82. Vers 1. En volbracht zijn de hemelen en de aarde en al hun heir.

Hieronder wordt verstaan dat de mens nu geestelijk is geworden, in zoverre hij de zesde dag is. De hemel is zijn innerlijke mens en de aarde zijn uiterlijke mens; hun heir zijn de liefde, het geloof en de erkentenissen daarvan, die eerder zijn aangeduid door de grote lichten en de sterren. Dat de innerlijke mens hemel, en de uiterlijke mens aarde wordt genoemd, kan uit de aangehaalde plaatsen van het Woord in het voorgaande hoofdstuk blijken; waaraan ik mag toevoegen wat bij Jesaja staat:

‘Ik zal de stervelingen zeldzamer maken dan gelouterd goud en de mensen dan fijn goud van Ofir; Daarom zal Ik de hemel doen wankelen en de aarde zal bevend van haar plaats wijken door de verbolgenheid’, ( Jesaja 13:12, 13). En elders:

‘Dat gij vergeet Jehovah, uw Maker, die de hemel uitspande en de aarde grondvestte; dat gij bestendig, de gehele dag, verschrikt zijt vanwege de grimmigheid van de verdrukker, wanneer hij uit is op verderven? Waar is nu de grimmigheid van de verdrukker? Ik heb mijn woorden in uw mond gelegd en met de schaduw van mijn hand heb Ik u bedekt, Ik, die de hemel uitspan en de aarde grondvest en tot Sion zeg: Gij zijt mijn volk’, (Jesaja 51:13, 16). Hierbij blijkt dat bij de mens zowel van hemel als van aarde gesproken wordt; weliswaar betreft het de Oudste Kerk, maar het innerlijke van het Woord is van dien aard, dat al hetgeen van de Kerk gezegd wordt, ook van ieder lid van de kerk gezegd wordt: hij zou geen deel van de Kerk uitmaken als hij zelf geen Kerk was, evenals hij, die geen tempel van de Heer is, niet datgene kan zijn wat door de tempel wordt aangeduid, namelijk de Kerk en de hemel. Het is daarom dan ook dat de Oudste Kerk Mens in het enkelvoud wordt genoemd.

4422. In the preliminary section of this chapter the Lord's words in Matthew 24:42-end come up for explanation. These last verses in that chapter concerning the close of the age or the coming of the Lord read in the letter as follows,

Watch therefore, for you do not know at what hour your Lord is coming. But know this, if the master of the house knew at which period of the night the thief is coming, he would watch, and would not let his house be broken into. Therefore you also, be ready, for the Son of Man will come at an hour you do not expect. Who then is the faithful and careful servant, whom his master has set over his household, to give them food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find doing so. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his goods. But what if that wicked servant shall say in his heart, My master is delaying his coming, and he shall begin to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with drunkards? The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and in an hour he does not know. And he will cut him off and assign him his part with the hypocrites, where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth.

What these words hold within them may be seen from the train of thought, for the subject throughout this chapter in the gospel has been the last days of the Church, by which in the internal sense are meant the close of the age and the coming of the Lord. This can be seen plainly in the explanation of every statement in that chapter, in the preliminary sections of the chapters of Genesis immediately previous to this. That is to say, see 3353-3356, 3486-3489, 3650-3655, 3751-3757, 3897-3901, 4056-4060, 4229-4231, and 4332-4335, the preliminary sections of Chapters-33..

[2] The sequence of thought contained in this chapter of the gospel has also been stated in those paragraphs, that sequence being as follows: When the Christian Church established after the Lord's Coming began to ruin itself, that is, to depart from good,

1. People ceased to know what good or truth was and began to argue with one another about them.

2. They treated them with contempt.

3. Then they did not in their hearts acknowledge them.

4. After that they profaned them.

5. And because the truth of faith and the good of charity were still to remain in existence with some who are called the elect, the state of faith as this will be at that time is described.

6. Then the state of charity as this will be.

7. Finally the beginning of a new Church is dealt with, and

8. The state of good and truth within the Church, so called, when that Church is set aside and the new one adopted.

From this sequence of thought one may come to see what is included within the final verses of Matthew 24, which are set out above. That is to say, they contain an exhortation to those within the Church to keep to the good of faith or else they will perish.