1104. And the merchants of the earth have waxed rich through the power of her delicacies.- That this signifies instruction in those things pertaining to heaven and the church, which derive their desirableness and delight from the love of ruling by the holy things of the church as means, and also from the love of possessing the world in the same way, is evident from the signification of merchants, as denoting those who acquire knowledges (cognitiones) of good and truth from the Word, that is those who either teach or learn those knowledges. For in the particular or natural sense, he is called a merchant, who buys and sells merchandize, and buying and selling signify to acquire and to communicate, or in the spiritual sense, to learn and to teach; while by merchandize are signified knowledges (cognitiones) of good and truth from the Word. That such things are signified by trading, may be seen above (n. 840).

Merchants of the earth signify instruction in those things that belong to the church, because to teach is to instruct, and to be taught or to learn is to be instructed, and the term instruction may be used of either; and since the spiritual sense of the Word does not refer to persons, therefore a merchant signifies instruction, and the natural sense from the spiritual signifies those who instruct, and who are instructed. For the spiritual sense is concerned with goods and truths without reference to persons, while the natural sense from the spiritual deals with the persons with whom those goods and truths are. That earth (terra) signifies the church has been frequently proved from the Word. [The statement above is also evident] from the signification of the power of her delicacies, as denoting those things of the church which are called knowledges (cognitiones), and are said to be holy, which, nevertheless, take all their quality from the love of ruling, both over heaven and over the world. Such knowledges, which they call holy things of the church, are those that are meant by the power of her delicacies, which are also enumerated below (verses 11-15), and signify such things. They are called the power of her delicacies, because they are delightful, since everything springing from the love of self and from the love of the world is delightful; for no one from his natural man and from his body is sensible of any other delight, therefore also when those loves are regarded as ends, then the means, which favour them, are devised, these means being delightful, because they have reference to the ends.

Now because the heads and primates of that religion which is meant by Babylon regard those loves as ends, therefore they also engage their thoughts with the means that favour them, all of which are delightful to them, as will be shown below. From these considerations it is evident, that by the merchants of the earth being enriched from the power of her delicacies, is signified instruction in those things of the church, that are seen to be delightful and desirable from the love of ruling by the holy things of the church as means, and from the love of possessing the world through them.

[2] Continuation concerning the Athanasian Creed.- Another point which the Athanasian doctrine teaches, is, that in the Lord there are two essences, the Divine and the Human; and in that doctrine the idea is clear that the Lord has a Divine and a Human, that is, that the Lord is God and Man; but the idea is obscure, that the Divine of the Lord is in His Human, as the soul is in the body. The clear idea, that the Lord has a Divine and a Human, is derived from these words: "The true faith is, that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and man; God of the substance of the Father born before the world, and man of the substance of the mother born in the world; perfect God and perfect man, consisting of a reasonable soul [and human body]; equal to the Father as to the Divine, and inferior to the Father as to the Human." Here the clear idea ends and goes no further, for what follows gives rise to an obscure idea. Such things as are connected with an obscure idea, since they do not enter the memory from enlightened thought, occupy a place in it only among the notions that do not pertain to intellectual light. These things, because they do not appear before the understanding, at the same time conceal the ideas themselves, and cannot be called forth from the memory with those pertaining to intellectual light.

The point in the doctrine involved in the obscure idea, is, that the Divine of the Lord is in His Human, as the soul is in the body; for on this subject it reads:- "Who, although he is God and man, yet they are not two, but one Christ; one altogether by unity of person; since as the reasonable soul and the body are one man, so God and Man is one Christ." The idea contained in these words is in itself undoubtedly clear, but the following words make it obscure: "One, not by conversion of the Divine essence into the Human, but by the taking of the Human essence into the Divine; one altogether, not by commingling of essence, but by unity of person."

