Psalms 115
1
Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake.
2
Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God?
3
But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.
4
Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands.
5
They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not:
6
They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not:
7
They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat.
8
They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them.
9
O Israel, trust thou in the LORD: he is their help and their shield.
10
O house of Aaron, trust in the LORD: he is their help and their shield.
11
Ye that fear the LORD, trust in the LORD: he is their help and their shield.
12
The LORD hath been mindful of us: he will bless us; he will bless the house of Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron.
13
He will bless them that fear the LORD, both small and great.
14
The LORD shall increase you more and more, you and your children.
15
Ye are blessed of the LORD which made heaven and earth.
16
The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD's: but the earth hath he given to the children of men.
17
The dead praise not the LORD, neither any that go down into silence.
18
But we will bless the LORD from this time forth and for evermore. Praise the LORD.
True Christian Religion #20
20. (ii) THE ONE GOD IS SUBSTANCE ITSELF AND FORM ITSELF, AND ANGELS AND MEN ARE SUBSTANCES AND FORMS DERIVED FROM HIM; TO THE EXTENT THAT THEY ARE IN HIM AND HE IN THEM, SO FAR ARE THEY IMAGES AND LIKENESSES OF HIM.
Since God is Being, He is also substance, for unless being is substance, it is an imaginary entity, for substance is a subsisting entity. One who is substance must also be form, for substance without form is an imaginary entity. Both can therefore be predicated of God, but on condition that He is the sole, very and prime substance and form. It was proved in THE WISDOM OF THE ANGELS ON THE DIVINE LOVE AND THE DIVINE WISDOM (published at Amsterdam in 1763) that this form is the very form of man, that is, God is very man, and all of his attributes are infinite; and likewise that angels and men are substances and forms created and ordered so as to receive the Divine influences reaching them through heaven. In the Book of Creation they are therefore called images and likenesses of God (Genesis 1:26-27); elsewhere they are called His sons and begotten of Him. It will be proved at length in the course of this book that in so far as a man lives under Divine guidance, that is, allows himself to be led by God, so far does he become, more and more inwardly, an image of God.
[2] If the minds of men did not form the idea that God is prime substance and form, and that His form is the very form of man, they would easily fall into fantastic, ghost-like, ideas about God Himself, the origin of man and the creation of the world. They could not avoid thinking of God as the primeval nature of the universe, and consequently as its expanse, or as it were a void or nothingness. They would think of the origin of man as if it were a fortuitous concourse of atoms to make such a form; of the creation of the world as owing its substances and forms to geometric points and lines, which since they lack attributes are in themselves non-existent. In the case of such people everything relating to the church is like the river Styx or the thick darkness of Tartarus.
