He removed them] by separating the hells and the heavens; this He did from Himself and continues to do. When the hells are removed, evils also are removed, for to remove the hells and to remove evils, is the same thing. But the Lord, being from the Divine, and being the Divine as to His life and soul, completely separated them from Himself. Hence also it is clear that He made His Human Divine.

195. When it is said that God the Father assumed the Human, it is perceived by the man of the Church as a thing too exalted to be contemplated and greater than could be brought about. Yet it is according to the faith concerning the Divine of the Lord that His Divine is altogether equal to the Divine of the Father, and no one greatest or least, first or last, and that as one is Eternal, Uncreate, Omnipotent, God and Lord, so is the other. Thus there is similarity, neither one being pre-eminent over the other. Wherefore to think otherwise is only from the idea of man who is of such a character.

196. It is evident from the Word and also from the faith of the Church that the Divine of the Lord is what He calls the Father; but that He calls this the Father has not hitherto been thought.

197. Let passages concerning the Father be brought forward, and the Gospel of John be read, from beginning to end.

198. The idea of Europeans, especially the learned, is also a fallacy. It comes from this, that it cannot be thought that man or what is human can be Divine, when yet those who are in the third heaven are quite unable to hold any other idea, and this from the influx of heaven – concerning which [elsewhere].

199. Also the wise of ancient times, as is clear from the Word throughout, when angels were seen, called them Jehovah and Creator of the Universe. Let passages be adduced, also from Revelation.

200. Also let there be quoted the many passages concerning the Lord, in Revelation where many Divine things are said concerning the Lord or the Lamb.

201. That the Lord is God Who alone is to be worshipped is clearly manifest from this – that the hells are in the most bitter hatred against the Lord. Not so against the Father Whom even some hells call the Creator of the universe, from the habit of speaking formed in the world and this without hatred. But all the hells are against the Lord. They are neither willing nor able to name Him, and to all of them it is most delightful to torment those who adore the Lord, this enjoyment of theirs being extreme. (Gyllenborg,* for example). A sphere against the Lord is exhaled from all the hells, and a sphere for the Lord from all the heavens. Hence there is equilibrium. It was attempted with Gyllenborg to see whether he could refrain from tormenting me in the breast (even by many punishments), but he could not. He and others confessed that this was their greatest enjoyment.
* References to Count Frederic Gyllenborg, Doc. Vol. I, p. 699, note 115; SE 4740, 5161.

202. It is different with men, because their life or soul from their fathers, is affection which is evil. Consequently evil is removed from them by the Lord, it is not separated.

203. Besides, all children in heaven are led to the acknowledgment of the Divine Human of the Lord – and also all adults who have lived in a life of charity are instructed concerning this, and those who receive [the teaching] come into heaven – all the angels in heaven, too, perceive that this is so, and the higher they are in the heavens, the more clearly do they perceive this. For, no one there is able to think in any other way. The reason is that the whole heaven is the Divine Human, and every thought falls in line with the form of heaven. Concerning this, let there be quoted what is written in the work, HEAVEN AND HELL.

204. That this is the case, and the first thing of the Church, is agreed from the fact that no one can be received and saved unless he acknowledges the Divine of the Lord in his Human. Therefore He so often said, “Do ye believe that I am able? Be it done according to thy faith” [Matt. 9:28, 29] – that is, that the Lord is omnipotent, thus God.

aRef Rev@1 @13 S0′ 205. The Lord so often said that the works which He does, He does from the Father so that they might believe in His Divine Itself, or that His Human was Divine. Wherefore He also afterwards said the same concerning Himself. Let the passages be quoted, see concerning the Son [of Man] clothed to the ankle [Rev. 1:13].*
* “And in the midst of the candlesticks one like unto the Son of Man clothed with a garment down to the foot.” (Rev. 1:13).

206. These may be introduced later, following the things written in the APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED, n. 250; perhaps also those things there, in n. 251, and perhaps what is at the end of n. 252 concerning the ten virgins.

207. Lastly perhaps may be presented the meaning of “to love the Lord,” namely that it is to do His precepts; this from the Word. Then perhaps there may be brought forward what has been written concerning Faith alone, and concerning Justification where statements have been extracted from the prayers at communion. Namely, they know that practical religion is the way to heaven, and not the theoretical way.

aRef John@21 @15 S0′ aRef John@21 @17 S0′ aRef John@21 @16 S0′ 208. Let there be brought forward the words of the Lord to Peter when He thrice said, “Lovest thou me, Simon Peter?” [John 21:15-17]. Yet he did not follow the Lord, but John did. These things were said because by “Peter” are signified those who are in faith alone, and by “John”, the good of charity. From the words to Peter it is plain that those who believe in the doctrine of faith alone will not acknowledge the Divine Human of the Lord, but only those who are in the good of charity. For this reason, also, something is said here as to what is meant by “to love the Father”. That faith without charity cannot be given, and that faith is from charity and is of such a quality as is the charity, may be seen in the DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM, and it will be seen in many places in the APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED.

