246. FROM THE ARCANA COELESTIA.

The church exists specifically where the Word is, and where the Lord is thereby known, and thus where Divine truths are revealed (n. 3857, 10761). Still they who are born where the Word is, and where the Lord is thereby known, are not of the church, but they who are regenerated by the Lord by the truths of the Word, that is, they who live the life of charity (n. 6637, 10143, 10153, 10578, 10645, 10829). They who are of the church, or in whom the church is, are in the affection of truth for the sake of truth, that is, they love truth because it is truth; and they examine from the Word whether the doctrinals of the church in which they were born are true (n. 5432, 6047). Otherwise the truth possessed by everyone would be derived from another, and from his native soil (n. 6047).

The church of the Lord is with all in the whole world who live in good according to their religious principles (n. 3263, 6637, 10765). All who live in good wherever they are, and acknowledge one God, are accepted by the Lord and come into heaven; since all who are in good acknowledge the Lord, because good is from the Lord, and the Lord is in good (n. 2589-2604, 2861, 2862, 3263, 4190, 4197, 6700, 9256). The universal church on earth before the Lord is as one man (n. 7396, 9276). As heaven is, because the church is heaven or the kingdom of the Lord on earth (n. 2853, 2996, 2998, 3624-3629, 3636-3643, 3741-3745, 4625). But the church, where the Lord is known and where the Word is, is like the heart and lungs in man in respect to the other parts of the body, which live from the heart and lungs as from the fountains of their life (n. 637, 931, 2054, 2853). Hence it is, that unless there were a church where the Word is, and where the Lord is thereby known, the human race could not be saved (n. 468, 637, 931, 4545, 10452). The church is the foundation of heaven (n. 4060).

The church is internal and external (n. 1242, 6587, 9375, 9680, 10762). The internal of the church is love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbor. Thence they who are in the affection of good and truth from love to the Lord and from charity towards the neighbor, constitute the internal church; and they who are in external worship from obedience and faith, constitute the external church (n. 1083, 1098, 4288, 6380, 6587, 7840, 8762). To know truth and good, and to act from thence, is the external of the church, but to will and love truth and good, and to act from thence, is the internal of the church (n. 4899, 6775). The internal of the church is in the worship of those who are of the external church, although in obscurity (n. 6775). The internal and external church make one church (n. 409, 10762). Man has an internal and an external, an internal after the image of heaven, and an external after the image of the world; and therefore, in order that the man may be a church, his external must act in unity with his internal (n. 3628, 4523-4524, 6057, 6314, 9706, 10472). The church is in the internal of man and at the same time in the external, but not in the external without the internal (n. 1795[1-2], 6580, 10691). The internal of the church is according to truths and their quality, and according to their implantation in good by life (n. 1238).

The church like heaven is in man, and thus the church in general consists of the men in whom the church is (n. 3884). In order that a church may exist, there must be the doctrine of life, that is, the doctrine of charity (n. 3445, 10763-10764). Charity makes the church, and not faith separated from charity (n. 916). Consequently, not the doctrine of faith separated from charity, but the doctrine of faith conjoined therewith, and a life conformable to it (n. 809, 1798-1799, 1834, 1844, 4468, 4672, 4689, 4766, 5826, 6637). The church is not with man, unless the truths of doctrine are implanted in the good of charity with him, thus in the life (n. 3310, 3963, 5826). There is no church with man, if he is only in the truths, which are called the truths of faith (n. 5826). How much good would be in the church, if charity were in the first place and faith in the second (n. 6269). And how much evil, if faith is in the first place (n. 6272). In the ancient churches charity was the principal and essential of the church (n. 4680). The church would be like heaven, if all had charity (n. 2385, 2853). If good were the characteristic of the church, and not truth without good, thus if charity were its characteristic, and not faith separate, the church would be one, and differences with respect to the doctrinals of faith, and external worship, would be accounted as nothing (n. 1285, 1316, 2982, 3267, 3445, 3451).

Every church begins from charity, but declines therefrom in process of time (n. 494, 501, 1327, 3773, 4689). Thus to falsities from evil, and at length to evils (n. 1834-1835, 2910, 4683, 4689). A comparison of the church at its beginning and decline with the infancy and old age of man (n. 10134). And also with the rising and the setting of the sun (n. 1837). Concerning the successive states of the Christian Church even to its last state; wherein are explained the particulars which the Lord foretold concerning "the consummation of the age," and His "coming," in Matt. chap. 24 from the beginning to the end (n. 3353-3356, 3486-3489, 3650-3655, 3751-3757, ¹ 3897-3901, 4057-4060, 4229-4231, 4332-4335, 4422-4424, 4635-4638, 4807-4810, 4954-4959, 5063-5071). The Christian church is at this day in its last states, there being no faith therein because there is no charity (n. 3489, 4689). The Last Judgment is the last time of the church (n. 2118, 3353, 4057, 4333, 4535). Of the vastation of the church (n. 407-411). The consummation of the age and the coming of the Lord is the last time of the old church and the beginning of the new (n. 2243, 4535, 10622). When the old church is vastated, interior truths are revealed for the service of the new church which is then established (n. 3398, 3786). Concerning the establishment of the church with the Gentiles (n. 1366, 2986, 4747, 9256).

