8. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it. (1:3) This symbolizes their communion with angels in heaven who live according to the doctrine of the New Jerusalem.

"Blessed is he" here means someone who in respect to his spirit is in heaven, thus someone who, while living in the world, is in communion with angels in heaven, inasmuch as he is in heaven in respect to his spirit.

"The words of this prophecy" mean nothing else than the doctrine of the New Jerusalem, for in an abstract sense a prophet symbolizes the doctrine of the church drawn from the Word, thus here the doctrine of the New Church, which is the New Jerusalem. The same is meant by prophecy. To read, hear and keep those things which are written in it means, symbolically, to wish to know it, to pay attention to the things written in it, and to do the things that are found in it - in sum, to live according to it. It is apparent that people are not blessed if they simply read, hear and keep or preserve in memory the things seen by John (see below, no. 944).

[2] A prophet symbolizes the doctrine of the church drawn from the Word, and the same is meant by a prophecy, because the Word was written by prophets, and in heaven a person is regarded in relation to something pertaining to his occupation or function. So, too, every person, spirit and angel mentioned in the Word. Because it was a prophet's function to write and teach the Word, therefore when a prophet is mentioned, the Word in relation to doctrine is meant, or doctrine drawn from the Word.

It is for this reason that the Lord, being the embodiment of the Word, was called a prophet (Deuteronomy 18:15-20, ¹ Matthew 13:57, ² 21:11, ³ Luke 13:33 ⁴ ).

To show that a prophet means the doctrine of the church drawn from the Word, we will cite several passages from which this may be concluded. In Matthew:

(At the end of the age) many false prophets will rise up and lead many astray... ...false christs and false prophets will rise... and lead astray, if possible, ...the elect. (Matthew 24:11, 24)

The end of the age is the final period of the church, which is the one that exists now, when there are not false prophets but doctrinal falsities.

[3] In the same gospel:

Whoever receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward. And whoever receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward. (Matthew 10:41)

To receive a prophet in the name of a prophet is to accept doctrinal truth because it is true; to receive a righteous man in the name of a righteous man is to accept goodness because of its goodness; and to receive a reward is to be saved in accordance with that acceptance. Obviously no one receives a reward or is saved because he received a prophet or righteous man in the name of such.

Without a concept of what a prophet and righteous man mean, no one could understand these words, or those that follow:

Whoever gives one of these little ones just a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple..., shall by no means lose his reward. (Matthew 10:42)

A disciple means charity and at the same time faith from the Lord.

[4] In Joel:

...I will pour out My spirit on all flesh, so that your sons and your daughters prophesy... (Joel 2:28)

This is said of the church about to be established by the Lord, in which they did not prophesy but received doctrine, which is "to prophesy."

In Matthew:

(Jesus said,) "Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name...?' But then I will confess to them, 'I have not known you; depart from Me, you workers of iniquity!'" (Matthew 7:22-23)

Who does not see that they are not going to say they have prophesied, but that they have known the doctrine of the church and taught it?

In Revelation:

...the time has come to judge the dead and give the reward to... the prophets... (Revelation 11:18)

In another place:

Rejoice..., O heaven, ...you holy apostles and prophets, for God has given judgment for you... (Revelation 18:20)

It is plain that a reward is not to be given solely to prophets when the Last Judgment is about to take place, or that only apostles and prophets are going to rejoice, but that all will be rewarded and rejoice who have accepted doctrinal truths and lived according to them. These, therefore, are meant by apostles and prophets.

[5] In Exodus:

Jehovah said to Moses: ."..I have made you a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet." (Exodus 7:1)

"A god" means Divine truth in its reception from the Lord, and in this sense angels, too, are called gods; and a prophet means one who teaches and gives voice to that truth. It is because of this that Aaron is there termed a prophet.

A prophet has the same symbolic meaning elsewhere, as in the following:

...the law shall not perish from the priest..., nor the Word from the prophet. (Jeremiah 18:18)

...from the prophets of Jerusalem hypocrisy has gone out into all the land. (Jeremiah 23:15-16)

...the prophets will become wind, and the Word will not be in them. (Jeremiah 5:13)

The priest and the prophet err through intoxicating drink, they are swallowed up by wine..., they stumble in judgment. (Isaiah 28:7)

The sun is going down on the prophets, and the day is becoming dark upon them. (Micah 3:6)

From the prophet even to the priest, everyone works a falsehood. (Jeremiah 8:10)

[6] In these passages prophets and priests mean, in the spiritual sense, not prophets and priests but the entire church - prophets the church in respect to doctrinal truth, and priests the church in respect to goodness of life, both of which had been lost. These statements are so understood by angels in heaven when people read them in the world according to their literal sense.

