Apocalypse Explained#182
182. (Verse 1) And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write. That this signifies those whose life is moral, but not spiritual, because they make light of the knowledges (cognitiones) of spiritual things, and thence of wisdom and intelligence, is evident from what is written to the angel of this church, viewed in the internal or spiritual sense; from which it is evident that the subject here treated of is those whose life is such because they make light of the knowledges (cognitiones) of spiritual things, and thence of intelligence and wisdom. But before unfolding the spiritual sense of the things that follow, it must be explained and shown what moral life and spiritual life are, also what moral from spiritual life is, and what moral life without spiritual.
[2] Moral life is to act well, sincerely, and justly, in the discharge of the various duties and occupations of life; in a word, it is the life which is seen by men, because lived amongst them. But this life has a two-fold origin, either the love of self and of the world, or love to God and love towards the neighbour. Moral life from the love of self and the world is not in itself moral life, although it appears to be such; for such a man acts well, sincerely and justly for the sake of himself and the world only, and to him, what is good, sincere and just, serve but as means to an end, that is, either that he may be raised above others and rule over them, or that he may gain wealth. He thinks in this way in his spirit, or when he is by himself in private; but he dare not openly avow what he thus thinks, because it would destroy the esteem which others have of him, and thus annul the means by which he desires to attain his ends.
From these considerations it is evident, that in the moral life of such a man there lurks nothing else but the desire of obtaining all things in preference to others, thus a desire that all others may serve him, or that he may possess their goods: it is evident from this that his moral life is not moral in itself; for if he obtained what he aimed at, he would enslave others and deprive them of their goods. And because all means savour of the end, and are, in their essence, such as are their ends, on which account they are also called intermediate ends, therefore such a life, regarded in itself, is nothing but craftiness and fraud. And this is clearly evident when those external bonds that unite society are loosened, as is the case with persons of this description when they are engaged in law-suits against their fellow citizens; they then desire nothing more than to pervert right, and to gain the favour of the judge or the grace of the king, and this secretly, in order that they may deprive others of their possessions; and when they succeed they are filled with inward delight. The same is still more evident in the conduct of kings who regard honour in wars and victories, the chief delight of their hearts being to subjugate provinces and kingdoms, and, where resistance is made, to despoil the subjugated of all their goods, and also of their life; this, in most instances, is the delight of those who go out to war.
The nature of the moral life treated of above is still more manifest in all such persons when they become spirits, which takes place immediately after the death of the body, when, because they think and act from their spirit, they rush into every kind of wickedness according to their love, however morally they may, in appearance, have lived in the world.
[3] But spiritual life is altogether of another quality, because it has a different origin, for it springs from love to God and love towards the neighbour; and therefore the moral life of those who are spiritual is also different, and is truly moral; for these, when they think in their spirit, which is the case when they are in private, do not think from self and the world but from the Lord and heaven; for the interiors of their mind, that is, of their thought and will, are actually raised up by the Lord into heaven, and are there conjoined to Him; thus the Lord flows-in into their thoughts, intentions and ends, and rules them, and withdraws them from their proprium, which is entirely derived from the love of self and of the world. The moral life of such persons is, in appearance, similar to that of those mentioned above, but still it is spiritual, for it has a spiritual origin, being only the effect of spiritual life, which is the efficient cause, and thus the origin of it; for they act well, sincerely and justly towards their fellow citizens from the fear of God and the love of the neighbour, in which the Lord keeps their minds and spirits; when, therefore, they become spirits, as is the case when their bodies die, they think and act intelligently and wisely, and are raised up into heaven. Of these it may be said, that all the good of love and all the truth of faith flow into them out of heaven, that is, through heaven from the Lord; but this cannot be said of those of whom we have spoken above, for their good is not the good of heaven, nor is their truth the truth of heaven, but it is the delight of the lusts of the flesh which they call good, and the falsity therefrom which they call truth, which flow into them from self and from the world. From these considerations the nature of moral life from spiritual life, and of moral life without spiritual can be known, that is, that moral life from spiritual life is truly moral life, which may be said to be spiritual, because its cause and origin is therefrom; but that moral life without spiritual life is not moral life, and may be said to be infernal, for so far as the love of self and of the world reigns in it, so far it is fraudulent and hypocritical.
[4] From what has been now said, a conclusion may be formed as to what the quality of a holy external is, by which is meant worship in churches, prayers and the gestures at the time, among those who are in the love of self and of the world, and yet apparently lead a moral life, namely, that nothing of those things is raised up to heaven and heard there, but that they flow forth from some thought of the external or natural man, and thus from their mouth into the world; for the interior thoughts of their spirit are full of craftiness and fraud against their neighbour, and yet elevation into heaven is always effected by means of the interiors. And moreover their worship in churches, and their prayers and gestures at such time, are either from habit and familiarity from infancy, or from a belief that such external things are all that is necessary to salvation, or from there being nothing for them to do on the feast days at home or out of doors, or from the fear of being thought by their fellows to be wanting in piety.
But the worship of those who live a moral life from a spiritual origin is altogether different, for it is truly the worship of God, because their prayers are raised up to heaven, and are there heard, for the Lord receives their prayers through heaven. (More may be seen upon these subjects in the work, Heaven and Hell 468, 484, 529, 530-534; and in the explanation above, n. 107.) These things are here premised, because the subject treated of in what is written to the angel of this church is those whose life is moral but not spiritual, because they lightly esteem the knowledges (cognitiones) of spiritual things.