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407. It generally happens with the passage of time that the Church reaches a state when it retreats from true faith and at length ends up with no faith at all. And when faith is no more the Church is said to be vastated. This was what happened to the Most Ancient Church among those called Cainites. It was also what happened to the Ancient Church which came after the Flood, and to the Jewish Church too, which had been so vastated by the time of the Lord's Coming that they did not even know anything about the Lord's coming to save them, still less anything about faith in Him. It was what happened yet again to the Primitive Church - the Church established after the Lord's Coming - which at the present time has been so vastated that there is not any faith there. Nevertheless some nucleus of the Church always remains, although those who have been vastated as to faith do not acknowledge that nucleus, as with the Most Ancient Church, a remnant of which remained up to and survived beyond the Flood. That remnant of the Church is called Noah.

4665. Genesis 37

1. And Jacob dwelt in the land of his father's sojournings, in the land of Canaan.

2. These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, a son of seventeen years, was pasturing the flock with his brothers; and he, still a boy, was with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father's womenfolk; and Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father.

3. And Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons, for he was the son of his old age; and he made him a tunic of various colours.

4. And his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, and they hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him.

5. And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it to his brothers; and they hated him all the more. ¹

6. And he said to them, Hear now this dream which I have dreamed.

7. Behold, we were binding sheaves in the middle of the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and also stood up, and behold, your sheaves gathered round it and bowed down to my sheaf.

8. And his brothers said to him, Are you indeed going; to reign over us? Or are you indeed going to have dominion over us? And they hated him all the more ¹ for his dreams and for his words.

9. And he dreamed yet another dream, and he recounted it to his brothers, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream again, and behold, the sun and the moon, and the eleven stars were bowing down to me.

10. And he recounted it to his father and to his brothers; and his father rebuked him and said to him, What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall we indeed come - I and your mother, and your brothers - to bow down to you to the earth?

11. And his brothers envied him; and his father kept the matter ² [in mind].

12. And his brothers went to pasture the flock of their father, in Shechem.

13. And Israel said to Joseph, Are not your brothers pasturing [the flock] in Shechem? Go, and I will send you to them. And he said to him, Behold, here I am.

14. And he said to him, Go now, see the peace of your brothers and the peace of the flock, ³ and bring back word to me. And he sent him out of the Valley of Hebron, and he came to Shechem.

15. And a man found him, and behold, he was wandering in the field and the man asked him, saying, What are you looking for?

16. And he said, I am looking for my brothers; tell me now, where they are pasturing [the flock].

17. And the man said, They have travelled on from here, for I heard them saying, Let us go to Dothan. And Joseph went after his brothers and found them in Dothan.

18. And they saw him from a distance; and before he drew near to them they plotted against him, to put him to death.

19. And they said, a man to his brother, Behold, that dreamer ⁴ is coming.

20. So now come, and let us kill him, and let us throw him into one of the pits, and let us say, An evil wild animal has devoured him, and we shall see what his dreams are going to be.

21. And Reuben heard it and rescued him out of their hands, and said Let us not strike him, [as to his] soul. ⁵

22. And Reuben said to them, Do not shed blood; throw him into this pit in the wilderness and do not lay a hand on him - so that he might therefore rescue him out of their hands, to return him to his father.

23. And it happened, when Joseph came to his brothers, that they stripped Joseph of his tunic, the tunic of various colours that was on him.

24. And they took him and threw him into the pit, and the pit was empty, there was no water in it.

25. And they sat down to eat bread; and they lifted up their eyes and saw, and behold, a caravan of Ishmaelites came from Gilead, and their camels bearing spices, and resin, and stacte, ⁶ taking them down to Egypt.

26. And Judah said to his brothers, What profit is there in our killing our brother and concealing his blood?

27. Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, because he is our brother, our flesh. And his brothers hearkened.

28. And men passed by, Midianites, who were traders; and they drew Joseph out and caused him to come up out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. And they led Joseph to Egypt.

29. And Reuben resumed to the pit, and behold, there was no Joseph in the pit; and he rent his clothes.

30. And he resumed to his brothers and said, The lad is no more; and I, where do I go?

31. And they took Joseph's tunic and killed a he-goat of the she-goats, and dipped the tunic in the blood.

32. And they sent the tunic of various colours, and brought it to their father, and said, We have found this; recognize now whether this is your son's tunic or not.

33. And he recognized it, and said, My son's tunic! An evil wild animal has devoured him; Joseph has been torn to pieces.

34. And Jacob rent his clothes, and put sackcloth on his loins, and mourned over his son many days.

35. And all his sons rose up, and all his daughters, to comfort him; and he refused to comfort himself, and said, For I will go down to my son, to the grave mourning. And his father wept for him.

36. And the Midianites sold him into Egypt to Potiphar, Pharaoh's bedchamber-servant, the chief of the attendants.

CONTENTS

This chapter deals in the internal sense with the eventual rejection, within the Church, of Divine truths received from the Lord's Divine Human, and the acceptance at length of falsities instead. Specifically the chapter deals with the opposition to the Lord's Divine Human of those governed by faith separated from charity.

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