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Matthew 8

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1 And when he came down from the mount, great multitudes did follow him,

2 and lo, a leper having come, was bowing to him, saying, `Sir, if thou art willing, thou art able to cleanse me;'

3 and having stretched forth the hand, Jesus touched him, saying, `I will, be thou cleansed,' and immediately his leprosy was cleansed.

4 And Jesus saith to him, `See, thou mayest tell no one, but go, thyself shew to the priest, and bring the gift that Moses commanded for a testimony to them.'

5 And Jesus having entered into Capernaum, there came to him a centurion calling upon him,

6 and saying, `Sir, my young man hath been laid in the house a paralytic, fearfully afflicted,'

7 and Jesus saith to him, `I, having come, will heal him.'

8 And the centurion answering said, `Sir, I am not worthy that thou mayest enter under my roof, but only say a word, and my servant shall be healed;

9 for I also am a man under authority, having under myself soldiers, and I say to this one, Go, and he goeth, and to another, Be coming, and he cometh, and to my servant, Do this, and he doth [it].'

10 And Jesus having heard, did wonder, and said to those following, `Verily I say to you, not even in Israel so great faith have I found;

11 and I say to you, that many from east and west shall come and recline (at meat) with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the reign of the heavens,

12 but the sons of the reign shall be cast forth to the outer darkness -- there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of the teeth.'

13 And Jesus said to the centurion, `Go, and as thou didst believe let it be to thee;' and his young man was healed in that hour.

14 And Jesus having come into the house of Peter, saw his mother-in-law laid, and fevered,

15 and he touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she arose, and was ministering to them.

16 And evening having come, they brought to him many demoniacs, and he did cast out the spirits with a word, and did heal all who were ill,

17 that it might be fulfilled that was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, saying, `Himself took our infirmities, and the sicknesses he did bear.'

18 And Jesus having seen great multitudes about him, did command to depart to the other side;

19 and a certain scribe having come, said to him, `Teacher, I will follow thee wherever thou mayest go;'

20 and Jesus saith to him, `The foxes have holes, and the birds of the heaven places of rest, but the Son of Man hath not where he may lay the head.'

21 And another of his disciples said to him, `Sir, permit me first to depart and to bury my father;'

22 and Jesus said to him, `Follow me, and suffer the dead to bury their own dead.'

23 And when he entered into the boat his disciples did follow him,

24 and lo, a great tempest arose in the sea, so that the boat was being covered by the waves, but he was sleeping,

25 and his disciples having come to him, awoke him, saying, `Sir, save us; we are perishing.'

26 And he saith to them, `Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?' Then having risen, he rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm;

27 and the men wondered, saying, `What kind -- is this, that even the wind and the sea do obey him?'

28 And he having come to the other side, to the region of the Gergesenes, there met him two demoniacs, coming forth out of the tombs, very fierce, so that no one was able to pass over by that way,

29 and lo, they cried out, saying, `What -- to us and to thee, Jesus, Son of God? didst thou come hither, before the time, to afflict us?'

30 And there was far off from them a herd of many swine feeding,

31 and the demons were calling on him, saying, `If thou dost cast us forth, permit us to go away to the herd of the swine;'

32 and he saith to them, `Go.' And having come forth, they went to the herd of the swine, and lo, the whole herd of the swine rushed down the steep, to the sea, and died in the waters,

33 and those feeding did flee, and, having gone to the city, they declared all, and the matter of the demoniacs.

34 And lo, all the city came forth to meet Jesus, and having seen him, they called on [him] that he might depart from their borders.

   

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True Christian Religion # 123

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123. (iv) REDEMPTION WAS AN ENTIRELY DIVINE DEED.

If anyone knows the nature of hell, and how high it rose to flood the whole of the world of spirits at the time of the Lord's coming, as well as the power the Lord used to cast it down and scatter it, and afterwards to reduce it, together with heaven, to order, it must make him cry out in wonder that that deed was entirely Divine. First, the nature of hell: it consists of myriads of myriads of spirits, since it contains all those who from the creation of the world have estranged themselves from God by wicked lives and false beliefs. Secondly, the height to which hell rose to flood the whole of the world of spirits at the time of the Lord's coming has been described to some extent in the preceding paragraphs. No one has had knowledge of the situation at the time of the first coming, because it was not revealed in the literal sense of the Word; but I have been permitted to see with my own eyes the situation at the time of His second coming, and this allows some conclusions to be drawn about the earlier event. A description is contained in my short book THE LAST JUDGMENT, published in London in 1758; and, thirdly, this also shows the power the Lord used to cast down and scatter that hell. But it is superfluous to repeat here the eye-witness descriptions given there, since the book is available, and there is still a large stock of copies at the printer's in London. Anyone who reads that can see clearly that it was the work of almighty God.

[2] Fourthly, I have not yet written a description of how the Lord reduced to order everything both in heaven and in hell, because the ordering of the heavens and the hells has continued from the time of the Last Judgment until the present day, and is still going on. But after the publication of this book, I shall publish this too, if there is a demand. For my part in this affair, I have seen day by day, and continue to see, the Lord's Divine omnipotence, as it were face to face. This last action is really concerned with redemption, the earlier one is really part of the Last Judgment. Those who are prepared to look for this distinction can see that much which is concealed under metaphors in the prophetical parts of the Word is none the less a description of it, when the understanding is enlightened by the explanation of the correspondences.

[3] Both of these Divine actions can only be illustrated by comparisons, and then only to a limited extent. A possible comparison might be with a battle against the armies of all the nations of the whole world equipped with spears, shields, swords, muskets and cannon, and led by skilled and cunning generals and officers. I say this because many in hell possess skills unknown in our world, and devote themselves to practising how they can attack, ambush, besiege and engage those who are from heaven.

[4] The Lord's battle against hell can also be compared, though very imperfectly, with a battle against the wild beasts of the whole earth, in which they are killed or subdued, until not a single one dares to venture out and attack anyone under the Lord's protection. If any of them shows a threatening face, it retires at once, as if it felt a vulture battening upon its breast in the attempt to break through to its heart. The Word too describes the spirits in hell as wild beasts, and this is also the meaning of the wild beasts among which the Lord spent forty days (Mark 1:13).

[5] It can also be compared with stemming the whole ocean, when it bursts the dykes and breaks into fields and towns with its waves. The subduing of hell by the Lord is also meant by His calming the sea, when He said 'Hush, be still' (Mark 4:38-39; Matthew 8:26; Luke 8:23-24). The sea there, as in many other passages, means hell.

[6] The Lord employs similar Divine power to-day to fight against hell in every person who is undergoing re-birth. For all these people are attacked by hell with devilish fury, and unless the Lord resisted and subdued hell, they would inevitably be overcome. For hell is like a single monstrous person, or a huge lion, another comparison found in the Word. So unless the Lord kept that lion or monster fettered hand and foot, that person would inevitably in trying to escape one evil fall into many others, one after another, of his own accord.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.