246. FROM THE ARCANA COELESTIA.

The church exists specifically where the Word is, and where the Lord is thereby known, and thus where Divine truths are revealed (n. 3857, 10761). Still they who are born where the Word is, and where the Lord is thereby known, are not of the church, but they who are regenerated by the Lord by the truths of the Word, that is, they who live the life of charity (n. 6637, 10143, 10153, 10578, 10645, 10829). They who are of the church, or in whom the church is, are in the affection of truth for the sake of truth, that is, they love truth because it is truth; and they examine from the Word whether the doctrinals of the church in which they were born are true (n. 5432, 6047). Otherwise the truth possessed by everyone would be derived from another, and from his native soil (n. 6047).

The church of the Lord is with all in the whole world who live in good according to their religious principles (n. 3263, 6637, 10765). All who live in good wherever they are, and acknowledge one God, are accepted by the Lord and come into heaven; since all who are in good acknowledge the Lord, because good is from the Lord, and the Lord is in good (n. 2589-2604, 2861, 2862, 3263, 4190, 4197, 6700, 9256). The universal church on earth before the Lord is as one man (n. 7396, 9276). As heaven is, because the church is heaven or the kingdom of the Lord on earth (n. 2853, 2996, 2998, 3624-3629, 3636-3643, 3741-3745, 4625). But the church, where the Lord is known and where the Word is, is like the heart and lungs in man in respect to the other parts of the body, which live from the heart and lungs as from the fountains of their life (n. 637, 931, 2054, 2853). Hence it is, that unless there were a church where the Word is, and where the Lord is thereby known, the human race could not be saved (n. 468, 637, 931, 4545, 10452). The church is the foundation of heaven (n. 4060).

The church is internal and external (n. 1242, 6587, 9375, 9680, 10762). The internal of the church is love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbor. Thence they who are in the affection of good and truth from love to the Lord and from charity towards the neighbor, constitute the internal church; and they who are in external worship from obedience and faith, constitute the external church (n. 1083, 1098, 4288, 6380, 6587, 7840, 8762). To know truth and good, and to act from thence, is the external of the church, but to will and love truth and good, and to act from thence, is the internal of the church (n. 4899, 6775). The internal of the church is in the worship of those who are of the external church, although in obscurity (n. 6775). The internal and external church make one church (n. 409, 10762). Man has an internal and an external, an internal after the image of heaven, and an external after the image of the world; and therefore, in order that the man may be a church, his external must act in unity with his internal (n. 3628, 4523-4524, 6057, 6314, 9706, 10472). The church is in the internal of man and at the same time in the external, but not in the external without the internal (n. 1795[1-2], 6580, 10691). The internal of the church is according to truths and their quality, and according to their implantation in good by life (n. 1238).

The church like heaven is in man, and thus the church in general consists of the men in whom the church is (n. 3884). In order that a church may exist, there must be the doctrine of life, that is, the doctrine of charity (n. 3445, 10763-10764). Charity makes the church, and not faith separated from charity (n. 916). Consequently, not the doctrine of faith separated from charity, but the doctrine of faith conjoined therewith, and a life conformable to it (n. 809, 1798-1799, 1834, 1844, 4468, 4672, 4689, 4766, 5826, 6637). The church is not with man, unless the truths of doctrine are implanted in the good of charity with him, thus in the life (n. 3310, 3963, 5826). There is no church with man, if he is only in the truths, which are called the truths of faith (n. 5826). How much good would be in the church, if charity were in the first place and faith in the second (n. 6269). And how much evil, if faith is in the first place (n. 6272). In the ancient churches charity was the principal and essential of the church (n. 4680). The church would be like heaven, if all had charity (n. 2385, 2853). If good were the characteristic of the church, and not truth without good, thus if charity were its characteristic, and not faith separate, the church would be one, and differences with respect to the doctrinals of faith, and external worship, would be accounted as nothing (n. 1285, 1316, 2982, 3267, 3445, 3451).

Every church begins from charity, but declines therefrom in process of time (n. 494, 501, 1327, 3773, 4689). Thus to falsities from evil, and at length to evils (n. 1834-1835, 2910, 4683, 4689). A comparison of the church at its beginning and decline with the infancy and old age of man (n. 10134). And also with the rising and the setting of the sun (n. 1837). Concerning the successive states of the Christian Church even to its last state; wherein are explained the particulars which the Lord foretold concerning "the consummation of the age," and His "coming," in Matt. chap. 24 from the beginning to the end (n. 3353-3356, 3486-3489, 3650-3655, 3751-3757, ¹ 3897-3901, 4057-4060, 4229-4231, 4332-4335, 4422-4424, 4635-4638, 4807-4810, 4954-4959, 5063-5071). The Christian church is at this day in its last states, there being no faith therein because there is no charity (n. 3489, 4689). The Last Judgment is the last time of the church (n. 2118, 3353, 4057, 4333, 4535). Of the vastation of the church (n. 407-411). The consummation of the age and the coming of the Lord is the last time of the old church and the beginning of the new (n. 2243, 4535, 10622). When the old church is vastated, interior truths are revealed for the service of the new church which is then established (n. 3398, 3786). Concerning the establishment of the church with the Gentiles (n. 1366, 2986, 4747, 9256).

