属天的奥秘 # 2049
2049. “不属于你种的一切外人” 表那些教会外的人. 这从 “外人” 的含义清楚可知, “外人” 是指那些并非生在教会内, 因而并非由信之善与真所主导的人, 因为他们不知道信之善与真. “外人” 也表示那些具有外在敬拜的人, 如前所述 (参看1097节), 尽管那里论述的主题是教会内的人. 然而, 此处的主题就广泛意义而言, 是主的教会, 故 “外人” 表那些并非生在教会内的人, 如外邦人. 教会外的外邦人可能拥有真理, 但没有信之真理. 他们的真理类似十诫, 如当孝敬父母, 不可杀人, 不可偷盗, 不可奸淫, 不可贪恋他人财物, 以及要敬拜神. 然而, 信之真理是关乎永生, 主的国度和主自己的一切教导. 外邦人不可能知道这类教导, 因为他们没有圣言.
这些人就是 “不属你种的外人” 所表示的人, 然而他们也要受割礼, 即被洁净. 由此明显可知, 他们和教会中人一样, 也能被洁净, 这种洁净由他们受割礼来代表. 当他们抛弃污秽的爱, 彼此生活在仁爱中时, 他们就被洁净. 因为那时, 真理会在他们的生活中发挥一定作用, 因为所有真理都属于仁爱, 但这类真理属于上述两种类型中的第一种. 当这些真理在他们的生活中发挥一定作用时, 他们很容易吸收信之真理, 即便活在肉身时没能吸收, 在来世也能吸收, 因为信之真理是仁爱的内在真理. 事实上, 那时他们只渴望被引入仁爱的内在真理. 构成主国度的, 就是仁爱的内在真理 (参看932, 1032, 1059, 1327, 1328, 1366节).
在来世, 仅有信之认知的知识毫无用处, 因为最坏的人, 甚至地狱里的人也能拥有这类知识, 有时知道的比其他人还要多. 照着这些认知所过的生活才是有用的, 因为一切认知都以生活为目的. 学习知识若不是为了生活, 那么这些知识毫无用处, 仅仅能使人们谈论它们, 由此被视为世间有学问的人, 被授予各种荣誉, 赚取名利. 由此明显可知, 与信之认知一致的生活无非是仁爱的生活. 事实上, 爱主爱邻构成律法和先知, 即信的全部教义, 连同信的一切认知. 谁都能从主的话 (马太福音 22:34-39 ; 马可福音 12:28-35) 清楚看出这一点.
然而, 教义, 或信之认知对于仁爱生命的形成是至关重要的. 没有它们, 仁爱的生命无法形成. 这是死后救人的生命. 没有仁爱生命的信之生命从来就不存在, 因为没有仁爱, 信的生命是不可能的. 爱与仁居于其中的人有主的生命在里面. 没人能凭其它生命与主结合. 由此也明显可知, 信之真理若不被植入在仁爱中, 绝无法被视为真理; 也就是说, 承认它们是不可能的, 除非表面上或口头上, 因为它们从内在或从内心被否认. 如前所述, 一切信之真理都以仁爱为目的, 若仁爱不存在于它们里面, 那么它们会从内在被拒绝. 外在之物被拿走 (如来世的情形) 后, 内在事物的性质就会显明; 也就是说, 它们与一切信之真理完全相反. 人在世时若没有接受仁爱的生命, 那么在来世接受它是根本不可能的, 因为他们厌恶并憎恨它. 死后, 诸如在世时与他们同在的生命会归于他们. 事实上, 他们厌恶并憎恨相爱. 这种人仅仅靠近具有相爱生活的社群就会颤抖, 战栗, 感到痛苦.
这种人虽然生在教会内, 但仍被称为 “身心未受割礼的外邦人”, 他们不会被允许进入圣所, 即进入主的国度. 以西结书所指的也是他们:
身心未受割礼的外邦人不可入圣所. (以西结书 44:7, 9)
同一先知书:
在这样荣耀威势上, 在伊甸园诸树中, 谁能与你相比呢? 然而你要与伊甸的诸树一同下到阴府, 在未受割礼的人中与被刀杀的人一同躺卧. (以西结书 31:18)
这论及法老, 法老表示总体上的记忆知识 (1164, 1165, 1186, 1462节). 他们要与之一同下到阴府的 “伊甸诸树” 也表记忆知识, 不过是指那些信之认知的知识. 由此明显可知, 就内义而言, “未受割礼的” 表示什么, 即, 是指处于污秽的爱欲和属于这些爱欲的生命之人.
