2. Maar dat het geheel zowel als het bijzondere, ja het meest bijzondere, tot de kleinste jota toe, geestelijke en hemelse dingen betekent en omhult, weet tot dusver de Christelijke wereld in de verste verte niet, om welke reden zij dan ook voor het Oude Testament weinig aandacht heeft Niettemin kan het hieruit alleen al blijken, dat het Woord – daar het van de Heer is en van de Heer komt - nooit zou kunnen bestaan, tenzij het innerlijk die dingen bevatte, welke van de hemel, de kerk en van het geloof zijn. Anders kon het niet het Woord van de Heer genoemd worden, evenmin zou gezegd kunnen worden, dat daarin enig leven is; want vanwaar zou het leven anders kunnen komen, dan uit de dingen die van het leven zijn, dat wil zeggen, daarvandaan dat het geheel zowel als elke bijzonderheid betrekking heeft op de Heer, Die het leven Zelf is. Iets dat innerlijk niet op Hem ziet, leeft dus niet, ja zelfs, een woord in het Woord, dat niet Hem onthult, of op haar wijze op Hem betrekking heeft, is niet goddelijk.
Over het Nieuwe Jeruzalem en haar Hemelse Leer #260
Hactenus haec translatio locos per #325 continet. Probabile adhuc est opus in progressu. Si sagittam sinistram feries, numerum ultimum illum qui translatus est invenies.
Heaven and Hell #57
57. What has been said of heaven may be said also of the church, for the church is the Lord's heaven on earth. There are also many churches, each one of which is called a church, and so far as the good of love and faith reigns therein is a church. Here, too, the Lord out of various parts forms a unity, that is, one church out of many churches. 1 And the like may be said of the man of the church in particular that is said of the church in general, namely, that the church is within man and not outside of him; and that every man is a church in whom the Lord is present in the good of love and of faith. 2 Again, the same may be said of a man that has the church in him as of an angel that has heaven in him, namely, that he is a church in the smallest form, as an angel is a heaven in the smallest form; and furthermore that a man that has the church in him, equally with an angel, is a heaven. For man was created that he might come into heaven and become an angel; consequently he that has good from the Lord is a man-angel. 3 What man has in common with an angel and what he has in contrast with angels may be mentioned. It is granted to man, equally with the angel, to have his interiors conformed to the image of heaven, and to become, so far as he is in the good of love and faith, an image of heaven. But it is granted to man and not to angels to have his exteriors conform to the image of the world; and so far as he is in good to have the world in him subordinated to heaven and made to serve heaven. 4 And then the Lord is present in him both in the world and in heaven just as if he were in his heaven. For the Lord is in His Divine order in both worlds, since God is order. 5
V:
1. [Swedenborg's footnote] If good were the characteristic and essential of the church, and not truth apart from good, the church would be one (Arcana Coelestia 1255, 1316, 2952, 3267, 3445, 3451, 3452).
From good all churches make one church before the Lord (7396, 9276).
2. [Swedenborg's footnote] The church is in man, and not outside of him, and the church in general is made up of men that have the church in them (3884, [6637]).
3. [Swedenborg's footnote] A man who is a church is a heaven in the smallest form after the image of the greatest, because his interiors, which belong to his mind, are arranged after the form of heaven, and consequently for reception of all things of heaven (911, 1900, 1928, 3624-3631, 3634, 3884, 4041, 4279, 4523-4524, 4625, 6013, 6057, 9279, 9632).
4. [Swedenborg's footnote] Man has an internal and an external; his internal is formed by creation after the image of heaven, and his external after the image of the world; and for this reason man was called by the ancients a microcosm (3628, 4523-4524, 5115, 5368, 6013, 6057, 9279, 9706, 10156, 10472).
Therefore man was created to have the world in him serve heaven, and this takes place with the good; but it is the reverse with the evil, in whom heaven serves the world (9278, 9283).
5. [Swedenborg's footnote] The Lord is order, since the Divine good and truth that go forth from the Lord make order (1728, 1919, 2011, 2258, 5110, 5703, 8988, 10336, 10619).
Divine truths are laws of order (2447, 7995).
So far as a man lives according to order, that is, so far as he lives in good in accordance with Divine truths, he is a man, and the church and heaven are in him (4839, 6605, 8513, [8547]).