209. Christians can hardly think and have perception of the Divine Human, judging from the experience of most people. The reason is that they think of an ordinary man, and not concerning the human essence, which is love. But angels, on the other hand, can think in no other way, nor indeed can gentiles who are intelligent.

210. FROM THE CREED OF ATHANASIUS

From the above it is evident that there are not three infinites, eternals, omnipotents, Gods and Lords, but one, and that no one of them is greatest and least or first and last, thus there is one Divine. This Divine is that from which the Lord was conceived, and this was He Himself. And because this is one and the same [it is evident] that it is Jehovah. Let this be confirmed from the Word of the Old Testament.

aRef John@14 @6 S0′ aRef John@15 @5 S0′ aRef John@15 @4 S0′ aRef John@15 @2 S0′ aRef John@15 @3 S0′ aRef John@15 @1 S0′ aRef John@15 @1 S0′ 211. Let two sayings be taken up and explained: –

1. “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life,” and “No one cometh to the Father but by Me.” [John 14:6.]

2. “I am the Vine and My Father is the Vinedresser” [John 15:1], etc. It is plain that these statements were made concerning His Human for He spoke also of the Father. If from these two passages, doctrine concerning the Lord had been made, then it would have been known to everyone that it is the Lord Who alone is to be approached and also that His Human is Divine.

212. Let the passages be taken up in which the Lord is called “Jehovah”, “the Holy One of Israel”, “the Redeemer”, as in Isaiah 41:13, 14; 49:7-9, 26; 63:8, 9, 16; Ps. 19:14 and many other passages; also those in which He is called “Saviour”, “Former”, “Creator”, “Maker”.

213. When the Church was being established by the Lord, the primary thing was to acknowledge and to receive Him, acknowledging that it was He of Whom the Word of the Old Testament told and that He was God and could do all things. Therefore He so often said, “Believe ye that I am able?” [Matt. 9:28]. Again, “Because thou believes”,” and “Let it be done according to thy faith” [Matt. 9:29], that is, according to the belief that the Lord was God, Who could do all things, or was all powerful. This was primary. For without that faith there was no salvation, because all things are from Him. Through that confession and faith from the heart there is conjunction, without that there is not conjunction and so no salvation. The same conditions exist today when a new Church which is called the New Jerusalem is being established and when its doctrine is being taught. The primary thing is to know and believe that the Lord is the only God from Whom is all salvation. It is for this reason that this is now taught. This is the purpose of the present work. For without that faith no one comes into the New Church nor receives anything of its doctrine. Therefore, without that faith, no one henceforth can be saved. For henceforth it is not allowable to believe in three equal gods and speak of one, nor to think, as so many do, of the Human of the Lord as separate from the Divine.

214. Perhaps lastly may be presented passages in the New Testament where the term “faith” or “believing” is mentioned.

215. WHAT IS IN THE FIRST PLACE, AND WHAT IN THE LAST

It is known from the two passages in Matthew and in Luke which have been quoted that the Lord is the Son of God, or that His Father was the very Divine which created the universe. If, therefore, as Man He is the Son of God it follows also that the Lord as Man is God. It is known that every man is named from his Father and is called his son from this reason that the life of every man is from his father and only the covering supplied in the mother. Hence it is that everyone has his name from the father and not from the mother. Why, therefore, when it is known that His Father was His Divine, is He called in the Church “the son of Mary,” from which comes the belief that the Lord was thus born a mere man, or not God as to the Human?

216. Besides, that which a man has from his father is very love or very affection because love is the very life of man and the body lives from that, thus the very life of a man is from the father and nothing of life from the mother. Since therefore, the very life [of the Lord] was the Divine or was Divine Love, and the body is only an obedience, thence it clearly follows that the Lord as Man is God.

There may be quoted as first and also last that written in Luke 1:34, 35.

217. The Lord is treated of in the whole of the prophetic Word. It would be too prolix to quote the many passages where He is called “the Holy One of Israel”, “the Redeemer” and “Jehovah the Redeemer”. See Isaiah 60:1, etc., where it is said “Jehovah shall arise upon Thee, and His glory shall be seen upon Thee,” besides many other things there, which were said concerning the Divine Human.

218. The affection of man into which he is born, is from his father, because this is his soul. With men, when they are born, there is evil affection and lust, because such is the soul of the father. But with the Lord alone there was good affection from birth, because the soul from the Father was the Divine Itself, which is none other than the Love of Good and Good Itself. Then to Love, all Wisdom conjoins itself and all evil is expelled, for they [evil and love] cannot be as one. Wherefore the Lord made the Human Divine from the Divine in Himself.

219. AT THE END

This work [is] composed of things written in books* in the Latin tongue and sent to the Archbishops, Bishops and principal men of the kingdom.
* See paragraph 2.

220. Athanasius and learned men after him thought to conjoin the three Divines into one, by this, that the essence is one and that there is unity in trinity and trinity in unity. But who can ever think from this subtlety which cannot be comprehended, that therefore God is one? Can anyone? Rather, he thinks that there are three Persons and that each is God. This takes possession of the interior thought so that it sees not one God but three Gods. This is contrary to the Christian religion itself, that there is one God.