[3] Since the clear idea prevails over the obscure idea, therefore most people, both simple and learned, think of the Lord as of an ordinary man, like themselves, and then they naturally do not think at the same time of His Divine. If they do think of the Divine, in that case they separate it in their idea from the Human, and by that means also destroy the unity of person. If they are asked, where His Divine is, they reply, according to their idea, that it is in heaven with the Father. The reason why they reply in this way and have such a notion, is, that it is repugnant to them to think that the Human is Divine, and thus together with its Divine is in heaven. They do not see that when they thus separate in thought the Divine of the Lord from His Human, they not only think contrary to their own doctrine, which teaches that the Divine of the Lord is in His Human, as the soul is in the body, and also, that there is a unity of person, that is, that they are one person, but they also undeservedly charge that doctrine with the contradiction or fallacy, that the Human of the Lord, together with the rational soul, was from the mother alone, when as a matter of fact every man's rationality depends upon the soul, which is from the Father. Such a way of thinking and such a process of division are the result of the idea of three Gods; and this gives rise to the notion that His Divine in the Human is from the Divine of the Father, who is the first person. But it was His own Divine that descended from heaven and assumed the Human; if this is not correctly apprehended, it may perhaps be supposed that His Father from whom He was begotten (ex quo) was not one Divine, but a threefold, but this is impossible of belief. In a word, those who separate the Divine from His Human, and do not conceive the Divine in His Human as the soul is in the body, and that they are one person, may come into monstrous ideas concerning the Lord, even into an idea [of Him] as of a man separated from his soul. Take heed, therefore, lest you think of the Lord as of a man like yourself, but think of the Lord as of Man who is God (de homine qui Deus).

[4] Hearken, reader! When perusing these pages, you may possibly imagine that you have never separated in thought the Divine of the Lord from His Human, nor the Human from the Divine; but consult your own thought, I beseech you, as to whether you have ever considered, when thinking of the Lord, that the Divine of the Lord is in His Human as the soul in the body. Have you not rather thought, in fact, if willing to admit it, do you not think of His Human as separate, and of His Divine as separate? And when thinking of His Human, do you not think of it as like the human of another man; and in your idea is not the Divine with the Father? I have questioned very many in this way, even the rulers of the church, and they have all said that such is the case. And when I have said that it is nevertheless taught in the Athanasian Creed, which is the very doctrine of their church concerning God and the Lord, that the Divine of the Lord is in His Human as the soul in the body, they have replied that they were unaware of it. And when I have repeated the following words of the doctrine: "Our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God, although He be God and man, yet they are not two but one Christ; one altogether by unity of person; since as the reasonable soul and body are one man, so God and man is one Christ," they have remained silent, and have afterwards confessed that they had not taken note of these words, being annoyed with themselves for having so examined their own doctrine so carelessly. Some of them then gave up their notion of the mystic union of the Divine of the Father with the Human of the Lord.

[5] That the Divine is in the Human of the Lord, as the soul in the body, is taught and proved in the Word in Matthew and Luke. In Matthew as follows:

Mary being betrothed to Joseph, "before they came together, was found with child of the Holy Spirit." And an angel said to Joseph in a dream, "Fear not to take unto thee Mary thy bride, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And Joseph knew her not till she had brought forth her first-born Son; and he called his name Jesus" (1:18, 20, 25).

And in Luke: The angel said to Mary,

"Behold thou shalt conceive in the womb, and shalt bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. Mary said unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man. The angel answered and said: The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee, wherefore the Holy Thing which is born of thee shall be called the Son of God" (1:31, 34, 35).

It is evident from these words that the Divine was in the Lord from conception, and that it was His life from the Father, which life is the soul.

These remarks will suffice for the present; more shall be said in the following pages, and it shall be shown that even those things contained in the Athanasian doctrine, which convey an obscure idea of the Lord, are in agreement with the truth, when the trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is thought and believed to be in the Lord as in one person. Without such thought and belief it may be said that Christians, differently from all peoples and nations in the whole world, that possess rationality, worship three Gods; as, in fact, such peoples declare, although the Christian world both ought to and might surpass all others in the clearness of their doctrine and belief, that God is one both in essence and person.