33
But seek first God's Kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things will be given to you as well.
Matthew 6:33
The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine # 125
125. External sanctity is like such piety, and especially 1 consists in this, that man places all Divine worship in sanctity when he is in temples; but this is not holy with man unless his internal be holy; for such as man is as to his internal, such he also is as to his external, for this proceeds from the former as action does from its spirit; wherefore external sanctity without internal sanctity is natural and not spiritual. Hence it is that external sanctity is given with the evil as well as with the good; and they who place the whole of worship therein are for the most part empty; that is, without the knowledges of good and truth. And yet goods and truths are the real sanctities which are to be known, believed and loved, because they are from the Divine, and thus the Divine is in them. Internal sanctity, therefore, consists in loving good and truth for the sake of good and truth, and justice and sincerity for the sake of justice and sincerity. So far also as man thus loves them, so far he is spiritual, and also his worship, for so far also he is willing to know them and to do them; but so far as man does not thus love them, so far he is natural, and his worship also, and so far also he is not willing to know them and do them. External worship without internal may be compared with the life of the respiration without the life of the heart; but external worship from internal may be compared with the life of the respiration conjoined to the life of the heart.
Poznámky pod čarou:
1. In the original edition the following words were omitted by the printer, which Swedenborg afterward in a letter supplied to the publisher, "et praecipue consistit in eo, quod homo ponat omnem cultum Divinum in sancto cum est in templis;" and especially consist in this, that man places all Divine worship in sanctity when he is in temples.
