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John 1

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1 IN the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2 The same was in the beginning with God.

3 All things were made by him: and without him was made nothing that was made.

4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

5 And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.

7 This man came for a witness, to give testimony of the light, that all men might believe through him.

8 He was not the light, but was to give testimony of the light.

9 That was the true light, which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world.

10 He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.

11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not.

12 But as many as received him, he gave them power to be made the sons of God, to them that believe in his name.

13 Who are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we saw his glory, the glory as it were of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

15 John beareth witness of him, and crieth out, saying: This was he of whom I spoke: He that shall come after me, is preferred before me: because he was before me.

16 And of his fulness we all have received, and grace for grace.

17 For the law was given by Moses; grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

18 No man hath seen God at any time: the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.

19 And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent from Jerusalem priests and Levites to him, to ask him: Who art thou?

20 And he confessed, and did not deny: and he confessed: I am not the Christ.

21 And they asked him: What then? Art thou Elias? And he said: I am not. Art thou the prophet? And he answered: No.

22 They said therefore unto him: Who art thou, that we may give an answer to them that sent us? What sayest thou of thyself?

23 He said: I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Isaias.

24 And they that were sent, were of the Pharisees.

25 And they asked him, and said to him: Why then dost thou baptize, if thou be not Christ, nor Elias, nor the prophet?

26 John answered them, saying: I baptize with water; but there hath stood one in the midst of you, whom you know not.

27 The same is he that shall come after me, who is preferred before me: the latchet of whose shoe I am not worthy to loose.

28 These things were done in Bethania, beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

29 The next day, John saw Jesus coming to him, and he saith: Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who taketh away the sin of the world.

30 This is he, of whom I said: After me there cometh a man, who is preferred before me: because he was before me.

31 And I knew him not, but that he may be made manifest in Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water.

32 And John gave testimony, saying: I saw the Spirit coming down, as a dove from heaven, and he remained upon him.

33 And I knew him not; but he who sent me to baptize with water, said to me: He upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining upon him, he it is that baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.

34 And I saw, and I gave testimony, that this is the Son of God.

35 The next day again John stood, and two of his disciples.

36 And beholding Jesus walking, he saith: Behold the Lamb of God.

37 And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.

38 And Jesus turning, and seeing them following him, saith to them: What seek you? Who said to him, Rabbi, (which is to say, being interpreted, Master,) where dwellest thou?

39 He saith to them: Come and see. They came, and saw where he abode, and they stayed with him that day: now it was about the tenth hour.

40 And Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of the two who had heard of John, and followed him.

41 He findeth first his brother Simon, and saith to him: We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ.

42 And he brought him to Jesus. And Jesus looking upon him, said: Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is interpreted Peter.

43 On the following day, he would go forth into Galilee, and he findeth Philip. And Jesus saith to him: Follow me.

44 Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.

45 Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith to him: We have found him of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets did write, Jesus the son of Joseph of Nazareth.

46 And Nathanael said to him: Can any thing of good come from Nazareth? Philip saith to him: come and see.

47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him: and he saith of him: Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile.

48 Nathanael saith to him: Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered, and said to him: Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee.

49 Nathanael answered him, and said: Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of Israel.

50 Jesus answered, and said to him: Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, thou believest: greater things than these shalt thou see.

51 And he saith to him: Amen, Amen I say to you, you shall see the heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.

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Coronis (An Appendix to True Christian Religion) #54

  
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54. III. THE THIRD STATE OF THIS CHURCH WAS DECLINE FROM TRUE REPRESENTATIVE WORSHIP INTO IDOLATRY, AND THEN WAS ITS VASTATION, OR EVENING. Some notable things were adduced above respecting the difference between representative worship and idolatrous worship, from which it may be plainly seen, that, so long as the types, figures and signs, which were seized upon by the senses of the body as objects of religion by the men of the Noachian and Israelitish Churches, were not at the same time regarded from a higher, or interior, idea, nearly approaching to a spiritual one, truly representative worship easily declined with them into idolatry. As for example: If, in reference to the tabernacle, they did not think at the same time of heaven and the Church, and of God's dwelling-place in these; concerning the bread of faces (or shewbread) therein, they did not think at the same time of the heavenly bread for the nourishment of the soul; concerning the incense and the burning of it upon the golden altar there, they did not think at the same time about worship from faith and charity, that this is what ascends to Jehovah as a grateful odour; about the lights in the lamps of the golden candlestick, when lighted, they did not think at the same time of the enlightenment of the understanding in the objects of their religion; and about the eating of the holy things, so that they did not at the same time think about the appropriation of heavenly foods, and also about the holy refreshment of their spirits from the performance of the sacrifices: and in like manner with the other things. It is hence manifest, that, if the man of the representative Church did not at the same time look upon the things belonging to that worship with a rational spirit enlightened by heavenly light from the Lord, but only with a rational spirit informed by the natural light (lumen) of the world from self, he could easily be carried away from genuine representative worship into idolatrous worship, and so be vastated; for vastation is nothing else but a turning aside, decline and falling away from representative to idolatrous worship; which two kinds of worship are alike as to external appearance, but not as to internal appearance.

[2] On account of this proneness to fall away from one worship which in itself was heavenly, into another which in itself was infernal, the interior things of the Church and of religion-namely, concerning heaven and hell, the resurrection, and the life of their spirits after death, and, also, the immortality of their souls, regeneration, and, in short, the interior things respecting faith and charity; -could not be revealed before the Lord's Advent, and then by light from Him, inasmuch as they would have looked upon them scarcely otherwise than as one looks at birds over the head, or meteors in the air. And, further, they would have covered them over so thickly with the mere fallacies of the senses, that, moreover, not a single vestige of the spiritual things revealed would have been visible, except as much as the tip of the nose in respect to the face, or a fingernail in respect to the hands. They would also have so distorted them, that they would have appeared in the presence of the angels no otherwise than like a sea-monster dressed out in a cloak, a mitre on the head, and with a face, after being shaved and painted, like that of an ape-whose face is destitute of hair: and they would also have appeared before the angels like a statue fitted with movable joints and hollowed out; which, some accomplice being introduced into it, would walk about, act and speak, and at length cry out to the superstitious multitude, "Prostrate yourselves; call upon me; behold me, your tutelar deity, your protector, to whom belongs holiness and divine a power." [3] Could the ideas of the thought of these concerning the spiritual things of the Church be superior to the ideas of thought of Nicodemus, who was a teacher, on regeneration, which was that of the whole man being re-born in his mother's womb? for he said:

How can a man be born anew? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb?

To whom the Lord answered,

Art thou a master in Israel, and knowest not these things?... If I have told you earthly things and ye believe not, how will ye believe if I shall tell you more than heavenly things? (John 3:3-4, 9-10, 12).

They would have raved in like manner, if interior things, which in their essence are spiritual, concerning faith and charity, and also the life after death, and respecting the state of heaven and hell, had been disclosed to them. Wherefore, to open the internal sight of their mind or spirit, as to its higher region, which alone heavenly light illuminates, before the coming of the Lord-who came into the world as "the Light," as He Himself says (John 1-4; 8:12; 12:35-36, 46) - was as impossible as it is to make a horse fly and turn it into Pegasus, or a stag run in the air, or a calf upon the waters; yea, as it would be to convert an agate into a ruby, a crystal into a diamond, or to put a vein of silver into a common stone, or to make a laurel-tree produce grapes, a cedar olives, a poplar and an oak pears and apples; therefore, also, as impossible as to infuse the intelligence of the learned Oedipus into the listening Davus.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.