536. DEEL OVER DE HELDE HEER REGEERT DEHELLEN

Inhet voorgaande waar over de hemel is gesproken, werd overal aangetoond, in het bijzonder in nr. `2-6`, dat de Heer de God van de hemelen is, en dat dus alle bestuur van de hemelen in de handen van de Heer is; en omdat de verhouding van de hemelen tot de hel en van de hellen tot de hemel is als van twee tegenovergestelden, die wederkerig tegen elkaar werken, en uit hun actie en reactie een evenwicht volgt waarin alle dingen verblijven, daarom moet, opdat volstrekt ieder ding in evenwicht gehouden wordt, Hij die deze regeert ook gene regeren; want tenzij dezelfde God opstanden bedwong in de hel en de krankzinnigheden aldaar tegenging, zou het evenwicht ten gronde gaan en met het evenwicht het geheel.

227. Verse 14. And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, signifies those who are in faith alone, thus those who are in faith separate from charity. This is evident from the internal or spiritual sense of all things that are written to the angel of this church; for the essential of the church that is described in what is written to each of the churches, is made evident only from the internal sense; for these are prophecies; and all prophecies, like all things else in the Word, are written by correspondences, to the end that by means of these there may be conjunction of heaven with the church. Conjunction is effected by means of correspondences; for heaven, or the angels in heaven, understand spiritually all those things that man understands naturally, and between natural and spiritual things there is a perpetual correspondence, and by means of correspondences there is conjunction like that between soul and body. On this account the Word is written in the style that it is; otherwise there would be no soul within it, consequently no heaven within it; and if heaven were not in it, the Divine would not be in it. For this reason then it is said that from the internal or spiritual sense of all things in what is written to each church, it is made manifest what essential of the church is meant; thus that what is written to the angel of this church treats of those who are in faith alone, that is, in faith separate from charity. It is said faith separate from charity, by which is meant faith separate from the life, for charity is of the life; consequently when faith has been separated from the life, it is not in the man but outside of him; for whatever has place in the memory only, and is taken up from the memory into the thought, without entering into man's will and from the will into act, that is not within man but outside of him; for the memory, and thought therefrom, is only as a court, through which there is entrance into the house; the house is the will. Such is faith alone, or faith separate from charity. Moreover, what this faith is may be seen in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 108-122; also in the small work on The Last Judgment 33-39; and in the work on Heaven and Hell 270, 271, 364, 482, 526. Also above, in the Explanation of Revelation, n. 204, 211-213. Moreover, what charity is and what the neighbor is, in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem 84-107; in the work on Heaven and Hell 13-19, 528-535; and above, in the Explanation, n. 182, 198, 213.