Canons of the New Church #44
44. CHAPTER VII
6. 1 What its quality is, is depicted by the image Nebuchadnezzar saw, in respect of its feet, also by the last beast coming up out of the sea, in Daniel [7], and by the dragon and its two beasts, in the Revelation [12, 13].
7. Its quality is manifest moreover from the following arcanum that was revealed to me: Everyone is allotted a place in heaven, i.e. a place in the societies of heaven, in accordance with his idea of God; and everyone in the hells, in accordance with his denial of God; and further, within the ideas of those who have confirmed themselves in the Nicene 2 Trinity, there is present a denial of one God.
8. A true soul and life is in the man of the Church who acknowledges the Lord, the Son of God, as the God of heaven and earth. That He is God of heaven and earth, He Himself teaches in Matthew 28 [18]. That He is the True God and Eternal Life, is in John [1 John 5:20]. That in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead, is according to Paul [Col. 2:9]; and that He is Jehovah, our Redeemer, the only God, indeed the Father of Eternity, is according to Isaiah.
Footnotes:
1. From the "Index of General Subjects" it appears very probable that chapter VI dealt with "Discordant Ideas derived from the Nicene Trinity", and chapter VII explained how that Trinity had perverted the Church. In the Skara Manuscript, these three paragraphs are attached to the preceding chapter, and numbered 8, 9, 10 respectively. Instead of "What its quality is", it reads, "What the state of the Church is, perverted by the Nicene Trinity and by the falsification of the Word". It omits from the beginning of the next paragraph the words before the colon.
2. So in the Skara Manuscript. The Nordenskjold manuscript has Apostolica scored out, and Athanasia added by another hand.
Arcana Coelestia #3128
3128. 'And told [those of] her mother's house all about these things' means towards whatever natural good enlightenment was able to reach. This is clear from the meaning of 'mother's house' as the good of the external man, that is, natural good. For 'a house' means good, see 2233, 2234, 1 2559; and man's external or natural is received from the mother, but his internal from the father, 1815. In the Word the good that exists with a person is compared to 'a house', and for that reason one who is governed by good is called 'the House of God'. But internal good is called one's 'father's house', while good of an identical degree is spoken of as one's 'brethren's house', and external good, which is the same as natural good, is referred to as one's 'mother's house'. Furthermore all good and truth is born in this fashion, that is to say, by means of the influx of internal good as the father into external good as the mother.
[2] Since the subject in this verse is the origin of truth that was to be joined to good in the Rational it is therefore said that Rebekah, who represents that truth, 'ran to her mother's house', for this is where truth originates. As stated and shown above, all good flows in by an internal route, that is, by way of the soul, into man's rational, and through the rational into his factual knowledge, and even into his sensory awareness, and by means of enlightenment there causes truths to be seen. From there truths are summoned, stripped of the natural form they possess, and joined to good in the mid-way position, that is to say, in the rational, and together constitute the rational man, and at length the spiritual man. How all this is effected however is quite unknown to anyone, for at the present day scarcely any knowledge exists of what good is or of its being distinct and separate from truth. Still less does anyone know that a person is reformed by means of the influx of good into truth and by the joining together of the two. Nor is it known that the rational is distinct and separate from the natural. And since these matters which are very general are unknown, it cannot possibly be known how truth is introduced into good, and how the joining together of these two is effected - which are the things dealt with in this chapter in the internal sense. Now seeing that these arcana have been revealed and are open to view to any who are governed by good, that is, who have minds like those of angels, such arcana, no matter how obscure they may appear to others, must be explained since they are in the internal sense.
[3] Regarding that enlightenment, which comes from good by way of truth in the natural man, here called 'the mother's house', the position is that Divine Good with man flows into his rational, and through the rational into his natural, and even into his factual knowledge, that is, into the cognitions and matters of doctrine there, as has been stated. Then by fitting the truths there to itself, inflowing Divine Good shapes them for itself, and by means of them enlightens everything in the natural man. But if the life of the natural man is such that it does not receive Divine Good, but either rejects, or perverts, or stifles it, Divine Good cannot fit truths to itself and so shape them for itself. As a consequence the natural cannot be enlightened any longer, for enlightenment in the natural man is effected by good through truths; and when there is no longer any enlightenment no reformation can take place. This is the reason why in the internal sense also so much reference is made to the nature of the natural man, and so to the origin of truth, namely that it arises from the good there.
Footnotes:
1. This number does not appear to be correct.