The White Horse # 8
8. The Word is not understood except through doctrine from the Word.
The doctrine of the Church must be from the Word: 3464, 5402, 5432, 10763, 10764. Doctrine without the Word is not understood: 9025, 9409, 9424, 9430, 10324, 10431, 10584. True doctrine is a lantern to those who read the Word: 10400. True doctrine must be derived from those 1 who have received enlightenment from the Lord: 2510, 2516, 2519, 9424, 10105. The Word is understood through doctrine formed by one who is enlightened: 10324. Those who have received enlightenment form doctrine for themselves from the Word: 9382, 10659. There is a difference between those who teach and learn from the doctrine of the Church, and those who do this from the literal sense of the Word alone; and what that difference is: 9025. Those who rely on the literal sense of the Word and are without doctrine reach no understanding about divine truths: 9409-9410, 10582. They fall into many errors: 10431. When those who have affection for the truth because it is the truth become adult and can see with their own understanding, they do not simply remain in the doctrinal ideas of their own Church but find out for themselves from the Word whether they are true: 5402, 5432, 6047. Otherwise anyone's idea of the truth would be derived from someone else and from the land of their birth, whether Jew or Greek: 6047. Still, things that have become items of faith from the literal sense of the Word must not be extinguished except after full examination: 9039.
The true doctrine of the Church is the doctrine of love, in the sense of affectionate regard for your fellow man, 2 and faith: 2417, 4766, 10763-10764. The doctrine of faith does not make the Church, but a life of faith does, which is love: 809, 1798-1799, 1834, 4468, 4672, 4766, 5826, 6637. Doctrinal ideas are nothing unless life is lived according to them; and everyone can see that they exist for the sake of life, and not for the sake of memory, and then for a degree of thought: 1515, 2049, 2116. In the various national churches today there is a doctrine of faith and not of love, and the doctrine of love has been driven backwards into a branch of learning, called Moral Theology: 2417. The Church would be a united whole if people were recognized as being people of the Church by the life they lead and the love they show: 1285, 1316, 2982, 3267, 3445, 3451-3452. How much a doctrine of love is worth compared with a doctrine of faith divorced from love: 4844. Those who know nothing of love are in ignorance of heavenly things: 2435. Those who have only a doctrine of faith and not of love slide into lost ways, on which subject see 2383, 2417, 3146, 3325, 3412-3413, 3416, 3773, 4672, 4730, 4783, 4925, 5351, 7623-7627, 7752-7762, 7790, 8094, 8313, 8530, 8765, 9186, 9224, 10555. Those who exist only in the doctrine of faith, and not in the life of faith, which is love, were in other times called the Uncircumcised, or Philistines: 3412-3413, 3463, 8093, 8313, 9340. Among the ancients there was a doctrine of love towards the Lord, and love in the sense of affectionate regard towards your neighbour, and the doctrine of faith was subordinate to this: 2417, 3419, 4844, 4955.
Doctrine formed by one who is enlightened can later be substantiated by rational proofs and proofs founded on sound knowledge, and in this way it can be more fully understood, and corroborated: 2553, 2719, 2720, 3052, 3310, 6047. More on this topic may be seen in The New Jerusalem and Its [Heavenly] Doctrine 51. Those who live in faith divorced from love would wish the doctrinal ideas of the Church to be believed simply, without any rational consideration: 3394.
A man who is wise does not just uphold a dogma but sees whether it is true before he upholds it, and this does happen among those who are in a state of enlightenment: 1017, 4741, 7012, 7680, 7950. This enlightenment is natural, not spiritual, and achievable even among the wicked: 8780. Everything, even falsehoods, can be upheld, even to the extent that they appear to be truths: 2482, 2490, 5033, 6865, 8521.
Poznámky pod čarou:
1. At first I translated this as 'True doctrine is for those who ...,' assuming illis to be dative; but the first edition of De Equo Albo has ab illis. Presumably the omission of ab from the 1934 Latin text is a slip on someone's part.
2. Swedenborg's word here is charitas: I have pondered long before deciding on 'love in the sense of affectionate regard,' a shade of meaning borne out by the final sentence of paragraph 2 of this section, I think. For fluency I have usually translated this as simply love." Charity' is a non-starter these days, and dearness' is to me more a synonym for 'expensiveness."