The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Teachings#292
292. People who suppose the Lord's human nature to be just like the human nature of anyone else 1 are not taking into consideration that he was conceived by the Divine, nor are they pondering the fact that the body is for everyone an image of the soul. Nor are they considering that he was resurrected with his whole body, nor the way he appeared when he was transfigured, when his face shone like the sun. 2
Nor do they think about what the Lord said about believing in him, about his being one with the Father, about his glorification, and about his power over heaven and earth 3 -that these are divine attributes and yet they are said of his human nature.
Nor do they bear in mind that the Lord is omnipresent even with respect to his human nature (Matthew 28:20), 4 though this is the basis of belief in his omnipresence in the Holy Supper-omnipresence is a divine trait.
Perhaps people do not even consider that the divinity called the Holy Spirit emanates from the Lord's human nature, when in fact it does emanate from his glorified human nature; for it says, "There was not the Holy Spirit yet because Jesus was not yet glorified" (John 7:39). 5
脚注:
1. Throughout the history of the Christian church there have been various theologians who identified Jesus as a human "like anyone else," including those known as "Socinians," whose doctrine concerning Jesus was enjoying a considerable vogue in Swedenborg's own time. Their doctrine was named for the Italian theologian Fausto Sozzini (1539-1604), who argued that Jesus Christ was not the human incarnation of a preexisting person in the divine Trinity, but a unique human being who attained an intercessory relationship with God through his exceptional holiness. Beginning in the sixteenth century, radical Reformation churches based on these ideas flourished in Transylvania and in Poland, where they were known as the "Polish Brethren" (Wilbur 1977, 2:406-430). In the latter half of the seventeenth century, copies of their theological corpus spread to England, where Arianism, a related position (but with roots much earlier in Christian history) that also rejects Christ's uncreated and divine status, was already popular among the educated elite: for example, the British scientist Isaac Newton (1642-1727) considered worshiping Christ as God a form of idolatry (Westfall 1994, 124). The Socinian thesis, which came to be known in England as Unitarianism, enjoyed enormous underground popularity. In 1774, the English scientist Joseph Priestley (1733-1804), "being now fully persuaded that Christ was a man like ourselves, and consequently that his pre-existence, as well as that of other men, was a notion that had no foundation in reason or in the scriptures," established the first openly Unitarian congregation at the Essex Street Church in London (Priestley 1995, 156). Given the fierce attacks that Swedenborg launches on Arianism and Socinianism in his final work, True Christianity (published in 1771), he was certainly aware of the Arian and Socinian ideas that were circulating in Europe generally and in London especially. For a more detailed treatment of Swedenborg's concept of the Lord, see True Christianity 81-109. [DNG, SS]
2. The idea that the body is an image of the soul becomes relevant in this context because Swedenborg compares the Father and the Son to the soul and its body, respectively (see True Christianity 166-169). Jesus' resurrection in his complete physical body is relevant because it demonstrates a uniquely divine form of humanity: other humans are not so resurrected (see True Christianity 170). His transfiguration, described in Matthew 17:1-2; Mark 9:2-3; Luke 9:28-29, is significant once again as demonstrating his divinity (see, for example, Secrets of Heaven 3212[4], 4692). [SS]
3. For biblical examples of what the Lord said about believing in him, see, for example, the quotations Swedenborg presents in The Lord 32[6] from John 1:12; 3:15, 16, 18, 36; 6:29, 35, 40, 47; 7:38; 8:24; 11:25, 26; 12:36, 46; about the Lord's being one with the Father, see John 10:30; about his glorification, see John 11:4; 12:23; 13:31-32; 17:1, 5; and about his power over heaven and earth, see Matthew 28:18, as well as Matthew 11:27; John 3:35; 17:2. For an expanded argument along these lines, with abundant scriptural references, see the small work The Lord throughout. [JSR]
4. The relevant part of Matthew 28:20 reads: "And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age" (New Revised Standard Version). [GFD]
5. Here and elsewhere in his theological writings, the Latin translation Swedenborg uses for John 7:39 is based on the Greek in the Textus Receptus ("Accepted Text"), which was almost universally accepted in the Protestant world of Swedenborg's day. Subsequent scholarship came to prefer an alternate but still ancient textual tradition (see Aland and others 1966, John 7:39 note) in which this verse includes the word "given" (Greek: δεδομενόν [dedomenón]) in addition to the simple verb "was" (ἦν [ên]), and may or may not include the word "Holy," resulting in English translations of "No spirit was given yet," or "The Holy Spirit was not yet given. " Some scholars believe the word "given" was added to the original wording in order to avoid any suggestion that the Holy Spirit has not always existed (Brown 1966, 324; Alford 1874, 1:2:781). Swedenborg, however, did in fact hold that the Holy Spirit came into existence in the Christian Trinity at the time of Jesus' glorification. Though he commonly cites John 7:39 as biblical support for this stance, and shows no awareness in his theological writings of any alternate textual tradition of this passage, in True Christianity 154 he does speak of the Holy Spirit being given to or bestowed upon the apostles by the Lord. This suggests that if he was aware of the textual versions of John 7:39 that include the word "given," he did not see them as posing a challenge to his doctrine concerning the Holy Spirit. For more on Swedenborg's view of the Holy Spirit, see Secrets of Heaven 6993, 8127, 9818:14; The Lord 51[3]. For Swedenborg's view on activities attributed to the Holy Spirit that are recorded in the Gospels as taking place before the Lord's glorification, see True Christianity 140, 158. For more on glorification, see note 1 in New Jerusalem 185. For further discussion on John 7:39, see Brown 1966, 324, who cites Hooke 1962-1963, 372-380, and Woodhouse 1964, 310-312. [RS, LSW, SS, JSR]
