45. CHAPTER VIII ¹ . THE CONFIRMING OF A TRINITY OF PERSONS, EACH OF WHOM IS A GOD FROM ETERNITY, IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE NICENE AND ATHANASIAN CREEDS, HAS FALSIFIED THE WHOLE WORD

1. Every heretic is able to confirm his heresy, and does confirm it, by the Word, this having been written by means of appearances and correspondences. On this account the Word is said by some to be "the book of all the heresies".

2. A man, after confirming his dogmas, sees no otherwise than that they are true, even when they are false.

3. It is possible to confirm a plurality of Gods by many things from the Word; also to confirm a faith that is imputative of Christ's merit, in which faith three Gods have each their separate part; and, further, that works of charity contribute nothing towards faith, and so nothing towards salvation.

4. A plurality of Gods can be confirmed from the following:

Trinity is mentioned by the Lord.

Trinity made its appearance when the Lord was baptized.

There are "three who bear witness in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit". [1 John 5:7.]

Jehovah God said, "Let us make man in our image and likeness". [Gen. 1:26.]

Before Abraham three angels, who are called Jehovah, made their appearance. [Gen. 17:2-3.]

In the New Word, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are mentioned many times by the Lord in the Gospels, and by the Apostles in the Epistles, and this without its being said that they are One.

Then, too, it can be confirmed that there is a faith by which there is imputation of Christ's merit, and that this faith is the only saving faith; also that the works of charity do not conduce to salvation. Let it be added that any reasoning mind can augment the above with contributions of its own, and strengthen them.

5. Not a single one of these can be seen to be false and so be dispelled, unless reason, enlightened by the Lord through the Word, confirm that God is One and that there is a conjunction of charity and faith.

6. When this is done, it is obvious that the theology based upon a Trinity of Persons, each one of whom is God, and upon a faith made applicable to each of them separately, and upon the worthlessness of charity for salvation, has falsified the whole Word; for the reason, chiefly, that these three, God, charity, and faith, are the universals of religion to which every single thing in the Word, and every single thing of heaven and the Church therefrom, has reference.

7. The result, with him who has confirmed this enormity, is that, wherever he reads of the Father, or of the Son, or of the Holy Spirit, indeed wherever he reads of Jehovah and God, he thinks of three Gods because he is thinking of one out of the three; further, wherever he reads of faith, he thinks of no other faith than of one by which there is imputation of Christ's merit; and wherever he reads of charity, he thinks of it as not contributing anything towards salvation, or else he thinks of that faith in its stead. Confirmation once impressed carries this with it.

Footnotes:

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.

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