Bible

 

以西結書 20:31

Studie

       

31 你們奉上供物使你們兒子的時候,仍將一切偶像玷污自己,直到今日麼?以色列家啊,我豈被你們求問麼?耶和華:我指著我的永生起誓,我必不被你們求問。

Bible

 

耶利米書 44:17

Studie

       

17 我們定要成就我們中所出的一切,向后燒香、澆奠祭,按著我們我們列祖、君、首領在猶大的城邑中和耶路撒冷的街上素常所行的一樣;因為那時我們吃飽飯、享福樂,並不見災禍。

Ze Swedenborgových děl

 

Apocalypse Explained # 1152

Prostudujte si tuto pasáž

  
/ 1232  
  

1152. And wine and oil signifies profaned worship from truths and goods that are from a celestial origin. This is evident from the signification of "wine," as being truth (of which presently); also from the signification of "oil," as being good from a celestial origin (See n. 375). "Wine" signifies truth from a celestial origin because it is here joined with "oil" which means good from that origin. For in this verse, as in the former, there are pairs, of which one signifies what belongs to truth, and the other what belongs to good, both from the same origin; and from this it follows that "wine" signifies truth from a celestial origin, because "oil" signifies good from that origin. That "wine" in the Word signifies truth or spiritual good may be seen above (n. 376); for truth from a celestial origin coincides with spiritual good. It is the same with oil; when the oil of holy anointing is meant, "oil" signifies the good of celestial love, but when the oil with which they anointed themselves on festal days is meant, it signifies the good of spiritual love.

(Continuation respecting the Athanasian Faith)

[2] It has been said above that it is a law of the Divine providence that man himself should compel himself; but this means that he should compel himself from evil, and does not mean that he should compel himself to good; for it is possible for man to compel himself from evil, but not to compel himself to good that in itself is good. For when a man compels himself to good and has not compelled himself from evil he does good from himself and not from the Lord, for he compels himself to it for the sake of self, or for the sake of the world, or for the sake of recompense, or from fear; and such good is not in itself good, because the man himself or the world or recompense is in it as its end, and not the good itself, thus neither the Lord; and it is love and not fear that makes good to be good. For example, to compel oneself to do good to one's neighbor, to give to the poor, to endow churches, to do what is righteous, thus to compel oneself to charity and truth before compelling oneself from evils and thereby removing them, would be like a palliative treatment by which the disease or ulcer is healed externally; or like an adulterer compelling himself to act chastely, or a proud man to act humbly, or a dishonest man to act honestly in external conduct.

[3] But when a man compels himself from evils he purifies his internal, and when that is purified he does good from freedom without compelling himself to do it; for so far as a man compels himself from evil so far he comes into heavenly freedom, and everything good that is in itself good is from that freedom, and to such good man does not compel himself. The appearance is that compelling oneself from evil and compelling oneself to good necessarily go together, but they do not. I know from the evidence of experience of many who have compelled themselves to do goods, but not from evils; and when such were explored it was found that evils from within clung to the goods, and in consequence their goods were like idols or images made of clay or dung; and it was said that such persons believe that God may be gained over by praise and gifts, even from an impure heart. Nevertheless, before the world a man may compel himself to goods without compelling himself from evil, since in the world he is rewarded for so doing; for in the world the external is regarded and rarely the internal; but before God it is not so.

  
/ 1232  
  

Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for their permission to use this translation.