1. THE PRECEPTS OF THE DECALOGUE 1
After the The Last Judgment had been completed, a New Church meant by the New Jerusalem in the Revelation was promised.
1. Explain the whole of chapter 21. Then chapter 22:1-5.
2. Elsewhere in the Word, Jerusalem means the Church, as in the following places: 2
Isaiah 1:1, 4:4, 9:1.
2:2, 3:8, 5:3, 7:1, 10:10-12, 32, 22:10, 31:5, 33:20, 36:2, 7, 20, 37:10, 32, 40:2, 41:27, 44:26, 28, 52:1-2, 9, 62:1, 7, 64:10, 65:18, 66:10, 20.
4:3, 24:23, 28:14, 31:9, 65:19, 66:13.
Daughter of Jerusalem: Lamentations 2:13, 15, Micah 4:8, Zephaniah 3:14, Zechariah 9:9.
Jeremiah 1:3, 15, 2:2, 3:17, 4:3, 10-11, 5:1, 6:1, 7:17, 34, 8:5, 9:11, 11:6, 13, 13:9, 14:2, 16, 17:19, 21, 26, 27, 19:7, 13, 22:19, 23:14, 15, 25:18, 26:18, 27:3, 20, 21, 31:2, 32:2, 44, 33:10, 13, 16, 34:19, 35:11, 36:9, 37:5, 12, 38:28, 39:8, 40:1, 44:2, 6, 9, 13, 17, 21, 51:50, 52:12, 13, 14.
4:4, 8:1, 11:2, 9, 12-13, 13:13, 17:20, 25, 18:11, 19:3, 25:2, 32:32, 35:13, 17, 42:18.
4:14, 6:8, 13:27, 15:5, 52:29.
Lamentations 1:7, 8, 17, 2:10, 4:12.
Ezekiel 4:1, 7, 5:5, 8:3, 9:4, 8, 13:16, 14:22, 16:2-3, 17:12, 21:2, 20, 22, 22:19, 23:4, 33:21, 36:38.
Daniel 1:1, 6:10, 9:2, 12, 16, 25.
5:2, 3, 9:7.Joel 3:1, 6, 16-17, 20.
Micah 1:1, 5, 9, 12, 3:10, 12, 4:2.
Zechariah 1:12, 14, 16-17, 19, 2:2, 4, 12, 3:2, 7:7, 8:3-4, 8, 15, 12:2-3, 6, 14:4, 10-11, 17.
8:20, 12:6, 11, 14:21, 12:5, 7-8, 10, 13:1.
Zephaniah 1:4, 12, 3:16.
Psalms 51:18, 79:1, 3, 122:3, 6, 125:2, 128:5, 137:6, 7, 147:12.
102:21, 116:19, 122:2, 137:5, 147:12.
3. Something about those matters which come before this in the Revelation - such as the dragon, the scarlet beast, and the destruction of them.
4. About the The Last Judgment. Already described, it is to be described further.
5. Why a New Church is established when the The Last Judgment has been completed.
6. Not before, to prevent holy things from being profaned.
7. It was promised at that time that the spiritual sense of the Word was to be disclosed; the The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord alone is the Word.
8. About His Coming at that time.
9. Therefore heaven has been opened to me.
II. It is now the end of the Church, and at the present time there are few that have any religion.
1. That the The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord is the only God Who rules heaven and earth, and therefore that God is One as to His person and essence, in Whom is the Trinity, is unknown; yet all religion is based upon knowledge of God, and upon the adoration and worship of Him.
2. That faith is nothing else but truth is unknown, nor is it known whether that which men call faith is the truth or not; take certain things from the small work 3 concerning the The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord.
Say what the faith of the present day is... then the degrees of justification; whether they are truths can be determined from what follows.
If this is indeed faith, there is no need of truths, nor of charity, nor even of any knowledge of them.
What charity is, is unknown.
Neither are evil and good known.
III. After death every man is still a man; he is then what his love is; and his love is that life which awaits everyone for ever.
1. Everybody is examined after death to reveal the nature of his love.
2. Every spirit is what his affection is.
3. The whole of heaven is divided into societies according to the variety in affections found there, and the whole of hell according to the variety in lusts.
4. The nature of man's affection and that of his thought are alike.
IV. The devil dwells with man in the evil, and the The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord in the good, things of his life.
V. Shunning evils is doing good, and this is religion itself.
1. Some things about combats and temptations.
2. Shunning evils involves nothing less than putting the devil to flight; in as much as a man does this, he is conjoined to the The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord and heaven is opened, and that for so long as he is not in hell.
VI. The man who is shunning evils because they are sins has faith; and the limits he reaches in shunning evils determines the amount of faith he has.
Some truths have to do with faith, others with life; in so far as the truths that have to do with life become part of one's life, truths that have to do with faith become part of one's faith, no more and no less.
Enumerate the truths that have to do with faith, which are otherwise matters of knowledge and are not faith.
About the Anglican Exhortation 4 before the Holy Supper, and also that of the Swedes: then from 'Impediments or Stumbling blocks of the Impenitent'. 5
Therefore there are two tables, and they are called a Covenant; in so far as one is done by man the second is laid open.
VII. The Ten Commandments of the Decalogue sum up all things of religion.
1. Further matters about the holiness of the Decalogue.
RECAPITULATION
A recapitulation on the seven articles; nobody can deny that they are religion itself.
Footnotes:
1. Editor's Note: This outline was drafted by Swedenborg, in Latin, in 1763. It wasn't published by Swedenborg, but has been published posthumously. Several English translations have been made, including one by John Chadwick in 1975, published by the Swedenborg Society in London. It is used here with their permission. This online version includes links to the Bible text, and to other texts of Swedenborg's works. It also includes some corrections to the scanned text of the 1975 translation. In addition, the editors for New Christian Bible Study Project editors have replaced Roman numbers with Arabic numbers, and have placed all footnotes at the end of the passage. Periods have been placed after numerals in numbered lists. The remaining footnotes were made by Dr. Chadwick.
2. i.e. DOCTRINA NOVAE HIEROSOLYMAE DE DOMINO which was being prepared at the same time, and was published in the same year as the work for which De Praeceptis Decalogi was an initial draft.
3. Nordenskjold omitted from his copy the Scripture references which follow. In the Autograph all have been carefully deleted except the heading Filia Hierosolymae and the titles Jeremias, Ezechiel, Daniel, Sacharias, Zephanias, and David.
4. See Doctrine of Life 5, True Christian Religion 772, Apocalypse Explained 250[4], 885[3], for quotations from this 'Exhortation'.
5. See Divine Providence 258[5], Apocalypse Explained 885[5] for quotations from this Appendix to the Lutheran Psalm Book. The Appendix was omitted from the revised edition of the latter published in 1819, and from subsequent editions.