To be shown that prophets represented the state of the church in respect to doctrine, and that the Lord represented it in respect to the Word itself, see The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord, nos. 15-17.

Poznámky pod čarou:

1155. And horses and carriages signifies profaned worship from truths and goods that are from a rational origin. This is evident from the signification of "horses," as being things intellectual (See n. 355, 364, 372, 373, 381, 382, 575, 923), thus also truths that are from a rational origin, for things of the understanding belong to truth and reason. Also from the signification of "carriages" as being goods from a rational origin, because they are drawn by horses, which signify truths from that origin; for carriages are a kind of chariot, and "chariots" signify doctrinals (See n. 355), and when these are drawn by truths, as chariots are by horses, they are goods, for doctrines teach both truths and goods.

[2] "Carriages" have a like signification in Isaiah:

Then shall they bring all your brethren out of all nations a present unto Jehovah, upon horses and upon the chariot, and upon covered carriages, and upon mules, and upon swift beasts, to the mountain of My holiness, Jerusalem (Isaiah 66:20).

"Horses, chariot, covered carriages, mules, and swift beasts" mean in the spiritual sense things of doctrine, and thus of the church, for this treats of a new church to be established by the Lord. For "horses" signify intellectual things, "chariot" doctrine, "covered carriages" doctrinals of good, "mules" things rational, and "swift beasts" things rational as to good; "the brethren" whom they will bring signify all who are in the good of charity, and "Jerusalem the mountain of holiness" signifies the church in which charity reigns. These things profaned are here signified because they belong to Babylon, which signifies the profanation of truth and good.

(Continuation respecting the Athanasian Faith and respecting the Lord)

[3] 6. The sixth law of the Divine providence is, That man is not reformed by external means but by internal means; by external means miracles and visions, also fears and punishments are meant. By internal means truths and goods from the Word and from the doctrine of the church, and looking to the Lord, are meant; for these means enter by an internal way, and cast out the evils and falsities that have their seat within; but external means enter by an external way, and do not cast out evils and falsities, but shut them in. Nevertheless, man may be further reformed by external means when he has previously been reformed by internal means. This follows from the above mentioned laws, namely, that man is reformed by means of freedom, and not without freedom, also that to compel oneself is from freedom, but to be compelled is not, and man is compelled by miracles and visions, and also by fears and punishments; but miracles and visions compel the external of his spirit, which consists in thinking and willing; and fears and punishments compel the external of his body, which consists in speaking and doing. This may be compelled, because man nevertheless thinks and wills freely; but the external of his spirit, which consists in thinking and willing, must not be compelled, for thus perishes his internal freedom by which he is reformed.

[4] If man could have been reformed by miracles and visions, all in the whole world would have been reformed. It is therefore a holy law of the Divine providence that internal freedom should in no way be violated; for by that freedom the Lord enters into man, even into the hell where he is, and by it leads him while in hell, and if he is willing to follow, leads him out of hell and leads him into heaven, and nearer and nearer to Himself in heaven. In this and in no other way is man led out of infernal freedom, which regarded in itself is slavery, because it is from hell, and is led into heavenly freedom, which is freedom itself, becoming by degrees more free, and at length most free, because it is from the Lord who wills that man should not be in the least compelled. This is the way of man's reformation, but this way is closed by miracles and visions.

[5] Nor is the freedom of man's spirit ever violated, to the end that his evils, both hereditary and actual, may be removed; which can be done only when man compels himself, as has been said above. These evils are removed by the Lord by means of the affection of truth inspired in man from which he has intelligence, and by means of the affection of good through which he has love. So far as a man is in these affections, so far he compels himself to resist evils and falsities. And this way of reformation is closed by miracles and visions, for they persuade and compel belief, and thus send the thoughts bound as it were to prison; and when freedom has thus been taken away there can be no ability from the interior to remove evils, for nothing of evil is removed except from the interior. Thus evils remain shut in, and from their infernal freedom, which they love, they continually act against those truths and goods that miracles and visions have repressed, and at length dissipate them, calling miracles the interior operations of nature and visions the deliriums of fantasy, and truths and goods fallacies and mockeries; for such is the action of the evils that are shut in upon the externals that shut them in. And yet superficial thought may lead a man to believe that miracles and visions, although they persuade, do not take away freedom of thinking; but with those not reformed they do take it away, while with the reformed they do not take it away, for with such they do not shut evils in, but with those not reformed they do.