Bibliorum

 

Matthew 6

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1 Take heed not to do your alms before men to be seen of them, otherwise ye have no reward with your Father who is in the heavens.

2 When therefore thou doest alms, sound not a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may have glory from men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

3 But thou, when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand does;

4 so that thine alms may be in secret, and thy Father who sees in secret will render [it] to thee.

5 And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites; for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets so that they should appear to men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

6 But *thou*, when thou prayest, enter into thy chamber, and having shut thy door, pray to thy Father who is in secret, and thy Father who sees in secret will render [it] to thee.

7 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as those who are of the nations: for they think they shall be heard through their much speaking.

8 Be not ye therefore like them, for your Father knows of what things ye have need before ye beg [anything] of him.

9 Thus therefore pray *ye*: Our Father who art in the heavens, let thy name be sanctified,

10 let thy kingdom come, let thy will be done as in heaven so upon the earth;

11 give us to-day our needed bread,

12 and forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors,

13 and lead us not into temptation, but save us from evil.

14 For if ye forgive men their offences, your heavenly Father also will forgive you [yours],

15 but if ye do not forgive men their offences, neither will your Father forgive your offences.

16 And when ye fast, be not as the hypocrites, downcast in countenance; for they disfigure their faces, so that they may appear fasting to men: verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

17 But *thou*, [when] fasting, anoint thy head and wash thy face,

18 so that thou mayest not appear fasting unto men, but to thy Father who is in secret; and thy Father who sees in secret shall render [it] to thee.

19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust spoils, and where thieves dig through and steal;

20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust spoils, and where thieves do not dig through nor steal;

21 for where thy treasure is, there will be also thy heart.

22 The lamp of the body is the eye; if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body will be light:

23 but if thine eye be wicked, thy whole body will be dark. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great the darkness!

24 No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and will love the other, or he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

25 For this cause I say unto you, Do not be careful about your life, what ye should eat and what ye should drink; nor for your body what ye should put on. Is not the life more than food, and the body than raiment?

26 Look at the birds of the heaven, that they sow not, nor reap, nor gather into granaries, and your heavenly Father nourishes them. Are *ye* not much more excellent than they?

27 But which of you by carefulness can add to his growth one cubit?

28 And why are ye careful about clothing? Observe with attention the lilies of the field, how they grow: they toil not, neither do they spin;

29 but I say unto you, that not even Solomon in all his glory was clothed as one of these.

30 But if God so clothe the herbage of the field, which is to-day, and to-morrow is cast into [the] oven, will he not much rather you, O [ye] of little faith?

31 Be not therefore careful, saying, What shall we eat? or What shall we drink? or What shall we put on?

32 for all these things the nations seek after; for your heavenly Father knows that ye have need of all these things.

33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.

34 Be not careful therefore for the morrow, for the morrow shall be careful about itself. Sufficient to the day [is] its own evil.

   

from the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg

 

Arcana Coelestia #44

Studere hoc loco

  
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44. Verses 24-25 And God said, Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds, beasts and creeping things and wild animals of the earth according to their kinds; and it was so. And God made wild animals of the earth according to their kinds, and beasts according to their kinds, and everything that creeps along the ground according to its kind; and God saw that it was good.

Man, like the earth, can produce nothing good unless the cognitions of faith have already been sown in him enabling him to know what to believe and do. It is the function of the understanding to hear the Word, and of the will to do it. A person who hears the Word and does not do it is one who claims to believe, but he does not live according to it. Such a person separates hearing and doing, and splits his mind in two directions; and by the Lord he is called 'a foolish man',

Everyone who hears My words and does them I liken to a wise man who built his house upon the rock; but everyone who hears My words and does them not I liken to a foolish man who built his house upon the sand. Matthew 7:24, 26.

Matters of the understanding, as has been shown, are meant by 'creeping things which the waters produce', and by 'birds over the earth and over the face 1 of the expanse'. Matters of the will are here meant by 'living creatures which the earth brings forth', and by 'beasts and creeping things', and also by 'the wild animals of the earth'.

V:

1. literally, the faces

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