Footnotes:

407. It generally happens with the passage of time that the Church reaches a state when it retreats from true faith and at length ends up with no faith at all. And when faith is no more the Church is said to be vastated. This was what happened to the Most Ancient Church among those called Cainites. It was also what happened to the Ancient Church which came after the Flood, and to the Jewish Church too, which had been so vastated by the time of the Lord's Coming that they did not even know anything about the Lord's coming to save them, still less anything about faith in Him. It was what happened yet again to the Primitive Church - the Church established after the Lord's Coming - which at the present time has been so vastated that there is not any faith there. Nevertheless some nucleus of the Church always remains, although those who have been vastated as to faith do not acknowledge that nucleus, as with the Most Ancient Church, a remnant of which remained up to and survived beyond the Flood. That remnant of the Church is called Noah.

3310. 'A man of the field' means the good of life that has its origin in matters of doctrine. This is clear from the meaning of 'the field'. In the Word reference is made in many places to the earth (or the land), the ground, and the field. When used in a good sense 'the earth' means the Lord's kingdom in heaven and on earth, and so the Church, which is the Lord's kingdom on earth. 'The ground' is used in a similar though more limited sense, 566, 662, 1066-1068, 1262, 1413, 1733, 1850, 2117, 2118 (end), 2928; and the same things are also meant by 'the field', though in a more limited sense still, 368, 2971. And since the Church is not the Church by virtue of matters of doctrine except insofar as these have the good of life as the end in view, or what amounts to the same, unless matters of doctrine are joined to the good of life, 'the field' therefore means primarily the good of life. But in order that such good may be that of the Church, matters of doctrine from the Word which have been implanted within that good must be present. In the absence of matters of doctrine the good of life does indeed exist, but it is not as yet that of the Church, and so not as yet truly spiritual, except in the sense that it has the potentiality to become so, like the good of life as this exists with gentiles who do not possess the Word and therefore do not know the Lord.

[2] That 'the field' is the good of life in which the things of faith, that is, spiritual truths existing with the Church, are implanted, becomes quite clear from the Lord's parable about the sower in Matthew,

A sower went out to sow, And as he sowed some fell on the pathway, and the birds came and devoured them. Some fell on rocky ground where they did not have much soil, ¹ and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil ² , but when the sun rose they were scorched; and since they had no root they withered away. Some fell among thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them. But some fell on good soil ² and yielded fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has an ear to hear let him hear. Matthew 13:4-9; Mark 4:3-9; Luke 8:5-8.

This describes four types of land or ground within the field, that is, within the Church. The fact that here 'the seed' is the Lord's Word, and so the truth which is called the truth of faith, and that 'the good soil' is the good which is called the good of charity is evident to anyone, for it is the good in man that receives the Word. 'The pathway' is falsity, 'rocky ground' is truth which is not rooted in good, 'thorns' are evils.

[3] With regard to the good of life which has its origin in matters of doctrine being meant by 'a man of the field', the position is that those who are being regenerated first of all do good as matters of doctrine direct them, for they do not of themselves know what good is. They learn to do good from matters of doctrine concerning love and charity; from these they know who the Lord is, who the neighbour is, what love is, and what charity is, and so what good is. Those who have come into this stage are stirred by the affection for truth and are called 'men (vir) of the field'. But after that, once they have been regenerated they do good not from matters of doctrine but from love and charity, for the good itself which they have learned about through matters of doctrine exists with them, and they are in that case called 'men (homo) of the field'. It is like someone who is by nature inclined to commit adultery, steal, and murder but who learns from the Ten Commandments that such practices belong to hell and so refrains from them. In this state he is influenced by the Commandments, for he fears hell and learns from those Commandments and similarly from much else in the Word how he ought to conduct his life. In his case when he does what is good he does it from the Commandments. But when good exists with him he starts to loathe adultery, theft, and murder to which he was previously inclined. In this state he no longer does what is good from the Commandments but from the good which by now resides with him. In the first state the truth he learns directs him to good, but in the second state good is the source of truth taught by him.

[4] The same also applies to spiritual truths which are called doctrinal and are more interior Commandments still. For matters of doctrine are interior truths which the natural man possesses, the first truths there being sensory ones, the second truths being factual, and interior truths matters of doctrine. The latter are based on factual truths inasmuch as a person can have and retain no idea, notion, or concept of them except from factual truths. But the foundations on which factual truths are based are sensory truths, for without sensory truths nobody is able to possess factual ones. Such truths, that is to say, factual and sensory, are meant by 'a man skilled in hunting', but matters of doctrine are meant by 'a man of the field'. Such is the order in which those kinds of truths stand in relation to one another in man. Until a person has become adult therefore, and through sensory and factual truths possesses matters of doctrine, he is incapable of being regenerated, for he cannot be confirmed in the truths contained in matters of doctrine except through ideas based on factual and sensory truths - for nothing is ever present in a person's thought, not even the deepest arcanum of faith there, which does not involve some natural or sensory idea, though generally a person is not aware of the essential nature of such ideas. But in the next life the nature of them is revealed before his understanding, if he so desires, and also a visual representation before his sight, if he wants it; for in the next life such things can be presented before one's eyes in a visual form. This seems unbelievable but it is nevertheless what happens there.

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